"Reassurance" A MM/An ATC to "Kitty Caught" (Season 3)
"Are we just gonna wait around 'n do nutin'?" Chester asked, his voice heavy with worry.
"We have no choice," Matt replied. Matt wished he had a choice, but he knew he didn't. Waiting until morning to rescue Kitty was the only option Matt had in order to have a better chance of Kitty not being harmed or worse yet, killed.
"I know, but," Chester started to say.
"But what?" Matt interrupted.
"I just hate the thought of Miss Kitty being in there with them two all night," said Chester.
Matt looked down, took a deep breath, and looked back up. "They do anything to her, by g… I'll tear their throats out."
Chester knew Kitty was special to Mr. Dillon, but he had never heard him talk like that. Chester could tell by the tone of Mr. Dillon's low and determined voice, that he meant every word he said. There was no doubt in Chester's mind that if the Gunther brothers did anything to Kitty, they would die at the hands of Mr. Dillon.
Looking at Mr. Dillon, Chester doubted he would be going to sleep any time soon, if ever. On the other hand, Chester was exhausted. It had been a long ride that afternoon, plus the chore of burying the body of the cowboy who had been killed by one of the Gunther brothers. Chester decided to get as comfortable as he could. It wasn't long before Chester was fast asleep.
Matt was exhausted. The day had taken its toll on him. Even so, there was no way he could let himself fall into a deep sleep. He had to keep vigil on the cabin where Kitty was being held hostage. Before Chester even voiced his concern, Matt had already been thinking about what could be happening to Kitty. He hated to have those thoughts. It was those thoughts that triggered his response to Chester earlier. Matt would, without a second thought, kill the Gunther brothers, if they did anything to Kitty.
Morning dawned, and Matt realized he had dozed on and off during the night. He was pretty sure that no one left the cabin during the night. If the Gunther brothers left with Kitty during the night, Matt would never forgive himself. Matt's thoughts were interrupted by Chester's sudden thrashing around. Afraid that Chester might yell out during his dream, Matt quickly woke him up.
"Chester, stop dreaming," Matt instructed, grabbing Chester so he would stop moving about. "Stay down and don't make any noise."
Chester woke up and stretched. "Anything happen yet?" Chester knew the moment those words came out of his mouth, it was a silly question. Mr. Dillon wouldn't be sitting there doing nothing, if something had happened at the cabin.
"Not yet," Matt softly answered.
"It looks like they have a fire goin'," Chester observed. "They must be cookin' breakfast. At least Miss Kitty's gonna get somethin' ta eat."
"Yeah," Matt absently responded. He highly doubted the Gunther brothers were giving Kitty breakfast.
"Do ya think she's alright?" Chester asked.
"She better be," Matt replied. "Wait. Don't move."
The door to the cabin opened, and out walked Kitty, Jed Gunther, and Billy Gunther. Kitty was the first one out, closely followed by Jed. Billy was the last one. Billy quickly went to check things out, making sure nobody was around. Matt watched the scene before him.
"What are we gonna do?" asked Chester. He had no idea what Mr. Dillon had planned.
"We're gonna kill 'em, Chester," Matt answered.
Chester wasn't prepared for that answer. He had to make sure he heard correctly. "You mean shoot 'em in cold blood?"
"Do you have a better idea?" Matt answered with his own question.
At that moment, the only plan Matt had to rescue Kitty was to shoot and kill her captors. Matt did not know whether or not the Gunther brothers had harmed Kitty. Right now there was no time to decide if the brothers should be killed or not. If the opportunity to kill the brothers presented itself, Matt would take it.
"Shoot 'em," said Chester, reaching for his shotgun.
"Alright, you take the one on the left, and I'll take Jed," said Matt, getting his rifle ready.
"Mr. Dillon, I can't use this shotgun, not from here," said Chester, realizing his shotgun was useless from that distance.
"I wasn't thinking," said Matt. "I'll have ta shoot both of them. I'll shoot Jed first and then his brother."
Matt waited. There was no way he could shoot Jed when Jed was so close to Kitty. Matt was confident in his shooting, but he still didn't want to risk hitting Kitty. However, Matt wanted to be ready to take the shot. He brought the rifle up and aimed it towards Jed. Matt saw Jed push Kitty away, and Matt knew he had to take the shot now. He shot Jed and quickly shot Billy.
Without wasting any time, Matt and Chester quickly left their lookout spot and went towards the cabin. When getting near the cabin, Matt could see that Jed was still alive. Worse yet, Jed was grabbing a gun on the ground and aiming it at Kitty. Matt took his rifle and shot Jed again. That shot was the kill shot. Matt saw Kitty leaning against the cabin, shock all over her face. He went to her and gathered her in his arms, while still holding the rifle.
"Oh Matt," Kitty cried. "Are they dead?"
"Yeah, they're dead, Kitty," Matt replied as he threw down his rifle. He wanted to have a better hold on her, and the rifle was getting in the way.
"Good," Kitty replied right before she fainted. Matt was able to catch her before she fell to the ground.
"Oh forevermore," said Chester. "Do ya think she's gonna be alright?"
"I think she just fainted," Matt answered. "Let's get her inside. I have a feeling they didn't feed her anything."
Matt walked into the cabin with Kitty in his arms. Matt was sure Kitty had passed out because of lack of food, but he also had a suspicion that she also passed out from pure exhaustion. Matt was sure that not only had Kitty not eaten at all yesterday, but she probably didn't sleep either.
