Note: Anything in italics in this section is a memory. It's mainly just one tidbit I had to put in here. Also I want to thank my reviewers for continuing to read. I do hope you continue to enjoy this fic as I have been enjoying writing it.
Hawkins had left the Pony Express post in Wyoming four days ago and had finally managed to navigate her thundering horse into the city of Dodge. It had been a long hard ride for the foaming black horse beneath her body but the woman knew he lived for the thrill himself. He always had even when he was a colt when she first bought him. Letting him have more of his head, she gripped a bit harder around his waist with her legs barely touching him with her spurs as he ran even faster into the drying out streets of the city. People who had been walking on the walkways stopped watching the black rider and black horse fly through the mud without so much as a slip curious as to why someone would be moving that fast. However, they soon turned their attention away and continued with their moving as renegades from the other side of the city started causing quite a racket.
The renegade rough riders were a bunch of trail hands that had moved into the town for the last few days. They had brought in a herd of cattle to market and were working on drinking their money away. The bartender had kicked them out of the saloon before they could cause any trouble but that wouldn't stop them. The leader of the group stroked his ebony beard soon chuckling with a few of his fellow rough riders but spotted a running horse with rider flying through the street. He couldn't resist the temptation to cause a little trouble and removed his gun from his right hip firing off a shot which unfortunately crossed right through the running steed's front left leg causing him to rear up frantically. Much to his dismay, the shooter watched as the rider didn't fall off but rather held on before dismounting noticing the limp in the animal.
"You didn't throw em, boss. You're aim must be off." chuckled a red headed man with a brown shirt.
"Zip it, Ray. I ain't done with that rider yet." growled the male firmly.
"Sorry, Caleb."
The gang watched the rider closely not noticing the anger boiling through her veins. Jak had dismounted in a hurry having felt something wrong with her horse and moved to inspect him finding the bullet wound through his lower left foreleg. The blood was pouring freely from him and Jak quickly removed her duster to rip off the light blue sleeves of her western shirt to turn into bandages for the injured animal not bothering to remember the kit she had in a saddlebag for the time being. She had to focus on stopping the bleeding before her attention would turn to hunting the son of a bitch down that hurt him in the first place.
"Ho son...I know it hurts, Dart." whispered Jak tying off the makeshift bandage.
The fabric slowly turned purple mixed with the blood but the flood had stopped enough for the rider to get the injured animal to the livery to get the tack off of him. The group remained where they were but Caleb left to walk slowly through the crowds watching the rider and injured horse. He wanted to see what the rider did out of curiosity having no idea who he was messing with. He had just assumed it was some show off riding through town and wanted to teach them to slow down a bit.
Jak had managed to speak with the stable owner and paid for a week in order to keep the place in the stable to mend her horse back to shape. She was worried the animal wouldn't be able to run properly and her attention turned to find the bastard that shot toward him in the first place. With her saddle on the ground out of sight and her rifle safely away from the naked eye, the rider grabbed her long black duster and slipped out of the barn with her spurs jingling as she walked firmly toward the saloon where she swore she heard the shots echo from. As soon as she stepped inside slamming the doors wide open, people looked up from their drinks slurring their words but silenced themselves feeling the anger from the figure. She ignored the on lookers and moved to the bartender smoothly.
"You see the person that fire that gun a few minutes ago?" she asked him calmly. The bald tender just shook his head lying to the woman. He didn't want to get dragged into the dispute. Annoyed with the answer she received, Hawkins reached across the bar and grabbed the man by the collar of his shirt jerking him forward onto his belly. His feet were off the floor as he balanced himself on the cold wood petrified from the sudden motion.
"I'll ask you again, did you see the son of a bitch that fired the gun?" Jak growled venomously. The man nodded and quickly blurted out the man's name feeling himself get released from the maniac. He rubbed his throat watching as she stormed out not bothering to say anything more.
Bystanders watched the woman storm out of the saloon and one young boy had the gut feeling to go and alert the Marshall to the trouble that was about to start. He sprinted down to the jail house and opened the door in a frenzy blurting out some person was going after another and that a shoot out would happen. The boy was nervous and fearful having seen the city change into a violent whirl pool of people the last two weeks ever since Michiru left it. The Marshall carefully rose from her cot in the office and winced feeling her back ache but moved to handle the situation as her duty had to be upheld. She had been working overtime trying to catch people and keep others from forming a mob to go after any Pony Express rider associated with Wyoming in order to find the Governor's daughter for the reward money. It had literally turned Dodge into a war zone of the likes Setsuna hadn't seen in a long time.
