Hope everyone liked chapter 6! This chapter is a little different, for some reason that damn Sally seemed to take over and I kind of had to let her, just to keeps things interesting--ya know. Anyway there are some things about doctoring in her and very obviously I am not a doctor, I am teacher and we know NOTHING about doctoring, esp, we aggies. Anyway, any mistakes with the doctoring stuff are mine.
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Gunsmoke. Boy oh boy the fun I would have if I did.
Sally watched out the window at the top of the stairs under the cover of darkness. What she saw made her angry, how dare Kitty kiss Matt that way! Matt was her's and she be damned if Kitty would take him away from her. She watched as the kiss when on and on before finally, she couldn't tell who ended it first, but she thought it was her darling, Matt pulled back and smiled his breath taking smile. Sally felt her heart race and her stomach flutter; she loved it when Matt smiled at her like that. She would get Kitty for trying to take Matt away from her. She knew exactly what she would do too and she would have the perfect opportunity when Kitty came up those stairs.
Down below at the bottom the stairs, Matt and Kitty stood grinning at each other. "Thank you for a lovely supper Matt and the nice walk back."
"My pleasure." Matt said, giving Kitty one of his best smiles. "Would you like to repeat it in the morning and have breakfast with me?"
Kitty smiled and said, "What time?"
"Oh about seven o'clock."
"Matt! That's not morning, why that's still the middle of the night." Kitty exclaimed. "No but you can stop by for coffee tomorrow afternoon before I have to go on."
"That sounds good Kitty. I'll see you then." Matt said.
Kitty turned and started up the stairs aware that Matt was there at the bottom, watching her go up. She made it to the top, turned and waved goodbye to Matt and then waited for him to walk away. Matt had just about walked out of site so Kitty turned the door knob and was just about to go in when she felt the force of another body hitting her. She screamed as she felt her body falling backwards. She reached out her hands to try and catch the railings on the steps but was unable to get a hold of either side. Then she felt her head striking the steps and the world went black as she began to slide down.
Matt was in a dream world, thinking about the kiss that he had just shared with Kitty when he heard the scream coming from the back steps of the Longbranch. His law man's instincts instantly kicked in and he ran as quickly as he could back to where he had just left Kitty about to go in. The sight that he saw almost sickened him as he saw Kitty lying in the middle of the stairway. Blood was trickling from the back of her head and Matt was sure that her back was all scratched and scrapped. Matt went to Kitty first and assessed the situation and Matt was sure that Doc was going to have to stitch the back of her head up.
Afraid to move her, because he didn't want to hurt her further, he ran to Doc's office and took the stairs up two at a time. When he reached the door he began beating it with his fist. "Doc! Doc!" he called out.
After what seemed an eternity, Doc finally answered the door. "What in the world!" Doc said. He was dressed in his nightshirt and cap. "Matt, what in tarnation is all the ruckus about?"
"It's Kitty. She's fallen down the steps." Matt said.
"Fallen down the steps? Matt, what are you talking about?" Doc asked as he pulled on pants and gathered up his bag. He followed Matt as the younger man lead him to the back of the Longbranch where they found Kitty as Matt had left here with Sam and Chester there as well. "Step back now. Step back." Doc said as he went up the stairs and knelt down beside Kitty.
He examined her for a few minutes, feeling her body for broken bones before he said to Matt, Sam and Chester, "Let's move her over to my office. I'm going to need good light to stitch up that gash in the back of her head and to clean up those abrasions on her back."
It was then that Sam spoke up for the first time. "Doc, don't you think it would be easier and more comfortable for Miss Kitty if we just took her directly to her room?"
"Why goodness yes! Goodness, yes I can't believe I didn't think of that myself. Yes, carry her on up those stairs and into her room." Doc said. He couldn't believe that he had overlooked an important fact like that. It was just that seeing Kitty lying on those stairs had shook him up. She was the last person that he expected to have Matt banging down his door in the middle of the night about.
They carefully and as gently as possible moved Kitty up the stairs and into her room. As soon as they got her settled into the big bed Doc chased them all out. Chester and Sam went back to bed and Matt went back out to the stairs. He didn't believe that Kitty would just fall down the stairs for no reason, and backwards at that. While he was looking things over, Sally came out and stood on the landing. "Hi Matt."
"Sally." Matt greeted never taking his eyes of the stairs and the red stain form where Kitty's head had been bleeding.
"What happened out here, did someone get shot?" Sally asked.
Matt thought that she sounded a little too innocent, and bit his tongue to keep from snapping at her. "No. Miss Kitty had an accident." Matt knew he shouldn't be saying anything because he had a feeling that from the way things had looked that Kitty's accident hadn't really been an accident. Now he just had to figure out who had pushed Kitty down those stairs.
"Oh, how terrible! Is she over at Doc's office?" Sally asked. Inside she was celebrating but outside she was trying her hardest to play the concerned co-worker.
"No, no. We brought her back over here." Matt said, standing from his crouching position and walking back up the stairs. He went back in and went to the door of the room that he had helped carry Kitty into. He knocked on the door and waited for Doc's answer.
