Close Call

It was a very cloudy day in Four Corners. The sky had begun to grow dark around noon, the small thunderhead southwest of town had evolved into a deep gray sky. It hadn't rained yet, but the sky looked like it might downpour at any moment.

J.D paced the empty jail house, looking for something to do. He had already perfected the art of throwing cards into a hat and polished his guns nicely. He decided that there was only one thing left to do, the others would laugh at him if they caught him doing it too. J.D opened his bottom desk drawer and pulled out "The Wild West" a dime novel. He leaned back his chair and started reading peacefully to himself. He lost track of time and fell asleep in the chair.

Meanwhile, at the church, the others were desperately trying to get the church roof covered before the storm came in. Even with all of the other six men working hard, they just couldn't do it by themselves. Chris had even talked Ezra into doing some manual labor, with the help of some threats. The storm was rolling in fast and they could smell the rain. Chilly gusts of wind swept across the roof.

"Buck! Go get J.D, we need another person to help," Chris hollered from one side of the roof to Buck, on the other.

Buck hurried down and to the jail house. It looked like it wouldn't be too long before the weather started acting up. He busted in the door and slowed his step when he saw J.D sleeping in the chair with a book lying across his chest. The kid looks a lot younger and vulnerable sleeping than usual, Buck thought. He walked over to him and leaned over the sleeping J.D.

"Hey J.D, wake up. Come on J.D," Buck whispered over J.D with a grin on his face. J.D slowly opened his eyes up, he saw a blurred face standing over him. With a yelp he shoved himself backwards, forgetting he was already tilted back. J.D went crashing backwards in the chair. He laid there for a second too stunned to move. He felt strong hands grabbing him and pulling him to his feet. J.D groaned and slowly focused his eyes on the person in front of him. It was Buck.

"Real graceful, J.D. Do that again and you might be a little unluckier next time and split your thick head open," Buck examined J.D.’s head for blood.

"Hey you were the one who scared me," J.D protested with a yawn," I'm fine, you don't have to paw at my head you know.

Buck filled J.D in on what Chris wanted them to do. J.D and Buck walked quickly out of the jail house and down the road towards the church. J.D glanced nervously up at the sky. He didn't like storms that much. The sky had grown even darker, it was almost a sick black now.

When they got back to the church, Chris and the others were hammering away on the roof in the tranquil quietness. A bolt of lightning shattered the peaceful air, it struck a little too close for the seven men upon the roof. The thunder that followed it immediately opened up the sky for the rain to flood through. Chris and the others got off the roof as quickly as possible.

"Wow, that rain is cold, I think we got the roof pretty well patched up," J.D wrapped his arms around him, trying to get some warmth through his icy clothes. He got in the last and was the wettest.

"I agree, the rain is coming down so hard I think we'll just have to wait the storm out here," Josiah peered out the windows.

It was no longer then after he said that, Mary burst through the church doors, dripping wet and clasping a telegram in her hand. Chris jumped from his seat and stood beside Mary asking, "Mary, what's wrong?"

"I got a telegram from my father-in-law, there are some horse thieves riding in today. They could be here now," Mary panted, out of breath.

"Vin, Josiah, Nathan and Ezra, I want you guys to go check out town and see if you can find anything, be careful," Chris ordered.

They nodded their heads and were out the door in a flash, trying not to let any rain in. They had gotten out the doors when a very powerful gust of wind almost knocked them down. It started a surprisingly big windstorm. From inside the church everyone heard the loud moans of the walls and ceiling. J.D.’s face went white and he was on his feet in an instant.

"Buck, Chris and Mrs. Travis we need to get out, this place is going to come down at any sec-" J.D spoke, but was cut off when the church collapsed inwards. They fell down through the floor and into a seven-foot deep pit below the church. Buck, who had J.D.’s arm, crashed the most painfully to the ground with J.D landing right beside him.

Chris felt the ground rush up underneath him and knocked the air out from his chest. The only thing he could think about was if the others were all right. Through the dust he could see a prone form pinned underneath a wooden beam, unmoving. Chris heard two groans behind him and knew it had to be Buck and J.D. He felt his heart stop - the form under the beam was Mary.

