"Coffee's ready, and the wagon and horses are too," JD announced just after dawn the following morning. The skies were cloudy and orange-tinted, but the youngest of the seven hoped that it wouldn't rain today.

Vin approached Peso and put his foot in the stirrup, and Buck tapped him on the shoulder. "Uh-uh," Buck pointed to the bench at the front of Ms. Nettie's wagon.

"I can ride, Buck," Vin insisted.

"Nathan gave explicit instructions that you were to ride ON the wagon," Wilmington explained, "besides Mary said she wanted to see what it was like to ride that beast of yours."

Vin gave Buck an evil look, but he begrudgingly climbed into the wagon seat.

Nathan and Josiah exited the cave carrying Chris. They moved the blond with Josiah holding under Larabee's arms and Nathan holding his legs, so as to keep the man flat. When they had held him upright outside the night before to see to the call of nature, Chris had gotten sick and lost the broth and water they had just gotten down him. Once Larabee was settled, the two peacekeepers went back and repeated the motions with Ezra.

Once they were settled, Vin turned and asked, "how you boys doin' back there?"

"Please tell me you are not driving the wagon today?" Ezra answered Vin's question with a question.

"I might be. What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing…..if you enjoy getting bounced and beaten senseless on the journey home."

Ezra was clearly feeling better, Vin thought, but Chris was being awfully quiet.

"How're you doin', cowboy?"

Chris grinned. "Just enjoying the sights and sounds of being out of that cave."

Vin nodded in full agreement as he reached his hand down to help Nettie Wells up into the seat. "Give me those," she snatched the reins from Vin's hand, "you think we wanna be bounced to smithereens all day."

Ezra chuckled, and Vin just shook his head.

"Let's head for home, boys," Buck yelled and led the pack, heading east along the Ute valley.

Despite Nettie going as slow and carefully as she could, the wagon ride was rough on all three injured men…..even Vin's shoulder was sore and uncomfortable after a couple of hours. Chris looked over at Ezra and saw the man's face etched in pain and sweat pouring off of him.

"You ok, Ezra. You need to stop?" Chris asked Standish. Chris own abdomen and side were screaming for a break. He figured it was his and the southerner's broken rib that was causing the most discomfort, although the stitches pulled and hurt as well. They had both experienced cracked ribs before, from fights or falls, but somehow it seemed more painful when the rib was completely smashed by a bullet. They both had to force themselves to take every painful breath.

Nathan had only just this morning told Larabee about his injured spleen. Chris didn't know what the hell a spleen was for, but the healer had told him it could kill him if someone punched him hard in the stomach over the next week or two. He figured he would spend a good part of that first week in Nathan's clinic, which didn't leave him too much time afterwards to get into trouble.

"No, I'm ok." Standish finally responded in a not very Ezra-like manner.

Vin was keeping a close eye on his friends as well and had noticed the obvious suffering of both. Chris, like Ezra, was sweating more than he should be, considering the cool weather of the early morning. He leaned over and said quietly to Nettie, "another 30 minutes, and I think we're gonna have to stop."

She understood immediately and nodded her head.

After about 20 minutes, they came upon a shaded area along the creek. Nettie pulled the wagon over to where the horse could water and parked. Nathan figured it was more for her passengers than the horses, and when he saw the pale and sweat-covered faces of Chris and Ezra it confirmed his suspicions.

Maybe this wasn't such a good idea, Nathan thought. Maybe Larabee and Standish were not ready to be moved yet.

He held up Ezra's head. "Here, drink some water." He felt Standish's forehead. It was still feverish, but not as bad as the previous days. He turned to repeat the procedure with Chris.

"I need to get out of this wagon, Nathan." Chris said it so quietly and seriously that Nathan didn't know what to make of it.

"Whatta you mean?" Nathan asked.

"I just gotta get up, get out of this position…..I don't know." The healer could see that Larabee was starting to panic.

Vin, Nettie, and Ezra heard the conversation, and Vin stepped over into the back of the wagon.

"Set him up against me," Vin offered, as he leaned back against the front of the wagon bed.

"Settin' up makes him sick."

"If he starts to feel sick, I'll lay him back down."

Nathan lifted Chris and pulled him up and back against Vin. Chris was sweating even more now.

"Breathe cowboy," Vin encouraged, "I got ya." He could tell that Larabee was breathing too quickly and shallowly.

"I'm sorry," Chris gasped. He didn't know what happened. He had been dealing with everything ok over the last two days, but he just all of a sudden started to feel very claustrophobic.

