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Disclaimer: Ain't mine.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: This is for Maggie, who
gave me the idea in clay form, I
just molded it. I sent it just to you all
'cuz it is rather character
(ours) specific and I wasn't sure if others would
be interested.
********************
BANG!
The slam of thick glass against wood followed
by the sound of high-pitched
female laughter reverberated for the umpteenth
time through the busy saloon.
Ezra traded a young cowboy a beer for a coin and
cast a weary look toward
Buck and JD, who leaned against the bar nursing
their own drinks. "Never did
I believe that the sound of purchased alcohol
would make me cringe. But so
help me, if they don't cease that infernal clamor
I will cut them off."
Inez edged her way past Wilmington and Dunne and
lay down a tray that held
seven empty shot glasses. Pushing a loose
strand of silky black hair away
from her face she placed an order for another
round of tequila.
Standish took an involuntary half-step back, his
eyes widening with a fire
of resolution. "No. If I have to hear one
more round of..of...what did they
call them?"
"Slammers," answered Buck and JD in unison.
"Yes, thank you. 'Slammers', I shall either shoot myself or one of them."
Inez leveled an even gaze at her part time bartender
and slapped a handful
of money on the counter. She raised an
eyebrow and watched as Ezra opened
and closed his mouth several times as if to speak,
before finally setting
his lips tight together and allowing his love
of profit to win out over his
sanity.
"But," he added vehemently, "that is it.
That is the last round!" He
raised his voice and directed the latter sentence
toward the table in the
back.
"Rough night, Ezra?" Nathan and Josiah drifted
up to the bar as Standish
finished pouring more of the harsh, gold-colored
liquid into the seven small
glasses.
The southerner glanced at the tall, black man
before him, "Mr. Jackson, I
have spent time on cattle drives that have been
less bone jarrin' than that
group of girls back there."
JD raised his eyebrows and let a laugh escape, "You've herded cattle?"
Ezra straightened his vest with a sharp tug, "I
have done a great many
things, JD."
BANG!
The gambler flinched slightly, "Most of which
have been more agreeable than
dealin' with them."
Josiah sipped off the beer that Standish had slapped
on the bar for him.
"Now, Ezra, they can't be all that bad."
Buck jumped in quickly, afraid to hear what traditional
southern curses
might emanate from Standish if he was pushed
to voicing his current mood.
"They're worse than usual."
"They're celebrating something," added JD, finishing Buck's sentence.
"Ain't rightly sure what," Wilmington continued,
"but it's somethin' to do
with July 9th."
"How long have they been here?"
"Too long, Senor Jackson." Inez dropped
off her drink tray and continued
walking, calling over her shoulder, "They want
another order of nachos, I'll
be back in a little bit."
Nathan rubbed a hand over his chin, "Shouldn't
they be reachin' their limit
pretty soon?"
"Oh, they have not only reached it," stammered
Ezra, "they have ripped it
from it's shaky pedestal, cast it to the earth,
stomped on it and proceeded
to toast it with one of those God awful libations
which requires them to
smack their glasses against the table!"
"They still look to be in pretty good condition,"
Josiah pointed out as he
glanced over the heads of the other bar patrons
and observed the lively
group in the back.
"That," stated Ezra sharply, "is because they
keep writin' themselves
sober."
Noting the confused expressions on their friends'
faces, JD elaborated, "As
soon as they start getting drunk, Penny scribbles
some stuff on that notepad
of hers and, bang, they're back to where they
were after only a couple of
drinks."
"Why don'tcha just take her pen when she's not lookin'?"
The voice was soft and matter-of-fact and as the
five men turned to stare at
Vin they wondered why no one had come up with
that sooner.
Tanner, having wandered up just in time to catch
the end of the
conversation, shrugged his shoulders and stole
a sip of Josiah's beer.
"We'd need a distraction," countered Buck.