Ezra and the others turned to see the church collapse, they stared in silent horror. The rain started to beat harder down on ground, they charged back to the rubble and carefully started to pull away the scraps of wood that were small enough. The only thing they could do was keep searching for any sign of life. They ripped up much of the debris and looked all around.

"Chris! Mrs. Travis! Can anyone hear me?!" Nathan yelled, no one responded.

Underneath the church Chris crawled over to the beam. "Mary," he coughed weakly and gently shook her. She groaned and opened her eyes, all she could think about was her leg. It was firmly pinned. It wasn't broken but it was cut open from her knee to her ankle.

"Chris?" she mumbled. "Is everyone okay?"

"Yeah, I think Buck and J.D are fine. Can you move okay?" Chris helped Mary to sit up.

"I think," Mary winced as she sat upright. She looked at the cold water starting to drain down into the hole. "I'm not going anywhere though. Go get help, you can't move the beam by yourself."

"I won't leave you Mary," Chris said trying to pry the oversized tree trunk off her leg, which was bleeding freely.

Mary put her hand on Chris's arm. "Go," she said.

Chris turned and looked into her eyes. "I’ll be back," he crawled through the small opening that led to where he heard the groans.

Buck jerked up into the darkness, he felt something lying on the ground next to him. He turned around and saw J.D.’s pale face, Buck lifted his head and sat it on his knee," J.D, come on kid, wake up," Buck patted his cheeks. J.D may not have hit the ground as hard as Buck, but he had a nasty looking head wound.

"Uuh," J.D responded. He sat up and looked around at the room, at least it used to be a room. It dawned on J.D what had happened. He felt the cold water underneath his backside, the water was steadily leaking through the debris from up above. "Buck, we got to get out of here, where's Chris?"

"I don't know, follow me and stay low, we'll have to find him and Mrs. Travis," Buck headed to the ragged, dark opening. They both paused when they heard something rustling from the other side. Chris came wiggling through the hole. He had a cut on his forehead, but beside that he appeared to be fine.

"Come on, Mary is trapped under a beam, we got to get her out before the water gets too high. Are you both okay?" Chris turned around and started crawling back through the hole as he was talking. The water was now about four inches deep.

Outside the church, the four others were tearing at the piled up wood, the rain was even worse than it was before. Vin looked at the water running into the church. "We have to find them before they drownin all this water." The men were determined to get them out, but they worried about the temperature of the water even more. They usually didn't have rains like this anywhere around the town, but now, today it had to happen.

Chris led Buck and J.D through the intricate woven tunnels that had fallen all around them. As they got closer, and the water got deeper, the three men found Mary gasping in spite of the cold water. It was now a foot and a half deep. The top of the tunnel was only about four feet high, they didn't have much time.

"Oh God Mary, we're going to get you out of here, okay?" Chris sat her more upright so she could stay out of the water as much as possible.

Mary couldn't reply, her lips were a pale blue and her face was almost white, she just shook her head. Buck and J.D were bracing themselves to lift the beam after Chris had nodded his head in orders to help get the beam off Mary. They all clenched their teeth and lifted as hard as they possibly could, it was no use. The beam was just too heavy for them to lift.

"Over here, I think I heard something," Josiah waved his hand and pointed to a small crack in the debris. The other three men rushed over to the spot he was standing, Nathan got on his hands and knees and stared down into the dark hole.

"Chris!" he yelled. "Can you find a way out?" Down in the hole Chris looked up into the shaft of light to see Nathan, who was examining the damage to the people.

Chris's face was also turning a whitish color. The water was almost at Mary's shoulders now. "No! See if you and the others can move that hunk of wall enough for us to get out. Send some help too, we can't get the beam off Mary. Chris looked at Mary who was starting to lose that battle with the blackness that was trying to overcome her. As her face slipped under the water Chris brought it back up quickly and gently.

