Irene leaned against the wall, her head thumping in pain as she rubbed her temples to give it some comfort. It had only been a day and things were already hectic, she managed to catch a few breaks here and there but she was thankful for the distraction, it gave her heart a bit of peace. She moved around the medical cube that still looked like a bomb had hit the place, organising things as to where they needed to go. She leaned her head back. She hadn't spoke to Jackson since the incident regarding Youngji, the younger girl glaring at her with a black eye. She stifled a laugh every time she glared at her. She shook her head, Suelgi coming to sit by her as they continued to work on organising things and files, eating a few chocolates here and there. They laughed slightly feet up as Wendy and Yeri joined them in their small huddle, Joy collapsing down next to them half an hour later. Irene looked down at her phone, a message from Jackson telling her he was going for a mission, she rolled her eyes slightly, as she turned her attention back to the girls. They laughed and joked like they did before Irene had gotten married, gossiping like teenager girls and relaxing with each other, the moment perfect. The moment of peace about to be shortly disrupted.

Irene's phone rang loudly ending the laughter that rung out between the girls. She sighed, answering the call, her shoulder holding it up to her ear as Joy passed her a note pad and pen. "This is Dr Irene speaking how may I help you." Her eyes widened at the uneasy tone of the person. "There been an mini earthquake and it has hit the power plant we were working on. There's many casualties." Irene rubbed her temples, the girls watching in concern as Irene ended the call with rushed instructions to call the rest of the team wherever they were. "We have a severe case. Earthquake about 20 miles out, has hit a power station and their are numerous casualties. Take one of these bags and work in teams of two for as much as you can. If you can't help the person, place a blue label on them, black for the dead, red for critical, Amber for it can wait and green for the all clear. You have one job in the field and that is to save as many lives as you can. Work with the soldiers if you need extra hands but don't waste your time trying to bring a dead man back to life okay?" She nodded at them all, the soldiers arriving in cars to transport them to the scene.

They arrived in record timing, the whole scene a chaotic mess. Irene gulped looking around, knowing that this was about to be ten times worse than it looked. Her team broke off into subunits working quickly and effectively, her eyes cast to the dead bodies that the army were lining up. She made eye contact with one of Jackson's mates, who offered her a small smile. She struggled to give one back, turning to start working. She worked back forth between patients, Wendy calling her over for a critical one. They essentially operated in the field, opening the patient up controlling the bleeding and stabilising him as best as they could, before getting the army to transport the patient back to the medical cube where their senior was waiting with the second group of doctors. Irene looked up to Wendy ripping off her gloves. "Hang in there wends this is about to get worse." She squeezed her shoulder taking the bag and moving to the next. She climbed up some debris, her knees scraping the rocks slightly causing them to bleed as she winced continuing her journey to reach the patient. She noticed that his legs were trapped and that was where majority of the bleeding seemed to be taking place. Irene looked around, her eyes catching Joys as she called her up, the younger girl following Irene's trek to reach her. Irene pushed the big chunk of debris away her hands turning red as Joy quickly handed her some gloves to begin work. She administrated pain relief and made sure his condition was remotely stable before telling Joy to wait with him whilst she called some people to help get him down and transported to the medical cube. She jumped down, her eyes meeting that of a soldiers who she briefly filled in before moving onto the next. Her eyes caught Yeri, who's hands were shaking as she tried to ultimately save a patient who was gone to far, she could hear the younger girl cry somewhat in agony. Irene looked at the blood on her hands, jogging to Yeri before crashing to her side. "Hey. I know this is hard but your doing great Yeri. There was nothing you could have done, the outcome would have been the same." She dried the younger girls tears. "You can chose to sit here and cry or you can get back up on your feet and save more lives. If your not up to it, go back to the medical cube and help there. Okay." She looked at the younger girl tenderly moving a lock of hair from her face. "Your doing amazingly okay." She offered her a warm smile, squeezing her shoulder before running off to the next. Suelgi calling for her moments later, "Diabetic, massive head trauma by the looks of it, trying to gage other injuries, complaining of severe chest and abdomen pain." Irene nodded, leaning over the patient. "Sir, can you hear me?" She asked, receiving a grunt of pain in response. She applied pressure to his stomach, earning a sharp hiss. She turned to Suelgi. "Seems somewhat responsive but it's quite low, get him on a stretcher and back to base as quickly as possible. I suspect that he was internal bleeding so make sure to check up on that. You can't do much in the field he needs to get to the cube." Seulgi nodded as Irene stood taking off the pair of gloves. She sighed slightly, hearing the chants of the soldiers and reinforcements arrived, her head turning to meet Jackson's form, the look he wore intimidating as he commanded the operation better that it had been going. He made sure to designate jobs, the chaotic mess somewhat settling in an instant. She sighed catching her breath for a moment as she turned a corner, her hand rubbing her face as she turned back, her feet halting as she looked down to her untied shoe laces. She dropped the bag down to the side, getting ready to tie them. A gloved hand beating her to it. Her eyes meeting Jackson's as he placed his helmet next to her. He tied up both shoes as Irene watched him, her heart suddenly feeling heavy. He stood up their eyes locking as he wiped away at some blood on her cheek, his eyes looking at her bloody knees. "Are you okay?" He asked. She nodded shaking away the tiredness. "I'm fine." He nodded. "Stay safe out there for me okay." She looked up at him as he moved a step forward his hand resting on her cheek waiting for a response. She nodded. "I will." He smiled at her, bringing her forward as he planted a kiss on her forehead, her eyes closing as he did. He moved back allowing her space to walk. "Jackson..." she called out, watching as he stopped turning to her. "Stay safe as well." She voiced, watching him smile with a nod, they both turned away, Jackson putting on his helmet, the two going off to fight two different battles. Their goal...ultimately the same.

