Doctored (18 page)

“Hey, what are you two doing?” she asked curiously.  She was carrying a lantern.

“Oh, we were watching the river and it got dark before we realized…” Maddie said, but it sounded lame.  It was already getting dark when both of them left the compound, trying not to be noticed.

“Well, you better head back with me,” she said.

“Good idea,” Deanna answered, having recovered sufficiently.  She had wanted to scream out her rage at being interrupted, but these little interludes were becoming harder and harder.  She wanted another weekend away with Maddie, but knew they couldn’t ask too often or there would be suspicion cast on them.

“Hey, Deanna.  Could you drive me to Lamish next week?” Leida asked as they walked along

“Sure, what’s up?” Deanna answered, trying to sound calm.  Her legs felt a little wobbly and she could feel the gushing feeling between her legs.  She longed to pull her underwear away from her overheated body.

“I’ve finished my rotation.  I’m heading home, remember?” she asked curiously.  She’d talked of nothing else.

“Oh, I thought you might sign on again for a spell,” she covered.  She had known, but when she had heard, she had worried more that Maddie might be going soon too.  After all, the two women had arrived at the same time.  So far, she hadn’t worked up the nerve to even ask her.  Her own rotation had been extended more than once, but no one had commented on it.

“Wonder if we can manage to get me some time off too so I can come and wish you goodbye,” Maddie asked, innocently.  Her glance over at Deanna spoke volumes.

“Maybe,” Leida answered.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

“I’m going to miss you, Leida.  You be sure to write me back in the States,” Maddie hugged her as they stood in front of the station.

“I’m going to miss you too.  This has been quite the adventure,” she assured her.

“I’m surprised you aren’t signing on for more,” Deanna teased as she too got a hug.

“Ah, remember, I was at the other camp.  I’ve done my duty.  I kinda want to see what I can do back home now,” she answered, her Australian accent never sounding more clear.  She would travel by train from the port to one of the major airport hubs.  She wasn’t going to take one of the smaller planes, although that would have been more efficient.  There had been a crash a couple weeks ago, so she altered her plans. 

It worked out well for Maddie and Deanna as they could spend the night in Lamish and head back the next day and no one would be the wiser.

“Ms. Cooper?” a voice called and Deanna looked up in surprise. 

“I’m Doctor Cooper,” she corrected, a habit of a lifetime.  After all, no one believed someone that looked as young as she did was a doctor.

“Message for you, ma’am,” the porter told her with a pull on his cap and a not-so-subtle hand held out for a tip.

Deanna gave him a tip and opened the unsealed message.  It was from Doctor Burton, asking her to stay an extra day to pick up two replacements that were coming out to the camp.  He must have radioed it in after they left the camp.

“What is it?” Maddie asked, worried.  She was always so sure that something bad came with a message like that.  She was sure they were expected to come back to the camp immediately.

“Apparently we are getting a nurse and someone else, it doesn’t say, but Doctor Burton asks that we stay an extra day to wait for their arrival,” she explained with a meaningful look meant only for Maddie.

Maddie tried not to show the absolute joy on her face at this news.  They had an extra night in town together.

“They didn’t waste any time replacing me, did they?” Leida asked with a hint of self-mockery.  They had known for a while that her time was up and she wasn’t continuing on.

“Now, you know you are irreplaceable,” Deanna teased.

“Well, not to Doctor Burton,” she pointed out realistically.  “That man is positively on a witch-hunt,” she warned, knowing Deanna would catch the meaning.

“Yes, he is, isn’t he?” she answered sardonically.  Just then the whistle sounded and Deanna caught up her bag and handed it to Leida as she mounted the steps.

“Goodbye, goodbye,” she called as she waved.

“Don’t forget to write,” Maddie reminded her.

They waited a moment for the train to pull out of the station and for Leida to be out of sight before turning and walking back to the Rover.

“Now, what would you like to do for the rest of the afternoon?” Deanna asked teasingly.

“Well, I could use a shower.  Maybe we should go check in at the hotel?” Maddie answered in the same tone.

“And then what?”

“I’m sure we will think of something to while away the hours.”

They barely made it through the door of their hotel room, shutting it firmly behind them, dropping their bags and falling into each other’s arms, tearing at their clothes in their haste to get naked.

Maddie was finally able to go down on Deanna, something she had wished she had done the first time they were together.  She had fantasized about it ever since.  Knowing the extreme pleasure Deanna had given her this way, she wanted to return the favor.  The results were even better than she had hoped, giving her confidence to make love to Deanna repeatedly through the night.  Neither one of them got much sleep that night, but neither of them really minded.  The time they waited to be together like this again had been spent experimenting, wishing, and dreaming…Now they could fulfill those dreams and make them a reality.

Much to Maddie’s surprise, Deanna managed to make love to her in the shower, nearly drowning as she kneeled and took Maddie’s sex in her mouth, making her cum.  Maddie hadn’t thought it possible, and she was thrilled to realize there was so much more she could learn from this incredible woman.  “I love you,” she screamed as she was in the throes. 

Deanna smiled, her lips still busy as she heard her girlfriend’s cry.

* * * * *

“Why do you do that?” Maddie asked Deanna as she saw her once again absentmindedly playing with her eyebrows and eyelashes.  Occasionally, one would come out and she’d bring it to the tip of her lip as she poked it and feathered it across the skin there.

“Do what?” Deanna asked, surprised, dropping whatever she had been holding and sitting up.

“You pull at your eyebrows, sometimes your eyelashes,” Maddie pointed out, explaining further the things she had observed.

Deanna sighed wearily.  She shook her head.  “It’s a nervous disorder.  I try to keep it under control, but frequently I don’t even know I’m doing it,” she explained.  “It’s call Trichotillomania or trichotillosis.  It’s a hair-pulling disorder.”

