The first thing that Sasha saw when she walked into Anders' clinic was a little girl, sitting slumped by the door and crying with deep, ragged sobs and holding her arm very still. Sasha frowned and set her basket of food on a cot, looking around for the girl's parents, but the clinic was almost empty. There was a gaggle of people near the back, all talking to Anders at once, but none of them seemed to belong to the little girl.

Sasha knelt down and looked closely, frowning when she saw the unnatural angle in the girl's arm. It was a bad break. "Don't touch it," she sobbed, curling into herself.

"I won't," Sasha reassured her in what she hoped was a reassuring voice. "Where's your mother?"

"I d-don't know," she wailed. "She's working!"

"Let me get Anders, he's the healer here and he can help you - "

"No!" The scream seemed to startle the little girl as much as it startled Sasha. "Don't leave me by myself."

She looked over her shoulder at the back of the clinic, and saw that Anders was still dealing with the crowd. She couldn't just let the little girl sit there by herself - this was just like when Bethany broke her arm as a child.

"Well, I guess I'll wait for Anders with you," Sasha remarked cheerfully. She sat down with her back against the wall and smiled at the little girl. "My name's Sasha, what's yours?"

"Tabitha," she sniffled.

"Tabitha? Anyone ever call you Tabby?"

"Papa used to."

"Could I call you... Tabby-cat?" Sasha asked, resisting the urge to ruffle the little girl's hair the way she used to with Bethany.

Tabitha finally smiled a small, wobbly smile. "I like cats," she finally said.

"So does Anders! I'm sure he'd be happy to tell you about the cat he used to have, once he's able to get over here. Do you know what the cat's name was?"

"What?"

"Ser Pounce-a-lot!"

Tabitha giggled, her injury all but forgotten. "What kind of cat was he?"

"He was an orange tabby," Anders said with a grin, kneeling down in front of them. "Best cat in the world - he helped me fight darkspawn, you know."

"Tabby-cat, this is Anders," Sasha said. "He's going to have a look at your arm, all right?"

"Will you come too?"

"Of course. I'll help you get up on that cot, all right?"

Sasha helped Anders set the arm, talking soothingly to the little girl the whole time. She dredged her memory for funny stories that she used to tell Bethany and Carver, and showed Tabitha how to make shadow puppets on the wall beside the braziers. By the time Anders had healed the arm and instructed the girl to come back in a week, she was beaming. She kissed Sasha shyly on the cheek before leaving.

"Well, Hawke, I think you missed your calling," Anders remarked, dusting off his hands.

"Me?" she snorted. "I'm no healer. You know battle magic's my thing."

"You've got a gift with children. You had that girl laughing while I set her arm. That's no small feat."

"Yes, well." Sasha shuffled her feat, pleased by his praise. "I didn't mind helping. I could come by once in a while, if you need me."

"How could I turn you down?" And he gave her that devastatingly happy smile, the one that made her melt inside.

"I don't know, how can you?" The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them, and they came out a little less teasingly than she'd intended.

"Hawke, you know that I can't - "

"Forget it, I was just joking," she said hurriedly. She turned around and grabbed the basket of food she'd brought him, thrusting it into his hands. "I'll come by another day. Um, to help you, of course."

She left the clinic cursing herself and the way she always managed to put her foot in her mouth around Anders. Her jokes went awry with him half the time, and she couldn't seem to stop flirting with him no matter how many times he turned her down. She didn't want to stand there looking at the pained expression she knew would be on his face as she left. But Sasha also knew that she'd be back, because she couldn't stay away, and she knew Anders wouldn't turn her away either.