Phoenix Chapter 6/?

[pdglyph.livejournal.com]

Phoenix

By:Pd
Edited by: Glyph
Disclaimer: I own the story and OC's, not WL or the menfolk
Rating (per chapter): PG-13 for language, some violence, and a distubring refernces to corpses by Greg
Pairing (p.c.): None, though if you sqint your eyes, Greg/Jeff might be in there
Summary (p.c.): Welcome, Sheriff!

A/N: Hello, just a few minor notes! I'd like to thank WL for the material, Cappy for the prodding, Everyone for the comments, Victor Victoria for the song, and Cheech and Chong for the 'fucking buffalo/cattle' joke

That is all
<3
pd



Celebration

As Colin had promised, it was once again a bright, sunny day as Ryan rode Spud down the main road, occasionally making a turn here and there, doing a sweep of his town. Nearly everyone smiled and waved as he passed. He nodded, tipping his hat with a bemused smile on his face.

A light breeze that March always seemed to have no matter where you were played along his cheeks, bright and clean as the sun warmed away what chill there might’ve been. It was lovely, and if Ryan wasn’t careful he would relax right off the saddle.

Every now and then, especially if he stopped to let a carriage or cart pass in front of him, someone would hail him. However, he only made the mistake of wandering over to greet them twice, but climbed down off of the relative safety of Spud just once.

The first was to rescue an elderly woman from carrying her shopping parcels up the stairs. He couldn’t very well say no to her, could he? And the second was an ambitious mother and her young daughter, where he spent the better part of an hour trying to convince the woman that while her daughter was lovely, he didn’t think that the age gap between 16 to 30 was quite appropriate.

The rest of them, a small storm of townsfolk with complaints of the others trimming someone else’s hedge, or blowing up their neighbor’s tree because its roots were on their side of the fence, strove to swamp him. In the end, he would tell them to stop by the Jail and take their complaints to his deputy. They would thank him kindly, and he would continue on his way, before he realized he had yet to appoint one. He was damned sure though, that he would be doing just that real soon.

If not for back up, then for a buffer zone.

The only point when he enjoyed this sudden popularity was when the ladies doing their washing at the town spring near the river began to truly get into their work, bending over at the waist, flashing the top mounds of their breasts as they washed clothes. Unfortunately, he had to leave when sitting in the saddle began to become an uncomfortable affair. With a sly grin and a jaunty salute to the laughing women, he rode back into town. Spud picked up on his master’s good mood and spurred into a frisky trot that soon had Ryan grunting in pain.

He noticed Colin down the street, leaning against the massive oak workbench that was the front of his shop, grinning from under his bowler, the shop’s banners flapping in the wind. Ryan pulled over, easing back and subtly adjusting himself while Colin gave a wheezy chuckle. “I think you’re head was about to burst into flames.”

“I wasn’t blushing.”

“I wasn’t talking about that one,” Colin grinned.

Ryan burst into laughter, hiding his now furiously blushing face behind an enormous hand. When he finally calmed down to an occasional giggle, wiping at his eyes, Colin jerked his chin back the way Ryan had come, and at the washing women glancing their way from time to time. “Looks like you have your pick of the litter. Which one are you going to take?”

“Take? To what?” Ryan coughed, sniffling as he swung off his horse.

Colin snorted. “You haven’t seen it yet? Some Sheriff you are.”

“What?” he demanded, wondering if he should be annoyed.

“The town square. We’re having a ‘Welcome Sheriff Party’,” Colin grinned at Ryan’s growing look of consternation. “Yup, Patterson put it together, since he seems to like you so much, and Carey’s backing him. I didn’t know how they planned to hide it at first since it’s in the town square with bright colored ribbons, but golly, you sure proved ‘em right!” He laughed outright.

Ryan’s scowl deepened until, suddenly, he smiled in a way that Colin did not like. “So does that mean you’re going to dress formal?” He took in Colin’s sweat-stained, tatty undershirt, suspenders, soot-stained trousers, and his bowler looked like it had recently fallen into the ash pit while he was cleaning it and he hadn’t bothered to dust it off. He hadn’t seen the blacksmith wear anything but a slight variation on the same theme since the few days he’d been here.

It was Colin’s turn to scowl, and Ryan’s giggles turned into triumphant chuckles, but Colin’s scathing reply was cut off by a nasal voice coming from behind the shop’s far counter. “You weren’t supposed to tell him, Colin. It was supposed to be a surprise.” Greg frowned.

“How do you do that?” Ryan grumped, glaring at the stylish, darkly dressed little man.

