Josiah brought Mrs. O'Brien back to town. As they walked up the stairs to the clinic, they were treated to the sound of laughter coming from inside the room and they exchanged puzzled looks. When they went in, they discovered what was going on. Vin was back in bed, sitting up against the pillows, with the blanket still around his shoulders. Ezra had the lamp close to the wall and was attempting to make shadow puppets in the likeness of their friends. He had his pinky finger up, with a knot of bandage poised on the tip.
"And this is JD!"
Vin laughed, a rough sound that hurt to hear, and he pressed his hand against his throat for the pain.
"Stop - stop it Ezra. It hurts!" But he was having a good time. He didn't even notice Mrs. O'Brien at first. When he saw her though, nothing else mattered.
"Is Bart okay? Did Nathan take care of him? Josiah?"
"He's fine honey." Mrs. O'Brien hurried to reassure him. "He's ailin', same as you but Mr. Jackson is takin' real good care of him, and he's at home right now. Sleepin' on his Pa's lap...now - how are you? Seems like you shoulda been takin' better care a' yourself."
"Sore throat's all...I'll be fine."
"Un hunh." She tossed off her wrap and sat on the bed to feel Vin's face and hands. "You're burnin' up honey."
"Naah - I was just sitting too close to the stove..." He didn't want her to worry. "You didn't have to come in just to tell me about Bart. Josiah coulda done that."
"After all you done for us child - I came to find out about you...you gettin' enough to eat?"
"Yes ma'am..."
"They keepin' an eye for drafts?"
"Yes ma'am..."
As Mrs. O'Brien ran down her inventory how to stay healthy, Josiah motioned Ezra out onto the balcony with him, and they shut the door behind.
"Chris ain't come yet?" Josiah asked.
"Not yet, he has been otherwise occupied at the saloon..."
Josiah sighed. "And I thought we were having a hard time gettin' Vin to open up... Wasn't Nettie dead set on draggin' him back here?"
"Yes, well - I believe Mr. Wilmington intercepted her on her blighted path to destruction...for the time being anyway. I don't expect that Mrs. Wells will long be kept from her charge."
"And just what were you doing with Vin in there Ezra? What d'you think Nathan would say?"
"I was attempting to divert Mr. Tanner's attention from as much pain as I possibly could. Physical and otherwise. He is most disconsolate that Mr. Larabee is determined to stay away, and since I have nothing medicinal at my disposal, I decided to work with what I had - literally - at hand. It seemed to be working...for the moment anyway."
M7*M7*M7
Buck didn't know what else to do. It was late and all the respectable businesses in town were closed up for the night, except the paper. He could see a lamp burning through the window and he went there, tapping softly on the door. Mary was surprised to see him.
"Buck - what is it? Is it Vin?"
"No, Mary. He's holdin' on. I just wondered -" Now that he was here, it sounded silly. "You wouldn't by chance have a couple pillow cases, would you?"
"Pillow cases?"
"Yeah - I was changin' the sheets 'n such for Vin up there, but I couldn't find no clean pillow cases. I was just wonderin'..."
"Of course, come in Buck. I'll get them for you." She smiled to think that he'd care about such a little detail.
"They don't have to be fancy or nothin' Mary." Buck told her as he shut the door behind himself and followed her through the back to her home. "Just clean...Vin ain't gonna be looking at 'em no how." Buck stopped short and had the urge to turn and run when he saw Miss Nettie in Mary's parlor. He remembered himself enough to remove his hat and greet her.
"Who's with Vin?" was all she cared about.
"Ezra is...now don't worry." He hastened to reassure her when she gave him a scowl. "Ezra is actually pretty good at takin' care of Vin. And I'm on my way back there now, soon's I get some pillow cases..."
"And Mr. Larabee?" she asked. Buck wished he'd followed his first inclination to run.
"Not yet Ma'am."
"Hmmpf. We'll see about that." She started for the door and when Buck opened his mouth to speak she turned on him, stabbing her finger at him. "Not one word. You hear me? Larabee may be hurtin' - he ain't dyin'. Vin very well might be." She called to Mary that she was goin' and could she bring the soup on up herself. With a final warning glower at Buck, she left.
