Katie Stokes ficlet
Apparently, you tell me to write Katie Stokes post-Lady Killers, and all I can do is give you a Buck/Kate fic.
Kate Stokes turning her land into something more than a shack and a weed patch
The first thing Katie did when she got to her farm was chase all the critters out of the shack. A whole family of raccoons had set up a nest in there, and they chittered and chided her the entire time she swept out the clutter and dirt and tidied the place up into something that almost looked like a home, if you squinted hard enough. She liked the noises they made, and she chittered right back at them, the way she'd used to chitter for Maddie, when they'd been little, and Pa had been on one of his drunken rages. They'd hide out in the hills and pretend they were little forest critters, and Katie wondered, idly, if the broken down lean-to they'd made was still there.
She didn't go and look for it, though.
She hired a couple of young men from town to help her clear out the weeds and plow the fields, paying them with Del's cash, and she didn't talk to them at all. They were young and she was wary and could see the meanness lurking behind their eyes, even in the scrawny, pimply one who was only good for handling the mules. They were polite enough, she guessed, for they all called her ma'am and touched their caps to her, and still Katie paid them off with one hand and kept her other on her gun, and made sure they all saw it was there.
Del had ruined her, she reckoned, or Buck had, for she couldn't see any smile but his without flinching. But she reckoned time would heal that wound, like it would heal the wound in her heart, the wounds on her body, the wounds Del and Pa had left on her soul. Time would heal it, and if it didn't, well, she was done with men.
Day by day she rose with the sun and worked the land, bending it to her will. It wasn't much, and it had been Pa's, but it was all she had left in this world, and she wouldn't lose it too. She planted corn and hay, bought a cow and some chickens, and let her big black gelding grow fat and fractious in his pasture.
Day by day she rose, day by day she toiled, day by day she slowly turned the farm from a shack in a weed patch into a home. Or something like enough a home, at least on the outside. On the inside, though, it was still so hollow, so cold, so silent.
She'd never known such silence.
When she saw the lone rider in the distance, she thought it was one of the boys from town, come out to court her despite all her efforts at driving them away. She went to the house to grab her Winchester, and when she got back the rider on the dappled gray had reached the fence surrounding her little flower garden. Buck had his back to her and his horse was munching on the wild flowers she'd planted there and Katie wasn't entirely convinced that she shouldn't just shoot him right now - it'd be the easy thing, after all, and she was, in a way, content with the life she'd carved out of the land.
Buck turned to her and smiled, his eyes twinkling like he'd never seen sadness before, though Katie knew that he had.
"Well howdy, darlin'," he said as he gave her a wink.
Katie put down her gun, and smiled, and finally felt alive.
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Kate Stokes turning her land into something more than a shack and a weed patch
The first thing Katie did when she got to her farm was chase all the critters out of the shack. A whole family of raccoons had set up a nest in there, and they chittered and chided her the entire time she swept out the clutter and dirt and tidied the place up into something that almost looked like a home, if you squinted hard enough. She liked the noises they made, and she chittered right back at them, the way she'd used to chitter for Maddie, when they'd been little, and Pa had been on one of his drunken rages. They'd hide out in the hills and pretend they were little forest critters, and Katie wondered, idly, if the broken down lean-to they'd made was still there.
She didn't go and look for it, though.
She hired a couple of young men from town to help her clear out the weeds and plow the fields, paying them with Del's cash, and she didn't talk to them at all. They were young and she was wary and could see the meanness lurking behind their eyes, even in the scrawny, pimply one who was only good for handling the mules. They were polite enough, she guessed, for they all called her ma'am and touched their caps to her, and still Katie paid them off with one hand and kept her other on her gun, and made sure they all saw it was there.
Del had ruined her, she reckoned, or Buck had, for she couldn't see any smile but his without flinching. But she reckoned time would heal that wound, like it would heal the wound in her heart, the wounds on her body, the wounds Del and Pa had left on her soul. Time would heal it, and if it didn't, well, she was done with men.
Day by day she rose with the sun and worked the land, bending it to her will. It wasn't much, and it had been Pa's, but it was all she had left in this world, and she wouldn't lose it too. She planted corn and hay, bought a cow and some chickens, and let her big black gelding grow fat and fractious in his pasture.
Day by day she rose, day by day she toiled, day by day she slowly turned the farm from a shack in a weed patch into a home. Or something like enough a home, at least on the outside. On the inside, though, it was still so hollow, so cold, so silent.
She'd never known such silence.
When she saw the lone rider in the distance, she thought it was one of the boys from town, come out to court her despite all her efforts at driving them away. She went to the house to grab her Winchester, and when she got back the rider on the dappled gray had reached the fence surrounding her little flower garden. Buck had his back to her and his horse was munching on the wild flowers she'd planted there and Katie wasn't entirely convinced that she shouldn't just shoot him right now - it'd be the easy thing, after all, and she was, in a way, content with the life she'd carved out of the land.
Buck turned to her and smiled, his eyes twinkling like he'd never seen sadness before, though Katie knew that he had.
"Well howdy, darlin'," he said as he gave her a wink.
Katie put down her gun, and smiled, and finally felt alive.
This entry was originally posted at Dreamwidth where there are
comments