Main character: Kid
Secondary character: Baby
Setting: Barn/Stable
The problem: Bounty
He looked up as he heard the door close at the house. Teaspoon stood on the porch scanning the yard until his eyes lit on Kid. Even Teaspoon looked as if he'd aged over night. He watched as the man who was the closest to being a real father he'd ever had made his was down the steps and started toward him. He wanted to run away, but found himself just sitting there watching Teaspoon walk toward him. Kid could feel the panic rise when he found he couldn't move, couldn't get away.
As Teaspoon sat down next to him, Kid could feel his emotions he was trying to control slipping to the surface. Men didn't cry, his father had beaten that lesson into him at a young age.
Teaspoon's next words caused that hard-learned lesson to be shoved to the back of Kid's mind with the rest of the lessons his father had beaten into him and Jed. "Son, ya best let it out or you'll end up hating yourself and that little girl up there." As the tears started to flow Teaspoon asked, "You have a name for the little darlin'?"
"Lou wanted to name a girl Charlotte for her friend," Kid choked out, his voice husky from the sobs he kept inside.
"A fine name," Teaspoon replied as his own eyes began to sting. "She's gonna need her pa, son. You'll need a regular job, and I'm in need of another deputy with Barnett gettin' hitched to old man Sander's daughter and taken over his farm."
"Thanks, Teaspoon," Kid said as he stood up. As he took the first step toward the house his knees buckled. He fell sobbing openly to the ground, all the emotions he'd had bottled up suddenly breaking loose. This time Lou had ridden on without him and now he was alone.
Teaspoon knelt beside him, his arm around Kid's shoulders. "I can't put her in the cold ground, Teaspoon." Spring had only started to show a few days earlier but the nights were still very cold. "She needs to be free."
"I know, son. We'll send word to Buck. I'm sure he'll be here by the end of the week. We'll send her off like we did Ike. You think she'd object to that?"
"No, she'd like that," Kid said as he once again stood up. Teaspoon stayed close as they moved toward the house. Kid stopped when they reached the bottom of the steps. They'd - he and Lou - had wanted to fill the house with children since they had moved in. As Lou had grown all they had talked about was how many brothers and sisters they would give the baby she carried. Lou's eyes would sparkle as she talked about having more babies to love. At Christmas the others had been back for the holidays and were surprised when she said she wanted enough children that she and Kid would have their own Express station.
"Son?"
"I was just thinkin' about Christmas and Lou sayin' how she wanted enough children to have our own station," Kid said a slight smile on his lips. Slowly he started up the steps of the porch.
Teaspoon felt a slight ease in the weight on his shoulders. Kid would survive this, but that was the only thing the old man was sure of right now. Thank heavens it was proving to be a very cool spring since he figured it'd be a week before Buck and the others could arrive. He'd not mentioned to Kid about wiring the others, but he knew they'd all want to say good-bye to Lou. And that in the days to come, Kid would want them by his side.
*************
Less than a week later Buck arrived. When asked how he'd gotten there so quick, his only answer was that he knew he needed to be home. Teaspoon could see the life of a Kiowa agreed with Buck more than the white world had.
His hair was longer and his muscles more finely toned. He was a bit thinner - which Rachel set about to cure with a vengeance - and when asked about it, he'd only reply, it'd been a hard winter. Buck also told Teaspoon that he'd had a vision of leading his brother's village to a safer place in the mountains. He told his friends he'd been living with White Elk, the village holy man, and would be taking the elder's place when the time came.
Teaspoon was proud of the man Buck had become, but was concerned over the trouble he instinctively knew was coming for the nations of the plains.
**********
Cody had been his old self until he had been introduced to his new niece. The baby had Lou's soulful brown eyes. Cody had sobbed in Rachel's arms and had refused to hold the baby until Kid had reminded him of how happy Lou had been about having the baby. Cody was wrapped around little Charlie's - as he had nicknamed the baby - finger from that moment on.
************
Jimmy was the last to arrive. However, Teaspoon had made him spend the night in the jail -- sobering up.
