A young slender nurse walked down the hall from the clinic, looking around the small groups of people, giving off a small sense of urgency to anyone who may have been watching her.

Spotting who she was looking for, the nurse made a beeline for a tall, brown-haired man talking with a receptionist.

"Excuse me, Doctor Leonard?" she said, stepping up beside him.

"Yes?"

"Do you have a moment?"

"What's the question?" Dr. Leonard asked.

"It's… more of a situation."

"Well what is it?"

"A young lady in room 222."

"Is there a problem?"

"Well… yes. But she won't speak a word to me."

"How is she?"

"No visible physical trauma… she refused to be examined any further. Her vitals are just fine."

"Didn't get a name, then?"

"No."

"Did somebody drop her off? Maybe we could talk to them."

"No, she just wandered in here on her own… didn't have a cell phone, wallet, purse; nothing."

"Well… let's just try and say hello, then…"

Doctor Leonard walked with the light-brown-haired nurse to room 222 and went in. A blonde girl was sitting on the bed, rubbing her left elbow with her right hand. She snapped up to look at who had entered when the door opened, then sighed and looked back down with the timidity of a mouse.

"Hi, I'm Doctor Leonard," he greeted kindly, albeit a bit cautiously.

The patient wrapped her arms around herself.

"How are you today?"

The girl continued to dart her eyes around the room.

"How are you today?" Doctor Leonard repeated, more slowly this time.

The patient didn't move. Doctor Leonard sighed and looked over his shoulder at the nurse.

"Listen, you're in a safe place, here," he started, sitting down on a stool and facing the patient. "We're here to help you. But I need you to help me out first. Do you know your name?"

The patient looked over and parted her lips slightly. She trembled slightly as she tried to push a sound out of her mouth. Doctor Leonard leaned forward in his chair…

…but she only swallowed heavily and looked back to the ground, shaking her head.

"Do you know where you're from?" Doctor Leonard asked. But the patient merely stayed statuesque, biting her lower lip.

"We want to help you in whatever way we can," Nurse Anderson said, "but we need you to talk to us…"

"Do you think she can even talk?" Doctor Leonard asked the nurse.

"Honestly, I'm not even sure," Nurse Anderson responded.

"All we need from you is to just tell us some things. Your name…" he prompted, only to receive no reaction from the patient. "Any name, even. Your address… a phone number… a parent's name… sibling's name… relatives… friends…"

The girl blinked slowly then looked up at Doctor Leonard. She opened her mouth and let out a small breath. "Candida… Candida Grople…"

"Go run a search on Candida Grople," Leonard told the nurse. "See if she's been treated here." Turning to the patient, he asked, "Is that your name?"

She shook her head.

"A family member?"

She shook her head again.

"A friend?"

She nodded.

Leonard tried to get more information from the girl, but she refused to say anything more. A few minutes later, Nurse Anderson came back in holding a folder. "Looks like she was treated here a few months ago for a dislocated ankle…"

"Is there a phone number?" Doctor Leonard asked.

"Yes," the nurse responded, and recited the number to him as he dialed it up.

"Hello?" a girl asked from the other end.

"Hello, is this Candida Grople?"

"…Yes…"

"This is Doctor Leonard from Pickford Medical Hospital…" Doctor Leonard continued to tell her about the situation with the patient, and upon finishing it, was met with a silence.

"She didn't tell her name? Anything about herself?" Candida finally asked.

"No… I think she might be willing to tell something to you, though…"

Candida sighed. "Alright… I'll… I'll head over there."

Doctor Leonard hung up the phone and let out a breath. "She'll be here in a while… could you keep an eye on her?" he asked the nurse.

"Sure thing…"