Without warning, Chris rose to his feet and then strode for the door, listing badly to the right.

Vin and Buck followed. They caught up with their almost paralytic companion out in the middle of the street.

"We have got to stop him before he causes this entire situation to blow up in our faces," Ezra urged his companions, inclining his head toward their enemy, who for the first time, were grouping themselves together. J.D., Nathan and Josiah had joined the others, the men watching as Chris made his way toward the livery on unsteady legs.

"Chris? Chris, where the hell are you going?" Vin called, jogging after his friend.

"I’m gonna find the person who killed my family and I’m gonna kill him."

Vin circled around in front of his leader. "You already got him, remember?"

"I got the bastard who lit the fire, not the one who hired him to do it."

"Yeah but that was Ella... alright. We’ll go together. Tomorrow, I promise. But right now, we’ve got to go and see Nathan up in his clinic."

A terrifying grin appeared on Chris’ face. "Do you think I’m that drunk that I can’t see what you’re trying to do?"

"I’m tryin’ to help you, Cowboy."

The rest of the Seven, Mary and a number of other citizens slowly walked up the street on one side; all praying that Vin would be able to make Chris see sense.

Nathan stared at Chris intently. "He isn’t just drunk," the healer muttered.

"What?" Ezra asked.

"What are you talking about?"

"Look at his eyes. He’s been drugged. Vin!" Nathan shouted wanting to warn his young friend. There was no way that Chris had any idea of what he was doing.

"Not now, Nathan. Chris, we have got to go back."

"Why? Who the hell do you think..." Chris began blinking.

"Chris," Vin started to step forward.

"Get away from me! All of you, get the &*&$# away from me!"

"Can’t do that, Chris. You need help."

"Alright, draw!" Chris thundered. Mary felt the color drain from her face.

"Oh, my God," Ezra cried stunned. "Mr. Larabee, please!"

"Draw!" Chris shouted at Vin, pulling his duster back and laying his hand on top of his gun.

"I ain’t gonna draw on you, Chris." Still Vin’s face lacked any fear. The young man lifted his hands away from his body as an added reassurance. "Come on, Chris. You ain’t gonna shoot me."

"Draw you cowardly bastard! I ain’t gonna let you get away with it!"

"Huh?" Vin face’s flashed with confusion.

Buck realized instantly what was happening. "Vin, he doesn’t know it’s you!" It was the drug surging through Larabee’s veins. He wasn’t looking at Vin. He was seeing what his heart desperately wanted to see. The person who had hired Fowler to kill him but had killed Sarah and Adam in his place.

"Chris, it’s me, Vin. Relax. I ain’t gonna draw on you."

"Didn’t you think I would find you? Draw. DRAW!" The effort of screaming the order caused Chris to stumble. What happened next was the worst three seconds of Mary’s life. Everything slowed. She saw Vin’s face blanket with distress as Chris stumbled. She watched as the alarmed tracker started to step forward to help his best friend... and she watched Chris snap his gun up and fire with deadly accuracy. The bullet struck Vin in the middle of the chest; the slight man flying backwards as the slug tore through his body. Mary Travis screamed, but hers was not the only voice filling the air following those three seconds of hell. J.D., Ezra, Buck, Josiah, Nathan and many other citizens in the small town added their howls of disbelief and horror.

Vin hit the ground hard. Ezra and Nathan catapulted out into the street and dropped down beside their wounded friend. Mary rushed forward. Her hands covered his mouth as she stared down at Vin. He was covered in blood, his eyes wide with shock. She watched as he glanced up at Nathan who was desperately applying pressure over the wound. Vin whispered something to Nathan and then his eyes blinked shut.

"Noooooo! Vin, hang on!" Ezra screamed. "Dear, God this can’t be happening!"

"Breathe, Vin!" Nathan yelled. "Come on, Vin... please... please... breathe." But the healer’s desperate orders had become sobs. "Vin... please breathe."

Dr. Merrit knelt down beside the distressed healer and took in the scene. "Nathan?"

Nathan glanced across at the doctor, his face awash with horror as he slowly shook his head.

"The bullet must have struck an artery," the qualified doctor commented quietly. There was so much blood. "He didn’t have a chance."

Nathan Jackson lifted Vin up into his arms and held him to his chest. "Damn. Damn, Vin. God, why?"

"No, oh, God, no," Mary sobbed, realizing then that Vin Tanner had slipped away.

Dr Merrit rose to his feet and gently placed his arm across the newspaperwoman’s trembling shoulders. "I assure you, he felt no pain, Mrs. Travis. Take comfort from that."

"Don’t touch me. This is your fault," Mary shouted, pulling away from him.

"No one could have helped him." Merrit claimed with confusion. He had no way of knowing that Mary was well informed of his part in the insidious scheme to break the Seven.

The young newspaperwoman was about to say more when J.D. turned and launched an attack at Ed, who just happened to be the closest of the bastards who were responsible for what had just happened. Thankfully, Josiah and Dan Carter intervened, holding the youth back as he screamed incoherently at the other man.

