Phoenix and Ashes

bit of company on this leave, we'd better push off. Can't have the PBIs showing up the Flying Corps, what?'

'Thanks for turning up, fellows,' Reggie said, fervently. 'Give my best to the rest of the lads. But not too soon.'

'You can bet on that!' Steven laughed, and he and Tommy sketched salutes and sauntered out of the ward, winking at Ivy, the VAD girl, as they passed her, making her blush furiously.

Reggie lay back against his pillows, feeling exhausted by the effort to keep up the charade that he was perfectly all right, aside from being knocked about a bit. It was grand seeing the fellows, but—it was easier when people he knew weren't here and he didn't have to pretend. He had more in common with the lad in the next bed over, a mere second lieutenant by the name of William West, for all that West was FBI and Reggie was—had been—a pilot, a captain, and an ace at that. All the shellshock victims were in this end of the ward, together. Sometimes Reggie thought, cynically, it was so that their screaming in nightmares and their shaking fits by day wouldn't bother anyone else.

There weren't many shellshock cases in the Royal Flying Corps, anyway. The pilots and their support crew were well behind the lines, out of reach of the guns and the gas. That was the lot of the FBI—the 'Poor Bloody Infantry,' upon whose lines in the trenches the pilots looked down in remote pity, chattering and clattering through the sky.

Or we do just before Archie gets us, or the Huns shoot us down— Reggie amended, and then the first sight of that azure-winged Fokker interposed itself between him and the ward, and the shaking began—

He clawed at his bedside table for a glass of water, the paper the lads had brought him, anything to distract himself. But then, before he could go into a full-blown attack, something altogether out of the ordinary distracted him. Because, coming towards him down the aisle between the beds, accompanied by his usual medico, Dr. Walter Boyes, was another doctor, but this time it was someone he recognized.

'Captain Fenyx—' Boyes began, quietly, so as not to disturb West, who had subsided into a morphine-assisted sleep,'—I believe you already know my colleague.'

'I should say so!' he exclaimed, sitting up straight. He had never been so pathetically glad to see anyone in his life. 'Doctor Scott! Maya! I had no idea you were on the military wards!'

'I'm not,' the handsome, dark-haired, dark-eyed woman said, with a smile. Her exotic beauty was more than enough to make even the stark white hospital coat and severe black skirt look out-of-the-ordinary. 'Good heavens, Reggie, can you see the War Department unbending enough for that? Now, if I were unmarried and prepared to volunteer for Malta, they would take me, and they might even allow me to practice in Belgium or France, but here? Oh, they would accept me as a VAD aide, of course. But because I'm married, they won't take me any other way. Heaven forfend that Peter might have to supervise the household once in a while.'

'Well—when you put it that way—' He shrugged. The War Department was full of idiots, everyone knew that. Unfortunately, they were the idiots in charge. Maya Scott and her fellow female doctors, few though they were, would have made a big difference to the wounded. And if they were worried about the morals of the patients being corrupted, or even those of the other military doctors, wouldn't a married doctor be 'safer' rather than more dangerous? 'But why are you here, then? Surely not just for me?'

'Entirely just for you; I've been sent by a higher power.' A little smile curved her lips, suggesting that this was a joke. 'Walter is a friend of mine; he worked in our charity clinics before the war,' she continued. 'I didn't know you were here until Lady Virginia got hold of me two days ago; she gave me your doctor's name, and that was when I went hunting for him and you.'

Ah, that explained 'higher power.' His godmother was a force of nature.

'I would have been here sooner, but until I got hold of Walter, I wouldn't have been allowed near you.' It was her turn to shrug. 'I'm a female, not your relative, your fiancee, nor a nurse, you see. Never mind that I'm a doctor; evidently it is expected that you would immediately corrupt my morals, or I yours. Fortunately, Walter has made all smooth. He is allowed to bring in anyone he likes as a consulting physician, so long as I don't expect to be paid.'

In the course of that exchange, Reggie and Maya communicated something more, wordlessly. A lift of an eyebrow on Reggie's part towards Dr. Boyes—does he know? The tiniest shake of the head from Maya, confirming his initial impression—no. So, Doctor Walter was neither an Elemental Mage himself, nor was he among the few who were not Mages that nevertheless knew of the existence of Mages and magic.

Doctor Maya, however, was an Elemental Mage. In fact, she was an Earth Master.

'Walter, can the patient leave his bed?' she asked in the next moment. 'I'd like to talk to him privately.'

'I don't want him to put weight on that leg yet, but yes,' Doctor Walter replied, and sent the VAD girl for a wheelchair. Then he added, in a hushed voice Reggie was sure he was not meant to overhear, 'If you can get something out of him about his experience—'

'That's what I'm here for,' Maya said soothingly. 'I haven't seen a great many shellshock cases myself, but I've gotten some. Nurses are coming back to us in sad condition, particularly the ones who've been on transports that were torpedoed, or shelled while working near the lines or