"Can I ask you somethin'?"

"Do I have a choice?" Chris muttered, shifting closer to Vin. The duo was huddled under a small ledge in the side of Mt. Warning. The cavity they were pressed into was barely large enough for the two of them and was only providing limited protection from the raging storm.

The pair had been on their way back to Four Corners when the weather had turned bad. Vin had hoped they'd reach a series of caves, but Mother Nature had had other ideas. Both riders were soaked to the skin and the swirling wind was blowing the stinging rain into their sheltered pot-hole periodically.

With their backs against the wall and their hats pulled low, the best they could hope for was for the ledge to protect them from a lightning strike.

Another streak of lightning lit the night like day and then the impenetrable darkness returned, closing in on them.

"You ever think about the future?"

Chris drew in a deep breath and released it slowly. "I gave it up." Both of their voices were raised just enough to get over the blare of the storm.

"Huh?" Vin shivered.

Chris wasn't sure if Vin was talking to keep their minds busy or whether he'd had this on his mind and had decided that now was as good a time as any to discuss it. Tanner had been unusually quiet during their ride so Larabee was inclined to believe it was a combination of the two.

"Gave it up? You mean like givin' up smokin', drinkin' and bad women?" Vin inquired. He shivered again.

Chris shifted his shoulder, threaded his arm around Vin's shoulder and drew him closer... not that he thought it would do much good. They were both freezing, but sharing body heat may just help them to survive until morning.

"Gave up thinkin' about the future the day I... the day they died." The words weren't easy and Larabee wasn't a talker, but he realized that conversation was their best chance of staying awake and alive.

Another flash of lightning illuminated the plain out in front of them and the men spotted their horses standing close together a few feet from them.

"You?" Chris asked.

"'s the only thing I think about." The pair became silent.

Thunder roared out its message and rain fell in sheets, drenching the parched land that had been yearning for relief.

"What do you see?" Chris asked. He was certain he knew.

"A rope." The admission was made without any discernable emotion. A simple statement of fact.

Larabee frowned. He couldn't see Vin's expression, but he didn't need to. "Isn't going to happen."

Tanner snorted. "Them's just words Chris and we both know it. Eli-Joe's dead. I got no way of provin' I'm innocent. I go back to Tascosa and I ain't got a chance of convinin' anyone. And I ain't got a chance in hell of gettin' a pardon. A man don‘t get to choose his path or the people on it, Chris. He just gets stuck with what fate dishes out. I got a rope. " His voice sounded hollow. It had been a month since Chris had shot Eli-Joe and saved Vin's life... or had he? So this was what had been on Vin's mind during their ride.

"Then I'll have to take it up again."

Vin turned toward Chris as another bolt of lightning lit the world for a few fleeting seconds.

"Thinkin' about the future?"

"Yeah. You want to know what future I had a few months ago?" Chris asked. "A bullet." Larabee paused as the thunder increased and then abated. "Didn't know where it would come from and didn't care, but I knew that a bullet was my future." He’d been spiralling downward in a sea of whiskey and rage since the day he’d buried his family.

"Well, I got good news for you, Cowboy. Don't reckon much has changed, unless we freeze to death or drown here tonight," Vin chuckled and rain sprayed in on them.

Chris smiled. "You want to know what I see for myself in the months and years ahead?"

"Do I have a choice?" The returned phrase left both men chuckling.

"I see a kid in a bowler hat driving me mad with his jokes that aren't funny and his energy that never quits. I see a preacher hiding from his crows trying to turn a heathen like me into a believer. I see the best damn doctor I've ever met trying to get me to quit drinking myself into an early grave. I see a conman with a conscience driving me to start drinking again. I see an old friend interfering in my business because he knows he can." Chris paused and turned to look at Vin despite the fact that he could barely make out his outline. "And I see my best friend... standin' at my back, stoppin' me from killin' every one of them."

Larabee knew Vin was smiling. He didn't need visual confirmation. He could sense it.

Beyond their tiny ‘refuge‘, the storm continued to rant and rave. Sharing body heat was working for both felt warmer or perhaps it had more to do with the warmth coming from their souls.

It was a long time before either spoke again.

"Chris?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

"I reckon we're even."

"Yeah? How's that?"

"You're stayin' around to stop that bullet aren't you?"

Chris waited. He heard Vin release a long emotional breath. "Yeah, if we don't freeze to death out here tonight."

Chris laughed. The storm continued its assault.

"Best friend?" Vin asked with an element of uncertainty.

Larabee squeezed Tanner's shoulders. "A man doesn‘t get to choose his path or the people on it, Vin. He just gets stuck with what fate dishes out. I got a stubborn tracker with a bounty on his head for a best friend... and you got a gunfighter with a death wish.”

“Not any more,” Vin stated firmly. “I got that bullet covered.”

“Yeah, I know.”