-Julia's POV-

I awoke early. Around 5am. I was just lying in bed, I brought my left hand up closer to my face, the light from the oil lamp I had lit was glinting off the large stone that was placed in the middle of the delicate band of gold across my ring finger. I had only been engaged to Murton Forewell, or Doctor Forewell as everyone else knew him, for 3 weeks, but it had seemed like forever.
After so much hiatus of my relationship status it had seemed so much easier towards making it go away by claiming myself as 'taken'...but I do love this man, I feel very strongly for him at least.
He is kind, generous, selfless, charitable and a wonderful surgeon...I turned back over and decided it would be time to get up for work soon anyway...

I was working out of town for a few weeks after a large scale pandemic of flu in children had swept St James Town School. I was staying in St James town on the outskirts of Toronto. I had an early start that morning around 7am so I began to get up and get ready for the day ahead.

I dressed in my plain work uniform, navy blue skirt and tie and White shirt with matching dress jacket in navy blue. I pinned up my hair up in the graceful chignon I always wear. Packed up the necessities in my medical bag and left for my carriage outside.
The journey to the nearby hospital was short and uneventful, I couldn't seem to take my eyes away from the ring that still glinted on my left hand. Was it right to wear it to work with me? What if I lost it...? Surely it was expensive..I shook the silly thought from my head as the carriage slowed as we approached the hospital. Unfortunately this was not a paediatric hospital so all they could offer was a separate ward for the children. I headed up the 3 flights of stairs to The ward that was quarantined for the children heading straight to the matron of the wards office.

'You are Doctor Julia Ogden?' she eyed me up and down with some scepticism in her eyes.

Clearly she had never heard of a female doctor or worse still she had heard of my...for want of a better word..'reputation'. But I highly doubted that word would have spread this far.

'Yes, you are Matron Patterly I presume?' I replied.

'You presume correctly Dr.' she said curtly. 'please follow me.'

I took a deep breath and followed her out onto the ward, copying her with putting on my mouth and nose mask.
I was walked out into a long room with high windows and around 30-40 beds, but only a few were filled, maybe 10 to 15, I was sure when I first received the phone call, told me there was around 25...

'Matron... I was informed that there were around 25 children here..I can only count 13..? Are they sectioned in another room...?' I asked. She looked at me solemnly.

'There was, but they are only children, it doesn't take them long to deteriorate, and you took your time getting here.'

She continued with her check up of the child she was leaning over without even looking at me. I stood there taken completely aback. Was she implying that it was my fault that they died..because my hospital is over 100 miles away in Buffalo..?
I took another deep breath and decided this would be a long day, and went to the other end of the room away from the rude matron and began my evaluation of the children. When 3pm came and I had finished my diagnosis, the children had, as I first though, Scarlet Fever, their reddish rash, clear spots around the mouth and a yellow tinged tongue, all confirmed my first thought, and the raging 101 F temperature reading did nothing to quell my worrying thoughts for the children.

After further post-mortems I found that the children who had already died, had suffered long term complications with scarlet fever including heart and liver failure or infections, aswell as full septicaemia in may cases. It would have been somewhat of a reassurance to know that they had died quickly, but there was no such joy. I felt a pang of guilt towards their parents, how could someone tell them that their children had died...? Had I played some part in this...? I shook my head again and finished my report, packing away my things, and then leaving to go and put my diagnosis on the matrons desk. I opened the large heavy door out into the autumn wind, which chilled round my neck as I pulled my coat and scarf tighter around me.

My carriage was already waiting for me outside so I made my way to it as quickly as possible to escape the cold. I had been thinking all afternoon about taking a trip to Toronto this afternoon, but can I really bare it? But, I suppose it's only been a year since I have been gone, it couldn't have changed that much, and it would be nice to see George and Inspector Brackenreid and...William..if he was still there of course. He may have moved on..found a wife and job in a new city... I asked the driver to take me to Toronto just as I got into the carriage, and thought there was only one way to find out. I started to recognise a few of the sights as we came closer to Toronto, the main river which follows the road all the way into the city was clear and calm.

I Found myself watching the water ripple past inadvertently. A little way up the road I saw a figure lying close to the river flat out on their back, the closer we grew I saw it was a man, or tramp from what he was wearing, tattered dirty and heavily bearded, I thought there might have been something wrong but then I caught sight of the hip-flask in his hand, and realised it was probably just a lost drunk, sleeping off his drinking from last night. Turning back to continue reading the medical journal I bought with me, I fell quietly into reading for the rest of the journey.

As I arrived outside the main police station, I was tentative to get out. What if I saw him? Would he know about Murton and I? I doubted it. Suddenly the diamond ring on my finger felt like a planet weighing down on me. I gathered my thoughts and grabbed my bag, getting out of the carriage. Taking a deep breath as I collected myself, I pushed open the door of the the police station and the sight that confronted me was startling to say the least...

I opened the heavy door to the police station and immediately confronted by silence as everyone stared at me a was barely 2 foot in the doorway. The inspector and George were at the back of the room and seemed to both be in deep conversation before George caught sight of me and nudged the inspector. He looked straight at me. I thought I could see thunder in his eyes. I felt suddenly very vulnerable, and I had no idea why. The inspector walked towards me and propped his hands on his hips as he did so.

'Well look whose come back, out national treasured doctor..' his voice did not sound the least bit pleased.

'Hello inspector,' I replied, a little nervous pushing a strand of hair back with my hand, as I did so the inspector grabbed my hand.
I gasped, shocked, he inspected the ring on my finger...

'so this is the cause for all the bloody trouble then.' he muttered to himself.

George was walking over to where we were stood I guessed to look at my ring too, but instead he barged past me and left the police station letting the door slam loudly behind him. The inspector snorted. I was so very confused. The inspector dropped my wrist, and came very close to encroaching my personal space and he almost whispered but I could hear the anger in his voice.

'Do you have any idea what you've done...? No,No of course not, you wouldn't have a clue, you don't even know what were talking about do you?'

'I don't want to see you anywhere near this police station for the rest of the time that you are here-You are a disgrace to us!'

I turned and ran outside. My face was hot and my eyes were wet. I had never been spoken to like that before. What could they possibly be talking about? What have I done that was so bad, bad enough to throw the inspector into a fit of rage...?

I wandered down the road letting my mind wander, I needed to calm down after that onslaught and the cold autumn air helped. I walked out towards Toronto Island hoping the sea air would clear my head. Then I suddenly thought, William. -I hasn't seen him at all! I hadn't even asked.

I turned my direction around and walked towards the house he used to rent from . But then I thought, what if the reason I hadn't seen his was because I was no longer here...? What I'd he was married and living with another woman, a loud shout suddenly removed me from my thoughts:-

'MOVE! GET OUT THE WAY!'

The driver of a medical carriage came charging past right where I was just standing, the clearly had a very sick or insured person on board, they were heading straight for the hospital. I decided to call it a night and took my carriage back home to . I had the day off, and would pay a visit to tomorrow.

A/N: Another chapter for you all! :) hope you like please Review! \/ \/ :)