Disclaimer: All the characters from the "Magnificent Seven" T.V. series are property of Trilogy Entertainment, The Mirisch Group, MGM Worldwide.
It was supposed to be a simple job for Mary Travis.
At least it was when she first set her mind to do it. The trunk had been gathering dust for sometime now and she had been telling herself repeatedly that it could not be left a day longer every time she made her bed and noticed it. With Chris out at the saloon with the rest of the seven and she had a few hours to herself, Mary decided she would finally make good on the decision to sort through the contents, discarding what was refuse and doing something definitive as the rest. She had slipped into her work clothes and produced the nice new box covered in rose patterned paper where she would keep the more precious items that she came across.
As she pulled the lid open on the heavy trunk and felt the dust drift into the air, having been shaken loose after experiencing the dormant existence beneath her bed, she wrinkled her nose at the intrusion of particles and coughed slightly when some of them entered her lungs. She realised then just how long the trunk had been hiding where she had secreted it. It had not been a matter of months but of years, three to be exact. If one required a specific date, it would have to be approximately two months after Steven had died.
Even now, the pain was fresh and sharp when she thought about her husband. She loved Chris Larabee and would die if he were ever taken from her but they had come to each other jaded and worn and somehow found something beautiful in their mutual despair. With Steven, it had been so different. As Mary started shifting through the things she had hidden away because the memories were too painful to endure, she had not even noticed when the first tears started running down her pink cheeks. She saw pictures of them both, not as they were when they were straight laced and respectable but of a time even more distant in the past.
She remembered cool nights when Steven would tap on the glass of her bedroom window. He was seventeen years and she was fifteen. If her father knew that he was out there, poor Steven would not have made it to eighteen but Mary never cared. She would slip on her dress and they would bolt across the lawn and escape into the darkness, caring for nothing except that they were together. They never behaved anything less than respectable but Steven had always wanted to show her the world, even if it was just their corner of it.
Their favourite place was a creek not too far from his house and they would sit by the bank, watching fireflies do their luminescent dance to the song of croaking frogs. With the stars above them, keeping watch over them, they would sit and talk of the places they would go and whisper dreams that would carry them away forever. When she went back to that same creek after he died, she saw nothing but a fly infested bog, full of mosquitoes and crawling things. She stood by the bank watching its decay with confusion at where the beauty had disappeared until she realised it was Steven being with her that had made it beautiful.
She never went back there again.
As she studied the pictures of them together, of happy smiles and possibility etched in their eyes, Mary started crying softly without even being aware that she was weeping. Her fingers ran gently across the faded photograph, trying to remember what his skin felt like under her fingertips and felt fresh tears when the faded visage before her was unable to answer. Steven made her understand how precious life was, how each moment should never be squandered but enjoyed like the final sip in cool drink of lemonade. He had taught her to watch the sunset, to revel in the colours that dragged the curtain of night in the sun's gradual departure.
She used to watch it after he was gone and like the creek, realised that him by her side that made it beautiful. She stopped sitting on the back porch when he was gone and after awhile forgot all together why she did not do so any more, the further away he faded into the past. Mary did not remember again until the first time Chris had sat there with her and she had gazed into the dusk falling around them that she realised that the beauty had come back. Perhaps, it was at that moment, she knew that Steven was gone and Chris was the future.
She wiped her tears when her cheeks became too wet and continued shifting through the photographs, finding the corsage, now withered and brittle, that he had bought her on their first time to a real dance before finally arriving at the pictures of him and Billy. Mary stared at those images of Steven and her Billy, no more than two years then; smiling into the camera and waving for her because she had gone to Eagle Bend the day the photographer was in town. Billy looked so much like Steven it stabbed at her heart like a thousand knives and broke down whatever composure she had left.
Mary wept, feeling the loss at this moment more profoundly than when he had died. She could not understand why she was crying because she had come to terms with his being gone a long time ago. She had moved on as she promised him she always would and she had found happiness but seeing Steven with Billy, knowing that he would never do all those things they had promised to do together when the children came struck Mary with intense grief. Her entire body shuddered as she cried harder than she had cried even when she had first found him lying on the floor of the old house, his blood running through the floorboards.
"Mary?" Chris hurried into the room and found her on the floor, sobbing. He had stopped in to say hello when he had made his way up the stairs and heard the tears he knew could only be for her.
Mary looked up, feeling foolish as she tried to compose herself. He was at her side in a moment, dropping to his knees so that he could reach her. No sooner than he was within her reach, Mary buried herself in his arms and wept.
"What is it?" He asked, genuine alarmed at this inexplicable show of grief. She did not answer, clinging on to him as she sobbed and Chris felt helpless, not understanding until his eyes moved to the trunk and he saw what was within it. Then he understood almost completely and stopped his question, stroking her hair gently as she released a torrent of sorrow in memory of the man he could never replace, just as she could never take Sarah's place in her heart.
"I'm sorry Chris," she stammered after a moment. "I don't know what came over me." She replied. "I was just going through this things and it just started."
"Its okay," he whispered softly. "I've been there too."
He moved her gently up to the bed and they both sat there, side by side for a spell as Mary took control of herself. Chris let his eyes moved to the pictures and saw one of Mary and Steven; they could not have been any more than teenagers.