Barnett had sent a boy from town out to Kid's place when he found Jimmy in the saloon falling-down drunk. Upon seeing Teaspoon, Jimmy had fallen apart. A drunk Wild Bill turned into a heartbroken Jimmy in the blink of an eye. Teaspoon had shot a look at the men in the saloon that warned one and all to leave the young gunfighter be. Jimmy had cried until he passed out, telling Teaspoon how much he'd loved Lou, and how special she was to him. He'd thought by her marrying Kid she'd be safe. Teaspoon knew the others would recover, but he doubted Jimmy ever would.
As Jimmy quieted down it was Teaspoon that reminded him how happy Lou had been about the baby. Sitting outside the cell, Teaspoon told Jimmy about the baby - a pretty little girl with her mother's eyes and her father's sandy hair. Full of life, and already very demanding at only a week old. "She most likely will be just like her ma when she's older. Spry with plenty of fight," Teaspoon said to a sleeping Jimmy. "With all of us wrapped around her little finger." Teaspoon grinned at his own words and thought there were worse things then being wrapped around that little one's finger. He leaned back in the chair he'd pulled close to the cell and pulled his hat down over his eyes. "Best get some rest while we can, son, 'cause soon enough that one will be running circles around us all."
*****************
As the days passed Teaspoon's prediction came true. Charlie - all but Kid called her by the nickname Cody had given her - ended up doing as Teaspoon had said and had them all wrapped around her finger. She was rarely given the chance to cry since she was picked up anytime she started to whimper, and had her every need tended to quick as lightning.
Buck had had to leave to return to the Kiowa, but it didn't stop him from showering her with gifts. Not a week went by that something wasn't delivered by a young brave. A dreamcatcher to hang over her crib, a sling for Kid to carry her in, moccasins for her little feet for when she started to walk, and the list went on and on.
Tompkins took advantage of the way Cody and Jimmy doted on the baby by telling them everything the banker's wife bought for her little girl or what the biddies in town thought was best for babies. And Lord help him if Rachel showed interest in something for the baby because then the two men would start arguing over who would buy it.
*****************
Kid was grateful for all the help his friends gave him with Charlie since she was proving to be as headstrong as her mother was. It had been a little over a year since Charlie was born and Lou had died. Kid didn't hold it against Charlie that Lou had died, though not a day went by that he didn't think of her. He worked hard too at doing a good job as a deputy for Teaspoon and was earning quite a bit more respect around town. There was even talk of him replacing Teaspoon, if the older man decided to retire.
Jimmy interrupted his thoughts as he came in the door of the jail carrying Charlie. "Hey, Kid. Charlie has something she wants to show you," Jimmy said as he stood Charlie in the middle of the floor. "Now call her," Jimmy said puffing out his chest.
"Charlie," Kid said as he squatted down near his daughter. Unsteadily she turned toward him with a smile. Then slowly reaching out to him she took a step and then another and more until she was in her daddy's arms.
"Daddy," she said with a smile as he picked her up. Kid kissed her cheek and she giggled. Holding her close, Kid fought the tears that threatened to come.
Clearing his throat he said, "So who did she take her first step for?"
"Teaspoon and Rachel, of course," Jimmy stated matter-of-factly, but a hint of a smile played about his lips. He'd never admit to Kid that it had been him she had taken her first steps for.
"Of course," Kid replied in the same tone. He would never tell Jimmy, but he was glad that it was Teaspoon and Rachel she'd taken her first step for instead of him or Cody.
"Another present arrived from Buck today. A pair of moccasins. Cody's jealous, says the bead work he paid that Crow for a couple of months back ain't nothing compared to the bead work on them. They're lined too, should keep her right warm," Jimmy told him.
"Did he send a note saying when he would return for….."
"No. Rachel was pretty put out about it too. When the brave just rode off after leaving the moccasins, you could see the tears in her eyes. I think she really misses having us underfoot."
"They both do. Teaspoon is glad to have both you and Cody back."
"I was surprised to hear you were back. I thought you decided to fight for Virginia," Jimmy replied trying to keep his tone even.
