Author's Note:

Italic fonts = conversation on phone.

ETD = Estimated Time of Departure.

Kang Mo Yeon and Team Alpha (Part 3)

Once they arrived at the camp, Mo Yeon and Dr. Song retreated to Medicube while Joon Ha and Dae-young to their office. The Captain only sat in silence while Dae-young leaned on the wall near the window.

"That was close," Dae-young said, breaking the silence.

Joon Ha only nodded. "I agree, but I'm glad we made it." He blew a breath. "I've been thinking how I tell Major Yoo about this."

"He will be here in couple of days. I'm sure he will accompany Dr. Kang personally."

And then, Dae-young's phone vibrated. The Sergeant pulled his phone from his pocket and gave the phone to Joon Ha slightly grinning.

"You tell him now."

The Captain grimaced when he saw the caller ID.

Big Boss.

In the other side of the camp, Mo Yeon was busy with Dr. Song listing medicines which they could bring when they visited the hospital.

"What do you think about our meeting?" Mo Yeon asked her senior.

Dr. Song shrugged. "Aside from the intensity, it went well. From what Alec said, looks like the virus had evolved. I don't think we can treat the patient just like we treated Lieutenant Yoon."

"What if we change the dose? Increase it?"

The other doctor nodded thoughtfully. "It's a possibility. We could try on one of the patients or I can do another research." And then, he nudged Mo Yeon. "Have you told Major Yoo about the meeting?"

Mo Yeon blew a breath. "I want to, but I don't know if I should mention about what happened before we had the meeting. The men with guns and all."

"Well, you don't have to tell him that."

"Good point."

Minutes later, her phone vibrated. Mo Yeon grimaced when she saw the caller ID while Dr. Song only chuckled.

"I don't need to know who the caller is," he said, pretending to be busy.

Mo Yeon didn't say anything, only walked out from the Medicube and stood on the quiet corner. She swept the answering button only to hear Si Jin's stern voice.

"Why didn't you call me?"

Mo Yeon took a deep breath. "I am in the Medicube, listing the medicines for the hospital. I want to call you as soon as I'm finish."

And then, she heard the Major sighing deeply.

"I know what happened."

Mo Yeon blinked. "Huh?"

"At least you keep your promise to listen to the Captain."

"How did you know?"

"I called Dae-young and talked to Captain Lee. They told me everything."

"They could be lying."

"Not to me."

Mo Yeon chuckled. "You and your confidence. Is that what makes you don't give up on me?"

She heard Si Jin laughed lightly.

"There's no way I'm giving up on you even though you rejected me several times. You can't resist my charm anyway."

Mo Yeon rolled her eyes. "Gosh..."

"But, still...please, be careful. I'll be there in several days."

The doctor smiled. "I will. Don't worry."

"I missed you."

"Oh, you..." She sighed. "I missed you too. Come here quickly."

From the other line, Si Jin groaned. "Don't tempt me. I can use commercial flight to get there, you know?"

"The General won't like it."

"I don't care. Like I said, I will always choose you."

"I believe you. I'll see you in several days, Major."

"I love you."

Mo Yeon smiled. "I love you."

She took a deep breath and leaned her head on the wall.

She just wished nothing terrible happened until Si Jin arrived.

When the day arrived, Mo Yeon and Dr. Song went to the hospital accompanied by Joon Ha and Dae-young. It was located not far from the temporary government building. The hospital itself only a three floors building with foreign nurses and doctors sent by the United Nations. The doctors were greeted by Alec who accompanied them to the section where the patients with M3 virus were being treated. Joon Ha and Dae-young were told to wait in the car until further notice. Mo Yeon and Dr. Song wore their mask and began their observation. Just like Dr. Song predicted, the virus had evolved and the medicine didn't work anymore. He tried Mo Yeon's suggestion to increase the dose of Cefotaxime. Both doctors were busy until the lunch time arrived. Mo Yeon knew they couldn't go back to the camp yet so she asked the two soldiers to return and come back in the afternoon to fetch her and Dr. Song back to the camp. The Captain declined Mo Yeon's idea, but the doctor said the place was full with people. It was different from their visit to the government office before. Joon Ha finally relented and came back to the camp with Dae-young.

Mo Yeon and Dr. Song worked together until nearly afternoon. When the UN doctor released her from her duty, Mo Yeon walked out from the hospital and took off her mask. She leaned on the wall and pondered. Working on the field like this made her truly a doctor, not just a doctor who appeared on the TV. She hadn't think to pursue her professor title again yet, but she knew she couldn't do it if the Director still thinking about connection rather than competency. While she felt she wasn't being appreciated enough, the foreign country recognized her and called her for help.

