1^st August 2017

“This is detective Byun. I am in pursuit of the suspect. The suspect is armed and is to the considered extremely dangerous.”

“Back up requested to apprehend the suspect. Turning down Gaskin Road. Over.”

“Copy that detective.”

“Backup needed on Gaskin Road. Detective in pursuit of an armed individual.”

“Copy that. Officer Kim and Jung responding.”

“Suspect turning left onto South Street. Suspect is-“

Bang!

“…”

“Detective? Respond.”

“…”

“Detective! Officers respond!”

“10-43! Officer down! I repeat, officer down! 11-41! Ambulance needed!”

~X~

“What do we have?”

“Male. Approximately middle aged. Gunshot wound to the abdomen. Extensive bleeding. Needs emergency surgery.”

Beep…beep…beep…

“Prep the surgery room. Quickly!”

Beep…beep…

“Heart rate and blood pressure dropping!”

Beep…

“We’re losing him!”

….

..

.

~X~

Ring ring… Ring ring…

Jongdae can hear the phone ringing from where his is in the kitchen preparing dinner, whistling to the beat of a song playing on the radio. At the sound of the ringing he stops his whistling and turns down the volume on the radio.

He wipes his hands on his apron, staining it red with tomato before picking up the phone.

“Hello?” he answers.

“Is this Byun Jongdae? The husband of Byun Baekhyun?” Comes the voice on the other side of the phone.

“Umm, yes?” says Jongdae, confused. Why was this woman calling?

“I’m sorry to inform you that there’s been an accident.”

Jongdae’s heart stops.

“Your husband was brought in a half an hour ago with a gunshot wound. He is currently in surgery.”

“G-gun shot?” he says, voice shaking. His mind can’t seem to comprehend what the woman had told him.

“Yes, Mr Byun.”

He can hear the blood rushing in his veins throughout his body and he can feel his heart pounding in his head.

“W-which-“ he stops. “Which hospital?” he finally gets out.

He doesn’t even remember the drive to the hospital. Everything else seemed to just fade out until there was only silence. He doesn’t even remember calling his parents only that as soon as they arrived he was out the door and in the car. He’s surprised that he wasn’t arrested on the way there, he’s pretty sure that he broke over a dozen road rules.

Speeding into the hospital car park, he parks he car into the first spot that he sees and turns off the ignition. He races into the hospital entry and heads straight to reception.

“Byun Baekhyun. I’m his husband. Where is he!” he shouts frantically and the woman at the desk jumps in surprise at the visibly distraught man in front of her.

“Umm…” she starts typing quickly on the keyboard. “He’s still in surgery. You can wait outside the room. It’s on the 2^nd floor.”

Jongdae doesn’t even bother to thank her before he is tearing down the hallway and to the staircase, bypassing the elevator completely. He couldn’t handle having to wait for it to arrive.

Clearing the stairs so fast an athlete would be proud, he arrives at the second floor. He arrives at a set of swinging doors which has an electronic sign saying ‘Surgery in progress’. Puffed out, Jongdae stops, his hands on his knees. Suddenly everything comes into focus and the adrenaline previously flowing through his veins ceases and he is left open and vulnerable.

He collapses on the ground, tears finally streaming how his face and sobs racking his body. He presses the palm of his hands into his eyes until his vision turns black and spots begin to stain his eyes in a desperate attempt for him to stop crying.

‘I’m supposed to be strong.’ he thinks. ‘Baekhyun’s the one who’s hurt, not me.’

A hand is suddenly placed on his shoulder and he flinches at the unexpected contact. He looks up and through his blurry vision he sees a woman standing before him. She has a comforting smile on her face and kindness reflected in her eyes.

“Are you Byun Jongdae?” she asks, her soothing voice having an almost hypnotic effect and calming him down.

“Y-yeah.” He stutters. He takes a deep breath and then shakily gets to his feet. He notices that she isn’t much shorter then what he is and if the situation was different he would have pouted and whined at the unfairness of it all.

