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her, the least she could do was accept. And turn up on time.
    They seemed to have come to a sort of truce. Certainly on her part she’d started to develop a grudging respect for the man. He might be gruff, arrogant and lacking in manners, but he was extremely knowledgeable and seemed to genuinely care about the work he did.
    With an effort she dragged herself out of bed and splashed cold water on her face from the jug left in her tent. With a quick flick of the hairbrush, she was ready to face the world again. It was a far cry from the hours she usually took to get ready at home. Here there wasn’t even a mirror to check her appearance, so she had to assume she looked okay. Even if she didn’t, there was no time to fix it. She didn’t need much of an imagination to picture Mitch’s face if she turned up late.
    By the time she’d navigated her way to the Medic SOS tent – not as easy as she’d thought as one tent looked pretty much the same as the next – the team had already sat down. Thankfully they all seemed far too engrossed in what they were saying to notice her sneak in. Moving quietly to the vacant chair, she settled back to listen.
    Much of what was said went over her head. They talked about patients she hadn’t met and medicines she’d never heard of. She was almost falling asleep on her chair when Mitch started to discuss the little boy who’d been brought in with hypothermia.
    ‘I’ve rung the hospital in the capital and they do have capacity to admit him,’ Dan was saying. ‘I think you were after a dialysis unit?’ he checked with Mitch. ‘Well, they do have one.’
    ‘What would that be for?’ Brianna asked. It was the first time she’d spoken since the meeting had begun.
    ‘In some severe cases, it can be possible to take the blood out, warm it up, and put it back,’ Mitch explained. ‘You can do that using a dialysis unit.’
    ‘Shall I sort out an air ambulance for him?’ Dan asked, looking at Mitch.
    Mitch shook his head. ‘No,’ he replied shortly. ‘It’s not worth it.’
    Brianna stared at him, aghast. Had he really said that? ‘What? You’re telling us this child’s life isn’t worth it?’ she exclaimed, horrified. ‘Do you mean not worth the expense, or not worth the hassle? Because if it’s the expense, I’ll flipping well pay for it myself.’
    A hush came over the group. ‘Not every problem can be solved by throwing money at it,’ Mitch replied quietly.
    The condescending sod. Brianna leapt to her feet. ‘Good God, I can’t believe I’m hearing this. I thought medicine was a caring profession. That you were in it to save lives. And yet here you are, casually dismissing the chance of saving the life of this young boy. You heartless bastard.’
    ‘Brianna, stop this. You’re getting over-emotional,’ Mitch told her roughly.
    ‘We’re talking about a child’s life here,’ she interrupted angrily. ‘Of course I’m emotional. You should be, too. Remind me never to get sick when you’re around. You might think I’m not worth the bother, too.’ Tiredness from the journey, coupled with the emotion of the situation seemed to strip away all her control. As the harsh words flew from her mouth, she stalked towards the exit. ‘Excuse me,’ she spoke into the now deadly silence. ‘Suddenly I have other things I need to do.’
    A few moments later she was back on her bed, tears she’d been trying so hard to contain now gushing out, like water from a leaking dam. She cried for herself, because she felt tired and lonely, and she cried for the little boy whose life was slowly ebbing away.
    When there were no tears left, she got back up and went to the ward. At least she could show the boy somebody cared.

Chapter Five
    Mitch had watched Brianna stalk out of his meeting with an air of resignation. Why were people outside the profession unable to grasp that it was impossible to save everybody? And she’d twisted his words. He hadn’t said
the boy
wasn’t worth