Chapter 14

Jen, Jason, Jonny, and Matt had been shoed away to the waiting room as Cathy took charge of what needed to be done. The only exception was that the 3 little ones wanted to stay with Shelly and help her to feel better until her parents got there and when they did they too were put to bed.

Matt had taken that job, and then climbed into his own bunk.

Now the sun was up and the rest of the world was getting to work.

"So how long do we stay here?" asked Jonny.

"Don't know. But did you see how my Cathy went to work? Damn I'm a lucky man," Jason said with pride.

"She's in her element. It's too bad she's needed for our research," replied Jen.

"If it's going to be much longer I might go climb..." Jonny started but was cut off.

"I NEED SOME HELP?"

Jen, Jonny, and Jason turned to see the sheriff struggling to hold up the deputy.

Jason was closest and as the biggest of the three moved and took the man up into his arms just as easily as he did with the little girl. Then he turned and headed to the emergency area.

"What happened?" Jen asked the surprised sheriff.

"Mark's never been to a really bad accident before. He was in shock, I think, and now that everything is calm the adrenaline and orders are done he just dropped," answered Luke.

"Well Cathy will fix him up," said Jen.

"I'm very glad you folks came along. Mark told me you stopped just before Brandon got to the bottom of the hill. Can you tell me why?" Luke asked.

"Jason thought something hit the front of the RV. You know a bird or bat or something like that. It startled him and he was going to stop and check it out," Jen replied.

"I'm just thankful that there were no other cars on the road," stated Jonny.

"I don't know if you noticed but the cars started showing up just as we were leaving. The bars had closed and the late drinkers were just getting to us," supplied Luke.

That was when Jason came out.

"Cathy plugged him into an IV and he's awake now. She'll keep him there for a bit though."

"I wish we had someone like her here," sighed Luke, "The town, or the county for that matter, can't really afford a full timer. A lot of the people around here are on Medicare or other government assistance. It just doesn't pay that good."

"That's how it is in a lot of small places," added Jonny.

"At least we have the clinic. There's a retired or semi-retired Doc that makes the rounds of several small places but he's only here for about two days every two weeks or so. The rest of the time it's a two to three hour drive for most people."

"Who runs the clinic then?" asked Jen.

"We have an older lady that used to be a nurse at some big hospital then she moved out here to take care of her parents years ago and just stayed. Melanie Jackson will come in most days around noon and do little things like wound checks. Take a person's blood pressure. If someone comes in that needs to really be seen by the doc she'll call him and tell him what's going on and he tells her what to do. But when she comes in and finds you all here she's going to go nuts. She doesn't like her little world messed with," Luke finished with a chuckle.

The four stood there talking about nothing really until Cathy came from the back.

"Mark will be fine. He got about half a leter of fluids and then fell asleep.

"Thanks a lot Doc. This was a bit hard on him. I hope he can handle it and move on. By the way I'm Luke Thompson, the sheriff here and Mark's father," Mark held out his hand to shake the Doctor's.

Cathy took the offered hand and shook it.

"He seems like a strong guy. Stress like that accident can knock anyone on his or her ass. It happens to new doctors all the time."

"Soldiers too. The military never really preps new recruits well when it comes to facing the gore that can happen," added Jason when he too shook the sheriff's offered hand.

"That it can. Well I need to go see to the investigation. I want to know what broke that caused all this," stated Luke.

"Let us know," Jason piped in.

"Sure thing, I'll be back in a few hours anyway to check on my boy."

The sheriff turned and was just at the door when it flew open.

"LUKE, you got to help me! It's my Martha, she can't breathe!"

"DOC!!!" Luke yelled over his shoulder.

Cathy was already half way to the door with Jason, Jonny and Jen right behind her.

The man turned and ran to his truck where his wife was and opened the door. His wife was all but blue from trying to fight for the air she needed.

Jason moved the man out of the way and scooped the woman up and turned to follow Cathy back into the clinic.

"When it rains, it pores," said Luke with a sigh, "Martha has asthma bad. This type of thing only happens once or twice a year. Usually it's because she runs short of her meds. But I've never seen her that bad before."

"Jonny why don't you go snuggle in with the girls and get some sleep. You drove most of yesterday and the girls should stay asleep for awhile," Jen suggested.

Jonny chuckled, "Ya and when they wake up they'll pet my head like I'm a cat or something until I wake up."

Jen chuckled too because the three little ones loved to do just that.

Luke laughed, "My little sister did the same thing until she was about seven then she found it was more fun to jump on me. A teen boy with a full morning bladder, Not a good mix."

That did it and the group all laughed.

Jonny then kissed Jen sweetly and headed out the door. Luke followed still chuckling at all the crap his baby sister put him through.

Jen went into the emergency area but just watched as Cathy did her best to help the poor woman. As she watched it became clear that Cathy was growing more worried. She quickly glanced at the deputy that looked to still be sleeping and went over to Cathy and Jason.

"How's she doing, Cathy?"

"Not good," Cathy answered but didn't stop what she was doing, "I wish I had some different medicine. She's not responding well to what's here."

"Should I ask her husband if she's on anything special?" asked Jen.

Cathy glanced at Jen then at the sleeping deputy and back to Jen.

