"Mr. Tanner, you really must do something about that dreadful cough," Ezra said sleepily, as he was awoken by the sound of Vin hacking loudly. "It truly does sound like you are going to expectorate a lung."
"Thanks, Ez, you're all heart," replied Vin, once he finally caught his breath enough to answer.
Standish tried to close his eyes and go back to sleep, but a loud shriek from the Miller boy had him sitting up on his bedroll and his heart pounding. It turned out that Buck was chasing and trying to tickle the kid.
Ezra laid back down, but he knew there wasn't much hope for drifting back off to dreamland now. He turned over, towards where Chris had been sleeping and tried to prepare himself to haul his sore body off the ground.
The gambler watched Larabee, but he couldn't figure out exactly what he was seeing. It was as if Chris had been on a 3-day drunk. Larabee would try to get up, and then before he could even take a step he would crash back to the ground. He tried going all the way up, and going to his knees first, and always the same result. In any other situation, this would have been somewhat amusing to watch. When Ezra finally became aware enough to realize what was happening, he jumped up to try and help their fledgling leader.
He grabbed Chris' arm and steadied him while he tried again to rise. Both men figured once the blond man was up for a little while, he would regain his sense of balance. Wrong! Larabee tried to take a step towards his horse, with Ezra still holding his arm, and things immediately went dark and Chris crumpled to the ground once again. "Nathan," Ezra yelled. "Your help over here when you get a chance, please."
Chris was awake again by the time Nathan arrived, and he was glaring at Ezra as the gambler told the healer what had happened.
Nathan examined Chris and could see that he had a concussion….but it wasn't the worst that Nathan had ever seen. It didn't make sense why Larabee's sense of balance was so off. Nathan had heard that the ears played a role in a person's balance and wondered if the blow to Chris' head injured his ear, or caused swelling nearby. Whatever the case, Nathan did not know how to treat it, except give it time.
Vin and Buck wandered over to see how Chris was doing, and once again Larabee was growing annoyed at how much attention his condition was drawing.
"I seem to be able to sit fine, so somebody just help me on my damn horse," Chris said.
"Wo there Cowboy," Vin chimed in. "We still need to get some breakfast and pack up."
"Speaking of breakfast, I'd like to see you eat a little something before we take off Chris," Nathan said.
Larabee's pleading green eyes looked up at the healer, as if to say, "please, let it go." Chris simply said, "I'll eat when we get to Four Corners."
Ezra didn't know who he felt the worse for: Chris who was clearly not well but wanted so desperately to get home, or Nathan who felt responsible for these men's health but whose advice was often ignored. Although he felt somewhat guilty for thinking it, Ezra too was determined to get their leader home today because he did not want to spend another night sleeping on the hard ground.
"That could be part of the reason why you can't stand up, Chris," Nathan chided as he walked away, "you haven't eaten anything for a damn week."
The remaining men consumed coffee and a couple of biscuits, and then packed up the camp. Once they were ready, Buck and Nathan helped Chris on his horse. They let Larabee ride by himself for about an hour, but he was going very slowly. Chris was sweating from the efforts of trying to keep himself in the saddle. The second time that Buck reached out to steady the fair-haired gunslinger, he said, "that's enough." The ladies' man jumped off of his horse and got on behind Larabee. He put his arm around Chris and held onto him as he spurred Pony towards home.
About a mile outside of town, Chris asked Buck to let him ride in by himself. He said he was feeling steadier, and Buck knew that his friend hated to show any weakness in front of the town folks. So, Wilmington agreed, and he stayed within arm's length of Larabee as they slowly trotted into town.
JD, Josiah, and Mary came out to greet the men. They were pleased to see that the boy had been found, and that Vin looked to be doing better after his illness. They could see that the men had been in a fight or two. Ezra and Chris' faces displayed bruises of varying colors, and they wore clothing that was not their own.
Mary walked up to Chris and said, "welcome back." The seven's leader looked at her and smiled, but his expression gave away his struggle to stay upright. Mary looked quickly to Nathan, and then back to Chris and asked, "are you alright, Mr. Larabee?"
Buck finally stepped in and casually said, "he took a conk on his noggin, but he'll be ok….won't you Chris?"
Chris took a deep breath, blinked his eyes tightly, and quietly said, "yeah, I'm fine."
He then rode his horse over to the hitching posts closest to Nathan's clinic and waited for someone to help him dismount. The last thing he wanted to do was to fall flat on his face in front of Mary Travis.
Vin and Nathan assisted Chris from his horse as discreetly as possible. Mary cringed as they threw Chris' arms over their shoulders and helped him up the stairs. Lord, how she hated to see these men ill or injured.
Josiah offered to take the boy back to his family, Buck headed for the saloon, and Ezra headed straight for his feather bed. JD followed Buck to get the full story on what transpired over the last week. He had not expected all 5 men to come riding into town at the same time.