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<blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 3271551" data-attributes="member: 8530"><p><strong>Chapter 215, “Baby Talk“, Saturday, April 1st , 1882, 11:15 A.M.</strong></p><p></p><p>At Kelly's Dry Goods Ginnie is at the shop with Mary Kelly doing last minute alterations when she overhears Mary talking about a strange letter that Mary received from Tombstone that just held the word FIVE. Ginnie finishes up the seam she is working on and begins to bundle and price the lengths of lace she has finished in the last couple of days. She made a good amount of money on tips lat night at the bar and would be spending the festival selling her lace and hopefully getting a commission on the tapestries she had agreed to attempt to sell for the priestess. If worse came to worse she should be set for at least six months, maybe more provided the cowboy gang didn't kill her first.</p><p></p><p>Jane Boag walks into the Lucky Lady Dance Hall and Saloon. She is attired in the nice but not too revealing dress that she planned to wear for the family song and dance part of the program. She also has a leather purse slung over her shoulder. She looks around the room, her face one of both fear and confusion, until she spots Ruby. As soon as Ruby sees Jane she excuses herself from the table and makes her way over, not wanting to have to make introductions. She approaches, "Good morning Jane, is something wrong?"</p><p></p><p>Jane replies, "Yes! Terribly wrong! Can we go talk somewhere?" Ruby replies, "Sure we can, just give me a moment." Ruby walks back over to the table. "Seems there is a problem with the entertainment, I'll be right back." She takes Jane up to her room and they sit on the couch in the office section. "It's private here. Now, what's wrong?"</p><p></p><p>Jane reaches into her purse and removes a now familiar looking envelope with a Tombstone postmark addressed to 'Jane Boag, Palace Saloon'. He hands the envelope to Ruby, her hand shaking. The woman across from Ruby bears little resemblance to the highly confident priestess that she had met on Sunday, looking instead like a terrified little girl. Ruby states, "I don't even have to read it to know who it's from. There's been a few of these around today." Ruby shakes her head. She opens the letter and reads it.</p><p> </p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong>Priestess, </strong></p><p><strong>I know who you are and what you plan. You will not succeed, only Ares will prevail this day. This is your only warning. If you attempt to set foot upon a stage today it will be your final performance unless it is a 'stage' with wheels on it. </strong></p><p><strong>J.P.R. </strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p></p><p>Jane's voice quivers and she says, "I think he's telling me to leave town while I still can. Ruby, what can I do? I've come so close to giving this town to Aphrodite. We can't lose now. Do....do you think he's bluffing?"</p><p></p><p>"JPR?" Ruby says out loud but to herself. Then she sighs, "No, I don't think he's bluffing. But that doesn't mean he will be successful." "What do you mean, giving the town to Aphrodite? Is there something more to the ceremony than just dancing? A whole lot of people having been telling me lately that you've been making them do all kinds of strange things and keeping them from their own gods."</p><p></p><p>Jane replies, "Tonight's dance, well, tomorrow morning's actually. It will be after midnight so fall on the Holy Day, well the dance will be in honor of Aphrodite. We will dedicate the town to her and make this community a beacon for the Goddess!" While she makes that speech her confidence increases and Ruby can now see some of the woman she had met before. Jane then says, "But...I....we cannot turn this into a Community of Love if I am dead. He says my next performance will be my last. Ruby, you've scheduled me to first perform this afternoon at 2:30 PM. That only a little more than three hours from now. What will we do?"</p><p></p><p>Ruby replies, "I need some time to think about this. Other things are going on today that could change Mr. Ringo's mind. I think to be safe you should let the other girls perform without you this afternoon. Plan on doing the ceremony tonight. By then we may have this whole thing figured out." She leans forward and hugs Jane. "It will be alright. You should stay in the Palace today, though, to be safe. I'll have Harry walk you home." </p><p></p><p>Ruby escorts Jane back downstairs and asks Harry to please walk her down the block to the Palace. She sits back down at the table with her friends and takes another huge gulp out of her bottle. "Well, the entertainment's been threatened too. Apparently Ringo is trying to destroy this entire town. He must have men everywhere."</p><p></p><p>Nanuet asks, "Why would he threaten the entertainers? That doesn't make any sense? Why go after her? She doesn't have anything to do with the books, she's just a saloon dancer. We can't just let him go around shooting innocents because he feels like it. I say we set up the ambush. We don't have too much time, we need to get this plan going."