Once inside the saloon, Kitty poured two shot glasses of whiskey and handed one to the lawman. "I heard what happened out there tonight, Matt. You want to talk about it?" This story is a missing moment for the season 2 episode "The Round-Up."

"It's like I told you the other day, Matt. You can't be responsible for everything that happens to people whose lives touch yours. Sometimes you just have to accept things as they are. I think this qualifies as one of those times. For both of us." An MM/ATC for "Time of the Jackals."

A brilliant flash of lightning cut through the dark sky, illuminating the street and sending Louie Pheeters scurrying toward the figure sprawled across the horse's back. "Oh, my goodness, Marshal, we're going to need some assistance here. You hang on real tight. I'll be right back."

It wasn't exactly a sound that alerted Kitty's senses, but more the absence of sound. Not the delicate sound of silence, but the heavier sound of non-silence. A presence. That was it. She could feel it. She wasn't the only one in her room. This story is an ATC for the episode "Zavala."

Kitty was lying face down on her bed, and she didn't bother to turn around when she heard Matt enter the room. He walked to the bed and sat down beside her. He waited a moment, trying to gauge her mood. An ATC for The Way It Is.

Kitty looked at Matt and Chester and Doc, her blue eyes filled with sadness for Sweet Billy and Orkey and their loss. A tiny ATC for the episode "Marry Me."

Thirty miles and still two hours out of Dodge, surrounded by nothing but open countryside and swirling snow, Matt Dillon pulled his hat down and his collar up and leaned into his mount's neck, hopeful that he would make it back to Dodge before the worst of the storm hit. This story was written in response to a challenge to write a story that could be filmed as a Gunsmoke episode.

Kitty sets out to deliver Christmas gifts to the Ronnigers. The weather was cold and cloudy, but traveling went well until an icy rain started to fall. By the time she reached the bridge crossing the Silver Creek river feed, there was a thick layer of ice on the trees, ground, and wagon...

"What's the matter, honey?" Matt's voice was low and silky soft. The tender tone, the seldom used term of endearment were nearly her undoing. Reaching her arms toward him like a lost child, she whispered, "Hold me, Matt...please...just hold me." This story is an ATC for Kitty's Love Affair.

Matt Dillon clasped his hands behind his head, his eyes growing heavy as he watched her. He had known Kitty Russell for about a year, and, in that time, they had become good friends. In fact, along with Doc and Chester, they formed a close little group, frequently sharing morning coffee and evening meals. He sometimes thought he'd like Kitty to be more than just a friend...

Despite everything he had been through, despite the unthinkable scene that greeted his long-overdue return, he breathed out a chuckle. He had never been able to fool Kitty Russell, not about anything. But the laugh died just past his lips as she moaned feebly. Several readers have asked that this story be posted on this site, so here it is.

A hand, heavy and rough, reached out from the sleeve of a dark blue wool uniform and grabbed her arm. "Say there, ain't you a pretty little puss? What's your name, sweet thing? You wouldn't give me the time a day last night in that sportin' house, kept walkin' away and ignorin' me..." A story about Kitty during the Civil War.

"Thirty years have passed since that long ago summer when Matt Dillon first came into my life. My boyhood hero worship is gone now..." A long-time citizen of Dodge reminisces about the marshal.

"But, Matt, this sounds like so much fun," she coaxed. "I haven't been skating in ages—not since Spring Creek froze over and the entire town went out there for a big bonfire and party. Please...," she batted her lashes coquettishly. A short tale inspired by the sub-freezing temperatures currently enveloping most of the United States.

When Kitty left Dodge, and Matt, after 19 years, she never intended to return. But sometimes things happen...

This story was written as a challenge to create a backstory for one of the many minor Gunsmoke characters, a character we know as a person, but about whom we *know* very little.

"Matt, I'm the one who killed Tucker Ferrin." He nodded slightly. "I figured as much. You going to tell me why?" She wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her face into his chest. Turning her head to the side, she answered, "It's a long story, Matt—and it's not a very pretty one." An ATC for "MIss Kitty."

Our favorite marshal has been urging me to write this story for several years, so I finally did it. "Matt stretched out on his side, facing the creek, and Kitty spread her green and white sprigged muslin skirts around her and sank down perpendicular to his long body, using his muscular chest for a back rest..."

"You gonna tell me about your night of debauchery in Brimstone?" "Nope." An ATC for "The Iron Men" that features Kitty in a season 20 episode.

I've always been slightly amused that, in "The Wedding," Matt is wearing a heavy coat, and Kitty is talking about going on a picnic. And now it occurs to me that it must have been a day in early spring, a day much like today when there's a chill in the early morning air, but the afternoon sun is warm and perfect for a romantic picnic. A short ATC for "The Wedding."

A slight variation on "P.S. Murry Christmas."

Thanksgiving with Matt and Kitty.

As Ben Stack began to spin yarns of ranching and riding and barroom brawls in the Arizona desert, Matt pulled his hat low on his forehead and leaned back in his chair, lost in even older, and very different, memories of his own.

