Gunsmoke Refuge II

Posted on Wed May 15th, 2024 @ 4:55am by Lieutenant Commander Lyra Cassiel & Lieutenant Commander Andrei Petrov

Mission: S1 Episode 8: Resolutions
Location: Holodeck 1
Timeline: Date 2371-11-14 at 2100
6027 words - 12.1 OF Standard Post Measure

ON


The pair made their way carefully along the top of the car and down the other side. Together they made their way through the subsequent cars, taking out the men who were desperately trying to stop them with relative ease. While they were never truly in danger on the holodeck, it wouldn’t have mattered. They were too fast and accurate for the hapless thugs hired to defend the train. Finally, they were standing two rooms before the engine - there was one room left and then the engine itself.

Melody finished picking the pockets of one of the men and came up with a shiny gold pocket watch which she offered to Andy with a smile.

“What’s the plan here, darlin’?”

“I figure we just see what’s behind door number eight.” Andy said, and pulled the door open. As soon as they walked through, a peel of loud gunfire sounded, causing both of them to jump in surprise. He leapt quickly, tackling Melody to the ground behind a pile of crates. Laying on top of her, he raised his brows. “Something big is behind door number eight.”

He then climbed off of her and leaned his head out just enough to see a Gatling gun at the end of the car manned by a thin man with a thick mustache.

“Well I do like big things but that ain’t exactly what I wanna get railed by, ya know?” Melody said and dusted herself off as she sat up. His tackle had surprised her and while understandable, she could still feel a stinging pain in her wrist and the side of her head from where she had landed. Absently as he leaned in to look through the door, she rubbed her hurt wrist with her other hand.

“Should we go up and over again?”

Andy shook his head, looking at her. He noticed her caring for her wrist and realized he had been a bit too rough with her. He scooted toward her and took her hand in his, kissing it himself and massaging it gently.

“Won’t work. The bastard’s got a full view of the car. One of us is gonna have to create a serious distraction so Old Fella don’t notice the other one creepin up on him.”

Lyra blinked as he took her hand and wondered for just a moment if it were Andrei or simply a gesture of Andy being a gentleman to a lady. She didn’t pull away, and a small smile threatened the corners of her lips. She focused herself though and looked once more at the door keeping them from their destination.

“Alright. Want me to distract ‘im, and you go after ‘im? I’m a smaller target, at the very least.” Melody offered and looked back to Andy.

“Yeah. Just don’t get that pretty head of yours shot off.” He said with a grin before lifting one of his large revolvers and backing against the crate.

It was Melody’s turn to give a grin and wink as she got down low and peered into the next room. She would have to move fast, but that was her strength. She could feel her adrenaline building up - they could lose themselves and commit to the fantasy so easily even though there was no real danger. Reaching down to her belt, she pulled out one of her bullets and then promptly threw it to one side of the next car where it clanged loudly against the metal chassis of the car. The man behind the Gatling gun turned himself and the gun toward the sound and Melody slipped from her position and moved forward a few stacks of crates before taking cover again seemingly unseen. Unlike those in the bar car earlier, these crates were solid and she couldn’t see through the slats in them; with some effort, she was able to get her eye on the gunman through a gap between the crates. She could see he was on edge; he wasn’t hardened to the life of the weapon he wielded.

She shifted and braced her hands against the crates above her head and began to push. When they didn’t move, she opted for the lower rows. Bracing her back against the crates behind her, she used one of her long, powerful legs to push on those in front of her with much more success. They inched forward, then suddenly she delivered a forceful kick that sent them toppling forward toward the man behind the gun. The loud crash and commotion scared the gunman and he immediately swung the Gatling gun around and opened fire where the crates had been. Melody had immediately hit the floor after pushing the crates over; she closed her eyes against the hail of splinters and chunks of wood flying at her as the crates were showered with bullets, but she didn’t try to cover herself in any way. It wasn’t like such a thing could stop the bullets.

