Back To Colleen and Andrew Stories
Author's Pre-Note: This is my first attempt at writing fan-fiction for Dr. Quinn, so I do ask for feedback on the story.
Please, be gentle though!
I wrote this because I didn't really like the idea of Andrew and Colleen's marriage before she goes off to medical school,
and I wanted to play with how a long-distance relationship would affect them.
I also wanted the chance to add a few new characters,
and branch the setting out past Colorado Springs.
The format is as follows. The story is told in first-person with Colleen as the narrator.
Colleen is on a train going home and she has several flashbacks during the first part of the story, and later reverts back totally to present time.
A few warnings. IT IS A LITTLE LONG!!! I may have gone a bit overboard on the descriptions of things!
Also, Sully and Michaela's relationship plays more of a minor role.
What I wanted to do was to was see how the second generation of the Sully/Quinn/Cooper clan would fare after the show,
so there are updates about Brian, and a love interest for Matthew! So, onto the story. Enjoy!
Early on a crisp morning in late August 1875, a young lady is seated on one of the benches in the Philadelphia train station. Dressed simply in a charcoal gray suit and a matching burgundy hat with gray and pink ribbons atop an intricate rolled knot of shining copper hair,she looks no different than any other young lady from the city. Near her feet is a trunk with the initials C. M. C engraved on its front, and two leather satchels. Next to her on the bench is a dark-brown leather medical bag. The lady is Miss Colleen Cooper, or rather Dr. Colleen Cooper. At twenty-one, she has just graduated from the prestigious Woman's Medical College of Philadelphia, and is set to return to Colorado Springs, her hometown, for good. The excited feeling that had started when I had woken up now filled me as I anxiously waited for the train to arrive. I was going home. For the past five years, home had been in two far-off cities, with short stints in the company of my family. Finally, though, I was returning home for good. I had completed three years of college, two years of medical school, and two months of post-graduate training as an intern. I was a doctor! My reflections were interrupted briefly when the porter announced that my train had arrived. I was soon settled into the plush velvet seat of my compartment for the four-day journey, watching as Philadelphia was left slowly behind. My thoughts, like the train, began to move, traveling back over the past years of my life and all the memories I had collected. After graduating summa-cum-laude following three years at Denver Seminary College for pre-medicine, I had been accepted to the Woman's Medical College of Philadelphia, my ma's alma mater. While I had been thrilled, going there meant a very long separation from my home and my family. I had chosen the quickest way to get my degree-22 months of intense study with a total of three months of holiday, graduation, and two more months of study for my specialization in women's and children's medicine. It had been arduous, but I had loved every minute of it. And yet, I had missed so much at home. While I kept in touch with constant letters, it wasn't really the same as being there. But I didn't have any regrets, only wishes that there was a way to do both. My proudest day was when I took the Hippocratic Oath, and was pronounced a doctor in the company of my entire family-Sully, Ma, Matthew, Brian, Katie, Amy (my four-year old sister), Aunt Rebecca, Grandma, ...and Andrew. Andrew Cook. Just thinking of the handsome doctor waiting for me at home sent small shivers down my spine. Four years ago, he had asked me to be his partner in his medical practice, and our relationship had progressed slowly from there. Each of us had always found it hard to express our true feelings and had sidestepped the actual importance of our feelings for quite awhile. It took us both two years to admit we were in love. Each of us seemed to be bound fast by a society who frowned upon feelings of love and affection, and it was killing me! When I had left, I couldn't read him, and I never knew what he was thinking, and I wasn't sure about anything between us when I left, except for one thing. I loved him desperately, and I hated to leave. The good-byes were always the worst, but the day I had left for medical school was ingrained forever in my memory. * * * * * The night before I was to leave, my family had a party for me at the homestead. While everyone managed to keep up a joyful pretense, there was a pressing feeling of sadness already in the air. Everyone seemed to be having a good time, but I kept looking around at the familiar faces and familiar surroundings, knowing that tomorrow, I was to leave. I would now be truly on my own, no longer able to run back so easily to the comforting harbor of my family and my home. I managed to catch Andrew's eye, and he silently invited me outdoors with him. He had arrived late, due to his duties at the hotel, and I hadn't had a chance to speak to him at all. Amy was falling asleep with her head on my shoulder, so I gave her to Ma before making my way toward the door. I stepped out onto the porch where Andrew was waiting. Wordlessly, I toward him and he enveloped me in a tight embrace. I rested my head on his shoulder. With him, I knew I didn't have to put on a pretense of being happy and excited. Even if I had, he would have been able to read right through it. "Sorry I was late," he said apologetically as we settled on the