The McEllis Boys

Chapter Forty-One

"The ambulance is on it's way. If he lives through his injuries, he'll be taken into custody, set up with a trial and then I'm sure he'll serve the rest of his life in prison," the officer replied.

"A trial?" Cavanaugh demanded with disbelief. "You saw him murder my brother. He shot my brother in the back! He doesn't deserve a trial."

"Everyone gets a trail. This is America."

"He deserves to be strung up from the nearest damned tree!" Cavanaugh bellowed angrily.

"We don't hang folks anymore. This isn't the 1800's," the officer informed him.

"So he gets to live while my brother, who I'm sure died keeping his woman and child safe, is dead?" Cavanaugh demanded.

The cop nodded, "That's just the way it is. Sorry." There seemed to be real regret in the law officers voice but the way it was just wasn't going to work for Cavanaugh.

Nicole seemed to sense what he was about to do, "Don't, Cavanaugh, please, they'll kill you!" she exclaimed but Cavanaugh had his mind made up.

He used one hand to push her aside so that the bullets the cops fired wouldn't hit her and then with reflexes faster than any other person he'd ever met, he pulled his gun and fired a shot at Frank's head. He never found out if his shot hit it's intended target before a strange sensation overcame him and everything went dark.

***

"Mommy, mommy where are we? What happened to daddy?" Leslie stared around at the clouds surrounding she and Madeline. Cloud walls on each side, cloud floor, cloud ceiling. She lifted her nervous daughter into her arms and held her tight.

"I don't know," Leslie replied honestly. Her stomach was turning, her heart was broken. She had had no idea that one person could feel this much pain and still be alive.

Ian had told her about the cloud place one night as they had rocked together in the porch swing and watched the sunset. Leslie had wondered if maybe he was pulling her leg but this place looked exactly like what he had described. But what were she and Madeline doing here?

"Leslie?"

Leslie whirled around and felt her heart skitter to a stop, "Ian...?"

"Daddy!" Madeline exclaimed as she jumped from Leslie's arms and ran to him.

Ian scooped her up and his eyes closed as he held her in a nearly desperately tight embrace and kissed her hair. Leslie couldn't believe what she was seeing. Ian looked...alive. There was no blood, no paleness to his skin, no lifelessness in his eyes.

Leslie wasn't sure how her legs worked but somehow she managed to move herself across the space between she and Ian and he shifted Madeline to his hip and wrapped his free arm tight around Leslie, pulling her against his chest and kissing her lips desperately.

"Enough of that," a voice that Leslie didn't recognize said from behind her and she felt Ian stiffen. Instantly she was pushed aside and Madeline was thrust into her arms.

Ian put his body in front of them as he pulled his gun and pointed it straight at the rather scary looking woman. She had knotted and ratty blond hair streaked heavily with gray. Her face was a mess of lines and wrinkles and her blue eyes were a blue so light they were nearly translucent. She was dressed in furs and animals skins and she was smiling at Ian, revealing a mouth full of broken and missing teeth.

"Are you going to shoot me, Ian McEllis?" she asked with a laugh in her raspy voice.

"The thought had crossed my mind," Ian replied with a half shrug. His voice was calm, his posture was relaxed, (if you ignored the fact that he was pointing a gun at an old woman's face) and his breathing was normal. Leslie had no idea how he stayed so calm. She was shaking, breathing hard, confused, dazed and bewildered. What had happened? How had they gotten here? Where were the others? Why was Ian suddenly alive? Was he going to stay that way? So many questions and no answers seemed to be coming in any sort of a hurry.