The next days in the doctor s office went by like a flash. There were so many new impressions and new faces but all in all Charlie was rather sure that it did not go too bad. A lot of female patients showed up, just to say how happy they would be to see a woman doctor in future. Much to her unease among the visitors in the practice was also Dan DeQuille, the editor of the local newspaper "Territorial Enterprise".He was thrilled by the idea of placing an extensive article about female doctors in general and her in particular in his paper. Charlie had refused this already several times, but today he had showed up again at the office and unfortunately there was no patient waiting.

"This is an excellent opportunity Doctor Mathews to get even with all those backwoods minds, which want to withhold women from a college education and the like. You would become the icon of a progress campaign! Think what kind of advertisement this would mean for your practice!"

"This is very kind Mr. DeQuille, but I do not have the slightest wish to become an icon of any kind. Please let me just do my work here, unnoticed and undisturbed by the public." "Then let it be just a short article on page six under social news!" "No Mr. DeQuille, no! No campaign, no short article, no social news! This practice advertises for itself just by doing a good job and I am not the social type at all. Now I need to ask you to leave unfortunately; I heard that there just came a patient to the waiting room."

She rose and opened the door to the waiting area as well as to leave the editor out. When she realized who the next patient was, she felt as if she had gone from bad to worse: Adam Cartwright or "Heathcliff" how she still called him, leant against one of the walls and smiled challenging at her. "Good bye Mr. DeQuille, good morning Mr. Cartwright."

"Good morning Dan, hope you are not ill?" "No, I tried - unfortunately in vain - to convince our new celebrity here to let me write about her, this would become a triumph for Virginia City." "The only thing this would become was inappropriate; I explicitly refuse the permission to make me the subject of one of your articles. Sorry Mr. DeQuille, I will not change my mind about that! Have however a good day!" With these words she directed Adam into her consulting room and bid Dan DeQuille good bye.

"Poor Dan! Now we have an interesting newcomer, a celebrity in our midst and you do not allow him to make a fuss over it." "No, I don't. I am no celebrity at all and I don t want to have a fuss or anything like that; I just want to do my work!" These words came out a little sharp, sharper than the matter had deserved it in Adams mind. When he looked at her, he realized to his surprise that she was actually shaking.

"Well I do suppose you did not come here to discuss my celebrity-or-not-status - what about your shoulder?" "Of course Doctor Mathews, no my shoulder is absolutely fine, I came here mainly to emphasize again that there isn't anything in your professional behavior one could make fun of, I am truly sorry in case I have offended you the other day and I wanted to apologize if I did."

"You are forgiven Mr. Cartwright, no hard feelings! It was quite a stressful situation when we met first and I will not take everything literally. Let us be doctor and patient from now on. But as you have made it all the way here; let us have a look at your shoulder. You need to take your shirt off again, whereby I do assume you are capable to manage it for yourself this time! Leave the door open if this makes you feel more comfortable." Suppressing a little smile he undressed the shirt.

When she looked at her patient it was Charlie who wished to have insisted on an open door, she felt as she would become red like a beetroot. While trying to ignore that she looked intensively at her patients shoulders. A lot of terms to describe them crossed her mind, neither of which was appropriate. At least she discovered something: "You did not give the shoulder the necessary rest, did you? The left one is bigger than the right one, it is still swollen." "Well you see, it did practically not hurt anymore, after you placed it back correctly and Hop Sing gave me a poultice, so everything seemed to be fine!"

"Please, Mr. Cartwright, don't you affront my brains! It must have hurt quite a lot, but Paul already indicated that the Cartwrights always follow their own timetable when it comes to recuperations, which is of course much more important than the opinion of a medical expert." At that point Adam wanted to object something but she stopped him with a little wave of her hand. "No, no - I am fine with that, do as it pleases you. It is your own health you are ruining and most probably more to do - which means to earn - for Paul and me. You see, I am thinking now like an entrepreneur being not a simple employee any longer."

Now his smile was no longer little nor suppressible, he was visibly amused. Apparently he had been right to suspect a rather sharp witted humor in her. "The only advice I can give you is to cool the joint as much as possible. If ice is not available just put some water on the cloth over it, so there will be at least some evaporation chill. Further on when you feel the poultices of your cook to be helpful, go on applying them. You can redress yourself now. By the way, do you think I could have a talk to Hop Sing some day?"

