Chapter 10
Inside tents stained with blood and mud, Gain had always dreamed of places like this.
One clean operating table.
One sterile knife.
A team beside her who knew what to do without being told.
Back then, she had thought that if she could have only those things, she'd never ask for anything more.
Those had been years when everyone lacked something.
So everyone contributed whatever they had.
Someone stayed awake all night distilling alcohol.
Someone sharpened a dull knife.
Someone prayed beside Gain when her divine power ran dry.
Whenever they managed to save one person by filling in one another's weaknesses, Gain had dreamed of one day holding a scalpel in a place like this without fear.
And yet...
Now that she'd finally stood in the middle of the kind of operating room she'd dreamed about...
She found herself painfully missing the warmth of those poor, makeshift tents.
The familiar team here worked perfectly together.
The instruments were perfectly sterilized.
Everything was good.
Maybe that was why she missed those old days even more.
Whew.
Gain quietly looked down at her palm.
The faint divine power that had felt like spring sunlight was gone.
The warmth that had appeared from nowhere had been sent into the baby down to its final drop.
Her chest felt empty.
But her mind felt clear.
They survived.
The bus ride took longer than expected.
Once she safely arrived at the clinic, she dropped her bag and headed for the shower.
This is my home now.
She had no idea when her first patient would come.
To be honest, her budget wasn't generous either.
That was why she had turned the duty room attached to the clinic into a place she could live.
She still hadn't bought all the furniture.
But at least she'd brought clothes to change into and some soap.
I forgot a towel.
For someone who had lived through a medieval world, that wasn't much of a problem.
There had been times when she hadn't even had soap, let alone a towel.
"All right, then. Let's dry off."
Gain hummed while using her discarded clothes like a towel.
Once she changed into fresh clothes, she felt much better.
"?"
When she went outside and looked at her phone, she saw several missed calls.
After thirty years away, she'd lost the habit of constantly checking a phone.
It still took effort to remember.
Then the phone rang again.
Gain tilted her head when she saw the familiar hospital number.
Why are they calling?
It was Hanguk University Hospital.
For a moment, Gain worried that the patient's condition had worsened.
She answered quickly.
"Hello?"
"Dr. Gain, the husband of patient Jeong Yeseo insists that he wants the explanation directly from you. He'll probably contact you soon."
Gain asked in surprise.
"Me?"
"He strongly requested to speak with the doctor who actually performed the surgery."
Kang Taehun had said he would handle everything.
So how had it turned into this?
This is already beyond what I should be involved in.
Im Gain hesitated.
She had agreed to take responsibility during the emergency operation.
But since she wasn't truly part of the hospital anymore, she couldn't manage anything afterward.
"Um... apparently he works in the legal field."
The OB-GYN ward nurse, Lee Seyoung, sounded uncomfortable.
"Dr. Gain, this isn't your responsibility... but I wanted to warn you beforehand. If you hadn't been there, that patient would've been in real trouble."
Gain had known Lee Seyoung since her internship.
She was an excellent ward nurse.
Just from the color of a pregnant woman's face or the rhythm of her breathing, she could often predict a change in fetal heart rate.
She could distinguish the amount and color of bleeding at a glance.
Even during emergencies, her voice never shook.
She delivered instructions clearly and often moved before the doctors did.
Most importantly, she was kind to patients.
When she held the hand of a terrified pregnant woman and said, "It's okay. Take a deep breath," even the tension around them seemed to ease.
And now she'd gone out of her way to call Gain and warn her.
She didn't have to do that.
"Thank you, Nurse Seyoung."
Gain thought that someone like her would be wonderful to have at her clinic.
But I couldn't offer her the same benefits.
Maybe Gain could somehow match her salary.
But a small private clinic could never match the private-school pension and employee benefits of a university hospital.
The moment the call ended, another one came in.
It was Kang Taehun.
"Gain, you need to explain things to the patient's guardian. The guy from earlier."
He went straight to the point.
Gain answered coldly.
"She was apneic and unconscious when I reached her. We continued CPR with left uterine displacement."
"Hey, why are you talking so formally? We're friends."
"There was no return of spontaneous circulation, and fetal distress was becoming critical, so under the emergency-law exception to prior consent, we continued compressions during transport and attempted immediate delivery after reaching the hospital. Just as I told you before."
Her tone made it clear that there was nothing more to say.
Taehun immediately became desperate.
"Just come one more time and explain it. Please? I'll even write you a recommendation letter."
"Dr. Kang."
Gain calmly cut him off.
"I'm on leave. I'm preparing to open my clinic. I can't go to the hospital."
Taehun stumbled over his words.
"But the guardian is a VIP, and he's in the legal field... there's the hospital's position too..."
"We proceeded under the emergency-law exception. We created documentation signed by at least two medical professionals. The post-procedure explanation process is already underway. The attending doctor is responsible for everything after that, isn't he?"
Gain's voice was firm.
