Chapter 366 You're a Yankee!

Chapter 366 You're a Yankee!
It was the smell that hit them first, followed by the sounds of crickets as Lou and Dominic opened their eyes and saw they were standing at a tree line overlooking an overgrown field.

“Death.” 

Dominic said knowing what that smell was all too well.

“And rot.”

Lou added.  She felt like she could smell the tell tale sign of infection.  When working in a trauma hospital long enough, there are some smells that are unforgettable. Dominic nodded his head and went to take a step forward, but wobbled.  A sudden pain searing up his leg.  Lou was still holding his hand and reached an arm around to steady him. 

“You good, Cowboy?  What happened?” 

It was then that she took in his clothes.  The moon and stars cast enough light on them and she saw he was wearing a tattered navy blue military uniform, his blonde hair partially covered by a little blue hat. 

“What the fuck are you wearing, Dominic?" 

He grunted in response, feeling himself begin to sweat from the pain. 

“I think...I think I need to sit down.” 

He said more so to stop himself from vomiting from the throbbing agony coming up his left leg.

“What is wrong with you?”

Her voice sounded more annoyed than concerned.

“I haven’t gotten that far yet, Dragon Lady." 

He said as he sat and shifted, the moonlight hit his leg, and Lou saw he had a large cut, about five inches long, running down the front of his shin.

“We’ve been here less than two minutes, and you’ve already found some trouble, Cowboy.”

“Something tells me I was a part of whatever this was in front of us.” 

He reached his hand to the right, his fingers brushing against something hard.  He lifted it and held it up to the moonlight, closer to his face. 

“A Springfield?” 

Lou looked between the rifle in his hand and his face.

“Why the fuck are you holdin’ a civil war musket… wait a minute…Dominic, as we were walkin’ did you say we could go back in time and experience past lives?” 

“Um…yes?”

“If that is, in fact, what we’re doin’ and we’re not havin’ a collective stroke right now, I do believe we are in the Civil War and…fuck me sideways, you’re a yankee!”

She gestured to his uniform.  Dominic glanced down and nodded his head.

“That checks out.” 

He muttered, shaking his head. 

“Not that I ever gave a lick of support to the Confederacy, but it looks like a fellow Southerner kicked your ass there for a minute, buddy.”

She said pointing to his leg, a hint of humor in her tone.

“Why are you enjoying this?”

He sounded more annoyed than entertained by her sarcasm. 

“I’m using humor to deflect my absolute panic right now.” 

She said, her voice back to level flat. 

“Well, is it working?”

“‘Bout as well as tits on a bull.”

He looked her up and down as she knelt next to him. 

“Well, I do declare!” 

He fanned his face while faking a dramatic southern accent, his voice becoming a little more shaky from the pain. She looked down at her body, seeing a baby pink wide floor length skirt with bows and a tight, corseted bodice, covered in frilly ruffles. She saw some smears of blood and mud and almost smiled, ruining this awful dress felt like an act of rebellion from her childhood.

“Fucking Gone with the Wind.” 

She mumbled, shaking her head.

“You getting any of those intuition tingles, Lou?” 

“Nothin' besides triagin’ your leg and treatin’ it.”

Dominic looked around, willing the heart beat pounding in his ears to stop for just a minute so he could assess their level of safety where they were currently against the treeline.

“Yeah, we’ll get to that.” 

“Didn’t they say don’t get hurt in the dream?”

“Sure did." 

"I wonder if it counts if you come into the dream hurt?  Did that happen as we left the room?”

“No fucking clue but we’re about to find out.”

He winced, the words barely above a hiss, as Lou poked at the edge of the cut. 

“Lay on back Cowboy, I’m fixin’ to fuck with your leg.” 

“Don’t touch it.  It's just a cut.  You’ve treated me for worse.”

“Not in the land of the gangrene I sure as hell haven’t.” 

He rubbed at his eyes in frustration but knew she had a point.

“Okay, fair enough.” 

"You ever heard the phrase bite the bullet, Dominic?” 

“Of course, why?” 

“Hell, you’re about to find out where it came from.  I ain’t got no giggle juice for you this time.” 

She took one of the shots out of his musket, placed it between his teeth and nodded her head, gesturing for him to lay back and bite down.  Dominic felt a cold dread run through him. He heard a ripping sound as Lou tore his pants at the knee. She then ripped a long strip from the bottom of her pale pink dress and tied it as close to below his knee as she could get.  He then felt a roaring pain fly up his leg as Lou began maneuvering his leg and poking and prodding.  Finally she stopped and he took a deep breath, spitting the metal out of his mouth and into the grass.

“Fucking hell, Dragon Lady.”

She chuckled.

“You think that was bad, you should be tickled you weren’t awake when I went chasin’ after that bullet in yer side.”

“I still want to know why you sound like you’re enjoying this.”

She stood up and wiped her hands along her skirts, sneering at the ridiculous volume and weight of her clothes.  She may enjoy the feel of corsets for lingerie purposes, but in a hot field with multiple layers on, she could do without.

“Nothin’s broken…and I didn't feel any structural damage.  I gotta get you up and out of this grass.  There’s bugs everywhere just itchin' to lay eggs in a wet, gooey wound like that.”