</p><p></p><p>"Let's just say it's personal..." Ruby ponders before speaking her next words. "He signed it JPR though. Don't know if that means anything." She shrugs and takes another gulp of bourbon. </p><p></p><p>"Maybe we meet him where he says but get there early and check out the area, catch whomever he has set up to ambush us. Turn his ambush into ours. Set the fake books, interspersed with some real but unimportant ones, with the invisible dynamite. I have three sticks and Chester should have one. When he goes to look at the books, well... bang." </p><p></p><p>"Otherwise we put ahem.. Katherine... in a cart with the books and send her on her way to burn them somewhere close to outside of town. Jake and I know a spot fairly well, we go there to practice. We could take the cart there and at least act like we're setting them on fire to draw him out. Should work, even last night we were followed."</p><p></p><p>Nanuet says, “The problem with burning the books is that he might just get angry and start shooting up the town. I can't stand to see another innocent get hurt for trouble I was involved in starting.” "You've seen what this man is capable of doing. Will you look me in the eye and tell me he won't harm anyone if he gets the books or we don't burn them?" Jake shakes his head at Nanuet. </p><p></p><p>Nanuet continues, “At the very least we should scout out the area where he wants us to bring the books. Maybe I can find something out. I can bring Maska, we can search. If they are invisible she should still be able to sniff them out.” Ruby says, "Nanuet, he's already angry. Burning the books or not he is going to try to kill us. Scouting out that area may be a good idea but I don't know if any of us should go off alone right now. And if you do find them and they capture you?" Ruby shudders. "This time they won't keep you alive." Nanuet says, "I won't be alone, I will have Maska with me. She should be able to sniff them out. She can't fire a gun but she can help. Is there anyone else who can scout like me? It might be more dangerous to go with another person."</p><p></p><p>Jake states, "If that is what we decide, then we go together. Even if at a distance. All the folks that are with us against Ringo will be involved in what we do. We can't let him pick us off a few at a time. We only have a little time left. Find out who is with is if we go, who got numbers, and gather up whatever ideas and weapons we can. Stay together in twos or threes and meet up at the El Parador in about half hour. As I see it we have only two basic choices. We either go out after him, and our only bait we are sure of is the books." Jake glances at Ruby very briefly and with a strange look on his face, "Or we deny him and wait for his attacks."</p><p></p><p>Nanuet says, "I just figured I might be able to take a look before we all stumbled into a trap. Information is power.” Jake says, "Agreed. You are still our scout, not our one man army though.” Nanuet says, “Who did you have in mind to help us out? I can start trying to gather people, grabbing my few weapons will only take a minute, my stuff is right upstairs." Jake replies, "I don't know. I think some folks here figured they knew somebody who might be interested. Not sure who we trust." Jake pats him on the shoulder. "Use your instincts. Pray to your ancestors. Flip a coin."</p><p></p><p>Ruby states, "Alright, I'll try to find out about the numbers and warn the Judge." She gets up from the table and heads upstairs. She puts her derringer in place and her gun is tucked into the band of her skirt. She takes her backpack and sticks the fireball rod inside wrapped in a shawl. Jake follows her up the stairs and starts gathering his weapons. "What was that funny look on your face for downstairs?" Ruby pauses and looks up at his face.</p><p></p><p>Jake finishes collecting up all his guns and his dynamite, which by contrast is quite visible, in a saddle bag. "I was wondering which I was more worried about; waiting for Ringo to take a shot at you, taking you into the desert and fighting Ringo, or finding out that my suspicion is true that Ringo is affected by Aphrodite as well and his fixation is you." Jake wiggles his revolvers in their holsters. "Other than that everything if just fine." He hangs his sawed off shotgun by the lanyard around his neck and covers the guns with a small tarp roll. Finally he takes his old hunting knife out of the night stand and attaches it to his belt.