Chapter 4
Sully rose early, it was the spring now with that came the lighter mornings and found himself awakening earlier. The winter had been relatively kind on their return to Colorado Springs, and they had few issues, indeed even the hospital had been no busier than the standard of the summer months. There were times though when Michaela had felt the need to stay at the hospital, just as she had the previous night, concerned for a premature infant. Sully sighed, stretching his stiff muscles; he always struggled to sleep when Michaela was not with him.
Slowly he made his way towards the steps, rubbing the tiredness from his eyes. A noise in the kitchen startled him. He hurried down the stairs hoping that he would find his wife, eager to hold her in his arms. "Michaela?" he asked hopefully "Katie!" he looked surprised to see his daughter stood at the table, already dressed despite the early hour. Katie looked up guiltily at her father before turning back to making what to Sully looked like a meagre lunch. "What are you doing?"
"I thought I'd walk to school"
Sully looked at her surprised "It's a bit far to walk Katie"
Katie looked up at him solemnly "I want to get some exercise" her blue eyes glanced downwards towards her fuller than normal torso. Sully averted his eyes knowing how embarrassed young girls could get as they developed, awkward to be faced with a potential conversation with his daughter on the subject.
"We'll take the wagon to school" Sully told her, moving around the table towards her "But if you want we could go for a hike in the woods at the weekend" Katie nodded her head but remained silent, her face stony. Sully frowned, Katie was normally so chatty, her disposition normally described as sunny, but the past few weeks she had seemed to come withdrawn and on occasion sullen. Unsure of how to proceed Sully cleared his throat "If you're worried about..." he paused and nodded towards Katie's chest, uncomfortable to be having this conversation with his daughter "Maybe you should speak to your Ma about this, she'll be able to explain it better than me" he coughed and turned away from Katie as she gave him an alarmed look. Quickly Sully moved to the counter. A still full plate sat by the sink, a slice of toast cut in half with quarter of one slice consumed, two mouthfuls in total, if that. He cast a look at Katie, who shuffled awkwardly under his gaze "let me fix you some proper breakfast, you'll be hungry else wise"
Harrison lowered his coffee to the worn table that he sat at in the cafe. He was concerned; it was only 4 months since he had satisfied himself yet already he could feel his urges building up. Normally he could go for a year or more, but perhaps he had chosen wrongly when he had chosen Katie, it seemed as though her beauty had blinded him to her age, and she had been too old to satisfy him the way he needed to remain in control.
He cast his dark eyes around the open air establishment; there were a few potential candidates but one which stood out more than others. A young girl, perhaps no more than eight, with long dark brown hair, which surprised him as he usually favoured blonde, but perhaps it was the sparkle in her dark eyes or her cheerful laugh which was what brought her to his attention in the first place. Harrison shook his head trying to quash his feelings; he knew he couldn't act on them, to do so would mean certain detection. However it didn't hurt to look, he faced the girl taking a long hard look at her imagining what she would look like under her long patterned dress. It would get him through the day, and alone in his head he could do whatever he wished with no fear of detection at all.
Katie put the apple on the counter of the mercantile and reached for her money pouch, she was hungry; she always seemed to be hungry. She knew it was because she wasn't eating but she didn't want to eat, she didn't want to grow outward any more than she already had.
"Katie" Loren greeted her warmly rising from the table where he had been seated discussing business with Hank. "Got some lemon drops in today's delivery"
"No thank you"
Loren raised his eyebrow "How 'bout some ..."
"I'll just take the apple thank you" Katie said quickly, interrupting.
Loren looked at Katie in surprise, Katie never interrupted people, Michaela and Sully had raised her far too well for that. He frowned, concerned by her behaviour and the worried look on her face "But you love lemon drops"
Katie placed her payment on the counter "I don't want any Mr Bray" she shook her head forcefully to emphasise her point.
"Why not?" Loren pressed; genuinely concerned especially as she had called him Mr Bray, something she had not done for many years.
"Because I don't, I don't want to get..." Katie stopped herself and glanced down her face blushing crimson with embarrassment and shame.
Dorothy moved alongside her husband, her face holding the same expression of concern. "You're not fat Katie"
"No course not! Nothing of you, look at your wrist, I could snap it like a twig" Loren scoffed, surprised at what Dorothy had deciphered from Katie's half sentence "If it's boys at school, than you just..."
Katie shook her head forcefully again shaking her blonde hair loose from her braid "I have to go" she glanced at the older pair, her blue eyes not making eye contact "Bye" with that she rushed from the mercantile leaving Loren and Dorothy to stare after her with confusion.
Michaela looked up at the tentative knock on her office door. "Yes" Katie slowly peered her head round the door. Michaela smiled, it had been a long and stressful night as she had dealt with the birth of an 8 week premature infant. The child was doing as well as could be expected, yet even though there was nothing more she could do and despite the fact she had not returned home in over 24 hours she felt compelled to stay. Her daughter's appearance was welcome.