“He’s still in surgery but the surgeon is nearly finished. He seems pretty optimistic.” She say coolly still with a comforting hand on his shoulder.

“Oh thank god.” He says in relief and it’s as if his body had just turned to jelly and his legs start to give way. Luckily the woman is there to steady him and helps him to a chair before he ends up of the floor again.

“D-do you know what happened?” he finally asks. The woman on the phone wasn’t able to give him any details.

“Not everything.” She says. “But from what I could find out he was shot while chasing a suspect.”

“Oh god. I knew this would happen someday but I hoped that it wouldn’t.” Both Baekhyun and Jongdae know the dangers of his job and until now Baekhyun had only walked away with minor cuts and bruises.

“I have to go back to work. Are you going to be okay?” asks the woman.

“I should be. Thankyou.” He says as he weakly smiles at her. She smiles back, glad the she could help him, even if it was just a little bit.

Jongdae is now left alone and he no longer has anyone to distract him from Baekhyun’s condition anymore. He felt so drained. It was like every ounce of life had been out of his body. All he could do was sit there with his face in his hands and pray that everything would be alright.

Time seemed to go on and on before the swinging doors opened. As soon as they opened Jongdae shot up from his sitting position. Out of those door came a middle aged man in blue scrubs who Jongdae identified as the surgeon. As he came closer he tried to ignore the red patches on his uniform and instead focused solely on his face.

“How is he?” questioned Jongdae, holding his breath.

“He’s fine.” Smiles the surgeon and Jongdae releases the breath that he had been holding, relieved that he’s going to be okay.

“The bullet penetrated into his abdominal area on the right side.” He continues and Jongdae listens with rapt attention not wanting to miss a thing. “It was lodged approximately halfway though. Now the bullet itself didn’t cause to much damage, it was the bleeding that was the cause of most of the trouble. It caused massive internal bleeding which resulted in a large loss of blood which is why his heart stopped-“

“His heart stopped!” yelled Jongdae eyes wide in horror. “You mean he died!”

“Only for a couple of seconds.” The surgeon tries to calm him down. “Him losing that amount of blood caused his heart rate and blood pressure to drop but we managed to resuscitate him nearly immediately after he flat lined.”

Tears were cascading from his eyes again and this time he did nothing to stop them.

“After that we removed the bullet and stopped the bleeding. Because he lost so much blood we needed to give him a blood transfusion. As of now he’s in a stable condition but we’ll keep him in ICU overnight and hopefully transfer him over to the general ward.”

Jongdae tried to absorb all of the information that the surgeon was giving him. “Um… what’s his recovery time?” asks Jongdae.

“I would say anywhere from 2-3 months. For 2 weeks he should have minimal physical activity and then I would give it another 4 weeks until the wound is healed. After that he can engage in light exercise but nothing to extreme. I would also advise the he should not return to work for at least two months and for a couple of weeks be placed on a desk duty.”

“Thankyou so much. For saving his life.” Thanks Jongdae, bowing slightly to show his respect.

“It’s was nothing, just doing my job.” He says bowing his head in acknowledgement of Jongdae’s show of respect. “You’re going to have your hands full though. He’s not the first officer of the law to come through my doors and their notorious for disregarding their doctor’s orders.”

That pulls a wet laugh from Jongdae. He knew Baekhyun was going to be exactly like that. It’s not in his nature to sit still for very long. Sometimes he has more energy than an energised bunny on a caffeine high.

“Can I go see him?” asks Jongdae with hope shining in his eyes.

“Of course you can.” Smiles the surgeon. “I can take you there if you’d like.” He offers.

“Yes please.”

The surgeon leads Jongdae into the elevator which takes them up to the 3^rd floor which is labelled ‘ICU’. After they get off the elevator they walk down the corridor and stop at a door which is labelled ‘3-12’ and they stop at the entrance.

