Slowly and cautiously, she came out from behind the corner, her pistol held in front of her.  Lou walked carefully over the floorboards.  When she was within ten feet of the lovers' passionate embrace, the board she stepped on creaked.  Taking advantage of the situation, Lou lowered her gun until it pointed directly at the startled couple who'd ceased their lovemaking at the sound.  She cocked the pistol, the click loud in the silence.

"Louise?!" Laura squeaked, hastily righting her rumpled shift to cover her better.  "W-what are you doin' here?"

Lou's face was impassive, her eyes cold as stone as she allowed the anger to fill her.  "I own this house if you remember, Laura," Lou snapped.  "But that don't explain what you're doin' here with Tom Anderson ruttin' like you was a two-bit whore in a whorehouse!"

Anderson stood and extended a hand down to Laura, his eyes never leaving Louise's angry countenance.  "We can explain ya see...."

"Don't bother.  Do you honestly think I'm so stupid that I can't see what's right in front of me?"  Lou looked at Anderson, her gaze derisive and withering, causing him to wish he'd grabbed his shirt from the floor.  "Why in hell would you want to be another notch on her bedpost, Anderson?"

Laura lunged at Lou.  "You bitch!"  she screamed.  "How dare you...?"

Louise couldn't help but laugh at the impotent fury on the blonde woman's face, a tight smile lingering.  "Now ain't that the pot calling the kettle black?  Have you told Tom here your big news, Laura?"

Anderson's head came up quickly and he looked over at Laura.  "What news?" he asked seriously.

The look on Laura's face was priceless to Lou.  She was definitely feeling the strong effects of being in power and it felt really good.  Lou knew she should probably be merciful, but she had to admit she liked the position she was in now.  This woman had wrecked havoc on her life earlier that day and she'd be damned if she was going to pass this opportunity up.  "Well, Miss Wilson here, decided to come out to the station this afternoon and casually drop the news that she's expecting."

"Expecting?" Tom asked in a hushed voice.  His face hardened as realization dawned on him.  "You're pregnant?!  And just when were you goin' to tell me about this?"

"She was never going to, Tom," Lou said quietly.  The pieces were all starting to come together now.  "She was gonna pass that child off as Kid's knowing full well it might be yours.  Laura was so caught up in hurtin' me she was gonna cut you off from bein' father to your child."

Anderson was furious.  "Might be?!" he exclaimed.  He turned on Laura.  "Might be?!  You know damn well it is mine.  You ain't ever been with Travis.  You know it and I know it 'cause you been meetin' me this whole time."

Laura stumbled backwards away from Tom as he advanced on her.  She was feeling trapped and glanced around for any way out.  Fear and anger at Louise combined into a stange, jumbled mess.  "T-Tom, baby, I was gonna tell you, I swear...."

"There ain't no way I'm lettin' Travis raise my child," Tom bellowed, still approaching as Lou looked on.  "I done a lotta things wrong in my life, but this is where I draw the line Laura.  You told me you took care of everythin'!  It's one thing to be foolin' around together but that changes when there's a kid involved.  A kid oughta be raised by his parents, his real parents."

Suddenly, Laura fell onto her backside, her feet having gotten tangled up in something.  She reached down to untangle her legs and her fingers came in contact with the hard leather of Anderson's gunbelt.  Her eyes flew to Louise the source of all her trouble, all her grief and consternation.  She just couldn't keep her mouth shut.  There was no way she was going to let Louise ruin her life and get Kid.  He was her dream, her good-looking, respectable, hard-working husband and she'd be damned if anyone was going to steal her dream with her whore's tricks.  Laura pulled the pistol from the holster and, without thinking further, she raised the gun and fired it at the bane of her existence.

Lou never saw the shot that came at her from Anderson's gun until it was too late.  There was a burst of white hot pain as the bullet imbedded itself deeply in her left shoulder just above her breast.  The impact threw her backwards, her own gun clattering to the floor.......