When the man turned around toward the opposite wall after the thrown bullet had made an impact, he shifted quietly to the other side of the car, creeping with swift and impressive quietness for his side toward the center of the car. Finally, when the man turned with his gun and started raining hellfire down in Melody’s direction, he stood unnoticed and lifted his huge Russian. One bullet made an angry red hole in the man’s head, and then the sound and fury ended.

Andy walked back to the tatters of the wooden crate and extended a hand toward Melody.

“And here I was hopin’ you’d go the strip-tease distraction route.”

Melody hauled herself out of the debris with Andy’s help and once standing, immediately started dusting off and picking bits of wood out of her braided hair. “Ya know, I thought ‘bout it, but then I reckoned that might be a li’l too distraction’ afterward an’ we’re on a time crunch. I’ll happily strip for ya later if we get our prize.”

She seemed uninjured and flashed him a mischievous smile and waved a hand toward the wheel mounted gatling gun. “Reckon ya could put that to some fun use?”

There was enough room to maneuver it in the small space - the wheels would have let them move it between the cars if needed though it would have been cumbersome to say the least.

He considered her point about what might have happened should she risk taking off even a small amount of clothing near him and gave a half amused nod.

“Probably a good call.” He said, and put his hand on the gun before them. “It’s a big sum’bitch, but I can push it. What do ya think?”

He looked into her beautiful brown eyes, still lingering on the mental image of that strip tease. He was still here for her, he knew, though he hadn’t admitted it. If she wasn’t a factor, he would have stayed with his family, and no one would have been able to stop him. As soon as the thought entered his head, he pushed it away. Now was the time for diversions, like killing, and looking into her brown eyes.

“I ain’t got no doubt ya can. I’ll open the door an’ cover ya, darlin’.” She resisted the urge to reach up and touch his cheek as she usually would when he would look into her eyes like this. Even with the patch on - or with his emerald eye looking at her - she still remembered both silvery eyes without any trouble and more often than not, it was those eyes she saw.

“Ready?”

“Ready.” He said, his tone softer than before, and his accent growing weak. When she pushed the door open, he engaged his powerful muscles, pushing the gun quickly into the last car before they reached the train’s engine.

Before them stood six men with guns and mean faces. They were clearly lying in wait for them, planning to mount some last stand in strength against the unstoppable couple. They hadn’t expected a Gatling gun, and their expressions made that clear. They raised their guns as Andy started the process of bringing the large gun to a stop.

As promised, Melody lifted her guns and began firing on the men protecting the engine from the pair. They immediately ducked out of the way of her shots and any time one would try to maneuver to fire at them, Melody’s keen eyes would see them and they would go back down into hiding. It was a strange, entertaining game of sorts.

“Fixin’ to run out of bullets here soon, darlin’.” She warned Andy through gritted teeth.

“That’s okay. Reckon I’ve got enough for the both of us.” He said as the Gatling gun came to life. His visible eye lit up as he tore through boxes, crates, and men, causing a scene of power, wood, bones, and blood. He chuckled as one of the shotgun riders got mowed down by fire. After three had died, he stepped back and pulled out his revolvers again. “Yer turn, Miss Gabriel.”

“Aw, how sweet of ya to think of me.” Melody practically purred and moved to take his place behind the gatling gun which she raised and maneuvered. She opened fire on the other three two of which died with yelps and moans behind the boxes. The third tried to be brave and with a yell sprang up from behind his cover to try and shoot at Andy and Melody only for his head to suddenly explode in a shower of gore.

Melody giggled, sweet and sadistic.

Andy stepped around her, smiling and stepping through the carnage toward the other side of the car. The back wall was riddled with bullet holes, a monument to their work. He opened the door and the two of them started around the coal car. They reached the front in enough time to see one of their men wrestling with the train’s conductor near the coal furnace that powered the locomotive while the other members of their posse galloped along beside the train on horseback.

