Summary: Because at the end of the day, he was just a wounded soldier and she was just a nurse caring for her patient…

"Nurse!" The call was heard over the chaos of the ward, a young woman rushing to a doctor's side.

"Yes, Sir?"

"Clean and dress this man's wounds. I need to know if he needs to be prepared for surgery." The woman nodded and without a moment's hesitation retrieved a bowl of water and a rag to start cleaning the blood off of the dark-haired man's wounds. She felt sorry for him as the dried blood gave way and more began to flow, prompting her to retrieve some tweezers and begin to pull the shrapnel from his body. His torn uniform had to be cut from his body with a pair of sharp scissors before any form of bandaging could take place. She sighed morbidly at the thought of how lucky this man was to get a bed.

Nowadays, majority of the patients were just on a mattress on the floor, some even being stretched out as far as the corridors. The wounded were coming in almost a hundred a day from all of the different theatres of war around the world. Sometimes they stayed a few days and then left, sometimes they were transferred to different wards, often they were patched up as best as could be managed and then sent back to whichever hell they'd come from.

Yet, as she worked, she couldn't help the pang in her heart. Every single soldier she'd bandaged up, brought back to health, had been so young. When they cried out for their mothers in the night or screamed of an invisible enemy her heart cried as they fought and died and suffered in a war that shouldn't have happened.

The man beneath her moaned a few times, but for the most part remained unconscious. When she had done all she could, she hooked him up to an IV line and administered another dose of morphine before she carefully wiped the bloody 'M' off of his forehead and cleaned his face. She took off her gloves before she grabbed the clipboard at the end of his bed and scribbled down a note to say the amount of morphine administered and the time. Out of curiosity, she took a quick glance at his other details.

Name: Pevensie, Edmund

Gender: Male

Age: 22

Rank: Captain

She gasped when she saw his age and the rank beneath. She had no doubt that to have such a rank at such a young age he must've been something else. However, lying there he held none of the prestige his ID photo held and behind the bruising and the wounds she could almost see the young man he might've been before the war. With a soft sigh, she placed the clipboard back and went to dump the materials she'd been using the decontamination room when she heard a voice amongst the ongoing chaos.

"Ed?" A blonde man with thick bandages around his arms, chest and leg was leaning up as he saw the unconscious man. With wide eyes, he turned to the beautiful nurse standing next to the bed, bloodied equipment in her hands and blood on her face and uniform.

"Take care of him, please." The man begged and the nurse juggled what she was holding onto a nearby instruments cart. She carefully smoothed his hair back and lowered him back down so he was resting against some propped up pillows.

"He's going to be fine, Sir." She grabbed the instruments cart and pushed it to collect the other bloodied instruments around the room before she was called away again. As she walked down the aisle of the ward she heard the blond man whisper, "he's my brother."

"Hello there," Vera smiled at the same dark-haired man as he stirred before slowly opening his eyes.

He groaned and rubbed his eyes, before coughing at the dryness in his throat. The nurse who had smiled at him poured him a glass of water and gingerly handed it to him as she helped him sit. He took a sip and when he was satisfied that he could talk without wanting to cough he placed it on the table next to his bed. He placed his head in his hands.

"How long was I out?" he asked, his voice deep and husky.

"A few days," she stated simply as she reread his notes.

He took his hands away from his head, "where am I?"

"You're back in England. Hospitals everywhere else are overflowing."

"What happened?"

"You could probably tell me more than I could tell you but you were injured by shrapnel. You're lucky it didn't sever any major arteries but you'll be stiff and in pain for a while. Your brother has been worrying about you. Your sister hardly leaves your side."

"Pete was here?"

"If you look to your right you'll see that he's still here." With wide-eyes and a confused frown he turned his head to see the familiar blond man sleeping facing him.

"What happened to him?"

"I don't know, I was patching you up when he was brought out of surgery."

"You fixed me?"

"I did my best," she laughed as she pushed him back down and brought the covers close around him, "now you need to fix yourself and sleep. There's only so much I can do, Captain." With a smile, he nodded and closed his eyes, quickly drifting off to sleep.

"Is there something I can call you other than nurse?" The Captain asked one day.

"Why?" she asked, "it's what everybody else calls me."

"Because it doesn't seem right to call the person who saved me 'nurse'." With a quirked eyebrow, she looked at him from where she was bandaging Peter's arm.

"Are you implying that I'm not worthy of the title 'nurse'?" With a laugh that was cut short by the still healing wounds on his abdomen, Edmund gave a sharp retort.

