Chapter X: Close Calls

Monday morning: 5:30 AM

Dong Youngbae was slowly starting to wake up. It was early and the sun had not risen yet, but he couldn't remain asleep for much longer. His wife had taken to sleeping right over his arm, effectively cutting off his much needed circulation.

He quietly tried to nudge her off and reclaim his arm. As he did so, IU shifted and rolled to the other way. Now that his arm was released, Youngbae flexed it for a bit before deciding to just lay there and watch his wife sleep for a bit longer.

Knowing that she was pregnant just made her more beautiful. According to IU, she was only three months along. Youngbae could already see the changes in her body, not to mention her personality. There was a very definitive bump on her lower abdomen that was perfectly rounded. IU was a very physical fit woman making the rounded bump stand out even more. Of course her clothes hid it well but still…that bump just came out of nowhere pretty fast.

Then there were those blasted midnight cravings.

Youngbae thought he would be able to escape those but just last night, IU had gotten up at 1:00 am and demanded that she be given strawberry ice cream with ketchup and olives. After getting over his initial disgust, he did what any good husband would do and made it for her. Luckily, they had all the ingredients ahead of time, although Youngbae had the feeling that IU would soon start demanding more radical types of food pretty soon.

Trying his best to ignore that thought, Youngbae pulled IU up to his chest and tried to rest for another few minutes.

"Hold me tighter…I'm cold." IU mumbled.

"So you're awake," he noted as he tightened his grip on her. "You're scheduled to throw up any second now." He said kissing the back of her head.

"Don't remind me."

Yesterday was horrible for IU. She must have thrown up about ten times in less than two hours. Dara told her to expect it given her "special" situation. She was getting a hoot out of keeping Youngbae in the dark, but the constant barfing was really getting to her. Speaking of throwing up…

IU sprang from their bed, accidentally dragging the blanket with her leaving Youngbae to suffer from the morning draft. The bathroom was going to be hers for a while. Youngbae sighed.

‘Only seven more months.’ He thought.

Dara's House: 7:15 AM

Dara didn't get much sleep last night. She was far too preoccupied to even think about getting any sleep; not after what she heard in Hanbin's room.

She was stunned when she heard him say "Appa". It came out of nowhere. She hadn't heard him say that since he was two. Yes, "Appa" may have been his first word and you would think that it would stick with him forever, but after Mino died, Hanbin had ceased to say that word altogether.

'Appa' was forever erased from his vocabulary.

‘What's going on in his little head?’ she thought. It had been two days since he said it, and Hanbin never once mentioned anything about it. She decided not to bother him about it for the rest of the weekend, but it was hard not knowing what he was thinking.

Dara was already up in the kitchen making breakfast. Hanbin was upstairs getting ready. The shuffling heard from above was enough to tell her that he was on his way downstairs.

Dara was in her usual pink scrubs with her hair let down today. She was currently making pancakes and packing her lunch for today at the same time.

Today was going to be pretty busy. She a good amount of patients scheduled including IU. As far as Dara knew, she hadn't told Youngbae about her little secret yet. That was completely up to IU, but she should really hurry. Youngbae was bound to figure it out sooner or later.

Not only did she have her regular patients, she also had to deal with Jiyong. Today was the day of his stress test.

She never really thought about it until now, but giving him a stress test and quick physical would ultimately mean seeing Jiyong shirtless. That thought didn't settle well with her. Dara shook her head before Hanbin came bouncing down the stairs and taking his seat at the table.

Dara brought the pancakes to the table and kissed the top of his head.

"I'll bring you your juice." She said as she went to get the fresh squeezed orange juice on the counter. She then took her seat next to him and began to eat her breakfast too.

"Sweetie, how's karate been going?" She asked as she took a bite.

"Good," he said while cutting up his pancakes. "We're learning how to kick and stuff. Tukutz-saem told me that I can break the boards soon but only if I work hard."

"Oh did he now? Well I've noticed that you haven't hurt yourself since you started. You always used to get little scrapes and bruises. I miss fixing your cute little boo boo's." She said while playfully pinching his cheeks.

"Ommmaaa." He whined, rubbing his cheeks. Dara just couldn't help herself with him sometimes.

