Who: Molly Walker and Steve Rogers What: After Brawl Investigations When: Late Saturday night Where: The Saloon Warnings: None Status: Complete Narrative
Molly was livid. Brawls in the saloon weren’t uncommon, men got all heated and even more stupid than usual when they drank and they very often caused trouble because of it. But tonight’s had started because that man from the mines had come back to see her again, with friends that had her keeping a distance no matter how handsome and charming she found him. No matter that she’d sent him off last night with a kiss on the cheek and the completely stupid hope that maybe he’d be interested in her like Kitty’s suitor was. She couldn’t let him know she was interested enough to talk to him again with his friends there, she half thought the purpose of bringing them was to embarrass her and so she sat and talked to an older farmhand instead, fluttered her eyelashes at him and giggled as she lit a cigar for him.
Getting him drunk enough that he thought it was a good idea to stick his hand right up her skirt.
She’d recoiled immediately and moved for the pistol hidden in the folds of her skirt, didn’t manage to do more than get her hand on it before he was leaping in to rescue her as though she needed it.
Which was exactly what she told Sheriff Rogers when he came in after he and a few of the others had broken everything up, carted the men who had started it all to cool down in the station’s cell. The man had come in to find out what had happened, probably to try to talk Mr Riggs out of pressing any charges over the broken mirror, definitely to get a sense of what had happened.
“I don’t need some miner jumping to save the day!” she informed him, hands on her hips defiantly. “I can defend myself just fine.”
“Yes ma’am.” Steve could hardly stop himself from smiling. The young lady definitely had some fire in her. They’d never officially met before tonight, Steve’s own down time was largely spent with his family or at the brothel, a fair bit of the latter spent waiting for Darcy but he never minded that. And it wouldn’t be an issue anymore. He’d be going home to her every night soon enough. “I can see that.”
He assumed she was armed, somewhere in the ruffles. Most women in the profession were.
“He had absolutely no business making such an assumption,” she went on angrily, and Steve just nodded along seriously. It was hard to take her seriously when she was just shouting about how she didn’t need the man’s help, when by all accounts it really did seem as though his intentions had been good. “Nor did he have any business starting such a ruckus over a hand on me!”
She got touched a lot. It was a part of her job and she hated it, loathed every single second, but she tolerated it for her own reasons and if someone got a little too friendly with his advances, that was what the men behind the bar and the guns were for.
“You’re not familiar with the man?” the sheriff wondered, and Molly only shook her head.
“I met him for the first time just last night.” It had been nice, actually. Someone who had made her smile when she’d needed someone to do just that, but she hadn’t meant for him to want to get into brawls over her.
With a thoughtful hum, Steve just nodded and tucked his thumbs into his gun belt, looking around the place. “Well. I’ve seen more damage done around here, save for that mirror, and it sounds to me that Mr Riggs is satisfied with letting them pay off the cost of what was broken.” He was very sure that Mrs Riggs wouldn’t feel the same at all, but that was for the saloon owner to deal with on his own. “May just have to let them off with a stern warning.”
“I would like you to keep them for a while, if you don’t mind, actually.”
That was an odd request, one that had Steve lifting his eyebrows at her. “Ma’am?”
Standing her ground, Molly kept her hands on her hips and nodded firmly. “Just a few hours if you can. I don’t want them having the impression I appreciate the interference.”
“I can have someone keep them,” he nodded, and Molly breathed a sigh of relief she hadn’t even realized she’d been holding onto. “But only if you’re sure that’s what you want. Are you really alright?”
There was something in his expression that was touching, the genuine concern for someone like her that reminded him of Mr Barnes, and Molly just smiled sweetly. “I’m fine, Sheriff.”
“Alright.” No need to argue with that, Steve trusted she knew herself and she wasn’t his to say any different to. “I hope you won’t mind if I come around to check in again in a few days time, just to be sure.” And he’d make sure that before he left Mr Riggs understood well that he needed to be more cautious about the lines his customers walked. Particularly with the younger ladies.There was still some hope for them.
“Suit yourself,” Molly shrugged, and turned on her heel to trot away to get to helping cleaning the place up again. Anything she could do to stop herself from just marching right down to the sheriff’s station herself and giving that man a piece of her mind, which she knew would only result in her forgiving him the moment he smiled and flirted. The way he noticed her hadn’t felt ill-mannered even once. Even when she was avoiding and pretending not to notice him from across the room.
With a chuckle, Steve shook his head and went about his business, speaking to the last of the witnesses and making sure the drunken cause of the brawl was sent back home to deal with his wife, that he spoke to Mr Riggs before he made his own way home. Couldn’t blame the boy for starting a fight over that one, he thought. Miss Walker was something else.