Home in the past
A/N: NEW UPDATE
Nine years ago (June 2013) I posted this story with the intent of actually writing it. Well life happened and I stalled out after chapter 2 *cringes and hides in shame*
During NaNoWriMo 2021 I took a roll and rewrote the two first chapters that were already posted. I had written them in my "old habit" of head jumping a bit too much. My writing style has changed quite a bit over the years. I also wrote the rest of the story, in a way that I'm very pleased with. I had a general idea of what would happen, and I hope I managed to create an interesting story that fans of Matthew will like.
So the two first chapters are going to be UPDATED and edited to flow better (I hope) AND I can now assure you that the FULL story is written, and will be rolled out in the next few weeks (Months). As fast as the lovely Kruemi is going over them with her sharp beta reading eyes. I'm so happy that she offered to help me with this, I remember reading all her fics back in my prime years of watching the show and reading Dr. Quinn fics.
NOTE: in the old version of this I had the "present" time marker set to be 2007 (that was when I first began plotting this story) BUT since that's 15 years ago I updated the first time marker to be 2022.
I do hope that you'll enjoy this new and improved version of this story. It was a bit of a strange process for me to dig up this old thing and write in a fandom I haven't been involved in for years now. (If you look at my list of fics you'll notice that my focus has shifted to another fandom, "Once upon a time". I also hope that I might actually be able to finish the cross-over fic between Dr. Quinn and The sound of music (called "17 going on 18") that I sadly have left hanging with a small cliffhanger.)
Enough rambling, enjoy this.
Chapter 1:Present time, 2022
The wind was howling and dark clouds were hanging over the landscape. A lonesome figure strode through the wind, trying to find a way back into town. The task was not easy and the person slipped numerous times on the wet and slippery path. Suddenly a large gust of wind swept down through the trees and tripped the person over once again. The slim figure fell and rolled to the side of the dirt road, hitting her head on a small sharp-edged rock. The rain kept falling and moments later, a bolt of lightning, accompanied by deafening thunder, struck down a nearby small pine tree, causing it to fall over. Luckily the small rock caught the pine tree just as it was about to hit the unconscious body.
Colorado Springs 1877
Matthew rode down the small path, he was careful not to move too fast, the huge thunderstorm that had struck the Colorado Springs area last night had put quite a few new holes in the road. No one had dared to venture out in the storm, so he had slept at Dr. Mike and Sully's homestead. Now he was on his way back home to his place. He had taken the longer path on a whim; he wanted to make the journey a bit longer as this morning was bright and clear. The air smelled fresh and earthy from the rain, morning mist still hung heavy in most places. Matthew inhaled deeply and thought to himself that this day was going to be really good.
When his wagon turned a bend in the road something spooked his horse. It took him a few moments before he got the animal under control again. Then he scanned the road ahead of him, trying to figure out what could have scared his horse so much.
A few meters further down the road he saw a small pine tree that lay halfway over the road and realized that this unknown obstacle must have spooked his horse. Carefully urging the animal a bit closer he scanned the area around the fallen tree, trying to figure out if he could get it out of the way. Suddenly he noticed some fabric under the log. Was that a person? He jumped down from the wagon and moved cautiously closer to the tree. It seemed as if the tree had fallen over a smaller rock, forming a cave under the tree. When he got a closer look at the fabric that peeked out he suddenly realized that it was in fact a person who was trapped under the tree! Matthew moved quickly and reached for the body. Turning the slight figure around he saw that it was a woman, who had an open wound on her head. She seemed to be unconscious, but when he touched her wounded head she moaned quietly.
Within a few moments, he had the unconscious woman placed in the back of his wagon and covered with some blankets. He got his horse to move back so he could turn the wagon around. Then he paced his horse to move fast and hastily made his way into town.
Matthew came rushing into town; making a sharp stop in front of Dr. Mike's Clinic. "Dr. Mike!" Matthew shouted.
Dr. Mike rushed out of the door; her face a look of concern, Matthew knew that she always feared it to be one of her own family when someone came to town with someone injured. Matthew jumped down and he faced Dr. Mike, who peered over the edge of the wagon, she seemed relieved for a short second, then her doctor's mind kicked in and she guided Matthew to pick up the woman and carry her into the clinic.
"Who is she? Where did you find her?" Dr. Mike asked and did a quick check of the young woman. She had a wound on the side of her head, it was still bleeding a little, but it didn't look serious.
