Ten.

Ten was the number of patients she had exhibiting symptoms of the strange illness. Ten was the number she had failed to cure.

Marcella leaned back in her chair, her dark eyes piercing the coughing child seated before her. It was a little girl, no older than three. Once, perhaps, she had been rosy-cheeked and healthy. But now the child was nothing more than a pale, shivering shell. Dark circles hung beneath the little girl's dull eyes and her thin body trembled with each cough. It wasn't fever or a simple cold. Marcella had checked multiple times. No...this was new, and while it hadn't claimed any lives yet, she wanted it gone and gone fast.

"Dr. Biancardi, thank you so much..." the girl's mother said. "You can't understand how hard this has been for us...no other doctors would treat a Metalheart family."

Marcella gave the woman a tight smile as she checked the girl. "Don't thank me until she's healthy again," she dismissed as she pulled back. "Until I find the exact source of the illness, I can't do much but give you basic cough medicine. I'm sorry..."

The woman shook her head and embraced the young doctor. "It's alright. You've done so much for us already."

Marcella watched as the woman gathered the medicine and girl before hurrying back out. An exhausted sigh surged from her lips as she closed her eyes and leaned back. Two years. Hard to believe that that much time has passed. She'd been so sure that becoming a doctor would change lives and make things better, but now...now she felt as helpless as anything, what with the new disease raging about. Marcella gathered her long hair into a tight bun, a few white strands standing out despite her being only twenty, and grabbed her coat. Frustration bubbles beneath her skin as she thought back to the little girl. So many were sick, especially in the slums where hygiene was the last thing on everyone's list. Now it was time to take action and go to the source, even if it meant getting ill.

Marcella rushed out of her office/house and waved at the passing carriages for a ride.