Fandom: Peacemakers
Summary: A brief tumble.
Mud flew from the hooves of the horses as they pounded through the mist. The vapors, spilling onto the trail from the forest on either side, eddied and swirled around the them as they passed, making way as the three riders urged their mounts on after their quarry.
Harrison Quade had gone from law abiding citizen to fugitive in the span of a few short minutes. Just hours earlier he had ridden his plow horse into town in pursuit of his runaway daughter. It hadn’t taken long for him to find her.
When the terrified adolescent had refused to go back with him, he’d dragged her into the street, striking her so hard when she tried to pull away that she fell to the ground.
The first few passersby who witnessed the scene either hastened to be on their way or stopped where they were, uncertain of what, if anything, should be done. Furious that he was now a spectacle, and blaming his daughter for that, too, Quade had shouted at all and sundry that it was a family matter and that they should see to their own families and businesses.
If it had ended there, it would have been considered nothing more than a nasty little incident, a gossip tidbit for a day or two.
It wasn’t until young Rufus Ardwill stepped in that Quade had broken the law. The young man was simply trying to help, attempting to reason with the angry father while assisting Addie Quade to her feet. For his trouble he got a gunshot wound to his side.
A twelve year old boy (Jonathan Hawthorne, sent by his mother) had already gone to fetch Marshal Stone. The boy was trying to explain what was happening and who was involved when they heard the gun go off and the Marshal had torn out of his office at a run.
Only seconds after he had reached the scene of the shooting both Larimer Finch and Katie Owen had come running from different directions. Quade and his daughter were gone, but had been seen heading toward the stables. Rufus Ardwill lay moaning, clutching his side and bleeding onto the dirt of the street.
“Help the boy,” was all that Jared said, leaving Larimer and Katie to tend to young Ardwill until the doctor arrived.
Notwithstanding the speed with which he’d gone after them, the man and the girl had eluded him. Quade had stolen two horses at gunpoint (one of them Finch’s) and fled with the terrified girl in tow.
Katie and Finch caught up to Stone at the stables, informing him that Doc felt the young man would pull through. He, in turn, let them know that Harrison Quade was now a bona fide fugitive. Wasting no time, they saddled up to give chase (Finch on a borrowed mount). They were now a posse of three: the Marshal, the ex-Pinkerton man, and the town coroner.
There had been little conversation as they lit out from Silver City. It went unquestioned that all three would go. There might be need for any or all of them, depending on what they found when they caught up to Quade and the girl (for they held no doubt that they would).
Within the first hour they knew they were closing in. Despite the lateness of the day and the gathering clouds, Stone held every hope that they would have Harrison in custody before nightfall.
The light was waning and the mist had turned to rain when a small animal ran in front of Katie’s horse causing it to stumble. Behind her Finch tried to rein in his mount before the two animals collided. Everything was made much worse by the muddy earth and the fact that he was riding a strange horse.
Katie, normally a nearly unshakeable rider, found herself somersaulting forward through the air. Larimer could not stop his horse in time and, though he narrowly missed sailing into the suddenly riderless mount ahead of him, he saw himself hurtling unstoppably toward the downed woman.
He was caught in a runaway nightmare as the thunderous hooves neared the vulnerable body of his friend. Despite his dread, or because of his desperation, he managed to communicate to the powerful creature beneath him.
If he could not make it stop…
They lofted into the air and flew above what looked like a bundle of clothing on the trail, missing it — her — cleanly (or so he prayed). They hit the ground awkwardly, the animal’s forelegs splaying in the slippery muck, as Finch once again found himself fighting for control, trying to slow the unfamiliar beast and draw them to a halt. Katie might be injured. He needed to get back to her.
Confused and frightened, wanting this stranger off its back, the horse reared unexpectedly, throwing its rider backwards and slamming him into a tree.
The impact stunned him, knocking the breath right out of him. He half slid, half thudded to the ground, landing, momentarily, on his feet, surprised to still find the last bit of rein slipping from his lax hand.
Fooled, by his upright position, into thinking he could walk, he immediately tried to go to Katie. He got exactly nowhere. His legs gave way and he crumpled, lying winded, momentarily paralyzed and unable to draw a single breath for what felt like minutes, hours, eons.
Time seemed suspended.
The rain splattered noisily against the leaves of a thousand trees.
Shed of their burdens the two horses wandered aimlessly nearby.
Several yards away Katie lay in the mud unmoving.
In the rain and fog the Marshal, riding ahead, seemed to have missed the entire incident. At least there was no sign of him for the moment.
At last Larimer found himself able to breathe.
“Katie,” he tried, producing the merest whisper. There was no reply.
He concentrated on getting to his knees and then standing. Yes, his back hurt. No, he would not let it stop him from reaching her. Slowly, awkwardly, he got his feet to move. The rain was getting harder, the trail muddier. Muck pulled at feet, making each step more difficult. He slogged through it determinedly, his focus ahead.
Nearing her, he could see that she was on her side. At least she wasn’t face down in the rapidly filling puddles and was in no danger of drowning. That is, if she were still…
He swiped at his eyes, trying to brush away the rain. There! She was moving. Thank heaven.
She was just coming to consciousness. As he knelt beside her, ignoring his own pain, she moaned and tried to get up.
“Be careful. We don’t know how badly you are hurt.”