Lou's eyes slammed open sharply, jerking awake suddenly from the dream.  Something heavy across her midsection kept her from bolting upright in the bed.  Her breath came fast and heavy and her right hand had reached across to her left shoulder.  She looked down, expecting to find herself bloodstained.  Her brow furrowed confusedly as she found herself dressed only in her shift, no wound to be found in her shoulder.

Looking around dazedly, Lou found darkness still covered the room. Lexi slept peacefully in his cradle at the end of the bed while Kid murmured something in his sleep.  Kid's arm lay around her waist, holding her close to him and preventing much movement.  Normally, he would've been wide awake at her first movement, but Louise could tell he slept contentedly and soundly still.  The day must have exhausted him as well.

The last vestiges of the dream remained even as she slid back down in the bed next to Kid.  He pulled her into his body, curling around her comfortably in the old way he used to.  Her body demanded sleep but one thing was for sure.  Louise remembered the night she'd been shot and her dream had gone up in flames and now she knew who'd done it  -- Laura Wilson.

When she woke again, the house was still.  Rolling closer to the other side of the bed, her body seeking warmth and comfort to restore her to sleep, Lou's brow furrowed when she was met with empty space.  Her hand reached out and searched blindly for Kid only to find the edge of the bed and a slight warmth where he'd lain all night.  Opening her eyes confirmed that he must have already left for the morning.  With a sigh, she decided to emerge from the warm cacoon of covers and tend to her baby who was babbling and gurgling in his cradle.

Lou fastened the belt on her robe as she approached the happy little boy.  "Good mornin', Mama's little love," she cooed softly.  As she looked into the cradle, she noticed a piece of paper clutched in Lexi's small hand getting wrinkled while he waved it in the air like a rattle.  Curious, Lou reached for the baby and the paper.  "What have you got, baby boy?  Can I see that -- seein' as how you can't read yet."

Balancing the baby in the crook of one arm, she rescued the paper from his clutches before it ended up in his mouth.  A smile lit Lou's face as she unfolded the scrap and immediately recognized Kid's even writing.:

 

Lou felt herself blushing at his praise, yet melting at the sweetness of Kid writing his son a letter he was sure Lou herself would find.  The letter let him say all those wonderful things without fear of her making too much of the simple gesture.  If there was one thing about Kid that hadn't changed it was his simple sweetness that brooked no fuss about doing things.  To make a big deal out of things that came naturally to Kid had always embarassed him, causing him to shrug in his traditionally bashful manner that it wasn't a big deal.

Lou's ears perked up suddenly as she heard the sound of horses outside in the yard.

"Hey, Kid!  You comin' with us or not?" Jimmy's voice shouted.

She could hear Kid's footsteps on the floor downstairs as he headed toward the door, grumbling beneath his breath about how some people could wake the dead.  Lou's heart lurched.  She hadn't missed him after all!  Clutching the baby close, she rushed out the door and down the stairs, hearing the front door shut as she reached the bottom step.  "Kid!" Lou called as she lurched through the front door and halfway down the steps.

Kid turned suddenly at the sound of his name being called to find Lou half dressed, rushing out of the house like it was on fire.  He heard the others chuckle as he half-jogged back to meet her on the porch steps.

"I got your note...," Lou panted.  "Thought I missed you."

Oblivious to anything but the sight of his girl with that wonderfully tempting just-tumbled-out-of-bed look, Kid grinned at her, one hand straightening the upturned collar of her robe.  "You looked so tired last night that I didn't wanna wake you up this mornin'," he said.  He glanced over her, his smile fading slightly as he noticed her bare feet sticking out from beneath her hem.  "What're you doin' out here in your bare feet, Lou?  Head back inside before you catch your death out here."

Lou ignored the command although she was touched at his concern.  "I had to tell you something before you go.  I remember who shot me."

"You do?" Kid asked, his whole body straightening in attention.  "Who?"

"Laura Wilson."

