Rainy Day

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Part Three

His turn to be on watch, Vin hunkered down further into his sodden coat and pulled his slouch hat further over his eyes. Silence had finally descended over the area. Well, relative silence anyway, he amended listening to the snores coming from the cave. He had to admit that, even though it was still pouring with rain, he'd still take being soaking wet over being cooped up in that tiny cave. It wasn't just the small space either, the smell of wet men and wet leather had been getting pretty overpowering in there too. He sat back, listening to the sounds of the night. Yep, being out here was definitely better. He could even make out the sound of men and horses over the constant drumming of the rain. Vin smiled to himself, at last they weren't the only ones stupid enough to get caught out in this weather.

If stop watches had been invented it would have been possible to note that Vin's smile lasted 2.3 seconds before he worked out who were the only other people likely to be round these parts in this weather. The bank robbers! Cursing quietly to himself Vin worked into a position from where he could watch their approach. Not expecting anyone else to be within 10 miles of this spot the outlaws weren't trying to hide their presence and their voices carried clearly over to Vin's hiding spot.

"I'm telling you Curly, there's a cave round here somewhere. We can use it for shelter."

"We weren't going to get any further in this storm, and no-one's stupid enough to be looking for us in it."

"Okay! I recognise this place! The cave's just around the corner a ways."

Vin had heard enough. Realising the five outlaws were on their way to the exact spot they were sheltering at, he backed away silently to warn the others. Tonight might not be a total waste of time after all... "You'd better be right Moe. I'm sick of riding round in circles. We could have been over the state line by now!"

"Tell me why we're still waiting?" A rock that sounded like JD whispered in the darkness.

"We're waiting cos Chris and Vin have a plan." A bush whispered back with Buck's voice.

"They didn't say anything about a plan!" The JD-rock protested.

"They don't need to. You know how they work. They just kind of thought it at each other."

"It would be nice if they'd let us know. How do we know what to do?"

"I'm sure we'll work it out JD." Buck soothed before being shushed by a shadow to his left.

"Sorry Vin." He apologised as he and JD fell silent.

"Owww, I'm being attacked by this miscreant plant!" Ezra's pain filled voice hissed a few moments later.

"What do you expect if you take cover in a cactus patch?" Nathan asked in an exasperated whisper.

"How was I supposed to know this vegetation was a cactus?"

"Did you try looking?"

Ezra explained patiently as if to an idiot. "Nathan, it may have escaped your notice but its dark!"

"Will you two shut up!" Chris snarled from behind his tree, bringing the discussion to an abrupt halt.

The seven regulators watched from their hiding places as the bank robbers tied their horses up and moved into the cave. Buck snickered a little as their complaints about its lack of size drifted towards them.

"You should try it with seven of you." JD grumbled under his breath as he fidgeted impatiently, waiting for the action to start.

It wasn't until the outlaws had settled in for the night that Chris caught Vin's eye and nodded. Although it was dark ad Vin couldn't see the gesture he stood up all seven of the regulators made their way towards the cave.

Chris waited until his men had taken up positions around the cave mouth before firing a shot into the air.

"Alright, you in the cave!" You can come out alive, or you can come out dead!" He called out clearly.

"How about we come out fighting?" Curled yelled back defiantly.

"Have you ever heard of ricochets?" Ezra asked with interest as Vin sent one shot pining around the cave's interior.

Swearing in panic, the outlaws realised their vulnerable position as they hit the deck, trying to avoid the piece of metal flying over their heads. After a brief but heated argument amongst themselves they sheepishly threw their guns out and emerged into the rain, hands held high.

"Is that it?" JD demanded, disappointed s the men were easily subdued and tied up.

"What were you expecting kid?" Buck asked.

"I dunno, but they didn't fire a shot or anything!"

"And that's a problem because?" Chris asked from where he was busy tying knots.

"I guess its good...." JD admitted with a sigh.

"Hey hang on! You can't just leave us out here!" Moe shouted, outraged Vin tested the finished knotwork.

"Yeah, it's raining!" Curly added.

Chris looked at them. "We ain't all gonna fit in that cave, and we ain't gonna sit in the rain all night. Get over it boys!"

"But...." Curly chanced his luck.

"It's your fault we're out here." Vin pointed out.

"Soaked to the skin." Nathan added, wringing his hat out before dumping it back on his head, none the drier for his efforts.

"Unable to sleep." Josiah added.

"Freezing our nuts off." Buck glared at them.

"And seriously lacking in any form of nutrition." Ezra informed them.

"Eh?" Moe would have scratched his head if his hands handed been tied.

"We're starving." Buck translated, moving closer to Moe and looking him up and down speculatively. "So starving in fact, that roasted bank robber is started to feel like a real good idea..."

"Um, outside is good!" Moe squeaked out.

"Yeah, the rain won't hurt us." Curly added.

"Good decision boys." Chris snickered evilly as the regulators returned to the cave leaving Vin to finish his watch and Josiah to stand guard on their captives.

Dawn had put in an appearance nearly an hour ago, but Chris was happy to let his men sleep in while he and JD kept watch. No one had slept much during the night and he figured the men deserved it. He was just going to wake them when his efforts were pre-empted by a blood-curdling scream from the cave. Leaping up, he motioned for JD to watch over the startled looking captives before sprinting to find out what had happened, a feeling of deja vue running through him. He arrived to a scene of chaos. Ezra was yelling incoherently and pounding on something on the ground, using Chris noticed, Vin's rifle. Vin was trying to prize the weapon out of Ezra's hands but wasn't having much luck. Chris ran over to join Vin's efforts managing to get the rifle and handing it to Vin who instantly started checking it, grumbling to himself.

