Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Smash characters or the Smash storylines that appear in this fanfiction, nor do I own the show itself.
Author's note: I wanted to write an AU in which Kyle lived and we see he and Tom explore what might have been. In this story, the hospital accidentally switched the hospital records of Kyle and another young man in a car crash the same night. The other man died and 'Kyle' is declared dead when he's actually just lying unconscious upstairs under a different patient name. Since police couldn't immediately get hold of Kyle's parents the next morning they called Tom but legally family had to identify the body and no-one else was allowed in to see Kyle. So episode 214 happens in the 24 hours it takes for his parents to be notified, fly back out to New York and alert everyone to the error. Tom only shows up right at the end of this prologue and we see his reaction in the next chapter (it will be up soon.) Please let me know what you think ~ Rose
Prologue: Hospital Error
"Mr and Mrs Bishop, come this way please," the doctor stopped in front of a morgue table holding a body covered with a white sheet. "We did absolutely everything that we could but his injuries were just too extensive. I'd like to say again that I'm sorry for your loss. Now, the Sergeant and I need you to formally identify that this is your son. Please take as long as you need." With that, the doctor pulled the sheet away from the face of the man on the table. The rustle of the over-starched hospital sheet pierced through the silent, cold room.
Gripping firmly onto each other's hands Kyle's parents raised their eyes to the man on the table and Marie Bishop gasped loudly. "That's not, not..." she broke off.
Joined hands shaking between them, Chris finished for her, voice escalating to a shout as he advanced toward the doctor and cried out "That man is not Kyle. Where is he? Where is our son?"
Dr Brighton questioned "I'm sorry sir, ma'am?" before grabbing the patient chart, looking confused. "This isn't your son?" He held his hands up in a gesture designed to placate the clearly upset parents. "Alright, calm down please, just wait a minute, there's obviously been a mistake. I attended to this man when he came in last night and he is definitely the same patient that we treated under the name Kyle Bishop. There must have been some error."
Marie stepped forward to stand next to her husband, loudly demanding "Where is my son? Is he alive? Is he okay? Tell me where my son is right now!"
Dr Brighton took a deep breath before he responded, reminding himself that these people were understandably distressed and that the best way to defuse the situation was to find them some answers. "Mrs Bishop, Mr Bishop, I'm very sorry, but I don't know where Kyle is or what has happened to him. Please head back upstairs to the waiting room, I will let you know about your son as soon as I possibly can. Sergeant, would you come with me please so we can sort this situation out."
The doctor strode out of the morgue after the unhappy couple, walking straight to a nearby hospital computer whilst speaking in an undertone to the police officer. "I don't know what happened. Damn! Those parents are certain that man in the morgue isn't their son. God, this is a mess." He paused to tiredly drag his hand through his hair and thought quietly for a moment. "Wait, wait I think there was another young man in a car accident that night. He wasn't my patient but ... " he trailed off, typing quickly into the computer. "Okay, yes, there was another patient that night, brought into the ER within ten minutes of Kyle. Let's see, 25 year old male, Charles Turner, slim build, hit and run, he pulled through surgery but hasn't woken up yet. If someone screwed up and switched the records, this could be Kyle and the man down in the morgue could be Charles."
The Sergeant leaned over to look at the screen. "Similar age and build. Yes, this could be him. We'd better have his parents confirm. Doctor, we are going to have a long discussion about exactly how this happened later. For now though, let's see if this man is actually Mr Bishop."
The two men walked back over to the waiting room to Kyle's parents who jumped up immediately, demanding answers. Dr Brighton held up his hand for silence and calmly stated "I'm sorry about the delay. There was another young man injured in a car accident the same night as your son. That man hasn't woken up yet but his surgery went well and he's stable. We think that an error may have been made and the records might have accidently been switched, so the patient we have treated as Mr Turner might actually be your son Kyle. I apologise for the error. We do need you to confirm his identity so please come with me and I'll take you to him right now."
A couple of hours later, Marie sat quietly by her son's bedside, waiting for him to wake up. Marie smiled as she realised that this was the first moment of the day she'd had to sit quietly and simply appreciate that her son was alive. It had been an insane day, filled with the wrenching grief of losing her son and then the elation of finding out he was actually alive. Friends and family had had to be contacted about his death and she'd thought about his funeral arrangements with despair as she and her husband had madly flown straight back to the city they'd only just left. Then there had been the moment in the morgue when she'd steeled herself to see her baby boy lying still and cold on the table. Shafts of confusion and blinding hope had shot through her when she had realized that it wasn't her Kyle lying there. Then those long minutes in the waiting room that had felt like hours, when she had clung onto Chris while they desperately waited to hear Kyle's fate before the joy of seeing her son tucked into a hospital bed, bruised and battered but gloriously alive. A shower of apologies and explanations from the hospital had flowed over her and Chris as they'd madly called friends and family back again to tell them the good news.
The sound of footsteps dashing toward Kyle's room broke through her reverie and Marie looked up expecting to see her husband coming back in carrying the coffees for which he'd stepped out. To her surprise, she didn't even recognize the man that entered. He clearly recognized Kyle though, shock, grief and desperate hope slashed across his face, warring with one another as he ran into the room. The pain resonating in the man's eyes convinced her that he wasn't a threat to her son's continued health so with raised eyebrows she sat back calmly to watch the reunion unfold.