DISCLAIMER: I do not own Chicago Med or any of the characters. Here it is! Last chapter, and thanks to all those who have stuck till the end. It's a long chapter (making up for that super short one a few days ago) and hope you all enjoyed. Please review and feel free to bounce some ideas off me for a future story, a supernatural maybe? Enjoy!

On the bed, Connor Rhodes had tubes sticking in and out of every orifice, limp as a corpse, and unrecognizable under the mountain of wires and machine cords he was covered in. The bags under his eyes were as black as the night sky, and the pallor of his skin only seemed to emphasize it. His body convulsed rhythmically as Will brought down his pressed wrists on Rhodes' chest every second.

No, no, no, Halstead thought, shutting out the rest of the world, Not today you pain in the ass, you're not getting off so easy.

No one stepped in to help; Choi and Dr. Charles with their heads down, Natalie and Sharon sympathetically looking on, Maggie shedding a few tears. Muller standing in the back, unreadable. Slowly, the flat line was the only sound resonating in the room. All eyes reflected hopelessness, Will's frantic ones beginning to do the same, when from the corner of the room, Sarah stepped forward and walked determinedly to the bed.

She grabbed a bag valve mask and hooked it up to Rhodes' intubation, sheer will in her eyes. This got Will going again, finding new strength within himself, confidence returning. He brought his hands down harder on Rhodes' chest, hearing cracks and breaks as Connor's ribs broke under the pressure, but was the better alternative than losing his life.

"One more round of eppy, Reese!" he instructed, the light in his eyes shining, continuing compressions.

Reese nodded in response and plunged the medicine into the IV, the tag team alternating between 30 compressions and 2 breaths.

The rest of the doctors and nurses in the room finally, at last, came to their senses, quickly putting themselves to work. They were all ashamed that they had given up on their friend like that, coming out of their trance like a stallion of horses ready to beat this disease. Choi stepped in to relieve Will, sweaty and tired from the compressions, and continued to pound on Rhodes' chest. Maggie and April started plunging syringe after syringe of medication in Connor's IV, Sharon and Dr. Muller in a big argument. Will bellowed instructions throughout the room, Natalie and Ethan alternating compressions and Dr. Charles grabbing nurses from outside.

"Natalie," Will finally said, determined, "paddles."

She nervously grabbed the defibrillator and charged them to 300, handing the buzzing paddles to Will.

"Clear!" he yelled.

Upon impact, the electric current whizzed through Rhodes, unresponsive on the bed. All eyes looked at the heart monitor as the flat line transformed into zig zag ones, hope in everyone's faces as they had succeeded in resurrecting their friend.

…

Erratic beats filled the room as Connor's unsteady heart beat once more, plenty of sighs of relief sounding throughout the room.

Sarah had a look of pride and pleasure in her eyes, Dr. Charles smiling at her proudly, and Natalie and Will hugged in joy.

Dr. Muller and Mrs. Goodwin had taken their argument outside, Sharon finally giving the talk he needed to get off his high horse. The group couldn't hear what they were saying, but their were definitely many unpleasant hand gestures involved.

Will turned to everyone, all eyes on the patient in bed, and said, "We're not out of the woods yet, we need to find that drug. Fast."

Choi spoke up, "I'll try calling the other hospitals in Chicago, see if anybody's got anything."

"No need, Dr. Choi," Mrs. Goodwin walked back into the room, a smug smile on her face, "The CDC has willingly decided to cooperate once more and will be handling the delivery and administration of the drug in no time."

The room went silent for a moment, everyone's gaze on the barely breathing, lifeless form of Connor Rhodes.

"In the meantime, let's everyone get back to work, we'll keep an around the clock watch on Rhodes until the drug gets here. Come on everyone, I'm paying you to be doctors and treat patients, not stand around and be the pity party," Sharon said with an uplifting smile and walked out.

….

The hours waiting for the drug to be flown from New Mexico to Illinois were unbearable, the rest of the team had to spend the hours either treating patients only half focused or loiter in the break room. Choi accidentally ordered an endoscopy for person who had trouble hearing out of their left ear. Meanwhile, in Isolation 3, Connor slowly gripped onto life, but they all knew he wasn't going to make it throughout the night without a treatment of some kind.

The whole hospital seemed on edge, the meningitis scare ruffling everyone's feathers. Will impatiently sat on the break room couch, coffee cup #3 in his hand, when Natalie walked in, hair falling out in strands. She let out a deep sigh, also frustrated from the endless waiting, and finally noticed Will to her right.

"Oh!" she jumped, "Will, you scared me."

She walked over to him, Halstead watching her as she plopped right next to him on the couch.