For Kang Mo Yeon that was enough.

For now.

"What are you thinking?" Suddenly Dr. Song asked her.

Mo Yeon played with her mask. "About things."

"What things?"

She looked around and saw people who were busy around the hospital. "What do you think about them, Senior? They work here, away from home, for helping people in foreign country which even doesn't have a government building while I work in the hospital who thinks connection is everything."

Dr. Song looked at Mo Yeon. "What are you saying?"

"I once wanted to resign from Haesung. I probably would do it again in the future."

The senior doctor sighed. "You are a brilliant doctor, Dr. Kang. Even though Haesung doesn't appreciate you, some other people do. Just do what your heart tells you. You'll find the answer."

Mo Yeon nodded and then she saw Captain Lee arrived, the sign for them it was afternoon time. Without words, Mo Yeon and Dr. Song got into the car and return to the camp.

For the next two days, Mo Yeon worked in the hospital, helping to treat the patients with M3 virus. It seemed her suggestion to increase the dose was working. On those two days, she came along with Dr. Song, but also took Nurse Choi and then, later Nurse Ha. The more Mo Yeon worked along the UN doctors, the more she felt she needed to re-plan her future as a doctor. Working like this was different from volunteering.

Once they returned on their third day, Mo Yeon still felt gloomy. After dinner, she only sat outside the dining hall where she joked with Si Jin about her blood type and looked upon the sky. The night sky was full with stars, just like it did after the earthquake.

"Dr. Kang."

Mo Yeon turned her head to see Sergeant Seo and smiled.

Dae-young sat next to her. "What are you doing in here alone? You look so different since you came from the hospital. Is something wrong?"

"No, nothing is wrong. Not in a bad way. I was just thinking, that's all."

The Sergeant smiled back. "If you are thinking about Big Boss, don't worry. He will be here in two days."

Mo Yeon laughed. "Oh, I know that. I hope he's not making your team has to babysit me."

And then, Dae-young's phone vibrated and Mo Yeon noticed the Sergeant turned tense. She tilted her head when her eyes met with Dae-young.

"Why don't you answer your phone?"

"It's probably not important."

"It could be from your girlfriend."

"No, it's not. That's not her ringtone."

Mo Yeon raised her eyebrows. "If it's not her ringtone, who is it, then?"

"It's ok, Dr. Kang."

"Answer it."

"Yes, Ma'am."

Out of habit on following orders, Dae-young pulled out his phone and Mo Yeon leaned closer and saw Si Jin's call sign. Her eyebrows shot up and she gave her hand to Dae-young, indicating him to give his phone to her. Dae-young nervously gave his phone to Mo Yeon.

The doctor squinted her eyes and swept the answer button along with speakerphone.

"Hey, Sergeant. What are you doing? Have you return from the hospital? Why did you leave Dr. Kang alone? I told you to stay with her all the time."

Mo Yen only rolled her eyes while Dae-young lowered his head.

"And you told me she will have a drink after visiting the hospital. Did she really do it?"

Mo Yeon only blew a breath and answered the phone, "You can ask me personally about that when you're here, Major Yoo Si Jin."

"Dr. Kang?"

Mo Yeon grumbled and gave Dae-young his phone back. She finally understood Si Jin made Joon Ha and Dae-young as his intelligent resource.

Talking about using power.

Unfortunately, she didn't have the energy to joke about it.

The next morning, Mo Yeon prepared herself to come to the hospital again. This time, Dr. Song and Nurse Ha came along. To her surprise, it was not Captain Lee or Sergeant Seo who would take them to the hospital, but Sergeant Choi and Sergeant Gong instead. Even though Mo Yeon knew they helped Si Jin resuing her from Private Ryan, and Sergeant Choi was the one who delivered the news about Si Jin, she never really fixed everything with the soldier.

"Captain Lee and Sergeant Seo are on their way to the headquarter. The Commander wants to coordinate with them for Major Yoo's arrival tomorrow," Sergeant Choi answered when Mo Yeon asked where the Captain was.

"Oh..." that was only her reply.

They rode to the hospital in silence. When they arrived, Mo Yeon, Dr. Song, and Nurse Ha quickly went to their sections. Mo Yeon asked the soldiers to return, but they declined, saying it was the order from the Major. The doctor only sighed and shook her head. She didn't have the say in this. The doctors and the nurse worked together with the medical team of United Nations until lunch time.