“You can’t stop it?”

“I try, and most of the time I’m successful, but I don’t know I’m doing it half the time.”

“It’s not contagious is it?” she teased, knowing a nervous disorder wasn’t contagious.

Deanna smiled ruefully.  “I’m lucky.  I don’t eat the hairs,” she pointed out, explaining that some sufferers of the nervous order did that, even ending up with hairballs.  She sighed again.  “I do wish I’d stop it though.  Sometimes I end up with no eyelashes or holes in my eyebrows.”

“It’s that bad?”

“It’s a compulsion, usually brought on by nerves.”

“When did you start?”

“When I went to high school.  Being nine and in high school was very stressful,” she confessed.  “I started with my eyelashes, then moved on to my eyebrows.  At least I don’t pull my hair,” she indicated the mop on her head that had been bleached a bit more by the hot African sun, the roots still quite dark.  “Some even pull nose hairs,” she grinned and wrinkled her nose at the thought.  “Or even,” she leaned down and tugged the pubic hairs between them.

“Ouch,” Maddie said reflexively.  She had wondered about that, but having it confirmed was a bit odd.  “Must be a bit embarrassing now and then.”

Deanna nodded.  “Yeah, and as a doctor, I
should
know better.  Having holes in my eyebrows
is
embarrassing.”  She looked ashamed.

“Is there anything I can do?” she asked softly.

Shrugging, she answered, “Just let me know when I’m doing it. Not obvious or anything, so I’m not embarrassed, but if you could grab my hand maybe?”

Maddie imagined holding down Deanna’s hand, those amazing hands that gave her so much pleasure and could handle a scalpel as an extension of those magical fingers....  “I’ll do what I can,” she promised.  “Isn’t there anything a doctor can do?”

“It’s hard to treat.  It’s chronic and,” she shrugged, “a behavior disorder...it’s mental.”  She soon changed the subject as it obviously made her uncomfortable.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Two days later they were sated, and still hadn’t had enough of the other.  They were young, enjoying themselves, learning each other in ways that were intimate to lovers around the world. 

“I can’t believe I can derive so much pleasure from a woman,” Maddie had stupidly remarked.

“What?” Deanna asked, feeling curiously hurt over her statement.

“I mean, I love what you do to me, to my body, but I had never thought a woman could please me like a man.”

“But it’s not like a man...” Deanna began, only to be interrupted.

“No, it’s not, it’s better,” she was assured and then Maddie kissed her, trying to soothe away the hurt she heard in the young doctor’s voice.  “I love you,” she added quietly.

Deanna pulled back at the words.  It was the first time Maddie had ever said them when not in the throes.  Deanna had said them many times in her head, but she wouldn’t say them until Maddie did.  Something had told her that if she did, Maddie might pull away.  She looked back and forth between the redhead’s green eyes, looking deeply to see if she was sure, if she was teasing, if....

Maddie nodded, knowing Deanna’s indecision and sorry for it.  “I do love you, you know?” she asked softly.

Deanna smiled, then rather than answer, she leaned back in for a kiss.  That led to other amusing pursuits—touching her lover in intimate ways that told her physically rather than verbally how much she loved her in return.

* * * * *

“It’s your fault we’re late,” Deanna assured Maddie as they hurried through the train station.

“
My
fault?  You were the one that wanted to try...” Maddie began in response, but stopped as she realized they were in a public place and anyone could hear them.

Deanna smirked, knowing she had gotten Maddie’s goat and loving it.  She saw Maddie begin to blush and laughed.  Redheads did not blush well.

“Oh, you…”  Maddie admonished as they came through the doors to the platform and began to look for the two people they were to pick up.

They weren’t hard to spot.  They looked out of place standing there and gawking at the colorful people that stood on the platform waiting for a train or for people getting off of them.  The different African modes of dress were exotic to say the least, but after months of seeing them, the doctor and nurse were used to them.

“Hello.  Are you going to Mamadu?” Deanna asked by way of introduction.  They were the only white people on the platform and it was kind of obvious they were out of their element.

“Yes.  Were you sent to pick us up?” the woman asked, holding out her hand.  “I’m Kimberly Applewood,” she stated as she shook Deanna’s hand.

“Deanna,” she responded to the woman, wondering at her profession.  Was she a nurse or a volunteer?  She knew they weren’t expecting any more doctors and was sorry for that, but at the same time, not sorry in the least because it meant they needed her and she could stay on.

“I’m Shawn Jackson,” the man introduced himself.  “Aren’t you Doctor Kearn…” he began, only to be interrupted by Deanna.

“Cooper, I’m Doctor Deanna
Cooper
,” she said meaningfully.

“Ah, yes, my mistake,” he apologized.  “I saw you in Bambini,” he explained.  “Someone pointed you out.”

“Yes, I was there for a while,” she said dismissively, her eyes ablaze in warning and anger.

“Is this all you have?” Maddie asked, not to be excluded.

“This is Maddie.  Maddie MacGregor.  She is a nurse at the clinic,” Deanna introduced her, feeling ashamed that in her anger, she had forgotten she was there for an instant.

“Shawn Jackson,” he introduced himself again to shake Maddie’s hand.

“Kimberly Applewood,” another hand was held out to be shaken.  “Yes, this is all we brought.  I was told to pack lightly,” she explained her lack of baggage.

“That’s a good idea out here,” Maddie confided.  “What do you do?” she asked as she began to walk with the woman who had scooped up her bag.

“I’m a nurse.  This is my second rotation,” she assured her, to establish that she wasn’t a newbie.

“How about you?” Deanna asked Shawn.

“I’m a nurse too, but I’m on my third rotation.  I can’t seem to get enough of these places,” he laughed at himself as he tried to figure them out, the dynamics of new people.