Greg gave him a smarmy look. “I’m a ninja.”

“What the fuck’s a ninjer?”

“Well traveled you aren’t. It’s a warrior from the Orient. We had them in San Francisco, though gaijin weren’t supposed to know about them, and they can disappear at will, kill you with flowers-”

Colin ignored them both and addressed the original issue with a deafening shout that made the arguing pair stop with a guilty flinch. “Because! I told him because if you want to surprise someone in the big city where you’re from, that’s probably okay, but out here? Where everyone still has a gun?”

Greg shook his head. “Good point. I hate guns. They’re a waste of time and good human discourse.”

“You hate guns?” Ryan asked, surprised. “How can you live out here, with that mouth, and survive without a gun?”

Greg gave him a dirty look. “No one else will deal with the dead.”

“No, you’d rather just talk to them. Human discourse, right? They’re the only ones that can stand you-”

“Hey, fuck you, High pockets!”

Ryan threw his head back and roared, startling the furious shorter man completely from his tirade. Greg sent a curious glance at Colin, but the tall blacksmith was busy shaking his head and biting the inside of his cheek, his eyes twinkling.

Ryan shook his head too, wiping at his watering eyes as he tried to slow his giggles. He finally settled for nodding and shrugging. He had to cough a few times, but finally he managed to drag out a, “It all makes sense now.” Before Greg could get angry at him again, he cut him off. “So are you coming to my shindig or not?”

Greg blinked a few times, thrown once again, then looked positively suspicious. “Why are you asking me? We were talking about me being insulted by you.”

“You made a point I can’t argue with. I don’t want to trade you for dealing with dead people, which means I can’t shoot you, so I’m moving on.”

“I like you.” Greg looked stunned, and just slightly disturbed by the fact.

Ryan shrugged, grinning, and Colin chuckled, patting Greg on the shoulder. “Welcome to the club,” Colin said.

“Club?” Greg asked stupidly.

“Yeah, club, but if you start talking about people and referencing their box sizes, I’m going box your ears.” Ryan squinted down at the macabre little fellow.

“I’d like to see you try. I’ll start a tickle fight.” Greg grinned suddenly.

Ryan cocked his head trying to figure it out, but Colin and Greg were laughing and joking, making him laugh too, and in the distance, he could hear instruments being tuned up. People were talking in excited tones, and the air itself began to hum with good spirits.


Patterson was only mildly irritated with Colin that he’d spilled the beans, but even he couldn’t deny the blacksmith’s logic that a failed ‘surprise’ party was better than an accidentally shot partier. With a tweet of his whistle, the band struck up a lively tune and the place came to life with laughter.

With the twanging of the banjo and the fiddles sawing away with a slightly out-of- practice piano player valiantly trying to keep up, Ryan found he couldn’t wipe off the slightly shy grin as people pressed drinks on him, toasted in his honor, and girls pressed kisses on him left and right.

Finally, his back much pounded by congratulations from people he hardly knew, he made it to the bar where Wayne and Denny poured the drinks. The bar itself plus the tables being used were massive oak barrels containing whiskey, wine, and a beer that was thick and foamy and went down like a barley cream.

Colin handed him a pint of the foaming stuff and he took it gratefully, leaning against the upended barrel currently being used as their table. Colin grinned. “You clean up well!” he shouted over the din.

Ryan glanced down at his dark charcoal gray suit, matching trousers, and a dove grey vest over his button down and black tie. “Thanks, as do you! Is that a different bowler?”

“Yeah! It’s clean!” They laughed as Colin pulled nervously as his tight fitting suit. It was a pale brown tweed and carried the faint odor of cedar, which, over his generous amounts of fancy smell, made him stick out even more. Fortunately for Colin, he didn’t care and no one was going to make him mad enough to start caring since they liked him so much.

A girl in a fluffy pink dress appeared in front of him and, though she only came up to his breast bone, she grabbed his hand and dragged him onto the floor, her cheeks pink and her brown curls springing in her ribbons. Ryan had no idea how to dance, and stepped on her feet a few times, but she seemed to be enjoying herself and didn’t at all mind when Ryan, after he trod on her foot a third time, simply wrapped an arm around her waist and picked her up so they were more or less eye level.

She laughed gaily, her hand still in his as he danced them around the floor, as people watched and laughed in amusement.

At the end of the song, he set his lovely partner down, and with a kiss on her hand, dragged Colin forward by his lapel and passed her to the startled blacksmith, completely ignoring the shy man’s protests. She laughed and pecked his cheek before dragging his friend out onto the dance floor, and both she and Ryan were pleasantly surprised when he proved quite gracefull on his feet, his heels twinkling to the tunes even as he blushed down at his partner.

