The sun dipped below the horizon, its dim illumination setting the sky on fire. On the earth below, Michaela sighed with contentment as she watched her youngest son chase playfully after her youngest daughter.
Sully wrapped his arm around her waist gently and pulled her close. "Everythin' okay?" he whispered quietly in her ear.
Michaela nodded, smiling as she looked up into her husband's placid eyes, full of love as they always were. "Everything's perfect," she murmured. "Just perfect."
Her birthday party, a town celebration three months belated, was just beginning to disperse, its celebrants drifting off into the night with their loved ones. Already lanterns flickered in the distance, and excited banter of "Jus' wait till those new-fangled electric lights com'ta town!" could be heard.
But Michaela heard and saw none of this, as all her attention was focused on her children. "They're safe, Sully," she continued, deep in her thoughts. "My family is safe again." Once more she turned her shining eyes towards her husband's handsome face. "Thank you Sully," she said, the emotion in her voice building. "Thank you for making my - " she stopped, "*our* family safe again."
Sully leaned down to plant a kiss on Michaela's lips. "It wasn't all my doin'," he said. "But you're welcome anyway."
A happy screech sounded from Katie as she ran straight into her mother's arms. "Mama, Mama, Mama!" she giggled.
Michaela scooped her up. "Yes, my darling?"
"Brian's gonna eat me up!"
The older boy stopped behind her, laughing and somewhat panting. "She's a fast runner for such a little kid!"
Michaela and Sully laughed. "It's been a wonderful day," said she, holding her daughter on one hip and reaching out with her other arm for her son.
"Let's go home."
He blew out the lamp and quickly slid in-between the bedsheets. Propping himself up on one arm, he silently watched his wife stroking the hair of the sleeping child between them. "Oh Sully," she breathed, not taking her eyes off Katie. "I could hold her in my arms forever."
"I know," he said, giving his daughter a lingering look. Involuntarily, he shuddered.
Michaela noticed this and put a hand out on his arm. "Do you want to talk about it?" she asked.
Sully inhaled deeply. He did, but...
"Another time?" Michaela broke into his thoughts. "When no one else is here?" She smiled sweetly as if reading his mind.
Sully visibly relaxed. "Yeah," he nodded gratefully. She raised herself up and leaned over to him, wrapping her slender arms around him, giving him a long, deep kiss. "I love you so much," she said.
"I love you too," said Sully squeezing his eyes tightly, so the tears wouldn't come.
"Good night."
"She's not your daughter! She's my daughter! She's my blood!" Sully shrieked with all his might at the departing Caraway. Oh God, his daughter growing up with that madman, no... "KATIE!!!!!!!!!" he screamed.
His daughter was gone.
The scene changed. He entered the Mexican plaza, heart in throat, terrified of what lay ahead. It was silent, empty, a hot southern breeze wafting its way through the air.
And then he saw. At the far end of the courtyard, tied to a post, stood his wife. He made a mad dash to her, but just as he reached her, froze.
Her lifeless eyes stared out at him, her body as riddled with holes as the wall behind her. He collapsed then, to his knees, and his stomach churned as it emptied itself of its contents. "Michaela!" His voice rang throughout the deserted courtyard. He untied the ropes that bound her and she slumped into his arms. "MICHAELA!!"
He awoke with a start, almost jumping to a sitting position in bed as the fog of sleep lifted from his eyes. It was morning, and the bed was empty as sunlight drifted though the windows.
"Sully?" his wife entered the bedroom, looking concerned. "Are you alright?" She saw his sweat-drenched face, flushed from the nightmare. In one quick movement she was sitting next to him on the bed, holding his head to her chest, stroking back his wet hair. "It's okay, we're all alright," she softly crooned, rocking him back and forth.
He didn't say anything, just let himself be taken care of as if he was a small child.
"Mama? Papa?" a little voice sounded at the door.
Michaela jumped. "Just one minute sweetheart," she called out. Turning back to her husband she whispered, "Just let me get Brian off to school and find some place for Katie to stay for a little while and I'll be right back."