JD's face flashed a mischievous smile, "Hey, Vin,
why don'tcha go LEAN next
to 'em with your coat off?"
The tracker shot Dunne his best 'Larabee stare',
"I ain't goin' anywhere
near that bunch. That's ya'll's problem."
"If I may, gentlemen?" A calm look had settled
over Ezra's features but his
eyes flashed like a sideshow preacher at a Sunday
fire an' brimstone
revival.
Standish stepped toward a group of trailhands
well on their way to
inebriation and picked out the most sober of
the knot. He whispered briefly
to the man and pressed a coin into a rough, callused
palm.
"What was that?" inquired JD, as Ezra rejoined them.
"Watch and learn, Mr. Dunne, watch and learn."
Kim was laughing so hard she wasn't making any
noise. Maria's joke about a
duck, a grocer and a bunch of grapes had had
the young woman on the verge of
hyperventilation for nearly a minute. And
just when her friends thought she
was calming down, the giggling would start again.
"Hey, sober her up a little, will ya?" Maggie
nodded with her head toward
Pen, who sat across the table from the woman
in black.
"Aw, wait a second," begged Diana, "I wanna get a picture first."
The others chuckled as Diana snapped off a photo
at Kim's expense before
slipping the camera back into her bag.
"Now, can we make her a little less goofy?"
The tone in Maggie's voice made
the instruction a clear order as opposed to a
question.
Penny was about to reach for her notepad when
a man interjected himself
between the brunette and another young woman
that sat next to her. He
rested his palms on the table and leaned down
so that his head was in line
with theirs. A wide grin was plastered
across his face but there was
something decidedly untrustworthy about it.
"Hello, ladies. Maybe you can help us.
See, me and my friends, over there,
we was wondering if it was a strawberry patch
that this little lady fell
into or a wine barrel."
He turned the asinine grin toward Mog, who returned
the expression with a
condescending smile of her own. The fuchsia
coloring in her hair had washed
out considerably, leaving a streaky mix of light
brown and maroon but there
was still more than enough unnatural hue to garner
comments.
Across the table, Judy leaned forward in her chair,
"Listen, buddy!" But
Mog cut her off.
" 's all right, Judy. No big deal."
The young woman focused on the face
still hovering next to her and smile while answering,
"Actually, it's
bloodstained, from the last guy that asked me
a question like that."
The cowboy backed up into a standing position,
his hands outspread, "Okay,
okay, just funnin' ya a little."
As he walked back to his friends Cassie rolled
her eyes. "Just can't get
away from those types no matter where ya go.
Hey, Penny, I don't suppose
you can write him into a small box on the edge
of town."
The dark-haired girl next to Kim smiled at the
thought but her face fell as
she realized that her writing utensil was not
where it was ten seconds ago.
"My pen? It was just here, where'd it go?"
Penny had a wild look in her
eyes and began frantically searching the area
around her chair.
A quiet, firm voice halted Penny's panic. "That's low."
Six pairs of eyes focused on Maggie as the young
woman turned her head
slowly toward the cowboy that had just left the
table. Maggs knew instantly
what had happened. And if the stunt hadn't
been inflicted on one of her own
she might have even admired its sheer audacity.
But as it was, it just
pissed her off.
The brunette rose casually and strolled to the
table where the trailhands
were dealing out a fresh game of seven-card draw.
They pretended not to
notice as she stopped directly behind the man
who had just been at her
table.
The Rowdy Bunch had planned on a quiet...well,
a non-violent, night out and
consequently, had left their sidearms in the
'90's. But that didn't make
Maggie any less determined to have it out with
these rednecks if that's what
it took.
"Give me the pen."
The bar fell silent as the crowd watched the scene unfold.
The cowboy didn't turn around, just suppressed
a laugh and answered, "I
ain't got your pen."
The trailhand next to him, however, was not only
a drunk redneck, he was a
fool. "But you sure got good taste in women,
Earl." And he slapped Maggie
on the butt.
