Ploppidy plop, ploppidy plop, ploppidy plop, ploppidy plop – the only sound for miles around was the sound of Buck's horseshoes striking the hard prairie ground. The sound had became so monotonous that Kitty had began to space out. For her, the brief mental lapse was a welcomed break from reality. She wouldn't have even known she was headed for the right direction if it weren't for an old dry-rotted wooden arrow declaring that Dodge was that-a-way.
As the evening grew on, Kitty found herself zoning out more often than not, not that Buck minded much; he was content just plodding down the trail. A million memories were swirling through her head - every dinner, every conversation, every moment she ever had with Matt. If she could go back in time and un-do every argument or disagreement, especially the ones where he insisted that a lawman had no right to a wife or kids, she surely would've.
They continued onward with no end in sight, stopping only briefly for Kitty to take the occasional drink from Matt's canteen.
GSGSGSGSGSGS
Long after the dust settled back at the house, Matt was left laying face down in the dirt. As he was beginning to come to, he tried to open his eyes but all he saw was black for the mix of dirt and blood matted to his face made it neigh impossible to see anything. He couldn't hear, he couldn't see, and for a moment he was unable to feel – he wasn't even sure he was alive. That was, until his mind became cognizant enough to register the searing pain. But feeling pain only meant one thing. "I'm alive?… but, how can this even be possible?" he thought to himself. He didn't even have the strength to muster up a groan. Soon the pain began to grow unbearable before he slipped away into unconsciousness again.
It wasn't long after that though that a couple of men were passing by the house when they noticed the carnage in the front yard.
"What in tarnation.." one of the men remarked as they rode up on the scene. Dismounting, they went over to check each of the men that were in the yard. Mason and David laid dead with multiple wounds – either of which could've been fatal. There was no sign of Thomas though; he had chickened out and somehow managed to get away amidst all the chaos. One of the men then wondered over to Matt and rolled him over.
The other man called out, "What about that one?"
The boy gently pushed him with his shoe. "He's a goner too." And he started to walk away when Matt let out a small groan that was barely noticeable and it stopped the boy his tracks. He turned around and bent down and listened to Matt's chest. "Wait a minute, Pa. This one's alive."
The man walked over and looked down. "Well, I'll be. With all the blood he's lost, it's a miracle."
"Who is he, Pa?"
"Not sure, son. His face is hard to make out but I don't think I've seen him before. Bring the wagon around, and lets get him back home." The man took a closer look at Matt and noticed that his hands were beginning to swell after slowed circulation from the loss of blood. After the boy brought the wagon around, the man stopped him. "Look at his hands, son. His feet are probably swelling too. Help me get these boots off before we got to cut 'em off." The two pried the blood-soaked boots off and discarded them and carefully lifted Matt unto the wagon.
"What about the other men, Pa?" The boy asked, querying as to whether or not they should dig a couple of graves. "We'll come back and bury them later."
After an undetermined amount of time, Matt began to come around again only this time the scenery seemed much different as he could smell something cooking in another room. Slowly but surely his eyes fluttered open and found himself propped up on a pillow lying shirtless in bed in a strange room. The combination of the pain from his wounds and a debilitating migraine left his vision just as blurry as it was before. He was able to tell that his torso was bandaged as well as his arm.
The sound of him moaning brought Ma Nichols and her daughter Liza into the room. "Well, welcome back stranger," Ma Nichols remarked when she saw Matt finally open his eyes. "Liza, fetch me a cool rag would ya?"
"Sure, Ma," and she returned a minute later with the rag and Ma used it to wipe Matt's forehead.
Matt groaned and then took a look around and at both Ma and Liza before asking, "Where am I?"
"You're at the Nichols ranch, near the border of Kansas and Oklahoma. My name's Mary, and this here is my daughter Liza."
Matt tried to return the greeting, but all he could do is groan.
"My husband Arthur and my son Ben found you lying half dead somewhere between here and Garden City. They brought you back here and we sent for the doctor who managed to remove your bullets. You almost died."
"I feel dead," Matt said with a groan.
"There were two other men laid there near you but it was too late for them."
"Only two?" Matt thought to himself. That means that one must have gotten away.
"Now, I've got to get back to cooking. You just rest up and Liza will keep an eye out for you if you need anything." And she turned around and went back to the kitchen to finish dinner.
