Epilogue
A quiet moment, a restful night…Diego had long since learned to appreciate those things. Not that there had been many of them recently.
With a sigh, he turned over in bed again, trying to get to sleep, and hating the insomnia he'd put up with in the past few days. Magdalena shifted beside him, and, giving up, Diego got out of bed, dressed and went into the secret passage, lighting the lantern and descending to the cave. Tornado waited there, and Diego walked over to his amigo and rubbed the horse's head. Tornado nickered and Diego picked up the halter to lead Tornado outside, into the moonlight.
The moon was full again, showing that it had been a full month since his marriage. A full month since he had gotten a good night's sleep, and not for the reasons you would hope for a newlywed to have. Zorro had been overactive, as banditos had swarmed into Los Angeles at every hour, it seemed, panicking the peons and flustering Garcia. Well, it had only been one group, but oh! the trouble they had made for everyone, especially the Fox. Night after night he had ridden, and now he could call to mind, specifically, what exactly had transpired each night.
The first night, it had been simple. He had ambushed the banditos camp, scared them away from it and come home feeling smug, sure they would leave soon.
However, la Resabiado's gang of banditos was hardier than that, unfortunately.
A whip flashed through the air, stinging his hand, and making it hard to retaliate. Zorro jerked his own whip handle and slashed the jacket of the so-called la Resabiado. What a pretentious name, Zorro thought, as he tried, and failed, to make his opponent drop the whip. It was obvious this man had dedicated his life to the study of one weapon. And Zorro had begun to think that he was fighting a losing battle, so the Fox would have to do what foxes do best, and disappear. So instead of striking the leader, he went for the pudgy one, the one dubbed Cerdo. With one slash, the man yelped as if he had been shot, jumping up and mindlessly waving his arm in a helpless attempt to make the stinging in his hand cease.
"Fool!" His leader snapped. "Get down!"
But, thankfully, Cerdo got in the way of la Resabiado's next slash, and Zorro was away in the night, finding Tornado and flying away on the horse's back. Bernardo had tended to his hand, as Magdalena was still downstairs. When she had come up, it had been hard to read her expression, and Zorro realized that he still didn't know his wife well enough.
The third night had consisted of a chase, and this had been successful. Three of la Resabiado's men, Culebra, Bajista and Pescado, had apparently been instructed by their leader to rob the tavern. Rob the tavern they had, leaving Diego to pick up the pieces and Zorro to pick up their trail.
While Culebra had worried him, his companions hadn't, and it only took some skilled riding to catch up to them and successfully tackle Pescado, the eldest of the three, the one he'd guessed would have the money. His guess proven to be correct, he'd escorted Pescado to jail, only for an unsurprised Diego to be told, the next morning, that he'd escaped.
"All I want right now is those banditos behind my bars," Garcia told his friend despondently, sitting in his office and wearily shuffling through paperwork. "They make such trouble. Would you believe that three of my lancers have been injured chasing them?"
"Come now, Sergeant, surely one drink wouldn't hurt anything," Diego coaxed, wishing his friend to forget his worries, just for a moment. He knew that the banditos would not be coming into Los Angeles tonight, Zorro having made sure of that, so he felt safe in coaxing the depressed sergeant away from his desk.
But Garcia shook his head. "For once, I must say that one drink would hurt. I have come to the conclusion that Zorro has done too much—I mean, not too much, but I have done nothing, and every time he places one of those rascals behind my bars…" Garcia heaved a heavy sigh. "The next morning, without fail, they are gone."
"That's because Zorro hasn't been doing his job either!"
"How do you figure that, Don Diego?"
"Don't you see, Sergeant? The reason they escape is because their amigos come and help them out. If every member was in your jail, there would be no one to help them, and come morning, they would remain there."
"Si, Don Diego, that may be true, but maybe Zorro hasn't been doing his job because it is too hard for one man. No, I need to stay here and figure out something…"
Diego stood, going to the door and opening it, pausing with one hand on the doorknob. "Are you certain?"
To his credit, the Sergeant didn't even look up, and a look of concentration had crossed his face. "Si, Don Diego, I am."
With a final nod, the young don left the Commandante's office, his thoughts turning to home and his beautiful wife.
That night had been restless too, though, regardless of the fact that la Resabiado hadn't struck. A stray horse had made his way into the box canyon, a Stallion who Tornado had viewed as a rival. He'd almost had a fight on his hands, as he and Bernardo tried to get the horse out, and success had only come in the early hours of the morning, and Diego had returned to bed exhausted, wishing he could do more than kiss his wife on the forehead in greeting.
Diego now talked softly to Tornado, as they walked in the moonlight, and Diego again questioned why he'd suddenly turn insomniac. Since the banditos had been driven out, it only followed that he'd finally get some rest. It was almost the opposite. These nights had been harder than any fight with those banditos could ever be.