An hour had passed, both Irene and Jackson working relentlessly to save as many lives as possible. Jackson sighed. His heart thumping as he looked at the mass amount of debris of the collapsed building, as they tired to find a point at which they could enter without causing the complete thing to collapse with them in it. His head turned catching sights of his wife, who was currently doing CPR, the tiredness etched into her features along side with the determination to not lose another person, his eyes widened as she somewhat collapsed to the floor tired, his feet turning to rush to her, before halting as he watch her pick herself up resuming where she left off, her small hands working wonders as Wendy and Suelgi rushed over, all three of them working hard to save this life. He smiled slightly, a cadet calling out that they found a spot. Jackson looked at her one last time before heading in with Mark. He sighed as he and mark continued to try to navigate there way through the labyrinth that had been created, the small screams for help beaconing them closer. Jackson pushed himself forward, reaching the casualty with ease, he looked at Mark. "We are going to need medical assistance, see if you can find someone." He nodded, heading back out as Jackson worked on assessing the casualty, performing the basic first aid training to the best of his capability. He sat down next to the man, holding his hand tightly to offer some condolence, his eyes widening as he looked up, another casualty being held up with a massive piece of debris straight through him. He was crying, his cries paining Jackson's heart as he moved away, talking to the man, who grunted out in pain, he took a step back, his eyes further widening at the realisation that the way in which the debris was placed would mean only one of the two men would make it out alive. He heard footsteps gain, his back turning to meet Mark and Irene. He mentally face palmed, he hadn't wanted her in here for her own safety and yet here she was, looking at him. He glared at Mark who stared back confused. He walked up to Irene, his hand on her elbow as he turned her slightly. "We have a slight problem..." he explained the situation, watching as her eyes looked around at the scene, her head nodding as she listened to him. "Let me have a look at both of them. I can then tell you who has the best chance of survival." Jackson nodded as Irene crouched down to the man on the floor, working and assessing him before moving to the next. She looked at him for a split second before turning back to her work. It took an hour, the older man out of the two bravely giving up his life to save the younger one. Irene held his shaking hand as he drew his final breath a smile on his face as he held hers tightly, a tear falling from her eye, which Jackson caught, his face displaying his concern as he watched the scene. He watched her pocket the small notebook covered in blood that the man had given to her to give to his son, her back turning to wipe the stray tears that fell from her eyes. She turned back, climbing up the debris to reach the other patient, Jackson's hand stretching out to help her up, she looked away from him sniffling slightly as she moved to start working, stabilising the patient and moving out swiftly. Jackson dusted his gloves his eyes watching her with worry, Mark slapping his back as they jumped off going further in, the structure shaking with a second wave of earthquake. Jackson pushed Mark to safety, the debris falling and trapping him on the other side. "Jack...JACK! Are you okay? JACK!" He heard. "Mark I'm fine. Wait until this stops and then get me out, be careful." He heard mark cough, letting out orders to retrieve their captain. Jackson finding another casualty in the process. He sighed.

