AN: Special thanks to Ghostwriter for your support. Please read and review.
That night at the hospital, and the nights following, Gabe and Jack seemed to be almost obsessed with the idea of resurrecting Shea. She had to admit, a part of her hoped they would be successful. Her life was taken from her, a choice she'd never made for herself. The idea of starting again, however, was too much to truly allow herself to hope for.
Shea thought of her life before, how sad it had been. She thought of all the times she'd wished for a new one. David had taught her to be careful what she wished for. Shea tried to make the best of her existence, tried to make her pseudo life easier to live. It was that desire that gave her the strength to defy David. She'd made a plan without knowing if she'd truly be able to go through with it, if she'd have the strength. Gabriel had been her strength when she needed it.
As the boys talked to each other, speaking in medical terminology she didn't understand, Shea's thoughts drifted back to her mother. She'd had a wonderful mother. Perhaps it was the loss of May O'Keefe and the brother she'd never gotten to know that had made Shea unwilling to have children. When she was alive, she was sure she'd never want to have a child of her own. A part of her wondered if she would have ever changed her mind, but she doubted it. It was one of the few things she didn't feel like she was missing out on as a vampire.
Jack had some training in emergency medicine, before he decided he didn't have the reflexes for it. It was Jack who first came up with the idea of combining blood restoration with life-saving techniques. However, the process would be complicated. The weeks had gone on, and Gabriel returned to work. Somehow, he and Jack had managed to ensure that they both had night shifts only, and usually together. Few of the other technicians argued with their sudden luck. It was Jack who'd managed to alleviate suspicion with their supervisor as well. He'd concocted a story about the pair of them becoming a little too out of control with their partying, and that they'd decided that a night schedule would help them resist the temptation. The nights were slow, and the supervisor was ready to believe any excuse for Gabe's behavior. Unfortunately, they were running out of time. The pair of them realized that the blood bank they were ripping off would be noticed by others in the hospital. If they didn't just get caught red-handed first.
So far, they'd discovered that Shea's blood would mingle with the actual blood she drank shortly after feeding. It explained the rush she got with feeding. Feeding replenished her body with a sudden, short-lived rush of hormones, nutrients, and other things it no longer produced. It had now been almost a month of experimenting and testing. They'd reached a point where it was either stop and give up, or move to the next level.
Gabe was unwilling to go there. He was terrified that any more would destroy Shea. However, it was Shea who demanded they continue. If she died, she rationalized, she wouldn't really be losing anything but a partial existence. However, she knew that if she didn't do this, that a part of her would always wonder what might have happened, just as she wondered about her life before.
So it began. A regimen of testing drugs on her for weeks until they reached the point they now had. Her body was beginning to grow weak, unable to heal fully from everything they were doing. Actually, at this point, Gabriel no longer had the will to continue. He stayed with Shea as Jack worked, because he couldn't bring herself to do these things that hurt her so much. She'd been injected with adrenaline to see how her body would react. She'd been shocked. They'd managed to sneak her into all sorts of scans, to observe how her body reacted. With the infusion of new blood, her body briefly reacted similar to a living person. The adrenaline and the shocks caused her heart to beat again, but never more than a few beats. With the research he'd done, and the observations he'd made, Jack had made a hypothesis.
"Shea, can you survive drained of blood?" Jack asked, looking over charts. Shea seemed startled by the question. "Heavily drained, yes, but I'm not sure how long. Vampires have had major arteries cut, and survived. They only time I ever saw it, another vampire gave him some of his own blood to replenish it, then found a victim rather quickly. It takes a long time to recover, though."
Jack's brow furrowed. "What the hell are you about?" Gabe demanded, frightened by the chain of thought. Jack pursed his lips, and then responded.
"When we give her fresh blood, when we shock her, hell, when we employ any life-saving measures, she responds as a human would. Forced back to life for a moment, but no more. As a vampire, she's much stronger. I'm thinking that maybe, if we try it all, along with replacing her blood, that we might be able to do this."
Gabe shook his head. "No. It will kill her. It's too much. Besides, if it does turn her human again, who's to say she won't die from the shock immediately afterwards?" he asked angrily. Jack looked saddened. "Gabe… we've tried everything else. This is it. We either stop now, or we do this," he said.
Gabe wasn't having this. He wasn't taking this risk. Not with Shea. However, it was Shea who made the decision for him. "Do it, Jack," she said. Gabe's head jerked to her, and he looked horrified. "I might die, yes. But if you think about it, I'm already dead. I want to see this through, Gabriel. I already have too many 'what ifs' in my life. I don't need another one," she said.
He couldn't think of an argument that would dissuade her. Before long, Shea had needles in multiple arteries, machines ready to go. Gabe clutched her hand as Jack started drawing out the blood. It took a considerable amount of time, and the change in her body was sickening. Gabe watched as her features drew up, Shea literally withering before him. It was obvious she was in a considerable amount of pain, and finally, she closed her eyes, not moving. She didn't just look dead; she looked as if she'd been dead for months, maybe even years. Vaguely, she almost resembled a mummy, unwrapped after millennia in some tomb. Gabe began to panic. "Jack, she needs blood. Now, Jack!" Jack was already working at removing the bags of drained blood and replacing them with fresh blood. Gabe jumped up and began to help him. Between the pair, it seemed only seconds before Shea had blood pumping back into her, the drips opened all the way.
They'd hooked her to multiple instruments before they'd began, and now, even the EEG wasn't showing any brain activity. Suddenly, the monitor beeped, and activity displayed. Jack pulled out a large syringe, and waited. As the blood flowed into her body, the heart monitor showed a twitch of activity, the muscle suddenly reviving for that brief moment. The second he saw it, Jack plunged the needle into her chest, through the sternum and straight into the muscle. With the epinephrine, the activity continued. Jack and Gabe watched in shock as the heart monitor showed her heart beating once, twice, six times before ceasing again. Jack pressed the paddles to her chest and sent a jolt of electricity to her heart. The beating started again. Every time the muscle stopped, Jack shocked it again. Suddenly, Shea awoke, staring up at them. She gasped, the shock of feeling her heart beating startling her. It stopped again. Jack looked at her in horror, and she nodded, gripping the sides of the gurney. Jack placed the paddles to her again. Again and again they did this, Gabe taking over at one point for Jack to administer another shot. They went through every emergency procedure possible, until finally, Shea blocked Jack from putting the paddles to her again. Shea rolled to her side, her features strained from the pain. Her brow protruded and then returned before she fully vamped out. Shea curled up into the fetal position, trying to escape the agony. The heart monitor continued beeping steadily, and Gabe and Jack began to hope when they heard Shea draw a deep breath into her lungs. The shock was almost too much for her. She could make herself breathe, yes, but it wasn't necessary. Air went in but was never absorbed by her body. This time, it was. Shea lay there, coughing, choking, as her body did things it hadn't done in years.
Still choking, still hurting, Shea turned to Gabriel and smiled weakly. Gabe looked at her in shock, and then pulled her close to him, kissing the top of her head. Jack let out a whoop and threw his hands into the air.
Tears ran down both their faces and Shea and Gabriel looked at each other, overjoyed. The steady beep of the heart monitor kept going behind them. Suddenly, Shea stopped smiling, her eyes growing wide. The expression on her face was one of pain and shock. With a gasp, Shea's eyes fluttered closed as the beep of the monitor gave way to a low, ominous hum.