He wasn't prepared for this. Hell, he was barely prepared to have a child to begin with, much less a kid like this. Always active, always talkative, always smiling, save in the presence of his father… until now. Now, he was completely silent. His eyes were still under his closed lids, and his small hands lay motionless at his sides. One of the few sounds in the room was the gentle pulse of the respirator, monitoring his breathing. The other sound was the quiet respirations of the kid's mother as she slept on the hospital chair by the window. Ten years old, and already in the hospital for bypass surgery. Unbelievable. They hadn't known, not until recently, that Shawn had a slight defect, what the doctors called an Atrial Septal Defect. It had been discovered when Shawn started showing signs of breathlessness after just short periods of play. At first, they'd suspected asthma. However, the doctor at the clinic discovered a heart murmur, and confirmed the problem shortly thereafter with an X-Ray.

The problem would never heal on its own, so, a few weeks ago, Henry and wife signed the necessary papers that would put their child under the knife. The surgery had gone fine, the problem, actually, had been fairly routine to repair. But still…

Shawn twitched slightly, his fingers rising off the mattress for just a second before relaxing once more. Henry wrapped his own fingers around his son's, his eyes unerringly going to the vertical scar on the boy's thin chest. He'd be stuck with that the rest of his life. But… he'd have a life. There was a rustle behind him as his wife stretched, yawning softly as she stood from her uncomfortable bed. Walking to his side, Henry felt her place a hand on his shoulder.

"You should rest."

Henry stroked a thumb over the back of Shawn's hand. "I'm not tired."

She rubbed the back of his neck, leaning forward to brush the bangs out of Shawn's eyes. "He looks good, his color is better."

Henry nodded, his other hand joining the first to clasp Shawn's hand between them. "Yeah."

They were both silent for a few moments, both studying the boy before them. Finally, Henry heard the woman beside him sigh. "Are we… are we going to be okay?"

Shawn took a breath… and another. Henry moved one hand to rest lightly on the kid's chest, feeling the warmth of the small body. Slowly, he dipped his head up and down.

"Yeah… we're going to be fine."

A/N: this was inspired by a posting on Psych's site. Someone noted that there's a part at the beginning of the Christmas episode where James Roday is wearing a shirt that's partially unbuttoned. At one point it gaps- showing a scar from heart bypass surgery. Now that I've rewatched it, there does appear to be some kind of pale scar. In any event, I couldn't get this idea out of my head after reading that.