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Trooper Ozzy 103806 Starting my third full year Belong to CASS, Largent WV Also shoot Damascus, Thurmont, Montpelier, Vesuvius, Rivanna, and NRA...anywhere within 2.5 hours. Great people wherever I show up.

There is a marvelous freedom with not having to keep things in chronological order. In this short snort, the Sheriff is considerably younger, as is her son: we infer his youth from having his appendix removed, and that this is not her firstborn, as she's in the cafeteria having a meal, while he's in recovery. Here we see a glimpse into her past, a facet only alluded to in the several past tales we've told of this pale eyed descendant of her pale-eyed ancestor ... you know, the one with the iron grey mustache and a fiercely protective nature. 16. YA GOT MINE BEAT! "May I join you?" Willamina looked up and smiled tiredly, nodded to the chair opposite: a tall, slender man in scrubs set his tray down, swung his narrow backside into the chair. "How's your son?" Willamina chuckled a little. "His appendix is out now. He's still in recovery." The nurse nodded. "They know you're here?" Willamina picked up the pepper shaker, briskly anointing her mashed potatoes and gravy: the nurse opened his hand, she slid the heavy glass shaker across the table to him: he peppered his own, traded pepper for salt, gave a quick double-shake, slid it across to the pale eyed Sheriff. "I don't need to taste 'em," he muttered. "Taters always take salt!" Willamina laughed. "Man after my own heart!" "I heard they tried to recruit you." Willamina nodded, chewing a bite of meatloaf. "I told 'em I get in enough trouble as Sheriff, I didn't need to work as a nurse too!" "How did you like nursing?" Willamina wrinkled her nose. "I started out hating nursing school and it went downhill from there!" "You too?" She nodded, tearing open the roll, twisting her butter knife in the little individually packaged pat, spread the gut grease, looked up at her companion. "You've got a story. You go first." His chuckle was dry, almost forced. "Not much to tell, really. The school discriminated against men hell west and crooked. I was lied to and lied about from the word go. On graduation day they waited until I crossed the stage, got my pin, handed the stub of my short timer's stick to my favorite instructor and then a runner came up and told me the Dean needed to see me immediately if not sooner." "Short timer's stick," Willamina mused. "You're an Army brat?" He nodded. "My Dad was in the Southeast Asia War Games. You?" "Sandpile. Marines." "That's right, I'm sorry. I forgot." She waved a hand. "What did the Dean want?" "She asked me why I hadn't taken my Pharmacology final. I told her the instructor told me my grades were good enough I didn't have to, so I didn't. She said that wasn't right, I had to take it and since I hadn't, my graduation was invalid. "I told her if she had any questions she should call the instructor and she said the gal was on a Bahamas cruise and I said 'How convenient,' and my voice just dripped sarcasm." Willamina's eyes were half veiled and he saw her eyes go a little more pale. "I told her, 'Why don't I just tricky-trot upstairs to the testing center and take it right now." She waved a dismissive hand and said 'Do what you want.' "I went upstairs, I was back in five minutes, I laid the paper on the desk in front of her." Willamina raised an eyebrow. "I scored one hundred per cent." Willamina's eyes narrowed at the corners, a smile of approval from one warrior to another. "I asked her if there was anything else and she couldn't even look me in the eye." They ate in silence for a minute, long enough for the nurse's curiosity to get the best of him. "How about you, Sheriff? You've got a story and I'd like to hear it." "You are familiar with confidentiality." "Intimately." "You have read the statistics that most nurses were raped as a young teen, that the head shrinkers theorize that's why women become nurses, to heal where they themselves were harmed." He nodded. "My father was town marshal back East. He was killed in the line of duty. My mother was a damned drunk and she threw out his gunbelt and the flag they gave us at his funeral." She saw his hands close slowly into fists. "I was ... brutalized ... but I didn't just go into nursing." She looked up, her eyes hard and cold. "I went into the community college's police academy as well." He nodded slowly. "The nursing instructors did not like it ... that I was taking a dual major, that I arranged my classes to avoid conflict between them, and they really did not like my arriving in class in a police uniform." The nurse grinned, nodded encouragement. "I was in my emergency room rotation as a nursing student when we had a situation." He leaned forward, elbows on either side of his tray, the meal forgotten: fingers laced, he pressed his upper lip against his index