Night shift. Emergency intake. A man with a gunshot wound. A doctor who refuses to be ordered. A man who isn't used to being refused.
Arina: "BP's falling—watch the pressure. Give me two amps of epinephrine, now."
Paramedic: "Doctor, we gave what we could on the street—"
Arina: "Then keep giving. Keep an IV in his other arm. And someone suction the airway."
Paramedic: "Yes, Doctor Arina. He's—"
Arina: "Don't tell me what he is. Tell me what he needs."
(They pull back the sheet. Blood, ragged clothes, a man breathing through pain and shock.)
Man (half-voice): "...not...not here..."
Nurse Nadia: "Name?"
Man: "Don't—"
Arina: "Then treat him as unknown. Airway, breathing, circulation. Jordan, where's the crash cart?"
(A knock at the glass doors. A long-settled quiet in the hall; a presence the night feels before the footsteps reach the room.)
Henry (voice at the doorway): "You should stop touching him."
Arina: "We stabilize first. Identify later. Who are you?"
Henry: "Someone who prefers his property returned in pieces, not patched in a public hospital."
Arina: "This is a public hospital. He's a human being. You can't dictate care."
Henry: "You can stitch what you want. Just know that if he walks out alive, you answer to consequences you don't understand."
Arina: "Then you can stand there and threaten me, or you can sign the release if you want custody."
Henry: "No signatures. I don't trust hospitals to keep secrets."
Arina: "I'm not a repository for secrets, Mr..."
Henry: "Henry."
Arina: "Dr. Arina."
Henry: "Henry. (smiles) Sharp as the steel in your hands."
Nurse Nadia: "Doctor, his pressure dropped—"
Arina: "Adrenaline—now. Who gave the initial report?"
Paramedic: "Unit Three. By the old textile market. Shots fired. We found him collapsed in an alley."
Henry: "They shot him because someone needed a message. He's not a bystander."
Arina: "We don't make exceptions for messages. We make exceptions for people who live."
Henry: "He owes more lives than the one he was born to."
Arina: "He owes them nothing in my ER."
(Silence tightens. The tape of the monitor stutters, then finds a rhythm. Arina doesn't look at Henry when she moves.)
Henry: "You're brave. Or a little reckless."
Arina: "I'm a doctor. We're trained to be reckless with rules in favor of life."
Henry: "And what happens when life costs too much?"
Arina: "Then we make the call and pay the price. That's not my problem—"
(Henry steps closer, as if proximity itself carries negotiation.)
Henry: "It's everyone's problem if choosing life opens you to vendettas."
Arina: "Then tell me: are you here to arrest me or to threaten me?"
Henry: "Neither. To observe. To make sure the man who caused trouble for me does not cause more trouble by surviving."
Arina: "So you'd prefer him to die."
Henry: "I prefer him not to wake and make worse calls."
Arina: "That would be killing."
Henry: "You have a lot of certainties for someone who sees so many things fall apart in an hour."
Arina: "And you have a lot of assumptions for someone who walks into hospitals and expects obedience."
(She ties a knot—hands moving fast—and the man on the table exhales like someone leaving a bad dream.)
Paramedic: "Heart rate steady. Pressure creeping up."
Arina: "Keep him sedated. He's in shock. Don't let him thrash."
Henry: "You always handle the chaos so well."
Arina: "I handle human bodies. Not human egos."
Henry (smiles that doesn't reach his eyes): "Egos hurt less than bullets."
Nurse Nadia (under her breath): "People like him think everything else is replaceable."
Henry: "What did you call me?"
Nurse Nadia: "...no—doctor—sorry—"
Arina: "Nadia, focus."
Nurse Nadia: "Yes, Doctor."
Henry: "They talk. They're very informative."
Arina: "They're nurses. They're allowed to be honest."
Henry: "Honesty is a hazardous habit around me."
Arina: "Then perhaps hazard will keep you honest for once."
(A thin laugh from Henry. He reaches into his coat and sets a folded paper on the counter—thick, official-looking—money pressed neat and flat.)
Henry: "Consider that an apology from people who never apologize. For the trouble you've had tonight. For the stain we dragged into your clean rooms."
Arina (looks at the money but keeps working): "I don't accept bribes."
Henry: "Not a bribe. A compensation. For extra nights on call, for overtime, for scrub time wasted on men who were shot rather than stopped."
Arina: "It's not a business ledger. It's a life. I can't accept—"
Henry: "Then refuse, and make me an enemy."
Arina: "Do you even realize how often men like you threaten hospital staff?"
Henry: "I realize threatening doesn't get better things. Payment does. Respect does. Fear sometimes."
Arina: "I treat people the same whether they're feared or unknown."
Henry: "You might not survive that generosity."
Arina: "I survived medical school and ten years of night shifts. I think I can manage one man who finds omnipotence fashionable."
Henry (softly): "You have a way of making confidence sound like an invitation."
