The Fourth Law

Chapter 4, Part 1

Lily was pulling some meds from the Pyxis machine in the hospital when she felt her phone vibrate. Seriously: didn't Ai have hobbies or a job?! Putting the medications into a pocket of her red scrubs, she went to find her charge nurse to get them double-checked. Unlike the fully trained nurses in blue scrubs, apprentices such as Lily rated red, for, as her instructor put it, "Danger! This trainee is dangerous and can kill you!"

She sighed. Old Mrs. Watters was a good instructor, just with a peculiar sense of humor. Her meds checked and delivered to the patient, Lily stood in the hall to look at her phone. Oh: it was the school, St. Joseph's. She doubted it was a medical emergency; the nurse there, Agnes Varro, was also a Field Forces nurse, and still in the ready-reserves. She could handle anything. She had fifteen minutes before she was due for charting, so she found a spot by a window to call back.

"This is Lily Barrett; someone there gave me a call?"

"Just a moment, Miss Barrett," replied the school Secretary, Mrs. MacDonald. "It was our counselor; I'll transfer you now."

Counselor? What does that have to do with me?

"This is Janet Weiss; may I help you?" Not a native, Lily thought. She has no accent, just like me.

"This is Lily Barrett, returning your call?"

"Ah, yes! Miss Barrett! I was wondering if you could come over before we close this evening. One of your kids from St. Ed's, Will Helsing, is graduating this year, and I wanted to go over his career choices with you."

What Lily knew about Will flashed through her mind: tall with bright brown hair, slightly above average student, played football and baseball. Were it not for his parents being unaccounted for in the Burning of Dallas, he was a typical Texan boy.

"My shift here ends at three, Miss Weiss. I can swing by before I'm needed back at the orphanage." There, she knows I'm available, but I can't throw away my afternoon on her.

"Perfect! And it's Mrs. Weiss. See you a bit after three." Lily stared at her phone. I was just being polite.

Her early afternoon was uneventful, so by three o'clock she was back in her jeans and blouse. In the hospital's locker room, she allowed her eyes to flick up to the item in her locker – the baseball cap with 'XC' on the front. Her mental hairshirt. She slammed the locker closed.

Early April, but already warm, she pedaled easily over to the school. A question to Mrs. MacDonald saw her down Admin Alley. She gave two sharp knocks on Mrs. Weiss' half-open door.

"Come in, come in! Thanks for this: such short notice and all! Let me see..." Lily sat down in the only available chair while Weiss searched through the folders on her desk. Not a computer in sight. Well, some folks thought the old ways were better. What was that called? Retro-culture.

"Here it is! Now, when Will filled out his occupation preferences some months back, I did review it with him. With graduation around the corner, he seems as determined as ever, and that's where you come in."

Lily was increasingly perplexed. "How so? Yes, Will is one of my charges at the orphanage, but once he's eighteen, high school or not, he's a legal adult. Why do you—"

Janet Weiss smiled to indulge her visitor. "This is just a request for you to write a recommendation letter. You have, after all, been the one adult most central to his life these past few years."

That took Lily aback. "I'd... I'd have thought that one of his teachers... or coaches... would be better suited for that?"

With a thin smile, Weiss replied, "In most circumstances, true. However, Will seems quite set on applying to join the Ranger Division."