The Doctor's Heart

Bill had a very strict ruitine that he followed everyday. He woke up just before sunrise to exercise, ate a light breakfast and grabbed a quick shower before work. His first stop of the day was the obstetrics clinic for the uneffected women. Even though he typically ate a light breakfast himself he always rembered to bring something extra for his patients as way to remind them that someone still cared. He always hated seeing the contrast between how the uneffected women were treated compared to the gifted women. It wasn't so much that they were mistreated, not on a physical level anyway, such a thing would be a crime, but their emotional state was another story. Despite the fact that they represented the majority of the women in the country they were treated rather poorly in comparison to the gifted. This was in large part due to how the breeding program differed in relation to the two groups of women. Any man in the kingdom who could pass the preliminary qualifications for the breeding program, regardless of status, would be entered into a lottery for a chance to breed with an uneffected woman, but only those who had achieved a notable station could earn the right to breed with the gifted. As a result, the gifted were showered with favors and expensive luxuries while the uneffected were given the minimum required to sustain the basic health and well-being required of a female. The difference was made even more stark by the fact that the doctors caring for them had to first qualify for the advanced breeding program to be able to treat any woman. This meant that often those who were most responsible for their care looked down on them in the belief that they deserved better for the effort that they had put into the breeding program. They believed that their achievements made them somewhat superior to women that were available for such common men. This was not Bill's mentality however. He sincerely doubted if there were a man in the entire kingdom who could earnestly claim to be equal, let alone superior, to even the most plain and lowely of the women. This was not simply due to how few women still existed in their world, but also because he took the time and effort to try and understand the hardships they had to endure for simply existing in this world as women. For even the most revered woman in the kingdom there was no escaping their fate. Within a few years of coming of age, at an age that still would be considered a child for a male, they were forced into a breeding program, a program that would effect the rest of their lives, often in ways that they had no control over. After that no matter how much they advanced or who's favor they gained they would be forced to continue bearing children until they either died from the strain or grew to old to be of use. At this point they were hidden away from society and forgotten. The fate of any woman in this cruel world was truly pitiful, but for the lowest ranking of them it was worse. They would never see even a lick of affection or gratitude for their sacrifice, a sacrifice that amounted to nothing less than their entire lives. How could any man equal that?

This is why Bill worked so diligently. He wanted, no he needed to find a way to relieve these women of such a heavy burden. This also formed how he viewed patient care. He always took care great care to remember that the women under his care were people first and patients second, but beyond that capacity they did not concern him at all. To be more accurate, the appeal of the breeding didn't concern him. Like the other doctors that treated women in the kingdom he was required to be a part of the advanced breeding program, and because of his record particularly as it pertained to the plague he was ranked rather high even among those in the advanced breeding program, but his lack of interest in breeding was a point of sincere frustration for many of his colleagues.

On this particular morning like so many others Bill went about his work with diligence, paying little to no heed to the grumblings of his coworkers. No one even bothered to ask him how the initial ceremony had gone, or if he was eager for a response, as everyone already had a good idea as to what he would say. As he did the other times he had been called upon by the breeding program he would simply respond that he had no interest in such matters, as was the truth. This time, however, the answer would be quite different, a fact that was revieled, not by a colleague, buy rather by his last patient of the day.

"Hello Dr. Thompson!" Rang out a cheerful.

Bill looked up from his notes to see his final patient of the day. placing a gentle smile on his face he replied, "Well, hello Lyra. You seem to be in good spirits today. Is there something special on your mind today?"

Lyra was certainly in a good mood that day, but the reason wasn't something that she was eager to share with Bill. Instead, she sat down and shifted nervously in her chair and she tried to think of anything to explain her mood. In truth she had begun speaking to the new guard that had been posted to watch her, but her interest in him was a taboo that she was certain that even such a caring doctor would be quick to admonish. Bill's eyes danced with humor as he watched the girl struggle to answer. She had begun twisting her brown hair around her finger and was biting down slightly on her bottom lip as she thought. Finally her brown eyes lit up and she smiled brightly before saying, "Oh, nothing important." She paused slightly before continuing. "By the way didn't you attend the introduction ceremony this year? How did it go."

Bill paused and looked away awkwardly before answering. This pause was far more telling then he could have imagined, and it had the young lady in front of him beyond curious by the time he answered. "It went well, I think. " He replied, shyly. "She wasn't at all what I was expecting." He came to a sudden stop, and his face flushed bright red, as he realized that he had already said far more than he had anticipated.

Lyra smiled eagerly at this small tidbit of information. Bill was her favorite doctor and she was beyond happy at the thought that there was a woman who could grab his attention. "She?" she asked, inquisitivly. "What kind of girl was she?"

Perhaps it was because he felt he was already past the point of no return, but maybe he was just that eager to speak about his experience, either way he found the details pouring out of him. "She was a patient of mine during the plague, and back then she was a timid little thing. The kind of kid that everyone had written off, but they were wrong." He laughed. "She made it so obvious that she didn't have any desire to interact with most of her doctors back then, yet they never paid enough attention to catch on. She was a bright child, but she was so small and sickly that even I worried about the kind of future that she would have if she survived. She did survive, though. More than that, she thrived. She's become a woman beyond anything I could have imagined. Beautiful and intelligent, yet she still has that feisty spirit that allowed her to question her circumstances even as a child. I've seen this world kill that spirit in so many, and yet she held on and even became more beautiful for it." At this point Bill realized that he was rambling and stopped, but it was entirely to late, as the only man he could rightfully call a friend there, James Burstar, came up behind them during his rant and had heard the whole thing.

James was a peculiar man with shoulder length brown hair and large blue eyes, that looked all the brighter in contrast to the deep tan of his skin. As he listened to his friend gush on, for the first time since they had met, about a girl, he felt a curious desire to tease him on the matter. "I don't know," He said with a chuckle. "Sounds rather plain to me. You didn't even mention what this mythical girl even looks like."