"Can I talk to you Ma?" Katie asked cautiously, hovering by the door.
Michaela nodded and held her arms out to Katie, expecting her to walk around the desk and hug her as she usually did. Instead Katie crossed to the chair in front of the desk and sat down. "You mean as a patient?" Michaela asked alarmed.
"Not really...but...um... as a woman" Katie stumbled over her words. She had never been nervous when speaking to her parents, but this time it was difficult and her brain just didn't seem to be able to focus on what she wanted to say, her mouth not able to form the right words. She looked up at her mother, who was sat staring at her with wide eyed concern "I...I...I" Katie stopped and took a deep breath "You know monthlies, aren't they called monthlies because they are supposed to come every month?"
Michaela let out a sigh of relief "Is that's what's been worrying you? Katie, it's very common for girls who are just starting menstrual cycle to be irregular, you may not settle into a pattern for years, if at all. I was never regular; it's nothing to be concerned over"
"And things getting bigger?" Katie waved her hand in the general area of her torso.
Michaela smiled and rose from behind her desk to move alongside her daughter. "It's normal too. You know Colleen had the same concerns."
"She did?"
Michaela nodded and held her hand out, Katie took it and stood beside her mother, gently leaning against her and resting her head on Michaela's shoulder "Her figure blossomed before her friends but they all caught up. Are people saying things at school?"
Katie shook her head "I just don't like being different" Katie leant her head against she mother's chest releasing a heavy sigh. "I have to go back to school. Are you coming home tonight?"
"Of course. I'll collect you from school" Michaela kissed the top of Katie's head.
Katie laughed slightly "Maybe I should come collect you. I'll be finished before you will." She glanced down at her mother's paper covered desk "I can help you with your filing"
Hank pulled himself straight at the sight of Katie walking down the road, his interest had been piqued by her little outburst in the store earlier, and it had set his mind on overdrive. He watched her, her heavy dark blue dress standing out against the pale, light spring dresses that many of the women in town had begun to wear as the weather warmed up. Yet Katie had resiliently stuck with her winter wear despite the fact that it was designed to keep the wearer warm in the sub zero temperatures that came with winter in Colorado and not to be worn in the latter part of a pleasantly warm March. Hank studied the young girl curiously, her dress was tight on her, almost straining but it was only noticeable when you looked hard, the dark colour hiding any stress the material was under. Hank had seen girls expand before when they hit the age of development but Katie's was different, her expansion in other places as well as the usual areas. With his line of business Hank was used to watching for signs of unwanted things in his girls that could affect business. Had Katie been one of his girls he would have feared the worst, but that notion wasn't possible, because there was no way that Michaela and Sully's daughter would break the rules of society so badly. He turned his back to the street as the girl walk past him, not wanting her to catch him staring, when she past him he resumed his position of watching her. Hank frowned, he knew what he was thinking wasn't possible, but he couldn't shake it out of his head, his uneasiness was growing and he didn't know what to do about it.
"MILLIE!"
Sully looked up from his work at the frantic shout. Peering through the window of what was Michaela's old clinic he observed Widow Tattler stood in the centre of the street by her horse with a terrified look on her face.
"MILLIE!" the woman screamed again.
Sully quickly rose and headed out the door, slinging his buck skin jacket across on to protect him from the drizzle that had started to fall from the grey sky.
"Amanda?" Sully asked approaching the woman. The Tattler's had lived in Colorado Springs as long as he had, the elderly couple taking in their infant granddaughter when her parents had died. Now that Amanda's husband had died not some 6 months ago it was just her and little Millie alone at the farm.
"Sully" Amanda grabbed at him "Have you seen Millie, she hasn't come back from school?"
"She's probably at a friend's house" Sully soothed the anxious older woman.
Amanda shook her head frantically "No, she was on her way home. I always ride to meet her half way, the horse was walking down the road on its own, I didn't see her on the road on my way in, she couldn't have fallen"
Sully placed a comforting arm around the woman, signalling to Jake who had come out of the Gold Nugget to see what the commotion was about. "I'm sure she just went into the woods to pick something and the horse wandered off." He turned to the Jake who had joined them in the street "Jake can you get word around to keep an eye out for Millie Tattler, her horse was wandering but there was no sign of her. I'm going to help Amanda look for her" Sully took a step away from Amanda and lowered his voice "Drop in the hospital too, let Michaela know to stay on a bit, just in case"
With that Sully turned back to the older woman and helped her to mount her horse before rushing to his own horse and leaping on. Nodding to Jake, Sully kicked his horse into motion and rode out of town.
"Sully off on another quest?" Hank exited the Gold Nugget and took a long drag from his cigar "What's it this time?"
