pullmeoutalive | Ramey

[ once is happenstance.

twice is coincidence.

three times is goddamn enemy action.

the first time bounty hunters came to emma's door, she wrote it off as an unfortunate circumstance, that they'd just been unlucky and careless. the second time, when the men dragged vasquez off of emma's property and kept him trussed up for a bullet in the head, emma was left unsettled, looking for an explanation for how easily they found vasquez.

the third time, emma realizes that something is wrong.

it isn't a catastrophe like the first two incidents, because emma spots the men when they're still in town, kicking their feet up in the imperial with a painted lady or two keeping them company. she's wary of anyone who passes through rose creek these days, any unfamiliar faces, and as soon as she spots them, she ducks into the general store to get teddy's attention.

as always, teddy has a shy but warm smile waiting for emma as soon as she walks in, straightening up when she approaches him and trying to look at least somewhat polite.

"afternoon, miss emma. somethin' we can do for you?"

emma shakes her head. "those men in the saloon — any word on who they are?"

teddy glances out the store's front window towards the aforementioned saloon, then back to emma. "more'a those bounty hunters that've been around these parts lately. lotta them keep passin' through, huh?"

emma schools her expression into something impassive. "they have, haven't they?"

damn it.

looking back to teddy, she offers him a small, somewhat strained smile. "thank you, teddy. you have a nice day now."

teddy starts a bit, blinking at her in surprise — like he's not expecting her to be heading out so quickly. "you, uh, you don't need anythin' else?"

"can't say that i do, but i'm sure i'll be in again soon."

a wave, and then emma is heading out. she catches sight of the men in the saloon, laughing and drinking and all she can think is, good. stay there. this time, she doesn't run home, doesn't want to draw attention when she goes to find vasquez. lord, she's grateful her land is on the other side of the valley, out near the mountains where passersby can't just trot past without purposefully going that far out. (at least that means travelers are less likely, but when they do show up, these days, it sets emma on edge.

for good reason, this time.)

she finds vasquez out of the house in the fields, and unlike the first time the bounty hunters came knocking, she isn't rushing around with the same level of panic. she's anxious, uncertain, but also disgruntled — because this is the third time, and at this point, it's ceased to be coincidental.

that concerns her a great deal. ]

Vasquez.

[ calling out for his attention as the light wind whips her hair across her face, makes her tuck it back behind her ear. ]

[ Outlaws need to be mobile, fluid. They need to be quick thinking and transient, ready to uproot at a moment’s notice if that’s what it takes to stay one step ahead.

It’s been gnawing at him, ever since those men jumped him in the field and took him away. Staying put was dangerous. The last place he’d been seen shouldn’t be the place he still is, that went against every rule of survival he’d learned. It gave folks a trail to follow, a place to look, and it was only a matter of time before more men with warrants came through town.

But then there was the matter of Emma, and that caused him the most torment of all. He couldn’t bear to leave her, but the life of an outlaw was no life at all. He couldn’t ask Emma to leave this place when she had fought so hard to keep it, but Lord, he can’t break her heart.

It keeps him awake, sometimes, thinking about it.

It’s a rare thing to have Emma come home in the middle of the day, rarer still to have her seek him out in the fields. The warm smile he flashes her way instantly falls when he sees the look on her face. ]

What is it?

[ emma takes a slow, steadying breath as she stops up beside him. she glances briefly towards rose creek, then back to vasquez. ]

There's more of them in town.

[ she doesn't think she needs to elaborate exactly what she means by "them;" there's few threats that would send emma back home to find him so early in the day, after all. ]

[ He knows who “them” is immediately, and dread plummets in his stomach, heavy and cold. He’s been here too long, and now people know where to find him.

This won’t stop. ]

Come on, let’s get inside.

