"Dr. Tulba?"

"Mmm?"

Adel looked up from his papers, clasping the slice of bread that was his breakfast between his teeth.

"You'd better finish that up, doctor. Your first appointment's in fifteen minutes."

"Thanks, Sylvia."

As the bubbly counselor left to deal with the morning's influx of patients, Adel quickly finished up his bread and coffee, put the newspapers aside and tidied up his table, ready for the day's work.

Busy, busy, busy as a bee.

The first patient was a little girl with a little medical mask wrapped around the bottom half of her face. She tottered up to him with her hands tucked into the pockets of her patch-up dress and placed herself on the chair, looking around his table. He raised an eyebrow in curiosity, looking at the door, expecting a woman to come in as well.

"Where're your parents, little girl?"

The girl looked at him out of a pair of large, tennis-ball sized eyes.

"They got blown up by a mine a week ago, doctor."

"Oh. That's... I'm sorry."

"It's okay. Kiha's whole family got shot yesterday. I'm lucky I still have my brother, at least."

The frankness of her tone, stating it as if it were just a matter of fact, reminded him once more about the horrors of war, albeit they were already recuperating. Someone really had to take care of the guerillas and the minefields, for they were still causing a lot of unnecessary heartbreak.

"Okay… so what's your name?"

"Mina."

"Nice to meet you, Mina," he said with a smile, "What seems to be the problem today?"

"I sneeze a lot, doctor. And I woke up today feeling bad."

"How so?"

"My body hurts, and my throat hurts too."

She coughed, covering her mask with her tiny hand. Adel quickly took it as a chance to scribble all her symptoms down, formulating his diagnosis in his mind.

"Looks like you're down with a cold, that's all. Nothing to worry about." He gave the girl another assuring smile, patting her on the head. "Just stay home, rest well and keep to your medication, and you'll be alright in a couple of days."

"Gee, thanks, doctor. I bet Coco's gonna be happy that I'm alright."

"Sure he will. Now, do you go to school?"

The girl grinned at him from behind the mask, and Adel could just see two blurry black gaps where her teeth would be.

"Of course not, doctor. Our school got blown up by the angry people last month."

"… Oh."

His hand froze midway, and tore out and crumpled the medical certificate he was about to issue in his palm. So much for a doctor's letter.

He hastily prescribed her a bottle of sweet cough syrup – kids loved those, he remembered.

"Are you okay with eating tablets, Mina?"

"I guess so."

"Okay." He added on a packet of decongestant to her prescription.

He pulled out one of those plastic spoons the pharmacy dispensed like free cakes each time someone got their meds and pointed to the larger oval.

"You just have to take one tablet and one this-sized spoonful of syrup every six hours, and lots of rest. You'll feel better in a week's time."

"Okay."

"Now go see the pharmacy on your way out. They'll give you your meds."

"Thank you, doctor!"

He sent her out with a sad smile. Such a pitiful child.

Sylvia came in a little while after the girl left, holding another stack of folders in her hand. This she placed on one side of his desk, and put her arms on her hips, pouting.

"Why so glum, doctor?"

"Uh… That girl earlier, her parents got blown up."

"Ah."

"Didn't anyone bring them in?"

The counselor frowned, a tinge of sadness clouding her eyes as she broke eye contact with him, looking towards the floor instead.

"The field medics didn't manage to save them in time. We lost them along with the few others that were in the area that day. She was assigned to me the day after, though, and yes I do admit that she's quite strong. Even for a child."

"Why couldn't the medics save them?"

Sylvia's head snapped back up, her eyes wide open in shock.

"Dr. Tulba…"

He realized that he had slammed his palms on the table in a temper and yelled at her. Pursing his lips, he sat back down, motioning for her to continue.

"They… The medics told me that they had expired due to blood loss before they could reattach the limbs, doctor."

"Too slow. Too slow."

Sylvia sighed, and replaced her frown with an apologetic smile.

"We can't save everyone, Dr. Tulba. But we're doing the best we can, one person at a time. It'll all work out in the end, you'll see."

"… I… I hope so."

"Good!"

Sylvia clapped her hands together, smiling. Then she gave a little gasp, turned around and dug around in her bag, retrieving a small paper-wrapped box tied with string.

"This should make you cheer up."

She placed the box on his table, and Adel could see a small tag tied to one end of the string. It had his name written in English, letters large enough for him to read without pulling the tag up to his face.

"Guess who it's from?"

"Who?"

She giggled, and Adel was reminded of the same kind of giggle a young girl would have, when she held a petty secret and a friend would ask her about it.

"It's from Derek, silly!"

The room was silent save for her laughter, as he tried to comprehend the meaning of the conversation.

"Derek…? As in, Dr. Stiles?"

"Yes!" Her laughter was even louder, now, presumably because he felt his face flush with warmth. "Go on, open it. You deserve whatever he's sent you, doctor. You work so hard."

She turned back to the door, giving him a friendly wave as she stepped out.

"I'll be going on my rounds now, see you later!"

Adel checked his schedule. The next patient would be in fifteen minutes. Perfect, enough time to unwrap Derek's present. What was in it? Did Derek think it was his birthday or something?

He laughed inwardly at the inner fan-boy still wriggling about with excitement in his head. Some things never changed.

"I wonder what Dr. Stiles got me."

A few minutes later, the brown wrapping paper, still in its original rectangular shape, lay on his desk, the string used to wrap it curled up nicely in the middle. The package – a box, sat upon his lap, whose lid he flipped open with eager anticipation.

Inside was a small bottle of white powder, no bigger than the size of his thumb. Folded and tucked under the bottle lay a small, folded note. This Adel took out to read, a letter from Derek.

"Adel –

So long we haven't kept in touch, have we? Caduceus is a little quieter now, but we're still busy as always. Isn't that the life of a doctor? Except that we decided to make a little something for you, as thanks for your help at Caduceus, even though it was extremely brief. Not that Victor wanted to say that he made it all himself, but yeah, and we think that you would put it to good use, back at your home country. Costigar is recovering well, yes? Enjoy it!

– Derek Stiles, Caduceus USA."

Sighing, he folded up the note and placed it back into the box along with his present. It was so nice of Derek to send him something, even if his schedule made his words feel a little mangled on the paper.

He let himself have a small laugh about it, and decided to get back to work.