𝓢𝓱𝓮 𝓵𝓮𝓯𝓽 𝓗𝓮𝓷𝓻𝔂 𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮, 𝓼𝓱𝓮 𝓵𝓮𝓯𝓽 𝓱𝓮𝓻 𝓹𝓪𝓼𝓽 𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮. 𝓘𝓽 𝔀𝓪𝓼 𝓽𝓲𝓶𝓮 𝓽𝓸 𝓵𝓮𝓽 𝓰𝓸.
"What makes a man like Ringo, Doc?" Wyatt asked Doc as he lay weakly in bed.
Wyatt had paced around, something he seemed to do often since yesterday.
"What makes him do the things he does?" Wyatt turned to Doc.
"A man like Ringo..." Doc barely spoke, his voice low, "got a great empty hole right through the middle of him." Swallowing he went on, "He can never kill enough or steal enough... or inflict enough pain to ever fill it."
"What does he need?" Wyatt asked helplessly.
"Revenge." Doc said plainly.
"For what?"
"Bein' born."
Wyatt walked towards the bed and sat down at the edge.
"It all happened so fast with Curly Bill..." he looked away, "I didn't really have time to think about it, but I've had plenty of time to think about this."
Wyatt froze for a moment, he spoke the truth that he didn't want to believe. "I can't beat him, can I?"
Doc looked at his friend, sweat dripping from him, "No." he gasped out.
Wyatt stood up and turned away.
"Wait, I'm going with you." Doc tried to sit up but was pushed back to the bed by the coughing fit, that his body was thrusted into.
Leaning back on the pillow and holding his chest as he wheezed he gasped a sorry, "oh god Wyatt I'm sorry." His breath had been gone.
Wyatt nodded to his friend, feeling sorry for everything he out him through. "It's all right Doc."
Doc sighed and regained his breath, looking at the badge on his friends chest he whispered, "What's it like to wear one of those?"
Wyatt looked down at the silver star that hung on his vest. Clipping it off, he pulled it into Doc's weak hand, patting it closed he walked to the doorway of the room. Turning back once more, he saw his sick friend. Getting one last look at Doc before he would meet his fate on the hill, Doc spoke.
"Save her." Wyatt turned back to the room. "Save her for me."
Those words broke Wyatt as he walked out into the porch. Doc Holliday's words rang through his ears and repeated over and over. Save her.
The sun was starting to rise over the valley as Ringo pulled Elle down to the base of a tree in a wooded area. Her face, now covered in cuts, dirt and dried blood, was sore. Her leg, thigh now broken open from its stitches, dried and cracked with every forced movement as the men who held her captive, pushed her around like a rag doll. She leaned her head back on the tree as her wrists became raw from the ropes rubbing against them. Ellanora was exhausted. Her stomach growled for food and her mouth yearned for some fresh water. Her eyes were heavy but her gaze stayed fired on Ringo who pulled out a cigarette.
"What's your plan anyways." Elle asked out of curiosity.
Ringo pulled the cigarette from his mouth and walked towards the girl sitting under the tree. "Wyatt Earp will show up, and once he does I will end this once and for all." He leaned down and looked her straight in the eyes. "And once he's dead, you're next." Ringo pulled himself back up and walked back where he was before.
Elle felt panic rise in her chest. Maybe his plan was going to work, Wyatt couldn't win against Ringo, no matter how hard he tried. Ringo would kill Wyatt.
The trees swayed in the wind as Elle sat there, thinking of everything she had done up to this moment. She had made the choice to live, only to met with death soon again. She wondered if this is what Doc felt like. He always said he was at deaths door, and he looked it too. But is this what it felt? The feeling of dread and the fear of what happens next. Will anyone find her, mourn her death. She had no friends, only those of the gang. But the cowboys would soon go after them and kill them like they did with McMaster's.
She feared for Eliza, the closest thing she had to a mother. Ellanora didn't know what happened to her that night when she was stabbed. Wyatt and Doc didn't talk about it. They didn't want too. It reminded them of the fear of losing their brother. If she stayed in that town, living safely, or did she flee for her life. Elle didn't know, nor did Wyatt and Doc.
Thinking of Henry made her sick, and worry more then she already was. Her love. Gone because of the cowboys. He himself was a cowboy, killed before he killed his own gang and ran because he believed in the goodness in the world. Elle now knew she was facing the same fate he had suffered. They would both die by the cowboys hands.
Ellanora didn't want to die, but something in her told her to accept it. She had been afraid of it before. Such events like the shootout at the O.K Corral was one time she was afraid of death. She was afraid of dying by the flying bullets. She was afraid when the gang went and hunted cowboys. When she and Doc hid in the cave on the river back when Virgil and the women left town. She was afraid. She always has been.
Remembering back to when she was cut open at the hands of a cowboy. She feared death so much she left Henry in the void to be here. She was still afraid. The fear never went away. But in this moment, this very split second, she wasn't. She embraced death, accepted it with her arms open. Elle had welcomed death.
Ellanora snapped out of her thoughts when Ringo stopped leaning on the tree and looked towards the trees. Elle followed his gaze and saw the figure of a man, walking like a shadow, coming closer as the silver star on his chest shined in the dawns light.
"Well," Ringo started walking towards the figure, "I didn't think you had it in ya."
Elle looked to the shadow. Figuring it was Wyatt, she watched as a cigarette was pulled from under the hat, which covered his face. Watching cautiously, Elle saw as the hat had tipped up and revealed a face she had longed to see. It was Doc Holliday.
