You are Mine

Two

Bright and early the next morning, Jessica followed around the head nurse, Laura Tweed, as the woman in her late forties showed Jessica what was expected of her. With eagerness, she took everything, trying to remember every detail. She was happy to know that this had been taught to her in nursing school. She'd be fine, she just knew it.

Nurse Tweed took Jessica into a larger room with six beds – all filled with wounded soldiers. Three beds were on one side of the room, three were on the other. A small bedside table stood next to each table with a washbasin and pitcher. Two open widows brought light into the dismal room.

Jessica's chest tightened and she tried not to show emotion. Some of these men had lost limbs. Some had other issues. She must remember rule number one – do not get involved with a patient. She could care for them, but she must not take her emotions any deeper than a patient/nurse relationship.

Nurse Tweed stopped at the first bed on the right. She pointed to the man who was still asleep. His chest and one arm were bandaged. A sheet draped over the lower-half of him, but it was obvious that the man only had one leg.

"Nurse Tweed?" Jessica asked in a low voice, not wanting to wake the poor man. "I don't understand. The war has been over for a few years, so why are these men still here?"

"These men were deserters." Laura lifted her double chin as she pierced the sleeping man with a glare. "The war might have given them a few injuries, but their main injuries came from running from the law and not succeeding."

Gasping, Jessica covered a hand over her mouth. Deserters? She mustn't think of them as war heroes. Instead, they were no better than criminals.

"Good morning, ladies."

The man's voice from behind, startled Jessica and she swung to see who had just greeted her. Dressed in a white doctor's lab jacket over his beige shirt and brown vest, was the man she'd met yesterday. Hugh was a doctor?

He stopped near Jessica and his gaze ran over her – from her little rectangle-ish white hat, and down her white apron with the red cross on the front. His smile widened.

"Miss Simone, you're a nurse."

She hiccupped a laugh. "And you're a doctor."

He nodded. "I'm Doctor Jackson."

Nurse Tweed stepped closer to Hugh and arched an eyebrow. "You two know each other, I presume?"

Hugh's smile faded slightly when he looked at the older nurse. "Yes, Nurse Simone lives at the boarding house where my mother works."

Jessica's heart did a silly flip. The man actually recognized her for her profession and addressed her correctly. "Well, Doctor Jackson, I'm happy to be working with you."

When his brown-eyed gaze met her, his hearty smile seemed to return. "And I'm happy to be working with you. But, you must excuse me. I have a patient to see."

"Of course, doctor." She really should give Nurse Tweed her attention, but she couldn't stop herself from watching Hugh move to the last bed in the room and sit on a chair beside it. The patient's head was bandaged to where she couldn't see his face. Then again, she wasn't really watching the patient's face. Instead, she admired the way Hugh's experienced hands unwound the bandages. She also realized Hugh wore a different expression when dealing with his patients. Now, she could see the serious man behind his cheerfulness.

Nurse Tweed cleared her throat loudly, and Jessica quickly snapped her attention back to the older woman. Tweed's eyebrow was arched as she shot Jessica a critical glare.