Measured in Heartbeats
- Reads 43
- Votes 5
- Parts 14
MatureOngoing2h 32m
Last published Fri, Sep 5, 2025
Join Dr. Nadia Markovic, a fierce pediatric cardiology surgeon on a mission with the Global Mercy Initiative - think remote regions, urgent care, and a whole lot of heart. But Nadia's job isn't just stitches and stethoscopes.
Add one tall, grumpy, emotionally mysterious Sergeant into the mix... and boom - you're in a story that pulses with drama, a little action, and those tender, soul-searching silences we secretly live for.
But in a place where reputation travels faster than radio signals, Nadia's name is beginning to echo beyond the clinic walls. And not everyone wants her because she saves lives.
Some want her because she shouldn't be able to.
Expect realness. Raw emotion. A cast of characters that are gloriously flawed, occasionally chaotic, and unapologetically human.
***
"She listens like the walls are lying to her," Sama said once. Then added, quite seriously, "And maybe they are."
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Underneath the Sudanese Sun She left her past in the dust, but memory is patient - and silence is a terrible grave. When a late-night hospital shift turns into a siege, trauma surgeon Dr. Keira Stafford neutralizes the attackers with calm precision - too much precision for someone who claims to have never seen combat. Her actions save lives, but they also raise questions that only one man seems brave enough to ask. Enter Dr. Noah Stanton, the quiet, unshakable psychiatrist tasked with evaluating her after the incident. What begins as a mandatory psych assessment becomes a battle of will and wit - and a reluctant unravelling of the secrets Keira has buried for over a decade. As fragments of her past resurface - from the French Foreign Legion to the scorched deserts of East Sudan - Keira must confront the ghosts that followed her home. But when her new life and her old sins collide, the cost of survival may no longer be one she's willing to pay. Taut, emotional, and deeply human, Underneath the Sudanese Sun explores what happens when healing becomes another kind of war - and when love and loss are two sides of the same wound. Author's Note Hi there ! This story has lived in my head for a long time - pieces of it written between school, exams, and quiet nights where I just needed an escape. I've always loved the desert, the way it hides life beneath all that stillness. Underneath the Sudanese Sun is my first finished manuscript ( yet to be edited . Feel free to add any suggestions or critiques in the comments) , and it still feels a little unreal to share it. It's a story about grief, secrets , memory, loss, and healing.- but mostly about scaring and healing , love and loss. Ps - I'll be adding chapters periodically from out of my google doc. Thank you for being here and reading something that means this much to me. I hope, in some way, it reaches you - the same way the desert always finds its way back into my head.
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