"Jimmy!"

The scream was blood curdling and cut through Teaspoon like a knife. He was certain it was Faith's voice although he'd never actually heard her scream. He caught Buck running out the door and quickly followed as well trying to signal to Rachel not to leave the office even though he knew she would anyway. If one of her boys was in trouble she would always be right there. What he and Buck found when they exited the office made them stop dead in their tracks.

The people on the street had cleared away offering an unobstructed view of Jimmy flat on his back and unconscious with Faith standing between him and a man fitting the description of her former husband. Aaron was holding a gun.

"No Aaron," Faith pleaded with him, "Please no. Don't hurt him. It's me you're mad at."

"Shut up, whore," Aaron growled at her, "You'll die today too but not before you watch me kill him."

"I can't get a clear shot at him with her in the way, Teaspoon," Buck whispered. Teaspoon was in the same predicament. They could only watch as Aaron continued toward Faith his pistol aimed squarely at her swollen belly.

Faith could see where the gun was pointed. He wasn't willing to kill her just yet but he'd have no problem with injuring her in a way that would extinguish her child's life. She backed up still pleading with him to leave Jimmy out of this. If he was going to kill her then he could but Jimmy didn't deserve it. Neither of them did really and she knew it. They had done nothing wrong.

As Faith backed up, she wasn't able to see where she was going and her heel struck the bottom of Jimmy's boot. If not for her ungainly condition she might have been able to right herself but she could not. She fell back onto Jimmy and felt him stir beneath her. Aaron was coming closer and she quickly thought of something just before Aaron grabbed her arm hard and flung her off of Jimmy and off of the boardwalk entirely. Buck and Teaspoon both ran for her. Jimmy was coming around but if they didn't see to her then there would be hell to pay when this was over.

Faith was able to brace her fall with her hands and keep most of the impact from her belly. There was no time to lie in the street and assess her condition. If she didn't act fast her condition and that of all she held most dear would be dead. She stood with a swiftness that belied her condition and raised the gun she had snatched from Jimmy's holster before being thrown from him.

"Aaron!" she yelled, "Aaron look at me!"

He had been just about to dispatch with the man at his feet when he heard her yell and turned his head to face her. Time stopped on the street. Buck's blood ran cold in his veins as he saw his friend struggling toward consciousness and the mother of that friend's child raising a gun and taunting the gunman. Rachel couldn't stand to look but also could not look away as she willed her family to be alright. Teaspoon only muttered under his breath, "Merciful God."

"What are you doing with that thing, bitch?"

Faith's thumbs brought the hammer back as she took a breath. She was stunned at how steady her hands were. She held the gun in both hands straight out in front of her and leveled it about to Aaron's heart. He had broken hers and she would put a hole in his.

"I'm getting ready to kill you and make sure you stay that way."

"You don't even know how to use that thing, you whore!"

"I've used it before and you're a bigger target than the cans I shot down," she hollered at him, "You're closer too. You shoot him and I will kill you and you'll never get the chance to kill me or my child. Point your gun over here and see if I don't have the guts to pull the trigger. I might kill you first anyway and then you're out of your misery like the dog you are. You might kill me and then you can take your chances with him. He is as fast as they say though. Either way you'll be in hell before nightfall."

No one moved, no one even breathed it seemed. Aaron's eyes darted between the man on the ground in front of him and Faith in the street with the gun of Wild Bill Hickok. He wanted her to suffer by watching her lover die but there were too many people. If she didn't get him then the two men with stars on their chests would and still she would live and give birth to that bastard child and give it Hickok's name. He swung the gun to aim at her.