"That you?" He asked with a bemused smile as he reached down and picked up the picture. He had not thought it possible that the mane of golden hair could have been any lighter in colour. However, in the black and white image of her before him, Chris could tell that her hair must have been almost flaxen in her youth.
"Yes." She sniffled. "Steven and I were going to our first dance." She said shyly. "My father was so happy that someone actually asked me that he went and got one of those photography devices just to frame the moment. Apparently, he thought I'd never have a beau because I was so headstrong."
"Really?" He said with a raised brow. "I can't imagine that."
Mary chuckled slightly and sniffled into a linen handkerchief she had produced from her pocket. "Steven brought me this corsage and I had no idea what to do with it until he explained it to me and then I thought it was very presumptuous of him to assume that I was his girl just for one dance."
Chris could picture a young Mary Travis giving the poor young Steven hell and then let his mind drift. "I had to get Buck to pass my messages to Sarah." He confessed with a smile on his own. "Ol' Hank wouldn't let me near his daughter. I wanted to ask her to meet me one day so I got Buck to pass this message to this girl he knew who was friends with Sarah. I turned up at the meeting place with my best Sunday clothes and there was her pa with a gun."
Mary giggled, feeling inordinately better. "What did you do?"
"Ran out of there before he put some buckshot into me." Chris retorted and was rewarded with another titter of delight and a smile on her face. With a start, he realised he had not told anyone that story, not even Buck who never knew the outcome of that particular rendezvous. Still, it had made Mary smile and that was worth a tiny fragment of his dignity.
"I've been thinking Chris," she raised her blue grey eyes to his, a serious note creeping into his voice. "I would like to bring Billy home permanently. He's been away from me long enough."
"I think that's a good idea." He nodded in agreement. "Boy should be with his mother." Chris paused a moment and then asked. "How do you think he'll take to us being together?"
"Billy adores you Chris." Mary said without hesitation. "I've only ever seen him that happy with his father but obviously, adjustments will have to be made. I'm through letting someone else to raise my son. I need him to be with me."
"Okay," Chris replied, perfectly aware how much she missed Billy when the boy was forced to return to the judge whenever his school breaks were over. Mary would spend the next day or so pining for him and it made Chris ached to see her that way. There were times, he had to keep himself from riding to Eagle Bend and bringing Billy back to her. However, if Billy Travis was going to make a permanent return to the household then perhaps, there needed to be some other adjustments made as well. "Maybe we ought to think about getting married."
Unlike her normal reaction, which was usually to talk him out of it, there was no argument to that effect this time. She merely nodded and let out a deep breath before meeting his eyes once again. "Perhaps we should."
"Really?" Chris was mildly surprised that she had capitulated so easily. He was perfectly aware that marriage frightened her a little and had not pressed the issue during the past few months but if Billy were to come home, then changes would have to be made. For starters, he could not come and go as he pleased since he was sharing her bed most nights and he could not imagine staying away from her, stealing secret meetings only when time allowed for it. He could not stand sleeping without her in his arms and he loved the scent of her hair in his lungs when he awoke in the morning.
"I think we should set a date." Mary declared, showing just how serious she was on this point. However, she did not want to marry Chris simply because Billy was coming home. The past few months with him had been wonderful, despite the calamities that turned up with regular frequency. She still could not imagine why they had stayed away from each other so long in the light of all they had come to mean to one other since admitting how they felt. Perhaps shifting through Steven's things had reminded her how truly short life was and it was necessary to grab on with both arms, when true happiness showed itself.
Like the happiness she felt with Chris Larabee.
"When?" This was one area where he had no particular reference.
"Preferably before Billy gets home." Mary answered without having to think twice, giving Chris the impression that she had pondered this question before this moment.
"Just tell me which church to show up at." He threw her a grin. "I'll turn up in my best Sunday suit."
"You don't have a Sunday suit any more." She pointed out.
"That's right," he teased. "I guess we'll just have to call it off."
Mary merely smiled at him and felt the need to hold him close. She slipped her arms around his taut body and held him tight as she relished the sound of his heart beating so close to her ear. Chris wrapped his arms around her and wondered how he had ever let this widow with her golden hair so close to him that he could not imagine living without her. At the moment however, Chris left such questions for another time. All he knew was Mary wanted to be held and in that, he would always oblige her.
Ezra Standish watched Julia Pemberton swirled the contents of her coffee cup with her spoon for the dozen time, without saying a word. They were enjoying a quiet Sunday afternoon, watching the day go by from her back porch that overlooked a delightful garden she had spent considerable time and effort cultivating since buying the house. While it seemed overly manicured with its trimmed hedges and bird feeder, Ezra knew it was a sentimental gesture that beckoned back to the days when she was socialite from a world far removed from the one she now inhabited.
It was at her invitation that he shared this afternoon luncheon and yet she had barely said two words to him since his arrival, nor had she even touched the food on her plate. Ezra had tried drawing her out of her self-imposed silence but she seemed determined to be lost in thought while he made futile attempts at conversation. By the time she had poured them both coffee, his patience was almost at breaking point. He would have left already if he had not believed that there was something on her mind that she was having a great deal of difficulty voicing.
