Fic: Lying Down With Dogs
Oct. 4th, 2009 08:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grav_ityMeta and Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter Three
Catherine Littlefield was known, on occasion, to wish that she was a young enough woman still to socialize with Mrs. Beckett, Lorne and Sheppard. It was not that the three younger matrons avoided Catherine, indeed they welcomed both her company and council. But Catherine had lived in Atlantis for longer than all three of them combined, and had established many ties during her girlhood that had not aged as well as she had herself.
The ladies she currently sat with, all members of the Atlantis quilting circle, were respectable members of the town. They had never fallen in love with a gunslinger, never kept secret their lives back East, and never climbed the old tree next to the church on Sunday to rescue an errant kite. To them, Catherine was respectable too: having travelled extensively with her father under his excellent supervision before settling down in marriage, she was deemed as cultured and worldly. She suspected that had they known even an eighth of the things she had witnessed in the streets of Cairo, she would not be held in such esteem.
“Such a morning, already!” said Mrs. Wittinger. “It makes me nervous to have the Indians so close to town, and now Mr. O’Neill has gone and brought a sick one home with him. Heaven only knows what we shall catch from her!”
“Come now,” Catherine broke in, frustrated. “You saw her hair as clearly as I did. She’s no more an Indian than you are.”
“And Dr. Beckett is very good,” Mrs. Parsons added. “My husband says that even though he is young still, he knows a lot about medicine. If the poor dear is catching, Dr. Beckett with put a stop to it.”
Catherine was grateful for the unsolicited support, but it did not stop the chatter as to who the woman could be, where she was found, and how she was inevitably going to bring down ruin upon the town.
“I mean, we’re still recovering from those dreadful Wraith!” Mrs. Wittinger said. “I am glad I have sent my girls back East for school. At least they are out of danger.”
“There’s risk in everything, my dear,” Catherine said, not without some rancor. Mrs. Wittinger lost no opportunity to talk about her incipiently cultured offspring. “But there’s good heads on our town council, and good hearts besides. Perhaps we should concentrate on helping the poor woman to heal and not passing judgment on her before she is awake enough to defend herself.”
Catherine rarely asserted herself, as it inevitably caused more trouble than it solved, but she was finding her lunch somewhat marred by the constant speculation and suspicion of her companions. The conversation still for a moment, and then Mrs. Parsons, bless her heart, began it again, inquiring after the state of new dresses Mrs. Wittinger had ordered from Colorado Springs.
Catherine listened idly, nodded in agreement where required, and looked across the street at Dr. Beckett’s office. In spite of herself, she wondered what the woman had seen out there in the wild mountains, and what, if anything, might pursue her.
xxx
Even after Sarah had fallen asleep, a healthy sleep which Janet deemed both curing and needed, she did not relinquish Jonas’ hand. He sat quietly beside her, his mind going over and over what Janet had said during her examination. The midwife had not spoken to him directly, indeed at times it was almost like she had forgotten he was there, but had instead mused to herself. It was not Janet’s words, however, that struck him the most deeply. Her face had often wrenched with pity as she examined Sarah’s arms and legs, until pity had given way to anger.
After Janet had left and Carson had bound up Sarah’s feet, Jonas had passed the time by filling the doctor in on the state of affairs on the Reservation. Although he had been there only a brief time, Carson had questions about how various former patients and children had fared over the winter, and Jack was never good with those sorts of details. Jonas was able to recall names and faces, and provide Carson with enough information to tide him over until he was free to ride out to the Reservation himself.
Still, Sarah slept. Through Carson treating a young boy with a rather large splinter in the other room, through all the bustle of work and reconstruction in the street outside, until at last the sun began to set. Laura brought Jonas some lunch, but before she had finished making dinner, the patient woke up.
She gasped, and pulled her hand away from Jonas’ arm.
“Sh, it’s all right!” Jonas said quietly. “It’s all right. You’re safe in town, in Atlantis, Colorado. You’re at the doctor’s house, he’s taking care of you.”
