If she didn't know it didn't exist in this time, Katlin would have sworn Westfield was high on PCP. He kept coming, and she kept taking him down. When he got up for the last time, his eyes blazing with an absolute killing rage, he bellowed, "You fucking bitch, I should have killed you when I had the chance." "gain he charged.
Executing a perfect three hundred and sixty degree turn that would have done Chuck Norris proud, Katlin delivered a powerful kick which caught him in the back of the neck. "That one is for Bart, you bastard." Westfield went down like a rock. Katlin waited, ready to repeat the process. He didn't get up.
Katlin turned, caught and held Mitch's gaze. "I love you," she told him, not caring if they had an audience.
"And I love you," he countered without hesitation and opened his arms to her.
Needing no further invitation, Katlin walked toward the opened arms of the man she loved.
Mitch and Ben went for their guns simultaneously. Two Colts cleared leather, one fired. Shocked, Katlin turned to see Westfield up on his knees, a derringer was clutched in his hand and pointed at Katlin's back. Eyes wide with disbelief, his arm dropped, and he looked down at the red stain spreading across the front of his shirt. When he went down this time, he wouldn't be getting up.
Ben looked from his unfired pistol to Mitch's before he looked up at his friend with a rueful shake of his head. "I guess we finally know which one of us has the fastest gun hand."
"Yes, I guess we do," Mitch replied then holstered his still warm Colt. It wasn't until he had Katlin wrapped securely within his embrace that he was at last able to breathe a sigh of relief.
"Still up for a wedding, darlin'?" Mitch whispered in Katlin's ear.
Katlin deliberately squirmed against him, taking mischievous delight in the hard column of flesh pressing against her abdomen. "Seems to me, darlin', you're still up for quite a few things," she quipped back.
"Damn it, Kat," Mitch groaned.
She pulled back slightly in his arms then caught and held his gaze. "In answer to your question, how could I not want to marry a man with such impressive . . . Noble Intentions?"
Epilogue
Wrapped securely in the arms of her husband of three months, Katlin Cameron laid in their big four poster bed wide awake, staring up at the ceiling. Her hand moved down to her abdomen thinking of Mitch and the child she suspected she was carrying. As much as she wanted to share her suspicions with Mitch, knowing how happy the news would make him, she was painfully reluctant to do so. Even though is was a subject they didn't discuss, they both lived with the prospect that she could still be returned to her own time. There were times when they made love, she could feel the desperation in him as if he feared it would be the last time.
Katlin knew how devastated she would be should the unthinkable happen, but her main concern was for Mitch. What would he do? Would he be able to pull his life back together and in time find happiness again? It would be bad enough losing the woman he loved, but the knowledge he'd also lost his child as well would be a double blow.
Carefully, so she wouldn't wake him, Katlin began to slide herself from Mitch's embrace. Even in his sleep, his arms tightened around her, and he pulled her more securely against him as if determined never to let her go. She waited until his arms relaxed then tried again. This time she was successful but not without a price. Katlin slipped from the bed and looked down to see, though sound asleep, a troubled frown now marred his handsome features, and her heart wrenched painfully in her chest.
Without making a sound, Katlin retrieved her heavy robe from the chair beside the bed and walked through French doors onto the balcony outside of their bedroom. Bart, who had recovered almost miraculously from the gunshot wound, rose from his position on the thick rug in front of the fireplace and followed her out.
Closing her eyes, Katlin took a deep breath of the cool, refreshing, mountain air, and savored the scent of Ponderosa pine. Lord, how she loved it here. After leaving Abilene to return to Mitch's home in Texas, she hadn't really known what to expect. Upon viewing what was to be her new home for the first time, she felt as if they had stepped onto the set of the old Bonanza television show. Almost expecting to see Ben Cartwright, Hoss, Little Joe, and "dam walk out of the house to greet them while Hop Sing prepared a welcoming supper in the kitchen. The truth be told, as much as Katlin loved the sprawling log house, she would have been equally happy with a one room log cabin as long as she shared it with Mitch.