It was that time when Mo Yeon was checking her patient, she felt the floor shook. She looked around and saw everything was indeed moving.

It was an earthquake!

All the people from the third floor ran to the second floor where she was on duty. Her doctor instinct kicked in and she quickly ushered everyone to get out from the building. It was the moment when she heard someone called her name. She turned her head and saw Sergeant Choi. The floor was still shaking, it was hard to continue to run or even walk, not to mention the ceiling was begin to crack. Between all the chaos, she felt Sergeant Choi held her arm.

"We need to move, Doctor."

Mo Yeon nodded and along with Sergeant Choi, trying to walk on the stairs. When they about to reach the ground floor, the stairs collapsed and if it wasn't for the soldier, she probably won't be alive. By miracle, the ground stopped shaking and she opened her eyes to realize she was buried under the stairs with unconscious soldier next to her.

"Oh no..."

A thousand miles away, in Korea, Major Yoo Si Jin was working on his computer, trying to distract his mind from the angry woman far away in Urk. He did try to call her after he called Dae-young, but she didn't answer his calls. He thought it didn't matter for he would go to Urk tomorrow morning and settled the matter with her.

The phone on his desk ringing.

"Salute."

"Major Yoo Si Jin, there's an earthquake in Urk. 7,00 magnitude. The General asks for your presence."

Si Jin froze. "What? Earthquake?" His heart was beating faster. 7,00 magnitude? It was bigger than the last one.

"Yes, sir."

"I'll be right there. Salute."

Si Jin put down his phone and quickly rose from his chair. With quick steps, he walked to the General's office and knocked the door. The General asked him to get in and he gave Myeong Ju's father a salute.

"There was an earthquake in Urk. The headquarter contacted me and I spoke to Captain Lee and Sergeant Seo. They said Sergeant Choi accompanied Dr. Kang to the hospital and apparently..." The General met Si Jin's eyes. "The hospital suffered the damage from the earthquake. Dr. Kang's colleagues, Dr. Song and Nurse Ha were safe. Sergeant Gong too, but Dr. Kang..."

"What happened, sir?" Si Jin asked with trembling voice.

The General sighed. "They said Dr. Kang and Sergeant Choi were buried under the ruins of the hospital. They don't know if they are still alive."

Si Jin felt his body went colder.

No, Dr. Kang must be alive.

She had to.

"She's still alive," suddenly Si Jin said with misty eyes, more to himself.

"Major..."

"She's still alive. She has to," Si Jin said again and straightened his posture. "I ask permission to go to Urk, sir. I will bring two teams and the medical team too."

The General looked at the man in front of him and then, nodded. It was useless to ask him to stay anyway. "Very well. You may leave. I'll handle the meeting with the Haesung's hospital board after this."

Si Jin lowered his head in gratitude. "Thank you, sir." The Major gave the General a salute before retreating from the office.

Si Jin pulled out his phone and pressed the speed dial to Dr. Kang's number, but it said the number was not available to reach.

Trying to control his emotions, he looked for a number on the phone book. He swept the dial button and waited several minutes before saying, "Liutenant Yoon, prepare medical team to Urk. We're leaving in one hour."

He disconnected the call and dialed the secure line of the army.

"This is Major Yoo Si Jin. Team Bravo and Charlie, prepare your team to Urk. ETD one hour."

While Si Jin was preparing his teams to Urk, Mo Yeon looked around, assessing the situation. They were trapped, but it was a good thing they still had the light from the holes between the ruins. Dust and materials from the collapsed building made her cough and she tried to move. Mo Yeon hissed when she felt the pain on her right foot. She peeked and saw a long bloody scar. She tried to move her foot and breathed the sigh of relief when she realized it was just a scratch and not a bad one. And then, she glanced at Sergeant Choi who was still unconscious and trying to see if he had any injuries. A cough sound alerted her and Mo Yeon saw the soldier stirred, but couldn't move. She looked over at his leg and saw a rock prevented him to move. Slowly, Mo Yeon lifted the rock with the strength she had and her eyes widened when she saw Sergeant Choi's leg. The rock hit his leg causing him had an open wound. Mo Yeon knew if it was not treated immediately, it could get infected.

"Dr. Kang, are you alright?" she heard the Sergeant asked.

Mo Yeon looked at Sergeant Choi's face. "I'm alright. Don't move too much." She looked around his uniform and then, asked, "Do you bring knife or anything sharp with you?"

Sergeant Choi tried to sit before giving the doctor a knife from his pocket. Mo Yeon took it and cut the hem of her blouse.

