This story is set in the Wild West during the Gold Rush days in the USA. Naomi 'Doc' Campbell is a doctor in a town set along the trail that heads out west. Doc Campbell meets the Fitches as they stop in the town for medical help. Next thing Doc knows, she has house guests for a week, extra help to fix up her ranch, and a pair of beautiful deep brown eyes to get lost in. A little bit of Freddie, some JJ, maybe a Cook sighting, more Katie and Effy, and all the Naomi and Emily to keep the story worth writing for. Hope you like it. Most everything is made up... not a history buff by any means. Just tried to write so it was worth reading. PS... this is my first, so all the help I can get from y'all would be much obliged.

Chapter 1 – Doc Campbell Meet the Fitches

Everyone in town considers Doc Campbell to be the best Doctor in the West. She has performed miracles on a numerous town folk, who all seem to have a special ability in getting themselves in sticky situations, often. Never had she thought that this would be her life. Here out West, in the little town of Bristol Springs, Montana, Naomi 'Doc' Campbell has her own spread on the outskirts of town, her own doctor's office in town, and all the patients she will ever need in order to satisfy that desire in her to help others.

Growing up in the high society of Boston, Massachusetts, Naomi's dream was always to grow up and make a difference. She hated seeing her own mother bow to her father's expectations of how a lady should act in society. While Naomi's mother lived up to the expectations as a wife and mother, she secretly fed Naomi ideas of being bigger than what this society had to offer in this world. Yeah, sure, Naomi had to do as her father said, but if her mother only ever did one thing for her, it's that she demanded that her daughter attend the finest schools Boston had to offer, and not just until she was of age. Naomi was brilliant. She finished regular school two years ahead of anyone else her age. She then attended a women's College, where she took kindly to studying in Medicine. After completing all the work available at the women's College in just a year and a half, Naomi set her sights on a Medical School in Pennsylvania, specially designated for women to become doctors. After two years at that school, Naomi graduated the top of her class. From that moment on, it was all about helping those in need, making a difference. Never had she thought she would be heading in the opposite direction of where her family was.

After graduating, Naomi's father had set up a job for her out West. He was a bit taken back by her desire to do what is considered man's work that he thought it best that she be away from the family so as not to bring any shame upon them for going against what society deemed appropriate. Her father knew a newspaperman out in a little town along the trail that took every adventurer out west to Gold Country. He greatly accepted the offer for a doctor for the town. The nearest medical care was a two-day's ride away. A doctor in those parts will save a lot of people from certain doom.

Naomi set out heading West and came upon the little town in Montana, where she promptly set up shop and began making a name for her self. It's been three years now, and although life is what she wanted now, she couldn't help but feel like something was missing. Naomi had a good life - work, food, a home, and everyone in town called her friend. Out here, with it being already difficult just to make it from sun up to sun down, nobody really looked twice at someone's personal business. That was one thing she savored. Naomi always knew she wasn't like the other high society girls in Boston. She never cared for the young men who always tried to get her attention. She had been courted once or twice while in school, but she always found a way to end it without cause for alarm by her parents. It was safe to say she didn't much care for the opposite sex.

Out here, what, or who, she preferred didn't seem to matter. Nobody questioned it as long as it didn't upset their own lives. The fact that she didn't have a man by her side, or that she had turned down some of the most available suitors the town had to offer, didn't seem to matter. It helped that she provided the town with medical care, so what may have been questionable about any other ordinary woman, just didn't matter when Doc Campbell was saving your life from the bullet that was just shot through you. It left Naomi with a lot more freedom then she would ever had thought.

It is late August in the middle of the night when she heard of a Gold-hungry family coming into town with a sick child. Doc Campbell thought nothing of it, but rather to get him well and the family on their way. Over the past three years, with the Gold Rush out West, many folks have passed through their town for nothing more than a hot meal and a day's rest. She didn't care herself for the crazy 'get rich striking gold' mentality. Maybe it was because she already had plenty of wealth to her name, but mostly she had just seen to much greed in folks that caused even the most honest people to lie, cheat and steal. So when the Harkin's boy showed up a little after mid-night telling the Doc she had a sick boy waiting for her at her office, she was up and out the door within minutes, riding into town on little sleep. A child sick always made her move faster. She only lived about an hours ride outside of town at an easy pace. Riding fast she easily made it to her office door in a little over 30 minutes time.

