Sarah Beth spent the next little bit gathering up some clean linens for the Captain's bunk and putting together her medicines.<br/><br/>There was a fair spread of medicines in the infirmary, though some of them were past the Use By date and needed updating.  Sarah Beth spent time on the Cortex most evenings, learning what each of them did, how to measure doses and which ones were bad to mix.  That information was always available, but Sarah Beth needed to know it in her bones.  When the scarlet was pumping was no time to go looking something up.  But for something as simple as the Captain's graze, she didn't need to look it up or use any of those fancy drugs in the infirmary.  That's why she spent most of the half hour in her bunk taking things out of tins labeled Martin's Patent Hoof 'n Mouth Cure and Blue-Kote Sheep Wound Salve and Udder Drawing Compound and putting them in brown glass jars and little tins.<br/><br/>Folks got funny about that sometimes.  Way Sarah Beth saw it, ringworm was ringworm and didn't much care if it was under swine flesh or boy flesh.  A little equine nitrofurazone worked well on both.<br/><br/>Callista must have just finished showering when Sarah Beth let herself back in.  There was a feeling of damp heat in the room that the environmental plant hadn't scrubbed away yet and Callisa's hair was still wet.  She didn't like the audience that was gathered, but since it wasn't the doctoring shack, Sarah Beth didn't feel right about chasing them out.  If the Captain wanted them there, there they would be.<br/><br/>"Sit yourself," she instructed and went to lay the clean bedding down in the bedroom.  It was the work of just a minute to make the bed and have it looking right, if not quite as fancy as a Companion's handmaiden would make it.<br/><br/>"Y'all give me some space now," she told Koschei.  That man was built like a polled steer, all muscle atop muscle atop muscle.  He could double for an anatomy study, and Sarah Beth wouldn't say no to tracing his deltoids or his rectus abdominus and all the parts in between.  Kind of spooky though.  He wasn't one of those gentle big men that could lift a sack of mealies under each arm, punch out anyone in the bar then lift a girl nicely up on her horse and blush from touching her.  No, Koschei was a killer and that kind of dampened things that weren't her panties.<br/><br/>Sarah Beth returned and squatted beside the Captain again.  She patted the shoulder dry with a corner of the towel then dipped her finger into a glass jar.  It emerged coated with some black, greasy substance that smelled like engines.  She rubbed it into the center of the wound where she'd seen the little bit of pus.  "This'll draw out any little bit of lead or scrap of clothing left in the wound.  It's going to feel like a little hot spot for a bit.  Let it be."  When she was done, Sarah Beth wiped her finger clean on her trousers, showing where that patch that folks assumed was ground in dirt and grease really came from.<br/><br/>The salve smelled a lot nicer, almost like lanolin, and was a creamy tan color.  Starting at the center, Sarah Beth worked it into the skin with her thumbs, almost like a massage, and ended up at the margins of the wound.  The itching almost immediately subsided.  She finished by putting a sterile, ripped open from the package in front of you, bandage on it all.<br/><br/>"Reckon you've got another bit of history on your hide," she said and stood up.  "Cap, if you was a heifer and broke your leg, we wouldn't even bother to tan your hide for nothing but latigo it's got so many scars and paint on it."  It wasn't mean, was just part of her sense of humor and she always sensed that Callista liked being thought of as a lot tougher than she might feel inside.  "Tonight, I want you to take that bandage off and put some of this here salve around like you seed me do.  If'n there's a lump under the black stuff, don't go picking at it and call for me to drain it."  She put the tin on the couch beside Callista.<br/><br/>"Best be moving on then," Sarah Beth said to everyone and went to the door.  Just before she opened it, the rangy blonde turned her head over her shoulder and looked at Callista with a grin.  "If'n your nipples are chapped, you can use that salve on them too.  I normally uses it to treat heifer teats that calves have been too rough on.  Be seeing you," Sarah Beth said and went through the door.