David gently woke Kate up from her nap, glad she seemed to be resting peacefully. When Kate opened her eyes and focussed on David, her face lit up with delight.
"You came back!" she said quickly, then looked embarassed.
David smiled at her.
"That's all right," he said, " I know this'll take some getting used to. Before we head down for lunch, do you want to freshen up, splash some water on your face or anything?"
Kate sat up and shook her head.
"No, I'm all right, just hungry,' she said. "I can smell lunch from here."
They walked into the dining room together, where Mama was just putting out the dishes and cutlery. She greeted them warmly, then when Kate was looking hungrily at a bowl of biscuits, glanced at David. David nodded in Kate's direction.
"Kate, hon, grab a couple of those biscuits and test them for me, would you please? There's honey, butter and jam in the kitchen, bring them in here for me, that's a good girl."
When Kate went after the toppings, David and Mama winked at each other. They both knew Mama's intention of getting a little food into Kate before she sat down to the table, so she wouldn't be quite so ravenous as she looked right now. David had to reflect on how fortunate he was not to be facing starvation on a daily basis.
Kate came back into the room and placed a couple of biscuits on a small plate. She had them split and buttered before she thought to offer David some, and looked apologetically at him.
"I'm sorry, this is like riches to me," she said. "I know you take it for granted - "
"No, you're wrong there," he corrected her gently. "I thank God every day for what I'm fortunate to receive, and I haven't taken one minute for granted since hell-day. What you mean is, through grace and some hard work, I haven't had to worry about where my next meal's coming from for a long time."
"While we're here in town we'll work but we'll be well fed and get to sleep in comfort. We'll plan ahead before we set out again, and we probably won't want for food before we reach someplace we can earn more. Go ahead and enjoy everything Mama's got to offer, we'll make it all up to her before we leave town."
Kate finished the biscuits and went to the kitchen to tell Mama they were delicious. About that time people started trickling in to lunch, many of whom greeted David by name.
When there was no one else coming in Mama had David check the street for late-comers. When he was seated she called the blessing on the meal, and everyone began eating.
"I sure am glad I had those biscuits earlier," Kate whispered to David, who just grinned to himself.
Conversation was lively throughout the meal, with a lot of hearty laughing and plenty of compliments to Mama on her cooking.
"Mama, these biscuits are delicious, as always," said a burly fellow at the end of the table.
"I thank you, but I had Kate here test them for me," Mama replied, nodding toward Kate. "She came in with David this morning."
"Oho, Kate, so you came in with David, did you?" the man smiled. "Well, my name's Sam, and I'm very pleased to make your acquaintance, but now you have to tell, whose biscuits are better, Mama's or David's"
Kate stopped in mid-move, mouth open, her fork halfway up. Her eyes shot left and right to David and Mama, and the whole table laughed at her discomfiture.
David, laughing with the rest, said "Don't mind Sam, he's known for putting people on the spot for fun."
Kate got the fork back to her plate and thought fast.
"David's are a close second," she began, and David nodded approvingly, "but, when I had them I hadn't eaten for three days," she finished.
She stuck her tongue out at David and everyone burst out laughing. Sam was laughing so hard at David's expression of chagrin he was turning red in the face.
"Yes," he bellowed, "that's the best way to eat David's biscuits - after a three day fast!"
This started another round of laughing, David joining in with the rest. He laid his arm over Kate's shoulder and gave her a squeeze.
Finally lunch drew to a close, Sam and the others returning to their tasks. David left for the mill, receiving assurances from Kate and Mama they'd be fine for the rest of the day. When he left he gave Kate a hug and a quick kiss, and Mama a hug and a thanks for dinner.
When David returned for dinner, he found Kate and Mama laughing and talking as they fixed vegetables. Telling both of them 'hi,' he went out to the pump to get some cleanup water. Joining them again, he asked them what they'd been up to that afternoon.
Mama snorted in his direction.
"Girl talk, mostly," she said, "nothin' you'd be interested in. Oh, yeah, Kate did just manage to fix the leak under the house you menfolk hadn't gotten around to."
It didn't make any difference to Mama that today was the first time David had heard about the leak, and all three of them knew it. Kate grinned at David.
"I crawled under the house and found the leaky pipe. It was just a drain pipe, but when Mama dumped her kitchen water it ran out from under the house instead of going to the septic tank. I remembered seeing some inner tube material at the dump, so I went and got it, stuffed some into the split and wrapped more around the pipe, and it works just fine."
"I'm proud of you, Kate," David smiled back, "it's nice to know we've got a plumber aboard. Plumbing is one of the skills Don and I had determined should be included in my self-reliance degree."
"Oh, sure, now that Kate's done the job, you've got the skills," Mama chided him, looking over at Kate. "Just like a man."
This had the effect of bringing both Kate and Mama to laughter again, so David just shrugged his shoulders.
At dinner that evening Kate was introduced around. Few of the lunch crowd was there, and David explained that the lunch crowd was made up mostly of people who worked around there, but dinner was attended mostly by people who lived close by.
David related news of the surrounding area, and went to his pack to get letters for two of the people there. Each of the two read the letters immediately, and shared with the others anything of general interest.
Suddenly a siren rose in a wail, and then just as suddenly fell and quit. Everyone stopped talking, but when the siren ceased they returned to their meal. Kate's eyes widened at the sound and she turned to David with alarm.
"Just a test," he said to her. "If it had gone on, you'd have seen a fairly well ordered drill to handle most any emergency."
