Killy, a young girl from the Salaam Slums, waits outside the Lezak Orphanage in order to beg them to accept her sickly little brother Lau. The head of the orphanage beats her for her impudence, telling her to go back to her father. Jessie passes through the orphanage on her rounds and treats their wards.
On her way home from her duties, Jessie passes the slums. The residents live in abject poverty, unable even to pay the medical taxes that allow other citizens access to her care. Killy approaches her with Lau in her arms and presents a medical certificate entitling Lau to treatment from the district's Blue Doctor — Jessie is just about to render treatment when Eagle swoops in and identifies the certificate as a fake. Killy and Lau are dragged back to the slums, while Eagle harshly berates Jessie for falling for a fake certificate.
Back at the clinic, Jessie commiserates with Randy. She asks him "the true meaning of kindness." He tells her he doesn't have an easy answer, it's something she'll need to figure out for herself. In the slums, Killy returns to her home with the food she was able to steal from the market. Her father beats her for failing to steal his preferred intoxicants. Lau tells Killy not to worry so much about him. Their father says they all might as well drop dead.
The next morning, Jessie awakens early and sneaks into the slums, determined to treat Lau even if she'll be punished. She bursts in on Killy's attempt to kill her father, and throws herself in front of Killy's blade. Killy and Lau's father escapes. Badly wounded but still determined, Jessie orders Killy to bring her Lau so that she can treat him with her blood, and promptly passes out.
At the clinic, Jessie's stab wound is treated by Randy. He lets her know that Killy has been arrested for attacking a Blue Doctor, her father has gone missing, and Lau has been taken in by the orphanage. Jessie tries to ask him if her actions were "right or wrong," but Randy doesn't have an answer for her.
When Jessie recovers fully and returns to her rounds, she treats Lau at the orphanage. He tells her his sister snuck in with a guard to say goodbye before she's taken to prison, and that Killy will stop by the clinic to apologize to Jessie directly. Jessie meets Killy and Eagle at the clinic, and the young girl thanks Jessie for saving Lau. Killy is carted away in chains. Eagle and Randy discuss a proposal for the city to provide jobs for the residents of the slums, which should get more attention following Jessie's attack. With guaranteed jobs, the slum's residents will finally be able to afford the medical tax.
Chapter 5 Provides Examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Killy and Lau's father is a terrible man. He forces Killy to steal from the markets to feed their household while he stays home and gets high chewing Gut Leaves. He beats Killy if she doesn't supply him with the stolen drug or talks back to him, and he doesn't seem to care that his son is dying from the same blood disease that killed his wife.
- Delicate and Sickly: Lau suffers from hemophilia, a blood disease which prevents his blood from clotting properly. He's weak from bloodloss and sickly from malnutrition, to the point where he seems unable to walk or sit up unassisted. His illness is what drives Killy to nearly kill their father.
- Fantastic Drug: Gut Leaves, to which Killy and Lau's father is addicted. They appear to be consumed in a manner similar to chewing tobacco, khat, or betel nuts, though they're legally available in the Lezak District. Killy's father forces her to steal them from the market every day to feed his addiction.
- Healthcare Motivation: Lau is desperately ill, and his illness drives Killy to do increasingly desperate acts to ensure his survival:
- Since their family is too poor to afford the medical tax that would enable Lau to be treated by the district's Blue Doctor, Killy begs the orphanage to take him in so he can get treatment. The orphanage refuses because their father is still their legal caretaker (albeit a worthless drug addict who does nothing to support his family).
- Killy acquires forged medical certificates that would entitle Lau to treatment from the Blue Doctor, but the city guard recognizes the forgery and prevents Jessie from treating Lau.
- Finally, Killy resolves to murder her father so that the orphanage will be forced to take him in. She's interrupted at the last minute, but Killy was dead set on getting their father out of the picture.
- Knockout Gas: Jessie using sleeping powder to get the orphanage's youngest residents to doze off while she checks their teeth for cavities.
- Orphanage of Love: The Lezak Orphanage might be run by a hardass, but the children are well treated — and most importantly, the Orphanage pays the medical taxes that enable their wards to be cared for by Lezak's Blue Doctor.
- Promotion to Parent: Downplayed example, but Killy is the only caretaker to her sickly brother Lau. Their abusive father is a worthless drunkard, and their mother died of anemia. Every day she has to steal food from the market in order to feed her family. Killy begs the Lezak Orphanage to take in her brother so that he can be treated by the Blue Doctor, but they turn her down because her father is still in the picture. At the end of her rope and out of options to care for Lau, Killy is willing to kill their father and turn herself in to the city guard to ensure that Lau will be cared for.
- Samaritan Syndrome: Jessie struggles with the morality of her position as a Blue Doctor when she's prevented from treating the residents of the city's slums because they can't pay their medical taxes. She wants to help as many people as she can, and she's even willing to break to law and face punishment if she can save just one sickly little boy in the slums.
- Self-Made Orphan: Attempted but ultimately Averted — Killy tries to kill her father so that the orphanage will have to accept Lau, but is prevented from doing so when Jessie throws herself in front of Killy's blade. The attempt scares off her dad, so in the end Lau is accepted into the orphanage and is healed by Jessie's blood, while Killy goes to prison for attacking a Blue Doctor.
- Taking the Bullet: Jessie throw herself in front of Killy's blade when Killy attempts to stab her father. Jessie doesn't even know the victim personally — in fact, she knows he's a scumbag — but she's an All-Loving Heroine who won't stand by while someone is harmed.
