Who Are You

The street of New York remained the same. Hustling and bustling with the sound of cars in the rush hour.

By the time they got to the hospital, the sun had set and the kids were tired.

"Mummy, is Grandma White here?” Adrian asked.

“Is she not feeling fine? Are you going to treat her?” Amelia asked.

It was the kids' first time in New York, and even though they knew Fiona was also a medical doctor, they had no idea she owned a hospital.

“No, sweethearts, Grandma White works here.” Liora responded.

“Really?” They chorused, gawking at the magnitude of the building as Liora and Lily stepped out of the car.

“I’ll head over to the cabin with the kids; see you both soon.” Ian waved.

“Thank you, babe.” Lily waved back.

As the car pulled away from the hospital, Liora turned towards the entrance, her once smiling face now hardened in determination.

“If I didn’t know better, I would think we were going to war.” Lily mumbled as she followed her.

"Oh, but we are.” Liora muttered under her breath.

The hospital was packed full with a lot of patients in the reception area.

“Looks chaotic in here.” Lily muttered as they rushed out of the way of a nurse.

“Hello, I am here to see…” Liora started to say when the intercom went off in the whole building.

“Attention all staff. Mass Casualty Incident Level One inbound. Repeat—MCI level one inbound. All available physicians, please report to the trauma unit.”

“Really? This place already looks like it needs help. How can they leave for the trauma unit?” Lily wondered in shock as she saw some of the nurses and doctors looking concerned too.

Without waiting for direction, Liora walked past the reception into the outpatient and admin section, which was just down a short corridor.

Liora dropped her handbag on the first counter in front of her. Rolled up the sleeve of her shirt, pulled a band from her pant pocket, and pulled curly brown hair into a ponytail.

"Lily, stay here and coordinate things.” Liora instructed, looking around.

Everyone moved around fast, not giving heed to who was in front of them.

“Hey, you,” Liora called, walking over to a nurse who looked to be in charge of the area.

She took a look at her name tag and said, “Sarah, here, Lily will help you around here, whatever you need.”

“And who are you?” Nurse Sarah asked.

Liora didn’t bother to respond as she walked away, heading towards the trauma section.

Lily pulled out her card and showed the nurse, “I’m Lily, and that’s Liora. We are doctors, and we are here for Mrs. Fiona Whites.”

“Oh, you must be the doctors the hospital has been abuzz about for the past few days.” Sarah said, relief evident in her eyes.

“Oh…” Lily tried to speak.

“Let’s get this place sorted then.” Sarah sighed, pulling Lily after her.

Liora walked swiftly, following the sign and some nurses ahead of her.

“Things are worse than Fiona mentioned.” Liora muttered, feeling her chest squeeze in pain.

How could I have not known? How could I have just taken her word for it? Liora muttered, feeling regret.

"Who is on duty? Who do we page Brad?” One of the nurses asked a young doctor who looked as agitated as they all were.

“I need to think; everyone I can think of is in surgery right now.” Brad said.

Liora walked to the center of the room and shouted, “Gather around, everyone!”

“Who are you?” Brad asked.

Ignoring him, Liora pointed them out in twos.

“You two, bay one. You, take bay two,” Liora instructed, splitting them into three groups.

“If you need anything, call out, alright?" Liora instructed.

“Why should we follow what you say? We don’t know who you are. You can’t just walk into a hospital and say…” Brad stated, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

“That isn’t important right now,” Liora snapped, her tone sharp as she added, "Let's save the patient, and we can argue about that later.”

Before Brad could respond, the first EMS stretcher rolled in through the double doors.

“Coming through!” the paramedic called out.

“Alright, teams, move!” Brad shouted.

He shot a glance at Liora in warning as he added, “And you, don’t touch anyone until we verify who you are.”

The stretchers kept rolling in until they had about four patients in the ward. The three groups were attending to one patient each, while Brad attended to one alone.

