31_days | [August 4th] [The Wild Wild West] What Have You Gotten Into?

Title: What Have You Gotten Into?
Day/Theme: August 4th - some said twilight required a reckoning
Series: The Wild Wild West (specifically, The Poisonous Posey episode)
Character/Pairing: Snakes Tolliver/Chita McCarthy (she's an OC; he's in my icon)
Rating: K/G

Continued from the prior piece.

By Lucky_Ladybug

Gambling debts are never fun. Well, not when you're the one who needs to pay them. When you're the one collecting, it's not too bad.

Right then, it was Chita who needed to pay. Her debt still hadn't been settled at the casino we'd met at, and after we got back from our honeymoon, the gangster sent his henchmen out to collect again. We were back at the hotel room she'd taken out while we looked for a better place to live and the thugs found us easy enough.

Neither of us were pleased when we heard a heavy pounding on the door. "See who that is, will you?" Chita asked as she folded a nightgown.

I went into the outer room and cautiously opened the door. I only had it open a crack when they pushed their way in and nearly sent me into the wall hard enough to crash through.

"Mr. Grey's been pretty patient," the one that gave me a black eye leered. "Your pretty little wife has to pay up by tonight, with interest."

The guy Chita had bonked with a cash drawer nodded his agreement. "If you don't, we'll thrash you both worse than before."

"And we can dish it out worse than before," I sneered in reply. "Don't worry, though; you'll get your money tonight. I'll bring it by myself."

"You'd better," the second guy retorted. He smirked at me as he headed for the door. "She really is a player, isn't she."

"What are you talking about?" I snapped.

"She got you to marry her and start giving her dough, all within the space of a couple of weeks." He laughed. "She's something else. Always has been."

That wasn't what I wanted to hear. "I'm not gonna listen to anything you say about her," I said in disgust. "I wouldn't trust one word that comes out of your dirty mouth."

That didn't faze him. "She's really got you going. You weren't the first and you won't be the last."

The first one nodded. "She's in love with money and she can never have enough. She loves any guy with dough, even one as messed-up-looking as you." Laughing, he pushed me away and lumbered out the door. His buddy followed.

I just stood there and watched them go. I'd already been through enough rough stuff in my life that I didn't think I could be fooled so easy. I really thought Chita was sincere, just another kid like me wanting to get ahead in life. And I didn't think she'd use innocent people to get there. But those guys had known her before I did, and even though they could just be trying to shake me up, there was always the chance that they could be telling the truth.

I clenched my teeth. I could ask her about it, but I didn't want to show that I didn't trust her. And I knew she didn't have the money to pay the gambling debt today. But after the luck I'd had on the good ship Enterprise, I could take care of it. I would, but then I'd insist that Chita pay her own way if she racked up any more debts.

"Who was it?" she called from the bedroom.

I couldn't believe she really hadn't heard. "It was Grey's goons," I called back. "You didn't really think they'd forget about that little debt, did you?"

"No." I didn't like how matter-of-fact she'd said that. In a moment Chita appeared in the doorway. "So what are we gonna do?"

I took a deep breath. "I can make it up for you this time," I said. "But after this, you're gonna have to take care of your own debts."

"Oh. Of course." Chita still didn't seem worried.

Honestly, I was feeling kind of put-out. But we'd only been married two weeks and I didn't want to argue with her already. So I just sighed, turned around, and headed for the door. "I'll just go right now and take care of it."

"Thank you, Snakes. You're a lifesaver." Finally Chita's voice had some warmth and feeling to it.

I started to feel better.

It was a long walk down to Grey's place in the waning evening light. I had a lot of time to think. What had I really gotten into? I'd married a girl after knowing her for less than a full day. We'd taken a honeymoon that she preferred spending entertaining than being with me. And she was pretty flippant about me paying her debt for her.

I couldn't shake the feeling that maybe those goons had been right. Maybe she was just a gold-digger and I'd been suckered right into her clutches. Or maybe she hadn't really been deliberately trying to ensnare me, but she decided to take advantage of it when I was so stupidly nuts about her and her interest in me that I actually proposed.

When I gave Grey his money, I kind of wanted to bring up what his men had said and ask him about it. But I didn't want word getting back to Chita that I'd done that. She deserved to have the first crack at an answer. So I just turned to go without asking anything.

"Hey, kid," he called after me. "My boys said you actually threatened to put me out of business."

I turned back. "I just said that you should be worried about losing your business," I replied. "I never said I'd be the one to take it away."

He shrugged, puffing on his cigar. "Well, who knows. Maybe you will be. There's a lot of upstarts out there just looking to break into the business and kick out all the old geezers like me. That's just the way of it. I know I'll be dethroned someday. But here's a word of warning: don't ever let anybody use you, including your woman. I never would have got where I am now if I let any old dame come along and twist me around her little finger."

I frowned. "I'll remember that."

"You do that, kid." Grey leaned back, counting through the bills. "You've got a lot of promise, but still a lot to learn."

It was when I was stepping out into the twilight that I thought of something else. I had a wife who didn't even call me by my real name. I guess I'd presented myself as thinking of myself as Snakes and not Samuel anymore, but I didn't actually say I wanted to be called by a nickname that had first been used after I'd been scarred for life. She knew my real name because I'd had to use it to get married, but she hadn't used it once.

Maybe I was reading too much into it. Or maybe I wasn't reading enough.