Fracking Apocalypse - a ZNation 10K/Tommy Fanfiction

S8E12

There was so much chatter it made 10K's jaw clench. They were all shouting to each other facts and information so fast 10K couldn't process all of it as it pounded in his head like music that was too loud.

"Hastings should be out of surgery by now with Addy."

"Tell them to find Dr. Red she'll be needed for this too."

"Blood pressure dropping."

"Breathe deep." One said pulling an oxygen mask over TJ's face.

"Tell them to prep the O.R. we've got a gunshot patient with severe loss of blood."

When they got to the last-minute hospital Warren grabbed his sleeve and pulled him back to make more room for the medics to do their job. He watched them rush TJ inside and down the hall into an operating room. His son didn't look completely coherent and it reminded him of how Addy looked when she'd been lying on the floor bleeding.

"Baby boy." He heard Warren's voice from beside him as she rested her hand on his shoulder. He didn't tear his eyes from the door TJ had been wheeled through and eventually Warren had to push slightly to make him sit on a plastic folding chair against the wall as his own panic attack started and tears began filling his eyes again.

"He's only seven." Was the first thing to leave his mouth as Warren crouched in front of him so she'd be at eye level, "He's only seven, what if he doesn't –"

"Hey." She said sternly pointing a finger in his face, "Do not let yourself go there. Okay? You can't let yourself go there."

He glanced at her, "Bailey doesn't know."

"George went to get her." Warren replied. Really? He hadn't even heard her go. He stood up from the chair and started pacing the hall. Warren sighed and stood up too watching his every move like she was waiting for him to reach his breaking point. He stuffed his hand and broken antler into his pockets, he pulled them out, he played with his fingers, ran his hand through his hair messing it up even more on that one side, rubbed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose; as if any of those nervous ticks would relive the tension he felt inside, that energy build up that needed to be released but had nowhere to go because he was completely helpless.

Eventually his pacing brought him to the door to the makeshift O.R. Because it wasn't meant to be an operating room there was a long rectangular window in the door that let him see inside. Everything was pushed up against the walls with clear plastic tarps thrown over them while the medical equipment, the monitors and machines, were front and center. TJ was on the table in the middle of the room but 10K couldn't see him that well because of Hastings, Red and the other paramedics helping them. Their gloved hands were all covered in red while some moved around fast while others held still while they made precise incisions. One was by TJ's head and looked like he was in charge of keeping TJ under whatever they had used to knock him out. At least he wouldn't have to be awake for it, 10K thought though that did little to reassure him.

He remembered the agony and excruciating pain he'd gone through when he'd been shot. He didn't think he'd ever forget it. Feeling something lodged in you as you breathed and your muscles flexed around it. Feeling the pain shoot from that one area through your entire body. Knowing you'd been ripped apart, that there were torn muscles and tendons and arteries that were pouring blood out of a hole in your skin. And the pain. He cringed at the memory. The pain was so sharp that no matter how you moved nothing relived it, it only got worse. All you wanted was a minute, a second of relief to collect yourself and brace yourself for the next wave of pain but instead it just kept coming. It exhausted you, your body's energy drained quicker than your blood and all you wanted was to fall asleep because at least then you'd finally stop feeling the pain.