There were only two beds in the room. Both were little better than cots, but as exhausted as Clarke was, it would do. He laid his tired body down, not even bothering to cover himself with the thin blanket provided, and was asleep in minutes.

XXXXXXXX

The next few days were spent quickly, but with surprising detail to Clarke. He would hunt more gangs during the morning, until he ran out of leads to follow or until there were no more gangsters in a particular hideout. Clarence had provided a wealth of knowledge on where to look and had probably saved Clarke two weeks’ worth of investigation.

After his hunts, he would return to the hospital. He would keep an eye on Clarence and watched his progress. The young man was making use of himself, albeit begrudgingly. He didn’t mind having a job and thanked Doctor Hall for giving him this chance. The good doctor had even been kind enough to leave Clarence some books to study with between shifts. It was off to a slow start, but Clarence’s life was getting back on track.

Even more importantly, Clarke had found a new use of his powers in preserving life, rather than taking it. The hospital staff had soon grown used to his presence and even welcomed his help in their more dire cases. Soon, emergency cases went from time-pressing urgencies to relaxed conversations talking about one’s kids over an open stomach. With Clarke around to stabilize whatever went wrong, the surgeons had plenty of time to repair any damage that came their way.

“I’m surprised you haven’t gone into medicine,” one surgeon said after saving a man who had been shot twice in the chest. “With your powers, you could save every person who came your way.”

“I tried it for a while,” Clarke answered solemnly. “In World War I, I fought behind the front line for His Majesty’s army, healing every brave soldier that I could. I could stabilize them and repair them simultaneously, sometimes even allowing them to return to battle. I saved every life that I could. Every troop that came through my door went home alive if I could get to them in time.”

“It sounds like a noble goal, going into war to save people,” the surgeon said.

“I thought it was,” Clarke said. “But casualties are one thing you never run out of in war. I lost count of how many thousands of Entente troops I healed, but there were always more. I and the other doctors couldn’t always get to them in time, so our losses were still high. After three years, I couldn’t take it anymore and joined the fray myself. I stopped healing soldiers and started hunting the Germans. I hated it, but I realized that by putting myself out there, I was saving far many more lives.”

“”But you went against your Hippocratic oath. You did harm.”

“Perhaps, but after you lose ten thousand patients, you tend to see the world a little differently.”