"How're you holding up?" he asked, taking a sip of his black coffee.

"I can't do this anymore," she spoke, "to have everything riding on how fast a helicopter can travel over the midwest."

"Last time I checked they were halfway over Kansas," Will chuckled as Natalie groaned.

"I just wish," she started, "there was something we could do to help him."

They were silent for a moment.

"I've never met anyone as stubborn and arrogant as Rhodes," Will said, trying to lift Natalie's spirits, secretly his own as well, "I don't think we're going to get rid of him easy."

She smiled and put her head on his shoulders when Reese burst through the door, out of breath.

"There you are!" the med student huffed, "I've been looking everywhere. Anyways, helicopter's just arrived, they're landing on the roof right now."

….

Ethan tried to shield his eyes from the dust and dirt blowing in his face as the helicopter blades sliced through the air. The anticipation of those on the roof was easily readable, finally glad they could do something to save their dying friend downstairs. Everyone wore burgundy Gaffney hospital parkas in the evening breeze, getting ready to dive on the drug once the wheels hit the floor.

Preparations were being made downstairs as they waited for the landing to finish, Rhodes' IV being administered with the correct fluids and medicines. All the emergency equipment was nearby, just in case the worst scenario became reality. The wheels of the helicopter hitting the helipad brought Choi back to his senses as Halstead ran up to greet the pilot, handing him the ice chest carrying the drug.

Everyone moved towards the elevators simultaneously, knowing now was the time to cure Connor Rhodes.

…

The isolation floor was abandoned in the late night, everyone but Will, Ethan, Natalie, Dr. Charles, and Maggie stood in the room, all of them quiet. Will held the syringe with the correct drug dosage in his hands, but was hesitant to deliver its contents to the IV tube.

What if this whole thing doesn't work? We already lost Allison, there's no cure for the disease so far.

Halstead shook his head to clear his thoughts, all eyes looking at him in waiting.

"Here it goes," he whispered to himself as he plunged the syringe into the IV, praying to every God of every religion he could think of.

At first no change, the heart monitor continuing its sluggish pace, the room as quiet as the dead of night. Then a spike in the EKG sent everyone else's heart into arrest. So far so good.

They waited in anticipation for some sign or assurance that the medicine had worked.

"Come along, everyone," Dr. Charles said in his psychiatry soft voice, "We can't do anything right now except help clear the flooding ED downstairs. The minute something happens with Rhodes, trust me, we'll be the first to know."

….

Sarah was beyond the point of exhausted. It was her turn to watch Rhodes for the night, and, of course, her being the med student got the graveyard shift. It was 3:47 am and her eyelids were slowly closing. She hadn't gotten a wink of sleep in at least 37 hours and she had been on watch duty for two hours now, everyone either at home or in the on call room, snoring away. For hours now, Rhodes had been unconscious and unaware of anything going on around him, but the drug seemed to be working so far, his stats slowly improving by the hour. He was still as pale as a sheet and the tube down his neck didn't help his pitiful sight in anyway. He had been in the same position for hours now, the doctors unsure of when he was going to wake up.

The rhythmic whirs and sounds of the machines were like a lullaby to Reese as her eyes slowly shut and her head began to droop. Her head was falling out of her upright wrist, when suddenly, interrupting her dozing, all the machines blared into action. The commotion woke Reese up in an instance, looking like a deer in headlights, and she saw Rhodes, awake on the bed, staring straight at her with frantic blue eyes.

…

Connor woke up to see Reese staring at him, eyes bulging out of her head and mouth open. He was freaked out of his mind, confused about where he was or what had happened. Last time, he just remembered Will keeping the stupid tube down his throat as it was now. But Will wasn't here. And Rhodes was sure as hell not going to keep the damn thing jabbed in his throat any longer. Grabbing the tube, he began yanking it out, Reese shell shocked and staring at him as if in a trance.

Maggie, snoring on the nurses station, woke to the commotion coming from Rhodes' room and sprinted over to see Connor pulling the intubation tube from his mouth.

"Reese!'" she yelled, as she ran over to Rhodes' bed, "What the hell are you doing?! Get help!"

Sarah stood for a moment longer, speechless, than ran out of the room, paging Halstead with as many emergency alerts as she could.

….

Will couldn't sleep downstairs in the on call room, even though he knew he should be since he didn't remember the last time he had slept, but drearily looked at the hospital ceiling in the bed he was lying on. His pager suddenly sounded like a tornado and he saw an infinite amount of emergency signals from Reese as humanly possible. He ran out of the room.

….