porch swing together. "Don't be. What was it this time, emergency melancholia attack?" I asked, trying to make light of the situation. He didn't laugh. "No, Preston insisted that I make an appearance at that damned dinner he was holding in honor of some important old coot or other. He said that it wouldn't look proper if I didn't attend. Honestly, sometimes I don't know how much more of Preston I can take." The situation between Andrew and Preston had gotten progressively worse over the years, especially now since Preston's hotel had begun to lose money at an alarming rate. Andrew had grown increasingly frustrated at the exploitation of his medical skills, and it was only his ill-guided sense of odd loyalty that had kept him there this long. Andrew didn't usually mention the problems he was having since he didn't like to burden me with them, so for him to say this much must have meant that he was at the end of his rope. "I'm sorry," I said, not knowing what else to say. "Well, enough of my problems. How are you? Excited about starting medical school, I'm sure," he replied. "Excited, nervous, and very sad about leaving everyone. Especially you. I'm not sure if I can do this," I said in a faltering voice. He cupped my face in his hands. "Colleen, I have all the faith in the world in you. You'll do splendidly. I'll miss you too, more than you can ever imagine." He looked out over the darkening sky for a minute before continuing. "I just hope I don't lose you. That we don't lose each other." "Andrew, that can never happen!" "Oh, Colleen, yes it can. People grow apart, especially when they're separated. I just hope that doesn't happen to us." "Andrew, isn't it also said, that "Absence makes the heart grow fonder?" If we don't want that to happen to us, then we're going to have to do more than just hope!" I said a bit angrily. Andrew looked to me with renewed hope in his eyes. "You're right. I'm sorry, I guess that I've just been a little too pessimistic lately. We can do it, I know we can. I just don't know if I can see you leave tomorrow." "And I don't know if I can leave." I replied. The August day I left dawned unseasonably cool and crisp so cool; in fact, that I added a lavender summer cloak over my summer lavender trimmed mint-green suit. Surprisingly, I managed to get through the farewells without crying. The last person I turned to was Andrew. It was simple- a hug and a small kiss on my cheek. We had said our good-byes the night before. When the train came, I boarded, and watched the people standing on the platform as I pulled away. They grew more and more difficult to see, not only because of the distance, but also because of the stinging tears that now filled my eyes. * * * * * * * * I wasn't sure if I could manage such a long distance relationship. It had been fairly simple while I attended college in Denver. I came home frequently, and we spent time together. It wasn't a great amount, but it was something. While we had both known that I was to attend medical school, I think that the day I left was when the full impact reached both of us. I was leaving, going almost 3,000 miles away, and for a long time. Our relationship, such as it was, was going to have to endure yet another separation-this time much longer and much more distant. While we had decided to try to keep up correspondence while I was gone, I still had the fear that I would lose Andrew. I didn't really doubt Andrew or myself, but fate. I almost fell into the easy way out of just giving up. Judging from the way things had gone in school those first few months, it would have been very easy to just give up on everything and come home. Medical school was not at all what I expected. I found that the first year of my three year program was a combination of almost exactly what I had done in college, as well as what I already knew from working with Ma. Living in the dorms was another new experience, and not a good one at that. I had a hard time getting along with some of the girls in my class. They seemed to decide that my clothes weren't right, my grades were too good and my family background was all wrong, so they would politely snub me. I spent most of the first three weeks writing home constantly, trying to find some sort of foothold in the school. Not knowing where to turn, I used the first opportunity I had to run to Boston and the comfort of Grandma and Matthew, who was attending Harvard Law School at the time. Grandma immediately took over the clothing problem by spending the weekend taking me to the best dressmakers and exclusive shops for an entirely new wardrobe and teaching me the ins and outs of society, while Matthew assumed the role of "the older brother" and told me not to worry. The weekend renewed my confidence, and things improved slightly when I met Anna Taylor, a student at an associated university who just happened to be Andrew's first cousin. She and I became fast friends, and within two weeks, roommates at the joint dormitory as well. Anna's parents, who lived in the city (her mother, Helen Taylor, was Andrew's mother's twin sister) also became surrogate parents to me, and I spent weekends exploring Philadelphia with her. Things were slowly improving- I had a straight A average in all my classes and I was slowly making friends. I had wanted to give up, but I hadn't. I had to take the same attitude with the situation with Andrew and I only hoped that somehow we could make it work. I had my answer to that soon enough, however. Christmas, two years ago. The one holiday I had been able to spend at home during Medical School....