•Tombstone• Brothers Under The Sun

Chapter 51

𝓐 𝓼𝓪𝓯𝓮 𝓹𝓵𝓪𝓬𝓮. 𝓐 𝓹𝓵𝓪𝓬𝓮 𝓯𝓸𝓻 𝓱𝓮𝓪𝓵𝓲𝓷𝓰.

Sleep clouded their eyes as they slowly rode through the valley past the bridge. Ellanora and Doc didn't stick around to be caught by the law, so they took Ash and decided to travel the rest of the way on their own.

Doc had gotten worse. He seemed to have a burst of energy when on the train but once the cold weather travelled with them, he coughed more, shivered more. Elle become increasingly concerned for her husbands wellbeing as she sat in front of him as he leaned on her back, sleeping away his sickness.

Now, she knew she wasn't too far from hospital Emily told her about. They had just made it to Colorado as the sun was setting on their second day of travel. Elle didn't want to stop all through the night because behind her, Doc was unconscious yet again.

Her eyes were heavy with exhaustion. She didn't sleep when they stopped. Instead she was awake, taking care of Holliday through the night and making sure his temperature didn't get too high. When he was asleep she would sit under the stars wondering what she was doing.

She questioned if she was doing the right thing. She knew she was but she was afraid. Elle didn't know if Doc was afraid, he always seemed to want to face death. He expressed that he was afraid of not coming back from the hospital back at the farm. Maybe he did fear it more this time.

Ellanora feared it.

She had found the one person she cared for more than life itself, and here he was, grasping for life.

Elle tried to keep her eyes open as she rode through the street of the town that held the hospital. She knew it was around, but not exactly sure where. The street was empty, no a soul was out walking its barren land. She did the best she could with little energy she had left.

Doc coughed behind her again, she felt his rest rise and fall with each cough. She then felt him shiver.

Turning another corner, a white brick building came into view. A garden set up in the front and the sign she was looking for. She had made it. A wave of relief washed over her as she slid off her saddle and dragged Ash closer to the Colorado sanatorium.

Once she was near the front she grabbed Doc and slowly helped him down off the saddle. His unconscious body was limp in her arms as she put her around him to pull him up the steps. Bursting the door open she stumbled and frightened the nurse at the desk.

"Oh miss!" She said shocked as she saw Doc's condition.

Elle looked up at her, "Please," she panted, "my husband."

The nurse called for a doctor and soon enough Doc was taken from Ellanora into the back of the hospital. Elle stood there, tired and finally happy that her husband had made it somewhere where he could get better.

The nurse looked at Elle for a moment as they closed the door to the room where Doc was.

"Miss, could you answer some questions for me?" She asked grabbing some papers from the desk.

Elle broke her gaze from the door and to the young women in front of her. She nodded her head slowly and sat down with the nurse.

Elle noticed how clean everything was around her. The walls were painted a cream colour, the windows open, allowing a nice breeze to fill the room. She gaze fixed on the corner of the fall, where a line of beds were. People lay in these beds, sleeping the night away. One man could be heard coughing in the room.

"What's your name miss?" She asked.

"Uh," Elle hesitated, would they know who she was up here, was it really safe? "Ellanora Raycroft." She said.

The nurse nodded, and wrote down her name, "And the man you brought in, you're husband?" Elle nodded, the nurse write it down, "And his name?"

"John Doc Holliday." Elle said softly.

After a few more questions Elle waited with the nurse for news on Doc. She sat there in the quiet lobby of this hospital.

Elle heard the man coughing again in the hall of beds. A few nurses rushed to his bedside as Elle watched. The man sat up in bed and coughed, just how Doc coughed. His face turned red with strain and he suddenly spilled blood from his mouth. The man fell back into bed as the nurses tried to help him relax with his coughing. He lay still, his eyes open and mouth filled with blood. A gasp came from his lips as the nurses bowed their heads at the man.

He had died right there.

Elle looked in shock. She had seen death in many forms. But never one such as natural selection. She had never seen a person die of sickness, of old age. It had all been by a silver bullet.

Her mother and father.

Henry Johnson.

Fred White.

Morgan Earp.

Eliza Raymound.

Even Curly Bill and Johnny Ringo. All the cowboys she had killed.

Each and every one of them killed by another man.

The moment hit her right there. The reality of death. People die, that's life. People are born, they live, they die. Elle looked to the nurse who sighed as they covered the man with a white sheet. The nurse looked up to see a frightened Ellanora.

"Miss Holliday, do you have a place to stay?"

Elle shook her head no.

"I'll get you a room at the hotel down the street. Come back in the morning and get some rest." She stood up and guided Elle out the door and towards her horse.

Elle didn't want to go, but her body was weak, she was tired. She slowly climbed onto Ash and rode to the hotel that was down the road. In a blur Elle was sitting on her bed looking out the window.

Death had frightened her.