He began to protest. "I'm alright, Michaela-" but she cut him off.
"Please Sully," she begged. "You've been so strong for me, for all of us, through this terrible ordeal. Let me help you now." She held her breath as she waited for an answer.
Sully gave a quick nod and slowly released his grip on her, falling back onto his pillow.
"Mama?"
"I'm coming Katie," she opened the door. "Come on now, let's get you ready to go see your Auntie Grace and baby Tony."
"Ok-a-ay," said the little girl in a sing-song voice. "But isn't Poppy gonna come with us?"
"Papa's not feeling very well at the moment, dear," said Michaela. "We're just going to let him sleep a little longer."
"Ok-a-ay," sang Katie again.
"Now let's go wake your brother."
"Ok!"
Brian felt something wet on his cheek. He opened one eye to see Katie getting ready to plant another big wet one, and jumped up. "Ugh! Katie!" he instinctively wiped his cheek off with one hand, then started to laugh. "What a way to start the day!"
"Time ta get up, Bri-Bri!" Katie said sweetly.
Michaela laughed from the doorway of his bedroom. "It's getting late, Brian, and I was hoping you might do me a favor before school?"
"Sure Ma, what is it?"
"Would you drop Katie off at Grace's for me? It's her day off, and I know she'll be at home with Robert Anthony. Ask her if she could look after Katie for me for a few hours? I'm sure she won't mind."
"You're not going into the clinic today?" Brian asked, climbing out of bed and stretching.
"No, I'll be taking the day off."
"Not that I mind taking Katie in, Ma, but then why don't you take her?"
"I need to stay here with Sully today," she replied.
Brian raised his eyebrows but said nothing. "No problem, Ma."
Sully lay back in bed, eyes fixed upon the ceiling though they saw nothing. He could hear the chattering of his children from downstairs, the front door close, and finally Taffy trotting away, but none of it impressed upon his mind.
The door to his bedroom creaked open, and Michaela stood there quietly. "They're gone," she said.
He nodded silently.
"Come on," she continued. "Get up, and get dressed."
"Where are we going?"
"You'll see," she teased.
Sighing, he swung his legs over the floor and stood up. Grabbing his buckskins from the chair they'd been slung over the night before, he quickly put them on.
Michaela eyed him from the doorway, watching as he shed his nightshirt to reveal his tan, muscular chest and arms. She sighed unconsciously.
He looked over at her suspiciously. "What're you looking at?" he growled, but Michaela knew he didn't mean it.
"I'm just thinking about how lucky I was to find you," she said.
Such words that would have meant so much to him at any other time now stung. Lucky....he thought....lucky she wasn't dead because of him. He grimaced.
She saw the look on his face, and walked over to him, giving him a hug. "Let it go - for now," she told him, drawing her hands down his well-defined arms.
He nodded and quickly slipped a shirt over his head. He then fastened his belt around his waist and slipped his beads and medicine pouch around his neck. "Where're we going?" he asked his wife once again.
"To a place you once showed me," was all she would say. "A place where you know all is right with the world."
Together they walked to that locale of flat, flat land, where the sky overhead looked so close you could almost reach out and touch it. They hadn't been there together - to Sully's special place - since right before the end of that terrible drought that had almost cost the town's Thanksgiving years ago.
"You remembered," Sully said softly.
Michaela looked up at him in surprise. "Of course," she said. "How could I forget?" You showed me this place; you had never shown to anyone else. You opened up your heart to me here, Sully. It meant so much to me. It always has."
Sully looked down at his hands, clearly troubled.
"You mean so much to me," Mike continued. "When you're in pain, I'm in pain. These past few months have been so hard, but we can get through it Sully, by not going alone. You're not alone, Sully," she reached out to him.
He stared up at the sky for a long moment, and then all of a sudden began to cry, the torment and anguish that had been building up inside of him finally being released.
"I'm sorry Michaela!" he finally managed to choke out.
