A/N: Number three is "what if she had let go?" These first three are prewritten so there will be a delay before number four and five go up as they're not finished yet. I hope to get them finished before the end of the month but with classes it may not happen. I should be finishing the next chapter of Threads of Fate but these two won't leave me alone. As always, entertainment only.
Fort Sumner, New Mexico Territory, July 14, 1881
Jessie kept to the shadows alongside the buildings as she made her way toward Maxwell's house. Deluvina lived in the back, but it would be faster to go in through the front and down the hall. Her boots thumped on the porch; the hairs on the back of her neck stood up and she looked around, but nothing was out of place. This far from the dance, there wasn't even anyone outside. She slipped through the door and started down the inside hallway.
A soft scrape, like a boot on the floor reached her ears. "Pete?" She stopped just outside the man's bedroom door, that nagging feeling of something off crashing over her like a wave. "Pete?" She looked down the dark hallway. "Deluvina?" She stepped into the dark bedroom, hand on her right Colt, and approached the bed. "Pete?"
A match struck and she spun. "Quien es?" The tiny flame rose, catching the wick of a candle on the washstand, then higher, illuminating the tin star on his vest. Pat Garrett blew out the match, an incredulous expression on his face and a revolver in his hand. He cocked the weapon with a soft, menacing click; his throat worked. Her mouth went dry.
"You're supposed to be in California."
"Don't tell me you believed that horse shit, Sheriff." Damn it, why did he have to show up tonight of all nights?
"Why couldn't you just go under? I got everyone else, and you still wouldn't leave." His hand not holding the gun clenched into a fist.
"Maybe for the same reason you couldn't stay here and run an eating house." The rat had always been a talker, all she needed was a few seconds of distraction. Gunfire would only attract Billy, and bring him right into the middle of everything they were trying to escape. If she didn't give in to the scorching desire to put a bullet in his heart, she might be able to salvage this.
But he was right there, the man responsible for everything that had gone wrong, all the way back to the Battle of Lincoln. All she had to do was draw, and she'd have her revenge. No ... that was wrong, she wanted justice, not revenge. Didn't she?
"Jessie, I'm in a place I can't get out of, and I've got to do it."
"That why you wear gloves – to hide the blood stains?" He had the grace to look ashamed. Did he really not want to do it? Maybe he could be reasoned with. "Look, we're riding out tonight, no one in the territory will ever see us again. Just let us go."
"He'd turn up in Arizona stealing cows like a damned nightmare and they'd stone me."
"You ever wonder what will happen when the Ring doesn't need you anymore? How long you think they'll wait before they fit you for a pine box, Sheriff?" He swallowed hard. "You plan on killing all your friends so they can't do to you what they did to Billy? They'll find a way because you're just as much a loose end as we are."
"Jessie –"
"No one will care, you know. You'll never be him, Garrett, hell, you won't even be me." He looked down at his boots and she sidled a few steps closer to the porch door. "You'll just be the man that shot him." This had to end, now. There was no way he'd show up in Sumner alone, the rest of the posse was out there somewhere in the night. "You knew Charlie, was fame worth killing him? And what about Tommy? How was he any different from you?" The gun wavered and she slid another step towards the door.
"Jessie, stop it. I can't get out."
"You shouldn't have made a deal with the devil."
"Damn it, Jess, if I'd stayed, I'd be dead, too, and you know it. If he'd gone straight to Mexico, I would have turned back at the border and they'd all be alive now."
"Billy making a wrong choice didn't mean you had to make one. All he's ever had was us, and God only knows why he counted you a friend. I told him in Juarez you thought about drawing down on him but he insisted you wouldn't do that." She nodded at the gun. "This proves I was right."
"It's not personal, Jess, it never has been, don't you get that?" He left the bed and she backed up, her boots bumping against the far wall. The door was right there, not even a foot to her left.
But it opened in, not out. She drew in a breath and measured the distance. "There's a side of beef hanging on the back porch, shoot that and say you killed Billy."
"They'd never believe that." He sounded tired.
"Wanna bet?" She slipped her hand behind a vase of desert flowers on the dresser beside her, poised to sling it at his face. "Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes truth."
"I'm sorry."
She hurled the vase and he threw his hands up on instinct to protect his face. She whirled, yanking the door open as a gunshot blasted through the night. Screams filled the air; she bolted through the dark streets. Forget food, forget goodbyes, they had to take advantage of the confusion and ride out now.
She rounded a corner and crashed into someone. "Jessie!" Billy's arms went around her, keeping them both on their feet. "God, I thought he'd killed you." His heart was hammering in his chest, pounding hard enough she could feel the flutter against her ribs.
"We have to go, now."
"Come on." They darted from shadow to shadow until they made it to the stables. Their horses stood saddled and waiting, just as she'd left them before she went to find Deluvina. They mounted up and Billy leaned down to peer through the gap in the door. "There's a crowd up at Maxwell's, no one near the old gates. Let's go." He pushed the doors open. Less than two minutes later, Fort Sumner was behind them and they galloped away into the night.