Chapter 32
Michaela sat brushing her hair, staring into the ornate mirror that was the main fixture of the guest bedroom she was occupying at her sister's house. She looked at her face, carefully studying the new wrinkles that had been added since the twins were born and since she had asked Sully for…for…for a…The tears came again. She couldn't stop them. She hadn't been able to since she arrived in Boston. Most days it was an effort to get out of bed, and even then she sometimes cried at the breakfast table or when helping Katie with her schoolwork. She could barely look at the twins, even when she was nursing them, she would only hold them as close as was physically necessary. There was no warmth in her touch concerning Katie either. The little girl mostly kept to herself now, working hard to catch up at Boston Infantile Academy, a private school which Rebecca helped Michaela pay for.
Rebecca had done everything for them since they'd arrived that first day from the train station, Katie clinging to her mother and the twins screaming at having been jostled across the country for a week. Once they'd settled in, Rebecca had virtually taken over the care of the twins as she said that Michaela needed a break and a chance to sort out her own feelings before being a mother. Michaela had refused at first, saying that taking care of Katie, Charlotte and Josef was her responsibility and no one else's and that they needed their mother to help them get through the rough adjustment period. Rebecca had readily agreed to Michaela's last point, but she had insisted that her younger sister needed time to adjust to all that had happened before she could really be of any use to the children. At last, Michaela had acquiesced.
Downstairs, Rebecca was worried about Michaela and how her melancholia, for that's what her sadness had actually become over her last two weeks in Boston, would affect the nieces and nephew with whom she lived. She knew that Michaela loved Sully and that there was no way her sister would survive without her brother-in-law. They were like two halves of a whole. Rebecca had seen it during her mother's illness and death in Boston the winter before. Sully had been the one to convince Michaela not to be swallowed up by grief. He had been there, holding her, loving her, in a way Rebecca's own husband, though he was a kind man, had never dared to do. Rebecca knew that if Sully came for Michaela, she would have to help reunite them for the sake of her niece and nephews back in Colorado and for the listless ones who stared at her in Boston with empty eyes and broken hearts not befitting the lively children of her favorite sister and the best man she had ever known.
Suddenly, Rebecca heard a wailing above her head so profoundly sad that she knew she had to tend to it. Telling Katie to stay downstairs and to watch her brother and sister as they slept, Rebecca rushed up the staircase and into her sister's bedroom, hoping to God that she could ease some of Michaela's pain. When she reached the doorframe, she knocked softly even though the door was ajar. At her knock the wailing abruptly stopped and she heard a muffled "Come in" before the crying began anew.
Swiftly, Rebecca maneuvered her skirts and positioned herself at the edge of her sister's bed, assessing the small form that lay curled in a heap on the bed, still dressed in a nightgown. The nightgown, however, was covered in tears and perspiration and she could tell that Michaela's face was flushed to the point of illness from crying. Without a word, she removed herself from the end of the bed and went to the washbasin to get one of Michaela's towels and some cool water. Returning swiftly, she took the rag in hand and wiped at her sister's forehead, neck, arms and upper chest with the cloth. in order to fend off the impending emotional fever,. Relaxing a little from her stressed position under her sister's gentle touch, she sobbed, "I shouldn't have done it, Rebecca. I didn't mean it. I was just so hurt and I don't know how to deal with hurt. I…I just close myself off and I cry later when no one can see me, not even Sully. But he usually comes and finds me, Rebecca. He usually rescues me. Like at Mother's funeral I…I was so…so lost. He was right there, Rebecca. I need him to be right there. We have to fix this. I don't know how he cannot be right there. I can't do this. I can't do anything, not without him." Michaela broke into wailing now, wailing such as a wounded animal makes when it has lost the one thing that kept it alive through the pain. Rebecca swiftly drew her sister up from the mattress and into her embrace, rocking her like she was Katie's age. Through it all, Michaela sobbed, "Rebecca,I love him so much. It hurts so much. He hurt me so much, but it hurts too much without him. I need him here. I can't live without him, just like the dream said. Just like he said. He was right. Oh dear, Rebecca, he was right. We belong together. He never meant it. It was a mistake! It was a mistake!"
An hour later, Rebecca found her way to the telegraph office. "Sir," she said when she reached the counter, "I need to send a wire to Colorado Springs, Colorado."
"To whom should the wire be addressed, ma'am?"
"To a Mr. Byron Sully. Tell him that he is needed in Boston right away. No, scratch that. Tell him that his wife's health depends on his arrival in Boston as soon as possible."
"Is that all, ma'am?" The telegraph operator asked, maintaining a somewhat distant and disapproving air towards Rebecca whom he assumed was another hysterical woman out to bother a husband who merely needed to get away from her for awhile and who had traveled to Colorado to do it.
Perceiving the man's attitude towards her, Rebecca said more adamantly, "Please see that he gets this as soon as possible. It could very well be a life or death situation."
Realizing she was serious and not out to annoy this Mr. Sully, he said sincerely, "I'll send it out as quick as I can, ma'am. You have my word and my oath as a telegraph operator."
"Thank you. Have a good day," Rebecca said cordially, satisfied that the message was well on its way to her sister's husband. She found a carriage and headed home to tend to Michaela and to only hope that Sully would come, not just for her sister's sake, but for her life as well.
Sully never received the wire.
This is my first fan fiction and I would appreciate any and all feedback, so please feel free to review the chapter and any subsequent chapters if you think they are of interest either here or be orginal and comment on the "Stand By Me" thread of the fanfiction section of the Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman forum The link to the thread is: http/forum.drquinn.us/viewtopic.php?t3949
Thanks, Corinna
