"While I was dealing blackjack in a saloon out near Boulder, some old timer was insisting to anyone who'd listen, that when he was passing through Bardstown, he played some poker at the same table as Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry, who had settled there, looking like they belonged, living just like respectable folk. Now I gotta say at first, I weren't buying it, I figured the old coot was simply hoping for free drinks, because that story didn't sound real likely, not those two fellas. A chancer like Heyes and the fastest gun in the west, ain't gonna be settling in no four-horse town. But after doin' some thinking, I figured it seemed a real odd tale to make up, so I decided I'd check it out, and well surprise, surprise, he wasn't just blowing sand outta his ass."

Heyes feeling his partner tense at the unwelcome intrusion, rested a hand on his shoulder, and hoping to stop things escalating, said softly. "Lemme try and handle this."

The Kid nodded sharply, so taking a deep breath, Heyes turned to the man leaning by the door of the general store, where he and the Kid were just replenishing on perishable food. "Look, fella, we ain't wanted no more, so we're free to come and go wherever we choose. Same as you are."

The man smirked at them, his stance turning even more aggressive as he showed no intention of leaving. Heyes feeling Kid tense even more under his hand, quickly realised that him being able to calm things down was unlikely. A feeling that only grew when the Kid spoke quietly but with a very clear snap of irritation to his tone. "And I'm thinkin' you goin' is the best for everyone."

They weren't alone in the shop, a mother and her toddler son were standing at the counter about to pay for a basket full of goods, an older man had been searching through the small rack of coats on the far wall, while a young couple, with the woman cradling a new-born baby had been looking at the blankets folded neatly on the shelf near the door. The man looked round him, and his face twisted into an even more unpleasant expression as he answered the Kid more loudly than was necessary. "Or what? You gonna draw on me, and see if you can kill another wee child, or a baby even."

Heyes still keeping his eyes on the damn fool, heard his partner give a sharp exhale of breath, as his shoulders slumped slightly, and his own temper rose as he said. "What did you say?"

Obviously, the man was indeed a total idiot, because he chose to ignore the very clear warning Heyes had put into his tone, and continued baiting them. "I heard all about your partner causing the death of that poor child in Longplains, and I'm thinkin' If the Sheriff hadn't been an ex-outlaw himself, your partner would have been in jail...or worse."

The Kid with a glance at Heyes, came round to stand in front of him as he said. "Look, Mister, if you got a problem with me, then lets settle it where we ain't scaring women and children."

Heyes swallowed, not liking where this was heading, walked up behind his friend and laid a hand on his shoulder as he said quietly, but warningly. "Kid..."

Kid shook his hand off and walked a step closer to the man and asked calmly. "Well?"

"Now you're showin' some consideration. Well, if that just don't beat all. Sure, we can take it outside. More witnesses to spread the word that Max Barley beat Kid Curry!"

ASJ

The Kid following Barley outside, knew the man was just trying to unsettle him, hoping to break his concentration and make it easier to outshoot him. While the man's words had reopened a barely scabbed over wound, and pushed the still painful memory to the forefront of his mind, a near lifetime of learning and then honing his skill with a gun, meant that the ability to shoot well was so much second nature to him, that such tactics never worked in a showdown. However, the Kid was sure he'd be paying a price for them come night-time. Though of course he didn't let that show at all in his expression.

They stared at each other until the Kid said calmly. "Look, Barley, wasn't it? I don't have all day."

After a brief moment, the man's face flickered, and the Kid both felt and saw him preparing to un-holster his weapon, so he drew his own gun. He was about to fire when to his horror he saw a flash of blond hair, far too close behind his opponent, and his finger loosened on the trigger, and he un-cocked his gun, just as he heard a gasp behind him, which he easily recognised as female. Unsure of how close the woman would be to the bullet about to fly towards him, at the crack of his challengers gun, between one breath and the next, he stepped left and felt a searing pain in his shooting arm. His gun flew out of his hand and with a groan he grasped his right arm. He looked down, and was unsurprised to see blood dripping sluggishly out between the fingers of his left hand.

It was taking so much effort to stay up on his feet, that he barely heard the whoop of triumph from the man he'd just let out-fire him. "I done it; I outshot Kid Curry!"

As if from a distance he heard running feet, a cry of sheer joyous relief, and through fuzzy vision he saw a woman pull a young boy into a hug and then yank him out of the way. "Now, William Jacob Simpson, how many times have I told you, when you see a gunfight, run away from it not towards it!"

Even as he wavered, fighting hard to stay on his feet, the Kid's lips quirked up in a small smile of relief. As he stumbled backwards into the fence surrounding the square, not sure of how much longer he could stay upright, he felt a grasp on his uninjured arm and recognised it immediately as Heyes, even before the familiar voice, sharp with anger and concern broke through the strange buzzing in his ears. "Dammit, Kid, what the hell?"

"Don't hurt, Heyes." He wasn't exactly lying, as the stabbing fire in his arm, was beginning to numb as everything began to fade to misty grey.

"Sure it don't, Kid! Heyes snorted as he started to lower him to the dusty side-walk "Now lets get you sitting down, so when you pass out, I ain't gotta catch you."

The Kid was already unconscious when Heyes after laying him down gently on the ground, still grasping his uninjured forearm shouted. "Get a Doc, now!"

