An Awakening of Hope: What Could Be

by Alias

e-mail: <a href="/py/wmailCompose.py?Pyt=TWmail&[email protected]&FormId=,232,5FBAE78,3E17302,54830111">[email protected]</a>

*******************************

Disclaimer: See the first part for the boring legal stuff.

*******************************

Chris watched as the scene before him went from Mary, Mrs. Greer,

Buck, Olivia and Billy to the Clarion’s normal office, but older, with

equipment that he had never seen.

Mary sat at her desk. Her face was older, at least by ten years, and

tired, she looked so very tired. In fact, it was that which made her

look older, not wrinkles or grey hair, just that she looked so very

tired.

Chris turned around, not surprised to see someone standing behind him.

What did surprise him, however, was that he couldn’t tell who it

was. A white cloak—hood pulled low—hid the person’s face and figure,

although he could see lavender skirts peeking through the folds of the

cloak.

"Who—?"

"I’m…what could be. In your future, if you were to let it happen."

"I’m…never mind, who I am is a little bit to complicated to explain.

Just call me Hope."

"What is it with people and hope? It’s like it’s suddenly everybody’s

mantra or something."

"Pretty good mantra if you ask me."

"If you say so. Hope seems pretty useless if you ask me." He turned

back to Mary. "When are we?"

"About twelve years in your future, or rather, her future, if you were

to leave town now, tonight, and never come back. It’s Christmas Eve

incidentally."

"Then—why is she alone? Where’s Billy?"

"Billy…well, Billy would be here if he could, unfortunately…"

"What? Where is he?"

"Billy died four months ago Chris, he was looking for you."

"He was…what?"

"Looking for you. You were his hero Chris, he idolized you, even

though he only knew you for a short while. He just wanted to know if

you were alive, if you’d ever found peace."

"What—what happened?"

"He left Four Corners about six months ago, looking for you. About

two months after he left, he was shot down while trying to stop a

lynch mob." Chris tried to imagine the bright eyed, towheaded boy as

a man, tried to imagine him being gunned down, but the image wouldn’t

come to him.

"What about Mary? Didn’t she remarry?" He had always thought that

she would remarry eventually. Any man would be proud to have her as

his wife, and it was so easy to fall for that little boy of hers. He

couldn’t see her alone for the rest of her years, or little Billy

growing up without some sort of father figure.

"No, she didn’t."

"Never?"

"Never. Well, there was one man that she was interested in—although

she was to stubborn to mention it at the time, they tended to fight

quite a bit—and Billy adored him, but he just rode off one

day—Christmas Eve no less—and they never heard from him again."

"What about the judge? She shouldn’t be alone."

"It’s ok for you to choose to be alone on Christmas, but not her?"

Chris chose to ignore that.

"The Judge?" He persisted.

He saw Hope’s shoulders rise and fall as she shrugged. "He died of a

heart attack about two years ago." The image of Orrin Travis, easily

the strongest and most stubborn man he had ever met—it had always

seemed to Chris that he was more of Mary’s father than father-in-law,

she took after the old man—dead from a heart attack was almost as

impossible as that of young Billy dead.

"What—what about the others? Buck, Vin, J.D.—" He was sure that

those three would be find. Buck and J.D. seemed to have an endless

supply of luck, they’d probably both live forever. And vin could take

care of himself better than any man Chris had ever known.

"J.D.’s a deputy in Bitter Creek. He married Casey, but she died of

the fever two years ago."

"Ezra?"

"Ezra went straight, largely due to your giving him a chance to prove

himself when you were fighting the ghosts of the confederacy, and

during the James incident. Maude, however, never went straight. She

conned the wrong men in New Orleans, and Ezra was killed trying to

help her get out of it. She never realized how much her son loved

her, or how much she loved him, until he was gone." He was starting

to understand that part of Ezra, but didn’t know if the con man would

ever let that side be fully seen.

"Nathan?"

He lives with his family in Rain’s village. She tried to live in his

world, but she wasn’t happy there, so now he lives in her’s. They

never would have had a chance to have that life if not for you."

"It would have worked out for them, what about Vin?"

"As soon as the judge told the men that things should be ok without

them, Vin went to Tuscosa to clear his name. J.D. and Buck tried to

get him to come along, but he said he had to do it himself. Even

though he knew they would do everything in their power to help him, he

knew that if something went wrong—well, they both had someone who

needed them. J.D. had Casey, and Buck had become the closest thing to

a father Olivia knew. You believed in him Chris, in his innocence,

and he took that knowledge to the grave."

"He—what?" Vin was innocent, surely he’d been able to—

"He couldn’t do it. With no one there to help him, to back him up, he

wasn’t able to prove his innocence. It was quick though. And

painless. Well, as painless as a broken neck could be."

"Maybe I should have never existed."

"What?"

"If I hadn’t been in their lives, Billy never would have gone looking

for me, Vin wouldn’t have gone back to Tuscosa, and Sarah and Adam—"

"There wouldn’t be an Adam Chris."