</p><p></p><p>"Me?" Ruby gulps. "That just can't be true, so don't be worrying about it." She doesn't sound entirely convinced. "Jake..." her voice trails off before she continues again quietly, "I'm worried about you too." She puts her hand on his face, "And I love you and couldn't bare to see anything bad happen to you. Which is why we have to do this today, and finish it the best we can." She kisses him softly on the lips. "I'm selfish, I want time for a lot more of these." </p><p></p><p>Jake returns the kiss, and a gentle but firm hug while the rifle bundle falls to the floor. "Ruby, you know I love you. It is time to make the danger go away. I'm not made to worry." Jake sighs, "I don't handle it well." "I know baby, I don't want to worry either." She hugs him tighter. "There is something else I have to tell you. I told you I never wanted secrets between us and now I have one that I have to share. But, I promised someone I wouldn't share it, so you'll have to keep it secret for now. I've decided that it's more important for you to know at this moment." </p><p></p><p>"Ruby, if you feel guilty about something don't.... now is not the time. I love you girl, that is all you need to know." "Guilty? I don't feel guilty too often, I mean pretty much never. No it's time for me to tell you, it's important, it could mean life or death. It, well.. it involves a baby." Jake suddenly looks pale. "You promised someone you wouldn't tell about a baby?" She looks him in the eyes, "That doesn't matter, does it? What matters is there is a baby involved and we have do what we can to keep the baby safe, right?" Ruby runs her fingers across his cheek. He asks, "Whose is it?" </p><p></p><p>"Err... that's doesn't matter either. Like you said, now isn't the time to really get into all the details. We just have to all be careful." "Careful!" Jake starts to wave his arms around. "Somebody tried to blow us up and YOU disarmed the dynamite. That isn't being very careful. Hermes, I should be locking you up!" She furrows her brows, "What was I supposed to do, let it explode and blow up the whole place?" Ruby starts to give Jake a pout. </p><p></p><p>"I don't know how in blue blazes you can be careful with your baby and then play with dynamite. I may be in love with you Ruby West but I'll NEVER understand YOU or the rest of the creatures that wander this earth called women." Jake ends with his hands on his hips. Ruby mouth drops opens and she stares at Jake, "My baby.. errr this isn't going very well." She stops suddenly and looks at Jake. "Wait a minute, if I'm supposed to be having a baby then why are you asking who the father is?" One of her eyebrows start to raise. </p><p></p><p>"What do you mean IF you are supposed to be having a baby?" Jake starts waving his hands around again, "Why am I asking who the father is? Well I didn't ask you to keep it secret! I didn't even know!" "You're right, you don't know, you just assumed that I slept with someone else! That's not very trusting. Humph." Ruby grabs her backpack. "I don't want to talk about this anymore." How did I end up getting insulted by this conversation? Well, get over it girl, you have bigger things to worry about She puts a smile on her face and heads out the door. </p><p></p><p>Jake reaches out and grabs her pack. "Hold it. This time you are not walking away from me." He moves around between her and the door his voice still loud. "Are you or are you not telling me you are pregnant? You see, I have only ever heard of one way to get pregnant, so excuse me for not understanding what in bloody Hades you are trying to tell me? Who would make you promise not to tell me I am the father?" Jake blinks a couple of times and his voice lowers. "Ruby West, could you please tell me what is going on? I need to focus getting US out of this mess with Ringo and I can't be walking around wondering what you are telling me." Finally his voice gets quiet. "I'm already worried half to death about you, how much more worried for you should I be?" </p><p></p><p>Ruby blinks a couple of times, the smile falling off her face. "You honestly think I'm pregnant? I told you, I'm never having babies! Ever! It's not me, it's Kate. Katherine. Mrs. Katherine Kale, she's having a baby. And we have to keep her safe, in case she doesn't keep herself safe. Besides, I thought you didn't want babies either. The way I figure if I ever did get pregnant, which I WON'T, but if I did you'd be out of here faster than one of those bullets that come flying out of your Colt." She stands still, still staring into Jake's eyes. </p><p></p><p>Jake stares back at her. "Oh." He doesn't break her stare but some of the color comes back to his face, perhaps a bit too much color. "Um, I don't want babies either." He still stands there quiet for a minute. "You know, you get me riled up faster than anyone I know. I just don't think straight around you sometimes...." He looks down at his feet a moment and back to her. "I didn't run screaming did I? I mean, how could I leave you? Not that I am not glad that you aren't, you know.... I'm sorry." Jake eyes then bulge. "Katherine?" </p><p></p><p>"You only didn't run because you didn't have the chance yet," Ruby says, "Believe me, I know the way it works. And besides, if it ever did happen I would leave you, I wouldn't do that to you." She gives a small smile. "Well, I would try to anyway." She shifts her pack further onto her shoulder. "And yes, Katherine. I said I wouldn't say anything but people need to know now, since this is such a dangerous situation now." </p><p></p><p>"Katherine?" Jake repeats dumbly. "I wouldn't have thought that Gonzales would really do it..." He looks back at Ruby. "Let us not be creating problems that don't exist. I've been shot at, publicly slandered and offered