Disclaimer: All the characters from the "Magnificent Seven" TV series are property of Trilogy Entertainment, The Mirisch Group, MGM Worldwide.
Authors Note: This story is set between One Day out West and Working Girls.
When Chris saw Vin return with Mary, he knew instantly what had happened. They had heard the single gunshot and there was a finality to it that shot which seemed to resonate through them until it faded away. The others had fanned out in search of Mary until the loud discharge from Vin's sawn off Winchester echoed through the air and brought them back together again as they waited patiently for the outcome of it to be known. It was not long after that the tracker and Mary emerged from the darkness upon reaching the dim illumination of the campfire that had illuminated the area around the way station. They had tied up James and his men, leaving them in the building, turning their prison for the Judge and Mary into their own temporary cell.
A flood of relief filled Chris more than he liked when he saw Mary appear, alive and well. He did not know what he felt about her but at least he could now admit that there was something there, a spark of what might be perhaps. Chris could not say for certain and at the moment, he was still too filled with Sarah and Adam to be able to be able to comprehend life without them but at least he was starting to see that such a thing was possible for him anyway. He was a long way from embracing what his heart was feeling but that was perfectly fine with him, there was still much healing for him to do. For the moment, however, he was more concerned with Vin's healing then anything else. With the possible exception of Ezra, Chris knew the others did not see what he did.
When they first return to the others, Vin and Mary's appearance was met with euphoria. Mary ran straight into the Judge's embrace. The old man held his daughter in law close and his usually stony demeanor wavered enough for each man present to know how much having her back safely truly meant to him. Travis was not an overtly sentimental man but his eyes spoke volumes as he hugged Mary tightly.
Mary herself was happy to see that Travis had come out of the melee alive and well, returning his embrace with as much emotion and gusto. There was an instant when they had parted where she had turned her eyes to Chris and for a brief instant, transcended all the bindings that kept them from revealing their true emotions. However, a glimpse into each other's eyes was all that was needed and following that, it was brushed aside almost if nothing was ever said at all.
"Glad to see you're safe and sound Mary," Buck Wilmington declared with a grin.
"Thanks to all of you," Mary smiled and Chris noticed that she did not look at Vin when she said that.
"What about Jenny?" JD asked. "Where is she?"
Vin looked away for a moment and his blue eyes, often reflections of his soul and his mood, turned black as he answered. "Dead."
"Mr. Tanner I'm sorry." Ezra stared at the tracker with a concerned expression on his usually unreadable face.
"What happened?" Travis asked. Of course he would question Vin on this matter since he had no idea what the relationship between the two had been.
"She was going to kill me," Mary spoke up and spared Vin the anguish of saying it himself. "If it wasn't for Vin she would have. She was insane. Even when Vin pointed his gun at her and told her to stop, she wouldn't. I don't think anything would have made a difference. She wanted me to die."
Chris had a feeling that despite her efforts, Vin was not so easily absolved. The hollowness in his eyes revealed as much. The tracker did not say anything as he walked past and after hearing Mary's tale, none of them were in any mind to stop him. Chris stared after the young man and could feel Vin's pain tearing at him. He wished he could have been the one to pull the trigger on Jenny Miller, he would have spared Vin that agony. He could not imagine being in the tracker's place and he knew something of despair himself. Raising his eyes to the others, he decided that the best thing they could do was get out of here.
"Chris," Buck stared him straight in the eye. "You need to go after him."
Chris sucked in his breath and nodded. Buck was right. Someone had to say the words that made something of this situation mildly tolerable for Vin and the lot had fallen to him because of their symbiotic friendship. Buck knew people and he knew the human heart with almost intimate expertise and if Buck felt that he needed to do this, then Chris was not going to question it. In this he trusted Buck explicitly and a great deal more.
"Yeah," Chris nodded. "I think I will." He gave Buck a little smile to which his old friend returned with one that was corresponding and filled with emotion. In that second, whatever rift there had been between them melted away and though their friendship was not what it once was, the change it had undergone was also strong and perhaps ultimately better.
"Buck, can you and Nathan go see about finding her body? I don't want Vin to have to deal with it any more than he has to. Mary, you think you can show them where it is?"
Mary understood what he was going to do and why, so she nodded obediently. "I can show them."
