Darkest Hours, by Estevana Rey (PG-13)

[the-hobbet.livejournal.com]

Fandom: THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN
Pairing: Gen
Author on LJ: N/A
Author Website: Black Raptor listing
Why this must be read:

Usually I get bored with fics that spend too much time sitting in uncomfortable chairs beside sickbeds, but I make an exception for Darkest Hours. This is the ultimate hurt/comfort tale as well as being a medical mystery. All of the seven are well-used, with Mary, Inez, Casey, and Nettie having strong moments as well. Even Maude is in town. Nathan, often overlooked by fic writers, really shines here.

Shortly after Vin, Ezra, and JD return from a trip to Eagle Bend, word comes that people there are mysteriously dying. As the three sicken, rumors of plague turn the town against them. Nathan is driven to desperate measures to try and save his friends, or at least to ease their suffering.

The writing is stark and vivid, building in tension and despair. You won't be able to put Darkest Hours down.


Funny how you thought you knew people.

Chris Larabee stared wearily through the gap in the closed curtains down at the crowd below.

They had demanded that the windows be shut, the place sealed up tight, but it was too damned hot. There was no way he'd allow Vin to endure any more misery than he had to. You'd do as much for a dog. Hell, you'd do more for a dog. You'd put a dog down so it didn't suffer...

Nathan had tried to soften the blow as best he could, but Chris knew Vin was dying. They'd probably lose JD and Ezra before it was over, too. Nobody wanted it to happen, including the mob outside, most of whom had been decent enough folks up until the last day or so.

But what you wanted and what happened were hardly ever the same thing, were they?

Why was that? Chris wondered.

Why did living and dying both have to hurt?

He caught Mary Travis's eyes through the open window. She stared back at him, only the barest trace of sympathy in her gaze. The rest of her stare was hard steel. She was on the other side now.

He didn't blame her. She had Billy to think of, and he understood that. He hoped she could understand why his loyalties had to lie elsewhere, this time.

But if she didn't, he didn't care. It wouldn't change anything one way or another.

They wanted to torch the place, those good townspeople gathered out there in the street. As if flame would purge their fear. Maybe it would.

"You reckon to burn us all alive?" Chris said, deliberately catching Mary's eyes.

The thought would have scared most other men, but not Chris Larabee. To him, it would be a fitting way to die. But he feared for the others, the ones who had no choice.

"We want you out of town," Hank Conklin looked up, his face pinched with righteous indignation. "We have to think of our wives, our families."

"And yourselves," Chris added.

Conklin just stared.

"Might as well set them torches," Chris told the crowd. "We ain't goin' nowhere."

"Chris..." Mary began gently, "Be reasonable."

"I ain't a reasonable man, Mary," he said, his eyes betraying no emotion. "We can't move 'em. They'll die."

"They'll die, anyway," Conklin barked.

A stifled shriek escaped from a small figure in the crowd. Casey. She made a move towards the building, but Nettie grabbed her and held her back. This had to be tough on her, poor kid. JD, too. He'd asked for her, at first, when he was still able to understand that she wasn't there. They'd promised him she'd be there soon. No point in telling him he'd never see her again.

Larabee leveled his gaze at Conklin. "Maybe so," he said. "But they're gonna go as easy as they can. We ain't leavin'."

A gust of wind caught the yellow banner that hung conspicuously from the front of the building, obstructing his view.

Just a plain yellow square of cloth. There was no writing on it, but still, it told its story in words no one wanted to hear.

Quarantine...

Plague...

Death.

Darkest Hours