"Jen, her breathing is bad but I don't think it's from asthma. She's got some swelling around her mouth and nose. I think she's having an allergic reaction to something and I've started treating her but I need to know what did it."

"I'll go ask..."

"Jen, I don't think the meds will work fast enough. I think this is a case for you. You don't need to go as deep as you did for William but..." Cathy finished leaving that rest unsaid.

Jen looked around again to be sure no one could see, then moved to the patient. Jason moved closer and put his hand on Jen's shoulder so she would have his strength added to hers.

Jen placed her hand over the woman's chest and opened her mind and looked into the problem area.

The first thing she saw was black webbing that all but filled one of the lungs. The other side was full of ugly looking fluid. The tissues, to Jen, looked red and swollen. Jen shared what she could see with Cathy.

Cathy didn't like what she heard. Most likely the black webbing was cancer of some kind but the other was some sort of infection or pneumonia.

"Jen, if you could get her body to remove the fluid from the one side, that would let her breathe."

"Turn her on her side with her head over the edge and hold a basin for her," Jen said in her hollow voice.

The woman was quickly moved with Cathy holding the requested basin. Then a nasty, smelly gew came out of the woman's mouth.

When the stuff stopped coming out. Cathy cleaned out the woman's mouth and then put the oxygen mask back on. The change was immediate as the woman's color returned from the ugly grey to a normal pink tone.

Jen didn't stop as she pushed the woman's body to fight the cancer. To Jen the cancer started to glow but also started to grow. Jen couldn't allow that so she fought it, removing tendril after tendril until there was only a small part of it left and the woman's body was taking over fighting it. With just a little more she soothed the tissue of the throat and windpipe that were being bothered by something else which also made breathing easier for the woman.

Jen pulled out of the woman and closed her mind.

"I think I've done all I can. I killed most of the cancer in the one lung and started healing the other of the infection that was there."

"No wonder she couldn't breathe. That crap was nasty that you helped her bring out," stated Jason, who was still holding his nose.

"I'll see what antibiotics are here and get that started. Thanks Jen, now go get some rest. Jason can help me if I need anything," said Cathy in a tone that meant it as an order.

Cathy then turned but stopped.

Mark woke as he heard voices. He opened his eyes to see the Doctor and the big guy working on a woman. He thought it was Martha O'Banyon. Then the big guy moved a little and he could see the other woman from the RV.

Then he watched as the woman put her hand over Martha and to his surprised started glowing. A moment later the three turned Martha over to her side and put a basin under her head.

Mark had to turn away as stuff started coming out. It was too gross for him to watch. He wasn't sure how long it took but when it was done the three people turned Martha back to her back and the glow about the other one increased.

Soon enough the glow went away and the three talked for a moment then the doctor turned and looked right at him.

"Oh shit!" Cathy muttered. She quickly looked back to Jason and Jen.

Jason looked at Jen then back to Cathy and shrugged his shoulders.

"I see the sleeper woke up," Jason said.

"Umm ... Yes that's good," Cathy said trying to get her mind working, "I was just thinking it was time to check your BP again to see if I need to give you any more fluids."

"I think I'm fine now. I do have some questions for you though..." Mark started.

"You should just rest..." Cathy interrupted.

"Doc, don't try to play games with me and please don't insult my intelligence. Now what was that stuff she started puking up? The smell is terrible!" Mark said with a wink at the doctor as he theatrically waved his hand in front of his face while he held his nose with the other hand. "Oh ya, what's your names, anyway?"

"Well I think I can answer that," Cathy chuckled to ease the tension, "Well I'm Doctor Cooper. This is my husband Jason and his sister Jen. Now to what that stuff was that she started bringing up. That was infected fluid and other yuck that her body decided that it needed to get rid of."

"Will she be alright now? I can see a big difference after that stuff came out."

"She should," Cathy said and started taking the deputy's BP. It was right where it was supposed to be. "Well your doing better. I'll unplug you but I only want you to sit up for now."

"Sure Doc. Is my dad still around? He's the sheriff, if he didn't tell you."

"He went to check on the investigation," stated Jen, "Cathy, I'm going to go sleep. I'll send the husband in, too."

"Thanks Jen," replied Cathy.

Jen walked out and Jason moved to a desk that was about half way between the two patients.

Jen walked out and saw the husband pacing back and forth.

"Excuse me," Jen said as she walked up to the man.

"How is she? Is she going to be ok? Please tell me she's going to be ok?" Homer begged.

"Sir, she's doing better now. The doctor would like to talk to you."

"Thank you," said the man then took off for the treatment area.

Jen chuckled and started for the door and out to the RV.

Homer all but ran into the emergency area and saw that his wife was no longer the grayish-blue she was when he brought her in.

He was startled when someone laid a hand on his shoulder.

"She's doing much better now," Cathy said before the man could ask.

"Thank God! I've taken her to the hospital twice and to see old Doc. Jinkins every time he's here. But she didn't seem to be getting any better."

"Do you have a list of medications that she's on?"

Homer pulled a bag out of his pocket and handed it to the doctor.

Cathy took the bag to the counter where the charts she had started were. Most of the medications were what she would have prescribed but there were one she didn't know anything about.