Dr. Hyukjae’s POV

“Okay people! Get to work. We’ve lost too much time and blood.” I yelled putting on gloves.

“Hyuk do you think he’ll live?” Donghae asked and I met his gaze uncertainly.

“I don’t know Donghae. I really don’t.”

He nodded and put on his own gloves and mask.

“I need a drill. We need to make burr holes to relieve the pressure on the brain.” I said and a nurse handed me the drill.

“Okay nice and easy then.” I whispered, drilling a hole just below Kai’s hairline.

“Blood. Theres lots of blood.” Donghae said and started blotting it with gauze.

“Stuff it.” I told him and inspected the wound.

There was severe damage. But thankfully it was shallow.

The frontal lobe could get damaged. His personality might never be the same again.

“Okay we have to proceed very cautiously. There’s damage near his motor cortex. We don’t want to paralyze him.” I said as Dr. Siwon, the cardiothoracic surgeon interrupted,

“Dr. Hyukjae theres damage to his chest too. Shallow damage but its big.”

I nodded and Donghae said “Okay everyone. We need all hands on deck. This is not going to be an easy case.”

Dr. Shindong, our orthopaedic surgeon entered the OR, putting on his mask.

“You paged Dr. Siwon?”

“Yes there could be damage to his legs and his shoulder was dislocated.”

Dr. Komal entered hurriedly too.

“Dr. Komal ah. Yes, all the other general surgeons are occupied. His stomach.” Donghae said and pointed.

Dr. Komal came forward, examining the wound as I started operating on his head.

“Its shallow. A running whip stitch should do it.” She announced and we all heaved a sigh of relief.

“So he’ll live?” a nurse asked.

“We can’t say.” Dr. Siwon said, operating on his heart.

Slowly, everything started to lower its volume as I focused completely on his head.

The wound was shallow but dangerous. If there was more internal bleeding we would lose him in mere seconds.

If I cut 1mm towards the side I could paralyze this boy for life.

My hands were steady as I started repairing his wound, stopping the bleeding and finally stitching everything up.

We were 20 minutes into the surgery when a nurse yelled.

“Heartbeat 156.”

“His heart is going into overdrive. V-fib.” Siwon said calmly as I glanced at the monitor on which the heartbeat had increased to 160.

“Siwon?” Donghae asked, helping Dr. Komal with the stitches.

Siwon wiped sweat from his brow and said “I have to stitch him up. Keep him stable somehow.”

“Push morphine.” I said as Siwon started stitching quickly.

“Heartbeat 172.” The nurse said aloud and all of us got very tense.

“Hurry with the stitches Dr. Donghae.” I said as Siwon finished.

“The gap is too large.” Dr. Komal said, putting in a last stitch as Dr. Shindong sewed up the gashes on his legs.

“His heartbeat is coming down.”  I said and heaved a sigh of relief.

“This doesn’t mean he’s out of danger. I need to stimulate his brain now.” I said, “Stimulate level 3.”

I looked at his fingers and feet. Nothing was moving. Had I paralyzed this boy?

“Stimulate level 4.” I said loudly and then whispered, “Come on Kai, give me something.”

There was no movement.

“Is there possibility of brain death?” Dr. Komal asked and I nodded.

“Stimulate level 5.” I said one last time. If he didn’t move this time it was official. He was dead.

The jolts were passed through his mind but again there was no movement.

Everyone looked at me expectantly.

I looked at the young boy lying on the table in front of me. I hadn’t been able to save him. God knows how many lives he could’ve saved himself.

“Time of death,” I sighed as a heaviness set into the atmosphere, “Four twenty p-“ and then one finger jolted.

I thought I imagined it. But late reactions were possible. It could be…

“Stimulate again!” I said hurriedly rushing to his side.

Sure enough his hand twitched. His feet too.

I bowed my head and grinned, taking support from the edge of the table.

“He’s alive!” I said and everyone let out relieved sighs.

“Dr. Donghae will you wrap in here?” I asked and he nodded, “Dr. Komal lets inform your interns!”

“Dr. Hyukjae, I’d like to stay for a moment. I’ll be right there.”

I nodded and exited, removing my blood stained gloves

Panchali’s POV

I slumped against the wall. My eyes were heavy. It felt like wrinkles had set in my face.

I sighed again.

Chanyeol was standing in front of me, staring out of the window.

It had been half an hour but it felt like an eternity.

I would look towards the OR every five seconds for any news. No one had come out till now.

I hadn’t bothered to change. I couldn’t leave. His blood still stained my clothes.

My hands still remembered feeling his hands.

His blood stained face was playing over and over in my mind.

I should’ve done more. I should’ve done something more. I might’ve been able to. It was my fault. The state he was in. I should have stopped him.

My eyes were hurting again and I rubbed them.

Suddenly, I heard a noise and my hand spun towards the OR.

Dr. Hyukjae came out, removing his gloves and mask.

“Dr. Panchali and Dr. Chanyeol. Dr. Kai…” he paused.

I took in a sharp breath and stood up. I could swear my heart skipped a beat.

“Dr. Kai is alive and fine. There have been no complications. He is being moved to a private room and he should be conscious soon.” He said and smiled.

I let out a deep breath I didn’t know I had been holding and slumped once again against the wall.

“Good work Dr. Panchali.” Dr Hyukjae patted me on the shoulder and left.

On any other occasion I would have been ecstatic that Dr. Hyukjae noticed me but right now I couldn’t care less.

I closed my head and sighed. The idiot was alive. God, I would kill him as soon as I got my hands on him.

                                                        ~~~

“How is he?” Suho said running up to us.

“Alive and fine. No complications.” I grinned at him and Chanyeol patted my back.

Luhan followed him and smiled. Then he did something entirely unexpected… he hugged me.

My eyes widened for a second as my head crashed against his chest.

He wound me in a gentle embrace and didn’t say anything.

After the initial shock I raised my hand and hugged him back.

He broke apart quickly and blushed a deep red.

I was going to say something when the door behind us opened.

We were all standing in front of Kai’s room, waiting to enter.

Dr. Komal entered and sighed, “He’s fine. He’s conscious. You all can see him.”

We all grinned and moved to enter the room when she held up one finger and said, “Wait a minute.”

We all stopped instantly.

“Dr. Panchali.” She said, looking straight at me, “What you did there was stupid and irrational. I specifically told you not to interfere with the bomb squad and search and rescue. If you had informed them you should’ve stood by and helped the others who were injured. Because of you we had a lack of two doctors. You should have been picking up Dr. Kai’s weight, not go running after him like some action hero. You are a doctor. Not some romance drama character or a heroine. This is not some story where everything will be okay. You could have died in there. And all of us could have died because of your stupidity. I never want to see such behavior again understood?”

I gulped, looking down, and nodded solemnly.

“On a side note.” She said, clearing , “Good job.”

I looked up at her shining eyes and proud face as she walked away from us.

“Hey don’t worry about her. You did good.” Chanyeol said, patting my shoulder as I winced.

Why was I wincing you ask? Lets just say he wasn’t very good at massages.

Pushing the door open, we finally entered to see Kai lying on the bed.

There were tubes attached to his body and he had an oxygen mask on his mouth. He looked really sick and shrunken but as he saw us he gave us a weak smile and said “I’m alive.”