“Co-Colorado?” the woman rasped.
Jonas reached for the cup of water Dr. Beckett had set out for when Sarah woke up. He heard Carson stirring in the next room, and knew the doctor was on his way.
“Colorado,” Jonas confirmed. “Don’t talk too much yet, just drink some water. Can you sit?”
“I think so,” Sarah said, and Jonas helped her up, bracing her on his arm.
Carson came in then, quietly suppressing his usual ebullience upon seeing a patient awake.
“Ah, lass, you gave us a bit of a fright,” he said softly. “I’ve sent for someone for you to talk to. How are you feeling?”
“Better now that I’ve had some water,” Sarah said, and indeed her voice sounded better. “What happened to me?”
Carson and Jonas exchanged a troubled look over Sarah’s head.
“You had a nasty fall,” Carson said. “Can you tell me you name?”
“Sarah Gardiner,” she replied without hesitation. “I’m from…I don’t remember where I am from.”
A wild look came into her eyes as she tensed in fear, and Jonas unconsciously tightened his hold on her shoulders. She relaxed slightly, but still cast her eyes about the room.
“My name is Dr. Beckett,” Carson said gently. “We’re going to do everything we can to help you.”
“Sarah?” came the voice of Daniel Jackson as he came through the door. “Sarah, I am so glad you’re awake!”
“I am sorry, sir, but do I know you?” Sarah asked.
A stricken look came over Daniel’s face, and Carson quickly moved to clasp his shoulder.
“It’ll be all right, man,” he said quietly. “She’s going to need some time.”
Daniel nodded. “I’m sorry Miss Gardiner. After you are feeling better, there will be time to explain.”
“Miss Gardiner,” said Jonas, “Could you tell anything that you remember?”
A haunted look came into Sarah’s eyes. Jonas rearranged her pillows so that she could sit without leaning quite so heavily on his arm, but did not move from her side.
“There were curtains in the school room,” Sarah said absently. “These great big pieces of fabric someone had brought all the way from Boston and decided they didn’t like, so they gave them to the school house. They were so dusty, all the time, from the chalk and the dirt blowing in off the yard, so one day after I’d dismissed the children, I took them down, and carried them out behind the school to see if I could beat some of the dust out.
“I didn’t hear the church bell, at first, not until I smelled smoke. Then I realized something was wrong, and I tried to run back to the street, but all of a sudden, there were horses everywhere and men on them, making the most terrifying noise. I was swept up into a saddle, and carried away like a sack. I fought him and he laughed and hit me, and then everything was black.”
Sarah paused and took another drink of water. Carson became aware that his wife was listening on the staircase, but just as he was about to move and shut the door, Sarah looked into Laura’s eyes, and Laura nodded at her to continue. Carson knew then that Sarah wasn’t talking to him or Daniel, or even to Jonas whom she seemed to like, but to the women on the steps.
“I don’t know how much time passed,” Sarah continued. “They hobbled my feet and tied my wrists with rawhide, like a horse. I couldn’t go more than three feet from the tent. There was a great stir in the camp and I heard a horse ride in. There was shouting in a language I didn’t understand, and then a man came into the tent where they kept me.
“He was tall and broad, with dark hair and a mean face. He looked like a dog that had been kicked and starved all its life, until one day it broke its chain, killed its master and lived like a king eating hens from the chicken coop. He was cruel and dangerous, and when he looked at me, I was terrified.
“He took me out in front of all of his people. They were so different from him. If he was a savage, they were all of them bootlickers, eager to do anything to impress him, as if he would feed them scraps from his table. They were desperate men, completely cowed by him, and completely trapped within his thrall.
“He drew a knife, and pulled my hair to cut the back of my neck,” she grimaced at the memory, and Daniel’s jaw tightened. “I screamed, and they all laughed. Then he spoke to them: ‘This woman bears my mark. Touch her at your own peril.’ he said. And I was stupid enough to think that meant that I would be saved. But all it meant was that I was saved for him.”
“How did you escape?” Jonas asked, barely speaking above a whisper.
