The Rescue 23

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Kitty awoke to a searing pain in her right shoulder and firm hands handing her down to the bed. "No," she cried weakly. "Ma… Matt."

"Kitty." Matt said as he made his way to her side and replaced Constance beside her. He and Festus had just walked in the door when he heard her calling for him. "Ssshhh, its okay, Kitty. I'm here. It's okay. Just lie still for a minute. Okay? Just lie still."

Kitty opened her eyes to see Matt perched on the cot on one side and Maizie on the other, gently placing a thick cloth on her shoulder and wrapping another around to hold it. "Matt." She gasped at the pain as Maizie moved her shoulder to get the bandage onto it. "Wha…?"

Matt bent over her and gave her a soft kiss, not willing to tell her everything right then. "It's all over, Kitty." He settled for some of the truth. "Now you just lie there and rest. I'll tell you everything later on, but right now all you need to know is that it's going to be okay."

"Are you… okay?" She asked. "Fes… tus…?"

"I'm right, chere, Miss Kitty." Festus said from behind him. "Don't you fret none."

"We're fine, honey." Matt added as she closed her eyes again, unable to keep them open. "It's all going to be just fine. You just rest."

Unable to do much else, Kitty gave him a slight nod as she closed her eyes and let the darkness reclaim her.

Matt looked questioningly over at Maizie who gave him an encouraging smile. "The bullet wasn't that deep and didn't do too much damage. I got it out and got most of the infection cleaned out. I'll still have to watch her for a few days but I think she'll be okay. How about you? How's that leg?"

"It's alright." Matt shrugged it off. "It doesn't matter as long as she's alright."

Maizie glanced at her patient then back over at Matt. "They're dead, aren't they?"

Matt nodded unhappily. "I didn't want that. I wanted Brody alive to clear her name and Quaid Hill to understand what happened. But Hill wasn't willing to listen. He killed Brody when he came running out. Even when he was dying, he was still willing to kill someone else to prove that he was right in his hatred of a woman who never did him any harm."

Maizie shook her head at the senselessness of it all. "I guess there are some people who are so sure of their own convictions that nothing, not even the truth, will convince them otherwise."

"Yeah," Matt agreed.

"What happens now?" Maizie asked suddenly realizing the consequences of Brody's death. "I mean with Mr. Brody dead there's no one to tell what really happened. How are you going to clear her name?"

"That'll be up to us." Percival stated as he walked up. "I don't know how much weight our word will have, Mr. Dillon, but I and, I am sure Maizie, will be quite willing to testify under oath to what Mr. Brody told us."

"Me too." Musgrove said as he too stepped up beside them. "We'll all tell the truth of it."

Matt smiled at both of the men before returning his gaze to Kitty but he shook his head. "Not sure that will do much good." He gently brushed a stray lock of titan hair from her sleeping face. "You weren't there when Treager died and there's no way, other than Brody's words, to prove what really did happen."

"Well… we can try, can't we?" Maizie asked. "I mean, until this all happened, we didn't know you two so the court would surely realize we're not just lying to try and help our friends."

Matt shrugged. "I don't know. I'm not sure I'm willing to take that chance. Not now. Not after everything that's already happened to her."

"Well," Musgrove said with hand to the hair on his chin. "Ain't no use worrying about it right now. It's started snowing again and it's a coming down even harder than it was earlier. We're gonna be snowed in here for a while at least."

Matt looked out the window and saw the dead men still lying there, being rapidly covered by a blanket of white. Reluctantly, he released Kitty's hand and stood. "Need to get those men out there buried while I still can."

Percival, however, laid a hand on Matt's shoulder and shook his head. "You stay here with her." He tipped his head towards Kitty. "She needs you more than those dead men do. We'll take care of them."

"Best take care of Cash and that other'n in the storeroom too while we're at it." Buster added.

With Percival's nodded agreement, both men grabbed their coats and headed out the door. Festus stood for a second longer, looking down at Kitty. "Don't matter none, whether the law believes us or not, Matthew." He said. "Miss Kitty's gonna be free."

Matt nodded as he watched Kitty sleep. "Yes she is." He agreed. "No matter what."

Silently, Festus turned donned his hat and followed the other two men from the building. He understood the grief Matt was bearing right then and also understood there was nothing he could do to help.

Even if the law believed the witnesses to Brody's admission of guilt, there was still a charge of escape over all three of their heads. Miss Kitty wouldn't hang but she might face jail time for that, as would he and Matthew. Festus, of course, wasn't too concerned for his own well-being as he'd spent a considerable amount of his life just two steps away from a jail cell as it was. But he knew that if Matthew had to spend any time behind bars, it would kill him, or at least kill his spirit and that of Miss Kitty as well.

The brief glimmer of hope that they'd be free to go their way without looking over their shoulders, given to them by Brody, was now lost by his death. But as he walked out into the yard and began to help Atkins and Musgrove move the dead men, he vowed that no matter what, neither of them would ever go to jail.

