Disclaimer: See the Prologue. Not mine.

Chapter One
Washed Ashore

"… A man washed ashore today. A soldier, from Galbadia. I've never seen such extensive injuries … I wonder how he's still alive …

… L. Loire, his dogtags say. I want to remember that every patient has a NAME, and isn't just an injured body …

… I do hope Mr. Loire will be able to make a full recovery, and get back home to his "Julia" soon …"
--Raine's Diary

The day Laguna Loire arrived in Winhill was just like any other day, as far as Raine was concerned. She and Ellone woke up, got dressed, ate breakfast downstairs, and then Ellone went to Mrs. Arvel's house while Raine went to work at the flower shop. She worked some mornings with Ms. Rasmessen, just to give the elderly lady a bit of a hand before she opened her pub up at noon. Other mornings, she could be found at the small clinic at the edge of town, working as a nurse under the tutelage of Dr. Vinidi. He seemed to think she'd make a good doctor someday, and Raine hoped he was right.

"Good morning, Ms. Rasmessen," she said as she entered the flower shop, the bell above the door tinkling softly.

"Oh, Raine!" the older woman said, coming out of the back room. "I didn't expect to see you today. Such a pretty day, I thought you'd be spending it with Theo."

Raine fought back the urge to roll her eyes. Theo was the owner of the Winhill Inn and Tavern, having inherited it from his father earlier that year. He'd grown up in Winhill, just like Raine, and it seemed like, ever since they were toddlers, the townsfolk had been planning their wedding.

To be fair, Raine supposed that healways had liked her an awful lot, ever since they were young -- though she imagined that had more to do with the fact that females under the age of thirty-five were hard to come by in town, more than anything else. Since he certainly didn't really seem to be interested in anything she had to say. And he wasn't too keen on her working with the doctor, either.

Raine sometimes thought -- rather bitterly -- that he would be happy if she'd just sit at home, knitting or something, and wait for him to call on her. And try as she might, she just couldn't shake these ideas from her head, and that made it really hard to fall in love with the guy. He'd always been a good friend, sure. But the idea of marrying him …

And she wished that it were different, wished that she couldsettle down with him, like he wanted. But honestly, she just couldn't see a future with him. And while it was all well and good to just enjoy the moment and have fun -- which she did, occasionally, with Theo -- she had to think about Ellone now, too.

And there. That was the biggestproblem between the two of them these days. Before she had taken custody of Ellone, she'd been able to overlook the other issues, because really, she couldn't afford to be overly picky, or harbor delusions of some great romance. Life in Winhill had taught her to be practical, and practical she was. Theo was kind to her, and he was from a good-standing family. In the eyes of the townsfolk, they were picture-perfect.

But Theo barelytolerated Ellone. He was always suggesting that the girl would be better off in an orphanage in Deling City or Esthar, a suggestion that horrified Raine. Ellone was the daughter of Raine's best friend, and there was no way she was sending her off to live with strangers.

In fact, this was the reason that she wasn't talking to him at the moment. Last night, during their weekly "date" (which typically consisted of dinner at his family's tavern), he'd suggested sending Ellone off somewhere, yet again. She had gotten angry and stormed out, leaving an embarrassed Theo behind. She had picked Ellone up from Mrs. Arvel's, and the two of them had spent the rest of the evening catching fireflies in the backyard of Ellone's old house.

Audrina and Tylen had been killed, just six months earlier, and the pain of it was still fresh in Raine's heart. She hadn't been able to stop the soldiers, but she could protect Ellone. And she would, even if it meant she would be alone.

Honestly, she could handle being alone, she'd been doing it for a long time. Sure, it was nice to have the company of an adult sometimes, but Theo wasn't exactly what you'd qualify as an "adult" most days, anyway.

Oh, she missed Audrina. Shehad understood Raine better than anyone -- understood that Raine was perfectly content to stay in Winhill and work hard, and raise a family, just as her mother had done before her. It was the only life she'd ever known, and, as long as she was happy, she didn't see any reason to change. And she had been happy. The small town was winsome and comfortable … and her whole life was here.

The town was isolated from the rest of civilization, what with the cliffs of the Monterosa Plateau to the east and the ocean to the west … it was the reason Winhill had remained completely unchanged for nearly a century.

All the other young people had left as soon quickly as they could, but Raine and Audrina had stayed in Winhill. For them, Winhill had been their paradise, their sanctuary; everything.

Audrina had married their childhood friend, Tylen, here, and they had had Ellone just a little over a year after that. Funny. Life here hadn't seemed so bad when Audrina and Tylen were still alive, but now …

Now all it did was remind Raine, every day, of all the people she had loved and lost here.