ASJ

The Kid came back to awareness slowly, feeling like he was floating on some kind of cloud, not in any pain, but totally unable to move. He started to struggle weakly, only stilling when Heyes' voice broke into his distant panic. "Stop wriggling Kid, or you'll undo all the work Doc Hamilton done to stop you bleeding to death!" He paused and then added angrily. "What the hell were you thinkin'? Well, it's plenty obvious you weren't thinking at all!"

The Kid couldn't remember much at all, not where they were, or even what the year was. All that was clear in his head was the memory of facing a man with a gun, and a searing pain in his arm, and with Heyes so annoyed, that could only mean one thing, he'd got them into trouble again.

He was embarrassed that despite making an effort to control his emotions, guilt at that thought hit him hard, and his eyes began to burn with the sudden and unwelcome onset of tears. No amount of blinking could stop them trickling out of his eyes and dripping down his face. Realising there was no way he was going to be able to prevent more coming, he turned his head away so Heyes wouldn't know he was crying. He took a shaky breath and said weakly. "I done got us chased out another town didn't I? 'M sorry, Heyes."

Heyes blew out heavy sigh, and took his chin into a firm albeit gentle grasp, turning his face back towards him, while his other hand softly wiped his cheeks dry. "I'm sorry, Kid, I know this ain't the right time for me to be getting mad, as you ain't in a fit state to take it, not with how ether and laudanum always affect ya." He stopped, releasing his hold on the Kid's chin to gently take his closest hand in both of his. "We ain't going nowhere 'til you can sit on a horse. "He paused, then as he gently pushed a curl off the Kid's forehead, added. "And I never really expected that you'd do anything different to what went down. But damn it Kid, I ain't been that scared in years! Now go to sleep, we'll talk when you're less fuzzy and more like yourself." His voice was warm, so the Kid although still totally unclear on what had happened, allowed himself take comfort from that.

Because thinking through the overload of emotions and attempting to fight the dense fog clouding his mind was taking more effort than the Kid could really manage, it was easy for him to take Heyes' suggestion to heart. The last thing he he felt before slipping gratefully back into unawareness, was Heyes patting his hand gently.

ASJ

A soft knock on the door pulled Heyes' gaze away from the newspaper that he was only paying scant attention to. He was mostly just worrying over the fact that once his partner was recovered, they'd face having to uproot themselves when they were both finally getting used to having a home again. He was also trying to come up with some way of talking the Kid into believing that leaving would mean something better for them down the road, or at least get him to a point where he was willing to pretend he did.

He stood and walked over to the door, sighing when he opened it to see Sheriff Baxter standing there. He wasn't ready for this conversation, but he supposed the sooner the get out of my town talk was out of the way, the easier it would be for him to find the words he needed to convince his partner that moving on was less of a disaster then they both knew it was.

Heyes glanced over at his friend, then back to the lawman and said, "Look my partner is asleep and seeing as I don't want to wake him, we'll talk outside." The man quirked an eyebrow at him, no doubt at the tone in his voice, but Heyes wondered what else he'd expected. The Kid had gotten himself shot rather than run the risk of anyone else getting hurt. Yet they were obviously cast as the bad guys here when they'd done nothing wrong except to be Kid Curry and Hannibal Heyes.

As soon as they were out in the small corridor, Heyes said quickly. "We didn't ever lie about who we were, Sheriff. All we want to do is to settle down and carve ourselves a decent, honest living." He doubted his words would have much impact on the lawman, he'd found that most men with a badge had rather fixed ideas about outlaws, even reformed ones with a paper to prove it.

The Sheriff eyed him, then said with a small smile. "I think you've got the wrong end of the stick, Mr Heyes. I got the idiot cooling his heels in my jail. I could charge him, but then I'd have to feed him for a month till the circuit judge gets here. I ain't real keen on having to do that. But if that's what you want..."

Heyes looked at him in surprise, his brain rapidly recalculating as he said. "This ain't a 'you know the way outta town visit'?"

"Now Mr Heyes, I gotta admit I weren't real happy when you two rolled into town, obviously with an eye to living here permanent. But in the six months you've been here, I ain't had nothing to complain about. And whatever the damn fool is saying, I know he didn't even come close to outdrawing Kid Curry." He paused then added. "How's he doing?"

Heyes stared at the door, then back to the lawman, feeling the tension bleeding out of him. "Doc says he'll be fine."

"Well, what do you want to do 'bout Barley?"

"Let him go, sooner he's away from here the better." Heyes just wanted to put this stupid mess behind them and move on.

"Think your friend will feel the same?" The Sheriff also nodded towards the closed door.

"If he don't agree straight away, I'll talk him round."

The Sheriff laughed as he said. "You sound mighty sure 'bout that."

"Well, the Kid listens to me, 'cept when he don't of course, but in this case I'm sure he will."

Baxter tipped his hat and just before he turned away, said. "Mrs Baker had a boy; they call him David." He paused then said almost conversationally. "Sheriff Carlton is my cousin, and he made my whole family real happy when he turned his back on being an outlaw, bout fifteen years ago now. So I know from personal experience folks can change." He paused and winked, adding before walking down the corridor. "See you around town, Mr Heyes."

And with that he was gone, leaving Heyes looking after him a small smile on his face, as he thought that even with everything he'd seen, some people still had the power to surprise him.

Sitting back down by the Kid's bed, he turned his attention back to the paper, his eyes falling onto an advert for a new stud farm, no more than twenty miles west. Once the Kid was recovered, they'd have go and check them out.