31_days | [August 31st] [The Wild Wild West] Thanks for the Memories

Title: Thanks for the Memories
Day/Theme: August 31st - Journeys end with lovers meeting.
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 prior pieces. And done! I made it!

By Lucky_Ladybug

It's probably obvious by now from some of the things I've said that I'm not even living in the time I was originally born in. The details of those adventures are recorded elsewhere, but the truth is that it's currently the year 2016 and I've lived in this modern world for the past several years, ever since Dr. Faustina reviving the gang split a hole in the space-time continuum and we all got sent here.

I still wanted to find out what had happened to Chita, so I've looked her up since coming here. I figured I'd hear more of the same about her bouncing from marriage to marriage and getting more and more fancy stuff until the day she died. That was pretty much the way of it until I lost her trail. I didn't know what had become of her then.

I work in a casino in the Gardena section of Los Angeles, where casino gambling is legal. Last night I was getting ready to start dealing a new game when a boa flipped past me and I looked up with a start.

The last thing I was ever expecting was to see Chita standing there in all her glory, pretty much just as I remembered her. She didn't look older by more than five years at the most. She still liked black, I saw, and now she was wearing some kind of one-feather headdress that looked like a 1920s flapper.

"Snakes," she said softly, "it really is you. I heard the rumors, but I didn't believe it. I couldn't believe it, not unless I saw . . ."

I'd often wondered how I'd react to seeing her again. I thought I'd probably accidentally knock over stuff in shock or start yelling. Instead I just sat and stared at her. "How?" I rasped.

"You weren't the only one to find the secret of time-travel," she told me, touching the end of the boa to my nose as she sat down. "I found a portal too, but it went somewhere else. Somewhere really amazing."

"The 1920s," I said matter-of-factly.

"Yeah," she blinked. "How'd you know?"

"As soon as I heard about that decade, I knew you would've fit right in. You were just born a little too early for it. But you came in here now looking like you've been there."

"It's great," she exclaimed. "Except for that Prohibition foolishness, but people found ways around that." She folded her arms on the table. "I go back to the old time sometimes, just to catch up on the news, you know? And I heard about you being brought back to life and living in some other time period. So I went looking for the portal you went through."

"Why?" I asked warily.

"I just wanted to see if it was true." She looked at me. "I guess I wanted to see how life's treated you and if you're happy."

"I wasn't, until I came here," I told her. "I'm happy now."

"I'm glad."

It was funny, but I actually believed she was. "How'd you get down off the mountain when you came over?" I had to wonder. Chita had never been an outdoorsy person. And she wouldn't know about calling for a helicopter to come get her.

"There were these hikers there when I came out," she said. "They know about people coming in and out of the thing and they offered to get me a ride down. I probably would've gone back through the portal if no one had been there. They told me that hiking down takes eleven hours!"

"And you're sure not dressed for it," I remarked.

"Yeah." She fell silent, looking down awkwardly at the table.

". . . Are you planning to stay here?" I asked.

"I don't think so. I like where I've been living." She looked up again. "And I wouldn't want to butt in on your new life."

"It's a big world," I told her. "You might like it here too." Not that I especially wanted her to stay, but I thought in all fairness I should tell her that.

"Maybe I would," she said appreciatively. "I'd like to look around before I go back anyway." She started to get up. "But I won't hang around where you are. Snakes . . ." She trailed off again, shifting her weight. "I . . . I really am sorry about how things turned out."

"Me too," I said gruffly.

"I treated you rotten. Maybe you weren't what I thought I'd end up marrying someday, but you were way better than any of the slobs I've been in with since then." She kept looking at me, hesitating about something.

I finally started to stand too. "Are you in with anybody now?"

She shrugged. "I kind of bounce around. You know."

"Yeah, I know," I sighed.

Suddenly she just reached out, touching the scar that she'd never wanted to touch before. I froze, not sure what to think or do. Part of me didn't like her touching it after everything that happened. I mean, she had a lot of gall! The other part . . . well, I kind of morbidly wondered how long she could stand it before she'd pull her hand back and feel like it was just disgusting.

"Does it hurt?" she asked softly.

