It was late when the shelling started. At first, it was far off in the distance, but it steadily grew nearer as the early morning dawned. They were sleeping in shifts so that someone would be able to alert the others when the time came.

It came just before dawn with the roaring of trucks as they started to bring in the injured. It took those sleeping only minutes before they were in the hospital tents with gloves on, ready to go into action.

Chloe was at the entrance to the tent, assessing every man as they crossed the threshold. She would send them to the left to Cindy, who was dealing with non-life-threatening injuries, to the right with Trina for those whose injuries could become life-threatening if left too long, or straight ahead to Alena and Nadia if they were potentially fatal. Truck after truck came, and all Chloe could do was think about the present and each patient as they entered the tent.

Robert, Don, and Dr. Petrov had taken the first few significant cases to the operating space and started work right away.

"I need a nurse!" Robert yelled at one point, and Chloe had been forced to send Nadia to him since Nurse Marks hadn't yet shown up to help.

Chloe lost all sense of time, and they were run off their feet. Marks eventually showed up and started to help Cindy with the minor cases, so Chloe moved Cindy to help the doctors with the understanding that she took a quick break and then relieved Nadia for a quick break.

It was a backbreaking messy business keeping men alive, and Chloe couldn't help but think that it was a bit too messy for a war that was supposed to be over.

Night had fallen, and things had eased, allowing Chloe to send nurses on breaks and give them a rest. After midnight, a truck pulled in and started to offload a single patient. At the same time, she noted that the soldiers who had made it through the battle unscathed here were slowly beginning to return. Chloe only allowed herself a brief minute to hope that Juric was alright before she met the injured man at the front of the tent.

"Stepped on one of his own mines!" one of the soldiers said in Russian. He probably didn't care if Chloe understood him or not since he was the enemy.

The patient was awake and bleeding badly, and his eyes were wild as he searched for an escape route.

"Do you speak English?" Chloe asked as she started to cut his clothing away from his body.

His eyes fastened on hers as recognition that she was not the enemy hit.

"Da! They kill me!" he insisted. He was a massive man with a bald head and a thick beard.

"You don't look dead," Chloe said as she began to take stock of his injuries.

He looked lucky to Chloe. The only major thing she could see wrong was his thigh, but it was a doozy of an injury. Something had cut into a major artery, and he was lucky to be still conscious, much less alive, thanks to a field tourniquet that someone had applied.

"Nadia, find one of the doctors," she urgently called as she started to tie off the limb with another tourniquet.

Chloe was pulling and twisting with all of her might, but it was not working. Petrov walked up behind Chloe, took one look at the man, and spit on the ground next to him.

"He needs help!" Chloe insisted. She felt his pulse and noted that it had grown weaker in the matter of minutes it had taken her to add a second tourniquet.

"No," Petrov said and walked away, refusing to help.

"Where's Robert!" she called.

"He's in surgery!" Cindy called back, racing to help her. "What was that all about, won't Petrov help?" she asked as she began to help Chloe pull on the tourniquet. The man's leg was massive.

"No," Chloe said as she and Cindy worked on the man.

"Can he do that?" Cindy asked, wide-eyed.

"They kill me!" The man started to struggle again.

"Probably," Chloe responded as the flap to the tent opened, and Juric came through it looking dirty and tired.

His eyes caught her, and he looked at her hands covered in blood while they tried to stop the man's bleeding.

"Please, help?" she mouthed as his eyes met hers. He had been a surgeon once. If there were anything left of the old Valentine, he would help her now. He wouldn't let this man die even if he was the enemy.

Juric walked over to the table and looked down at the man; his face was inscrutable as he watched his enemy begin to struggle in earnest at his sudden appearance.

"Where is Petrov, Dell?" he asked as he took stock of the man's injuries with a quick scan.

"Dell is in surgery. Petrov refused to help. Please, we can't let him die, even if he is the enemy." Chloe begged for the man's life. "It's one thing to kill a man on the battlefield, another to kill him when he is defenseless."

Valentine's eyes met hers, and his eyes held such sadness; it almost took her breath away.

"Please, Valentine," she whispered.

His name on her lips must have been the deciding factor as he reached for a pair of disposable gloves and called out what he needed.

Cindy scurried off to get it, keeping her head down as she did.

"You speak English?" he asked the patient, who nodded. "Good, I am going to save your life because this woman has asked me to save it. You will not fight me, and you will not fight her or any person here. If you live, we will discuss your future like civil men. Is this understood?"

The men's eyes met, and the injured man nodded his agreement.

"If you break this agreement, I promise you I will end your life as sure as I am saving it now!" Chloe couldn't suppress the shiver that ran up her spine at his threat. There was no doubt that Juric meant what he said.

The man nodded once more.

Cindy raced back with a tray of instruments, and Valentine started to work. He clamped off the artery, staunching the blood flow, then removed the tourniquets to make sure his work held. His presence had gathered the interest of everyone in the hospital, and they kept looking in their direction while Valentine worked.

"He needs blood," Valentine said to Chloe.

"We're out, not that we had that much to work with." She shook her head. "I'm a universal donor," she suggested.

"When was the last time you slept or ate?" he asked, letting his eyes assess her. Now that he had started down the path of saving the man, he would do his best to make sure it happened.

Chloe's Valentine never did anything in half measures.

"I'll be fine," Chloe assured him, then turned to Cindy, "can you do a blood transfusion?"

Cindy shook her head as she continued to look between her and Valentine.

"You'll have to do it. I don't trust anyone else here." Chloe's eyes met Valentine's for a moment before he returned his focus on the injured man.

"This is the third time this woman is saving your life," Valentine said to the man lying on the table in Russian. "Don't make her regret it."

The man nodded, and Valentine nodded to Chloe, who then proceeded to gather together the items needed.

Dr. Petrov must have heard what was happening because he returned and attempted to take over for Valentine, but Valentine let his cold dark eyes do the talking as he refused to stop what he was doing. When Chloe arrived with everything needed, he changed his gloves, then sat Chloe down and skillfully began the process of getting her blood into the man.

Chloe kept her eyes closed, not because it hurt or was uncomfortable, but because it was almost impossible to stand with Valentine's hands touching her. It brought back so many memories that she felt a few tears escape from her closed eyes.

She wanted to ask why he didn't want her.

"Am I hurting you," Valentine asked, his voice almost tender as he caressed her arm just below where he had slid the needle under her skin.

Chloe cleared her throat and forced herself to open her eyes and look at him. "No more than usual," she said in a rough voice.

It was a statement that could have been about the needled, but they both knew it was about her heart.

Silence surrounded them while the transfusion took place, and when it was done, Valentine expertly removed the needle and then looked over the man once more before pulling off his gloves.

"Find out what kind of blood type he has and find another donor. He'll need more." Then he motioned for Petrov to follow him as he walked away.

The patient would still need surgery, but Chloe had little doubt that when Juric was finished with Petrov, the enemy would be given four-star treatment.

Cindy promised to look out for the man, and Chloe went to find a quiet corner to lie down. Nadia brought her some juice and something to eat.

"He is the enemy. You are a brave woman," Nadia said as she watched her eat.

Chloe shook her head. "No, I'm a good nurse." And Juric is an excellent surgeon. She silently thought to herself.

Nadia looked as if she wanted to say more, but she was called away.

Chloe curled into a ball on one of the few cots and closed her eyes, falling asleep instantly.