FIFTEEN
Cora collapsed into bed after hauling the truck back to the clinic, "You could have gotten yourself thrown in a cell, Cora what were you thinking?"
Cora shrugged with a smirk, "I outrank him, and I happen to know Sargent Philips' supervisor, his own Captain and I served together for a while, so there was no chance of that, the cuffs would have been on and off in no more than 60 seconds."
Cora kissed Trixie in the comfort of their accommodations before waving her off for days as she remained at the clinic.
Doctor Myra falling ill was something that Cora hadn't expected but the Doctors shared common ground, a respect.
"She has Primary Liver Cancer based on her symptoms, but she's refusing to allow a consult of any kind." Patrick nodded, sending Cora to bed for the evening noticing that the doctor was practically dead on her feet.
And when Trixie returned that evening she cried into Cora's chest, grasping at the doctor's shirt.
"How did you do it? Work somewhere like here, for as long as you did?"
Cora shrugged hoisting Trixie into her lap, "I had hope, even when I knew it was impossible."
The beach break was something that Cora found herself unable to really enjoy, but she did manage to pull Trixie away with a smile.
"I made you a promise once, do you remember it?" Trixie scoffed smiling at their joined hands,
"You've made so many you'd have to be more specific." Cora chuckled,
"I promised you that I'd propose in every country we visit, and well I figured this was a perfect opportunity to replace the bad memories I have with some good ones." She bent down on one knee pulling out a handmade ring.
A wooden ring she'd carved down, it wasn't perfect, she didn't have the tools to make it perfect, but for the pair of them it was enough.
"So Beatrix Franklin, will you do me the honour of marrying me, here in South Africa?" Trixie nodded with a small giggle,
"Of course but I don't have anything for you?" Cora smiled pulling out another makeshift ring, this one made of a steel nut shed shaped and filed down,
"Don't worry I got my hopes up and made my own." Trixie cocked a brow with a smirk,
"Oh how presumptive of you Doctor King."
The water issue was something that was becoming an increasingly large issue and Cora thought at the very least that she might be able to help.
"Mr Starke, I'm-," The man interrupted,
"If you're here about the Clinic you are free to leave." Cora nodded, she understood to a certain degree.
"That's one thing they don't tell you about photographs, that they fade over time, and the glue disintegrates," She reached into her pocket, pulling out and unfolding a picture of her own.
"Indeed." Cora held out the photo, tattered and weathered and fading,
"South Africa 1951, St Mary Magdalene Clinic, 150 miles east from here, that woman in that photo was my sister, well not my sister but I'd known her since we were infants, she fell pregnant, had the baby while we were out here. She didn't make it home, died of puerperal sepsis and we didn't have the resources to treat her, and the baby, died three weeks later in my arms, a little boy. He's been my only boy in the family for the last ten years, one niece and two granddaughters, but never a boy. That is one of the two pictures I have of them both, and I can barely see her face anymore." The man nodded silently, handing back the photograph.
"Every time I open this damn book photographs fall out." Cora nodded,
"I'll never be able to bring back your wife or child, or my sister and nephew, and I understand why you hold your grudges, trust me I hold my own. But I promised my sister that no matter what I would continue to help people, now I didn't know your wife but I guarantee that she wouldn't want her memory to be rationing water, and women dying because you blame Dr Myra for something that likely wasn't her fault." And with that she took her leave although she paused at the door.
"I know you know exactly what we need, so I won't say it out loud, but please do think about it, and I'm sorry for your loss." He nodded,
"And I am sorry for yours." When she returned Trixie was the first to grab Cora.
"We need you to perform a c-section." Cora's eyes widened slightly,
"I can assist, but Trixie you've seen what Doctor Myra does more than I have." That was what was agreed, Trixie would be the primary while Cora assisted.
The baby was stuck which led to Cora pushing the baby back up, assisting Trixie as was needed.
The baby let out a loud cry as it was extracted and Cora followed Trixie as she left.
"Well done love, I am so proud of you."
Mr Starke approached Cora as she was washing the baby, they spoke for a moment before he finally drew to the topic that both knew he was here for. "I have thought about it, and I agree, and I want you to lay the pipe across my land."
Cora nodded with a smile, "Thank you."
Cora and Trixie both agreed to spend a little longer in South Africa helping until Dr Myra was back on her feet, together they restored Hope clinic to what the blazing glory that it always should have been, to what it once was.
"It is odd I'm glad that we're still here even after everyone else is gone?" Cora shook her head as she lay in bed with her wife wrapped around her.
"No I'm glad too, I'm even more glad that we are in this together as it should be."
Doctor Myra smiled as she saw Cora and Trixie walking toward her, "So Doctor King, Nurse King, what's next."
Trixie looked at the woman, her mouth agape, "Oh don't act surprised I see how you are with one another, and those rings aren't subtle at all, and I think you’ll find that nobody here will care, not in these parts."