In Kitty's room, Doc was stitching up a pretty bad gash in the back of her head and also taking care of the scrapes and bruises that were already forming the whole way down her back. He was just finishing up and trying to make the still unconscious Kitty comfortable when he heard the knock on the door. He knew that it was Matt waiting to see how Kitty was doing so he quickly and quietly went and opened the door.
"How is she Doc?" Matt asked the concern evident in his voice.
"I think she'll be ok Matt, but only time will tell." Doc said, going to the wash basin and washing his hands.
Matt and Doc both took a seat to wait. Matt sat quietly deep in thought until Doc said, "Matt what's eating you?"
"I don't think Kitty's accident was an accident, Doc."
"Are you serious Matt?" Doc asked, leaning forward his interest piqued.
"Well I can't be sure until I look at those step in the daylight but can you think of any reason why a woman, who was perfectly fine when I left her would have fallen backwards down a set of steps?" Matt told his older friend.
"Well sure there are reasons but I think most of them would be kind of stretch. Kitty's in good health."
"Yeah, I know." Matt said. He leaned forward on his knees. "I think I'm going to go across the hall and ask some questions." He said as he stood and went to the door. "Holler at me if anything changes."
"Just who are you going to talk to Matt?" Doc asked.
Matt was standing at the door ready to go out, "Across the hall to talk to Sally."
The older man only nodded and Matt made his way out the door and across the narrow hall in one stride. He raised his fist to Sally's door and gave it several hard raps. After the third one Sally came to the door, dressed in a flimsy robe.
"Oh! Matt, can I do something for you?" She asked, making no attempt to cover herself.
Matt looked her straight in the eye and said, "Sally, I came to ask you a few questions about what happened to Kitty out back earlier."
"Oh." Sally said, she pulled her robe closer around her and stepped back into the room. She was going to have to be careful. Matt could be on to her and her game of deception and deceit. "What would you like to ask me Matt?" she said sweetly.
"Well did you hear anything, voices or fighting?" Matt said. "The reason I'm asking is because your room is closest to the back door."
"Oh I didn't hear anything Matt. That is until Kitty screamed." Sally said, down casting her eyes.
"But you didn't come out to see what was happening? Why Kitty screamed?" Matt asked. "I was the first one back and I never saw you around here."
Sally panicked inside and said, "I was scared so I stayed inside. I mean you wouldn't have wanted to have to deal with two injured women would you, Matt."
"Yeah right." Matt said. He wasn't sure that he believed Sally's story but he needed time to think about what she had just told him so he said to her, "Well thank you for the information Sally. I best go and check on Doc and Kitty now."
"Kitty's going to be ok isn't she?" Sally asked. She had been hoping that the fall would kill Kitty and solve her problems but it didn't seem that, that was going to happen.
"I think so. Goodnight Sally. Thank you for the information." Matt said. He stepped back out into the hallway and let out a breath. He had a feeling that Sally was some how connected to Kitty's fall but how could he prove it? He went back to Kitty's room and walked in to find Doc setting by the bed. The sight made Matt's heart leap; maybe Kitty was awake and could give him some information.
He walked over to the bed to find Kitty's eyes still closed and Doc just setting, looking depressed. "No change huh Doc."
"No." Doc said, with a shake of his head. "I sure hope she wakes up soon though Matt, otherwise we could be looking at her going into a coma."
Hearing that just depressed Matt more. "I should have walked her up all the way I guess Doc."
"Matt, you setting around here blaming yourself isn't going to help Kitty one single bit. Why don't you go on back to the jail or over to your room at the hotel and get some sleep." Doc said.
Matt simply shook his head. "No Doc. If you're staying then I'm staying as well."
Doc shook his head at the young man sitting before him. He couldn't make him leave and he certainly wouldn't try.
They must have both dozed off because about three thirty in the morning Kitty began to stir.
"Uh." Kitty said. Her back was on fire and her head was pounding. She desperately wanted a drink of water but felt like she couldn't move. "Help!" she weakly cried out.
Matt who was a light sleeper heard her and instantly came awake. "Kitty! Kitty it's ok. What do you need?"
"Water." Kitty cried meekly.
Matt got Kitty the water and helped her to get a couple of small sips before he shook Doc awake. "Doc! Doc! Kitty's awake."
"Humph. Humph, oh, Matt." Doc said, coming awake. "Kitty's awake you say?"
"Yes, she just cried out for help and when I went to her she asked for some water."
"Good, that's a good sign. Did you give her some?" Doc asked.
Matt nodded in response and then stood back as Doc went to Kitty's bedside.
"Kitty?"
"Doc?" Kitty said weekly. "What happened to me? Why are you and Matt here?"
"You don't know what happened to you?" Doc asked.
Kitty slightly shook her head "no".
"What's the last thing you do remember?" Doc asked.
"Watching Matt leave from the top of the stairs. Opening the door to go in and then something hitting me." Kitty said with some effort.
Doc looked at Matt, "You were right Matt, Kitty's accident was no accident."
Ok so there is chapter 7. I hope you enjoyed it! Please let me know by pushing the little button now! Come on ya know ya want to….ya want to tell me what a bad word Sally is or somethin'. Oh and I fixed chapter 1- I think I got all the mistakes anyway.
