Bright and early the next morning, Jessica followed around the head nurse, Laura Tweed, as the woman in her late forties showed Jessica what was expected of her. With eagerness, she took everything, trying to remember every detail. She was happy to know that this had been taught to her in nursing school. She'd be fine, she just knew it.

Nurse Tweed took Jessica into a larger room with six beds – all filled with wounded soldiers. Three beds were on one side of the room, three were on the other. A small bedside table stood next to each table with a washbasin and pitcher. Two open widows brought light into the dismal room.

Jessica's chest tightened and she tried not to show emotion. Some of these men had lost limbs. Some had other issues. She must remember rule number one – do not get involved with a patient. She could care for them, but she must not take her emotions any deeper than a patient/nurse relationship.

Nurse Tweed stopped at the first bed on the right. She pointed to the man who was still asleep. His chest and one arm were bandaged. A sheet draped over the lower-half of him, but it was obvious that the man only had one leg.

"Nurse Tweed?" Jessica asked in a low voice, not wanting to wake the poor man. "I don't understand. The war has been over for a few years, so why are these men still here?"

"These men were deserters." Laura lifted her double chin as she pierced the sleeping man with a glare. "The war might have given them a few injuries, but their main injuries came from running from the law and not succeeding."

Gasping, Jessica covered a hand over her mouth. Deserters? She mustn't think of them as war heroes. Instead, they were no better than criminals.

"Good morning, ladies."

The man's voice from behind, startled Jessica and she swung to see who had just greeted her. Dressed in a white doctor's lab jacket over his beige shirt and brown vest, was the man she'd met yesterday. Hugh was a doctor?

He stopped near Jessica and his gaze ran over her – from her little rectangle-ish white hat, and down her white apron with the red cross on the front. His smile widened.

"Miss Simone, you're a nurse."

She hiccupped a laugh. "And you're a doctor."

He nodded. "I'm Doctor Jackson."

Nurse Tweed stepped closer to Hugh and arched an eyebrow. "You two know each other, I presume?"

Hugh's smile faded slightly when he looked at the older nurse. "Yes, Nurse Simone lives at the boarding house where my mother works."

Jessica's heart did a silly flip. The man actually recognized her for her profession and addressed her correctly. "Well, Doctor Jackson, I'm happy to be working with you."

When his brown-eyed gaze met her, his hearty smile seemed to return. "And I'm happy to be working with you. But, you must excuse me. I have a patient to see."

"Of course, doctor." She really should give Nurse Tweed her attention, but she couldn't stop herself from watching Hugh move to the last bed in the room and sit on a chair beside it. The patient's head was bandaged to where she couldn't see his face. Then again, she wasn't really watching the patient's face. Instead, she admired the way Hugh's experienced hands unwound the bandages. She also realized Hugh wore a different expression when dealing with his patients. Now, she could see the serious man behind his cheerfulness.

Nurse Tweed cleared her throat loudly, and Jessica quickly snapped her attention back to the older woman. Tweed's eyebrow was arched as she shot Jessica a critical glare.

"Just to let you know," the woman said in a soft voice, "there will be no dalliance between doctors and nurses." She tilted her head. "Is that understood, Nurse Simone?"

Jessica swallowed hard and straightened her shoulders. "Yes, I understand." It looked as if she could admire Hugh from afar, and that was as far as that infatuation could go.

She listened to Nurse Tweed talk about the man on the bed and his infirmities before they moved to the next bed. Jessica should be listening, but instead, her thoughts were on Hugh. If he came to visit his mother at the boarding house, Jessica would surely see him outside the office. The man appeared to be interested in her, and yet, he must know about Nurse Tweed's rule. Or... was it only a rule for the nurses? She'd met two of the other doctors, and they were all old enough to be her father.

Hugh Jackson, however, was younger and robust. It would be difficult to only think of him as a doctor. Why couldn't they at least be friends? Nurse Tweed wouldn't criticize Jessica if she and Hugh were just friends, would she?

As they moved from one bed to the next, they came closer to Doctor Jackson. It was easier to see the patient he was working on, especially the sores on the man's face, making him unrecognizable. Poor man. Would he ever recover? And if he did, would he go straight from the hospital to jail? After all, he was a deserter.