Even without the fictional Cartwright family to greet them, their welcoming celebration had been no less impressive. The loggers, wood cutters, other employees, and their families had arranged a huge carry-in and barn dance held in their honor. Katlin had learned quickly that more than a business, Cameron Timber was a small community within itself, almost like an extended family. She had made friends here. For the first time in her life, Katlin felt she was home.
She had hoped as time passed they would feel more secure in the prospect that she would remain in this time period, but that hadn't been the case. The more complete their lives became, the deeper their love grew, their fear of losing it grew in equal measure.
If they were parted, Katlin knew that as incredible as their lovemaking was, it wasn't what she would miss the most. No, it was the little things. "n evening spent in companionable silence while they both read. She'd look up and find him watching her, and then he'd flash her that killer smile which never failed to melt her heart. She'd miss their evening walks along the river holding hands. Most of all, she'd miss the time after the loving, wrapped in his arms with her head resting upon his chest listening to the steady rhythm of her husband's heartbeat.
Katlin could envision long, sleepless nights unable to go to sleep without that reassuring sound in her ear. Would she ever be able to see a couple holding hands without it breaking her heart?
Knowing they could no longer go on with the unbearable uncertainty hanging over their heads, Katlin closed her eyes and whispered, "Sing, if you're out there, I have to know."
"Have I not warned you, Little One, if you do not want the answer, do not ask the question?' Katlin heard his voice before she saw him. "t first, there was an almost undetectable shimmer in the air to her left. " shimmer that began to sparkle brighter and brighter until it solidified into the body of LuChen Sing.
"There are some questions which must be answered whether you want the answers or not," Katlin responded.
"This is true," Sing agreed. "There are many people who do not realize this. They live their lives believing that to ignore a problem or a truth will make it go away. This does not make for a happy existence."
"I have to know, Sing."
"You are ready to see the outcome of your mission in time?'
"I have no choice," Katlin admitted.
"There is always a choice. Sometimes the right one. Sometimes the wrong one."
Katlin turned and looked through the opened French doors to see Mitch turning restlessly in their bed. She took a deep breath and swallowed the lump in her throat. "What do I have to do?"
"Do you remember the last thing you saw before you moved into this time period?"
"I was meditating. I visualized the pinpoint of light, then saw something like fireworks being sucked backward into the dot of light," Katlin told him as she remembered the image.
"Then what you must do is visualize the process in reverse."
Once again looking back at Mitch, Katlin felt torn by indecision. She wanted to go back inside, crawl into the bed beside him, and put off the inevitable a little longer. "t the very least, she wanted to kiss him, just in case it was good-bye. She also knew one touch of her lips, and he would be instantly awake.
Despite what she wanted to do, Katlin closed her eyes and visualized the pinpoint of light.
* * * *
When Katlin opened her eyes it was broad daylight, and she found herself standing in what looked like a city park. Sing and the ever present Bart were beside her, and she was still wearing her
robe and nightgown.
"Where are we?" she asked.
"Abilene Kansas, 2002," Sing replied.
Katlin did a slow, three hundred and sixty degree turn, searching in all directions as far as her eyes could see. "This can't possibly be Abilene," she insisted.
"Oh, but it is. Not the sprawling, corrupt city you left, but the Abilene created after the changes you made in the past," Sing explained. "You left a city with an approximate population of almost seven hundred thousand and returned to a small town of about nineteen thousand."
"Is that good or bad?" Katlin asked uneasily.
"I believe those who live here would say it is good. It's a town rich with a sense of community, historical pride, and family values. " place where the residents can take walks in the evening and go to bed without fearing they have left their doors unlocked."