Away from the jail house, Jak had looked around the streets spotting the group of cow hands as well as the one the bartender had described down to his beard on his chin. The ebony gloves tightened as the woman formed fists with her hands. She was trying her hardest not to shoot him from the distance she stood. Instead, she swallowed the wrath in her throat to put it at bay as she walked through the muddy streets to the platform. Ray turned to spot the woman and swiftly belted Caleb in the ribs trying to grab his attention.
"That rider is coming right to you, boss."
"I'm aware of that, Ray." remarked the man coolly as he turned to spot the rider approaching him with heated steps. "What the matter with you, stranger?" he asked a little too calmly.
"You know damn well what's the matter with me you son of a bitch." she snarled reaching out to slam the man against the building's front with her hands."You shot my horse!"
"It was just for fun."
The man smirked a cocky grin and the rider found herself completely over taken by her anger. She stepped away from him and glared to him hotly. "Nobody fucks with my horse."
Caleb sneered at her moving away from the building to stand in the street away from his goons. He had wanted to start a gun fight with someone earlier and it just so happened that he wanted to shoot the ebony clothed rider the moment he spotted him ride into town. Without hesitation, he tucked his coat aside revealing his ivory handled forty-five at his hips.
"I did. Do you really want to press me further with this, rider? You'll die as sure as I'm standing here." he murmured.
Jak was about to kicked back her coat sides but a voice stopped her in her tracks. "I wouldn't advise either one of you to draw with me present."
That voice was to one she had not heard in a very long time. Caught up in the moment, she left herself wide open for Caleb to draw on her. He decided to try but quickly regretted it as a gun fired. Smoke filtered around but it was soon apparent he was not the one that fired as his gun lay in the mud collecting blood droplets. He let out a shrill yell grabbing onto his hand which now had a bullet hole through the palm which would probably not heal up all the way.
"I'm sorry Marshall but it was self defense. He was going to shot me first and not to mention the son of a bitch shot my horse. The fucker's lucky I didn't aim for a kill." grumbled Jak as she holstered her gun and turned to walk away from the scene.
"Stop right there, Hawkins." responded Setsuna calmly. The woman stopped. "I know that man got what he deserved but you acted hotheadedly and we both know that. I want to see you in the jail house in a few minutes to chat."
"I can't do that, Marshall. My horse needs me more than you do."
Jak simply walked away to the stable to check on her horse leaving behind a paling Caleb. He wasn't expecting the person to have a faster draw but when he heard the last name spoken from the Marshall's lips, he blanched. How could he have not recognized the one and only Deadeye Hawkins? Keeping a tight hold on his hand, he looked to Ray who quickly bent down and picked up the gun on the ground holstering it for his boss.
"Maybe this will teach you not to start a gunfight in my town again, Marshton. You're lucky she didn't let the anger blind her too much or else your brains would be splattered all over this street. Now, go clean yourself up and get out of my town by sun down." snarled Setsuna before turning to walk away toward her jail house.
The group took the warning and moved to get their boss taken care of by the doctor in town. While they bolted like a pack of dogs with their tails between their legs, Hawkins kept walking noticing more looks thrown her way as people started to recognize her. They all moved to their business rather quickly not wishing to turn her anger on them. Even the ones who were thinking of causing trouble quickly thought against it with the woman in town, especially those with money on their scalps. The men could recall the tales other outlaws had told them over whiskey in the past and decided to avoid the ebony coated woman letting her walk to the stable without bothering her. Jak entered the building and calmly approached the stall her horse was in finding him laying down resting the injured leg of his. The bandages had been bled through and she sighed moving to her saddlebag to grab the proper equipment she needed to try and help her companion.
"Easy, Dart. It's just me old man." she whispered stroking the forelocks of silvery black mane hair tenderly. The animal nickered softly obviously in pain but quieted feeling the touch.
The woman sighed softly hating the sound and the look in her animal's eyes. She couldn't stand the pain she felt from him but knew he would do his best to heal. He had always been a stubborn stallion ever since she got a hold of him. When she first found him, he was just a baby and was caught in a wooden fence and broke his back leg trying to get away from her. She had been a ranch hand as a young girl back then but she busted the fence board to free the little black horse who frightfully tried to get up but fell. Some o f the larger ranch hands were going to put him down with a bullet but she had stepped in to stop them getting in front of the gun to do so. After listening to her pleas, the men let her keep the horse and nurse him back to health. They had not expected him to heal as well as he did and let alone let the young girl ride him without any tack when he was two years old. Had they tried it, he would have bucked them sky high and busted their bones but he never harmed the little girl.
