NEVER LET YOU PART

-By Gizmo-

CHAPTER 8

Iza wiped at the tears, finally feeling the pain and sorrow for having lost her beloved. She wanted him there with her, to hold her and help her deal with everything.

"How am I supposed to raise our son alone?" she asked him.
"You've been gone for so long, I though now that we're finally together again you'd stay."

She stood and walked over to her son, who was sleeping fitfully in one of the bunks. No sooner had she picked him up than the planks in the floor started to move under her. She gave a shout and jumped aside, staring wild-eyed at the two men who came from nowhere. She had forgotten about the tunnel Buck had mentioned the last time she saw him before the fire.

Kid and Jimmy stared at the woman who stared back at them, expecting her to scream. When she didn't they both climbed up on the floor and stood, still looking at the frightened woman. There were tears in her eyes and her cheeks were wet. She had dark stains on her cheeks and hands and there was a clear smell of fire around them. Kid approached her carefully.

"Do you speak English?" he asked softly.

Iza nodded stiffly but still stared at the two strangers.

"Who are you?" she asked, cradling her son closer.

"We're here looking for a friend of ours. His name's Buck Cross, do you know him?" Kid asked, taking one step closer to the woman.

She shook her head and blinked at the tears. This just wasn't her day.

"Hey, Kid…" Jimmy called suddenly, crouching by the body wrapped in the white sheets.

"What?" Kid asked, his chin dropping the second he turned around.
"Oh my God…"

Kid also knelt by Buck's side, trying to decide it was all a dream. A very bad dream.

"Don't touch him!" Iza called, and when the men turned back to her they saw her lips were trembling and her eyes were again glazed with tears.
"Please, don't touch him…" she whispered, sinking to the floor, sobbing.

Kid crawled over to her and carefully placed his arms around her. Like Iza was before, both of the men denied the death of their friend and tried to find a way around it. Iza fell into Kid's embrace and sobbed loudly against his shoulder. She didn't know why she felt so safe in his arms, this complete stranger to her, but she had to let the tears out or the pain inside her would explode in her chest.

"Please don't touch him…" she begged again.

"You're Iza, aren't you?" Kid asked, sniffling too, suddenly all nauseous and numb.

"Yes," she said, looking up with a questioning expression.
"How do you know?"

"Buck here's our friend," Kid explained, swallowing to get rid of the thick lump in his throat.
"We rode for the Pony Express together, did he ever talk about us?"

Iza nodded against Kid's shoulder, unable to stop shaking, still letting the tears fall freely.

"We had so much fun together, it was probably the best time of my life," Kid stated matter-of-factly.

"Kid," Jimmy tried, but his friend was trapped in his reverie.

"Buck always looked after us, he broke us up when we fought and so on. He was gonna get married and have a child."

Iza broke free from Kid and wiped at her tears. She went over to Buck's side, stroking his cold cheek. Kid sat completely speechless by the wall, staring into nothingness. Jimmy frowned and blinked at the tears, turning away so no one would see him cry.

"How the hell did this happen?!" he cried suddenly.

"The fire," Iza started, but couldn't continued for the gulps and fresh tears.

"We gotta get him home," Kid spoke calmly.

Jimmy and Iza both looked at him and nodded.

"How?" Iza asked.

"The tunnel, we gotta get him down into the tunnel," Jimmy said eagerly and scooted over to Buck's feet.
"Come on, Kid!" he called and together they lifted him, moving him closer to the tunnel opening.

Before anyone outside could notice, the four of them had vanished from the camp.

TO BE CONTINUED…