“Here it is.” Says the surgeon, gesturing to the room.

“Thankyou so much.”

“No problem.” And with that the surgeon leaves Jongdae alone to his own devices.

Jongdae is left standing and staring at the closed door where Baekhyun is lying in a bed on the other side of it. Just the thought of it makes his heart hurt. He should be here.

After taking a deep breath to compose himself Jongdae grabs the door handle and slowly turns it. When the door is opened he steps into the room, closing the door behind him. He looks around the room before his eyes finally settle on the familiar for lying on the bed in front of him and Jongdae’s heart skips a beat.

The person lying on the bed was pale. So pale that he almost blended in with the blankets covering him. The heart monitor beside the bed was beating in a steady rhythm which was mirror by his chest rising and falling.

Jongdae slowly walks over to stand beside beside Baekhyun’s bed. He lifts his arm and brings his hand towards Baekhyun’s face but hesitates, afraid to touch him. It’s like if he touches him he’ll shatter like glass and he won’t be able to put the pieces back together again.

Plucking up the courage he reaches out a bit further and his fingers finally come in contact with Baekhyun’s face. The delicate touch of his fingers soon turns into a solid one as he cups his face. The tears begin to fall again as this action proved to him that Baekhyun was alive. Hurt and unresponsive but alive.

He sits on the chair and tries to get comfortable but that’s not really possible in a hospital chair. Jongdae grabs one of Baekhyun’s hands and brings it up to his lips, kissing it and holding it to his heart.

He doesn’t even notice as the sky turns from clear blue to a mixture of yellows, oranges and pinks and then to black. By that time visiting times are well over yet no one comes in the tell him to leave. Either they don’t know that Jongdae is still there or they understand that what he needs is to be at Baekhyun’s side.

Jongdae falls asleep to the steady rhythm of the heart monitor and the rise and fall of his hand on Baekhyun’s chest.

~X~

When he first comes to he had no idea what’s going on and where he is. Everything is white and silent. The only noise that cuts through the silence is this annoying beeping sound which Baekhyun’s likens to the sound of his alarm telling him to wake up.

When he becomes more coherent, the events that had transpired the (previous day?) came rushing back to him. He feels a dull throbbing stemming from his lower abdomen and he can’t help but let out a little moan. Suddenly movement from his side alerts him that he’s not alone and he immediately knows who it is before he gets a look at the person.

Turning he head he is met with the sleeping form that is Jongdae. He has Baekhyun’s hand clutched in his own and drool staining his face. Most people would think that sight would be disgusting but Baekhyun just thinks it’s adorable. Gently disconnecting their linked hands, Baekhyun places his hand onto Jongdae’s head and playing with his hair.

Baekhyun watches as Jongdae’s brows furrow before his eyes begin to blink open. Confuses and dazed Jongdae sits up, only to stare at Baekhyun with a blank expression. Soon that expression morphs into one of recognition and surprised and straight away Jongdae leans over and hugs Baekhyun like he’s going to disappear any second.

Wincing in slight pain, Baekhyun wraps his arms around Jongdae as best as he can and he can feel the vibrations coming from Jongdae as he begins to weep.

“Oh baby. Shh, shh.” Comforts Baekhyun as he rubs Jongdae’s back.

“I was so scared!” sobs Jongdae. “You could have died! You could have left me!”

“I know, I know.” Whispers Baekhyun, kissing him on the forehead and unwrapping his arms, instead pulling away and cupping Jongdae’s face in his hands and wiping away his tears away with his thumbs. “But I didn’t. I’m here.”

That only seemed to make him cry harder. “Your heart stopped! They had to bring you back and- and-“ Jongdae couldn’t continue and instead just drops his head to rest on Baekhyun’s chest, needing to hear his heart beating to prove to him that Baekhyun was indeed alive.

“You have no idea how scared I was!”

