The night was beginning to be sultry; the air seemed to close in both of them as they began the hunt. To make matters worse, the moon was soon obscured by a thick blanket of clouds, making seeing anything almost impossible.

Neil was hoping desperately that it was only a lost animal; he really was not up to doctoring an injured animal at this time of night.

He was looking in all of the underbrush, and had even looked around the mission and scoured the bunkhouse and around the school, but there was no sound and no sign of a lost animal, despite Ruby Mae's assertions that "She had heard, what she heard." At last he turned to her, "I can't find anything at all out here, I think you must have just heard the trees groaning or something."

Ruby Mae put her hands on her hips, insulted, "I know what a tree screetcin' sounds like Doc, and that ain't what I heerd, I heered a hurt baby animal, and I ain't goin in till I find it!" Her red hair positively flamed with indignation in the lantern light.

Neil sighed, "Fine, once more around, and then I am going to bed, no ifs, ands, or buts, nothing will keep me awake!" He glared with assumed ferocity at the determined girl.

She huffed at him and stumped off indignantly towards the underbrush, then stopped and started off towards the school, Neil was temped to follow her, but decided to do a last patrol around the brush, if there was an animal out here that is where he would find it.

He was almost done with his final inspection when he heard an uncertain, quavering call from the schoolhouse; Neil dutifully turned his steps toward the schoolhouse wondering how Ruby Mae had found anything at all without a light. He stumped up the stairs, his footsteps seeming to echoing loudly in the night. He abruptly smacked into Ruby Mae who was standing frozen in the doorway of the school house. Irritated he took her by the shoulders and set her to the side. The moon suddenly came out of the clouds, bright and full, shining in the small schoolhouse, streaming in through the windows.

Neil stepped past the girl, then stopped in his tracks, he felt as if all of the air in his lungs were suddenly sucked out.

There was a small pile of clothing scattered carelessly around on the floor, but what his eyes were focused on was a slender form lying on the floor completely naked, the body pooled by a dark liquid.

He tried to move, but was completely paralyzed, wanted to scream, but there was no air in his lungs, he could only stand there his eyes taking in the sight but his mind unable to accept it. Suddenly he felt a hand on his shoulder shaking him,

"Doc, you got to help her! Wake up! Doc?" Hearing hysteria in her voice seemed to bring back to some semblance of normalcy. He turned to her and tried to tell her to get help from the mission but no sound came out, but Ruby Mae guessed at what he wanted to do and nodded her head, 'I'll go get Miz Ida right away!" Neil heard her footsteps running to the mission. He slowly stepped towards the silent figure hoping against hope that it would not look as bad close up. He set the lamp down and knelt beside her, reaching for her clothes to cover her up with, picking some of them up he grimaced, they were soaked in blood; and with growing rage he saw that none of the clothes would have offered any cover anyway, they had all been shredded to the size of a hankie, quickly he unbuttoned and pulled off his shirt and laid it over top of her. "No, Christy..." he whispered in anguish.

He tried to find where the bleeding was coming from, but there was so much blood and so little light it was not really possible to tell.

A raging fury was growing in the back of his mind over this desecration but he resolutely pushed it back, knowing it would only hinder his ability to help her.

He brushed back her hair that was tousled over her face, trying to ascertain if she had any head injury. He was stunned to find that hers eyes were open and looking at him, but not with any recognition, there was only a blank mask of horror. "Oh, God, Christy, Lass," he groaned helplessly rocking back on his heels. She blinked, but gave no other response; her eyes were still empty and dull. Neil heard the mission door slam and agitated voices coming toward them, he reached out to take her hand, Christy did not move but she gave a tiny cry that sounded like a kitten in distress.

Neil backed away and closed his eyes, taking deep breaths till he heard Ida and Ruby Mae coming into the schoolhouse. Ida gasped and ran up to Christy covering her with a blanket. "Ruby Mae, go to the kitchen and boil water, and get all of Miss Alice's bandages from the cabinet, Now GO!" Ruby Mae scurried off with a last tearful look over her shoulder.

