Chapter 24

“Why did you jumped immediately to him being hurt because he was gay?”  Jonghyun had to know, and as soon as he’d said it, Mrs. Lee had turned to her eldest as well, head cocked in an inquisitive manner.

“He’s been shifty and evasive with me lately if I bring up the subject.  Says he can’t really talk about it right now because everything was tense.  I figured someone had found out, or they had told, and it hadn’t been received well and he was just trying to lay low with it for a while.”

“I didn’t.” Jonghyun started, and as everyone looked at him he wanted to kick himself for not being able to keep his big mouth shut.  “I was the worst out of SHINee, I am the worst out of SHINee…but I would never have done this!”  He said quickly, trying to defend himself.  “I was just trying to ignore them as a couple; pretend it didn’t happen at all.  This was our manager – I mean, I know that I’m homophobic, but it didn’t make me homicidal…”

Wrong choice of words Jonghyun… the singer told himself as Taemin’s family blanched at the phrasing and its implications, and he visibly flinched from his less than tactful statement.  Thankfully, before he could put his foot any further into his mouth, the door opened.    

“Excuse me,” a white-haired woman in her late-fifties came in, wearing the bright white coat that showed her to be a doctor, “are you the family of Lee Taemin?” 

Jonghyun pushed off from the wall to leave, but Taesun grabbed his wrist and kept him in the room.  “You’re as much his older brother as I am, the fact that you’re here at all shows that.  Regardless of his choices you still love him like a brother.  You should hear this too, then you can tell the others when they get here as well.”

Taemin’s parents nodded and the doctor began.  “Your son has suffered severe blunt force trauma to his mid-section caused by fists, feet and collision with hard objects.  The bumps and bruises that you can see are superficial and will heal on their own, he also has many strained muscles, we assume from fighting back against his attacker.”  Jonghyun nodded, having seen the tape. 

“Those are the simple things, from the x-rays and CT scans that we did upon his arrival he have determined several traumatic injuries that are going to require surgery.”  There was a muffled yelp from Taemin’s mother and she quickly found a seat to recline in before she passed out herself.  She had several tissues shoved up against her eyes, trying to catch the tears before the made way down her face. 

“We noticed immediately upon his arrival that he was demonstrating signs of flail chest, where portions of his rib cage have broken off and move independently from the rest of his rib wall.  X-rays also show that he had fractures and bruising throughout his lower and middle ribs.  As you can see, we have intibated him and have him on a ventilator to help him breathe.  His lungs are very severely taxed.  One of his lungs was on the brink of collapse when he arrived at the hospital but we managed to keep it inflated.”

The doctor checked something on her chart and continued, “The paramedics told us that his head and chest had been kept elevated from the loss of consciousness on.  Someone at the scene must have put something under his head; this might have saved his lung function long enough for the paramedics to arrive.” 

Jonghyun’s entire body felt weak. That was him.  He had placed Taemin’s head in his lap on instinct when he had seen him begin to fall.  It wasn’t any grand scheme and he couldn’t admit to knowing that doing so would help the dancer, but it was encouraging to know that he had done something right and that Taemin was better off for something that Jonghyun had done. 

The doctor continues, “The x-rays are also showing signs of pulmonary contusions, bruised lungs, and as his lips and nail-beds were turning blue upon his arrival it seems that it is affecting the oxygenation of his blood, another reason for the ventilator.  This means that the level of oxygen in the blood is very low and it could be having a detrimental effect on his organs if this is sustained for any lengthy period of time.”

Jonghyun wondered to himself how anyone could rattle off all of this horrible things about a child and not show any emotion as the doctor just kept adding items to the list of things wrong with the young dancer.

“Also on x-rays we were able to see something that is going to require immediate surgery – most of Taemin’s stomach has herniated into his chest cavity.”  At a bunch of blank stares, she explained, “The lower organs are kept out of the chest cavity by the diaphragm.  However, there is an opening in the diaphragm, the esophageal hiatus, that allows the esophagus to meet the stomach and deposit food.  It seems that the force of the attack on Taemin has forced his stomach to push through that hole and into the chest cavity where there simply is not enough room for it.  It can be fixed rather simply with a surgery were we pull the stomach back through the hiatus.  Also, given these kinds of injuries we believe that there may be others that we cannot detect because these others are masking them on the x-rays and scans.  We are greatly concerned that Taemin may have endured a diaphragmatic rupture – a tear in his diaphragm – especially since so much of his stomach has made it into the chest cavity.  Ruptures of this kind can only be repaired with surgery and will not heal on their own.”

The doctor paused and for the first time since she entered the room Jonghyun saw emotion on her weathered face.  But it did not make him feel any better about the situation, in fact his mouth went dry and he waited like a man who has stepped on a land mine for himself to lean just the wrong way and lose balance.  “I’m really sorry Mr. and Mrs. Lee, but with Taemin in the condition that he is, there is a greater risk to this surgery because of the trauma that he has endured.  There is about a 40% chance that he will not survive the surgery.”

Jonghyun’s legs gave out and he slipped down the wall.  Dimly he heard Taemin’s family cry out and Mrs. Lee let out a positively inhuman wail.  “My baby, my baby…”

“I know this is hard ma’am,” the doctor was back to being impersonal again, “but without the surgery he will not last for very long either.” 

Not last for very long – code for your son will die. 

Suddenly Jonghyun felt his stomach roil, and he knew that breakfast was about to make a re-appearance.  He lurched to his feet and bolted out the door.  He barely made it to the garbage can in the hall before he felt the bile tearing through his throat.  Between heaves he placed his head on the side of the metal can, reveling in the cool touch to his overheated face. 

Oh God, Jonghyun thought, not even trying to fight the tears anymore, Taemin could die.  He’s just a kid…This isn’t right, it’s not fair.  Jonghyun beat his hand weakly against the wall, not having the strength anymore to do much more than that.  Poor Taemin, cute, innocent, sweet Taemin.

A commotion at the end of the hall caught Jonghyun’s attention and when he looked up he didn’t know whether to be horrified or elated at the sight that greeted him.

SHINee was here. 

Alight guys, heads up on a couple of things:

1. I don't have anymore finished chapters done so updates are going to slow down.

2. I have to go out of town this week so I'm not even going to have the time to write really.

3. I'm really sorry!

4. I ended up lightening the injuries somewhat on Taemin (believe it or not). I had written a version with all the same injuries that my friend had, but then I realized if he had that he would never be able to dance again (my friend's pelvis was shattered as well) and I can't imagine Taemin not being able to dance.