There was a bed in the back room. Matt needed to put Kitty down, but wasn't sure if he should put her on the bed. He had no idea if anything took place on that bed. Knowing he had no choice, Matt put Kitty on the bed. She didn't even stir. Matt sat next to her on the bed.
Chester walked into the bedroom. He saw Miss Kitty asleep on the bed and Mr. Dillon sitting next to her. "Mr. Dillon, I found a shovel leaning against the back of the house," he whispered. "Do ya want me to bury the bodies?"
Matt wanted the bodies buried as soon as possible. He didn't want Kitty to see the Gunther brothers ever again. Matt knew he shouldn't leave Chester with such a huge task of burying two bodies. Matt knew he should help Chester with the burying. But at the same time, he didn't want to leave Kitty. He didn't want Kitty to wake up alone in the cabin that had been her prison.
"Yeah, I'll help ya," Matt reluctantly replied.
Chester could hear the anguish in his boss's voice. "Mr. Dillon, if ya wanna stay here with Miss Kitty, I can do the buryin' on my own."
"No, Chester, I can help," said Matt. "With both of us out there, it'll go much faster."
Matt slowly got off the bed, and looked at Kitty. She looked so peaceful. Matt hated the thought that Kitty's peacefulness could be disrupted if she woke up alone in the cabin. He wanted to give Kitty some sort of reassurance that she wasn't alone. After a brief moment, inspiration struck. Matt took off his badge, carefully opened Kitty's right hand, and placed the badge on her palm, closing her fingers around it. He and Chester went outside to bury the bodies. When Matt went over to Jed's body, he noticed the gun that Jed was going to use to shoot Kitty. It was Matt's gun. Matt picked up the gun and placed it in his empty holster.
It was two hours later when Kitty finally woke up. At first she was disoriented and had no idea where she was. But it didn't take long for her to realize she was back in the cabin. Even worse, she was in the bed and had no idea how she had gotten there. Kitty was certain she had slept fitfully at the table. She was also certain that Matt had shot and killed Jed and Billy. Was that just a dream? Had she woken from a dream back to her nightmare?
Kitty could hear noise coming from the main living space of the cabin. She was afraid to make any kind of noise. As she continued to listen, Kitty noticed something hard in her right hand. She carefully opened her hand and noticed Matt's badge. There was only one way that she would have Matt's badge. He had to be the one that gave it to her.
Still holding the badge, Kitty got out of bed and quietly walked to the door. To her relief, Matt and Chester were there. By the looks of it, they were making food to eat and coffee to drink. It was a beautiful sight. Kitty knew her nightmare was over.
Chester was the first one to notice Kitty. "Miss Kitty, it's good ta see ya up and about. Did yer nap help ya?"
"Most definitely," Kitty answered. "How long was I asleep?"
"A couple of hours," Matt answered. He went over to Kitty to escort her to the table. "Here, have a seat. I'm pretty sure you haven't eaten in over twenty-four hours. There were some scrapings of stew in the pot. I added some beans to it. Chester and I ate already, but there's plenty for you."
"Thanks, Matt," Kitty softly said as she sat down. She looked over at Chester. "Thank you as well, Chester."
"There's no need to thank us Kitty," Matt told her. Chester nodded in agreement "As soon as you're done eating and ready to go, we'll get on outta here. I'm sure you don't want to stay in this cabin any longer than you have to."
"The sooner we can leave, the better," agreed Kitty. She wanted to be done with that piece of hell.
Kitty ate the stew and beans and drank a cup of coffee. While she was doing that, Chester got the horses ready. He readied his horse, Matt's horse, and Kitty's horse. There were also the horses of the cowboy and the Gunther brothers. They were good horses, and Chester knew he couldn't just leave them there. Confident that Mr. Dillon would agree with him, Chester got those horses ready as well. They could take the extra horses to Moss Grimmick. He would take them.
"Mr Dillon, the horses are ready and out front," said Chester, walking back into the cabin. "We can leave as soon as Miss Kitty is ready."
"I'm ready now," Kitty stated. She took one last sip of coffee and stood up.
Outside, Chester mounted his horse, and Matt helped Kitty mount her horse. He was concerned with whether or not Kitty had the strength to ride her horse, but Kitty reassured Matt that she would be fine. Matt was about to offer Kitty the chance to ride on Buck with him, but then decided not to do so. For some reason, Matt felt Kitty needed to ride her own horse for the sake of her independence.
On the ride back to Dodge, Matt made sure they took plenty of breaks. He wanted to make sure they and the horses got some water. They would also eat some jerky Matt and Chester had in their saddlebags. Each time they stopped, Matt would ask Kitty if she was doing alright. Kitty wanted to tell Matt to stop fussing over her, but she didn't. She decided she was enjoying the attention Matt was giving her. They arrived back in Dodge late evening, just before nine o'clock.
Later that night, Matt and Kitty were up in Kitty's room. Earlier Kitty had reassured Matt that the Gunther brothers never did anything to hurt her. Both were grateful for that and to be together, but they were both extremely tired. As much as they wanted to show one another how grateful they were to be together, they knew sleep was more important. That night there wouldn't be any physical lovemaking, and that was fine. Matt and Kitty didn't need to make love to appreciate what they had. At that moment, just being in each other's arms was sufficient enough.
The End