"Raine? Is everything all right, dear?" Ms. Rasmessen's voice brought Raine out of her reverie and she smiled.

"Oh, no, everything's fine. I'm sorry," Raine said, tying an apron around her waist and hurrying into the back to begin cutting and arranging the flowers.

"Daydreaming about that fella of yours, I understand," Ms. Rasmessen said with a twinkle in her eyes.

Raine concentrated on the flowers, ignoring the older lady pointedly. She didn't really want to spend all morning listening to Ms. R. gush about Theo. The way she went on, you'd think the old lady had designs on him herself.

Of course, in this little town, pickings were slim, and Theo was considered to be quite the catch. Handsome, and the owner of the tavern to boot. What more could a girl want?

Oh, I don't know, Raine thought bitterly. How about someone who listens to me when I talk, someone who cares about my opinions and views on things. Someone who at least tolerates Ellone and doesn't insist I ship her off at every possible turn. Someone who …

The bell above the door jingled. "Raine!" Raine bit back a grimace at the sound of Theo's voice, but wiped her hands on her apron and walked toward the front of the store. "Raine, come to the clinic, quick! Doc needs your help! Got an injured guy, just washed up on the shore!"

"What?" Raine asked, but she was already removing her apron. "I'm sorry, Ms. Rasmessen," she said apologetically.

"Not at all, dear. You've got important work to do there with the doctor."

Raine smiled. "Flowers are important too!" she said kindly, and then hurried out the door. "What happened?" she asked Theo as they all but jogged down the path to the clinic.

"No idea. Old Man Gentry was out fishing, like normal, and this guy washes up right beside him. Nearly gave the old boy a heart attack."

Raine nodded. "And he's still alive?"

"Doc said to get you, so I'm going to say yes," Theo said with a shrug.

"Doctor? I'm here!" Raine called out as she entered the clinic. An ear-splitting scream met her ears, and she bit her lip. Whoever the poor man was, he must have been hurting badly to make such unholy noises.

"I'm back here!" Dr. Vinidi's voice called out, followed by another howl from the patient.

Raine hurried down the hall to one of the examination rooms, followed closely by Theo. She went to open the door and the doctor poked his head out. "Did you eat this morning, Raine?" he asked seriously.

"What? Of course I did, why?"

The doctor opened the door wider. "This is Mr. Loire," the doctor said, handing Raine a set of dogtags that read "L. Loire, Galbadia". She looked at them for a second and then set them down on the counter to her left. She turned her attention to the man in front of her. If Raine had been one given to fainting, she would have probably been out cold at that moment. Luckily, she wasn't.

The man lying on the cot was hardly recognizable as a man at all. Every bit of flesh that Raine could see was black or purple or some disturbing combination of both; she couldn't even tell what his face might look like, for it was so bruised and lacerated. There was an astonishing amount of blood on all his clothing, which, was apparently a military uniform, unless his dogtags were fake.

His right arm was clearlybroken, and his left leg … Raine put her hand to her mouth and breathed deeply for a moment. His leg was twisted in a way no leg was meant to ever be twisted. And to top it all off, he was keening and crying in a way that Raine had never before heard from another human.

"Uh, I think … I'll talk to you later," Theo said, turning to leave. His stomach had lurched at the sight before him, and he was amazed that Raine could just stand there, staring at it so coolly. Raine just nodded; she had forgotten he was even there.

"My gods," she breathed, taking a step into the room after Theo had left. "How is … I mean … how is he still alive?"

"I think it looks worse than it is," the doctor said in a low tone. "And yes, it looks bad, and I'm not saying he's not in a great deal of pain." Another yelp from the soldier proved this point. "But I don't think any of these injuries are life-threatening." Raine just nodded, still staring at the broken, bloody man lying in front of her. "First things first," the doctor said. "We've got to get that uniform off of him … carefully … and he needs to be cleaned up."

The man howled again, and Raine chewed on her bottom lip in agitation. "Could we give him something, first? I think … I mean, he sounds like he's in such pain."

"I dosed him when he first got here … can't give him too much," Vinidi said, and Raine nodded.

"Okay." She opened up a drawer, pulled out a pair of scissors, and then handed them to the doctor. She then prepared a solution of water and alcohol and dipped a soft cloth into it. She moved around the side of the cot the man was lying on and began to gently clean all the many scrapes and cuts on his face.

He hissed and whimpered at her touch and she looked at him apologetically. He might've tried to open his eyes, but they were swollen shut. The medicine Dr. Vinidi had given him would hopefully help with that, soon.

"I'm sorry," Raine said in a quiet but firm voice. "I'm really sorry, but if I don't get these cuts clean, they're going to get infected. Just hold still, okay?"

