Work Text:
Ravi barely had the plug back in before the machine wired to life again. A sharp mechanical hiss as it started breathing for Athena again. Thank god, he thinks.
It was loud. Way too loud. He looks up, then down, then up again.
The tap against the glass comes a second later. Not loud, nor violent.
Just. Tap.
The barrel of the gun rested against the ICU window. Ravi froze, fear shooting through him as the gunman stared directly into his soul.
Ravi moved before he even had a coherent thought. Lunged for the door, throwing his entire body weight against it as the handle jerked violently. The entire frame shuddered under the weight.
“No, no, no–” May was crying now, voice cracking as she yelled. “No!”
The lock held as the gunman slammed into the door again. Once. Twice. For half a second Ravi thought that maybe, maybe they would be okay.
The shot echoed through the corridor.
Glass burst inward. He instinctively twisted away, but not in time.
Ravi heard it before he felt it.
A deafening crack. Then a burst of heat? Followed by blinding, white-hot pain that ripped through his left upper arm. He twisted further as his body stopped working properly all at once. His hand slipped from the door and he hit the floor hard as a strangled noise tore out of him.
Oh, shit.
Oh, shit, I’ve been shot.
The pain arrived fully then, molten and vicious, spreading down his arm, up his neck, and a hot wetness soaking his sleeve in seconds. Somewhere above him May was screaming. The gunman was shoving at the door and was going to succeed.
Ravi was going to get his girlfriend and her mother killed because he didn’t move fast enough. He tried to push himself up, but his arm buckled immediately and agony detonated through him so hard his vision blacked at the edges. He was failing at saving someone. Again.
By some miracle, Harry comes flying into frame, slamming the gunman down, smashing a metal cart into him. All Ravi can register is the gun clattering, shouting, yelling. Buck screaming. Harry screaming. SWAT screaming.
Then blinding pain again as someone, maybe May, pushed down hard on his arm, her fingers slipping on his blood. She was sobbing as she tried to stay steady, “Stay awake,” she said frantically. “Ravi, please, stay awake.”
“I’m trying,” he gasped, which sounded pathetic even to him.
Buck dropped hard beside them. Ravi couldn’t tell you where he came from. He is a bit… preoccupied.
“SWAT’s got him, you're all safe,” Buck said quickly as he pressed one hand over May’s to help hold pressure. “Hey, look at me, Ravi.”
Ravi tried.
Buck shifted Ravi’s arm carefully enough to look. The movement sent a fresh bolt of agony through Ravi and he damn nearly blacked out again.
“Through-and-through, minor graze against upper ribs,” Buck said to May.
The words blur as Ravi breathes a shaky sigh of relief at Athena’s monitor still beeping. She’s alive. He succeeded. The pain stopped feeling real after a while. It was still there– massive and burning and unbearable– but it started slipping out of focus around the edges, like his brain couldn’t hold all of it anymore.
The ceiling lights blurred above him, spinning like halos. Someone was yelling, maybe Buck.
Ravi’s not sure what he’s saying, something about a gurney?
Boots were pounding outside the room, May’s hands were still on him.
Pressing way too hard.
He made a broken sound that came from the back of his throat and her face appeared above his, panicked beyond belief. He feels bad. He doesn’t want to hurt his girlfriend.
“I know, I know, I’m so sorry,” she choked out, putting more pressure on the wound. Blood coated her hands, blending into her shirt. “Buck, there's so much blood.”
Buck looks at Ravi’s shoulder and Ravi knows that look. The look they get when they're calculating the amount of blood loss. Skin colour. Consciousness. Time.
“Ravi.” Buck’s hand slapped lightly against his cheek. “Hey. Stay with me.”
“I am,” Ravi mumbled.
Except his voice sounded far away.
Everything sounded far away.
Athena’s monitor was still beeping behind him in these weird stretched-out intervals, each sound echoing strangely in his skull.
“No, no, no, no—Buck, do something!”
“We are doing something,” Buck said sharply, though fear was bleeding through his composure now too. “May, keep pressure there. Don’t let up.”
Ravi tried to lift his hand toward her.
It barely twitched.
That seemed wrong.
“Huh,” he said vaguely.
Buck’s eyes snapped back to him immediately. “What?”
“My hand,” Ravi murmured.
His fingers felt numb.
Actually—
His whole arm did.
Wait. Not numb. Cold?
He frowned, struggling to process anything. Somewhere in the back of his head alarms were going off, his instincts telling him this was bad. Like really bad. But everything felt slow and slippery.
