Immediately after Jula left, Mary joined her husband and the doctor who stood next to the four-poster while the doctor began to examen Jae, who, despite her weakness, managed to glare threateningly at him and shuffle out of his reach until Col. Tavington took a gentle hold of her shoulders so she couldn't move.
"Who is he?" she asked, her voice nearly nonexistent as she fought weakly against the colonel's hold.
"It's all right, Jae. This is Dr. O'Brien. He was here when Mary gave birth to Braden. He's just going to perform a quick examination and tell us what we need to do for you."
Jae began to relax but then he eyes grew big as she rasped, "No bloodletting!"
A slightly puzzled look crossed Dr. O'Brien's face as he replied, "Well Miss Barrington, you are running a temperature. You're obviously not well at all right now, and Col. Tavington told me on the way here that he suspected you haven't been feeling well for quite some time. So, we might need to do a little bit of bloodletting.."
"But I'm a hemophiliac!" Jae tried to lie, but all that came out was an incoherent mumble as the tiny amount of strength she had failed her.
Col. Tavington gave Jae a puzzled look, to which Jae shook her head, mouthing in a desperate manner "No bloodletting!"
"I'm sorry dear one, but I believe we'll have to. You're temperature is too high for comfort."
Jae began to writhe feebly in an attempt to free herself from the colonel's hold, pausing momentarily when her strength failed her.
"Jae, hold still darling." murmured Col. Tavington, holding her shoulders more firmly, trying to grab one of her arms and hold it out to Dr. O'Brien.
Jae continued to writhe and the colonel was forced to put his own body and weight on her to stop her from moving until she ceased to struggle, gasping for breath, her grey eyes glazed over with fever. Seizing the opportunity, Col. Tavington grabbed one of her arms before she could pull it away and held it out to Dr. O'Brien, who pulled out a small blade.
"This shouldn't take too long."
Suddenly, Jae jerked, trying to free her arm from Dr. O'Brien's hold.
"Stop fighting, Jae!" said Col. Tavington in a firm voice, grabbing her arm and holding it in place.
Glancing over at Dr. O'Brien, the colonel gave him a quick nod to proceed.
Tears began to well up in Jae's eyes as she felt the blade cut painfully into her flesh and she looked up in anguish at the colonel, who looked steadily back at her, his gaze calming her and not averting from her eyes while he whispered soothing words to her until the procedure was finished. Carefully, Col. Tavington released Jae's arm and pulled away from her, tucking her into bed. Too exhausted to say or do anything, Jae rolled over on her side and immediately fell asleep.
"Thank you for your services." said the colonel to Dr. O'Brien once Jae had gone to sleep.
"You're welcome. She's a feisty one. Just try to make sure she doesn't waste her energy, especially now. Hopefully her fever will go down; if not, then we'll have to do this again. In the meantime, light amounts of food, just to see if she can keep it down, and obviously, she is not to be out of bed and moving around. Her fever is already pretty nasty, and we don't need it getting worse."
Col. Tavington nodded.
"Very well. Good night."
Dr. O'Brien nodded, "Good night sir. I shall be back in a couple of days to check on her."
With that, Dr. O'Brien gave one last nod and left the room.