Six weeks went by Shawn was still on the trach tube but all of his other injuries were healing nicely. Henry and Gus were men of there words they stood by Shawn every minute of the six weeks.

Henry, Gus, Juliet, Buzz, Karen and even Lassiter took turns making sure that Shawn was never left alone one minute of those 6 weeks they worked with him physically to help to make him strong and they laughed with him during his high moments and they all held him and allowed him to cry on their shoulder during the down times.

Six weeks to the day after the initial attack Shawn was finally strong enough for the surgery he needed to repair his legs. The night before surgery Henry and Shawn sat watching television. Shawn turned off the television and signed to his Dad one simple phrase that broke Henry's heart, "I am afraid."

Henry turned to toward Shawn, he cupped his face in his hands and reached over and gave him a kiss on the to of the head. He said, "I understand son, I am nervous too. I know you have been through so much it hardly seems fair that you have to go through even more. I know you will get through this surgery and you will do it with the same courage and strength that you have had the last six weeks."

Shawn smiled at his Dad and signed "Thank you, for that and everything else. Love you pops." Henry held hands with his son and they both got some sleep before surgery the next day.

Before the sun had raised the Doctor who had been treating Shawn came in to see him. He came in and sat on the other side of the bed of Henry and asked the two men if they had any questions before surgery? They didn't have any questions.

The Doctor told them, he expected Shawn to make it through surgery easily. The Doctor also told the two men that they were going to try and remove the trach tube and insert a ventilator, which would be the next step to getting Shawn off of all forms of life support. Henry looked at Shawn and they both smiled at each other. The Doctor smiled at the two men and said, "See I told you that Shawn is doing really well and I expect him to do continue to do well. Now lets go fix his legs."

With that the Doctor went out and orderlies came and took Shawn to surgery. Henry took up his all to familiar seat in the surgery waiting area. Soon Lassiter, Juliet and Gus joined him. Henry filled them in on all that the doctor told him and how he expected Shawn to make it through surgery just fine. He told me that the surgery should take 4 hours.

Seven hours later Henry was about sick with worry. He was going between wanting to throw up and wanting to go scream at someone. At hour 8 the doctor finally came out of the operating room. Henry and the others jumped up to meet him to find out how Shawn was doing. The doctor told the group to come and sit down and he would explain everything.

Everyone sat and the Doctor began, "The knee surgery went perfectly, Shawn is now the proud owner of two artificial knees. The problems came in when we tried to remove the trach tube. We tried to insert the ventilator but his trachea was still collapsed and during the process of trying he went into cardiac arrest."

Henry interrupted the Doctor, "He went into cardiac arrest? You told me that you didn't think he would have any issues, what in the Hell happened and is he okay now?"

The Doctor smiled an understanding smile at the frightened and irritated father and continued, " We were not expecting anything to go wrong, his bodies reaction was a surprise to us as well. It took some time to get him back. Every time we were able to get his heart started again his rhythm would go crazy and he would crash. We finally decided to insert a pacemaker in his chest and so far, it has done its job and he is stable. He is back in his room in the ICU and you all can go back and see him. He will be kept under sedation for a while but I know you will want to sit with him. I am so sorry he had these complications but I am confidant the he will be okay now."

Henry sat in silence for a moment and then he got up and stormed out of the waiting room. Juliet and Gus thanked the doctor and then the group followed Henry. They all knew where he was going. They all went to Shawn's room and through the large picture window they could see Henry sitting beside Shawn's bed holding his hand and crying. Not just crying, he was sobbing and you could see the older mans shoulder jumping with each sob. The group decided to give Henry a few minutes to be alone with Shawn so they went to the cafeteria to get some coffee and food for themselves and to bring back for Henry.

Henry didn't yell, he didn't scream, he sat and held his son's hand and he cried. All the tears that had been pushed down and bottled up from the first moment that he received that text for help; they all came flowing out while he sat next to his only son. The only words that he spoke were in the form of a question, "When is this nightmare ever going to end?"

(Thank you guys for reading and reviewing. Sorry this chapter is so short, next one will be longer.)