"No," I said honestly. "Not anymore. It hasn't hurt for a long time."

"That's good," she said. "It looks like it should hurt a lot." She finally took her hand away. "Snakes . . . do you forgive me for everything I did?"

That was pretty high on my list of things I never thought I'd be asked. "I don't know," I had to admit. "You can't just do things to someone like you did to me and expect that they can up and forget about it."

"I don't expect it," she said. "In fact, I figure that there's no way most people could forgive or forget anything like that. I just kind of wondered if you could because you were always so much better than most people."

I gaped at her. "What?"

"Well, you were always so unselfish. I mean, you'd jump to help people in distress like me. You put up with all the wacky things I did to you until you just couldn't take it anymore. Even when you started building your empire, it was based around improving people's lives. I'd never met anyone like you before."

I just kept staring. "But I wasn't unselfish," I protested. "I wanted money, power. My empire was based around criminal activities. I smuggled, cheated, and stole."

"You wanted to survive," she insisted. "It was never about gathering up all the material stuff you could for the sake of owning things. And you only smuggled, cheated, and stole from people who probably deserved it. You loved all the little people and you wanted to help them have a better life than you'd had. I always thought you were crazy. But after I've been all around and seen what most other people are like, I really kind of admire how you were. It was a good kind of crazy."

I finally shook my head. "Chita, you've changed."

"So have you." She sounded kind of sad. "Back then, you acted like you believed in what you were doing and that it was good. I heard that after I left, everything became more like a business to you. I hurt you so much that you weren't like you used to be. You got bitter and angry and you didn't trust people anymore. You felt like they were mostly all out to earn a buck or put you down."

"It seemed like it was true. You were just the final nail in the coffin; I'd had feelings like that before."

"Do you still feel like that now?"

"To some extent. But I feel better about people as a whole than I did then."

She relaxed. "Good. It's hard to picture you being different than that. I think if you were still bitter and angry, I'd be pretty sad. Especially knowing it was a lot my fault."

"Chita, what do you really want out of life?" I found myself abruptly asking.

She only looked taken aback for a minute. I guess she remembered me asking her that years ago. "I don't know," she confessed. "Parties, fun, money, jewels. . . . All that good stuff. But . . ." She paused. "I know you're right that those things aren't what matters the most."

"So why don't you want what does matter the most?" I retorted.

"Because even if I'll regret not having it someday, I can't change my true nature." She gave me an honestly regretful look. "I don't want to settle down. I don't know how to make myself want to. That was always what you wanted the most and I just wasn't ready. I'm still not ready."

"Then don't you think it'd be better not to keep falling in and out of marriages?" I asked.

"Yeah," she admitted. "I've been single ever since I went to the 1920s, actually."

I sighed. "Well, I guess it did you some good then."

"And what about you?" she wanted to know. "Are you still single?"

"Yeah, I am," I acknowledged. "But it's okay. I have friends, real friends, and that's something I've never had before for any extended length of time. What I wanted wasn't so much to settle down, but just to be loved. I have that now."

"As long as you're happy." Chita stepped back. "You really are when you're not on top of things now?"

"It was never the power that made me happy," I told her. "It was the thought of sharing it with somebody who loved me."

She looked down. "I guess I'd better go so you don't lose your job."

"Take care of yourself," I said sincerely.

She smiled, kind of. "Yeah. You too."

And she walked away and probably out of my life.

I haven't seen her since then. I don't know if she stayed here or if she went back to the 1920s. But I am glad that I saw her again. Unlike when she showed up in Justice, this time it really felt like closure.

I started writing this account on the anniversary of the day we met, before she showed up last night. And that seems like a good place to end it now.

Chita, I hope you never do have to regret the way your life's going to turn out, if you just decide to keep partying all the way through. You probably will, but hey, what do I know? Different people want different things out of life.

Me, I'll say, "Thanks for the memories." The good ones anyway. I could have done without all the other stuff you pulled and how it made me feel.

And now I'm out of here. Ray and Coley and Lafe invited me over for dinner tonight. Sounds great to me; nothing feels as good as being with people who genuinely care about you even in spite of your faults.

Goodbye, Chita.