"I'm your Huckleberry."
Everything seemed to stop for a moment, as Elle leaned forward as she caught the eye of John Doc Henry Holliday. His eyes had softened, as a wave of relief washed over his body. Doc turned back to Ringo who was now pale, worry painted on his face.
"Why Johnny Ringo," Doc smirked at the frightened man, "you look like somebody just walked over your grave."
Ringo scuffed, "Fight's not with you Holliday."
"I'll beg to differ, sir. We started a game we never got to finish." The two now close to each other.
Ringo rolled his eyes, "I was just foolin' about."
"I wasn't." A playful glean graced over Holliday's eyes, "and this time," he pulled his coat back, to reveal Wyatt's silver Marshall star. "It's legal."
Elle watched as Ringo seemed to fall into his own hole. All his confidence of his plan working had slipped from his grasp, all because Doc had showed up instead of Wyatt.
"All right, lunger." Ringo's eyes grew wide and wild, "Let's do it."
The two suddenly went into a stance and walked in a circle, eyeing each other. Their hands hovered over their guns on their hips. Elle watched helplessly from the side lines, tied by the wrists, unable to just shoot Ringo in the back of his head. She saw her pistol hanging out of his jacket, with Henry's initials carved into the smooth handle.
"Say when." Doc said to Ringo. He was making fun of the time this happened. Many moon ago, while Ellanora was telling Doc Holliday she was leaving town. The calm before the storm.
After what seemed like hours, Ringo reached for his gun but Doc Holliday was quicker. Pulling his Pearl white pistol from his hip, Doc shot Johnny Ringo above his left eye. He didn't fall, his head didn't explode. Instead he stood there shocked, his face dead and lifeless, but his body inched forward, towards Doc.
Doc moved back. Small steps back while yelling at Ringo to fight him. Johnny Ringo didn't mutter a word, instead gasped and twitched in ways that would haunt Elle for the rest of her life.
She had seen men get shot. But not like this.
Ringo stumbled forward, the life draining from him. Doc moved away, yelling "You're no Daisy!"
Ringo finally fell to the ground, falling next to Elle under the tree he had placed her under. Pushing herself away from his lifeless body, Doc placed the silver star on his chest and turned to Elle. Who was now in shock.
She was in shock for more then just the death of Ringo. But the shock of this being over. Ringo was dead. This was all over now. Many years of running and nightmares of the man dead next to her, killing Henry. It was all over now.
Doc got on his knees and cut the ropes that bound her wrists together. Not even rubbing her wrists to ease the pain, she leaned forward, wrapped her arms around Doc's neck, and kissed him. Doc was caught off guard by her actions, but quickly leaned into the kiss. Both of them worried for each other were now in each other's arms. Safe.
Pulling away, they looked at each other. Taking in what was in front of them. Elle saw how pale Doc had become, his eyes dark with exhaustion, the strain of her captivity had taken its toll on him. Doc saw the beat up and bruised women who had been through so much those past few weeks. Her face dirty with sweat and blood, cuts exposed to the sun.
The pair pulled away once they heard footsteps approach the little area they were in. Doc stood up and pulled his gun out, ready to shoot. But soon put his gun down when a panicked Wyatt Earp came from the trees. His eyes wide with surprise as he saw his friend standing over the dead body of his enemy. Wyatt saw Elle, sitting under the tree, eyes wide as well as her friends were alright and alive.
Wyatt came closer as Doc helped Elle to her feet. She leaned her weight on him as her thigh was pulsing with pain. The blood still slowly making its way through the gash.
"I'm afraid the strain was more than he could bear." Doc said putting his arm out for Elle to lean on, which she accepted.
Wyatt put his gun away and looked at his friend in shock.
"Oh, I wasn't quite as sick as I made out." Holliday said as if he answered the question on Wyatt's mind.
Wyatt leaned down to the body of Ringo "Good God he mumbled as he picked up the star which was placed there by Doc. Flipping it through his fingers he placed it back on his chest.
"My hypocrisy goes only so far." Doc said looking to Wyatt.
Wyatt nodded his head, "All right. Let's finish it." He said to to two who nodded.
"Indeed, sir. The last charge of Wyatt Earp and his immortals." Doc said smirking.
Wyatt then saw Elle's pistol and picked it up, looking at it for a moment. Wyatt stood up and handed it towards Elle. She looked at the pistol. Everything was on that pistol, so many memories. Not just if her time with the gang, but everything before that. Henry had given them to her, she ran from her problems with that gun. Yet, here she was. Her reason to run was dead. Henry was still dead. Why keep something that was dead.
"No." Elle said shaking her head.
The two men looked at her for a moment, "But Henry gave you this gun." Wyatt said surprised.
"I know." Elle smiled, "But it's time to lay him to rest. No more running." She said proudly.
Elle took the gun from Wyatt and limped over to Ringo's body. She placed the pistol next to Ringo.
"That was never my gun." She said looking down at Ringo. "It was Henry's, it should have been buried with him back on the ranch. But I couldn't let him go." She looked up to the horizon and saw the morning sun shine down on her, smiling she felt a part of her break. "It's time to let him go. It's time to stop running."
Turning back to the men, who smiled at her at the chance of starting a new. The trio walked out of the woods, leaving Ringo and Henry's gun. Leaving it for someone to find and wonder what had happened. Walking away from everything that had carried on Elle's back, because of that pistol. She left it there, she left Henry there, with Johnny Ringo.