DISCLAIMER: I do not own nor do I profit in any way from the characters of THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN. They belong to Trilogy, MGM, Mirisch, CBS and now TNN. However I would like to state that I do not wish my original characters borrowed without my knowledge or consent. If you are not certain a character is canon or mine, I will be happy to let you know. Just ask or look at my list of original characters.
References are made to the episode "Nemesis".
RATING: PG 13
"Vin, that you?" It was dark outside of the jail, almost two in the morning. It had been a long day, too long. A brawl had broken out earlier in the evening in the saloon and had spilled out into the street. Cattle drovers and railroad workers were a dangerous mix when liquored up. It had taken two hours to round up the drunks, patch them up, put the rowdier ones in the jail, and send the rest out of town with a warning that when they returned, it had better be to pick up their jailed comrades and head out of town. All was quiet now, and Vin Tanner had left the confines of the jail to sit outside in the cool night air.
"Uh huh. Stinks in there." He gave a lopsided grin to his best friend as the older man stood looking down at him.
Chris grinned back and sat down by his friend on the steps. It had been a week since they had returned from Sorrow Canyon, and Vin had been quieter than usual. He kept looking at his friends from under that damned hat of his, just like he used to hide under that coat until a rockslide put it out of its misery. Chris shook his head at the memory. They had all returned safely from their encounter with an enemy that took no form the others had ever encountered. That alone had them all rather quiet. They hadn't really spoken about it, but Chris had noticed the others watching Vin when they thought no one else was looking. They, like, Chris weren't worried the demon was still inside their friend. They were all confident they had driven it from him, but they were still a little skittish from the whole episode. Chris figured the others were still pondering the after effects from the whole supernatural episode. He knew he was. It was almost as if walking into the fire had all bound them in a way that not one would ever feel truly alone again.
That was how Chris felt, and he knew it was more than a little frightening that they had all through their actions admitted to one another that where one went, so did the others. Whatever battles one faced the others would be there. There was no doubt in any of their minds, and that kind of commitment made them all nervous. They had become a true family out there in that canyon. Chris knew that it scared the hell out of Vin Tanner. Of all of them, Vin had probably had to depend upon himself more so than any of the others had. Ezra had at least known that his mother would show eventually whenever she dropped him somewhere, but come to think about it, Chris figured their gambling friend was just as terrified as Vin was that he now had brothers to depend upon and who depended on him. Responsibility came with having a family. Caring what the others thought or felt made you vulnerable, and Chris knew how it must chafe his two younger friends.
Buck? Hell Buck thrived in a family setting. The more the merrier, and JD was just like him in that regard. Those two needed to know that someone was there for them, and they both tended to wear their hearts on their sleeves. Josiah and Nathan were natural born nurturers. One had a knack for healing the physical while the other had the same knack for healing the spiritual side. Both men thrived on their newly found family and were as fiercely protective of it as Buck and JD had become. Then there was Chris himself.
The former family man turned gunslinger had fought for three years to turn his heart into ice, into something that wouldn't hurt any more, but he didn't have it in him to shut out the people he had met in this town. Even Ezra had become as much a brother to him as any of the others, and in the beginning, Chris hadn't trusted him unless he had him in sight. Now, Chris didn't think twice. Ezra's loyalty was as unquestioned as any of the others, but God knew the gambler had fought like crazy against losing his aloof, loner attitude. Chris had shied away from others so that he would never feel the pain of anyone's loss again. Vin's quietness was just as good a defense at keeping others away, just like Ezra used his education to intimidate people into keeping their distance. But Chris knew that both men were learning to cope with the fact that they were no longer truly alone. That one night in that canyon had proven it all to them. He stole a sideways glance at Vin, wondering if the affable tracker was thinking along the same lines as he was.
"Never thanked y'all for savin' me."
"Yeah ya did."
"When?"
"I seem to remember gettin' a piece of that pie you said you weren't sharin' with any one. Hell, we all figured you were sayin' thanks then. Must have been the first time you ever shared peach pie with us we didn't have to threaten to hog tie ya first."
Vin snorted in response. He pushed his hat off his head and let it dangle down his back. Then he licked his lips as he looked up at the moon. He blinked several times, and Chris leaned back and waited.
"Thanks anyway, cowboy."
"Keep it up Tanner, and I really am gonna shoot ya."
