Mrs. Sharmat came quickly with the record in hand. “Read it to me, what injury does this man have?” Mrs. Sharmat ran her fingertips down the sheet of paper, “Suspected fracture left arm, with bone shattering, ? of need for amputation. Suspected fracture left lower leg. Patient awake and semi-alert. Breathing normal. Recommend to surgery tent.”
“Thank you. Now I’ll examine him myself”, she turned to the nurse, “I know this man!” Michaela carefully lifted Sully’s left arm. He did have a fracture, but she didn’t think it was a shattered bone. His left leg was slightly swollen, but she didn’t think it was fractured. She continued cleaning him. He opened his eyes and looked up at her, “Michaela........why are you here?”, he asked her softly. She tried hard to keep the tears in, “Sully, I didn’t know you were here. I tried to find you before, after you left the hotel, but I couldn’t. I went back to Colorado Springs and then received a telegram asking for help with the cave-in and the fire victims. I had no idea you were here. I’m going to help you Sully.” He raised his right hand and grasped onto her hand, she raised her other hand to her face and wiped the tears.
“Tell me where you’re having pain Sully. If you don’t tell me, then I can’t help you”, Michaela whispered to him, bringing her face close to his.
He grimaced and looked away from her for a moment, then “My shoulder, feels tight and my leg feels sore. That’s it”, he looked into her eyes, “Not as bad as when I tussled with Rankin though”, he half smiled at her.
She didn’t find him amusing, “Please, I couldn’t bear to see you like that again”, she wiped his face again with a cool towel, “Do you think you can walk?”
He shrugged his shoulders and then winced at the pain that shot through his left shoulder, “Not now”, he sighed.
“Rest, let me see if I can get you something to eat”, she walked to the nurse, “Have you, or has someone, brought meals to these men? “
“Yes the volunteers have been around with food, I’ll go see when they’re coming”, and she walked out of the tent. Michaela looked back at Sully, he was watching her. One of the other patients was groaning in pain and Michaela went to check. She went to her bag and gave the patient some pain medication, and she checked his bandages and placed her stethescope gently on his chest as she listened to his heart.
Sully watched her, admiring the way she cared for her patient. He couldn’t believe she was here. He looked up at the heavens and sighed, he half hoped he would die in the mine. He’d rather be dead than lose yet another family. Now he thought the spirits must have had this plan for him, for Michaela to be the one to resurrect him once again. She was like some kind of guardian angel to him and as he turned his head to look at her again he was struck by her beauty, her gentle manner. He smiled at the thought of getting up and rushing over to her to hold her in his arms. That thought made him think of the hotel and what had happened. “Michaela...”, he called to her, he wanted to discuss that now. She came quickly to his bedside. “Sit on the bed here, please”, he took her hand, “I’m sorry about leaving the hotel. I should have said good bye..”
“You shouldn’t have left at all Sully”, she interrupted, “I’m sorry for placing you in an uncomfortable position. I didn’t think it through until it was too late”, she looked to the ground, blushing, “My naiveté was all too apparent”, she leaned close to his face, “Will you forgive me?”
He bit his lower lip and stared into her eyes, “Kiss me, please”, was all he could say and she leaned and kissed him tenderly. She was shocked that he gasped as if he were going to cry as their lips met, she pulled away and put her hand to his face, “Sully why do we hurt each other? I promise you, we’re going home to Colorado Springs and things will be different between us. Things will be better.”
Mrs. Sharmat returned to the tent with a tray. Michaela went over and saw that there was soup and bread, so she brought some to Sully. “Can you sit up?”, she assisted him and she placed a tray on his bed. “I have to check on some others, but I’ll be back”, she smiled at him and left.
Michaela cared for at least 30 patients over the next 24 hours. Sully was improving, his leg was not as swollen and he had put his weight on it a little in the morning. He wasn’t able to walk on it fully, but they were both relieved that it was better. Finally on the third day, “Sully are you ready to go home?”
He looked at her and then he looked away. She ran her hand through his hair, “I can make plans to leave tomorrow......what do you think?”
He looked up at her and nodded, “Sure.......I’m ready”. She smiled and left the tent.
