scurlock | oom: outside of milliways sorta

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oom: outside of milliways sorta

After returning from Green Lake the night before, Doc had a promise to keep to Miss Katherine in regards to the stables and taking her out riding for a proper tour of the grounds. And even with the immediate exit blocked by strange plants and vines, he'd gone out early to take care of the cleaning, feeding, and general work that he'd missed over the last few days before slipping back in for breakfast and to have a waitrat deliver a note upstairs to her room while he got changed into more riding-appropriate clothes.

The note (which she'll find along with the clothes Bar has most likely helpfully left for her upstairs -- don't ask how the rat got in to leave it, these things just happen) says simply that he'll be out in the stables after she's had breakfast and is ready, but not to rush, and to avoid angering the strange plants and she'll be just fine walking through.

So when she does wander outside, she'll catch him singing if she's quiet walking into the stables. It's a more modern song, but one that he heard while in the bar one day and it caught his interest and he's heard it enough that he's got a little bit of it memorized.

"Well Maggie was my true love, the only kiss I knew
I’d meet her at the oak tree in the cool evening dew
Where we would walk beside the levee, our fingers intertwined
While the crimson moon gazed through the needles of the pines

We’d lay beside each other, staring at the sky
Listenin’ to the whistlin’ of the train blowin’ by..."

That's all he knows, so he trails off towards the middle of the verse.

She'll find that he's in one of the store rooms gathering up the tack they'll need for two horses, and there's a few papers pinned to the wall near the door with his handwriting on them, notes and lists of feed and supplies, reminders, that sort of thing.

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Without anything to absorb it, her laughter echoes across the whole field as the thrumming of hoof-beats progressively slows.

When Doc slows his mount, Katherine takes Duncan around him in a posting trot, the horse seeming to know this as the perfect moment for a smug little shake of its head as he circles around.

"Thank you kindly, Doc," Katherine smiles, short of breath. "You're not so bad yourself, as I would have expected."

She leads her animal up to Rachat's side so she's facing Doc, her hair a wild halo of gold around her face.

"And just where could you 'use a gal like me'?" she teases lightly.

"Doin' it for pleasure is a lot different than doin' it when your life depends on it," he admits, with that wild grin on his face. "And you look better than Billy does when we're runnin' for it, too," he quips, a quiet laugh escaping his lungs as he catches his breath, Rachat still shifting his feet as if to say come on let's keep moving or something to the effect.

And he raises his eyebrows just a little, with that smug grin on his face.

"Why, in our gang of course. Though I would never suggest such a fine, upstanding young woman as yourself get involved with a bunch of ruffian outlaws."

A beat.

"Present company excluded, of course. Since I ain't no ruffian." He drags a hand over his jaw and feels at the stubble that's started to grow in the last two days, and runs that hand down his throat. "Least not today. Maybe tomorrow or the next."

There's a small smile playing at Katherine's lips that grows, ever-so-slowly, into an all out grin.

"Well, 'long as I look better than the Kid," she teases, only unable to keep the blush from her face because the ride and the wind had already turned her a little pink.

She looks down and combs a hand through her messy hair, entirely unable to straighten it out, as Duncan shifts and stomps beneath her.

"Perhaps you could use me in the gang," she smiles as she rubs the horse's damp neck. "If for nothing else, to at least keep you properly combed and shaved."

With an amused chuckle, she reaches a hand up to work out an unruly cowlick, for emphasis.

Doc grins and catches her hand as she runs her fingers through his hair.

"You best be careful makin' an offer like that, I might just take you up on it," he drawls, before he lightly presses his lips against her knuckles, looking over at her with a completely innocent expression on his face, before he releases her hand.

"Now tell me, Miss Katherine," he continues, as he nods his head for them to continue on, slowly. "If you could go anywhere in the world, without payin' a dime...where would you like to go?"

Her expression is two parts surprise, one part embarrassment, as she peers at that innocent expression on his face.

She knows better than that.

"We wouldn't want that," she smirks, slowly drawing her hand back to her reins.