"What's your name, Mister?" Liza queried.
"Marsh…Marshal…" Matt mustered out.
"Your name's Marshall?" she asked.
"No," Matt said again with a groan. "My name's Matt…Dillon….and I'm the…marshal…out of Dodge…City.."
"Oh wow, so you're a lawman." Liza said enthusiastically. "Well, Mr. Marshal, take this. The doctor said you'd need it."
After resisting initially, Matt eventually forced himself to swallow the bitter medicine and found himself beginning to slip into unconsciousness again.
GSGSGSGSGS
As dusk turned into night fall, Kitty found herself getting cold and in need of rest. She was still out in the middle of nowhere but it would do no good to continue on especially since it was a moonless night out and it made it very hard to see. She managed to find a secluded spot by a small pond that offered up a couple of trees and some cattails for privacy. She dismounted and scouted out the area before deciding that it was suitable enough. She tied Buck up by a patch of grass and removed the seemingly huge saddle. She figured she would regret that move come morning but the poor horse needed the rest as much as she did.
She stroked his mane as he happily began grazing away. "I'm counting on you to let me know if you hear anything.." Kitty said to Buck as she managed to muster up a smile on her tear-stained face.
Slowly yet surely she began to set up a small primitive camp by finding a couple of matches in Matt's saddle bag and starting a fire. She laid out his bedroll by the fire and went back over to his saddle bags and began to dig through them, hoping to find something to munch on. The fact that there wasn't much there was very Matt-like, she thought to herself. "Never did carry much with you, did ya, Cowboy?"
The beef jerky she found would have to do, but she continued on rummaging not sure what exactly else she was looking for. That's when she came across a small book.
"Weird," she thought to herself as she brought the book and the jerky back to the fire and sat down on the bedroll. "I never figured him as much of a reader though I guess it can get pretty lonely out here."
She sat down and opened the book to read while munching on her jerky when something caught her eye. As soon as she opened the cover, a small folded piece of paper fell from the book. She picked it up and looked at it and though she didn't know she had any tears left to cry, somehow she found more. It wasn't any ordinary piece of paper, it was a picture of them together taken when they came across a photographer on a recent marshaling trip that she accompanied with him to St. Louis.
A smile crept across her lips at the gesture. She never knew that he carried a picture of them with him.
"Oh Matt, I…" she said as she rubbed her thumb across the photo of his face. "I wish I could go back in time and tell you how I really feel about you." She continued onward, feeling as if she were really talking to him. "If you're looking down on me, I just want you to know that… well, I loved you Matt. I always will. I only wish I could tell you that before…well, before you were taken from me." She said with a sniffle. "Although you never felt like you were able to stake claim to anything for yourself, I always thought of you as more than my friend. I only hope you felt the same way about me, too." She smiled solemnly as a single tear fell on the photograph.
She laid down on the bedroll and stared up into the sky. It was going to be a very long night. She was oh so tired but was entirely too scared to drift off to sleep. After staring at the stars for forever and getting lost while trying to distract her mind by counting each and every star, pure exhaustion eventually took over as she drifted off to sleep.
GSGSGSGS
Come the first sight of dawn, she put out the fire and began the seemingly extraordinary task of putting the saddle back on Buck. After a couple of failed attempts, she eventually was able to muster up the strength to slide it on his back.
"Thank you for being patient with me, buddy." She said with a smile as she rubbed Buck's face and handed him an apple that she had found in the saddlebag. Buck happily munched away as she finished packing up the rest of her campsite. With everything put away, she climbed up on Buck, took the reins, and set off again towards Dodge.
After what seemed like an eternity, she was just barely able to make out the outline of the edge of town. She dug into Buck's sides and headed toward town.
When she neared the jail, she began to scream at the top of her lungs. "Festus! Festus!"
Festus and Doc were inside playing checkers when they heard the commotion.
"Golly Doc, that chure sounds like Mizz Kitty!" Festus exclaimed.
They both got up and made their way outside as Kitty pulled up.
"Kitty!" Doc exclaimed.
"Festus, Doc," Kitty said as she hopped off Buck.
"Well ain't you a sight for sore eyes," Festus remarked. "Where's Matthew?"
