She looked over at Sully. He lay with his eyes open, looking at the ceiling. Michaela sat beside him and took his hand. "You can't sleep?"
He nodded. "When I close my eyes, I see it again... every night. They were locked in the old barracks...without food, or water, or firewood for a week… even the children. Captain Wessels wanted to force them to go back to their old reservation on the Missouri river, but the Cheyenne didn't want to die there. They preferred to die free."
Michaela sat, listening with great attention, afraid to utter a word.
"They broke the windows and tried to escape, but they couldn't." He spoke as if each word hurt him. "I see it right now… they are running through the plains, and soldiers shoot them… And even in the darkness the snow is red with blood."
He closed his eyes and sat up, pressing his temples.
Michaela stroked his hair tenderly, and her hand suddenly stopped when she noticed a number of gray locks in his rich chestnut hair.
"I couldn't help them," he ended.
"You did," Michaela looked to the crib. "He will be free, as they wanted."
"He will grow among the whites."
"You and Cloud Dancing will tell him all about his people."
"We'll try… I'm so grateful to Brian, that he invited Cloud Dancing…"
"Sully," Michaela told him with great concern. "You look so restless. Can I give you some medicine?"
"No, there’s no need," he answered. "I shall bear it...with time. I simply need time …and some help. I was wrong when I thought that I could do it by myself. If not for you, I would have lost my way."
She kissed his forehead. "There’s no more ‘me’ and ‘you’. There’s only ‘we’, okay?.. Sully, I have a name for our baby. You wouldn’t be against naming him in honor of my father?"
"Josef Sully. Doesn’t sound bad… I’d be proud to give him that name."
The baby stirred in his crib. Sully stood up, but Michaela stopped him. "Lay down, you need to rest… I'll do it."
She approached the crib. "Hi Joe," she said, picking him up. "Let's let Pa rest, and you will stay with your Ma. How do you like that?"
The baby smiled widely, and she kissed his little son with love and tenderness...