Weak Spot 

	It was pitch black and the Long Branch had been closed for a few hours.  Kitty Russell snoozed soundly until a knock on her door woke her up.  “Huh?” she asked half asleep trying to figure out who it could be.  
	“Miss Kitty,” Chester’s voice said softly and immediately she was wide-awake.  Chester had been with Matt looking for the people he thought was responsible for all the raids in the region.  Not even grabbing her robe she rolled out of bed and unlocked the door.  
	“What is it Chester?” she asked breathless and afraid to hear the worst.  
	“It’s Mr. Dillon,” the jailer said quietly so not to disturb anyone else.  Chester had managed to get the key he knew Dillon kept in his vest pocket without Matt knowing it.  
	“He’s hurt?” Kitty asked.  	
	Chester shook his head.  “No.”
	“He’s dead?” she asked not liking the sound of it in her ears at all. 
	“Oh, my gracious no.  He’s all right, but well, he’s not all right.  It was pretty bad out there Miss Kitty and Mr. Dillon, well he’s real upset over it.  He can’t seem to talk to me, and Doc’s not in and so I came here.  You always seem to know what to say and how to say it to get him to relax,” Chester Goode said.  
	“I see.  Well, let me get dressed, and I’ll be down to the jail in a few minutes.”
	“He’s not at the jail,” Chester said and she stopped. “He’s at the church.  He’s just sitting there.  He’s been like that since we got back and put those men in jail.  I have to guard them, but I thought you could…”
	“I’ll be over there as fast as I can,” she said and grabbed Chester’s shirt before he turned to leave.  Giving him a hug and a peck on the cheek, she smiled, “Thanks Chester.  I know it’s hard on you too.”
	“Yes Miss Kitty.  It was…well, the war wasn’t anything…” but he couldn’t go on without choking up.  He hurried out the back way as Kitty pulled on some clothes and ran a brush through her hair.  

	If punching a wall till every bone in his hand was broken would help he’d do it.  The anger that he felt over the situation was enough to turn anyone into a madman.  How could any man white or red do that to any one?  With the Indians it was something that they had always done.  He expected it even though he didn’t understand it.  And white men who would shoot a family up and then to blame someone was something he’d come to expect too, but then to be so bold as to take a souvenir…  a damned souvenir!  He was so mad he couldn’t go back to the jail.  Till then he’d have to rely on Chester.  Good ole’ Chester, he’d seen a lot and had held it in.  Matt was glad that he’d been so upset he couldn’t talk about it.  The ride back had been bad enough.  
	Matt Dillon was so engrossed in his own thoughts that he didn’t hear the door open or the figure approach.  He nearly leaped out of his skin when Kitty sat down next to him.  “Matt?” she asked not sure where to start.  
	He looked at her wondering what the hell she was doing in a church in the middle of the night.  He looked long enough that she answered it for him, “Chester told me you were here.  Said you might want to talk.” 
	He shook his head.  She nodded, “All right.  You don’t have to say anything, but I’m gonna sit here.”
	They sat in silence in the church pew.  The moonlight shone through the painted glass windows creating a pretty but eerie sight along the floor and walls.  Kitty tried paying attention to them and not to Matt so he wouldn’t think she was trying to get him to say anything.  She tried a trick she did as a child and had to sit through boring church services.  She would see how many figures she could make from the colors.  It was a lot like watching the clouds.  The moon’s glow traveled from the west wall to the east one before Matt could say anything to her at all.  “Kitty, I can’t even tell you what it’s like.”
	“I’m not asking,” she assured.  
	“I’ve got to tell someone.  We found the scum,” he spat and even that word was too good for them.  “They weren’t Indians at all, just a bunch of horse thieves who would shoot the family out in the open and make it look like the Pawnee had done it.  It’s one thing to see a man and woman killed like that, but when they kill the kids.”
	She frowned, “Oh no.”
	“Yeah, I guess with boys you figure they can handle themselves or had some fight in them, but this time there was a little girl and…” he balled up his fists trying to control the shaking he. 