Melody scoffed as she saw one of their own men already here before them and actually seemed genuinely - though mildly - annoyed. Even though it was a simulation, their adventure had been physically tasking and she wanted the reward. “All that work, an’ someone else’s fixin’ to steal our glory.”

Andy crossed his strong arms over his chest. He too wasn’t pleased about the situation. The man was scrawny and young and, though the conductor was large and strong, his massive fat reserves made him a suitable target for almost anyone fast enough to challenge him. The men tousled for several seconds until the big conductor finally wrenched himself free of the bandit and got his huge hands on him. The man lifted him in an impressive feat of strength and threw him off the side of the train.

“You were sayin?” Andy asked with a grin.

“Oh good.” Melody grinned, her annoyance evaporating immediately. She looked at the conductor and then up to Andy. “Go ahead, darlin’. You know I love watchin’ you fight.”

Andy reached up and gave her cheek a gentle squeeze along with a calm, confident expression. If she wanted to watch him fight, he would oblige. The man in front of him was big, but so was he, and he was a trained and formidable warrior in every frontier.

He stepped up to the conductor with a smile.

“Hey, buddy, we need this thing.” He said, cool and with southern charm. “You should stop the train , else I’m gonna have to put my fist through that ugly head of yours. What’s it gone be?”

The conductor looked Andy up and down and then spit on the floor of the engine. “I’m fixin’ to throw ya out on them tracks an’ then break that li’l bitch of yours over my knee when I’m done with ya.”

He took up a fighting stance, grabbing a very large wrench nearby to use as a weapon.

“I was hopin’ you’d say something’ like that.” Andy said and charged forward, his fists bared. He struck the man in his gut hard, and when the man tried to swing the wrench he’d picked up, Andy intercepted his arm, grabbed the wrench, and overextended his arm until he released it. Andy backed up then, moving fast on his feet.

“Come on. Round two, Big Boy.”

Lyra watched the exchange with interest, her dark intelligent eyes following each of Andrei’s movements with ease. Of course she enjoyed watching him fight, that wasn’t a lie, but she also studied him carefully when he did. It informed her of his style, his strengths, and his weaknesses; it was valuable information. Him engaging in these fights also kept her from revealing her own skills.

As the conductor recovered and moved to square up again, Melody moved forward slowly. She wasn’t going to interfere in the fight - she was confident in Andy’s abilities - but if she could stop the train she was going to do it. The posse’s horses were likely practically dead by now.

The conductor prepared himself again and this time taking up the position of the aggressor. He moved with surprising speed given his bulk, and took a few jabs toward Andy’s face and followed it up with a hook. Obviously, the man had some sort of training as a boxer. After connecting with the younger man’s face, he positioned himself to assault Andy’s core with a series of brutal, fast punches.

Andy’s head jerked slightly with the first jab. The punch had grazed his temple, but he quickly compensated to avoid the rest. He was happy to see this man was going to be a bit of a challenge, but he wasn’t particularly interested in dragging this whole thing out. He ate the punches from the man directly to his gut. They had hurt, sure, but he had learned long ago the art of enduring pain. After the man had done his worst with his fists, Andy grinned and raised the wrench, smacking the man hard on the head. In a daze, and with a face full of shock, the large conductor looked at him with the first signs of serious traumatic brain injury.

“Hope you got your affairs in order, partner.” he said, and then prepared to strike the man again.

Melody moved to the front of the engine and placed her hands on the emergency brake lever. She waited, however, until Andy had delivered the final blow. Even over the sound of the train, she could hear the man making strange gasping and sputtering sounds, his body bobbed oddly from the catastrophic disruption to his nervous system.

Once he hit the floor and went still, she flashed a smile to her lover. “Brace yerself, darlin’.”

She grabbed and pulled back on the lever hard; it wasn’t meant to be an easy task to stop a train like this. Her muscles tensed, but her clothes hid all the definition that was surely showing underneath them. After a few seconds, the lever budged and pulled back. The sudden loud screech of the brakes locking set Melody’s teeth on edge, but the jerk of the abrupt stop barely phased her.