"Well," he said easing back into his chair because that was far easier than fighting the urge to throw the spoon in her teacup into the garden, if just to eliminate the sound of metal scrapping against the porcelain bottom of her cup. "This has been a scintillating afternoon, you are certainly in rare form today." He commented, unable to hide the sarcasm from his voice. " I simply cannot begin to list down which snippet of your witty repertoire I enjoyed most."
Julia looked up at him, her green eyes meeting his gaze with a look of intense fear that Ezra immediately felt guilty for making such a sharp remark.
"I'm sorry." She apologised. "I am a bit distracted today." She shifted her eyes to the food before her and winced visibly at the sight of it, before shoving the plate away.
"Julia," he reached across her table and took her hand in his. Only when he enclosed her tiny palm in his did he realise that she was shaking. Suddenly, Ezra felt inordinately insensitive; unable to fathom why she was so afraid but furthermore at his inability to notice any of it until now. Julia was hardly the most sentimental of women even though she was feminine in every way. Very little effected her to such a degree and Ezra wished she would let him in on what that could be so terrible to drive her to such distraction. "What on earth is the matter?"
Julia swallowed hard; not knowing how to say the words for the idea was so awful that she was scarcely able to hear herself saying them. However, she had no choice in the matter. He had a right to know and perhaps he might have a solution because she certainly did not. Julia had suspected this terrible possibility for the last two weeks and with each day that passed, grew more certain that her fears was not unjustified and were the harbinger of an even worse fate.
Finally, she knew that there was no other way but to simply tell him and face his reaction, whatever it would be. Julia swallowed thickly and let the words slip past her throat into his hearing.
"Ezra, I think I'm pregnant."
Considering what she had just told him, Ezra thought held his poker face quite well. Amazingly enough, instead of descending into a blind panic or adhering to the little voice in his head that was telling him in no uncertain terms to pack his bags and start running until he hit the border, Ezra remained calm and opted for another approach.
"Are you sure?" He asked with a perfectly calm voice, fully aware that she was watching his reaction very closely.
"Yes," Julia nodded slowly. "I am late."
Ezra nodded slowly, allowing the full implications of his statement seeping into his consciousness. In truth, he felt fear. Cold and sharp like nothing he had ever experienced in his life. It took the air out of his lungs and compelled him to start running. It was not that he disliked the possibility that now presented itself. He liked children, enjoyed their company but in no way did he wish to have any of his own, at least not yet. His relationship with Julia was relatively new and she hardly seemed to overflow with maternal instinct. He remembered what his own childhood had been like with Maude pawning him off on a string of relatives. Julia reminded him a great deal of Maude, too much as a matter of fact that he would like any child of his own to endure the same upbringing.
"I don't want it." She said softly, her lips trembling.
He looked at her and saw that she was about to break into a thousand pieces but he could offer her no false hope in that regard. "Julia, I don't see how you can work your way around it."
"There are places." Julia stood up from the table and walked the wooden porch rail. Because she was unable to look him in the eye when she said this. She had no idea how he was going to take her suggestion. Some men may find it a relief while others may abhor such a radical idea not to mention the moral implications of what she intended. "That take care of it."
Ezra knew the kind of places she was talking about and he also knew that these things were performed by half witted butchers who claimed to have a medical license and usually ended up killing the patient. The procedures were done in darkened alleys that stunk of drink and urine. He shuddered just envisioning Julia under ministrations of such men. "I know the ones." He said softly, understanding the fear in her eyes was real and was not about to rebuke her for such a suggestion.
If he could feel this incessant pounding in his chest that was making him so terrified he could hardly speak, whatever could she be enduring? He stood up and went towards her, slipping his arms around her waist and drawing her back into his chest, so that he could hold her and let her know that he was not angry or upset but rather supportive. Ezra felt the sigh of relief that escaped her when she felt his arms around her and tightened his grip, trying to will his strength into her.
After a moment however, Ezra made her turn around and look at him. "Those men are hardly doctors, let alone surgeons. I do not want you to suffer that." What he did not say was that he could not bear to lose her if such a procedure when wrong as it was likely to do. Still, there were not a lot of options left to them other than the most obvious and yet neither had voiced it. Suddenly, Ezra knew he would have to make the first step because it was a gentlemen's duty. "Marry me."
"Oh god!" She groaned and broke away from him at that suggestion. Breathing hard, she drew a few feet away from him and then began pacing before the wooden floorboards like a caged animal, trapped and cornered in a snare that had no visible means of escape. At that moment, Ezra had never seen her looking more vulnerable.
"I should take that as an insult." Ezra responded, trying not to take offence at her less than delighted response to his proposal but understood the fear that motivated it. He tried to inject some humour into the situation hoping he could at least draw a smile from her. However, judging by the nervous expression in her eyes, it was not helping.
"I don't want to have it." She stared at him in nothing less than wide-eyed fear now that she had revealed her terrible situation. "I'm not ready for children or marriage. I mean I have my independence for the first time in my life, I'm happy! I can't think of having children!' She was starting to ramble now and Ezra went to her again recognising the seeds of panic in her emerald coloured eyes.
