Chapter 7

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Scott does not know how long it's been since he last saw Stiles. It had been hours since Stiles had been whisked away into the operating room for emergency surgery. Scott had since then been visited by Doctor Deaton and Chris Argent. Chris had promised to look into the hunters who'd attacked him and Stiles and Dr. Deaton had looked over Scott's still injured body and helped him get rid of the wolfsbane in his system. Once Scott's body started healing, the fog surrounding his brain started lifting too. Scott had been pacing, unable to stay still in one place. His mind was running in thousand different directions at one time. His main focus however was Stiles. All he wanted was for the night to be over with and for Stiles to be alright.

The doctor came out finally and was immediately surrounded by the Sheriff, Scott and the pack.

"How's he?" the sheriff demanded

"He's alive..." The Sheriff slumped in relief. Scott steadied him, breathing freely for the first time in what felt forever.

"But?" the sheriff asked, knowing that was not all. Knowing his son as well as he did, he knew that Stiles won't take the easy way out.

"We managed to get his heart beating again once he was brought into the operating room; however during the surgery to remove the bullet embedded into his abdomen, Mr Stilinski...Stiles went into another cardiac arrest..."

"Another?" the sheriff interrupted, horrified.

"His heart stopped beating once when he was brought into the OR and once before the paramedics arrived?" the doctor asked looking for confirmation at Scott.

Scott nodded and said, "Yes. I performed CPR and he started breathing again."

The doctor nodded and said, "We managed to resuscitate him fairly quickly on both the occasions however we are worried about the effect, if any of the lack of oxygen to Stiles's brain. This condition is called Hypoxia. We won't know if there's any damage due to the sudden cut off of the oxygen and blood flow to his brain until he wakes up."

"Wakes up?" Scott asks worry clear in his voice.

"Stiles has yet to show signs of waking up however all the tests and scans that we performed show an acceptable report if not a satisfactory one."

"What about brain damage?" The Sheriff asked. He of all people knew how important Stiles's brain was to him. He knew how much his son relied on his brain, how smart his son was. The thought of him suffering any damage to the beautiful, brilliant brain of his was unnerving.

"There is a chance yes, but we won't know for sure until Stiles wakes up. The symptoms of brain hypoxia range from mild to severe. There could be temporary memory loss, reduced ability to move his body, difficulty in paying attention and in making sound and reasonable judgement. There could also be seizures, coma and brain death in extremely severe cases but we are cautiously hopeful that Stiles won't suffer any severe symptoms. His MRI, CT scan, EEG, ECG and Echocardiogram all showed signs of improvement and we are hopeful that Stiles will be alright at least in the long run. Now let me complete the report quickly so that you can see your son as soon as we are done. His abdomen wound will heal in four to six weeks. The bullet missed anything vital so he should make a full recovery there. He's lost a lot of blood and we're helping him regain it. He has a couple of cracked ribs and bruising in his chest area probably from the CPR that was performed on him. That too will heal in a couple of weeks. His head wound too should heal completely within a few days. Once Stiles regains consciousness, we'll see what our next step would be. Now before you go in there you should know that Stiles is in the ICU and is surrounded by various machines and equipments. It may look scary but they are there to help him. He's placed on a ventilator but it's only to help heal him quickly and to monitor that he's receiving sufficient oxygen. There are multiple IV's attached to him providing blood, nutrients and medication to him. There are also various machines monitoring his heart and other functions. Now if you have any questions feel free to contact me." The doctor said shaking Sheriff's hand. "Miss McCall will take you to visit Stiles now."

"Thank you so much Doctor." The Sheriff said sincerely.

Melissa came and guided the Sheriff and the rest of the kids towards the ICU and towards Stiles.

The sheriff entered Stiles's room. Even after he was given an idea of what to expect once he was allowed to see his son, the sheriff could never prepare himself to see Stiles like this. Stiles was too pale and too still. He was as pale as the bandages covering his abdomen. His kid was never still, not even in his sleep but here he was, as still as a log and that's unnatural. Stiles has so much energy. He's always doing something, thinking something and even when he's still, he's not completely still, fingers drumming, legs tapping, mind moving in thousand different directions. The tube breathing for Stiles draws attention to his face. He looks so young. His baby boy. His son. He should not be here.

"Stiles. Son. Wake up. Please." The sheriff breaks down holding his son's hand and falling in the chair next to the bed.

TBC.

Medical details were googled and from various medical sites. If I got anything wrong let me know.

I was thinking of writing multiple alternative endings to this fic based on your suggestions. What do you think?

Your thoughts, opinions, suggestions and positive criticisms are welcome.

Thanks for reading.