AN: The following 6 chapters integrate and expand my previously-written story "The New Doctor."
Rated K+
Enjoy!
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It was early June and the pueblo of Los Angeles was ready to welcome their new doctor, fifth Spanish-speaking Yankee to move there, after Joshua Barnes - who had bought a plot from the De la Vegas some seven years earlier - and the three Nielsons -who were unlucky enough to buy some rocky land from the former alcalde, Luis Ramon, yet still managed to thrive.
De Soto had gotten used to Barnes and the Nielsons, even if he, obviously, despised them, for various reasons, but first and foremost for not being Spanish. At least, they paid their taxes on time and didn't cause him any trouble. The idea of a Yankee doctor, however, was rather upsetting to him since he was quite sure they would have trouble communicating with him, especially when it came to medical terms. However, since nobody else was willing to come replace Doctor Hernandez, he was, at least, happy that, with the new doctor in town, the obnoxious De la Vega would see his influence over the town folk decreasing once nobody would need his services anymore.
After the caballero had just given him a rather humiliating defeat in the trial he had agreed to just a few days earlier, proving himself a... more decent lawyer than Ignacio would have ever expected, he could just see the superiority with which Diego was looking at him, even when he wasn't looking.
"Had it not been for that arch being's interference again, he wouldn't have stood a prayer of a chance against me!" De Soto muttered at looking through his window into the plaza and noticing Diego dismount in front of the tavern.
With a sigh, Ignacio returned to his desk and started going through his latest report.
ZZZ
"Hola, Diego!" Victoria greeted as her friend entered the taproom and headed towards the bar behind which she was arranging some bottles.
"Good morning, Victoria!" He replied. "Have you, by chance, seen Sergeant Mendoza?"
"Today? Ah… No. The Alcalde sent him and half the garrison to San Pedro yesterday for something they referred to as 'the special delivery'. I don't think they are due back until this afternoon." She answered.
"I see." He replied pensively. "Have a good day, Victoria!" He wished her as he turned around to leave without granting her a second look.
The taverness watched him leave with a puzzled look, then turned her attention towards a client asking for a glass of juice.
ZZZ
"Give Father the note on top of the pile on the desk, should he inquire about my whereabouts. I shouldn't be out for more than half a day, but who knows? Fire three red-flame arrows should my presence be urgently needed." Diego instructed Felipe as he was changing clothes in the cave. "And get Esperanza inside when I leave. She's tied up outside the cave."
"Where are you going?" The younger man asked by signs.
"Mendoza and his men are to bring the new shipment of ammunition today." He answered just as he was tying up his mask. "I think I'd better be on the lookout, just in case."
With an "Adios!" Zorro exited the tavern and galloped west, while Felipe looked around and decided the cave needed some cleaning.
He, thus, took the broom and swept the floor, then, because dust was gathering in the air and he didn't want it to affect the ongoing experiments, he took a wet cloth and started dusting. About an hour later, after thoroughly cleaning every one of the instruments and glassware on Diego's work table, he decided that the desk needed some attention as well. However, as he was dusting, he accidentally caused the few envelopes there to fall, and the one on top slid under the worktable. Consequently, three hours later, when Don Alejandro asked about his son's whereabouts, Felipe gave him what he thought to have been the first envelope on top, but wasn't.
"He went to Santa Barbara? Now? How about his patients? And how about the new doctor? He'll barely make it back in time to greed him, if that! Do you have the key to the office?" Don Alejandro asked as Felipe looked at him wide-eyed, certain he had just made a mistake. Still, he simply nodded.
"Sometimes I just can't understand him! He could have chosen a better time to go for medical supplies than this! Or he could have sent someone else for them." Don Alejandro chided, then left, heading outside.
Felipe watched him go, then hurried to the cave, where he remained until his father returned.
"Nobody attacked the shipment, but I did catch a couple of bandits as they were robbing a Don Mateo and his wife." Diego uttered at taking off his mask, some three hours later, as he returned to the cave. "Is my father home?"
The younger man looked apologetically, then proceeded to explain what he had done.
"You mistakenly gave my father the wrong envelope? He thinks I'm on my way to… Santa Barbara?" The older man interpreted his signs.
Felipe nodded his head, then stared at the floor.
Diego just chuckled. "Well, in that case, I should just make the best of my time off!" He replied as he headed for his work table.
Felipe looked curiously at him.
"You'll make it up to me by keeping me fed… and visit my patients to make sure they are doing well. In the meanwhile, I think I can find a way to turn this mistake of yours to my advantage." He uttered with a smile.
ZZZ
"Buenas noches, Señorita!" The black-clad man uttered later that evening, as Victoria entered the kitchen.
