Storyteller / Shared NPC
The door opened and Barnabas walked in, "Believe I have us protected as best as can be done," He said, sounding a bit exhausted. "Was there coffee on, I believe I could stand a cup. Gotta go up and talk with that girl I shot so's that lady Doc is finished with her," He stopped, looked around at what was going on in his kitchen, and slowly a smile appeared on his face.
"Cookies, we're making 'em fer the crew, they'll need somethin' before this is over, I'm thinkin'," Pythias explained.
"Here ya go Boss," Danny said, offering Barnabas a full cup of the hot liquid.
"So cookin's harder out on the drive than here in the house? I reckon you hit the nail plumb on the head. Take a special kinda cook to do that job, an'; we got us one right here!" Pike said, complimenting Nate.
A wave of emotion washed over Emeline as Barnabas came into the kitchen, catching her by surprise. Of course she was still upset by the day's events...someone had tried to take their son and she'd been forced to kill a man...but she had thought she was doing all right. But seeing her husband...her rock and refuge...had revealed how fragile her hold was.
Still, somehow, she managed to maintain her composure, although her hands were trembling a bit as she placed half a dozen of the warm snickerdoodles into a cloth napkin. "Take some of these, too." She handed the bundle to Barnabas. "I'm sure Dr. Laurant would like some, and maybe even...that woman."
She stepped in to hug him, perhaps a bit tightly, and certainly not wanting to let go.
"It's gonna be alright, Love, it's not an easy thing having killed a man, much as he deserved it. I almost killed that girl an' that's never happened to me before, not even on accident." He said softly as he returned the hug, also tightly to let her know that he was there and that she was protected. He needed to get to the bottom of this estranged children business and whatever Tom Love had to do with it.
As he pulled slowly away from her, he said, "Good yer makin' thees snickerdoodles, boys'll appreciate 'em." He popped one in his mouth and chewed it up, "Dang good. But if'n you don't mind, I believe I'll drink this coffee afore I head on upstairs an' see what I can find out." It was eating at him. He had never been in San Francisco long enough to have sired two children!
"Of course, we need to get this settled," Emeline agreed, stepping back as she regained her composure. The strength he gave her was boundless, and helped to pull her from her funk. "Let me know if the doctor needs anything, and in the mean time, we'll be making a lot of cookies! Oh, and supper is here, too, when you are ready...for the doctor and that woman, too."
While the immediate danger was over, until they knew what, exactly, was going on, there would be the threat of peril to the Pikes and anyone associated with them.
"Soon's I finish this coffee. I figure that this Tom Love picked up these miscreants somewhere's an' filled their heads full'a malarkie about me being their Pa. Got one killed, and t'other wounded. Not that I doubt he had dire plans for 'em once't you and Wheeler was killed off, or the boy took!" He told her, not caring if the others heard.
"Oh, that reminds me, Lorado, Will, an' Zane rode off ta foller some tracks they'd seen up top earlier. Maybe get a line on where the others that they said was up there watchin' headed off to." Pythias explained. "Said they'd not go too far, just enough ta see where they might'a gone."
"Mike let 'em go?" Oike asked, setting his now empty cup on the sideboard.
"Not sure as he knows. The boys were talkin' while they ate, and just up and rode off." He shook his head. "Speaks well for 'em though." He paused, "Didn't short the watch?"
"No sir, all three took the late turn." Pythias informed him.
"Well, best get on up there and get this over with, if the girls awake," Barnabas said. He leaned over and kissed Em on the cheek. "I'll let both know about supper. You fellers keep on with them snickerdoodles."
Upstairs, Angie sat by the bedside awaiting the young woman's return to consciousness, not so much that she was there to comfort her, but that she wanted to make sure the girl had no ill effects from the chloroform, which could be rough or mild depending on the person.
The whole story about her being Mister Pike's daughter just did not ring true for her. But that was not what she had been called out to the ranch for. And the ranch was beautiful, especially the waterfall. To have found such a location was almost unbelievable. Through the open window, she could see some of the rangeland that the Pikes owned; a great deal of it was open land, though there were plenty of trees as well. Life here appeared to be good. The men came and went freely, tending to whatever their jobs were, as if they were part of one big happy family, toiling for the same goal. At least it seemed that way.
The door opened, and Mister Pike himself walked in, closing the door softly behind him. "How's she doing, Doctor?"
"She's still under, but she should be coming round before too long now." Angie assured him, "It affects different people differently, but I believe she'll be just fine, give a few minutes."
"So you are new in Kalispell, I take it. I had heard that a doctor was coming to be on staff at the new hospital," he said the laying the cloth-wrapped bundle on the table next to the bed, unwrapping it to reveal the cookies. "So they put you to work right off."
"Josiah, Doctor Boone, thought it would be best to get to know some of the folks, and the best way was to respond to the olutluyoing ranches and farms when called upon."
