Rifiuto: Non Miriena

"He's waking up! His heart rate is stabalizing, blood pressure's dropping... It worked!"

Gasps of joy and relief filled the room as Zane slowly opened his eyes. The first image before him was Allison, leaning over his bed, checking his vitals.

"Jo-" His voice was raspy, and he struggled to turn his head; his neck hurt.

"We haven't gotten to her yet, Zane, we wanted to make sure you pulled through first before we tested it on Jo. We didn't want to run the risk of losing both of you." Allison assured him. Her struggled to peer around her; Jo lay in her bed next to his, her chest still rose and fell; she looked like she were sleeping, but Zane knew that she was currently unconscious. Allison moved away to apply the cure- whatever it was- to Jo, and Zane struggled to push himself up. Two strong sets of hands pushed down on his shoulders, and he looked up to see Carter and Henry restraining him.

"No Zane, you have to rest."

"But Jo-"

"Let Allison take care of her, Zane. You can trust her. She's saved Jo's life more than once." Carter told him. Resigned, Zane lay back against the pillows, watching as Allison administered to Jo.

"Why isn't she waking up?" Zane demanded, thirty minutes after the cure had been applied. Allison turned to him.

"It could be taking more time for her body to absorb the cure, because she was the one that was directly affected by the accident, Zane. You recieved secondary shock when you touched Jo; Jo recieved a direct shock to her system, it will take more time for her to pull out of this state."

"So... Jo was basically a frickin' lightbulb?" Carter asked, confused. Allison sighed, turning to him.

"She recieved a high electrical shock- basically the same high voltage used in electroshock therapy in mental hospitals. Exceedingly high, exceedingly specific and exceedingly dangerous, because it was not a controlled burst of eletricity."

"So... lightbulb." Carter clarified. Allison nodded. "Okay."

Zane swallowed the fear in his throat. "She... she'll be okay once she wakes up, right? She... she'll remember everything? Us?"

"I don't know, Zane." Allison replied. "Electroshock therapy... it was a very common practice, because it would target specific areas of the brain. Once those areas were targeted, the memories in that area would be wiped out, and the person would have a clean slate. But those were controlled bursts of electricity. This... this wasn't controlled. This was chaotic. This was rampant, uncontrolled bursts of electricity. We're lucky this didn't kill her. It very well could have."

He nodded, taking a deep breath. Carter laid a hand on his shoulder, and after a moment, Zane turned his attention back to Jo. He couldn't get the images of those children out of his head- Colin and Britta, his children. Jo's children. They'd looked so beautiful, so like Jo, that he prayed she would wake up so he could tell her that he wanted that future they'd seen. That he wanted the wedding and the honeymoon and the anniversaries, and the children. He wanted her to tell him that she was pregnant, to go through the excitement of seeing their baby on the sonogram screen, of learning their baby's sex, the work of getting the nursery ready and the chaos when she went into labor. He wanted the nerves as she went through labor, the panicked excitement as she gave that last push and their baby came into the world, that rush of joy at the sight of their baby, of hearing their child's shrill cry. He wanted the awe of staring into his child's eyes for the first time, of teaching them to walk and talk, to ride a bike and read.

He wanted first Christmases, anniversaries, birthdays, Mother's Day and Father's Day, Sunday brunch with his family and egg hunts on Easter. He wanted to get caught kissing Jo in the kitchen by their children, wanted to attend their first ballet recital or band concert, science fair or graduation. He wanted to meet their prom dates and walk his daughter down the aisle, meet his grandchildren... He wanted to wake up to Jo's hair tickling his face, to her arms around him, and her head on his chest, to her legs tangled in his. He wanted to be woken up by their children, jumping on the bed to get them up on Christmas morning... Christmases in Boston and Thanksgivings in Jersey; wild family gatherings with her brothers and their families.

We're supposed to get married, have babies... spoil our nieces and nephews rotten, take family trips back to Boston or New York... We're... we're supposed to get caught making love by our kids, and... have the Talk with them. It's supposed to be us... we were meant to be, Jo, you can't give up on me now. You can't...

"She'll be okay, Zane. Jo's a fighter. She'll come back to us." He turned to see Henry sitting in a chair beside the bed.

"I know, I just..." He took a deep breath. "I can't lose her, Henry. I just... can't."

The older man nodded; while he didn't know what internal pain Zane was going through, he recognized the look in the younger man's eyes. Because he'd worn the same look, after the incident with Kim Two Point Oh. Several minutes passed before Zane turned back to watching Jo. He swallowed, struggling to fight the tears in his eyes. In a voice thick with tears, he choked out,

"Come on, Jojo. Don't give up on me now. Don't give up on us..."