Arina: "Confidence is the only thing that keeps me from breaking down at two in the morning. If you want to talk to me, speak clearly. Threats are low-effort and boring."
(Henry's phone vibrates. He glances at it. His face hardens in a movement she almost misses.)
Henry: "Jordan says there's trouble near the market. They need me."
Arina: "You leave now, then. Take your property and your problems."
Henry: "I will. But consider this: hospitals are not neutral when territory is involved. You stepping in won't make you exempt."
Arina: "Then step out of my way."
Henry (leaning in): "One more thing. Don't ask questions about who's involved. Don't dig when it's not your line to dig. There are people who mark curiosity as a felony."
Arina: "You mean 'don't do your job'."
Henry: "I mean: protect your family, whatever that family may be."
Arina: "My family is my work tonight."
Henry: "Then be careful."
(He turns to leave, but the door clicks before he reaches it—Arina calls out without thinking.)
Arina: "Why bring him here at all? If someone wants a message, won't being here make it louder?"
Henry (without turning): "Some messages need a witness."
Arina: "Witnesses don't always survive."
Henry (a beat): "Then they learn to speak softer."
(The door shuts. The room exhales. Machines blink. The man sleeps. Arina finishes suturing, packs the tray, and removes her gloves.)
Nurse Nadia: "You made him steady."
Arina: "For now. Keep him under observation. Send a security detail to the waiting area entrance—low profile."
Nurse Nadia: "Do you want me to log the packet he brought?"
Arina: "Yes. Note it as 'unknown donor—left at counter—declined.' If there's trouble, document everything."
Paramedic: "We can transfer him to ICU when he's stable?"
Arina: "Yes. And call radiology for a CT of the chest and abdomen."
Nurse Nadia: "Doctor, that man—who was that?"
Arina: "A man with a scar and a phone. Someone effective at arriving late and leaving things unsettled."
Nurse Nadia: "You seemed...different with him."
Arina (dry): "I keep a professional distance with strangers who carry the night like a second skin."
Nurse Nadia: "But you weren't angry."
Arina: "No. I was interested in the way he underestimated me. That happens sometimes."
Nurse Nadia: "He didn't seem like the kind of person who underestimates anyone."
Arina: "That's why it made him curious."
(She straightens, tired, hands cold from washing. Outside the emergency entrance, Karachi's night roars on—rickshaws, a distant mosque speaker, life that does not stop for gunshots.)
Security Guard (through the door): "Doctor, there's a knock—a man asking for 'Henry's car'."
Arina: "Send him away. We don't deal with cars."
Security Guard: "He looks like he's waiting."
Arina: "Keep him waiting. If he causes trouble, escort him off-premises."
Security Guard: "Yes, Doctor."
(A long pause. Arina leans against the counter, eyes on the sleeping patient. She reaches for a pen to sign the chart, then stops.)
Arina (to herself): "Do not take money you didn't earn. Do not fix what isn't yours to fix."
(Her phone buzzes. A message from Lara: "You home yet? Tell me you didn't take dinner from the hospital cafeteria again. I'm starving." Arina smiles despite herself.)
Arina (soft, to the sleeping man): "Rest. When you wake you'll answer for something, or nothing. Either way, we'll do our work."
(A stretch of silence thick as lead. The paper Henry left lies on the counter like a question. She looks at it, then at the man, then folds her hands and walks out to the corridor where the night is loud and the walk to the staff room feels longer than it should.)
Arina (walking away, under her breath): "We don't accept bribes. We accept responsibility."
(Later, after charts filed and the patient moved to ICU, a man in a dark coat slips a note under the ER door. A single line in a script too practiced to be casual.)
Note (handed, voice assumed): "Dr. Arina — You refused my payment. That was...honorable. It was also, unfortunately, reckless. — H."
Arina (reading, aloud, to herself): "Reckless, or righteous? Depends who writes the account."
(She tucks the note into her pocket like a clasped secret.)
Nurse Nadia: "Are you going to call the police?"
Arina: "We called for every legal thing we could. For the rest—"
Nurse Nadia: "You don't trust the police."
Arina: "Trust is a currency more expensive than his—than his money."
Nurse Nadia: "So what will you do?"
Arina: "I will do what I always do. Treat whoever comes through that door, write what happened in the chart, and sleep when I can. If questions come later, I'll answer them. If threats come, I'll document them."
Nurse Nadia: "And if they come for you?"
Arina: "Then I will make sure someone knows the story as it happened. That is my kind of backup."
(Outside, a car engine idles. Two shadows move down the street. Inside, the monitors breathe. Henry's note presses against her thigh like a pulse she has not decided to listen to yet.)
Arina (closing the door on the night): "Don't take my life and call it protection."
(A final laugh, almost a whisper.)
Henry (from memory, the line she remembers): "Everything has orders."
Arina (to the dark corridor): "Then some of us will keep making our own."