One of the teams called out, "Brad, this patient is hypotensive; BP is crashing…"

“Start a large-bore IV!” Brad shouted in response, adding, “Use an…”

“Use a sixteen-gauge cannula and hang normal saline wide open!” Liora cut him off, walking over to them.

The nurse nodded, naturally following Liora’s instruction.

Liora hovered from bed to bed, calling out corrections faster than Brad could have. They seemed to have everything in control until another stretcher rolled in.

“I need a doctor here now! The patient has third-degree burns; he is struggling to breathe. We need to secure an airway immediately!” the paramedics shouted.

Liora rushed over, pulling on gloves as she spoke.

“Get me a burn sheet, two IV lines, and prep for rapid sequence intubation!”

“Ma’am, we haven’t cleared who you are—" a nurse tried to say.

“Not now. He’s going into respiratory failure," Liora said, her voice firm.

Liora grabbed the patient as she started intubation, not giving an ear to the nurse.

“Suction ready, intubating…”

When Brad finally hurried over, Liora had already placed the endotracheal tube and confirmed placement.

"Tubes in, hook up the ventilator.” Liora instructed.

Brad looked shocked, staring at her in awe at her unquestionable skill.

Finally done, Liora straightened, removed her gloves, and met his eyes.

Brad had no argument left as he stared back at her.

“Now that is the reason why you’ve earned a name for yourself.” Betty walked into the ward grinning.

“Looked like they needed help.” Liora shrugged.

The nurses whispered amongst themselves, surprised to see the strange lady knew the president's daughter.

“Mom is waiting for you upstairs. She knew it most likely was you when a call was placed saying some strange lady was in the ward.” Betty laughed lightly.

Brad pushed his glasses up, hoping the ground would open up to swallow him.

“Over to you now, big guy.” Liora smiled, patting his shoulder as she walked away.

Lily saw them pass and hurried over, saying, “Everything seems calmer now.”

“Yeah,” Liora muttered as they walked into an elevator.

“Hi, I’m Betty. You must be Lily. Nice to meet you.” Betty said, stretching her hand.

“Nice to meet you, Betty.” Lily said.

“What is Fiona not telling me?” Liora asked.

Betty sighed, her eyes suddenly going distant as she responded, “You would have to ask her yourself.”

About an hour later, Liora walked out of Fiona’s office with a frown.

“Is everything alright?” Lily asked.

Liora just shrugged, and they left the hospital. A deadly look in her eyes, like she could swallow anyone who got on her toes.

“What happened in there?” Lily asked.

Liora was quiet till they got to the entrance of the building, where a car was waiting for them.

A security guard walked over to them, stretched out the car key, and said, "Here, ma’am. Mrs. Fiona asked that this be given to you.”

“Okay, whenever you’re ready to talk, I’m all ears.” Lily muttered as Liora pulled away from the building.

They drove in silence till they got to the hotel where Liora had booked one of their cabins for the year.

As she turned her car into the road leading to the cabin, another car almost crashed into them.

“Oh no, this is not a good time.” Lily muttered as she saw Liora’s eyes narrow.

The other honked for them to move, and Liora honked back, obviously pissed.

“Can’t we just let them pass?” Lily asked softly.

Before Liora could respond, the driver of the other car stepped out, looking equally pissed.

“Move your car out of the way!” He shouted.

“Oh oh.” Lily mumbled, looking instantly over at Liora.

Liora looked like flames were coming off her face. The rage had tripled, almost like something had triggered it.

Liora opened the car door and stepped out, her heart beating at the speed of light.

There he was, the last person she hoped to meet on her first day back in New York. There he was, staring at her blankly.

Liora walked up to him, her hand balling into a fist at her side as she looked up at him.

“Get your car…” Travis started again.

“Is that what you say to me?” Liora asked, her voice hardened.

Travis brushed his hair back, glaring down at her as he said in an equally pissed and irritated voice, “And who the h*ll are you?”