Yuuri and Viktor hadn't let go of each other since they'd been reunited. Even as they chased after Phichit towards the hospital, Yuuri was holding firmly onto Viktor's arm, keeping pace with the others as best he could.

"Yuuri Plisetsky." Phichit said to the triage nurse as soon as they reached the desk.

"Are you family?" The nurse asked, skeptically. Plisetsky was undoubtedly a Russian last name, and the boy making demands across her desk was most definitely not Russian.

"We are." Viktor called from a few strides away. "He's a close family friend." Viktor gestured to Phichit.

"Well okay then." The nurse rolled her eyes and began typing, clearly not caring enough to check the validity of Viktor's lie. Well, it wasn't exactly a lie. They were family, all of them, only held back from being officially labelled as such by the smallest technicality: not sharing blood. "He's in room 416, ICU."

"Thank you!" Phichit called as the trio rushed down the hall toward the elevators.

They piled in the doorway of Yurio's room, stopping short at the sight of their young friend. In the dark it had been difficult to see, but the bruise that wrapped around Yurio's throat was a shade of purple so deep that it wasn't far off from black. The rest of Yurio was pale as the white sheets he was under; even for a Russian boy, he was alarmingly colourless. A mechanical ventilator huffed and groaned in the corner, connected to the tube that ran between Yurio and the machine. The tube was down his throat and strapped around his head, making his chest rise and fall in time with the machine. Laying there, so damaged that his lungs couldn't even perform on their own, eyes closed, Yurio looked like an innocent child. No signs of a glare were present, the creases in his forehead had settled, he looked somewhat relaxed despite all of the machinery he was hooked up to.

"Viktor, Yuuri, and Phichit I assume?" A lab coat clad doctor looked up from her clipboard to see the three men squeezed in the doorframe.

"Yes." Viktor nodded, slightly confused, bringing Yuuri with him into the room, Phichit not far behind.

"Otabek told me to expect you, I'm Dr. Kozar." She reached out to shake hands with each man in turn.

"Where is Otabek?" Phichit piped up, finally noticing the lack of broken stoicism in the room.

"It took some persuading but he's in the fracture clinic." Dr. Kozar smirked slightly, remembering how adamant the boy had been about staying with his friend.

"I'll go see him." Phichit nodded to the other two, rushing out the door before anyone could react.

"Well… down to business then. Yuri here has taken some fairly severe damage to the neck, as I'm sure you could tell. Unfortunately, he has suffered a collapsed trachea, hence the ventilator. He also flat lined on the way here due to suffocation from the collapse, but clearly, our medics were able to get him back. For now, I've placed him in a medically induced coma to combat stress and help him recover. I'm hopeful that within a day or two his throat will be strong enough that he can breathe on his own. If that's not the case he will have to have a stent put in, which is basically like an internal cast that will keep the trachea open while it regains structure. The good news is that his larynx was not fractured, so there is little chance of permanent vocal damage or loss. However…" Dr. Kozar trailed off, seeing the looks of horror gradually deepen on the faces of the men before her. "Since we don't know how long he was deprived of oxygen for… there's no way of telling if he will suffer from permanent brain damage. With that he could develop a speech impediment, memory loss, mood swings, loss of coordination or motor skills, chronic pains or the inability to feel pain, loss of impulse control, depression and or anxiety. There's quite a high risk of him developing at least a couple of these considering he suffocated in the ambulance, but there's no telling for sure until he wakes up, so try not to dwell on it."

"Thank you." Viktor managed, feeling the dread and guilt spread through him.

"I'll leave you two with him. A nurse or myself will be by every half hour to check his vitals."

"Thank you." Viktor repeated.

"He…" Yuuri choked out once the door had closed. "He… died. Viktor, he died." The tears came thick and fast, immediately drenching Yuuri's cheeks.

"Don't think about that." Viktor couldn't seem to follow his own advice, but he had to try. For Yuuri. "He's okay. She said he would be okay."

"Didn't you hear all of those terrible aftereffects?" Yuuri somehow managed to blubber through his tears. "His career, his life could be ruined. Because of me."

"It's not your fault Yuuri." Viktor guided them over to a pair of plastic chairs that sat next to the bed. "Don't ever think it was your fault."

"But if I hadn't been running around in the dark, if I hadn't run into him, if I hadn't worried everyone, if I hadn't been so weak, if I hadn't been so goddamn stubborn that night he wouldn't-"

"Yuuri!" Viktor snapped a bit more forcefully than he intended to. "I never thought I would say this after almost a month of silence but stop talking." Viktor gazed at his fiancé through his tears. "None of this is your fault. Not one single part of it. It is that man's fault along with his sick friends. They're to blame. They hurt you, and now he's hurt Yuri. You didn't strangle him, so you're not to blame. End of story."

"But he-"

"End of story!" the statement was final. "I'm sorry, but I can't bear to see you blame yourself for this. You did not kill him, understand?"

Yuuri just nodded, knowing that if he spoke he would probably scream.

"I love you." Viktor whispered, pulling Yuuri close. "More than you could ever know."