A Colleen and Andrew StoryAndrew held the unconscious Colleen in front of him on his horse on the way back to town. He had pressed his handkerchief to the wound in her shoulder and tied it in place using a strip torn from her skirt hem.
The bleeding had slowed but it hadn’t stopped and she had yet to wake up.
Holding her close he came to the realization that if anything happened to her, then he wouldn’t be able to go on. He would have had no life. He loved her more than anything else and losing her would kill him. He realized with despair that he should have told her how he felt when he had the chance. Now he wasn’t sure he would ever have the chance again.
They took her back to Michaela’s clinic, as it was closer than Andrew’s at the Hotel was. As they rode up, a crowd formed, everyone yelling and asking how Colleen was.
Andrew saw none of this. He was too focused on getting Colleen treatment. Passing her limp form down to Matthew, Andrew dismounted and ran to open the clinic door.
“Put her on the table,” he ordered. Crossing to the cabinet on the right wall, Andrew took out what instruments and medicines he would need.
“I’ll help,” Dorothy said as she entered and closed the door on the concerned faces of the gathered townspeople.
“Thanks, Dorothy. We’ll need some warm water,” he told the hovering Matthew.
Then Andrew turned to his patient. Trying to put it out of his mind that this wasn’t just a patient, but the woman he loved, he carefully pulled the fabric away from the gunshot wound. The bullet hadn’t passed through, but was lodged deeply. It would have to be dug out before he closed the wound.
Handing Dorothy a rag and a bottle of chloroform, Andrew ordered her to hold the cloth over Colleen’s mouth and add a drop of the liquid every minute to ensure she remained unaware of the pain the procedure was going to bring.
The next three-quarters of an hour were a haze for Andrew as he dug the ball out of Colleen’s shoulder. It had lodged close to the bone but thankfully hadn’t chipped the bone. He was careful to make the stitches as small as possible but he knew that she would have a scar to remember her ordeal by.
He was just starting to sew up a cut near her hairline when Michaela and Sully burst through the door.
“Andrew, what happened? How is she?”
“I don’t know, Michaela. When we found her, she was being attacked. Matthew got the man hurting her, but there was another, hiding, and he shot at me, but she pushed me out of the way,” he rambled.
Michaela came forward and washed her hands with alcohol and took the needle from Andrew's unresisting fingers and started to work on her daughter.
Moving to the other side of the table, he took Colleen’s hand, “My God, she did it for me. She did it for me.”
When Michaela came out of the clinic later, washing her hands, it was with mixed news.
“Andrew got the bullet out and she’s stopped bleeding. She’s resting upstairs. There doesn’t seem to be any damage to the bone or muscles, but she hasn’t woken up yet. She sustained a head wound and that coupled with her exhaustion…well, we’ll just have to wait and see. Andrew’s sitting with her now.”
With that she walked into Sully’s arms, also pulling Brian and Katie to her side.
The next two days showed no change in Colleen’s condition. Andrew spent the time at her bedside, holding her hand, berating himself. That she was lying there instead of him tore him up inside. Hoping she could hear him, even in her unconscious state, he told her he loved her and he was sorry over and over.
“Andrew?”
Colleen’s weak whisper brought Andrew’s head up sharply from where it rested on the bed. “Colleen. You’re awake, thank God!”
Looking around, she asked, “What happened? Where am I?”
“You’re in the clinic. Don’t you remember? You were shot. Colleen, you never should have done it. Never, ever put yourself in danger again. Please. I couldn’t take it.” This was punctuated with a kiss to her brow and a caressing hand at her cheek.
“I had to Andrew. You mean a lot to me.”
The warm look in her eyes spurred him on. “Colleen, I love you. I think I have since I first met you, but I’ve never been able to say it. I want you to be my wife. Colleen, will you marry me?”
“I love you, too, Andrew. Nothing would make me happier than to marry you. I love…” she was interrupted by Andrew leaning down to place a chaste kiss to her lips.
It was to this scene that Michaela walked in. Unwilling to interrupt such a moment, she closed the door and turned with misty eyes to share the joyous news with the rest of her family.
THE END.
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