I'm Your Huckleberry

Chapter 1: Tombstone

A young girl, well now a young woman though her older brother doesn't seem to agree with that statement, seeing as he drug her down to Arizona to head to Tombstone, a new and popular mining town stepped off the train and sighed as the dry heat hit her skin. She huffed as she tried to walk and the skirt of her dress got caught under her feet and she stumbled, her brother chuckled as he caught her arm.

"It's bad enough that you dragged me cross country to this god-forsaken desert, but you also are making me wear a dress." She complained to him as he rolled his eyes. She fanned herself and grumbled as she could feel the sweat on the back of her neck.

"You're a lady now Bug, though it's hard for me to admit." He pinched her cheek teasingly and she hissed a "Wyatt" at him as she slapped his hand away.

"You can't be in trousers and boots running around no more, you have to start behaving like a young woman." He continued as he held his arm out to her. She begrudgingly took it and mumbled "Didn't matter to ya' until Mattie said somethin'" He pinched her arm and she whined and elbowed his side which he grunted about.

"Now I'd know those two grumpy voices anywhere" A deep voice drawled out. The siblings holding arms grinned wide and Bug squealed as she jumped into his arms, "Virgil, Morgan, I missed y'all so much" She cried and as Virgil let her go, she swooped up into Morgan's arms.

"Bugsy! Why I be, I never thought I'd see ya' in a dress." Morgan laughed as he let her go and twirled her around. "She looks lovely! All grown up!" She hears from behind them and smiles as she sees her sisters-in-law. "Allie, Louise!" She hugs them tightly and Louise grabs a curl that has fallen from the up-do. Since their folks passed she would travel and spend time with each brother, but Wyatt was her primary guardian, they said it would be that way until she got married, at 18 she was already an old maid in the eyes of others.

"You look so pretty, Dorothy!" Louise coos in a motherly type of way and tugs the curl she was holding as Bugs wrinkles her nose at her true name. "Louise, ya know I hate that name." She whines in only a way the youngest sister could. "I know Bug."

"Maybe she'll find a fella in Tombstone" Her brother Morgan teased and they all watched in a fond familiar way as her face turned red and her nose scrunched up. "I don't understand why I need a fella, I don't need no husband." Her brothers all laughed at her and their wives just shook their heads at the siblings in exasperation.

Wyatt smiles at the group and moves to speak but Mattie returns frantic "Wyatt, I couldn't find a single Store that had laudanum any.." Wyatt in his excitement cut off Mattie which was for the best because Bug had her mouth open to say a snide comment.

"Mattie, they're here! Folks this is Celia Ann but you can call her Mattie. Or even Mrs. Earp if you prefer" Bugs did not prefer but the others all surrounded them and echoed their excitement for the couple which caused her to roll her eyes.

They begin to walk to the carriage as Wyatt continues about how excited he is for this finally to be happening, "Wait!" He shouted as they passed a window and looked at their reflections. Morgan goes to talk but Bugs elbows him right as Wyatt says "Don't talk, not yet" They gaze at their reflection and smile, they are finally together as a family again. "Alright, let's go make our fortune."

Bugsy walked in between her brothers, all three though older and seemingly mature kept tugging her hair and laughing as she got frustrated and slapped them away. "Hey Virg, see anything of Doc while you were in Preston?" Wyatt asks, the boys laughing when their sister groans in annoyance.

Doc Holiday had been Bug's self-proclaimed enemy since they met when she was a little girl, once she started blossoming it slowly changed from him teasing her for being young and a spitfire, to him trying to rile her up on purpose to be able to have it directed at him so he could have her undivided attention. The brothers though wary at first, slowly accepted it once they realized Doc, though he didn't know it right away, was in love with her. She was in love with him as well, though she denied it to them.

"Hopefully in a hole somewhere, Virg." She sniffs with her nose turned up. The boys all give each other glances and smile in a secretive way. "Yeah, he hit a streak when we left him and Kate." They all looked at their sister when the girl's name was mentioned and weren't disappointed, the girl's face turned bright red and they could imagine steam pouring out of her ears.

'Big Nose Kate' a prostitute who travels around with Doc, though nothing serious is between them, just two people having fun. Wyatt thought that though Doc fancied Bugs, his sickness had him trying to forget that feeling for her, though once Bugs finally admitted it, he wouldn't be able to stop her from loving him.

"You still got a crush on ol' Doc, Bugsy." Morgan teases and they all laugh as she sputters in shock. "Crush? I ain't have feelings for Doc Holliday except for disgust, he and Kate are just perfect for each other, utter trash." Wyatt laughs hard and helps her on the carriage.

He remembered her in pigtails and ratted trousers blushing every time Doc came around and riled her up to hear what creative insults she could come up with. Doc was a cultured and intelligent man and the only time he could get Bugs to sit down and listen to him without attitude or complaint was when he brought a book or poem over to read aloud. She'd sit enthralled next to him leaning over to read the words but mostly staring at his expression as he read. Wyatt thinks about those moments often, the moments he saw his little sister growing up and finding love, she just didn't think of it as that.

"Dorothy Earp, I don't much know but I do know you've never looked at let alone got so riled up by any other man than Doc." She ignores him and he looks at his brothers who are grinning, "Bugsy, remind me, who came up with that nickname of yours." They all howl in laughter as they watch her face churn red.