Katlin didn't know what to say in response. What was there to say? She had so many questions she didn't know which one to ask first. To their left, a young boy was laughing as his father pushed him on a swing. She could see a couple of teenagers tossing a Frisbee back and forth between them.
Directly behind them was an opened grandstand with a band setting up for a concert in the park. Everywhere around them were people sitting at picnic tables, children playing and laughing. Suddenly remembering how she was dressed, Katlin looked down at herself in alarm.
"No one can see you," Sing informed her with a soft chuckle, then pointed in the direction of the teenagers with the Frisbee. "Look," he instructed. Nothing made the big German shepherd act like a frisky puppy like the sight of a Frisbee. Obviously wanting to play, there Bart was, running back and forth between the boys, jumping into the air in an attempt to catch the flying disk between his teeth. After several minutes of being unsuccessful in his attempts, Bart flopped down on his hind quarters and looked back and forth between the boys, not understanding why they wouldn't pay attention to him.
With a laugh, Sing laced his arm through Katlin's, "Come , let's take a walk." They rounded a huge circular fountain to where a family was setting out a picnic on several tables which had been pulled together.
Katlin froze in her tracks and gasped, "Oh my God."
"That's right, Little One. It is your family," Sing informed her gently. "Your father, your mother, and that handsome young man in the police uniform is your younger brother, Kevin. And of course, you recognize your Uncle Ben and Aunt Karen."
With a lump in her throat and tears in her eyes, Katlin whispered, "How? How is this possible?"
"Don't you understand? These people don't live in the Abilene you remember. This was never a place where high speed chases are the norm. The street upon which your mother was driving the day she was killed doesn't even exist."
So stunned she was incapable of speech or movement, Katlin could only stand there watching the scene unfolding before her.
Her mother, who looked so much like her, only older, leaned forward and uncovered a container of fried chicken. She barely had the lid off when Kevin's hand snaked out and grabbed a chicken leg. With a tolerant chuckle, Kathleen McKinnen insisted, "Wait till everyone else gets here, Kev."
"Lighten up, mom," Kevin told her with an affectionate grin. "It's only one leg. Besides, they're always late, and I have to be on duty in an hour."
The band struck up and began playing their first number, Moonlight In Vermont. Brian McKinnen grabbed his wife's arm and twirled her around into his arms. "I do believe they're playing our song, Mrs. McKinnen." The man Katlin now saw, her father, was a man she'd never known. His eyes sparkled, and he was all smiles. He appeared almost boyishly happy.
"Yes, I do believe they are," Kathleen replied, smiling up at him and lacing her arms around his neck. And the couple began dancing to their song.
Kevin rolled his eyes heavenward and groaned, "Don't you two ever give it up?"
"Leave them alone, boy," Ben Thompson insisted. "We might be getting older, but us old folks aren't dead yet. Pay attention, and you might learn a thing or two."
Katlin was so enthralled by the scene she hadn't been aware of the approach of two other couples until they stepped into view.
"Westfield," Katlin gasped.
"That's right. The Westfield family. Like your brother said, lighten up. Just watch."
With his arm affectionately wrapped around his wife's waist, Richard Westfield Sr., looked at the dancing couple and smiled, then hefted a heavy picnic basket onto the table.
Rick junior chuckled and looked down at Kevin. "Those two never change."
"No, thank God, they don't," Kevin agreed with proud grin tugging at his lips.
"Actually, I think they have a good idea," Rick said, then pulled the young woman beside him into his arms. "I never turn down an opportunity to dance with my bride."
As the couple began dancing to the final strains of the music, Katlin realized that
Rick's bride was none other than Sharon Hall. The same young woman he had raped.
"Okay, Sing, explain," Katlin demanded.
"Sarah Westfield took your words very seriously as she set about to change the course of her family's destiny. She raised her son with love and instilled a strong value system within him. She taught him the importance of honor, honesty, and family pride. She also taught him the importance of sharing the blessings bestowed upon his family with others. The lives of her grandchildren were also greatly influenced by her character. Actually, she became quite the strong but loving matriarch of her family. What you see now is the result of her influence."