“All winter, I waited. I knew that if I ran, I would die of exposure. I had no shoes, no wrap and no idea where I was.” Sarah’s eyes were far away, locked in the memory of her ordeal. “In the spring, the snow melted and the new grass grew. He thought I had been broken, so he stopped checking the restraints every night. One day they broke, the hide had gone rotten in the winter. And I ran.
“I went north for the simple reason that it was uphill. I knew he would think I had gone downhill because the trek would have been easier. I found a stream and walked in it in the hopes that it would throw the dogs off my scent. I ran until I couldn’t run anymore, and then I fell. And then I was here.”
“That is amazing, lass,” Carson said. “I think it would be best if you were to sleep again, now. I can give you something that will ensure you don’t have dreams.”
“Will you stay with me?” Sarah asked, looking at Jonas.
“I am afraid I can’t, Miss Gardiner,” Jonas replied. “Carson must stay with his patient, and I must report to the Mayor what you’ve said. If Anubis was close enough that you could run and find your way to the Reservation, he is close enough that we must worry for ourselves and the outlying settlements.”
“Of course,” Sarah said. “Anubis will come for me. He said he would, and I have no cause to doubt him. He holds onto a prize like a retriever holds a duck, except he will willingly relinquish it to no one. I’ve put your whole town in danger.”
“Atlantis is no stranger to risk, Miss Gardiner,” Daniel said. “And we would never turn our backs on someone who needed our help or our protection.”
“I will sleep now,” Sarah said, and Carson went to fetch another cup of water.
“I’ll come back when I can,” said Jonas.
“I’d like that,” Sarah said, and for the first time there was the ghost of a small smile on her face.
Jonas picked up his hat, crossed the room and opened the door. Daniel held the door open for him, and the two men paused together before walking out into the dusk.
“I’m going to get Jack and Miss Carter,’ Jonas said, setting his hat on his head. “Could you get Mrs. Sheppard and Mr. Kinsey? I think the sooner the council finds out about this, the safer we’ll all be.”
Chapter 4
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter Three
Catherine Littlefield was known, on occasion, to wish that she was a young enough woman still to socialize with Mrs. Beckett, Lorne and Sheppard. It was not that the three younger matrons avoided Catherine, indeed they welcomed both her company and council. But Catherine had lived in Atlantis for longer than all three of them combined, and had established many ties during her girlhood that had not aged as well as she had herself.
The ladies she currently sat with, all members of the Atlantis quilting circle, were respectable members of the town. They had never fallen in love with a gunslinger, never kept secret their lives back East, and never climbed the old tree next to the church on Sunday to rescue an errant kite. To them, Catherine was respectable too: having travelled extensively with her father under his excellent supervision before settling down in marriage, she was deemed as cultured and worldly. She suspected that had they known even an eighth of the things she had witnessed in the streets of Cairo, she would not be held in such esteem.
“Such a morning, already!” said Mrs. Wittinger. “It makes me nervous to have the Indians so close to town, and now Mr. O’Neill has gone and brought a sick one home with him. Heaven only knows what we shall catch from her!”
“Come now,” Catherine broke in, frustrated. “You saw her hair as clearly as I did. She’s no more an Indian than you are.”
“And Dr. Beckett is very good,” Mrs. Parsons added. “My husband says that even though he is young still, he knows a lot about medicine. If the poor dear is catching, Dr. Beckett with put a stop to it.”
Catherine was grateful for the unsolicited support, but it did not stop the chatter as to who the woman could be, where she was found, and how she was inevitably going to bring down ruin upon the town.
“I mean, we’re still recovering from those dreadful Wraith!” Mrs. Wittinger said. “I am glad I have sent my girls back East for school. At least they are out of danger.”
“There’s risk in everything, my dear,” Catherine said, not without some rancor. Mrs. Wittinger lost no opportunity to talk about her incipiently cultured offspring. “But there’s good heads on our town council, and good hearts besides. Perhaps we should concentrate on helping the poor woman to heal and not passing judgment on her before she is awake enough to defend herself.”
