Beyond the Ordinary

Chapter 1- The Encounter

Rain slammed against the ambulance bay like gunfire on metal. Flashing red and blue lights fractured the night into chaos. Reporters shouted. Agents barked orders.

A ring of security men surrounded the trembling figure of Dr. Gordon Anderson, his hands still wet, not with blood, but with something stranger. “Step away from her, Doctor!” an agent yelled, gun half-raised.

Gordon didn’t move. His breath came in ragged bursts, each one colder than the last. The girl, Sophia Kane, the President’s daughter, lay on the gurney, pale but breathing. Breathing. He had felt her pulse vanish minutes ago.

He had felt the void. And then, impossibly, he had brought her back. “She’s alive,” Gordon said hoarsely. “Just… check her vitals.”

The nearest paramedic hesitated, glancing toward the Secret Service commander for permission. “Do it,” the commander snapped.

The paramedic pressed trembling fingers against Sophia’s wrist, eyes widening. “Strong pulse. Stable rhythm. Oxygen’s normalizing.”

A ripple moved through the crowd, disbelief first, then awe, then something darker. Cameras flashed like lightning. Someone muttered, “How the hell did he do that?”

Gordon’s voice broke through the static. “She needs rest. No more adrenaline or”

“Hands where I can see them!” another agent cut in, stepping closer.

Gordon’s fingers twitched. His body felt hollow, like something vital had been siphoned out of him along with the storm. “I just saved her life,” he said quietly. “Why are you pointing a gun at me?”

The commander’s jaw flexed. “Because what you did doesn’t make sense, Doctor. Her heart was gone. We saw it. You touched her, and”

“And she lived,” Gordon said, eyes glassy. “That’s the point, isn’t it?”

Sophia stirred weakly, her lips parting. “He… he saved me.” Her voice barely carried through the rain, but it hit like a thunderclap. The commander lowered his weapon slightly. “Get her inside. Now.”

As medics rushed Sophia toward the emergency wing, the crowd surged forward, reporters breaking past the cordon. “Doctor Anderson! Did you perform an experimental procedure?”

“Was this premeditated?”

“Are you in collaboration with the White House?”

He tried to push through, but microphones and flashes swarmed him like insects.“Move!” barked a man in a black suit, muscling through the chaos. His badge flashed under the lights, Agent Marcus Hale, Federal Security Division. Broad-shouldered, calm, eyes like carved granite.

“Dr. Anderson,” Hale said evenly, stepping into Gordon’s path. “You’re coming with me.”

Gordon frowned. “Am I under arrest?”

“Protective custody.” Hale’s tone left no room for argument. “Until we figure out what just happened out there.”

“What just happened,” Gordon muttered, “is that I stopped a young woman from dying. Isn’t that my job?”

“Not when you do it without medical equipment,” Hale replied. “And not when you make a national security asset breathe after she’s clinically dead.”

The words hit him harder than the rain. Asset. Gordon’s hand trembled. “You think I planned this? You think I even understand”

“That’s what we’re going to find out.” Hale gestured toward the waiting black SUV. “Come quietly, Doctor. The cameras are still rolling.”

Gordon looked over his shoulder. The crowd had turned into a frenzy. Phones lifted. Lenses focused. Somewhere behind them, a woman’s voice, familiar, cutting, rose above the noise. “Gordon!”

He froze. Through the blur of rain and flashing lights, Lisa Monroe pushed forward, her designer coat soaked, mascara streaking down her face. The last person he wanted to see.

“What did you do?” she gasped, eyes darting between him and the retreating gurney. “They’re saying you brought her back from the dead, is that true?”

He didn’t answer. The silence said enough. Lisa’s voice trembled. “God, Gordon, you, you always said you could do things, but this? The news is calling you a miracle worker!”

Hale stepped between them. “Miss, you need to step back.”

“No,” she snapped. “I know him. He’s not dangerous”

“You don’t know him,” Hale said sharply. “Not anymore.”

Gordon’s throat tightened. “It’s fine, Marcus. Let her talk.”

Lisa took a hesitant step closer. “Tell me this isn’t what I think it is. Tell me you didn’t”

“Didn’t what?” he interrupted, voice cracking. “Didn’t save someone? Didn’t use what’s been killing me for years?”

Her expression faltered. “What do you mean ‘killing you’?”

Before he could answer, the ground shook, a concussive bang from somewhere near the hospital entrance. Shouts erupted. Agents drew weapons. “Get the President’s daughter inside!” Hale barked into his comm. “Now!”

Lisa flinched. “What was that?”

“Too convenient to be random,” Gordon muttered, eyes scanning the chaos. He saw movement on the rooftop, a flash of metal. Instinct kicked in.

He shoved Lisa down just as a shot cracked through the air, slicing the space where his head had been a second ago.

Screams tore through the night. Hale tackled Gordon behind a barricade. “Sniper! Get him out of here!”

“Who the hell” Gordon started.

“Move!” Hale dragged him toward the SUV as bullets shattered glass and concrete.

Lisa crawled behind an overturned gurney, clutching her phone, tears streaking down her cheeks. “Gordon!”

He turned once, their eyes locking for half a second, regret, disbelief, something unspoken between them.

Then the agents forced him into the vehicle, slammed the door, and the world outside became a blur of rain and sirens. Inside the SUV, silence pressed against his ears, broken only by Hale’s clipped breathing.

“You’ve made quite an impression tonight, Doctor,” Hale said, glancing at him. “Half the country just watched you do the impossible. The other half’s already trying to explain it.”

Gordon leaned back, exhausted, hands trembling in his lap. “And what about you? Which half are you on?”

Hale didn’t answer immediately. The SUV turned onto a dark service road, sirens fading behind them. “I’m on the half,” Hale said finally, “that wants to know what you are before someone else decides for me.”

Outside, lightning split the sky, illuminating the city’s skyline like the edge of revelation. Gordon closed his eyes. The warmth from Sophia’s body still burned in his palms, fading now, leaving only cold.

“I’m just a doctor,” he whispered. “But tonight, I think that stopped being true.”

The SUV disappeared into the storm, swallowed by the chaos it left behind. And somewhere, unseen, someone was already watching the footage, rewinding the moment his hands began to glow.