"Laura?" Louise nodded.  Kid could hardly believe it at first.  Of course he'd never thought Laura would kill anyone, yet she'd murdered that poor woman who'd worked for her parents. Maybe shooting Lou was what had caused her to snap.  "Why would she shoot you?"

Her head tilted sardonically, Lou's brow arching.  "You mean besides the fact that she hates me and has since I came back to Sweetwater?" she asked sarcastically.  "I walked in on her and Tom Anderson 'dancin'' in my house.  I'm sorry Kid, but seems she and him were carryin' on together behind your back.  The baby she's expectin' is his and if anyone had found out, including Anderson, it would ruin her chances at trapping you.  After I let spill that she was pregnant to Anderson, he was furious that she'd used him.  Suddenly, she just picked up his gun and shot me.  I'm pretty sure she set the fire as well."

"Makes sense, Kid," Teaspoon said from atop his horse. The others had heard the exchange even though the young couple seemed to have forgotten they were there.  "Fire would destroy any evidence they were there as well as make it look like Lou'd died in the fire. There'd be no questions asked."

"And, Mrs. Wilson had told us about the news Maria had brought her just a couple days before she was murdered," Buck added.

Noah nodded. "Yeah, Laura'd been sneaking out to meet someone for weeks.  Maria didn't know who, but it's comin' together now."

<She'd been meeting Anderson,> Ike signed decisively, his normally expressive face hard in anger.

"Well, what are we waitin' for then?" Jimmy asked.  "Let's go bring her in."

Louise shook her head sadly.  "Only one problem with that idea, Jimmy," she said turning to look at the others as well.  "Laura really is having a baby.  You can't go off half-cocked, not knowing where she is and bring her in all rough like a criminal."

"Why not?  She murdered Maria, tried to kill you, and set fire to Silver Birch. Seems to me that's enough to make her a criminal," Hickok snapped sarcastically.

Kid sighed resignedly.  "She's right, Jimmy. No matter how much any of us wants to drag her in to face trial, no matter what she's done, that baby's innocent.  We gotta come up with a way to bring her in that doesn't put her under too much stress.  Maybe...."

Danny looked up from the ground near his boots which he'd been studying the whole time.  He felt slightly awkward amongst the riders. They were all for him helping them bring in Laura, but there was a spirit among them that made him feel left out.  They'd done this thousands of times, facing danger together, automatically knowing each others' strengths and weaknesses.  The riders were like brothers standing with their backs to each other as they faced the world together.

"I hardly think she's going to just give herself up to us, considering what's at stake here," Danny remarked evenly.  "You forget she's facing one count of murder, one of attempted murder, as well as harassment and arson.  That's some serious charges that carry a heavy penalty."

Teaspoon lifted his hands to stave off the continuing debate.  "Let's just find the woman first.  We'll talk plans later."  Having said his piece, the older marshal turned to remount his horse.  With a blown kiss towards the upstairs window where he knew his wife watched their departure, he turned the horse's head towards town and headed out.  The others followed shortly leaving Kid standing with Louise and Lexi on the front porch.

Kid bent his head to place a kiss on the baby's downy head. "Be good for mama while I'm gone," he said softly.  He looked into Lou's large eyes, reading the trepidation there.  Smiling confidently, he kissed her lips tenderly, his hand cupping her cheek.  "You too.  Be good."

She smiled at their old parting phrase.  "Always," Lou replied.  She looked in the direction the others had gone, nothing but dust left behind to mark their passing.  "You'd better catch up.  Be careful."

Kid mounted an impatient Katy and settled in the saddle before replying, "I will."

Lou watched him part, turning the baby so Lexi could watch his father leave as well.  A little ways out from the station she saw Kid's hand raise in a finaly salute before he kicked Katy into a full gallop to try and catch up with the others.  She lifted Lexi's chubby arm and waved it.  "Say bye-bye, Daddy," Lou prompted him, knowing full well the boy was too young to speak and still too uncoordinated to wave himself.  When kid and katy weren't even a speck on the horizon, Lou sighed and turned to head back into the house and start her day.