Chapter Twenty-Eight: Utopia? Or just another crazy ass?

Colt frowned as he studied the eccentric old man. He was fairly damn certain that he'd never met him before.

"Do I know you?" Colt asked slowly and Jebidiah chuckled and shook his head.

"Not yet. But you will... Or do now, I reckon, since you know my name and I know yours." Colt nodded slowly.

"Riiight.... We're looking for Rachel..." Before Colt could finish, Jebidiah clapped happily and swept past him toward the cart where Evangeline still rode with Frankie.

Colt pulled his gun, fully prepared to shoot the old man in the back of the head if he so much as tipped a finger to a thread on Evangeline's wool skirt.

"Evangeline! You are just as beautiful as I thought you'd be! Just as beautiful as your aunt said you are!"

"Where is our aunt?" Ox questioned as he rode between Jebidiah and Evangeline and Colt slowly holstered his revolver, ignoring the knowing glance that Silas sent his way.

"Your aunt should be out in a moment." Jebidiah assured the huge man.

"She's okay?" Evangeline asked hopefully and Jebidiah nodded with a kind smile that creased the deep wrinkles in his leathery face.

"Of course she is!" he stated jovially. Colt shook his head. This was one weird damn man.

"Ox! Evangeline! Oh am I happy to see both of you looking so alive and twitch free!" A woman cried out from the porch and Colt glanced behind him slowly to see Rachel standing there with a big smile and that same damn buffalo rifle she'd nearly shot him with five years ago.

"Aunt Rachel!" Evangeline exclaimed and without warning she was leaping from the cart and rushing past her brother and Colt to jump onto the porch and throw her arms around the red-haired woman. While they didn't look anything alike, Colt could tell by looking at the two of them together that Evangeline had gotten her small stature from Rachel's side of the family.

"Hi, Aunt Rachel." Ox mumbled as he too walked to the porch with his hat in his hands. Rachel's eyes widened as she followed his huge body up to his face.

"You are even taller than I remember!"

"Yeah." Ox agreed with a nod. "Pa said I had about fifteen growth spurts in the last ten years."

Rachel's eyes passed over the group, pausing momentarily on Colt before moving on without recognition. Colt breathed a sigh of relief and scratched at his hairy chin. Thank God for beards. Then again she may not even recognize him without it since she hadn't gotten a real good look at him and had mostly just seen him from the back as he'd ridden for his life.

"Where is your mama and your pa?" Rachel asked and Colt saw tears fill Evangeline's green eyes though it was clear she was trying hard to blink them away.

"They're gone." Evangeline whispered. It was Rachel's turn to fight back tears as she covered her mouth with her hand and took a step back.

"My sister...."

"I'm sorry Aunt Rachel.... I didn't want to kill her...." Tears began to pour from Evangeline's eyes as she choked out the words. Colt didn't even have time to think about what he was doing. He didn't have time to even realize his legs were moving until he was already standing behind Evangeline with his hand resting on her shoulder.

Colt was about to jerk away, realizing that he was once again comforting her, until she leaned back against him and he froze in place. He couldn't have moved away from her then if God himself had ordered him to. Colt had never heard her open up about what had happened to her family and he could tell by the look on everyone else's face, including Ox's that she hadn't opened up much about to them either.

"She came at me..." Evangeline whispered, her back pressed against Colt's chest as he gripped her upper arms gently, his thumbs stroking her bare skin. "I used papa's cane saber and I swung at her hand, she had it wrapped in my hair and was trying to bite me...there were more of those things coming up the stairs to get me and I had to get away... Mama's hand came off in my hair..." Colt felt Evangeline shiver against him and his grip on her arms tightened as his own memories replayed themselves in his mind.

"It was stuck there -- her hand -- and I tried to get away but she kept coming and I didn't want to die so I .... I swung at her neck and then her head...." Evangeline stopped and laid a hand over her stomach and Colt knew the nausea and sickness she was fighting because he felt the same thing every time he remembered sending that bullet into Sarah's head.

"Shit, Evie... you never told me that." Ox whispered as he took her arm and pulled her away from Colt, wrapping her tight in his arms. Colt felt cold suddenly and wanting her soft warmth back against him.

Instead of admitting that out loud or yanking her back into his arms the way he wanted to, Colt walked back to his horse and held the reins, ignoring the way Charlotte was studying him.

"Evangeline, honey, I am so sorry you had to go through that." Rachel said comfortingly as she leaned her rifle against the wall and rubbed Evangeline's back.

"That's not the half of it, Aunt Rachel. I screwed up in a town we came to and I nearly got killed and these men were nearly able to take advantage of Evie before I got to her. Hell the one already had his pants undone .."

"Ox!" Evangeline scolded loudly.