Wrapping her shoulders with his arms, he held her for a while knowing that she needed to feel reassurance because she was terribly afraid and he could share her fears, although he was hardly in the same predicament. With men it was always simple. He could walk away and never have to worry about it. There was a time in the past when he was scoundrel enough to do that but that man was no more. "We do not have a great deal of choices left to us." Ezra whispered softly.
"I don't accept this." She replied breathlessly. "There must be a way out."
If there was, Ezra could not see it. He did not wish to be a father but it was inevitable, he could accept the role. He had no wish to allow any child to suffer the upbringing he had been forced to endure. No child should be made to feel that unwanted certainly not one of his own. He barely knew his father and had no more images of him other than a dapper smile and the glint of a gold pocket watch. Maude had chosen not to speak very much about him and so Ezra had gone through his life not knowing what it was to have a father. He would not wish that uncertainty on any child of his.
"Julia," he made her look at him. "We will think of something. " He said reassuringly. "I promise you, you will not endure this alone."
And yet as she stared into this eyes, she could see nothing but loneliness in the road ahead.
As soon as she had read the contents of the telegram, Alexandra Styles had started running. She hurried to the infirmary and found that Nathan was not presiding over his clinic. There had been no criminal activity of any sort during the past week so the jailhouse was empty. Thus that meant that the only other place he could be was naturally in the saloon where all the seven seemed to gravitate whenever they had a spare moment. Normally, she did not like to go into the establishment because proper women did not frequent such places but lately she gone in there for so many legitimate reasons that it hardly mattered to the townsfolk of Four Corners any more. Besides, the news in her hands could not wait.
She stepped through the bat wing doors and immediately spotted the group seated around their regular table except for Buck who was indulging in his favourite past time, flirting with Inez. The saloon was not very busy so Inez was humouring the big man as he performed his usual mating dance that would soon be followed by the inevitable rejection when Inez shot him down with a spirited refusal. Josiah, Vin, Nathan and JD were playing cards and it was the tracker who noticed her first.
He offered her a warm smile as she approached and her eventual arrival was met with a chorus of greeting from everyone respectively.
"It is time for our ride already?" Vin asked, certain that he had yet another hour to go before he was meant to call on her. He glanced at pendulum clock hanging on the wall, with its pitted glass covering and saw that he was correct in it being too early. Normally on Sundays, when Alex was not busy with patients, the two of them would ride out of town and enjoy a lazy afternoon exploring the country. Vin knew Alex enjoyed getting out of Four Corners as much as he did and thus had been treating her to these excursions without having to worry about her safety if she had went alone.
"No, it isn't. Inez," Alex looked up at the lady bartender and called out. "How about some champagne!"
"Champagne?" Inez exclaimed. "Are you kidding? In here? All we got that is even close is rotgut left in the sun. It fizzes when I uncork the bottle."
"Darlin' you don't drink." Vin pointed out, looking at her with confusion in his eyes.
"I know, " she responded cheerfully, throwing him one of her more dazzling smiles before turning back to Inez to reconsider her drinking options. "Okay, sarsaparilla then."
Inez rolled her eyes and returned. "Coming right up, you reckless thing you."
"Are we celebrating?" Josiah inquired, exchanging amused glances with the rest of the man at the table over Alex's unusually exuberant demeanour.
"Yes," Alex grinned simply bursting with pride. She was very pleased with herself a this moment. "We are definitely celebrating." She replied and planted a very fierce kiss on Vin's lips. The men around the table responded with a series of hoots and whistles as the tracker turned very red before pulling her down on his lap.
"Siddown woman." He growled with a bashful smile on his face. "What's happened?"
"Nathan, I wrote to the Boston Medical Society last month." Alex announced and saw the confusion in everyone's face; even Nathan's himself. "I wrote to them about you. My father has an old friend on the board of regents at Harvard Medical School."
"You know someone at Harvard?" Josiah exclaimed.
"What's Harvard?" Buck inquired, unfamiliar with that particular institution.
"A very fancy school." JD answered. One could not possibly be hail from the big city and not know about that educational icon.
"Anyway," Alex shook her head from their distracting chatter and continued with her story. "I asked this old friend what it would take to have you qualify for a proper medical licence."
Nathan's eyes widened in nothing less than astonishment. "You did that for me Miss Alex?" He asked, unable to believe that she would make such inquiries on his behalf to such a prestigious institution.
"Of course," she shrugged, surprise that he could even ask such a thing. "Anyway, obviously you're too old to go to medical school not to mention the cost of it but I convinced them that you are highly skilled but lacking no certification and he informed me in this telegram," she waved the crumpled in her hand and continued speaking. "That if you were to study your brains out for the next year, you can sit for the equivalency exam next fall."
"Hear that Nathan!" Buck slapped him on the back with a wide grin. "You gonna be a real doctor!"
"Hold it!" Alex frowned at Buck for interrupting because there was a little bit more to it than just that. "If you pass the exam then you'll have to spend the next three years working closely with me so I can complete your accreditation. However, at the end of it, you'll sit for another exam and get yourself a legitimate medical degree as a fully fledged general practitioner!"