"Pfft! Like you could get that little pop gun out 'fore I could blow you in half ."
Both men chuckled at the boast. Truth be told, some had wondered who was faster, but neither Vin nor Chris would ever waste time finding out. One it didn't matter to either man, and secondly, as long as the other was fast enough to cover the other's back, there was no need to know. The silence stretched out again, and although he was tired, Chris wasn't ready to move on and leave Vin out here stewing in his own thoughts.
Chris knew something was still eating at Vin. The quiet they usually shared was still a little restless. Sometimes Chris found himself wishing Vin was more boisterous like Buck or verbose like Ezra or just plain talkative like JD. Sometimes it was positively painful pulling thoughts out of that stubborn head of his, but then that's why they got along so well. Just as stubborn as he was, Vin Tanner wasn't one to budge even under the Larabee glare until he was ready.
"They ain't restless like them ghosts in the canyon, Chris." Chris didn't need to be told about whom Vin was talking as the fear he'd kept hidden since they had encountered the evil ghost blossomed into full-scale panic. Chris had been plagued by nightmares wondering if Adam and Sarah were restless spirits trapped on earth seeking release because they had died so violently. He wanted to get up and run or beat his best friend to a pulp for bringing his nightmares out into the open. He didn't know whether he could forgive him for doing this to him, for causing this grief he was learning to live with to surface in the middle of the night where there was no place to run from it. A hand placed on his forearm forestalled any attempt to run and hide.
"Those ghosts in the canyon, they were ripped apart and tortured and murdered. They died violently knowing they hadn't stopped the evil, only roped it in by their battle with it. They were getting' tired of fightin' it, but they couldn't rest until it was gone forever."
"What's that got to do with the other." Chris couldn't even bring himself to say their names he was so angry with Vin. He was stirring up things he had no business even talking about. Vin'd never known Adam and Sarah. Curiosity and the fact that Chris suddenly realized this was as hard for Vin to say as it was for him to listen to made Chris stay for the rest of it.
"I saw 'em. I saw how it happened. I saw 'em die like I saw my ma die again. That thing made me look at all sorts of things tryin' to make me believe that y'all would leave me there an' save yourselves."
Chris leaned forward and looked at Vin as he turned to face Chris. The moonlight glistened off the unshed tears in Vin's eyes. There was no doubt now why the tracker had been so quiet the past week. He'd been trying to find a way to explain what had happened to him to the only person he felt would need to know and would believe him.
"It showed you how Sarah and Adam died?" Chris's voice cracked. He couldn't go on.
"It made me watch my ma die all over again and me real little cryin' for her to wake up. I was all alone an' lost an' scared. Then, you called my name an' I wanted to go to you, but it said you'd let me die like you let Sarah and Adam die."
Chris had to lean closer to hear because Vin's voice had dropped to almost a whisper. There was a trail of silent tears down Vin's face.
"Then he showed me everything. You and Buck in some town. You were drinkin' and Buck was talkin' some girl up. Then there were men around the cabin an' fire an' I saw them lyin' together with the flames all around 'em. I almost believed it, but then I heard my name. It was my ma. She said to look at 'em and trust in you."
Chris had no idea that the tears were spilling from his eyes as he concentrated on every word that his friend whispered. He felt the raw, frightened pain of a little boy lost crying for his mother who would never hold him again. And then he felt the wonder of someone who had felt something he had never thought to feel again while he lived, a mother's love. Chris believed Vin's mother must have known her son was in trouble and had crossed the abyss in time to help him. He also began to believe that two other spirits had crossed back into the world to help his new family, too. Chris didn't realize he was holding his breath waiting for Vin to regain enough control over his emotions in order to go on.
"They were already dead. Smoke must have got 'em, cause they weren't movin or cryin' or scared. They looked real peaceful like." Vin drew in a deep breath before he continued. He looked right at Chris when he spoke next. "She said she loved you, Chris. She said she and Adam never knew what happened. They died knowing you loved them. She wants you happy."
Chris abruptly stood up and walked to the other side of the steps. He couldn't leave, but he couldn't sit still and listen to another word. The one fear that had fed his nightmares since he had returned to find the cabin burned and Sarah and Adam's bodies charred beyond recognition inside had finally been laid to rest. Never a religious man, he had spent three years of his life damning everyone and everything because he couldn't live knowing his wife and son had died calling for him to save them, and he wasn't there to do it. It had taken a small-beleaguered town, six men, a widow and her son, and a deadly dance with an evil ghost to give his heart the peace it had needed but could never find.