"Are you having fun in there with Taehyun?" She asked. He just nodded his head.

"Taehyun doesn't like to fight." He said matter-of-factly while swinging his legs back and forth under the table.

"Tukutz-saem told him that he's losing his youth too fast. What does that mean omma?" He asked innocently.

Dara just laughed. This Tukutz sounded very…strange. "I really don't know Hanbin. I guess it just means he acts like an old man. We should get going soon sweetie." She said while looking at her watch. They finished up their breakfast and headed out the door.

In the car...

Dara drove down the street and stopped at a red light. She looked at Hanbin through the rear view mirror. He was currently flipping through his drawings in one of his sketchpads. He often did that when he unable to make a new drawing on the spot.

Dara wondered if it was okay to question him about last night. Even though he was sleeping when he said "Appa", Dara wondered what he was thinking about when he said it. She decided to ask discreetly.

"Did you sleep well sweetie?"

"Uh huh." He said absentmindedly as he continued flipping through the drawings.

"Oh…did you have any good dreams?" she asked. Hanbin looked thoughtful for a moment.

"Ummm…oh yeah…I dreamt that harabeoji was a ninja and then he had all his dogs attack the bad guys." He said excitedly.

Dara stared at him for a while before she actually registered what he said. She burst out laughing. She tried to imagine her father, the police commander of the Busan PD, in a ninja outfit alongside his legion of canines. The thought was hilarious.

"Hahaha… oh…good one sweetie." She said while holding her chest from laughing so hard. Maybe back in the day, her father could have been a ninja. But what ninja would own about ten dogs?

"So…you didn't have any other dreams?" She asked now that she calmed down a bit.

"Mmmmm…nope." He said.

"Okay then," she said.

‘Guess I'll just have to drop it for now.’ She thought.

After dropping Hanbin off at school, Dara made her way to work.

September was almost over and the weather was still nice, but a bit on the breezy side. She went up to the coffee cart in front of the hospital and bought the usual muffin and hazelnut coffee before walking inside and up to the elevator.

"Hey Dara!"

She turned around and came face to face with Seungri.

"Hi Seungri, how's it going?" She asked as the elevators opened. They both stepped inside.

"Minus the paper work, everything's going great. It was fun hanging out with the gang on Saturday." He said. He was wearing his while lab coat with black scrubs underneath.

"Yeah it was. Oh that reminds me, when is Chaerin free?" She asked.

"Uhhh… I think she gets off at seven tonight. Why?" he asked. "Are you girls gonna get all hot and bothered over tupperware?" He asked snickering.

"Shut up, tupperware saves time and dishes," she snapped. "Anyway, I wanted to do a sort of a girl's night out to catch up with everyone. Hanbin and I have already settled in nicely and I figured it's time to just relax a bit." She said while sipping her coffee.

"Sounds…feminine," he said for lack of a better word. "Maybe I should organize a guy's night out. Then again, it wouldn't be very lively with a neurosurgeon, a lazy- genius and a bastard. I'm the only fun one."

"I'm sure you are." She chuckled.

This almost became another morning routine. Seungri and Dara would meet up at the elevators and chat for a while before heading off to their designated areas.

"But if you were to have a guy's night out, it would have to be on a different night then ours."

Seungri scratched his head. "Why?"

"Well, if you guys went out when we did, then who will watch the kids?"

"Well I don't know, maybe the- hey wait, you were going to make us babysit?" He asked incredulously.

"Well of course we were. Who'd you think we would use as a babysitter?" she asked. "I will not have a stranger watch over my child."

"Fine I'll watch them. They've got to be more fun than those bastards anyway." Seungri mumbled.

"Well there you go. You think you can handle all three kids in one night?" She asked.

"No problem," he said, waving his hand at her. "Let's make it four kids. I know Hayi won't want to miss out on pizza and a movie night at my place."

The elevator doors opened at the 8th floor, which was Dara's stop.

"Okay, I'll see you later Seungri." She said as she exited the elevator. She made her way to her office and unlocked the door. She loved entering her office first thing in the morning. Over time, she's transformed it into an empty room into a cozy little nook.

