Catherine snuggled deeper into the warm cocoon of Emmett's strong arms. She smiled as he sighed and wrapped his arm tighter around her. Catherine opened her eyes and saw the bright sunlight pouring in through her bedroom window. Then she raised her head and saw Emmett's face sound asleep.

Emmett's face! Emmett should not be here! Emmett was dead! Last night had been a dream and this morning there should have been nothing but a pillow beneath her head. She raised her hand and pinched her arm wincing in pain…

This did not make any sense. How could he be here. Catherine let out a scream and jumped from the bed. Emmett jumped awake at the sound of her scream and started across the room toward her. She held up her hands.

"Don't come any closer!" she screamed. "Who the hell are you?" she demanded as she pulled on some underclothes and slipped into a cotton dress. Emmett pulled on his pants and shirt while she dressed and then looked at her questioningly.

"What do you mean who am I?" he asked. "You knew who I was last night when you made love to me." Catherine shook her head.

"Last night was a dream! You are dead." she exclaimed. "You've been dead for over eight months!" Emmett shook his head.

"Cat, let me explain…." Before he could say anything else the door to the room burst open and Edward came in holding a revolver aimed at Emmett.

"Emmett…." he said his voice full of disbelief. He lowered the gun and Emmett found his heart rate returning to something closer to normal.

"Hello Edward. I hear I need to congratulate you on your marriage." he said but his eyes stayed locked on Catherine's. Bianca pushed past Edward.

"What is going on in here!" she demanded and then her eyes widened and she gasped in shock when she saw Emmett.

"Emmett… You're alive." she said. Emmett nodded. Catherine felt her head start to spin and her legs getting weak. No matter how deep of breaths she took she felt like she could get no air in her lungs. She turned on her heel, pushed past Edward and Bianca and ran from the room. She ran down the stairs as quickly as she could and was about to run out the door to the outside when she collided with Richard's solid chest. She collapsed against him and let him hold her while she cried.

"What is wrong with you?" he asked gently.

"Emmett…." she didn't have time to finish before Emmett, Edward and Bianca came running down the stairs. Catherine noticed that Emmett was limping and wondered what had caused that.

"Who the hell are you?" Emmett demanded. Richard recognized Emmett from the picture in Catherine's locket. He looked dirtier than he had in the picture, his face more covered with stubble and his hair was a little longer but it was Emmett.

"That's Richard. The man who has been taking care of Catherine since you left and never came back." Bianca replied. Emmett whirled around to face her and that's when he noticed the baby in her arms. He looked from Edward to Bianca.

"Since when do you have a baby?" Emmett demanded. Bianca shrugged.

"Since I got pregnant." she replied. She was not going to be the one to tell Emmett that Sophia was his baby. That was Catherine's job and right now Catherine was barely holding herself up and looked pale as a ghost as she stared at Emmett.

Emmett glared at Bianca for another few seconds and then turned back to Catherine. He could tell she was confused and scared. She must have truly believed she was dreaming last night when he had come to her and his heart broke at the pain he saw on her face this morning.

"Cat, we need to talk." he said ignoring the man who was standing behind her. Catherine moved her mouth but no words came out. It was like her brain had just shut down.

"She doesn't want to talk to you right now." Richard said matter-of-factly. This man had abandoned Catherine. He had abandoned her and still she had remained faithful to him for all these months. Her love had never wavered or faded. Emmett did not deserve Catherine though Richard knew deep down that she would take him back.

Richard knew his time in Catherine's life was coming to an end. She would accept Emmett back in her life and then Richard would have to leave. He loved Catherine enough to accept her love for Emmett but too much to stay and watch her love another man.

"Richard was it?" Emmett asked and Richard nodded. "I don't know who you are or what your relationship is with Catherine but I want to thank you for taking care of her while I could not." Everyone looked at Emmett with shock.

"Since when are you the calm understanding type?" Bianca snorted Emmett turned his head to look at her.

