Agatha and Merrick joined Jessup and Sherry at a table once they had their food. It was a rushed affair since they all wanted to get a little sleep before returning to on duty.

Sherry did take the time to ask how she knew Eli, and Agatha kept it simple and told her that he was a family friend.

"And you didn't mention it?" Sherry asked, dumbfounded that Agatha knew someone so famous and didn't share it. Agatha didn't want to tell her that he was the tip of the iceberg when it came to famous friends. In fact, it was more unusual for her to have a non-famous friend.

"I didn't think there was any point, and I didn't think I would get to see him other than in passing." She shrugged as she took another bite of food.

Jessup was the first to leave, with Sherry following him a moment later, leaving Agatha alone with Merrick. If she had expected the third degree, it wasn't going to happen. Merrick finished his meal and then followed the other two out of the dining hall without a word.

With a self-mocking smile, Agatha stood and cleared her meal from the table before following the others. Why did she think Merrick would care that she knew Eli? He had never seemed to be interested in her or any other person on base.

When Agatha's alarm went off three hours later, she buried her head under her pillow. It felt as if she had fallen asleep only moments before. With a deep sigh, she threw off her covers and stood. She had half an hour before she had to be back on duty, and the other nurses were just as tired as she.

Everything appeared to be under control when she entered the ward, so she found the nurse she was taking over for and was updated on what had happened in her four hours off. They had begun to move some of the less injured men, which had freed up a few beds.

Agatha only had two weeks left, and it was a mantra that she kept repeating over and over in her head as she plodded her way through her shift.

She was aware that she wasn't looking her best. She had circles under her eyes and was dragging as she tried to stay awake. When she saw him a few hours later, Merrick looked as if he had slept for a solid eight hours. He was clean-shaven, as alert as he always was, and it made Agatha shoot him a nasty look from across the ward.

Merrick must have caught the look because he raised an eyebrow in response which caused Agatha to turn her back and walk away quickly.

Sometime later, when she was talking to Scott about Lydia, Merrick finally joined her.

"I dreamt that you were singing, Agatha," Scott said as she finished taking his vitals.

"That's preposterous? Why would I do a thing like that?" Agatha smiled.

"You had the voice of an angel. There was a woman in the light who was with me for a long time. She held my hand and told me it wasn't my time yet." Scott turned his head to the side as Merrick approached. "Hey Doc, how am I doing?"

"Let's take a look," Merrick said as he looked Scott over before pulling his info up on the computer next to him.

Scott told him the same story that he told Agatha. "And I swore Agatha was singing, but she denies it." Scott frowned.

Merrick only grunted as he pushed the computer away and turned to Scott. "You'll be ready to move in a few days." Then he nodded and left.

"He doesn't talk much, does he?" Scott said as he turned his attention back to Agatha.

"No, he is a man of few words but very good at his job, so we try not to hold it against him." She patted Scott on the shoulder and moved on to the next patient.

"God, he's in a mood!" Brittany, one of the nurses, said with a groan as she joined her in stripping a bed a few minutes later.

Agatha didn't have to ask who she meant. "It was a long night," she conceded.

"Sherry says that you're friends with Elias Emory! Is that true?" Brittany suddenly changed the topic.

"I suppose so. He's a friend of my family." Agatha shrugged, trying to play it as if it was no big deal.

"That's so cool! Do you know any other famous people?"

"Stevens!" Merrick bellowed from across the ward, thankfully ending the conversation.

"Lucky you!" Brittany said as she quickly turned away before she got called as well.

"You need a nap, Merrick!" Agatha said as she joined him at one of the computers.

"Is that what the dirty look you gave me earlier was all about?" he asked, his focus remaining on the computer in front of him.

"No, it was because you look as if you have had an entire night of sleep, whereas I look like the walking dead!" Agatha grumbled as she tried to look over his shoulder at the screen, but he was too tall. "If you want me to see what you're looking at, you have to step aside."

