Hi, so here is another chapter. There are only two more chapters left of this story and I hope to have them both published before new year. I apologise for the lateness of this chapter and the previous one but I have had computor issues as well as a horrible cold and therefore my updating has been caught in the crossfire.

Disclaimer-Nothing is mine

Please Read and Review and let me know what you think.

And I will try and update sooner rather than later.

Gone Maybe Gone

Chapter 3-Give Em Hell Kid.

Loretta considers what happens if the worst comes to worst. Linda and Rita come face to face and Laurel finds herself in a strange place that confounds her beliefs. Again still mostly canon compliment to the episode.

Loretta sat down on the hard chair and once again spared a thought to whoever had designed chairs such as this. She hoped that they would suffer the same back pain that she had been suffering in the three hours that she had been waiting here. Laurel had come out of her surgery and was waiting in the recovering room but Loretta suspected that there was a reason why the doctor had been holed up in the room and had not come out and told them that they could go in.

Dwayne had been getting restless.

Dwayne had been getting more and more restless with each passing second. Unsurprisingly he had not been too impressed with the doctor's instruction that he stay there while they ran some more tests and he had been asking Loretta all sorts of questions in between mutinous mutterings about what he would like to do with the doctor if he got him alone in a room for five minutes.

Loretta took that in silently. There was no point telling her oldest friend right now that she had not worked on any living corpses for over a decade and a half. There was no point telling Dwayne anything other than that she had a strong believe that Laurel would be alright. But she had to admit that three shots to the torso and a good hard knock on the head where she had fallen would not do Laurel any favours. There was a pause where she tried to run over the facts and the medical information as much as she knew them. Training to be a doctor did not go away overnight regardless of weather or not you practiced on the dead or the living.

She had to think, three shots and one of them had nicked an artery. Another blood vessel in Laurel's chest had been shattered and the second bullet had landed somewhere between her ribs and that would have done a dangerous bit of damage. And Loretta did not even want to think about the time frame that Laurel had spent alone with the blood dripping out of her body. Time was muscle and muscle was time as far as shootings were concerned and Loretta knew, she knew that Laurel had been alone for a time that might be just too long for her to fight back.

Oh but she wanted her to fight back. She wanted Laurel to fight back tooth and nail and for all her talk to Pride she believed that Laurel would put up her best fight. She was a strong kid who had lived through a bombing, an attack, a further attempt on her life, her parents divorcing and a full time college experience complete with all of the hangovers and stupid mistakes that college kids made when they were away from home for the first time.

But how long could Laurel fight for. How long had her brain been active while she had been bleeding all over her fathers floor? And how long would she be able to fight this mammoth battle. There was a pause where Loretta tried to imagine what life without Laurel would be like. The thought of that made her heart heave and her hands go all clammy and her fingers shake so violently that she could feel the tremors in her body so hard she could barely stand. There was a pause where she sat there and had to get her breathing under control. The last thing she told herself sternly, Dwayne needed was her falling apart. He was holding himself together by what Loretta suspected was sheer force of will alone.

How long could the doctors keep them? Unless…unless it was brain damage.

Dwayne had apparently come to the same conclusion.

"It's brain damage isn't it?" he asked finally his voice so horse and dry that she had to struggle to hear him. There was a pause where she tried to think about what was going to happen and she bit her bottom lip until she could feel an old cut break open and she could feel the pain. She knew Dwayne was waiting on the answer to a question that they both knew deep down the answer too.

"I don't know" Loretta said because that was the truth. "I don't know weather or not her brain was compromised. That is something that you've got to ask—Dwayne if it is, I should tell you that as a medical professional I would give—" she was cut off by what she was going to say (which had been that she had not seen many miracles when it came to brain dead patients) by the sound of running footsteps and then the cry that was half strangled out of a throat that she knew very well of…

"Dwayne!"

Linda Pride had arrived. Dwayne stood up and with a force that Loretta was surprised Dwayne didn't fall over from his ex wife crashed into him. The two of them stood there and hugged for a long second as if they were the only thing that kept the other one standing which Loretta supposed was true enough. Dwayne and Linda had had as amicable divorce as far as some of the ones she had seen were capable off and they had always but their daughter first. This time they were clutching at each other as if they were still in their honeymoon phase and their daughter was still a little girl who toddled after them and not a grown woman in a hospital bed with bullet holes ripped through her.

Loretta had to look away least the emotion got to her. She was not a woman to be bowled over by a sentimental moment but right now she was having a hard time trying to keep her emotions in check but there was always the chance that she would break down if she let this continue and that was the last thing either one of her friends needed. Besides at some point the team was bound to call her weather or not they needed her or if they wanted a check in. Sebastian had a habit after all of letting his imagination get the better of him on a good day. His senses right now must be in overdrive.

