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Happy Epilogue

Spoilers: Kitty Shot, Hostage

Disclaimer: These characters are not mine but I love them.

Doc held Kitty's hand, his thumb on the pulsing vein of her wrist. He didn't let it show, but he was elated that it beat strong and steady. He hadn't given Kitty a snow ball's chance in hell of survival when Matt brought her in, soaked in her own blood, barely breathing, the color of impending death. But that was a week ago.

Now she lay in her own bed, in her own room over the Long Branch, surrounded by himself, Matt, and Kate. He knew what he did to bring her though. He prayed for a steady hand as he worked on the beautiful lady he'd come to love and admire. Matt and Kate teamed together to talk to her, never gave up a moment of silence but encouraged her, begged her to live.

She must have heard those pleadings.

God definitely heard his.

Kitty lived.

She would carry the remembrance of three bullets for the rest of her life. The first came as an accident; the second because she was Matt Dillon's woman and vengeance compelled Bonner to shoot her in the back; and this one, taken to save the life of her daughter at the expense of her own.

He harbored feelings for Kate and he hoped he could keep them from breaking through the surface. If she'd only told Matt. The whole story. Not the little bit that did no good.

"Now I don 't want you two to tire her out." He gave Matt and Kate a stern, doctorly warning along with the look. "She needs rest, a lot of it."

He trundled toward the door, hat and coat tossed over an arm.

"Mind what I say."

"Kitty."

Matt held her hand.

"I was so afraid we were going to loose you."

We. Kitty looked from Matt to Kate. Those two had grown closer in the past week. They told her Zach was dead, Kate's doing, a bullet between the eyes. She still needed to reason that one out, the fact that Kate had a gun. She remembered the burning of the bullet she took; looking at Kate touching shoulders with her father made her remember why.

Matt was so at ease with Kate. Birds of a feather. Kate was so at ease with him; she wasn't oozing charm, she was being herself. The child had grown up, a lot.

"Ya know, Kate, I never did see you in your man outfit." Matt gave his squirrelly little half smile to Kate.

Kitty and Kate matched eyes. Kitty gave a subtle nod and Kate disappeared into her room.

When Kate returned she had on a big hat, her hair stuffed underneath it, a plain shirt, a pair of dungarees, and a shiny black belt around her waist along with a gun in the sheath.

"Pleased to meet you, Marshal. I'm Sandy, Sandy Catton."

The impish grin pealed off Matt's face to be replaced by a wide-eyed, open-mouthed bewilderment.

When he recovered, he turned to Kitty.

"You mean I got…."

Kitty nodded to the affirmative. "Yes, you got beat by your own daughter."

Poor Matt.

Kate returned to her room and closed the door; her parents needed some time alone. Her Daddy had a way of masking his true feelings but that night when he burst in on that awful scene and saw Kitty lying in her own blood, he was raw and open and bleeding himself. There were times in Doc's office when she held his hand, held Kitty's, and she hoped her strength would flow through the man who was so upset that his eyes watered,

his breath caught, and his hands shook, but who still kept talking, begging for Kitty to live. Her father would have survived Kitty's death. But he wouldn't be alive.

It was all her fault. She pushed too hard, could have lost everything.

She had a lot to make up for.

A mother to get to know, really know. A mother who took the bullet rather than let Kate stand the consequences of her foolish actions; a father who she took after in many more ways than one.

Her mother would need some help around the Long Branch, Kate could do that.

Kate wondered if her Daddy needed some help around the office.