Nathan was checking out Ezra's incision, when his bowl of water and bucket of supplies went flying across the cave. Everyone turned in shock to see that Larabee had woken up…with a vengeance. The long, black-clad legs had kicked out and knocked over the bucket full of supplies. A large metal bowl full of water had been resting on top of it.
Nathan turned to grab the man's shoulders and yelled, "Buck, get his legs! We can't have him tearing out his stitches." Chris' green eyes were open but unfocused, and he continued to thrash about violently.
"Nathan?" was all Buck said, but the healer understood completely.
"I don't know Buck; could be some kind of seizure. How could a man who lost half his blood volume be this damn strong?"
JD ran into the cave to see Nathan and Buck trying to subdue a crazed and bucking Chris Larabee. Josiah was standing beside them as well, in case his mass and strength were needed. Vin had somehow gotten himself to a sitting position across the cave and was desperately trying to see what was going on with his friend. Chris's shirt was unbuttoned where Nathan had been checking the sutures, and JD could see every rib and muscle in Larabee's lean frame bulging and contracting.
And then just like that, it stopped. Chris' eyes drifted shut, and the bruised and sweaty body collapsed flat onto the bedroll.
Nathan and Buck were also sweating, and Nate sighed and sat down on the floor between Chris and Ezra. He could see that Chris was still breathing.
"What the hell was that all about?" Buck wiped the sweat with his shirtsleeve and asked.
"Definitely a seizure," Nathan answered, "what caused it? I'm not sure. Could be that losin' all that blood caused a lack of oxygen to his brain."
"We talkin' brain damage here, Nathan?" Buck looked around the room and back to Chris' still form.
"We won't know 'til he wakes up."
"You think that could be why neither Chris or Ezra have woken up?" JD removed his hat and ran his hands through his black hair.
"I already said I just don't know," Nathan stood, brushed past Wilmington, and walked outside.
Buck lowered his head and started to follow Nathan, when Josiah grabbed his arm. "Just let him be for a while, Buck. He'll come back when he's ready."
JD plopped down next to Tanner. "How're you doin', Vin?" JD thought his friend looked extremely tired. He was still pale from the blood loss, and his normally bright, blue eyes looked sunken and dull.
"I'm fine, JD," Vin tried to convince himself and his companion, "but I'll be a heck of a lot better when those two wake up and start cussin' and complainin'."
"Yeah, me too, Vin. Why don't we get you laid back down, so you can get some rest?" JD gently lowered the Texan back on his bedroll. "Ya want a drink or anything?"
"I'd take some water," Vin smiled, thankful for the boy's help. Vin was trying to keep quiet and out of everyone's way with Chris and Ezra so badly injured, although he could already feel the tell-tale aches and pains of a fever building in his body. He cursed his own weakness and prayed the fever would be gone by morning. It didn't take long at all until his exhausted and depleted body fell into a deep but fitful sleep.
Nathan returned to the cave about an hour later and saw Vin tossing restlessly, and he knew. Without even touching the man, he knew a fever was starting to take hold. You just couldn't treat such serious injuries out in the field and not have infection set in….with all of the dirt and other folks around. It frustrated him to no end, but it didn't surprise him anymore. He would give Tanner's body a chance to fight. If the fever got too high or if it made Vin too ill to eat or drink, then Nathan would intervene with teas or other medications. The higher the fever a person could stand, the better it was at killing the infection…..as long as the fever didn't kill the person first.
Buck kept his vigil between Chris and Ezra's bedrolls all evening. He alternated between talking to each of them, usually about how stubborn the other was, but he never got so much as a groan or a fluttering of the eyelashes in response. Two very different men from two very different backgrounds both locked away in their own, quiet world. They got along much better this way, Buck laughed to himself. Oh, how he missed their arguing and bickering right now.
The night passed without much change. Josiah, Buck, and JD took turns keeping watch outside the cave, while Nathan made rounds every couple of hours to check on his patients. Heat continued to build in Vin's lean frame, Chris suffered through another painful seizure, and Ezra never made a sound or movement. By morning, Nathan could feel the heat of fever in Chris' and Ezra's faces as well. One step forward and two steps back, sighed the healer to himself.
Vin woke and tried to rise the next morning, but his shoulder and leg hurt like hell and he felt absolutely dreadful.
"Just lay back, Vin," Nathan gently shoved the smaller man back on his bedroll.
Tanner was shivering, but he needed to get up. They had pushed a lot of water on him last night, and now it needed to come out. Nathan realized what was going on as Vin continued to try to sit up.
"Josiah, you wanna help me for a minute?" The two larger members of the seven more or less carried Vin outside, assisted him in his business, and carried him back to his bed.