Jimmy's heart was pounding out of his chest. He was on the ground with a gun in his face, there was nothing he could do but as long as the gun was on him, she was safe. Then he heard her. He wanted to call to her to get to safety and let him handle it but her voice was too resolute. She would not back down. If she had been a man he would never even try to stop her. This was a showdown many months in the making and she had the right to it although it killed him. She called for the man in front of him to turn the gun on her. It made him sick until he realized she had taken the gun on his right side. That was his girl. She was even smarter than him in a situation like this. He smirked at the man over him. He had heard the hammer click back a while before and if Aaron made a move she would take the shot. He was nearly sure of it but then he didn't have to be certain.

Faith saw Aaron start to turn to her bringing the pistol with him. This was it, her justification. She squeezed the trigger and as her shot rang out, she heard another simultaneous to it.

Jimmy saw Aaron's focus leave him and saw the pistol shift its aim away from him. He reached across his body and drew the gun she left him. She knew he was faster right-handed and had left that for him. He pulled the trigger and brought his left hand down on the hammer. He heard her shot ring out as well and saw Aaron begin to crumple before him.

Faith saw Aaron fall and knew he was probably dead or as good as dead. But that wasn't good enough for her. She cocked the hammer back again and shot into his limp body as she stalked toward him and then shot again and again until the gun was empty and the corpse was riddled with holes. She was standing at the edge of the boardwalk. Jimmy was just staring at her his mouth agape. She looked from the man she once loved to the man she would forever love and that's when something close to hysteria overtook her.

Jimmy watched as she continued to fire into the dead body. She reached him and made eye contact for just a moment before letting the gun fall from her hands and onto the wooden planks beside him and then she seemed to fold in on herself. Slumping to her knees she raised her face to the sky and uttered a wail that could certainly have been heard for miles around. It was filled with such agony that no one on the street that day was left unaffected. She screamed and screamed her pain and sadness and horror to the heavens and then when she could not scream any more, she let her head fall forward and cried. Her shoulders heaved with every sob that seemed to come from the very core of her being. Jimmy grabbed the gun next to him and shoved it back into its holster as he stepped down onto the dirt street. He knelt next to Faith and pulled her tight to him. He became aware that half the town was staring at him as he held this woman in his arms. He wanted to yell at them but Teaspoon was already shooing everyone away telling them there was nothing more to see. Looking up Jimmy saw Buck driving over with the buckboard and his horse tethered to it.

"Get in back with her and I'll take you home," he told his friend. Buck saw Jenny ahead of him standing in front of her father's store looking terrified for her new friend. He gave her a wave and as much of a smile as he could muster to let her know things were handled and he would talk to her later.

Jimmy looked up at Buck and thought at first the doctor might be the best place for her but he put his hand on her stomach to check first.

"Come on little one," he muttered under his breath, "Just let me know you're okay in there."

He was rewarded with an arm swinging out to push against his hand. Faith appeared unharmed and the baby was moving and seemed fine. He nodded to his friend and lifted Faith into his arms and climbed onto the wagon still cradling Faith.

There was no talk on the drive home. Buck had no idea what to say but he knew enough to understand sometimes words were not necessary. Once at Jimmy's Buck helped Jimmy off of the wagon and watched him into the house then set to unhitching the horse and seeing to it. Finally he mounted his own horse and headed toward home where he would explain to Jenny all that had happened and hold her tight while giving thanks that she was safe in his arms.

Jimmy carried Faith into their home and from that moment forward he knew it would be their home. It was no longer the house they shared but a home for them and for the family they were building. There was nothing standing in the way of them marrying and raising the baby together. All of the legal research Teaspoon had done meant nothing. There was no one to contest anything and no doubt of her widowed status. If anything had been fuzzy before, there was a dead body in town with seven holes in it to make the matter crystal clear. She had no husband and Jimmy was set on changing that at the first opportunity he had. But for right now, he had to see to her. He knew that her time with Aaron had fractured things within her mind, her heart and her soul. The afternoon's events had caused those fractures which had been precariously held together before to shift and everything within her crumbled. Before he could think of marrying her or anything else he would have to collect the pieces and fit them back together again.