Andy took her advice as he watched the conductor collapse to the ground, blood pouring from his head wound. The killing had been brutal and simple, though Andrei was capable of much more finesse should the need arise. He did seem to derive excitement from doing things as simply as possible, though, so he had opted for that. As the train lurched and began to slow, he used his arms to hold himself in place and his attention went to the men on exhausted horses who were trotting gradually slower next to them. Once the train stopped with a hiss, he moved to the stairs and pulled himself down before standing by just in case Mel wanted to use him to get down. He knew she wouldn’t need it, however, and was already distracted by Bill O’Connor dismounting his horse.

“The hell took you two so goddamn long?” he asked with a bushy-eyed scowl.

“We was on vacation, boss.” Andy said in a calm voice. “But we made it right on time, didn’t we?”

“Yeah, you did.” Bill said, wiping sweat from his forehead. “Now the train is stopped, gentlemen…and lady. Let’s haul it back to the armored car and find what that bigshot Clarke Weston’s got to hide from honest folk like you an’ me.”

Melody had accepted Andy’s help again with the same reasoning she had when she had accepted his help while getting on her horse. When Bill wandered over, however, her attention went solely to him. She watched him like a predator, her dark eyes laser focused on the way his mouth moved and his mustache flopped around. She shifted her weight, antsy, and when he turned his back to look toward the armored car, her hand twitched at her side. She would have killed him right there, but this wasn’t for her. She broke her focus on the old man by blinking several times and instead looked up to Andy.

“Sure, Bill. Let’s go.” Andy said. He seemed perfectly calm with suffering the old gang leader’s insults and slights and walked along with the rest of the group. “What happened to Larry? That big conductor wasn’t playin’ no games with him when he pushed him off that engine.

“Larry broke his damn arm and he’s over there in the dirt cryin’ about it.” Bill said, pointing at the young man nursing his arm. “He did his work though. The hard part’s done. Now alls we got to do is use the dynamite to blow these doors, and the gettin’ll be good.”

The blonde haired man that had stayed with Bill the whole time looked over at Mel and fell in on the other side of her. He tipped his white hat and smiled at her.

“I saw you up there in that open car, Miss Gabriel. That was some mighty fine shootin’ you were doin’.”

“Well ain’t that kind of ya, Mr. Prentice.” Melody smiled at the sandy haired man in a charming way. “I’m mighty glad you’re alright. I know ridin’ next to a train ain’t easy.”

She walked with the group, her eyes shifting between Prentice and forward so she could watch where they were going. She was getting antsy to see their bounty and also to see Bill get exactly what he deserved for being the way that he was.

“It was purdy hard to keep up, yeah.” the man responded without even iota of suspicion she was insulting him. “But that’s alright. It’s the life we lead; the life we chose. Say, maybe you and I can get out of camp some time when we get back and do some huntin’ together. I could use some target practice, and it seems like you know what yer doin’.”

“Well now just bless yer heart, ain’t you sweet.” Melody all but cooed. Next to her, she could hear Andy stifling a laugh and wondered how long he would be successful - it seemed to be a struggle. “I’ll mull it over, but the things I like to hunt might be a mite too exotic for your taste.”

She smiled at Prentice then, charming and dark.

“Oh, I think I like exotic, Miss Gabriel.” Prentice said, hazarding a glance at her figure as he adjusted his hat again. He was a handsome man, but lacked charm and any wit more than low cunning and base jokes.

Andy coughed, but several chuckles escaped his mouth as he did so. Mr. Prentice frowned at him past Melody.

“Somethin’ funny over their, Slade?” he asked with an incredulous tone.

“No no, I’m just thinkin’ about this story I read once ‘bout this sheep that went huntin’ fer a wolf.”

“I don’t mean to go huntin’ wolves, Mr. Slade. She said exotic. Like a stag or somethin’ like that, right, Miss Gabriel?”