"All right!" Nathan practically leapt out of the chair as Alex rose off Vin's lap to embrace him hard. "I can't believe you did this for me Miss Alex. I don't know what to say!" He stammered and finally decided to express his gratitude by twirling her around once before setting her down, the wide grin on his face a clear indication of how he felt about the opportunity before him.
"Its what you deserve. Doc." Vin smiled, inordinately proud of Alex for going to all the effort for Nathan. He slid his arm around her waist and pulled her down onto his lap once again.
"That's wonderful Nathan." Inez who had come to the table with Alex's drink, set it down near Vin's own glass of whisky before giving the healer a warm embrace of her own. "You will make such a good doctor."
"Doctor Jackson," JD laughed easing back into his chair. "I think it sounds really neat."
"Now hold on," Nathan reminded, not about to let everything go to his head just yet. "I still got to pass that exam."
"And put up with her for the next three years." Vin pointed out and caused Alex to pull his hat down over his face playfully.
"I can help you study Nathan." JD offered being the only one of the group with the most recent experience of school and studying.
"Well I can take care of the entertainment at recess." Buck replied, not willing to be left out of anything. "The only question is blond or brunette."
"Senor Wilmington," Inez shaking her head with disapproval. "You are a pig." She said sharply before turning back to the bar with her skirt flouncing behind her.
"She loves me you know," Buck looked at the others as he prepared to follow her. "She's fighting it but she does indeed love me." With that, Buck strode away to continue his afternoon attempt at winning the hand of the fair but adamant Inez.
"Come by the clinic tomorrow Nathan," Alex said in the wake of Buck's departure. "I've got most of the books you'll need for this exam so you can get started on working up some type of study schedule and believe you will need it. There is hell and then there is studying to be a doctor. You should see what I had to go through as intern."
"If its anything like what I seen in the field hospital during the war, it ain't going to frighten me much." Nathan replied, still feeling euphoric after Alex's statement. Ever since he had helped his first patient that was all Nathan had ever wanted to be, a doctor. Not just some back yard quack that might have some skill in mending bones but an honest to God doctor, with his name on the door and a piece of paper saying he could heal.
"Wait until you have to do your first autopsy." Alex remarked with a smile, remembering the experience well. "It's not the cutting that gets to you, it's the smell of the formaldehyde."
"Easy ma'am," Josiah responded nudging her gaze towards JD who was visualising the picture and turning a shade green at the same time.
"Sorry JD." Alex apologised. "I keep forgetting not to talk shop."
"I can take it." JD said with great dignity although he did admit the idea of autopsy or anything to do forensic medicine did make his stomach quiver. Sure, the young man had seen his share of bodies but to imagine them on a table, bare with the cause of their death displayed so clearly while someone started disembowelling it with a knife, did send shivers down his spine.
"Sure you can." Josiah rolled his eyes with a resigned expression on his face that told the others not to argue with the boy.
"Its nice thinking that I'll be a doctor some day though." Nathan sighed, easing into his chair with a smile of contentment on his face. "A little country doctor where I get paid in nickels and dimes."
"Not to mention chickens." Alex pointed out with a laugh.
"Chickens?" JD looked at her. "Someone paid you in chickens?"
"Yeah?" Alex nodded, "we get paid in barter all the time."
"That's right." Nathan replied, knowing that with some people it was necessary to accept payment in currency that was not cold hard cash. He would have treated them anyway without the money but pride was a difficult thing to hurdle. Some patients insisted on paying, with whatever they had. "You don't think I got new curtains in my infirmary cause I decided to sew them? That was Mrs Samuels, paying me for fixing her Becky's teeth."
"Don't forget the jams, preserves and the pies." She added.
"I knew it was too good to be true." Vin said wistfully.
"What?" Josiah looked at him.
"That she made all those herself. I thought I finally had me a woman who could cook." He offered Alex a devilish grin and she threw him a sarcastic smirk.
"Keep it up and you won't have a woman at all." She retorted and pulled herself off his lap. "Well gentlemen, its been fun and you if you're real nice," she glared at Vin. "I'll see you in awhile." Her lips curled into the barest hint of an affection smile that Vin returned in kind before she kissed him on the cheek and swept out of the saloon.
"Now that's a real nice lady." Nathan grinned, still shell shocked by what Alex had done for him. Since her arrival, they had been the best of friends ever since she pulled those bullets out of him that almost ended his life. With the arrival of the doctor in town, Nathan had thought that his services would no longer be required since most practitioners were rather territorial but Alex was never like that. She treated him like an equal and more than that, she treated him like a friend. They were not only healers but almost family. She reminded him of someone he once knew although he never voiced that similarity to her or anyone else. Even Rain understood that their friendship was completely platonic but extremely close. While Alex was a private person who rarely revealed much of her inner thoughts to people, Nathan had a deeper sense of her than possibly Vin himself.
"A bit of pain." Vin volunteered even though he did not at all mean it. He was as close to happy as he had ever been with his life in Four Corners, the friends who shared it and the woman who loved him.
"Sure Vin." Even JD knew that he was lying.
"See," Josiah smiled at the younger man. "You are learning things already."
