𝓐𝓼 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝔂𝓮𝓪𝓻𝓼 𝓰𝓸 𝓫𝔂, 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓷𝓰𝓼 𝓬𝓱𝓪𝓷𝓰𝓮 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓶𝓸𝓿𝓮, 𝓼𝓸 𝓭𝓲𝓭 𝓼𝓱𝓮.
Though the years were long and hard, as such lives would turn out to be. She made it go by as normal as she could.
The new life she lived was nothing compared to her time with the Earp brothers in Tombstone with the famous gunslinger Doc Holliday. She still craved adventure and wild chases, even though she had become tired of them in the past.
But she had kept her promise. She never ran. Never looked back. She made something of herself.
Ellanora went back to California with Virgil, she stayed with him and his beautiful wife Allie as she tried to get a hold on her new life.
Elle worked alongside Virgil in Colton as deputy to him, the sheriff. She had always said that the law was no place for a women, but she knew that had to change.
She fought for the people of Colton. She would go around town and not show off her badge as a symbol of power, she used it as a symbol of hope. Elle helped take care of lost women, like her friend Eliza did. She would take them into her own home and help them get back on their feet.
She wore her badge as a reminder of her husband.
She fought for the equal rights of those around her. She wanted everyone in Colton to have a fair and respectful life. She insured that with her job.
While safety away in California, she heard news of Ike Clanton. The cowboy died at an attempted robbery. Ellanora sat with Wyatt as the news was brought forward to them.
Ellanora played a huge part in the right for a women's vote. She believed women were the future, that they too could survive in a mans world. She held information sessions, ran companies, fought for her right to vote. She believed in all these things, so she fought for it.
Ellanora had watched the world change, and the people around her. She watched Virgil and Allie grow old together. She'd be lying if she said she wasn't jealous of their relationship. Elle longed for that with Doc.
She also watched Wyatt Earp marry his love, Josephine Markus. The actress who stole his heart away back in Tombstone.
The three would often talk about their Tombstone days. Bringing the good memories back, and pushing the bad ones away. It was a sensitive topic at times. Some memories were outnumbered with the mentions of Doc, which hurt Ellanora. So the stories of Doc and Morgan as well, were avoided.
Elle never remarried, but she kept the name Holliday. She had no interest in falling in love and getting married again. No one could compare to her love Doc Holliday.
Everyday she would place his hat on her head, and his Pearl white pistols on her hips. She held them all very close to her as it was the only things she had of him. At night she would place them on the table in her little house. Hoping he would walk back in and take them from the table.
Every morning she woke to them still laying on the table. It pained her.
Not only did Ellanora have to adjust to her new life without Doc, and becoming deputy. But she also struggled with the rumours and whispers of the town folk around Colton.
People had heard the story of Earp ride, but Wyatt not Elle ever spoke about it. They were asked, but they never said anything. It was something they agreed to do unless they were all dead.
Ellanora also struggled with being alone with a child.
Not long after her husbands death, she found she was with child. Frightened for her life, and raising the child alone, she found support in Wyatt and Virgil. They stood by her side the whole way through. She carried the child, determined to give them the best life she could.
But that never happened.
Complications durning birth almost lost the life of Elle herself, but resulted in the loss of her baby boy. The two Earp wives helped Elle through the long 46 hour labor, only to be knocking on deaths door herself. But the lose of her last connection to Doc made her even more broken.
Elle named him John Henry Holliday.
Only an infant, she still stayed determined to live the life she would have if she cared for the child. Sometimes she would imagine the baby and her husband with each other up in heaven. If there was a heaven.
Virgil Earp passed away in 1905, causing a break in the heart of Elle. Her friend for over 25 years had left her alone once again. This time he wouldn't be coming back. She and Allie stayed close the years following. But she didn't stay in Colton for long.
Elle had seen the war. The Great War broke out in Europe in 1912. She too did her part and helped raise funds, make socks, and held out around as men fought for their country over seas. She wished she could go over and help but her time too was coming. Now at the age of 55, she slowly started to slow down.
But she didn't want too. She kept fighting and helping everyone she could. She never stopped.
Although her bones ached, old wounds never healed, and was covered in scars, she still pushed forward.
The war had ended and America seemed to boost itself higher then ever. The 1920's brought money, and a new area of time.
Elle had seen the culture of the Wild West melt away in front of her. Places were no longer barren with valleys and canyons. Now there were towns, homes, mines. People made places out of the lost lands she once rode many years ago.
As Wyatt got older, Elle started to see the changes in the man. He become more open about his experiences in the Wild West. He was Wyatt Earp, famous lawmen from Dodge City. But the stories from Tombstone travelled further.
The stories of Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday and they're gang of misfits. Alongside a women who was mistaken for a man.
