A/N: This story is a collaboration with MatrixAffiliate and can be read on her account as well. u/7167630/matrixaffiliate
Marlene straightened her veil and smoothed the creases out of her white apron before grabbing her gray woolen coat. She chuckled bitterly at the lies she and Mary had told themselves when the war began. September seemed like a dream not just over half a year ago.
When she'd interviewed for the QAIMNS to be a military nurse she'd been a bit startled at being asked to wait afterward. The officer had returned to the waiting room ten minutes later and handed her a packet. Open only in the event of war was printed across the front. He thanked her and sent her on her way. When Mary had the same packet after her interview, Marlene at least knew it wasn't a ploy. Marlene still remembered the chill she felt when England declared war. She and Mary opened their packets together in Marlene's room. The fact that they'd been assigned to the same place was a miracle within itself. War had a habit of pulling everyone apart. But they thought Netley would be an adventure back then. They thought they would be by the sea and have beautiful scenery to live in and that this was how they'd make a difference. Though if she was honest, Marlene would have preferred being handed a rifle and marching orders. But she had to take what she could get.
"Ready Marls?" Mary came out of the lou and walked to the small bed adjacent to the one Marlene sat upon. Her Majesty's nurses were being put up in qualified dwellings, but Marlene knew the stories from The Great War and she refused to become attached to this small flat as home.
Home was London. Home was the bustling streets where she would run to school with her brother and sister. Home was making fun of her older brother for pinning after the shop girl. Home was her younger sister playing their grandmother's violin because she had the gift. Home was her mum's Sunday dinners and her seamstress work all over the sitting room. Home was the smell of her dad's pipe tobacco wafting through their small house and his hugs that made her feel understood. Home was when everyone thought that the world had scene it's worst war. This, well this was anything but home.
Marlene sighed and grabbed her gloves, "Let's get this wretched walk over with."
Mary tutted, "Just think of it as a pleasant stroll near the seaside."
Marlene playfully pulled one of Mary's black curls from under her veil, "I can always count on you to be a bright ball of sunshine can't I?"
Mary reached up and grabbed one of Marlene's blonde ringlets. Marlene flinched as the lock of hair caught on Mary's wedding band, "Your fault for wearing the sun on your head, Sister."
The women began their trek up to Netley Hospital. The cold spring air whipped against them and Marlene nearly lost her veil twice. It was biting cold and their fingers and toes ached as they climbed the hill. There's a reason that it took two steam engines for the trains to reach the hospital station, Marlene mused as she braced herself against the wind that threatened to knock her back down the hill.
When they finally made it to the hospital doors, Marlene groaned. The entry to the hospital was most peculiar and if she was being honest, down right disturbing. This grand entry served as some sort of deranged circus. All the skulled momentos of animals that had been collected across the British Empire. Beasts really, she shuddered and practically dragged Mary past it all as quickly as possible. Marlene didn't think she'd ever become accustomed to it.
"They really aren't all that bad, Sister Marlene." Mary smirked and stopped to admire what was labeled as an elephant skull.
"Sister Mary, we're going to be late if we don't step to it and the Matron won't thank us for it."
Mary sighed and removed her coat before adjusting her scarlet tippet, "Well then off we go."
They walked to their Matron's office, nodding politely and grabbed their assignments off the wall covered in file folders.
"Bollocks," Marlene muttered as they walked out and she opened her folder.
Mary peered over her shoulder, "Oh dear."
"I was supposed to be done this week!" Marlene groaned. "Private Fenwick will be cleared and on his way to the station by now and I was supposed to be done with Quarantine because we'd have no more patients. But no! We had to get a typhoid fever patient!"
"But we sent vaccines over to France. He should have been vaccinated, it was mandated, David told me so."
"The vaccine isn't a guarantee, Sister. He's probably one of the lucky ones." Marlene huffed and snapped her folder shut.
"Yes," Mary rolled her eyes, "very lucky, indeed."
"Enjoy surgical recovery," Marlene tipped her head as they reached Mary's ward.
"Enjoy your walk," Mary blew her a kiss before walking into the first room of her ward.
Marlene started her near quarter mile trek to the far side of Netley Hospital. She'd gone home last night looking forward to a new assignment, to being done with the Quarantine patient. Not that Private Fenwick was a bad sort, but Marlene was tired of being sequestered off with the shy little ward maid, Arabella Figg. She was a sweet enough lady, but she always insisted on talking about the cats she bread and Marlene wasn't particularly fond of cats, she was more of a dog person actually, so their conversations fizzled out quickly.
"Sister Marlene," Arabella smiled kindly at her as she pulled the sheets off of Private Fenwick's cot. "I told them to put your new patient by the window. Not much of a view, but I thought a bit of sun would do the poor officer good."
"Thank you, Arabella," Marlene nodded and walked to the far end of the room where a man lay unconscious under his blankets. Opening the chart, Marlene sighed, "Welcome home, Captain Black."