A smile crossed her face as Jak remembered that memory and soon moved to cut free the fabric around the injury. The wound was bloody and it didn't help matter the horse was black in color. Grumbling, she rose with bloody hands and went to find a bucket of some sort to use. A small silver pale was left at the entrance of the barn left unused. She grabbed it and moved out to steal some water from the town's well filling it ignoring the looks at her crimson stained hands. There was no vet in town but that wouldn't have helped matters as Hawkins would still not let anyone else touch her horse. She returned a few minutes later to the stall only to stop in her tracks spotting the long dark green hair of the Marshall.
"I figured you would do this yourself, Hawkins." she murmured gently. "You always were stubborn with him."
"I should have known you'd show up here." grumbled the rider as she brushed by the other woman. She couldn't help but feel a faint shiver travel up her spine from bumping her shoulder.
Jak quickly put aside the feeling and went back to work setting the bucket off to the side. The bloody shirt sleeves were fully removed from the injured leg and a bandanna was quickly placed into the cold water. The woman set to work washing the blood out of the injury soon finding the tendons intact. The bullet has passed through cleanly busting through a small portion of muscle enough to be painful for the animal. She sighed with a bit of relief soon working on adding some salve mixture into the wound and bandaging it up.
"You should have let me handle the situation back there, Jak." remarked Setsuna as she watched the woman work with such precision on the horse's injury. She really had a gift.
"Like hell, Suna. He shot my horse and therefore threatened my livelihood. I had ever right to go after him. The bastard just lucky to be breathing is all." growled the woman sharply.
The Marshall sighed and shifted to sit on a bale of hay watching over the ebony hair woman work. It had been a long time since she had last seen the woman tending her animal. back in those days everything was much different and she sometimes missed them. Getting lost in her thoughts, she didn't notice Jak move to sit beside her wiping her hands clean with a different cloth material.
"Remembering the old days, eh?" The comment made the crimson eyed woman snap out of her thoughts and glance to her right side. She gave a slow nod in response.
"It's been quite a long time since we used to sit just like this. Though last time, if I remember correctly, it was you I was working on and not Dart."
The gunslinger looked toward her old friend watching a faint smirk tugging at those lips of hers. It was hard not to let out a chuckle seeing Setsuna smirk even just a little at the memory. It was not a pleasant memory for the smirking woman and Jak knew it. The last time they had been sitting together Setsuna had gotten shot in her right knee by a bounty they were trying collect.
Jak had dragged the stubborn woman away from the men trying to kill them and took her to a safe ground high in the Indian county to a broken down wooden cabin over looking the plains. Once inside the cabin the stubborn woman turned around and punched Jak across the jaw sending her crashing to the floor half expecting just a reaction from her partner in hunting.
"Just what the hell were you thinking? We could have caught them!" her red eyes flashing dangerously as she snarled.
"I was thinking of your life, Suna. Had we not retreated they would have smelled blood and cornered us like wounded rabbits. I wasn't about to let us become food for them especially when you could barely walk on your own." responded the woman getting off the floor.
The red eyes slowly lost their fire and Setsuna looked away from her friend soon grabbing at her bloody knee. She had barely managed to use her own shirt sleeve to stop the blood flow to get out of their predicament. It didn't stop Hawkins from picking her up however to lay her upon the old bed to tend to her knee. She gasped feeling her pants leg move up her leg passed the knee. The pain was immense but she watched as much as she could as Hawkins took the time to be extremely gentle and careful removing the bullet with a thin bladed knife. Setsuna had passed out only minutes later being left in the woman's care. She had spent a long recovery time of three months with her leg being as bad as it was. However through all the pain and frustration, the gunslinger was always right there when her balance failed her or when the cane slipped out of her grasp.
After she had fully healed, she woke to find herself alone in the cabin with no sign of her companion. Setsuna had looked high and low for her managing to walk properly thanks to the care Hawkins had made her take. All that remained was a folded piece of paper with words written on it for her eyes to see.
"Setsuna, I'm sorry I cannot remain with you to see you ride off home safely.I have some business I need to attend to that was left unfinished. I do hope you realize why I left without saying goodbye. It would have been to painful for either one of us I would imagine. That, and you would have stopped me before getting even. I hope you come to realize just how much you do mean to me. I'm apologizing in advance for my actions as a result of all of this. Maybe I'll see you once I get out of the prison walls.