"On the contrary, I think that you are beyond it. 'Goddess' would be far more suiting." Peter rolled his eyes at his brother as the nurse turned to the eldest of the siblings.

"Is he always this charming?"

"On the contrary, usually he avoids the female population at all cost."

"Glad to see I made a lasting impression," she quickly retorted, "and my name's Vera, but you're not to call me it when matron's around or else she'll have my head."

"Well then Vera, I'm Edmund."

"I'm well aware of your name, Captain. I've read your medical file." He rolled his eyes at her.

"I meant that's what you can call me. You're not one of my men, I don't understand why you should be calling me 'captain' or 'sir'."

"Because I am a lieutenant and therefore am outranked."

"Are you okay?" Another nurse asked as she came over, a mousy-brown haired girl who was also her roommate.

"I'm fine," Vera laughed, "I'm just dealing with a rather stubborn Captain who at this rate might not get his dressings changed."

"I can do it," Rose offered.

"Go ahead if you like, but I've almost finished up here." As Rose got to work, she could've sworn that she saw Edmund's face drop in disappointment. She met Peter's eyes and noticed the mischievous spark in them as she returned it with a smug grin.

"Why are you here and not at a field hospital in Europe. Surely with your skill they could use you?"

"I was," Vera stated quietly, "it was hit by stray artillery fire and we had to evacuate all of the patients and more. I was assigned here and haven't been reassigned back anywhere else."

Edmund looked down, feeling guilty for asking.

It was a few hours into the night shift when there was a whistle. Rose looked up from the paper work she was doing to where Vera was reading her patients notes.

"What was that noise?"

Vera's head snapped up at she heard it and before Rose could say anything else, Vera had stood with wide eyes.

"Brace yourself," she said and that was when the first bomb hit. It was unlike anything Rose had ever experienced as the ground trembled beneath her feet and all sound seemed to disappear from the world. She stared as Vera crouched in front of her, shaking her.

"Come on, Rose! We have a job to do now. Don't you dare let these men down." With another shake Rose met her eyes and nodded. Vera pulled her up and it was only then that Rose noticed how badly she was shaking.

"What do you want me to do?" She asked.

"Get those you can underground, throw mattresses on top of those you can't. Instruct the others as they come to help that's what they need to do." Rose nodded and quickly got to work. She was having difficulty lifting a spare mattress when it was taken out of her arms by Edmund.

"You need to get into the bunker," she yelled at him as more bombs dropped, each one making her shake more than the last.

"You need my help more than they do," he replied with a gesture over his shoulder and Vera saw Peter helping others down to the bunker.

"Vera," his voice softened as he saw her struggling with the decision and the haunted look in her eyes, "please let me help." She relented, nodding and helping move those in beds who couldn't move.

The next afternoon, Vera sat at Edmund's bedside, cleaning his reopened wounds.

"God, you were both so stupid," she told them.

"We'll both be fine, Vera. You needed the help." There was a silence as Vera continued her work before Ed spoke up again.

"So, I know this potentially isn't the best time to ask but, there's a dance coming up for us wounded soldiers in a few weeks. Do you want to go with me?" Edmund asked, his expression neutral but Vera could see the hope gleaming in his eyes.

"I'd love to, Captain," she grinned and a smiled lit up the man's face and he grasped the hand cleaning a wound on his chest. Her expression softened and Peter pretended to vomit as they shared a tender look. She quickly went back to work however, when a cry went down the ward.

"Ed! Pete!" Vera refused to look up as the girl hurtled down towards the two men. Edmund seemed to perk up immediately at her presence and Vera scolded herself for the jealousy she felt bubbling up inside her.

"Luce!" Edmund replied and the girl stopped by his bedside and noticed the nurse cleaning his wounds.

"Oh Edmund!" The girl then moved to Peter and sat at his bedside. Vera stood as she finished, not intending to say anything before she left as the shame from her jealousy took over.

"I'll see you on Saturday, Vera." Lucy seemed to noticed the nurse for the first time with a smile.

"It's Saturday?" Vera asked, her eyes wide and her expression murderous. A few of the other soldiers around them sniggered and started talking amongst themselves. Edmund had the decency to blush as he shared a look with Lucy and then met Vera's expression.

"I thought you knew…" Peter too sniggered next to him and Rose came to see what the commotion was with her best friend.

"Saturday, Roo!" Her friend laughed, quickly understanding what had happened.

"I have a few ideas that could work," she said with a wry smile that suddenly had Vera worried.

