Chapter 575
The student tried to smile, but it came out awkward. There was no way he could be as relaxed as Claire. Not when they were in the operating room-where even a tiny slip could mean disaster.
This surgery had been a nightmare from the start. Twice, the patient started bleeding out, and both times Claire stepped in right away and brought it under control. The last time, she didn’t hesitate. She jumped in herself, guiding Randall through a moment when he nearly made a fatal mistake. By the end of it, Randall looked like he might collapse. His face was white, sweat pouring down his forehead. They had been in there for eight hours, even longer than the marathon surgery on Van.
Claire saw for herself that Randall just wasn’t on Tandy’s level. But that made sense. Tandy was an old military doctor. His surgeries might have been rough, but he always kept his patients alive. Randall? He’d need another twenty years of hard work to ever catch up-if he even wanted to put in that kind of effort. If all he cared about was climbing the ranks and not actually honing his skills, he might never get there. That was just the unfortunate truth.
Randall, meanwhile, had gotten a front-row seat to Claire’s skill. He hadn’t expected her to step in so quickly when things went south-or to handle it so much better than he could. He’d made a mistake because his body just couldn’t keep up. He was exhausted, almost to the point of passing out, and that’s why he slipped up. If he’d been better rested, maybe it wouldn’t have happened. Still, he couldn’t deny how much more talented Claire was for her age.
It was easy to look at someone so young and doubt her ability. But she was sharp and quick-thinking, always ready to adapt, even in chaos. That surprised him more than anything. Claire was the real deal. His own students could barely move, frozen with nerves, but she just kept going, smooth and steady, until the surgery was over. Once they were out of the OR, both of them found some quiet in the break room. Randall finally started some small talk. “I heard you studied under Pandora?”
Everyone in the hospital knew the name. Even Latham, with all his business sense, had relied on Pandora’s connections plenty of times over the years. No matter how much she tried to stay low-key, people always sought her out to thank her, and that meant Latham got plenty of business opportunities he wouldn’t have had otherwise. He couldn’t deny it.
“Pandora’s my grandma,” Claire said, smiling. “I grew up with her.”
Randall couldn’t help but feel a little jealous. Being raised in that environment, it’s no wonder she was so calm and confident, even as a student.
“So, with a surgeon in the family, how did you end up learning traditional medicine too?” he asked. He’d seen how Claire stopped the bleeding with just a few well placed needles-everyone in the room had been floored by it.
Claire shrugged. “It just happened. My grandmother’s neighbor is a doctor too.”
Randall let out a long sigh. “You
really were born with the perfect
setup.” The jealousy hit him all over again. Why couldn’t he have gotten opportunities like that? Then again, what could he do? We don’t get to choose the circumstances we’re born into.
tel
“Claire, I want to apologize for doubting you before. You’re honestly incredible. He meant every word. Being so skilled in both Eastern and Westem medicine, especially at her age, put her ahead of almost everyone. Most people struggled just to get good at one specialty. She’d managed to balance both-and do it well. Randall had always looked up to the old legends
in his field, but today he found
himself admiring someone much younger for the first time.
“I know I look young, and that doesn’t exactly inspire confidence,” Claire replied. “It’s normal for you to question me. If you hadn’t, and just left me to it without asking, that would have been irresponsible.”
Randall smiled at her honesty. “You really are something. Just your method for stopping bleeding with acupuncture would make you a huge asset anywhere.”