"Is he okay?" Claire asks with concern.
"We don't know. This is routed through Basecamp." Jared sighs.
"It says Shaun was there, but it didn't say if he was hurt or not." Claire panics.
"Well, EMS has two critical inbounding. Their hands are a little full to chat right now." Melendez sighs. Suddenly an ambulance rushes through, carrying someone on a gurney.
"25-year-old male. Single gunshot wound to the abdomen. Hypotensive and tachycardic. Two liters of saline en route." The woman informs, and that's when they all stared in shock.
"Oh my God!" Jared gasps.
"Shaun!" Claire gasps. They're moving fast at this point, rushing him to the O.R. He's fading in, and out of consciousness, only able to look at them for a few seconds at a time.
"Shaun? Shaun? Stay with us. You hear me? Stay with me!" Claire pleads, tears in her eyes as he's rushed to the O.R. Andrews, Melendez, Kalu, and several other doctors rush in there, getting to work to try to save Shaun. They're working on him now, trying to get the bullets out of Shaun's abdomen. The procedure seemed to be going well until they heard a loud whine coming from the heart monitor.
"We're losing him!" Melendez shouts, and that's when they start moving. They're trying to get him breathing on his own again, but those damn bullets are still in him. They're moving faster now, desperately trying to get the bullets out of Shaun until finally, they did it. Melendez has been silent the entire time, quietly working to save Shaun. Shaun cannot die, he won't allow it. Eventually they found that they had no choice but to put Shaun on a ventilator. Melendez doesn't understand, they'd done everything right, so Shaun shouldn't have slipped into a coma.
He's wracking his brain at this point, going over everything he did in surgery. He'd done everything right, but he obviously missed something because Shaun is in a coma. He's thinking of every step he took in that surgery, going through it over, and over, and over again. They'd done everything right, so why was he currently in a coma? It doesn't make any sense. They did everything right… didn't they?
"Don't do this to yourself man. You did everything that you could to help Shaun." Marcus says, putting his hand on his shoulder.
"I don't know man, I still feel like we missed something." Neil sighs.
"Look Neil, you did everything that you could. Hell, we all did. So, don't go blaming yourself over what-ifs." Marcus sighs.
"Go home, get some rest, then you can visit Shaun tomorrow after your shift." Marcus demands. Melendez yawns. He knows he's right, but he can't help feeling like he screwed up. Glassman was the first one to visit Shaun today. He's sitting in a chair, reading to him from Go set a watchman. He knew that to Kill a mockingbird was his favorite book, so of course he had to read the sequel to Shaun's favorite book. He hates listening to the sound that the ventilator makes. ICU rooms are almost deathly quiet, especially those on a ventilator. It was about three hours later when he goes home for some much-needed rest.
Lea was listening to her music when she realized something, it was awfully quiet next door. Frowning, she turns off the music and decides to walk over there. Slowly, she knocks on Shaun's door. When he didn't answer after an hour, that's when she begins to worry. She remembers him mentioning at some point that he works at St. Bonaventure Hospital. Well, if he's not here, then he's probably just working late. He is a doctor after all. She'll worry about it in the morning.
Shaun finds himself in the old bus that he and Steve had run away to. It was a lot smaller than he remembered.
"It's a lot smaller now that you're bigger, huh?" Steve smiles.
"That makes no sense. The bus is the same size that it always has been. My age has no relevance." Shaun states.
"You're right of course. You always were so smart Shaun." Steve smiles. Steve grabs Shaun's hand, and that's when he runs outside, begging him to play. Shaun smiles as he plays with his brother. He's missed this, he's missed Steve. The two of them run outside after that, smiles on their faces as they walk together.
"Hey Shaun! Why don't we go back to our house? Daddy misses us!" Steve grins, and that's when Shaun lets go.
"You are not Steve." He realizes.
"What? Of course, I am! Shaun, you're being silly!" Steve protests.
"No, Steve would never want me to go back there. You are not Steve." Shaun insists, and that's when he pushes him down, running away in tears.
"Shaun, wait!" Steve calls, but by then, it was too late, Shaun was already gone.
It was later that night when Neil decided to visit Shaun after his shift. He knows that Shaun can't reply to him, but he still feels the need to visit him. He still feels immense guilt for the surgery. He still feels that he must have done something wrong, and it's eating him up inside. Sighing, he sits in the chair, putting his head in his hands.
"Shaun, I'm sorry. I know you can't reply to me, but I need to say this anyway. This is my fault. You shouldn't be like this after your surgery. I must have done something wrong for you to be like this." He sighs. This was getting him nowhere.
"Alright Murphy, listen up. You need to wake up. You need to get better, okay? Please? For me? Can you do that?" He pleads to empty air. The only response he received was silence. Neil sighs. What was he expecting, for Shaun to magically wake up after hearing his little speech? Please. Still, some indication that he'd heard him would be nice.
"Shaun, please. Give me a sign. Let me know that you're still in there." He pleads.