Author's Note: Once again, a medical procedure is described in this chapter. I tried to tone it down, but I couldn't help it the procedure is graphic and there was no way around it. It was common back then to this. I am sorry if anyone gets upset. I would suggest that you not read this while eating. Sorry.

Chapter 208 – A Painful Setback

By the time that Aunt Elizabeth cleared the dishes and had served the apple crumble, they all had a clear direction moving forward. Everything was still dependent on Melissa and Sophie agreeing, but neither man saw their wife objecting. They just wanted the opportunity to speak to them before formally agreeing. Elizabeth understood and was glad they wanted their wives on board.

As they sat and visited about other things, just enjoying being together as a family, they heard Jack thrashing about and moaning in pain. Not wanting him to rip his stitches, Elizabeth and Dee immediately went to him. Elizabeth sat on the edge of the bed while Dee tried to restrain Jack.

"Jack." Elizabeth said. "You are alright. I am right here."

Elizabeth gently brushed his hair off his face. As she spoke and brushed her fingers through his hair, he started to calm some. He was still moaning in pain, but wasn't thrashing as bad.

"Come on, Jack." Elizabeth said, soothingly. "You need to open your eyes and look at me."

She kept repeating it until his eyes started to flutter.

"There we go." Elizabeth said. "Come on, let me see those green eyes I love so much."

Finally, Jack's eyes opened and locked on Elizabeth's face. Elizabeth could tell that Jack was in severe pain.

"There you are." Elizabeth said, reassuringly. "Easy, nice, even breaths."

"Pain." Jack rasped.

"You are in pain." Elizabeth said.

Jack nodded his head.

"I will go get a medicated tea." Dee said.

"Grab the thermometer." Elizabeth said. "He feels a little warm."

"What do you need?" Wynn asked from the doorway.

Without looking away from Jack, Elizabeth was trying to think.

"Go find Jacobs and someone needs to grab the advanced medical bag from the jail." Elizabeth said.

"We got it." Wynn said. "You just keep Jack calm. Here is the thermometer."

Elizabeth held her hand out behind her and Wynn put it in her waiting hand. Elizabeth immediately pulled it from the case and made sure it was shaken down.

"Come on, Jack." Elizabeth said. "You need to work with me. I know you are in pain, but one thing at a time. Let's just slip this under your tongue."

Jack opened his mouth just enough to let Elizabeth slip the thermometer under his tongue. Elizabeth continued to try and soothe Jack as she took his temperature. Once the time had passed, she carefully slipped it from his mouth and looked at it.

"Just slightly elevated." Elizabeth said.

Jack closed his eyes and shook his head.

"What was it?" Wynn asked.

"One hundred on the nose." Elizabeth said.

By this time, Dee was back and sitting on the other side of the bed. He picked up Jack's wrist and felt for a pulse.

"What do you got?" Wynn asked.

Elizabeth realized they were starting to track vitals and got a bit worried. She closed her eyes and willed the worry away. She needed to be strong for Jack.

"Heart rate of seventy-eight." Dee said. "Breathing is eighteen."

"Beth." Wynn said. "You need to get Jack to slow his breathing down."

"Come one, Jack." Elizabeth said. "Breathe with me."

Again Jack locked his eyes on Elizabeth and started to try and breathe with her, when he really just wanted to gasp for air. He felt like his lungs were on fire and everything hurt.

Eventually, Elizabeth laid down next to Jack. He turned to face her. She took his hand and put it on her baby bump. She then helped him to slow his breathing. That is how they were when Jacobs and Faith rushed into the room. Wynn and Dee backed up and gave Jacobs a run down of what had happened. Faith immediately started to assess Jack. She let Elizabeth stay where she was as she appeared to be a calming force for Jack.

After listening to his lungs and taking his pulse again, Faith went over to talk to Jacobs and Wynn. The three of them looked somber.

"If he had muscle spasms." Faith said. "I would think it was tetanus. In his weakened state, I don't know if it is wise to give him the antitoxin or not. I have a dose of it with me. But I have never seen a case, just read about it."

"Could giving it to him harm him?" Wynn asked.

"I don't know." Faith said.

"Dee." Wynn said. "Go with Faith and wire Union City. We need to know what we can do. Use my name, mark it urgent and get a reply back as soon as you can."

Dee nodded.

"What can we do while we wait?" Wynn asked.

"Keep him calm." Faith said. "Cool clothes to bring the fever down."

"We got this." Jacobs said. "Go see if there is something we can do."

Dee and Faith left. Jacobs grabbed a bucket and went to get water from the pump. When he came back, he went to Jack.

"Jack, we need to try and get your fever down." Jacobs said. "I am going to start putting cool clothes on you."

Jack just nodded as Jacobs put cool clothes on Jack's forehead and neck.

"Jack." Jacobs said. "I need to know where the pain is the worst."

"Hip." Jack rasped.

"Jack if I help you." Jacobs said. "Can you roll completely up on your side?"

Jack nodded. It took a little maneuvering and Jack cried out several times before Jacobs had him up on his side with the bad hip up.

"We got you." Elizabeth said. "Focus on me."

"Yes, Jack."" Jacobs said. "Focus on Elizabeth. I am just going to remove some of these bandages and check your hip. Jack, can you tell me if you have pain in your neck or jaw? How about when you are breathing?"

"Only hip." Jack rasped. "Not tetanus."

"Are you sure?" Jacobs asked. "Because that is what we are concerned about."

"Positive." Jack rasped.

"Slow down, you are breathing too fast again." Elizabeth said.

