Sorry again. I know, I know, but you all ain't old like I am and you don't have to take as many pills and well… well, I just hope you all don't ever get like this. What? Oh, no! No! I didn't mean it like that! Of course I want you all to live long enough to get old. Surely, I don't want ya dying young, I just don't want you to have to take so many pills and such like I do, that's all.

Are you sure you don't want them peanuts? Oh, okay. Back to the story. Now, let's see. I was just at the part where the Marshal was looking down at Miss Kitty when he suddenly froze kinda.

Ya know, sometimes, I thought that man had eyes in the back of his head. I especially thought that, that night. Cause just as he turned to smile at Miss Kitty, he just quickly whipped around, pushed Miss Kitty behind him, pulled his gun and fired down at Grady Hicks, hitting him in the shoulder, which caused ol' Grady a considerable amount of pain and he dropped the gun he was holding and pointing at my boss.

You coulda heard a pin drop when that happened. Nobody saw that Grady had come to, pulled his gun and was aiming on shooting Miss Kitty. Well, nobody but the Marshal that is. He saw him and he stopped him. After he done it, he didn't sweep his hat off his head or bow or nothing, but he didn't have to. It was pretty clear who Miss Kitty thought was the real hero that night, just by the way she looked up at him.

"Matt?" She called out and quickly gave him one of those long sweeping glances she was prone to, you know just to make sure he wasn't hurt or nothing. She always did that when he was anywhere near a gun that wasn't in a holster.

The Marshal just offered her a brief smile like he usually did. "I'm alright, Kitty." He said as he grabbed Grady's gun from him and then looked around, nodding at a couple of cowboys leaning on the bar. "Couple of you men; get him up to Doc, will ya?"

Obediently, the two men stepped forward, grabbed Grady Hicks and hustled him out in a hurry. I'm not sure if they did it cause he was hurt so bad or they were afraid he'd get hurt worse if he stayed in the Marshal's sight for much longer. Either way, they got him out of there in a hurry.

"You got yourself a pretty fast draw there, Marshal." Mr. Travers, who'd almost been forgotten, spoke up just then. "I'm bound to be impressed."

"I wasn't too concerned with impressing you." Marshal Dillon told him. "I was trying to keep him from shooting Kitty."

"Well, I'm impressed anyway." Travers gave the Marshal a curt nod then did something none of us saw coming. He took two steps back, widened his stance and once again dropped his hand to his gun. "Gonna make taking you all the better. Gonna make taking your woman even better than that, knowing I killed you first."

Now, I don't know how you all would've reacted had you seen this sudden development, but I know how me and everyone else reacted. Except for Miss Kitty, we all gasped and took ourselves a big step backwards.

Now Miss Kitty, she was a different breed than most of us. Instead of hightailing it out of there, she stepped closer to the Marshal. She was always like that, you know, defending him if she could, trying to protect him. She surely did love that man.

And the Marshal, well, he wasn't too good at saying it, most times, he wasn't too good at showing it, but there were times, like that night, that you could tell, he loved her too.

"Get back, Kitty." He demanded as he turned completely towards this Travers fella, who suddenly wasn't nearly as handsome as I thought at first. Miss Kitty didn't move an inch, but Sam gently took her arm and finally she stepped off to the side. Not too far but far enough to keep from getting hit by a wild shot.

Dropping his own hand to his own gun, the Marshal looked Travers square in the face. "What's this about Mister? You got a quarrel with me?"

"Nope." Travers smiled. "I just heard a lot about you. Always wondered if you were as quick with a gun as I heard and I finally decided to find out."

"I see." Mr. Dillon shook his head in irritation. "You think killing me is going to build your reputation, do you?"

Now, like I told before, I hadn't been in town for too awfully long by this time but even by then, I knew the Marshal didn't like things like this. He hated gunfights and avoided them if he could. But this night, even a blind man could see that he wasn't going to be allowed to avoid this one.

Looking over at Miss Kitty, I could see she knew it too, as did Sam cause he moved a step closer to her and looked like he was prepared to protect her should the need arise. Like I said, it wouldn't have been out the realm of possibility for her to throw herself in front of a bullet for the Marshal if she thought it necessary.

But, thank the good Lord, it wasn't necessary. Though the Marshal would've been quite happy to just stand and discuss the situation for a while, Travers obviously wasn't and he didn't answer Marshall Dillon's question save for pulling his gun and firing.

Ya know, I don't reckon I ever saw anyone, and I do mean, ANYONE as fast or as accurate as Mr. Dillon was with that gun of his. Even though that black hearted Travers drew first and was surely extremely quick on the draw, he had nothing on Marshal Dillon. In mere seconds, it was all over but the gun smoke and Travers laid dead on the floor of the saloon, a bullet straight to the heart.