"I was going to until I was conscripted on my way through Tennessee. There was a big battle brewing near where I was passing through. I got conscripted and told I was going to a place call Fort Pillow. When we arrived I was thrown right into the thick of the fighting." Kid's eyes took on a far away look and he ran his free hand through his hair. "Jimmy, I ain't ever seen so many dead bodies in my life. The killin' was horrible. I couldn't understand it. I was where I thought I wanted to be but that night someone asked me where home was and I said here," he said hand swept the view of the street out the window. "That got me to thinking and before morning I'd left to return home….and by home I mean here," Kid said as he carried his daughter over to the chair behind the desk and sat down. "The day I arrived home Lou had gone to town to see the doctor and found out she was carrying. She was four months along he figured. I missed four months with her. I swore to her that night I'd never leave her again for anything. And I didn't." As he finished Kid brushed the hair out of his daughter's face with his hand and kissed her forehead. "She's gonna be just like Lou, but safer."
Jimmy hadn't heard about how Kid had returned home and had just figured he'd been wounded and sent home to heal. "You deserted."
"I guess you could say that, but I couldn't fight for something I didn't believe in anymore. I've thought about joinin' up with the Union forces but I don't think they are any better and I'd hate to run into someone I knew from Virginia," Kid said trying to explain his reasoning.
Cody coming in at the end of the conversation said, "I know the feeling. I was terrified of coming across you when I was scouting for the army. I wouldn't want to face you on a battle field, Kid. That's why I stayed out here to scout for the Army. Now I worry it'll be Buck I come across." As he sat down in a chair, he let out a sigh, and turned into the jokester they were use to. "You gonna hog that daughter of yours all day or you goin' to let me hold her?"
"Charlie, sugar, let's show Uncle Cody your new trick," Kid said as he sat his daughter on the floor with a smile.
************
After leaving Kid and Cody, Jimmy headed for the saloon to see if there was a poker game going on. As he walked through the batwing doors of the saloon, he noted the place was still pretty empty, but it was still early. There were a few men at the bar sipping on drinks or flirting with the pretty saloon girls. One patron in particular, even from across the room and in the dim light of the saloon caught his attention. Jimmy just shook his head as the man turned around and raised his glass to him.
"How ya doin' Hickok?" Jake Coulter asked as he threw back the shot in his hand.
Jimmy approached the man with caution. You never knew what kind of trouble Coulter would bring with him. "Fine, you?"
"Just fine," Coulter replied as he sat his glass on the bar and signaled the bartender for another.
"What brings you to Rock Creek?"
"Same as usual. Thought you done headed back east." Coulter replied as he shot Jimmy a side long glance. "You leave the fight."
"Just took a break for a bit. Been helping' a friend that lost his wife in childbirth," Jimmy replied. "So who's this bounty on?" Jimmy said a tightening in his stomach told him he wouldn't like the answer.
"This bounty is for the rebels. They've offer a hundred gold for every deserter I bring in. The yanks are offerin' seventy-five. Thought I'd hang around and see if I can get wind of any fellas that might have decided the fight back east wasn't for them," Coulter replied with a grin. "Be easier then bringin' in outlaws way I look at it."
Jimmy couldn't believe what he was hearing and if it was true then Kid was in big trouble. Figuring it would look suspicious if he just up and left like he wanted to, he decided it might be a good idea to stay put for now. "Think we could scare up some poker?"
"Now that sounds like a right fine idea. I turned in a few of those deserters a few days back," Coulter said patting his pocket.
"Why don't I relieve you of some of that burden you're carryin'," Jimmy said pointing toward a table in the corner.
"Doubt you can, but beating you at poker will kill some time until I can locate any deserters that have made it this far," Coulter said as he picked up his glass and the bottle from the bar and headed toward the table Jimmy indicated.
Jimmy was worried after what Kid had told him earlier he knew Coulter wouldn't think twice about hunting Kid down and taking him back south if he found out. Jimmy ordered a bottle of his own and headed toward the table. Taking the seat against the wall facing the door, he asked Coulter, "You want to deal?"
