River Deep, Mountain High
Standard disclaimers apply to this piece of Christy fan fiction.
This story continues where the TV series left off.
Any similarities to other works of Christy fan fiction are purely coincidental and unintentional.
Chapter 39
It was an unusually warm day for March. While it was now officially spring, weather in the mountains during March and April was often still very unpredictable, varying greatly from one day to the next. Christy decided to take advantage of the pleasant Saturday weather by preparing a picnic lunch and going to see a certain physician of the Cove. She not only hoped to spend time alone with him, but she also wanted to discuss some of the ideas she had mentioned to him a long time ago about starting classes for the adults in Cutter Gap.
Neil was delighted that Christy had come to see him. They seemed to be growing closer all the time. Knowing Christy had forgiven him, Neil was immediately at ease with her, and they slipped back into their comfortable friendship.
Christy spread out a blanket on the grass by the river bank, and she and Neil sat together eating the tasty picnic lunch she brought. With Fairlight's help, she had managed to prepare perfectly cooked roasted chicken, corn bread with some of Jeb's best sourwood honey, and oatmeal raisin cookies. She hoped it would make a better impression on Neil than the last time she had cooked for him and served him charcoal chicken and vegetables.
After lunch, Neil and Christy continued to sit by the river, enjoying each other's company and talking about the idea of adult and continuing education classes.
"Do you still plan on setting up those hygiene classes, Christy?" Neil asked with a teasing smirk.
She blushed immediately, recalling that conversation they had years ago after she first arrived. Christy had been concerned about her older students getting married and having babies while they were still so young. She broached the subject of hygiene classes with Doctor MacNeill to help discourage this practice and also proposed classes for new mothers to teach them how to take care of their babies after the tragic accidental death of Opal McHone's infant.
Neil had twisted Christy's idea into a class of instruction on "the do's and don'ts of mountain lovemaking", causing her to avert her eyes with mortification. He had deliberately tried to bait her, she realized, to embarrass and reveal just how young and innocent she was. Though she was no prude, especially after having lived in Cutter Gap for over two and a half years, the recollection of Neil's boldness still made the blood flow to her cheeks. Soon, though, they were both laughing at the memory.
"No, doctor," she chuckled. "Of course, hygiene is important. And perhaps we can revisit the subject another time, but I was thinking more along the lines of a class on basic first aid. How to place a tourniquet, set a splint, clean a wound properly. Things that might be done before you are able to show up to help reduce the severity of an injury."
"That is a very good idea," Neil concurred, impressed with Christy's forward thinking. "I can even distribute clean bandages and small bottles of hydrogen peroxide to the families to help cleanse superficial wounds and prevent the risk of infection."
The two sat together in a companionable silence, listening to the peaceful sound of the river flowing around them. Christy sat with her legs folded beneath her, weight leaning on one arm, while Neil was stretched out on his side chewing absently on a piece of tall grass he'd plucked from the ground. Neil noticed that she looked pensive.
"What are you thinking about, Christy?" he asked.
The corners of her mouth turned up, and she took on a somewhat dreamy expression as she stared at the surging waters with her head cocked slightly to one side. "I was just thinking about the river." She paused for a moment and then moved her gaze to focus on Neil. "And you. You always seem so tied to the river. It is such a part of you."
Neil was not sure he understood, so Christy continued, a little unsure herself what she was trying to get across. She was a bit puzzled by the jumble of ideas floating in her head, even as she attempted to put her disconnected thoughts into coherent words.
"You and the river are always linked together in my mind," she remarked. "From the time you helped me when I fell into the river, when you taught me to fish…to Margaret."
Neil's expression fell slightly at the mention of Margaret. They had not spoken of her in a long time.
"She tried to make it look like she'd drown in the river," Christy elaborated. "And then --"
"And then you saved her that night you found her there," Neil interrupted her.
The river had been both a source of peace and torment for Neil, Christy realized. Like its eternal ebb and flow, the river was in constant motion, never the same from one moment to the next. Beneath its murky waters, the river held secret worlds that only occasionally rose to the surface and became visible.
She felt that Neil could be that way, too, at times. Ever-changing with unseen depths that she at last had the good fortune to peer into as she got to know and understand him better. He still harbored many mysteries beneath those layers, but Christy no longer found them frustrating. Now she wanted very much to learn what was in his heart, to discover the innermost thoughts he kept closely guarded. She had begun to pierce through the armor a long time ago and was chipping away it, one piece at a time, even to this day.
"I don't know that I ever thanked you properly for all you did for Margaret," Neil said, his eyes boring into hers with a tremendous sincerity.
"There's no need, Neil," she said modestly. "I am just happy that she was able to make peace with you and Miss Alice, and with God. I still think about her sometimes," she added, a little wistfully.