Rearing the corner to Rhodes' room, Will rushed in to find Maggie, Mrs. Goodwin, and a conscious Connor on the bed. His blue eyes were rimmed with red from exhaustion, his skin whiter than ever, and the bags under his eyes were easily identifiable. He had his head on the pillow in exhaustion, the respiratory specialist running up to remove him from the ventilator earlier, and he was taking long, deep breaths. Other than all that, he looked..okay.

"Well, well, well," Halstead said, smiling, "if it isn't the lucky bastard."

"What? Sad I stuck around?" Rhodes responded in a raspy voice, throat sore from the intubation and the lack of speech for a few days.

"Not going to lie, a little disappointed," Will smirked, "How are you feeling?"

"Like a million bucks," he said quietly.

Choi and Natalie rushed in, not believing Rhodes had finally woken up till they saw it in person.

"You are one son of a bitch," Choi smiled wide, "You died about 4 times you know that?"

"What?" Rhodes joked back, "Sick of me or something?"

"Sick of saving your life, that's what," Natalie said, relieved and smiling as well.

"Well looks like you guys aren't gonna get rid of me too easy," he coughed slightly.

Reese finally entered the room, head down in embarrassment, along with a jolly Dr. Charles.

"Dr. Rhodes," Dr. Charles said in a calm, happy voice, "a pleasant surprise to see you up."

"It's a miracle, that's for sure," Maggie finally spoke up, "Don't you ever go pulling something like this again, ya hear?"

"Agreed," Connor shifted in bed, "So tell me, how long was I out?"

"Two, three days," Sharon said, "I'll be taking this out of your paycheck, you know," Mrs. Goodwin smiled.

"How did you find a cure?" Rhodes asked.

"That would be by our very own, Ms. Reese," Dr. Charles gestured to Sarah.

"It was nothing," she kept her eyes down sheepishly.

"Nothing. Yeah, for sure," Ethan joked, bumping her with his shoulder.

Dr. Muller awkwardly entered the room, all conversation ceasing as he did.

"Dr. Rhodes," Muller addressed Connor without emotion, "nice to see you..out and about."

Rhodes and Halstead alike shot the head of CDC their infamous death glares.

"I have come to inform you that the medication has taken effect and the virus should be out of your system within a few days. As for your recovery, I would assume a few more days in the ICU until your doctor sees fit."

Mrs. Goodwin gave him a pointed look.

"Dr. Halstead," he continued, "has overseen your care till this point, and, may I add, has done a satisfactory job of doing so. You most likely would not be here with us today if it weren't for his treatment."

All eyes stared in confusion, a few mouths dropped. Halstead himself was appalled.

"Was that," Will asked, flabbergasted, "a compliment?"

"Fear not," Dr. Muller's icy glare rested on Will, "I will be reporting to your supervisor about your lack of conduct these past few days. Good day, and, should anything like this ever occur again, to please notify the Center of Disease Control immediately."

With that, Dr. Muller left the room. Sharon had a satisfactory smile on her face.

Rhodes' eyes drooped even further, worn out from trying to survive. His insides felt like mush and he couldn't feel his lungs. His head slowly began to throb as the after effects of the disease began to settle. Sensing this, Manning said, "Hey guys, why don't we take off for the night. I think everyone here needs at least a few good hours of sleep."

Everyone murmured their agreement.

"Wait," Rhodes called, needing an answer before he was done for the night, "Where's Allison? How's she responding to the drug?"

That was like a blow to the chest. Everyone either had their head down or avoided Rhodes' eyes. Maggie decided to break the news.

"I'm sorry, sweetie," she started, "we we're too late."

Understanding and sorrow filled his eyes as he thought about how young she was, a life waiting for her.

He silently nodded and they all left the room, a heavy sense of loss hung in the air.

….

"You know you shouldn't be officially back till next week," April reprimanded Rhodes with a smile as he signed off on a patient's chart.

It had been 8 days since the CDC cleared out and Rhodes had woken up, making a full recovery in less than a week.

"Well "officially" your hours on Saturday are 5am-9pm, but you don't see me running to Goodwin's office when you stroll in at 6:30," he teased back, jokingly.

She merely slapped him playfully with a clean towel and went back to work.

Rhodes was in his usual blue surgery scrubs as the paramedics came rushing in, yelling, 24 year old female collapsed in a local restaurant, respiratory distress, and unable to find an MOI!"

Maggie popped her head out from the nurses station, "Rhodes! Treatment 3!"

He smirked and thought about the last time someone said a young female had collapsed in a local restaurant with breathing issues. Too soon, he smiled to himself.

He yelled back to Maggie, almost laughing, "Let Halstead take this one!"