Night Watcher
Virtual Season 7
by Paola C.
ACT 4
Scene 17 - Day 4
Dark as the night, silent as a moonbeam, Sully sneaked under the fence,
just when the soldiers patrolling that side were farthest from each
other. He crawled in the tall grass and reached a tent. Creeping between
two stakes, he lifted the canvas and got in.
By the faint light of the fires outside, Sully recognized with certainty
McKay's jacket draped on a chair. The sergeant lay on his cot, his back
to Sully.
He stepped forward. McKay turned quickly, a gun trained on him.
"Were you expectin' this?" said Sully in a low voice.
"You bet. Whatcha want, Sully?"
"Put the gun away. You think I'm so mad as to try somethin' against you?"
"I don't know what to think anymore, when it comes to you." Anyway, he
uncocked the gun. "I'll have to tell my men to mow the grass."
Sully smiled, but he was not taken in. "McKay, I don't wanna get myself
into a mess. Not anymore - not if there's an alternative. Too many
innocents suffered last time, because of me. I wanna save those people by
reasonin' with you."
McKay's voice was cold. "What if there was nothin' to reason about?"
"I'm here, an' I'm unarmed. You can listen to me or arrest me. If you do
neither... I don't know. I may try to get to that jail after all. But
before that, I'm givin' one last chance to reason. I owe that to
Michaela, my family, my friends."
McKay sat on the side of the cot, motioning Sully towards the chair. "I
wasn't gonna sleep tonight, anyway."
Sully sat down gratefully. "McKay, you can't make decisions 'bout the
life of the Cheyenne 'fore you know everythin' 'bout Forrester. You heard
him last night - he's stirrin' up things for his own purposes. Hazen's
just his pawn - ain't a bad man, his intentions are good, but Forrester's
got him wrapped 'round his li'l finger. Forrester thinks bringin' peace
to East Fork with an execution is the best way of makin' himself the
Savior of Colorado!"
"Sully - it's a fact that those five Indians are a menace for us. They'll
keep incitin' the others against us an' kill more of us. As simple as
that."
"You're deceivin' yourself."
"It's the lesser evil, Sully! Them braves're soldiers themselves! They
knew what they were riskin'. I'm allowin' them an honorable end."
"Don't give me honor! This is murder!"
McKay looked hard at him. "You'd rather see me leave an' be replaced with
a worse bastard? You want the former garrison back? Now tell me why the
hell I should care about it - what d'ya think it means for me to be
posted here or elsewhere? No - I do believe I can do some good here. An'
if I have to compromise with my conscience now, but gain the chance to be
still here an' improve things next time, I got no option!"
"Why do you believe next time'll be different?" said Sully, bitterly.
McKay couldn't answer.
"You ain't no better than O'Connor," Sully whispered.
McKay turned his gaze away. "This ain't true, Sully, an' you know it."
"Then *why* can't ya look at me?!"
McKay was caught. "I've thought often 'bout what happened last year. I
did what I had to do. I did all I could to help. But I'm sorry for havin'
been a part of so much pain for your family. Don't believe I don't know
what your wife went through. I can still see it in my dreams. And I can't
do a damn thing about it!"
"You can. Let's go talk to Hazen now."
McKay shrugged dejectedly.
Sully pressed on. "Hazen may be misguided, but if we get him in the right
mood, we can convince him to forget about the executions. Forrester's
still at his orders, he won't have no option."
McKay thought about it. He couldn't avoid to see Sully's reason. He
nodded, got up and motioned Sully to follow him. They went out in the
night towards Hazen's tent. A few yards from McKay's tent, a soldier was
standing watch.
"Private," the sergeant called him. "Mr. Sully here -"
Just at that very moment, a sentry on the watch tower looked down. He
recognized Sully by the light of the moon. He couldn't know Sully was
unarmed. Seeing him walk behind McKay, he assumed Sully has taken the
sergeant hostage.
"Halt!" he called in the night.
McKay turned sharply. Sully had heard where the shout had come from. He
looked at the watch tower and saw the glint of the barrel. He reached out
for McKay. "Careful, he's gonna -"
The sentry saw the gesture. He fired, narrowly missing Sully.
"Stop!" McKay shouted, stepping forward.
Too late. Now the sentry had Sully clean in his sight. He fired again.