"Colt!" Charlotte exclaimed and Colt realized that he had such a tight grip on his horse's reins that he was causing the poor beast a good deal of pain and it was beginning to stomp and fight against him. Instantly Colt relaxed his hold and tried hard to breath. The thought of any man taking advantage of a woman, but especially a man taking advantage of Evangeline, was the instant sure-fire way to cause Colt's blood to boil.

"I believe you've all had quite a taxing journey so far." Jebidiah spoke up.

"Yes." Rachel agreed. "Why don't you put your horses up in the barn and then we can all relax in the house and we can discuss things. We've been expecting you all."

Colt frowned. "How is that exactly? How have you been expecting all of us when we didn't even know we were coming here until less than a week ago?"

"I know things." Jebidiah replied with a friendly smile that Colt didn't trust. Jebidiah's pale blue eyes looked into his and Colt shifted his feet with unease and yet refused to look away. He wasn't the type to back down. "I know a lot of things from the past and I can see bits and pieces of the future. Each of you was meant to come here."

"This man's off his damn rocker." Frankie snorted.

"He's not." Rachel spoke up. "Trust me, I thought he was at first too but now I think you all should give him a chance. Hear him out. Put the horses up and come on in and talk. All it will take is a few minutes of your time."

"I don't...." Colt began but Silas's hand on his shoulder caused him to stop speaking.

"What could it hurt, Colt?" Silas asked. "I don't have any place I'm in a real big hurry to get to. Do you?"

***

"A journey west to the promised land?" Frankie demanded with a laugh. Katherine bit her lip and looked around the table but it didn't seem that anyone was buying the particular lines that this old man was selling......

"I think it sounds nice." Katherine admitted quietly. A promised land. A land untouched by this sickness. A place where she could truly start a new life as anything she wanted to be.....

"Well of course it does!" Frankie replied. "All things that are too good to be true do."

"I promise that I am not trying to mislead anyone." Jebidiah assured them all. "I don't know exactly what lays out west but I do know that this group, all of us, are meant to journey there together and there is something there waiting for us. A virus free land, a cure... something!"

"Something? That's all you have to offer? You claim to be some great prophet and all you can offer us is that it's something?" Colt asked.

"It does not seem like much to go on." Comanche agreed.

"Faith never does." Silas spoke up. "But oftentimes it is all we have."

Katherine offered a quiet 'thank you' to Rachel as the woman refilled her cup of tea and then she cleared her throat, turning the attention of everyone at the table to her.

Katherine found her eyes looking into Colts since she knew that was who she had to convince. Everyone else here would be loyal to him and follow his lead. "I'm going, Colt. I think it's a good idea."

"You do?" Colt questioned, his dark blue eyes narrowing as he raised a brow.

"Yes." Katherine replied. "Wasn't that where we were going anyway? All of us were heading west. We all had that tiny hope that maybe somewhere out there things were better. Or that we could outrun this sickness and find a place untouched. Now we have a man here telling us that we just might have been right. Why would we stop now?"

The table fell silent and Colt scratched at his chin and let out a long breath through his nose. "I think we all just need some time to think about things. How about we take the rest of the day and night to think on it and we see where everybody stands come morning?"

Katherine sat back, satisfied with that at least. Grace chose that moment to cry out, clearly hungry and tired of the conversation between the adults.

"I'll just be taking her up to our room..." Charlotte said as Silas rose quickly and pulled out her chair. Katherine felt a pang of jealousy as Charlotte stood and Silas took her arm, kissed her temple gently and led her from the room. What would it feel like to have that? Katherine would probably never know.

"The rest of us will get out of the dining room too." Colt stated, standing quickly. "I'm sure the three of you would like to catch up and have time alone as a family." Katherine didn't miss the grateful smile that Evangeline flashed at Colt, nor did she miss the way his eyes softened a bit as he tipped his head in response.

She looked away from that and her gaze became trapped on Ox as he looked straight into her eyes and offered a hesitant three fingered wave. Katherine fought back a light laugh as she waved back in response.

"Colt." Jebidiah called out, stopping Colt in the doorway. "I really hope you'll think about what we've talked about today. I know you lack faith in what I say, truth is after what you've been through, all you have lost, you do not have faith in much at all....."

"Don't!" Colt snapped and Katherine gasped with surprise at the barely controlled rage in his voice. He pointed a finger at the strange man's face and Katherine realized his hand was shaking. "Don't you dare act like you know..." Colt's voice broke. "Don't you dare act like you know what I've lost or what I believe in."

"Colt...." Evangeline whispered and he didn't even look at her before turning and all but running from the room. The sound of the front door opening and then slamming shut, filling the large plantation home.