May noticed his eyes unfocusing, “Ravi.”
He blinked at her as her face swam in and out, even two May’s appearing. He would like two May’s. May is good.
“Hey,” she said desperately, cupping his face with one bloody hand for half a second before shoving it back onto the wound. “Hey, stay with me, okay? Look at me.”
He tried.
God, he tried.
But the edges of his vision were turning dark now, black creeping inward like ink in water.
Buck noticed too.
“Ravi!” His voice cut sharp through the haze. “Stay awake!”
“I’m awake,” Ravi whispered. He wasn’t sure if that was true.
The floor suddenly felt strangely comfortable beneath him.
Very warm. And wet. That was probably all of the blood.
Some detached part of him thought that seemed like a problem.
Then May made this awful sound.
Not crying anymore.
Terrified.
“Buck—”
Buck’s hand grabbed Ravi’s jaw harder, forcing his focus back. “Nope. Nope, stay with us. Come on, man.”
Ravi blinked slowly at him. Buck looked scared. That never happened. Buck didn’t do scared. At least not often.
“Hey,” Ravi slurred softly. “You okay?”
Buck actually laughed once in disbelief, completely wrecked around the edges. “Yeah, kid,” he said, voice breaking. “I’m fantastic.”
The darkness pushed closer.
Ravi could hear people rushing toward the ICU now — distant shouting, wheels rattling fast across tile.
May bent over him again, tears falling freely down her face now.
“You are not allowed to do this to me,” she said shakily. “Do you hear me? Ravi, you stay awake.”
He wanted to answer.
Wanted to tell her he was trying. But suddenly he couldn’t remember what he was supposed to say or why everyone sounded so frightened.
Buck’s voice became urgent again somewhere above him.
“Ravi.” The voice reached him from very far away. “Come on, open your eyes.”
They were closed. He hadn’t noticed that.
Ravi’s eyelids felt impossibly heavy as he forced them open anyway.
Instant regret.
The fluorescent lights overhead stabbed straight through his skull and the movement sent another vicious wave of pain tearing through his shoulder. Ravi gasped sharply, body instinctively trying to curl away from it before Buck’s hands steadied him. “There you go,” Buck said immediately, relief flooding his voice. “There you are.”
Ravi blinked up at him slowly. Everything looked wrong. Everything felt wrong too. There was so much blood. Arterial.
His mouth tasted like metal as he swallowed hard.
“I don’t wanna die here,” Ravi whispered.
The words barely came out.
But both Buck and May froze.
Ravi’s eyes slipped shut again for a second before he forced them back open.
His chest hurts strangely now too. Suddenly he felt like an eight-year-old living in hospitals again.
“I already did this,” he mumbled weakly. “I already—”
“Ravi.” May’s voice cracked apart completely. “You are not dying.” He looked at her blearily. She looked terrified. He’s going to have to buy her so many flowers.
Buck’s expression tightened hard with understanding because Buck knew about the cancer. Knew about the hospitals. The childhood that Ravi almost never talked about.
“Hey,” Buck said firmly, leaning closer. “This is not that. You hear me? You’re gonna be okay.”
Ravi doesn’t respond. He wants to believe him, but his body is getting heavier. The darkness at the edges of his vision are swallowing more of the room.
Then suddenly the hallway exploded into motion.
“Move!”
A gurney came barreling into the ICU with two nurses and a trauma doctor right behind it.
Harry stumbled back in after them, breathless and pale. “I found—”
He stopped dead at the sight of Ravi in a pile of blood. At May kneeling in it., “Oh my god.”
“GSW to the left upper arm,” Buck rattled off immediately, shifting aside enough for the medical team to take over. “Massive blood loss, in and out, decreasing responsiveness.”
Pressure dressings replaced May’s instantly. Someone cut Ravi’s sleeve open fully and agony flowed through his veins hard enough that he cried out.
“Easy, easy,” a doctor said quickly. “Stay with us, Ravi.”
The second they moved him the room tilted violently sideways. Ravi made another strangled sound, vision vanishing completely as his stomach rolled.
The monitors started alarming, confirming his decrease in consciousness as the gurney rolled down the hallway away from the one he loves.
♡
May barely made it three steps out of the ICU room before her knees gave out.
Harry and Buck caught her as she collapsed, body folding in on itself as the adrenaline finally abandoned her all at once.
A horrible sob tore out of her chest. First her mom, now her boyfriend.
They lowered her carefully to the floor, hands steadied her shoulder. “May.”
She couldn’t breathe. Couldn't focus.
