had given her a lot of experience treating a variety of wounds. It was almost with amazement that Dora realized that this was the first time since Marge that a gunshot had to be treated.
The town did have an incredibly good stock of antibiotics and medicines, a few trips to some of the pharmacies had gotten Mary everything she thought they would need for the foreseeable future. Unfortunately antibiotics could not put a leg back together. Even as Dora pondered what to do with so many less adults Mary was performing 'surgery' in the clinic downstairs trying to save what she could of Mike's leg.
Paige had seen Dora to the master bedroom and told her to go to sleep, and then disappeared into her own room. Dora assumed the woman was sleeping, these days it was hard to tell, Paige didn't snore any more. She had lost a lot of weight over the past six weeks and when the pounds came off the snoring stopped.
'Dora?'
Mary's soft voice startled her from her thoughts.
'Yeah? How is Mike doing?'
'Maybe it won't be as bad as I originally thought. I have him stitched up now and drugged senseless. Why are you still up?'
'Just updating the town roster.' Dora said gesturing to the computer screen. She pushed her chair back and stood up, stretching her back, immediately she felt nauseas, she rushed to the bathroom and made it to the toilet just in time.
Mary followed her in to the bathroom, a concerned look on her face. Dora finished up and smiled weakly as the other woman handed her a towel.
'You hate it when that happens don't you?' Mary asked.
'When what happens? I puke? Yeah I sure hate that. I mean who likes puking? All those diseased kids getting me sick every go-gosh-darned week.'
'You're pregnant.' Mary stated flatly.
'What! Bite your tongue woman! It is just a bug going around…'
'Dora.' Mary said raising her hand up in a stop gesture, 'No one get else gets the flu every week, a flu that lasts four or five or six days. When is the last day you didn't throw up? When was your last period?'
'I don't…oh shit…oh shit…oh shit!' Dora stammered.
'C'mon downstairs. I got a bunch of home pregnancy tests when we raided the pharmacy two weeks ago.'
'Oh shit…oh fucking shit. I told him! I told that douche bag…'
'Dora. Stop. I am too tired right now to deal with anger, with denial, with your usual bullshit. After we do the test, three, four times, I don't care how many it takes to convince you, after we do the tests, we get some sleep. After that we can go back to the usual games you play. For now, let's just get this done.'
Meekly Dora wiped off her mouth again and followed Mary downstairs. They only needed one test, but Dora insisted on two.
Chapter 30
Dora was crying in the dark alone. Large, silent tears came out of her eyes as her head lay back on her pillow. Mary had closed her door to the bedroom a few minutes before leaving her alone. Paige barged in ten minutes later, tired and dirty from the fight the night before. The younger woman rushed over and gave Dora a big hug.
'What the fuck is this? What about doctor patient confidentiality?' Dora had asked Mary who was lurking by the door.
'I am not your doctor. I was not acting as your doctor as we played out a hunch I had about your condition and further more you can feel free to sue me if you want. I knew you wouldn't tell her. I knew you wouldn't tell anyone until the little bun fell out of your oven. And I know that is the wrong tactic to take. For you, for me, for everyone. You are resting today, all day. Maybe you go to the council meeting if you go to sleep right now. We can't risk it. You know that.'
Now an hour later all Dora could think about was the baby. A baby. Her child, a last gift from Roger. Her first impulse at finding out she was pregnant had been to ask Mary for the morning after pill. This was what had gotten Dora out of bed so long ago the morning that she met Paige and Mike. The thought of filling her prescription had never even crossed her mind, there was simply too much going on.
Dora should have restrained herself from asking for the morning after pill, she knew Mary was a strict Catholic and there was absolutely no way the woman had taken any of that sort of medication from the pharmacy. To her complete surprise Mary had gone over to a cabinet, pulled something out and then returned to hand Dora a packet of pills.
'Right here is how you can end this. This is Mifeprex, 'RU-486' or better known as the morning after pill, whatever you want to call it. You can end a pregnancy up to nine weeks with it and you are probably about seven weeks along.'
'What? You? I thought…'
'You thought right. I told you, no bullshit until after we sleep. I am not condoning you taking this pill, I knew you would ask about it if the test came back positive. I am not having this baby. You can end it right now, right here and we will never discuss it again.'
'Why?'
'Why did I pick this up? First, there are actually times when saving the life of a patient requires the sacrifice of the child, if the patient dies the child dies too. I am too pragmatic to kill both, especially now. I have never, ever written a prescription for this. Or were you asking why am I offering it to you? Dora I have never given this to any of my patients. I am not an obstetrician, so it really never came up. This is the first time I even have to contemplate going against my beliefs, I knew it could happen someday and this mess with the zombies made me realize it probably would happen. People have sex, people probably do not want to have babies right now. The decision was easier than I thought it would be. As to why I am giving it to you, well I am not prescribing it. You have free will as God intended, you have to make the 'choice' to murder your baby. If you do you will go to hell, I do not doubt that for a moment. You have me pretty well convinced you are going to Hell anyway, if we are all not there already. I have put the ability to murder your own child in your hands, I will have to answer to a higher authority for that. I can only hope that I will be forgiven for this crime against God.'
'I thought this was a sin, like the biggest in some way? A mortal sin?'
'Is it a mortal sin to make a hand gun? Even knowing hand guns are made to kill people? Or is it the fault of the person who buys the gun and kills someone? Funny how religion works, isn't it? I put the gun in your hands, I created the situation for you to make the moral choice, not me. I feel bad about my part in this. I could have lied and said I didn't have the drugs, a lesser sin. I don't know how it works Dora. If there is some sort of naughty and nice list, like Santa is supposed to keep, only my immortal soul. I do the best I can and right now I am running on three hours of sleep, my only son is unconscious, my own former lover is living in sin with me and I make medical decisions every day based on the group's needs rather than the individual I am treating. I am in no position to judge you. This decision is also important to the group and I, alone, cannot make it. How many babies have we rescued? You know as well as I do that the child will give people hope as well as being a drain on our resources. I think the boost to morale will outweigh the costs. What do you think?'
A look of wonder crossed over Dora's face, 'You and Alex are…'
'Stop it. This is not the time for that.' Mary held up her hands in front of her, gesturing for Dora to stop talking, 'Just make up your mind, don't get sidetracked on things that are not relevant to your decision.'
Dora handed the medicine back to Mary, who put it into the cabinet and locked it back up without a word. There was a slight smile of victory on Mary's face as she guided Dora up to her to bed. After telling Paige not to let anyone disturb Dora for the day, the two women did the unthinkable; they took all of the walkie-talkies off of Roger's dresser and left. Dora had started crying again the moment they left.