"I'm gonna brew some tea," Nathan decided, "his fever's pretty high."…and maybe the other two will finally wake up and need it as well, Nathan hoped.
While Nathan administered the tea to the shivering tracker, Buck approached and asked, "should we send JD back to town to get a wagon?"
"That's a pretty long haul," Nathan acknowledged, "it's gonna take him 5 or 6 hours to get a wagon here. He probably would have to go back today and start back with the wagon first thing tomorrow morning. I don't want somebody else gettin' hurt trying to hurry back."
"I know Nate," Buck agreed.
"I ain't leavin'," JD stormed outside and kicked at a rock at his feet. Buck followed. "What if somethin' happens?" JD's hazel eyes locked on Wilmington.
"I understand JD, but somebody's got to do it."
"Well then you do it…..or Josiah. I ain't leavin'."
"Shit!" Buck looked up at the sky. He understood completely where the boy was coming from. There wasn't a person on the planet that could make him leave with three of his friends so badly injured.
"Do you remember where the nearest town is?" Buck knew that Vin and JD had ridden through this area a while back.
JD stood tall now and said, "yeah, it's only about an hour's ride west of here…..forgot the name of it, but they had a telegraph operator. We used it to send a wire to Chris."
JD knew exactly where Buck was going with that question, and before Buck could even comment JD said, "I'll go Buck. It's only a couple of hours. I'll wire Mary and have her find someone to bring us a wagon. I'll go right now." With that, JD was saddling his horse.
"Good boy," Buck said quietly, "no….good man."
The tea was helping Vin's fever, at least enough to get him to drink some water and eat a bit of soup. Josiah had caught two rabbits this morning and made a stew: thin enough that their injured brothers could partake but thick enough that the healthy men would also be willing to eat it.
Nathan and Buck spent a couple of hours trying to coax a couple of ounces of water down Chris and Ezra. It was slow going and messy, but it was somewhat successful. They thought if they got at least some liquid into their system maybe they could start regenerating some of the blood lost.
JD returned in the early afternoon saying the wire had been sent. He knew Mary was going to be shocked; she thought Chris, Vin, and Buck were dead. He didn't explain much in the telegram, just said:
Chris, Vin, and Buck are alive. STOP. Need a wagon brought to Ute Creek cave for injured men. STOP. JD. STOP.
He trusted that Mary would take care of the rest, although he knew they wouldn't make it here until the following day.
Just as JD grabbed a bowl of soup and sat down, Buck yelled out, "Nathan!"
The ladies' man had been sitting beside of Chris when his eyes had popped open. Buck was expecting another seizure, and Nathan was as well. The healer had appeared at Larabee's side in an instant, but the convulsions didn't happen.
"Chris?" Nathan put his hand on Larabee's shoulder. He could feel the heat of the man's fever, even through the shirt. "Can you hear me?"
Chris' eyes closed but then opened again in about 5 seconds.
"Come on, Chris," Buck coaxed, "say something ol' buddy."
JD had laid down his bowl of soup, and he and Josiah both approached to watch what was happening.
Although there was no sound, Chris' lips mouthed, "Buck?"
"Hot damn! Yes, it's Buck," Wilmington almost screamed, "you have no idea how happy we are to see you awake, pard." Nathan was already holding up Larabee's head to give him a drink of water. Most of it spilled, but Chris did manage to swallow a few drops. It tasted wonderful; the wounded man's mouth and throat felt like he had eaten sand.
Larabee tried to command his body to sit up, but it seemed like there was no strength anywhere. Even his head didn't make it more than an inch off of the ground.
"Now don't try to move just yet," Nathan said a little more sternly than he meant to, "one step at a time, Chris."
The blond's eyes searched the cave. He saw Ezra lying on the ground next to him, and he remembered the shoot-out with the Spikes' clan. Vin was injured, wasn't he? How did Standish get hurt? All he could croak out was, "Vin? Ezra?"
Nathan and Buck glanced back and forth to each other, not knowing how much or how little to say. Buck knew Chris would want to know, "Vin got shot in the shoulder, but he's gonna be ok; he's sleepin' over there. Ezra got shot in the side…..he ain't woke up yet."
"Ezra…how?" Standish hadn't even been part of the firefight.
Buck smiled and stepped back so Chris could get a better look at Ezra, "you shoulda seen that crazy fool, Chris. Apparently he'd been watchin' us, and he stormed right in there and took out both Wiles and Tom Spikes."
Standish was so pale and so still that Chris thought he looked dead. "Be ok?"
"We don't know yet, Chris," Nathan quietly answered then changed the subject, "how do you feel?"