She nudges her mount, and they start off again in the direction Doc indicates.

"Everywhere," she laughs. "I couldn't possibly choose just one place. I would love to see Chicago someday, as well as your New York."

She smiles. "But there's a whole world of untold adventures out there, waiting to be explored."

"I ain't ever been to Chicago," Doc says. "Never had reason to go that far North. First time I went back to New York City, I went through St. Louis," he explains.

They're headed towards the base of the mountains, and there is more forest to travel through, so he keeps his hat tipped back off his head. "I'd like to take you to New York City. It's awful excitin', even with all the different folk and the noise."

He thinks for a moment, on his first thread of conversation.

"When I was ridin' with the boys outta Liberty we tended to stick to Missoura and sometimes Arkansas, rustlin' cattle. Did a few jobs in Kansas, nicked a good sized herd of sheep out Nebraska way, once, but they didn't pin that on us."

A grin.

"I ain't wanted in Kansas."

Katherine is drinking in the scenery as she listens to him speak. It's a beautiful day out, which makes her wonder if Milliways ever has days that aren't, considering it has everything else one could ever want.

Though another gloomy day and heavy rainstorm wouldn't necessarily go amiss...

She turns and beams at him when he mentions his desire to take her with him to New York sometime.

"That would simply make my day," she enthuses.

And then she grins.

"Kansas, hmm? Well, I suppose you still have plenty of time to remedy that."

"I reckon so. It's kind of strange," he admits. "They got posters of me all over New Mexico Territory, and in Missoura and Arkansas, but Kansas just...well they just ain't caught on quite yet."

Doc can joke about it now, because he's relaxed and not staring at one and the words 'Dead or Alive' on the paper along with the sketch of his face.

He smiles though, when she sounds excited about visiting New York City.

Katherine can't suppress a laugh. It's not that she's teasing him, but he just sounds so ... well, proud.

"Shouldn't take them too long," she grins. "What with a fearsome outlaw such as yourself causing mischief."

The young schoolteacher in her shines through, like she's talking to a naughty boy caught causing trouble in class.

"Wouldn't do to let my reputation go without adding to it," he says, with a smirk. "Would be a shame to see it get dusted under the rug."

Doc feels like a schoolboy who's been taught sneaking glances at the pretty new teacher or passing notes, so it's not far off for her to 'scold' him for it.

He glances around, and then nods his head up into deeper forest, towards what appears to be a ridge.

"This way," he says, before he clicks softly to Rachat and then heads up the slope.

"An awful shame, indeed."

She looks at him from the corner of her eye, smirking.

"Then what would I read about?"

She follows the inclination of his head and falls back a little, following Rachat up the slope carefully.

"Where we headed, Doc?" she asks curiously.

"You'll see," he says, and true to his word, it's not long before they make it up the slope to the top of the ridgeline.

The air's a bit cooler, since they're closer to the mountains, and even though it's still summer there are hints of snow on the tops, much higher above them, out of reach without the proper gear. But the view is incredible, once they come to a stop, and he ponders for a moment in silence before he speaks up again.

"Y'know this reminds me of somethin', a poem, actually."

Her eyes are wide with awe as she looks over the spectacular vista, taking in every inch of the terrain. It's beautiful, so she can't help but look a little agog.

"Which poem is that?" she asks.

"I don't got it memorized, but actually," he pats his hands over his chest and then his hips, then shifts in the saddle, rising up a bit in the stirrups so he can pull the small, black-bound paperback journal out of his side pocket. "It's called 'Autumn Evening in a Mountain Retreat', it was written by a Chinese poet -- Wang Wei, in the 700's."

Doc leafs through the journal (this is a book she hasn't seen before, and is almost always on his person out of habit) and flips past his own scribbles and writings, a few bible verses, some of his favorite bits and pieces of Poe and Keats, until he finds what he's looking for.

"Ah, here it is."

