doc_smith (ex_doc_smith506) wrote in the_colony, @ 2010-09-12 00:37:00 |
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Entry tags: | ^ week 20, derek miller, jed bailey, louisa may smith, thomas galloway, |* derek/jed/tom |
WEEK 20: TUESDAY EVENING
Characters: Tom, Jed, Derek, and Dr. Louisa May Smith
Location: Just Northeast of Medford
Summary: The raiding party stumbles into Louisa May's backyard. After a brief standoff, they meet their "new" Medford neighbor, who happens to be a doctor.
Rating: PG-13 for language
It was a stupid idea from the start. Not the wrangling. No, that had been plotted out carefully with lots of smart people chiming in. They were the ones who decided to go out to the farmland they’d driven through before reaching Grants Pass. Once winter set in, that area would be closed off to them, and it was far enough away that they needed the truck instead of just herding. They were also the ones who decided on the four-animal cattle trailer riding behind the truck, enough space so it wouldn’t be a wasted trip but limited so they only got what they needed. There would be other times to round up animals closer to home, most likely. This was just about necessities. Or at least, that was the smart idea.
The stupid idea was the horse, and that was all on Jed. Once he saw the animal ambling through a thick field, he knew they had to grab it. He had good reasons, too. They’d need horses, since gas wouldn’t last forever, and they needed to grab them before the winter because surviving that would only make them more wild, and they should get every horse they could, right? It was enough of an argument that Jed got Derek and Tom to give him a shot, at least, even with the two milk cows, two goats, and five chickens all packed and ready to go.
Convincing the horse to come over took longer than Jed expected, dusk settling as he led it to the trailer, but he was nothing short of euphoric at having succeeded. Which was probably why he let his guard down and let the trailer door swing open with a clang. The horse gave a startled scream and took off, up a brushy incline away from the road and towards a line of wind breaking trees.
After all he’d been through and done, Jed couldn’t just let it get away. Ignoring the shouts behind him, he took off after his stupid idea.
Past the trees, there was a ragged field, waist high. The horse had slowed to a canter but Jed still had to move fast to catch up. His foot caught on something but he managed to stumble out of it without twisting anything.
“Gopher holes, watch it!” he called back, in case Derek or Tom followed him. He tried to keep one eye on the ground and one eye on the horse as it slowed and came to what looked like an abandoned farmhouse.
Tom bit back a curse when the horse bolted and Jed took off after it. He’d been against taking a horse back mainly out of concern about what they were going to feed the thing, same as he was worried about how they were going to feed the cows and goats. Jed had made a rational and intelligent argument about bringing one of the things along though, and so Tom had given in.
The veteran now regretted his decision as he chased after the Texan and his stupid idea, keeping an eye out for trouble. He was pretty sure Derek was behind him, and had to trust that the younger man was making sure their rear was secure in case they needed to make a hasty retreat.
He eyed the farmhouse even as he ran, and suddenly slowed as he noticed smoke coming from the chimney up above. Shrewd eyes took in other signs of habitation, like the dim light shining through the curtains of an upstairs window and the generally tidy appearance of the building itself. “Shit.” The vet looked for a place to take cover, just in case, and found nothing convenient. “There’s someone in the house!”
Derek was not moving nearly at the speed as the other two men. What he was doing was going along at a pace that roughly resembled a jog and muttering something under his breath that sounded a lot like “goddamn redneck.” Honestly, Derek did not care a flying fuck about a horse and whether they had one. And besides the fact that it would be nice to have some meat, he didn’t care about goats or chickens or cows either. What he did care about was getting as far away from the house as possible for as long as he could. It was too full people now, too full of strangers. Too full of Meg and her husband.
Right now though, he cared about Jed taking off like a dumbass to who knows where and he cared about his general unease about leaving the truck abandoned on the road. He kept himself farther back from the other two for those reasons, just in case.
Louisa May slowly lowered her book, her heart beating fast. At first, she thought (hoped? wished?) that whatever was making that racket in her front yard was a cow. Or a bear. Something large and stupid that would have the good sense to leave her alone. As soon as she heard a man’s voice, though, her worst fears were confirmed.
They were back.
Those bastards she’d caught trying to break into her house two weeks before had returned, and for all she knew, they came with reinforcements.
