Author's Note: I have a beta now! Huge thanks to JennaGill!
Katniss shrugged, "It wasn't too difficult, considering I've got a bullet in my leg that hurts like hell. Could you take a look at that now, Abernathy?"
"Hold your horses, Everdeen. I'll get there." Abernathy finished placing all his tools in the pot of boiling water, then pulled up a chair to the side of the cot and peeled back the blanket. Peeta stood up quickly, anxious to protect her privacy, but he relaxed when he saw that under the blanket, she was wearing men's trousers instead of a dress. He realised she was wearing a man's shirt as well. Her right leg just below the knee was wrapped in a bloody strip of cloth, which appeared to be the only source of blood on her.
"You didn't lose a baby?" Peeta asked.
"No. Just got shot." Her face was messy and her hair was disheveled but the determination in her grey eyes was striking. She clenched her jaw as the doctor removed the bandage.
"So why did I need to lie for you? I assumed - " he trailed off, blushing. He had assumed she was an unmarried woman in the family way. Though he didn't really heave much time to think about it - he'd been too busy covering for her. "Why couldn't you tell the sheriff you got shot? Do - do you - does this have something to do with those criminals he's looking for?" He kept his gaze fixed on her face, trying not to see what Doctor Abernathy was doing. He didn't trust himself to look at a gunshot wound without getting nauseous.
She cried out in pain.
"Sorry," the doctor grunted, "This looks worse than I thought. Forget the whiskey, Johanna, go get the laudanaum. Mellark, I promise you a full explanation, but this really isn't the time."
To Peeta's surprise, Johanna knew exactly where to find the medicine. He suspected she wasn't as dim-witted as he had been led to assume. "Was any of what just happened real?" he asked.
Abernathy considered the question for a moment, then commented, "Johanna really is my niece." He carefully poured the laudanaum from the brown bottle into a small glass and offered it to Katniss. She drank it readily, but grimaced at the taste. Peeta knew from experience it was bitter and unpleasant.
"Look," the doctor told Peeta, "I'm going to have to operate, Jo's going to have help and you're going to have to wait. Make yourself useful. Go get that sign by the sink and hang it on the front door."
Johanna snorted, "What, your hangover sign? You still have that thing?"
It was a small board with a string for hanging. In a barely legible scrawl, it read, "If it's not an emergency, come back in the afternoon. "
"I use it for legitimate purposes, on occasion," Abernathy drawled.
Peeta chuckled. The doctor was infamous for his drinking. Of course, Peeta couldn't complain. That was probably the reason a doctor of his skill had come to a frontier town barely ten years old, instead of somewhere larger and more respectable.
When he returned from hanging the sign on a nail on the front door, Johanna had spread a clean cloth on the table. She carefully removed the metal tools from the boiling water with tongs and set them top of the cloth.
The doctor held a rag under Katniss' nose and said, "Breathe deeply now. This is ether. It'll knock you unconscious for the surgery." Abernathy observed his patient as her eyelids drooped and her breathing slowed.
Peeta stood just inside the doorway, feeling useless and still a bit shocked at the turn his morning had taken.
The doctor instructed, "Mellark, help Johanna move that table over here."
Peeta obeyed again.
"Do - do you need anything else?" he asked, hoping the answer was 'no.'
"Just some peace and quiet to work. I think I can trust you not to go running to Thread as soon as you get out of here?"
"I won't tell. It would be difficult to figure out what to say, seein' as I have no idea what's going on."
"All in good time," Abernathy reassured him, "Stay close - that's what they'd expect given what your 'wife' has just gone through. There are some books in the front room. I just got a new catalog you might find interesting."
The front room contained a few chairs, a small table, and a cushioned bench. In the corner was a stack of medical tomes, a couple dog-eared catalogs, and Bible. Peeta picked up the newer of the two catalogs, which turned out to be full of medical equipment. He had no idea why the doctor thought he'd like this until he flipped through the dog eared pages and came to a section on artificial limbs. Some had metal joints that promised to move realistically, others boasted a patented attachment point that promised to be more comfortable. Of course, he couldn't afford any of the prices listed.
He slammed the catalog down on the stack in frustration and set out to the wood pile behind the doctor's home. Chopping firewood gave him something useful to do while leaving his mind free to think. First, he considered the facts he knew for sure. Sheriff Thread, who wasn't the local lawman, was chasing Wildcat Everdeen and Joe Mason. Doctor Abernathy was treating a woman for a gunshot wound that they had to hide from the sheriff. He surmised that an innocent victim would have no problem sharing the truth of her injury. Besides, she shared a last name with one of the outlaws. Was she his sister? His wife? And where did Johanna fit into the picture?