“No I don’t.” agrees Baekhyun. “But I’m here now. I may be injured and confined to a bed but I’m here and I’m alright. Come on, you can hear it can’t you? My heart. It’s beating just like yours is.”

Jongdae sniffles and pauses before he nods reluctantly in acceptance of Baekhyun’s words.

“…My snot is getting all over your clothes.” He mumbles and it’s almost inaudible but Baekhyun manages to catch it and he chuckles.

“It’s okay. I forgive you. It’s just a hospital gown. I’m sure they have plenty more where this comes from.”

Jongdae laughs wetly and it’s probably super unattractive but Baekhyun is just happy to see him laughing again despite everything that has been happening.

“Oh .” Jongdae exclaims suddenly. “I have to call my parents. They must be worried sick. I didn’t even let them know when I got to the hospital.”

He searches frantically around his body looking for his phone and he finally finds it in his back pocket. Pulling it out he presses the power button and his face goes as white as a sheet.

22 missed calls

35 messages

From: Mum

Have you made it yet?

Do you know how he is?

From: Dad

Son, are you okay?

Please call me or your mother

as soon as possible please.

We’re worried.

From: Fanfan

Hey, your mother called us.

What happened?

Are you okay?

From: Chan-yoda

Your parents said that

they haven’t heard back

                                                                                                                                                                    from you.

They’re pretty worried.

We all are.

From: Mum

We’ve put the kids so bed.

Minnie and Lulu wouldn’t

stop crying.

They kept calling out for you

and Bouxian.

Stay strong!

“Ergh.” Moans Jongdae. “I’m going to be in for it. Mama’s going to give it to me. I just know it.”

“Put it on speaker.”

“Not yet.” Says Jongdae. “I want to be selfish and spend some time with you.”

“You’re just trying to prolong the inevitable.” Points out Baekhyun, smiling knowingly.

“Shut up.” He snaps, bottom lip dropping. He leans over and places a kiss on Baekhyun’s lips to silence him. When he pulls away Baekhyun grabs the back of his neck and brings their lips back together.

When they pull away both are breathing hard and Baekhyun looks pretty tired.

“You’re not supposed to be exerting yourself.” Chides Jongdae.

“And you know I don’t like following rules.” Sasses Baekhyun.

Jongdae just sighs. Typical Baekhyun.

“Well let’s get this over with.” Jongdae says after a minute, grabbing his phone and pressing call.

Let’s just say that there was a lot of apologising and a mixture of Korean and Mandarin involved. Baekhyun was mostly left in the dark.

I'm sorry. (Not really :P)

I really like this chapter a lot actually. It's up there in my list of favourites. Even though it's a bit...emotional. I didn't think that I would be updating for the next three weeks due to exams but during the 3 days I set aside for myself before I start revision I managed to write 3 chapters. Yay!! :D

Man I am so pumped for the 'Lucky One' and 'Monster' MV's. When they're dropped it'll only be 11:00pm over here so I don't have to wait it out :3 This will make my day so much better. My dad's just been admitted to hospital. He was at work and got smacked in the face by a high pressure air hose. His has a massive cut from his chin up to his nose and he needs a load of stitches (and possible plastic surgery- though I hope not).

I've been watching some of their V live broard casts and Jongdae and Minseok's was just adorable. I was so happy when Minnie sang his audition song and when Jongdae sang Shniee's 'Please Don't Go' and 'Eomma'. I got serious BTS Jin feels (he did a cover of it for mothers day last year).

I've been really busy today. Had to go to a revision session at my Uni and slaved away and made 6 batches of cookies for an event at my brothers school. It took me over 6 hours! I never want to see a cookie again.

Anyway, that's enough from me! See you for the next chapter!

P.S.- I also want to thank two people (you know who you are :3) for giving me some suggestions. Thanks to them I now now the direction I want this story to take. Before I had only planned up to Junmyeon's birth but after that I had no idea. So thankyou so much guys!!