DQMW Ch 10
Sorry it's been so long since I've updated. I've had a bit of writers block, and Life happens. As always thank for reading. Hope you enjoy.
-Ash
"I guess I better be goin…" Sully reluctantly stated. He had finished his coffee and couldn't think of an excuse to stay any longer. The children would be heading to bed soon and Sully didn't want to be left alone with Michaela.
"I'll walk you out" Michaela sputtered in an almost shout. She had been lost in her thoughts and wasn't expecting him to leave so soon. She rose and grabbing a shawl headed for the door. Sully pulled on his belt and jacket and pulled the door open for her to exit ahead of him.
The two stepped out of the house, and neither one could put into words what they wanted to convey. Finally as Sully reached the last step Michaela spoke. "Thank you. I never would have found Brian if it weren't for... I… I don't know what to say. Just thank you."
Sully's mouth slacked open as he took in her heart felt plea. She had been the most infuriating woman since she moved in, but he found nothing but humility and genuine thanks oozing from her now. "Ya don't gotta thank me. I'm just glad he's all right… Dr. Mike…. I… I'll always be around if ya need me. All ya gotta do is ask." And with that he stepped into the darkness with wolf on his heels.
It was Michaela's turn to stand with her mouth open and stare after him. What did he mean? Was he just being friendly? He cared for the children, nothing more she tried to convince herself.
Days turned into weeks and once again Sully seemed to have disappeared. The family settled back into their daily routine as fall settled in, but Michaela constantly found herself looking for Sully. On Thanksgiving she was shocked that he didn't come by. Perhaps he didn't acknowledge holidays now that he lived with the Cheyenne. Michaela started to wonder if she had said anything to scare him off, but as she went through their last conversation she grew more and more discontented. He said he would always be around. But where is he?
Two more weeks had passed without a sign. It was only a few more weeks until Christmas, and Michaela was determined not to let thoughts of Sully ruin it. So, Michaela took the kids in to town to do a little shopping. This would be their first Christmas as a family and she wanted to make it special. Colleen was picking a beautiful fabric to make a new dress for the church Christmas party, and Michaela had just turned when she saw Brian eying a carving of a wolf.
"What caught your fancy Brian?" Michaela leaned down to the boy's level to get a closer look. Brian, too entranced to talk, pointed at the carving. "Looks like Sully's wolf" Michaela stated fondly. Not only was she missing his presence, but Brian had been inconsolable the last week. Brian, convinced that Sully was mad at him since he hadn't been around since he ran away, had cried himself to sleep the past three nights. The longer Sully was absent the worse he got, and Michaela hoped for his sake that Sully would come around soon.
"It is!" Reverend Johnson explained "Sully's the one who carved it."
"I thought he was a miner" Michaela questioned, standing back up to look at the other adults in the room. She knew that Sully was good with his hands, because she had seen the care that went into the furniture in the homestead, but carving was a whole different thing. It was so artistic.
"He's a misfit" Loren groused as he pushed himself into the group.
"So why do you sell his carvings?" Matthew shot back.
"I didn't put it there." Loren fired
"It belonged to our daughter…" Maude explained with a slight pain to her voice. Before she could continue Loren cut her off. "That's enough…"
Not wanting the situation to get out of hand, and seeing how much Brian adored the piece Michaela stood. "I'll buy it." She felt a twinge of satisfaction as Loren's jaw dropped open.
Michaela's pleasure at her small victory was soon squashed as she heard Maude gasping for breath as she crumpled to the floor.
"Maude… the powder. Where is it?" Michaela asked frantically as she unbuttoned the top of her dress.
"What powder? What are you talkin about?" Loren groused while he kneeled down to help his wife.
"Maude, listen to me." Michaela was frantic.
"Let's get her upstairs to bed" Loren was determined not to have the lady doctor treating his wife. All she needed was a rest.
"NO! She shouldn't be moved!" Michaela exclaimed. Maude was having a heart attack and Michaela was helpless without the medicine.
"G..G…Gone…"Maude choked out.
"Oh my god…" Michaela raced towards the telegraph office praying that the package from Chicago had just come in on the stage. She wasn't used to knowing what could help a patient, but simply being without the proper medicine to treat it due to the mail system. It was horrifying, and she knew that if Maude died, Loren would blame her.