"I'll check on him." Katherine said with dread as she stood up. She wasn't looking forward to dealing with Colt's temper or the way it caused him to lash out at anyone within lashing distance. "You should leave him alone." She warned Jebidiah. "I don't know the details about his past but I do know that he's not someone you want to mess with, old man."

"I was messing with no one." Jebidiah countered as he rubbed his lightly whispered jaw. "And I do know the details." Jebidiah tapped on his temple and Katherine nodded slowly as she stood and headed out the door. It sure would be easier to convince the group to go with Jebidiah if the man would stop pretending that he could see the past and the future and all that other nonsense.

Katherine found Colt on the porch. The man was sitting in a chair, tapping his foot quickly and picking at a tear in the leg of his denims.

"You alright there, outlaw?" she asked as she propped her hip against the banister and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Just fine. Now leave me alone." He snapped without looking up.

"It seems to me we're both running from something, Colt. I'm running from what I used to be and you're running from ... whatever it is you won't tell anyone about. I say we head west to where Jebidiah leads us. And if worst comes to worst and something goes wrong between here and there we could always use him as rabid bait to buy ourselves some time."

Colt didn't reply—didn't give any indication that he had heard her at all and Katherine sighed. She pushed herself off the banister and patted his back. "Whenever you're ready, Colt, you actually do have people here that care about you and would be happy to listen to your story. We've all got one."

Katherine turned to walk back into the house and stopped at the last minute. Her gaze again when to Colt and she felt her heart break when she saw the large tears gathering on the tip of his nose. She watched as that big droplet fell, plopping without sound onto the wooden floorboards.

Suddenly his head snapped up and he realized she'd seen his display of weakness. Before Katherine could speak, Colt stood, launched himself over the banister and stormed off toward the barn. Katherine wasn't ready to go inside yet; she didn't have anyone waiting inside for her anyway. She flopped herself down in a rocking chair and simply tried to enjoy the feel of the spring breeze on her face.

***

Frankie took a deep breath through her nose and then blew it out slowly through her mouth. She had stood in that full length mirror in Rachel's water closet and rehearsed what she wanted to say to Comanche for damn near forty minutes and now standing in the damn injun's temporary bedroom and seeing him standing in front of her waiting for her to speak, had every single well thought out word vanishing from her memory.

"Comanche.. I... When I said that you were nothing more than a distraction...." Her voice trailed off as he scratched at his bare stomach and her eyes followed the movement.

"I am up here, paleface." He stated dryly and Frankie cursed the knowing smirk that curved his lips when she jerked her eyes back to his face. She licked her lips nervously and wiped her shirt sleeve across her brow. When had it gotten so damn hot in here?

"Comanche I..." Frankie hated this! She had never been an open person. Admitting her feelings had never been something she was good at. Hell she was practically an emotional cripple and yet she had to let Comanche know that he meant more to her than she had ever let on before.

Growling with frustration and hating the twisted satisfaction the bastard seemed to be taking from her obvious discomfort, Frankie tossed her crutches aside, limped painfully several steps and then flung her arms around his strong neck before pressing her lips to his.

She felt him stiffen against her, obviously unsure of what to make of her sudden affection. Frankie molded her body against his the best she could and slowly caressed his lips with her own, with a gentleness that she had never before shown.

Always before it had been fast and furious with Comanche, and while Frankie liked it that way, she knew that to show him that he meant more, she needed to let this tenderness she felt for him show.

Then his strong arms were wrapping around her and his lips were pressing back against hers. Gently she urged his mouth apart and let her tongue dance against Comanche's. Frankie felt her heart filling with something......

She pulled her mouth away and tipped her head toward the bed. "Lay me down, Comanche."

"Paleface..... I won't be your distraction." In that moment Frankie saw the amount of pain in his dark eyes; pain that she had placed there; pain that she had caused; and she felt a shame like nothing she had ever felt fill her. How could she have done that to this man?

"I don't want a distraction, Comanche. You have always been so much more than that. I need you, injun. Please.... Please don't take this away from me, even if it was I deserve."

Comanche smiled then and smoothed her hair from her face. "I have been here all along. You never lost me. I was simply waiting on you."

"Comanche... I... I think I might love you." Frankie felt her cheeks flame as she blurted out those words. That had come out differently, a bit more poetic, in that mirror downstairs.

"Paleface, you are my one. I have no doubts that I love you too."

Frankie wasted no time in pressing her lips back to his and this time there was heat and fire just as there had always been between them. She nearly cried out with shock when he turned her around and lowered her to the bed, lowering his body over hers with a hungry growl.

"Easy there, injun, I do have a bum ankle and a gunshot wound.' She reminded him with a smile and Comanche's laughter was rumbling deep in his chest as he took over the kissing and devoured her mouth with his.