Come Saturday, Vera had indeed found some ideas that had worked. She applied a last coat of red lipstick in the mirror in the bathroom as Rose fixed her hair with hairspray. Rose looked radiant in a suit that had originally been a man's. Rose had tailored it on her days off and now placed on her trust coat with a fur collar that was starting to look sorry for itself. On her head she placed a fedora that had also used to be a man's, but since both her brother and fiancé had been killed, she saw no point in putting the clothes to waste with rationing. She'd done the same for Vera except instead she wore a dress. As Vera placed her hat on her head, Rose held out her arm.

"Ready?"

"Yes!" Vera exclaimed with a grin and joined their arms. Together they walked out of the nursing home and down to the front of the hospital.

Vera huffed as she sat down on the cold stone steps, watching as the other nurses were picked up by their dates, and thinking bitterly how none of them were Edmund. Rose looked down at her somewhat pitifully as Peter showed up in his service dress.

"You want to come with us?" Rose asked. Vera looked up from where her head was perched on her hand.

"No, it's okay. I'll wait." Vera tried to give a smile, that she was sure didn't convince Rose or Peter because it sure as hell didn't convince her. Rose gave her a small smile as Peter led her away to the thriving dance hall, several streets over. With a sigh, she checked her watch and decided that he'd probably showed her up and she should've asked Peter where he was. Feeling tears well up in her eyes she stood to go back and take off her mascara and crawl into bed. She'd taken several steps and stood on the pavement, ready to walk to the residential area by herself when she heard a voice call out her name.

"Don't go." She pivoted so fast that some of her hair flew into her face and Edmund grabbed her arms to steady her.

"I'm sorry I'm late. I had some issues with the uniform. I did tell Peter to let you know I was running late, but some brother he was obviously." With a teasing roll of his eyes, there was an easy grin on his face. Vera was speechless and she knew she was just gaping at him when the smile fell from his face and was overcome with worry instead.

"What's wrong?" The fact was that nothing was wrong, it was just that Vera had seen him in nothing but pajamas for the past month when he'd been flirting with her. Now he was stood in front of her in his uniform, hair longer than it probably should've been and he was still flirting with her. Not able to simply tell him that, she instead opted to reach up and pull him down to meet her by his lapels. Dear God, how had she not noticed how much taller he was than her before? When she pulled away she saw the question in his eyes and the disbelief before he quickly kissed her again.

"Nothing," she told him when they broke apart again, "nothing is wrong. You look dashing."

"I had hoped I always look dashing," there was a cheeky grin back on his face before he offered her his arm.

"Shall we?"

The dance had been a success and when they'd reached the dance hall Peter had teased Edmund about the red lipstick that decorated his lips too as Rose gave her a knowing look. The two had then danced the night away in the packed room and when the night ended, Edmund, Rose, Peter and Vera had stumbled home together, laughing at their impressions of some of the more questionable dancing. It was at the front of the hospital that they all parted and Edmund had given Vera another tender kiss. The teasing from Peter could be heard as the girls walked away with a laugh. Vera and Edmund's relationship continued to grow and it was approaching winter when Edmund decided that he had a surprise for her.

He calmly called her name as she approached, off duty and in civilian clothing. She frowned when she saw him sitting in the chair at Peter's bedside, knowing that he'd be sent back soon.

"I have a gift for you," he declared boldly.

"For me?" she asked as she sat next to him, in the chair that belonged at his bedside.

"No," Edmund started sarcastically, "the ten other Vera's in the room." She huffed at him.

"Just give it to me!" she pleaded. He stood and slowly walked over to his bed, reaching under it and pulling out a pink box. She looked at him in confusion as he took it out of his hands. She stared down at it for a minute, sure that she knew what it was but unsure how he'd managed it.

"Go on!" he urged, "Open it!"

"Alright, alright!" she replied and ripped the lid off, nearly dropping the box as she pulled away the tissue paper to see he contents.

"Oh, Edmund," she breathed as she took in the silver silk. Quickly, she pulled the dress out of the box to see the beading on it, the bias-cut and the backlessness.

"I hope it fits," he mumbled and played with his hands, "one of my sister's is a dress maker. I picked up a few tricks from her." Vera was still speechless.

"But the silk… how did you?"

"It was a parachute. My father mailed it to my mother and because no one can keep secrets in my family," he looked pointedly at Peter who blushed and held his hands up in surrender, "she sent it to me, who send it to Susan. I do hope you like it." Vera threw caution and propriety to the wind as she threw her arms around his neck to kiss him. Peter yelled at them to get a room which resulted in Edmund giving him the finger without breaking the kiss. Vera broke apart suddenly.

