The medical staff rushed to Shawn's room. They didn't make it before he flatlined.
No one noticed Frey leaving.
A Code Blue was called. Nurse Peyton began compressions, forcing his heart to beat. She kept it beating long enough to get him into surgery.
oO0Oo
There was a very different atmosphere at the station. Lassiter, O'Hara, and Henry all sat at their desks. Gus had gone home not fifteen minutes before. He had finally accepted that there just wasn't anything for him to do. He planned on visiting Shawn before his route the next morning. Maybe he could finally convince him to go home; Shawn couldn't stay at the hospital forever.
The overall mood in the station was somber. Both detectives had paperwork to fill out after solving their most recent case, but all they could think about was how they had failed Shawn.
Finally, Henry groaned, startling O'Hara out of her reverie and causing Lassiter to blink at him. He stood and rubbed his neck. "I'm gonna head out," he told them. He wasn't looking forward to another long night on the cot in Shawn's room; it was hard to sleep when you were just waiting for another nightmare. Maybe he could talk Shawn into staying at his place for a while. He'd have to leave the hospital sooner or later; this couldn't go on forever. The only reason Henry had tolerated it this long was because of the guilt he felt.
Would they ever catch Frey? Tonight, he doubted.
He was reaching for his coat when his phone rang. He frowned when he saw it was the hospital calling. "Spencer…" he answered.
Lassiter and O'Hara saw his slumped shoulders suddenly tense.
"What?" he shouted, then listened briefly. "I'm on my way." And he ran.
"Spencer!" Lassiter shouted after him.
Henry paused just long enough to turn and tell them, "Shawn's been shot." And then he was gone.
oO0Oo
When Henry reached the hospital, he was in a fury. "How could this happen?" he shouted at the hapless nurse who had the misfortune to be the first one he met on Shawn's wing.
"Security will meet with you, sir," she had been told to tell him.
"Where are they?" he shouted.
She only pointed.
oO0Oo
When Lassiter and O'Hara arrived on his heels, he was already coming out of the security office.
"We got him," he told them grimly. "Frey is clearly visible on the cameras in the halls, and we got him getting into a car outside."
Lassiter was already on his phone, calling for a BOLO. He held out his hand for the paper Henry was holding. As he expected it contained a license plate and a description of the car.
"What about Shawn?" Juliet asked.
Henry grimaced. "He's in surgery. They couldn't tell me anything yet, but it can't be good. He was lying in a bed! Frey just waltzed in here—" He had to stop himself.
How could this have happened? How could he have let this happen? All of them, even Shawn, had assumed Frey was on the run. It had never occurred to any of them that he was still bent on revenge. Henry should have known. Just having someone sit with Shawn obviously wasn't enough. He should have had Shawn under 24-hour guard.
How could this happen?
He realized he was still staring at Juliet.
Then Gus came in behind him. "How did this happen?" he asked breathlessly. Henry had called him on the way over and told him what had happened, but he still couldn't process it.
Henry stopped next to him and grabbed his upper arm. "Stay here. We're going after Frey."
"But—"
"Gus, the only way that I can not be here for Shawn is if I know that you are." *
Gus nodded, and then Henry and the detectives were gone.
oO0Oo
Several hours later, Henry returned alone. He found Gus slumped in a hard plastic chair, sound asleep.
He gently shook his shoulder. "Gus?"
Gus immediately shot up. "Shawn!" Then he saw that he was alone except for Henry. "Sorry."
"Have you heard anything?" Henry asked.
Gus glanced at his watch. "A nurse came out about an hour ago to say he was holding his own."
Henry sat back in the chair next to him and prepared to wait. "He was a sitting duck," he murmured, mostly to himself. "It's not like he could have missed."
"Frey?"
Henry closed his eyes and looked absolutely defeated. "He did it again, Gus. The car was stolen. He ditched it and disappeared." Then he sat up and asked, despair clear in his voice, "How can this one man be better than all of us?"
Gus had no answer to give him.
oO0Oo
It wasn't much later when they were notified that Shawn was now in intensive care and the doctor would be out soon.
When the doctor arrived, they stood, and she shook their hands. "I'm Doctor Tran. I'm a cardio-pulmonary specialist. I was called in because of the nature of Shawn's injury."
Putting things together, Henry completed the thought. "He was shot in the chest."