As he mulled it over, he couldn't help but think he was missing something.
The hours dragged on. A little before noon, Peeta decided to head over to the boarding house to check his horses and have some dinner. When Sae, the owner, asked how his visit to the doctor went, he explained that the doctor had a more urgent patient than him to see to. The woman suggested she save the doctor a walk and sent him back with a big tureen of stew and some biscuits. Apparently Doctor Abernathy rarely cooked for himself. Sae included some plain chicken broth, which she explained the doctor liked to have on hand for his patients. If it wasn't used that day, they could leave it outside to freeze and it would keep just fine. In the summer, she had to send her granddaughter over every day to see if he needed any. Realizing how precarious two tureens of soup and a plate of biscuits was, Sae loaded the meal up in a crate and sent Peeta on his way.
He heard voices as he made his way to the front door, but they cut off quickly when he clomped up the front steps.
Johanna and the doctor stood in the front room. Johanna stared him down, threateningly. "I thought we told you to stay here."
Peeta held up the food in his defense.
"Sae's?" asked Abernathy.
"Yes. She sent some broth for Katniss, too," Peeta replied.
"You told her about this?" Johanna asked.
"Just that the doc had another patient."
Johanna eyed him suspiciously, and said gruffly, "I'll go get some bowls. Let's eat in here."
They moved the furniture around so that the bench and chairs were grouped around the small table, which was barely big enough for the food, so they balanced their bowls in their laps. Peeta ended up on the bench and commented, "This is surprisingly comfortable."
"Yeah," said the doctor, "I've slept on it on occasion, when patients stay overnight. It's not bad. I really ought to get another cot though."
"So," Peeta asked Johanna, after she finished her stew at breakneck speed, "Are you the one who brought Katniss here? Her name is Katniss, right?"
"Yes, Katniss Everdeen, and I'm Johanna Mason."
Peeta's eyes widened at that. So they both had a connection to the outlaws.
Doc Abernathy chuckled, "I can guarantee, whatever it is you're thinking, the truth is even more surprising."
Johanna pulled the wanted poster the sheriff had left from her pocket and remarked, "They just can't get my nose right."
Peeta nearly choked on a bite of stew.
"Jo Mason, pleasure to meet you," drawled Johanna, lowering her voice. She sounded enough like a boy trying to act older that Peeta understood how she could pass as male, as long as she dressed the part.
"And Katniss is?" Peeta asked, recovering a little from the shock.
"Wildcat Everdeen, of course."
"But that beard -"
"Horsehair. It's even more hideous in person."
"And you - rob trains and steal horses?"
"Among other things."
"How?" He was having difficulty reconciling the petite woman who had sobbed in his arms this morning with a dangerous criminal.
"I'm not going to give away all our secrets, but mostly we just shoot people and take their boss's money."
Peeta gaped at her. "And Doctor Abernathy?"
"Legitimate businessman whose favorite niece is a rascal," Abernathy explained.
Just this morning, Peeta's biggest concern was the pain in his leg and his brother's apple crop. Five hours later he was having dinner with a woman who would probably kill him without a second thought if he crossed her, and his doctor would likely help her hide the body.
"Listen, we've got a business proposal for you," the doctor added, "Everdeen is gonna be bedridden for at least a week. We need someone to take care of her. I'll be in and out - I have rounds to attend to, and Johanna wants to be seen somewhere that's not here, so the law stops sniffin' around town."
Peeta stared at the doctor, completely shocked. He had no idea what to say.
"You'll be compensated for your time," added the doctor.
"You want to pay me to take care of a bedridden woman I don't know?" Peeta asked, "And that doesn't sound improper to you at all?"
Johanna appraised him. She remarked, "Kat could take you in a fight if you try anything. I'm not worried. Besides, she's your 'wife,' remember?"
"And technically you're asking me to break the law."
"Not anymore than you already have," the doctor noted, "Technically you're an accomplice now. This would be the option that's least likely to get us all caught, including you."
Peeta considered the offer. It's not like Rye was expecting him back anytime soon. This time of year there wasn't much to do on the farm, so Peeta had planned to stay in town if there were any odd jobs available. And, he told himself, at the end of the day, that's all this was: the oddest job he'd ever taken.
"Alright," he said, "Provided you take a look at my leg before you go out on rounds. I didn't just come here to bail you out, you know."