Now, seated in black, Elle watched the men carry the casket away of the last surviving friend she had. At the age of 80, the famous Wyatt Earp had passed away and was now being brought down the isle of the church.
Standing, she walked next to his wife Josephine, who held a tissue up to her eyes as she cried her silent tears.
Elle didn't seem to cry. She had known death very well, so it brought a familiar broken feeling.
As the casket was lowered into the ground, Elle looked out over the grave stones and took a deep breath. People had come from around when the news of Wyatt Earp passing was brought to light. People watched on as the last surviving man of the O.K Corral was finally being out to rest.
"Miss Peterson?" A voice asked behind Elle.
Turning, the older women saw a handsome man, who looked to be in his 40's, take off his hat and nod to the older lady.
"Are you a friend of Mr. Earp?" He asked her.
Elle looked to his grave and nodded to the man. "I knew him."
"There's rumours that you knew of the Earp ride, all those years ago."
Elle looked at this man straight on, tilting her head to the side.
"I know he didn't talk about it much but," he put his hat back on, "I had an interview with him before he passed and he mentioned you being involved." His voice was laced with a hint of confusion.
"What's your name son?" She asked narrowing her eyes.
"Curtis K Harris."
Elle looked at the man, his eyes wore a familiar friendliness that she remembered from all those years ago. "Your mother was Emily Harris?" She asked.
The man nodded, his face confused on how the old women knew such things. "My mother used to tell me stories of two travellers. Both of whom are dead now. Did you know them?"
"What we're their names?"
The man hesitated, "Doc Holliday and Ellanora Raycroft." He looked to Elle. "Records show that Doc Holliday died of TB in Colorado. Ellanora was never seen after his death, many assumed she was dead."
The old women turned away from her friends child. She felt as though everything from her past was rushing back.
"She's not dead, if she was dead then you might be as well." Elle smirked.
Curtis looked at her in awe for a moment, "You're... you're Ellanora Raycroft? But," he pulled out a pocket book and flipped through the pages, "Mister Earp said your name was Anna Peterson, you were a deputy in Colton with his older brother."
Elle nodded proudly to her new friend. The man looks up from his book and smiled, "So Wyatt Earp isn't the last of the O.K Corral." He whispered.
"I have so many questions!" He explained cheerfully. "I want to tell your story Miss Raycroft, I really do."
"Your mother said the same thing." Elle chuckled.
The two walked out of the cemetery, leaving the graves to stand in their places of remembrance. Elle took a glance at Wyatt's grave and nodded to it, as if he could see her nod.
Elle brought Curtis back to her house where he asked his questions and she told the stories. She told the time of her arrival in Tombstone, how she met Wyatt and his brothers. Elle told them of the time she questioned a judge on the grounds of the killing of her friend Fred White. She told the story of staying up in Doc Holliday's hotel room all night when he got sick at the saloon.
She told the story of how Elle met his parents, Emily and Kurt.
The stories she told lasted days at a time. Elle welcomed Curtis into her home with no problem because he was family to her. She had seen the man when he was just a baby. Emily had done so much for her and Doc, it was the least she could do.
"How is your mother and father?" Elle asked on the third day.
Curtis looked up from his pen and paper and looked sadly to her, "My father passed away when I was 4, left my mother alone so she moved back home to Texas. She died about three years ago."
Elle looked to her cup of tea and nodded. "She was a wonderful women."
Silence filled the air before Curtis shifted in his chair and spoke, "Can I ask you something?"
"Hm." Elle looked up to the man.
"My mother talked about you and Doc, mentioning how she told you where to go in Colorado. But," he shifted again, "she never talked about the time period between you two leaving the Earp ride and arriving in Colorado. What happened?"
"She never told you anything?" Elle questioned.
Curtis shook his head no
Elle nodded, "When we left the Earp ride, we went looking for a family friend of mine and ended up on the ranch your mother and father owned." Elle looked out the window for a moment smiling, "Your mother and father ended up marrying me and Doc."
"Wait," Curtis scuffed, "You married Doc Holliday?"
Elle nodded.
"But there's no record of it. No priest or church in the area confirmed it, I checked."
"We didn't do it at a church. We did it on that ranch, just me, Doc Holliday and your parents."
Curtis sat back in his seat and laughed. "I can't believe it. So then you went to Colorado?"
Elle's mood shifted, "Doc got sick very quickly. Your mother did everything she could, she told me about the hospital in Colorado that could help him, so that's where I took him."
"And he died there." Curtis said.
Elle looked at him, nodding slowly, "Yes, he died there."
"Have you been back to Colorado since he died?" Curtis asked suddenly.
The women shook her head, "He told me not to look back."
"Would you want too?" He asked.
Elle looked away, thinking. "Not unless I was dying." She laughed softly.
Curtis nodded his head as he continued to write things in his pocket book.