Grace stepped off the train in Chicago. She looked around the platform, feeling absolutely bewildered. Jimmy said he would bring Katy to the station to meet her. She sighed, setting her luggage down on the ground.

"Grace!" A voice called out from the distance. She spun around, looking for the source.

"Vince!" Grace said, surprised to see Jimmy's friend emerge from the crowd. "What's going on?"

The dark Italian man looked down at his feet, before looking back up into her eyes. His brows furrowed, he grabbed a hold of her hands.

"What's going on?" Grace all but screamed. "Vinny!"

Grace sat up in her bed, gasping for air. She rolled over quickly, running over to the open window and sticking her head out.

That dream. She had been having the dream over and over the past week. Always the same thing. Vinny comes running up to her at the train station and she wakes up before she can hear that sentence again.

Her breathing finally evened out. Laying on her bed, she felt her heart racing. She needed a better way to wake up. She briefly considered taking up drinking again.

Sighing, Grace made her way to her small wardrobe. More of a cupboard, really. They didn't go all out on billets. From her life of lavish and wealth, to her modest life in Chicago, to this. A dank, cold room with a hard mattress and a hole in the wall to store her clothing.

Opening the cupboard door, she admired the orderliness of her white dresses, perfectly pressed and lined up in a row. Which one would she wear today? The white one, or the white one? She slipped into her dress, combed her hair down, and finished today's chic look with a starch, white hat.

Looking at the time, she rushed to the nurse's building. She was late. Ever since that night at the pub, her sleep had become more and more restless. Thoughts of Jimmy were arising more frequently; the dream with Vinny was occurring every night. She felt like any semblance of control was slowly slipping out of her grasp.

"Grace!" Edith yelled, as she saw Grace come through the front door, "Oh, Grace! Please, hurry!"

Grace recognized the panic in her voice. Something serious had happened. These girls had never dealt with an actual injury before.

"What is it?" Grace asked, following Edith down a hallway. The floor had a trail of blood leading into one of the rooms.

"A soldier from Able Company, he got shot in the leg during a drill. We've tried to stop the bleeding, we really have!"

"Alright, Edith. Calm down. I'll take it from here."

Grace went into the room to see a chaotic scene. Two girls were holding the soldier down while Faye applied pressure to his leg, but it didn't seem to be helping at all. The soldier was grey in the face.

"Has he had any morphine?"

"Yes."

"How much?"

"2.5 grams, ma'am." Grace could tell her calmness had an effect on the girls. They seemed to relax.

"Double the dose. Faye, let me get in there and see his leg. We really need to get that fucking doctor stationed here."

Grace took Faye's position and examined the wound. When she took pressure off, a spurt of blood sprayed her across the chest. She reapplied the pressure. "Fucking God damn femoral artery," Grace muttered to herself. The girls all went red in the cheeks at Grace's language. They'd get used to it eventually.

"Edith, go get some blood. He'll need a transfusion if he survives."

"Grace, you shouldn't say that in front of-"

"He can't hear us. And I'm your Lieutenant, not Grace," Grace said sternly.

"How do I know his blood type?"

"Figure it the hell out." Edith scuttered off into the hallway, hopefully to find out the soldier's name so she could look at his file. "Faye, hand me two clamps."

Faye handed her two small clamps, which she used to shut the two ends of the severed artery. She then applied a tourniquet to his thigh to staunch the blood flow further.

"Hold these here while I prepare him for a transfusion. I don't think he will make it through this shock if I don't do it now. He's lost a lot of blood."

"I can do it," One of the other girls said. Grace nodded at her. She'll learn her name later.

Grace grabbed a suture and some thread. Placing the suture in the holder, she got to work. Holding her breath, she began slowly and painstakingly threading the needle in and out of the artery, gradually pulling it together.

"I got it, I found it!" Edith came barreling in to the room holding a bag of blood high above her head in triumph.

"Do you want an award? Bring it here!" One of the nurses scolded. They got the transfusion started and already Grace thought could see a bit of colour back in the soldier's face. Maybe it was just wishful thinking.