She went around to her rather large desk and placed her purse underneath it. She was given a black flat screen computer, printer, fax machine and phone. Her desk was littered with pictures of Hanbin, her father and her friends and colleagues. Her favorite pictures by far were the ones of herself and Mino, holding their baby in her arms. The one next to it was her father in uniform.

She opened her files on the computer and pulled up her schedule. She had to get a few patients followed up today among a few pediatric consults all before 2:00 pm. Jiyong would be her last patient for the day. Her phone rang. She pushed the speaker button on the phone.

"Dr. Park speaking." She said into the speaker.

"Hey Dara, it's me," came IU's voice from the other line. She sounded a little put out.

"Hey IU, what's up?" She asked, sipping her coffee.

"Dara, I know you told me to expect the extra morning sickness and all, but this is ridiculous. I can't keep anything down and I feel sick throughout the whole day. I can't properly give consultations to my patients like this let alone operate on them." She whined.

"I know its tough Jieunnie but this comes with the territory. And I've been meaning to talk to you more about the operations too."

"What do you mean?" IU asked.

"I would prefer that I talk to you about that in person. When are you getting here anyway?"

"Youngbae and I are on our way right now. We should be there in a half hour." IU answered.

"Great, the both of you should come in together. There are some things that Youngbae should know as well regarding your care. Speaking of things Youngbae should know, did you tell him yet?" She asked excitedly. IU became slightly nervous.

"Uh…not quite. But we'll talk about that later," she said. In other words, it was code for ‘I'm not going to talk about it while he's in the car with me.’

"Gottcha," said Dara. "If you haven't eaten yet, then grab something cold or at room temperature to eat. I'll explain more about it when I see you."

"Okay then. See you later Dara."

"Later." She said before hanging up. She looked over at her schedule from now until next year. She was able to calculate that she would be pretty busy in the month of July. It was estimated that all the pregnant patients she had during the month of September were scheduled to deliver their babies in July. She would have to be careful about that. Hanbin's birthday was also in July and there was no way that she would work then.

"Better get started then." She said to herself as she left her office and made her way to the break room, where she saw around five nurses that were assigned to her sitting at the table and chatting away.

"Morning ladies." She said as she walked past them to go to the cabinets.

"Oh…morning Dr. Park," they replied with disinterest. They went back to talking. Dara was going through her files and couldn't help but catch a few snippets of their conversation.

Interestingly enough, they were all talking about a certain someone.

"Mr. Kwon is so dreamy," said the nurse called Yumi. "I saw him leave work the other day. He was so hot," she said. The other nurses were quick to sigh in agreement.

"Hey, you guys remember last year?" asked another nurse.

"Who could forget?" said the other nurse. "I wish I could have seen him topless," she said whiningly. "I couldn't get past the damn crowd."

"I got to see him for a second." said Yumi. "He's even more gorgeous underneath," she said dreamily.

"Lucky," said the other nurses.

"Yeah…he's so hot when he's angry." She said recalling how pissed off he looked that day.

"And that killer body," she said while slumping down on her chair. It was as if the memory was making her melt.

"What I wouldn't give to snag him one of these days," said another nurse.

"I mean seriously, handsome, rich, a total bad boy look…the perfect birthday present." She said while giggling.

Dara found herself more than a little annoyed at their conversation.

‘They act like he's a piece of meat.’ She thought. It was like those lovesick conversations you would hear at high school. They were supposed to be professionals.

She sighed, ‘I guess Seungri has some valid reasons for disliking these particular nurses after all.’ She thought.

"Okay ladies," she said grabbing their attention. She told them their assignments for the day and dismissed them.

As she made her way to do her rounds, she couldn't help but think about their conversation. Apparently, Jiyong was pretty popular around here. How he became that way was a mystery to her seeing as how he never walked among them on the floors.

Still, she couldn't deny that he was very attractive. But that was no reason for the nurses to behave that way. She sighed as she made her way to the rooms. Today was going to be interesting.