"Keep your mouth shut. I have some things to talk to you about later." he growled out. Bianca couldn't help but smile as he turned back around. She had missed Emmett and how easily she could get him riled up.

"But Richard." Emmett continued. "I want to talk to Catherine alone." Richard was about to say something else when suddenly Sophia began to cry. Bianca tried to shush her but it was no use.

Her cries broke through Catherine's shock and she shook her head and went to her. She pulled her out of Bianca's arms.

"She's hungry." Catherine said matter-of-factly. Then she looked at everyone in the room. "I want to be alone." she said and quickly went back upstairs.

Emmett stared after her until he could no longer see her then looked at Bianca and Edward with narrowed eyes.

"Why would Catherine be taking your baby upstairs to feed it?" he asked. Bianca rolled her eyes.

"Because Emmett darling, you big idiot, that baby is hers." she said. Emmett grabbed onto the stair railing for support as the meaning of her words hit him.

"My baby…." he said. The words were a statement and not a question but Richard didn't realize that.

"If you have to ask that question then you don't really know Catherine." he said. Emmett whirled around to face him. He didn't know this damn cowboy, who was a sheriff judging by the star on his vest, but he didn't like him.

"You don't have a clue what you are talking about!" Emmett shouted angrily. "I know that woman better than anyone. I have loved her since before I even knew what love was." Richard stood his ground and squared his shoulders.

"You have a funny way of showing that by abandoning her and your child." he said. Emmett saw red. He had never been accused of having very much in the way of patience, had been in a fair number of brawls and right now all he could think of was how badly he wanted to knock this sheriffs head clean off his shoulders.

Emmett's fist swung out and caught Richard hard across the jaw. Richard stumbled backward and spit out a mouthful of blood. Before he had time get his bearings Emmett was on him in a fury of angry fists.

Bianca screamed in shock as the two men wrestled right out the open door, off of the porch and onto the dusty ground outside. Richard had always prided himself on being a good fighter but Emmett Masters was more than he could handle. Just when Richard thought for sure he was going to pass out if Emmett landed one more punch, Edward intervened and pulled Emmett off of him.

"That's enough. You don't want to kill a lawman, Emmett. They'd hang you for sure." he said. Emmett looked down at Richard who was currently holding his broken nose and trying to stop the flow of blood. Edward reached out a hand and helped Richard to his feet.

"Come on, Richard. Come out to the barn with me and we'll see what we can do about that nose." Edward said. Richard nodded and the two of them walked away. Emmett glared after them. He needed to talk to Catherine quick because he figured he was bound for jail as soon as the sheriff stopped bleeding.

"Look at your knuckles, Emmett, you big bully… Come inside and let me clean those up." Bianca said from the porch. Emmett shook his head.

"I need to talk to Catherine." he said.

"She said she wants to be alone so you are going to leave her alone. When she's ready to talk to you she'll come down. Do you really want her to see you with bloody knuckles?" Emmett sighed and shook his head. Bianca was right he couldn't rush Catherine. He had never deserved her and now after the pain he'd put her through the last few months he deserved her even less.

888

Catherine had watched Richard and Emmett in horror from her window as she'd nursed Sophia. She knew it was horrible of her but she was relieved when Edward had pulled Emmett away from Richard and she had seen that Emmett looked unharmed.

She didn't like seeing the blood covering Richard's face but she had heard what Richard had said to Emmett and she had known what Emmett's reaction would be. Catherine knew that Emmett had not abandoned her.

She remembered him saying the night before in what she thought was a dream that he had been broken… She knew he must have good reasons for staying gone as long as he did and just as soon as she was done feeding Sophia she was going to go find out what the reason was.

She looked down at the infant in her arms and realized she had stopped suckling and was sleeping peacefully. She also realized that the tears she'd been crying while thinking of Emmett had soaked the babies hair. Catherine wrapped Sophia in a blanket and laid her in her cradle.

"You rest my little princess." she said softly as she wiped away her tears. "When you wake up I will introduce you to your daddy."