Ryan laughed, watching the two of them and glanced over to the bar. Wayne was drawing beers and smiling along with everyone else. A few of the patrons at the bar would occasionally include him in the conversation, never really getting more out of him than a laugh and nod. Wayne looked up almost like he could feel Ryan’s eyes on him and he smiled, a flash of white teeth flashed in the darkness of his face, and Ryan’s smile widened in response before he remembered that he didn’t like the gap in his front teeth to show.

Denny slapped Wayne’s shoulder and shouted something Ryan couldn’t hear, but Wayne nodded and put the drink down, wiped his hands and sent Ryan an apologetic look as he disappeared in the back with another empty bottle to be filled.

Ryan chuckled, shook his head and took another healthy swallow, feeling the pleasant warmth coating his limbs. A pretty girl from across the dance floor met his eyes, fluttering them from behind her lacey fan. Ryan snorted, shaking his head a little when something else caught his eyes. Dan Patterson was making his way towards Ryan, with Maxine on his arm.

Ryan’s eyebrows crawled up his forehead, but the warning look she gave him made him grin. Her eyes turned worried, which made him ponder how she could tell he wasn’t going to behave after only having ‘met’ once, but then she and Dan were suddenly standing right in front of him. “Ah, Sheriff, how are you enjoying your party?” he grinned up at Ryan, standing a little further back so he didn’t have to crane his neck. Maxine was nearly a foot taller than him and didn’t need to to look Ryan in the eye, but she stood back anyway.

“I am, thanks for it. It’s wonderful.”

“Ah, great! Let me introduce you to a close friend of mine, Miss Maxine Weiz.”

Ryan took the hand she offered as she gave him a practiced curtsy. He bent over it and gave her a polite kiss. “A pleasure, miss.”

“Sheriff,” she murmured back, sounding mildly amused.

Patterson looked pleased and patted her gloved hand as it slipped back into the crook of his arm. “Then I was wondering if I might talk some business with you? Since you’ve made such an impact already, and I knew you would of course, I was wondering-”

Ryan glanced at Maxine, flashing her a heated grin that told her he appreciated the off the shoulder cut of her black and red dress, the tightness of it, and the generous low cut at the back. With her curls pulled atop her head, her neck was like an invitation.

“-such a man’s support would be useful for my reelection coming up. Can I count on you?” Dan looked up at him expectantly.

Ryan’s attention snapped back from Max’s hidden smile to the short man. “Of course!” Ryan reached out and grabbed Greg, who was just now wading through the masses trying to get to them, elbowing his way through the people, his nasal tones sharp over the general noise of the crowd. “Have you met my friend Greg?”

Patterson blinked at the sudden change in subject but smiled tightly to the bespectacled man shaking Ryan’s grip from his suit sleeves and smoothing out the wrinkles. “Why yes I have, we’ve met during several, erm,” he glanced at Maxine, “occasions.”

“Oh that’s right, we met at the Kinley hangings. Five of them in a row, including their 16 year old boy. He was actually the nastiest piece of work-” Greg began, and Ryan was listening intently, when Dan interrupted.

“Well, since you boys have a lot to talk about, I’ll just leave you be,” he said, shaking Ryan’s hand pompously, and frowning as Greg just waved, not offering his hand. With a shaky smile and a nod, they moved off, Maxine shaking her head at the whole affair, giving Ryan a dirty look more befitting an irritated older sister.

“What was that about?” Greg asked.

“Dan wasn’t leaving me alone.”

“So you drag me into it, wrinkling my best suit by the way, knowing that he’s socially repulsed by me.” Greg spat.

It wasn’t a question, but Ryan answered it anyway. “Yep.”

“You conniving, micro-cephalic numb-nuts, I have feelings, you know! Dammit, I think you’re my best friend now,” he sniffed indignantly before snagging Ryan’s beer just as it rose to his lips.

The sheriff, who had been ignoring the rant quite easily, squawked. “Hey!”

“It’s mine now, for services rendered,” Greg muttered around a large slurp of beer. “Mmmm.”

“Watch out, frowning like that will give you wrinkles, and then you’ll look like your mother.”

“How would you know what my mother looks like?”

“I used to fuck cattle.”

“… I knew it.”

“YOU-!”

Just then Colin appeared, huffing and puffing, mopping up his sweating face and beaming between his two friends. “Hey guys! You look great, Greg!”