She suddenly began to feel faint as she was forced to recall what had happened back at the house. Doc ran over to her and put her arm around his neck and helped her up onto the boardwalk. "There, there Kitty. Sit down right here," and he guided her over to the chairs that sat right outside the office and took a seat beside her. "I'm sorry to say this, but you look awful, Kitty. What happened to you? Where's Matt?"
"Doc, they.." she looked up at him misty eyed. "Why, something just terrible happened."
Festus prodded, wanting more information. "Wael, I see you a' came on ol' Buck but there ain't no sign of Matthew."
The tears began to stream down her cheeks. "Festus.. Doc…. They shot him down in cold blood."
Both the men were left stunned.
"You mean.. Matthew's dead?" Festus asked.
All Kitty could do was nod. "I…I…I tried to stay. I tried to make him come with me. He just wouldn't have it." She looked over at Doc and he pulled her into a hug. "There was no hope, no chance of both of us making it." She pulled away from the embrace and looked down, seemingly unable to come to terms with the gravity of the situation. "He gave himself up up to save my life."
GSGSGSGSGSGSGS
In the coming days and weeks, the mood around Dodge was eerily somber after the news of Matt's death had spread thoroughout town. After she got some food and some rest, Kitty told Festus and Doc everything that happened. The entire time she was telling her story, Doc just sat there altering between scratching his chin and tugging on his earlobe. He just couldn't imagine how life was going to be now that Matt was gone.
After getting the details of exactly where they were holed up during the shootout, Festus decided to ride out to see if there were any signs of Matt. It wasn't that he didn't believe Kitty's account of what went down the day, he just refused to believe that Matt was truly gone and needed the closure for himself.
On the day of the shootout, Pa Nichols had recognized the bodies as Mason and David from prior wanted posters back in Garden City and they knew there was a third brother. Even though there were only two bodies, together father and son managed to dig three graves. They put the two brothers each in one, filled the third with nothing but dirt and put make-shift crosses atop all three. They figured if Thomas had come by the finish the job, maybe he would assume that the third grave contained the marshal and would consider the job finished and move along.
Festus was able to locate the property and eased up Ruth by the shrubbery that lined the front yard. He wasn't sure exactly what he was hoping to find, but he hopped down to get a better look. The rain showers that were so common out on the prairie land had long since washed away any traces of blood so at first glance, there wasn't any physical evidence left behind. Thinking back on Kitty's recollection of events, he began to imagine what must've gone down on that fateful day and the very thought brought a tear to the hillman's eyes. He walked off to investigate further when out of the corner of his eye, he saw the sun reflecting off something shiny sticking out of a bush. "What's that?" he thought to himself as he walked toward the object. Getting closer, he recognized it as a spur and pulled the boot from the bush. There was no mistaking that the boot belonged to a man with a large foot. "Oh no," he said to himself. He held the boot in his hand as he began looking around and that's when he noticed the graves to the side of the house.
He walked somberly up to the three mounds of dirt. He assumed that one was for Matt so all he could do was hang his head and say a little prayer for his good friend. He went back to Ruth, mounted up and headed back for home.
After returning to Dodge, Festus took off his hat and presented Kitty and Doc with the blood stained boot that seemed to be the concluding evidence he needed for himself to know that Matt really was gone. Although she had long since known his fate, somehow Festus finding his boot and a grave was so much more final. She didn't say a word and just returned back to her room. Later on she would muster up the courage to talk to Doc and Festus about somehow bringing Matt home, but it would be a minute before she found the courage to broach the subject.
Walking into her room, she noticed that sitting on one of her tables, was a simple stuffed elephant. She walked over to the elephant and picked it up, caressing it gently as the memories of the day she received it began to flood back like it was yesterday.
FLASHBACK
A few months before the ill-fated train ride, Kitty had accompanied Matt on a marshaling trip to St. Louis. As luck would have it, their annual fair was going on. The night before they were to leave back for Dodge, Matt asked Kitty if she'd like to go to the fair with him.
"Say Kitty, I don't have anything that I have to do before we leave tomorrow and I noticed that the county fair was going on. Would you like to go check it out with me?
"Is that a date?" she smiled teasingly.
"Well I, uh.." and his ears began to flush at the thought.
"I'd love to, Matt. Just give me a little bit to get ready."
"I'll come by your room in about an hour."
"I'll be waiting." She said with a smile.
