Instead of taking the train to Paris, then a boat back to England, Piper, Will, and I traveled by motorcar to Fort-Mahon-Plage. Since there were only three of us, this traveling should be a lot shorter than getting to Boisleux-au-Mont the first time. Surprisingly, I was enjoying myself. It had been so long since I hadn't spent all day assessing injuries and cleaning up blood. I lost myself in looking out the window, relishing in the French countryside as it passed by me.
Our small group had been sent a car that we could leave at the port then use once more when we returned. Will was driving, I was in the front seat, and Piper sat in the backseat reading a book. It was so odd to be sitting on the left side of the car with Will driving on the right. Of course, my companions didn't seem fazed by it. I didn't even mention driving on the other side of the road. They would roll their eyes, stupid America, needing to be different.
I ran through my speech in my head. To me, it didn't seem good enough, even though Piper and Will assured me that it was.
"Stop thinking about your speech." Will ordered, shooting me a glance. I watched Piper roll her eyes in the rear-view mirror, she had put her book away now.
"Now that we're alone," She began. "We can finally talk about Will's love life in peace."
It hadn't taken Piper long to figure it out. In fact, she said she could tell when they had first met. Right now, though, Will was blushing scarlet.
"Do we have to talk about this?" His accent became thicker when he was nervous.
"Yes!" Piper and I exclaimed.
"Give us some details!" Piper urged.
"How about you go first?" Will opposed. "What about you and that soldier boy?"
I couldn't help but laugh as it was Piper's turn to blush. I was just glad that I didn't have anyone for them to tease me about.
"Jason is fine." She mumbled, now looking out the window.
"Anything else?" I asked sweetly, knowing she would give in eventually.
"He's stationed in Southern France right now." That was all she would say about the subject. "Annabeth, how about we find you someone in London, yes?"
I rolled my eyes and peered out the window. More countryside.
"I'm not hearing any objections!" Will laughed, his focus still on the road.
"We'll find a nice soldier for you. And you can finally settle down after all of this." Piper decided.
"But where would we live?" I indulged her. "My home is in America."
Piper shrugged. "Once you fall in love, everything will work itself out."
I smiled. Everything will work out, will it? And what of the war? It wouldn't just disappear if I wished hard enough. I finally answered, "If you say so, Pipes."
She nodded contently, then watched as the countryside slipped by. We were nearing our destination. My mind shifted back to the purpose of this trip. I was excited for the conference, just nervous, that's all. But one thing was for sure, this small trip was only going to add to the adventure of my life.
The night of the conference…
"…It is because we have made the proper decisions in the way we run the hospital that it has the highest survival rate of any other Central Clearing Station in the war."
I swallowed as I had finally finished my speech. The room was full of unassuming wealthy people, who we were trying to convince to donate money to the medical side of the war. There was no better cause than this. Saving the lives of soldiers. After thanking the audience for listening, I sat back down in my seat in the front row next to Piper and Will. I had gone last tonight, and it was already dark out outside. Dr. Greenberg closed out on the night's seminar. He sought me and my friends out afterwards.
"I am so pleased that you were able to make it." He greeted with a firm handshake. A cane was balanced easily in his left hand.
"We are proud to have been invited." I answered for our small group. My companions nodded in agreement.
"When are you planning on returning to your posts?" The doctor inquired.
Will answered this time, "The day after tomorrow, if the weather permits us."
Greenberg nodded. "Well, you'd all best to be getting to the guesthouse you are staying in. It is late."
Smiling, we said our goodbyes, and left to the lobby to collect our coats. Somehow, Piper always managed to look gorgeous in her pale lilac dress with matching grey overcoat. I had settled for a dull blue skirt and shirtwaist with my black coat. As we stepped onto the snowy streets I shivered at the temperature change. Will offered Piper and I his arms and we took them, strolling down the road towards the inn where we were staying. I was in a delightfully good mood, considering the circumstances of the world.
The snow seemed to swallow up all of the sounds, and it was oddly quiet. Others like us ambled down the lantern-lit streets. 'A Winter Wonderland', you could call it. My hands were buried in my pockets, and deep in my right pocket, I clasped young Charles Beckendorf's dog tags. The thin metal quickly warmed against my skin. This was one reason we were leaving the day after tomorrow. I had to go to the deployment office and get Beckendorf's address forms. They could be the only thing to lead me to his Silena.
There was a distant rumbling in the sky, but we heeded no mind to it. There were clouds above, promising more snow. Thunderstorms were not uncommon in this season.
But this was no thunderstorm.
We heard a whoosh of something falling before the screams started. The earth shook as explosions started going off, big clouds of smoke filled the air, and fiery flames brought heat to the frigid air. I coughed as I held up my sleeve to cover my eyes from the smoke. Eyes stinging, I looked to the sky. What the hell was going on?
A long outline of a zeppelin could be traced in the sky, its electrical lights lighting up the clouds around it. This was an air attack. An air raid on the mainland. * The war had followed us here. I looked to Piper and Will, who had come to the same conclusion. How was London going to be able to fight this? Did they have a weapon that could take down an entire zeppelin? Panic started to run through my veins and I had to take deep breaths to get my pulse back to a normal rate.