He clears his throat lightly, before he reads the poem off the pages:

"After the rain,
the empty mountain
at dusk
is full of autumn air.
A bright moon
shines between the pines;
The clear spring water
glides over the rocks.
Bamboo leaves rustling —
the washer-girls bound home.
Water lilies swaying —
a fisher-boat goes down.
Never mind that
spring plants are no longer green.
I am here to stay
my noble friends!"

Katherine is focussed on him now--just him.

Her eyes are glinting with an expression that could make a grown man blush, and there's an unassuming little smile quirking the corners of her mouth.

"That was beautiful," she breathes.

When Doc glances up, he does blush, and his hands lightly fold the small journal closed and hold it there between his palms, reins resting lightly against his thigh. Rachat isn't going anywhere and he's not concerned about it.

"The Chinese really were artists. Poets, yes, but...artists. That could have easily been written about this view."

Another slow-spreading smile graces her face.

"I'll have to come sometime to look at it in the moonlight, then," she murmurs.

Duncan steps to one side and then back, snorting softly.

"I haven't seen that book before," she remarks, smile growing.

"Not alone," he says, a little seriously. "The bunnies tend to be a bit more active after dark."

Doc looks down at the journal and then opens it, and leafs through the pages. "This...this ain't nothin' special. Just have some of my favorite works, some words from the Good Book, names and dates of important stuff, that sort of thing."

And his own work, but, to him, it really isn't anything special.

He smiles a little and then closes it, before he tucks it back into his pocket and lightly pats his leg.

She gives a solemn nod.

"Then I won't come alone."

You can take that however you want, Mr. Scurlock.

She shrugs lightly before remarking, "Special enough you keep it on you."

She can guess by the way he's acting that it probably contains some of his own work, but she's not devilish enough to press him about it.

She peers out over the vista again, pulling in a deep breath and closing her eyes. There's a light breeze drifting through, and in the higher altitude it makes her shiver into her jacket.

"This truly is spectacular," she whispers.

"It is."

That applies to everything, at that moment. The view of the mountains and the forest below them. Milliways, and the fact that it's safe and they've got whatever they need. The company he's with. The morning so far. That kiss. (And the second one.)

The smile on his face is evident in his words as he speaks them.

"Spectacular's a pretty fine word to use for it, actually."

Doc sits a spell, looking out over the horizon before he thinks about that book in his pocket. The verses. The poems. The names.

Tunstall. McKloskey. Brewer. Stephens. Bowdre. McSween.

O'Folliard.

Not Scurlock. Not yet.

Not ever.

There's something in his voice that makes her grin, though she's not sure what it is.

She's content to sit quiet for a moment, just taking everything in. But after a time she turns to look at Doc. There's a look on his face, like he's lost in thought.

She doesn't want to rob him of his moment, but at the same time she's wondering if there's not something she should be saying.

So it's cautiously--almost timidly--that she stretches out her arm and very gently tugs on his sleeve.

If he turns to look at her he'll see a patient smile and a sweet but concerned look in her eyes.

He is lost in thought.

Doc feels her tug on his sleeve before his brain registers, and he startles slightly, for a split second, then he shakes his head and blinks a few times.

"Sorry. I got to thinkin' 'bout somethin' and drifted off to who knows where," he says, a sheepish smile on his face and a hint of a laugh (at himself) in his voice. "Do that sometimes."

"Begging your pardon," she apologizes herself, recoiling when he jumps.

Right. Probably not the wisest thing, catching the known outlaw off-guard.

She smiles timidly: "It's no bother. Just making sure you're still here. And curious as to where you plan on taking me next."

"No need to 'pologize, would have sat here another few minutes if you hadn't brought me back to Earth," he quips, as he picks up the reins. It's not like he's really strung-out at the moment, either. Thankfully.

Doc smiles over at her to reassure her that it's alright, then he nods.

"Back down off this ridge, then back down and around the lake, bit more of the inlet area perhaps? Ain't really got no plan."

"Did your travels take you anyplace interesting?" she wonders, questioning the strange phrase.

She smiles back.

"Sounds like a plan. I'm yours for the day, so I'll follow you wherever you feel like going."

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