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Chapter 8
Til Birth Does Us Part
© Hanny
Chapter 8
Teaspoon shook his head.
"What baby?" The Kid asked.
Teaspoon looked at him and then at Jimmy whose face was red as a tomato. The others just stood watching the three and each other.
"What baby?" Kid asked again, now more firmly.
"She’s carrying a child." Teaspoon finally whispered.
The Kid stood there for a couple of minutes unable to speak. "She’s pregnant?" He asked in a trembling voice.
Jimmy turned his back to him and walked away, tears in his throat. She will never forgive me for this betrayal, he thought.
Kid ran after him and turned him around. "Damn it, Jimmy. Is she pregnant?" When he didn’t answer the Kid punched him in the face. Jimmy didn’t return the punch and stayed lying on the dirt. But the Kid didn’t give up. He jumped on him and started hitting with all his force and despair. "Damn you, Jimmy." He cursed.
Noah and Buck pulled him off of Jimmy. "Kid, we need you calm." Noah said in an attempt to sooth him. But he kept fighting their grip.
"Is that why you wanted to marry her?" The Kid yelled at Jimmy, tears rolling down his face. "Is this your child?"
"It’s yours." Teaspoon said.
"You mean you knew about it all along?" the Kid felt betrayed by everyone. "Who else knows? Did you know, Noah?"
Noah shook his head.
"Only Rachel, Jimmy and myself." Teaspoon admitted.
"And why, the hell, didn’t anyone told me?" the Kid asked.
"It was Lou’s decision, Kid." Teaspoon said in a low voice.
The Kid was much calmer now. He shrugged Noah and Buck’s hands and headed back toward Katy. He mounted her and galloped away.
The others stood watching him when Ike started pulling on Buck sleeve.
"What?" Buck asked.
Ike just pulled him toward the bushes. When they got there, Buck finally stopped asking what this was all about. Right there, hiding by the bushes, lay a dead man.
"Oh, guys…" He called to them. "I think you better come here."
"Oh, my God." Noah said as he came closer and saw the man. "Do you know who he is?"
Buck shook his head.
Suddenly Jimmy picked up a shining object that was peeking under the body.
"That’s Lou’s gun." Buck said as he watched the object.
The boys all looked at each other and at Teaspoon for an explanation but no one had any.
"Something must have happened to her, Teaspoon. She wouldn’t have just leave her gun under a dead man." Cody tried to reason. "We better join the Kid in a search for her. He might need some help." He started toward his horse, Buck, Ike and Noah following him.
They mounted their horses, leaving only Jimmy and Teaspoon still standing.
"Tell Rachel we will bring her back from wherever she is." Cody told them.
"I’m coming with you." Jimmy said.
"Son," Teaspoon started, "I don’t know if this is such a good idea you and the Kid together."
"I’m going." Jimmy said as he mounted his horse.
"Then I guess I’m coming with you too. To keep an eye on the both of you." Teaspoon said as he mounted his horse.
Lou felt a sharp pain in her abdomen. She was feeling very cold a nauseous. She’s never felt so alone in her life. Not even after her mother died. She missed her and she missed her brother and sister. She missed Rachel and Teaspoon and Emma. She missed the Kid. His strong arms, his soft lips, his scent. His love.
She no longer held inside the tears and now they were rolling down her cheeks. It was getting darker and she thought how long they would keep riding like that.
She feared for her life and for the life of her unborn child. Please, God, she prayed. Please don’t let anything happen to this child. Though she didn’t want that child at the beginning, she was getting used to the idea of it. Especially now, that she decided to go. She needed this baby to replace the family she was abandoning. She needed this child because he was the Kid’s.
They reached a triangle of trees and halted. The men dismounted and Henry pulled her from the saddle. He shoved her to the ground. The men gathered some wood for a fire and prepared something to eat. She was hungry and she felt sick, but they offered her nothing and she was too scared to ask. They opened their bedrolls and lied down, Danny keeping the first watch.
Before he lied down, the leader approached her. He let his finger trace her face lines. She was too frightened to move her head away from him.
"You feeling like sharing my bedroll?" He asked.
She didn’t answer him and just closed her eyes.
"Well, sweetheart," he laughed, breathing on her. His smell was suffocating. "That’s too bad. You don’t have a bedroll." He got up and went to his sleeping place.
The boys rode hard and they still couldn’t catch up with the Kid. When the night fell it seemed as if they were half a day behind him even though they took off only minutes after him.
"We better make camp for tonight." Teaspoon said. He knew his boys wanted to continue, he wanted too, but he also knew that they needed the rest.
They found some shelter under some trees and dismounted. Jimmy and Noah went to gather wood for the fire while the others attended to the horses.
They started a fire and ate a quick meal. They barely said a word since they first started this ride but they had so many things they wanted to know.
"So, that’s why she didn’t ride back?" Buck was the first to talk.
Teaspoon looked at Jimmy, but when he saw him staring at the fire, oblivious to the world he answered Buck himself. "She found out about it while she was in Seneca. She can’t ride while she’s pregnant."
"What is she going to do?" Noah asked.
"She decided to leave."
"She got nowhere to go." Buck said.
"She wrote to Emma." Teaspoon told them. "She can’t ride for the Express, so she has no reason to stay."
"Why didn’t she tell the Kid?" Cody asked.
For the mention on his friend’s name Jimmy looked up. "We have to go find him."
Everyone looked at him.
"It’s too dark, Jimmy. We can’t track him. And we need the rest." Buck said.
Jimmy ignored him and stood up.
"Son, we’ll start riding as soon as the sun rise. There’s no point in us going into the dark wilderness now." Teaspoon said.
