Let's Not Fall In Love

Chapter 23

A/N: I'm so sorry for the long intervals between my updates. I'm trying but reality is really keeping me so busy all the time. Thank you, guys, for staying with me still.

A hair-raising banshee like scream ripped through the silence. Jiyong turned his head towards Dara and raised one suspicious eyebrow at her. Dara likewise turned and mirrored his expression.

“If you think you can scare me again, you’ve got another think coming.” Jiyong smugly informed Dara.

Dara pointed towards herself. Her eyebrows lifted towards the ceiling and her lips curled showing her self-righteous indignation at the injustice of Jiyong’s false accusation.

There was another blood curdling scream, this time longer and louder. Dara frowned, stood up and snuck her head out to the corridor. The scream amplified with the opening of the door. Jiyong stood up and followed Dara.

Dara walked towards the end of the hallway. The connecting door towards the coach seats was open and the scream seemed to come from that area. A few curious passengers were also peeking out from their cabins.

As they stepped into the next section of the train the screaming had reduced to pitiful whimpers. A couple of service attendants were kneeling on the floor next to a pale, thin young girl dressed in oversized clothes who was lying on the floor holding on to her stomach. Another attendant was talking on the phone and was requesting for their manager to ask for assistance from any passenger with a medical background.

Her obstinate resolve to remain silent was immediately forgotten in the face of the apparent medical emergency. “Excuse me. I’m a doctor.” Dara called out and the relief that followed was evident in the faces of the stressed train crew. She kneeled in front of the girl, “Hi. I’m Dara. I’m a doctor. I can help you. What’s your name?” She spoke to the trembling girl in a calm voice. The girl licked her chapped lips nervously and answered in a soft voice, “I’m Hannah.”

“Okay, Hannah I need you to listen to me and not panic. Can you do that?” Dara looked the girl straight in the eye. The girl bit her lips but nodded in response.

She looked around the room and saw a couple of freaked out men and women. “Can you please arrange for the other passengers to be transferred to another section of the train and I suggest you ask your supervisor to do crowd control just in case other passengers would come in here to investigate the screaming.” She spoke to the present service crew.

“I’d also need your train’s emergency kit. If you have an emergency obstetrics set, please bring it along. I’d also need clean linens if they are available.” The staff’s eyes widened in surprised understanding at her request and stood up to follow her instructions.

“Can you tell me how many minutes apart are your stomach cramps?” She looked the girl square in the eye. “When the train started it was about ten or fifteen minutes but they are coming in faster now, I guess about five or six minutes.” The girl’s voice trembled as she spoke.

“Do you have an idea what’s happening to your body now?” Dara asked the girl in a straightforward but gentle manner.

“I thought I still have time to tell Mom but I’m going to give birth, right?” The girl asked with tears misting in her eyes.

Dara nodded. “We’re about half an hour from the next stop. From what you told me we might still be able to get you to a hospital in time but to be sure I would need to examine you, okay?” The girl nodded in understanding.

The service crew came back with the requested items and Dara gave orders as to how to set things up on the floor. They laid out the clean linens underneath the trembling girl. He pulled Jiyong to the side. “Ji, there’s going to be blood and gore not unlike in the horror movies you hate to watch if we don’t get her to the hospital in time. If you think you couldn’t handle that then I’d have to ask you to go back to our cabin. I’d prefer not to have another patient on board to worry about.” She spoke to him in a low voice, careful to not let Hannah hear her.