An hour or so after Breakfast Kat and Dr. Mike found themselves working over a convulsing patient. He was twitching uncontrollably and in a considerable amount of pain, but he was still conscious and able to speak.
"When did you begin to feel ill Mr. Barton?" Dr. Mike asked her patient as Kat carefully cleaned out the wound on his neck.
"The day before yesterday." Barton managed to gasp out.
"Why did you wait so long to come in?" Dr. Mike frowned. From her experience it was always best to treat cases as soon as possible.
"Well I asked Jake, but he said it ain't nothing." Kat looked up at her friend who still wore a troubled expression.
"Is that where you got this cut?" Kat question, knowing what the Doctor was thinking.
"Yeah." Mr. Barton explained in a scratchy voice. "He cut me while I was getting a shave."
"Doc, this cut's infected. Jake was probably using a dirty razor."
"I suspect so." Dr. Mike sighed. "I've warned him about this before."
"Is that why I'm so sick?" Their patient trembled in the bed below them. "What have I got?"
"You're suffering from septicemia." Dr. Mike diagnosed.
"What the heck is that?" Barton growled. He didn't mind having a lady doctor but why did she have to be so damn technical all the time?
"That's blood poisoning, isn't it, Doc?" Kat knew someone who had died of blood poisoning before; it was painful but quick death.
"Blood poisoning? You mean he poisoned me?" Barton grew angry. "Why I oughtta..."
"Please lie down. We'll take care of Jake. Just as soon as you lie down." It took both Dr. Mike and Kat to get Mr. Barton to lay back in his bed. Once he was settled both women stepped out into the hall and closed the door behind them.
"I'm afraid he doesn't have much time." Dr. Mike whispered as they walked down the hall together.
"There's nothing we can do?" Surely they couldn't just let the man die.
"We can make him comfortable. And we can send for the Reverend but I'm afraid that's all."
"No." Kat shook her head. "That ain't all. I'll fetch Reverend Johnson for you, and then I'll have some choice words for Mr. Slicker."
"Hank!" Byron Sully called into the Saloon. It wasn't a particularly busy night. Myra was standing behind bar serving drinks to a couple of men sitting on stools. The rest of the occupants were gathered around a large table playing poker. Hank and Jake were among the poker players, and the latter gave Sully a polite nod before looking down at his cards. A stack of cash sat by the young barber's elbow.
"What can I do for you, Sully?" Hank looked up from his hand of cards. "You want in on the game?"
"You know I don't gamble." Sully frowned.
"Yeah, well, you don't drink neither. And your sister ran outta here about an hour ago, so what exactly are you doing in my Saloon?"Hank tapped the table and the dealer slid a card over to him.
"I wanna pay off Kathryn's contract." The future mountain man replied confidently.
"You ain't got enough money for that." Hank laughed. Sully pulled out a wad of cash from his waist coat pocket and tossed it down on the table in front of Hank. The Saloon owner picked up the stack and counted it. "There's only enough here for about six months."
"Six months?" Sully groaned. "It took me years to save up that money!"
"I'll put in my winnings." Jake volunteered. He gathered up the stack of cash at his elbow and handed it to Hank. He flipped over his hand of cards and rose from the table. Hank added Jake's money to the pile and smiled.
"I don't need your help!"" Sully told Jake.
"Why not?" Jake crossed his arms. "Besides it's to help Kat not you."
"I'd say you need all the help you can get, Sully." Hank shrugged. "You're still about two years short of paying off Kat's contract. Good luck with that." He laughed again.
"Add those two years to my contract." Myra volunteered from over by the bar.
"What are you going on about?" Hank yelled from his seat. A roar of laughter rotated through to poker players.
"I'm serious, Hank!"She insisted, stepping out from behind the bar with her hands on her hips. "Let Kat out of her contract and add whatever Jake and Sully can't pay for on to my contract. Kat's my friend and I want her to have a good life, a better life than this. You'll take care of her wont you?" She looked between Sully and Jake.
"Of course." Sully answered right away. "Why are you doing this?" He asked the young barber with crossed arms.
"Because..." Jake didn't want to admit his true feelings to Kat's brother, let alone air them in front of his poker buddies, but if it helped get her out of that troublesome contract..."Because I love her."
"Love her?" Hank cackled. "Well I bet she don't love you back! Naw, first chance that little bird gets, she's going to fly the coop. Fine Sully, she's all paid for. you can take her stuff, she don't never have to come back. Mark my words Slicker, as soon as Kat finds out she can run, that's exactly what she's going to do."
Kat stormed across the street into Jake's barber shop. The place was full, Loren and two other men were sitting on the bench by the door waiting for their shaves. A man, whose name Kat didn't know, was sitting in the chair being shaved by the Barber. She'd watched Jake shave the faces of enough men to know how to safely pull his hand away without hurting his customer.
"What do you think you're doing?" He snapped at her.
"When's the last time you sterilized your razors?" She asked.
"Now wait just a minute!" Jake said. "You know I've been Barbering most of my life and I've never had no complaints."
"That's right." Loren nodded behind them. He was getting mighty tired of this women storming in here all the time. "No complaints!"
"Besides I know this is clean!" The Barber continued. Kat put her hands on her hips and tried her best to restrain herself from smacking Jake clear across his face. How could he be so dumb?
"Have you disinfected it? Did you use the proper chemicals like Ray taught ya?" She demanded. In response Jake blow on the razor and wiped in on a nearby rag.
"There, now it's sterilized. You can go now." He huffed.
"No, no I can't go, Jake Slicker." The barber winced. What was she his mother? Calling him by his first name and everything. Furthermore he didn't really see what this had to do with her anyway. "Dr. Mike just had a patient die." Die? That caught Jake's attention. "Said he was a costumer of yours, a Mr. Barton?"
"What happened to ol' Harry?" Loren asked from his seat.
"He died." Kat repeated. "Blood poisoning."She crossed her arms over her chest. "Dr. Mike says she's warned ya before about cleaning your razors. And I know you know how important it is to clean them, heck you used to be the one to remind Ray how to do it properly. You can be mad at me for leaving ya. You can be mad about a lot of things, but you killed a man Jake, and there ain't no way to get that off your conscience. Take care gentlemen." Kathryn tipped her hat at the men by the door before walking back to the clinic.
A/N: Thank you too Kim, Maria, snn7b, Judy, Michaela & [Guest] for your reviews of Chapter 11! I'm sorry that I always end at a "real good spot" as snn7b called it, but I'm a total sucker for cliff hangers! I like to think of them as like commercial breaks, they keep you wanting more, but they're also a great place to end if you need to put the story down for awhile! Also, Judy, I try to put in as much of my own content in as possible, but sometimes I think it's necessary to have a Chapter/Chapters that are basically the same as scenes from the show, just to keep my own elements grounded in the Dr. Quinn Universe, if that makes sense. I'm also hoping to work in more of Jake and Kat's backstory in these next few chapters since the Happy Birthday is also the one where Jake goes on that awful drunken binder and almost dies from drinking rubbing alcohol. So in summery I hope you guys enoyed Chapter 12, I'll try to get thirteen out as soon as possible, but who knows when that will be! Thanks again for reading, reviewing, favoriting and following!