**************
A few days later Jimmy was leaving the marshal's office when he saw Coulter headed in his direction. "Damn it, Hickok, how long did you think you could keep me in the dark about that friend of yours!" Coulter shouted as he walked up to Jimmy
"Until you left," Jimmy replied his hand going to his gun. "Leave him be. Find someone else to take back to the Rebels. He's lost enough." Jimmy's tone was deadly and his face was cold and hard.
"He's a deserter Hickok. I have a right to take him in. You can't stop me," Coulter said menace in his voice.
Jimmy and the bounty hunter faced off. Jimmy was ready to face the man in a shootout, if it came to it. "I said leave him be. He's all his daughter has now that her momma's gone. She'll need him." Jimmy felt he owed it to Lou to make sure Kid and Charlie stayed together and that no harm came to them. "Besides Coulter I'm not the only one you'll have to get through. There's others looking out for him."
"I'm takin' him in, Hickok. Maybe not today but soon. That I promise you," Coulter replied. "Ain't no business of mine that the man has a child. He should have stayed where he was if he was so concerned about her."
Jimmy wanted to throttle Coulter as the man turned and walked away. There was no way he was going to let the bounty hunter take Kid back to the Confederacy. Jimmy needed to warn Kid about Coulter and get him and Charlie out of town before the Coulter caught up with him. Seeing Barnett coming down the street, he called out to him and asked him to watch over things for a while he ran an errand out to Kid's place. It was Kid's day off and Jimmy had been watching things while Teaspoon took Rachel out to lunch. Figuring it was best if only he and Kid knew what was up for now, Jimmy headed out for Kid's place.
He'd hope to have a bit more time to figure out how to get Kid out of this mess. He wanted to have a plan in place before he told Kid about Coulter. Jimmy figured Kid wouldn't argue with him as bad about running if he had a set plan in place..
As he quickly walked in the direction of the house Jimmy beat himself up over not having warned Kid about Coulter. He had also hoped he could keep Coulter from finding out about Kid and that the man would leave town. He hadn't figured Coulter would find out about Kid this soon.
**********
Kid and Jimmy fought for most of that night trying to figure out how to get Coulter not to take Kid back to the South and the war. Kid wanted to face the bounty hunter and believed that Coulter would see the right of not taking him in. Jimmy disagreed, he didn't think there was anything short of death that would convince Coulter to not to take Kid back. Finally they had agreed to disagree. Kid had also decided to leave town with Charlie. Jimmy was going with him in the morning when they left.
***************
Kid lay on the bed he'd shared with Lou while Charlie slept down the hall in her room. His mind wandered to the times he and Lou had shared here. They'd had their fights. Kid smiled remembering when they had made up here too. Though it had been such a short time they'd had together, he realized it had come to be the most important in his life.
He hated running from where they had shared such precious time. But he saw no other way out. He prayed for a way to stay where he knew Charlie would be safe and loved. It seemed though that his prayers were not getting an answer.
Before he fell asleep, he thought he smelled the honeysuckle scent Lou had become so fond of in the last year. Whenever, he smelled it he thought of her, but there was no way he could smell it here when the closest plant was by the pond a couple of miles away.
***********
Jimmy sat in front of the fire in the parlor. He too was trying to figure out a way to make Coulter change his mind. He knew though that nothing short of a showdown with the bounty hunter would change his mind.
As he rocked in the chair he and Cody had bought to rock Charlie in he could feel his body relaxing. He smelled he honeysuckle scent that had come to remind him of Lou. He recalled when she had first started wearing it and how he thought it was so fitting for her.
Honeysuckle was wild, you could try to tame it but it always seemed to want to run wild. And it smelled like something from heaven should, he figured. 'Yep,' he thought as his eyes drifted closed, 'it fit her perfectly.'
************
Upstairs Charlie grinned up at a shadowy figure that looked down at her. An unfamiliar smell caused her to wrinkle her nose, then a smile lit her face. She giggled as she reached for the figure, then she outright laughed as she felt a gentle flutter against her cheek. A moment later she closed her eyes and was the picture of a perfect angel as she quietly slept.