[ He steps up next to Emma, putting a gentle hand on the small of her back to guide her towards the house. ]

[ emma has no desire to argue with him, but she's fairly quiet as she lets him lead her back to the house. she's come to the very same conclusion that vasquez has, that his location is at least common enough knowledge these men know where to start sniffing him out, and he can't stay like that. it's vulnerable, unreasonable, and not how a man like him ought to live — if he's going to live.

with the front door closed behind them, she finally turns to look up at him again, open concern in her eyes. ]

They know where you are now.

[ and she hates to admit it, but it's the truth. ]

[ That look on her face stabs him right through the chest. He should have left a long, long time ago. He should never have even come back in the first place, if he were being honest, but feelings of sentimentality got in the way, made him act against his better judgment.

And now here he was, his feelings getting in the way again, but now he was putting more than just himself at risk. ]

I know, I—

[ He sits heavily in the first chair he can find, scrubbing a hand over his face. ]

I can’t stay here.

[ emma stays on her feet (needs to, because her mind is too busy to sit, her body feeling too antsy), her fingers lacing and unlacing again. ]

I know.

[ she knows. this isn't like the first time; she can't just play this off like a fluke, can't ask him to stay, because that will inevitably result in something like before, when he'd been hauled away easy as anything.

if they know for certain he's here, then he'll never be safe. bounty hunters and warrant officers alike will show up on her doorstep, time and again, and they can't very well shoot the lot of them.

(because there's inevitably going to be someone who's faster, better, catches them off guard.

emma isn't willing to risk that.) ]

But I can go with you.

[ That gets his attention, and his gaze snaps upward, confusion and concern and just the barest flicker of hope in his eyes.

He tries to put a lid on the latter as quickly as he can. This is foolish. Emma can’t go with him- she has a life here. With him, they would be merely surviving. ]

I could never ask you to do that.

You're not askin'. I'm telling you that's what I want to do.

[ it's not an easy decision, and certainly one she doesn't take lightly. rose creek is her home, a place she helped build from the ground up with matthew, that she poured her heart and soul into, but...

vasquez had made it a home again — not the simple nature of existing in rose creek. ]

I don't want you going when I can't follow.

[ There it is again, that little flicker of hope, and he quickly grinds it under his heel. ]

You know what living like that is like? Constantly moving, watching over your shoulder all of the time. Hell, you know where you found me.

[ In a rundown cabin in the woods, sleeping next to a corpse, scraping out a meal from what he could find. ]

You have a home here.

I know, Vasquez. I'm more than aware of where you were and what that life means for you.

[ she's never lived it, but she'd seen flashes of how he'd survived, how he stayed alive.

it's not a pleasant existence, not one she would wish on him or...really, anyone else, but she knows he can't stay in this comfortable life with her. ]

I have a house. You've helped make it a home again, and I don't want to see it empty as it'll inevitably be without you here.

[ she takes a slow breath, her fingers knotting together again, nerves that she tries to quiet. ]

I don't say this lightly.

[ Her fidgeting is making him uneasy, and he reaches over to slide his hands over hers. It makes something in his chest ache, knowing that she’d so willingly give up everything just to be with him, when she fought so hard to keep it in the first place. ]

Just how long have you been thinking about this?

[ she stills when vasquez takes her hands, but it helps, quiets her anxieties a bit.

(but she realizes, she isn't anxious because she doesn't want to leave; rather, she's anxious over the reality of their quiet life being little more than illusion in the face of waiting danger.

they'd never really been safe, had they?) ]

Since those men dragged you away from me.

[ it had really shown her that the first instance wasn't random, that it instead spoke for the reality that vasquez was at risk — as long as he stayed in one place. ]

[ His eyebrows go up in surprise, but then he has a bad habit of sometimes underestimating Emma, even still. The way he cares about her puts him so very far outside of his element, and he realizes he needs to stop treating her like she’s fragile.

She’s stronger than him by far. She always has been. ]

Oh, querida.

[ Almost a sigh as he pulls her close, gathers her into his lap. ]

As if I could stop you from following me even if I wanted to.

