Chapter 11 - The Hospital aka Epilogue

Facts began to creep into Shawn's sleeping mind. Also sounds and voices: muted and distant.

'Great. I'm in the hospital again. It's just not as much fun as I thought it would be, even with breakfast in bed. Wonder what I did this time…'

And he drifted off again.

When awareness came crawling again, the facts were still there: The snap shots of events; the memories. But Shawn didn't really want to look at them. Most of them would be unpleasant, so he continued to drift, sliding over the happy times: laughing with his mom and dad, hanging out with Gus, making Juliet smile, making Lassie frown… but then he hesitated, and tried to stop his slide. He didn't really want to think about Lassie and Jules because then he would have to…

His heart rate monitor started squawking and hospital staff rushed in. Juliet and Henry were quickly ushered out.

They stood there, outside the door, listening to the urgent sounds coming from inside.

Thankfully it wasn't too long before things started to quiet down, and a nurse came to the door to let them back in.

Henry walked up to the doctor while Juliet waited in the background.

"What happened?" Henry demanded, "What was that?!"

The doctor straightened from the clipboard he was writing on, "If you can believe it… that was probably a good sign."

Henry's mouth opened to protest, but he honestly couldn't decide what to protest first. He shut it again.

"It means he's waking up." The doctor continued, his professional manner reassuring, "It happens sometimes with trauma patients. It seems that as they come back to reality," he paused briefly, "Sometimes the memories can be a little hard to take."

Henry nodded, "He's okay?"

The doctor nodded, "I've adjusted his meds. He should wake up a bit more slowly. Hopefully that will help. But he will wake up. Soon." With a brief smile and a last check on Shawn's monitors, he left.

"That's good news." Juliet said.

"Yeah," Henry sighed. "I just wish he'd quit getting himself into these situations."

"Yellin' at me already, Dad?" came a voice so soft they almost missed it.

"Shawn," Henry moved to his son's side and took his hand. "Welcome back."

Shawn still seemed a bit distressed by something, he grimaced.

"What is it?" Henry asked, "Are you in pain?"

Juliet moved to get the nurse.

"No. no. it's fine," Shawn rasped, "Amy?"

"Ah." Realization hit Henry. He should have known what was bothering his son.

"Dad," Shawn complained, "Don't keep me waiting."

"She's fine, son. Just fine. And so are you."

Finally, Shawn relaxed. He took a deep breath, "Lassie?"

Juliet took that moment to step into view, "He's fine too. He'll have a sling for a while; and some therapy…"

"Oooh – crabby Lassie," Shawn cringed.

Juliet grinned, "Yup. He'll need you to keep him in line."

Shawn smiled for her, "Hey- tell him good job. He figured it out before I did."

Juliet raised her eyebrows, wondering if the detective would believe her.

"And… I'm sorry… I should have known…"

Juliet moved closer, "There was no way anyone could have known French was there. We're still trying to figure out when and how he got there."

"Psychic…" he started to protest, waving a hand in the general direction of his head. He really wanted to do his big reveal now that he had it all figured out. But it was clear he could barely keep his eyes open. Maybe later…

Juliet smiled as she rested her hand on his leg, "I'm gonna go let everyone know you're okay. Rest well, Shawn."

"Okay," he waved weakly at her, "bye-bye."

Watching Juliet leave, he murmured to his father, "M'not sorry he's dead."

Henry had been gearing up to scold Shawn. What kind of idiot snitches food at a crime scene?! At a poisoning?! But His son's words stopped him cold.

He would always question his decision to grab at French as he went over the rail. The man could be in prison now, as he should be, instead of dead because an old cop hadn't been thinking clearly.

Or – it was possible he could have succeeded and escaped with the antidote, leaving Shawn and Amy to die.

He would never know.

Shawn's weak voice pulled him from his musings, "He was there, hiding on the upper level, the whole time. Had to be. No other time he could've gotten in. Cops had no reason…" he closed his eyes for a moment to just breathe before continuing, "…No reason to search up there. He saw Manny go down. Could hear us. So he had to know about Amy… 'bout me." Shawn scrunched up his eyes and swallowed, not thinking about how close it had been, "Shot Lassie – He would've killed Gus…"

His voice was becoming agitated, so Henry put a calming hand on his shoulder.

Shawn closed his eyes once more and continued more quietly, "He didn't care. Didn't care 'bout a ten year old girl..." He shook his head against the pillow. He was really tired. He looked up at Henry, and a father saw again, a child questioning, 'how can there be people like that in the world?'

Henry squeezed his shoulder. "He's not gonna hurt anybody else, kid."

Shawn blinked sleepily and whispered, "M'not sorry…" and he started to drift off.

"Shawn?" Henry spoke softly, there was one last thing he really needed to know before he could let his son sleep, "Can I ask you something?"

He raised his eyebrows, partly in surprise as his dad never asked permission; but mostly in a heroic effort to keep his eyes open, "Sure..."

"How did you know?"

Shawn looked at him, and smirked. 'Why are you asking me a question you clearly know the answer to?'

Henry correctly read the smirk, "You didn't."

Shawn managed a small shrug.

Henry continued, rather angrily, with the explanation, saving his son the trouble, "You had no idea which bottle contained the antidote, so You. Just. Guessed."
He shook his head furiously, throwing up his hands and pacing, "You knew that we didn't have time to figure it out; to…to test them. You knew that. And even if you guessed wrong, we would still be able to save Amy by using the other one... And you didn't want to make any of us choose…" his voice drifted off in pure disbelief… and frustration, "You are the most infuriating person I ever…"

He stopped then because he noticed that his son – his healthy son – had fallen asleep smiling.

He sighed deeply.

"You're going to be the death of me, you know that?" Henry swallowed the sudden strange obstruction in his throat.

He sat heavily in the bedside chair and just looked at his son. He took in the healthy color in Shawn's cheeks, the deep, even, unassisted breaths. He rested his hand on Shawn's wrist and felt the steady pulse being echoed by the monitor. And he added softly, "I love you, kid."

FIN!

Well- there you go! Thanks for coming along on the ride. I apologize that Gus was not in this last chapter. He was supposed to be. I told him. But he didn't listen.

This was really fun to write, and I really hope you enjoyed reading it. Please leave a note if you did.
Thanks! Papaya