As she reached the telegraph office she caught her breath and started to frenetically ask Horace if the mail had come in. Without a question she spotted the bag and dumped it out, frantically looking for the package she needed.
"It just aint come yet" Horace aquieced.
Oh no! This can't be happening. Michaela thought. She sprinted back to the general store just as Maude took her last breathe.
"Do something…" Loren pleaded.
"There's nothing I can do." Michaela whispered. She wanted to cry. She wanted someone to wrap her in their arms and tell her it would be all right. Oh Sully. Where are you?
It wasn't long before a crowd had gathered around the store, effectively snapping Michaela out of her daze. She needed to get the children away from all this before the whispers started. Luckily Matthew was way ahead of her and had prepared the wagon and ushered Colleen and Brian out of the store. At the threshold Michaela turned to look back at Loren holding his wife's lifeless body. "I'm sorry..." Michaela choked as a sob escaped her. She covered her mouth and headed to the wagon.
Little did Michaela know, Sully had gone to the Cheyenne winter camp. After their close encounter with Brian, Sully felt the need to distance himself from the little family living in his homestead. He was too tempted. At dinner, he could envision himself as a part of their family; it felt so natural to be sitting at his kitchen table with the family around it chatting warmly. It was like he had always belonged with them, and that feeling scared Sully to death. He had to put some distance between them. The 4 day walk to the camp served to clear his head, and Sully found that he felt better than he had for a while. The first two weeks were easy. Sully settled back into daily life with the Cheyenne and was able to push thoughts of Michaela and the children to the back of his mind.
As the second week started, so did the dreams. The first night Sully was jolted awake in a cold sweat. He couldn't remember what he had been dreaming, but felt a heavy sadness looming over him. The next two nights he wasn't as lucky.
It was a crystal clear evening. Sully sat gazing into his campfire when the sky opened up and bulky snowflakes began to fall. Standing, he extended his hand to catch the year's first snow. Despite the cold, Sully felt numb. He turned to enter his tent when a scream echoed in the distance. Sully stood stock still and strained to hear any noise that would indicate where the scream was coming from. Another noise came from his right, and Sully took off in a sprint. As he approached he swore he could hear a woman's voice. Her words were garbled until he reached a small clearing in the forest. She was calling his name.
"Sully… Sully…Please, I need your help."
He knew that voice. It was one he had been trying to forget. It was Dr. Mike. "Dr Mike?! Dr. Mike! Where are ya?" Sully replied frantically. The wind whipped around him distorting his sense of direction. Again he took off in a run, and before he knew it he was falling down an embankment.
Sully sat straight up. "Michaela!" He screamed. She needed him. Something was terribly wrong. Sully was shocked out of his reverie as the thunder of horses and shotgun fire rang throughout the camp.
The wagon ride home was quiet. None of the children knew what to say, and in turn neither did Michaela. She felt like she had let them down. As a doctor, she is supposed to be able to help when someone is hurt. But, there was nothing that could be done for Maude. Lowering her head she tried her best to hide the steady stream of tears running down her cheeks. Sully…Please, I need your help. Colleen prepared dinner while Matthew tried his best to entertain a confused Brian. They had laid out the checker board and were sprawled out on Michaela's bed. Michaela sat in the rocking chair facing the blazing fire with her arms wrapped firmly around her torso. She couldn't shake the look on Loren's face as he gazed at his wife's cold body.Death was something she could handle, but losing a patient for lack of a simple drug was simply unacceptable.
"Dinner's ready" Colleen cooed. Michaela smiled slightly and rose to eat with the children although her appetite was nonexistent. The family ate in near silence as Michaela pushed food around on her plate.
"Don't ya want anymore?" Brian finally asked. Michaela hadn't noticed that they were all done and cleaning up. "No, thank you" She whispered and handed her plate over.
Colleen saw this as an opportunity to lift her spirits some as she asked "Ya still haven't read your letter." Colleen had caught a glimpse of it sitting on the kitchen table as she cooked, and couldn't help noticing it was from Boston. Maybe some news from her family would cheer her up.