M7*M7*M7
Chris twirled the empty shot glass on the table. He was missing something, he could feel it. There was a part to his pain that wouldn't come into focus and he knew that if he could get it to focus, he'd have his answer. So he ran it over in his mind again. Like combing tangles out of his horse's tail, he worked through each strand, trying to make it all lay flat.
He thought of Vin as a child, a 'tyke' Buck called him, trying so hard to understand why all he got was hurt when he was trying so hard to be good. Waiting for his grandparents to be nice to him, wondering what more he could do...
It was then that it hit Chris and he cursed himself for a fool. "I'm doin' the same damn thing to him. He's up at Nathan's waitin' for me to come back, wonderin' why I ain't. Damn." He pushed the shot glass away from himself and was about to stand up when Nettie came through the doors into the saloon.
M7*M7*M7
Buck took a long way around the saloon to avoid all chance of being dragged into the storm he knew was going to break in there. He carried two clean pillow cases and one of Mary's husband's nightshirts that it had almost broken her heart to part with. From looking at it, Buck knew Vin would be swamped in it, but it was clean and that was all that mattered.
He found a crowd in the little room with Vin - Mrs. O'Brien sitting on the bed, clucking over her newest 'chicken', Josiah picking up the discarded sheets and blankets to take to the laundress, Ezra building up the fire in the stove, and JD watching, waiting to be helpful if possible. As it was, JD was the one who noticed the expectant look on Vin's face when the door opened. Saw it disappear when only Buck came in and not Chris.
"Howdy boys, Miz O'Brien." Buck greeted them. "Vin - I got you a couple nice pillow cases and a nightshirt..." He didn't mention where he'd gotten them. "We can have you all nice and snug in a shake, soon's you're ready."
"Is Nettie comin' back?" Vin asked. If he couldn't have one, he'd take the other.
"Uhhh- uhhh..." What was he going to say? What the hell was Buck going to say to Vin? He didn't want to tell him the truth, he also didn't want Vin to think he'd been abandoned by Nettie too. He tried something that was almost the truth. "Uhhh - she's gone to have a talk with Chris..." He said it lightly, as though it was the most natural thing in the world, and not a timed charge about to go off. "C'mon..." Buck tried to hurry past that little chunk of anxiety. "Let's see if we can't get you outta those long johns and into this night shirt."
Vin didn't know what to feel. He knew Nettie would do more than 'talk'. He didn't want Chris here if he had to be dragged. He didn't want Nettie here if she was in a temper about Chris not being here. All Vin was wanted was Chris to sit with him. He knew it was foolish to feel so alone in a room full of people, when any one of them would do anything for him. Stupid to wait for a friend who wasn't coming.
"I'm fine, don't want it." His voice was a whisper.
"Honey, you should swap them small clothes for somethin' clean." Mrs. O'Brien urged him. "Won't take but a minute - you'll feel a tuck better."
"Don't want it." A sharper edge to the whisper this time, uttered through clenched teeth. Vin was feeling crowded now with all these people around. "I'm fine." Crowded and trapped. "Y'all just leave me be?"
Mrs. O'Brien had enough children - and enough sense - to recognize the signs of a looming rage. "That's fine then honey. I expect you're plum wore out and here we are, pestering the daylights out of you. It's late and you should be asleep..." She smiled at him, gathered her wrap and stood up. "I'll check back on you honey. Let you know how Bart is coming along."
"Okay, Mrs. O'Brien. I 'preciate you comin' out." Vin was holding - just barely - onto his patience.
"You're welcome honey..." She turned to the other men in the room. "Well, c'mon y'all. He can't sleep if you're in here makin' a racket. Everybody out." None of them took even a step. "Well? He ain't goin' nowhere. You're lookin' at him like he'll turn to a tadpole if he was to be left alone even a minute. Child needs his rest..." She finally managed to shoo them out, Buck turning back once to Vin.
"Won't be far, Vin. Holler if you need anything."
"...'kay." Just go.
When the door was shut, Mrs. O'Brien asked: "What's the prospect a' gettin' Mr. Larabee up here? Can't always reckon why sick folk wants what they wants but it does seem to make a thunder of difference to 'em."
"I can get him here." JD said, and four pairs of eyes turned on him in disbelief. "I can. I bet you I can." He said when their disbelief didn't diminish.
"How?" Ezra asked.
"Never mind how, I just know I can."