Jimmy didn’t pay any attention to the others he saddled his horse and mounted. Without a word he galloped into the night.
"You think we should follow him, Teaspoon?" Cody asked.
Teaspoon shook his head. "We can’t waist time on looking for him. He can take care of himself. Right now it looks as if Lou is in more need for us than he is." After a few seconds he continued. "We better turn in now, boys. So we really be able to go as soon as possible." To give an example to his boys he lied down. They all followed.
The Kid was riding hard for hours. He didn’t know where he was anymore. He hasn’t stopped sobbing since he left the boys near the pond. Why hasn’t she told me? He thought. This is my child too. Why hasn’t she told me?
He was exhausted before he even started this ride and now he was numb. He didn’t feel the cold and he hasn’t realized that it was dark already. He pitted himself and he was angry with her for not telling him. At the same time he feared the worst. What if…
Finally the exhaustion took its toll on him and he fell off of Katy unconscious.
Jimmy found him lying in the middle of the rode after a couple of hours. He jumped of his horse and ran to his friend’s side.
"Kid!" He yelled. "Wake up! Damn you! Wake up!"
After a few minutes the Kid woke up. He blinked as he saw Jimmy’s eyes staring down at him. "What happened?" he asked as he tried to rise.
"Looks like you felt from Katy." Jimmy answered. "Kid, I’m really sorry…" He started.
"We need to find her, Jimmy." The Kid stopped him as he rose to stand on his feet. He felt his head spinning, his knees gave up and he fell to the ground.
"You’ll do her no good in your condition, Kid." Jimmy spoke wisely. "We need the rest so then we can go, find her and bring her back. In our condition, we’d probably end dead and then we won’t be of any use to her."
The Kid tried to resist but he too knew that Jimmy was right, as much as hurt him to admit it.
They lay down, not even bothering to open their bedrolls. Before they knew it they were both sleeping.
Lou woke with a startle to a sharp pain in her abdomen.
"Wake up!" The man shouted at her as his boot kept kicking her.
She tried to get up but she couldn’t find the strength. It was like all her spirit has left her with all of her power. "I can’t." She said.
"What do you mean you can’t? Get up." His boot dug deeper into her belly.
She felt her breath leaving her and she gasped for air. That made the men start laughing. She tried to get up again, determined not to let them see her in her weakness.
"Faster!" the leader shouted in her ear.
She gasped in a surprise to his loud voice so close to her and fell to the ground. The men burst out laughing again.
"Bob!" The leader called to the fourth man that came closer, grabbed her arm and jerked her up to her feet. She cried in pain as he touched her broken hand.
"Shut up!" The leader said, slapping her. That made her stumble to the ground again, but before she felt Bob took a firm grip on her arm, a grip that felt like a tight pincers. Kid, she prayed. Please, help me. Please save me.
The Kid was already ready to go when Jimmy finally woke up. He looked up at his friend who stood by Katy. "When did you wake up?"
The Kid looked at him. "Oh, good. You’re awake. Mind getting up already?" he asked, ignoring the question.
Jimmy shook his head and stood up. "Sure." He said as he went toward his horse. He mounted and the due started on their way again, with a renewed speed.
The boys and Teaspoon had been riding since the first break of down, and they still found no sign of the Kid, Jimmy or Lou. They hoped that at least one of them had found each other.
"Teaspoon, which month is she at?" Buck asked as they stopped for a couple of minutes to water their horses.
"She’s in the second month of the pregnancy." Teaspoon said in a low tone. There was no point in hiding the facts from the boys any more. Might as well that they know everything. But he still felt awkward talking about that.
"It’s a very frail stage of the pregnancy." Buck said very seriously.
"How do you know all that?" Teaspoon asked.
"Had some experience in the field." Buck answered without giving out much more and walked back toward the rest of the boys.
Teaspoon followed him. "Well, boys, we better start moving again." He said as he mounted his horse. The boys followed his example and in less than a few seconds they were on their way.
The hours passed and still there was no sign of Lou. The two young men were becoming desperate from ever find the woman they loved.
"Kid," Jimmy started. "It’s going to be dark soon. Maybe we should stop."
"We can’t. We have to find her, Jimmy." The Kid answered without stopping his ride or even looking toward his companion.
"Kid…" Jimmy started again.
"Jimmy, you yourself said that she can’t ride cause it’s dangerous for the baby. We have to find her before something like that happens."
"Kid, she has already been riding for more than a day. She might’ve already…"
"Don’t you dare say that." The Kid snapped at him, stopping Katy.
"Kid, you have to face the fact that maybe she…"
The Kid stopped him by jumping on him. They both fell from their horses and rolled on the ground.
Suddenly the Kid pulled himself off of Jimmy. "I don’t know why I’m wasting my time with you." He said as he went toward Katy. He mounted her and was about to ride when Jimmy yelled. "Wait, Kid. There’s something you don’t know."
The Kid turned to look at him. His eyes almost burned a hole in Jimmy’s forehead. "What?" He asked through clenched teeth.
"After you left Ike found something…"
"What?"
"He found a dead body hidden in the bushes."
Now Jimmy had the Kid’s full attention. "A dead body?" he asked.
Jimmy nodded. "We found her gun under the body." He added.
"We have to find her, Jimmy." He said in a shaking voice.
Jimmy mounted his horse. "Let’s go, then."
"Boss," Henry said as he approached the leader. "I think we’re being followed."
"What do you mean – you think?" The leader growled at him.
"Well," Henry hesitated. "I saw two men riding hard toward us. I believe they will reach us in about ten minutes."
"You think they saw us?" The boss asked.
Henry shrugged. "I don’t know." He said.
"Maybe they’re just riding through." The boss said. "But let’s get ready just in case. Bring me the girl."
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