[ she lets vasquez draw her down, and she sits across his legs without protest, her arms curling around his neck as she presses a kiss to his temple. ]

Be awful hard to shake me, I think.

[ if he genuinely didn't want her to go with him, she'd likely stay, but she also finds herself hard-pressed to believe as much. ]

I feared this would be inevitable. Suppose it was just a matter of "when."

I'm sorry, mi amor. You deserve so much better than a life on the run.

[ He brushes his fingers though her hair ]

I wish I could give you that.

[ emma leans into the attention with a quiet sigh, just shaking her head. ]

I know.

[ another gentle kiss as her fingers tighten in his shirt, her arms wrapped around him to hold herself close. ]

If that mattered to me, I don't think I'd have let you stay here in the first place.

Certainly wouldn't have managed to feel this way.

[ He huffs out a laugh, quiet and barely there as he rests his cheek against her shoulder. ]

I have no idea what I did to deserve someone like you.

Must've been something pretty decent.

[ she manages up a smile, content to hold him for a moment, her fingers moving from his shirt to his hair.

(another lovely benefit of having vasquez there with her: all of this contact she'd missed so dearly.)

she's quiet for a few drawn-out minutes, before she speaks again. ]

...we can't stay much longer, you know. They're already in town.

Decent? Here I thought I forgot the meaning of the word.

[ He glances up at her, just watching her face while they sit in contemplative, heavy silence. This surely isn't something either of them wanted, but they both knew it was coming, looming on the horizon like storm clouds. ]

I know. How long will it take you to wrap things up here?

[ emma pauses as she thinks it over, runs through everything she needs to gather up before they can leave. it feels like there's so much she ought to do, so much that needs doing, but...

they truly do need to just get out of town. ]

An hour, maybe two, depending. Need to get some supplies, pack what I can, but...

I can leave a lotta this behind.

[ not much option otherwise. ]

I was expecting a day or two.

[ They likely don't have the luxury of that kind of time, though, with the hunters already in town. ]

But if you truly think you can be ready, then we should go.

Day or two would be lovely.

Can't afford that, though, and I'd rather not leave another pair of bodies behind, if it's all the same to you.

[ emma knows what going along with vasquez will mean (killing to keep themselves alive, if they have to), but something in her doesn't want to add another set of deaths as they try to get out of rose creek. ]

I understand, amor.

[ There's a lot of bloodshed waiting on the road ahead of them, but it doesn't have to start now. ]

Go on. Do what you need to do. I'll gather things up here in the meantime.

[ another kiss, then emma's reluctantly sliding off of his lap to get a few things together to take into town.

it's admittedly not too hard to gather up what she needs, mostly because part of her has run through this very scenario a few separate times. she's already figured what kind of provisions they'll want to bring along, how long it all ought to last them, what she can afford and what would be better left brought as money to spend on the move.

it's a lot to think on, but emma's had time enough for it, since the last encounter with the bounty hunters.

she stops into the general store (much to teddy's delight, given the way he lights up again when she walks right in), and gives theodore a proper list of what she needs. he writes it all down, trying to keep up with her, and then glances up from the sheet of paper.

"uh...might take a bit to get all'a this together."

"do you mind bringing it by my house for me?"

and teddy just smiles. "not a bit, miss emma."

sweet as always, emma thinks, and she offers him a soft, if somewhat strained smile.

"much obliged, teddy."

supplies arranged, money drawn, and emma is heading back to the house to gather up her things. clothes, guns, ammunition, a few small keepsakes (and the playing card she'd discovered, months ago, in vasquez's vest before she'd done the laundry; king of hearts, slightly rumpled, but well kept all the same. it sat on her mantel, undisturbed.).

she has her travel bags packed, and then there's a short knock at the door. glancing over, she hefts up her bag, carrying it into the bedroom, and then to vasquez, ]

Could you get that?

emma needs to stop being surprised by this shit

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