Always yours,
Jak Hawkins"
Hawkins had gone off on a rage killing the men that had injured Setsuna and dragged them back to one of the cities to deposit the bodies. As she had assumed she was quickly arrested by a Marshall and taken to trail. In the end she ended up spending four years in prison and was left forgotten with her name left as a minor legend in the bounty hunting world.
The ebony haired woman snapped out of her thoughts feeling soft skin against her cheek. Turning sharply, she sighed before realizing it was just Setsuna. She managed to relax trying to keep her breathing under control. She had a feeling she knew what the woman was going to say next.
"Jak, I remember what you did in the past and I thank you for it. You helped me keep from making the mistake of my life but you suffered in my place. Of that I'm sure and I can't forgive myself for that."
"Hush, Suna. I made the decision to put my life on the back burner for you. After all, you wanted to change goals and become a Marshall back then didn't ya?" she smiled softly. "I see you followed through with it."
Setsuna nodded but soon looked down to her knee vividly remembering everything. She had moved on in the last six years of her life trying to let things fade but she never allowed the memory of Jak to leave her mind. The woman was surprised to find her in Dodge after all those years but in a way she was thankful she had appeared giving her a chance to find her again. The gunslinger hadn't changed from what the woman could tell so far. She had those same icy blue eyes that were cold to everyone in the world, and she had built up that wall again to protect herself from others. The Marshall just hoped the woman would let her in again as she had in the past.
"Hawkins, I have to ask you something revolving around a blonde haired Pony Express rider that was here a few weeks ago."
The woman tensed faintly but allowed the woman to ask giving a faint nod of her head.
"Did you see where she may have gone to? I'm afraid some people in Dodge went out to try and capture her along with Governor Kaioh's daughter. Not long after they vanished from town, her father placed a five thousand dollar bounty on Haruka Tenoh's head. People have been going insane in this town ever since then."
"I'm afraid I can't answer that and you probably knew that already."
"I assumed as much. I should have known you had ties to that woman from the guns she wore. However, I doubt you can even ignore the danger she faces with Michiru."
Jak fell silent at those words. Haruka had done something in the heat of the moment that could perhaps cost her life. The gun woman could only assume the duo had left the post in order to keep traveling away in order to find a new line of work. She truly hoped the two could avoid the hunters after them and felt the familiar pang in her gut return. The old hunter sighed moving to rest her head in her hands groaning out angrily.
"It's not to late to help them. I know it may be a long shot but you were the best bounty hunter out there, Jacklyn." whispered Setsuna moving a place a hand on her shoulder tenderly.
"I'm stuck without a working horse, Suna. I do know what I can do to help them without tipping off the hunters. A worker from the post is suppose to be here tomorrow to pick up some horse supplies for the post. I can pass him a note to give to Blondy to make sure she realizes the danger she has put herself into. It's the only way I know to help them right now until my horse is well again."
The Marshall slowly moved her hand down to pull the gun woman's face out of her position only to let her red eyes match the blue ones she had missed for six long years. Jak glanced up and found herself reaching up placing a soft kiss to the woman's cheek.
"I have to get to them and bring them in before someone else kills them. Help me by making me a Regulator, Suna."
The kiss caught the Marshall off guard and her cheeks flushed a little pink. Clearing her throat a little, she glanced away from the rider mulling over the option the woman had given her. It was in the best interest in all parties involved having Deadeye return to what she had once done in the past, yet it would cost the Marshall quite a bit of credibility in her profession. The woman remained silent for what seemed like hours which only turned out to be five minutes while coming to her decision.
"I'll do that, Jak. The debt will be paid back but you have to promise me something too. Don't ever abandon me again now that you have found me."
The rider smiled faintly and gave a light nod. " I don't intend to lose you a second time in my life, Suna."
"You shouldn't have left me to begin with. You know damn well you had me falling for you and you went off and did something extremely stupid. I suppose it's a trait that's carried on to your student." The Marshall couldn't resist the teasing tone of her voice as she spoke.
Jak merely chuckled before clearing her throat a little. As much as she hated to admit it, the law woman had a point. Haruka was quick to judgment and quick to impulses of her own will and Jak could only kick herself in the ass for realizing she had rubbed off on the blonde so well. She only hoped Blondy had been listening to her lessons on traveling and avoiding detection when survival was needed. It would be a lesson soon put to the ultimate test.