Up until two weeks ago, Louisa May had been in a rather isolated cocoon. She’d left the house occasionally to pick up supplies, but hadn’t run into a soul in months, and had almost forgotten that there were actually other people out there. Then, one day, she’d walked up to her front porch to find two men trying to break into her house. She’d shot up their truck and scared the pants off of them, but the realization that these people knew where she lived and could just walk right up to her front door was disconcerting to say the least, and she’d been expecting their return ever since.
“Thought they’d catch me sleeping, huh?” she muttered, putting down the book and picking up her daddy’s shotgun from its resting place on the mantle. She could feel her nervous energy balling up in her stomach, making it flip over. She swallowed her acid spike of fear and centered herself. Had she remembered to bolt the back door? Yes. Did she have extra shells in her front pocket? She patted it reflexively. Yes. Was she ready for this? No, but it wasn’t as if they were going to give her the courtesy. At the very least, she sure as hell wasn’t going to make it easy for them.
She walked briskly over to the window, and peeled away a corner of the duct-taped fabric to peer through the opening, trying to catch a glimpse of how many people she’d have to fight off. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the dimming light, but she could see movement off to the right. Should she risk cracking open the window? She reached out with shaky fingers and opened it a few inches, wincing at the screeching sound the wooden sash made as the window opened. That being done, she leveled her shotgun so that it pointed out of the window, all the while keeping the rest of her as far away from the window as she could.
“You punks know what’s good for you, you’ll leave,” she shouted. “And if you brought some of your punk-ass friends with you, I got plenty of shells to go around and I’m not afraid to use them.”
Even with Tom’s warning Jed had waffled on trying to get the horse. The screech of the opening window ended that thought, not least because the horse bolted again. Jed could just see the movement of the barrel in the dim light, and it was more than enough to have him backing towards the overgrown field. He wondered how well she could see. “Sorry, ma’am,” he called, laying the polite on thick. “I was just tryin’ to get my horse. Didn’t realize anyone was livin’ here.”
Tom muttered several inventive curses under his breath as Jed backed up, and stood stock still himself to avoid giving the woman a reason to point the shotgun in his direction. “We don’t want any trouble ma’am,” he called out in what he hoped was a calm, reassuring tone of voice. “We were rounding up livestock and my young friend was running after a horse that decided to be stubborn. We’ll be leaving now, we won’t bother you again if you want to be left alone.”
Louisa May huffed a bit, unsure how she should proceed. If these men really weren’t the ones that had given her a scare earlier, this changed things altogether, and she had no particular beef with them. But they certainly didn’t sound local, and she was pretty sure that horse wasn’t theirs to begin with – not to mention the fact that they could be lying through their teeth and waiting for her to show her head so they could blow it away. Still – the original owner of that horse was most likely dead and gone, just like the owners of her chickens, and she’d rather the night end without having to shoot at someone.
“I don’t care what you do with any horse, but that’s all you’re getting from here. We clear?” she shouted back. Yelling out the window was quickly starting to feel ridiculous, even though she knew it was far safer than simply stepping out into the open.
Derek only caught the tail end of the yelling from the house but it seemed like they should turn around and go back the way they came. Wordlessly, he gave Jed a look that he hoped perfectly conveyed his opinion of rednecks and horses.
“Crystal, ma’am!” Tom called back, almost feeling an urge to give a wry salute in return to the order they’d been given. He glanced over at Jed and back at Derek, wondering if they should let her know about the group or just head out and leave her to whatever fate she’d chosen. It just wasn’t in him to do that, however. “We’ve got a group of people up by Grant’s Pass, including women and children, if you’d be interested in being around other humans again. Believe me, I know what it’s like being cooped up by yourself for months and wondering what’s out there.” At least he’d had Rollo to help keep him company, he wondered if this woman even had that much.
Great. She had neighbors. A bunch of friendly white people that would be knocking on her door, begging her for food and medical treatment and Lord knows what else. It didn’t sound like her idea of fun, but at least it was looking more and more like they weren’t the sort of people that would shoot her on sight or rob her blind, which was something. And if they were going to continue this conversation, she wasn’t about to keep yelling at faceless people in the growing dark.