"What the hell is going on?" Chris demanded.

Ezra slowly blinked at him, before managing to say 'Snake!" And pointing at a barely recognisable pulp on the floor.

'Aw hell!" Vin cursed, looking at it, having finished inspecting his rifle. "I was keeping that fer breakfast."

"You what?!" Ezra almost shrieked, his fine vocabulary vanishing in the heat of the moment.

Vin fished the snake up with the end of the rifle. "It's the one I killed earlier." He said, looking sadly at the mangled corpse.

"You mean to say you put a venomous vermin next to my bedroll?" Ezra was incandescent.

Unperturbed Vin shrugged, "Nope, I left it by the entrance, can't rightly say how it got back in here."

"I'm thinking God has brought it back into us." Josiah said as he stood up and looked around. "It appears that his rain has washed it back into our shelter."

"Yeah, we are on a slope here!" JD nodded.

"Well that explains why I appear to be lying in a stream." Ezra observed with a long-suffering sigh as he looked down at the floor, along with the rest of his friends.

"And why I'm lying in a flaming lake!" Buck cursed, jumping up from his flooded spot at the back of the cave.

"I thought the idea of taking shelter in here was to stop us from getting wet!" Nathan glared at Vin, "I think I'm more wet now than when we got here."

"Well you're wetter than me and the kid." Chris smirked, "It stopped raining nearly an hour ago. We're just about dried off."

"I don't believe we let ourselves get captured by this bunch!" Carl sneered as he watched Larabee emerge , grinning from their shelter, followed by a stream of inventive swearing.

"What d'ya mean?" JD asked, keeping his attention and his guns centred on the bound bank robbers. "You're just like a bunch of kids!" Squabblin', yellin', screamin', an' hittin' each other." Carl pointed out JD's nicely blackened eyes.

Bristling JD opened his mouth to reply, when a firm hand clamped down on his shoulder. "Well ya see, we got a might riled about having to sped the night cooped up in a cave, soaking wet, when we could have been in a nice warm saloon." Chris released his grip on JD and smiled menacingly at the captured men in front of him. "But since we've caught the bank robbing scum that dragged us out in this Godforsaken weather, we might as well take it out on them instead of each other, eh JD?"

JD grinned at the suddenly cowering outlaws as the rest of the seven appeared from the cave mouth. The outlaws' eyes grew wider and wider as snatches of conversation drifted over to them, containing vicious and fluent cursing of rain, caves and bank robbers in particular. Vin brought up the rear carrying the very battered, very dead snake.

"Why, pray tell, are you still carrying that deceased serpent around?" Ezra asked, changing the subject from 'fitting punishment for Neanderthal criminals' when he saw that Vin was still toting the remains of the snake.

"Well I was gonna cook it for breakfast." Vin glared at Ezra, "But there ain't really enough of it left after someone bashed it to bits with my rifle." Still glaring pointedly at Ezra the tracker casually tossed the snake away, hardly noticing the panicked scuffle that ensued as the tied prisoners tried to shuffle away from the rattler that had just landed in their midst.

"Only a heathen would consider a snake to be edible." Ezra shuddered at the thought.

"Only an idiot would ride out with food for his horse and none for himself." Came the reply.

"But only a barbarian would refer to beef jerky as food!" Era retorted.

"Well we know you ain't one of those Ez. A barbarian'd never wear such a purty pink shirt."

Scowling Ezra looked down at his ruined shirt. For once he'd been caught without a change of clothes. He was stuck in this degrading predicament until they got back to Four Corners. He didn't even want to think of the townsfolk seeing him dressed like this, his reputation would be ruined! With this thought he headed over to where Buck and the others had managed to get a small fire started and were laying out some of their wet things to dry.

"Well, we got a fire. Pity we ain't got anything to cook on it." Buck commented as Ezra and Vin arrived. "We ain't." The sharpshooter admitted, a thoughtful look coming over his face. "But I wonder if our bank robbin' friends might have bought some supplies with them..."

Feral grins crossed the faces of the seven peacekeepers as they converged on the outlaws' horses. Vin started to rifle through their saddlebags, producing a veritable feast of goodies. The bank robber's protests were swiftly silenced as seven very hungry men sent glares in their direction. For once Chris was equaled by all in the glaring department.

It wasn't too long before the smell of cooking food wafted across the desert. Ezra sat back contently soaking up the morning sun as his clothes dried off and the food cooked on the fire. They'd caught the bad guys and no one was hurt. Perhaps this wouldn't turn out to be the debacle he'd feared. The cold, wet night was receding into memory and maybe one day - in the very distant future - he'd look back and laugh about this whole event. All he had to do now was get back into town without the condition of his current garb being detected….

Ezra was directing his brainpower towards this tricky problem when a movement from Vin caught his eye. The tracker was sat by the fire, poking it occasionally with a stick to encourage the damp wood to keep burning. Suddenly he stiffened, sniffing the air lightly before looking up to peer at the apparently clear sky. The others caught the too familiar movement as well. As one they jumped up. The fire was put out and the food abandoned as they rushed to pack up the little camp and ready the horses.

"What's going on?"

"What about breakfast?"

"Hey, we're hungry here!" The bank robbers clamoured in protest, confused at the sudden panic.

Vin stood up, turning to look at them as he explained. "Its gonna.."

"RAIN!" The other six chorused as they hastened to get the heck out of there...

The End

Disclaimer

This story is fanfiction. No infringement upon the copyrights held by CBS, MGM, Trilogy Entertainment Group, The Mirisch Corp. or any others involved with that production is intended. This is purely for fun to keep me entertained and give me something to do of an evening. No profit has been made.

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