McKay fell back as though someone had pushed him hard. He crumpled to the
ground with a grimace of pain, then he opened his eyes wide, stunned, a
wide splotch of blood spreading on his shirt.
It was havoc. Two soldiers grabbed Sully before he had any chance to
check on McKay, and one all but knocked him out with a violent blow in
the face. Forrester came out of his tent, screaming for help. Hazen
looked out too, astonished, noticed the sergeant on the ground and ran to
help him.
Drawn out from their shacks by the shots and the noise, the Cheyenne
began to crowd around.
"I did nothin'!" Sully kept saying. "It's a mistake! I..."
"Shut up!" screamed a soldier. He hit him in the small of his back with
the butt of his rifle. Sully gasped in pain.
The corporal had joined Hazen in trying to put McKay back on his feet,
but the sergeant had been knocked out by what was hopefully just a wound
in the left shoulder. Was there more damage inside, the shot having come
from that weird angle? "Wait!" the young man shouted, trying to restore
some order. But he, too, looked in doubt, frightened and angry.
"Let's take him out an' shoot him!" a soldier cried, oblivious of the
order.
A sudden burst of shouts from the gate, a thundering of hooves. Michaela
rode into the reservation without bothering to check with the stunned
guards, risking her neck by plunging unannounced into that mess. "No -
stop!" she screamed.
The Indian Agent looked up, flabbergasted. "What are you doing here, Dr.
Quinn?"
Michaela looked at Sully, held by two soldiers, watching her with an
anguished, desperate look, still out of breath for the pain, unable to
explain. Shockingly she took in the sight of McKay lying unconscious on
the ground. The doubt tormented her face - but she had one thing to do
before anything else, so she set her jaw and faced Forrester.
"What am I doing?" she repeated, her voice ringing clear in the night
air, her breath condensing in a white puff. "You tell me, sir! You're the
one who went along with Mason's dirty business, in order to eventually
stump it and get good publicity for your political career!"
Forrester gasped, then cut the air in a nervous gesture. "What are you
saying? This is nonsense."
"Is it? We should ask Private Greene and Many Days... not to mention the
late Mr. Mason, who was killed in Manitou under mysterious
circumstances!"
The mention of Mason's death left Forrester speechless for a moment. His
gaze ran to Hazen, who, though absorbed in checking McKay's conditions,
wasn't losing a word of the exchange.
"That's absurd," the Agent snapped. "You're just trying to save your
husband. He tried once again to form a revolt - this time it'll be the
end of him!"
Michaela couldn't help shooting a glance at Sully. He shook his head,
firmly.
All around them, the Cheyenne were pressing. Were they about to seize the
opportunity and attempt another revolt? The soldiers didn't know what to
do. Some looked ready to fire on the crowd.
The corporal looked at the situation, then turned to the
still-unconscious McKay. "Wake up, sir..." Aloud, he called: "Keep back!
Private, keep 'em away - nobody shoot again, don't give 'em cause to
react..."
In the heat of the situation, nobody listened to him.
Suddenly, a call came from the prison. Leaning Tree was gripping the
bars, looking out at his men. They looked at him, surprised and doubtful.
"What... what did he say?" Forrester stammered.
"He asked them to stop," Michaela explained, with a look of contempt to
the Agent.
"These men have tried to help us," Leaning Tree went on, talking to his
warriors. "If we fight, what they have done will be useless, and we will
be destroyed. No, we must survive. We must keep our heritage alive in
every possible way." He nodded at the funerary stands.
There was silence. The men looked at him, touched by his words. But they
were still facing an angry garrison, and the spark was still burning...
Helped by Hazen and the corporal, McKay sat up. He looked in pain, but
his eyes were now clear.
"Everybody stand back," he ordered in a breath - they heard him clearly
in the stillness. Reluctantly, the soldiers obeyed. "Mr. Forrester -
you're under arrest."
"What?" The Agent whirled about. "Don't tell me you believe 'em!"
McKay didn't waste his energy by arguing. "Corporal, get 'im to jail."
Suddenly free from the pressure of the soldiers, the Cheyenne exchanged
glances, talked to each other. Their attitude softened. They began to
back off too. In the jail, Leaning Tree relaxed, pressing his forehead
against the cold metal bars.
Hazen helped McKay stand up. The sergeant gestured to the soldiers
holding Sully. "Let 'im go."