She took him in her arms, trying to be strong for him, but his outburst had startled her. "You have nothing to be sorry for, Sully," she tried to reassure him.
He shook his head, pushing her away so she couldn't see his tears. "You were right. None of this would have happened had I just listened to you! I almost destroyed my entire family, for what? My brother and closest friends almost died, because I was too stupid to recognize a threat!" His words echoed through the air, and he stood up angrily, his back to Michaela.
She stood up and walked over to him, putting her arms around him from behind. "Please don't push me away, Sully," she told him. "You can't do this alone. I can't do this alone. But *we* can do this - together."
He turned around to face her, tears streaming from his eyes. "I don't know where to start," he sobbed.
She held him close. "Do you remember what you told me once? You said - 'There's no maps to get us where we want to be, but if I was willing to start off without one, you knew where to start."
Sully nodded.
"Now I know where to start," she told him. Taking his hand she pulled him to the ground with her.
"Start at the beginning."
Sully took a deep breath and was silent for a moment. Michaela began threading her fingers. Her husband had always been the strong, silent type, he withdrew from the world-at-large to deal with things on his own terms. But in the nearly 7 years of marriage they'd been through so much together. She had to help him now. She only hoped she could.
Sully's voice broke into her thoughts. "I swear to you Michaela, when Garrick threatened me, I had no idea that his 'dire consequences' had anythin' to do with my family. I thought he was talkin' about money, he said he could make me a rich man. But I told him I didn't care for that. What I thought he meant was me losin' my job as town commissioner, and the thought didn't phase me in the least. I never been one for the politics of the post anyway. You know that."
"Yes," admitted Michaela. "I remember the long talk we had about whether you should accept Senator Dinston's proposal. We decided that if you took the post you'd be in a position to truly help Colorado Springs."
"After the AMC fiasco, I knew the rest of the commission would have a hard time goin' against my recommendation," Sully continued.
Michaela shivered and Sully pulled her closer to him, wrapping his arms around her, gently rocking back and forth. "Those poor people in Eastonville," she whispered. "Their water is polluted for miles. And it could've been us. Thank goodness you stopped it Sully."
He shook his head. "It's not worth it, Michaela. It's not worth the lives of my friends and family."
"Sully, you stood up for what you believed in! Like I have done before, like we've done before." She began to laugh. "This conversation is beginning to sound strikingly familiar."
But Sully didn't laugh. Instead he groaned. "I was so stupid! And what do I do the next time it happens? No, I can't let it happen again. I'm giving up the town commissioner position, Michaela."
"You can't do that, Sully!" Mike cried. "What happens when another company like American Mining Co. comes to town?"
"Listen to yourself, Michaela! All of a sudden you're so concerned about the land? What about our family, Michaela! What about Katie!" His words stung and he knew it, but at that moment he almost didn't care. "What happens the next time there's a threat to my family? Michaela, I would've changed my vote in an instant to save Katie - to save you! But I didn't get the chance."
Michaela shook her head. "Sully, it wasn't the fact that you voted against Sierra Copper that made me upset. It was that when you were warned something might happen you didn't tell me about it. You should've told me. It was only that I found out about it *after* my child was gone, that cut me to the core. We can't keep things like that from each other."
She saw he was about to speak and rushed on. "We can't stop living our lives and doing what's right because we *think* something could happen. We've never done that before and we can't start now."
She saw he was nodding his head and felt relief.
"Thank you, Michaela," he exhaled slowly.
She looked up at the sky and saw that the sun was almost at its zenith. Standing up, she held out her hand to him. "It's lunchtime," she said. "Let's see if we can't find something to eat."
He gave a small smile and stood up, sweeping her into his arms. God, she was so small, his Michaela. God, how he loved her!
Michaela noticed his tenseness and held onto him just as tightly. "Don't think we're done talking, Mr. Sully," she warned playfully.
Sully laughed aloud, making Mike feel warm all over. "I didn't think we were."