You could have heard a drop of blood hit the floor.
Cassie covered her
eyes, Mog and Judy exchanged wide-eyed stares,
Penny and Diana unconsciously
tensed their leg muscles-getting ready to move,
Kim, inexplicably, thought
for a split second about the duck, grapes and
grocer joke.
And Maggie threw the first punch.
The drunk fool lurched sideways from the right
cross. Having traded his
equilibrium for some rye whiskey early on in
the evening he leaned slightly
before completely falling out of his chair.
The first cowboy rose from his
seat and attempted to grab Maggie in a bear hug
from behind but a short,
dark-haired blur caught him around the midsection
and drove him to the
floor.
Penny scrambled into a kneeling position above
the man, grabbed a fistful of
his hair and slammed his head against the hardwood
floor. She did it once
more for her pen and a third time for the hell
of it, leaving the cowboy
dazed.
"Hey, Ezra, which part am I supposed to be learning?!"
JD yelled as he ran
to try to break up the growing brawl.
But Standish didn't respond, choosing instead
to duck from a beer glass
sailing in his general direction.
Diana shot out of her chair a split second after
Penny began moving. She
landed a kidney punch to a tall trailhand that
hadn't taken kindly to
Penny's behavior toward his friend. As
the tall man buckled to his knees,
Diana took no chances and, lifting a nearby chair,
smashed the man across
the back of the head.
"I've always wanted to do that!" she hissed to
no one in particular before
hopping across the prone form at her feet to
help Buck. He was doing his
best to fight off two men whom he had separated
seconds earlier but then,
inexplicably turned on him.
"Mog! Behind you!" Judy's shout cut through
the din of the fight. Maria
ducked to a crouch and spun around to take in
the approaching danger. But
what she saw wasn't what she expected.
Nathan and a burly cowboy were
locked in a wrestling-like hold.
Had Maria moved left or right she might have avoided
them completely but as
it was her ducking into a lower position made
it that much easier for the
two men to topple over her. Sending all
three crashing into a table before
landing in a tangled, fighting heap on the floor.
Judy ran to try to help her friend but a strong
hand grabbed her by the
shoulder and spun her around. She instinctively
let loose with a stomach
punch causing her attacker's upper cut to land
shy of its mark. But it
still managed to clip the young woman's jaw and
spin her off balance. Judy
stumbled to keep from falling and bumped into
Ezra who had just hopped over
the bar to join the fray.
The gambler twirled Judy once more around and
out of harm's way as Cassie
came crashing past entangled with the first man
that Maggie had punched.
The sheer bulk of the man was his greatest advantage
but it also slowed him
considerably, giving the blonde the seconds she
needed to duck away from his
roundhouse and nail him in the jaw with the elbow
end of her forearm.
Across the room, Maggie and Kim found themselves
back to back facing three
men, one of which had a very large knife.
That's when the gun went off. Two loud shots
fired in the air brought the
brawling group to a standstill.
All eyes turned to the lean, black clad figure
standing by the entrance of
the saloon.
"What the hell is going on here?"
It wasn't a yell; it didn't have to be.
Chris's icy tone cut through the
room as his eyes moved to each member involved
in the fight.
Penny wiped some blood from her lower lip and
pointed down at the man whom
she had tackled first, "He took my pen."
The man, now having Larabee's fierce eyes focusing
on him, pointed to Ezra,
"He told me to do it."
The gambler's mouth was open and the words were
coming out before he could
stop them. It was how he had always started
one of his long, convoluted
'get-my-ass-outta-this-one' type stories.
"I can explain..."
But the look from the man in black froze the words in Standish's throat.
"I don't want to hear it."
Larabee holstered his weapon and stared at the
cowhands interspersed with
his men and the fanfic writers. "You have
fifteen seconds to get to where
ever you plan on sleeping tonight."
They were out the door in eight.