She sighed. Her head was screaming that it was all a trap, that the women and children shit was just to get her to let down her guard, and she was the stupidest person who ever lived for falling for it. Still, she figured she’d rather find out sooner than later, and it wasn’t as if she’d stand much of a chance seeing as how they clearly outnumbered her by at least two to one.
“Hang on, I’m opening the door. Y’all better not shoot.”
Against her better judgment, she stepped over to the door, swinging it open. The shotgun rested against her leg, pointed down at the floorboards. Outside, it was growing dimmer by the minute, but she could see two forms standing together, and what looked like another further back which made her heart leap – how many more were waiting that she couldn’t see? It was too dim to read any of their features clearly, and they looked gray and blurry around the edges. Her heart was pounding in her chest as she waited – for someone to shoot her, for a man to leap out of hiding and take her down – for anything. She forced herself to breathe once, then again.
“Well, at least let me get a good look at you, seeing as how we’re gonna be neighbors and all,” she said shortly. She nodded her head over to the other man, who had yet to speak. “All of you,” she added for good measure, in case there was another half-dozen waiting to come pouring out from behind the truck.
Jed hesitated before moving into the light first. If any of them was about to get a shotgun blast to the head, it should be him. Even if it was Tom’s fault that they were still there and not driving away. The woman was short, but she looked steady enough, and Jed had no doubt she knew what she was doing with that gun. “There’s only three of us,” he said, his eyes flickering over the windows. “You got anyone else in there?”
To be honest, Derek was more than a little annoyed that Tom had volunteered so much information and practically invited this stranger to move in. Sometimes these people didn’t have any sense. They were up two people already this week and not only were they about to run out of beds but now they had even more mouths to feed. There wasn’t much growing to be done with snow on the ground and where exactly did they think this food was going to come from? Meg’s husband’s face flashed in Derek’s mind. They’d be better without all these people using up resources and getting away. Scowling and hoping this lady wasn’t about to blow them all away, he stepped into the light. Derek got a good look at who they were talking to then and his eyebrows shot straight up. A Black woman. Coming across one of those is like finding a fucking unicorn.
“No,” Louisa May replied, simply enough. She raised an eyebrow as the third man came into view. The fact they had a brother along made her shoulders relax just a bit – not that she was going to start trusting them all of a sudden, but hearing that cowboy drawl made her decidedly nervous, and this certainly helped matters.
She took a good look at the three men in front of her. They looked sane enough, and she could feel her heart rate slowly returning to a more reasonable tempo. She paused. Should she invite them in? Offer them lemonade? The thought made the edge of her mouth quirk up at one corner. The front porch was better. Safer. She jerked her head to the folding chairs scattered on either side of the front door, and settled herself in a rocking chair.
“So you folks aren’t from around here, are you?”
Tom glanced at the others and shrugged slightly. Sitting out on a porch in freezing weather wasn’t exactly his idea of a good time, and he hadn’t intended on a long conversation, but they were here so they might as well. He still had a pistol tucked in its holster along with a few knives stashed away, not that this woman seemed the type that was willing or able to do them harm.
Hopefully they weren’t walking into some kind of ambush.
“No ma’am, not originally no. My name’s Tom, the big Texan is Jed, and the fella bringing up the rear is Derek. Pleased to meet a friendly face.” Okay, that last bit was laying it a bit thick but what the hell, always caught more flies with honey than vinegar anyway.
“Mmm-hmm,” Louisa May replied, nodding her head at the introductions. Her mind was tripping all over itself thinking about the next move. It’d been such a long time since she’d talked to anyone besides her chickens that she felt a bit rusty at conversation.
“Doctor Smith.” She paused. “Louisa May if you have to, but none of that ma’am shit.” She gestured to the porch. “This is my folks place. Was my folks place. Now it’s just me.”
Tom nodded politely. “Sure thing, Doctor. I’m retired Army, so you’ll have to forgive me if I slip back into milspeak every now and again. ‘Ma’am’ is a sign of respect in that culture.” He glanced at the others, hoping they understood what he was thinking. If this woman was really a doctor then it would be in their benefit to talk up the group and pique her interest.
Jed, who’d preferred leaning against the porch rail, had straightened slightly at her words. Alright, maybe Tom wasn’t totally out of line when he spoke up. “What kind of doctor are you?” he said, not bothering to sound casual.