"J-Julia?" the man whispered.

Raine looked at him. Julia? A wife or girlfriend, probably. Whoever she was, she probably missed him. "No, I'm sorry," she told him. "I'm Raine."

The man took hold of her hand then, and his grip was surprisingly strong for one in his condition. "Julia," he said again, sounding almost … wistful. He didn't let go of her hand.

Okay, Raine thought, I can play along, if it will make him feel better. "Okay," she said quietly. "I'm Julia. And I'm right here." He squeezed her hand then, and she smiled in spite of it all. She needed to get him all patched up so he could go home to Julia, whoever she was. She cleaned the rest of the injuries on his face and deemed that he needed several stitches above his left eye.

The rest of the day was spent meticulously going over the man's injuries, cleaning and disinfecting him, stitching him up, and resetting his bones. "Do you think he'll heal … properly?" Raine asked Dr. Vinidi as they walked out of the room, somewhere around ten-thirty that evening.

"I think it will take a long time before he's up and walking around again, if that's what you mean," the doctor replied tiredly. "But I think he'll be just fine." He patted her hand in a very grandfatherly way. "You did good work today, Raine. You've a real knack for making the patients comfortable. I noticed, though I couldn't hear you, that whatever you said to him seemed to calm him down. It would have been hard to finish up if he'd continued carrying on in that manner."

"He was asking about … a woman," Raine said. "Julia. Did he have any other identification on him, aside from the dogtags? Any addresses?"

Vinidi shook his head. "Afraid not. But it doesn't seem that he suffered too much trauma to the head, I'm sure he'll remember where it is he needs to be, once he's recovered."

"I hope so," Raine said. She looked at her watch. "Oh! I need to go get Ellone. I'll come back first thing tomorrow morning to check on him."

"Thank you, Raine," Vinidi said, putting his hands to his temples. "I am getting too old for this. Good night."

"Night!" Raine replied with a small wave.

She took her time walking across town to the Arvels'. The whole time, she thought about how … satisfying the day had been. She had helped put a man back together, basically, and he was going to be fine. She had held his hand and calmed him down when nothing else had seemed to work. It was very gratifying. For the first time in Hyne knew how long, Raine felt like she'd been a part of something much bigger than herself. Part of her wished she could bottle this feeling for the future, but the other, bigger part of her knew that it was because moments like this were so rare and fleeting that they were so special.

Ellone was already sound asleep when she got there. "Oh, I hate to wake her," she said to Mrs. Arvel. "And I'm so sorry about the time."

"Don't you worry about that at all, Raine," Mrs. Arvel said kindly. "Theo came by and told us all about the man from the sea, and how you'd probably be busy for the next few days. He said it would be a great help to you if we just kept Ellone here for a few days. We don't mind a bit."

Raine's mouth tightened. "He said what?" she asked in a very low voice. "He really had … no right to come here and ask that of you. I apologize."

"Not at all," Mrs. Arvel said. "Why don't you just go on home and get some sleep, and tomorrow morning, we can discuss this all further."

Raine sighed. That didmake the most sense right now. "Okay. I'll be back for Elle bright and early, then." She left then, and walked across the street, toward her pub and the apartment above it, where she made her home.

She came to a stop when she saw Theo standing in front of the pub, waiting for her. "Ah, there you are," he said brightly. "So we finally have a night to ourselves, how about that?"

"I'm really tired, Theo," Raine said coolly. "I spent twelve hours in the clinic today, basically putting that poor man back together, and now all I want to do is take a bath and go to bed." She frowned as she caught the gleam in Theo's brown eyes. "Alone," she added quickly.

"Oh, come on, Raine," Theo said in a voice that was dangerously close to a whine. "I got rid of Ellone for you and this is how you thank me?"

"About that," Raine said, feeling her anger bubbling near the surface. "I didn't ask you to 'get rid of' Ellone for me. I didn't want you to! You can't keep imposing your will on me like this, not if you expect …"

"Expect what, Raine?" Theo challenged.

"Nothing," Raine said, exhaling heavily. "You know what, forget it. Since you did me the favor of taking Ellone off my hands for the night, I should really spend it down in the infirmary, to keep an eye on Mr. Loire. Mr. Vinidi could really use the help."

"Raine," Theo began, but Raine held up her hand.

"Good night, Theo," she said, turning and heading back to the clinic. This really wasa good idea. Dr. Vinidi was getting older, and he needed to be home with his wife, getting a decent amount of sleep. Raine was young, and with Elle safe with Mrs. Arvel, she had no one who really depended upon her right now.

Except for one badly mangled man, who at this moment, was just as alone as she was.