Kim leaned against Maggie, breathing heavily from
the adrenaline rush that
was already starting to fade but she still managed
to keep a smile on her
face. "Now, that's what I call timing."
Maggie grinned back at her friend, "That's what I call a good time."
"Oh, the evening isn't over yet, ladies."
And the unsmiling expression on the gunslinger's
face let each one of them
know that the part with the fun, most definitely
was.
----
"This is cruel and unusual punishment."
Cassie shifted again on the bunk
that she sat sharing with Maggie and Diana.
"It's morning. We've spent our night in
jail, can we go home now." Maria
sat on the floor, next to Judy, with her back
against the wall, lightly
touching the lump on her forehead from the previous
night's adventure.
In the cell next to the girls, JD rolled his eyes.
"In case ya hadn't
noticed, there ain't no one here to let us out."
Mog cast a dark look in Dunne's direction, "I wasn't talking to you."
"Well, good, 'cause I don't want to hear anything
you girls have to say,
anyway."
"A truly biting rejoinder, JD." Ezra hadn't
spent a night in a jail cell
for nearly two years. It was every bit
as unpleasant as he remembered.
Well, at least this time he was sharing it with
friends. Chris had been
less than happy with their involvement in the
fight and had refused to
listen to any of their attempted explanations.
So now he sat with Nathan,
Buck and JD awaiting his emancipation.
JD sat in the same position as Mog, back against
the wall, knees drawn up.
The young man didn't bother to look at Standish,
"I don't wanna hear
anything you have to say either, Ezra.
You're the reason we're here to
begin with."
"Me?! It was those literary sirens who insisted
on repeated orders of
those...those...whaddya call them?"
"Slammers," answered Buck and JD, parroting their
response from the previous
night.
"Yes, thank you. 'Slammers'.
A soft groan came from a member of the girls' cell. "Don't say that word."
Kim sat on the floor, resting her head on the
bunk. Penny patted her
friend's back sympathetically.
"She don't sound too good." Nathan leaned forward
from the spot he had
secured on the bunk in his cell.
Penny offered the healer a half-smile, "I never
got a chance to sober her up
before the fight broke out, she's just a little
dehydrated."
"I'm dying," moaned Kim.
An evil grin played on Maggie's lips as she whispered
to Diana, "If she does
go, that means more Vin for us."
Cassie elbowed her best friend in the ribs, "Maggs, that's not nice."
"It's Vin's fault." Everyone turned to look
at Buck. "He's the one that
said we should take the pen. And where
the hell is he?"
"I'm here with the keys, 'less you got somethin' else you'd like ta add."
Buck jumped as Vin's face appeared at the barred
window that looked out on
the alley by the jailhouse. "Jesus, boy,
ya just about gave me a heart
attack!"
Tanner was still grinning as he drifted in the
front door of the building,
casually swinging a ring of keys.
He let the ladies out first, catching Penny lightly
by the wrist as she
passed and winking at her as he dropped a slim,
familiar writing tool into
her hand.
Judy was the last one out but Vin stopped her
before she got around him.
With two callused fingers he tipped her jaw toward
the morning sunlight,
eyeing the bluish-purple mark under her jaw.
He made a 'tsk, tsk' noise at
her but she just smiled.
"You should see the other guy."
"Anytime, Vin." Drawled a raspy southern voice.
Tanner unlocked the door that held his fellow
peacekeepers and did his best
to give them shameful looks but just couldn't
keep a smile off his face.
"Chris is over at the hotel eatin' breakfast, if ya'll wanna join him."
As the large group headed for their first meal
of the day, suggestions for
what would be best were voiced.
"Waffles sound good."
"French toast, too."
"Eggs over easy, maybe some biscuits and gravy."
"Hash browns, oh and sourdough toast with butter
and honey."
Then, another voice, shake and quiet, "You guys
go ahead, I'm just gonna..."
but the only finish to the sentence was the disturbing
splattery sound of
Kim getting sick in the alley.
fin