Once Grace was sure the artery was properly sutured she stood up, all of a sudden aware of the pain in her back from bending over the soldier's leg for so long.

"Okay, Faye. You can take the clamps off, now."

Faye removed the clamps and tourniquet and began swabbing up the blood with a piece of gauze. The artery held.

"Stitch up that leg. There's an exit wound, so no need to dig for a bullet. Give him another dose of morphine in a few hours, or if he starts showing signs of pain. Somebody stay in the room for when he wakes up, please. I don't want him moving about. Good job, ladies."

The girls nodded and dutifully and set about their tasks. Grace sighed, and left the room. Entering the bathroom, she saw how much blood covered her hands, up her arms, and all over the front of her dress. She hadn't seen herself like this since she was in Africa.

She quickly looked away from the mirror and scrubbed her hands. She just wanted a cigarette. Why wouldn't the damn blood come off her hands?

Giving up, she walked out of the building. She'd have to go home and change, anyway. Lighting up a cigarette as she went outside, she was greeted with a small crowd of soldiers, horrified at the amount of blood covering her.

"Is Johnny going to be okay, miss?" One of the baby-faced soldiers asked. He looked like he couldn't be a day over sixteen, and he was scared as hell.

"He's alive," Grace curtly replied while pushing past them. She came out here to be alone. Also why the hell doesn't anyone ever address her by rank? Maybe this cigarette would calm her down a bit.

"Wait," Grace said, turning around to face the men, "How long did it take for you to get him to the medical station?"

"Oh, well, I'd say about five minutes or so," one of the men piped up.

"Shit," Grace put out her smoke and jogged back into the medical station. He would need more than one transfusion if that were the case.

Walking through the busy Chicago streets, Grace held a grocery bag in one arm and Katy in the other. She loved going out for walks, breathing in the sights and smells of a city on the move.

Their neighbourhood wasn't the nicest, or the safest, but during the day Grace would walk all over. Her and Katy decided they were going to surprise Jimmy at work in his flower shop. It would be Katy's first time being there.

As she entered the small shop on the corner of two busy roads, the bell above the door run. Jimmy was dealing with a customer, but he still allowed a big smile to sweep his face when he saw them. Without missing a beat he went back to finishing his transaction.

Grace wandered around the shop, looking at the beautiful flower arrangements and letting Katy reach out to feel them. She couldn't talk yet, but she made it known when she wanted to investigate something.

The man Jimmy was dealing with walked towards them on his way out.

"That's a cute daughter you have there. What's her name?"

"Oh, her name's Katy."

"How old is she?" Grace was starting to feel uneasy about the stranger's line of questioning.

"Ten months."

"Time sure flies when you have a little one. Make sure to savour every moment." And with a tip of the hat, the stranger walked out the door. The ringing of the bell made an ominous noise in the quiet shop.

Grace turned to look at Jimmy. He was still standing behind the counter with a pensive look on his face.

"That was weird," Grace said to break the silence. Jimmy still didn't move or speak so she walked to the counter and placed Katy on it. "That man was very strange. What did he buy?"

"Oh, he, uh, he just bought an arrangement for his wife," Jimmy stumbled with his words, seemingly flustered. Normally a charismatic, carefree man, he was starting to worry Grace.

"Oh. Well why don't we come watch you make it in the back?" Grace offered, trying to move on from the awkwardness.

"No! No, it's fine. I'll get Tommy to make it when he comes in this afternoon. He needs to practice anyway, and it's not being delivered until six o'clock tonight." Jimmy wouldn't even make eye contact. His eyes scanned the shop; a faint flush creeped up his neck.

Grace shuffled awkwardly in front of the counter. Katy reached for the lapels of Jimmy's jacket and managed to make a half-hearted smile appear on his face.

"Well, I guess we will see you for dinner, then?"

"I'll ring you if we get busy," Jimmy muttered, writing something in a ledger and not really paying attention.

"Love you," Grace quietly said, as she exited the shop with Katy. The door bell chiming behind her as she left.