Chapter 12: Ever as Before

They stood, relaxed in each other's arms for an unknown length of time, in a blissful heaven. Swaying gently to a mutual rhythm, Michaela felt her body weakening into Sully's embrace and she feared she might collapse at any given moment. Sully, sensing her destabilized form, suddenly scooped Michaela up into his arms in one swift motion and held her close to him. Michaela grinned with surprise and look up to find Sully staring deep into her eyes, reaching and caressing her soul. The intensity of his gaze caused a shiver to ripple through her spine and Michaela felt the thunderous beat of her heart, drumming into the pit of her chest.

Sully felt Michaela tense in his embrace and saw her face pale before a blush took to her cheeks. Sully dropped his head to whisper into her ear, "You need to get some more rest…" Michaela nodded as Sully gently moved across the room to the entrance of Michaela's bedroom, with her draped gracefully over his extended arms. Sully continued through the door before he stopped at Michaela's unmade bed and laid Michaela on top it. Bending down once more, Sully kissed Michaela lovingly on her parted lips, before saying in hushed tones, "Sleep well my Love."

Michaela felt her entire being tingle with ardor and zeal as Sully got to his feet and turned to leave. Reacting quickly to her feverous heart, Michaela's hand flew out to grasp Sully's. Feeling her hand brush against his, Sully turned back to face Michaela, clasping her outstretched hand. Michaela's mouth opened but no words could be uttered for she had no explanation to why she had summoned Sully back. Instead she just spoke the words of her heart "I love you Sully."

Sully smiled as his own heart leapt from within. Never would he have imagined that those three small words could cause such emotions to ripple through his body and soul. Tenderly, Sully raised Michaela's hand to his lips, kissing each knuckle amorously. "I love you too…sleep now…" Sully whispered into the silence, letting her hand descend gently to her side, before turning back away and parting from her room.

Michaela woke several hours later, in the dead of night, into the silence of the abandoned apartment. Grabbing her robe Michaela walked through all the rooms, finding that she was completely alone. She expected that Sully would have returned to his own home now, but Michaela could not figure where Dorothy could be. Just as Michaela was about to call Dorothy on her cell phone, she heard the front door shutter and the open as Dorothy walked through in some sort of daze. "Dorothy? Oh, Dorothy are you alright?"

Dorothy's lips pursed as she took off her jacket and attempted to smooth her wind-tossed hair. "No of course not… why would anything be wrong Michaela?"

Michaela was frightened by the bite that lay exposed in her voice and she shook her head in confusion. "Nothing…er…do you want to talk about something Dorothy?"

Michaela's question of concern only seemed to make matters worse. "Talk to you about something…why would I need to talk to you about something…we're only room mates…let alone good friends, at least I thought we were…"

Michaela let out an exasperated breath. "Of course we are Dorothy, why would you…."

"The why didn't you tell me you had feelings for Sully?" Dorothy interrupted while raising her voice slightly.

Michaela shook her head, not sure how to explain the entire situation or her own feelings to Dorothy, when she couldn't make sense of the herself. "I…I didn't realize I really had any…"

Dorothy rolled her eyes. "So what happened? Sully took you to some hill top and you instantly fell madly in love with him?"

Now Michaela was getting annoyed by Dorothy's accusations and insensitive questioning. "NO! I just didn't understand my feelings for him…I…"

"How can you not understand your feelings for someone like Sully?" Dorothy shouted at Michaela.

"Since when do you know so much about understanding love and feelings?" Michaela's voice rose to match that of Dorothy's.

"Since I've loved before…and not just Marcus!" Dorothy rebuked, tears emerging into her eyes.

"Who? Why haven't you told me?"

"It doesn't matter…I don't need to tell you!"

"Then why must I tell you my feelings?"

"Because…!"

"Because…?"

"BECAUSE I LOVE SULLY TOO!" Dorothy shouted to the world, causing her voice to crack.

Michaela stood in shock as Dorothy's words of confession echoed in her mind and heart. Silence enveloped the room as the two women stood across from each other, red in the face and panting slightly as the caught their breaths.

After a deep sigh Dorothy continued in a slightly softer tone. "I have known Sully for almost a decade now…I found that I had feelings for him before he was even married. When he proposed to Abby….it nearly killed me. But I was strong, I even accepted Abigail's request to have me be her maid-of-honor…Sully was happy, and that's what mattered the most to me…" Dorothy paused briefly as she turned from Michaela and stared out of the window at the snow which fell gently from the blackened sky. "…then Abby and little Hannah died...Sully was left heart broken, but I was there for him; as much as he pushed everyone away, I tried to help him see that there were people who cared about him…and even loved him…and then he ran off and confided his troubles in a bunch of ghetto-living Indians, who didn't even know him as I did…"

That last comment was too much for Michaela. "Is that why you are so sour against the Cheyenne people? Is that why you can't seem to accept and understand Sully's relationship with the Native Americans? You should be grateful that they took Sully in and helped him!"

Dorothy shook her head in anger tears now barreling down her rosy cheeks. "But he had me! He could've trusted me to help him!"

"Dorothy, I can't speak for Sully…but perhaps he associated you too much with Abigail…and I guess he just didn't love you like you wanted him to…but you can't blame the Cheyenne people for that…you can't blame anyone for that!"

Dorothy whipped around to face Michael, anger and angst scorched into the fine lines of her face. "I don't need to hear this any more…I'm leaving…you can find yourself a new room mate!" Dorothy snapped, while turning and walking towards her room.