Chris gave her a look of gratitude. "The rest of you hitch that wagon and get James and his men ready to travel. The sooner we get the hell out of here, the better."
To that no one could disagree.
He found Vin preparing Peso for travel at the campsite where they had hidden themselves until Travis had arrived at the station. The tracker had heard him coming and truth be known; there was no way anyone was sneaking up on Vin. Chris had learnt this much about the man in the short time they had ridden together. Vin had an almost uncanny sense of hearing and smell, traits that were probably necessary during his days as a buffalo hunter.
"I don't want to talk about it." Vin said before Chris could speak.
"Fair enough," Chris nodded in understanding as he paused behind Vin. The tracker made no effort to face him and Chris was not about to press the issue on that point. "You don't have to talk, just listen."
He saw Vin stiffened as if he was going to protest before thinking better of it and abandoning the whole idea. Chris could imagine what Vin was thinking, that it was better just to let Chris have his say and get it over and done with. It was what Chris himself would feel if their roles were reversed.
"You did what you to Vin," Chris said softly. "You didn't kill out of anger, or spite or any of the resentment you felt for her because of what she did. You pulled the trigger to save a life."
"You don't know that," Vin returned. "I don't even know that."
"I know you," Chris replied, "and that for me is enough. I know you wouldn't intentionally hurt anyone."
"You don't know how angry I was," Vin confessed turning around to face him. "She played me for a fool Chris!"
"I know," Chris said sympathetically. "I wanted her dead too Vin. I wanted to do it myself because of what she did to you and because you wouldn't do it yourself. The only reason you fired on her is because she gave you no choice. If you want to blame someone for her death, blame her. Don't blame yourself." Chris sucked in his breath and confided something he never thought he could to anyone. "I blame myself for what happen to my wife and son Vin. I know that if I had been home that night, they would still be alive. It's a guilt that's torn me up inside, that's changed more than just my life. It's changed me. I know that the man who was husband to Sarah and father to Adam is dead. My guilt killed him. I can be that man again and I miss him sometimes. Don't let the same thing happen to you, not because of someone like Jenny. Trust me Vin, you never want to know the horror of looking into a mirror one day and having no idea who's staring back you."
Vin did say a word but it sunk in because Chris had shown him what grief and guilt could do and he did not want that to happen to him. His heart was broken inside his chest but he did not wish to lose himself because of it. The emotion surfaced form deep inside him where he had hidden so much of himself. "I think I loved her Chris. As crazy as she turned out to be, I really think I loved her."
"Maybe you did but she was just too twisted inside to know how precious that was," Chris met his friend's gaze. "Its gonna hurt like hell Vin but I realized tonight that it won't hurt forever. It does go away if you want it too. It just takes time, like everything does."
Vin swallowed before replying, "I'm gonna head out on the trail for a couple of days. I need to be alone for awhile."
Chris nodded in understanding. There were no long conversations needed between the two of them and Vin was still to raw to bear all with Chris even though much of what he had said to the younger man had penetrated and for right now, Chris was happy for that much. Besides, Vin was a solitary soul and for men like him, the best way to heal was often alone. Chris would not intrude on that.
"Sure," the gunslinger smiled faintly. "You go on and do what you have to do, we'll take care of this."
"Thanks," Vin tipped his hat at Chris and mounted Peso with permission granted to leave.
Chris watched the tracker disappear into the night. Chris knew Vin would be back among them soon enough because he was part of the seven and more importantly, Vin was a part of him.
"I can't believe it," Josiah Sanchez said as he downed his glass of red eye.
"Believe it," Chris frowned as he eased back into his chair at their usual watering hole and signaled a passing barmaid to bring him another drink.
It had been a two weeks since Stuart James had been brought in for the attempted murder of Mary Travis and Chris had honestly believed that would be the end to the rancher and his delusions of grandeur regarding his mastery over Four Corners. Unfortunately, a whole bunch of fancy lawyers had seen to it that James walked free, citing the psychological stress induced by the death of his nephew had addled his brain somewhat and caused him to embark on such a criminal course. It did not help that James had been brought in by seven gunmen who had less than stellar reputations and when presented to a Judge who was not Orin Travis, had gone a long way to seeing the man's sentence suspended. Stuart James was a free man.
