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‘It’s er soldier fell out of a second-storeyduring a routine house clearance I ended up treating a casualty for real and perforency tracheotomy I saved my first life and I didn’t freeze, I didn’t panic The adrenalin was pu, yes, but other than that it just came naturally It was the moment I realised I could really do it, I could be an arreat aro of the past and embraced a new, positive future’

‘So you come up here after bad days like today to try to recapture that sense of victory,’ he realised

‘Yes,’ she whispered ‘To re a life is a rush like no other; it’s an unbeatable feeling But losing one is devastating And the nature of the MERT means that sometimes you lose more than you win’

Yes, he could certainly understand that, just as he understood her need to coht of the others, her reluctance to shed a tear in front of her team He understood her sense of propriety that, as their tea for them

It was a degree of staying in control he recognised all too well

So as he still up here instead of leaving her alone?

Because he felt as if he could help her, Ash realised Some part of him needed to help her It wasn’t about this inexplicable cheh that had probably been the catalyst It was about the way they had clicked, working in the field together the previous day In all his experience, he had never fallen into such harmonious synchronicity with so each other’s needs as they’d worked towards the co that corporal’s life

‘Felicity, you know you did everything you could today You’

‘We lost the hih’

‘And you aren’t to blame,’ he stated firmly

She didn’t answer irily out over the sunset When she did finally speak, her voice was little more than a whisper

‘It’s bad enough when it’s a warzone When there are IEDs and eneh of them; I’ve dealt with explosions, and fatalities, and soldiers requiring multiple amputations And all I can do, every shout, is know that I’ve done et them back as much in one piece as I can’

‘I know,’ he ly

Her voice was choked and he knew she was close to the edge He had no idea why, but he found hi her in She stiffened at first, resisting hi to hold back her sense of failure

‘But here we’re not in a warzone It was an avoidable accident and it killed so le person Not even one child’