Buck heard cries of pain but they didn't touch him. He lay in his cot and stared at the dark ceiling with a neutral expression on his face. He knew the one screaming was Kate. Now was the moment when he wished she would call for him and fall into his arms and tell him how much she loved him. Now was the moment when they both needed to feel the other's love to pull through. But Buck had no love left to give. It would fall on deaf ears anyway. So he shut out the pain and retreated into his own mind where he returned to the day when Noah died. A day of uncertainty and grief, yes, but still a day when Kate wasn't in his thoughts. A day when she was in fact the last thing on his mind. Until that night of course. Then the only person he wanted to be with was Kate. She was the only one who could lift that heavy stone of pain from his chest and make him feel better again.

In his mind he had felt her arms around him and her smile close to his face. The night after Noah's funeral had been the worst and yet the best in years. He had been scared and lonely, but also loved and cared for. At least in his dreams. And that dream became reality only two days later. But now that reality was once again becoming a dream, which he pushed far away into his mind, where he didn't need to think about it anymore. The others had been so right then. They had said he shouldn't marry her, that he should watch out for her. She was trouble. She would make him miserable. And they were right.

Another scream in pain startled him and though he forced himself into believing he didn't care anymore, it still twisted his guts to hear his wife's agony. He had to be with her. If so for the last time.

Lou still stood in her husband's arms sobbing when the door to Buck's room opened. Buck stumbled out with a pain stricken expression, and had it not been for Kid standing there he had fallen flat on his face.

"What do you think you're doing?" he asked as he pulled his friend to his feet again.

"I gotta see her," Buck mumbled breathlessly, but Kid held him firmly where they stood.

"You gotta nothing, my friend," he said and placed one arm behind Buck's back, keeping him standing.

"Just one more time!" Buck argued and fought his friend weakly. Kid could see his was on he verge of passing out already. "Please!"

Kid shook his head and forced Buck inside his dark room again. Buck fought him with tears rolling down his cheeks, and if Kid wasn't so sure of what was best he would have given in upon seeing his friend's face. But he only wanted his Kiowa friend back in bed. And finally Buck collapsed in his arms, when his leg wouldn't carry him anymore.

"Please," he begged sinking down on the cot again.

"Lie down," Kid ordered and carefully lifted Buck's bad leg onto the cot, pulling the quilt up to his waist. "Nothing's gettin' better if you go break your neck," he stated.

"I just wanna see her," Buck whispered and tried to keep his eyes open.

"You'll see her soon, buddy. Just rest now," Kid said calmly and let his side to close the door again. Buck was losing conscious from exhaustion and mental stress.

But before the door was closed Buck heard the doctor emerge from Kate's room and it gave him new strength. He listened with now wide open eyes, straining to hear the conversation outside.

"Is Buck awake?" the doctor asked.

"Barely I'd think," Kid said.

"He tried to go see her," Lou informed.

"It took the best of him," Kid explained.

"I have good news," the doctor continued and smiled reassuringly.

He walked into the room where Buck lay and pulled aside the blinds. Kid and Lou hurried in to hear the announcement. It had to mean Kate would be okay.

"Buck, do you hear me?" doc asked and Buck's eyes reopened slowly. The dizziness was gone, but he was still exhausted.

"She okay?" he mumbled.

"Very much so, and when I thought I'd seen everything," the doctor paused and smiled briefly at the Marshal and his wife. "Then I get to see a little bit more."

"She gonna be okay?" Lou smiled and clasped her husband's hand firmly.

"What about the internal damage?" Kid asked.

"The internal damage turned out to be a second child," the doctor smiled and Buck' eyes flew open wide.

"What?" three voices asked in unison.

"Congratulations, Buck. You have a healthy son!"