Chapter 52

"He's just sleeping, Lou. The doc said he's gonna be fine. You can leave his side, you know."

Not glancing toward the doorway where the voice had come from but instead keeping her sight on her sleeping husband, Lou replied, "No I can't, Jimmy, I ain't ready to. I know what the doctor said but I also know how bad Kid was hurt and how close I came to almost losing him. I guess that's why all I wanna do is stare at him, keep telling myself he's really here." She reached out and gently brushed his hair off his forehead. She quickly withdrew her hand as he mumbled and turned toward the touch.

"He wouldn't be lyin' there at all if it weren't for me," Jimmy muttered.

"He's lyin' here on account of you, you and Buck and Charlie," Lou said, turning toward him. "I owe the three of you so much."

"How can you say that, Lou?" Jimmy argued, stepping into the room. "If I hadn't come back here and made him feel guilty over us fighting, he wouldn't have gone off on that foolish ride to begin with. He got shot because of me and ran around injured for more than a day trying to escape a crazy man on account of me."

"You're wrong, Jimmy." Lou got up and met him in the middle of the room. "You gave Kid so much by coming back here; I'm sorry I didn't see it clearly before you left but I do now. The two of you formed a friendship against crazy odds and it'll take more than a few heated words to separate the two of ya. You and Kid need each other, just like I need the both of you in my life."

"You don't need someone who can't even keep a simple promise to you," Jimmy told her, shaking his head. "I let you down and I let Kid down."

"Jimmy, will you listen to yourself - you keep blaming yourself for what happened and the truth of the matter is that it happened. I realize it now and you need to too. It could have been any one of you; it just turned out to be the Kid. I never should have made you make that promise in the first place, just like I never should have made Kid make the same to me. I put so much pressure on the two of you and it wasn't right." She paused and glanced toward the bed, watching Kid as he stirred in his sleep. "I have always known that the two of you would do everything in your power to protect me and to make sure I'm happy. Meeting you and Kid are two of the best things that have ever happened in my life." She smiled at her friend.

He wanted to smile back, thank her for the kind words, but he just couldn’t.

"Jimmy, I already thanked Buck and Charlie for all they did for Kid but I never got the chance to thank you."

"Lou, I don't deserve your thanks, Buck and Charlie do - they're the ones that stayed out there and didn't stop looking until they found him. All I did was come back here and scare you for no good reason." He looked down, not wanting to see the disappointment he was sure would be displayed on her face. He just couldn't accept her words of friendship and love; he didn't think he deserved such kindness from the one person who meant more to him than anything.

Lou went to him and touched his chin to get him to look at her. "Jimmy, you helped me more than you'll ever know. Yeah, you did scare me but it needed to be done. I didn't want to think of the possibility that Kid might not be coming back to me so I lashed out at you. And you let me; you took whatever I threw your way, knowing that I needed to get it off my chest. I didn't stop to think that I would have been more furious with you if you had kept it from me."

"Jimmy, knowing what Kid means to you, shows that what you did was the hardest thing you could have done. You left him and turned the searching over to the one person that you knew could find anyone - Buck. You left without having any answers and came back here, knowing full well how I would react. And it was because Kid would have wanted you to be with me if things didn't work out."

"Lou, I ..."

"No, Jimmy, you don't have to say anything, I don't want you to say anything. Just accept my heartfelt thanks and we'll leave it at that, alright?" She smiled and held her hand out to him.

"I know better than to argue with you," Jimmy sighed. He shook his head and chuckled as he took her hand.

Jimmy pulled her toward him and he hugged her to his chest, resting his chin on her head.

"Get your hands off my wife, Hickok."

Jimmy froze. Lou was wrapped in his arms and his head was leaning against her hair. He sucked in his breath at the menacing words thrown his way. Maybe he had misread Kid all along and Kid was still jealous of the feelings he knew Jimmy had always felt for Lou. He felt his grip on Lou slip as she whirled around to face the bed.

"Kid!" she exclaimed, too excited to move.

Having no choice but to get it over with, Jimmy slowly looked over Lou's head, toward the bed. What he saw made him back away from her and he mumbled, "What the ...?"

Leaning against his pillow was Kid with the goofiest grin on his face that Jimmy had ever seen. The expression sure didn't match the harsh tone of the voice that had just called to him.

"Hey, Jimmy, you miss me so much you had to camp out in my bedroom?" he asked, trying to hide his laugh.

Jimmy shook his head and chuckled. "Is this a new job of yours, torturing me?"

"New? I thought I always tortured you. Well, if I didn't do a good enough job in the past then I have a lot of time to make up for."

Lou had watched the exchange between the two men and had finally had enough. "You will do no such thing," she ordered, rushing to his side as Kid tried to push himself up against the headboard. "Kid, take it easy, remember your shoulder."

Kid laughed. "Lou, after what I've been through the past couple days, what I'm doing now is rest for my shoulder."

"How are you feelin'?" she asked as she plumped the pillow behind him and shoved the covers tightly around his legs.

Kid looked at Jimmy over her head and indicated her actions of coddling him with his eyes.

Jimmy laughed to himself and said, "Look at that, Kid, she's motherin' you already. She'll probably never let that baby out of her sight once it's born."

"Very funny," she retorted. "Now, Kid, do you feel alright?"

"I feel great, Lou," he said, leaning over to give her a kiss. "It's like I've been asleep for a week."

"Nah, just two," Jimmy teased.

"What?!" Kid asked in surprise then looked at Lou in confusion when Jimmy started laughing.

"Will you hush?" she warned Jimmy. "You should know better than to listen to him. You were asleep all of last night and just this morning. I couldn't wait for you to get up," she told him shyly as she sat on the edge of the bed. "Jimmy was just keeping me company 'cause I wouldn't leave you."

Kid's hand automatically rested on her thigh, caressing it through the material of her skirt. "Lou, I'm so sorry for putting you through all this. You were right; I shouldn't have taken the chance. I almost couldn't keep my promise to you."

She noted the sadness in his voice and lovingly caressed his cheek. "Kid, don't. Like I was telling Jimmy, none of this is anyone's fault. I was way too hard on both of you. And you certainly didn't need to be worrying about some silly promise while you were trying to survive."

"It wasn't silly, Lou. If I didn't have that promise pushing me to get better, to get out of there, I might not have made it." He never took his eyes off her as he spoke.

"Yes, you would have and you know it. You're not the type of man to let someone get the best of you and I'm sure glad of it." She smiled as he leaned forward. She made it easier for him and met him halfway to give him the kiss his lips were waiting for.

"But I think we've had enough of promises to last us a lifetime," she said, looking from Kid to Jimmy. "What do you say that we make no more promises to anyone for any reason, sound like a good idea?"

Kid looked at Jimmy and answered, "I promise."

Jimmy looked at Kid and answered, "I promise."

"Oh, very funny," Lou replied as they laughed. "I mean it. Putting someone in a situation to make a promise is usually presenting them with something near impossible to accomplish. It wasn't fair of me and I think it'll be safer for all of us if we don't do it again."

"Lou, I will not make any promises to you or anyone else ever again," Kid told her as he drew her to him. As she lay against his chest, he grinned in Jimmy's direction before wrapping his arms around her. "I promise, I promise, I promise, I promise ...”