When Dylan arrived back upstairs, he mimicked the same whispering position in the doorway as Johnny had done with Dr. Bishop a few hours prior. However, this time, Sue was in no position to be wandering over. Her hand was plugging a body. She was touching a person's internal organs. This wasn't the day in bed she'd hoped for.
"Stop it." She told them, when the whispering became too much for her.
"What?" Dylan asked her, stepped into the room fully.
"The two of you are whispering like I'm going to freak out at any second." She pointed out to them. "I mean, I'm a superhero now, I see weird stuff every day. I'm not going to freak out, so whatever it is, just tell me straight out."
Straightening fully, Dr. Bishop looked at her. "The main oxygen line runs directly underneath this room." He told her.
"Okay." Sue nodded, but they looked at her doubtfully. "Not okay. Well?" There was more silence. "I need one of you to tell me what that means. I think I know what it means, but I'm not going to trust my judgement because I'm a bit glass-half-empty today."
"That would depend on what you thought." Dylan said from the doorway.
"I think it means that if the bomb were to explode and I couldn't contain it while we're over the oxygen line, the whole hospital could blow up." Sue predicted, the mere idea of it panicking her. "And that's just crazy, right?"
But the silence told her just how far from crazy it was.
"Oh god." She muttered.
"It's okay." Dylan assured her. "All it means is that we have to move."
"Move?" Dr. Bishop questioned.
Dylan nodded. "We have to move, and now, because I don't want to spend another second above the oxygen line."
"Wait a second," Sue slowed them down. "I can't move my fingers because we can't shift the bomb, and now you want to roll the entire lot out of here?" She asked them.
"It's our safest option." Dylan told her.
"So, we move. Not a problem. We can do this." Dr. Bishop said, forcing confidence into the room. He looked at Sue, who had closed her eyes, and seemed to be psyching herself up. "Are you handling this, Susan?" He asked her, using her first name for the first time that day.
She opened her eyes, nodding firmly. "I'm handling this."
----
"Great. You're doing great."
She didn't feel like she was doing great. She had her head stuck inside of a body, touching a bomb, and they were moving at minus twelve kilometres an hour down the hall.
"Can we go over this one more time?" She asked, wanting the plan clear in her head.
"The device is shaped like a rocket, about eight inches long." Dylan explained to her. "We're going to have everything ready in the other room. The medical team are going to be in place, my team is going to be in place, and then I'll ask you to take the hand that you have inside of Mr. Pollard, and wrap it around the device..."
"And pull it out." Sue finished for him.
"Level." He nodded. "You have to keep it level."
Sue nodded to herself, and as they passed the stairwell, Johnny appeared from seemingly nowhere. "Whoa, what's going on here?" He asked.
"You're meant to be downstairs." Sue pointed out.
"I second that." Dylan said.
"What's happening? What are you doing?" Johnny asked.
"We're moving further away from the oxygen line." Sue explained to him. "You know, in case something goes wrong."
"I distinctly remember you being told to leave by Dr. Bishop." Dylan told Johnny forcefully.
"And where is he?" Johnny challenged.
"He's getting the other room ready." Sue told him.
"Then he'll never know, will he." Johnny pointed out.
Dylan sighed, surrendering. "Right, but you stay over the other side of the hall."
Johnny nodded, stepping back so that he was almost touching the other side of the corridor, and followed the slow movements of the gurney.
"Talk to me." Sue asked him, after he stared silently at the part of her wrist that disappeared into the man's body. "Tell me something."
"What?" He asked her, shrugging.
"Johnny, I have my hand on a bomb, and to be completely honest, I'm starting to freak out now." She admitted to him. "Tell me something, anything."
Johnny nodded, racking his brains for something to take her mind of things. He needed something that was going to distract her, make her talk back to him, like...giving advice...
"Maddie told me that she loves me." He told her, instantly getting the attention from Sue that she'd asked for. "Last night. She thought I was sleeping but I heard her say it."
"Maddie loves you." Sue repeated simply.
"Yeah." Johnny nodded, before looking at Dylan. "Mind your own business." He warned him.
"Maddie loves you." Sue said again.
"Basically." Johnny confirmed.
"Well, are you going to say it back, or-?"
"Of course not." He told her quickly. "She didn't say it to me, she said it to...sleeping me."
"But do you love her?"
He was silent for a moment, thinking about the beautiful doctor he'd left downstairs to come see his sister. "Yeah." He nodded quietly.
"Then why don't you just tell her?" Sue challenged him.
He shrugged again, looking a little ashamed at himself. "Because I'm me, and I'm crap with emotions." He reminded her.
She gave him a sympathetic smile. "How's Reed?" She asked, almost hesitantly.
"He's going out of his mind." Johnny said truthfully.
Her eyes widened. "I told you--!"
"I didn't tell him." He assured her. "I told him you were waiting in the hall in case the blast needed containing."
Sue's eyes closed for a moment, and when she opened them again, they were filled with tears. "Don't let him worry, okay?"
"It's too late for that." He told her. "He's climbing the walls down there."
"Johnny, if I don't--"
"Don't you dare finish that sentence!" He warned her.
"If something goes wrong, I need you to tell him that I love him." She said, a single tear slipping onto her cheek.
"No, you're not going to die!" Johnny insisted firmly.
She gave him a sad smile. "I'll try not to."
He knew that was as close to a promise as she could give him, and shook his head, realising for a moment hat she'd just said. "I knew you loved him." He said, managing to give her a cheeky smile.
"Not now, Johnny." She said tiredly.
There was another silence, but in the age it seemed to last, they only travelled about two feet along the corridor. "You had to say you were going to die today." Johnny said softly.
She looked up at him, shrugging with her free arm. "I told you." She said simply.
Dylan shook his head, breaking up the sibling moment. "All right," He told Johnny. "You really have to go now."
Johnny, this time, didn't put up a fight. Instead, he stopped walking where he was, and watched as his sister moved away from him, inch by snail-pace inch. "Please don't die, sis." He asked after her.
She gave him a gentle nod in the direction of the stairs. "It's okay." She assured him. "Go."