"Zorro!" She exclaimed as he took out a single red rose to offer to her. She smiled as she took it and smelled the sweet perfume. "I just closed the tavern..." Victoria said with an inviting look, "and there are no overnight guests."
"Excellent. I was hoping we could have dinner together! Unless you've already eaten…"
"No… With all the clients I had this evening, I didn't have the time." She lied, a little disappointed that all he wanted was her food, instead of her lips.
"I'll set the table." He offered as he passed by her, heading towards the taproom.
Victoria turned to the worktable, a disappointed look on her face.
"Oh… I think I forgot something," Zorro muttered as he turned around just before exiting.
"You did?" She wondered as she also turned towards him.
"I forgot this." He answered, pulling her into his arms and leaning down to give her a kiss. "Delicious!" He stated as their lips parted, a wicked twinkle in his eyes.
The next moment, before Victoria could fully recover her breath, he was already searching for glasses behind the bar.
She smiled and put some of the leftovers on two plates. Then, remembering the rose, she put it in a small vase, then chose a bottle of wine and placed everything on a tray to carry them to the taproom.
In the meanwhile Zorro had covered the windows so that nobody would be able to see inside, and lit a few candles just before extinguishing the ones on the chandelier.
"How romantic!" Victoria teased as she saw everything he did.
"I thought we wouldn't want any interruption." He replied naturally.
The scene repeated for the following two days, as Diego spent his time reading and tending to his experiments during the day, and visiting Victoria in the evening. He felt like on a short vacation and took every advantage of it.
On the fourth day, Zorro went out to patrol the road from the port, mainly because he knew the new doctor was to come by the day's coach, Felipe having heard a lancer informing the Alcalde about it early that morning. He had been in the same spot for an hour already, surveilling the most dangerous part of the road, when he saw the stagecoach's horses galloping frantically off of the main road and towards a small canyon situated just a couple of miles northeast, in the direction they were heading. The driver seemed to have lost control over his horses, and, just like his passenger, was at their mercy.
With no time to lose, the black-clad man steered Tornado after the coach and reached it some five hundred feet later.
"I can't control them!" He heard the driver shout as soon as the man saw him.
"You're heading for a canyon!" Zorro warned but, since there was nothing the poor man seemed able to do to stop the speeding horses, he carefully stood up on Tornado and jumped on the back-right runner, finding the reins and pulling the horses to a stop.
"Señor Zorro!" The coachman exclaimed. "Gracias a Dios you were near! These horses had gone mad, and there is a canyon up ahead."
"That's what I said." The black-clad man remarked as he dismounted, heading for the carriage.
As he opened the door to check that the passengers were alright, a beautiful woman, no older than 29, with curly blond hair and beautiful blue eyes, fell down straight into his arms and looked at him puzzled.
"Why are you wearing a mask?" She asked just as she fainted.
Surprised, Zorro lifted and put her back in the coach.
"Is there no other passenger?" He asked the driver, as he was trying to help her regain her senses.
"No, Señor Zorro. Just the lady here. She's an American." Came the answer.
"But, the pueblo is expecting the new doctor to arrive today." Zorro replied, clearly disappointed.
"That's me!" The woman answered as she regained consciousness. "Why am I back in this coach?" She asked, puzzled by her surroundings. "I am never getting on one ever again, in my life!" She proceeded to declare.
"You... are the new doctor?" Zorro questioned. "But we were expecting a Señor Jessie Kent."
"No, you were expecting Doctor Jessie Kent, and that is me. Why you assumed I was a man I have no idea!" She answered.
"Forgive me, Doctor! I meant no offense." Zorro replied, a courteous smile on his face.
"And now that you know who I am, would you mind telling me who you are?" Her question came almost as an order.
"I am Zorro! Your humble servant, Doctor!"
"Zorro? I heard about you, but I thought you were a tale to scare off bandits. I could have sworn you were a figment of someone's imagination. I still am rather convinced you are, since I am pretty sure I bumped my head quite hard at some point during the last 10 minutes." She asserted, touching her forehead.
"I assure you, Doctor Kent, I am quite real." Zorro replied with a sly grin.
"You do look real enough! But, in that case, Señor, I have a feeling it will be I your humble servant since, given your life choices, sooner or later you are bound to need my services." She answered quite sure of herself. "And, considering that you will soon be in my debt, would you do me the small favor of taking me into town on your horse? I have no intention of getting back on this death trap!" She said, as she was pointing at the coach.
"It will be my pleasure, Doctor!" Zorro agreed with a smile. "Although, for your safety, I can only take you to the outskirts of the pueblo. My presence makes the soldiers and the esteemed Alcalde rather nervous, and they tend to misfire their guns, you see. I wouldn't want to put you in danger." He then added, fully aware the soldiers would be in the plaza waiting for the doctor together with the Alcade.