Later that night, Sully could not sleep. He knew he needed to exercise his legs if he was going to be able to go home. He got off the bed and grabbed the crutch the nurse had brought him earlier, he used it for the first few steps and then kept it in case he needed it. He hobbled out of the tent. The only activity was down the far end of the temporary camp, volunteers and the rescued from that day. Michaela had told him that they were the last survivors and that the death toll was relatively low considering the immense damage. Sully walked down to the right, past 5 or 6 tents, with each step feeling stronger and stronger. He stopped at a sign, “Medical Personnel Tents”, and continued on hoping to see Michaela. It was so quiet, people were either sleeping or down at the far end caring for people. Sully looked up and down the path and poked his head in a few of the tents, no Michaela, in fact no one at all. She couldn’t possibly be helping, not after the day she had put in. He suddenly heard a little yelp coming from a few tents down, he headed that way. He walked around to the back of the tent and there she was, sitting in a bathtub!
“Sully!”, she squealed, “What are you doing here?”
He smiled and stuttered, “I ...I....heard.something......someone yell....I didn’t know you were here”, and he pointed to the bathtub.
“Oh, I....yelled because I dropped the soap, that’s all......You couldn’t have heard that all the way from your tent!”
“No, I’ve been walking.....exercising my legs”, he walked closer, “I saw the sign that medical personnel tents were here, so I figured I’m come see ya.........I mean.......I didn’t mean to see ya in the tub!”
She laughed and smiled up at him, “This is what you need, a hot bath to soothe those muscles.”
“Okay, I’ll get in!”, he laughed at her shocked expression, he kneeled at the side of the tub, “At least let me wash your back, you been washing mine for a few days.” He squinted slightly and looked at her, she looked frightened. He pulled gently on a ringlet of her hair that had fallen off the loosely clipped pile on top of her head. She looked down and bit her lip and she raised her eyes to look at him. He smiled at her and took the soap from the metal dish attached to the tub. He thought of moving to the back, but then decided to stay at her side, he needed to see her face, her expressions as he washed her neck and back. Much to his delight at his first touch her shoulders went up and she bit her lip even harder than before. Her skin was so smooth, the soap glided over it. He reached across her shoulders and she leaned forward enjoying his touch, the massage of her tired muscles. He dipped his hand into the water and brought it back up to let the water drip down her back and a few more ringlets stuck to her skin. He pulled her arm up and laid it on the edge of the tub, he rubbed the soap in his hands and returned it to the dish. He ran his hands up and down her arm, gently massaging her with his fingers, squeezing her shoulder slightly and then running the back of his fingers down to her hand. He dipped her hand in the water and then brought it up to his lips where he kissed each finger softly and then kissed her palm almost as if he were inhaling her wet skin. She was mesmerized watching him consume her hand, exploring every inch with his mouth. When he shot his eyes up to her, she gasped, those intense blue eyes always made her react and now she saw love in them. He pulled her hand up around his neck and he leaned and kissed her passionately, he pulled her wet shoulders to him and held her tightly until their tongues were together in their own tub of warm seduction. She finally ended their kiss with a sigh and pulled away. He kissed her hand again as she let it linger on his arm. She couldn’t take her eyes off his face, he looked so dreamy it was difficult for her not to kiss him again. “Let me wash your leg”, he whispered into her ear.
“Oh..no...no I couldn’t let you do that”, she replied.
“Why not.......there’s no one here and doesn’t my helping you with your bath feel good?”, he kissed her neck and down to her shoulder, “Uhm...doesn’t it?”
“Yes....it certainly does”, and she moaned and laid her head back on the tub.
He pushed his sleeves up higher on his arms and reach in the water and pulled her leg up and rested her foot on the edge of the tub. She was immediately uncomfortable with this, but he ran his hand up her leg, “Relax......trust me”, he smiled lovingly at her.
“You have very cute feet”, he looked up at her face and smiled, “Are you ticklish?” She yanked her foot out of his hand, “Don’t!”, she said boldy. He held his hands up in surrender, “Okay.......I promise”.
He again put the soap on his hands and started to massage her foot, “How’s that?”, he asked.
“Oh that feels wonderful Sully. I never knew you could do this”, she said with her eyes closed and her head still back on the edge of the tub.
“There’s lots of things I can do that you don’t know about”, he said with a mischievous laugh.
She gazed at him quickly and then closed her eyes again. He continued kneading her foot and started to move his hands up towards her calf, now with a gentler rub. At her knee, she started to giggle, “Ah, this is the ticklish spot!”, he said as he looked up at her.
“Please”, she looked pleadingly at him, “don’t...........please.”
The ends of his lips curled up and he bent down and kissed her knee, “Okay”. As he started up on her thigh, he felt her become nervous, “Trust me I said”, he looked at her.
“Sully........this isn’t a good idea.......”, she was starting to breath heavily. Sully thought for a moment, although he wished her heavy breathing was for him, he knew it was due to fright. He stopped and brought his hands down again to her ankle, “That’s better”, she said.