Merrick looked over his shoulder at her, then stepped to the side, allowing her to join him. She was distracted by Merrick's closeness only for a minute because as Agatha's eyes zeroed in on what he was looking at on the screen, it took all of her attention.

"Who is this?" Agatha asked, pushing his hand away as she scrolled to see all of the information.

"Jenny." Merrick's voice was steady despite the news that was in front of them.

"You didn't operate on her, did you?" Agatha asked in a much less steady voice as she scrolled to see the attending physician.

"Does it matter now? It doesn't change the facts." Merrick said, stepping away from the computer.

Agatha couldn't deny his very sensible response. Getting angry now wouldn't do them or Jenny any good. But if he had performed the surgery, they wouldn't be where they were now. She was sure of it.

"Go find Jessup and send him to me. I'll catch him up. Then I need you and Sherry to prep Jenny for surgery. We'll have to see what is causing the hemorrhaging." Merrick said as he walked down the bays of patients to find Jenny.

Agatha searched for a very long five minutes before she finally found Sherry and Jessup in a little storage area off the operating room. They were in a very compromising position, and she saw more of them than she had ever cared to as they broke apart.

"When you're finished here and have a moment, Merrick would like to see you, Jessup! Sherry, I'll need you to help me prep Jenny for surgery." Agatha was livid.

They still had several patients who were nowhere out of the woods yet. They should be making rounds, and Jessup should have checked on Jenny as soon as his shift started. Thank God Merrick had. Who knew how long it would have taken Jessup to finally get around to it?

Agatha marched back to Jenny's bedside and found Merrick beside her, softly talking while Jenny was crying.

Agatha was so mad she was shaking, and it must have shown because Merrick excused them both to Jenny and stepped away from everyone.

"What, Stevens!" he demanded with a heavy frown. "Did you find Jessup and Sherry?"

"Yes!" Agatha hissed. "They're getting dressed after a rousing game of pick-up stick. They should be along shortly." She started to stomp away from him, but Merrick grabbed her arm and pulled her further down the ward.

"I can guess what is going on from your very descriptive statement, but you need to pull it together. Jenny will need all of our wits to see her through this!" Merrick shook her arm as he spoke.

Agatha knew he was right, and she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "If he had-"

"Should have, would have, and could have will do us no good now!" Merrick said, releasing her arm and looking over her shoulder at Jessup, who had just reached the ward with Sherry on his heels.

"It's not fair!" Agatha said aloud without meaning to.

"Trust me. Life is never fair. Now, I need you to focus!" He was done with the conversation, and he moved towards Jessup, bending his head in conversation as they moved toward the operating room.

Agatha brushed by Sherry with a word for her to join the doctors.

She then joined Jenny in the curtained-off area around her bed. "Hello, love," she greeted Jenny with a smile as she pushed her hair off her head and met her worried eyes.

"I'm scared, Agatha," Jenny whispered as she clutched Agatha's hand.

"I know, but we're here now, and we have your back." Agatha did her best to reassure her even though she was unsure herself.

As she prepared Jenny for surgery, Agatha prayed to God to guide Merrick's hand and asked her grandmother to do for Jenny what she had done for Scott.

*******

Agatha found a quiet place outside and slunk down on the ground against the building wall behind her as she replayed the last two hours over in her head. Maybe if she hadn't been so angry, perhaps one second was all Jenny would have needed to survive, and Agatha had wasted it about something that really didn't matter in the end.

Merrick had done his best, but the damage had been too severe and Jenny's blood loss too much. Agatha would never forgive herself for being so selfish in Jenny's last moments.

"Stop it, Stevens," Merrick said as he slipped down to sit next to her.

"Stop what, Merrick?" she asked as she leaned her head against the wall and closed her eyes.

"I knew it was a long shot going into the surgery, but the only other option was not to try." He closed his eyes too.

"If I hadn't paused in my anger, if I had stayed on task, perhaps that second would have mattered," Agatha said in a rough voice.

"Not likely. Otherwise, I wouldn't have let you delay me for a second." He sounded so matter of fact that Agatha felt marginally better.

"It's not fair!" Agatha cried once again.