Though it did hurt, she felt more jarred than damaged.
He reached out to her and she instinctively rolled into his outstretched arms, wincing at the movement. Her face pale under glistening patches of mud, she looked up at him. The rain came down on them. Dripping from his hair and face onto hers, it worked at washing away the grime.
She swiped a shaky hand across her eyelids and down her cheek, trying to brush away some of the stinging wetness, leaving behind as much as she wiped away.
“I’m all right.” Her voice was a bit weak, and she sounded shaken even to herself, but that was to be expected.
“Are you certain… there could be fractures, hidden injuries…”
“The only things hurt are my pride and my backside. Not for the first time.”
It surprised him that he blushed, given all that they had seen and done together in these past weeks. It wasn’t that he didn’t know she had a backside, or that she hadn’t used stronger or more descriptive words around him. It was only… merely… maybe… because he hadn’t thought of her that explicitly before. Or perhaps that he was holding her in his arms. Or because she was looking up at him with those startlingly intense blue eyes.
This wasn’t the first time they had ambushed him, those eyes. Caught him unawares with their fearlessness, challenge, straightforwardness. Disarmed him with their questing intelligence, perceptiveness and honesty. But he’d never seen her quite so helpless before. Never been as aware of the delicacy of her frame, her fragility — no, vulnerability.
Strange to think of her that way. Stranger still, to hold her.
Katie couldn’t help staring up at him. With his face so close to hers, his focus so intense, she was compelled to study the handsome visage. What she saw was a deep concern for her, urgent, unhidden.
With the opportunity of such unaccustomed perusal, she became aware for the first time of how tired, how unutterably weary he looked. It was in his pallid complexion, bloodshot eyes and the dark hollows beneath them. How could she have not noticed before? She would have said something, but just then she realized he was blushing.
Was it because she had used the term backside? Had she made him think of the fact that she had one? His blush made her blush.
How had she ended up in his arms? Had he lifted her or had she sought his embrace? However it had happened, it felt disquietingly… right.
He was stronger than she expected. Not that she had expectations.
To him she was as light as a bird, though nothing birdlike in manner or look.
He was an enigma to her, barely more than a stranger, yet much more.
She was Katie — fierce Katie — in his arms.
His heart sped up like the pistons on a downhill locomotive.
Hers was beating like it belonged to a frightened rabbit.
One of them should speak.
Something had to happen.
What…
A sound intruded, quickly drawing near. Hooves driven deep into the mud.
They looked up. The Marshal had at last doubled back.
He approached with care having seen Finch’s abandoned mount.
“You two all right?”
“Fine.”
“Good.”
Their blushes deepened. They pulled apart, embarrassed, clumsy as they tried to rise out of the mire and avoid touching.
“You sure?” Jared dismounted.
“Yes, I fell…” She stopped.
“Katie was thrown…” He trailed off.
“That’s not like you, Katie.” Jared looked her over making certain she was intact.
“There was an animal…”
“Her horse was spooked…”
“It was so fast…”
“The mud didn’t help…”
“It cushioned my fall…”
“I nearly trampled her.”
“I’m fine.”
“She seems all right,” Stone observed.
“The doctor should examine you…” Larimer was not allowed to finish.
“Don’t treat me like a porcelain doll.”
Fierce Katie was back. Finch wondered at himself, that he could have thought her fragile, vulnerable, even for a moment.
“Let’s get our horses and catch up to Quade.” She forced strength into her voice. “I don’t want him to hurt that girl anymore than he may have already done.”
She tromped off to gather her meandering steed, asking herself for the hundredth time why such an intelligent man couldn’t see that what they did was as important to her as it was to him or to Jared. She didn’t want to be protected, she wanted… she needed to be involved.
“Right. Let’s move on.” Not for the first time, Larimer found himself wondering at the make-up of a woman afraid to show even normal human weakness.
They rounded up the horses. He watched her remount gingerly and ride past him, tightlipped at the discomfort. Stubborn woman, he thought. She would never admit how much it hurt.
As he climbed up into the saddle himself, he barely stifled a gasp at the pain in his back.
“You all right, Finch?” the Marshal asked.
“Absolutely. I’m fine,” he lied, falling in behind Katie, inexplicably relieved that she hadn’t seemed to hear the exchange. He was not sure why the small deception had come so readily, so naturally to his lips, nor would he expend much time examining his motivations. Still, he was not so obtuse as to miss the fact that he was doing the exact same thing that she had done.
Belatedly, the thought occurred that perhaps they were not so very different after all, at least in some respects. Both would be uncomfortable for the rest of the ride, neither would confess it, and neither would turn back before their task was done.
The rain had beaten down most of the fog and Larimer could see her ahead of him on the trail. Noting her rigid posture and the occasional flinch she failed to hide at the jostling motion of her horse, he concentrated on relaxing his own spasming muscles, smoothing his features and erasing the pain from his face. She would not catch him at their little game.
Jared Stone observed everything with some interest.
Taking up the rear for the moment, he couldn’t help ruminating on two of the more stubborn people he knew. Obviously, both of them had gotten hurt and neither of them was planning to concede the truth about it.
He also couldn’t help ruminating on how they’d looked — Finch holding Katie in his arms — when he’d found them. How they’d looked… like… well…
Heck, it was just like a pair of lovers.
The End