This was the last thing Adam had expected but pulling over his shirt again he agreed: "Sure, why not, do you want me to send him here, when he will be in town next time?" "I'd rather prefer to see him at the Ponderosa if you do not mind. I intend to interview him about his medical experiences; I would very much like to make use of them here in our practice. The Chinese have a profound knowledge about medicinal herbs and plants, which physicians in the 'civilized' world have forgotten about long ago. I wonder if he might be ready to assist me in that."

"Sure, this sounds like a real good idea, but there is one thing I have to insist on!" "Yes?" "You better do not cross the thin red line that you keep Hop Sing from cooking for us. Doing that at least Hoss would become your sworn enemy, and believe me, this is nothing you would look for!" "No, Mr. Cartwright," she answered with a genuine smile. Adam was struck how much younger she suddenly seemed to be. "no, this is promised, I would not like to have an enemy in your family, my word." "Smiling becomes you Doc Mathews; you should really try it more often."

"What a smart diagnosis Doctor Cartwright!" At once her face was grave again. "Basically I agree. Just not everything we experience is funny, there are very frightening things that can make the most happy smile freeze." "That sounds awful on such a bright spring day! Look, it is nearly lunchtime; may I take you over to the International House for lunch? I hate to eat alone." "This is very kind of you Mr. Cartwright, but I have to wait for Paul here; we need to go to the Andersons place today, where he wants to introduce me." "What a pity, I see, but now you owe me company for lunch some day, agreed?"

When leaving the doctors office he asked himself: 'Who has frightened you so dreadfully and what is it that makes your smile freeze? Why is the prospect of a little note in a miserable little regional paper upsetting you so much?'

A couple of days later Charlie was on her way back from the Collins' farm where Mrs. Collins had been in labor all through last night and the better part of this day. Little Margaret Collins was the first child she had helped into the world here in Virginia City. Mother and child were in very good condition and were now safely sleeping so she was in an excellent mood despite her tiredness.

When she realized that the Ponderosa should be not too far away she decided in the spur of the moment to go for the ranch house, hoping that Hop Sing would have a moment for a talk about medical plants and herbs. When she entered the yard it was Joe, who came up from the barn to greet her: "Charlie, what a pleasure to see you, you are a bit too early for supper, but I am sure we will entertain you until then."

"No thank you Joe, I did not come to invite myself for a meal, as tempting this idea sounds. I wondered whether Hop Sing might have a moment for me." "Hop Sing?" This was clearly not what Joe had expected. "Yes, if he is in, I would very much like to have a word with him."

Hop Sing was visibly flattered, that someone had come to see him and approached, bowing to Charlie again and again. "Mista Adam tell Hop Sing Doctol Missy want ask him for Chinese medicine." "That's right Hop Sing. In San Francisco I have seen quite often how experienced Chinese Doctors and Chinese people in general are with medical herbs but I learnt far too little about them. Might I come with you into your kitchen and we have a little talk there, maybe I can help you somehow with preparing supper?"

"No, no Doctol Missy not in Hop Sing kitchen, not for guests. You sit down and Hop Sing bling tea and cake, then talk." "Very well, but I do not want to keep you from preparing the meals for the family, I have been warned that such thing would be considered as intolerable." "Doctol Missy not wolly, supper is cooking, Hop Sing time." "Well, the better it is! Could we stay at the porch; it is such a fine day!" And Hop Sing brought along tea, coffee and freshly made doughnuts and soon he and Charlie had put their heads together and they intensively discussed the impacts of several herbs and plants.

The smell of the freshly made doughnuts brought Hoss to their side rather shortly. Although not participating in their discussion he very much enjoyed the pastry. The longer the sugared delicacies stood on the porch the more the season's first bees were attracted to them. Hoss had to shoo away more and more of them.

A short while later Joe approached: "Hey Hoss, you are making yourself comfortable with Charlie and cookies and let your poor overworked younger brother do all the chores in the barn alone? I am deeply disappointed, not even Adam had been that cruel to me lately!" "Shut up and help yourself!" Hoss mumbled with half a doughnut in his mouth. "You cannot even speak so much you have in your big mouth, gimme that!" and Joe whipped the next doughnut, Hoss had already taken from the plate, out of his hand and took a big bite from it.