The soldiers stepped back. Sully got up from his knees, still dazed and
aching.
Michaela dismounted and threw herself into his arms.
Scene 18 - Day 5
Leaning Tree was free once again - as free as one could be at East Fork.
Sitting in front of his shack in the orange light of the rising sun,
wrapped in a blanket after the cold dampness of the jail, he was
translating the words of a Cheyenne boy for Michaela and McKay - one of
the boys that had been wounded in the revolt. Sully was sitting by his
wife's side, an arm around her waist. Hazen stood behind them,
reluctantly witnessing the scene with folded arms.
"He was afraid to talk, afraid of the soldiers," Leaning Tree explained,
looking at the boy. "He says he saw the Indian Agent kill Greene after an
argument."
"Probably Greene had discovered about the booze affair," mused Sully.
"Yes. And then the Agent killed also Many Days, to have a culprit to
show."
They all looked at each other bitterly.
"Why did he choose to tell the truth now?" Michaela said gently, speaking
to Leaning Tree but looking at the boy.
Leaning Tree smiled at the boy's answer. "He says that now he has found a
chief," he translated, almost shyly.
A soldier came up, escorting Cloud Dancing. He was just back from
Manitou, tired and hungry, but contented. Then he took in the scene -
Sully with a black eye, McKay with one arm hanging from his neck.
"What happened?"
"It's all right, Cloud Dancing," Sully said. "Forrester was arrested."
The Cheyenne was relieved. He spoke to Hazen. "That is good, sir. And if
you look well in Manitou, you could find other witnesses to his
involvement in the murders."
"Looks like your suppositions were right," McKay told Sully and Michaela.
"I'll send 'im to Denver under escort."
"You know what he'll say, don't you?" Sully commented, bitterly. "That we
can't prove it - that the word of an Injun counts for nothin'."
They exchanged a round of sad, knowing looks.
"Anyway - he's fired," Hazen said flatly. "I can accept much from my
Agents, but not murder. If he can't be convicted, at least he won't
meddle with Indian affairs again so easily. I'll escort him to Denver and
see to it."
Leaning Tree and Cloud Dancing got up. "We have much to do," the young
man said. "I think there is more that you can do for our people, Sergeant
McKay."
"Don't count on it," McKay said sternly. "After this mess, I don't even
know whether they'll let me stay here. But bear in mind that if I stay I
won't let somethin' like this happen again. Ever." He looked at them to
drive the point home and got back the same gaze - burning defiance,
tempered by respect. He changed his stance slightly and turned to face
Cloud Dancing. "Speaking of which, Cloud Dancing, you have made it clear
that you were outside of your permitted area." He saw Michaela and Sully
tense out of the corner of his eye, but continued. "While I realize you
were doing it to help the situation here, that does not negate the fact
that you broke the rules. For that, you shall serve a two-day confinement
... here, at East Fork."
Cloud Dancing only nodded and turned to go, realizing as much as everyone
else the underlying pardon he had actually received, since he needed to
remain at East Fork to continue to help Leaning Tree and his people. When
the two Cheyenne were gone, Sully and Michaela got up to face McKay.
Sully held out his hand to the sergeant, who looked at it and finally
took it.
"You saved my life, McKay," Sully said softly. "I guess we're even."
McKay shrugged his good shoulder. "I just hope than now we'll be able to
better understand each other - since I can't seem to keep you away from
this damn place." He gave Sully a warning look. Then he touched his hat
for Michaela, turned and stalked away.
Now Michaela and Sully were alone. She smiled at him. "Forgive me."
"For what?" he asked gently.
"For not trusting you - even if it was just a moment, tonight."
He sighed. "Michaela... I really don't know what I would have done, had
McKay not listened to me."
"But you tried reason first," she said, taking his hands. "And it worked.
Maybe - if you had known him better, you would have done the same, last
year."
"Maybe. Maybe he wasn't ready either. Maybe he's not ready yet. Who
knows."
"Is it possible that we've left at least a little bit of those times
behind our shoulders?" she asked hopefully.
He finally returned her smile. They embraced for a moment in the morning
sun, looking at the Indians beginning another dreary day of life in East
Fork. Leaning Tree was right. There was still so much to do.
THE END
December 2000, DQMW-List
