The Surgeon and his Lady

Chapter III

I was quick to return to the hospital looking for Jack after I had given Milly her new son, also named Jack. But I couldn't find him in any of the normal areas. "Hetty, I thought I cleaned this place yesterday." I call to her, jokingly and she shakes her head with a smile. "You know this place, Doctors don't keep it clean." She jokes back and we both laugh. But then I remembered why I was here in the first place.

"Where might I find Dr. Dawkins?" I asked her and she told me that he was up in his quarters and gave me directions. But as I began climbing the stairs to Jack's room, I heard talking. I knocked loudly and they went quiet. "Dr. Dawkins?" I call, hoping for a response. The door swung open and I was met with the face of a bald man who looked as though he hadn't had a decent bath in months. It was all I could do not to cover my nose.

"You smell worse than a paddock full of cow manure. Or the hospital." I gag out, turning away to cough a little. "Alright, move Fagin." Jack's voice orders the man before he shuffles away and I was met with Jack's familiar face. "Dr. Dawkins." I say respectfully as we both stand there awkwardly. "Jack. Just call me Jack." He tells me quickly before looking away, allowing another awkward silence to fester.

"I got the little baby boy settled, and Milly picked a name. His name is Jack." I tell him and he smirks a little. Then, we say our goodbyes and I head off. I make it down a few stairs before my curiosity gets the better of me and I quietly go back up the stairs. "How did you get here?" The voice of Fagin questions Jack as I hear clothes rustle. It was quiet for a few moments before Jack spoke again.

"A good man gave me a future." He says plainly, a slight monotone in his voice. My heart fell a little for him. However, it seemed that Fagin assumed that Jack was talking about him. "Well, yes, I always tried for you." Fagin tells me and Jack scoffs loudly. "Not you, Captain Grimm." Jack corrects him and I frown before I rub my chest lightly. No pain...odd. "The man I pinched the watch from." He elaborates for Fagin.

I cover my mouth, trying not to gasp. Jack used to be a thief? Somehow, I couldn't see it. "He was a Navy officer and he liked my quick fingers." Jack reminisces as he continues to move things about in his room. "He saw the mess you'd left me in and decided to help me escape." Jack continued. Fagin, however, seemed to think that it was because of him that Jack had become such a great surgeon.

"And how'd you work that out?" Jack half questions, half demands. Fagin explained that it was because he had taught Jack how to pickpocket. And on top of that, Fagin claims that if he hadn't let Jack get arrested, he would never have become a surgeon. I had to stop myself from scoffing at the bullshit coming from Fagin's mouth. "Well, thank you very much, Fagin." Jack hisses at him sarcastically.

Bed springs creak as Fagin continues with his bit, calling himself Jack's father. The audacity! Then Fagin chuckles at something while Jack remains quiet. "Oh, what's up your fanny? You're not the happy Dodge I knew." Fagin moans out the complaint and that was when I decided to get out of there. I snuck back down the bottom of the stairs, without making a sound. And when I reached the bottom of the stairs I rushed off to do some cleaning for Hetty.

I only stopped scrubbing the floor once, when a man was wheeled in for what looked like a popliteal aneurysm. But I didn't go in, returning to my angry scrubbing. "Aren't you going to watch?" A man asks me. My eyes focused on the man whose leg I had paid for when it was relieved from his body. "Nope." I state bluntly before picking up the bucket and going out to empty it. Then I began to clean the bedpans and scrape old crap and piss off the floor.

"Yeah, but you strike me as a creature of habit." He tells me but I ignore him until Sneed and Jack come into the patient wing. I let out a yelp as I caught my finger between the floor and a bedpan before I tossed it and stormed out, my shoulder clipping Jack's on the way past. When I got home, the pain in my chest became unbearable until I was heaving into the toilet. I was on bed rest for 3 days until Prof and Sneed arrived to discuss Jack.

I made Annette help me downstairs so that I could be a fly on the wall for the meeting. "He's just not ready." Prof says as he accepts the glass of amber alcohol that my father offered him. I scoffed a little, book trembling in hand, a side effect of my vomiting and lack of appetite. "Sad, but true." Prof adds, eyeing me as Annette brought me a cup of Eucalyptus tea, the only thing that settled my stomach when I was ill.

"Perhaps, it was all the Gin you'd been drinking that day." I suggested a sweet passive-aggressive tone on my lips. I flipped to the page on popliteal aneurysms since I hadn't been in the surgery when the man had died of his. "The idea of having a man of his low standing was always going to be fraught." Prof tells my father and I snap my book shut, muttering how I practically financed his drinking habit before Annette helped me stand.

My comment, however, was only acknowledged by Dr. Sneed. Annette helped me back upstairs before I shooed her off. I dressed quickly and was about to head out when I caught sight of my mother in the mirror. "You aren't going anywhere. I want you to spend some time with Mr. Smales." She says to me. I sigh and nod, beginning to change from my pants and shirt into my corset and skirt.

"Don't just dismiss him out of hand like your sister." She orders before disappearing. I huff. I really didn't want to, but I had no choice if I wanted to go back to the hospital. I waited until dark before I once again dressed in my pants and shirt. I tightened my corset and I looked in the mirror. I could have passed as a female pirate if I had a hat. I grabbed my bag and climbed out my window before I took off running.

Halfway up the road, I stopped, taking out a bread roll. I dug my teeth into it, ravenous from not eating for three days. My mind wandered as I walked, confused as to why my three days of violent illness had disappeared in a tick. When I climbed the stairs to the back entrance, I smiled finding it unlocked. As I put down my bag, Hetty grabbed my arm. "Jack's been in the surgery since Mr. Hooten's died." She tells me and I frown at her.

"And what do you want me to do?" I ask her and she shakes her head. "He's always listened to you." She says softly and I sigh, rushing off to go find him. I opened the door softly and even if I hadn't Jack seemed so deep in thought he wouldn't have heard me. I turned around going into a cupboard and fetching a bucket and scrub brush. I go and fetch some water from the well outside before returning to surgery.

I place the bucket down gently before my hand reaches up to brush some of Jack's hair from his face. He jumps a little, his eyes glistening with tears as he looks up at me. I hold out my arms and he pulls himself into the hug, burying his face into my neck. I shushed him a little as one hand stroked his back, the other his hair. His deep breathing told me that he was trying not to cry as we just stood there, blood soaking into my white shirt.

"It's alright, Jack. He'll forgive you for this, even if he's dead." I promised him softly before he started to cry.