When she arrived, she was met with a frantic mother cuddling a figure in her arms no bigger than an 8 year-old child. The father, Mr. Rob Fitch was his name, came running up to the door from the direction of the town's hotel. Mr. Fitch stopped abruptly at the sight of Doc Campbell. His face said it all. His face contorted into a curious look toward the Doc, first trying to figure out if the Doc was a feminine Male or a masculine Female, then once he clearly went with his second choice, whether this was actually the Doc.

"Doc Campbell," Naomi said with the tip of her hat. "You must be the boy's father," Naomi stuck her hand out toward Mr. Fitch.

"Yes, I'm Robert Fitch, this is my wife, Jenna, and this is my boy, James." Mr. Fitch ignored Doc Campbell's hand and shuffled over to his wife and boy.

"What's seems to be the problem?"

"We were out on the trail when James 'ere got sick, started uncontrollably coughin' and then started vomiting. Trail Boss kicked us off the caravan for fear of him infecting others. We've been walking 'bout two days now, when we stumbled on a ranch outside of town. They said you was the best."

Mr. Fitch mumbled the last part almost in disbelief that the rancher outside of town would be talking about this woman standing before him. He sized her up the minute he saw her. She was a bit taller than his girls, bright blonde hair sticking out from underneath her hat, wearing men's trousers and a button up shirt, she had a six shooter strapped to her side, and from the looks of it, he didn't question that she knew how to use it. But she was quite thin and had a simple beauty to her. He expected a strapping young male doctor, to say the least. Mr. Fitch didn't even know woman could practice medicine. He was unsure of her abilities, but didn't really have a choice to question it as his boy, James, started another one of his coughing fits, which undoubtedly ended in him vomiting, or rather dry heaving, as he hadn't had much to eat in the last two days.

Doc Campbell stepped up to the boy and sat him straight up. She grabbed her stethoscope and listened to his lungs. She decided the best thing she could do for him right now was to take away some of the pain with some medication, keep his lungs as open as possible, and get the boy some rest. She couldn't hear anything out of the ordinary, but knew that she wanted to do a full examination in the morning after the boy had some rest. She put him in her examination room with a blanket and a few pillows to make him as comfortable as possible. When he was sleeping contently, she exited the room and turned toward Mr. and Mrs. Fitch.

"Best I can do for now. If you folks want to head over to the hotel an' get some rest, I can stay here with him tonight. He should sleep for the rest of the night without any hindrance."

Mrs. Fitch jumped up with tears in her eyes, " I won't leave my baby."

"You're more than welcome to stay. I have a comfortable chair in there that you will be able to catch some shuteye on. There are more blankets in the cupboard for ya." Doc Campbell leaned up against her desk waiting for Mr. Fitch to respond with his intentions.

Mr. Fitch just nodded and watched his wife traipse into the other room. Once the door was closed behind her, he leaned a little closer to Doc and asked, "Does he have a chance?"

"Sir, I don't want to get your hopes up, but from what little I examined from him, I think a few days rest and good food will help him beat whatever it is he's got. He seems to be just coughing, which leads to his body vomiting only because he is coughing so hard. Nothing more."

Mr. Fitch steps back, looks up as if looking up to the nights sky, blows out a ragged breath, and looks back straight into Doc's piercing blue eyes, "You save my boy, I owe you big."

"Sir, you owe me nothing more than a thanks and we'll call it even. It really seems to be nothing."

"Well if we got to be here in town for a few days, is there anything I can do for you. I'm pretty handy with my hands, can fix most anything."

Doc Campbell sat back and thought, she does have some fences that need mending out on her ranch. Plus it would be a lot easier to finish of the corrals with an extra hand. She has plenty of room in her house for them to stay as she keeps an eye on little James.

"Tell you what Mr. Fitch."

"Yes."

"I could use a little help out on my ranch. I have plenty of room for you and your family to stay, plus I can keep a better eye on James' cough. What do you say? I watch over your boy in exchange for a little fence mending?"

Mr. Fitch's face grew wide, with a hefty grin he stuck out his hand, "Deal."