***

Evangeline was confused and didn't know what to make of Colt. He was hairy, short tempered and downright rude most of the time but then at other times he had been—well still hairy, but different. Kind, gentle and comforting.

She threw her covers off of her and slid into the slippers her Aunt had leant to her before lighting the lamp on the bedside table and walking to the window. The yard was dark, the clouds too dense in the sky for the moon to offer any light. Evangeline wondered what was out in the darkness. Were their rabid wandering the yard, just searching for a meal? Or maybe coyotes or bears? Threats that no one seemed to mention anymore but threats that Evangeline was sure still existed.

Evangeline knew her mind was wandering but that is what tended to happen when she had too much to process at once. Colt was one thing. The fresh pain from her mother's death that she had seemed to relive today was another. And now there was this man claiming to have a place for all of them out west. A place where things would be better if they could only get there.

Knowing that sleep wasn't going to come, she decided to walk downstairs and talk to whoever was awake keeping first watch. While Jebidiah had insisted that they were safe here, Colt had refused to break the rules he had set for the group. Rule one was no one went into the woods alone. Rule two was that no one went anywhere unarmed and rule three was that someone always had to be awake at night keeping watch.

She slid on a clean robe, loving the smell of lavender clinging to the soft fabric and then grabbed the lamp, carrying it with her out into the hall.

She heard Silas and Charlotte talking quietly inside their bedroom as Grace made gurgling noises. Evangeline smiled. That baby was certainly beautiful and it was nice to see two people as in love as Silas and Charlotte were during all this madness.

Evangeline walked past Comanche's room and flushed bright red when she heard the moans coming from inside. She was sure she heard Frankie's voice and while happy to see that the two people who had been scowling at each other for days, were finally making up, she had no idea how she'd look them in the eye come morning without turning red in the face.

Dread filled Evangeline as she realized that the people who could be waiting in the sitting room keeping watch were only a few and the list was getting smaller. She knew Ox was in his room. She knew that Aunt Rachel had retired early. That left either Jebidiah, Katherine or..... Colt.

Tingles filled her belly when she saw him sitting beside the fire. She couldn't help but wonder what he would look like without all that sadness in his eyes and all that hair on his face. She was sure he'd be handsome since he was already quite handsome with it.

He looked over and caught her staring and Evangeline managed a small smile. "Sorry. I didn't mean to disturb you."

"You didn't." he replied, his voice seeming somehow deeper and more intimate in the dark sitting room with only the flickering of light from the lamp she was holding shining on them both.

"You looked to be pretty deep in your thoughts."

"I reckon I was."

"I'll leave you alone then...." Evangeline turned to go but his voice stopped her.

"Evangeline?"

"Yes?" she replied and then she walked to the chair beside him and sat down when he motioned for her to do so.

"What do you think about this Jebidiah?"

"You want to know what I think?" Evangeline asked with amusement.

"Yes. Why is that funny?" Colt questioned, a small smile tugging at his lips.

"Honestly?" she asked. Colt nodded. "Well, other than my brother, no man has ever asked me what I think about much of anything."

Colt nodded and pulled off his hat. "Well I'm asking you now, ma'am." He replied, running his hand through his thick dark blonde hair.

Evangeline thought for a moment before responding, though that was mainly to give the dancing butterflies in her stomach time to settle, and then she shrugged one shoulder.

"He seems an eccentric old man simply looking for something to believe in while living in a world that seems to have lost all hope."

Colt nodded and tossed his hat onto the table beside him. "Nicely put. Do you think we should go with him?"

"You want my opinion? Aren't you the leader?"

Colt smiled at her and Evangeline wasn't sure what to make of the action, though it brought those butterflies back to life with a renewed vigor that made her unsure if she was going to hyperventilate or simply vomit.

"I am." He conceded. "But even the great leaders have their right hand men, or women in this case I reckon."

Evangeline beamed with pride at being named as someone he could talk to. "Well, I honestly don't believe that Jebidiah means any harm. Would I like to believe that he is right and there is some sort of Utopia waiting for us out west? Yes I would. Do I? No, not really. But since west is where we were going to begin with I can't see the harm in having a couple extra bodies with us."

Colt thought on that for a moment and then nodded. "Thank you for the advice, Evangeline. Now you should get on back to bed. We'll probably be heading out soon and you'll be missing a soft bed soon enough."

Evangeline didn't know what to say and just as quickly as Colt had seemed happy to see her, he now seemed just as eager to be alone, as he put his hat back on his head and turned his gaze out the window, staring out into the dark and seeming to become lost in his thoughts.

Evangeline turned and made her way silently back up the stairs, knowing that sleep was probably not going to happen, but wanting to do as Colt had told her. She hadn't been lying when she'd said he was the only man beside her brother to ever ask her what she thought.

She wondered if he realized just how much that meant to her.