“Afraid of a li’l danger, Mr. Prentice?” Melody challenged, that grin growing more cruel. She started leaning her face closer to his, her dark eyes pinning his gaze. “Afraid you might… get… bit?”

Her face was just an inch or two away from his by the last word, and as soon as it left her mouth, she closed nearly all the remaining distance and snapped her teeth at him like she was going to bite him. When he startled backward, she pulled back and laughed. “Aw, hun.”

As Prentice disengaged from the conversation, the posse arrived at the armored car on the back of the train. Prentice and the other minor member remaining standing went over and started hooking up dynomite to the door. Bill, Andy, and Melody stood at a safe distance and started unspooling wire for the detonator. The box with a handle was relatively easy to set up, and it was done right around the time the other crew were finishing up placing the dynamite on the thick metal door.

“Bill, look at them over there. You think they know what they’re doin’?” Andy asked, an annoyed tone in his voice.

“Prentice has done it before. He’s probably fine.” Bill said with a wave of his hand. Just as he finished his response, one of the sticks of dynamite fell off the door. Bill noticed and frowned. “Eh..I’d better double check.”

The man walked toward the other men waving his arms and barking orders Andy didn’t listen to.

“How’s it lookin’?!” Andy called over the distance.

“They got it! You did it right, you morons. Now let’s get in here!”

“You heard the man, Mel. It’s time.” Andy said, gesturing toward the plunging-handle detonator. With the rest of the posse right in front of the door, it would not be an opportune moment to set things in motion as far as they were concerned. Andy’s calm smile said nothing to the rest of the world, but everything to her.

“Took em long enough. Slow bastards.” Melody scoffed and then reached out to place her hand on the plunger. Before she pushed down though, she paused and reached out for Andy’s hand with her other one, then placed it over the one on the handle leaving it sandwiched between her feminine hands.

“Together, darlin’.” She gave him a sweet smile and then pushed their stack of hands down together, her eyes going over toward the train and the rest of their posse there. The distance exploded in a ball of fire coupled by a spray of dirt, metal, and gore of the men closest to the dynamite.

“Oh. Whoops.” She deadpanned.

“Damn, I guess we shoulda waited.” Andy said, standing up and starting over to the now open door. As they stepped through metal, blood, and guts, he pulled himself up into the car and looked back to help her. “Wait till the rest of the group hears about it.”

“They’ll prob’ly be thankful. No one liked Bill an’ Prentice was as dumb as a bag of rocks and somehow slightly less useful.” Melody pointed out as she took his hand and pulled herself up into the car with him. Some of the containers were damaged from the blast, but most of them had been made to be heavy duty. With a quick look around, she found the bolt cutters underneath a pile of debris and pulled them out. She offered them to Andy with a smile.

“Here, darlin’, let’s pop open one of these crates an’ see what we got.”

The crates on the near side of the room were obviously more important than the ones in the other cars, but Andy’s eyes drifted to the rest of the car which had bookshelves, red couches, and a cherry wood desk in the middle of the room with a legal lamp on it.

“I reckon we should start over there. If I had somethin’ shiny or some sort of important papers, I’d stow ‘em in my fancy desk or my big safe.” Andy said, and started over to the desk. It was nearly appointed with a lone folder on top. He opened it and saw a bunch of insignificant documents. Without bothering to close it, he switched to opening the drawers instead.

Melody hopped up on the other side of the desk and leaned over while Andy began to open the drawers. Her keen eyes scanned each one, and in the second drawer on the second side, she saw something wedged in a corner of it under some papers.

“Ooo, what’s that?” She asked but had already reached down and snatched the bag before she had even finished the question. It was a small brown velvet drawstring pouch that had some weight to it. She opened it and carefully shook out some of the contents into her cupped palm. Spilling out there were small, perfectly shaped diamonds.

“Well would ya lookie here.”