"Hang in there Mary, don't you give up. You hear me?! Don't you dare quit on me," Chris said in a scared yet threatening panicked tone.

With great effort Mary opened her eyes to his familiar voice," I'm so tired, I can't feel my body. So tired-" Mary lost consciousness again.

Vin, Ezra, Nathan and Josiah lifted and pushed with all their strength, they had done it, the wall was moved over just enough for them to get in and out. Ezra and Vin slid easily down the crevice. Josiah and Nathan stayed outside so they could help everyone out.

They wadded through the freezing water to the beam where Chris was holding Mary's head above the water. The water was rising at a fast pace, now it was at the level of Mary's chin. All of them were obviously suffering from a severe case of hypothermia. Mary was of the worst of them.

"Try again on three," Vin slid his hands, along with the others except Chris, underneath the beam. "One. Two. Three," he breathed heavily.

They all heaved with all their strength just enough for Chris to pull Mary out from underneath it gently. He cradled her in his arms protectively from the coldness of the water against his chest. He wadded back through the water to the opening and lifted Mary up to Josiah. Then was helped out himself by Nathan. Mary was quickly carried indoors by Josiah, with Chris quick onhis heels. Since the general store was the closet place for protection they careened her in there and laid her on the floor. Josiah ran to the back to get many blankets that they would need. Chris hesitated, then carefully removed Mary's dress. After the blankets were placed over her and she was starting to warm up, Chris went in back to also get himself warmed up.

After Vin, Ezra and Buck had slid back out J.D was just getting out when another loud moan and gust of wind caused the broken building to shift again. A large church pew fell atop of J.D and pushed him underneath the surface of the dark water. The wall they had moved had also moved, it now had to be pushed back again in order to get J.D out.

"J.D!" Buck screamed, trying to grab his arm but missing. Nathan and the others, not including Chris and Josiah, were at Buck's side forcing the wall to the side with him. Luck was on their side because they managed to move they heavy-set wall again. Buck jumped into the water through the hole and sucked in his breath and dove under, using his hands as guides. Buck searched and searched, but couldn't find J.D, being tall Buck couldn't maneuver around very easy. He moved his hands along the bottom until they hit something, Buck automatically knew it was J.D and seized him by the shoulder. He locked his arms around J.D.’s torso and placed his feet on the bench. Buck pushed with all his might and pulled J.D out from underneath the sunken piece of wood. When they broke the surface, Buck took in a deep breath but stopped when he didn't hear J.D do the same. He looked at his friend's lifeless body in his arms. He gently shook him and tried to get a movement out of him. J.D.’s lips were a sick bluish- purple, oh God no, Buck thought.

Vin and Ezra helped drag J.D and Buck out of the water. They laid J.D.’s limp body on the ground on his back. Buck knelt on the other side of J.D, wiping the water off his face. Nathan put his ear to J.D.’s chest, he looked up and said frightened. "He's not breathing. Buck, I need you to place both of your hands on J.D.’s chest and push down five times. I will give two breaths and then you repeat, okay?"

He had no idea what Nathan was talking about, but he did as he was instructed. He knew J.D.’s life would depend on it. Buck put one hand on top of the his other hand and placed them on J.D.’s chest. He then start pumping rhythmically on J.D.’s chest, trying to get his heart beating again. Ezra was knelt down at the kid's head biting his lower lip. Nathan tilted J.D.’s head up and put his own mouth over J.D.’s and breathed two breaths into J.D. His chest rose and fell with each one. Buck and Nathan kept repeating the process without letting up.

After a while Buck just about lost all hope, no, he thought. Then, J.D suddenly started coughing, he coughed up what seemed gallons of water. Nathan turned him on his side so he wouldn't choke on the water. J.D sat there for a minute, still coughing and very dazed. His eyes slowly refocused on his surroundings. Ezra looked up and smiled at Vin who grinned right back at him.

The men let out their breathes in a sigh of relief, J.D was alive. They helped J.D slowly get to his feet and took him to the General store. When they got there, Josiah had enough blankets for all of them and then some. Chris was wrapped in a blanket propped up against the wall with his arm around Mary and her head on his chest. He gave them a wry smile that told them she was going to be okay. Buck immediately took J.D in back to strip him down to his undergarments and get him wrapped up in a blanket. Ezra and Vin did the same.

