Just Like Old Times

The Pickpocket

"God dammit!"

The chaotic aftermath inside the carriage from the tumble was a horrible sight to behold. There was blood everywhere. Did the fall down the hill cause all this? There was at least...it was too hard to count the bodies piled up in there. All men. But where was Lilly? Arthur stood up and looked around. Did she fall out and he just didn't see her? No, that was stupid. Arthur threw his hat off and climbed in to move the bodies. Jesus Christ, the smell! After pushing the first, second, and third body, Arthur spotted a blood stained gray jacket. Lilly was buried under the corpses for sure. "Jesus Christ..." he choked.

"You find her? Is she alive?" Dutch asked.

Arthur shoved the bodies away. Once Lilly's body was uncovered, Arthur got a good look at her. She was face down and her eyes were shut. Lilly had blood on her face, it was in her hair, on her hands, on her feet, on her clothes...it was everywhere! Lilly wasn't moving, but was she breathing? He lowered his ear to her mouth. He couldn't hear anything. Arthur turned her over and checked her neck for a pulse. It was faint, but it was there.

"She's not breathin' but her heart's still goin'. Lilly, wake up! Wake up!" Arthur cradled her body in his lap and patted Lilly's blood smeared face. "Come on, sweetheart, breathe! Come on!" he demanded. Still nothing.

"Arthur, let's get her outta there first!" Hosea exclaimed quickly. "Maybe she's bleeding out somewhere!"

Arthur stood with her in his arms and held her up. Dutch and Hosea pulled her out and Arthur lifted himself out. He jumped down and grabbed the girl from the two men. Arthur opened her jacket and went to take it off when he saw what as underneath. She was wearing a black chemise shirt. Two brown leather straps criss crossed over her back and chest had knives in sheaths. Lilly had on a belt with smaller knives that were held on with loops over the blades. He took all that off and started checking her for wounds. He found a nasty gash on the back of her head.

"Shit!" Arthur took off his bandana and applied pressure to her head, then laid her down and shook her. "Lillian, sweetheart, you gotta breathe for me, okay? Come on!"

He pressed on her chest, tried to breathe for her, and anything else he could think of but nothing worked. Arthur checked for her pulse again. It was more faint than before.

"Lillian, don't you go dyin' on me!" He held Lilly in his arms as he sat on his knees and kept trying to revive her. "Wake up, Lilly! Breathe, god dammit!" But she wouldn't wake up and she wouldn't breathe. Arthur's own breathing went ragged and he started whimpering as he talked. "Lilly, please! Wake up!" he pleaded. Arthur checked for Lilly's pulse again but it wasn't there anymore. "No. No no no no no, Lilly. Don't go. Please don't go..."

Arthur gripped Lilly's body tight to his own and held the back of her head. Arthur did not want to cry. He tried not to, but his sorrow overruled his pride and he was soon blinded by tears and his body jerked from keeping himself silent. He started rocking Lilly's body back and forth. Whether this was a paternal instinct to comfort a child or a motion to comfort himself, he didn't know, but there was no escape from his grief. This child, this blue eyed, red headed, little Irish lass with the truest of grit captured his heart in a matter of minutes, and then he lost her just as quickly.

As he continued to sway Lilly to and fro, Arthur buried his face into the crook of her neck. The thought of how they met crossed his mind, and it dawned on him the after effect of the girl's arrival into his life was one and the same with her departure from it; in his arms because of a carriage. Fate was cruel and this realization devastated Arthur to the highest degree. Arthur felt a hand on his shoulder and the young man went tense.