"We have to help." Piper decided. She pulled up her collar and then her scarf to cover her nose and mouth. Will and I did the same, taking the beginning steps toward the impending crisis. All the while I prayed, "Please do not drop any more bombs. Please." Down two streets and over one, we came across our first bombing sight. Black scorch marks streaked the road and surrounding buildings, two of which were on fire. The actual place the bomb had fallen was still burning, the flames latching onto anything flammable.
Cries for help pulled me from my reverie, and we all raced to different victims of these never-ending tragedies. I came to a stop beside a man and an unconscious woman. Unconscious, but still breathing. She had the reddest curly hair I had ever seen. My eyes ran over her body, searching and identifying wounds. Her lower leg was inverted in the wrong direction, sticking out underneath her skirt. Her coat had protected her from a lot of the burns that had formed on her face, and a great deal of blood streamed from her left ear. The explosion must have ruptured he middle ear.
The man I had stopped by was clutching her head, trying to stop the bleeding desperately. He cried out, "I don't know how to stop the bleeding!"
"Move." I ordered and he glared.
"I swore that I would keep her safe, and I don't intend on breaking that promise!" The man argued with me. I sneered at him.
"I will help her if you would just move over!" I pushed him out of the way, which surprisingly worked. The man clutched his abdomen as if he was in pain. I shot him a questioning look that he ignored. I reassured him, "I am a doctor for the British Red Cross. Trust me."
The man's vibrant green eyes searched mine for some small measurement of faith. Finally, he nodded and I got to work. His hands were bloody, and I only assumed that it was from holding the woman's head. I took off my gloves and balled one up, wiping away the excess blood so I could see how badly her ear was injured. But, I couldn't tell, it was too dark and there was too much bleeding.
"Help me turn her on her side?" I asked the man, and he complied without second thought.
"Why must we do this?" He asked me.
"We've got to drain as much blood from her ear as possible before applying a cold compress. That should slow it down a bit." I informed him. "Lie her back now."
I collected some snow from the ground and filled my glove with it. Next, I pressed it to her head. "Come now," I directed, showing him. "Hold it like this."
He reached out and our hands brushed accidentally; both extremely bloody, of course, and our eyes met. My breath caught in my throat for a moment. I drew my gaze away from his, and tried to calm my racing heart. This had never happened before. Why did my breathing take a hop, jump, and a leap when we met eyes? Did he feel it too?
Stop it. I commanded myself. This was not the time for this. I glanced down at the man's chest, trying to see why he had been holding it earlier. A dark red discoloring stained his suit coat that I could see under his unbuttoned overcoat. I moved around the redhead's body and pulled the man's overcoat away from his abdomen. He pushed my hands away before I could assess anything.
"What are doing?" he asked incredulously.
"You are clearly injured—" I replied with the same tone.
"So what?" He complained. "I'm fine—"
"You are not fine!" I objected, attempting again to see where he was bleeding. "Now hold still."
"I am not under the impression of letting young women I don't know to touch me—" He protested and I shook my head in absolute disagreement.
"My name is Doctor Annabeth Chase from the United States, nice to meet you." I introduced myself. "There, we're not strangers anymore."
"Captain Perseus Jackson of the Royal Navy." He replied as I pushed his overcoat back, and unbuttoned his navy-blue suit coat to reveal a bloody dress shirt. As I had suspected, ballistic fragmentation in his chest around his right lung. He didn't seem to have too bad of labored breath, so I didn't think that it had been punctured, but a thin piece of glass, building debris, I'm sure, was lodged in the right lumbar region. Taking it out would only cause more damage that I couldn't fix on a street. He was losing a lot of blood though, all the while holding the cold compress to his companion's head. I glanced at their hands, neither of which had gloves or rings. Not married then. Why do I care?
"Pleasure to have met you." Perseus Jackson responded, looking directly at me. "There are two of you." He squinted.
Oh Lord, he was seeing double now. That was not good. What do I do? Shaking my head again I lowered him to the ground so he was lying flat. I could hear ambulance sirens drawing nearer, and I only hoped they were coming to assist us, and not some other bomb sight. For some reason, I felt an emotional connection with this Captain Jackson of the Royal Navy. I usually blocked emotion when caring for the injured, but it seemed I couldn't help myself this time, which was a problem.
The next thing I knew, a small squadron of two ambulances and a fire truck arrived to the scene, carefully placing as many victims as possible into the vehicles and sliding away to the hospital I had spoken at not an hour before. At least they weren't going far.
As the sea green eyes, black haired man was lifted into the ambulance, he repeated, "Pleasure to meet you." That was before he passed out and I turned to find my next patient, glancing at the sky to see if the zeppelin was still there.
But I could not get Perseus Jackson out of the back of my mind.
Author's note*
This 'first air raid' of London is not accurate in timing. The first aerial attack of London took place in May, 1915. I moved it back to January, 1915, for plotline purposes. Thank you, readers!