fifty thousand dollars to lose you. None of which has deterred me. Give me some slack, woman, when you accidentally hint at things of momentous nature." </p><p></p><p>He takes gentle hold of her chin with his thumb and forefinger. He says with lips drawn tight. "Did you hear me accuse you of breaking your word to me? Did I say you weren't true to me? You had a life before we met, which was only three months ago. It was Sunday January 8th that we shared a bed for the first time and not long after that we made some commitments to each other. I'm not a midwife nor a Harvard mathematician, but you could have known someone before me and counting backwards it works." He kisses her forehead. "Yes, I jumped to a conclusion, but it was that something happened before me. Can I just go back to worrying about keeping you from getting shot or blown up now?" </p><p></p><p>"NOT Gonzales," Ruby answers quickly, "It's not him. We really don't have the time to get into it now...Let's just keep her safe, ok? She should stay here or stay far back as she can." Ruby lets her fingers wander up and down the buttons on Jake's shirt. "I am sorry, I guess I wasn't being very clear, I didn't mean to scare you. I just told Kate I wouldn't tell just yet. And I could only imagine that you wouldn't want to stick around raising some kid that ruined your life." Ruby looks up at Jake from under her eyelashes, "You remember what the date was the first time we laid together?" </p><p></p><p>Jake just grins. "How could I forget that?" He reaches down and picks up his rifle bundle. "We need to go. I'm trying the best I know to keep us ALL safe. I won't say anything to or about Katherine. She needs to decide what she is doing, or if you don't like that then help her decide. It's actually worse that people might know she is with child if she comes along. Some damn fool will take a bullet for her instead of stopping the bullet from being fired." </p><p></p><p>"That thought had occurred to me," Ruby mutters. "Oh! I almost forgot..." She hurries over to the false wall and opens the safe. She reaches in and reaches out but Jake doesn't see anything. "The invisible dynamite," she says holding up her empty hand before pushing her hand into her backpack. Then she heads to the gun rack. "And just in case... she takes an empty gun similar to the usual one she carries plus her rifle. "Can't be too safe, right?" She looks down at her outfit, "I probably should change but if I do whomever is following us will know something is up." She shrugs, "Besides, I'm going to be looking like Kate soon enough so why bother." </p><p></p><p>He looks at her and starts to say something but then instead reaches for the door. "That might be our best plan." "You're the plan guy Mr. Cook. I'm just the humble follower..." she says as she walks out. Jake just shakes his head and thinks, Never miss a good opportunity to shut up.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Silver Moon, post: 3271551, member: 8530"] [B]Chapter 215, “Baby Talk“, Saturday, April 1st , 1882, 11:15 A.M.[/B] At Kelly's Dry Goods Ginnie is at the shop with Mary Kelly doing last minute alterations when she overhears Mary talking about a strange letter that Mary received from Tombstone that just held the word FIVE. Ginnie finishes up the seam she is working on and begins to bundle and price the lengths of lace she has finished in the last couple of days. She made a good amount of money on tips lat night at the bar and would be spending the festival selling her lace and hopefully getting a commission on the tapestries she had agreed to attempt to sell for the priestess. If worse came to worse she should be set for at least six months, maybe more provided the cowboy gang didn't kill her first. Jane Boag walks into the Lucky Lady Dance Hall and Saloon. She is attired in the nice but not too revealing dress that she planned to wear for the family song and dance part of the program. She also has a leather purse slung over her shoulder. She looks around the room, her face one of both fear and confusion, until she spots Ruby. As soon as Ruby sees Jane she excuses herself from the table and makes her way over, not wanting to have to make introductions. She approaches, "Good morning Jane, is something wrong?" Jane replies, "Yes! Terribly wrong! Can we go talk somewhere?" Ruby replies, "Sure we can, just give me a moment." Ruby walks back over to the table. "Seems there is a problem with the entertainment, I'll be right back." She takes Jane up to her room and they sit on the couch in the office section. "It's private here. Now, what's wrong?" Jane reaches into her purse and removes a now familiar looking envelope with a Tombstone postmark addressed to 'Jane Boag, Palace Saloon'. He hands the envelope to Ruby, her hand shaking. The woman across from Ruby bears little resemblance to the highly confident priestess that she had met on Sunday, looking instead like a terrified little girl. Ruby states, "I don't even have to read it to know who it's from. There's been a few of these around today." Ruby shakes her head. She opens the letter and reads it. [B] Priestess, I know who you are