Homeland Intrusions
Aug. 16th, 2018 11:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hiddenshotBarton Hollow (Sam's idea, not his) was coming along well, even with the winter storms, both snow and the occasional freezing rain that left a sheet of ice over everything. The barn had been up for almost two years and the small cabin he and Sam shared had gone up right after the corral was built, but the last winter had come too fast to get it properly weatherproofed. Fortunately they'd managed to finish that task in the spring, once the snows had melted and the rain had come to make proper chinking mud, and the two-room cabin had proved snug and welcoming through the rest of the year.
It did not, however, stop them from getting sick, especially since they still spent most of their days out of doors tending to the horses or hunting or felling firewood. Clint himself had come down with a bad head cold back in the early summer after spending the day out in a terrific storm looking for a runaway colt, and Sam's turn had finally come in early February, but his was worse than Clint's had ever been. A fever and chills, sweating and shivering at the same time, the kind of thing that had a much better chance of being fatal than a bad head cold in June. Clint had shoved Sam into his bed the moment he realized his partner was succumbing, and the next morning he'd made an emergency trip into town to get the doctor to come look at him. While the doctor was packing her bags, he'd also dropped in to the general store in order to get a few things, more blankets and some tea and some foodstuffs, and it probably didn't take the people in the store long to put the sums together when Dr. Porter had stuck her head in the store and informed him she was ready and he'd left immediately, throwing a few bills on the counter without bothering to count them (and realize they were worth far more than what he was purchasing). He hadn't told anyone else specifically about Sam's illness, but logically he knew it wasn't hard to figure everything out, and he didn't expect it to stay quiet.
But he very much didn't expect to hear a knock at his door two days after that and open the door to reveal Laura Cooper. All he could do was stare at her, mouth a little open in shock, at her sudden appearance on his doorstep. He hadn't even been certain she knew where he lived.
"...Miss Cooper?"
It did not, however, stop them from getting sick, especially since they still spent most of their days out of doors tending to the horses or hunting or felling firewood. Clint himself had come down with a bad head cold back in the early summer after spending the day out in a terrific storm looking for a runaway colt, and Sam's turn had finally come in early February, but his was worse than Clint's had ever been. A fever and chills, sweating and shivering at the same time, the kind of thing that had a much better chance of being fatal than a bad head cold in June. Clint had shoved Sam into his bed the moment he realized his partner was succumbing, and the next morning he'd made an emergency trip into town to get the doctor to come look at him. While the doctor was packing her bags, he'd also dropped in to the general store in order to get a few things, more blankets and some tea and some foodstuffs, and it probably didn't take the people in the store long to put the sums together when Dr. Porter had stuck her head in the store and informed him she was ready and he'd left immediately, throwing a few bills on the counter without bothering to count them (and realize they were worth far more than what he was purchasing). He hadn't told anyone else specifically about Sam's illness, but logically he knew it wasn't hard to figure everything out, and he didn't expect it to stay quiet.
But he very much didn't expect to hear a knock at his door two days after that and open the door to reveal Laura Cooper. All he could do was stare at her, mouth a little open in shock, at her sudden appearance on his doorstep. He hadn't even been certain she knew where he lived.
"...Miss Cooper?"
