Guiding Light

---------------------------------

Summary: Shawn Farrel has a gift, but all gifts come at a price. Or maybe this is just a down side to his gift. There's only one way to find out.

A/n: I came up with this idea while watching the Season Premiere… Yay for Billy Campbell… he rocks!

Disclaimer: The 4400 belongs to USA… and Carter belongs to the OC… even though this has nothing to do with Carter…

---------------------------------

"Restraint"

---------------------------------

Kyle Baldwin looked at his father. "I am NOT going back!"

"It's just a check up Kyle, they're not going to do any tests or anything," Tom said to his son. It only made Kyle angrier.

"I don't care. I'm twenty-one, remember? You can't control my life anymore!" he shouted angrily.

Tom sighed in defeat. He knew it was just about hopeless, but he couldn't give up. No, he could not.

Kyle obviously didn't understand that this would be the last time he'd have to go back there, ever again. Tom couldn't seem to get that into his son's head.

"I talked to Shawn again," Kyle said, breaking the silence.

"Really?" Tom asked.

"Yeah," Kyle responded.

"How is he?" Tom asked. Kyle knew that he was the only person Shawn really talked to since he left. And those conversations were few and far between.

"Okay, I guess. Same old, same old. Talking about how great it is with Jordan Collier and how much better life is around people who understand…"

Tom looked at his son.

Kyle looked at his father.

They were both thinking the same thing. Shawn was lying.

"So are you ready to go to the doctors now?" Tom asked, trying one more time. Kyle glared at his father. "It'll be the last time, I promise." Tom added.

Kyle sighed in defeat. "Fine. But no more after this, promise?"

Tom smiled and nodded as he put an arm around his son's shoulders. He was just so glad that Kyle was back to normal, even though he was short a best friend. "Come on," he said.

---------------------------------

The two of them drove to the hospital and Tom could see his son visibly getting tenser and tenser as they got closer and closer to the hospital parking lot.

Tom did feel bad for making Kyle go through so much, but he had to, he needed to get answers, even though all those tests did nothing to help his cause.

Like always, the car ride seemed to take forever, but neither Tom nor Kyle could get rid of the bad feeling deep inside their gut.

---------------------------------

Soon enough, they made it to the hospital and oddly enough, Kyle was the first one out of the car. Tom never would have expected it.

"Where's the fire Kyle?" he asked jokingly.

"Let's just get this over with," Kyle said anxiously. He didn't want to be here. He didn't see a need in being here. He didn't remember anything; it wasn't like doing countless tests was going to make things better.

He knew it wouldn't.

Kyle and Tom walked down the all too familiar hallways. They were now more or less a second home to the pair. "I don't like it here," Kyle muttered under his breath.

It was really busy, as it always was when they walked through this part of the hospital. They needed to go through it in order to get to the doctor. Kyle looked around as he walked. It was the same, yet different every time. The walls never changed. The rooms never changed, but the people were always different, doing different things.

His eyes grazed all the rooms quickly as he worked his way through the busy people.

Soon, things got much less hectic. Kyle looked around. These were the actual rooms where surgery patients of long term patients were.

This was where Kyle wasted three years of his life. He sped up. The doctor's office was so close, and he just wanted to get out of there quickly.

Unfortunately, he stopped himself when his eyes grazed a familiar sight. His world slowed down and he felt his father slam into him, sending him forward a few steps. His eyes never left the room.

"What is it Kyle?" Tom asked, worried about why his son just randomly stopped in the middle of the hallway.

Kyle said nothing. He was temporarily paralyzed with fear and worry. His eyes never moved. His father soon figured out what was wrong as he followed Kyle's gaze.

"Shawn?"

---------------------------------

Tom stormed into the room, only to be restrained by one of the nurses. "What is going on?" he snapped.

Kyle walked in more casually than his father, being able to observe what was going on. There were five other people in the room besides him. His father was now being restrained by the nurse and another man he did not know.

Shawn was lying on one of those hospital beds, all types of wires and things hooked up to him, the steady beeping of the heart monitor being the only noise heard other than his father's heavy breathing. His eyes were shut, peacefully, but he looked like death-warmed over.

Jordan Collier was sitting in a nearby chair, just taking everything in. It took everything within Kyle to restrain himself not to shake the crap out of him. He wanted to know what was wrong with Shawn. And he wanted to know now.

"What's wrong with him?" Kyle asked, surprised at the calmness in his voice. Inside, his blood was boiling.

"I don't know," Jordan said, slowly standing up.

"What do you mean, you don't know!" Tom snapped bitterly, trying to break out of the tight grip that now held him from jumping down Collier's throat.

"I mean I don't know," Jordan repeated coolly.

Once again, Kyle found himself retraining himself from getting too angry. His eyes lingered back to Shawn and a strong feeling of anger flashed through him. That was replaced quickly though by a lasting pang of worry. Shawn was like a brother to him. And he couldn't' stand to see him like this.

His gaze flew back to Collier. An awkward silence settled over the room.

A long awkward silence. Finally, it wasn't Kyle or Jordan that broke it. It wasn't even Tom.

"He's in a comatose state," the nurse answered, letting go of Tom.

Kyle's world literally fell in. All those times he remembered Kyle saying that their places should have been switched. That they really wanted Kyle, but Shawn stopped them. Shawn was taken, Kyle ended up in a coma.

He felt his knees buckling underneath him. This wasn't happening. This couldn't happen. Slowly, he sat down in the chair that Collier wasn't near.

His world was spinning. Faster and faster. He had to get it to stop. But Shawn was practically dead. Kyle himself had been in a coma for three years. Three years. Shawn was missing for three years… they couldn't waste anymore time.

A few prolonged moments later, Kyle finally got everything to stop spinning.

"What the hell happened?" he asked, noting the bitter-angry tone in his voice.

Jordan sighed. "Long story."

Kyle felt his father's hand on his shoulder. He had almost forgotten that he was there. Thankfully he was. "We have time," Tom replied.

---------------------------------

A/n: Sorry if it wasn't exactly what you were expecting, but I do have a very decent plot in mind (for once) haha. I am still gonna write in my Lost and OC fics, but this just popped up. The next chapter shall be… Jordan?

PentagonMerlin - Thank you!

LivTyler - Danka!