"What's the catch?" She frowned at Edmund, trying to figure out what he was after by having such a beautiful dress made for her.

'I was wondering if you'd wear it to the Christmas ball? I go back to Europe shortly after and I thought I'd ask you before another handsome young soldier came along and whisked you off your feet."

Vera smiled gently at him, eyes full of love, "you'll be the only soldier I know who'll whisk me off my feet."

Christmas came quicker than Vera expected and before she knew it, it was Christmas Eve and the night of the Christmas ball. Edmund and Peter picked Rose and her up from the front of the hospital again and this time Edmund was there with all the others, and he was glad that he was. The dress that he had begged Susan to make was beautiful when it wasn't on Vera, but now that it was it became something else. It clung to her figure, and rippled as she moved like mercury. Her brown hair had been pinned back and her make-up kept simple apart from the usual red lipstick she wore when she went out with him. He knew then and there that if Peter and Rose hadn't been there that they wouldn't have made it to the ball. The ball itself was lovely, in the same dance hall that they'd been in a few weeks ago. Decorations had been put up to give it an almost magical feel. Edmund and Vera had stuck with Peter and Rose for most of it, until they'd gotten caught under the mistletoe at which point, Peter coughed awkwardly at his brother and then took Rose off to dance before they were standing there awkwardly staring at the walls. It wasn't until after the ball however, when Edmund was walking Vera home that the memorable moment happened. Edmund had been talking to her about how he was leaving soon, when he asked a question that got her heart racing.

"What's your opinion on marriage?" Vera nearly tripped up on the sludge that covered the ground.

"I'm sorry?" she asked before finally processing what he'd said, "I mean I understand why so many people are getting married at the moment, the thought of the one going away and not having anything left of them, of you being together…" she shuddered at the thought, "but I feel that so many are getting married just because of that, and not because they actually know and respect that person." Edmund seemed to fail slightly at this.

"Why?" Vera asked, "what's wrong?" Edmund shrugged as he held her hand and they resumed walking.

"Nothing," he stated, "just that it's past midnight so technically it's Christmas day and I was wondering, if you'd accept it, if you'd want your Christmas present early." Vera frowned and saw the grand hospital building in the distance and felt Edmunds hand slip out of hers. She turned back to question him and saw him on the ground, ring presented to her.

"I was considering not asking considering what you just said but, do you want to marry me?"

Vera looked at Edmund with a shrug, "sure thing." She offered her hand and Edmund slipped the ring on her finger, before he stood up.

"What, no tears? No Jane Austen quoting?" With a laugh Vera hugged him, and felt his hand wrap around her waist. She drew back slightly to kiss his cheek before whispering in his ear.

"Yes, yes, a thousand times, yes." And much to his chagrin as they broke apart to keep walking hand-in-hand he saw her wipe away a tear.

"God, that was nearly so underwhelming," he stated and Vera laughed.

"I'm glad you didn't do that in a room with lots of people," she stated and climbed the first few steps to the hospital.

"You know, I'm not supposed to have a relationship with one of my patients."

Edmund shrugged, "I won't be your patient in three days."

The dock was bustling with people as Peter and Edmund fought their way through. Vera, having come straight from work was still in her uniform and Edmund held her as Peter did the same with Lucy. Edmund stopped and turned to her before the two brothers boarded. He held the hand he was holding up to their eye level between them. Next to them Peter and Lucy's eyes widened seeing the ring.

"I'll marry you when I come back, I promise. I'll marry you when this war's over."

"You better come back, Edmund Pevensie," she stated tearily and the last call for boarding was given.

"Now go! Before I have to tell my mother that the most wonderful man proposed to me and then missed his own boat." Edmund gave her the charming grin she'd gotten so used to and gave her a sweet, tender kiss.

"Come on, Ed!" Peter insisted as he tugged on Edmund's arm. He broke away to hug Lucy as Peter embraced Vera.

"Congratulations," he told her as they parted and Edmund snuck in one more kiss before Peter was dragging him up the gangway.

"After the war! I promise!" Vera couldn't help but laugh at him and her and Lucy both wrapped their arms around each other, watching them play fight on the deck and hearing Peter teasing his younger brother.

"'After the war!'" he stated in a girly impression of Edmund and pretended to swoon before he pushed his brother gently in the shoulder, "you sly dog."

The two girls laughed and the boat began to pull away from its dock, before with a final wave they turned and with arms linked, went to get lunch with thoughts of the future.