The hospital, used for both military wounded and civilian ill, is a ramshackle building near the town square. The nurses and doctors are civilian volunteers and army medics, none of whom have comprehensive medical training. Supplies are limited and amputations occur every day. Dogs scurry around the yard, both playing with severed limbs and playing with the wounded brought out to bask in the sunlight. Inside, beds are stacked as closely as possible, with hardly any room to walk between them. Women nurses must remove their hoops to work.

Kath knew he wouldn't be here. She knew it would be a long time before she saw Patrick Brighelm again, but it didn't faze her a bit. She had come on the request of her mother to find a doctor for the stowaway they had hidden in their shed. He refused to leave, it seemed, and Ma wanted him out of the way as quickly as she could before they were arrested for protecting an enemy soldier. Kath looked around at the nurses and doctors, knowing this wouldn't be the place to find a good doctor. She also checked around, wondering if he was here...

Carrie Lou approached the ramshackle hospital for the second time that day. She hadn't even removed her blood-stained apron or fixed her hair, now curling rebelliously out of the stern chignon at the back of her head. Her basket was gone, gone, and with it four perfectly good eggs and a whole roll of bandages!

A pile of severed limbs near the entrance didn't deter her determined stride. The smell was horrid, but she herself hardly smelled better. The days of powered perfume puffs and bathing with rose water seemed eons away when she opened the door and walked through the narrow clearing barely wide enough for her to squeeze through. And Mother had disparaged her decision to do away with crinolines and hoops...hah!

A doctor and medic dealing with a vomiting soldier tried to catch her eye, but Carrie Lou would not be roped into another exhausting few hours of service. She was there for bandages, and that only. She would snatch them and run, if she had to.

Kath sighed, scratching the back of her head. She didn't want to be here. She didn't want to look into the eyes of injured and dying soldiers, heroes in their own right, and be wonder if one of these disfigured corpses was someone she knew. She looked down, glancing up only to survey a doctor trying to save someone.

((Oops, I'll delete my edit...))

Carrie Lou kept hurrying on. A few lucid soldiers who recognized her reached for her skirts and called her name, and she almost stopped, but she remembered the blood and unfocused eyes of the MacDermott man in her front parlor...

WHAM!

Carrie Lou ran smack dab into someone. Bodies and skirts went flying, and Carrie Lou sent a tray of scalpels clattering to the floor, some landing in her lap and one right where she put her hand. Blood welled up in the superficial cut, but she was more concerned about the person she'd trampled. "Oh--Law a'mighty!"

Kath fell to the floor, knocking her head against the ground. She groaned and blinked a few times, making sure she was still concious. She turned her head and saw a girl her age.

"What the..."

"Oh, Lord, I'm so sorry, I wasn't watching..."

Carrie Lou began crawling around on her hands and knees, picking up the scattered surgical tools from the floor and feeling her face burn with shame. "Please forgive me, I didn't mean it."

Kath shook her head, a bit dazed.

"No no... it's OK, I'm alright... I think..."

She scratched at her head, looking around.

Carrie Lou watched the girl concernedly. She looked older than herself, but her eyes looked a little blurred...

Oh, dear, no, Carrie Lou thought. Not another concussion! I have had the worst luck today.

"Are you sure? Is your head hurt?" she asked out loud, wiping her bleeding finger off on her apron.

Kath got up and nodded, looking around.

"I'm fine." she said, smiling. "I just don't fall much."

She chuckled.

"I do," Carrie Lou said mournfully. She dumped the scalpels back onto their tray and wrapped her throbbing finger in her apron. "But it doesn't get any easier..."

Kath laughed.

"I'm sure it doesn't." she chuckled. "I'm Katherine, are you a nurse here?"

Carrie Lou at first nodded, then changed her mind and shook her head. "I'm Carolina Louisa Webber, but I'm not a nurse. I volunteer as one. The army doesn't pay me." She paused, studying the other girl's face. "I think I recognize you. Do you go to the Baptist church?"

Kath shrugged.

"I haven't gone to church in awhile; things get too busy on the farm" she chuckled. "So much for a day of rest."

"Oh, that is only too true," Carrie Lou conceded with a half-smile. "I don't have a farm, but Lord above, I do have two other women and chickens, and I--" She stopped. "Oh, forgive me. I don't mean to talk your ear off." Out of habit, she dropped a curtsy (her knees cracked with the forgotten movement) and then she turned to go.

Kath laughed and followed her.

"Don't worry," she said. "I'm quite the talker. My family complains about it all the time."

She took one glance around, her eyes flashing quickly as she thought she recognized. She sighed with relief when she saw it wasn't him, and carried on out as if nothing happened.

Carrie Lou realized that Katherine was following her. Oh, dear, she thought, now I must try to get the bandages without her seeing! She wasn't sure if she could get in trouble for borrowing a roll, especially under such circumstances, but it was a risk she wasn't willing to take.

"I don't talk much to my family anymore," Carrie Lou said, walking slowly so as not to seem rude. "I work, that's all." Just a bit farther to the bandages...

Kath nodded, then looked to the side.

"My sister was like that." she said. "Never said a word, until someone spoke to her. Gave me my little sister back, he did."

She turned around and looked over the wards.

