(Ytte realises her misjudgement and tests the patience of the Good Doctor) (This episode was co written with my good friend Tukiko who 'plays the part' of the doctor) When Doctor Tukiko did revisit, Ytte was pleased she had time to stay and talk. Ytte complimented Tukiko on her achievement of being a doctor and so young. They talked a little about war, field hospitals. Ytte enjoyed something she had missed for so long, intelligent, enlightening conversation. Ytte felt on the mend and relaxed, in fact she over-relaxed. “Your clinic is very well appointed, but tell me how do you manage in a town where the Mayor is such a charlatan?” “Hmm?” Tukiko’s demeanour had changed but Ytte was so in the flow she didn’t notice. She went on. “She seems a self-absorbed alcoholic with morals of a guttersnipe from what I have seen.” Tukiko bit her tongue. “How do you mean?” Her face now set. “Well she’s rude. Typical Dane. She runs a brothel, always drunk, she is an unmarried mother, how on earth she became so-called ‘Mayor’ astounds me! I tell you, such a wanton .. floozie.. would certainly never given such high rank where I come from….. “ “ENOUGH !” Doctor Tukiko banged her fist on the bed-side table, stopping Ytte’s tirade in it’s boots. Doctor and patient, each as shocked as the other at Tukiko’s little outburst, stared at each other. Tukiko folded her hands onto her lap and watched as Ytte’s left eyebrow curved slowly upwards into an arch that somehow managed to convey surprise, a question and reproach all at the same time. Suddenly Tuki was back at Haven, suffering the same silent disapproval of her Sensei for her latest misdemeanour. She shooed the image away with an irritable shake of her head. She was tired, that’s all. Between 4am feeds and dealing with last night’s incident, she had managed to get a whole two hours sleep. Even so, shouting at a patient… She took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. That was…” Tuki was about to say ‘uncalled for’ but the words smacked of untruth. Instead, it came out as “Unprofessional.” The eyebrow remained unmoved and unmoving. Ytte needlessly smoothed the ubiquitous hospital blanket. “Indeed.” Hot temper flared again, but this time the flaring was confined to Tuki’s nostrils while, in her lap, her fingers curled into tight fists, though fortunately hidden below the edge of the high bed. Even a cursory check on her patient’s equipment as she had been brought into the clinic was evidence Ytte was a typical example of those military clones which irritated her mother. Their conversation since Ytte’s admission only confirmed the suspicion. Was that why Tuki had let her temper get the better of her? The thought was analysed, dissected, approached from alternate angles and finally dismissed. No. Then was it the vehement slanderous remarks made about Hyle, combined with Tukiko’s fierce loyalty to the woman who had adopted her, and then both of these submerged in the still unbalanced hormonal soup of emotional maternal protectiveness? Oh, hell, yes. Tukiko forced her best bedside smile. “It’s just that I had difficulty, you see, in recognising the woman I know in your description of…” My Mom? Hyle? “…The Mayor.” Ytte’s other eyebrow joined the first. “Really? I thought my description was entirely accurate, based on my observations.” “Your, ‘observations’?” “I was here once before.” At last, the eyebrows dropped to their normal position. “I remember fräulein Troy being,” A smirk appeared on the finely chiselled features. “I believe the term is ‘falling down drunk’. In fact, if it wasn’t for the oaf groping her, she probably would have.” Tuki bristled but recognised the scene her patient was describing. Oh, not the actual scene which Ytte had witnessed, but there had been so many. “Hy… the Mayor likes to party… um, occasionally.” Again the eyebrow. “Natürlich.” At last Ytte seemed to notice that her newfound doctor friend was, perhaps, less than happy with her portrayal of the mayor. She softened her expression into a smile and tried really hard to keep the condescension out of it. “Maybe I was unfortunate enough to catch her on one of these ‘occasions’. Yes?” Tukiko bit her tongue. It wasn’t so much her oath that kept her from wiping that fake smile off the b… her patient’s face, as it was the likelihood that she would definitely come off worse in the attempt. “You mentioned a brothel?” “This I saw with my own eyes. Last night.” Ytte described the events of the previous night. “Naked women, drugged no doubt because I saw the, the…” Ytte searched for the word. “Spritze? The… Sprøjte. No. The... Syringe! Yes, the syringe. I saw a woman being drugged with a syringe!” Ytte sat back with her arms folded and a look of Teutonic certainty on her face. Tuki stared at her. She was so angry right now. But, she fought the hormones she knew was behind most of the emotion she was feeling. Tuki closed her eyes and imagined the earth beneath her bare feet. When she opened them again, she felt calmer, well, a bit. She glanced down at the clipboard and the admission form Maisie had filled in on the patient’s arrival, saw the name and decided not to even try to pronounce it. Instead, she turned on her smile again. ”That... was the hostel. Not a brothel.” A flicker of doubt cast the barest shadow over Ytte’s face. ”And the naked women? The shouting men? The poor girl being drugged by...” ”By me, as it happens.” Ytte stopped mid-flow, then remembered to shut her mouth. Doctor Tukiko’s glare was sufficient to give further pause to her words. Tukiko waited. If her patient carried on with what was in danger of becoming a tirade, then Tuki would leave before something happened. Ytte said nothing so Tuki carried on. ”We have two hostels. One for men and one for women. Mostly they are used for people just