“Thanks Col, you’re a top hand,” Greg gave Ryan a saucy wink, who gave him a look slightly ruined by his own grin.

“I can’t believe I just danced like that! I didn’t know I remembered how, it’s been too long!” Colin shouted over the noise, the fiddles still chirping brightly, a guitar joining the fray. Something caught his eyes, and he pushed back his bowler, squinting in the smoky atmosphere for… in the red dress? There…

“It looked like she couldn’t believe it either!” Ryan laughed, but Colin wasn’t listening. “Col? Col!”

“What?!” he jumped, shouting. “Sorry, I thought she looked familiar-”

“That was Miss Maxine. Do you two know each other?”

“No, not really. I’ve seen her around, but no. Never spoke to her really. Hey, where’s Wayne?” Colin shouted, glancing over to where the man had been.

“Don’t change the subject!” Ryan scowled, but Greg tapped his arm. “What?” he followed the pointing finger to where a small crowd seemed to be gathering behind the barrels.

His high spirits sank for the first time that day. “Shit.” Ryan cursed softly.


With Greg and Colin on his tail, Ryan made a beeline for the crowd of rowdy looking young men and pushed his way through them to see Wayne, standing in front of the Navajo boy, Kai, who worked at the grocers, keeping them separated and trying to talk Tommy Finchly down from goading the furious young man.

“Come on, ya red skin, I heard you were a fightin’ people, where’s the fight, now?” Finchly laughed, and the young man strained to get around Wayne’s broad shoulders, growling in his native tongue. “Better listen to Wayne, here, I don’t know what I’d do to you,” Finchly snarled.

The boy shoved Wayne right between the shoulder blades, sending him crashing into the Sheriff and launched himself at Finchly.

“Howdy, Wayne. We gotta stop meeting like this,” Ryan grunted, grinning down at the smaller man suddenly in his arms.

Wayne flushed and pulled away with a hasty grin. “Thanks for the catch, sir.” He glanced a the two tussling in the dirt. “Shall we?”

“Yup.”

Between himself and Wayne, with Colin doing most of the work by holding Kai in a bear hug, they got the fight stopped. The crowd slowly dispersed, save for Finchly’s closest, and the fighters all sat on a cart laying on it’s side, as far from the other as they could get.

Ryan glanced at the fuming two, then over at Wayne. “You alright?”

“Yes, thank you, sir. You caught me,” Wayne nodded.

“Good. Finchly? Kai? How are you boys feeling?”

The two shared a glare. Kai nodded silently, refusing to rub his hurts, but Finchly spat a wad of blood, narrowly missing Ryan’s shoes, “This mother f-”

“There are women present, Mr. Finchly,” Ryan interrupted him.

He scowled, rising. “This… boy… hit me! All I was doing was asking him some questions about his family, and he got all riled up, so we took it out here to settle it like gentlemen, and he sucker punched me around Brady! You saw him! You gonna let him get away with that?”

Ryan glanced at Wayne, who was standing near Kai, trying to give him a comforting hand, which was refused. “And who started the fight?”

“He did!” Finchly said quickly. “Right?” he asked his friends, hovering just behind him. They nodded hesitantly, darting nervous glances at the Sheriff.

“Finchly, I’ve been here three days and I already know those assholes will say anything you tell them to,” Ryan growled, and Finchly’s group flushed as everyone else chuckled, nodding.

Colin glanced over at the two boys, picked up a bucket of water and rags, handing them both one. “Here, clean yourselves up. You can’t go out amongst the women all bloody like this.”

Ryan approached them both slowly, trying not to look like he was using his height to threaten them. “Kai, Tommy, I’m gonna say this once. If there’s a fine party happening just behind us and you boys want to throw fists instead of dance with a pretty girl, that’s just fine. But you’re gonna do it right. Bare fists, no cheating,” Ryan pointed at them now, and they gave him sullen glares but didn’t dare look away. “And whoever wins gets to fight me,” he growled. “Understood?” The boys nodded. “Good. We have a doctor around?”

“I already got him,” Greg said as the two fighters glanced at each other furtively.

The doctor, who also happened to be the dentist, came in and inspected the two boys before yelling at the person who brought him in, stating it was a waste of valuable drinking time. After that, the small crowd dispersed, their entertainment stolen, and replaced it enthusiastically with dancing with the pretty girls and drinking the rest of Denny’s whiskey.

“Well,” Ryan clapped his hands together, and Colin, Greg and Wayne glanced at him. “Let’s get fucked up!”


