In Sickness and in Health
Chapter One
by Alias
e-mail: [email protected]
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Disclaimer: The Magnificent 7 are property of Trilogy. I don’t own
the characters, I don’t have permission to use them, and I’m not
getting paid for this.
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Author’s note: Special thanks goes to Joyce, who researched, well,
just about everything for me, and e-mailed everyone who she thought
might have any information at all that I could use. I won’t tell you
what she researched, because then you’d know what happens in this
story. Also, this is a sequel to "What Ties Will Bind" and
"Unfinished Business"(in that order.)
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"Would you just stay the hell out of my life!!!!" Laurie knew she was
shouting, she really did. She also knew that her brother had chased
away all of her customers—except Chris, the jerk was just sitting
there watching them—when he had come storming into the saloon. The
only other person left besides the three of them was Jim, who was
staring at them dumbfoundedly from behind the bar. So she really
didn’t care how loud she was shouting.
"Well then, don’t go and get yourself kidnapped by some—"
"I’m just fine, thank you very much!!!"
"That’s not the point!!! The only reason Collins thought he could get
to Vin through you was because you run the Saloon."
"Oh please!!!! More like because I’m your sister, and you work with
him!!! Besides, it’s not as if you were around or anything." She saw
Buck’s face go red. Good, she hated it when he got reasonable, like
he’d been starting to, instead of yelling, like he had been doing.
And it served him right, after refusing to tell her anything about
what had happened in Bitter Creek, saying that she already knew
everything that had happened because Chris had shown her the telegram
Buck had sent. That telegram didn’t say anything except that he’d
handled the trouble and was coming back soon. And when he had come to
see her when he got into town, he had refused to say anything. She
was still miffed about that, so when he had come in yelling about Eric
Collins, well…she hadn’t exactly been thrilled with him. And she was
going to kill J.D. for telling him in the first place, since she had
seen the kid lurking outside, until he realized that she had seen him
and had left.
"That’s not the point." Oh great, he still had his ‘lets be
reasonable’ voice. "The point is, he probably wouldn’t have decided
that you were a good target if you weren’t obviously in a position to
know all the men in town." Buck took a deep breath. "That’s why I’ve
decided that you’re going to sell the saloon."
"DECIDED!?!?!? YOU DECIDED?!?!?!?!" She shrieked at the top of her
lungs. She grabbed the whiskey bottle from Chris and flung it at Buck
with all her might.
"SHIT LAURIE!!!!" Buck ducked and the whiskey bottle, trailing it’s
contents, flew over his shoulder…
…And just barely avoided hitting Vin, who had come in to see what all
the commotion was.
"What the hell!??!?" He cried out as the bottle flew past him.
"I don’t think that was quite the right way to handle that." Chris
remarked, wiping the whiskey that had splashed onto his hand when she
had grabbed the bottle from him onto his pants.
"Oh shut up Chris." Laurie headed for the door. "This is all your
fault." She muttered as she passed Vin.
Vin watched her leave. "Uhm, what just happened?"
Buck’s anger was suddenly turned against him.
"What the hell did you think you were doing, letting my sister get
kidnapped?" Vin wondered if it was to late to try and follow Laurie.
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"Stupid…stubborn…ignorant…pigheaded…sexist…pigheaded…" Laurie kicked
a pebble off the side of the mountain, shivering. She hadn’t thought
to bring her coat with her when she had ridden out of town three hours
before. She had just wanted to get away from everyone. Buck,
Chris…Vin. Especially Vin.
She still, after everything that had happened, didn’t know how she
felt about the tracker. She cared about him, she knew that. She just
didn’t know how much she cared about him. What was worse, she knew
that he didn’t feel the same way. He liked her, she knew that, but
just as a friend. He watched out for her and took care of her because
Buck was his friend, that was all. Only her heart didn’t care about
that.
The crack of thunder and a cold drop of rain on her shoulder, followed
by more, larger drops, startled her.
"Oh great." She ran to Sable, who was pulling at the reins she had
tied to a tree, trying to calm him.
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Vin pulled his jacket tighter around him, hoping that Laurie had at
least thought to go through the back and get her jacket before she had
ridden out of town, but knew she probably hadn’t. He hadn’t planned
to follow her, if nothing else, the horse knew the territory and would
find its way home. And she’d had her gun when she’s stormed out of
the saloon. But he had changed his mind when he had seen the storm
approaching. Mad as she had been when she left, she probably hadn’t
noticed the storm till it was on top of her.
He pulled the horse to a stop, dismounting and keeping a tight hold on
the reins. The tracks were starting to wash away, but this was the
path she had taken. And unless she had taken another way back, she
was still farther along it. He marked the spot. Be hard finding
their way back once the tracks were gone, and the path wasn’t clear
with the rain falling like it was.
He mounted the horse, thinking that, if nothing else, they could hole
up in the old cabin he had spotted a little ways off the trail.
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Laurie groaned as she sat up, pushing strands of dark red hair that
looked almost black when wet out of her face.
"Stupid horse." She muttered. "Lightning wasn’t even all that close."
Well, since the horse had thrown her and run off, she would have to
walk back to town, and it was a long walk. She wrapped her arms
around herself, shivering. And a cold one at that.
Ten minutes later, she thought she heard someone calling her name.
"Vin?" And then louder, "VIN!!!" Excited, she hurried along the
path, and promptly tripped over an exposed root. "OWW!"
She had half picked herself up when Vin pulled his horse to a stop
just a few feet ahead of her and dismounted, pulling his coat off as
soon as he was on the ground.
She stumbled to him, feeling the coat, and his arms, go around her.
"Are you ok?" She nodded. She was now. "Come on."
He started to lead her back to the horse. A moment later, however,
thunder from particularly close lightning caused the horse to rear up,
almost kicking her in the face if Vin hadn’t pulled her back, and ran
off.
"What now?" She asked.
He glanced around and seemed to be listening for something. "This way."
"What’s this way?"
"The river. If we follow it down the mountain, we should end up near
the Seminole village. Have a better chance making it there on foot
than we would town."
Vin led her to the river, and lifted her onto a tree that had fallen
across the river, making a sort of ‘bridge’.
"If we stay close to the mountainside, it should protect us from some
of the weather." She looked across, seeing that the river traveled
along the steep mountainside.
She was halfway across when she lost her footing, and would have
fallen into the river if Vin hadn’t caught her. In the process
though, he lost his own footing. She tried to catch him as he fell
past her, but couldn’t stop him from tumbling into the icy water.