Miss Kitty, of course, wasted no time in scooting across to the Marshal and he wasted no time and turning to look at her, you know, kinda making sure she was alright. When he was sure she was, he turned all Marshal again.

What's that you ask? What do I mean by his turning all Marshal again? Well, just that. He went from being Miss Kitty's man to a law man in nearly the blink of an eye.

In no time flat, he had a couple fella's hauling that Travers out of the saloon down to Percy Crumps place and he had questioned everyone about what they'd seen and did they know this man and all that law stuff he had to do any time something like that happened. It was pretty impressive, if you wanta know something. He was thorough and calm and all, just as if he hadn't had a shootout not five minutes before.

Quite a few of us just kinda stood still for a few minutes watching him in awe until Sam kinda hollered at us to get back to work. Now, don't misunderstand me, he wasn't mean or nothing, he was actually really nice about it, but we understood we had to quit gaping at the Marshal and get back to business. Well, all of us except Miss Kitty.

She didn't say nothing and she didn't just fall all apart or gasp or cry or anything like that, but you could tell that little incident kinda took the starch out of her for a little bit. Marshal could sure tell it, because as soon as he got the dead man taken care of and his questions answered, he turned back to her, real gentle like and took her arm, leading her over to the bar.

I was back to sitting with Homer, who by this time was so drunk that the gunfight barely phased him, so I didn't hear what Marshal Dillon told her. But I saw her look up at that big man with such love it wasn't even funny. And I saw the Marshal return every bit of that to her with nothing more than a smile. Boy, those two did have a way of talking without saying nothing.

Anyways, whatever the Marshal said to her quietly, she nodded and watched him as he turned and strode on out of that saloon, heading back to the jail. I suppose to fill out reports or whatever. Now, I know this little incident wasn't nothing all that important or all that different from what I'm sure happened many times before. But I wasn't present at all those other times, other than to just hear about them.

But this here time, I was present and I saw just how deep the connection was between my boss and her Marshal first hand that night. It wasn't the only time I saw that of course, but it was the first time and it'll always stick with me the love I saw between them as they stood for those few brief moments at the end of the bar and he looked down at her with a gentle smile. My, oh my, even after all these years, it still takes my breath away.

Excuse me? What'd you ask, little girl? What happened next? Well, nothing, nothing right then, at least. Like I said, the Marshal went on back to his jail or wherever he needed to go, we all went back to work and Miss Kitty went into her office for a spell. When she came back out, she was all smiles and we finished up the night like we did any other time.

Of course, now, after the saloon was closed, well, there was one more tiny little thing that happened but it wasn't none to reportable in the light of day really. No, really, it wasn't that much it was just… well… well, it was after everything had been cleaned up and those who didn't actually live in the saloon went home.

I had already gone up to my room and turned my covers back and was just getting ready to climb into bed when I heard this here creak on the back stairs. There was one of those stairs that always creaked when you stepped on it and that was what I heard. Well, as you can imagine, first thing I thought of was that dead man lying down at Percy's and I was wondering if maybe he had a friend coming to finish what he couldn't.

Now, I know, most normal people would've turned off the lights, jumped into bed and pulled the covers over their heads but I never claimed to be normal. Not that night anyway. I'm not really sure why, may never know, but for some reason, I just had to take myself a look out into that hallway to see who it was out there. So I did. I put out my light and then crept to the door and cracked it just a hair and looked out.

I tell you what, I saw the nicest thing I thing I ever saw in all my born days. Or at least the nicest sight until my wedding night, and that's something I ain't about to describe to you. But I will describe what I saw in the hallway. I saw one very tall man, standing in the doorway of Miss Kitty's room with her in his arms just a hugging her for all he was worth.

Neither one of them said a word or did anything but hug each other, but they didn't need to. That there hug said and did it all. It was sort of a way for them to put the ugliness of that night behind them and move on forward to what lay before them with nothing more than the simple, yet complex, connection they had between them. You know, if I close my eyes, real tight, I can still see that hug and still see the love that just shimmered between them.

(Total silence)

Well, that's enough of that. You all wanted a story and I gave it to you. And I can see by that there empty bowl, one of ya even got yourself some peanuts. Now is there anything else I can do for you? Another story? (Raises brow). Well, maybe some other time but not today. I'm plum tuckered out now and I'm gonna have to go back to the bathroom here in a minute so I'm afraid I'm gonna have to ask you all to excuse me.

But I sure do want you all to know how much I appreciated you stopping by. At my age, I appreciate a smile when it's freely given, company's a bonus. Huh, oh yes, you have a nice day too. You all be careful now, and maybe I'll see ya again sometime.

Bye!