Doctor Tran nodded. "The good news is the bullet missed his heart and his spine completely. It entered near the bottom of his ribcage, traveled upward, and lodged against his scapula. It did quite a bit of damage to his left lung."
Henry put a hand on Gus's shoulder.
"Now, we were able to repair the damage, but he has a long recovery ahead of him. That being said, I can tell you that, barring any complications, he should make a full recovery. But he'll need a lot of rest and quiet."
Both men nodded.
"Thank you, Doctor," said Gus quietly.
"Thank you... for saving my son's life," Henry told her very sincerely.
"You're welcome," came the response, just as sincerely, and then she left.
Henry had been around violent crime long enough to know that medical personnel never tell the family the whole story. The loved ones certainly didn't need to hear how many times the patient's heart had stopped, how much blood they'd lost, or just how close they'd come to dying. They needed to hear how their loved one was doing currently and how they were expected to fare in the future.
Seeing the exhaustion in the doctor's eyes, Henry didn't need to be told. He knew it had been close.
After the doctor left, a nurse came in to tell them they could see Shawn, one at a time, for five minutes each. Because of his compromised immune system, if they were to visit they would have to take nearly the same precautions as a surgeon. They should also know he wouldn't be awake for quite some time.
When Henry entered Shawn's ward, he let the door close behind him and then leaned against it. He gazed at his son, unconscious, intubated, a pump mechanically forcing air into his lungs. He realized he really hated the sound of a heart monitor. But it was beeping evenly and steadily, and, for that, he was grateful.
He slowly walked up to the bedside and carefully took Shawn's hand in his. "I'm sorry, son." He spoke quietly, mindful that the nurses who were monitoring Shawn's condition 24/7 could hear him. "I should never have let this happen."
Then he frowned because Shawn shifted in his sleep a tiny bit and his heart rate increased.
Henry wasn't surprised when the nurse gently ushered him out.
The same thing happened during Gus's visit. He wasn't allowed to stay the full five minutes either.
oO0Oo
In the morning, they were thankful to be informed that Shawn had had a quiet night. So far, there was no sign of any infection—a factor they were monitoring even more closely than they usually would. His condition was officially upgraded from critical to critical-but-stable.
Henry and Gus spent the day in the waiting room, but several friends came and went throughout the day.
When Lassiter and Juliet arrived, Henry looked at them, the question clear on his face.
Lassiter just shook his head, and Juliet looked apologetic. There were no new leads on Frey.
The odd thing was that every time someone was allowed to visit Shawn, even though he was unconscious, he became agitated and his levels became unstable.
The doctor decided it would be best if Shawn had no visitors until he had been upgraded from critical. It just wasn't worth the risk.
"Why's he doing that?" Gus asked quietly after the doctor left.
"Restricting visitors?" Lassiter clarified. "It's not unusual in cases like these."
But Gus shook his head. "Not the doctor. Shawn. Why's he freaking out whenever one of us visits?"
Lassiter was tempted to roll his eyes, but Henry caught what Gus was getting at. "It's almost as if…"
Gus finished the thought. "It's almost as if he has something to tell us."
Gus had plenty of experience with just how annoying Shawn could be when he had something he needed to say and couldn't say it.
Henry met Gus's gaze, "What if he saw something?"
"It killed him that he couldn't give us any other clues as to where Frey was hiding last time. What if he knows something now?"
"And he can't tell us," Henry finished.
Now Lassiter did roll his eyes. "The man is unconscious! I'm sorry, Henry, but I do not believe your son has any superpowers. He's just dreaming—or whatever people do when they are completely out of it." He paused when O'Hara glared at him. He backpedaled. "Just be glad his condition is improving and leave it at that."
But the corner of Henry's mouth had curled up a tiny bit. He turned to a passing nurse, "Could you please tell Dr. Tran we'd like to see her at her earliest convenience?"
oO0Oo
It hadn't been easy to get the doctor to understand that what Shawn really needed was to wake up and talk to them.
Because of his compromised immune system, Tran declared it was just too dangerous. Even the slightest infection could quickly turn fatal. Shawn needed to rest and recover. The doctor flatly refused to even consider further visitors until Shawn's condition had improved from critical to serious.
