The Rescue 41

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Matt set some more wood on the fire and then resettled himself next to Kitty, wrapping a long arm around her shoulders and pulling her close. They had found an abandoned shack with a fireplace in fairly good shape and a decent roof. The rest of the place was crumbling but it was good enough shelter for the night.

"You okay?" He asked. "Warm enough?" Mid-March was still winter in these parts and though they had blankets and standing walls to keep the wind off of them, it was still cold.

Kitty nodded as she laid her head on his shoulder. "Just glad to be off that horse."

Matt smiled ruefully. "I know, Honey. I wish you didn't have to ride horseback. I know it's not the best for you. But right now it's the safest. That cart was leaving too plain a trail and it was too slow. We need to get as far from Colorado and Kansas as we can get."

Kitty nodded solemnly. "I know. I just wish…" She stopped, realizing wishes weren't often granted to wanted criminals, no matter how innocent they were.

"You wish what?"

Kitty sighed deeply. "Nothing."

Matt pulled back away from her and placed a finger under her chin to bring her gaze up to his. "You wish what?"

Kitty dropped her eyes to the small place on his chest where his badge still rested. He'd forgotten to take it back off. "I wish things were different." She finally admitted. "I don't mean between me and you, or even about the baby, but…"

She came completely out of his arms and sat up, staring at the fire. "I'm sorry, Matt. I guess, I'm just tired. You know for several years now, I've dreamed of marrying you and having your children. But I never quite figured on it being like this. Running and hiding. I bet you're sorry you pulled me out of that stage, huh?"

"Never!" Matt said instantly as he sat up beside her and pulled her once again into the safety of his embrace.

"I'm not sure I can explain this, Kitty. But in some ways, in rescuing you from that stage, I rescued myself as well. I've always believed in the law. Always. I always thought that if you followed the law, stayed in its lines; that things would usually work out. Even when the law failed, like with Pruitt Dover, it didn't shake my faith in it. But the day those twelve men, who didn't even really know you, stood and declared you guilty of a crime I knew you hadn't committed, my faith was lost."

"Oh no, Matt, you can't…" She didn't want him regretting his life, hating the law for this one time.

"No, Kitty." He shook his head. "I realized right there and then that the thing I had clung so blindly to, the thing I had given up everything for, had not only failed me but you and everyone else as well." He paused, searching for the right way to say it. "The law was wrong, Kitty. It was wrong."

"No, Matt." Her tone was sharp but her gaze was soft as she looked at him. "People were wrong. Judge Henry, the jurors, the District Attorney. They were wrong. But the law did what it was supposed to do. Matt, please. Please don't think that your life was wasted or that your service as Marshal was senseless. It wasn't. Dodge, even Kansas, is a better place because of you and that badge. You have to know that."

Matt dropped his head with a weary shake. "What I know is that the woman I love has suffered more than she ever should have, because of a piece of worthless tin."

"It wasn't worthless, Matt." Kitty insisted. "It wasn't. You saved a lot of people's lives wearing that. Whether you wear it or not, it's part of you, a good part of you."

Matt reached down and once again took the badge from his shirt, holding it for just a second, before tossing it into the fire. "Not anymore." He declared. "Not ever again."

Outside the shack, Grafton stood silently for a few minutes. He'd already walked all the way around and determined the only way in was through the front door. Through a crack in the boards covering the window he'd seen two people sitting huddled in front of the fire, unaware that anyone was near. He had things just the way he wanted them. He could bust in and shoot the big man before he knew what hit him and then the woman would be his to do with as he pleased.

But Grafton underestimated the former Dodge City marshal. Matt's instincts hadn't diminished with the tossing away of his badge. He could still smell trouble and he knew without a shadow of a doubt that trouble had found them.

With a finger to his lips, Matt took Kitty's arm and pointed towards the shadowy corner of the room. Once Kitty was there, he crouched down in front of her, pulled his gun and waited.

He didn't have to wait long.

With a splintering crash, the thin door was smashed to pieces and a figure entered, firing his gun as he barreled in. Matt returned fire immediately, hitting the dark stranger in the chest. He went down instantly but he wasn't dead. Rolling to the side he squeezed off another shot, hitting Matt in the side and causing him to drop his gun.

Grafton, though wounded, grinned. He didn't think his wound was fatal and he was going to get the reward money he had gone through so much for. Raising his gun once again, he aimed at the big man's head and started to squeeze the trigger. But he never completed the action.

Once more, Matt's gun fired and Grafton, with a surprised look in his eyes, fell forward, dead before his face met the floor.

Kitty lowered the gun she'd picked up and quickly moved over to Matt. "Matt? Matt?" Pulling him over onto his back, she caressed his cheek. "Matt?" Fear colored her voice.

Matt managed a smile for her, even as the darkness descended on him. "Sure glad you're on my side. You're a good shot." He said before he passed out.

TBC