"I knew she had it in her," Katlin inserted with satisfaction.
"That she did," Sing agreed. "Westfield Senior there is a respected psychologist in Kansas City who specializes in domestic violence situations. The family has personally funded several safe houses for abused women and children. Young Rick there, are you ready for this?"
Katlin still had difficulty keeping her anger in check as she watched Rick Westfield as he leaned down and dropped a gentle kiss upon his new wife's lips. "What about him?" Katlin asked, unsuccessful in her attempt to disguise the dislike in her voice.
"Young Westfield is a minister."
"A minister?" Katlin asked, not quite able to believe it.
"That's right. Both he and his bride, as well as his parents, take an active part in the family-funded safe houses. Sarah Westfield's descendants are a family she can be proud of."
"It's all so hard to take in," Katlin admitted. "If the Westfields now live in Kansas City, why come all the way to Abilene for a picnic in the park?"
"It's a reunion. Actually, it's a tradition which began in1872 when Sarah and Katlin Cameron promised to get the families together at least once a year. Your family still lives here, and this is where the family connection began. You're looking at two very wealthy families who have never forgotten their roots, nor that they are just people, no better, no worse than anyone else."
If she took Sing's words at face value, it sounded to Katlin as if she did in fact remain in the past. Still afraid to ask point blank, she asked instead, "Then Sarah and I remained friends?"
Sing chuckled, "The truth be told, both Sarah Westfield and Katlin Cameron caused quite a stir in the eighteen hundreds by becoming two of the first activists for feminine rights. They formed an investment partnership that set Wall Street on it's ear because they seemed to know exactly which stocks to purchase and when to sell. The family was even smart enough to pull out of the market before it crashed in 1929. Nobody was ever able to figure it out. It's said the women had the Midas touch."
"Hey, Kevin, is that sister of yours going to make it this year?" Katlin heard Rick ask.
"She called from her cell phone and said she was on her way," Kevin answered then turned his head in the direction of a slammed car door. "Speak of the devil."
Katlin followed the direction everyone had turned and gasped, "That's me."
"It is, yet it isn't," was Sing's ambiguous reply. "That is Katlin McKinnen, named for her great
, great, grandmother, Katlin Cameron. Whether or not she is you is your decision to make."
"You're talking in riddles," Katlin snapped in frustration.
"Just watch, then I'll explain."
And as she watched, Katlin saw her other self welcomed within the warm embrace of a loving, affectionate family.
"We heard about your promotion, Katlin. Congratulations," Rick Westfield offered.
"Hey, Sis. What's a big time lady detective from Kansas City doing slumming with us small town cops," Kevin teased.
"What can I say, little brother?" she laughed. "My mama always taught me never to forget the little people."
"Snob," Kevin tossed at her.
"Wimp," she tossed back. They both laughed then hugged each other.
Her parents approached arm and arm. She walked to them and was enveloped in their joint embrace. "I'm glad you were able to get off duty today, sweetheart. I've missed you," her mother told her with a kiss on the cheek.
Brian McKinnen took his daughter by the shoulders and looked into her eyes. "I am so proud of you, Kitten."
A sob caught in Katlin Cameron's throat. That was what she had longed to hear from her father her entire life and had never received.
"You have a decision to make, Little One," Sing told her. "You can remain here and become that Katlin McKinnen with the full memories of growing up with a loving family. Or you can return to the past and remain there. The choice is yours."
"My memories of Mitch?"
"Gone, like it had been nothing more than a pleasant dream."
There was no real choice to make. As she looked at the people sitting down together to share their picnic, Katlin knew she didn't belong here. The only life she wanted was with Mitch and the child she couldn't wait to tell him they were expecting. Katlin McKinnen had her life to live in the future, and Katlin Cameron had her life to live in the past.
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