After the Storm 15

I don't own these characters; I just like to spend time with them. No other profit to be had than that.

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The first thing Kitty noticed was the pain. Her entire body seemed to be alive with it. From the pounding in her head to the dull ache in her back and legs and she felt nauseous.

But then she heard it. The joyful sound a baby's squeal of happiness broke through the haze of pain. "Benjamin" she thought. Turning her head slightly she slowly opened her eyes and waited for them to adjust to the sudden blinding light.

When finally she was able to focus, she thought perhaps she hadn't woken at all. The sight before her was so astonishing; she felt it had to be a dream. "Ma… Matt?" she whispered, afraid she would disturb the vision of Matt, sitting beside her with Benjamin in his lap, bouncing his son slightly on his knee as the baby squealed in delight.

Matt's eyes instantly snapped to her face, a slow smile spreading. "Hey beautiful" he said softly. "Me and the little man here's been getting acquainted with each other."

Hot tears came to her eyes as she stared at the long wished for sight. "I don't….. what?" Weakly, she tried to pull her self up and groaned in the effort.

"Now Kitty you just lay back there." Doc said from her other side.

Dumbfounded, Kitty turned her head to see Doc beside her, gently pushing her back down.

"How..? Why…?" She had a million questions and no idea how to voice them.

Matt rose, and after quickly handing Benjamin to Doc, swiftly transferred himself from the chair, to sitting beside her on the bed.

Taking her hand, he brought it to his lips. "Honey, I've got a lot of explanations and apologies I need to make, and I will, but right now the only important thing for you to know, is that I love you, and I've come to take you home."

"Home?" She whispered hopefully incredulous.

Matt nodded. "Yes sweetheart" he said tenderly "home."

Kitty closed her eyes when it became too difficult to keep them open, but as she faded out the word "Home" sank in and she smiled as she drifted off.

"Kitty?" Matt called worriedly.

Doc swiftly handed Benjamin back to Matt and gently reached over to check her. "She's okay Matt" he said, after a moment's inspection "she took a pretty good wallop to the back of her head. It's going to be a while before she can stay awake for more than a few minutes at a time. But she's going to be alright."

Matt let out the breath he had been holding, and pulled his son tighter into his chest. The baby looked up and gave a toothless grin to his father. "It's going to be alright" Matt told the baby as much as his self. "It's going to be alright."

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For two days Matt and Doc took turns sitting with Kitty, while the other kept Benjamin at Kitty's house. Though she would come to from time to time, she seldom stayed awake for long. But each time she stayed with them just a little longer than the last.

On the third day, she managed to keep her eyes open for a full hour, as Matt sat beside her, grateful she was awake. He had tried to explain what had happened back in Dodge, but she couldn't concentrate on it. She couldn't push past the fact that he was there, with her.

Looking at her beautiful pale face, Matt saw the weariness and pain, and once again, felt the undeniable guilt for his part in placing it there. "Honey" he said softly, "look, you just lay back there and get some more rest. I'm not going anywhere, and we can talk about all of this when you're feeling better."

Numbly, Kitty nodded as she closed her eyes. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew they would have to have a very long discussion, but right then she didn't want to.

She didn't want to think of the pain and anger, that discussion was sure to bring about. She only wanted to get well, get out of the hospital and get home with her family, all of them.

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It had now been 5 days since Kitty had initially regained consciousness in the hospital, and she was getting stronger each day. Enough so, that Matt decided one morning, to stay at the house the whole day and take care of his son.

He and Doc had been sharing those duties, with a generous helping hand from Margaret next door. But Matt wanted one day, before Kitty got out of the hospital, to prove to himself that he could do it alone.

One little baby couldn't be all that difficult to wrangle. Matt found out swiftly, that taking care of a two month baby, was a much tougher job than being Marshal ever was. Still, he found the job to be infinitely more rewarding, than chasing down any bandit could ever be.

Though Dr. Lewis had been able to provide him with the name of a suitable baby food formula, Matt could tell that Leibig's Soluble Infant Food, wasn't nearly as good as the nutrition Kitty had provided. But with Kitty in the hospital, Leibig's was going to have to do.

Carefully he read the instructions on the side of the bottle, and did exactly as they said, but the resultant goop in the pan didn't resemble anything edible. At least not to him, however his hungry son didn't seem to mind at all.

After feeding and burping Benjamin, as Margaret had instructed him, Matt gently rocked his boy until he was fast asleep, emitting soft little baby snores. "Yep, you're mine alright" Matt chuckled. "You even snore like me."

Placing him in his bassinette, he tiptoed around the room picking up. He and Doc weren't necessarily the neatest two people, he had to admit to himself.

He had just picked up their clothes, when Benjamin started to whimper. Quickly crossing back over, Matt picked up the baby and noticed the undeniable smell of a dirty diaper.

Laying him down on the changing table, Matt gingerly removed a very nasty, gluey diaper. "Geeze son," he muttered. "When you do something, you do it right huh?" Benjamin gave him one of his best smiles as he hit his father with a small geyser, squarely in the face, when Matt pulled the diaper completely off. "Thanks son" he sputtered, "reaching quickly for a towel. "Thanks a lot."

Once he had the baby cleaned up, and himself as well, and he had the diaper changed, and Benjamin was once again asleep, Matt looked around at the still untidy house. 'How did she do it?' he wondered. When Margaret had let them into the house, he and Doc both had noted how clean and orderly it was.

One woman, with a business and a baby and no help, had kept the house and the child and her self spotless. Two men, with the help of a neighbor, couldn't even keep their clothes off of the floor. Not for the first time, Matt marveled at the woman that was Kitty. God how he had missed her.

Crossing silently back over to his son, he looked down on the sleeping infant, taking in the small smile that seemed to play around his mouth. "You look like your mom when she's sleeping" he said, as he softly touched the baby's delicate cheek.

Sighing he took another look around. Kitty was coming home tomorrow ,and he really needed to clean, but all he could think of was having her back in his arms, and sleeping as peacefully beside him as his son was right then.

TBC