To hold the knot tight around the kid’s leg to stop the bleeding, something easy he had already done before on many of his comrades. He couldn’t help it but begin to STARE again, assuming she was too busy to feel his eyes on her. She hadn’t talked much, therefore he couldn’t guess her nationality from the sound of her accent, which didn’t particularly stand out through the clean, fluid pronunciation of the English words. “ I’ve never seen you before, I’m sure. Otherwise I would remember it.” A small smirk curved full lips. “ Are you German? ” That was what he’d assumed when she’d first revealed her name. Eyes returned on the skilled movement of her fingers while they quickly stitched together the wound. “ You can tell me to shut up while you work, I won’t be offended. ” The smile remained softening his naturally strict features. 

She carries out the procedure with the greatest effort not to inflict MORE pain than necessary. She kept her eyes trained on the stitches, but struggled against the curiosity to just take ONE more look. She then heard him speak again and felt her lips turn into a smile at his comment. She would hardly have marked herself as that MEMORABLE. Her smile would have faltered at his next question-- being GERMAN was nothing to be flaunted and mostly when she was asked it was asked by suspicion-- BUT the nature of his tone when he asked was anything but hostile. “ My mother is German. I spent most of my childhood there “ she said, trying to make her words sound more confident than she was feeling. The conversation was NICE despite her tendency to grow nervous, it felt RELIEVING to simply be TALKING to someone. “ there’s no need - your voice is very pleasant to listen to “ as her words tumbled out her movements faltered slightly as she mentally smacked herself--- why on EARTH would she say that out LOUD? “ I came in just a few days ago - I was at an aid station further south of here but they needed more nurses so i thought I’d help. Have you been here for long? “ she said trying to move the conversation PAST her last comment as quickly as possible.

He obeyed, following all her indications and studying all her movements. The way she took care of that kid with kindness, the genuine devotion, so clear in her eyes. Not every medic showed that dedication on the battlefield, many of them seemed not to care at all. But he knew their nonchalance before death was only a way to preserve one’s mental health, a way to keep PAIN away. This woman, she looked different, UNAFRAID to get so close to human feelings. War changed many people, but it also let others dig deep into their souls. “ I am Leo, by the way. ” Stupid, STUPID words to say to someone who was just doing their job. He mentally reproached himself. 

What a sweet RARITY names were. So often souls just came INTO and OUT of her life without as much as a NAME to remember them by. For the briefest of moments her eyes rose to cast a chaste look on the other, her lips carrying a small smile. For most people she was a mere SHADOW --someone whom they only spoke to in NEED-- but he had GIVEN her his NAME, and she felt THANKFUL for it. “ My name is Jetta “ she always felt apprehensive of her own name; it’s origins painfully obvious-- and to some that meant the world-- yet it escaped her lips before she could trap it. She then realized she was stil looking at him, and even though she KNEW she could perform this procedure BLINDFOLDED, she hadn’t INTENDED to STARE. Quickly her gaze dropped to where she had started to strap what used to be someone’s belt around the young boys leg. She started to twist in around what seemed to be an old kitchen tool to tighten it around the leg and halt the flow of his blood. Once it was tight enough that fresh blood hardly slipped through the barrier she dared look to Leo again. “ come hold here “ she said as one of her hands let go of the straining knot and moved to where Leo was holding down the cloth. “ you’ll hold this tight to stop the blood from flowing, and I should be able to close the wound “ she spoke gently and kept a mental note to herself to look DOWN again this time. 

He nodded, almost mechanically, not really thinking about what he was doing. When he finally remembered staring could be considered RUDE, he looked away, and returned focusing his attention on the whining boy, or at least he TRIED to. “ What do you want me to do? ” He remained professional, ready to follow her orders. Blood had never bothered him, and anyway they were in war, you’d get used to blood one way or another. 

" I need you to hold this- “ she gently pressed a relatively clean piece of cloth into one of his palms. “ -and push it FIRMLY down, and HOLD it there “ she concluded her instructions with a reassuring nod. She then moved up to the other end of the bedside and pushed the hair out of the young boys face with gentle strokes. She knew german and english, but that would help her very little if this boy did not. Still, what she was about to do would quickly become nothing short of AGONIZING, and he could need a KIND word. “ This will hurt - but we’ll be right here with you “ she spoke calmly as she guided the boy to bite down on one of her leather gloves. She quickly returned to her spot by his leg, having pulled out the necessary equipment to treat him. “ We need to halt the BLEEDING before we can do anything else - I need you to keep pressure on the wound, okay? “

The Eastern front in 1944 was HELL on earth. Death, starvation, massacres. The civilians were not spared, the nurses of the military corps worked day and night to save as many innocents as possible. After the latest attack of the Germans, a small village of the Polish countryside had been razed to the ground. Leo’s wounds were nothing serious, they still allowed him to stand on his own legs and HELP, in the best way he could. “ You think you can do anything for this? ” He put a skinny kid down on the blood stained bed, eyes shifting from his bony wounded leg, to the green eyes of a nurse. Lips parted slightly, he seemed to remain speechless for a little while. The redhead had come out of the blue, and he wondered how it was even possible he hadn’t noticed her before. 

Her hands that used to TREMBLE with such ease had found some feigned bravery after nearly two years of THIS. They hadn’t much of a choice but to make use of the nearly collapsing houses to shield the wounded and torn bodies of civilians and soldiers alike -- it was EERIE, turning a HOME into a HOSPITAL, and a BACKYARD into a GRAVESITE. Everything from kitchen-tables to couches and countless of mattresses were rounded up - yet still most of the wounded found themselves on the cold floor. Jetta wiped off the scarlet from her hands as she moved in to the main room where she was met with another patient. She stood by the bedside as the other put the wounded child down. Quickly she looked the body over with her gaze settling on the gaping wound that covered large parts of the leg. There was no other help but HER to be had here - they nurses were too heavily burdened with the overbearing number of patients in need of attention. She inhaled swiftly and nodded twice before threading a hand through her hair and rose her eyes to again meet with those of the other.  “ I’ll need your HELP. Are you able, sir? “ He did seem able enough for her to pose the question-- but she knew better than to assume.

Margaret Hale being lovely