And so they went to the fair. Matt had made it a point to spend some time with her away from work, and so he left his badge in his hotel room. They munched on a bag of popcorn that Matt had bought them and were just enjoying being in each other's presence as they looked at all the various exhibits.
There were a group of women gathered around a booth where a game was about to begin so Matt & Kitty decided to join the small crowd. It was a gunfighting game and were four different groups of five glass bottles lined up. The prize was a simple looking stuffed elephant and the women were eager to see which man would win their girl a prize. The worker just needed one last entrant.
"What about you, mister?" the man looked at Matt.
"Me? Well, I uh, I don't know.."
"Oh, go on Matt.." Kitty smiled. "What could it hurt?"
None of the other men knew that they were about to go up against THE legendary Matt Dillon.
Matt just sighed, not really liking the idea. "Kitty, you know how I feel about gunplay."
Kitty protested lightly. "Aw c'mon Matt. You need to let loose a little. It's just for fun."
Matt just shrugged and decided to give in. He never could stand it much when she looked at him with a pouty face. "Well, I guess just this once.."
And he stepped up to the empty area.
On the worker's mark, the men drew and all began to fire simultaneously. Just after the other men had cleared their fourth bottle, Matt had already shot his final bottle and holstered his gun.
"Wow, mister, you sure are good. You a gunfighter?" The man asked as he fetched the prize and handed it to Matt.
"Nope. Lets just say, I have to be good. It's my job." And without offering anything further, he walked back over to Kitty and presented her with the elephant.
"Thank you Matt, it's just lovely," she beamed at him as she admired the stuffy.
"Don't mention it. Anything for you," he returned the smile.
END FLASHBACK
Kitty suppressed a few tears as she walked over to her dresser and picked up Matt's badge. Carefully, she pinned the badge to the elephant. It took up most of the stuffy's chest, but she carefully propped the elephant back on the table and stood there satisfactorily when it managed to stay in place.
She would be sure that she never would forget the lawman that saved her life. Her best friend. Her everything.
GSGSGSGSGS
Matt continued to get stronger by the day. By the second week, he was getting out of bed and trying to build his strength up by doing small chores here and there around the ranch. The doctor had been out to keep an eye on him every once in a while, and he said that if he continued to improve, that he should be ready to ride out in another week or so.
After a month had passed, he finally felt good enough to mount a horse and hit the trail. Pa Nichols had happily agreed to lend him a horse with the intent to buy it, with promise that Matt would wire the money to the nearest bank once he made it back to Dodge. Pa Nichols also offered to head to town and send a wire to let everyone back home know that Matt was on his way back but much to his surprise, Matt declined. If for some reason he didn't make it back, he thought it cruel if Kitty were to find out that he somehow lived through his ordeal only to not make it home.
With a heap of thank yous and a wave goodbye, Matt climbed up on his horse and finally set off back for Dodge.
Kitty, as expected, wasn't taking the change back home too easily. There wasn't much riff-raff in Dodge since the news broke of Matt's death because strangely enough, even the outlaws seemed stay out town out of respect for the marshal. She spent most of her days holed up in her room, not coming out for anyone except long enough to get some food and then right back to her room she went. Hardly anyone had seen much of her in weeks.
It was an unusually mild summer day when Kitty decided that she would finally stop feeling sorry for herself and slowly begin the process of rejoining the living. She took baby steps by surprising both Festus and Doc by asking if they'd like to have lunch with her over at Delmonicos. They enjoyed their first meal together in over a month and afterwards, Festus and Doc went back to the jailhouse and Kitty back to the Long Branch.
It was a couple of hours later when Festus and Doc were in the middle of their checkers game when they heard a bunch of shouting, whooping, and celebratory cheers. Kitty also heard the commotion from her room, but chose to stay put, not yet ready to participate in anything quite so festive.
"What in tarnation?" Doc asked.
"I dunno, I better go check it out." Festus replied. He was keeping the lid on the town the best he could, but knew that his time there was growing to an end as they would be sending on Matt's replacement eventually.
Both Festus and Doc stepped out onto the boardwalk when their face went pale for it was almost was like they were seeing a ghost. They could barely believe their eyes. There stood Matt, surrounded by a bunch of townspeople.
He excused himself from the crowd and walked over to Festus and Doc who both stood there without saying a word. "Well, hello to you two, too." Matt joked.
"Wael I'll be…" Festus remarked. "Matthew, we a' thought you…." He didn't want to say the word so he dropped to barely above a whisper. "..died. It just can't be possible..."
