The Way He Sees Her

2:00 a.m.

The Emergency Department of City General Hospital never truly slept. Neither did Dr. Ishani Verma.

By 2:17 a.m., Ishani was running entirely on lukewarm coffee, four hours of sleep, and sheer stubbornness. The ER was unusually chaotic tonight. Monitors beeped frantically from every direction. Nurses hurried between trauma bays. Somewhere behind the double doors, a child was crying, the sound cutting sharply through the clinical noise.

She pulled her mask down for a fleeting moment and rubbed the bridge of her nose. Her grueling twenty-four-hour shift was almost over, and every muscle in her body ached for her bed.

Suddenly, the red emergency alarm blared through the hallway.

"Doctor Verma?"

She snapped her head up. A nurse was standing at the entrance.

"Road traffic accident," Nurse Meera shouted, rushing past the door. "Female, early twenties. Severe head injury. They're bringing her in now!"

Ishani’s exhaustion vanished instantly. Adrenaline surged through her veins. She snapped on a fresh pair of latex gloves and sprinted toward the trauma bay just as the automatic glass doors burst open.

"Okay, get CT ready! And call neurosurgery immediately!" Ishani commanded.

The patient was rushed inside. Ishani moved seamlessly with the trauma team, throwing out instructions quickly and calmly. There was blood matting the young girl's forehead. Her breathing was dangerously shallow, and her frightened eyes fluttered open for barely a second before slipping closed again.

"Stay with me," Ishani said softly, checking her pupillary reflex. "You're okay. We're right here."

She had no way of knowing that, just ten minutes later, this emergency department would become the ultimate turning point of her life.

A shadow suddenly cut through the flickering fluorescent lights of the hallway. A man who looked like an absolute force of nature was hurriedly walking through the corridor.

Ishani was analyzing the patient's scans at the computer station when an unfamiliar, commanding male voice cut through the room behind her.

"Where is the doctor?"

She turned around.

The man standing at the entrance looked completely out of place in a chaotic public hospital. He was tall, with dark hair that was slightly disheveled, as though he had run his hands through it one too many times. He wore an expensive white shirt, and the watch gleaming on his wrist probably cost more than Ishani’s monthly salary. He possessed a face that would have been irritatingly handsome, if she hadn't been far too exhausted to appreciate it.

His sharp eyes scanned the room, landing on the staff.

"Where is Dr. Verma?" he demanded. Without pausing for a breath, he threatened, "If anything happens to my sister, I will tear this hospital down."

A security guard stepped forward, trying to intercept him, but the man violently shoved his hand away.

"Don't you dare touch me! Do you have any idea who you are talking to?" The man's fierce voice rang loud and clear through the trauma bay, sounding like a physical roar. "Aarav... Aarav Malhotra. Call your chief surgeon right now!"

Ishani looked straight at him.

"I am Dr. Verma," she said, her voice dropping into a cold, deliberate calm.

For a second, neither of them moved. Aarav’s eyes traveled over her simple blue scrubs, her tightly tied-back hair, and the dark circles of tiredness she hadn't had the time to hide.

"Being Aarav Malhotra won't improve the patient's condition," she said firmly, stepping closer without a single hint of hesitation. She looked up, her piercing gaze locking directly onto his angry eyes.

"Your status cannot stop her internal bleeding, neither can it bring her heartbeat back if something happens. You are just wasting my seconds, and your sister cannot afford that. So please, cooperate," she continued, her voice cutting through his arrogance.

It was clearly the first time in his life that someone had spoken to him in such a manner. Aarav almost froze.

He blinked, looking past her toward the treatment area. "She's my younger sister... my princess..." His voice was suddenly controlled, dropping an octave. For the first time since he had stormed into the hospital, the rigid fury in his expression softened into something vulnerable.

Then he looked back toward the emergency room, and just like that, his powerful aura shattered. Ishani could see the raw fear bleeding out from underneath his composure.

"She has a severe head injury and internal bleeding," Ishani said, her tone softening just a fraction, acknowledging his pain without compromising her authority. "We're waiting for the senior neurosurgeon."

"Is she going to be okay?"

Ishani held his gaze steadily. "We're going to do everything we can. Now step back and let me do my job."

"That isn't an answer," he countered, his voice desperate.

"No," she said quietly, turning back to the monitors. "It's the truth."

Something about her absolute honesty made him fall silent.

Ishani focused entirely on the medical reports. She didn't notice that Aarav continued to watch her for another few seconds. He stood completely still, his chest heaving as he stared at the fearless doctor. For the first time in his life, Aarav Malhotra felt completely powerless.

She certainly didn't notice the way his eyes followed her every movement as she walked away. And she had absolutely no idea that, years later, he would remember this exact moment down to the last second.

The first thing he ever noticed about Dr. Ishani wasn't her face. It was the fact that, when everyone else was terrified of him and the situation, she wasn't.

Or, at the very least, she was brave enough never to let anyone see that she was......

Was it just a normal meeting of a doctor and patient's brother or there is something big ahead..?

Follow for next  chapter.....