Mary and Sophia stood in the office of the doctor that was in charge of them, waiting to hear the punishment they were to receive. Mary knew that Vanessa wouldn't be true to her word, but she had hoped that Vanessa liked Sophia enough to at least just blame Mary. Now, she had no hope for either of them.
"Now, what's the excuse for being late today?"
"Please, Sir-"
"It was my fault!" Both of the women spoke at the same time, but Mary spoke louder so Doctor Smith and Sophia looked towards her. "I've been writing to a soldier, and my letter was sent back and after my brother, I just didn't know how to cope so Sophia helped me this morning. She and I went to the army office to understand what happened. Please, if you're going to let anyone go, it was my fault so it should be me."
"Nurse Blake, as noble as that is, the both of you were late and not just by a few minutes, but two hours. We don't have strict rules here, but this is way out of line, especially for the newer nurses. Now, I'm sorry that you've lost another soldier, but this is a war, Nurse Blake, if you think you're the only person who has ever lost anyone, you had a privileged life." Mary took a step back, offended that he thought that was her belief.
"Doctor-"
"Get to work, we have a new set of soldiers that just came home and some of them are in worse condition than others. They need your help. If this happens again, I won't hesitate to fire the both of you." Mary and Sophia quickly nodded and practically ran out of his office. As soon as they were sure that they were out of range of his office, Sophia turned towards Mary and giggled.
"He'd be a lot more terrifying if he didn't wear that ridiculous coat all the time." Mary smiled. "Thank you for that, but I wouldn't like it as much if you weren't here with me. You make these days seem less horrid."
"Well, I wasn't about to let you get fired for something that happened to me. I'd never let myself live. Now, come on, we're in enough trouble as it is and it seems like they need as many nurses as possible with these new soldiers." She grabbed Sophia's arm gently and pulled her towards the room that they had become accustomed to seeing.
As they walked in, Mary stopped short, causing Sophia to walk into her. All around were soldiers on the bed, groaning in pain. Mary stepped back, onto Sophia's foot, at the smell of rotting flesh. It was something Mary would never be used to, no matter how long the war would go on.
"If you're not already assigned, they need help with a soldier over there." A doctor walked up to Mary and Sophia, seeing that they had walked in just a moment ago. "Nurse Blake, you come with me, a soldier needs to be stitched up, his wounds need to be cleaned, and then he needs to be rebandaged." Mary nodded, letting go of Sophia and saying a quiet 'good luck' to her, and followed the doctor to a soldier whose almost entire face was covered up in bandages.
"What happened?"
"It was a grenade that went off nearby. He was marching somewhere we believe, except we're not allowed to know much. Luckily for him, there won't be much scarring because he was distant. He may have a few scars on his hand and he already had a bad cut on his left hand. It seems he received that prior to this, though. I supposed it would be from barbed wire." Mary's heart sank remembering William's last letter. "Most of these men were on that march and were either shot or hit with the blast of the grenade. Some are just so shellshocked, they can't speak."
"Is this all of them?"
"Yes, now get to cleaning his wounds while I stitch him up, he should be under anesthetic for a few more minutes." Mary glanced around but got to cleaning the man's wounds as the doctor glared at her again. "Are you looking for a friend?"