Nicholas Serfonteine had no intention of climbing out of the stagecoach, much less take in the sights of this utterly panoramic vista of a town that happened to be called Four Corners. The stagecoach driver had noticed a crack in the axle of the stagecoach and knew that it was only the first symptom of a much larger problem should it be left unchecked. Nicholas could not blame him of course, he supposed it was a necessary evil to avoid a complete collapse of the axle which could end causing an accident or worse.
"It looks we shall have to take a slight detour my dear." He said to his sister, Violet. As siblings went, they did not look very much unlike. Violet had his mother's dark gold hair and her clear blue eyes. She was vacuous as most southern women of her day since she was born after the war and had no memory of those terrible days when the Northern army had plundered their world.
"Whatever do you mean Nicholas?" She inquired, staring at him with her doe eyed look, an expression of innocence that belied what he truly about his sister. Vacuous she might be but there were dark thoughts running inside that pretty little head.
"The driver has informed me that there is a problems with the carriage and we will need to stop and have it repaired."
"I had no idea this trip was going to be so tiresome." She gushed, reaching into her velvet bag and producing a small lace fan, which she promptly started waving at her supposedly warm face.
"You did want to come." He reminded her. The West was opening up and Nicholas was wise enough to know that the day of the plantations in the South was done. To survive, one had to adhere to the convention of the day, to move beyond the cotton fields into the unexplored territory of business opportunity. The Serfonteine family had suffered better than most in the aftermath of the war. This was mostly his foresight to invest a considerable part of the family's fortune in a northern bank. Some may have considered this sacrilegious but Nicholas was not about to be left destitute no matter how things went in the great conflict.
In any case, the end of the war had seen him retaining enough assets to rebuild his plantation while neighbours and friends collapsed in defeat to the scavenging of carpetbaggers who bought their land from under them. Nicholas had survived the war and his family had prospered despite the indignity of northern rule in his home in the great state of Georgia.
"I thought there was some semblance of civilisation in the West, not the primitive sewers we have been forced to endure." She replied looking out the window at the parched landscape with clear distaste.
"These primitive sewers are the cornerstones on which the West will be built, my dear Violet and it is a wise man that takes part in all that. There is a fortune to be made."
"Oh do stop talking about money," she replied closing her fan and slipping it back into her purse. "It is so tiresome when you drone on about such things. A real lady has no use for that kind of information, I only require that it is there for my use."
Nicholas laughed, pleased that he had raised Violet the way his mother would have been proud. Elisabeth Serfonteine had passed on ten years ago. She was already old when Violet was born and the birth had weakened her considerably. She spent the next ten years after Violet's arrival bedridden and pining for the way things were and the father that had fallen on the fields of Gettysburg. He had brought Violet up the way a proper southern woman ought to be raised, shielding her away from the unsavoury ideas filtering from the north.
Of course, he had his own way of fighting such things too.
With the emancipation of slaves and former property strutting around the town he lived as good as you please, Nicholas had no choice but to take action. He could not see how their current situation was any better than their ordered existence on the plantation where they were provided with good honest work and a belly full of food. Instead they were not forced to scramble for scraps, taking on work that should have gone to decent white families barely getting by in the wake of Yankee plunder. It infuriated him when he heard words like 'civil right' and equality when any sane person knew that the white man was meant to rule and a nigger was just a nigger.
Not that it was just the niggers that were getting uppity, travelling in the West had been an eye opening experience where he had seen all kind of racial types polluting the waters so to speak. There were Mexicans moving up north from the border, Chinamen who inhabited railway lines like infestations of locusts and rats, growing in number while demanding to be respected. The abominations seem to escalate with each town he visited, half breed children running around the place, their odd colouring revealing the bastardisation two species.
Yes, if he did not feel so inclined at the moment to return home, he would have been tempted to stay and do something about it. It appeared the West was in need of some decent ethnic values regarding purity of race and the dangers of contamination.
"This must be it." Violet declared as the barren landscape of flat, unending plains was quickly replaced by the busy street of a small town.
Snapping out of his thoughts, Nicholas stared out the window and saw a town not much different than any other he had seen so far in the west. Wooden buildings covered in dust, a few stone edifices that marked itself as government built, generals stores and barber shops with its striped poles, not to mention the saloons that were a necessary staple of life in this rugged frontier village. There was nothing here that Nicholas found surprising or at all interesting. All he wanted was to find a cool place to sit out the heat while the stagecoach was repaired. As it was, he had no idea how Violet was going to stand being in such a place, considering her attention span was limited to how much she could entertain herself.
"Hardly a charming place." He remarked and saw from her unhappy expression that she agreed with him wholeheartedly.
"How long are we to remain in this place?" She asked hoping that it was not very long because could not abide having to remain here more than a day.
"Until the stage is fixed." Nicholas retorted as the rumbling in the carriage started to fade away gradually as the stage came to a stop.
"That cannot be soon enough." She grumbled and Nicholas had to admit he could not disagree with that assessment.
Nathan and Vin left the saloon together.
Nathan wanted to take a ride out to the Seminole village to see Rain and tell her the good news. The healer was on such a euphoric high at the moment, he wanted to share it with the woman he loved. It was still so hard to believe that a medical degree was within his grasp and it was no pipe dream. All he had to do was launch into his studies with the same kind of determination he launched into everything and some day he would be Doctor Jackson. He liked the sound of that very much.