fingers, eyes intent on the quiet-voiced, pale-eyed woman across from him. "A man came in and pulled a gun. "I trained for that, and the fact that I wore a white dress and pantyhose didn't stop reflex from taking over." Again that slow, encouraging nod. "I seized the muzzle and twisted, I got both hands on it and wound it around backwards and yanked hard." Her bottom jaw slid out as she talked, as she remembered. "I remember driving my foot into his thigh as I yanked. "He was high on something and breaking his finger and then tearing it out by its roots didn't stop him so I had his gun in both hands and I cold cocked him." She chuckled dryly. "My second kick to the gut wasn't really necessary. "Anyway ... I got called on the carpet next day in nursing school, and the dean said they were going to expel me. "I felt myself getting mad. "I knew if I stayed I would say ... regrettable things ... so I turned and started to walk out. "The Dean said 'I'm not done,' and I said 'Oh yes you are,' and I left. "I was mad clear through and I didn't know where to go and I just started driving and I ended up at the police station. "I went inside and the Chief was grinning when I came through the door. "I recognized the reporter and I knew better than to get anywhere near but the Chief saw me and waved me in. "I went in and said 'Chief, we have a situation,' and he switched off his good-old-boy an switched on his I-am-in-charge and we went into the inner office and he closed the door. "I was mad. "I was absolutely clear to my core mad. "I took a long moment to steady myself and then I told the Chief what the Dean said to me and he frowned and then he took me by the shoulders and said, "Willa, I want you in your class As, we're going over there,' and then he opened the door and told the reporter he was giving him an exclusive. "We went back over to the college. "We went back over in a convoy. "When I walked in, it was not as Willamina the nursing student, it was Willamina the police officer. Full uniform, gunbelt, sidearm and baton, and the instructor did not like it one little bit. "The Chief and I held back while two lines of long tall lawmen marched into the lecture hall with rifles at port arms. "The Honor Guard was practicing that day and when they found out what the Chief had in mind they didn't hesitate ... we had retired men from our department, we had current and retired from the Sheriff's Office, we had some State Troops, everyone was in uniform, everyone was warmed up and ready, and it was an impressive sight when this much spit-and-polished marched in, solemn jawed and straight backed. "These guys were good. "When they formed a double row they started with the Queen Anne's Salute and got fancy from there, and the Chief and I marched in between spinning M1 Garands, and the instructor is standing there with her jaw hanging down to her belly button. "Someone ran and got the Dean and she got there just as the Chief introduced the reporter and said that as I had saved lives and prevented a mass killing in a hospital setting, that the Department was recognizing my heroism in executing a barehand disarm while off duty. "He formally presented me with a commendation, the reporter got it all on video, and the Dean of Nursing looked like she'd bitten into a rotten dill pickle." "Did they kick you out of the program?" "How could they? The hospital sent their CEO over for the occasion and he waxed eloquent over me: he said I'd saved lives among staff and patient population alike, and their legal beagle buddied up with the nursing school's legal counsel and suggested that if there were any more episodes of discrimination against me, for any reason at all, the nursing school would find itself without clinical sites anywhere in the state, and the next day the Board of Nursing informed the school that if there was any retribution against me, they would lose their accreditation." "I'll bet they really liked you after that." "Like the Black Plague," Willamina sighed. "They just couldn't wait to get rid of me." "Expulsion, or graduation?" "Graduation. My mother was too drunk to attend. I could tell it hurt the dean to have to read the commendation for heroism when I was given my diploma." "Sheriff, yours has mine beat." He eased his chair back from the table, paused, turned back to face the pale eyed woman square-on. "Thank you for that disarm," he said quietly. "Do you remember an ER nurse, Janice, curly blond hair, red cheeks, a little heavy set?" "Oh heavens yes!" "She was there that night." "You're ...?" "Yep." He grinned. "You saved my Mama's life."

Just to correct a misconception... the Colt Signature Series were Colt clones of their percussion revolvers... they were of the same Italian (Uberti), parts as the Colt 2nd series, but... unlike the 2nd series, were not assembled, nor finished by Colt, those two processes were done by Iver Johnson of NY under license from Colt.