Fortunately, the Judge had seen it fit to point out that should Judge Travis and Mary come to any harm, the full measure of the law would be focusing on him as a suspect. Chris did not know whether or not that would be enough to deter James from further acts of revenge, but Judge Travis seemed to think it would. Travis had reasoned that with all eyes pointed in his direction, James would not be foolish enough to make another attempt at vengeance. Particularly, after he had time to cool down and grieve his nephew properly. No doubt James would surface again, probably to cause them as much inconvenience as possible.
"You think he'll stay away from the Judge and Mary?" JD asked, unable to believe how the law could allow this to happen.
"I don't think he'd be foolish enough to come after them," Nathan retorted. "Not after what that Judge Cahill had to say about him being the prime suspect if any harm came to the Judge and Miss Mary."
"Gentlemen," Ezra Standish lowered the paper he was reading. "I think its safe to say that one who is rich can get away with anything. Take this fellow here," the gambler glanced at his paper once more. "Donald Avery, real estate tycoon worth millions, according to this articles has been accused of numerous crimes that miraculously seem to evaporate. Men like this make criminal charges disappear and unfortunately, that is a fact of life."
"Great," JD frowned. "So you're saying if we're rich we can do anything and not answer for it?"
"Most of the time," Ezra sighed. "Mr. Avery here has rather made an art of it, no doubt like so many others before and after him."
"Stop reading that," Nathan remarked. "You're only torturing yourself over that guy's money."
Ezra smiled faintly at Nathan, somewhat aware over the past two weeks that the healer had taken it upon himself to rehabilitate Ezra into a somewhat tolerable human being with scruples. It amused Ezra to let Nathan think that he could succeed. "I am merely gaining intelligence regarding the man and his fortune, who knows he might have a daughter who seeks her thrills with charming professional gamblers."
Josiah rolled his eyes. "Dream on Ezra."
"How come we never see Vin anymore?" JD inquired, missing the presence of the tracker around them.
"He's around," Chris drawled. "Just needs some quiet time on his own occasionally."
"Can't say I blame him," Buck remarked. "Boy definitely got his heart cut out because of that girl. I keep convincing to come to this place I found but no, he won't hear anything of it. I mean he a little older than JD, he's gotta have needs."
"Jeez Buck," Chris winced. "Let the man alone. If he needs company he'll take care of it himself."
"Mr. Tanner is not the kind who partakes in the company of ladies of the night Mr. Wilmington," Ezra nodded in agreement.
"Well what about the rest of you?" Buck looked around the table.
Nathan raised a brown and stated. "And this is where I decide I'm going to my infirmary."
"And me to my church." Josiah retorted.
"This wouldn't be Wickestown would it?" Chris asked.
"You know it?" Buck stared at him, his face lighting up.
"I've been there a couple of times." The gunslinger drawled. What he didn't say was that he knew a rather charming working girl there named Lydia. Wickestown was an infamous collection of shanties where working girls under the yoke of a man named Wickes, serviced the local male population in the area looking for some company. Chris had visited there on occasion to keep such company with Lydia.
"Well I'm taking JD there," Buck announced and JD just about choked on his whiskey.
"You are?" The young man looked at Buck with the expression of a doe caught in a hunter's sights.
"Sure," Buck grinned. "It will make a man out you."
"I'm already a man," JD protested.
"Trust me," Buck said with a lascivious smile. "You'll be a grown man after this."
"Mr. Wilmington you are the basest creature that has ever lived, you know this don't you?" Ezra declared.
"So you'll be joining us?" the big man treated Ezra to a mischievous grin.
"I think not," Ezra retorted haughtily. "I prefer to find my women in a place that does not require an intermediary to accept coin for her attention. Besides, I often find such ladies are more trouble then their worth?"
"Trouble?" Buck snorted. "How much trouble could you have with a working girl. Its not like she was a wife or anything."
"If I seemed to recall you never had any difficulty getting in over your head in places like that Buck," Chris gave him a look. "In fact, I seemed to recall pulling your ass out of the fire quite a few times."
"Well I can assure you that I'm not gonna get into any trouble at all," Buck said empathetically. 'I'm taking JD to Wickestown and that's all there is to it. You're welcome to come along if you want Chris."
"I might just do that," Chris smiled.
"I mean honestly," Buck frowned, wondering if his friends considered him some kind of rowdy buffoon. "How much trouble could I possibly get to in Wickestown?"
The End