"So you said earlier," he reminded her.

"I was thinking about me earlier, not Jenny. This time I'm thinking about Jenny. She was so young and lovely." Agatha felt tears prick the back of her eyelids.

"She was young and lovely, but so many of you are. It's a mystery to me why you all insist on coming to this hell hole." His voice was dry of emotion.

"It's not like we have a choice!" Agatha shook her head.

"You chose to join the military knowing that this would happen, that your life would be put in danger, and still you chose it."

Agatha felt her anger start to rise at his words. "So only ugly old women should serve?" She swore she saw his lip twitch. "You're here!" She argued.

"Yes, but I am ugly and old." This time he did smile as Agatha couldn't contain her snort of disbelief at his words.

Merrick had made her mad on purpose.

"You enjoy pushing my buttons! Don't you?" She crossed her arms in defense.

"Oh, Agatha, some of the things that come out of your mouth sometimes." Merrick shook his head.

He had called her Agatha. He had never done such a thing before. Hearing her name on his lips made her heart lurch.

"Now, tell me how you were only thinking about yourself earlier. Unburden yourself, or else you will never let it go," Merrick insisted, referring back to her earlier comment about it not being fair.

"No." Agatha shook her head. There was no way she was sharing that she had been thinking that Sherry and Jessup were enjoying each other's company in a way she would like to enjoy Merrick's, and it wasn't fair that she and Merrick were playing by the rules, and Jessup and Sherry weren't. If she told him, it would be her admission that she was attracted to Merrick, and it was also assuming that he was attracted to her, which he might not be. Agatha thought he was, but he hadn't mentioned it.

Merrick sat silently without pressuring her to respond. It was as if he wasn't the least bit curious, which begged the question of why he asked her at all. The more she thought about it, the madder she became.

"You're the least curious person I know!" Agatha said in a huff.

"I think most doctors are curious by nature, and I am very curious about what you could have been thinking that was so selfish that it causes you so much remorse, but I respect others' privacy, so if you don't want to share, I get it." He was so laid back. They had just lost Jenny, and it was as if he didn't care.

Agatha jumped up and started pacing. "It's as if you don't care at all!" She immediately regretted her words, but she couldn't admit that either. She didn't want to show Merrick any more weakness than she had to.

Merrick's eyes opened, and he watched her as she paced, and she felt like she did a few weeks earlier when she had wanted to shock him.

"Fine, you want to know what I was thinking about that was so selfish?"

Merrick stood and walked toward her. "Yes."

"I was thinking..." she licked her lips as she looked at his broad chest. "I was thinking that Jessup and Sherry were breaking the rules, doing what I wanted to do. If I was playing by them, why couldn't they! And it was while Jenny was slowly dying too!" She couldn't say more than that, and she shouldn't have said that much.

"You want Jessup? I'm sure he would oblige, but Sherry might have a thing or two to say on the matter." He sounded bored.

"No, not Jessup!" Agatha threw up her hands. She quit before she could say anything else. If he couldn't figure it out, that was on him. She turned to leave, and he caught her arm.

"For the record, I care very much that we lost Jenny, and I will blame myself for her death until the day I die. I am not pleased with Sherry and Jessup, primarily because Jessup outranks her, just as I outrank you, and it proved a distraction that possibly cost a life." Merrick dropped her arm and stepped away from her. "Jenny was not your fault!"

"Jenny wasn't your fault either!" Agatha insisted, but he ignored her.

"You have a little over a week left. I suggest that you get through it as best you can and grieve afterward. I also suggest that you and I stay well away from each other." Merrick's voice was passive as he threw out his devastating words.

They cut Agatha to the quick.

"I thought we were at least becoming friends," she whispered.

"I don't want to be your friend, Agatha." Merrick hit the word friend hard before he turned and walked away.

It felt as if she had suddenly lost two friends instead of one, but then Merrick had never been her friend, had he?

Taking a deep breath, Agatha walked back toward the ward. She still had a few hours left in her shift, and she would be damned if she would let Merrick know how badly his words had affected her.