"So do I," Neil admitted with a sigh. "Only it doesn't hurt anymore when I do. I think I have finally been able to really forgive her. And maybe even myself." He shifted his position on the blanket slightly to sit a bit more upright. Christy listened intently. "Just the other day, I was remembering something Margaret said to me when she came back the first time. After I learned of her tuberculosis, she and I went walking in the hills not far from here. She said that everything I lost a patient, a little of piece of me went with them. She said she was always afraid there wouldn't be anything left for her."
He paused and looked down for a long moment, as if working out the next sentence he would speak ahead of time. Neil lifted his eyes back again to look at Christy. They were filled with honesty, and even a hint of vulnerability.
"I know I have always been very involved in my work, Christy, and it is hard to remain so detached from everything. Especially when there is a medical problem I cannot fix, or when things take a turn for the worse."
Christy leaned in toward him and put a hand on his, comfortingly. "No one is asking you to be detached, Neil. You care about these people so much. That's what makes you a good doctor. And you are a good doctor, Neil," she said with emphasis, staring him straight in the eye.
Neil felt his heart surge in his chest under her gentle touch. The spring breeze carried the scent of lavender and roses to him, filling his senses with the lovely bouquet that always seemed to encircle Christy. He wished to capture this moment in his memory forever so he that could hold onto it and reach for it when he was feeling uncertain or insecure.
Fearing that Christy could see down into the very core of his desires, he changed his tone in an instant, blinking to sever the link her eyes had with his. "Well, I need to learn not to internalize everything so, and even more, to not take it out on others. Even my Aunt Hattie told me that."
"She's a very wise woman," Christy acknowledged. She understood that, in his way, Neil was trying to apologize for what happened between them. Even though she had implied to him that the subject was closed, that he was forgiven, he still wanted to set things right with her. The knowing look on her face made Neil realize that he had.
Neil and Christy elapsed into silence once more. Separately, they each pondered the river and the effect – the hidden meaning and symbolism – that it had on their lives…and the shared memories that were tied to it.
Suddenly, Christy found her thoughts lingering a bit too long on the doctor himself, and that unruly mass of reddish-blond curls blowing in the breeze. He stretched his legs out again on the blanket as he laid there propped up on one elbow, staring at the rushing waters. The sunshine highlighted the golden tips of his hair that seemed to stand out in all directions. She noticed how Neil always had that lone curl hanging over his eyes, and how he often reached back to grab the long ends at the nape of his neck when he was especially pensive or nervous about something.
Christy smiled to herself secretly. Neil needed a haircut, she thought. She fought to stifle a snicker, but it was too late. Neil had noticed.
"And just what do you find so amusing, Miss Huddleston," he asked with a teasing grin.
A little embarrassed and flustered, Christy quickly tried to replace her sheepish expression with one of complete seriousness. Although, it was impossible to keep her sapphire eyes from sparkling and dancing with humorous delight. "Oh, it's nothing, Doctor MacNeill."
"Now, Christy, I've told you before that as a physician, these eyes are trained for observation," he remarked. "Besides, those big blue eyes of yours will give you away every time."
"Alright," Christy relented, still slightly mortified but knowing Neil was right. She had been told many times before that she could not conceal her thoughts because they would manifest themselves in her facial expressions. "I was just wondering…When was the last time you had a haircut?"
Self-consciously, Neil furrowed his brow and reached his hand to the back of his hair. It was quite long, he admitted, longer than it has been in a while. "I suppose it has been too long, judging by your question. Only I hadn't bothered to notice it. But as always, Miss Huddleston, you power of observation never ceases to amaze, or flummox, me!"
Soon they were both in hysterics. Christy fell backward on the blanket, holding her side from the splitting laughter and smiling gleefully. Neil rolled closer to her, watching her face erupt in complete mirth. Seeing Christy so happy made him feel buoyant and hopeful…and alive.
Unexpectedly and without warning, Christy jumped up from the ground, grabbed Neil's hand urging him to follow, and she led him back towards the cabin. He complied wordlessly, wondering what in the devil Christy Huddleston was up to. Once inside the cabin, Christy directed him to sit down and then proceeded to give the good doctor the haircut he desperately needed.
When she was finished, she handed Neil a small mirror that hung on a nail on the front porch that he used for shaving. He looked at himself, moving the mirror around to see all possible angles, and eyed the job critically. She hadn't cut his hair too short, and his curls were still well defined, only tidier and not overly long. Finding no fault with it, Neil nodded favorably.
"A job well done, Miss Huddleston," Neil commented with approval. "I could not have done better myself."
"You'll find that I am full of hidden talents, Doctor," Christy teased.
"I have no doubt!" he responded with a roguish smirk. "Now I no longer have to be afraid to show myself in public!"
They were enveloped in light laughter once more, but after it subsided, Neil took on a serious tone and expression. His eyes seemed to hold hers captive, and Christy felt herself melting under their unspoken power.
"Thank you, Christy," Neil said with sincerity and gratitude. "This afternoon has been truly wonderful. I will remember it always."
Christy smiled at him tenderly in return. "Me too, Neil."
***
TO BE CONTINUED