The moment Gus saw that Juliet was awake and moving, he got out of that house, barely making it off the steps before projectile vomiting in the yard. Between gasps and sniffs he felt a large hand rubbing his back comfortingly. “Buzz?”
Kneeling down the gentle giant patted his grieving friend on the back. “Hey, I’m here Gus.” He had seen the carnage inside the house as well and like everyone else, figured there was no way that Shawn had survived the shooting. The ambulance had been called but that was just a formality. Soon Woody would be arriving at the scene to take care of the bodies.
“McNab!” Carlton’s familiar yell echoed out of the house. Shooting Gus an apologetic look, he rushed inside to see what the detective needed from him, while motioning one of the other uniformed officers to deal with Gus.
He ran into the house, avoiding looking at the bloody mess on the floor to focus on the detective kneeling down next to Shawn’s body. “What is it Detective?”
“Call the ambulance and tell them to hurry up! Spencer is alive!” Buzz’s eyes widened and he obeyed instantly, urgently telling the paramedics to get here as fast as they could.
While Carlton was applying pressure to the worst of the wounds, Juliet had gone into relieved hysterics. She was sobbing and holding Shawn’s hand, begging for him to wake up. “Shawn I’m sorry it was my fault. Please don’t leave me!”
Blood was now starting to leak through the blanket Carlton had pressed to Shawn’s back, making his hands red and sticky. Shawn was losing too much blood and they were running out of time. The detective looked for any other bleeding wounds. It looked like, for the most part, the hollow point bullets in Juliet’s police issued firearm seemed to have lodged themselves inside Shawn as all the blood seemed to be coming out of his back and there were no bullet holes in the front of his shirt. Neither Henry nor Carlton wanted to think of what kind of damage they did before stopping, or where they might be lodged.
That was when Carlton spotted blood pooling under Shawn’s left side. He moved Shawn’s left arm out slightly and saw a large exit wound right under his armpit that was bleeding heavily. He didn’t have enough hands to apply pressure to them all. “Henry!” Carlton shouted to get the shocked man’s attention. “Roll him on his stomach and help me apply pressure to the other bullet holes.” Mechanically, Henry complied. Carlton knew he didn’t have long before Henry lost it all together, just like Juliet had.
“Damn it, why do people have to get so emotionally involved?” Carlton thought bitterly. “I would kill Shawn for this myself if he wasn’t already dying…” He swallowed hard. “Why does he always have to be the hero?” Looking down the detective noticed his hands were starting to shake and realized with chagrin, he was close to losing it too. “Damn it Spencer.”
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Siren’s sounded in the distance and Gus looked up from his kneeling position on the ground. “They must be coming for Juliet.” His foggy mind reasoned and he slumped over farther. He hadn’t even had the energy to move away from his half-digested lunch on the ground in front of him. It suddenly didn’t seem worth it. Shawn was dead. Gone. No more pineapple smoothies, no more late night slumber parties at the office and no more American Duo nights. No more duo period. Usually the first one in the room bawling his eyes out, Gus was surprised to find his eyes were strangely dry.
Buzz put away his phone and rushed back over to Gus. “Gus, Shawn is alive! The ambulance is coming in a minute and they are taking him to the hospital. Did you want to meet them there?”
His words didn’t register at first. “What? He’s alive?” The grin on Buzz face was all the confirmation Gus needed. He shot to his feet and tried to go towards the house.
Buzz grabbed Gus’ arm and stopped him. “The ambulance will be here in a second. As an officer, I am supposed to tell you that if you go in you will just be in the way." Gus' face fell and Buzz could tell he was very close to crying. Smiling he continued, "As a friend though, I figure it would be best to tell you that if we stand on the side of the door, you would be able to see him better when they wheel him out."
Gus looked at Buzz with a new respect and nodded as both of them positioned themselves next to the stairs and watched as the ambulance pulled up and the paramedics charge in with the stretcher.
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Carlton moved his partner back as the paramedics took over. They loaded Shawn stomach down on the stretcher while he pointed out where the bullet holes were. Despite Juliet’s desperate demands to accompany her boyfriend in the ambulance, she was told that she had to be checked out herself and would need to go to the hospital as soon as possible.
Henry had gotten up and turned away, rubbing his head with both his hands trying to calm down so he could be there for his son. Seeing Shawn like that was by far the worst thing he had ever seen in his life, and with a lifetime as a cop he had seen some horrible things. Looking over he saw Juliet was wavering where she stood and he grabbed her arm, both watching as the paramedics hauled away his son. "Lets get you to the hospital Juliet." Henry stated.
Juliet nodded but winced at the movement and clutched her head. It was obvious to the two men in the room that she had a concussion. When she saw that her partner had not moved towards the door she asked woozily, "Carlton are you coming?"