	For some unknown reason, Kitty had an urge to hold him and without asking wrapped her arms around him even though it was awkward.  This wasn’t a suggestive come on.  She simply wanted to show him she really cared that he hurt so bad.  He knew that and didn’t shrug her off. He needed someone to turn to and reached over her to pull her close to him.  Tears that he didn’t shed too often came, and he held on tight to Kitty to keep centered so he didn’t come completely unglued.  She could feel him shake with the sheer magnitude of the emotions.  They frightened her in a way and in another way she found it comforting.  It meant he was able to release some of what he felt and could get back to his regular ways.  Finally able to release Kitty, he said with a sniff, “Thanks Kitty.”
	“Matt, you know you can talk to me anytime,” she said in the darkened church.  
	“I know.  It’s just hard to put into words what makes you so sick inside.  I’ve seen scalpings, I’ve had to cut a man’s leg off with my own hands, I’ve seen things that most people have never seen, but when I found out that one of them men had taken a souvenir off the little girl’s doll…  I’ve never come so close as I had right then to killing them with my bare hands.  I think I scared Chester when I said we’d ambush them,” he said softly and loosened his grip on her but didn’t let her go.  “I think I scared myself worse than anything though.”
	“Sounds like it,” she said and snuggled into his shoulder.  “You pride yourself on the way you keep the peace and when something so bad challenges that sense of justice you have a harder time than most.  You probably feel pretty guilty cause you ambushed them.”
	“I should have handled it better.  It was stupid.  Could have gotten Chester shot or worse,” he thought aloud. 
	Kitty harrumphed, “What about you?  You could have been shot or worse.  From what you’ve said if that would have happened you would be laying out there hairless as we speak.  Maybe this was the only way.  It’s not a pleasant way, but sometimes it’s all we can do.  Think of how many people you’ve saved this way.”
	“I’m trying to look at it that way, but I think that the image of that little girl will be with me the rest of my life.  I dream about them sometimes you know,” he admitted.  
	“I know.  Chester tells me when you’ve had bad nights.  He comes in yawning and going on about how your muttering keeps him awake all night.” 
	For the first time in what seemed like his life, Dillon chuckled, “Yeah I guess I do keep him up a lot.  Maybe I ought to think about taking a room somewhere.”
	“That’d be nice.  I’d let you stay with me, but you’re always complaining about the noise from downstairs when you’re in my room,” she suggested but didn’t make it more than a friendly nudge.  “I could come visit you for a change.”
	“You’re right.  That would be nice.  Then I wouldn’t have to explain to Chester why I’m thrashing around so much.” 
	“See, it would work fine.  If you get one of Ma Smalley’s private entrance rooms you could come and go as you please,” she suggested.  
	“I’ll see about it one of these days,” he said and sighed.  She’d made him forget the anger and begin to feel like a regular human again.  
	Kitty could tell by the way he breathed and sat in the pew and the way he talked that he’d calmed down.  Try as hard as she might, she couldn’t help stifling a yawn.  She had been asleep after a hard day’s work after all.  
	“Hey, what’s this?”
	“I was asleep when Chester came and got me,” Kitty explained honestly. 
	“Asleep?  He got you out of bed to come here,” Matt asked with a shake of his head.  He was supposed to be watching the three prisoners they had.  
	“He thought you needed someone to talk to.  I think he was right,” Kitty observed and shook the sleep out of her head.  She was really trying to keep from falling asleep.  She couldn’t see Dillon’s smile.  He had some mighty good friends, and a very special lady who would worry so much.  “Come on, I’ll walk you home,” he said and got up to take her hand.  Arm in arm they walked through the pre-dawn streets to the Long Branch back stairs.  Matt suddenly thought of something, “Hey how did Chester get the key?”
	Searching his vest pocket he didn’t find the key he kept there, but he did find the key piece of evidence.  He pulled out the yellow ribbon that was attached to the tuft of doll’s hair.  “Kitty, if I live to get rid of this badge, I’ll never forget this ribbon,” he pledged, and she gave him a hug and a kiss before she went up to the second floor.  He watched her in the pale pink glow of the impending sunrise.  He had a feeling that as long as he lived he’d never forget her either.