"Tattler girl gone missing" Jake murmured heading towards the store in order to begin spreading the word "horse was wandering down the road without her"
Hank raised his eyebrow and stared into the dust cloud that remained in Sully's wake "easy Hank" he told himself taking a long reassuring drag on his cigar "Just coincidence" he reassured himself, trying to shake his growing uneasiness.
Sully and Amanda had barely ridden 10 minutes along the track to the Tattler's farm before he spotted the girl lying in the road, he frowned, Amanda had told him she had not seen the girl on the road on the way into town, yet there was no way she could have missed her, as the girl was in the centre of the dirt track. Sully eased his horse into a canter and approached the girl rapidly, pulling to a stop and leaping from his horse a few paces away from her prone body. It certainly looked as though she had been thrown from her horse with the way the body was positioned her limbs at awkward angles her face in the dirt. Gently Sully turned the little girl's body over, she was breathing, just, but beyond a dislocated shoulder and a nasty bump to the head Sully could not see any external injuries; he just hoped that she wasn't too badly damaged internally. Either way he would have to get the girl back to Michaela, so that she could take care of her properly. Taking the girl into his arms he lifted her and made to place her on his horse so he could take her back to town. As he did, he turned taking in Amanda's ashen face.
"She'll be Ok; Dr Mike will sort her out"
The girl's grandmother took a moment to respond her eyes fixed on the livid wound on the young girl's head "She wasn't there when I rode in" she whispered her voice tinged with confusion. "I would have seen her. How did she get there?"
"We don't know what happened, it could be anything," Sully mounted his horse gently holding Millie so not to exacerbate her injuries "let's get her back to town"
Harrison rushed down the alley between a boarding house and a storehouse; he needed to get up to the dorm room in the hospital to get a new shirt without being seen. The angel he had just soared with had bled more than he anticipated when he struck her, and in his shock of the blood splatter her had tripped and torn his shirt. The garment was now a sure sign of what had happened and would mean his detection for sure. Carefully, he poked his head round the corner, hoping that his route would be clear and he could get back to the hospital, where the staff would be too busy to question the state of his shirt. He cursed under his breath. His way was blocked by the tall saloon owner marching his way to the hospital. Annoyed Harrison retreated down the alley. He would have to find another way of finding a new shirt, another way to keep his preference a secret.
Hank pushed through the door of the hospital, it had been a while since he had been inside the building and it took him a moment to figure out where he needed to go. Quickly he marched in the direction that he thought Michaela's office was.
"Mr Lawson" A nurse caught him, blocking his way "How can I help? Please come over to triage"
Hank shook his head "Don't want Doctoring, I want to see Dr Mike" The nurse opened her mouth to protest but Hank held his hand up silence her "Michaela!" he called scanning the corridor for her door. He was nervous and the rambling churning thoughts he was having were making him feel ill. He breathed a sigh of relief as Michaela exited from her room.
"Hank?" Michaela looked anxiously at the tall man; it was rare for him to be in the hospital "Are you all right?"
Hank took a step toward her and looked down his long hair falling to the side of his face so that only Michaela could see it "I want to talk to you about Katie" he whispered in a low voice.
Katie?" Michaela stared up at him surprised, unsure what Hank could possibly want to talk with in relation to her daughter. As she opened her mouth to question him the door of the hospital bust open and Sully ran in carrying Millie. "What happened?" Michaela asked rushing forward to assess the condition of the girl.
"She fell from her horse, Nasty cut on her head and looks like her shoulders dislocated" Sully explained, placing the girl on the triage table.
"Just like Katie" Hank whispered unmoving from his previous position his face paling as all the coincidences slotted into a picture of horror in his mind.
"What?" Sully turned to him a frown on his face.
"She's got the same injuries as Katie" Hank clarified his face ashen. "Got the same way"
"Don't be stupid" Sully dismissed him, folding his arms.
"Sully it's the same, busted shoulder cut on the head, from falling off a horse" Hank's voice rose with anger "Don't you think that's strange"
"It's coincident, people fall off their horses all the time." Sully reasoned, not accepting the case that Hank was laying out in front of him.
"It's not coincidence" Hank walked towards Sully eyeing him up "You just don't want to see it; you don't want it to be the same because you don't want it to mean what it means"
"And what does it mean?" Sully tensed, his body squaring up for a fight, his cheeks reddening with anger.
"What if it means someone is doing this. What if someone did it to them, you can't deny it Sully, that kid is hurt in the exact same way as Katie, read Fischer's notes, ask Dorothy if you don't believe me"
The two men turned at the sound of a shocked gasp from Michaela. She was stood her hands trembling over an area of the young girl's dress that she had examined beneath due to a tear in the fabric.
"Michaela" Sully moved toward his wife with concern "What is it?"
Michaela swallowed a few times, trying to maintain her composure, she had seen this type of injury before, but never in anyone as young as Millie. Finally she found her voice the words coming out in as a thin and cracked noise. "She's been assaulted, she's been assaulted by a man"