"Doctor MacNeil, Will you help me to get her to the Mission?" Ida prodded.

"Yes, of course, but she is terrified, I don't think she recognized me, I don't think you can carry her alone, and I don't want to scare her anymore," he said uncertainly. Ida sized him up, somewhat taken aback at his confusion, usually he was the on with all of the orders.

"Well, why don't we lay her on the blanket, you get one end and I get the other like a stretcher?"

"Great idea." Neil said quickly, furious at himself for not being able to focus on what was needed.

He and Ida gently positioned the blanket behind her and rolled her onto it.

Ida gasped, "Doctor, I think you had better see this!" He hurried over and saw a knife wound in her chest, it was bleeding profusely, now he knew where all of the blood was coming from.

"Come on Ida, we need to hurry!" he barked out, lifting his corners of the blanket and heading out to the mission.

The mission was still and dark in the moonlight, it seemed somehow to be so wrong that there could be anything normal now, Neil thought, Christy had become almost one in his mind with the mission, how could it look so quiet and peaceful, when she was so damaged and broken?

The walk to the porch seemed to be one of the longest walks he had ever made, he wanted to almost run, but was forced to pace himself with Ida, taking care to not jostle his beloved, er, injured, patient.

Then at last they were entering the house, Ida wanted to take her to the couch but he was insistant that they take her up to her room. Carefully they maneuvering her up the stairs, then into her room and on to the neatly made bed bed.

Ruby Mae brought up water and the bandages then was quickly shooed out of the room to fetch his bag. Now the excruciating part of examining her injuries began. For his own reasons he started to focus on her head and lungs after he had put a quick compress on the knife wound. He could tell Ida was very puzzled by his lack of attention to the most serious wound. He worked swiftly, almost feverishly, to finish the examination. As if the greater speed he used, it would seem the less of a violation. Soon he had to slow down, Christy began to wake up and move about feebly.

Christy was disoriented and kept trying to weakly fight him off, flailing her hands wildly, and giving little whimpering cries, He had to ask Ida to hold her hands for him, but even with her hands held she still tried to fight, despite Ida's tender words and reassurances. Her eyes were wild and uncomprehending, reminding him of a fatally wounded animal in a trap that he had seen as a child.

It almost broke his heart to see her like this; he desperately wanted to do something, anything to help her.

Once his exam was complete he yelled out for Ruby Mae to bring up the needle she had been sterilizing.

He winced as she pounded up the stairs, hoping she did not drop it. She did not, and delivered it safely into his hand.

Once he had it, his hand trembling ever so slightly he took out a vial from his bag, he filled the needle to a certain level, and inserted it into a vein. He watched as Christy's fighting became more sporadic, then ceased altogether, her arms falling limply on the bed. Then last of all her eyes closed as she slipped into a morphine induced sleep .

Neil knew it was risky, there was still the slight chance that she had a significant head injury, in which case he might have just killed her, he would probably never have taken the risk for anybody else, but he felt that he had to give her the little escape that he could.

Now that she was asleep they began the task of assessing her injuries, and cleaning her up, by the time they were done, Ida was weeping and shaking, and Neil felt as if he had been beaten. From the looks of things he could guess that Ida had been confronted with things that no one, even doctors should have to see.

He had left the most delicate areas to Ida to inspect; only giving directions if she asked for help, but still he had seen enough to set his blood on fire and give him the impulse to hunt down and kill the men that had perpetrated this outrage. "By God, I would do to if I was not the only doctor here!" he thought to himself with passion.

It was agreed that in the morning when Miss Alice came he would ride to a neighbors to give alarm so all could be on watch and warn the to be women especially careful.

once he was certain that Christy would not wake for hours Neil went down to the living room to sleep on the couch, while Ida slept on the floor next to the bed.

But he did not sleep; he just tossed and turned, hearing Ruby Mae's soft sobs from upstairs. Finally concluding that sleep wound elude him, he got up to check on Christy.

Her breathing was still shallow, and she had a thready pulse that he did not like.