and what you plan. You will not succeed, only Ares will prevail this day. This is your only warning. If you attempt to set foot upon a stage today it will be your final performance unless it is a 'stage' with wheels on it. J.P.R. [/B] Jane's voice quivers and she says, "I think he's telling me to leave town while I still can. Ruby, what can I do? I've come so close to giving this town to Aphrodite. We can't lose now. Do....do you think he's bluffing?" "JPR?" Ruby says out loud but to herself. Then she sighs, "No, I don't think he's bluffing. But that doesn't mean he will be successful." "What do you mean, giving the town to Aphrodite? Is there something more to the ceremony than just dancing? A whole lot of people having been telling me lately that you've been making them do all kinds of strange things and keeping them from their own gods." Jane replies, "Tonight's dance, well, tomorrow morning's actually. It will be after midnight so fall on the Holy Day, well the dance will be in honor of Aphrodite. We will dedicate the town to her and make this community a beacon for the Goddess!" While she makes that speech her confidence increases and Ruby can now see some of the woman she had met before. Jane then says, "But...I....we cannot turn this into a Community of Love if I am dead. He says my next performance will be my last. Ruby, you've scheduled me to first perform this afternoon at 2:30 PM. That only a little more than three hours from now. What will we do?" Ruby replies, "I need some time to think about this. Other things are going on today that could change Mr. Ringo's mind. I think to be safe you should let the other girls perform without you this afternoon. Plan on doing the ceremony tonight. By then we may have this whole thing figured out." She leans forward and hugs Jane. "It will be alright. You should stay in the Palace today, though, to be safe. I'll have Harry walk you home." Ruby escorts Jane back downstairs and asks Harry to please walk her down the block to the Palace. She sits back down at the table with her friends and takes another huge gulp out of her bottle. "Well, the entertainment's been threatened too. Apparently Ringo is trying to destroy this entire town. He must have men everywhere." Nanuet asks, "Why would he threaten the entertainers? That doesn't make any sense? Why go after her? She doesn't have anything to do with the books, she's just a saloon dancer. We can't just let him go around shooting innocents because he feels like it. I say we set up the ambush. We don't have too much time, we need to get this plan going." "Let's just say it's personal..." Ruby ponders before speaking her next words. "He signed it JPR though. Don't know if that means anything." She shrugs and takes another gulp of bourbon. "Maybe we meet him where he says but get there early and check out the area, catch whomever he has set up to ambush us. Turn his ambush into ours. Set the fake books, interspersed with some real but unimportant ones, with the invisible dynamite. I have three sticks and Chester should have one. When he goes to look at the books, well... bang." "Otherwise we put ahem.. Katherine... in a cart with the books and send her on her way to burn them somewhere close to outside of town. Jake and I know a spot fairly well, we go there to practice. We could take the cart there and at least act like we're setting them on fire to draw him out. Should work, even last night we were followed." Nanuet says, “The problem with burning the books is that he might just get angry and start shooting up the town. I can't stand to see another innocent get hurt for trouble I was involved in starting.” "You've seen what this man is capable of doing. Will you look me in the eye and tell me he won't harm anyone if he gets the books or we don't burn them?" Jake shakes his head at Nanuet. Nanuet continues, “At the very least we should scout out the area where he wants us to bring the books. Maybe I can find something out. I can bring Maska, we can search. If they are invisible she should still be able to sniff them out.” Ruby says, "Nanuet, he's already angry. Burning the books or not he is going to try to kill us. Scouting out that area may be a good idea but I don't know if any of us should go off alone right now. And if you do find them and they capture you?" Ruby shudders. "This time they won't keep you alive." Nanuet says, "I won't be alone, I will have Maska with me. She should be able to sniff them out. She can't fire a gun but she can help. Is there anyone else who can scout like me? It might be more dangerous to go with another person." Jake states, "If that is what we decide, then we go together. Even if at a distance. All the folks that are with us against Ringo will be involved in what we do. We can't let him pick us off a few at a time. We only have a little time left. Find out who is with is if we go, who got numbers, and gather up whatever ideas and weapons we can. Stay together in twos or threes and meet up at the El Parador in about half hour. As I see it we have only two basic choices. We either go out after him, and our only bait we are sure of is the books." Jake