She climbed on the horse, sitting in front of him, and he brought her to the entrance of the pueblo. Once there, he helped her down, but not before the people, gathered in the plaza to receive the new doctor, noticed the scene.
"What is Zorro doing here, today, Mendoza?" The Alcalde asked. "And who is that woman with him?"
"I don't know, Alcalde!" The Sergeant answered, also looking inquisitively towards the new arrival as the black-clad man saluted and left, no soldier even considering pursuing him. "Maybe she is a lady friend of his."
"Sergeant, make sure you don't lose her from your sight! I must find out who that woman is and what is her relationship with that masked menace!" The Alcalde ordered.
That was an easy-enough mission for Mendoza as Jessie headed straight for the people gathered in the plaza where she arrived moments after the coach.
The Alcalde opened the door as the musicians started playing. "Welcome, Doctor Kent, to El Pueblo de Los Angeles!" He greeted the empty coach. "What is this?" He asked. "Driver, where is the Doctor?"
Meanwhile, Jessie, who was standing right next to him, started chuckling.
"Señora!" The Alcalde admonished at seeing her.
"I am sorry, Señor, but that was too funny not to laugh!" She replied.
"I am Alcalde Ignacio de Soto! Please introduce yourself, so that I know who I'll be putting in my jail for disrespecting a Royal official!" He asked infuriated.
She looked at him for almost half a minute, studying the man before her. He felt somehow embarrassed by her stare, and was glancing between her and Mendoza.
"Doctor Jessie Kent." She eventually replied, leaving everyone in awe.
"You can't be a doctor!" He answered. "You... you are a woman!"
"Fine way to state the obvious, Señor!" She replied sarcastically. "If I can't be a doctor because I am a woman, you can't be Alcalde because you have white hair! It makes just as much sense!"
As this exchange, which was soon to become more and more humiliating for the Alcalde, was taking place in the plaza, Zorro rode at full speed to the cave and hurriedly changed his clothes, then mounted Esperanza and headed towards the pueblo.
In the time it took him to get there, Jessie had thoroughly humiliated and utterly intimidated the Alcalde, then took Don Alejandro's offer to escort her to the medical office.
"What is this?" Jessie asked the don, looking at a sheet of paper with a list of names on it.
The list was carefully placed together with some tools for blood transfusion, a procedure most big hospitals were not practicing yet at the time since it was deemed too dangerous.
"I am not really sure, to be honest." Don Alejandro answered, not having yet been informed about that particular initiative. "You will have to ask my son, Diego, when he returns from Santa Barbara, later today. He has taken over the office while the town didn't have a doctor."
"Is your son a medicine man?" Jessie wondered.
"Diego? No... not exactly... But, as he says, 'he does know a little something', and, since there was no one else to step in, he agreed to do it." The don replied.
"So, for the past three months, the only man giving medical advice in this pueblo was a man with no medical education?" Jessie inquired, rather upset.
"Well, he did read a few medical books before volunteering, and he has had some experience at mending bullet wounds and broken legs. But, trust me, Doctor, Diego will be quite relieved to return to his normal jobs!" Don Alejandro told her.
"Normal jobs? May I ask what are his normal jobs?" She became intrigued.
"My son, Diego, is the editor of the town's newspaper, The Guardian, he is an amateur engineer of sorts, he sometimes acts as a lawyer... And, of course, he helps me run the ranch, tend to the animals, that sort of things. That is, when he is not busy composing some sonnet, painting or fiddling with one of his instruments." Came Don Alejandro's answer as he was, himself, just realizing how many things Diego was actually doing.
Jessie looked at him preoccupied. Such a busy man, she thought, could not have possibly found the time to offer reasonable medical assistance, not to mention, good medical assistance. That, of course, if what the don was saying was, in fact, true, and he was not just purposely exaggerating his son's accomplishments, as most fathers do. Imagining Diego, she decided he was no taller than his father, with glasses, and, probably, quite full of himself if he thought he could perform so many jobs at any reasonable level of adequacy.
ZZZ
At entering the town, Diego reasoned that, since he was supposed to have been gone for several days, nobody expected him to know that Jessie had already arrived, so he headed for the tavern where, before stepping through the door he heard the lancers loudly gossiping about the new arrival.
"Good afternoon, Don Diego!" Victoria greeted her friend.
"Buenas tardes, Victoria! Did I hear right? The new doctor arrived?" Diego replied.
"Yes! And guess what? Our new doctor is a woman!" She replied with a giggle.