There was a second bang and then more running footsteps and Loretta peered around the corridor as Dwayne and Linda turned around. It was Rita. Loretta had to force herself not to roll her eyes. Of course Dwayne would invite his girlfriend and his ex-wife and not inform the other (if the look on their faces were anything to be judged by) to this. He would want his friends and his family around him when he heard the news but he was still Dwayne Pride even in the best of circumstances. A brilliant detective but completely clueless when it came to some facts.

Rita skidded to a halt and Loretta stood up to greet the woman who had clearly got on a plane and travelled hard and fast from one state to the other without even stopping so that she could be by Dwayne's side. Loretta was about to open her mouth when there was movement from Laurel's hospital room. All four of them stiffened. Pride and Linda were gripping each other as if the touch of the other parent were all that were keeping them standing and Loretta moved to take Rita's hand needing the comfort as much as the other woman did. The four of them stood there and Loretta was aware that whatever came out of the Doctor's mouth she had to relay to three very angry people with guns right now (and a supremely good hacker) as soon as possible.

Oh please she thought to herself as the doctor came closer his face grim.

Oh please, Laurel if you can hear me please keep going. Keep fighting. Give Em Hell Kid.

Sebastian had felt his phone vibrate in his pocket and he nearly dislodged the files on his desk in his effort to get to his phone. It buzzed once and he noticed before his screen went dark that there was a single text message from Loretta.

He held up his hand as his screen went back on and he fumbled his way through his password and found the messages app as everyone fell silent.

He read the message once, twice, three times before he remembered to breathe again. He looked up to see Patton gripping the arms of his chair and Tammy and Chris gripping each other's arms. He took in their expressions for a split second longer than he should have done and then he grinned letting the relief shine through his face so that they could all see.

"Laurel is still alive" he said.

Everyone took a breath. Tammy sat down as if her knees had gone out from under her. Chris swore once and then turned his face away and Patton exhaled loudly banging his hand on the arm of his chair in glee.

Sebastian couldn't help it. He grinned too. Still alive wasn't the best thing they'd wanted to hear but still alive was better than nothing.

That meant that they had something to hope for.

Laurel woke up with a gasp.

She was on the floor of the very same room she had been shot at what…hours before? She knew because her whole body was aching. That was strange. If she was dead, wasn't heaven supposed to be…you know? Pain free?

She forced herself to get to her feet and walk down the stairs. She was not bleeding, nothing hurt and she was fine. She was walking down the stairs into the main office area and she looked around. There was something off about this room that she was in. There was something dark and twisted about the room…no the world where she was standing and she paused for a second trying to take in the surroundings.

Also she marvelled at the fact that it was easy to breathe. After so much time spent on the floor upstairs counting each breath that she took and feeling it press against her ribs she found it a marvel that nothing hurt anymore. God this world was amazing. There was no pain and no noise. It was so much better than the regular world where she had been shot and she had bled all over the floor.

She moved near the side of the office near where Tammy's desk was and peered around to stare at the floor. There was no mark of where her blood had been dripping over the grey floor either. There was no hypnotic dripping sound that had been both soothing and painful all at the same time. Laurel raised an eyebrow and then walked back to the middle of the room her hands on her hips and tried to think about what she was going to do next.

And more importantly just where she was.

As far as she was concerned that there was only one place where everything didn't hurt and where the world was sunny and bright and she was alone as if waiting for someone.

And then suddenly Laurel understood. She understood it perfectly. She understood it so well that her knees went out from under her and she forced herself to sit down on her Dad's desk and take a few deep breaths in as if she needed to.

She was dead.

Laurel Pride was dead.

She was dead.

It was a heady thing to get your brain around she realised. Being dead. Honestly it was so difficult. More difficult than she thought it would be. But then again she hadn't given much thought to that…

And there Laurel was, lost in her own head again and unable to concentrate one thought on the one thing, just like she had done when she was shot. She was dead. That part of the story was over. There was no room or reason for her to worry now.

"Oh your not dead" said a voice from behind her and she turned around to see someone who she thought she would never see again—at least not in this life and she paused staring in shock.

Standing there was her grandmother. Her father's mother who had died before she was born. She stood there watching her and then she forced herself to her feet.

"Not dead" she repeated stupidly grasping at the only words that she could remember. There was nothing better in this moment than words. Words where something that she could cling too because right now the world had gone upside down the second she had walked into the office to see if her Dad was there to surprise him from coming home earlier.

"No" her grandmother said sitting down on the edge of a desk. "You're not dead yet Laurel. Weather you do end up dead however, well that is entirely up to you"

And yeah, some points have changed from the episode but the plot still remains the same.

If i dont get to update again i wish you all a very happy Christmas and a very happy and safe 2019.

Next Chapter-Laurel confronts her new reality. Chris and the rest of the team figure out Rebecca's plan. Pride must regroup for an assault.