Catherine rarely asserted herself, as it inevitably caused more trouble than it solved, but she was finding her lunch somewhat marred by the constant speculation and suspicion of her companions. The conversation still for a moment, and then Mrs. Parsons, bless her heart, began it again, inquiring after the state of new dresses Mrs. Wittinger had ordered from Colorado Springs.
Catherine listened idly, nodded in agreement where required, and looked across the street at Dr. Beckett’s office. In spite of herself, she wondered what the woman had seen out there in the wild mountains, and what, if anything, might pursue her.
xxx
Even after Sarah had fallen asleep, a healthy sleep which Janet deemed both curing and needed, she did not relinquish Jonas’ hand. He sat quietly beside her, his mind going over and over what Janet had said during her examination. The midwife had not spoken to him directly, indeed at times it was almost like she had forgotten he was there, but had instead mused to herself. It was not Janet’s words, however, that struck him the most deeply. Her face had often wrenched with pity as she examined Sarah’s arms and legs, until pity had given way to anger.
After Janet had left and Carson had bound up Sarah’s feet, Jonas had passed the time by filling the doctor in on the state of affairs on the Reservation. Although he had been there only a brief time, Carson had questions about how various former patients and children had fared over the winter, and Jack was never good with those sorts of details. Jonas was able to recall names and faces, and provide Carson with enough information to tide him over until he was free to ride out to the Reservation himself.
Still, Sarah slept. Through Carson treating a young boy with a rather large splinter in the other room, through all the bustle of work and reconstruction in the street outside, until at last the sun began to set. Laura brought Jonas some lunch, but before she had finished making dinner, the patient woke up.
She gasped, and pulled her hand away from Jonas’ arm.
“Sh, it’s all right!” Jonas said quietly. “It’s all right. You’re safe in town, in Atlantis, Colorado. You’re at the doctor’s house, he’s taking care of you.”
“Co-Colorado?” the woman rasped.
Jonas reached for the cup of water Dr. Beckett had set out for when Sarah woke up. He heard Carson stirring in the next room, and knew the doctor was on his way.
“Colorado,” Jonas confirmed. “Don’t talk too much yet, just drink some water. Can you sit?”
“I think so,” Sarah said, and Jonas helped her up, bracing her on his arm.
Carson came in then, quietly suppressing his usual ebullience upon seeing a patient awake.
“Ah, lass, you gave us a bit of a fright,” he said softly. “I’ve sent for someone for you to talk to. How are you feeling?”
“Better now that I’ve had some water,” Sarah said, and indeed her voice sounded better. “What happened to me?”
Carson and Jonas exchanged a troubled look over Sarah’s head.
“You had a nasty fall,” Carson said. “Can you tell me you name?”
“Sarah Gardiner,” she replied without hesitation. “I’m from…I don’t remember where I am from.”
A wild look came into her eyes as she tensed in fear, and Jonas unconsciously tightened his hold on her shoulders. She relaxed slightly, but still cast her eyes about the room.
“My name is Dr. Beckett,” Carson said gently. “We’re going to do everything we can to help you.”
“Sarah?” came the voice of Daniel Jackson as he came through the door. “Sarah, I am so glad you’re awake!”
“I am sorry, sir, but do I know you?” Sarah asked.
A stricken look came over Daniel’s face, and Carson quickly moved to clasp his shoulder.
“It’ll be all right, man,” he said quietly. “She’s going to need some time.”
Daniel nodded. “I’m sorry Miss Gardiner. After you are feeling better, there will be time to explain.”
“Miss Gardiner,” said Jonas, “Could you tell anything that you remember?”
A haunted look came into Sarah’s eyes. Jonas rearranged her pillows so that she could sit without leaning quite so heavily on his arm, but did not move from her side.
“There were curtains in the school room,” Sarah said absently. “These great big pieces of fabric someone had brought all the way from Boston and decided they didn’t like, so they gave them to the school house. They were so dusty, all the time, from the chalk and the dirt blowing in off the yard, so one day after I’d dismissed the children, I took them down, and carried them out behind the school to see if I could beat some of the dust out.