Jiyong's POV:

Jiyong arrived at work promptly at 8:00 am and was currently trying to suppress a yawn in the elevator. His parents officially came back from their outing in Jeju last night. It was pretty late when they arrived at the house so Hayi wasn't able to greet them. Jiyong was pretty much deprived of some much-needed sleep due to the late visit.

Normally he wouldn't care about the effects it would have on him the next day, but this wasn't just any other day. Today was his stress test with Dr. Park a.k.a Seungri's long-lost-annoyingly-interesting-sister. If his results indicated stress, he would never hear the end of it from the dobe, let alone Dara.

The elevator doors opened on the top floor and Jiyong walked out.

"Good Morning Mr. Kwon." His secretary greeted.

"Morning." He muttered as he walked by.

He opened his office doors and stepped inside. The sight that greeted him was not a pleasant one. He had left all his books and files open and scattered all over the floor from last Friday. He was just so glad that work was finished that he opted to just leave everything there for Monday.

He was seriously regretting that now. There was no way he could get anything done unless he cleaned up first. Sighing, Jiyong placed his briefcase beneath his desk and started to get organized.

This was definitely not going to help him with the stress test today. He could just see the smug look on Seungri's face if the test came back positive for stress. As he was picking up the mess, his intercom went off and his secretary's voice was heard from the phone.

"Mr. Kwon, Dr. Seungri is here." She said. Jiyong walked over to the phone and pushed the response button, wishing he could deny the blonde but knew it was pointless.

"Send him in," he said. A few seconds later, Seungri came in his office.

"What's up?" said Seungri.

"What do you want?" He asked as he continued to get organized. It was too early in the day to deal with Seungri, especially today.

"Just checking up for your stress test later." He replied while flopping down on the sofa at the edge of the office.

"If you're here for nothing then you can at least help clean up," said Jiyong as he was putting some books back into the shelves.

"Sure," said Seungri as he got off the sofa and to pick up some files.

"So I ran into Dara this morning." He said trying to make some conversation.

"Yeah…so?" asked Jiyong as he went back to his desk to gather more stuff.

"Don't you see her every morning?"

"Yeah, anyway she mentioned that she wanted to go out with Chaerin, IU and Bom. She kind of forced me to look after the kids."

"Hnn." He said, not really caring.

"Hayi should come over too. She'll have fun with everyone." He suggested.

"Yeah…sure" said Jiyong. He was obviously too preoccupied at the moment.

"So are you ready then?"

"Ready for what?"

"You're physical with Dara." Seungri said while tossing him a large dictionary. Jiyong caught it with one hand, regardless of its weight.

"There's nothing to be ready for," he answered. Seungri snorted.

"You sure about that? Because she and I are pretty sure you've got stress issues."

"We'll see about that."

"Yeah, we sure will. I wouldn't expect anything less of Dara. If anyone can find something wrong with you, it's going to be her." Seungri said confidently.

"You seem pretty confident for an idiot." Jiyong noted as he put the last of the files into their proper place. Seungri scowled.

"Tssk. I read about Dara's medical track online. She's got some pretty intense cases under her belt, not to mention Dr. Goo Hyesun's tutelage." He replied.

Jiyong raised an eyebrow at Seungri's use of words.

"Do you even know what 'Tutelage' means?" He asked.

"…That's what it said online," Seungri admitted sheepishly. "What does it mean anyway?"

"Guidance or support." He answered. Seungri just mouthed an "Oh".

"So how are you going to get through this physical without those -starved wolves known as nurses finding out about it?" Seungri asked grimacing. Not all nurses were bad, but he really did have a sore spot for the mean nurses…expect for Chaerin of course.

"I've already taken care of that. Chaerin will be the only nurse allowed to handle my files. She'll see to it that the reports get to Employee Health department without any unnecessary public knowledge." Jiyong said taking a seat behind his desk.

"That's Chaerin for you. She's the most dependable person there is. That's only one of the million reasons why I married her," said Seungri with pride. "So what time is your appointment?"

"2:00 pm."

"Hmmmm," said Seungri as he squinted his eyes in concentration. He placed his hand at his chin and looked down as if in serious thought. "Poor Dara. She's got to deal with you at the end of a Monday morning."

"Don't you have somewhere to be?" Jiyong asked as he turned his computer on.