Mark rushed out, Irene turning back to the scene as Wendy and Suelgi ran back to base with the casualty. Irene's eyes caught marks, as she approached him. "Where's Jackson?" She asked, her voice quivering slightly. "The second wave of the earthquake hit whilst we were in there. He's okay Irene he's just trapped. We will get him out don't worry." She looked up gulping. Her eyes casting down to Mark's Walkie-talkie her husbands voice coming through. "Mark I have a casualty with me, he doesn't looked good-" Irene snatched the device out of Marks hands. "Describe it to me." He heard Irene's voice, his features smiling slightly at the sound of her voice, the worry apparent. "He's got a head Injury, his arm is trapped in some debris, that I will try to move soon, once this passes." "Is he conscious?" "Yes." "Good keep him that way. Talk to him as much as you can, when the boys go in I'll send a make shift kit with them. Wait for me and I'll talk you through what you need to do okay." He hummed in agreement, her voice shaking slightly. "What about you?" He smiled. "I'm fine irene, don't worry." She closed her eyes, handing the device back to Mark to go get the necessities. Twenty minutes later Mark and a small squad entered, managing to slip the first aid box to Jackson through a small gap. He coughed, the dust getting into his lungs, as he brought the walkie-talkie closer. "Irene, I've got the box." He heard her voice instantly. "Okay, open it up and the first thing you will see is a liquid bottle, grab the injection which is in the small pouch and find a vein...." she waited patiently as he did what she said, the casualty grunting out slightly. "Does he looked dehydrated to you? Going pale?" "Yes." "Okay is he going cold." He checked. "His left side is." "Okay Jack I'm going to need you to start and IV line. Like I did with you the other day, i need you to wrap that blue band around his forearm find a vein, disinfect the area with the wipe next to the injections....then after that you need insert the catheter...." "I think I've done it..." he replied, as Irene asked. "Have you got your phone on you?" "Yes." "Face time me so I can see." He did as he was told, directing his phone to his worksite. "Yep you've done it correctly. If his heart stops at any point start with CPR and I packed a makeshift defibrillator, it's pretty straight forward to use. How is his head?" "Bleeding has somewhat stopped, I wrapped a bandage over the wound, doesn't seem to deep, but from what I can sense I think he may have fractured his skull." He heard Irene sigh. "How aware or competent is he, if you had to rate him out of 15..." "9 maybe." "Okay we need to get him out of there..." he agreed, Mark and the squad reaching him as he ended the call. He ordered Mark to get the casualty out, who was rushed to Suelgi who had just re-entered the field. JB heard her swear slightly, the amusement not missed as he passed her squeezing her hand. She looked at him her eyes quickly darting back to the patient who she rushed out. Irene who had just finished with a patient, stood up dusting her knees her eyes catching sight of her husband who stumbled out of the rubble, she ripped off the gloves from her hands, dropping the bag to floor and running to him. She crashed into his chest, as he stumbled slightly his arms enclosing around her, as she rested on his shoulder. She moved slightly. "Are you okay?" Her eyes caught the blood dripping from his face. "What the hell-" "I'm fine irene." Her hand reached out to the wound site, causing him to wince. "Fine he says." She held his hand, leading him to sit down, as she stood in between his legs, moving his hair away from his eyes and cleaning the wound, she bandaged it quickly, her eyes surveying him for more obvious wounds. "Irene!" They heard. Irene's eyes flashing to see a patient spurt blood out. Irene sighed her eyes flashing to her husbands. "It's fine irene. He's more serious, this is nothing, I'm fine wifey." She looked up at him her heart skipping a treacherous beat. She rubbed her head nodding slightly, as she turned running to the patient, her hands immediately starting to work.

Hours had gone by, the scene finally closing. Irene walked up to the board that had the death toll, her heart sinking to the floor, as she looked around at the unaccounted bodies. She sighed, her eyes watering against her will. She heard a cough from behind her, turning to see Jackson who noticed the tears in her eyes. He took a step closer to her, pulling her into his warmth, her hands wrapping around his waist as she buried herself closer. "You've been amazing Irene..." he whispered kissing her forehead. She took a ragged breath, trying to contain the whirlwind of emotions. "I'm proud to call you my wife." He said more firmly as the two looked at each other, somewhat waiting for a move from the other. "JACKSON!" They heard a shrilly voice. Irene turned wiping away at the remains of her tears. Youngji standing a few feet away. "Irene-" he begun. "It seems like your busy. I'll see you later." She moved away, her arms wrapping around herself as she walked back to her hut, where the girls where sat waiting open armed for her, to brush off the pain that coated her heart.

TBC

Authors note:
Hey guys hope you enjoy this one....let me know what your thoughts are about this update. I look forward to hearing back, lots of love and best wishes to you all. Stay safe xx