Faith had quieted but was not speaking or responding to anything he said to her. He set her down in the front room and went to fetch the tub. Once her bath was prepared he went back to her and began to unbutton her dress. It was the second time that day he had undressed her but this was so very different.

Jimmy thought of how the afternoon had begun with the two of them on the hay bale in the barn and was grateful for the memory. He blinked back the tears at his uncertainty about when they'd be that for each other again. Sighing he finished undressing her. Right now the most important thing was getting her back enough to even rebuild. She was about to have his child and he owed it to that child to take care of its mother. Once she was undressed he took a moment and rested his head against the bulge of her stomach and rubbed it lightly.

"It's alright, little one," he whispered, "Your mama's tough and she'll pull through this. Just wait until you meet her. You'll feel bad for kicking her ribs."

He was rewarded with a shifting from under her skin. He pressed a kiss to her stomach before lifting her into his arms and carrying her to the tub. It took two or three tries to set her down in the water as she was clinging so tightly to his shirt he could not release her at first but finally she allowed herself to be placed in the warm water. He had rolled up his sleeves while he was preparing the bath but realized that was insufficient and quickly removed his shirt altogether. He sat next to the tub and wrapped his arms around her. She leaned into him but still made no sound. He ran his hand up and down her back and kissed the top of her head. Then he set to washing her. Slowly she seemed to relax and once she was clean he reached for a towel and wrapped it around her as he lifted her from the water. Jimmy carried Faith directly to the bedroom and sat her on the edge of the bed in order to dry her. Once dry he got one of her nightgowns and lifted it over her manually moving her arms into the sleeves as if dressing a small child.

Jimmy looked at her and sighed. There was no way he could tuck her into bed with her hair in the state it was in. He pulled the comb from her hair that had been securing it and watched as her locks came cascading over her shoulders. It was the first time he saw that without an immediate reaction from his body but this time it was as if his body knew that she was too frail and he couldn't even think about such a thing. He took her brush from her dressing table and was grateful he had watched her do this so many times. Gently he began working the brush through her hair careful to avoid pulling or tugging too much. When he came to a snarl he remembered seeing her come to them before and worked them from the ends as she had always done.

"I'm sorry if I pull too much, sweetheart," he said softly, "I ain't never done this before. Hell, I barely brush my own and probably not as much as I should. I don't want to hurt you though."

Finally her hair was silken and shining.

"You are beautiful," he told her, "I'll never know what you see in me but I guess I shouldn't question things like that."

Jimmy then realized what he had to do next. He'd braided rope before and supposed that would have to be good enough knowledge.

"I know this ain't going to look all nice like when you do it," he apologized in advance, "But it should be enough to keep the tangles at bay."

He twisted her hair into a braid that he supposed didn't look all that bad and tied it with one of the ribbons on the dressing table.

"Well, I guess that's about the best that is going to look until you're feeling better," he said picking her up and carrying her to her side of the bed where he tucked the blankets around her. He planted a kiss on her forehead and tried to stand but she held tight to him.

"It's alright, Faith," he assured her, "I think I'm as tired as you are. I'm just going to get undressed and I'll join you. That pillow is looking mighty inviting right now."

She released him and he did just as he told her he would. Once in bed he pulled her tight to him and allowed their bodies to melt together. Faith fell asleep quickly but Jimmy found it harder to track slumber down. As tired as he was he could not turn his mind off. All he could see when he closed his eyes was that gun shifting its aim to her. But every time he saw it in his mind's eye he was not quick enough and she was gone from him. He knew this was ridiculous. She was right there in his arms and yet in many ways she was more distant from him than when he'd been here and she'd been with Aaron. Eventually sleep did come to claim him and took him to a fitful place where dreams tormented him with visions of his failings. Every time the dreams woke him he pulled her tighter to him and reminded himself that for all the times he had failed those he loved, he had not failed her this time. She was alive and in his arms and their child was still squirming in her belly.

Yeah...I got nothing...really this was hard to write.-J