The very next moment his face turned into a mask of scare and Joe got on his knees. The doughnut fell down and his hands clenched around his throat. He retched out together with crumbs from the pastry something little and dark. "Joe, what's wrong with you?"

Charlie took a look at the doughnut and the little dark thing on the floor and realized: "A bee, he must have swallowed a bee." The men were looking clueless at her and she took command of the situation in an instant: "Hop Sing: Cook water as fast as you can and put your sharpest and smallest knife in it. Hoss: Take Joe inside on the settee and look for a small cylindrical item, fast, go on!"

Hoss took Joe inside and asked anxious: "What do you want me to get?" In Charlies head it was buzzing as if the bees were in there. "Does someone of you smoke a pipe?" "Yes, Pa!" "Bring them to me, all of them, fast Hoss!"

Hoss showed her 5 pipes, she took the one with the longest mouthpiece. "Take the mouthpiece of that pipe, break it if necessary and put it into the boiling water in the kitchen, hurry up and bring me towels!" The towels came, Joe was unconscious meanwhile.

Finally the water was boiling and Hop Sing presented the instruments on a clean towel. Charlie asked Hoss to keep Joes shoulders down in case he should move, took the knife and put the knifepoint at Joe s throat. After taking a deep breath she applied a rather short but deep cut into it. She took the mouthpiece and poked it into the cut until only the half of it was still to be seen.

Immediately after the little tube was inserted into Joe's throat, his chest rose up in a voracious gasp for air. He opened his eyes as well as his mouth but Charlie quickly tended to him: "Listen Joe, you must not speak. This is absolutely essential, do not try to speak! Have you understood this?" He nodded whereby his face contorted with pain. "Yes I know, it hurts but it will go over. You need to remain quiet, try to breathe as regular and as calm as you can, I will explain everything." She checked the rhythm of his breathing with her hands on his chest. "Yes this is good, very good; you are doing fine Joe, just go on like this. Breathe, slowly and calmly, very well."

At that moment the door to the great room was pushed open and Ben and Adam entered. Ben had already drawn breath to inquire about the messy state he had found the yard and the porch in, when he realized that something had happened quite outside the ordinary. "Joe, what happened here, who put that thing in your throat, have you been stabbed? Answer me!" he yelled anxiously at Hoss.

"Please Mr. Cartwright, let me explain what happened." Charlie pleaded. We where sitting on the porch and had some pastry, which attracted a lot of bees. Joe has most probably swallowed one of them, which stung him in her panic into his throat. The tissue there bulges not only in an instant but also much more than it would by a sting in an arm or a leg. By that Joe's trachea had been blocked and he could not breathe. To prevent him from suffocation I needed to cut the trachea below the swollen area and insert a little tube. Through this tube Joe can breathe now until the bulge will have receded. We had to use the mouthpiece of one of your pipes Mr. Cartwright, sorry but the pipe is probably ruined. When Joe can breathe normally again the tube can be removed and the little cut will be closed with a few stitches."

Ben was stunned: "You slit his throat?" "Yes, it is called tracheotomy. You see, although this looks rather strange, Joe can breathe now calm and regular, so there is no danger of suffocation. The main risk is now an infection of the wound. I'll go back into town and get some medicine to prevent this and come back in a few hours. The best treatment for Joe is now quiet and ice. Give him little pieces of ice, this will help to die away the bulge."

Charlie tried to rise, but Joe had clung firmly to her hands on his chest and shook his head a little. Hoss also protested: "No please Miss Charlie, do not leave us, Joe feels obviously better when you are around, and frankly so do I. Please, do stay!" "As long as Joes breathing is that regular, there cannot happen much." Joe wailed something undefinable and Hoss added: "You see, he won't do anything you said when you are away, please stay with us!"

Adam, who had stood behind Charlie, put softly a hand on her shoulder, which made her wince vigorously and turn around. "Sorry Doc, I just wanted to offer to go to town for you, you cannot make the way alone at this time of the day, give me a list and will ask Paul for all the necessary items. You can observe Joe in the meantime." "No, thank you, I can and will do that myself, I am the Doctor here."

"Please Doctor Mathews be reasonable, it is nearly dark, you do not know the area as I do and the way is much less dangerous for a man!" "Such things are integral parts of my profession; therefore I am reasonable when I do them."