“I didn’t hear the church bell, at first, not until I smelled smoke. Then I realized something was wrong, and I tried to run back to the street, but all of a sudden, there were horses everywhere and men on them, making the most terrifying noise. I was swept up into a saddle, and carried away like a sack. I fought him and he laughed and hit me, and then everything was black.”
Sarah paused and took another drink of water. Carson became aware that his wife was listening on the staircase, but just as he was about to move and shut the door, Sarah looked into Laura’s eyes, and Laura nodded at her to continue. Carson knew then that Sarah wasn’t talking to him or Daniel, or even to Jonas whom she seemed to like, but to the women on the steps.
“I don’t know how much time passed,” Sarah continued. “They hobbled my feet and tied my wrists with rawhide, like a horse. I couldn’t go more than three feet from the tent. There was a great stir in the camp and I heard a horse ride in. There was shouting in a language I didn’t understand, and then a man came into the tent where they kept me.
“He was tall and broad, with dark hair and a mean face. He looked like a dog that had been kicked and starved all its life, until one day it broke its chain, killed its master and lived like a king eating hens from the chicken coop. He was cruel and dangerous, and when he looked at me, I was terrified.
“He took me out in front of all of his people. They were so different from him. If he was a savage, they were all of them bootlickers, eager to do anything to impress him, as if he would feed them scraps from his table. They were desperate men, completely cowed by him, and completely trapped within his thrall.
“He drew a knife, and pulled my hair to cut the back of my neck,” she grimaced at the memory, and Daniel’s jaw tightened. “I screamed, and they all laughed. Then he spoke to them: ‘This woman bears my mark. Touch her at your own peril.’ he said. And I was stupid enough to think that meant that I would be saved. But all it meant was that I was saved for him.”
“How did you escape?” Jonas asked, barely speaking above a whisper.
“All winter, I waited. I knew that if I ran, I would die of exposure. I had no shoes, no wrap and no idea where I was.” Sarah’s eyes were far away, locked in the memory of her ordeal. “In the spring, the snow melted and the new grass grew. He thought I had been broken, so he stopped checking the restraints every night. One day they broke, the hide had gone rotten in the winter. And I ran.
“I went north for the simple reason that it was uphill. I knew he would think I had gone downhill because the trek would have been easier. I found a stream and walked in it in the hopes that it would throw the dogs off my scent. I ran until I couldn’t run anymore, and then I fell. And then I was here.”
“That is amazing, lass,” Carson said. “I think it would be best if you were to sleep again, now. I can give you something that will ensure you don’t have dreams.”
“Will you stay with me?” Sarah asked, looking at Jonas.
“I am afraid I can’t, Miss Gardiner,” Jonas replied. “Carson must stay with his patient, and I must report to the Mayor what you’ve said. If Anubis was close enough that you could run and find your way to the Reservation, he is close enough that we must worry for ourselves and the outlying settlements.”
“Of course,” Sarah said. “Anubis will come for me. He said he would, and I have no cause to doubt him. He holds onto a prize like a retriever holds a duck, except he will willingly relinquish it to no one. I’ve put your whole town in danger.”
“Atlantis is no stranger to risk, Miss Gardiner,” Daniel said. “And we would never turn our backs on someone who needed our help or our protection.”
“I will sleep now,” Sarah said, and Carson went to fetch another cup of water.
“I’ll come back when I can,” said Jonas.
“I’d like that,” Sarah said, and for the first time there was the ghost of a small smile on her face.
Jonas picked up his hat, crossed the room and opened the door. Daniel held the door open for him, and the two men paused together before walking out into the dusk.
“I’m going to get Jack and Miss Carter,’ Jonas said, setting his hat on his head. “Could you get Mrs. Sheppard and Mr. Kinsey? I think the sooner the council finds out about this, the safer we’ll all be.”
Chapter 4