Diego returned to remembering the havoc la Resabiado's gang had wreaked on Los Angeles and delved fully into memory, to forget his present sleeplessness.
The fifth night had begun suddenly, with the news that the Cortezar hacienda had been robbed, and Don Marcos had been injured and Margarita kidnapped. Zorro hadn't been able to do anything that night, for Diego had been too busy, finally agreeing with his father and a posse had been rustled up.
"They probably went south," Don Alejandro announced, jabbing at the map. "Why take Margarita if they didn't intend to keep her? It's probably for ransom, so they'll need a place to lie low while they send their notes."
"Still, we can't be sure of that," Don Cornelius spoke. "I was thinking west, actually. That's nearer to Don Marcos's hacienda, so it would be easier to get their messages to him."
"We are not that large in number, though, not yet. Many have not even heard the news. We cannot afford to split up to search. We'll need all men together!" Alejandro countered Don Cornelius's proposal, and their companions agreed. "We can let the military go west, and if you like, you can go with them."
Don Cornelius nodded. "If you don't mind, then, I will go join Sergeant Garcia."
The other group also made ready to go, when Diego realized he hadn't seen Magdalena all evening, and told his father that he'd catch up to them. Don Alejandro had nodded in understanding and Diego had looked for his wife, finally discovering her with the injured man, speaking reassuringly to him and trying to convince him he wasn't well enough to join the posse.
"But she is my daughter!" Don Marcos had protested. "I need to rescue her. I can't even imagine how she is being treated!"
"The other dons will find her," Magdalena's voice hadn't wavered. "I am sure of that. And what of Los Angeles' guardian angel? Surely el Zorro will be looking tonight."
He had interrupted then, and had spent a few precious moments speaking to her, regretting that this was the first time in days he'd really spoken to her and that it had to be so quickly completed.
Sixth day.
After a full night of searching, they'd been able to find nothing of the bandito's trail. But with the morning came the first ransom note, delivered by a tiny boy whose only thought in accepting the message had been the peso pressed into his hand.
"We will give you two days to place five thousand pesos in a bag and place it in a saddlebag hung on the signpost of San Guadalupe trail. If you do this, your daughter will be returned to you within the hour."
"You are not going to give them the money," Alejandro said immediately, almost before Diego had finished. "You have no way of knowing that they will keep their word. They could just as well take the money and still keep her. Even if we had men watching, they could come up using her as a shield and still get away."
"But what if I don't?" Don Marcos asked weakly, not really protesting. "What will happen to Margarita?"
Diego looked at the note, knowing that that was not all. But Alejandro had ordered him to not reveal what else had been written, so instead he folded it back up and was about to place it in his pocket when Magdalena plucked it out of his hands and read it, silently.
Serious eyes met his and for a moment Diego faltered. Then Magdalena merely handed the note back to him, squeezing his hand reassuringly as she did so. "I think it is time for Zorro," she whispered as she left the room, and Diego was forced to agree with her.
It was then that it really got hard. The next days Zorro spent looking for the banditos camp, and he couldn't find it, while all the while the dons looked and argued over whether the money should be given.
And he didn't speak to Magdalena at all, that Seventh day. Zorro was riding, and Diego was almost busier. But that was alright. She understood.
Ninth day.
Zorro leaned down to scoop up Margarita; her legs had been injured somehow and she couldn't manage to stand. A few more steps and he boosted her onto Tornado and mounted behind her.
She hadn't spoken at all since she'd seen him, a fact which worried him. Her big brown eyes had been so fearful as they looked up at him, and untrusting. It had taken him a few minutes to convince her to come. The banditos had done something to her, that was certain.
"Margarita!" Was the universal cry when the senorita stumbled through the gate of the de la Vega hacienda moments after being dropped there by Senor Zorro. She wobbled, and it was Don Francisco who darted forward to catch her. Something was wrong.
Eleventh day.
"I honestly don't see where the problem is," Doctor Avila murmured, regretfully. "It must be in the mind, for I have bandaged her legs and they are fine."
"There is nothing more you can do?" Don Marcos asked anxiously, and the doctor shook his head.
"I will come back tomorrow to change the bandages, and here is the medicine she gets." Items exchanged hands and the doctor was seen off.
The Cortezars were still staying at the de la Vega hacienda. Magdalena had appointed herself Margarita's nurse, so Diego still hadn't seen her very much. But he had a score to settle…
La Resabiado would pay.
Fifteenth day.
"Curiosity killed the cat," drawled a lazy voice, and Zorro felt the sting of a whip, again.
"Please, don't kill him!" Cerdo begged; at least, the Fox thought it was Cerdo.
"Why not?"
"Isn't this enough? You unmasked him, you drugged him, and now you whip him senseless, as you would a slave. Isn't this enough?"