"Nope. I'm going to meet Dara later for a therapy session on one of the kids we both work on. Until then, I got nothing to do but bug you," he said grinning. Just then, Seungri's pager vibrated. He checked the ID and sighed when he saw it was the nurse's station.

"Duty calls Sengri." Jiyong said wearing a smug expression on his face. Seungri scowled and turned to leave the office.

"Well see who's smug after your test," said Seungri as he shut the door.

After Dara had completed her pediatric therapy sessions with Seungri, she decided to page IU and Youngbae. She had only few more patients to see including Jiyong and now was the only time she would get the chance to talk to them.

She heard a knock at her door and got up to open it. Youngbae and IU were standing outside.

"Hey guys." She greeted as she stood to the side to let them in. "Come on in."

"Hi Dara," IU said smiling. Dara went over to sit behind her desk while Youngbae and IU sat in two armchairs in front of her.

"So, Youngbae…" Dara began as she turned towards him. "Is she killing you yet with the midnight cravings?" Youngbae smirked and turned to IU, who just smiled at him innocently.

"Not yet, although she does seem to be craving ketchup pretty often." He answered.

"I can't help it. Ketchup just seems to taste better lately…and it goes great with just about anything." IU stated.

Dara just smiled. "I hear you IU. I used to crave ketchup too and a lot of weird dishes actually. Now that I think about it, I ate some pretty disgusting things. Just thinking about them now makes me want to gag."

"Tell me about it." IU sighed.

"So anyway you guys," said Dara as she adjusted some files on her desk. "I wanted to talk to you both about the next few months and what to expect as well as some new rules for the both of you."

"Let's discuss the morning sickness please." IU pleaded. Dara smiled at her.

"Okay then. Did you eat something cool or at room temperature this morning?"

"I had some cereal and juice." She answered.

"That's good. It's better to eat foods that aren't heated through. It leaves less of an aroma if it's bland and it's less likely to trigger any nausea." Dara explained.

"Seems reasonable," said IU. "But you said you also wanted to talk to me about my patients and surgeries. What's that all about?"

"This is going to be a little difficult on your part," Dara began. "As your doctor, I want you to take it easy on the number of operations you perform in a day. No surgeries in the morning. We can't risk you getting nauseated while you're working on a patient."

"Just in the morning?" asked Youngbae.

"For now, yes," she answered. "Morning sickness usually does happen in the morning but that's not necessarily the case with everyone. Some people having it throughout the day. Is that the case with you?" She asked.

"Well…it seems to be pretty much just in the morning for me," said IU. "But how long until I can operate freely?"

"I don't think you'll be able to IU." Youngbae answered. IU turned to him questioningly.

"Youngbae's right IU," said Dara. "The morning restriction is just for your first trimester, in which you only have one month left. During the second trimester, your abdomen will grow at a rapid pace to accommodate the baby and block your range of contact to the patient in the operating room. In other words…"

"I'll be so big I won't even be able to reach across the table, right?" said IU while slumping in her chair. "So what? By what you're saying, it sounds like I won't be able to perform surgery until after I give birth."

"Well that's pretty much it Jieunnie. It'll put way too much stress on you and increase the potential for damage. You're really going to have to take it easy." She warned making IU sigh.

"But I'm a surgeon Dara. If I can't participate in surgery, then what good am I?"

"You can still give consultations and post op reviews. You can even be in the operating room if you want to but I do not want you to actually operate. I know this is a low blow for you, but you're having a baby! You really need to focus on keeping yourself calm," she said before turning to Youngbae. "And Youngbae, I'm going to need you to make sure that she doesn't do any strenuous work around the house and monitor her. Be good about her cravings too. Many people don't really understand the significance of pregnancy cravings."

"Like what?" He asked.

"Pregnancy has an amazing ability to force the body to be naturally turned off by certain foods that can cause harm to the baby such as alcohol. On the other hand, it also makes the body crave a variety of food combinations full of nutrients and good stuff that are needed for the baby to properly grow and develop, hence the midnight cravings." She answered.

"No worries there," said IU. "Youngbae's been really good to me so far about those." She said as she smiled at him.

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