While Dr. Mike checked the woman more closely, Matthew told her where he had found her. "I have no idea who she is." He helped Dr. Mike roll the woman to her side so they could look for hidden injuries.
"That is very strange," She ran her hands over the woman's arms, feeling each bone in her hands, "Nothing is broken," she mumbled and returned her focus to the head. "This needs to be cleaned," she stated, starting to work on the wound.
Michaela worked fast and the young woman was cleaned up and her head wrapped in a bandage in no time. "She will most likely have a concussion to some degree, we will assess how bad once she wakes up." Dr. Mike asked Matthew to carry the unknown woman upstairs.
When Matthew placed the woman on one of the beds upstairs, he sat down in a nearby chair. His mind reeled with thoughts about who she could be. While he sat there he found the time to take a closer look at the young woman. She looked fairly young, maybe in her early twenties, her hair was blond with golden hues. The sunlight glinted in the still messed-up hair. Her skin was a bit pale, but that could be from the major stress she had been under. She had not been awake yet, and Dr. Mike said that it could take some time before she would wake up.
Matthew stretched his arms and rose from the chair. On an impulse, he walked over to the bed and gently took away a strand of hair that had fallen on the young woman's face. This made her moan in her deep sleep, but for a split second her eyes fluttered open and then closed again. Matthew felt his heart race, not just from the joy of seeing her waking up if only for a short while. That still had to be a good sign. But also for the fact that when he looked into her eyes for that moment it felt like his heartstrings were pulled; he recognized something in those eyes, something that he thought he had lost forever. Matthew shook his head and scolded himself for even having such stupid thoughts. Ingrid was dead! But he could have sworn that this woman had Ingrid's eyes. He ran a shaking hand through his semi-long hair and sat down. This was stupid, Ingrid was dead, he reminded himself, that rabid dog killed her. His heart twisted in pain at the memory of how he'd lost the woman he loved.
It was in this somewhat shocking state that Dr. Mike and Sully found Matthew when they walked into the room.
"Are you okay, Matthew?" Dr. Mike asked, "You look like you've seen a ghost!"
"It's nothing, it's just that she just opened her eyes a few moments ago. That's a good sign, isn't it?" Matthew explained, trying to look calm, but his insides were still a great turmoil. He shook his head to clear his mind once more.
Dr. Mike nodded and hurried to check up on the girl. But she didn't respond to anything Dr. Mike did.
"I think we have to monitor her for the next 24 hours until she wakes up, so I guess we're going to sleep at the clinic tonight. I hope you want to help me out here Matthew, and I'll get a hold of Colleen and Andrew before they head out to the Château again. Brian is picking Katie up from the school, so they will be here soon as well". Dr. Mike planned out loud.
Matthew nodded "Sure, you can count on me, Dr. Mike", he said seriously.
Once everybody arrived at the Clinic, they made a plan of watching over the young woman during the night. Then Dr. Mike sent her family off to Grace's Café to get some dinner, they would bring some back to the clinic for Dr. Mike.
Then the night came and all through it each one of them had one shift and they sat next to the unknown woman. It was a long night for everyone.
When Matthew was sitting next to the bed in the early morning, he was thinking again about what he had seen when she opened her eyes. Could it just be his mind playing tricks on him? It had to be, because he had never seen this woman before, and he knew that the Bergman family had moved further west, close to Los Angeles. And as far as he knew he had seen all the members of Ingrid's family. He had not heard of another sibling or relative that should also be in America.
Matthew was still sitting next to the stranger's bed when the sun started to rise, beginning a new day. He rubbed his eyes and stretched his body. He needed to stand up for a while, so he got up and looked down at the still sleeping woman. Matthew wondered how long it would be before she would wake up. He gently touched her shoulder and felt the warmth from her body on his hands. Suddenly, her eyes opened and she stared at him with a crazed look in them. Matthew jumped back a little, startled that she woke up so suddenly.
"Where am I?" the woman said in a mere whisper, her voice was a little hoarse as well.
Her head was pounding like someone was hitting it with a hammer. She moved in the bed and felt her body ache, but the excruciating pain in her head was by far the worst. Gently she put a hand to her head and felt the bandage wrapped around it. She closed her eyes tightly, trying to send away the pain and dizziness. But no matter how much she tried, it was the same when she opened her eyes. She tried to focus on her surroundings. A man was standing next to the bed she was lying in. He looked at her with concern in his eyes. She had no idea who he was or where she was. She turned to look around the room. It looked rather old and rustic in her opinion, with the wooden walls and old furniture. She couldn't remember anything at all.