**********
"Kid, I got the res….." Jimmy stopped in his tracks as he entered the barn. Coulter and Kid stood before him. Kid held Charlie in his arms as Coulter held a gun on him. "Damn it, Coulter, point that thing somewhere else, he ain't goin' nowhere."
"Stay out of this, Hickok. I told you I would find him and take him back," Coulter warned.
"I said I'd go with you. But I'm not leaving my daughter here," Kid stated not taking his eyes off of Coulter.
"You can't. I ain't gonna let you," Coulter replied meancingly.
"She goes where I do, I won't leave her behind," Kid replied.
"And I go where they go," Jimmy said as he stepped up beside Kid. Charlie reached for him and he took her from Kid. "Like he said we're a packaged deal Coulter. You take him in….we go with him."
Figuring it would be better to fight this battle with Hickok and Kid on the trail, Coulter replied grudgingly, "Then let's get saddled up, we have a long trip ahead of us."
Kid closed his eyes as the faint scent of honeysuckle drifted through the barn. He tried to ignore the slight feminine laugh he heard on the wind, too.
Jimmy walked over to Sundance and led him out of the stall and over by the horse that Coulter was saddling. "You know if Lou was here she'd not let you take him away. You'd regret ever having even thought about takin' Kid back."
"Lou? Who's Lou?" Coulter asked.
Kid looked down to where Charlie was sitting on a blanket giggling at something unseen. "She was my wife, Charlie's mother."
"And my best friend," Jimmy added quietly.
"Too bad she ain't here. She could take care of the brat," Coulter said as he turned to throw the blanket back on the horse. This was the third time he'd tried to put it on the horse and each time it'd slipped off. "Beside what could a woman do to any man that would make him leave you here?" Coulter felt something hit him between the shoulders with enough force to push him into his horse that was already acting skittish.
Without even pausing in saddling his horse, Jimmy said with a smile, "She'd shoot you and leave you for the buzzards."
"Jimmy, leave him be I'm sure when we get back South they'll understand and send me back," Kid said even though he wasn't sure at all.
"Like a woman would have the nerve to come after….." Coulter felt the push again, only this time it was stronger. "Damn it, Hickok. I'm takin' him back and you pushin' me around ain't changin' nothin'. If you do it again I'm gonna shoot you, then who would this baby have to take care of her."
"I ain't shoved you yet, Coulter. But I should. You can't take him back. It ain't our fight," Jimmy shouted in Coulter's face.
Charlie started to cry and Kid picked her up as the two men came face to face. Kid's face went pale as first he saw Coulter's head snap forward then Jimmy's, as if some one had smacked them both on the back of the head. They both started to bark at him when Kid held up his hand and shook his head, "It wasn't me." He held Charlie, who had started to giggle, tighter afraid whatever was attacking the other two men would come after them next.
Coulter turned back to saddling his horse saying, "This don't change a thing Hickok, I'm still takin' him back." He threw the saddle onto the back of his horse only to see it slide off the other side and onto the floor of the barn, then he heard Charlie giggle louder. He turned and looked at the little girl. Her eyes were looking behind somewhere behind him and she was waving and clapping her hands. Coulter spun drawing his gun as he did so, but nothing was there.
Kid finally found his voice saying, "You two finish fighting this out, Charlie and I will be outside." Before Coulter could say anything, Kid added, "I ain't going anywhere. I wouldn't put my daughter in that kind of danger."
Coulter turned back to Jimmy, "Hickok, I don't know who you got tryin' to spook me but it ain't gonna work. You can't scare me."
"I done told you I haven't done anything," Jimmy said as he finished saddling a very uncooperative Sundance. "Damn, boy, you haven't been this hard to saddle since I first got you," he grumbled to the horse.
"I mean it…." Coulter said as he turned toward Jimmy but what he saw made him stop. Jimmy was standing staring at the back of the barn with a slight smile on his face and shaking his head as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing.
