***Part 8
Buck pulled up the wagon when he saw Nathan coming out to meet them. The tall healer looked gaunt and tired, but a huge smile split his face. Nathan stopped within a few yards of the wagon.
"Damn, I'm sure happy to see ya, what took you so long I thought you were going to send someone sooner," Nathan exclaimed. The smiled dropped from his face at his friends' bewildered looks. Nate and Josiah had reckoned that Chris probably couldn't find anyone to deliver the medicine since he had not received word for the past two days. "You all have the medicine, right?"
"No, Nate, we sent Ezra with it two days ago," Chris explained.
"Ezra? You sent Ezra with the medicine?" The three lawmen heard the disbelief in the healer's voice and watched as he shook his head. "He never made it here, Chris," Nathan clarified. What was Larabee thinking, sending that money-grubbing conman on such a life-saving mission? There must have been a good reason. Nathan bowed his head, not wanting the others to see the sadness fall across his face. He raised it to meet Chris' concerned countenance. It always amazed Jackson that the hardened gunslinger could, at times, reveal a softhearted side, not that Nathan would ever point that out. He doubted that any of Larabee's adversaries would believe it.
"It's bad. I can't let you in." Nathan's tone was grim, his expression equally so.
"Damn," Chris breathed. What had he done? He should have delivered the medicine himself, but he had wanted to give Ezra the chance.
Nathan swallowed hard and stared sadly back at his three friends his dark eyes lingering a little longer on Buck before stating, "Chris...JD's sick."
Buck's heart skipped a beat. His worse fear realized. "No," he breathed.
"We're coming in, Nate!" Chris yelled out. Buck snapped the reins and moved the team forward. Nathan stepped aside and followed as his friends passed. He hoped he wasn't going to have to watch all his friends die.
tbc