"No. Do you not recognize the man we have before us?"
"Should I?"
"This is the don from the inn."
Sixteenth day.
"Wake up, please, wake up!" And Zorro woke by Diego's wife's arms, on Diego's bed, lying on his stomach, smelling her perfume, and seeing her eyes, staring down at him.
"What has happened?"
"Many, many things," his wife began, and her hands were hurrying to do…something. His mind was too drowsy to register what.
"Bernardo led the dons there. All the banditos are behind bars. But you were not there when they came, Diego. Not you or Zorro. La Resabiado kept crowing about how he had you but you were nowhere in sight."
"Then where was I?"
Bernardo came into his line of vision, and Magdalena moved aside so Bernardo could tend his master.
"Well, you are in your bed, now. At that time, a certain fox's amigos, shall we say, managed to take Zorro away before he was seen. And that was the hardest part. Diego…we told your father."
"You did?"
"To be more accurate, he already knew. All we really told him was that you were being held, we knew where, and that you were probably unmasked, so we couldn't just lead the dons there. Together, we worked out a plan, and here you are. Safe and sound."
"Where is my father?" Diego asked, trying to sit up. I can finally…speak to him…
"Downstairs," Magdalena told him. "There are still matters to be sorted out. For instance, whether we need to call a doctor for your back. Bernardo has tended it very well, and luckily, none of the gashes were that deep."
"Luckily…" and Diego sank back into the black.
Twenty-ninth day.
"And tell me, is this official?" Diego asked his father, who stood in the middle of his room. Magdalena was next to Diego on the bed; she had been reading to him before Don Alejandro came in.
"Si. Our new Commandante should be here this very day, Sergeant Garcia says."
"I wish I could be there," Diego reflected. "My bandages have come off but Doctor Avila still cautions against any sort of riding."
"It is a pity, Diego. But Bernardo and I will go in and we can bring back all the news."
At that, Bernardo entered, indicating that he was ready to go. Alejandro bade his son goodbye and the two men left. Magdalena resumed reading, but Diego soon interrupted her. "No more reading. Let's talk."
Now.
Magdalena woke up to find the bed beside her empty, and she sat up in a slight panic. Where was Diego? Throwing off the covers, she bolted from the bed, looking around wildly. It was almost pitch black, the only light coming from the window, where the full moon shone in.
With a gasp of realization, she plunged into the passage, not even taking a candle to guide her, and finally coming out in the cave, and Tornado wasn't there. The Zorro costume was still there. He must be just talking to Tornado. I know that even though there is no more pain he hasn't been able to sleep well.
And out into the moonlight she went, pushing through the foliage to see her husband there in the moonlight, leading Tornado on his picket rope. One glance at his face and she calmed. There was a look of peace on his face she hadn't seen since the morning after their wedding. With a murmured prayer of thanks, she hurried to his side, and he turned at her coming, looking more than a little surprised to see her there.
"I woke and you weren't there," she explained hurriedly. "I was anxious, I'll admit."
"I'm fine," he assured, a slight cloud coming over his face, but she quickly shook her head.
"I know you are," she returned, stepping nearer to him. "I felt anxious because I was alone. I know you can take care of yourself but I didn't want to be alone."
His face softened and he stepped nearer to her, putting an arm around her and pulling her close against him. "I couldn't sleep."
"I guessed. How long have you been out here?"
"A few hours, I suppose, just walking around."
She nodded in understanding, leaning into him. "Are you worried?"
"Not worried. And if you mean about the new Commandante, I suppose I don't know whether I should be worried yet. I haven't been in town and Bernardo and my father simply can't tell me everything."
She nodded again, and Diego pulled her closer. "You know, if you can't sleep, may I propose a different activity?"
She felt his laugh rumbling deep in his chest. "I know there was a reason," he murmured, starting back to the cave.
She only returned the laugh, and for the next few hours Diego's insomnia didn't bother him at all.
A/N: A hard first month for the newlyweds, eh? This wasn't the original ending, so it may seem a bit chopped. But the ending I had planned just didn't fit anymore so instead I had their first month in flashbacks.
I suppose what I was wanting to do was say 'you'll be thinking that things get easier when they marry, but it's the opposite. they get harder, much harder. And in the midst Diego is still getting to know Magdalena.'
This story didn't turn out the way I had planned it, and in some ways I'm not satisfied with it. As some pointed out, there were paths that I definitely indicated I would take and didn't. There is always next time and I really do plan on writing more about Magdalena, yet another one completely separate from this one. I took only one aspect of her personality, so to speak, and in future stories I'll go for different ones.
All the reviews have been lovely and before I forget I'll have to thank IcyWaters—I think everyone in this fandom is indebted to her!—for answering a question—with great ease—that I truly thought was unanswerable.
Also, some details and outcomes are left out or not fully explained. This was done intentionally.