passing through. But they were set up specifically to take in refugees from the south, especially women.” Ytte remained silent. Not convinced but ready to consider the possibility that her observations may not have been totally accurate. Tukiko continued. ”Yesterday, we had an influx of refugees. All was well, we welcomed them, and set them up in the hostels. Hyle... the mayor, sent over food and I tended to any medical concerns.” Tuki shifted position and cleared her throat. ”That night there was a small party on the street for the residents of both hostels, and some of the townspeople attended. All perfectly normal, part of the routine to make the refugees feel they have arrived somewhere safe. The party went well. The mayor attended and did the official welcome thing and then things wound down and the refugees went back to their respective hostels for the night.” On her bed, Ytte was wondering if her doctor was making up some elaborate story or other. She had seen what she had seen. How would Doctor Tukiko explain that? ”About 1am I was woken by one of the refugees hammering on the door of the clinic, we live next door. When I got to the hostel, everyone was up and it was just a scene of confusion all around. The refugees were armed and jumpy. They were under the impression that the townspeople were attacking them or some such nonsense. Hyle and Reavy, that’s the woman in black you saw, were just arriving. Hyle was trying to calm everyone down while Reavy was, erm, ’persuading’ people to put their guns away. ”Tai and I...” ”Tai?” ”Taiyoko. My soulmate.” ”Ah, the oriental.” ”Yes. Anyway, Tai and I went into the women’s hostel to take care of one of the refugee women who had become hysterical...” ”Excuse me, Fräu...lein Doktor.” Tukiko stopped. Ytte looked at her suspiciously. ”All of this spektakel for a hysterical woman? Armed men?” ”The woman had night terrors...” ”Even so.” Tukiko felt her anger returning. ”How many refugees have you met, may I ask?” She snapped. Ytte looked at Tukiko steadily. If only the young doctor knew. The refugees in The Province were nothing compared to the kilometres-long lines of humanity winding their way along the roads in the war she had left behind. ”I have seen many such in...” ”I never said seen, I said met.” Ytte had to think. The only times she could remember having anything to do with refugees was in having them cleared off the road so that her soldiers could pass. For the life of her, she couldn’t actually remember talking to any of them. She was an officer, after all. Her patient’s stiffening posture told Tuki all she needed to know. ”I thought not.” Control the anger. Control the anger. Tuki thought of the earth again. ”The journey to here from the south kills about half of all the people who set out on it. It’s the poorly armed and untrained refugees who make up the vast majority of the fatalities. Besides the wild animals and mutants that use the roads as just one big feeding ground, there are whole camps of bandit gangs waiting for the next group of refugees to try their luck.” Tuki locked eyes with Ytte. ”Do you have any idea what happens to the women and children who fall into their hands?” Ytte swallowed, her throat suddenly dry. It was very easy, in the officer’s mess, to talk of collateral damage and to dismiss lists of civilian casualties as simply the fortunes of war. But you never dwelled on it. Never linked the numbers on the page to the horse-trampled bodies of children you turned your eyes away from on the march. Defiantly, she met the doctor’s eyes. ”In war there...” ”They end up here.” Tuki’s shoulders slumped. ”Well, the survivors do. And we try to help them.” For Ytte, the memories of last night took on a new shape and new meaning. Frightened women, spooked by the hysterical screaming of the woman with the night terrors. Confused men, just as scared, but determined to fight off whatever had come for them this time. ”I... see...” ”In the hostels set up by another such victim. The mayor of Hope Springs. Hyle Troy. My Mother.” Ytte’s mouth opened, but no words came. The silence was in danger of becoming awkward, so Tuki ended it by standing up I’d like to keep you here overnight if that’s ok? I’d hate to send you out with a concussion.” She smiled. Tuki briefly enjoyed the guilty pleasure of feeling she had put this arrogant woman in her place. Now she could get on with the business of doctoring her. Tukiko made it as far as the door before Ytte’s response stopped her. ”May I offer my apologies, Fräulein Doktor? I allowed my preconception of your mother to lend bias to my observations.” Tukiko stopped with her hand on the door frame and turned her head to face the woman on the bed. ”It’s not me you should really be apologising to.” Ytte acknowledged the mild reproach with a short nod. ”Quite so.” Tukiko moved to leave but was stopped again. ”Doctor Tukiko?” Tukiko turned back. ”It’s Doctor Troy. Tukiko is my given name.” ”Again, my apologies. May I ask, though, how did it happen? With your mother?” The question took Tuki by surprise. It was not a question she would have expected from someone she had come close to striking for her haughty conceit. But this, apparently, was who she was. Perhaps her manner was as unconscious as the automatic vitriolic distrust shown by some of her patients in the local gangs. So she answered, albeit cautiously. ”It was many years ago. In the tunnel at Pass Chris. She was taken by the gang that occupied it.... You should be able to imagine what happened next, hmm?... I’ll leave it at that.” Ytte felt a pit open deep in her belly. She nodded. ”Oh... I see. Umm... Well ..Thank you for your time, Doctor Troy.” Tuki detected no sign of pridefulness in the other woman’s words. She acknowledged her thanks with a nod and then left the room.