When Nicholas reached the cliff, he saw his brother sitting on a rock big enough for two bottoms, waiting for the woman to wake up he guessed. When she did, he saw Trevor grab her, then hit her with his gun. Then the woman tried to escape from him by throwing mud in his face, but Trevor was too quick and he grabbed her again. It looked as if he about lost his balance when he did he backed further toward the edge of the cliff. That's when Nicholas thought best to intrude.

          "Trevor, I said let her go," Nicholas said again, now holding his own pistol held high on his brother.

          "Nick, what the-what are you doing pointing that thing at me? Where have you been, man?" Trevor asked, moving away from the cliff with Mary still kicking at him. He put his pistol on Mary's throbbing temple and she immediately stopped.

          "Trevor, don't make me kill you," Nicholas said as he neared his brother and Mary.

          "Kill me? I'm your big brother. I practically raised you. Why would you kill me?" Trevor was stunned by his little brother's words.

          "And what a hell of a job you did, dear old brother. You raised me to be a killer. I hated doing it. Each and every death you made me do. All those innocent people. Well, not anymore brother. Not anymore. This time I'm in charge, and I'm gonna kill my last human being. You...."

          "Nicholas! Stop talking to me like that right now! I didn't raise you to talk-"

          "Shut up, Trevor!"

          Mary watched the dueling brothers, and she was scared out of her wits. She had a gun pointed at her head with a crazy man on the other end. She didn't want to die. Where was-

          "Chris!" Mary screamed, and just after she did, Trevor whipped around with her and was too late for Chris's sudden pounce from out of nowhere. The push was too hard to keep balance on two legs, and the big man went down like a rag doll from Chris's strong push.

          With Mary stilled clutched to him, Trevor scrambled back on his two feet and Chris tried his hardest to pull Mary free but it was useless. He got the big man down, he figured he could pull Mary free. It wasn't going to happen unless the man was dead. He had a death grip of her.

          "It's over, Trevor. Let her go," Chris shouted the last words as he tried again to pry Mary free.

          "Nicholas! Help me!" Trevor pleaded, looking over Mary's wet curls at his brother.

          "No," Nicholas said flatly. "Not this time, Trevor." And before he could think another lost memory of the time when they were children, and why it was wrong to kill your only brother, all the family you had left, he pulled the trigger and the bullet sailed through the rain and right into the cranium of Trevor Mackey.

          The big man went limp, and Mary thought by now she could get free and fly into Chris's arms, but she wasn't so lucky still. Closer to the edge of the cliff than she thought, her heavy wet dress weighed her down and the wet mud mixing with wet grass and slippery heels and hands, Mary lost balance as she threw the body's arm off of her that she saw she was quickly falling off the cliff.

          "Chris, I'm slipping!" she screamed for her life as Chris saw this too and leaped over Trevor's body to grab Mary by arm. She was going down quicker as he tried to get a good grasp on her slippery clothes.

          "Nicholas, Damnit, help me!" Chris shouted with fear in his voice.

          "Chris, I'm falling! Don't let me go, Chris!" Mary looked up into his deep, scared green eyes and felt the warm tears fall down her cool cheeks. "Please, Chris!"

          Nicholas grabbed the back of Chris's slick duster and helped pull him back to pull Mary back but the mud kept sinking, and Mary kept getting further and further down the cliff.

          "Chris!"

          Chris's hand was slipping. Nicholas slipped in the mud and tried to reach for Mary but the further he went in, the quicker the mud dropped beneath him.

          "No, please!" Mary cried when she was at her fingertips in Chris's hands.

          "Hold on!" Nicholas yelled as he reached again for her shoulder, and the dress she wore was deadly and it slipped from his hands instantly.

          Then she fell. Her body dropped freely from the cliff down into the icy depths of the rushing waters.

          "No!!" Chris screamed as he watched her fall and before he knew it she was swallowed by the dark waters. He leaned on his knees and tore off his duster and boots and gun belt, and just as Vin and the others came riding out of the trees, Chris took the ultimate plunge into the icy waters.

          "Chris!!" Buck shouted but it was too late.

          Swallowed. Chewed. Spit out. I need air. I need to breathe. I'm so cold. So very cold. There's so much more I have to say. So much more...but I've disappeared.

Cold. Drowning. I love you, Billy. I love you...

          Mary came up out of the water. Her body was limp. She was freezing. Her toes curled in her heels. Her dress weighing twenty extra pounds. Chris grinded his teeth together so he wouldn't bite his tongue. He was so cold. So very cold. The water was icy and with the blowing rain, it wasn't helping with his mood either.

          The rushing water carried them to a patch of dry land off to the side and Chris had to struggle to get Mary's deadweight body out of the water. Once he was on the land, he leaned over her to check her pulse.

          She wasn't breathing.

          "Oh shit," Chris breathed as he ripped open her dress and put his ear to her heart to see if he heard it pounded.

          It wasn't.

          "No, Mary...." Chris cursed again and tipped her chin up and started giving her mouth to mouth. He wasn't sure if he was doing it right, or he was doing it at all. He didn't know how to revive a drown victim, but he was going to do the best he could. He had to. He loved this woman.

          "Mary, come on!" he breathed into her mouth again, hoping to get some air back into her body.

          Nothing.

          "You can't die, Mary, you can't!" Chris screamed at her, hoping that would wake her to her senses. When that didn't work, he pounded a punch on her chest in both a fit of anger and hope.

          Seconds later, her blue eyes, now red rimmed, shot open and water came out of her mouth, Chris leaned her on her side to let the water she swallowed spill out. Then she coughed, over and over, and her throat felt as if it were on fire.

          Chris shifted her on her back again, and when she opened her eyes to look at him, she started to cry.

          "Chris...." She both cried and laughed. "You're still here. You....saved my life. You are always here when I open my eyes."