"I'll stay here. I have to be around for forensics. I'll be there as soon as I can O'Hara." He nodded his head towards the door. "Get her out of here Henry."
As they reached the door, walking slowly, a white haired figure blocked their way and they moved so he could enter the house. "Hey guys." Woody the coroner chirped cheerily. He had three body bags under his arm, having heard there were three corpses to pick up at the address. His eyes ghosted over the traumatized people in the room, then noticed the lack of a third body on the floor. Not completely heartless but more ignorant of living people's emotions he innocently asked with a smile, "What did I miss?"
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"Three bullet wounds, two penetrations and one perforation with an exit wound under the left armpit." The lead paramedic was informing the rest of the medical team in the ambulance of the extent of Shawn's injuries. They had cut off Shawn's shirt and returned to applying pressure while trying to keep the dying man stable. "Keep pressure on that!" He yelled at the EMT with them who was checking out one of the wounds.
They were three minutes away from the hospital but Shawn was in bad shape. If pressure hadn't been applied to his wounds at the scene he would already be dead. "It looks like one of his lungs is punctured." The EMT stated as he pushed down.
"Great..." The paramedic knew they would be at the hospital before they could do much, and it would be difficult to give Shawn oxygen while he was on his stomach anyway.
"Jules...." The small whisper surprised everyone. With Shawn's blood loss, he didn't have much of a chance at making it...let alone waking up, which is what he was doing now. Trying to take in a breath, Shawn's body was wracked with agonizing coughs, causing the medical team's grips to slip while applying pressure.
"Sedate him now!" The paramedic ordered and a syringe was readied.
Shawn's eyes fluttered open. They were glazed over and a very pale shade of their normal vibrant green. "Where's Jules?" He could barely get the words out, let alone breathe due to his injured lung.
In a softer voice the paramedic tried to comfort the injured man. "I'm not sure who you are talking about Mr. Spencer, but don't move, we need you to be still so we can help you."
"Need to tell her..." Shawn didn't even react as the syringe pierced his skin but it looked to the paramedic like he was pained by something else besides the bullet wounds. "I have to tell her I didn't mean it... what I said... was playing along."
Sensing Shawn's distress but knowing any movement could worsen his condition the paramedic empathetically replied, "I'll tell her. Don't worry but you need to rest now."
The sedation was starting to take effect but it was obvious that Shawn was doing everything he could to fight it. He winced and gasped as he squirmed under the pressure of so many hands, and the medication that was rapidly causing him to lose consciousness. He didn't know if this was the last time he woke up, so he had to get out what he wanted to say. "Tell her..." His eyes closed despite his struggles. "I love her." The last part was breathy and almost inaudible as the tension left Shawn's body and he slumped into the gurney.
"Wow, this is one tough guy." The paramedic stated as he finished hooking up an IV and administered fluids. He got agreeing nods from the rest of the team. The atmosphere in the ambulance was still urgent, but since they realized Shawn was well enough to wake up, it was a lot more hopeful. That was until the alarms started going off just as they were pulling into the emergency room.
"What the heck? Wasn't he doing ok a minute ago?" The EMT asked worriedly.
The paramedic's eyes shot to the heart monitor and noticed Shawn's blood pressure was dropping fast even though his heartbeat was speeding up. "He's gone Tachy! Get a crash cart handy in case he..." More alarms sounded and Shawn's heartbeat became irregular. "Ok people we need a defib right now! He needs to be turned over."
"We can't do that! He'll bleed out!" One of the other paramedic's argued as the back of the ambulance opened and the hospital staff started to grab Shawn and the machines out of it.
"It's not like we have a choice at this point!" The paramedic turned to the arriving emergency room staff and started explaining the situation, the hospital staff had been updated on his original condition from the road but needed to know what happened just before pulling in. "... then we sedated him and he started having a tachycardia a minute ago. 30 seconds ago his rhythm became irregular and he needs defibrillation now! Get him on his back and hook up an AED." The staff nodded but decided it was best to get him in and to a room first so they had more room and could control how much Shawn would bleed out when they flipped him, figuring the wait was worth the risk.
Once in the room, the small defibrillator machine was brought in and the staff flipped Shawn over so they could hook it up. "Crap." One of the emergency room staff cursed as they saw his chest scar. "Did anyone know he was a heart patient?"
"No one said anything to me at the scene." The paramedic admitted. If he had known he wouldn't have sedated Shawn so much, especially after his heart was being put through the ringer from blood loss already. He felt horrible that he may have been the cause of the current heart problem.
The same emergency room staff pointed at a nurse, "I want Shawn Spencer's medical history five minutes ago!" The nurse nodded and ran out of the room as the doctors started to work on saving the psychic detective's life.