Ravi’s blood was everywhere, staining her skin like this day forever will. Blood on her hands, her shift, under her nails. To make matters worse, every time she blinked all she could see was him on the floor trying so hard to stay conscious while blood poured through her fingers. It was so fast.
“I can’t—” she choked out uselessly. “Buck, there was so much blood—”
“I know,” Buck said softly.
Behind them the ICU exploded into controlled chaos again as Athena’s team finally started moving her safely out of the room now that the gunman was contained.
What the hell was happening tonight?
May doubled over with another sob.
“My mom almost died,” she cried. “And Ravi—”
Harry crouched beside her, pale himself. His hands were shaking hard from the adrenaline crash, but he still reached for her immediately.
“He’s okay,” Harry said, though his voice wobbled badly. “He’s gonna be okay.”
May looked up at him with devastated eyes. “You don’t know that.”
Harry had no answer. None of them did. Talking to patients in the field? Easy.
This is not.
Buck exhaled hard and scrubbed both hands over his face for half a second before forcing himself back into motion.
“Come on,” he said gently. “Let’s get out of the hallway.”
Between him and Harry, they helped May shakily to her feet and guided her farther from the ICU ward. The second they opened the door, Hen and Chimney came sprinting toward them both covered in blood as well.
When they clock the amount of blood covered on them all, their expressions change.
“What happened?” Hen asked as she stepped closer to May. She had a sinking feeling she knew exactly what happened.
May who breaks again.
Buck steps in, “Ravi got shot.”
Silence. Dead silence.
Chimney looked stunned.
“In the ICU,” Buck said quickly. “Gunman fired through the door. Upper arm wound, he lost a lot of blood.”
“Jesus Christ,” Chimney breathed.
May covered her face with both hands and started sobbing again.
Hen moved immediately, wrapping both arms around her without hesitation despite the blood soaking into her uniform tying them together.
“I’ve got you,” Hen murmured as May clung to her. “I’ve got you.”
Buck looked between Chimney and Hen, exhaustion and disbelief written all over his face. “Where’s Eddie?”
That somehow made the night even worse.
Hen actually closed her eyes briefly before answering. “They just took him down to get checked out.”
Buck stared at her. “Checked out for what?”
Chimney let out a disbelieving laugh that held absolutely no humor. “He got stabbed.”
“In the chapel,” Hen said. “Apparently the gunman found him there while Eddie was praying for Athena.”
Harry looked horrified. “Are you serious?”
“He still managed to get away,” Chimney added. “But then he got into an elevator and it stalled between floors.”
Buck just stared at them. For a full second he genuinely looked unable to process the sentence.
“So let me get this straight,” he said slowly. “Athena almost dies, Eddie gets stabbed and trapped in an elevator, Ravi gets shot.”
“Yes,” Chimney snapped, throwing both hands up. “That is apparently what’s happening tonight!”
Nobody spoke. What do you even say to that?
Nearby, hospital staff rushed frantically past them pushing another trauma patient toward surgery. Sirens still echoed faintly outside. SWAT officers filled the lobby. The entire hospital smelled like blood and antiseptic and gunpowder.
And in the middle of all of it, May suddenly pulled away from Hen just enough to look at Buck with panic flooding her face again, “Buck.”
He immediately focused on her. “What?”
Her voice broke. “He said he didn’t wanna die here.”
The words hit all of them like a punch, Buck’s expression crumpled instantly, Hen closed her eyes, Chimney looked wrecked by that one.
May shook violently as fresh tears spilled down her face. “He was scared,” she whispered. “Buck, he was really scared.” She doubled over with a sob again, Hen being the only force to keep her upright.
“I want him to be okay,” May cried, the sentence shattered apart by sobs. “I want my mom and I want Ravi and I can’t—” Her voice disappeared entirely.
She buried her face against Hen’s shoulder and just sobbed. Those deep, ugly, exhausted sobs that were torn out of somewhere primal.
Harry stood beside them helplessly, eyes red, hands still shaking from tackling an armed man twenty minutes earlier.
Hen stroked May’s hair carefully. “Both of them are still here,” she said softly but firmly. “You hear me? Ravi’s in surgery. Athena’s stable. Stay with that.”
May shook her head hard against her shoulder. “He lost so much blood.”
“I know.”
“And my mom was dying and then Ravi got shot and Harry could’ve gotten shot and Eddie got stabbed and—” She started hyperventilating.
“Okay,” Chimney said immediately, crouching in front of her. “May. Look at me.”
Her breaths kept coming too fast, broken and panicked.
“May.” Chimney’s voice sharpened just enough to cut through.