On a stopover in Dodge City, a young lady sees the tall marshal in Delmonico's, and memories from a dozen years ago come flooding back. This story was originally written as a challenge story for another group.

Bitter tears of frustration and doubt rolled down her pale cheeks as she choked out, "Oh, Doc…what…do you think…am I making a mistake?" This story is a Missing Moment for "Kitty's Love Affair."

He unlaced his fingers from hers and asked, "Kitty, what can I do to fix this? How can I make it right?" An ATC for "Matt's Love Story."

"By thunder, Matt. You're going to stand there and tell me Kitty hasn't noticed there's something bothering you…and asked you about it?" An ATC for "The Gallows."

Kitty Russell's high-heeled boots clicked across the polished floor of Kansas City's Grand Hotel. Aware that every male eye in the lobby was focused on her movements, she held her stylishly coiffed head high as she signed the register.

"As the redhead squared her shoulders, the third occupant of the shack lifted huge hands bound by his own irons and tugged the big Stetson lower on his forehead." Originally written as a challenge story in which M and K are pitted against each other.

"I've never forgotten you, Kitty. I've gambled my way from New Orleans to San Francisco a dozen times with stops in every major city in between, and I've yet to meet anyone like you. I have a proposition for you, Kitty, and I hope you'll say yes."

"Sunlight was peeking in through the folds in the drapes, and she looked down in surprise at the man still sound asleep in the circle of her left arm." A Matt and Kitty vignette.

Can you believe this place? It's as civilized as New Orleans," Kitty commented, pulling her wool cloak closer, "only a lot colder." This story follows "Midnight Train to New Orleans" and "Anywhere You Are" in the "Return to Dodge" trilogy.

The trainman recognized Matt from many years on the Dodge City run and held on for dear life until the former lawman was safely anchored against the wall of the caboose. This story is a sequel to "Midnight Train to New Orleans."

That's not why I left, Matt." "Tell me, Kitty, just why did you leave? I've always wondered." An ATC for "Return to Dodge."

Part Kitty's journal, part narrative. "She turned to walk away, and he watched the sway of her hips through the thin fabric of her gown. A man could get used to that. Maybe, just maybe...."

Kitty had no idea if she had been asleep for minutes or hours when she was awakened by Matt's big body shaking beneath hers. An ATC for "The Jailer," Season 12.

This story takes place approximately two years after Season 19. "As the train pulled into Memphis, his worried mind bolted backward to the last time he had been there, the last time he had seen her...."

...and then I began the longest walk of my life--the fifteen steps to the corner of the jail house." Kitty confides in her journal again.

Kitty Russell sat at the Queen Anne writing desk staring into the darkness of the Dodge City night. Looking down at the blank page of the leather-bound journal in front of her, she dipped her pen into the inky black bottle by her right hand and began....

Matt: "If there's something...if I did something to upset you or hurt you, please tell me. We can make it right.” Kitty: "Nothing can make it right, Matt. Not this time."

This story is a fourth venture into the continuing saga of Matt's Love Story. It can stand alone, but is intended to follow the previous three ATC's--In Their Eyes, The Letter and Epiphany.

This story is a sequel to "Healing." The spring was gone from Kitty's step and her deep throaty laughter was no longer heard. Worry for the woman he loved was taking its toll on the big lawman as well. He ate little and slept less. He seldom left town...

Doc's sharp old eyes watched with dismay as Matt unpinned the small piece of metal from the coarse fabric of his shirt and held it in his huge hand. An epilogue for "Hostage!" Story is complete in itself, but there will be a sequel.

Matt poured another shot of the amber liquid and stared into the smoky room. An ATC for the season 19 episode, The Town Tamers.

This story takes place after season 19 and is yet another attempt to explain Kitty's disappearance from Dodge. Kitty turned in the warm circle of his arms, her own slender arms reaching around his neck...

She stared at him. He couldn't be saying what she thought, but it sure sounded as if....

Matt eased Kitty out of his arms and threw his long legs over the side of the bed. He sat there for a minute, debating. Then he handed the folded sheet of paper to Kitty so she could read the message from Mike for herself.

Even with her back to the nearly empty room, the rapid acceleration of her heart told her the exact moment the biggest and best looking man in the U.S. Marshal's Service stepped up to the batwing doorsa missing moment to black and white Hostage, 1965.

Matt Dillon loved every inch of Kitty Russell's exquisite face and body, but if forced, he would have to admit it was her eyes that first attracted him to her. A Missing Moment to Matt's Love Story.

Truth be told, he, like nearly every other man in Dodge, was probably a little bit in love with the gorgeous saloon owner. Vignette in honor of Sam's Glenn Strange's birthday August 16, 1899.

A missing moment to Return to Dodge.... It had been twelve years since he had seen her, twelve years since he had touched her, held her in his arms.

At the beginning of the episode Snap Decision, Matt rides into Dodge with Ray Gilcher's body at his side and a pained expression on his face. What had Gilcher ever been to Matt?