Kate had noticed that all of the men, including David, and some of the women had shot Mama a look when the siren went off, and she had given them a nod that included them all. She resolved to ask David about it later.
"David, how long you gonna be in town?" one of the women asked him.
"Don't know yet, not on a particular mission right now. Why?"
"We're having a hog roast/swap party three nights from now, hope you can make it," she replied.
David grunted as if he'd been punched.
"I wouldn't miss it for the world," he said emphatically.
Kate looked at him puzzledly, and he looked back at her.
"You don't get it," he said, "think of all the pork fat and cracklin's you can eat."
Kate pictured it in her mind, and was astonished to find herself salivating almost uncontrollably.
"Yeah, your body understands, even if you don't. Most of us are on a perpetual fat diet. We eat well, most of the time, but the cereal and bean diet we can produce and eat in bulk, even supplemented from time to time with wild game, doesn't get us the required dietary fat. Hog roasts are incredibly popular, and every family that can, either owns hogs or cooperates with another family that does."
Kate managed to get her salivary glands under control, and returned to her meal. Lunch and dinner had both been so delicious she had hardly noticed they were meatless.
After dinner most of the crowd helped in the cleanup, almost another social occasion. Because of this, cleanup went quickly, and David took Kate over to the side.
"I've made an appointment for you with Doc Brown," he said. "I thought it would be a good idea, both to get you checked out and just to get you acquainted with him."
"That's probably a good idea," she nodded, and they took leave of Mama and her guests.
Ranger was waiting for them on the front porch, and they all walked down the street together.
As they walked down the street, a thought occurred to Kate.
"During dinner, after the siren alarm, a bunch of you shot Mama a look. What was that all about?"
David smiled grimly.
"Mama keeps a brace of loaded rifles in a wardrobe in her bedroom. If that alarm goes off for real, everybody that can, grabs one and heads for the show," he said. "Anyone who can't shoot, you, for example, organizes ammunition and first aid supplies and follows close behind."
Kate nodded soberly and they walked on.
They reached Doc Brown's place quickly, and David introduced Kate to Doc. He greeted her warmly, and made them comfortable in his house.
After asking them if they wanted some tea, Doc asked Kate about her previous life and her story between hell-day and now. With nervous glances at David, Kate reiterated the story he had already heard.
After Kate finished, Doc invited her into his exam room, and told David it would be twenty to thirty minutes before they'd be through.
David crossed to Doc's bookshelf, and picked up Doc's copy of Gray's Anatomy. Whenever he had to wait on Doc he picked up Gray's. He turned to the anatomy of the foot and picked up where he had left off last time.
Thirty five minutes after Doc closed the door, they came back to the room where they had left David. David rose quickly to his feet, raising his eyebrows in silent question.
"She's fine, more or less," Doc smiled at him, and David breathed a sigh of relief. Kate stepped over to him and gave him a big hug.
"I was awfully scared about some things, but Doc checked me out and we talked a long time. I feel a lot better now."
"Great, just great."
"If you both don't mind, I'd kinda like to talk to the both of you together for just a few minutes," Doc said, "based on what Kate's told me so far."
"Sure," they both agreed, and sat down together again.
Doc sat down across from them, and addressed himself to David first.
"I know this is personal, but if you can't talk to your family doc I might as well not be seeing you. Kate let me know you two have talked about being intimate, but decided at the last minute not to, based on a couple of reasons. First, she knew she was on an emotional roller coaster when the subject first came up, and wasn't sure making that move at that time was the best thing."
David nodded soberly, remembering that night.
"Second, having been through repeated rapes, she was afraid, one, that her system had been hurt, and two, she might have been exposed to some pretty bad diseases. Out of concern for you, she decided she'd better wait."
"Yeah, we talked about all of that," David admitted.
"Well, third, was a symptom you didn't know about. Kate's got a condition we medical wizards call dysmenorrhea. It really covers a wide range of problems, but in Kate's case it means that about six or seven months ago her menstrual flow dried up."
Davis looked at Kate with worry in his eyes.
"Not serious," Doc offered, "it frequently happens in women going through a malnutrition phase. Kind of nature's way of backing off of fertility in lean times. It's usually a temporary condition, and when Kate starts eating regularly again it'll probably start back up. Just something I thought you ought to know about."
"For a while I was really afraid I'd gotten pregnant," Kate said to David. "I was terrified, since I knew what those gangs did to pregnant women. According to Doc, the dysmenorrhea was what actually kept me from getting pregnant. But when months went by and I didn't turn up pregnant, I was even more scared of what might have happened to my system."
She paused, looking down at the floor, then looked David in the eyes.
"That night you saved my life I about turned inside out with fear and grief and gratitude, and I am so glad you understood. I wanted to make love with you so badly, but I was so afraid of what I 'd been through. I owe you a lot just for being able to sleep on your shoulder with your arm around me."
She looked at Doc.
"Thanks, Doc," she smiled at him. "I really appreciate the checkup and the talk."
Then she got serious.
"What's an exam go for these days? I don't have much, but we can work something out."
"David already knows the fee," Doc smiled back at her. "If you two can convince Sam Stoddard to get me some stud service for my beagle bitch, we'll be even."
She looked questioningly at David. He smiled at her.
"We've got two or three days to work a swap with Sam," he said. "Doc, if I can't get you stud service before I leave town I'll just have to curl up and die. I've got a reputation to uphold."
"I know your reputation quite well, thank you," grinned Doc. "Are you gonna be at Wagoner's hog roast this week?"
"Yes we are!" David and Kate said simultaneously, and all three laughed aloud.