"Ya got nothing to be sorry about," Vin squeezed Chris' shoulder.

Nathan figured that the rough ride had made breathing even more painful, and Chris started fighting his body's urge to take a breath.

"You two want some laudanum?" Nathan asked, "maybe it would let you sleep on the ride home?"

Chris shook his head, "no," but Ezra was seriously considering it. Larabee was starting to calm down, and he didn't like to travel anywhere unaware of his surroundings. He knew he had plenty of folks to watch over him, but even injured – he still felt the responsibility to keep his men, and in this case Mary and Nettie too, safe.

"Mr. Jackson, I believe I will take you up on that offer," Standish didn't want to deal with the pain any more. They had only ridden for a couple of hours, and he knew it would be another 4 or 5 hours before they made it back to Four Corners. He understood and sympathized completely with Chris' episode a few minutes ago. He had been starting to feel the same way and knew he too would have been in trouble had Nettie not stopped the wagon when she did.

Buck rode up and handed Nathan his medical bag, "here you go Nate. They gonna be ok?"

"Let's break here for dinner…..at least an hour," Nathan measured out the dose of laudanum for Ezra, "and hopefully they'll be feeling better by then." After dosing Ezra and covering him with a blanket, he turned to Larabee. "Chris, why don't I lay you back down and see if you can sleep for a bit too. I ain't gonna force you to take the laudanum," the healer settled the blond back onto the make-shift bed, "but we still got a long way to go today."

Chris shook his head, indicating that he would think about it.

The wagon remained parked where it was, while the remainder of the party moved about a quarter of a mile upstream, where they had seen an old campfire ring.

Mary, Nettie, Nathan and Josiah went about heating up something for dinner, while Buck, JD and Vin made their way down to the creek to wash up a bit.

Mary had hung back this morning with the commotion in the wagon. She somehow imagined that it would embarrass Chris if he knew she was watching. She turned to address Nathan, "do you think Chris and Ezra will be ok?"

Nettie Wells was wondering the same thing. She had seen first-hand the pain those young men were dealing with.

"I don't know, Mary," Nathan sat and took a drink from his canteen, "last I looked in they were both sleepin', so hopefully that will help."

"Mr. Larabee never did agree to the medicine?" Nettie questioned.

"No," Nate shook his head, "I'll offer again before we head back out."

Buck and JD had been splashing and making fools of themselves in the creek, so they both re-appeared at the campfire with wet clothes.

Nathan (and Nettie) looked closely to make sure Vin hadn't participated as well, but he appeared to be mostly dry. The healer didn't want Tanner's bandages getting wet.

The men remained seated around the campfire for a while after they finished off some beans and what remained of Mary's loaf of bread.

All of a sudden, Vin stood and looked around.

"What's wrong?" asked JD.

Vin remained standing for a few minutes and finally said, "nothin' I guess." The tracker sat back down and took a drink from his canteen.

It was less than a minute later when they heard and saw the wagon take off downstream.

"What in the hell?" Buck yelled and grabbed his gun belt. He had taken it off when he and JD were messing around in the water.

As the men began running after the wagon, they heard a voice yell out, "stop or I'll shoot!"

Buck could not believe it. The Spikes' cousin, Fred, was standing up on a small bluff between the campfire and where they left the wagon, with three of his brood.

"Throw down your weapons and put your hands up, and nobody'll get hurt," the man continued.

He couldn't risk something happening to Mary and Nettie, so Buck looked around at his friends and dipped his head. They did as they were instructed.

"Whatta ya want?" Buck yelled back.

"Just needed some supplies. Figured a wagon would be nice for headin' back home; it's a long journey back to Illinois, Mr. Wilmington."

"You can have all the supplies you want, but we need that wagon. Two of our injured men were in it."

The elder Spikes looked back and forth at the boys around him, and they just shrugged their shoulders. They had only stumbled upon the party about a half an hour ago by sheer luck, and they hadn't gotten a good look at what was in the wagon. They just knew they were tired, hungry, and out of money….and they needed food to head back home.

"Tell you what," Spikes continued. "You ride on back to town and fill up another wagon full of food, water and blankets. Meet us back here tomorrow at the same place, same time, and we'll trade ya. We'll give you the other wagon with yer friends, and we'll be on our way. Figure it's the least you could do after killin' half of our family."

"Yer family brought it all on themselves, Mister," Vin spoke up, "and we want our friends back now. You can keep the wagon, and we'll bring you back a loaded one tomorrow just like you asked."