As Hugh was wrapping clean bandages around the man's head, he talked to the man, who responded. For a moment his voice sounded familiar, but then she dismissed that thought. She wouldn't know anyone here in Vermont.

Jessica followed the head nurse to the back door. As Jessica passed the injured man with Hugh, something on the patient's arm caught her attention. The lightning bolt-looking blemish on his forearm didn't appear to be an injury at all, but a... birthmark.

Recognition struck, making her stumble against Nurse Tweed. Jessica's heartbeat whacked so hard against her ribs, she thought she may be the hospital's next patient. But she didn't let the stop her from rushing to the bed, only stopping next to Hugh. Her gaze locked on the soldier's arm.

As she realized who this man was, tears formed in her eyes. Her mind grew blank and her body become numb with shock.

"Nurse Simone?" Hugh asked, standing, and grasping her arm. "What is wrong?"

She shook her head, not believing what she saw. There had only been one other lightning bolt birthmark she'd seen in her life, and the man who'd possessed such a mark on his forearm was none other than Wyatt Ryker.

"Nurse Simone?" Hugh said again, his voice held a touch of concern. "Do you know this man?"

Finally, she was able to lift her gaze back to Hugh, and through her teary vision, she nodded. She didn't dare tell him that she had been in love with him and was in hopes of marrying him once the war was over. If she confessed that information, they would make sure she wasn't his nurse.

"Yes," she said in a tight voice before quickly clearing it. "A boy I'd known from back home had that same birthmark on his arm. His name was Wyatt Ryker." She gulped down the emotion rising in her throat. "He'd gone to war and never returned."

"Do you think this is that man?" Hugh asked.

She inhaled a shaky breath. "He was on the missing soldier's report." She glanced back at the man on the bed with the bandages around his head. He had the same light-brown hair as Wyatt, and from what she could see, he was about the same height and build.

The man on the bed reached out a hand to her, and automatically, she took it. His fingers looked the same, too, except they were more cut up now than before.

"Nurse?" the man said. "Do you know me?"

She blinked back tears of joy. She couldn't let Wyatt know it was really her, or Nurse Tweed would definitely not let Jessica attend him. "I think so."

His other hand reached over and patted her arm. "I pray you do, because I have no clue to my identity."

She hitched a breath, not sure what she'd just heard. She swung her gaze to Hugh's concerned expression.

He nodded. "It's true. This man doesn't have a memory."

Holding back her gasp of surprise, she clenched her teeth. Wyatt wouldn't remember her at all? Then again, would he be telling the doctor that for fear of going to jail? That was definitely a possibility.

She switched her gaze between Wyatt and Hugh as her mind spun with ideas. She couldn't let anyone at the hospital know her true feelings for the patient. But, at the same time, she needed to talk privately with Wyatt.

"The only way I would be able to identify him," Jessica told Hugh, "would be to look at his face. However, I received a glimpse of his face when you unwrapped the bandages, and..." She shook her head. "I don't think that way will work."

Taking a deep breath for courage, she turned back to Wyatt and gently took hold of his hand as she slowly lowered it to the bed. "I'm sorry, sir, but until you remember something about your life, I won't be able to truly identify you."

Wyatt's frame relaxed in defeat, and she wanted to cry again. But she couldn't. Not in front of the doctor and nurse.

Hugh patted her arm, making her look at him again. His expression was sorrowful. "I'll let you know if he has a breakthrough. He's been here for two weeks, and so far, nothing we do has worked."

"Thank you Doctor Jackson. Keep me informed." She turned back to the head nurse. "We can continue."

It irritated Jessica that Nurse Tweed's attitude was one of boredom, as if it ruined her day to take a few minutes for Jessica to converse with a patient. Well, she would make sure that she never became that kind of nurse. Jessica was doing this because she enjoyed taking care of those who were sick and afflicted. They needed someone with a caring heart, which was what Jessica had.

As she followed the woman out of the room, her mind returned to Wyatt. She couldn't be obvious in her concern for him. She must show the others the same amount of attention. Unless... what about at night while everyone was asleep? That was the only way she and Wyatt could talk personally.

She'd return tonight, and she prayed that he would tell her the truth.