glances at Ruby very briefly and with a strange look on his face, "Or we deny him and wait for his attacks." Nanuet says, "I just figured I might be able to take a look before we all stumbled into a trap. Information is power.” Jake says, "Agreed. You are still our scout, not our one man army though.” Nanuet says, “Who did you have in mind to help us out? I can start trying to gather people, grabbing my few weapons will only take a minute, my stuff is right upstairs." Jake replies, "I don't know. I think some folks here figured they knew somebody who might be interested. Not sure who we trust." Jake pats him on the shoulder. "Use your instincts. Pray to your ancestors. Flip a coin." Ruby states, "Alright, I'll try to find out about the numbers and warn the Judge." She gets up from the table and heads upstairs. She puts her derringer in place and her gun is tucked into the band of her skirt. She takes her backpack and sticks the fireball rod inside wrapped in a shawl. Jake follows her up the stairs and starts gathering his weapons. "What was that funny look on your face for downstairs?" Ruby pauses and looks up at his face. Jake finishes collecting up all his guns and his dynamite, which by contrast is quite visible, in a saddle bag. "I was wondering which I was more worried about; waiting for Ringo to take a shot at you, taking you into the desert and fighting Ringo, or finding out that my suspicion is true that Ringo is affected by Aphrodite as well and his fixation is you." Jake wiggles his revolvers in their holsters. "Other than that everything if just fine." He hangs his sawed off shotgun by the lanyard around his neck and covers the guns with a small tarp roll. Finally he takes his old hunting knife out of the night stand and attaches it to his belt. "Me?" Ruby gulps. "That just can't be true, so don't be worrying about it." She doesn't sound entirely convinced. "Jake..." her voice trails off before she continues again quietly, "I'm worried about you too." She puts her hand on his face, "And I love you and couldn't bare to see anything bad happen to you. Which is why we have to do this today, and finish it the best we can." She kisses him softly on the lips. "I'm selfish, I want time for a lot more of these." Jake returns the kiss, and a gentle but firm hug while the rifle bundle falls to the floor. "Ruby, you know I love you. It is time to make the danger go away. I'm not made to worry." Jake sighs, "I don't handle it well." "I know baby, I don't want to worry either." She hugs him tighter. "There is something else I have to tell you. I told you I never wanted secrets between us and now I have one that I have to share. But, I promised someone I wouldn't share it, so you'll have to keep it secret for now. I've decided that it's more important for you to know at this moment." "Ruby, if you feel guilty about something don't.... now is not the time. I love you girl, that is all you need to know." "Guilty? I don't feel guilty too often, I mean pretty much never. No it's time for me to tell you, it's important, it could mean life or death. It, well.. it involves a baby." Jake suddenly looks pale. "You promised someone you wouldn't tell about a baby?" She looks him in the eyes, "That doesn't matter, does it? What matters is there is a baby involved and we have do what we can to keep the baby safe, right?" Ruby runs her fingers across his cheek. He asks, "Whose is it?" "Err... that's doesn't matter either. Like you said, now isn't the time to really get into all the details. We just have to all be careful." "Careful!" Jake starts to wave his arms around. "Somebody tried to blow us up and YOU disarmed the dynamite. That isn't being very careful. Hermes, I should be locking you up!" She furrows her brows, "What was I supposed to do, let it explode and blow up the whole place?" Ruby starts to give Jake a pout. "I don't know how in blue blazes you can be careful with your baby and then play with dynamite. I may be in love with you Ruby West but I'll NEVER understand YOU or the rest of the creatures that wander this earth called women." Jake ends with his hands on his hips. Ruby mouth drops opens and she stares at Jake, "My baby.. errr this isn't going very well." She stops suddenly and looks at Jake. "Wait a minute, if I'm supposed to be having a baby then why are you asking who the father is?" One of her eyebrows start to raise. "What do you mean IF you are supposed to be having a baby?" Jake starts waving his hands around again, "Why am I asking who the father is? Well I didn't ask you to keep it secret! I didn't even know!" "You're right, you don't know, you just assumed that I slept with someone else! That's not very trusting. Humph." Ruby grabs her backpack. "I don't want to talk about this anymore." How did I end up getting insulted by this conversation? Well, get over it girl, you have bigger things to worry about She puts a smile on her face and heads out the door. Jake reaches out and grabs her pack. "Hold it. This time you are not walking away from me." He moves around between her and the door his voice still loud. "Are you or are you not telling me you are pregnant? You