"Where am I?" She repeated her question once more and looked at the young man.
"You're in Colorado Springs."
Okay, the woman thought, she was not that far away from home. She knew she lived in Salida, a small town close to Colorado Springs. She sighed in relief when she got that information. But as she looked closer at the man standing next to her she got a puzzled look on her face once more. His clothes looked like they could be from the last century, with a white shirt and brown dusty pants, including a pair of suspenders. She looked again around the room and saw that there was a worn hat on the bedside table. It reminded her of the hats cowboys wore in the few cowboy movies she vaguely remembered seeing once.
"Okay…", she paused, not knowing how to ask her next question "Are you sure… everything looks so different, I mean your clothes and this room… where am I exactly?"
The man raised his eyebrows in surprise as if her words didn't make any sense. He took a deep breath, "I mean, you really are in Colorado Springs, and I don't know what you mean about things being different. I don't understand?"
She frowned, what was going on here? She blinked and couldn't form any coherent words right now, her head hurt like hell.
He continued: "I… I mean we don't know who you are either."
This question made her brow wrinkle in deep thoughts. Who was she? Who was she? The more she thought about it, the more pain she felt in her head. Who was she? She really didn't know that herself. When that realization hit her, her breath stopped and she shook her head in agony.
"I... I… I don't know…I don't know my name!" she whispered. Tears started to form in her eyes, and she let out a strangled sob as the tears began rolling down her cheeks.
The man hurried to her side and tried to comfort her, telling her that everything was going to be okay. He tried to explain that Dr. Mike said that something like this could occur when her head had been hurt like that.
When her sobbing slowly stopped, she started to shake her head in disbelief.
"How can I remember that I live in Salida, and I know that it's near Colorado Springs, but not my name?" she asked.
He shook his head, "I don't know much about this, but I think Dr. Mike could answer that much better. I'll be right back."
She nodded and watched him as he walked out of the door. She rested her head on the pillow trying to get her thoughts in order. But it confused her beyond belief lying here in this room that pretty much reminded her of some old cowboy movie she saw once.
Suddenly, the sound of a gunshot was heard. She bolted upright in her bed, causing her head to spin and she felt nauseated. But after a few seconds, the world stopped spinning and her curiosity got the better of her. Slowly, she got out of bed. The wooden floor felt rough beneath her feet. She walked over to the window and pulled the thin curtain away.
What she saw made her breathless; she looked out into a street filled with horses, wagons, and people who had old-fashioned clothes on. The women wore dresses that looked like they were from the last century or older, and the men wore similar antique-looking clothes.
She closed her eyes and shook her head, but when she opened them again the image was still there. Then she started to look a bit closer at the scene before her. There was a mercantile down the street where an elderly man was sweeping the boardwalk. Suddenly, she saw a red-headed woman walking up to the store, next to her walked a dark-skinned man wearing Indian clothes, he even had a few feathers in his hair. Was that a real Indian? Her head was spinning like crazy. Where in the world was she?! It looked much like a stage set up for an old western movie. This could not be happening.
Suddenly, her eyes caught a commotion at the house located on the other side of the street. The place had a huge sign saying "Saloon". There was a crowd gathered around on the boardwalk in front of the saloon. But when another gunshot was heard people began to move away again, yet still kept an eye on what was happening inside the building.
And then a long-haired man came out of the door of the saloon, dragging along a rough-looking man, and in his other hand, he held a rifle. He threw the man out on the street but kept the weapon in his hand. Then he shouted something at the man and glared at the curious crowd before he walked back into the saloon. A short while later two men came out, carrying a third man who was limping. There was blood on his pants and it looked like he had been shot.
From her point of view, it still looked like a scene from a cowboy movie, but she couldn't find the cameras and lighting or any other sign of this being a movie set. Her mind swirled; what was happening, where was she?! The more she thought about it, the more her head hurt. She steadied herself by resting her hands on the window sill as she started to feel sick.
Then she heard voices outside in the hallway.
"I only have a minute; I need to go back down and help Colleen and Andrew. Connor O'Neill has a serious gunshot wound in his leg, it could become complicated." It was a woman talking.
That man had been shot, like really been shot, with a real gun! Her thoughts swirled around like a hurricane. This was real, she was not dreaming. Her mind started to go blank and she felt herself sinking to the floor. Before everything went completely dark she heard the female's voice again.
"Matthew, please, help her back in the bed, she must have seen what happened over at Hank's Saloon. She could be in shock."