“I love the rich.” Andy said with a smile, and then pulled out a stack of rectangular statements. He leaned through them quickly and smiled. “We got some bearer bonds here. They’ve got to be worth at least $15,000. And considering the untimely death of some of our..unfortunate comrades, the group is smaller than before, and almost all the big wigs are dead.”

He opened a drawer on the other side and immediately found a deed, pulling it out, he smiled and showed it to Melody.

“Looks like he’s got some obscure farming property in the country with crops and renters. We might be able to scare up somethin’ related to that, or scare off somethin’.”

Melody took the deed and looked it over. “Sounds like a good retirement plan.”

She slid the diamonds back into their pouch and put that in her own pocket - whether it was for safekeeping or because she decided they were hers wasn’t clear. Moving off the desk, she grabbed the bolt cutters and moved over to one of the heavier crates, a long rectangular one sitting stacked on top of two others like it. The cutters made quick work of the lock which she tossed aside and then opened the top.

“Oh, darlin’. I think ya will like this.” She grinned and motioned him over. Inside of the box there had to be nearly a hundred rifles neatly packed in and polished to perfection. Picking one up, she moved it around in her hands and inspected it.

“How much does one of these sell for anyway?”

Andy whistled and looked at the rifle she was holding. Placing his hand on the stock, he lifted an eyebrow. His love of weapons meant he had the answer right away.

“Bout forty dollars on a bad day. You thinkin’ of sellin’ ‘em? If so, don’t know how we’re gonna get ‘em outta here. We kinda killed our muscle, Mel.”

Melody put the rifle back and then waved a hand at his concern. “Nothin’ to it, darlin. We still got horses an’ while we were movin’ through I saw some things still in wheel carts for easy movin’. We might not be able to take ‘em all, but we can take enough.”

“We can try if ya want it, Mel, but the law will be here soon. You can’t exactly stop a train without somebody takin’ note for too long.” He said, taking one of the rifles and putting it on his back. “So let’s do it if we’re doin’ it.”

She resisted making a face at his comment and promptly turned to hop out of the car. “You gather up whatever ya want then. I’ll go an’ get the cart an’ the horses.”

It would have been faster for them both to work on it of course - or even if Andy were to do it himself - but since it was her idea she was going to go and do it. Traveling a couple of cars back, she entered the car from the end and then opened the cargo door. Finding one of the carts, she began to unload what was in it as quickly as possible.

Back in the armored car, Andy loaded the valuables from the desk and the safe into one of the empty crates and prepared some of the others for transport. He sealed each of them one at a time, and finished just as Mel was arriving with the cart. He lifted the first heavy crate and carried it over to her.

“Damn, these things are heavy.” He said before sitting the box down gently in the cart.

“Good thing you got those big muscles.” Melody replied and pulled a couple lengths of rope from the back of the cart then walked off to retrieve the horses. Walking back with three of them, she began to hook one of them up to the cart by crafting a makeshift harness through knotting and looping the rope around the horse itself as well as the cart. She did this with ease as if it were something she had done before.

Andrei paused to watch her perform the task, his eyebrow raising in curiosity. It was an odd skill for a woman like Lyra to have, and he was wondering why she would have had occasion to learn it on Luna. He decided he would try to learn where she’d gotten that skill later, and turned back to the armored car.

Andy picked up several more crates and brought them over one at a time until all the ones they were taking were on the cart. He walked around to Melody when he was done.

“That’s all of it. Found some gold bars in the safe too that we should be able to exchange for money. Damn shame Bill couldn’t make it to our first big find in years, huh?”

“Yes… very sad. Anyways,” she grinned at him, “time to git outta here before the lawmen show up.”

She moved to the two free horses and then looked back to Andy. “Help me up?”

He smiled, walked over, and assisted her in stepping up. He wasn’t stupid, and he knew she could do so without him, but it certainly wasn’t about that in the end. Walking over to the other side, he climbed up as well, and then they were off, riding into the setting sun.