“I was on staff in the ER at Providence for ten years,” she replied. “In Portland,” she added with an absent-minded wave of her had. She’d nearly forgotten that the men she was talking to had most likely never been to Portland before.
Derek had been sitting quietly but he perked up with interest when their host said she was a doctor. That kind of education had still been rare among minorities back when there was still education. He was impressed and reminded of his experiences in law school. He didn’t say anything but his expression showed approval.
Tom didn’t bother hiding the fact he was impressed as well. To stay on an ER staff in a major city for a decade, that took dedication and skill. “We haven’t had a doctor with our group in a long time, we’ve got a kid who fell out of a tree and broke her arm the other day and a pregnant woman who could surely use a checkup.” There was no sense in beating around the bush with her, she seemed a straightforward no nonsense type. That said, asking her to come visit them was probably a bit much. “If you’d be willing to look them over we could bring them to you, and compensate you for your time.”
He glanced at the other two, almost daring them to disagree with what he’d just committed them to. Jed’s expression was a little sour, though it was more at Tom being so quick to tell a stranger that they had a pregnant lady. Still, it was already said, and any help with Bridget would be better than none, so he didn’t object.
Louisa May sat back in her rocking chair. And so it begins, she thought, as she listened to Tom rattle off the list of patients that were coming her way. It’d been a few months since she’d had a brush with civilization, and she supposed this was the price you had to pay for neighbors that wouldn’t kill you on sight. She wasn’t terribly happy that they now knew how to find her, and would be taking full advantage, but at least they weren’t insisting she came with them, because that was not happening. She saw how eager all of them were, and it made her a bit nervous -- she nearly regretted telling them she was a doctor in the first place, even though it did give her some leverage.
“Fine. Okay. I’ll take a look. But like you said, they’re coming here, not the other way around. I’m staying put.” She paused. “And I gotta eat too, you know, so if you could leave off picking Medford clean, I’d appreciate it.”
“Will you do the same with Grant’s Pass?” It was the first time Derek had bothered to say anything. Just because he had a bad attitude didn’t mean he had no interest in negotiations. He didn’t point out that it was a lot more difficult to feed a dozen people than it was to feed just one. “You haven’t said if you expect to get paid - “ he would if it were him “ - and some kind of proof you really are a doctor would be nice.”
Louisa May snorted at that last bit, amused. “I didn’t have the foresight to bring my diploma down with me, if that’s what you’re asking, but I still have my security badge from the hospital upstairs in my bags. It’d take me a bit to find it, cause I haven’t gotten much use out of it lately, but I’ll have it for you to look at when you bring them.” She paused. “As far as payment goes, I don’t know what the going rate for doctoring is in canned goods...” She did some quick figuring in her head. “Let’s settle on ten. Five each. Heavy on the meat and beans if you got it. And you don’t have to worry about me going around your backyard. Your territory, your stuff, no problems there.” She looked at the men, and raised an eyebrow as if to say, Satisfied?
It wasn’t Derek’s job to agree to her terms but so long as her ID badge said doctor, it was fine with him.
Tom looked at the others, silently doing the calculations in his head. With the haul they’d taken in from the raids on the trailer park they could afford to let go of that many cans of food, even if it hurt to give away so much. It would be a small price to pay to make sure Jack’s arm healed properly and there were no other complications from her fall, and ensure Bridget’s pregnancy went smoothly considering she was high risk due to carrying multiples. Maybe they’d even get the canned goods back if they could eventually convince the Doc to join them.
“If you absolutely want ten cans you’ll get them, Doc, but would you consider taking five cans along with a couple pounds of fresh meat? We’re pretty good at hunting, we can replace meat better than we can canned goods.” Tom figured brutal honesty was the way to go here. “And your ID will be fine.” He very much doubted she was lying about being a doctor. If she was she’d be showing much more interest in joining them instead of being obviously suspicious.
Louisa May nodded. “That’s fine.” She’d aimed a bit high on purpose, to see if they could spare it, and Tom’s counter-offer was reasonable enough. As much as she didn’t particularly enjoy taking food out of the mouths of children and pregnant women, her own survival was at the top of her list, and her abilities to find food were a bit more limited than theirs. She reached out a hand to Tom to shake and seal the deal.