There were no more disruptions that night, and as the sky darkened, lamps were strung from the large poles, lending a dim glow that made the merriment that much more heady. With a bonfire roaring in the huge pit, and a boar slow roasting under the cook’s watchful eye, the flickering light made the golden-hued colors swirl and dance before their eyes.

Ryan couldn’t really remember being so happy. He was never short of a dance partner, and indeed had to beg off more than his share, but the women happily found willing partners in his good friends. Even Jeff had come out of his dark little office, and with one beer under his belt, proceeded to dance manically with anyone that would have him, including Greg himself, much to everyone’s amusement.

Maxine and Dan returned to their place near the bar many times, and Ryan even managed to talk the distractible Mayor into letting him dance with her, which proved an interesting experience when Ryan saw first hand how the women did not like her.

During a promenade she was trying to teach him, a foot suddenly shot out and she stumbled. Only Ryan’s quick hands kept her from landing face first into the dirt, and she flashed him a grateful smile that couldn’t cover her furiously blushing face. They finished the line, standing near the end, and as a few couples hurried beneath their outstretched arms, she winced suddenly as her foot was trod on.

With nothing more than a furious glare at a woman standing two places down from her, she held her place with Ryan, ignoring his questioning gaze, until the song had ended. When it was, she thanked Ryan politely, if a little rigid in her posture, and stalked back over to Patterson.

Ryan frowned, going back to their barrel with the others. “What was her deal?” Greg asked.

“Melody and Faith stepped on her feet,” Jeff murmured, watching Maxine with unflinching eyes before he shifted it to Greg. “Beed-dee-dee deep beep bee?”

“They look like it. And I’ve seen a lot of fingers, too, but I noticed it when one of my clients had to sit outside for a few days. You remember that large dynamite explosion at the gorge that backed me up for a few days? Yes, well, one of his fingers came off, and I could see the swirls easily since it had bloated, and they were different from mine or any of my other clients’.”

“Every finger?”

Ryan tuned out with a lurch of his gut, shaking his head at the odd pair before noticing that Patterson was taking the stage again. The music went silent, and he raised his voice until he had everyone’s attention. “Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a special treat for you this evening! Now, some of you may not have known this, but my lovely lady friend here, Miss Maxine Weiz, was a famous opera singer in England!”

Ryan could see a few of the young women glancing over at Maxine and scoff loudly, but Maxine’s stature did not shrink, or grow taller. In fact, she gave the women a glance so disdainful it was like they were smudges of dung on her expensive heels.

The young women bristled, but their furious glares bounced harmlessly off her unconcerned back. Ryan chuckled. The woman had the biggest set of brass ones he’d ever seen. She allowed Dan to announce her before stepping onstage, allowing him to kiss her slight hand before speaking with the piano player.

With a glass of wine in her hand, she took a small sip before the piano began to play, a soft tune, almost like a lullaby that had the edge of pain.

Quietly, almost imperceptibly, she began to sing, her voice slow and smooth like Denny’s whiskey should have been, and Ryan felt himself smile because of it.

Her voice swept over the crowd, and one by one every set of male eyes settled on her, much to her female rivals’ combined fury. “Crazy world, full of crazy contradictions, like a child… first you drive me wild and then you win my heart with your wicked art,” Her gaze, which had been searching from face to face, settled somewhere over Ryan’s left shoulder. “One minute tender, gentle…” He glanced behind him to see Colin watching her, his face closed.

He must’ve felt he was being watched, because his gaze dropped to his drink, and Ryan felt almost like an intruder.

Her voice drew him back, rising in strength and power, dipping and rising effortlessly while maintaining it’s smoky depth. “Then temperamental as a summer storm! Just when I believe your heart’s getting warmer, you’re cold, and you’re cruel, and I like a fool try to hope… try to hang on, to hold…”

It was a beautiful song, and a victory for her, there was no doubt, but Ryan felt the warmth when he glanced over and saw a certain young man, not pouring drinks for once as no one was ordering them just yet, his face lost in appreciation for the music

“But I’ve got my pride, I won’t give in,
Even though I know I’ll never win…
Oh how I love this crazy world…”

Silence followed until the piano had sunk it’s last chord before cheers erupted from the crowd. Guns sounded and hats flew into the air as she bowed graciously, not even giving her rivals a second glance as she swept to Patterson and whispered something in his ear that made him go slightly pink and grin lecherously before he remembered decorum and coughed.

Ryan settled his hat back on his head and turned to find Wayne staring him, eyes twinkling with happiness. It was such a good night that he couldn’t help but stare right back, but something told him that wasn’t the only reason he couldn’t resist returning that warm smile