Adams voice now sounded on edge in a way, that everybody who knew him better, would have given in: "No you are not, not at this time of the day, not in a rough area like this, which is moreover relatively unknown to you. I will not let you go alone under any circumstances!" Charlies voice became sharper as well: "I do not think you will be able to prevent that."

"Try me! As a last resort I will ride ten feet behind you." "That's an absolutely ridiculous idea!"

"Now we have an understanding and as this would be absolutely ridiculous as you mentioned very correctly we will not do so, but you'll make the list for me, stay here and I'll go to town. We do this because it is the most reasonable thing to do and not because you would not be able to perform your profession properly. Agreed?"

Charlie still hesitated and looked skeptical at Adam, when Hoss intervened: "Really Miss Charlie you'd better agree, Adam can be more stubborn than any mule between St. Louis and San Francisco and more commanding than any army general." Charlie could not help but smile despite her anger: "I see, so we would spend the night here arguing while nothing useful for the patient can be done. "Right you are Doctor Mathews!" Ben added and therewith the matter was sealed.

When Adam reached the house of Doc Martin in Virginia City, Paul had been out looking for a patient but Jillian offered her help. When they had collected all the items on the list, Jillian asked Adam to wait for a moment: "Let me just fetch some personal items for Charlie. She had been at the Collins place last night and will probably need some new clothes and things, she will not find in your bachelors household."

She returned with a little bundle and handed it over to Adam. "This is very thoughtful of you Jillian, thanks a lot." "Please give her my best regards, Paul and I have got very much attuned to her living here with us, it is really a pleasure to have such a pleasant young person like her around."

Adam tended to leave but hesitated and asked: "You like her a lot, don't you?" "Oh yes, it is very easy to like her, she is a really kind and warmhearted girl and so very well educated, even besides her college degree, but on the other hand ... well however." "What is there on the other hand?"

Jillian was apparently embarrassed "I am gossiping here about a very fine person." "I will surely not tattle around about her." "What are you up to Adam, if you are interested in her, what I would understand only too well, just go ahead and court her!" "Well no ... please Jillian, no matchmaking, I mean I m not up to court anyone... errr ... yet. I just wondered about her background."

Jillian looked skeptical at him and thought to herself: 'Not up to court anyone, whom do you want to take for stupid here?' and continued "Well basically it is nothing, but I noticed that she never mentions anything from her past, I mean really nothing, nothing like 'my father liked to do this and that' or 'my mother always told me not to...' not the slightest, trivial detail and of course one wonders why. She must however come from a real good family judging from her excellent taste and manners."

"So neither you nor Paul know anything about her, I mean about her past?" "No, nothing except her college education, but even when it comes to that she only speaks about medical issues, nothing else at all. Maybe this is just her little quirk and I am sure that you of all people will be able to understand and to respect another person's reticence, won't you?"

"Of course I will respect that; I just realized myself how very much on guard she is about herself and I cannot help but thinking that she fears someone or something very much, so I thought maybe we could help her?" "Probably we should give her some time, she arrived here hardly a month ago, I do hope she will have sooner or later have trust in us, maybe then my curiosity will be satisfied and she will let you help her." He nodded "You are right, we have to be patient." and left for the Ponderosa.

Jillian looked after him quite a while and mused 'You are interested, that much is for sure. No matchmaking? We will see to that my dear!'

Riding home the well known path to the Ponderosa gave Adam time enough to think about the last part of the talk with the Doctors wife. Was he interested? Of course he was, she was the most interesting woman he had met since ... well for ages: She was apparently well educated, sharp witted, courageous and very much determined about her profession, things he did appreciate in all people - men and women.

Obviously he had been right to assume that besides her professional matter of fact-side she did not let anyone see anything of herself, Jillian had noticed that as well. Although she was surely beautiful enough to peak his carnal interest, he was unsure whether he should try his luck with such an enigma or not.

At that point he laughed to himself: He of all people was thinking of someone else as an enigma! What would Joe tell him, should he have heard that sentence, considering whether one should try a little romance or not - a question, little brother surely would never have to answer, he simply rushed in every possible romantic affair with all his heart. Why couldn't he simply 'rush' like that? Why was his mind always fighting his instincts?

Maybe he was just getting old as Joe never got tired to remind him. Or maybe he had already 'rushed'? Given the fact that he spent half the night on a horseback musing about a woman who had been hardly polite to him so far and his childish behavior the other day, she seemed to mean at least something to him. He would have to find out what or how much exactly. Jillian was right; he had to give the matter some time. That sounded like a plan and his logical self was satisfied with that for the time being.