"I almost did die."
Once the shock of the whole situation wore off, Doc pulled Matt into a hug. "You don't know how much we've missed you son."
Matt winced in pain. His wounds though mostly healed, still hurt a good deal.
Doc immediately let go. "Sorry."
Matt could only smile at his dear friend. "Don't apologize."
Festus was practically busting at the seams. "We've chure missed you around here, Matthew. I'll go get Mizz Kitty! She's just up in her room." and he immediately started off towards the Long Branch.
Matt reached out and grabbed his arm to stop him in his tracks though.
"No, don't. I'll go see her alone."
Doc scratched his chin. "Well, lets go inside and have some coffee and you can try to begin to explain to us everything that happened to you out there."
After spending a little bit catching them up on everything that had happened to him once the Nichols' found him, Matt figured that it was time that he go and see Kitty. It wasn't that he wasn't excited to see her, but he just didn't know how she would take to seeing him again after everything that went down. The last she knew, he was dead.
None of the bar patrons gave it a second thought when he ascended the Long Branch stairs. He walked over to her room and did his best to disguise his knocks as he placed a couple on her door.
"Who is it?" Kitty called out as she was sat in her night robe front of her mirror brushing her hair as she prepared for bed.
There was no reply, only another soft knock.
Kitty mumbled and grumbled as she set her brush down and got up and walked over to the door. Unlocking it, she quipped, "Now, this better be good."
When she saw him, her body froze.
"Hello, Kitty." Matt greeted as he removed his hat.
All he could do was bring her hand to her mouth and gasp. "Ma...Ma..Matthew?" She said in shock.
"Can I come in?"
Without saying a word, she stepped aside to let him in and then shut the door. He hung his hat on the hook and turned to her.
"Matt, is it really you? How can it be...you're..." she asked, not believing what she was seeing.
Matt pulled her to him and swallowed her up in his arms. "Yes, Kit, it's really me. I'm home."
And with that, she began to sob into his chest. The pressure of her leaning against the healing wounds was a might sore, but he decided to give her that moment and not to let on. After a couple of minutes, she pulled away and looked up at him. "But, but… it's not possible. I heard the gunshots, Matt.. there were just too many of them. I don't understand."
"It's a long story, and I'll explain everything, I promise. It sure is good to see you, Kitty," Matt replied as he tucked a stray curl back behind her ear.
She looked up into his eyes, and with tears streaming down her face, she mustered up the strength to curl the edges of her lips into a smile.
Matt took a cloth out of his pocket and dabbed the tears away slowly. "Don't cry, Kit. I'm here now."
Kitty sniffled and nodded, before looking down, still not sure she wasn't dreaming.
He placed the cloth back in his pocket and used his finger to gently lift her chin up so that she was looking up at him again.
"I've missed you, Kitty." And with that, he leaned down and placed a soft kiss on her lips.
The kiss was innocent enough at first, but then grew in passion and intensity. Kitty stood on her tippy toes and wrapped her arms around his neck, deepening the kiss. Kitty became so overcome with passion that without thinking, she surfaced for air and began to unbutton his shirt, running her hands on his bare chest. She then grabbed his head and pulled him back in for a passionate kiss, this time letting her hands slowly trail down his chest.
Matt didn't necessarily object to the way things were headed. There's nothing he would like more to do right now than strip her naked and make hot, passionate love to her. But, up to this point, they had only kissed and he wasn't exactly sure what the nature of their relationship was to each other so the gentleman in him couldn't let them get caught up in the moment if they truly were just friends.
"Whoa now Kitty," Matt took her hands away from his chest.
Kitty stepped back shocked, more than a little hurt that he had stopped her advances.
"Take it easy now, Kit. I'm still a little banged up. Besides, it's not that I don't want this, I just want to make sure it's what you really want, not what you feel like you have to do."
"I'm sorry," she said sheepishly. "My emotions just got the best of me."
"I know what you mean. I missed you too, Kit."
"I sure could use a drink. What about you?" She asked.
"I'd like that."
And she walked over to the decanters to pour them a drink as Matt set down on the setee. She took a seat beside him but Matt soon pulled her into his lap. As a single tear began to fall down his cheek, Matt began to recount the painful events that transpired that fateful day a month ago.
TBC