He reached down into the water again and lifted the other leg, “This one is jealous!”, and he massaged her foot, her ankle, her calf and was up at her thigh again. This time she looked at him, he couldn’t remember ever seeing her eyes so big. He continued massaging the soft smooth skin on her thigh, their eyes glued to each other. He brushed his fingers up against her hip to see what she would do, she never moved. He continued and then she threw her head back on the edge of the tub and this caused her to land right on his hand. “Ah!”, she yelped and moved causing the water to splash up. “I’m sorry”, said Sully bewildered at what happened. “It’s okay, I moved....I .... I think my bath is over. Can you get me the towel over there on the screen?”
He asked her to look the other way, “Why? What’s the matter?”, she asked as she turned her head.
“Oh nothin’”, he said as he stood, shifted the waist on his pants and went to get her the towel.
He held the towel up, “Come on, stand into it”. She looked up at him. “Oh come on, I ain’t gonna look”, he said as he turned his face. She carefully stood up, her eyes on his eyes the entire time, she pulled the towel to her chest, “Okay”, she said and he wrapped the towel around her and his arms around her. “This is nice”, he said as he held her. Because she was standing in the tub, they were face to face, so she kissed his lips with passion and he pulled her into his chest. They stayed that way and kissed over and over again. “Sully...I’m cold”.
“How could you be”, he said as his lips went to hers again, but he lifted her out of the tub and carried her to the tent. They both looked around to make sure no one was there, “Okay, put me down”, she looked at him.
“Do I have to?”, but he did because his shoulder was hurting. He sat on an empty cot, “Get dressed, I’ll watch...I mean I’ll wait”.
“Sully!”, she held the towel tightly around her and lookd down to realize it didn’t even reach her knees. She looked up at him.
Sully was enjoying the view, “You look so beautiful. It’s very hard for me to just sit here ya know!”
She blushed and left the tent to go to the screen outside where she had left her new change of clothes. He moved so that he could see her. He was pleased to discover he could see her silhouette through the screen, then he shook his head, ‘what am I doing’ he thought, but he looked anyway. She came out wearing a pretty blue dress.
“You sleep in that?”, he asked.
“Yes. I’ve been prepared to wake at any hour to tend to patients, I don’t want to go in nightclothes!”, she put her things away, “Now, let me take you back to your tent.”
“Hey, where’s my hot bath, you promised”, he tried to sound childish and playful.
“I did not promise. I’ll see that you get a bath in the morning, that’s a promise”, she said as she held out her hands to help him stand. He took her hands and stood and kissed her. They slowly went back to his tent where she tucked him into his bed. “There you are, now you need your rest”, she said as she patted his arm.
“Gonna be hard to rest if I keep thinking about the bath I just gave ya”, he whispered. She bent and kissed him quickly on the lips, “Then think of something else. Good night”, and she walked to the doorway. She looked back at him to see him smiling at her. She walked back to him and crouched down, “I love you Sully”, she said as she put her fingertips on his shoulder, he smiled, “I love you too Michaela”.
Sully awoke the next morning feeling better, at least his shoulder felt better and he immediately smiled at the memory of Michaela. There were several people in the tent and he saw Mrs. Sharmat and asked her if she had seen Dr. Quinn.
“Yes, she was a few tents down”, she pointed to her left, “helping with surgery. Plus a lot of people were going home this morning, so I’m sure she checked a few of those who were leaving.”
Sully got up and walked to the doorway of the tent. He looked to his right and saw people breaking down some of the tents, he also saw several wagons leaving with people and supplies. He walked down to where the nurse had pointed and listened to hear Michaela talking. He didn’t hear her, so he looked into a few tents. He finally found her, she was working on a patient doing some kind of surgery. He stood in the doorway and watched.
A young man came and stood beside him. “Ain’t she pretty? I wish I had a doctor like her”, said the young man. Sully smiled, looked at the man and nodded. “I’d like to get up the nerve and ask her where she lives. She’s been so nice to us”, the young man shifted nervously from one foot to another, pushing his hands in out of his pockets, “A man could do right having a woman like her.” Now Sully wasn’t smiling, this man was pushing it a little too far for Sully’s liking. They stood in silence and watched Michaela finish her surgery.
After she washed her hands, she came to the doorway, “Good morning” she said to both of them.
Sully smiled and the young man pushed in front of him, “Good morning Doctor, it’s a nice day isn’t it?”
