What was she thinking? muttered Alexander, closing his eyes and imagining his Tania.She was determined. It was like some kind of a personal crusade with her, Ina said. She gave the doctor a liter of blood for youWhere did she get it from?Herself, of course. Ina smiled. Lucky for you, Major, our Nurse Metanova is a universal donor.Of course she is, thought Alexander, keeping his eyes tightly shut.Ina continued. The doctor told her she couldnt give any more, and she said a liter wasnt enough, and he said, Yes, but you dont have more to give, and she said, Ill make more, and he said, No, and she said, Yes, and in four hours, she gave him another half-liter of blood.Alexander lay on his stomach and listened intently while Ina wrapped fresh gauze on his wound.He was barely breathing.The doctor told her, Tania, youre wasting your time. Look at his burn. Its going to get infected. There wasnt enough penicillin to give to you, especially since your blood count was solow. Alexander heard Ina chuckle in disbelief. So Im making my rounds late that night, and who do I find next to your bed? Tatiana. Shes sitting with a syringe in her arm, hooked up to acatheter, and I watch her, and I swear to God, you wont believe it when I tell you, Major, but I see that the catheter is attached to the entry drip in your IV. Inas eyes bulged. I watch herdraining blood from the radial artery in her arm into your IV. I ran in and said, Are you crazy? Are you out of your mind? Youre siphoning blood from yourself into him? She said to me inher calm, I-wont-stand-for-any-argument voice, Ina, if I dont, he will die. I yelled at her. I said, There are thirty soldiers in the critical wing who need sutures and bandages and their wounds cleaned. Why dont you take care of them and let God take care of the dead? And she said, Hes not dead. He is still alive, and while he is alive, he is mine. Can you believe it, Major? But thats what she said. Oh, for Gods sake, I said to her. Fine, die yourself. I dont care. But the next morning I went to complain to Dr. Sayers that she wasnt following procedure,told him what she had done, and he ran to yell at her. Ina lowered her voice to a sibilant, incredulous whisper. We found her unconscious on the floor by your bed. She was in a dead faint, but you had taken a turn for the better. All your vital signs were up. And Tatiana got up from the floor, white as death itself, and said to the doctor coldly, Maybe now you can give him the penicillin he needs? I could see the doctor was stunned. But he did. Gave you penicillin and more plasma and extra morphine. Then he operated on you, to get bits of the shell fragment outof you, and saved your kidney. And stitched you. And all that time she never left his side, or yours. He told her your bandages needed to be changed every three hours to help with drainage,to prevent infection. We had only two nurses in the terminal wing, me and her. I had to take care of all the other patients, while all she did was take care of you. For fifteen days and nights she unwrapped you and cleaned you and changed your dressings. Every three hours. She was a ghost by the end. But you made it. Thats when we moved you to critical care. I said to her, Tania, this man ought to marry you for what you did for him, and she said, You think so? Ina tutted again. Paused. Are you all right, Major? Why are you crying?