After J.D was securely wrapped up tight in a blanket he weakly looked up at Buck and stated, "I'm tired," before he collapsed against Buck. Not knowing what to do, he grabbed J.D.’s small frame and carried him out to Nathan again. Vin and Ezra's eyes widened when they saw Buck hauling J.D to Nathan.

"Nathan, he just collapsed, what's wrong? Why ain’t he conscious?" Buck asked worriedly. They had laid him out across the floor and Nathan checked to see if he had a pulse.

"Sometimes, after a person's body has gone through something like J.D did, they can go into shock. We have to get him warmed up quickly," Nathan said. Vin and Ezra went over to the stove and threw more wood in while Buck easily dragged J.D over in front of it. They put a couple of very warm wool blankets over him.

Chris had placed Mary in a wicker chair wrapped in several blankets he had put on her. She looked better than she did before, her face had begun to regain some of its color back. J.D,however, still looked as pale as he did under the church. This worried the others. Buck got up from beside J.D and walked over to Nathan, he put a hand on his shoulder and said,"Thank you, for saving J.D.’s life."

"You helped too," Nathan nodded. Vin and Ezra had filled Chris and Josiah in on how Nathan and Buck had saved J.D. They were impressed and all of them thanked the both, Buck and Nathan too. It wasn't long after that and the rain had stopped, the people of Four Corners drearily came out of their homes and looked at the flooded mess. The clouds broke and dissipated and the sun came out to start drying the ground. Buck had moved J.D into Nathan's clinic and Mary had insisted she was fine enough that she go back to the Clarion and inspect the damage there. After Chris had escorted Mary to her room, he and the others went to their rooms at the boarding house to change into some dry clothes.

All of them, except J.D and Nathan met in the saloon to discuss what they would do when, or if the horse thieves got to town.

"They probably drowned in all the water," Vin said while getting himself and the others a bottle of whiskey.

"Just to be on the safe side we'll keep a good lookout. Watch for a couple passersby that look suspicious," Chris took a drink of whiskey.

"Good idea, I think we can wait to post lookouts until some of the water dries up. It should be too long, the sun should have a lot of it dried up in about three days," Josiah walked over to the window and peered out at the bright ball of fire.

The rest of the day dragged out slowly. Nathan had come and gone into the saloon to update the others on J.D.’s condition. He hadn't woke up yet, but had a fighting chance. Chris had even gone to check on Mary a couple of times. Hours past and finally the sun dropped behind the orange-red horizon. Chris hauled himself wearily up to his room, Nathan and Buck stayed in the clinic and the others had gone to bed themselves.

Morning came quickly, rays of sunlight trickled in the glass windowpanes and onto J.D and Buck, who was right beside his bed sleeping in a chair. Buck moaned a sleepy cry of protest as his lifted his head and opened his eyes. J.D had still not awakened from his deep sleep yet. Buck smelt something good in the main room where Nathan had stayed. He stalked heavily across the room and opened the door. Nathan had made breakfast and was wolfing down his food.

"Mornin', pard. Want some breakfast?" Nathan said through a mouthful of food.

"Don't mind if I do," Buck slopped the food onto his plate and sat down to join Nathan. After Buck had started, Nathan had finished.

"I'm going to see if the others are up yet. Check on J.D again after you're done eating," Nathan pulled on his jacket and walked out the door.

Buck finished in a hurry and went back to J.D.’s room to see if he had woken up yet. When he saw that J.D hadn't, Buck walked over to the window and looked out into the street. Behind him, he heard a faint stirring noise and a groan. He whipped around and practically leaped across the room to J.D.’s side. He yawned stretched and looked up at Buck.

"Hi yah Buck, why are looking at me like that?" J.D asked Buck with a confused grin on his face.