The result was the opposite. After reading the letter out loud that spoke of her sister's new baby, and her Mother's continuing disapproval of her decision to live in Colorado, the dam broke and Michaela lost her composure. Sobbing was not Michaela's style, but now that she had started she couldn't seem to stop herself. She felt so alone. Of course, she had the children, but she couldn't talk to them about the things that were bothering her. She put on a brave face and smiled. There was no need for them to worry unnecessarily about her.
Everyone excused themselves for bed, and once again Michaela was left alone with her thoughts. Perhaps her mother was right. The town was no closer to respecting her as a doctor, and after losing Maude, she expected it would set things back again. She could take the children back to Boston with her and pick up where she had left off. Perhaps it would be easier this time. In theory there was nothing holding her back.
Michaela had just drifted off to sleep when a deep thud was heard on the front porch followed by loud banging on the front door. She scrambled from bed and turned up the bedside lamp as she asked shakily "Who is it?"
"It's Sully… Open up!"
Relief captured her heart as Michaela leapt forward and unlatched the door. "Black Kettle's been shot." Sully explained as he led in two Cheyenne men carrying the chief.
Michaela quickly turned to doctor mode and began giving orders. "Put him on the table."
"Chivington and his men ambushed the village. Burnt it to the ground… massacred nearly everybody." Sully explained. He was so relieved to see that Michaela was all right after his troubling dreams, but he had to focus. Black Kettle needed help, and Sully knew that Michaela would help him, no questions asked.
Michaela began to palpate her patient, quickly discovering the source of his pain. "There's a bullet lodged in his neck."
"Can you get it out?" Sully asks impatiently.
"I think so… But, the swelling's constricting his air passage. He can't breathe. There's something else I have got to do first." She explains and heads towards her chest of drawers to retrieve a scalpel.
"Wh…what?" Sully is nervous. He knew that Cloud Dancing was wary of bringing the chief to her in the first place, and one wrong move and all hell would break lose.
Michaela quickly returned with a tray of instruments and antiseptic and swiftly doused her hands. Picking up the scalpel she headed straight for Chief Black Kettle's neck when she felt a hand grab her wrist.
Cloud Dancing was glaring at Sully. He would not allow some white woman to cut on their Chief. Sully tried his best to explain to Cloud Dancing that she knew what she was doing, and that they had no choice but to trust her. After a moment's pause, Cloud Dancing reluctantly let go of her arm.
Sully turned back towards Michaela and mumbled "You better know what you're doin" He was silently praying that he had made the right decision to bring him to her. If Black Kettle died, the blame would be on him.
Michaela stiffened at his comment. She had never expected Sully to doubt her. Of course I know what I'm doing! She refocused her attention to her patient and steadied her hand to make the cut. "It's called a tracheotomy" she explained as she made the incision. She glanced around the room; She needed something for him to breathe through. A feather! Without a word she reached for Sully's necklace and tore off the closest feather. Cutting the tip off she blew through the end to ensure air could pass and stuck it into the hole in Black Kettle's throat. It wasn't the most sterile of options, but it would do. "This will help him to breathe." With a glance to Sully he held the feather in place. As their fingertips touched Sully felt a spark flow through them. How could one touch ignite this much feeling? Sully thought.
Michaela had felt the spark too, but was too focused on her task at hand to give it a thought. She reaches for the chloroform to offer some comfort for the chief while she digs the bullet out of his neck, but he refuses. Adeptly Michaela extracts the bullet and the whole group releases a sigh of relief.
The men move Black Kettle to the bed so that he can rest more comfortably. The Cheyenne men sat on the floor next to the bed while Michaela and Sully settled in at the kitchen table next to each other. Michaela has wrapped a shawl around her shoulders and is unconsciously huddled towards Sully as he sits with his elbows propped on the table. They sit in contemplative silence for what seems like hours before Sully speaks. "Soon as the sun's up, Chivington's men will search for Black Kettle's body. When they don't find it, they'll come lookin'."
She responds immediately switching back into doctor mode. "You can't move him. It could start the bleeding again. Besides… I need to stitch up that tracheotomy when the swelling goes down." She wanted desperately to keep Sully around for a while so that she could ask him where he has been, but now is definitely not the time. She can tell that he's worried, and she wonders how he became so attached to this particular group of men.