TITLE: Where The Flowers Bloom
AUTHOR: Kirsten T.
FEEDBACK: robin-t@clear.net.nz
COMMENTS: Second in the Curly series
DISCLAIMER: The Young Riders belong to UA/MGM Television

Where The Flowers Bloom

By Kirsten T

Cautiously, Curly crawled through the field of blooming daisies and
lavender. It seemed as though he was forever dodging bullets these days.
When the footsteps grew closer, he decided to make a run for it.

"Run him off the cliff." The voices and the bullets were getting closer and
closer. There was no place left to go but over the cliff.

As he jumped, Curly pulled a dagger from his belt. "This is not a good day
to die," he muttered to himself, stabbing his dagger into the side of the
cliff, stopping himself from falling further. As he hung on the cliff, he
heard the gunfire increase. Just what he needed, more people trying to kill
him. But the sound of gunfire decreased.

"Don't tell me," a familiar voice came from above him. "You were just
hanging around looking at the wonderful view?"

Curly looked up to see Lou ginning down at him. "Well, I have always found
the view better from this angle," Curly was relieved to see a friendly face.

Louise tossed a rope down to him "Grab onto this and I'll pull you up." She
quickly tied the other end of the rope onto the saddle on her horse before
leading the beast away from the cliff face and pulling Curly to safety.

Curly stood up and stretched. "You have great timing, Lou."

Lou raised an eyebrow. "Well, you certainly know how to stir things up
around here don't you?" She grinned at the comical expression on Curly's
face. He knew she was referring to his good-day-to-die outlook in life.
"Well, I was heading into Abilene to visit Amanda and Jimmy. You're welcome
to join me if you wish."

Curly grinned back. "Somehow, I think that would be the best idea
considering how my luck has been going so far. I think that I would be safer
with you."

Louise laughed "I think that maybe I should get you to speak to Kid. He's
still under the impression that I need protecting every minute of the day."

Curly laughed at the memory of Kid running out to make sure that Lou was
safe when she and Jimmy went missing once. "Marriage hasn't changed him much
then?"

Lou shrugged her shoulders "He's not jealous of Jimmy being anywhere near me
anymore. He's still a little over protective when I get back late, but he
does attempt to hide it. He's a wonderful husband and father, but we still
have our arguments. I wouldn't have him any other way though."

Curly could see Lou's love for Kid shinning in her eyes. "You're lucky that
you have someone."

Lou smiled as she climbed on her horse. "I know. Are you coming?"

Curly took her outstretched hand and climbed up behind her. "Let's get out
of here."

The rest of the journey to Abilene was peaceful and free of trouble. They
just rode in a comfortable silence. It was sunset when they finally rode
into town. Jimmy had started to pace outside of the saloon, Lou being half
an hour late. When he refused to come inside to wait, Amanda had taken to
passing him cups of coffee over the swinging bar room doors. When Jimmy
spotted Lou and Curly, he realized why Lou was late and calmed down.

"I told you that Lou probably had a good reason for being late." Amanda had
been watching him the entire night.

Jimmy turned to face her. "Yeah, I know, but if I don't send a telegram to
Kid real soon, he's gonna send out a search party." He quickly walked across
the street to send the telegram before Amanda could ask anymore questions.
She had an uncanny knack of being able to see straight through him.

Amanda shook her head as she watched Jimmy walk away. Would he ever face up
to his true feelings for Lou? She slowly turned back to her visiting friend.

"Amanda," Louise called out to her approaching friend. She ran forward to
give her a hug dragging Curly along behind her. "Amanda, this is Curly. I
found him hanging around so I asked him to come with me."

Amanda laughed and shook Curly's hand. "Nice to meet you, Curly. I'll get a
room made up for you. Jimmy told me all about you."

"And you're still offering me a place to stay?" Curly had seen Jimmy walk
away when he had spotted them.

Amanda hadn't missed the look on Curly's face. "Jimmy went to wire Kid that
Lou had arrived safely. I think he was also trying to escape some prying
questions from me."

Curly looked relieved at Amanda's explanation. The last thing he needed was
for one of Louise's closest friends to hate the sight of him. "I guess I can
understand that. I think I'd be worried if she were my wife too."

Lou rolled her eyes skyward. "There is such a thing as worrying too much you
know. Come on, let's get to our rooms. I'm beat." It had been a long ride
and being around too many over protective males was starting to get on her
nerves.

Amanda knew how much Lou hated being treated with kid gloves. "Come on, I'll
show you to your rooms. Jimmy will want to catch up with both of you when he
gets back."

They silently followed her up the stairs. The sounds of clinking glasses and
friendly conversations coming from the bar room went unnoticed, so weary
from their ride were they. Curly couldn't remember when he had ever slept so
soundly. Even as a child, he had been running from people who had decided
his fate without even knowing who he was, only that he was different.

The sound of gunshots woke Curly from his deep sleep. Without thinking about
the danger he could be putting himself in, Curly launched himself out of bed
and raced down to Lou's room. Lou was already out of bed and running down
the hallway in her nightdress, gun in her hand. She was quite a sight. When
they both got to the base of the stairs, they dove for cover to avoid the
onslaught of bullets. Lou handed Curly the spare gun she had strapped to her
leg so that they were both armed.

"Any idea what's going on down here?" Curly turned to Lou, only to see her
eyes scanning the room for someone.

"No. I heard the gunshots and raced down here to make sure Amanda was all
right. I can't see either Amanda or Jimmy anywhere, so I'm guessing that
they're either still upstairs or outside."

Tables had been turned over to be used as cover, cards and chips were
scattered all over the floor. Jimmy's deputy could be seen ducking behind an
overturned table, reloading his gun.

