WELCOME

[Kate Morrison]

Thunder rolled overhead when Kate finally caught sight of the town of Sweetwater Falls in the distance. The thunder in the sky mimicked in a way the thunder created by the horses that galloped at the head of the wagon. Kate could only hold on and pray -- she'd not prayed much since the death of her mother, but she figured that if there was a time for it, it would be now.

In the back of the wagon, surrounded by bags of dry food to keep him still and propped up, lay her father. Kate, her hands full of the reins and by extension the strength of the horses, risked a glance back. He lay there dying, his leg already swollen to three times its normal size from the rattlesnake bite. The girl felt bile rise in her throat, but she forced herself to turn her attention back to controlling the horses.

As a child, she had often envisioned driving the beautiful pair of chestnuts over the farm. She'd seen her father do it so many times that she could practically reach out and feel the reins herself, mimicking him. But this...this horrible nightmare was far from the dream she'd had years ago. This was a struggle overall, pooling all her strength into holding the reins of the powerful animals. The chestnuts were foaming at the mouth, and their coats were covered in sweat and nowhere near beautiful, but still she urged them on.

The terror had filled her so completely that by the time she reached the main street and the first few buildings, Kate could feel no relief. Instead, she braced herself against the front of the wagon and pulled back, reining the horses into a halt. The journey had taken all of her strength, and as she flung the reins back and made a wild leap from the wagon, she was shaking and barely able to stand. It went against everything that her father had ever told her about caring for horses, just leaving them there, but Kate couldn't have cared less at that very moment.

At that moment, the sky opened up, almost literally. Rain drenched Kate in a split second, right down to the skin through the skirt and blouse that she'd been regretting wearing since that morning. For a split moment, she paused, debating whether or not to cover her father up before she ran for help.

No, there was no time.

In an instant she had cleared the front few steps of the nearest building -- the Sheriff's -- and was banging on every surface that she could find. "Hello?!" Kate called over the rain, banging first on the door, then rapping on the windows, then going to bang on the wall. Someone had to come.

"My pa...he needs a doc, quick!"

Shaking from head to toe, and not just from the rain, Kate desperately prayed to God to make her pa all right. He had to live. He just had to.

[Grace Britton]

It was raining again, a fact Grace noted with a sigh of irritation as she sat at her desk in the sheriff's office, going over a few new wanted posters the Rangers had sent her. A few outlaws had ripped off a bank, one man had murdered a prominent businessman in Austin, and a group of men had held up a train not too far from Sweetwater. It was unlikely they were hiding out anywhere nearby, but it wouldn't hurt to spare the poster an extra glance on top of the brief cursory examination she usually gave them

Grace was about to do just that when someone started knocking frantically on the doors, the walls, the window, hollering something that she couldn't understand over the rain outside. Standing up so quickly that she knocked her chair over she reached the door in just a few strides, yanking it open and stepping out onto the porch.

"My pa...he needs a doc, quick!"

Immediately her eyes flew to the young girl crying out frantically for help; Grace had never seen her before but that didn't mean she wasn't going to help her. She reached out and grabbed a hold of Kate's upper arm, turning the girl to face her. "What happened, what's wrong? Where's your pa?" she asked. She could see the terror and desperation on the red-head's face and straightened up slightly, peering out into the downpour.

It was then that she caught sight of the wagon, the horses stamping their hooves and jostling to-and-fro impatiently in the rain. "Is that your wagon?" she asked Kate but didn't wait for an answer, stepping out into the rain against her better judgment. If she got sick again so be it. She broke into a jog towards the wagon, waving to a man that had stepped out of the saloon to see what the commotion was about. "Go fetch the doc!" she yelled.

Reaching the wagon she vaulted into the back, wincing as she saw the man's painfully swollen leg. "You, girl!" she called to Kate. "What happened? Did he get snake bit? Was it a rattler?" Growing up in Texas, Grace had seen her share of nasty snake bites. Sometimes the person could recover, but she'd never seen someone bit as bad as this survive. Still, for the girl's sake, she hoped that today was a day for miracles.

[Kate Morrison]

The terror was nowhere close to wearing off, nor would it be anytime soon, but this time Kate felt relief course through her when a woman appeared. She had no time to ask where the sheriff was, or even if she was the sheriff -- stranger things had happened -- but as Grace grabbed her arm, she pointed to the wagon, already halfway down the stairs.

"Bit by a snake." She confirmed, clamboring into the back of the wagon after Grace. "I dunno what kinda snake it was, but he got it near the creek just up north of here." The site of her father's leg made her blanche. She hadn't seen it quite that close since he'd come crawling back to camp over half an hour ago, and now...

Now, she knew that there was only a lick of a chance that he'd survive. Not with the leg looking that bad.

Barely sparing a glance at the man from the saloon running down the street -- and even if she had, he would be hard to spot with the rain coming down in curtains -- Kate bent low to speak to her pa. He was breathing hard, barely conscious, a sheen of perspiration over his face.

"The doc's comin', Pa." She whispered, grabbing for his hand. He moaned, eyes rolling in his head. Frightened, Kate glanced up at the woman. "Where's the doc?" A small, faraway part of her was satisfied that she'd held it together at the seams for that long, but she pushed the tiny thought away and concentrating on fumbling for the metal latches that kept the tail of the wagon up. They finally gave way, letting the wooden tail fall with a clang.

She didn't even want to know if moving him would cause him any more pain. Focusing on keeping her emotions in check, Kate divided her attention between watching the movements of Grace, and glancing down the street, waiting for the doc.

