When he comes to after Rose Creek, it is in a world much louder than a stick of dynamite to a Gatling Gun. There are voices sharper than ammo shells dribbling off wooden planks and boot scuffs heavier than racing horse hooves, all of it spiraling into an existence not meant for one Joshua Faraday.

He tries to tell them he doesn't belong, that he doesn't want to be here. He desperately does so, but the shadows do not listen. Instead, his cries are consumed by the loud noises like the horizon in the west eats the sun. Still they hover over him, their silhouettes still and frantic all at once. He thinks they attempt to touch him, to claim him as their own, but he isn't, doesn't want to be. Their hands remain empty, but he's full of pain.

Eventually, the world uncoils, smoothing back out into flat walls and round faces while tucking him right back into reality nice and neat as if he hadn't just scattered the Earth, and what he thought was himself, with explosives and a card trick.

The first person he sees aside from the shadows lingering about is Jack Horne, the bear of a man hunched over the way he does when he tells stories of his deceased wife and child. His elbows dip the mattress beside Faraday's heavily bandaged side where they support his prayer-joined hands. The gambler blinks sluggishly at the older man, watching him whisper quietly to himself and the God he loves so much. It isn't until Horne brings up his folded hands to wipe at his eyes that Joshua realizes his own hand is clasped in between. He feels a cold moisture on his skin and it burns.

He twitches his fingers in discomfort, but Jack squeezes tighter and sits up straight. His conversation with God is now loud enough to hear, but it's deafening and sends him scurrying back to the shadows. The last thing he remembers is squeezing Jack's hand despite it all.

The second time he flees from the murkiness of another world, Goodnight is waiting. It's strange looking at the sharpshooter now, almost like they're standing in front of a mirror side by side and Faraday can't determine which haunted reflection is his own. He doesn't like it and neither does Goody.

"It's a hell of a thing to live through, son," he says, southern drawl riding out on empathetic breath. He leans forward in his chair and lays his calloused, soldier's hand over the gambler's heart. "But between you and me, I ain't ever gonna let them kill ya."
Faraday hopes he means that and silently pulls the man's hand down harder over his chest. Robicheaux nods his head once and declares that he swears it, but the shadows don't take too kindly to that promise and steal him away.

When he resurfaces for the first time after the shadows ripped him away from Vasquez, the Mexican is murmuring in Spanish. It sounds like a chorus of cicadas in the dead of summer, gentle and pacifying. He's not got a clue what the man is saying, but he wants his mouth to move around the words washing over him. The outlaw laughs making the cicadas's song a hymn to be sung in the churches. "Okay, güero. We do it your way, now," he says, tongue rolling around the English. "Get down in the barrel, child. Get down in the barrel. I promise to keep you away from all of this peril. Close your eyes, love, and know the sky is blue. For the world can never hurt you as long as I love you."

It's the first time sleep ever takes him tenderly.

Somehow he recovers to scars and a limp, and the occasional train ride back to the shadows when noises are too loud. The doctor doesn't really know how to explain it to him, and Goodnight looks like he's a split second from bolting quicker than he had the night before Rose Creek at the thought of having to do it. So, Faraday just grins at them both and says, "I guess it's the price you pay when God doesn't want ya and the Devil don't need ya."

They leave Rose Creek in a pack of seven as close to a family as any of them figured they'd get under the guise of serving justice for those willing to pay for it. They made it two days before it happened.

They were sitting around the fire one night, telling stories and such while waiting for Horne to come back with some hunted meat, when a gunshot rang out around the rocks at their back. The sound echoed out and danced into the night around them, almost pushing at the flames as it passed.

Later, he'll realize it was just Horne getting lucky with another rabbit on his way back. The thing is though, when noises are too loud, Faraday doesn't start telling Billy about the ghosts that are coming or saddle up a horse and skip town. Hell, he'd give anything for a haunted mind like that if he has to have one, but he reckons he owes more than Goodnight somehow because his whole body seizes up, twisting into a shivering ball of limbs like a wet cat to a dry box. Quivering hands do little to eradicate the ringing of his ears, but he pulls hard on them anyway to try to get it to stop so that the shadows don't take him away. They've missed him though, and he thinks they probably feel cheated since he's managed to stay away for so long.

Vasquez isn't afraid of them and won't let the shadows take him so easily. Faraday struggles despite himself, torn between a world he wants and the one he knows. Vasquez just nods along, kneeling down in front of the haunted man while placing heritage-tanned hands over shaking ones. "Silencio, güero. Shh, shh, shh. Escucha. Escúchame," he says, pressing the soft words into the tufts of hair on Faraday's head. "Mi madre….she tell me this when I was young boy afraid just like you. Escúchame." He sways just a little, tilting them both to an axis that feels like it defies both worlds.

"Remember what I told you, si? Bájate en el barril, hijo. Baje en el barril. Prometo mantenerte lejos de todo este peligro. Cierra tus ojos, ama, y sabe que el cielo es azul. Porque el mundo nunca te hará daño mientras te ame."

Faraday listens, tries to imagine Vasquez as a child, a scared one at that, and comes up short. A noise escapes the back of his throat at the failure, but the outlaw moves his hands up and down Josh's own as if trying to conjure up heat. "Disparates. Shh. Estoy en el barril contigo. It will be alright, güero. Lo prometo."

He wants to believe him, but the shadows just won't let him.

A/N: Part Two: Vasquez's side of things, more hurt/comfort

Translation (aka Google Translate):

Silencio - Hush Escucha. Escúchame - Listen. Listen to me.

Disparates - Nonsense Estoy en el barril contigo - I am in the barrel with you.

Lo prometo - I promise.

"Bájate en el barril, hijo. Baje en el barril. Prometo mantenerte lejos de todo este peligro. Cierra tus ojos, ama, y sabe que el cielo es azul. Porque el mundo nunca te hará daño mientras te ame" -
"Get down in the barrel, child. Get down in the barrel. I promise to keep you away from all of this peril. Close your eyes, love, and know the sky is blue. For the world can never hurt you as long as I love you."