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Sounds and smells woke her and she opened her eyes to see Matt in a hard backed chair by her side, his head on his chest, fast asleep. Looking around, she saw people across the room at a table, eating and talking quietly. For several minutes she laid very still, not wishing to disturb her current state of pain free existence or the sight of Matt beside her, safe and unhurt.

But all too soon, her bladder screamed to be relieved and she squirmed disrupting her comfortable position. "Ow." She said softly, as the throbbing in her shoulder began in earnest.

Instantly, Matt was awake and leaning towards her. "Kitty, you okay?"

Kitty nodded. "I… I'm okay, Matt. I just… I…" For the first time in a long time, she was actually embarrassed to tell him what the problem was.

"Mr. Dillon," Maizie said as she approached the cot. "You need to eat or your supper will get cold. I'm gonna help Kitty and then I'll see to it that she eats. Okay?"

Kitty flashed her a grateful smile. "Thank you." She whispered.

"Well, I can help her." Matt protested.

"Please, Matt." Kitty shook her head. "Go eat."

Understanding suddenly, Matt rose with a slight blush, kissed her softly on the lips and went over to the table across the room.

"You think you can stand?" Maizie asked.

Kitty hesitated only for a moment before nodding. "With help." She answered.

Carefully, Maizie helped her to sit up and then guided her to her feet. The going was slow and twice, Maizie thought she might fall, but together they made it to the other room.

"Matthew, ya get ya some sleep, did ya?" Festus asked as he took another biscuit from the large basket in the center of the table.

Matt shrugged as his eyes traveled back across the room to the closed door that Maizie and Kitty had gone behind. "Yeah, I did." He said, taking a chair and pulling the bowl of potatoes in front of him. "Didn't mean to, but I guess I was a little more tired than I realized."

Festus nodded. "We've been here pert near two whole days and you ain't slept. It's about time ya got some rest. You blame sure can use it."

Matt shrugged. "Well, Festus, I had other things a little more important than that to worry about."

Percival Atkins and Buster Musgrove exchanged glances just then and Percival looked back over at Matt. "Mr. Dillon…" He began, but Matt stopped him.

"Mr. Atkins, I think by now, we should be on a first name basis. My name is Matt."

Atkins smiled and nodded. "Matt," he amended. "Buster, Festus and I were talking, while we were outside attending to..." He stopped and looked at his wide eyed son and his daughter. "Children, if you are finished with your supper, than you need to leave the table and perhaps see if there is something you can do to be useful around here."

"Yes, Papa." They both muttered as they rose and left the table.

Atkins waited until they were out of ear shot to continue. "Buster and I are going to testify to what we heard Mr. Brody say and we'll both swear in court to it, if needed, but we do not believe it a good idea for you three to be found unless there's some sort of guarantee of your freedom from this thing."

Matt looked at him curiously then over to a nodding Buster Musgrove and finally to the grin on Festus' face. "Mr…"

"Percival." Atkins interrupted quickly. "My first name is Percival. And I will accept no argument, Matt. I…" he looked down at the table for a moment, embarrassed, as he thought his initial reactions the tall man and his woman. "I was a jackass when you all came here and I acted abominably because I did not know the truth and wasn't willing to listen to it."

Matt said nothing but silently agreed with the man. He had acted a fool but he'd now more than made up for it.

"Percival," he sighed. "Do you realize what getting involved in this could bring down on you? If you step forward in our behalf, you'll have every bounty hunter in the country at your door wanting to know where we're at. And those people don't often take 'I don't know' for an answer."

Percival nodded. "I do understand, Matt. But I have to try anyway."

"Yep, that's right." Buster agreed. "I don't think I could live with myself, if I didn't try. Sides, if this works, they'll cancel any bounty they put on you all and ain't none of us will have to worry about it, no how."

"But if it doesn't…"

"Then it don't." Buster brushed off the thought. "Don't matter none right now, no how. The way it's snowing out there we don't have to worry about nobody coming after you for a while."

Matt looked at him a little suspiciously. "You telling me, you get no one here during the winter?"

Musgrove shook his head. "I get trappers and such and an injun ever so often. But nobody'd that be looking for you all. The way I figure it, we're all safe right here till well after Christmas."

"Christmas?" Maizie questioned as she led a very weak Kitty Russell back into the room and over to the cot.

"Un, huh." Buster nodded. "Tain't too far off."

Matt got up from his chair and hurried over to help Kitty but what Buster said struck him as he settled her onto the cot. "Are you sure?" He asked.

"Sure as I can be." Buster said. "I get a new shipment of supplies the last week of every other month, weather providing. My next scheduled shipment was the last of November and I just got a shipment in last week so I'm pretty sure it ain't too far to Christmas."

Matt looked over at Kitty with a grin. "Well, I can't speak for you all, but I already got my Christmas present."

TBC