"A woman? Really?" Diego faked being shocked by the news.
"And what a woman!" Mendoza intervened at hearing their discussion. "A very beautiful Señorita, Don Diego!"
"Who already managed to annoy the Alcalde!" Victoria emphasized.
"How did she do that if she just arrived?" The tall caballero inquired.
"By putting him in his place!" Victoria answered with a smile on her face that made Diego regret that he had not witnessed the scene
"I would be very careful not to upset her!" Mendoza cautioned. "She is not like the women around here!"
"Really, Sergeant?" Diego asked. "Well, maybe I should go meet this wondrous creature." He stated as he bowed his head slightly at Victoria and headed for the tavern's doors.
"Good luck, Don Diego!" Mendoza wished him seriously, watching Diego exiting the tavern.
ZZZ
Diego was a little surprised at seeing his father as he entered the doctor's office, the same in which he had spent a large part of the last three months.
"Buenas tardes!" He greeted.
"Diego! Son, allow me to introduce you to our new doctor, Señorita Jessie Kent. Doctor, this is my son, Diego." Don Alejandro made the introductions
"Pleased to meet you, Doctor Kent!" Diego answered as he bowed to kiss her hand, his face not betraying any bit of the surprise she was expecting to find there.
Jessie studied the caballero from head to toe, just as she had previously done with the Alcalde.
"You are a handsome one, aren't you?" She couldn't stop herself from voicing out, surprised by the fact that he looked nothing like she had imagined. Her remark, however, made the two men stare at each other, confused whether that was a rhetorical question or she was, perhaps, expecting an answer. "So, you are responsible for all this equipment, here?" She continued, pointing at the medical tools and medicines carefully arranged in the office ignoring the looks on the two men's faces.
"Not at all, Doctor." Diego replied, happy she had changed the subject. "It was left by our former physician, Doctor Hernandez. I merely added a few pieces to it."
"If you'll excuse me," Don Alejandro interrupted, in his head already planning his son's wedding to the beautiful new doctor who saw his son as handsome as he was, "I will take my leave since I still have some business to attend to. A good day, Doctor Kent! And feel free to keep Diego as long as you need him. There's not much to do today at the hacienda."
"A good day, Don Alejandro!" Jessie replied, then turned back at Diego. "And this list? What is its purpose?" She continued her line of questions, expecting it to reflect some sort of payment arrangement.
"Well, since we do not lack for people getting shot here, in Los Angeles, and some die because of blood loss," Diego started to explain, "I have been doing some research on blood transfusion."
He then proceeded to explain his research and discoveries as Jessie's opinion of him was continuously growing; then informed her about the purpose of the list and she agreed that it was, indeed, a very good idea.
"I have also left you detailed instructions of my research on blood, and I am happy to offer you the microscope I have used as a welcome gift."
"That is very generous of you, Don Diego. And is this what I think it is?" She wondered, taking a type of very thin string.
"It is a self-absorbing string for internal sutures. I made it by applying some ideas I found in one of my books." Diego answered, making her even more intrigued with him.
"And you did all this without any medical training?" She continued her line of inquiry.
"Well, I have always liked chemistry, I know a little medicine… and I read a lot. As editor of the local newspaper I do keep myself informed about the new discoveries in all sciences." He told her modestly.
"I see..." Jessie replied. "Well, Señor, this conversation has been most enlightening."
"Glad to have been of service. Should you need me for any reason, my family's hacienda is about two miles north of the pueblo, and my newspaper office, The Los Angeles Guardian, is just next to the tavern." Diego said. "I wish you a pleasant afternoon ... and welcome to the pueblo!" He added with a smile, taking his leave.
"A good afternoon to you too, Señor De la Vega!" She wished him as he exited her office, just as four of the lancers were carrying in her luggage.
ZZZ
Diego left the medical office and headed for the tavern, where he had a drink with some of the other caballeros there, since his father had already left the pueblo. About an hour later, he eventually returned home, stabled Esperanza, and entered the hacienda.
"So, Diego, how did it go?" Don Alejandro asked as soon as he saw him come in.
"With the doctor?" He asked. "Well, I showed her everything and informed her about my research. I'm sure she'll be just fine!"
"No… Son… I mean… Never mind! Diego, you are hopeless!" Don Alejandro uttered as he raised his hands in surrender, then headed outside to find his vaqueros.
Diego watched him leave with a sly smile as his adopted son, who was with Don Alejandro in the library as he entered, came to ask what that was all about.
"I think my father is hoping I might decide to court the new doctor." He told Felipe. "I'll be in my room with one of the new books." He then informed him.
The younger man smiled and nodded, then returned to his own reading.