Buck was standing frozen. He stared at Nathan, who held Vin in his arms. Tears spilled from the scoundrel’s eyes. "No... no... no, dear God, no." This couldn’t have happened. Buck turned to find Chris. The gunfighter had lowered his revolver and stumbled off toward the side of the street.

"Chris?" Buck called as he tentatively approached his friend who was trying to steady himself on a hitching rail.

"I got him, Buck," Chris claimed with satisfaction. His voice was so slurred that Buck had to read his lips to ensure he had heard correctly. "I finally got the bastard."

Buck Wilmington stared at his oldest friend through the steady stream of tears. "Oh, hell, Chris." Carefully, he reached out and took the gunfighter’s weapon from his hand.

"What are you doing?"

"Come on, Chris. Let’s get you out of the street. J.D., I need a hand here!"

J.D. Dunne had finally regained control. He responded to Buck’s call immediately, but stopped a few feet from the scoundrel who had threaded Chris’ arm over his shoulder. "Hurry up, Kid, he’s gonna pass out any minute." Four Corners’ young sheriff just stood. "Dammit, J.D.!" Buck bellowed.

Snapping out of the horrified trance that had consumed him, J.D. stepped forward and looped Chris’ other arm over his shoulder. "Where are we gonna take him?"

"The jail," Buck stated firmly. It was the only place Buck could think of. There they could protect Chris, both from others and from himself.

Mary watched stunned as Buck and J.D. half-dragged, half-carried Chris toward the sheriff’s office. Turning she watched Ezra slowly stand, his face racked with guilt.

"It’s not your fault," the woman offered stepping up next to him.

"I’m afraid it is. I promised him that if we followed my instructions that everything would be..." Ezra could get no further. His hand came up to cover his face.

Nathan hadn’t moved. He still held Vin to his chest, as if trying to protect him.

Josiah moved forward. "Alright, Nathan. Give him to me," the preacher whispered. When Nathan failed to respond, Josiah knelt down and pried Nathan’s hands from Vin’s body. The healer stared at Josiah, the horror and shock he felt clearly written on his handsome face. "There was nothing you could have done, Brother. It was his time," Josiah assured him.

Gently, the preacher placed one arm under Vin’s shoulders and the other under his knees. The huge regulator easily lifted his smaller friend, cradling him in his strong arms. Josiah rose to his feet and steadied himself before turning and carrying Vin through the stunned crowd, who instinctively lowered their heads in a sign of respect. There was absolute silence on the dusty streets of Four Corners. Apart from the soft sobs of a number of people who had suddenly realized how much they cared, the world appeared to have stopped rotating for those few devastating minutes. Chris Larabee, in a fit of drunken rage, had just gunned his best friend down in cold blood.

Without warning, Josiah’s resolve crumbled as he allowed his own eyes to fall on Vin’s silent face. "DAMN YOU GOD OF MERCY! DAMN YOU TO HELL!"

**********

Judge Orin Travis draped his arm across Mary’s shoulders and let her cry out her hurt.

"He didn’t know it was Vin. He pulled the trigger and he didn’t know that it was Vin."

"Shhh, easy, Mary."

"Nathan thinks that he may have been drugged with some hallucinogenic drug. Oh, Orin. I couldn’t... he just...Vin looked so shocked."

Travis nodded. He could picture the look on Vin’s face. The young tracker had trusted Chris Larabee completely. He simply wouldn’t have dreamed that Chris could pull the trigger.

"Do you know what Vin’s last words were? He... he said to Nathan, ‘tell him... it’s... okay’." Again Mary succumbed to the tragedy of the situation.

It didn’t surprise Travis that, despite laying there breathing his last few breaths, Vin’s final words would echo his concern for Chris.

"Has anyone told Chris what he said?"

"Chris still doesn’t know Vin’s dead! He doesn’t even remember the shooting. The boys have kept him drunk... to protect him from himself. It’s going to destroy him when he realizes that he... oh, God."

Judge Travis patted Mary’s shoulder and then picked up the empty mugs from the table.

"He was drugged? Is Nathan sure?"

Mary turned to look at her father-in- law horrified. "He was drugged! Orin there is no other explanation!" Mary knew that being drunk was not an excuse for murder. She had seen the tough old judge hang men who had claimed that it was whisky that pulled the trigger.

Judge Travis nodded. "The nine men. Where are they now?"

"Most of them left town right after the shooting. The Seven were so stunned that they didn’t respond immediately. I mean it was at least half an hour before we all sort of stopped walking around in a daze. By that time seven of those bastards had left." Mary never usually swore, but she couldn’t help herself.

"And the other two?"

"Dr. Merrit and Father Bob. They stayed until after the funeral. J.D. wanted to kill both of them, but the others stopped him. The last thing we wanted was J.D. hanging for murder."

"The funeral?"

Mary dropped her face. "I organized it. Every man, woman and child was there, Judge. I don’t think any of the Seven realized how much the people of this town care. I don’t think the people of this town realized how much they cared."

"Did Chris attend the funeral?"

Mary nodded.

**********