“Deal.” Tom reached over and shook the offered hand firmly. He hated the idea of going back and telling Alice they’d have to part with five cans of food, but it would be worth it to have Jack and Bridget checked out by a medical professional. Maybe they could even convince her to join them at some point, hopefully before winter became too severe. “We can bring them by tomorrow if you wanted, or another day if that worked better.” If Bridget pitched a fit about being told where to go and what to do, that was too damn bad, it was for her own good.
“Day after tomorrow’d be better,” Louisa May replied. She’d have to clear out a space where she could do examinations, clean some sheets, and scrape together what little basic equipment she had at her disposal -- which might require an equipment run to the general practitioner’s office in downtown Medford. If it was just the pregnant lady, she’d ask for more time, but the broken arm was a bit more time-sensitive.
“Y’all got a way to get in touch? I mean, I’ll be expecting you this next time, but it’d be best to get a little heads up in the future.” She didn’t want people just dropping by without notice -- it made her nervous, and she’d rather know in advance whether someone walking up to her front porch was friendly. Otherwise, that’d be just asking for a misunderstanding, and when guns were involved, misunderstandings could get real ugly real quick.
“You got a CB radio, Doc?” Tom asked after thinking about it for a moment. “We could give you a shout when we’re in the neighborhood.” Not that he expected them to be in the neighborhood often, aside from visits to the doctor.
A CB certainly made sense -- from what little Louisa May knew about communication technology, it wasn’t like cell phones were working any more. “I could probably get my hands on one, yeah. Not sure I’d know what to do with it once I have, though.” After a moment’s thought, she added, “I’ll get one by the time you come over on Thursday. If I can get some help with setting it up, we’ll cut two cans off my price.”
“I’ll do it,” Derek volunteered quickly. This was another way to get out of the house and his conscience required that he give the doctor the same warning he’d given the trader Zeke those weeks ago.
Tom turned his attention to Derek, pleased the younger man was taking the initiative for a change. “You want to play chauffeur and bring the Doc her patients yourself or you want someone to ride with you for backup?” Bridget could handle a gun if things went bad on the trip out or back, but he doubted there would be a cause for it.
Derek shrugged. Bridget he actually liked most of the time but Jack could get kind of annoying when she was worked up over something. Kid was having a bad week though and that wasn’t her fault. He’d felt bad enough for her to leave the kid candy before he went upstairs to sleep at the end of his guard shift. The sweets were gone now.
“I don’t mind taking them unless Jed would rather go with Jack.”
“Jack would want me goin’ along,” Jed said firmly, as if that settled it.
“Fine.” Tom didn’t really care who went, as long as everyone agreed. He turned back to the Doctor. “Derek and Jed will bring them by on Thursday then along with the agreed payment, and Derek will get the CB up and running for you. Sound good?”
“Works for me,” Louisa May replied. She stood. “It’s been a pleasure, gentlemen, but it’s getting dark. Y’all better head on home.”
Tom nodded respectfully. “Ma’a -” he caught himself in the nick of time. “Doctor. Pleasure meeting your acquaintance.” With that he turned and stepped off the porch, heading back toward the truck and letting the younger men handle their own goodbyes to the woman.
Jed straightened before nodding at her with a smile. He was just happy that chasing after the horse turned out to be pretty smart after all. “See you in a couple days, Doc,” he said, following Tom.
Louisa May gave a nod to Jed and turned to Derek. She had to admit, seeing him among the group of men had gone a long way towards improving her temper about the new crop of neighbors she’d just had drop on her doorstep. “I’ll see you on Thursday,” she said, extending a hand to him, along with a rare smile.
Derek smiled genuinely back, giving her a friendly handshake. “I’d like a chance to talk to you, if I can,” he answered quietly. Honestly, the opportunity to have someone to talk to who could actually relate to him had him feeling better than he had in days. “Thanks for holding your fire. Wonder whatever happened to the damn horse.”
“I’ll keep an eye open for it,” she replied, smiling a bit wider. “Not going to catch the damn thing by myself, though, so that’s all on you.” She nodded at the younger man. “And yeah, I’d like that.”