After a long while of riding in a roundabout route to throw off any hope of tracking them, Andy and Melody finally found themselves breaking through the trees and their “camp” coming into view. It was an area filled with a handful of log cabins and one barn that seemed to be shared. Though a bit run down, everything was still in relatively good condition despite being likely near a century old and with repairs and additions had become quite a cozy little living area for the group. There were a few people milling about, and as Andy and Melody made an appearance, a young man with a rifle sprang up from one of the chairs under the awning of one of the cabins and charged forward with his weapon raised.

“Stop right there!” He demanded.

“Calm down, ya shit head. It’s us!” Andy called out, waving his hand dismissively at the man. The cart and its horses continued forward undeterred and rested near the cabin in the center of the town. Andy stepped down, his large arms folding as the man with the shotgun approached like he was on a mission with a question primed on his lips. “Get these boxes inside.”

“Where’s Bill’n the rest of them?” The question came anyways.

Melody slid off her horse and gave a few gentle pats to its neck. She was tired and sore and ready to go inside and relax, but they had to make it convincing.

“There was an accident.” She practically mewled and seemed genuinely distraught. “Oh it was awful.”

She stepped closer to the man that had posed the question with a frown on her beautiful face and teary eyes. “Bill was puffin’ on one of his cigars and went up to check on the dynamite ‘cause Prentice an’ the rest were havin’ some trouble. Well, the damn fool dropped the cigar an’…”

She drifted off and looked away and down dramatically.

“Boom.” Andy said with an unshaken expression as he put his arm around Mel as she appeared to be beside herself. “You shoulda seen it, Cletus. It was terrible. Blood, guts an’ ass all over the fuckin’ ground.”

“Well shit.” Cletus frowned and slung his gun over his shoulder.

Melody sighed and leaned into Andy. “Anyways, if y’all could handle the boxes we’d be grateful. I wanna go inside.”

“Yeah, alright Miss Gabriel.” Cletus nodded and then looked around, motioning some of the other men over. “We’ll take care of it for ya.”

“After while, we’re gonna have to pick a new leader, ain’t we, Cletus?” Andy asked, his face neutral and perfectly calm still. His visible eye had a haunting glow. “Bill can’t exactly boss us around no more. Who do ya think it should be?”

“Oh I ‘unno.” Cletus shrugged. “We’ll get everyone t’gether later and talk about it. Get some rest, y’all earned it after all.”

Melody eyed Cletus and then gently squeezed Andy’s arm before walking toward the cabin. “Hope ya got an idea by tonight, Cletus… and a good one.”

She then moved inside and looked around. It was quaint but cozy with a fire burning and a steaming bath drawn already in the wooden tub; it was a nice touch.

He moved in with her, taking his hat off and placing it on the rack as he entered. The cabin was certainly cozy, and a fair bit bigger than the other ones. He approached her and wrapped his arms around her middle.

“I don’t reckon Bill will mind if we move in. And I’ll send a message ‘bout who’s in charge around here now.”

“Mmm… good.” Melody reached up to take off her own hat and tossed it back to the rack by the front; she landed the shot easily. She truly enjoyed the simple feeling of his arms wrapped around her, it made her feel both safe and wanted. Perhaps she was putting too much into those feelings, but she found it hard not to.

“I want to get cleaned up.” She squeezed his arms gently to get him to release her and reached down to pull off her boots so she could begin the process of stripping off her clothes.

Andy watched her as she started taking off her clothes, his own hands moving to pull off the black jacket he was wearing and to place it on the rack as well.


“Oh, that diversion I was hopin’ for earlier.” He said with a grin. It was a joke more than anything, and he wasn’t trying to necessarily initiate anything. He would be perfectly happy with washing together. He started unbuttoning her shirt for her gently. “That was some fine shootin’ out there today.”

“Oh right.” She chuckled and reached up to grab his hands and stop him from continuing. “I almost forgot about that.”


TBC