Later that evening at the Ponderosa Joe had been brought up in his bedroom where he was sleeping calmly. Ben and Charlie were sitting at his bed when Ben started with an unusual soft voice: "I am afraid Doctor Mathews I have not yet expressed sufficiently how grateful I am for saving already two of my sons, they mean the world to me, you know." "It is my profession Mr. Cartwright, I am glad I was here to help. But wait until you receive the invoice from Paul, let us see, whether you will still be that grateful then."

He smiled a little: "I would give everything for them I own, everything for everyone of them." He looked inquiring at her: "To you, being a professional independent woman, it must appear rather strange how I have my boys, two of them are probably quite some years senior to you, 'at the leash' how Jillian put it."

"First of all Mr. Cartwright you need to know that Jillian is incredibly fond of your sons as well as of you, she could not care more for all of you if she was a relative! And when it comes to be on one's own, this is not always a pleasure. Your sons are lucky devils to have someone caring for them like you do and I am sure they are aware of that! However" she smiled a little at Ben "the care for someone in his thirties should surely be expressed differently from that for a child in order to make it digestible."

"Maybe this is the core of the problem." Ben sighed "Except for his Baby days I have never been treating Adam as a real child and not only because there were too many responsibilities to bear for him. He just was always so serious and understanding about everything, even when I was not able to fulfil the modest wishes, he expressed on some very rare occasions, books mostly. I had more reasonable talks with my 5-year-old son than with many grown up men. The only time I remember him to be a real, a normal child, was when we met Hoss' mother. I still think it was Adam she fell for first, I just came in later."

"Now you are fishing for compliments Mr. Cartwright! I am sure your wife did not marry you only because of your son!" He chuckled a bit "No of course not, Inger had just the big and gentle heart you find in Hoss today, there was enough love for a tired and sad widower as well. Inger made Adam and me smile again, whereby I am not sure whether Adam knew how to laugh at all before Inger came into our lives. But what do I bother you with my concerns about past times, sorry Doctor Mathews; I did not want to trouble you."

"Just speaking about one's buried troubles and concerns can be a very useful cure as well, not only because letting out the troubles can take a burden from one's soul, but also they can be sorted out better when explained to someone else. Everything you might tell me will be treated absolutely confidential and will beside this not occur on an invoice Mr. Cartwright, promised!" He patted her hand and smiled at her: "Thank you Doctor Mathews, thank you very much!" "Call me Charlie please!" He nodded smiling "and my name is Ben!"

When Adam entered Joes room with the required items from the practice, he found his father in a surprisingly relaxed mood given that his youngest had been seriously injured a short while ago. Charlie decided not to change anything while Joe was sleeping and sent the men away to bed. "No, please not that again! This is my job, you made me stay here for it and now let me supervise my patient! Get some rest; you will surely need your strength tomorrow!"

Something in Adam wanted to argue that he would surely not let a woman do her second night watch in a row while he was safely sleeping in his bed, but realized in the last moment that this would lead without fail to a new argument about her being a doctor and professional behavior - something nobody needed. So he suggested instead that he would sleep for the next two hours and replace her afterwards, what she accepted more grateful than she wanted to admit.

Having been left alone her thoughts went back - quite involuntarily - to the little boy Heathcliff once had been. No wonder he acted so superior and patronizing and seemed only be able to laugh about mockery; most probably one of the few reliable things in his childhood days had been his own wits. Now, might that be as it was, it was surely none of her business, understanding him better made it even harder to avoid and ignore him, so it was wiser to drop that topic.

When Adam came back to begin his shift he found Charlie sleeping in the armchair. Very careful he lifted her on his arms and laid her down on the empty bed in the nearest guest room. He took off her shoes and put a quilt over her. He could not resist looking at the 'sleeping beauty' before he left the room. The peaceful and relaxed expression on her face and the disheveled mass of curls around it made her look incredibly young and vulnerable. Adam had to oppress the impulse to twist one of these strawberry-blonde strands around his finger. He was surprised by himself how much he longed for such a small intimacy and suddenly felt as if he had made use of her sleeping condition by looking at her that intensively. A bit ashamed he pulled himself together and left - although with a last regretful look back - the room.