"You sure?" Josiah asked. He couldn't begin to imagine what JD had in mind.
"Bet me?"
"JD -" Buck's tone was serious. "Are you SURE?"
The kid put his hat on and straightened his jacket. "Buck - I am SO sure, that I recommend you keep that door open or Chris is liable to bust it right off it's hinges." He grinned at what he had in mind.
"Well, this will be a prodigy I simply must witness." Ezra declared.
"I for one don't want to watch you get your head served back to you on a plate JD." Josiah told him. "Mrs. O'Brien, may I escort you home?"
"Thank you Mr. Sanchez, but not right now. I got to see this."
M7*M7*M7
The saloon could've been on fire and Chris Larabee would not have stirred from it just because Nettie was telling him he had to. They stared hard and resolute at each other, Chris not leaving, and Nettie not leaving without him.
"Mr. Larabee, I can't believe you'd leave that boy up there all alone, while you sit here tryin' to drown your troubles."
"Miz Wells, he ain't a 'boy' and he ain't alone." Chris said, barely keeping his tone civil. "I ain't his Pa, I ain't his brother..."
"You don't have to be." Nettie's tone matched his. "I seen the two of you together. I seen you with all these men, Mr. Larabee. Maybe you got no piece of paper says you're kin, but you're kin just the same. And sittin' here tellin' yourself different won't make any difference if he ends up planted out there next to his Ma's stone, will it?"
"And my sittin' up there with him ain't gonna keep it from happenin'."
"That's hogwash and you know it. Sometimes the only thing keeps a person going is knowing there's one person who cares."
"He's got five."
"He wants you. Lord knows why, the boy must be delirious..."
M7*M7*M7
JD, Ezra and Mrs. O'Brien approached the saloon. "All right, Mr. Dunne. I am most anxious to see you work this miracle."
"What're you plannin' honey?" Mrs. O'Brien sounded a little worried, more so because JD didn't seem worried at all.
"Just watch. I'd stand back if I was you, but watch."
M7*M7*M7
Chris was a hair away from really losing his temper and spouting off a string of words at Nettie that he knew he'd regret the rest of his life. But he'd never been a man to be bossed and, by God, she was bossing him.
"Nettie, seems to me it'd be a sight better if you'd just go back and take care of Vin. .." He was about to add 'since you seem to know so much' but he was stopped in mid breath by a commotion at the swinging doors.
JD came rushing in, tripping over himself, dropping his hat, trying to say three things at once. "Chris! Vin - back at the clinic. Buck was trying - only Vin said no - but Buck said he had to and Vin was saying just leave me be and he was getting scared that he didn't want to and -"
And JD was talking to an empty chair.
Ezra and Mrs. O'Brien came into the saloon and joined Nettie in staring dumbfounded at JD, who only smiled, feeling pretty self-satisfied. Mrs. O'Brien finally spoke: "Honey, you want to come home with me and see if you can get my Mary to eat her beets?"
M7*M7*M7
As Ezra and Mrs. O'Brien followed JD to the saloon, and Josiah carried away the bed linens, Buck took a deep breath that sounded like a sigh, and stood a moment before he went back in to Vin. It was late and he was tired, but he still had to get Vin into that nightshirt, change the pillow cases and check the time for when he had to spoon out a dose of the medicine. Not that he minded taking care of Vin - poor kid was feeling so sick. He just knew Vin would feel better if Chris or Nettie were here, and Buck didn't know how to make that happen any faster.
Still, as he went into the clinic, he left the door open a crack, in case JD had a miracle up his sleeve after all. He found Vin pulling himself up on the bed post. "All right Vin. .." Buck did his best Larabee imitation. "Sit yourself back down 'fore I do it."
"Where's Chris?" Vin asked, without sitting down.
"Vin - he'll be here. He's just -"
"No, I only mean, where's he at? He at the saloon?"
"Reckon, that's where I left him...c'mon, sit down." Buck got Vin sitting on the edge of the bed, and pulled the blanket down from around his shoulders. "All right Pard, let's get this nightshirt on you." There was a weariness in Buck's voice and Vin didn't argue. Mindful of the partially open door, the nightshirt was advanced a step or two ahead of taking off the long johns.
"Buck?"
"Hmm?"
"Do me a favor?"
"What?"
