Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman Fan Fiction 1

It was a hot day in Colorado. Byron Sully and Michaela Quinn were visiting the Cheyenne Indian reservation. Michaela wanted to check up on one of the new mothers that had her baby two weeks ago.

Sully looked around as they entered. Two new soldiers were waiting at the gates. He did not recall seeing them around Colorado. Still, he dismissed his thoughts, he could have missed a couple. He hadn't lived at the reservation for a while now.

The wagon kept moving, and they could see the peaks of the old teepees now. A fellow native friend of Sully's, Cloud Dancing, ran up to the wagon. Sully pulled the horses to a stop so that they would not get spooked and run over his comrade.

"Sully, you've got to come quick," the man said in broken language. His fingertips were bloody, and his eyes were wide.

Sully handed the reins to Dr. Quinn and jumped off the wagon. The two men raced towards one of the older teepees. Sully spied a new teepee in the process of being built. They entered the old, brown buffalo skinned teepee and found a young Cheyenne girl lying on a pallet.

"The soldiers brought her in today," Cloud Dancing explained. "She won't let anyone touch her. We can't stop the bleeding if she won't let us."

"What happened," Sully asked, rolling up his deerskin sleeves. He had worn his deerskin shirt because they were visiting the reservation.

"We don't know, the soldiers said nothing, they just threw her to the ground and left," the Cheyenne answered.

The girl stirred, her right hand covered a bloodied area just below her lungs. She mumbled something incoherent in Cheyenne. Sully placed a hand on her forehead and she tried to jerk away. He could see that her right eye was swelling, and her forehead was boiling hot.

"I need water," he said in Cheyenne and Cloud Dancing ducked out of the teepee to fetch it. Sully took his hand off the girl's forehead. She looked towards, Sully, her left eye fully open and observing him, her right eye swelling by the second. Sully introduced himself in the Cheyenne language and tried to peel her hand away from her wound.

The young girl said nothing but pressed even harder refusing to let him look at her wound.

Cloud Dancing soon returned with water in a small pail with an old cloth hanging over the handle. "Her words make no sense," he said, listening to her mumble again.

"She has a fever," Sully replied. "She thinks she is saying something but it makes no sense, her fever is too high."

Cloud Dancing quickly dipped the rag in the water and handed it to Sully. "It is good you came today."

Sully nodded and placed the cloth over the girl's forehead. "They didn't give you her name, where she came from or anything?"

Cloud Dancing shook his head.

"Perhaps she would allow Dr. Quinn to help," Sully suggested.

"She has shoved everyone away," Cloud Dancing said. "She is strong even when weak." He looked at the girl lying on his pallet trying to sit up and told her in Cheyenne to lie back down. "We want to help, let us," he said in Cheyenne.

The girl lay back down and lay still, her eyes looked at the teepee wall

Cloud Dancing looked at Sully as if waiting for something and Sully again tried to peel her hand away from the wound. She resisted a bit, but allowed him to remove her hand as Cloud Dancing talked to her.

Dr. Quinn passed the entrance of the tent on her way to see the young woman and her baby. The injured Cheyenne girl's eyes followed the soft crunch of grass below the Doctor's feet.

Cloud Dancing ducked out of the tent again to speak with Dr. Quinn about the girl. "Sully is caring for her now, but when you are done visiting with Walks Near Water, you might look to her?"

"Yes, of course," Dr. Quinn said turning towards Cloud Dancing's teepee.

"She won't let a white touch her right now, we are lucky she allowed Sully to look at her wound," Cloud Dancing said stopping the doctor. "Visit with Walks Near Water for now."

Dr. Quinn nodded and walked towards Walks Near Water's teepee.

Cloud Dancing returned to his teepee where Sully was taking the rag from the girl's forehead and dipping it in the bucket of water before washing out her wound. The wet cloth touched the girl's side and she winced in pain. Her hand quickly moved to the wound, as if to protect it.

Cloud Dancing quickly began to speak to her. "You are doing well," he said in Cheyenne, and kept speaking to her. He didn't know what else to do.

Sully began to speak to her in Cheyenne, telling her what he was doing. She seemed to relax. The heat was rolling off her body, and Sully became concerned. "We need another rag," he told Cloud Dancing who ducked out of the teepee to find another.

Sully held the girls right hand as he began to clean her wound again, she squeezed his hand and winced in pain. "What happened," he asked her. She mumbled something but he didn't understand.

Cloud Dancing returned with a clean cloth dipped it in the bucket and placed it on her forehead. Then he sat back on his knees waiting for another task.

"Looks like a gun wound," Sully said in English, once he had wiped most of the blood away from the wound.

Dr. Quinn entered the teepee with her medical kit that she retrieved from the wagon. She looked at the girl and grimaced before pulling out a needle and thread. She moved towards the girl but Sully stopped Dr. Quinn, "She won't let you," he said as he gently took the needle and thread from his wife and explained to the girl that he was going to mend her wound and that it would probably hurt.

The girl nodded and braced herself for the pain of the first couple of stitches. Tears rolled down the side of her face but she stayed silent. Sully let go of the girls hand, removed the quickly warming cloth from her forehead and dipping it in the water and placing it back on her forehead again. He wiped the excess blood from around her wound with the spared and bloodied rag before continuing to stitching closed the wound. She gripped the side of the blanket, and Cloud Dancing reached out and held her hand.

Dr. Quinn watched and waited now, for an opportune moment. She decided to replace the cloth on the girl's head, until Sully had finished stitching the wound.

Sully dipped his hands in the water and washed the blood off. A few minutes passed and the girl fell asleep.

Cloud Dancing looked at the girl thoughtfully, "If it was a gun wound, where is the bullet?"

Sully looked up at his friend, then at the girl.

Dr. Quinn started to turn the girl on her side and Sully helped her. The Cheyenne girl tried to fight them, but Sully held the girls wrists so she would allow Dr. Quinn to look at the entering wound from the back. Dr. Quinn took out another length of thread and began to stitch the wound.

A half hour passed. The wounds were stitched shut and dressed, and the girl was sleeping. The bloody water was poured out on the grass and freshwater was drawn so that Cloud Dancing could keep the girl's fever down.

Sully and Dr. Quinn returned to their home for the night, but at least one of them would be back in the morning.

…To Be Continued