He felt one hundred years old and ready to tangle with a mountain lion all at the same time his emotions were in such turmoil. He knew that Vin had walked up to stand beside him, and that he would be there whether Chris wanted him or not. His friend said nothing, did nothing.
Vin just stood there ready to take out whatever it was that Chris Larabee would do to him for bringing up a subject that was too painful for him to even talk about to his oldest friend much less a man who had never even met Sarah and Adam. He had wanted to wait until he felt it was the right time to tell him, but when would the time ever be right to tell him any of this? Vin had slept little since they had returned. The fact that his friends would walk through fire for him had only made what he had learned about Sarah and Adam a burden he didn't know if he could make Chris believe or not.
So he had waited trying to think of every way he could tell the man he respected more than anyone else he had ever met something so personal and private that he was at a complete loss. He was no silver-tongued devil like Josiah who could mesmerize people with voice and words, nor was he the con artist like Ezra Standish who could sell you the shirt you were wearing on your own back. He was just plain old Vin Tanner who had learned from an early age that life could eat you alive, or you could learn to bite it back and take every moment of happiness you could find. He finally figured out that what he had here in Four Corners was something to fight for, and if it took getting the crap beat out of him by his best friend then so be it. Hell, he'd just tangled with an evil ghost, so a beating would be a piece of cake. Tonight he had decided to tell Chris what had been preying on his mind since their return.
He might never be able to thank Chris and the others for all they had done for him, but he could do whatever possible to give his friend what little peace of mind he could. He knew that in itself would go a long way in helping everyone who cared what happened to the gunslinger, and that included a very beautiful but stubborn newspaper editor. He watched while Chris struggled with the emotional turmoil his friend had just dumped on him. He wasn't expecting the sudden turn that had Vin looking at a face streaked with pain, but that wasn't pain he saw as the light from the fire on the street illuminated Larabee's face for Vin. The two men looked at each other for a long moment. Flames flickered on Larabee's face as the moonlight danced shadows and lights on Vin's face. Their eyes met and in a silent moment of understanding, Vin felt Chris's hands descend on his shoulders. He grabbed the tracker in a firm grip. He shook the younger man once; then he pulled him around and swung him around in the direction of the saloon. In a voice that was still hoarse from emotion, Chris told Vin what he expected from him.
"I think you need to buy me a drink pard."
"Least I can do, cowboy." They walked toward the saloon. "How we gonna get in?"
"Well, Ezra's s'posed to relieve you in a few minutes, right?"
"Oh yeah, we can get in when he leaves. Not bad thinkin' for an old man."
He got a cuff on the back of his head that moved him in front of Larabee.
"Show more respect for your elders, Tanner, or this old man is gonna show you how old he is."
"Oooo, I'm scared now."
That remark got a laugh out of Chris. Vin was grinning when he reached the doors of the saloon just as Ezra was leaving.
"May I ask why you two are exhibiting such disgusting humor at this time of the night?" Ezra had noticed the lightness of Larabee's step, and Vin no longer looked like something was eating at him.
"Just happy it's you and not me that's got to sit with that stinkin' bunch in the jail."
"That profound, are they?"
Vin leaned forward and the light caught the look of pure devilment in his eyes. Ezra waited.
"'Member Top Hat Bob's breath?"
"Mr. Larabee, I feel I must resign my position as a legal guardian of this quaint township effective immediately." He joined Chris in laughting as Vin slipped in and grabbed a bottle of whiskey and three shot glasses.
"Stop whinin', Ezra, an' me an' Chris'll show you how not to smell 'em."
"And what may I ask is this bit of wisdom the absence of soap and water can not perform better?"
"Well, it takes this." Vin tossed the bottle to Chris who caught it with ease. "An' it takes these. An' it takes a coupla friends." He started juggling the three shot glasses and proceeded to walk past his astonished friends as he continued to juggle the three shot glasses in front of him.
Ezra looked at Chris. "He never ceases to amaze me."
Chris patted Ezra on the back in sympathetic understanding. "Me, too, Ezra, me too. Let's go see if we can drink away the stench inside the jail."
FINI
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