Buck realized that his whole face was practically encompassed in a smile. He dismissed the thought of pulling a joke on J.D and said, "Just happy to see you alive. Remember anything about yesterday?"

"I remember falling with the church, and Mrs. Travis- oh no! Is she okay?" J.D asked.

"Yeah, she is going to be okay, remember anything else?" Buck urged.

"Well, I remember starting to climb out and then something big and hard fell on me, everything went black for a little bit after that. Oh yeah- I also remember coughing a lot, then everything went black again," J.D finished.

Buck patted J.D on the back. "I don't want you to scare me again like that, J.D," Buck continued. "You die on me again and I’ll make you suffer for it."

"Die on you? Buck, what are you talking about? What happened?" J.D asked quizzically. He sat up slowly, J.D was still pretty weak.

Buck gently pushed J.D back down to the bed. "Well… I would think that when a person stops breathing for that long and has no heartbeat, they would be dead."

"Y-you mean I was brought back from the dead? Buck, that isn't possible," J.D stammered.

"In a way, Nathan breathed into you and I got your heart start again by doing this," Buck stated while he put his hands on chest and gently showed him what he did.

"Wow, thank you Buck, I owe you one," J.D yawned sleepily and closed his eyes.

"I might need you to get me out of trouble someday, don't think anything of it. J.D, you would've done the same. Now stay in bed and get some rest," Buck said quietly to the now sleeping J.D.

Buck left the clinic and went to the saloon where he suspected the others would be after a hard night of sleep. While walking pass the livery he noticed a couple of strange looking men checking out the horses in it. He picked up his pace and went to tell the others. When he got to the saloon, the others were waiting on him.

"Hey Buck, J.D wake up yet?" Nathan greeted him. Buck just nodded.

"We got company at the livery," Buck said in serious enough of tone the made Chris get up from his seat.

"Let's go bring them in then," Chris started walking out the doors while unfastening his gun in case he would have to use it. The six men walked briskly down the road to the livery where the two men where standing. The two men straightened up when they were approached.

"Can we help you gentlemen?" one of them sneered in a low tone.

"We have a warrant for your arrests, surrender your guns," Vin held the warrant up for them to see.

The two men smiled and immediately drew their guns while jumping behind a woodpile. Chris and the others got off a few shots at the same time they were jumping for cover. Buck crawled in the dirt slowly to the side of the livery. If he couldn't get them from the front, he could surprise them with the back. Buck went around the back and to the side. The last thing he felt was something hitting him in the back of the head.

The men dragged Buck out in plain sight, one of them held Buck up and shoved a gun into his side while the other pointed his at Chris and the others. Their firing stopped in fear of them shooting Buck.

"See you gentlemen later," the same man sneered. They drug Buck into Nathan's clinic where they would hold him hostage. The men didn't know J.D was in there.

Once inside the clinic, the men threw Buck harshly to the ground. He groaned and struggled to sit up. He could see the two men with their guns drawn on him and watching the door. One of them smiled evilly at Buck with rotten teeth. "Go check the other rooms for anyone else," the leader commanded.

Buck's blood froze in his veins, they were going to find J.D. "I found someone!" one of the men hollered from the other room where J.D was. "He don't look to good though, he's out cold. Bring the other one in here so we can keep an eye on him."

The man in the same room with Buck grabbed his arm roughly and took him into the room. Buck walked over to J.D.’s side and sat down, he shook him in attempt to wake him, but it was no use. "What are we going to do about the money?" One of the men asked.

"We'll hide it somewhere until things settle and then we'll go back for it," said the other. "We can hide it in the mines out past Eagle Bend."

Buck's eyes went wide, they had just discussed their plans in front of him. Criminals don't do that unless they plan to off the witnesses. He turned and looked out the window for any of his friends, where are they, Buck wondered. Then suddenly, J.D groaned, he was waking up. The two men hadn't heard him wake up.

"Now what are we going to do?" the man with the rotten teeth said, he turned and looked at Buck by J.D.’s side. "If we let them live, their going to tell those other lawmen." The man got up and peered out the window, with his gun in hand.