As Jacobs was checking Jack, Patty and Charlotte arrived back. Charlotte wanted in the room, but Wynn and Elizabeth Rose kept her out. They could, however, hear her. Once Jacobs was able to see the cut they had made, he was sure he knew the problem.

"Okay, Jack." Jacobs said. "I think I see the problem. You have a huge boil that formed right under the stitches. I thought we had cleaned it out, but we must have missed some. It appears to be fairly superficial, just like the foreign body."

"Clean it out." Jack hissed.

"Do you want me to do this or wait for Faith?" Jacobs asked.

"Wait for Faith for what?" Faith asked. "Dee is waiting for a response, I wanted to come back and check on Jack."

"He has a huge boil that formed in the center of the stitches." Jacobs said. "It must have been forming earlier and cutting the skin made it worse."

Faith came around and looked where Jacobs was looking.

"You are right." Faith said. "We are going to have to open it up, drain it and clean it out."

"Do it." Jack said, with gritted teeth.

"Jack, this is going to really hurt." Faith said. "Maybe it would be best if Elizabeth wasn't here for this."

Jack looked at Elizabeth and she could see the agony in his face.

"I am staying." Elizabeth said. "Jack has been a lot calmer since I laid down with him."

"She stays." Jack said.

"Okay." Faith said. "We will gather what we need and then I will give you the other half of the morphine injection before we start."

Jack nodded. Jacobs and Faith went out into the kitchen. Wynn was on his feet.

"What do you need?" Wynn asked.

"I will need you to help hold Jack still when the time comes." Faith said. "But for now, I need a few hot coals and tongs, hot water, towels and alcohol, the stronger the better."

Wynn opened the cabinet and pulled out the whiskey that he knew Jack kept in the back. Elizabeth Rose got the towels and hot water. Patty grabbed a pan and fished out a couple of hot coals once everything else was ready.

Once they had everything, Jacobs, Wynn, Faith and Patty went into the bedroom with the supplies.

"Elizabeth." Faith said. "I need you to wrap your arms around Jack and hold him tight. No matter what, you can't let go. Can you do that?"

"Yes." Elizabeth said.

Elizabeth scooted as close to Jack as she could. She wrapped her arms around him and held him tight. She turned her head so she was looking back at Jack. She didn't want to have to see, she knew hearing was going to be bad enough. Once they had everything ready, Wynn sat on the bed and held Jack's legs.

"Alright." Faith said. "Jack, I am going to give you the morphine now. It will help, but this is still going to be very painful."

"Ready." Jack said.

Faith gave him the shot which caused Jack to squeeze Elizabeth. She didn't say anything, because she knew it was painful for Jack. After the shot. Faith took a cloth and dipped it in the hot water and washed around the area. When she was done Jacobs poured some alcohol on it. Again Jack moaned in pain.

"Here comes the hard part." Faith said.

Without giving Jack a chance to protest, she sliced the area open and Jacobs immediately took a hot coal and touched it to the area. The pain caused Jack to scream and convulse. Elizabeth, Wynn and Patty tighten their grip on Jack. Patty had moved over and was holding Jack against the bed/Elizabeth using her body weight on his back. Elizabeth was glad that they hadn't told her what they were going to do. She was using all her strength to hold Jack. The smell was making her sick to her stomach, but she couldn't think about that at the moment. Jacobs used the hot coals several more times on Jack, causing him to scream and buck against his bonds each time.

It was so hard for Elizabeth to hear Jack's screams and know that there was nothing she could do but hold him. After Jacobs was satisfied he had gotten everything, Faith cleaned the area with the alcohol, again causing Jack to cry out in pain. This time instead of fighting the holds, he went limp.

"He is breathing." Elizabeth said. "I can feel it."

"Good." Faith said. "Then he just passed out from the pain."

They finished cleaning up the area and making sure they had removed all the infection they could see. The last thing that Faith did was use the scalpel to remove some of the charred skin that was left behind. Once they were done, Faith took some linseed oil and soaked a couple of clothes. Those were placed over the open area and then covered with additional straps of cloth. While Jack was passed out, they were able to get him wrapped up.

Seeing he was still out, Jacobs picked Jack up and carried him to his bed upstairs. Elizabeth quickly followed and once again laid down with her arms wrapped around Jack.

"Someone will be downstairs if you need anything." Jacobs said.

Then he pulled out his watch.

"It is almost three o'clock now." Jacobs said. "I will be back at five to check on you. Do I have your permission to come up and knock when I get here?"

"Yes." Elizabeth said. "If it is alright, I am going to stay right here with Jack."

"That is perfectly fine." Jacobs said. "Just call out if you need something, otherwise I will see you at five."

"Thank you." Elizabeth said.

Jacobs left the two of them, and pulled the door almost shut. When he got downstairs, all eyes turned to him.

"He is breathing." Jacobs said. "His body has been through a lot, the best thing now is to let him rest. Elizabeth is staying with him. I told her I would her back at five to check on him."

Dee was back by this point and Union City had advised against the antitoxin unless he had other symptoms. Dee had also brought a bunch of paperwork back so he would be able to keep busy.

"I don't know about the rest of you." Elizabeth Rose said. "But I would like to stick close at least until I know Jack is awake."

"Me too." Wynn said.

"I am going to head back to the cafe." Patty said. "It has been steady all day with the rain."

"We will keep you updated." Wynn said. "Grab a few extra cadets if needed."

"I will." Patty said. "Thank you."

"I am going to head back as well." Faith said. "Jack and Elizabeth are in good hands. Don't be afraid to come get me if something changes. I am going to be in my apartment above the infirmary."

"Thank you." Wynn said.

"I will walk you back." Jacobs said.