[Grace Britton]

Grace was by no means a doctor but nearly every girl that had grown up in a small town such as Sweetwater, where neighbors were far and help could be even further, knew at least some basic first aid. She knew to keep wounds clean and people still during moments like this, and she looked the young girl as she climbed into the wagon after her.

"I need you to keep him calm, y'hear me?" she said quickly. "If he gets upset it'll only make things worse, alright?" The wagon gave an alarming lurch at that moment and she looked up to see yet another man from the saloon taking hold of the reins to the horses, trying to keep them calm even as they pawed nervously at the muddy ground.

She looked back out down the road towards the clinic but could see no sign of the doctor and with this man in such bad shape they didn't have time to wait until he came to them. "Take us to the clinic!" she called to the man, who promptly jumped onto the front of the wagon and urged the horses into a trot, turning them in a wide arch towards the clinic.

The doctor was on the porch when the arrived and he, along with Grace's help and the man driving the wagon carefully carried the wounded man into the clinic. Once Kate's father was in one of the beds they were immediately shooed away outside to wait on the porch in the downpour, but not before the doctor had tossed them both a blanket with the words, "I won't have you two gettin' ill as well."

Huddled on the porch with the itchy woolen blanket wrapped around her, Grace looked down worriedly at the young girl. "The doc's one of the best I ever met. If anyone can help your pa, it's him," she reassured, tilting her head to the side a bit in curiosity. "What's your name, girl? Where y'come from?"

[Kate Morrison]

When faced with a crisis, there were several kinds of people. Some tried to run. Others, like Grace, took charge and kept their head. Still others tended to go numb, acting mechanically without really thinking. Kate was of this third group; grabbing for her father's hand as the wagon rocked down the bumpy street, she listened to Grace silently, barely hearing the woman's words.

Her father cried out in pain the moment they touched him, and as much as Kate wanted to cling to him, or even help hoist him down from the wagon to bring from the clinic, she knew that she would be in the way. She was still shaking from driving the horses there, trying to control them with what little strength she'd possessed to begin with.

Even following the men into the clinic wasn't allowed; Kate found herself shooed out onto the porch alongside Grace, thankfully under the protection of the awning. Suddenly without anything to do, the girl stared at her hands, feeling suddenly vulnerable and ragged. Dust from the trail had flown up, coating her clothes and hair in a thick layer; Kate suspected it would take some serious washing to get it out.

Grace's words jolted her out of her thoughts, and she looked up dazedly. "Kate." She said automatically, then remembered her manners and blushed. "Katherine Morrison, ma'am. Me 'n' Pa are out from 'round the Flint Hills, in Kansas." Craning her head, she tried to look into the window to see what was happening, but the doctor had drawn the curtains, and in the rain all she could see was her reflection. The handful of freckles over her nose and cheekbones stood out over her pale skin; turning away, not wanting to see the similarities between her face and her father's. She had his nose and cheekbones, and the thought made her cringe.

"My mama died in the 'flu outbreak." Kate added, almost unnecessarily as she took a seat against the shingled wall. Idly she fingered a rip in her skirt; she'd have to sew it soon.

It was almost fate that the doctor appeared at that moment, shutting the door softly behind him. The expression on his face was all she needed to know, and at that moment Kate was glad she'd chosen to sit. This wasn't happening. She buried her face into her grungy hands.

[Grace Britton]

Grace watched the young girl as she tried to peer in the window, and her heart went out to her. It was not an easy thing, losing a parent, and she had a feeling that was exactly what was about to happen to Kate. There were rattlers and cottonmouth snakes all over this valley, especially after rainstorms like the ones they'd been having lately, and a bite from either was often fatal if the victim didn't receive treatment quickly enough.

She nodded gently as Kate introduced herself and told her a bit of information about her life and where she came from. "Kate, I'm Grace," she said, remaining standing even as the young girl chose to sit, idly pacing over the porch, her boots echoing dully over the wood planks. "You did a brave thing, leadin' those horses like you did. Your pa must be proud, to have a daughter like you."

And then the doctor came out, and Grace knew immediately from that look on his face that the news wasn't good. "Call the Father, doctor, please," she murmured quietly to him before turning towards Kate. Grace was not a motherly person, perhaps because she'd spent the later half of her life being raised by her father, and thus knew little on how to comfort children. But she could at least sympathize with what Kate was going through and quietly moved to crouch in front of her, reaching out to rest a hand on her shoulder.

"Y'have any other family back East, Kate?" she asked softly. "Someone we might be able to try an' contact? There's a telephone in the Town Hall, and a telegram in the General Store," she explained.

[Kate Morrison]

With hot tears welling in her eyes and soaking the palms of her hands, Kate didn't feel brave at all. She felt stupid, like a little girl who had wasted time in getting her father to the doctor. She should have made the horses go faster...she should have sucked the venom out herself when he'd first been bit...all of the "should've, would've, could've's" were filtering through her head.

At the mention of a preacher, Kate looked up finally, forcing herself to take deep breaths so that she wouldn't panic. Not now. "We ain't been ta church in a long while...but Pa's a good man."

Was a good man. Suddenly feeling the full brunt of what had happened, she rested the back of her head against the wall behind her, shaking. "We...I don't have kin. Just Pa." Kate's voice cracked at this, and suddenly she was crying, sobbing deep in her chest as she stared alternately from the door to the clinic to the team of horses, still hitched to the wagon. "Pa!" She wailed. All the bravado in the world couldn't keep her from feeling the pain that she was feeling now.

What was she going to do? Her father was gone...her mother was gone.... instantly Kate felt a stab of guilt. She was thinking of herself, while her father was in there... She couldn't force herself to continue the thought.