"Heavy…..cold"
"Ya lost a ton of blood, so you're gonna be tired for a while," Nathan explained, "you also got a fever; you think you could drink some tea?"
"Try."
"That's all I can ask," Nathan went to grab a cup. They got about a quarter of the cup down and then Larabee couldn't do it any more. Even the effort of swallowing seemed to zap his strength.
Chris' eyes drifted shut, and Jackson marveled at the recovery. Larabee still looked like a corpse. His skin was grayish, and his blond hair hung limply across the sweaty forehead, but Nathan was now confident that the man would pull through. Even after the enormous blood loss and the terrible seizures, Larabee had somehow willed his body to survive. He hoped Ezra could do the same.
Vin was awake and hated that he hadn't gotten a chance to talk to Larabee himself. He knew Nathan thought that Chris would be ok now, but what if he wasn't? The man was still in a bad way. Damn that nagging feeling that kept reminding him that could have been his last chance to talk to Chris.
"If it ain't too much trouble and I won't be in the way, I'd like to move my bedroll over there…beside Chris."
Josiah took a deep breath, realizing they had forgotten about Tanner in the excitement of Larabee waking up. Of course Vin would have wanted a chance to talk to his friend. "Sure Vin," the big preacher approached and smiled, "no trouble at all. Buck, why don't you move his bed, and I'll assist our wounded brother." In only a few minutes they had the tracker settled on his bedroll just to the right of Chris.
It was the first up-close look Vin had at Ezra and Chris since the gunfight. He took in their deathly pallor and dry, cracked lips, not realizing that he himself didn't look a whole lot better. Nathan could see that Vin was improving though. Now that they had gotten some liquids and a couple of meals into the Texan, his strength was starting to return. Right now, he was holding himself in a sitting position to check out his other wounded friends. The fever lingered, but it hadn't gotten any worse. Nathan's tea was able to keep it at a reasonable level. His bullet wound and the burns on his legs were still red and inflamed, but there was no obvious signs of a bad infection or dying tissue.
Once the darkness settled in, Nathan, JD, Josiah, Buck, and Vin had more stew for supper. Vin got another dose of tea, and he drifted off to sleep soon thereafter. Nathan and Buck spent another couple of hours trying to coax some water and tea into Ezra's feverish body. So much time and effort expended just to get a couple spoonfuls of tea and maybe 3 or 4 ounces of water into the man, but dehydration was a real concern. Ezra had been unconscious for about 30 hours now, and the high fever was evaporating what little moisture they managed to get into his body.
They tried unsuccessfully to rouse Chris to get him to drink more as well. He groaned a couple of times in response, but the man was too drained to open his eyes.
It was a long, cold night for all of the men. The cool temperatures were likely beneficial for the three peacekeepers fighting fevers, but it made for an uncomfortable sleep for the injured and non-injured alike.
JD had just come in from outside. His body was tired, but he could not fall asleep. The young man worried about his wounded friends, and he hoped Mary had found someone to get a wagon to them tomorrow. Would Ezra still be alive or would the wagon be used to haul his body back instead?
Josiah had taken over the watch from JD. The eldest of the seven stared up at the heavens and silently prayed for some help. He had faced death a number of times himself, but it was so much harder to watch a friend suffer and fight for his life. Sanchez had always been a physically-imposing fellow. He figured his size and strength helped his body to fight injuries and infections. Vin, Chris, and Ezra were strong men, but they had much leaner builds. It seemed to Josiah that they could not possibly have much left in reserve at this point. "Lord, why couldn't it have been me instead of Ezra that rode after Wiles."
Buck watched as Nathan slept, and JD tossed and turned. He knew everyone was exhausted and on edge. Nathan would have to get back up in a couple of hours to check on his patients. He himself would have to wake up to take the next shift outside. What a mess this whole thing had been? Should he have known that Wiley was up to something from the beginning? Should he have checked him out better, sent some wires to Illinois, before leading his friends off on a mission for this guy? Yeah, he supposed he should have. If Ezra died, it would be his fault, and he didn't know how many of his friends would be able to forgive him. JD and Chris probably would…..if Chris lived. Josiah was an unknown, and Vin and Nathan would definitely have a hard time with it. I guess the big question was could he forgive himself...and that, too, remained to be seen.
In the darkest, coldest hours just before dawn, Vin awoke to an unknown sound. As his eyes tried to adjust to the darkness, his ears recognized the sound of someone choking or gasping for breath. Chris lay unmoving right beside of him, and no one else seemed to be awake. He sat up on his bedroll, and his heart just about burst out of his chest when he realized what was happening. "Nathan!" he screamed. "Ezra! Somethin's wrong with Ezra!"