"So you gonna head out today?" Vin inquired as the two men walked along the boardwalk together since they were both going each other's way.
"I think maybe I'll go at dawn tomorrow and surprise Rain." Nathan grinned. "So that you and Miss Alex can have your ride in peace this afternoon, in case anything comes up." By that of course he meant any medical emergencies that might occur in town while she was with Vin. Since her arrival in town, Nathan and Alex had taken turns covering for each other whenever the need arose for one of them to leave.
Vin smiled faintly. "Thanks," he replied quietly and then added, "I'm real glad she did this for you Nathan. Ain't no one I know who deserves to be a doctor more than you. You saved my skin a couple times for me to know that you're a born healer. I know Alex thinks so too."
"That real good of you to say Vin," Nathan found himself genuinely touched by the admission. "Some people have a calling," Nathan confessed. "I guess healing folks has always been mine. Always seemed to have a knack for it."
"It's more than a knack," Vin pointed out as they saw the stage rumbling into town. "You got a way with people that makes 'em trust you."
Nathan could not say that he knew exactly what Vin was talking about but he did know that he had been drawn to healing from the first moment he had entered the walls of that field hospital during the war. Even now, the stench of old blood lingered in his memory when he recalled the sight of uniformed bodies, whether they were blue or grey, stained in blood, their pain dissolving the cause they had fought and would soon die for as well. They wept, screamed, argued and prayed but all wearing the same need in their eyes. He had wandered through the halls that first day, watching the doctors hiding their own pain behind their eyes for the ones who could not be saved and taking not enough pleasure from the ones that could.
"Is the stage meant to be in today?" He asked off-handedly as the carriage thundered past them and came to a halt outside the Four Corners Hotel.
"I thought it didn't come through here on a Sunday." Vin replied now that he thought about it. Four Corners was not a large enough town to warrant the stage coming on a daily basis. It normally made its arrival in town twice or perhaps three times a week but no more than that. Besides, there were really not that many people who wished to visit this particular locality. Four Corners was hardly what one would call the most attractive place in the Territory for a visit, not when it was easy enough to reach Sweet Water or Eagle Bend which was more responsive to tourist needs. Four Corners was still trying to function as a town to go that route at this point.
The stagecoach driver pulled the team of horses to a standstill before climbing off his perch. Opening the door for the passengers inside the carriage, a man and a young woman stepped out of the compartment and surveyed the town with interest and very quickly Vin saw that interest fade into dismay. Judging from their clothes, they were rich and no doubt came from some big city with all its excesses. He could see the young lady in a particular state of dislike. Obviously, Four Corners was not the most palatable place for a lady of her naturally sophisticated tastes.
Nathan could not believe it.
For a moment, he thought his eyes were playing tricks on him because his astonishment was too complete to accept the other alternative, that what he was seeing was no illusion and the man stepping out of the stagecoach was exactly who Nathan believed he was. It had almost been twenty years in the past but the memories allowed Nathan to recognise the face just as clearly as if it had been only yesterday. A wave of nausea threatened to overwhelm the healer as he stared into the face that had been the source of so many nightmares. How many times had he awaken screaming in the night, covered in sweat while the lingering memory of that face laughed at his impotent fury.
"Serfonteine." Nathan uttered that one word and started walking.
"Who?" The tracker asked but received no answer.
Vin stared after him in confusion as Nathan strode across the street, purpose in every forceful step towards the carriage and its occupants. Instinct forced Vin after Nathan, not knowing why but recognising trouble on the horizon by all the hairs on the back of his neck that were standing on end. There was something in Nathan's voice that Vin had never heard before and it unsettled him.
Nathan was across the street in no time and it was the stagecoach driver that saw him first. He had on occasion treated the man who went by the name of Charlie Burns for injuries incurred during his stage coaching duties. While the two were not close friends, they were friendly enough when they came across each other.
"Howdy Nathan." He greeted pleasantly as his passengers turned at the sound the rapidly approaching footsteps against the dirt.
Nathan did not answer and as he drew closer to the man, knew with absolute certainty that he was not wrong in his identification. This was him, all right. No doubt about it.
Without giving quarter or warning, Nathan literally pounced on the man and brought him down like a sack of rice, slamming him hard against the ground. The woman beside him staggered backward and started screaming.
"Nathan are you crazy!" Charlie shouted as Nathan grappled with Nicholas Serfonteine on the ground. The woman had cringed away as Nathan started pummelling the man beneath him with heavy blows.
'You bastard!" Vin heard Nathan scream as he went to help Charlie to pull the healer off the stranger. The voice that Nathan used was unlike anything Vin had ever heard Nathan utter. The intensity of the hate in it was beyond description and Vin was at a loss to understand what could inspire such anger, especially from a man as abhorrent of violence as Nathan. It there was anyone in their group that could be relied upon to keep a cool head at all times, it was the healer. Yet watching him tear into the man below him with such brutal rage, Vin knew if he did not stop it soon, Nathan was going end up killing him.
