Time-Line Setting: During the Pilot episode.
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters. I am not affiliated in any way, shape or form with anyone who does.
Tom sat silently in the hospital room, listening to the beeping of the machines. He was used to them now, had spent hours among their company, but they had never become comforting. The sound was still as harsh as it had been the first time he had heard it.
Shawn was back now, but Kyle was still missing, still practically dead. Four thousand, three hundred and ninety-nine other people had returned, but Kyle had never shown any sign of recovery. He had never been able to give Tom hope that the beeping would stop.
The only hope Tom had ever had was that one day he would find Shawn, and Shawn would tell him what had happened. Then that would lead into finding a way of reviving his only child.
He had been so ecstatic when Shawn had appeared. Tom hadn't cared about how much money he had wasted on the private investigators to track him down, all that mattered was that, now he was here, it was about to finally be over.
But there was one fatal flaw in his plan. Shawn couldn't remember what had happened that night, couldn't remember where he had been since then.
So, that had been it. The end. The last minuscule shred of hope Tom had clutched to had been erased within seconds.
But he still waited there, listening to the beeping of the machines, feeling each repetition cut to the core of his soul.