Here's the posting of chapter 40, read, review and enjoy.

The next three days were endless meetings with doctors, working Havoc to an inch of his life, and sleepless nights of reading book after book. Havoc never brought up the first night. I was more than thankful for that. I don't think I could have faced him if he'd said anything. Every doctor and nurse I spoke with gave me the same hopeless answers. Havoc's spine had been badly damaged, the vertebrae had been punctured and would never repair. I couldn't speed up the healing of something that wasn't going to heal on its own. The only thing I could think to would be to fix the vertebrae, but that wouldn't relieve the pressure that was messing with the nerves that controlled Havoc's leg muscles. If anything that would only make it worse.

At noon of the fourth Day I was bringing Havoc back from the training room with my mind going a hundred miles a minute. I couldn't make my brain stop thinking about the problem of Havoc's spine. Even as I pushed Havoc's wheel chair, Hawkeye walking just next to me my brain was making me tired. I suddenly picked up the sounds of a crying baby. Everything popped out of my head and I paused looking into the long recovery room where there was one partly drawn curtain.

I looked up and down the room there were at least twelve beds in the room, only on of which was filled. The Babe was crying it's lungs off, but no nurse, no doctor, no one was going to it's aide.

"Doctor? Doctor Conradine? Conradine?" Part of my mind registered that Havoc and Hawkeye were calling someone, but the part that was working didn't remember that I was Doctor Conradine. "Dalka?" Hawkeye whispered holding on to my arm.

I turned and looked at her, my surprised look had to resemble a deer caught in headlights, "What?"

"Are you alright?" They both looked at me concerned. I think Havoc may have known I wasn't getting much sleep.

"Yeah… I was just thinking…" I looked back into the room, "No one's helping it…"

Hawkeye followed my eye line, "Maybe it's dieing?"

"No… It sounds healthy…" I chewed on my lower lip for a minute, "Go back to the room I'll be there shortly…"

I stepped away from Havoc's wheelchair and into the room. My high-heels made a rhythmic clacking as I made my way across the room. I was even aware to the squeeking of Hawkeye taking Havoc back to the room in his wheelchair. I was across the room, and slipping into the curtained area, as the baby screamed. He was right in front of me, so small, yet so loud. I picked him up shushing him, like I would one of the crying children from the dojo. He didn't stop.

"He's hungry…" Came the breathy voice from the bed. I jumped, I hadn't noticed her but a woman was laying in the hospital bed just out of reach of the baby. "Give him to me," She smiled holding out her arms they shook from the strain to keep them up, "I can at least still feed my baby boy."

I looked from the healthy baby to the frail figure of the mother. I stepped closer and eased the baby into her arms. She smiled lovingly at the crying child and pulled a wrap around herself so she could feed the baby. Within a minute the boy was suckling happily. The woman looked up at me, "Thank you."

I looked from the hidden face of the babe to the woman. "Why didn't you get up, and get him yourself?" I felt no pity for the woman, I wanted to help the child and I didn't think this woman was good for him.

The woman gave me a sad look, "I'm sick… I have a sickness in my liver and stomach that hinders me. I can't get up. The doctor said I'm not digesting my food properly anymore. I'm just glad my baby made it before I got really sick." She stroked the baby's head.

I pulled a stool around and sat on it heavily, "It sounds like you have some sort of cancer? May be an ulcer…"

The woman shrugged, "No one will tell me."

I snorted, "That's a load of crap. Why won't they help you? Doctors are sworn to never take a life."

The woman smiled sadly at me, "Yes, but they can let an Ishbalan die." Her smile quirked into a cynical smile, "After all an Ishbalan woman is nowhere near as important as an Amestris Soldier."

I set my jaw at an angle, "Stubborn, spoiled bastards…" I let my heel kick the bed table. I looked at her again, she had long pure black hair and even with her pale complexion she had dark skin. Her eyes were reddish brown, but not strongly or pure red as many of the traveling Ishbalans had been. "You're not pure Ishbalan..."

The woman smiled, "My great-grandfather was Ishbalan, and anyone one eighth Ishbalan is treated such. My son will not be treated this way, he looks too much like his father."

My eyes went back to the baby, he had a head of hair, it was a light brown color and his skin was the milky white of a new born from Saxon descent. I hadn't seen his eyes yet but I was sure they were blue like any other child's. "What will you name him?" The question came into my head, it seemed important.

"I want to name him for his father, Harold Elliot, but I never got to marry him, so he'd have to have my name. I was thinking of using both names… Harold Elliot Varmus. It's a good name, yes?" She smiled at me.

I remember my brother mentioning that name. Harold E Varmus had been a Doctor. He'd been the one that found out how healthy cells could sometimes cause cancer. It seemed Ironic that this little boy would be named for such a doctor, when his mother seemed to be dieing of what the doctor had discovered. "It's wonderful… Tell me has anyone else ever died of what ails you, in your family I mean?"

She tapped her chin with a finger, "I don't believe so… Why?" The baby stopped suckling and made a gurgling noise. "Could you hold him for a moment?"

I took the baby putting a towel over my shoulder and burping him. When he finished I dumped the cloth and began to rock him. He yawned in my face and settled into my arms to begin to sleep. I looked from the baby to his mother, "You're baby is healthy, and happy. I don't think he'll die of the disease that you have."

The woman suddenly looked relieved, "You're a Doctor?"

I couldn't take that look away from her, "Yes."

"I'm dieing aren't I?"

I felt something tighten in my chest, "Yes." I knew it was the truth. I could see it in the color of her skin and they way her skin lay on her thin frame. "Your liver is failing and I don't think your intestines are going to keep up much longer."

She nodded, "I'm glad someone finally told me." She tilted her head to one side, "You look very young to be a doctor."

I blushed, "I'm from another part of the country. I've been learning this since I was little… I'm a specialist. I work with spinal injury patients mostly."

The woman laughed weakly, "It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Beatrice, Beatrice Varmus."

I nodded, "Why are you left alone in here?"

Beatrice shook her head, "I am Ishbalan, or at least I look like it. Ishbalans are not worthy of the military doctors' time, even though Harold was a soldier himself… He died serving the country… That's the only reason I'm allowed to remain in the hospital. Even the nurses avoid me."

I put the baby back in his hospital crib, "I'll see what I can do to improve that for you, Ms Varmus."

"You can call me Bea, Doctor…?" She gave me a polite smile waiting.

"Conradine Heinrich, Doctor Conradine Heinrich. I'll be taking care of you from now on," I insisted.

Bea tilted her head to one side again, "But I don't have any spinal problems. I can move my body just fine, it only hurts my stomach whenever I try."

Well, I hope to hear from all of you after this. Remember the more you review the more likely I am to post!