Jimmy couldn't believe his eyes. There stood Lou pretty as the night they'd had in Willow Spring in her blue calico with the pretty white trim. But what had him shaking his head was the gun belt she wore.
Coulter looked in the direction Jimmy was staring. There was the prettiest woman he'd seen in a while. Her shoulder length hair was pulled back with combs and she was staring at Hickok. He started to tell Hickok to introduce him when he noticed the gun belt on her waist. She didn't say a word as she approached the pair. When she reached them she raised her hand and ran it down the side of Jimmy's face. She didn't say a word but Hickok seemed to know what she was trying to tell him. "You're welcome," Jimmy said as silent tears rolled down his face. "I didn't get to say good-bye. Bye, Lou."
Coulter couldn't take his eyes off Hickok and the lady. She turned to Coulter and her entire expression and stance changed. "Easy lady, I don't take in women." But that didn't seem to change the way she looked at him.
"But you would take Charlie's father away. Do you know what happens to little girls who don't have a mother or a father? It won't happen to her."
Not a word had past the ladies lips but he heard her loudly in his mind. "I'm only doing what needs to be done. He's a deserter he has to go back."
"No."
"You can't make me chan….." Coulter's words died on his lips as she drew her gun. He hadn't expected that and was unprepared. "Look……."
"NO," the word was a shout and Jimmy ducked as a piece of tack flew off of one wall. Sundance shied and pulled at his reins as did Coulter's horse. A moment later both reins were untied and the horses ran out of the barn.
As the horses ran out of the barn, Kid pulled Charlie close and plastered himself against the front of the barn. He had heard about something like this in the ghost stories Old Abe use to tell him and Jed in Virginia. He'd never believed them until now. Could Lou have come back to protect him and Charlie? Deciding if it was Lou, he and Charlie would be better off at the house, he headed in that direction leaving the commotion in the barn.
***********
Coulter started cussing and Jimmy wanted to run. Lou mad in life had been bad enough but he couldn't let her kill Coulter. "Lou, he'll go away and leave us alone," Jimmy told the ghostly figure in front of him.
"You ain't scaring me that easy," Coulter said as he reached for Lou. That caused another commotion that about had Jimmy running for cover.
"Bad move, Coulter. She doesn't like that," Jimmy told him as a clump of horse droppings flew at Coulter's head. Coulter ducked just in time but as he did he fell over his saddle into another clump. Jimmy tried his best not to laugh at the bounty hunter but was having a very hard time of it. "I'm tellin' you, you'd best leave."
Coulter thought it over as he stood and tried to wipe off the manure from his behind. "No, I'm takin' him in."
This time the single word shook the inside of the barn, "NO!" Jimmy cringed as a pitchfork barely missed Coulter but pinned his jacket to the barn wall. "She won't stop, won't let us out until you agree to let him stay and raise Charlie. She knows what happens to a girl with no ma and no pa. She won't let that happen to her daughter."
"Fine he can stay," Coulter relented. The pitchfork had come just too close for comfort. "But he best hope she stays around cause if she doesn't someone will take him back."
Jimmy noticed the smile on Lou's face as she slowly disappeared. "You'd best keep your word on that, cause if you don't I'm sure she can track you down. And she won't go so easy on you then."
"This was 'easy'?" Coulter replied as the color drained from his face.
"You should have seen her the time Kid moved her into Rachel's," Jimmy said with a laugh as Coulter tried to pull his jacket free of the pitchfork. "I thought the roof was going to come off of the house."
****************
At the house Kid was rocking Charlie. He looked down at his daughter sleeping peacefully in his arms wondering how much longer he'd be able to do this simple but delightful task.
He smelled the honeysuckle before he saw the apparition of his late wife. Lou stood in front of him. Softly she smiled at him. She moved closer and reached out her hand to touch his cheek. Leaning close she whispered, "I love you. No one will ever take you from her." She kissed his cheek and then Charlie's and slowly faded away.
"I love you, too," Kid said to the thin air, then looked down and smiled at his sleeping daughter.