NINE

"Damn it!"

Doc looked up from sweeping the broken vanity glass into a dustbin to see Kitty throw her scrub brush into the sudsy bucket of water at her feet. "Whore" stood out on the wall even more starkly in the daylight.

"Kitty?"

"I'm alright, I—" she started sharply before pushing the heels of her hands into her eyes and breathing deeply until she seemed to regain a little control. "The paint won't come off. I didn't really think it would, but…."

Doc set the broom and bin down and walked over to his friend, taking her hands in his. There wasn't really anything he could say that wouldn't sound horribly trite. So he just held her hands, rubbing his thumbs across her knuckles, while she took a few more deep breaths, her eyes still closed.

"This town's just got me all riled up."

"The whole town?" He jiggled one of her hands, trying to coax a smile out of her.

Kitty didn't smile, but she did open her eyes to roll them at him, which he counted as a win.

"Whoever did this? They're right, you know. People are already blaming Matt. And they don't even know the whole story! I heard them talking about it when I went to order a new mirror for my vanity first thing this morning." Doc's heart sunk. "The ones who didn't hush up when they saw me coming, that is."

He had been worried people would start talking. And seeing the pain in Kitty's eyes raised his protective hackles. The fact that she was more worried on Matt's behalf than her own wasn't surprising, though.

"I was afraid of that," he admitted.

Kitty looked over at the wall and its red stained message for a moment, and Doc gave her hands a comforting squeeze as she faced him again.

"There's a vanity in the next room over, the one we stayed in last night, that no one's using right now. I figured I could use that until my new mirror comes in. Help me carry it over?"

"You betcha, honey."