see, I have only ever heard of one way to get pregnant, so excuse me for not understanding what in bloody Hades you are trying to tell me? Who would make you promise not to tell me I am the father?" Jake blinks a couple of times and his voice lowers. "Ruby West, could you please tell me what is going on? I need to focus getting US out of this mess with Ringo and I can't be walking around wondering what you are telling me." Finally his voice gets quiet. "I'm already worried half to death about you, how much more worried for you should I be?" Ruby blinks a couple of times, the smile falling off her face. "You honestly think I'm pregnant? I told you, I'm never having babies! Ever! It's not me, it's Kate. Katherine. Mrs. Katherine Kale, she's having a baby. And we have to keep her safe, in case she doesn't keep herself safe. Besides, I thought you didn't want babies either. The way I figure if I ever did get pregnant, which I WON'T, but if I did you'd be out of here faster than one of those bullets that come flying out of your Colt." She stands still, still staring into Jake's eyes. Jake stares back at her. "Oh." He doesn't break her stare but some of the color comes back to his face, perhaps a bit too much color. "Um, I don't want babies either." He still stands there quiet for a minute. "You know, you get me riled up faster than anyone I know. I just don't think straight around you sometimes...." He looks down at his feet a moment and back to her. "I didn't run screaming did I? I mean, how could I leave you? Not that I am not glad that you aren't, you know.... I'm sorry." Jake eyes then bulge. "Katherine?" "You only didn't run because you didn't have the chance yet," Ruby says, "Believe me, I know the way it works. And besides, if it ever did happen I would leave you, I wouldn't do that to you." She gives a small smile. "Well, I would try to anyway." She shifts her pack further onto her shoulder. "And yes, Katherine. I said I wouldn't say anything but people need to know now, since this is such a dangerous situation now." "Katherine?" Jake repeats dumbly. "I wouldn't have thought that Gonzales would really do it..." He looks back at Ruby. "Let us not be creating problems that don't exist. I've been shot at, publicly slandered and offered fifty thousand dollars to lose you. None of which has deterred me. Give me some slack, woman, when you accidentally hint at things of momentous nature." He takes gentle hold of her chin with his thumb and forefinger. He says with lips drawn tight. "Did you hear me accuse you of breaking your word to me? Did I say you weren't true to me? You had a life before we met, which was only three months ago. It was Sunday January 8th that we shared a bed for the first time and not long after that we made some commitments to each other. I'm not a midwife nor a Harvard mathematician, but you could have known someone before me and counting backwards it works." He kisses her forehead. "Yes, I jumped to a conclusion, but it was that something happened before me. Can I just go back to worrying about keeping you from getting shot or blown up now?" "NOT Gonzales," Ruby answers quickly, "It's not him. We really don't have the time to get into it now...Let's just keep her safe, ok? She should stay here or stay far back as she can." Ruby lets her fingers wander up and down the buttons on Jake's shirt. "I am sorry, I guess I wasn't being very clear, I didn't mean to scare you. I just told Kate I wouldn't tell just yet. And I could only imagine that you wouldn't want to stick around raising some kid that ruined your life." Ruby looks up at Jake from under her eyelashes, "You remember what the date was the first time we laid together?" Jake just grins. "How could I forget that?" He reaches down and picks up his rifle bundle. "We need to go. I'm trying the best I know to keep us ALL safe. I won't say anything to or about Katherine. She needs to decide what she is doing, or if you don't like that then help her decide. It's actually worse that people might know she is with child if she comes along. Some damn fool will take a bullet for her instead of stopping the bullet from being fired." "That thought had occurred to me," Ruby mutters. "Oh! I almost forgot..." She hurries over to the false wall and opens the safe. She reaches in and reaches out but Jake doesn't see anything. "The invisible dynamite," she says holding up her empty hand before pushing her hand into her backpack. Then she heads to the gun rack. "And just in case... she takes an empty gun similar to the usual one she carries plus her rifle. "Can't be too safe, right?" She looks down at her outfit, "I probably should change but if I do whomever is following us will know something is up." She shrugs, "Besides, I'm going to be looking like Kate soon enough so why bother." He looks at her and starts to say something but then instead reaches for the door. "That might be our best plan." "You're the plan guy Mr. Cook. I'm just the humble follower..." she says as she walks out. Jake just shakes his head and thinks, Never miss a good opportunity to shut up. [/QUOTE]
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