"Charlie shut that woman up!" Vin snapped as he brushed past the driver and wrapped his arm around Nathan's arm. A small crowd had started to form, attracted by the commotion by the time Vin was able to tear Nathan away from the man. It took almost every ounce of strength the tracker possessed to wrench Nathan free of the man but somehow he managed. Nicholas scrambled to his feet, almost as confused as everyone else who was witnessing the event.
"Nathan take it easy!" Vin tried to reason with his friend, who was in no mind to hear anything.
"Stay out it Vin!" Nathan fairly snarled and glared at Vin with look in his eyes that bordered on murder before he started back towards Nicholas again. However, Vin was not about to let him go any further than that and slammed the healer into the side of the stage, forcing his elbow into the man's throat just to get his attention.
"I said that's enough!" Vin shouted, staring hard into Nathan's eyes so that the healer would know that he meant what he was saying.
"You don't know who that is!" Nathan cried out almost hysterically. Vin had never seen him like this and frankly it shook the tracker to the core. The feral rage that Vin saw in his eyes astonished him and he knew that he was not going to be able to hold Nathan back for long.
"I suggest you keep your nigger under control!" The man said viciously as he shook the dust from his expensive clothes and was himself, being restrained by Charlie, who did not want this to escalate any further than it already had. Charlie, who also knew Nathan Jackson well and respected him, was almost as mystified by his behaviour as Vin Tanner.
"Mister, we don't use that word around here." Vin snapped angrily, still keeping a firm grip on Nathan who was struggling to break free of his hold. Vin was using almost every iota of strength in his body to keep Nathan pinned and was grateful when he saw Ezra appear.
"What is going on?" The gambler asked astonished when he saw Vin struggling to restrain Nathan from going after Nicholas Serfonteine who had calmed down enough for Charlie to release his hold. Unfortunately, Vin could not say the same for Nathan. The healer was fighting his grip and Vin was unsure of how much force he would need to use before he ended up hurting Nathan in his attempt to keep him at bay.
"Just shut and help me." Vin ordered. Still confused but understanding the urgency of the situation, Ezra brushed past the onlookers and helped Vin keep Nathan from doing anything else to exacerbate the situation. When he came to help, Ezra had not realised how hard a time Vin was having just keeping Nathan from breaking free. The look on the healer's face was almost rabid. He was fighting the tracker with every inch of his frenzied rage.
"Where is the law in this town?" The woman demanded. "I want this nigger locked up for this unprovoked attack on my brother!"
"Your brother is nothing but murdering rapist!" Nathan shouted in fury and produced a ripple of shock and horror throughout the crowd watching this altercation. Eyes immediately focussed on this stranger of which such heinous crimes had been accused.
Suddenly, the expression in the stranger's face changed as understanding poured into his eyes with that statement even as the woman recoiled from Nathan's harsh words. His eyes narrowed as if looking at Nathan for the first time and the barest hint of a smile curled his lips into a look of recognition.
"Well, well, if it isn't Ajax." Nicholas grinned; finally comprehending what this was all about. "Not the response I'd expect from an old acquaintance."
"That ain't my name!" Nathan screamed with renewed vigour that he almost broke free from the combined efforts of Vin and Ezra to keep him from tearing out the man's throat out with his bare hands. Both men had seen Nathan set enough bones and dislocated joints to know that there was enough strength in his hands to do just that. "My name is Nathan! Nathan Jackson and you ain't my master no more to be calling me that!"
Both Vin and Ezra exchanged glances as they began to realise why Nathan was acting the way he was.
"Oh shit." Vin muttered under his breath, as he understood what was the source of all of Nathan's anger. "Mister," he turned sharply at the stranger. "I don't know who you are and I really don't care but it would be best if you got out his face before he does something that none of us can stop."
"He needs to be locked up," the man said viciously and just to be spiteful, added with a cruel sneer, "or at least subject to another good whipping to teach him his place."
That did it.
Whatever control Nathan had remaining, shattered at that moment. He broke free like a man possessed and lunged at his former master like a caged animal. He drove the stranger straight into the dirt and pulled his fist back to begin a fresh beating when his arm was caught from behind before he could strike the first blow. Nathan turned around sharply to attack whoever who had dared to stop him when he found him staring into the cold, blue eyes of Chris Larabee.
"That's enough Nathan." The gunslinger said with enough of an edge to his voice to penetrate the red haze of anger that had robbed the most sedate member of his group of all good sense. Chris' grip was strong enough to keep Nathan's fist from making contact with Nicholas Serfonteine's face. "You can't change what happened like this." Chris replied quietly. "You kill him and you'll only force us to take you in. Don't do that to us." Chris paused and then added. "Please."
Nathan swallowed hard because the words had penetrated, from the only person who might possibly know what he was feeling although even Chris could not fathom all of it. No white man ever could. He was shaking when he finally stepped away from the fallen man, never wanting to kill as much as he did at this moment. However, Chris was right. Murdering this piece of trash was not going to bring Rebecca back, nothing would.
Unfortunately, Nathan could not let this go.
"This ain't over." He met Chris' gaze and declared in no uncertain terms.
Chris exchanged a worried glance with Vin and Ezra and knew that he was probably right. This was far from over.