"What?"

"It took both you and Sarah to make Adam, and without you…well…" She

shrugged again. "But don’t worry, about Sarah. She was visiting a

cousin back east, and met a guy named Rockefeller. Pretty rich.

Happy to, though, not as happy as she was when she was married to you.

Had three kids though." She paused. "Do you really want to know

what happened to the others?"

Actually, the thought terrified him, even though he couldn’t say why.

"yes, I do."

"Well, you’re right about Vin not going to Tuscosa."

"Thank God."

"He never got the chance. He was killed when he tried to save Nathan

from the cattle ranchers. They hung Nathan by the way. And J.D.,

well…he met Lucas James the next day, instead of leaving town with the

rest of you. He was framed for Mr. Potters’s murder. He was

sentenced to twenty years in prison, but only lasted six. Billy was

run over by that stagecoach when he ran into the street. Pity, maybe

if someone had been there to push him out of the way, he’d be—"

"STOP!!!! Just stop it, ok! I’m ready…I’m ready for this trip to be

over."

"I know, but there’s somewhere else we need to go first."

"I don’t know if I can handle anymore of this."

"I know." For the first time, he heard something in her voice,

sympathy. "But this one, this one shouldn’t be as painful."

*******************************

Buck Wilmington, in a sheriff’s office, behind the desk. That was

certainly something he’d never thought to see again. He looked to be

closing things down for the night.

"Where are we?"

"Bitter Creek. Same Christmas as we were just at incidentally." He

didn’t want to think about that. About Mary’s worn, tired face,

spending Christmas alone so soon after her son’s death. "He’s been

sheriff for a little over eight years now."

"Eight years? Buck? I’ve never known him to stay in one place that

long." The longest he’d seen Buck in one place was when he’d lived

with him and Sarah, but he hadn’t settled there for good until just

before Adam had been born, and even for those five years, Buck had

been gone a lot, doing almost anything for Chris that required travel.

But being the sheriff meant that he couldn’t do that.

"Well, I suppose when you have a family to take care of, it changes

your perspective somewhat."

"Family? Buck got married?"

"Yup, to Terry Greer. Or should I say, Terry Wilmington." Buck and

Terry…he’d known that Buck liked the widow, and was fond of her

daughter, but hadn’t seen Buck’s feelings developing enough that he’d

marry her.

"Then why’s he here?"

"He won’t be for long. Come with me." When Chris turned around, they

weren’t in the sheriff’s office anymore, but in a small room,

surrounded by children.

"Whoa!!! Git back here!!" Chris turned at the sound of the voice,

surprised to hear J.D.’s eastern voice with a western twang. He was

chasing a five year old boy who was trailing a string of cranberries

behind him,around the room. He caught him just as a young woman who

looked to be about eighteen came into the room. At first, he had

thought that the boy was J.D.’s son, but then realized that the kid

had Buck’s eyes, and dark blond hair, and that the young woman must be

Olivia, since she looked like a young Terry.

"What’s going on?" She asked, catching another five-year-old by the

back of his shirt.

"Nothing!" J.D. quickly replied. "Tree decorating is going just

fine." He put the boy down, and was about to take both

five-year-olds—Chris realized that the one Olivia had grabbed must

have been J.D.’s, from his coloring—back to what looked to be a mess

of tree decorations, when a young, female voice cut in.

"Danny took Will’s cranberry string and ran around the room with it."

Olivia surveyed the mess around the room and the cranberries that had

fallen off the string that…Danny had been carrying. "Obviously."

Chris saw that the speakers was a girl about eight, and that she was

playing with a child of about two. "Who are all these kids?"

She pointed to the blond boy who J.D. had been chasing, and had

caught. "That’s Buck and Terry’s son, Danny. The other boy is J.D.’s

son, Will, they live in a small house just in back. Olivia you know."

She turned to the girl who was playing with the baby. "The older

girl is Christen, she’s Buck and Terry’s oldest, and the baby is

Laura."

Chris couldn’t get past the older girl’s name. "Christen?"

"Yup, spelled just like your’s, just add a ‘ten’ to it." She gave

Chris a moment to absorb that. "He never quit loving you Chris. And

he probably never will. He can’t, because if he does, then that means

that he’s given up on you, and he’ll never do that."

"Because of Sarah."

"No, because you’re his brother."

Chris looked around for Terry or Buck. "Where’re Terry and Buck?"

"Terry’s outside wai—" A pounding on the steps to the porch outside

and a loud whoop that was easily identified as Buck’s answered his

question even as Hope was doing so. A few moments later, Buck came

in, holding Terry around the waist, and was met at the door by Laura,

who had left her sister’s side the moment she heard her father’s voice.

"Hey there lil darlin’! Not to late to put the star up, am I?" He

glanced around the room, seeing the tree which was almost bare, and

focused on J.D., who merely shrugged.

Chris felt Hope’s hand on his arm. "We’re through."

He glanced at Buck, who was spinning the two boys around under his

arms. "Yeah, I guess we are."