I am a terrible author, whom you probably thought forgot about this fic. I haven't. I love this fic, but I have issues involving time and writer's block, evil as they are. I hope everyone hasn't lost total interest in this story. But here is my humble offering of a chapter, I hope you like it!

Disclaimer: DQMW does not belong to me sigh as depressing as that thought is.

8

Michaela was alone in Charlotte's kitchen on the first Monday after she arrived, making it almost an entire week since she had arrived in Colorado Springs. Sunday had made it painfully obvious how everyone felt about her presence in the town. After attempting to dress-down enough that she fit in, not completely succeeding, Charlotte had tried to introduce her to some of the other townsfolk, but they were less than receptive.

Charlotte and Abigail were quickly becoming two of the closest friends Michaela had ever had, even though she hadn't known them that long. Abigail's open, sweet nature; Charlotte's frank, wittiness and both women's easy acceptance of her, were some of the lonely reasons that Michaela was able to stay. Some of the others were the Cooper children, Colleen's keen interest in "doctorin'" and the world beyond; Brian's curiosity and just his childish nature; and Matthew's frankness, inherited from his mother, and his eagerness to be the man of the house that he felt his mother needed him to be. Another was Sully, he didn't say much to her, but his quiet acceptance was something of a relief, and she was just all around curious about him. Finally she just had too much of both of her parents' stubbornness in her to quit.

At the moment she was entirely alone in the boarding house; Abigail was at home resting, under Michaela's orders; Colleen had gone out with her friends; one of the local ranchers had hired Matthew for the day to mend fences; and Charlotte had taken Brian with her running errands. Michaela was actually grateful for the chance to just sit and think in the quiet.

There was a knock on the kitchen door causing Michaela's head to snap up and her to look at it in confusion, only a small handful of people came straight to that door, before going to the front door, and most of them had been mentioned above. She rose to answer the door. On the other side was a rather tired and dirty looking Sully.

"Sully?"

He nodded to her. "Evenin', Dr. Mike."

"Charlotte is out right now."

He shifted his weight a little nervously. "Act'lly, I needed to see you."

Michaela raised her eyebrows in surprise. "What can I do for you?"

He cleared his throat. "Well, ya see, I was workin' in a mine today, standin' in for a friend and for some money. And workin' down in the mines well…" He held out his hands, palms down, for Michaela's inspection.

Her eyes went wide as she took his hands gently in hers. "Sully!" she breathed. They were badly cut up and bruised.

"It's hard work on yer hands."

"Obviously."

He cleared his throat a little nervously. "Can ya do anythin' fer them?"

She looked up at him and finally sighed and nodded. "Sit down." She moved aside letting him inside, and he did as she requested. "I'm going to get some supplies; I will be right back." She headed upstairs to her room, returning a few minutes later; setting what she had gotten on the table. She took the water she had been heating for tea and poured it into a bowl, which she then set down in front of the man. "Put your hands in that, it will hurt a little, but it will clean the wounds."

He obediently did as he was told, hissing in pain.

Michaela gave him an I-told-you-so look as she mixed up a salve.

After several minutes of comfortable silence, Michaela finally spoke up. "I didn't know you were a miner." She reached over and took one of his much larger hands in her small ones and finished cleaning it.

He shrugged. "I'm not really any more. Mos'ly I hunt and do odd jobs." He glanced up at her. "Abigail didn't like it when I mined; said it was too dangerous."

The doctor looked up at him, brow furrowed. "Why did you take the job then?"

"Well, my friend was sick and didn't wanna lose his job so he asked me to work for him and the money'll help." He winced at the sting of the salve Michaela was now applying. "It was only for today."

"Did Abigail know what you were doing?" She gave him a pointed look.

He averted his eyes.

She raised an eyebrow as she finished with the one hand and took the second. "What are you going to tell her? What I know of her she won't exactly be happy with you going against her wishes."

He shrugged. "I'll tell her…and hope she understands."

Michaela was using tweezers to pull out a rock that was stuck in on of the cuts. "May I suggest that you do something nice for her?" He looked up at her, she met his curious gaze. "It is what my father always does when he has to tell my mother something she doesn't like or has done something that upset her. It usually helps a little."

He watched her as she applied the salve to his other hand, nodding. "I may try that." He paused. "Thank you, Dr. Mike."

She looked back up at him and smiled. "You're welcome." She didn't know how or even completely why, but in that moment she knew that she and Sully had finally formed a true friendship, one that made her feel completely at ease in his company, which had only happened around her father and David.

8

YAY! I finally got past the writer's block and wrote a pretty good chapter; at least I think so, for one that had come after a long hiatus, due to said writer's block. I had really wanted to find a way to really open the friendship between Sully and Michaela; I hope I did it in a way that didn't put them completely OOC. PLEASE let me know how I did! Thank you sooooooooo…much for reading:)

Appaloosa05: Thank you for catching that typo! I am always grateful when someone lets me know when I make a mistake.

YesThinkingofone: I have gotten in the habit of writing these notes to my reviewers, something I picked up from Thank you for the spelling correction, like I told Appaloosa05, I appreciate whenever someone catches any mistakes I miss.

Michelle: I'm glad you like it!

Brittany: Yea I love them together too.

Sylvie (The Fanfic Freak): Well regularly went out the window. :P I kept trying to come up with a good next part and wrote quite a few things, and while most definitely would go well with later in the story, but not for the next chapter, finally just yesterday it suddenly hit me and I literally did a little dance around my dorm room. As far as Sully and the Cheyenne that will come up eventually. And yes Michaela's father is still alive.

GMUXMenSoaps: Thank you!

MyImmortal329: I remembered Abigail's last comment when in the season 2 Halloween episode about that she and Michaela would have been friends, and from what you hear from everyone about her it just seems like she would accept Michaela.

JTBJAB: Don't worry, I have no intention of stopping writing, but there will be some lulls, at least during this semester, because I am taking the max. class load and a lot of extracurriculars.

Thank you everyone for your reviews! And your support! I hope I haven't completely disappointed you.

Oh! And BTW, I have been thinking about changing the title, any suggestions?