Catherine stood and smoothed out her dress. She looked in the mirror and took a few moments to pull some of her hair back away from her face before opening her door and walking downstairs. She could hear Emmett and Bianca talking in the kitchen and she knew they didn't know she was listening. She stood there and listened to their conversation trying to build her nerve to walk in.

"Bianca, that hurts!" Emmett said as Bianca scrubbed his knuckles with a wet rag.

"Well you should have thought about that before you turned Richard's face to mush you big baby." Bianca replied.

"You haven't changed much." he replied. "Still just as annoying as ever."

"You haven't changed much either." she said. "Still just as short tempered and irritating as ever."

"He shouldn't have said what he said." Emmett said matter-of-factly. Bianca finished cleaning his hands and then sat across from him at the table.

"Yes he should have. As far as we know you did abandon Catherine." Bianca said tossing her hair over her shoulder. Emmett glared at her. He did not want to discuss any of this with Bianca. It was Catherine he wanted to talk to.

"So you and Edward huh?" Emmett asked. Bianca rolled her eyes at his change of topic but smiled happily as she nodded.

"Yes Edward and I are married now."

"Never saw that one coming." Emmett said. Bianca shook her head.

"Me either but he says he knew it would happen eventually." she replied. Emmett nodded.

"I hear you wore white." he said with a grin trying to form on his lips. Bianca tried hard to fight back her own grin and act annoyed but she had been waiting too long to hear Emmett give her a hard time over something.

"Is there a problem with that?" she asked. He shook his head.

"No, you've always been a good actress so I guess you probably pulled off the whole blushing bride thing." he replied. Bianca laughed despite herself but it was only for several seconds and then the kitchen fell silent again.

"Emmett, where have you been? What happened? I think we all have a right to know." Emmett sighed. "Were you even on that train that got attacked?" Bianca asked.

"Of course I was!" Emmett said his dark eyes blazing. "What do you think that I would really just abandon Catherine and that I was just out having a good time for the past nine months?"

"Then tell me what happened. Tell me I'm wrong." Bianca said.

"I was on my way back from finishing up all the paperwork back east. I was about halfway here when the train was attacked by bandits. I was shot in the back and took a hard blow to the head but managed to drag myself a short distance from the train and hide. They killed everyone else and burned the train down. I lost consciousness shortly after that but there was a family that said they found me.

"The family had no idea who I was and so they took me back to their home and had a doctor come out and look at me. I don't remember any of this because for some reason I could not wake up. The doctor had no explanation for my lack of consciousness. The family continued to care for me. They were able to keep me alive with broth but it was around two months before I finally woke up."

"Two months? You slept for two months?" Bianca demanded. She looked at Emmett and realized that he was indeed thinner than she remembered.

"Yes it was around two months." Emmett replied.

"But you were gone for six more months after that. Why didn't you come home sooner or at least send her some kind of message that you were alive?"

"When I woke up I panicked. I had no idea how I had gotten away from the train. I had no idea how long I'd been asleep." Emmett paused and looked down at his cut up knuckles. "And I could not feel or move my legs." he added.

"That doesn't answer my question. Why did you continue to let my sister believe you were dead?" Bianca demanded. Emmett buried his face in his hands as she continued. "Do you realize that she tried to take her own life? When Richard rode up and told her that you were dead it was like she died with you. Her eyes became lifeless. Her voice held no emotion. I found her in the bathtub shortly after trying to drown herself!" Catherine cringed from where she hid behind the door. She had not wanted Emmett to know just how weak she had been.

"She walked around in a fog after that. She would not speak to anyone other than me and even then she never said much and her voice was always blank. Then we found out she was carrying your child and she smiled for the first time in a month." Bianca waited for him to reply or give some indication to how he was feeling but he kept his face buried in his hands. The only thing that gave a clue to how he felt was the fact that his shoulders were moving up and down as he cried silently.

