"The operation is done, let me just suture the wounds," Dr. Young said. The hospital's deputy director
handed him the tools from a metal tray and he began the suturing process. Suddenly, Dr. Fan's
stressed voice spoke out, "Wait a minute!"
Dr. Young immediately stopped what he was doing. Everyone in the operating room turned to look at
Dr. Fan, who frantically said, "Something is wrong with his heart!"
"His blood pressure is dropping drastically!" the nurse cried in shock.
Dr. Fan frowned. He gestured to Dr. Young to exchange positions with him. Moving to the operating
table, he began to perform a check-up and then said, "Intracranial hemorrhage!"
Everyone in the room blanched upon hearing Dr. Fan's diagnosis. On second thought however, they
could not help but feel grateful that the hemorrhage was discovered before suturing. Otherwise, not
only would Mark's body fail to endure a second craniotomy operation, but it might be too late to remove
the hemorrhage as well.
Opposite the operating room's walls, people outside of it had no idea about the nerve-racking situation
happening inside. They could only do so much as wait. Like a knife, time kept cutting everybody's heart
in pieces repeatedly as the hours rolled by. Molly felt like a century had passed, and during that
century, she nearly used all her strength to stare at the glowing sign "In Operation" on top of the
operating room's doors.
A male voice cut through the tense silence. "Molly…" Brian said softly as he strode to her, arms
outstretched seeking to embrace--but Molly turned away slightly, as if she felt what he was going to do.
Brian's arms paused in mid-air, sensing her hesitation. With bitterness etched on his thin lips, he
receded slowly. He just stood by her side to watch over her, feeling that she would collapse at any
minute.
At that moment, Molly didn't think of anything except Mark. She only cared about her son.
Tap tap tap…
The sound of hasty footsteps suddenly coming broke the silence at the corridor, alerting everyone in
the waiting area. Everyone instinctively looked to where the sound was coming from. They could sense
two people getting nearer, but could not recognize them because of the hallway's rather overly bright
lighting.
It was a general rule that not everyone could enter this floor because it was in the hospital wing for the
exclusive surgery departments.
"Mol!" a soothing voice came from one of the two visitors and everyone now saw who came. "How is
Mark now?"
When Molly heard the familiar voice, she turned her head slowly, seeing Spark who she hadn't seen for
half a month. He looked gaunt and dispirited. Looking at him like this made the middle of her forehead
throb again in dull pain. "Spark, Mark is undergoing an operation," she said as calmly as she could.
The air around them instantly felt strange. Everyone was looking at Molly and Spark, however Spark
didn't find anything unusual - but then again, his attention was focused on Mark. Worry was written all
over his exhausted looking face, and with a frown he said, "I came here as soon as I heard that Mark
was ill. How could it be? Isn't he healthy as before?"
Molly just shook her head. She didn't want to say anything at this moment. Three hours had passed,
but still nothing came out of the operating room. Molly's mind was going chaotic with all kinds of crazy
thoughts about what was happening in the surgery.
"Mark will be okay," Spark said, trying to comfort her despite feeling somber himself. "He already
overcame the most difficult thing ever before, how could he give up now?" he said in the best
encouraging voice he could muster.
Molly looked at him with tear-filled eyes. She knew that he was referring to the traumatic moment Mark
did not cry out when he had just been born. The middle of her forehead was still sore. She felt she
would have a migraine soon with all the stress about the surgery. "Hmm…" she murmured, biting her
lips tightly and nodding in agreement.
Spark pressed his lips in a thin line and looked at Molly with determined eyes, as if he was encouraging
her to be strong. He waited too and just stood there with her in silence. It seemed that all this time, he
forgot Brian was with them, standing on the other side of the corridor.
Brian's perfectly sculpted face wore a mask of indifference, but his sorrowful black eyes were
seemingly filled with rolling storms, keeping the others away from him.
Shirley looked at Brian and then at Richie. Richie was really aloof. He never showed his emotions on
his face except to Shirley, like an expert poker player secretively dealing his cards. Nobody could read
or even guess what he was thinking.
The hour hand continued moving in its routine circles as they waited. Inside the operating room, the
tension died down a bit as Dr. Fan performed the suturing by himself. Everyone inside were calmer
now, but they couldn't help but feel sad at the same time.
"Send Mark to the ICU," Dr. Fan finally said.
The lamp signage on top of the operating doors went off as the wheeled stretcher carrying Mark's
resting body was pulled out to proceed to the ICU. The team of doctors went out as well. Everyone
waiting outside saw the scene and with held breaths, they waited for the news.
"M-Mark... Hey, Mark..." Molly was too stressed to even complete a sentence while looking at Dr. Fan.
Dr. Fan was calm but he looked distraught and exhausted. He took off his mask, his expression
anything but relaxed. "Mark's intracranial tumor was removed successfully, but recurrence is still
possible," he said. When everybody's faces were just as agitated, he added, "In addition, you should
mentally prepare yourselves for another thing... Mark has congenital heart disease, which has
incubated before if you have not been notified and was triggered by this operation. I'm afraid that it
would be more troublesome than the tumor." Nobody among them could say a word upon hearing the
bad news.
When Molly felt her body was about to collapse, she instinctively grasped Spark's arm for support. Dr.
Fan elaborated more about Mark's condition, explaining all that had happened was due to the
excessive amounts of vitamin C in Mark's body.
It was now late at night when the operation and the discussion about Mark's condition ended. Molly
looked at Mark who was almost covered by a variety of medical instruments from the windows of the
ICU, her hands resting on the cool glass. The sight made Molly's heart ache.
"Molly, Mark will be okay..." said Spark. It was late but he hadn't left yet. In such a stressful moment,
nobody was in the mood to think about how he had gotten the news or even entered the VIP floor of
the hospital.
Molly remained silent and did not respond. She could not think about anything else besides Mark. She
looked at him sadly behind the glass windows of the ICU.
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