"So you're just going to walk away?" Michaela cried out as tears cascaded down her own cheeks, and Dorothy stopped dead in her place, but didnot turning to face Michaela. "You're going to walk out, just like William did? Just like my mother did? Are we hurting that many people by loving each other? Is my relationship with Sully that wrong? Because if it is, then I'll call it off right now! As much as it will kill me, I'll call him this minute…at, what time is it, midnight? I'll call him now, and tell him that I can't watch my friends be hurt because I love another…" Michaela spoke shakily through her bawling tears and heaving chest.

Dorothy closed her eyes and took in a deep breath before speaking forcefully. "No…I'll stay…but this will be hard for me Michaela…however, I survived it when Sully met Abby…and who's to say that this will ever get that far?"

Michaela bit her lip when she heard the challenge present in Dorothy's final statement and she let Dorothy continue into her room with out another word.

After a restless night of sleep, Michaela woke with the sun rise and quickly got ready for work. As quietly as possible, she slipped out of the apartment and into the bitter cold of the morn. Wrapping her arms around her shivering body, Michaela reached into her purse for her phone and began to dial for a taxi. Michaela had no intention of disturbing Dorothy right now, and she still felt hurt from Dorothy's cataclysmic declaration last night. As she stared up onto the cerise colored horizon, waiting for her call to be picked up, Michaela saw a familiar car roll in to the drive way and park in front of her. As she recognized the car and its driver, a smile lit up her face while Michaela closed her cell phone and ran the driver's side of the car. Her Love was here…

Sully nearly toppled back into the seat of his car when Michaela threw her arms around his neck and hugged him close to her. "I'm happy to see you too!" Sully laughed, while gently rubbing Michaela's back and giving the side of her head a quick kiss. "I can't see you're well rested!" Suddenly Michaela's grip lessened and she drew back to reveal that there were tears present in her eyes. "Michaela, what's wrong? Did I do something wrong…"

Michaela shook her head as a single tear over flooded from her eyes and cascaded down her cheek. She knew that she could not tell Sully what had happened with Dorothy, but at the same time Michaela felt that he needed to know. "It's…it's not you at all…it's Dorothy…she…she was…upset with me for not telling her about 'us' before…but…I didn't think or know there was an 'us'…I mean I didn't understand my feelings for you until you kissed me Sully! I…I was still…still so confused about David and…oh I just don't know any more Sully!" Michaelasputtered out, while Sully enveloped her in his arms.

"Shh…I was in the same boat Michaela…even after I kissed ya…I knew I loved ya, but I felt guilty about loving you…because of Abby…I didn't know I hadn't completely moved on yet…" Sully assured as he stared off into space remembering their night on that mountain. "…You made me realize that Michaela…and Dorothy is just shocked right now…we go back a long time, she's been a great friend to me and she is just feeling a bit put-out…"

Michaela almost wanted to laugh at Sully's assertion. Instead she stared up into his gaze, inviting his lips to come crashing into hers and allow passion to overpower her emotions of worry and distress. As their lips parted each other, Michaela opened her eyes and smiled, lovingly up at Sully. "Hmm…so did you come to give me a lift to the hospital…or should I call back the cab company?"

Sully smiled slightly, but then remembered why he was there and his smile thinned to a frown. "Well I can give ya a lift Michael, but there's something I have to ask ya first…see I was at the reservation early this morning, and a bunch of the kids an some of the adults got really sick, they can't stop coughing and a baby died yesterday…do ya think you could come out and see if you can help?"

Michaela saw the heartfelt, pleading look in Sully's eyes and she knew she could never turn him down. "Of course I will Sully…come on, let's go…" Michaela said determinedly, while she parted from Sully's embrace and made her way to the passenger side of the car.

Sully quickly slid off of Walks Above before reaching up for Michaela and setting her on the snow-blanketed forest floor. After quickly tying Walks Above to a near-by tree, Sully grabbed Michaela's hand and they walked hurriedly towards the reservation. Arriving at the reservation, Michaela saw the sober and grave faces of the Cheyenne people. Sully led Michaela into one of the first huts and closed the door behind her. What lay before he, Michaela could only describe as revolting. A young child lay on the floor with nothing but a thin blanket separating his back from the dust-ridden floorboards. His face pale as the snow outside and he shook with each breath he took. Without so much as a thought, Michael went into her 'doctor mode', kneeling next to the boy and began to check his vital signs.

Midway through her examination, the young boy suddenly sat up with a hacking cough resonating across the walls. Michaela instantly recognized the cough, having bellowed it herself when she was a young child. Horrified, Michaela looked up into Sully's eyes with an inadequate look in her eyes. "Sully…this child has double pneumonia…he needs to get to a hospital now!"

Sully gabbed a few times, not sure how to put his response in a calm and rational order. When Sully was unable to perform such action, Cloud Dancing, who had been standing in the door way, answered for him. "We are not allowed to go to the white man's hospital…"

Michaela's face fell in shock. "What…what do you mean?"

Cloud Dancing shook his head and this time Sully was forced to answer. "They live on reservation land…which is not considered part of the United States. The Native Americans are of their own nation, so to speak….basically the U.S. hospitals will not help them because they have no insurance which is unavailable to them here…"

Michaela shook her head in disgust and revulsion. "No…I won't let these children die…I'll get them in…even if I get fired in the process…"

Oh yes, yes, yes! I am finally back on my plan for this story! Sully and Michaela's trip into the woods was never planned on and it just kind of came to me when I started that chapter...but anyways, please visit my webpage (link is located on my profile page) and leave a comment on my blog...supposively people have been having trouble leaving comments for my blog, so I need to know if this happens for everyone of just a select few...if it doesn't work for you please email me or leavev me a review at this site! Thanks and I hope you've enjoyed this chapter! More to come soon!