"Yeah right. We give you yer friends today, and we'll never see you again. I ain't stupid."

Buck grabbed JD and pulled him close, "keep us instead then. We'll stay with ya if you let our two injured men go. They need a doctor."

JD was fine with that arrangement.

"Nah, I think we have more leverage with the two injured fellers we already have."

Buck sighed and Nathan dropped his head.

Spikes continued, "you boys and girls might as well find a seat. We're gonna wait right here while my boys get the wagon hidden away, and then we'll let you head on your way. We might even have a couple of boys follow you home…just to make sure you don't attempt any funny business."

Chris awoke as his body literally bounced 6 inches off of the wagon bed. Damn, that hurt, and his foggy, jostled brain tried to make sense of his surroundings. The wagon….they were in the wagon heading back to Four Corners. It was moving way too fast to be Nettie driving; were they trying to outrun pursuers…..was somebody chasing them?

Ezra was still out cold. Nathan must have given him a whopping dose of laudanum to sleep through this ride.

Larabee managed to raise himself up enough and turn his head around to see that the wagon drivers were not Vin and Nettie. "You gotta be kidding me," he said to himself and lay back down. If his eyes weren't playing tricks on him, it was two of the Spikes' boys driving the wagon.

Brent and Larry were searching the landscape for a good place to stash the stolen buggy. They hoped it had some food in it. The young men had to grab and go so quickly back at the stream that they hadn't even looked in the back. They had run out of everything except jerky, and the posse was hungry for real food. Many of them had grown up around Chicago. They weren't cowboys or outdoorsmen…by a long shot. They were used to three hot meals a day, and a bathtub right in the house.

They had been instructed to get the wagon as far away as possible, and to try to cross terrain that wouldn't make it easy to track…whatever the hell that meant. Brent figured it meant rocky areas without much dirt, stream beds, or maybe roads where a number of other wagons had traveled. Fortunately they did come upon one of the latter, as they made their way north. It looked to be a stagecoach route or something, as the trail was covered in horse and buggy tracks. After traveling the road for a couple of hours, they pulled up into a canyon. The wagon would be hidden from the main trail, but they would easily be able to find their way back tomorrow to meet up with the rest of their clan.

Chris felt the drop of the wheels in every inch of his body as the wagon left the main road. It crawled and pounded over rocks and shrubs and finally came to a stop at the far end of a narrow canyon. Larabee had tried to keep track of the direction they were moving in relation to the sun, but he would have to escape for that to be of any use. Without any weapons….or the ability to stand…that was going to be quite the challenge. He sighed and lay his sunburned head back down on the straw mattress. He would just wait and see what these boys had in store for them.

Chris waited and waited, but nothing happened. "Ezra?" he tried to arouse the sleeping man to his left. Maybe they could be ready and surprise their captors…..who clearly must think they are both unconscious. Chris shook Standish's body and tried again, "Ezra…..Ezra wake up." Nothing. How much laudanum had Nathan given him? He forced himself to stop and make sure Standish was still breathing. He was. Nathan had just knocked him out good and proper.

Brent and Larry sat their bags on the ground back in the canyon a ways and started making a campfire. Both of them were imagining finding a stash of beans, biscuits, and maybe even some fruit or candy in the back of the seven's wagon. They should have rationed their supplies better, but the Spikes' family consisted of a number of big-eaters.

Once they had a good campfire going, Larry wandered over to the wagon. By the light of the setting sun, he could see that something was stored in the back under two blankets…..and it looked like a fair amount of supplies. Just as Larry rounded the back corner of the wagon to peer under the blankets, the cover moved and what looked like a corpse sat up and fell towards him. "AAAAAAAAAAH!" Larry screamed and Brent came running, pistol in hand.

Larry instinctively struck out at the body and knocked it flat with a punch to the face. Brent raced to the rescue, heart pounding and out of breath. "What?! What the hell happened?"

Larry just stood there, mouth agape, pointing up into the wagon. "There's two bodies in this thing. We stole two dead bodies, and that one tried to attack me." Brent removed his hat and ran a hand through his thinning hair. Why in the hell hadn't they taken the time to look in the wagon?

"Daggonit Larry, those ain't dead bodies. That's two of the Magnificent Seven." Brent approached each man and felt for a pulse…..just to make sure. "What the hell are we gonna do now? I didn't mean to steal no gunfighter and gambler. I just wanted some supper!" The two stood in the dying light, staring at the two pale men, and no food, before them.