"There's five of us, Deputy, and only one of you. Why don't you just give up
now and throw your gun over." The sneering voice could barely be heard over
the sound of guns going off.

"Yeah right." The deputy looked around for a way out, but he had been backed
into a corner. "I am really going to just hand my gun over to five cold
blooded murderers. You're out of your minds."

Lou and Curly carefully made their way behind the bar. Maybe they could even
up the odds a bit, at least until Jimmy showed up. Bullets were flying back
and forth across the room, when the sound of shattering glass distracted
everyone in the bar as Jimmy came crashing through the window, firing off
some well aimed shots as he dove behind an overturned table. Curly took a
shot to his shoulder, but he managed to take one of the murderers out of the
battle as well. Lou grabbed a towel and ripped the bottom of her nightdress
to create a bandage. Quickly she bandage Curly's shoulder up before going
back to firing her gun and taking down another of the gang. Jimmy and his
Deputy took the remaining three down with ease.

Amanda and Louise tended to Jimmy and Curly's wounds later that night. Jimmy
had gotten pretty badly cut when he crashed through the window. Curly and
Lou had scratches and cuts from glasses exploding over them when hit by the
flying bullets. None of Lou's cuts were deep, but the fact that they were on
her face caused her male friends to be concerned.

"Will you two stop looking at me as if I'm going to beak any minute. It's
just a couple of scratches on my face, which won't even leave scars which is
more than I can say for the two of you." Lou was tired and grumpy and though
she would never admit it to either Jimmy and Curly, her face was actually
stinging.

Jimmy and Curly did have to admit to themselves that they did look as though
they had been in the middle of a full scale war. For the second time that
night, they all bid each other goodnight and went to their separate rooms.

When Lou got up the next morning and looked in the mirror, she saw what
Curly and Jimmy had been so worried about the night before. The scratches on
her face looked a lot worse than they actually were. Lou rolled her eyes
skyward. Kid would never let her leave the house alone ever again if he saw
her like this. It was a good thing that she would be spending a couple of
days visiting with Amanda.

When she got downstairs, Lou found Curly and Jimmy fixing the mess they had
left in the bar the previous night. As she walked through the door, Amanda
handed her a cup of coffee. The two women sat silently sipping their coffee,
waiting for the caffeine to take effect and wake them properly.
Unfortunately, the sound of an explosion beat the caffeine to it.

Amanda groaned "Not again. You'd think that we could get one day, just one
whole day and night of peace and quiet."

Lou frowned "You mean this and last nights activities are a regular
occurrence?"

Amanda nodded "Pretty much. It's not even quiet around here when there's a
funeral on." She was having to yell to be heard.

Curly and Jimmy peered out of the door. "Great town you have here Marshall.
Does everyone get drunk in another town and head straight here to cause
trouble?" Curly could see by the way the trio that was staggering down the
street throwing sticks of dynamite as they went, that they were drunk.

Jimmy laughed as he shook his head "No. I think that it's just dumb luck on
our part. Have you still got that gun that Lou leant you last night?" Curly
nodded. "Then let's go. Amanda and Lou will back us up from here." Curly
turned to see that Amanda and Lou had already started loading a couple of
rifles.

Jimmy and Curly started walking down the center of the street, explosions
going off around them. The troublesome trio seemed to be enjoying the
destruction that they were causing. Curly was watching the man in the
middle. There was something different about him, he was stone cold sober. He
was doing this for the pleasure of it.

"Well boys, look at what we have here: Wild Bill Hickok and his Indian
savage." His eyes taunted the two of them.

"You blow up a town with your two drunken friends for fun and you call me
the savage." Curly found this almost laughable.

"Well, I call it as I see it." The man smirked as his two friends struggled
to stay standing. "Let's see how fast you really are, Wild Bill."

Jimmy got to his gun before his opponent even touched his own gun. The other
two men lit their sticks of dynamite that they still had in their hands.

Curly grabbed Jimmy's arm, "Let's get out of here."

Jimmy realized his gun wouldn't save him against dynamite. "I heard that."

As the two men went to throw the dynamite, Lou and Amanda fired their
rifles. The men fell forward onto the lit dynamite just as it went off.
Jimmy and Curly leaped to safety behind a wagon. Curly looked out from his
hiding place "I don't envy the person who has to clean that mess up."

Jimmy looked over his shoulder "Nice shot ladies."

Amanda and Louise simply turned and walked back inside. Sitting back down
and going back to drinking their coffee, Louise frowned and looked at her
friend. "So what are my chances for a peaceful visit or at least the rest of
my stay being uneventful."

Amanda laughed. "I'd say somewhere between slim and none."

Louise grinned back. "I figured as much."

But apart from a couple of bar room brawls, the rest of Lou and Curly's stay
was quite peaceful. As Lou climbed onto her horse, Curly had to admire her.
Kid had no reason to worry about his wife, she was more than capable of
taking care of herself. The scratches on her face were barely visible now.

"Are you sure you don't want to ride back with me, Curly?" She smiled down
at him.

"Thanks for the offer, but I think that I'll head on from here, see where
the wind leads me." Curly almost wished that she was going his way.

"All right. Stay out of trouble. I don't want to find you hanging off of a
cliff again. Deal?" She couldn't resist teasing him.

Curly good-naturedly laughed. "I'll try my best. Maybe I'll catch up with
you and Kid where the flowers bloom."

"Sounds like a plan to me." Louise waved good-bye as she started her long
journey home.

"That is one hell of a woman." Curly turned and started walking the other
way, leaving Jimmy to watch Louise's disappearing figure.

"You're telling me." Jimmy muttered before going back inside the saloon.

THE END