"Well, I know we're glad you're here, not just today, but as a part of the community. My wife is thrilled that you're here." He added, knowing how women could be about a new woman from a big city and what she could say about the latest fashion and so forth. "I'm glad as well, it's beginning to feel like we have us a real hospital staff."
"Yes, we just need to find some nurses and we'll be set, but the three of us will just have to soldier through until them." She laughed.
Best give me the baby, Mrs Pike
Cicely stirred slightly in her drug induced coma, she sniffed the air, it seemed, and murmured, still deep within her slumber, a single word.
"Cookies"
Somewhere within her pea-sized brain, a vivid dream was being enacted: she was running along a road, and Mr Pike was riding a horse backwards in front of her, and he was shouting "If you want to prove that you are my daughter you must survive my test!" and he was shooting his revolver at her, but instead of bullets, snickerdoodles were coming at her, and she was holding a baby so she couldn't catch them, but instead she caught them in her mouth and ate them, one after another. But she had to be careful to run at the same time and not drop the baby.
"The baby" she muttered as she started to toss uneasily in her bed covers.
Angie and Barnabas were caught completely by surprise at the one-word statement from Cicely. "Are you with us, Cicely?" Angie asked in her soft, soothing voice. "The baby is fine, safe, and sound with his mother. Mister Pike is here as well. We are all concerned about you."
There was no need to push the girl about anything, as there would be plenty of time for that once she cleared from the chloroform and was better able to take questions, and there was no doubt that Barnabas Pike had questions for her about several things, not the least of which was her claim that he was her father.
"I believe, young lady, you and I need to have us a conversation about your Mister Tom Love." Barnabas said, his tone pleasant and non-threatening, "And the need to clear up this relationship idea he fed you and yer late brother." He wished her no harm as he felt she had been duped for the purpose of the ambush of his wife, Emeline, and the kidnapping, no matter how brief, of his son Wheeler, which would be a hanging offense.
Best give me the baby, Mrs Pike
Angie and Barnabas were caught completely by surprise at the one-word statement from Cicely. "Are you with us, Cicely?" Angie asked in her soft, soothing voice. "The baby is fine, safe, and sound with his mother."
The big simpleton girl grunted and seemed to revive, very groggily, a little, at the mention of the baby.
"Mister Pike is here as well. We are all concerned about you."
This intimation didn't go down quite so well, the curious creature visibly flinching in her half slumber, reliving the moment when the man had shot the unarmed girl out on the prairie.
"I believe, young lady, you and I need to have us a conversation about your Mister Tom Love." Barnabas said, his tone pleasant and non-threatening
"Don't let Tom get me..." Sis murmured. "His fault... Clem got shotted..."
"And the need to clear up this relationship idea he fed you and yer late brother."
Sis stirred. Her piggy little eyes opened. She looked at Mr Pike. He wasn't pointing a gun at her. He was just sitting there, next to the bed. There was something re-assumingly domestic about the scene... it was almost like way, way back, when they'd lived in the hovel with Mother. Yes, this was like a nicer, cleaner version of home. She suddenly felt very calm and clear, like she had died and then, after a period in purgatory, come to and found herself in heaven.
"My name is Cicely Jane Lister, I don't know my father." she said, uttering stray staccato fragments of information, an odd timbre to her deep, unlettered, contralto voice, almost like she was giving evidence in a court case. "I been in a freak show these some years, I'm sorry for this trouble I brought yuh. Mother and brother's dead, I'm just me now, I got shot. Tom Love's to blame, I guess, but I got trouble fore he come. Sorry I scared your missus, I was all mixed up I think. I think... if'n I had... if'n I had a little baby like your missus got, I'd shoot anyone who come... come up an might take him away. You.."
She turned her head and looked at him with those porcine eyes and seem to come to a decision. She announced in her slow lugubrious wheezy deep voice:
"You not my father, Mr Pike. Whoever he is... I don't think... I don't think my father'd shoot me."
"Cicley, I am sorry to have shot you, I mean, I thought my wife and child were in danger, and I had no choice." Pike told her, "But that's over now, and we can move on. Now, this Tom Love, I agree that all of this is his doing, and I'm interested in finding him, if you have any idea where he might be. You see, I have no idea who he is, or if I might have wronged him at some time in the past. But the fact is, I can't allow him to terrorize my family and involve innocent people like you and your brother as a part of it."
Try as he might, he could not recall the name Tom Love. But the name was burned into his consciousness, and there was a debt due on the account this coyote opened.
"I appreciate you being honest about all of this, and any help you might be able to give me. But for now, maybe it's best that you rest. The snickerdoodles are coming, and so's supper. I'll be back a bit later on, and we can talk." Then, "Doctor, you can come down whenever you feel like she's resting."
"That sounds fine. I'd like to sit with her a bit longer." Angie said.
Fine. And I'll let the man go outside the door, I doubt there'll be any attack on the ranch." He said, knowing he would keep the watch for at least a day or so longer.