"Tell Chris I'm sorry..."
Buck looked up from the buttons he was doing wrong on the cuffs as he helped Vin put his arms in the sleeves.
"Vin - that ain't -"
"Tell him I didn't mean it...tell him I'd take it back if I could." Vin was so serious, and so sure that was the only thing keeping Larabee away. Buck stopped what he was doing to put his hands on Vin's shoulders.
"I know what y'said to him Vin, and that ain't why Chris ain't here. Don't blame yourself for the trouble's been hounding him since before you met him." And Vin stared at him, trying to judge what Buck was saying.
"Then why ain't he here?"
It was a long minute before Buck figured out a way to say it. He went back to pulling on the nightshirt as he spoke.
"When y'tell Chris what happened to you, when you was a kid - well, it makes him real angry - - not at you..." He rushed to say. "Not at you. He gets angry at your kin that hurt you. And you know Chris, you know how his mind works... 'recognize bad guy' 'chase bad guy' 'catch bad guy' 'beat the crap out of bad guy'..." Buck was relieved when a worn smile graced Vin's face. "Only there ain't no bad guy anymore. They's dead. So he's got all this anger inside of him and no bad guy to beat the crap outta... It's just takin' him a spell to figure out that anger ain't what you want. Soon's he figures that out, he'll be here I promise. I known Chris a long time..."
Vin accepted what Buck said, and watched quietly, trying to help where he could, getting out of his long johns.
"Buck?"
"Hmm?"
"I think nightshirts are sissy."
"Ha! I'm with you there, Pard..." M7*M7*M7
Chris still had in mind that string of bad words he hadn't been able to use on Nettie as he stormed to the clinic to choke the daylights out of Buck. What the hell did he think he was doing? Chris demanded silently as he took the clinic stairs two at a time. What the hell did Buck think he was doing?
He slammed the door open. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" he barked. Vin was on the edge of the bed still, with his hands on Buck's shoulders to steady himself as Buck untangled his long johns around his feet, out from under the nightshirt. And it was then, when Chris saw the grin that Buck couldn't stop, that Chris knew he'd been had.
"Well I'm just about the change the pillow cases if you'd give me a hand keeping the kid upright." Buck couldn't keep the smile out of his voice either. Vin stared at Chris, until he realized he was doing it and looked down.
"I ain't no kid." He mumbled and tucked his hands under his arms. Chris was mad, he didn't want him here if he was mad.
So they stayed that way a moment, Buck with a hand on Vin to keep him steady, Vin pulling away inside of himself, and Chris, grudgingly admitting to himself that everything Nettie had said was right. He closed the door softly and sat on the bed to put his arm around Vin.
"I got him." He said. Vin was surprised but didn't look up. Buck took away the pillows and helped Chris get the blanket back around Vin's shoulders. "How're you doin' Vin?" Vin could smell the whiskey. Chris wasn't drunk, but he'd been troubled enough to head that way.
"I won't tell you no more." Vin said, head and hands still tucked down and away.
"Y'ain't told me nothing yet." Chris said, not understanding.
"About when I'se a kid...don't have to worry. Won't tell you no more."
Buck became very involved in changing the pillow cases.
"I want you to tell me Vin. I want you to tell me - - anything you want to tell me."
"...just make you mad..."
Chris drilled Buck with his eyes for telling Vin that. "Yeah, it makes me mad. Somebody should get mad for what was done to you Vin. "
"I just wanted to tell you. Didn't want you to do nothin'...'cept..." He didn't finish.
"Except what?" Chris finally asked.
"Help me understand what I did wrong." Now he looked up at Chris. "What'd I do so wrong I got to be treated that way?"
"You didn't do anything wrong." Chris insisted; even Buck looked up from his prolonged task, ready to add his agreement to Chris. But Vin only shook his head and looked down again. Buck set the pillows back in place.
"Y'ready to lay back down?" Chris asked.
"Can I sit awhile? Back feels better, 'n it's easier to breathe..."
"Sure..." Chris held on a little tighter and felt Vin lean into the support. Buck was smiling at Chris again, a tired smile but with a twinkle in his eye. He bundled the old pillow cases and long johns in his hands and headed for the door.
"I'll be back Chris. I gotta go find JD. I'm expectin' he's got a whopper of a tale to tell!"
To be continued