"Richard, the man you beat up, stuck by her through it all. He held her while she cried a million tears over you. Not just in the beginning but for the entire time you were gone. He loves her but still she remained faithful to you even though she thought you were dead. She said the part of her heart that was made for being in love had died with you. So forgive me if I don't welcome you back here with open arms, Emmett, but you put my sister through hell and I want to know exactly why that was!" Emmett didn't look up as he replied.

"I couldn't come home to her that way, Bianca…." he started but Catherine walked in then and cleared her throat. Emmett jumped to his feet and looked at her. She saw the tears in his eyes and on his face and quickly went to him. She laid her hand on his cheek.

"Emmett…" she said her voice breaking. He shook his head and covered her hand with his.

"Don't feel sorry for me, Catherine. I deserve to be in pain after what I did to you." he said. Catherine shook her head. No matter how badly she had been hurting she never wanted to see Emmett in such pain.

"I heard what you said to Bianca." she said.

"Cat, if I had known there was a baby I would have done things differently when I woke up all those months ago.." he said.

"Why didn't you come back to me or let me know you were alive? I've been lost without you, Emmett." she said.

"When I woke up I couldn't walk. I didn't want to come back to you like that. And then one morning I woke up and I could move my toes and then I could move my feet…. I focused all my energy on getting better so I could get back to you. As soon as I could walk on my own I climbed on a horse and I rode for two weeks straight to get to you."

"You called yourself broken last night.  You thought that I would not love you if you were broken? It hurts me that you had so little faith in my love for you." Emmett shook his head and dropped to his knees in front of her holding her hands tight in his.

"You misunderstand me, love." he said. "I knew that no matter how I came back to you, you would love me and you would accept me and I could not place that kind of burden on you."

"Emmett, I would never see you as a burden." she said looking down into his brown eyes that were full of so much sadness and guilt that she just wanted to try to kiss it all away.

"You do not know what you're saying Cat." he said as he pressed his lips to her hands. "I could not stand or walk. I could not have been a real husband to you. I could not have protected you or taken care of you like I promised I always would. I could not even use the bathroom by myself my love. I couldn't do that to you. You have always had to take care of everyone and I did not want you to have to take care of me. I assumed that you already thought I was dead and I knew that if I never walked again that you would eventually move on with your life and find someone new… I thought that eventually you would be happy without me."

"Never Emmett. You are my happiness. I cannot be happy if I don't have you." she replied. Emmett stood then.

"I am sorry, Catherine. If I had known about the baby… I was such a fool!" he said as fresh tears fell down his face.

"What about you Emmett… You say that you thought I would eventually be happy without you. Would you have gone on with your life without me and been happy?"

"No." he answered simply. "You have occupied every single second of my thoughts and dreams for every single second that I have been away from you. You know how much I love you, Catherine. You know that you are the one and only woman that has ever and will ever have my heart. I thought I was doing what was best for you. I realize now how foolish I was. But I'm here now, Catherine. I'm here and if you'll still have me I want to be your husband and I want to meet my child…." Catherine pulled away from him.

"So you just thought you could ride on in here and you just expected me to fall into your arms and we would start over right where we left off?" she asked. She was angry that he had just assumed she would get over the way he had hurt her by staying gone those extra months. Emmett's eyes widened at her words and then he nodded and looked more defeated then she had ever seen a person look. He stepped away from her.

"I will leave. I never did deserve you, Cat, and I deserve you even less now. Just remember that I love you." he said. He turned and began to walk away and Catherine felt a panic so deep and desperate that she nearly cried out. She grabbed his arm and he stopped in his tracks and turned back to her.

"You are a crazy fool, Emmett." she said. He frowned at her words.

"What do you mean…?" he asked. She threw her arms around him and buried her face in his neck.

"I mean of course I am going to marry you and be with you forever, Emmett. It is not even something that I have a choice about. There is nothing in this world that would ever change that." she said. "But you should not have just expected it." she added. Emmett smiled broadly and wrapped his arms tight around her.

"I love you Cat." he said as he spun her around and around. Catherine laughed happily and kissed him. She kissed his tear covered cheeks and tasted the salt. She kissed his lips and felt the heat in her veins and felt her blood pump