That night, Dr. Tran stopped by the waiting room after checking on Shawn. "I know you are eager to speak with Shawn, so I wanted to let you know he is doing far better than I'd hoped. He remains unconscious, but I had expected his recovery to take much longer. If he has a good night, I plan on upgrading him and moving him to a private room in the morning."
"And then we can speak with him?" Gus asked hopefully, gently reminding the doctor of their previous conversation.
She nodded. "I can't make any promises, but, if things continue as they are, Shawn should wake soon. And, yes, once his condition is upgraded, he will be allowed limited visitors."
Both Henry and Gus went home that night and slept better than they had in a very long time.
oO0Oo
When they arrived in the morning, they found that Shawn had already been moved from intensive care. His condition had been upgraded, and the doctor was currently in with him to remove his breathing tube.
Gus and Henry couldn't sit.
It seemed like ages before the doctor came out to see them.
"Shawn continues to surprise me," the doctor greeted them. "Having seen his condition Thursday night, there's no way I would have believed I would be removing his breathing tube already. He's on supplemental oxygen, and, so far, he's holding his own. In fact, he already asked to talk to you."
Henry didn't respond. He clapped the doctor on the shoulder and went to see his son, Gus on his heels.
"Wait." The doctor stopped them in their tracks. "I understand how eager you are, but Shawn is far from out of danger. Only one of you may visit, and you must take all the previous precautions. Above all, we must protect Shawn."
Henry changed as quickly as he could, but Shawn was awake and waiting for him.
"Hey," he whispered, sending a one-fingered wave in his dad's direction.
Henry pulled up a chair. "What've you got?" he asked.
Shawn was weak. It was exhausting to speak, and every inhale was clearly painful, but he'd finally gotten what he wanted. "Frey…"
"What did you see?"
"Boat…" he said, and Henry felt a twinge of doubt. The boat keychain clue had led nowhere.
But Shawn seemingly read his mind. "No…" He tried to swallow.
Henry reached for the cup of ice chips on the bedside table and fed him some.
"It IS a boat," he insisted once the ice had soothed his throat a little, "but dry…" He shook his head slightly. "Storage..." Shawn grimaced, frustrated. There was so much he needed to say, and it was so hard to get any of it out.
Henry put a hand on his shoulder. "It's okay, kid. Take your time. We've got all day."
Shawn shook his head. They really didn't. "Storage yard... on Vista… Key card."
He had seen the keychain that had once again been clipped to Frey's belt. The floaty keychain had been there still, but a key card had been added. It had the name of a storage facility and its address printed right on the front. There had also been some truck keys.
"Truck keys—big truck—pull it." More ice chips, then Shawn paused just to breathe. "Smelled diesel this time… not marine…" Then Shawn grabbed Henry's arm. "Got tipped off… every time…"
Henry noticed that Shawn's oxygen levels were falling. "Breathe, Shawn," Henry instructed. "Just breathe."
But now that Shawn had it almost out, he struggled to continue. "Smitty… was…" He looked desperately into Henry's eyes, knowing he was telling him the last thing any police officer wants to hear. "Dirty."
Henry scowled. "Are you absolutely sure, son?"
Shawn nodded as the oxygen monitor began to beep frantically.
"No…" Henry sighed.
But Shawn, black spots starting to cloud his vision, met Henry's eyes earnestly and nodded once more. "Get him… Dad… Please…"
Henry nodded, squeezing Shawn's shoulder gently. "I will," he promised.
Then Henry did something he knew he shouldn't. He'd brought his back-up weapon in with him. He held it where Shawn would see it but the nurses couldn't.
Shawn frowned, not liking it one bit.
"I know you don't like it, but I am not leaving you defenseless again." He pointed at the door. "And there will be someone guarding your room 24/7."
He slid the pistol into the drawer next to the bed. "It's there if you need it." He wasn't at all sure that his son was strong enough, at the moment, to even lift it, but he had to do something.
Then the nurse was there, urging him out.
Henry stood and leaned over Shawn, meeting the eyes that struggled to remain open. "We'll get him, son."
oO0Oo
TBC
oO0Oo
*shout-out to Shawn in "Mr. Yin Presents" – 'The only way that I can not be there for Juliet is if I know that you are.'
A/N All the Chapter Titles are from TV shows and movies that aired in the 80s. Any suggestions for a title for the last chapter?