Yasna waved a dismissive hand.

“A piddling two degrees. Nothing that would explain this. And if she had an infection of some sort, you would see other signs. Clammy skin, unusually high perspiration. A high white blood cell count, or...or something," she argued.

Dr. Webb spread his hands helplessly. "You're probably right. But you asked me. I'm giving you my professional opinion." He laid a sympathetic hand on her thin shoulder.

“You know, Yasna, we're not perfect. We can't heal everybody." He smiled ruefully. "That's why we say we practice medicine.”

Yasna snorted. "You old fraud," she said. "You can't fool me. You hurt as much as I do when we lose someone." She took a deep breath. "Okay.

I'LL do some more investigating and think about it on my rounds. Maybe

I'll come up with an idea or two.

“Althea Carpenter," she muttered as she left the room.

“What's wrong with you?"

Rachel Wainwright sat in her home office, her eyes focused on her computer screen. It was Sunday night, and she was preparing for court the next day. For the past several weeks, she had been the lead counsel in a class-action lawsuit brought by several dozen families whose properties along the Kankakee River had been damaged by the illegal release of toxic chemicals into the watershed. Antioch Chemical had fought them tooth and nail, but she felt she was only days away from winning a punitive damages claim of staggering proportions.

She was finishing up her notes for her closing argument when a tap sounded at her door.

“Come in," she said, saving the file and closing her Laptop.

Alex opened the door and poked his head in.

“Are you busy, Mom? I can come back later. I know you've got a big day tomorrow.”

Rachel shook her head. "It's all over but the shouting, really. I don't think Antioch and their Lawyers ever thought we'd drag them all the way to trial. They tried to settle four different times before we got to the jury selection, and then again Last week, after they couldn't break

Mrs. Udall on the stand. I'm sure Kincaid thought he could bully that little old lady into recanting her previous testimony.“ She snorted, her eyes glinting at the memory. "She ate his Lunch when he put her back up there. By the end, she was attacking him.”

Her son sat in a chair opposite her desk. "You really love what you do, don't you?"

She smiled. "I do. God, I do. I mean, the hours are long, and you have to deal with so much paperwork and boring details it sometimes makes you want to scream. But when you get a case like this, where you can nail a bunch of corporate sleazebags right to the wall...I Love it. I really do. I wouldn't trade that feeling for anything in the wide green world,"

Alex studied his hands, his face pensive. A faint frown marred the clean lines of his forehead. "How did you know?" he asked. "That you wanted to be a Lawyer?"

Rachel laughed. "Oh, God, it was all those TV shows and movies I watched when I was a kid, I think. ‘Law and Order’ came on around 1990, when I was about fifteen. And there were others. One I really liked was