"From that night on I vowed to treat every patient with the same level of respect. No assumptions, no indifference, no disdain."

The young man was bleeding out, his body crisscrossed with bloody slashes. She'd cleaned the best that she could while the consultant sneered at the riffraff they'd had to treat. She knew that if she lost her temper, she would lose her concentration in her disdain for him so she kept on, masking her fright at the wild, dark eyed youth caught up in his bad ways. She'd been sheltered as a girl and was determined not to let it show. Self-assured Serena McKinnie was determined to fulfil her calling and she knew she could do it. She patched him up and did a damn good job of it.

She stayed with him a while. Those scars might even earn him some street cred, she thought wryly. Despite that complete arse of a consultant directing the proceedings, this man deserved to be treated with the best of care no matter what he got mixed up in. She hoped he'd live to see 30. Maybe he'd turn his life around by then, do something good with his life. She couldn't help but see the potential in him.

For years she'd thought about him, more than any other patient she'd treated when she was still an eager beaver, impatiently waiting for the world to show her everything it had to offer. She never thought she'd see Lennox Jefferies again and here he was, 30 years older and wiser, being wheeled into the ward. He'd hailed her by the name she'd not used in about 25 years and she was transported back to a more naive time.

She'd changed. Gone was the longer dark hair and school girl fringe, replaced with a severe silver crop. At first glance he wouldn't have thought about it. But he couldn't mistake her voice and those eyes were the same; reassuring, dark and steady. Eyes you could trust. He certainly did.

'I named my first daughter after you.'

She had no words, just sat there holding his hand like she had last time. They could hardly believe that she'd saved his life twice.

'Do you have kids?'

'Married an absolute arse and spent half my life trying to be rid of him. I did have a daughter with him though.'

She closed her eyes and breathed deeply, fighting off the tightening of her heart, threading its villainous way up her chest, threatening to get stuck in her throat. She could do it.

'Elinor died in this hospital a couple of years ago.'

The most expression she had ever seen on him clouded his face; his heart aching with her, comforting heat entwined between them.

'I'm so sorry.'

'She didn't have time to do more with her life. She was only just starting really. She was a little madam and caused me a lot of trouble. But she was my little madam.'

'Aren't they all? But it's so worth it in the end, no matter how little time you have with them.'

She found time to smile at him, melancholy winding its way around them. They sat in peace a little while longer. Maybe one day they'd meet again, in more fortunate circumstances.

'No third time lucky. Or unlucky. I never want to see you in this hospital again' she scolded him.

He assured her that he would do his best. And the best was what she'd done for him and it was all that they could hope for in their lives.

After all, how else could anyone survive?