Make My World Go Black

Chapter Twelve

Emma almost regrets saving Faraday that fateful day on the battlefield, because now that he found his strength to talk again, he won't shut up.

"Evening, Miss Emma. You know, I never heard any 'thank you's' after my suicide errand last month. I did, after all, save the town."

In response, Emma growls out, "Not single-handedly, Mister Faraday. You did, however, help save the town. So thank you."

"Ya hear that, boys?" Faraday grins, looking around at his other bedridden compatriots, "I guess you could label me a hero now."

Faraday was still sporting a sling around his arm, but the one around his head is gone, the swelling in his eye had gone down but the bruise still remained. Currently, as predicted, he couldn't hear out of the one ear and a scar was starting to form on his left side jawline, running a white cut through his stubble.

"I'm not sure you could be titled a hero if you only stayed to get your horse back from Mr. Chisolm," Emma sneered sarcastically, earning an amused chuckle from Goodnight. The red-headed woman walks around the room, making her rounds feeding the injured from the battle that doesn't have the strength to feed themselves yet. Goodnight lets her feed him without a complaint, thankful for her time used up on helping him heal, but as for the other man whose arm is currently bandaged up in a sling, well he wasn't so compliant.

"I'm a grown ass man, Emma. I can feed myself," Faraday mutters distastefully while trying to reach out and grab for the bowl of soup himself, only to have the woman pull it back before he could do so.

"It's Sheriff Cullen now, Faraday. And you can't even lift a spoon with that arm, let alone the bowl."

Faraday glares up at her and tries to reach for the food again. The sheriff or not be damned, he will have that soup all to himself. If he knew that Emma was going to keep him from taking care of his own health, he wouldn't have voted for her in the election. And HIS vote mattered since he helped save the town. And of course, Goodnight, Billy, and Jack Horne were right behind him in voting for her. So she wouldn't have lost by a long shot.

When Emma barely restrained from hitting Faraday over the head with the spoon, Goodnight huffs with exaggeration, "For all that is good, Faraday, just let the woman feed you. It won't bring your dignity down any more than it already is!"

Billy was right there with his partner on the subject, sitting upright in bed beside Goodnight, "Not much else that can save his dignity I'm afraid. But I still have a knife I could throw at him if need be."

"Easy, mon cher, let Faraday live another day," Goodnight mumbled.

"And YOU are not supposed to have any weapons!" Emma proclaimed while slamming the food on the nightstand beside Faraday, stomping over to stand between Goody and Billy's mattresses, "Give them here, Rocks!"

Billy frowned at this, knowing he had given himself away and couldn't slither his way around it. Sighing, he reached underneath his bed as best as he could, retrieving his collection of knives that were still attached to his now worn and torn belt, a bullet hole shot clean and through near the belt buckle. As Emma goes to confiscate it, Goodnight noticed that one of those slots was missing a beautiful, shining knife.

"You're missing a knife, Billy."

Billy side-eyes Goodnight before finally letting his weapons go to Emma, "I lent one to Matilda."

Goodnight noticed Billy's gaze as a concern and it only brings himself to look at Faraday across from him, who had just been trying to reach over and grab at the food Emma left on his nightstand. Joshua tried to hide it, but Goody could clearly see the muscles underneath the younger man's shirt stiffen at the mention of the name. A frown graced his lips that were darker than before, and Faraday barely succeeded in masking his emotion by instead scowling at Horne beside him, who was snoring loudly into his mattress.