Dominic moved as fast as he possibly could, hopping up and balancing on one leg.

“That is the most disgusting thing I've ever heard.”

“Hang around long enough, Cowboy, that ain’t even cracking my top ten icks in the OR.” 

Dominic shuddered and looked around.

“Something tells me we need to head that way.”

Dominic said, pointing across the field.  He went to take a step and cursed, wincing in pain.  Lou came up and grabbed his arm, wrapping it around her shoulders so he could use her much smaller height like a crutch.  They began to move forward together, slowly.

“I can’t do nothing for the pain. I’m sorry, sugar.” 

Dominic had only ever been called 'sugar' by old women in bars and diners and it always rubbed him the wrong way. But hearing it from her lips with her southern drawl sounded like a beautiful song.

“I can handle it. Plus, you’re already helping probably more than you know.”

Lou decided not to dwell on his words.  She was barely holding it together without adding the emotional weight of a potential soul mate.  She still wasn’t convinced by it all.  She just needed one more thing to push her in either direction.  One sign to convince her this was absolutely real, or that everyone else was absolutely nuts.

“Plus, it’s a good excuse for you to get your hands on me.” 

He glanced at her and wiggled his eyes brows suggestively.  Lou rolled her eyes, and continued walking forward, a small smirk on her face.

“Where are we going?”

She asked, tightening her arm that wrapped around his waist and enjoying the smell of cinnamon rolls and the feel of fire where their bodies touched. 

“I don’t know.  My body is heading this way. Figured I’d follow it.  You doing okay, Lou?”

“I’m sorta tryin’ to switch my brain off right now to stop the panic because this can’t really be happenin’.” 

Dominic didn’t say anything, just grunted in pain. 

As they walked through the field, they saw bodies strewn about.   Gray uniforms, navy blue uniforms, old men, young men, horses, dogs.   

“This must’ve been a huge battle.” 

“Yeah, I’m fixin’ to find out where we are so we can figure out which one it was." 

She said, glancing around.  It looked like she was triaging the dead bodies in her mind, Dominic figured as a trauma surgeon, surrounded by trauma, it was impossible for her to turn it off.

“I forgot the war stuff’s a hobby. Isn’t that what you called it?” 

She blinked and looked up at him, her expression now of mild surprise, as she nodded her head and then smiled to herself. She can’t believe he remembered her little offhand comment when they were playing twenty questions and talking about their favorite movies. 

Suddenly she stopped walking, almost causing Dominic to fall, her voice taking on a new edge of concern.

“Wait, why would a southern woman be at a battle up North?” 

“She probably wouldn’t.” 

He said through gritted teeth. 

“Then you’re in enemy territory, Cowboy.” 

“Fucking hell.”

“I’ve got an idea, Cowboy.  But you ain’t goin’ to like it." 

She said, running over to a body laying on the ground wearing a confederate uniform and quickly began undressing the lifeless man. 

“We gotta swap out your uniforms.” 

“And if you’re wrong, Lou?”

“I don’t think I am.  Take off your clothes.” 

“Well my stars!  What’s a southern belle like you doing taking advantage of a wounded soldier like me?”

Lou threw the shirt and pants at his head while chuckling.

“Shut the fuck up, Cowboy.” 

He picked up the clothes and held them up.

“Alright, fine.  But you’ll have to help me.”

He said, pointing to his wounded leg.  She nodded and stepped forward, allowing him to use her shoulder's for balance as he stripped down and she tore the leg of the pants so that didn’t disrupt his injury or move the tourniquet. Dominic pointed in the direction they were headed.

"All right, come on then. I can still tell we need to keep moving this way.” 

“You were doin some mighty fast talkin’ earlier in that black room before we went through them doors.  Now, tell me again how the hell we get out of here.”

“We have to find what Kirstin calls our anchor then both touch it as we walk through somewhere that feels like we should just go through it.” 

“I read about the anchor in the CIA studies.” 

Lou said, trying to focus on the fact that she wasn't as out of control as she felt. 

“You mentioned my scalpel with a rubber tip on it?” 

Dominic nodded.

“I put a rubber tip on it because I’m working on childproofing the house with Rueben getting into shit.”

She nodded, coughing a bit of a chuckle at the idea of Rueben chasing Dominic through the kitchen with her scalpel. 

“How did you get my scalpel anyways?” 

"You left it at the penthouse when you decided to fall in love with me as you pulled that bullet out of me." 

“I don't know about all that, Cowboy.  But I looked for that particular tool for a few days after that.” 

“Well, now it’s mine. Finders keepers.” 

“Yeah, sure.  Keep your little knife, Dominic.   Plenty more where that came from.   Since you’re the one with intuition right now, you got any radar on that knife of yours?” 

“All I’ve got right now is I have to get you over here towards that dirt road.” 

He said as they continued their slow journey now mostly across the field.  Finally, they reached the road in time to hear the clomp-clomp of trotting hooves and the sound of wooden wheels kicking through some rocks coming towards them.  They turned the corner and saw a horse and carriage with a man sitting on the driver’s bench. 

“Get down!”

Lou hissed, pulling on Dominic's arm.

Dominic shook his head and put a hand on her arm, stopping her from yanking him off balance.

“No, I have a feeling we want them to see us.”