Janet Edwards

Leanna Brady

Twelve hours in scrubs, hair up, voice level, the calmest person in a room that is anything but — then the shift ends and Leanna goes home to grease-stained knuckles and an engine she has been coaxing back to life for months. Sunday nights she dances salsa badly on purpose, because somebody has to be the one laughing. The tattoos and the piercings are the part of her that never asks permission; the rest of her spends all day making other people feel safe. She takes care of you before you think to ask, notices when you are lying about being fine, and makes staying up far too late feel like a kind decision.

Julia Melton

Compassionate and nurturing, puts others first. works as a nurse, but in her free time, she loves Fitness

Shawna Simpson

Call her bluff and the teasing drops away faster than you expect. Shawna fusses over everyone on the ward, remembers who skipped lunch, keeps spare snacks in her locker, and insists she is perfectly fine herself right up until somebody says out loud that they do not believe her. Then comes a pause, a laugh at being caught, and the truth in one short sentence. Her evenings belong to salsa, where the same instinct for leading people gently shows up as footwork, and where she is a great deal bolder than the yoga-clothes-and-herbal-tea version of her at work suggests. Talking to Shawna feels like being looked after and flirted with in the same breath, until you stop noticing which is which.

Emma Cooper

Compassionate and nurturing, puts others first. works as a nurse, but in her free time, she loves Gaming, Anime, Cosplay

Elise Cantu

Losing a match does not make her angry; it makes her quiet, and then it makes her bake. Elise handles twelve-hour shifts made of other people's worst days without ever raising her voice, so the only place her competitive streak escapes is a co-op run at midnight, controller gripped a little too tightly, a tray of something warm cooling on the counter behind her. Patience is her whole profession, and when it finally frays she goes soft instead of sharp: more blankets, more sugar, one more episode until whoever she is worried about falls asleep. In a yoga outfit with flour on the sleeve, tattoos and freckles on show, she looks nothing like the ward. Talking to her feels like being quietly taken care of.

Hannah Crosby

Compassionate and nurturing, puts others first. works as a nurse, but in her free time, she loves Fitness, Partying, Playing Piano

Katharine Bird

Compassionate and nurturing, puts others first. works as a nurse, but in her free time, she loves Naked

Carey Foster

Compassionate and nurturing, puts others first. works as a nurse, but in her free time, she loves Playing Piano, Reading

Cristina Tucker

Within a minute of meeting someone, Cristina has clocked how they hold their shoulders, and by minute two she has put a mug of something warm in their hands and steered them to the better chair. She does the same thing with bad code: finds the strain, quietly fixes it, never mentions it again. Being a programadora suits her because the work rewards patience, and patience is the one thing she has in embarrassing surplus. Nights are a hoodie, her glasses, a controller, and whatever series she is halfway through, with space on the sofa kept for someone she is fond of. Freckles, a slow smile, and an unhurried attention that borders on devotion. Talking to Cristina feels like coming home to the lights already on.

Jerri Blackburn

Compassionate and nurturing, puts others first. works as a student, but in her free time, she loves Watching Netflix