Chapter Ten
"I love you."
The sound of those words drifted through the front room of Lou and Kid's home. At first they went unanswered, until they were repeated again, this time with more force. Kid's head jerked up from where it had fallen to rest on Lou's chest, and he gasped as he realized it wasn't him who'd spoken those words.
"Lou?" he whispered, "Lou, darlin', wake up. It's time to wake up, beautiful." He lifted his wife up in his arms, her head falling lightly against his chest.
"I love you, Kid..." she mumbled again, this time stirring slightly as she spoke.
Kid let out a frantic little laugh, "I'm right here, Lou. I love you, too. So come on and open those sweet brown eyes for me." Kid watched her face intently, waiting for a reaction. He was rewarded.
Lou's eyes fluttered for a moment, and then, as if she were squinting into the sun, she forced her eyelids open enough to take in the vision of her husband's face above her. She smiled as the fog of the past hours lifted, enabling her to realize where she was. She remembered the nightdress catching on her feet, Rascal yelping, the quick pain as her head hit and then nothing but dreams. Or memories. It didn't matter, some of her memories were better than dreams.
"Still blue," she whispered, hoarsly.
Tears in his eyes, Kid chuckled softly at the words from their past. "Still blue," he affirmed.
Lou closed her eyes again, but this time it was not to fall into another unreachable sleep. She closed her eyes, letting Kid's words echo through her mind. When she opened them, just like in her memory, there were tears in her husband's eyes.
Lifting a weary hand, she let her slender fingers move over his jaw, up his cheek, tracing the thin white scar that served as their reminder of the war. Kid blinked heavily and a tear fell from his lashes to Lou's finger. She wiped it away with a caress that moved her hand into his thick sandy brown locks and with a persuasive pull she lowered his head closer to hers. Slowly, almost tentatively, Kid let Lou guide his lips to hers. The first touch was a whisper of a kiss. Lou's eyes closed at the sensation and Kid afforded himself one look at his wife, lips parted, breath shallow in readiness, before he covered her mouth with his eager kiss.
Long minutes passed as they explored territory they knew by heart, neither moving beyond the kiss, both content with the simple expression of their love. They had spent so much time in the early stages of their relationship back in the Pony Express days pushing those expressions further than they were ready for. It wasn't until Kid returned from the war that they discovered the blissful sensation of taking it slow. The joy of the long tease.
Despite an aching head and a generally sore hip, Lou found herself completely lost in the moment. Almost unable to distinguish present from past in the kiss, she found herself reliving the first moment Kid's lips found hers, that day over a year ago when her life was given back to her. Lou moaned at the memory.
Feeling something warm and damp against her thigh, nuzzling and soft, Lou broke into a smile that interputed Kid's fervrent kisses. "Kid...?"
"Mmhmhmmm..." was his only response as he shifted his lips from her mouth to her neck.
"Are you trying to rush things along, darlin'?" she purred, as the wandering touch persisted.
Kid lifted his head to look her in the eyes, "Huh?" It was then that she noticed his hands were on either side of her head, no where near the vicnity of her thigh.
Like walking into a spider web, a flurry of unexplainable commotion exploded in that instant. Lou screamed, Kid jumped a mile off her, and poor Rascal leapt from his cozy postion by his mistesses leg. His comfort destroyed, his nose smarting from its collision with Lou's strong thigh, and his pride hurt, Rascal made a noise somewhere between a sneeze and a bark in retort to his stunned owners and trotted into the kitchen. Only a scrap of bone would appease his wounded spirit now.
Kid and Lou turned to each other with startled eyes, struggling to regain the breath they'd lost in the fright, when Lou burst in a fit of laughter that lightened Kid's heart.
"What was that all about?" he asked, smiling at the figure of his wife rolling on the floor in laughter.
Barely able to gasp out an answer, Lou pointed at Rascal's retreating rump and laughed. "I thought...that damn dog...your hands..." was all she was able to get out before another laughing fit took over. Kid put together the puzzle of his wife's words and her dog's actions and gave Lou a mock glare.
"You're telling me I got to watch out for my own damn dog now?" he demanded, his fingers moving to Lou's sides. She grinned at him as if to say, "maybe" and Kid took the oppertunity to tickle her ribs enough to send her jack-knifing into his lap. "Maybe Rascal can just keep you warm tonight 'stead o' me, seeing as how you seem to like his nuzzling so much," Kid teased, pulling Lou's body to him as she squirmed against his tickling fingers.
"You dirty-minded...ow!" Lou squeaked in pain as her sore hip bumped against Kid's knee. Instantly, Kid released her and placed her swiftly on the blankets he'd made a bed from earlier.
"I'm so sorry, Lou! I'm a fool for moving you 'round so much after that fall." Kid was in an instant panic. He began to rise and move to the door to check on the storm when he felt Lou's strong hand holding onto his shirt sleeve.
"Kid, don't run off on me now," she said. Kid turned and studied Lou for a moment. Despite the cut on her head, she didn't seem to be in any intense pain. Looking dubious, he turned back towards her. "I promise Kid, I'm fine. I have a bit of a headache and my hip's a bit sore, but nothing else hurts at all." Thank God, nothing else hurts at all, she thought to herself.
"I don't know, Lou..." he began, before recalling yet another reason to worry. He and Lou rarely let themselves revisit the pain of losing their baby. He hadn't heard her speak of it in months. But just before she'd passed out in his arms on the stairs she'd called out about the baby. What had made her relive the memory? Had something about the fall triggered her emotions? "Lou, I think ya oughta get seen by the doctor," he said firmly, "You said something that worried me when I found you."
"Kid, please...."
"No, Lou, listen. You said something about..." he hesitated, not knowing her reaction if he continued. He swallowed nervously, "Yoy said something about the baby." For a moment Kid didn't didn't see any reaction in Lou's eyes, and when he did, there was no time to recognize the emotion. It was as if a mask had been raised, the mask he was familiar with when Lou didn't want to talk about something. "Maybe I should try and get the doc here and..." he started.
But his protest was cut off by Lou placing her hand in a very sensetive spot. He inhaled sharply at her touch and whispered, "Louise!"
Lou let a smile spread across her face, in part to show him not to worry and part because of his reaction. She enjoyed shocking him, and she wasn't ready to answer his questions. "I told you, I'm fine. Now come here and keep me warm." Toying with the waist of his trousers, she dipped her fingers just under the thick material and heard a moan escape from hs throat. There would be no more questions, for now.
"Devil woman," he murrmured, before lowering his body by her side.
Outside, the storm raged on.
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