During my first week at the Northern Medical Center, nine job applications arrived from Blackthorn Hospital.
They came from three nurses, two pediatric healers, and every member of my former trauma team.
"We're not following some Luna," Nurse Mara told me over video. "We just want to keep working with a chief healer who puts patients first."
I hired them all.
Blackthorn Hospital promptly sent a strongly worded protest accusing the North of poaching its core staff.
Rowan asked me only one question. "Do you need them?"
"Yes."
"Then they stay."
He approved an expansion of the emergency center on the spot and turned his own council chamber over to pediatrics.
No one reminded me that I owed him for it.
And I didn't reject the help merely to prove I was independent.
True equality betw