"What are you doing?"

Mo Yeon didn't answer, but tied the piece of cloth to Sergeant Choi's leg. The soldier yelped in pain when Mo Yeon tied the cloth tighter. The doctor looked at him apologetically. "I'm sorry, but I need to stop the bleeding." She gave the knife back.

Sergeant Choi looked around and then sighed. "At least we still have oxygen down here."

"Yeah."

The soldier took out his walkie talkie. "Snoopy to Eagle."

No answer.

Mo Yeon raised her eyebrows. "Eagle?"

"It's the Captain's call sign." The soldier blew a breath. "We can't get any signals here."

The doctor pulled out her phone. "No signals on my phone either." And then, she looked again at the soldier. "Why do you choose Snoopy as your call sign? It's the comic character, isn't it?"

Sergeant Choi nodded a bit embarrassed.

Mo Yeon sighed animatedly while putting back her phone on her pocket. "If I think about it, do you think I should change my call sign? I don't think Beauty is a good one."

"It suits you, Dr. Kang."

Mo Yeon blinked.

"And if you don't like it, why did you choose the name anyway?" the soldier asked again.

Mo Yeon smiled. "Si Jin chose that for me." She leaned her head on the nearby wall. "The more I learn everybody's call sign, the more I want to change it. Cinderella or Snow White is a good one, or maybe Doctor Strange."

Sergeant Choi couldn't help, but only chuckled.

"Don't worry. We'll get out from here. I'm sure your team know about us."

"I should be the one who tell you that, Dr. Kang, not the other way around."

The doctor grinned and pointed to the injured leg. "Well, you're injured."

The soldier frowned. "Oh yes..."

"We're not going to die here. You probably have girlfriend who's waiting for you to come home."

"Wife."

Mo Yeon turned her head sharply. "Eh?"

Sergeant Choi took a deep breath. "I'm married."

Silence.

"Oh...I see."

Another silence.

"Children?"

The Sergeant shook his head. "No, not yet." And then, he sighed. "I know it's been years, but I haven't said my apology to you, Doctor."

Mo Yeon blinked.

"I'm sorry for what I've said in the airport two years ago."

The doctor smiled. "It's ok. I understand how you felt, though. You probably hated me because I was the one who made Si Jin had disciplinary measure and being sent home. He shouldn't do that in the first place."

"Major Yoo did that to protect you."

Mo Yeon froze. "What?"

"He was told to leave the patient and if anything happened, the blame would be on you, Doctor. As much as I didn't like it, I knew Major Yoo won't do that. Especially when it came to you." The Sergeant looked at Mo Yeon. "You didn't know?"

The doctor covered her face with her hands. "No. He never told me the real reason. He just told me he did that because of his principle. I knew there must be another reason behind his action." Mo Yeon blew a breath harshly. "I can't believe that man."

"Also...it's because I thought you both are not in real relationship. I mean, what will you do when you found out about what we do? I have a lot of arguments with my wife about this. She wants me to transfer to another unit which is safer."

Mo Yeon smiled again. She remembered when Sergeant Choi had to disarm a bomb attached to her body. Anything could go wrong. She understood how his wife felt. She was too.

"It's really hard for me too in the beginning." Her eyes had the faraway look. "A great guy like him, a captain of the army, could love me, a mere doctor who even her hospital doesn't appreciate her. Mostly, after I found out what Special Forces was like. I tried to run several times, but it didn't work. Either he was there to catch me or I was running to him. Being in relationship with Si Jin makes me realize something. It's not the wrong or right. It's more the right or easy decision."

Sergeant Choi looked at Mo Yeon curiously.

"It's easy for both of us to just leave each other. It's safer, but we already loved each other too much to be separated. My world seemed dark when you told me he won't come back while he couldn't do anything when he was sent home because he missed me so much. The same goes for his decision to protect me with the Arab people, now I understand. It was easy for him to just follow the order, but it was not right." The doctor looked at Sergeant Choi square in the eyes. "We both do what we think is right which is stay together."

Meanwhile, Si Jin was ready on C-17, preparing to fly to Urk with his teams and Myeong Ju. He didn't say much to the others. All he was thinking about was Dr. Kang, how she could survive while being trapped under the ruins. He had hopes because he knew the doctor was a strong woman. She could fight an epidemic. An earthquake was nothing compared to that.

"She will be alright," Myeong Ju said when they felt the plane took off.

Si Jin nodded, his eyes full with determination. "Yes, she will."