Bella bit her lip and smiled faintly. "I like helping people…"
"I know you do," Marla chuckled gently as she opened a fresh bandage roll, her hands practiced but soft. "You always have. I remember that highway accident three years ago—you helped more people than the ambulance crew did. Thin little thing, bleeding all over, dragging strangers out of shattered cars like you didn't even feel the pain."
Bella blushed.
***
Across the city, smoke clung to the walls of the old industrial zone like a second skin. The warehouse near the port had gone silent. The crates were secured, the floor littered with signs of a fight—burn marks, scattered shell casings, and the faint tang of gunpowder still heavy in the air.