"Then we'll just have to kill them," an evil smile crept across the leader's face. "We will be able to shoot down those other lawmen easy."

Buck couldn't let the bastards kill the kid, let alone himself. Underneath J.D.’s jacket he could see his two colts. If he could get to them without making too much of a scene. Buck wasn't a fast of draw as Chris, but J.D was out of commission at the time. He moved slowly backwards in the chair, being extra careful not to make a sound.

"How are we going to get them out of there alive?" Nathan asked Chris and the others, who were huddled in a circle.

"Don't know, they are going to make an escape and I don't think the men want to drag Buck and J.D along. We have to get them out before the men want to leave or-" Chris stopped before he finished.

"I wouldn't give up on our companions just yet," Ezra said, his eyes shifting away from Chris's heavy gaze. Chris was pissed, he wasn't about to lose another person he cared about to murder happy outlaws.

The men stayed out of sight from the windows, they were sure if one of the men in there saw them they would shoot now then and ask questions later. From across the road behind a wagon full of barrels Chris caught sight of someone walking down the wooden planks. They were just about walk in front of the window of the clinic, Chris's breath froze in his chest, it was Mary.

"Mary!" he shouted, but it was too late. She had moved in front of the window unaware of what was going on. She stopped and turned to see Chris running at her at full speed. A fraction of a second before the spray of bullets that shattered the window caught Mary in the back, Chris had thrown himself towards her, knocking him and Mary both out of the way. He covered her body with his until the shooting had stopped.

Buck's head had jerked up from his gaze at the floor when he heard the guns go off. Out the window, which was now shattered, he could golden, blonde hair and knew it had to be Mrs. Travis. Before the bullets could hit her, he saw a figure dressed in black knock her out of the way. The figure was Chris. Buck didn't know if he had gotten hit or not. He was mad though; he jumped up from his chair and lunged at one of the men. He threw his fist into the man's jaw breaking it and knocking the man out.

Chris heard Mary gasping beneath him, and quickly got off her. He crouched beside her and darted his eyes over her searching for blood. He didn't see any wounds. "Mary are you okay?"

"Yeah, just got the wind knocked out of me," she gasped. He helped her up and quickly lead her to safety.

Buck didn't see the other man's fist flying at him. It struck him in the face stunning him. He stumbled backwards. Buck shot out his arm to the gun lying on the floor next to the other man. He brought it up and fired, hitting the man in the arm. The very same instant, the man backhanded Buck with the butt of the gun. Buck fell backwards and into the corner. He could see out of the corner of his eye that J.D was fully awake now and going for his colts unnoticeably.

"You're going to pay for that you , son-of-a-bitch," the man snarled and brought the gun up to kill Buck. He waited for the shot and the pain, the pain never came but he heard a shot. The man had a bewildered look on his face and slumped to the ground, dead. He turned his head to see J.D standing there grinning with the smoking colt in his hand. Buck smiled and got up.

They heard the front door being broken down and the others ran to them, staring at the bodies on the floor. They automatically perceived what had happened and turned to get the undertaker to take care of the dead man.

"Vin and Ezra, take live one and throw him in jail, I’ll wire the judge and tell him we caught the horse thieves," Chris said in a quiet tone. "Then meet the rest of us in the saloon. J.D, good job."

J.D.’s face lit up, he had gotten a compliment from Chris, and he felt proud. Buck approached him slowly and put an arm around his shoulder. "I told you that I’d need you to save my life someday, thank you J.D."

"Aw, come on Buck, you did just the same for me. Only in a different way, it was nothing," J.D said shyly.

Buck just patted him on the back. "Let's go have a drink."

They walked out of the clinic and towards the saloon. When they got there, the others were chatting loudly and recapping what had happened. When Chris got in they greeted him and he sat down to have a drink.

"I wired the judge, we should get a reply soon," Chris said over his whiskey.

"Maybe it will quiet down for a little while after this. You know, no more outlaws making trouble here. I’d like that," J.D sighed.

"Don’t get your hopes up, Mr. Dunne," Ezra said dryly, then smiled.

The End