Carrie Lou took the opportunity to snatch a roll and stuff it down her blouse, where it molded perfectly against her bosom. There. Seamlessly done, Carrie Lou, she thought proudly.

"Who gave you back your sister?" she asked Katherine, who was looking wistful. If Carrie Lou had to guess, it would be a lover, or a dear dead friend.

((It's like "The Patriot"! Except not.))

Hey! I've got a shiny shield, now, too! :D

((I know! Sheildness! Ad oh Mel Gibson... you and your movie...))

Kath glanced back, surprised for a moment, then smiled.

"A very dear friend." she said, looking back. "He left yesterday, and I still miss him."

"I was very close to my siblings, too," Carrie Lou admitted. "My four brothers each took the Rebel stand..."

Kath turned around and nodded, smiling a bit.

"My brother, too." she said. "Well, he took the Union side, but..."

She sighed.

"That's what I hate so much about this war. Friends and neighbors are forced to choose sides."

Carrie Lou thought she'd gone neutral, but at the mention of Katherine's Yank brother, she bristled a little. "Pity," she answered cooly. "But, uh...my brothers and father are dead, now, you see. Stephen died last summer at Gettysburg, and he was the last to go. Your Yanks have taken my cousins and uncles, too."

Kath sighed, looking down.

"He didn't want to." she said, looking. "He wanted to fight for the confederates. Pa did too."

She sighed, looking at Carrie Lou.

"My brother was a good man, just like I'll bet your own brothers and father. He died as well, for an army that he didn't even believe in."

Carrie Lou was a little taken aback. "Oh. I see."

They stood in awkward silence, and Carrie Lou cast about for a way to heal the obvious wound she'd given her new acquaintance. "Er...won't you join me for tea, Katherine?" she asked finally. "I have some saved...and I have honey to sweeten it with."

Kath smiled.

"That'd be wonderful." she said with a smile. "I have to stop at home first though, Ma asked me to come by the hospital to ask after a doctor."

She glanced around.

"Though I'm not sure where I'll find one. She's absolutely strict on seeing a 'real' doctor, whatever she means by that."

"Oh," Carrie Lou replied. "Dr. Graham is trained. He's as close to a 'real' doctor as one can get these days..." She paused. "I really must be getting home, though. I live on Franklin Avenue, in the red brick house, if you'd like to call after you get your doctor."

Kath nodded.

"Thank you." she said with a smile. "I'll be sure to do that."

She turned and went to find Dr. Graham.

Carrie Lou watched her go, then took a breath. There. Well handled, self, she thought. Then Carrie Lou smoothed her bodice and exited the hospital.

((Moving to Webber House thread...))

Miles clenched his teeth. An infection had set in the boy's wound, his arm would have to be amputated. He snapped at an unsuspecting volunteer nurse and ordered her to prep the boy for surgery. He walked off to get his tools. He sharpened his blades. Miles long ago lost count of how many arms and legs he took off.

He walked back to the boy, and let out a small curse about the glories of war that made boys to young to fight lie about their ages.

"Hold him still." The nervous nurse placed her hands on the boy's chest. "Ready?" the nurse nodded while staring wide eyed at the saw. "Alright," Miles placed the saw on the boy's arm and pulled back the blade back.

((Oo! On behalf of everyone else, welcome back! I think we're all currently RPing in the Webber House thread, more or less, where two very sore soldiers are in need of a doctor, if you'd like to join us...

Welcome back, once again!))

Jenny hesitantly walked into the hospital, adjusting her snood as it tried to detach itself from her head. Her apron was clean and her face the picture of innocence despite being at the side of wounded soldiers as doctors sawed off limbs mercilessly. She had no idea what she was doing; just that this hospital was the only one in town and she needed work.

Cross headed in and stoped seeing Jenny.

Jenny sighed and glanced around, her eyes widening when she saw someone familiar.

"Jack?" she asked, unsure of it herself. It'd been so long...

(question: did Jenny just walk in or is she the nurse that it holding down the patient that is getting his arm sawed off?)

(Just walked in.)

His face curved into a smile. "Jenny."

Jenny's eyes brightened and she grinned, running over to hug him.

He hugged her tightly and smiled. "Whatya doin' here?"

She laughed a bit.

"Working." she said. "Mum and I came into town just a few days ago; I was hoping to find something to do. What about you?"

"Well other then gettin shot, not much."

Jenny raised her eyebrows.

"You did?" she asked in shock. "Jack, you're crazy. When did this happen?"

"Two? three?, days ago."

Jenny groaned.

"You are messed up." she said. "You've only come to a hospital NOW?

"I nurse in town got the ball out, I jus need new dressing."

(m...western dressing

((*Shakes head at Lee*))

((Not helping.... starving...))

Jenny smiled.

"Whew." she said dramatically. "Thought you were gonna die of blood loss."

She chuckled and beckoned for him to follow her.

"I saw some bandages by the door, I'm sure they'll let you use it."

He nodded. "How you holding up after..?"

(Talking about her dad dieing)

((*Butting in for the last time* It's like Jem and Eliza, Lee! Okay, I'm done. *butts out*))

((*blink blink*)

Jenny smiled halfheartedly, looking down and shrugging.

"Still getting used to it." she said. "Just feels like something's missing, you know?'

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