Michaela smiled at him, “Yes......yes it’s a nice day”, then she turned to Sully and kissed him on the cheek, “Are you ready to go home?” Sully and Michaela turned, Michaela grabbed his arm and Sully looked back to see the young man eyes wide, mouth hanging open. Sully chuckled, “I’m ready to go home!”
They boarded the stage in Denver, Sully was glad they were the only two passengers. He immediately got in and put his arm around Michaela, she pushed closer to him. She looked up into his eyes, “I’m so glad I found you in Denver.”
“Me too, or else I wouldn’t have this arm to wrap around you!”
“Oh Sully that doctor shouldn’t have been there at all!”
“I know, but lucky me I had the best doctor”, he whispered into her ear, “I even got to give my doctor a bath!”
“Sully! Don’t you tell anyone!”, she slapped his thigh.
“Hey, you owe me! When we get home, I’m making a nice warm bath, I’m getting in and you are going to scrub my back”, she put his hand under her chin, “You understand”.
They both laughed, although Michaela blushed and looked out the window.
“We gonna be courtin’ again when we get home?”, Sully asked.
“Yes. I think we healed things”, she looked up at him, “I’m sorry Sully. I have strong feelings for you and sometimes I do try to push them away. I’ll try not to do that anymore.”
“You don’t have to”, Sully shifted so he was facing her, “I know that sometimes when I kiss you, I feel that you.....well..that.....you like it...and sometimes you wanna kiss me again. You’re too busy thinking it’s not proper, but you shouldn’t think like that. People know we love each other and if they saw you kiss me....well they wouldn’t think there’s anything wrong with that. It’s good for the kids to see too, they need to see a happy couple, a couple in love, Charlotte and Ethan never showed them that.”
Michaela nodded, “That’s true. You’re right, it is teaching them that loving and touching”, she put her hands on his chest, “is fine if it’s someone you love......someone you love alot”, and she leaned into him and they kissed. Sully wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. He moaned as she pulled on his shoulder, “Oh I’m sorry!”, she said as she gently rubbed his injured shoulder.
“It’s fine”, he said and he leaned and kissed her forehead, “nice to have you hold me.” He sat back and she nestled in at his side and rested her head at his shoulder.
As they rolled into Colorado Springs, Michaela felt her heart pounding, knowing how good it would feel to have things back to normal. Sully was smiling, “Looks like you’re glad to be home.”
“Yes....I am”, she said, “I’ve missed the children”, she shot him a look, “I mean, I want to be with you...here...at home again.”
He smiled, “I missed the kids too!” The got off the stage and Dorothy ran out of the merchantile, “Michaela! Sully! It’s wonderful to see you!”, she grabbed Sully’s arm.
“It’s good to see you too Dorothy! It’s good to see everything!”, Sully smiled at Michaela.
Michaela turned her tear filled eyes to Dorothy and just smiled. The two touched hands briefly in a silent welcome to each other. Sully gathered the bags, Michaela helped not wanting him to use his shoulder too much. They went to the clinic. Sully closed the door and watched Michaela immediately walk around checking things. “Michaela......what are you doing?”
She looked at him, it was so good to see him standing here in the clinic, “I’m seeing you here......right here with me....... where you belong”, she walked to him, “I’m glad you’re here”, she put her hands on his arms, “I’m glad you’re with me.”
He leaned and kissed her and to his delight, she responded by wrapping her arms around him and pulling him close. They stayed like that for several minutes. “Why don’t we bring you’re things home, get supper ready and surprise the kids”, Sully said as he slid his arms down her back. She nodded and gave him a quick squeeze. They gathered their belongings again and headed out.
At the homestead, they worked together to fix supper, exchanging smiles throughout their work. “I hear the children Sully...quick hide behind the curtain, let’s really surprise them!”
Sully stood behind the curtain, the door opened and Colleen, Matthew and Brian burst into the room. “Ma! You’re home!”, Brian ran to his Ma and wrapped his little arms around her. Colleen and Matthew gave her a quick hug too. “Yes, I’m home and look who I brought with me!” Sully sprung out from behind the curtain and the children squeeled with delight! Sully laughed and threw his arms open, Brian and Colleen quickly jumped into his arms and Matthew grabbed onto Sully’s good shoulder. The good spirits stayed through the evening, everyone was happy and catching up on all their missed time together. Reluctantly the children headed off to bed and Michaela and Sully went outside. “Are you happy”, Michaela asked Sully as he held her hand.
“Yeah, I’m happy”, he pulled her into his arms, kissed her cheek and whispered in her ear, “but you still owe me a bath!”