Her eyes finally found him.
“That’s it,” he said gently. “Breathe with me, okay? Slow.”
She tried, failing instantly.
Another sob hit her hard enough she nearly folded again. “I can’t do this,” she cried. Her heart hurt.
“Yes, you can,” Hen said immediately.
“No, I can’t!”
Hen pulled back just enough to hold her face. “Yes. You can.”
May looked at her with pure devastation. She looks so young. Too young. She was not the composed daughter of Athena Grant anymore. She was just a terrified girl covered in her boyfriend’s blood trying desperately not to lose two people she loved in the same night.
“Your mother is alive because she raised kids who fight like hell for the people they love,” Hen said quietly. “Harry stopped that gunman. You kept Ravi alive until the doctors got there. Athena would be so damn proud of both of you.”
May cries harder. She wants her mother conscious enough to say it.
Buck finally crouched beside her too, voice rough around the edges. “Ravi was talking,” he said carefully. “He was alert. That’s good.”
May let out a wet, broken laugh. “He thought you looked scared.”
Buck huffed once through his nose, eyes dropping briefly to the floor.
“Yeah,” he admitted softly. “I probably did.”
“We’ve still got them,” Harry whispered. “Okay? Mom’s alive. Ravi’s alive. Eddie’s alive.”
Barely, the unspoken part said.
♡
The waiting room had gone eerily quiet by three in the morning. Not silent, hospitals never are. Machines still beeped faintly somewhere down the halls. Intercoms crackled every so often. Nurses’ shoes squeaked against polished floors. Somewhere nearby, someone was crying softly behind a closed curtain.
But compared to the chaos from earlier, it felt almost unreal.
May sat curled into the corner chair, wearing a pair of scrubs from a nurse, hands still faintly pink despite Hen helping her wash Ravi’s blood off her skin.
Harry had gone back into the ICU to sit with Athena after May finally convinced herself to leave her bedside for ten minutes. She was doing well, due to wake up come morning.
It should’ve made May feel better. But it doesn’t.
Ravi was still in surgery. No updates yet.
Buck was asleep across three waiting room chairs, one arm hanging off the side awkwardly. He’d lost the fight against exhaustion about twenty minutes ago after insisting repeatedly he was “fine.”
Hen and Chimney had gone to check on Eddie, who apparently needed stitches and observation after blood loss and several hours trapped in a stalled elevator because this night had apparently decided subtlety was overrated.
May stared blankly at the vending machine across the room.
Please be okay.
Please.
Footsteps approached quietly. May looked up so fast her neck hurt.
Doctor. Ravi’s doctor. She stood so fast, “How is he?”
The doctor’s expression softened instantly in that way medical professionals did when they’d delivered too much bad news in one night already.
“He’s okay.”
May stopped breathing.
“He…” Her voice cracked badly. “He’s, okay?”
The doctor nodded.
“The bullet passed through the upper arm. It caused significant blood loss and there was damage to several vessels and his brachial artery that we had to repair, but” he offered a small reassuring smile, “he’s going to recover.”
May made this tiny, strangled sound and covered her mouth with both hands.
Her knees nearly gave out again from sheer relief.
“Oh my God.”
Buck jerked awake instantly at the sound. “What? What happened?”
May turned toward him with tears already spilling down her face again, but these were different. “He’s okay.”
His body sagged back. “Oh, thank god.”
The doctor continued gently, “He’ll be in recovery for a while yet. He lost a dangerous amount of blood and his blood pressure crashed before surgery, but we stabilized him.”
May nodded rapidly, trying not to cry all over again and failing horribly.
“Can I see him?”
“In a little while.”
The doctor hesitated, “There’s one more thing.”
May’s stomach dropped instantly, “What?”
“He was asking for you when he woke up briefly post-op.”
That absolutely destroyed her.
A sob escaped before she could stop it whilst Buck pressed both hands over his face with a quiet, emotional laugh, “Of course he was.”
The doctor smiled faintly.
“He’s pretty out of it, but he’s stable. That’s the important part.”
Stable.
The word hit May like sunlight after hours underwater. Behind her, Buck stood and immediately pulled her into a hug when she started crying again. This time she let herself collapse into it.
“He’s okay,” Buck repeated quietly, sounding like he needed to hear it too.
May nodded against his shoulder, crying harder now from relief than fear.
Her mom was alive.
Ravi was alive.
Eddie was alive.
Harry was alive.
They had all somehow survived the worst night of their lives and for the first time in hours, May could finally breathe again.
♡
By the time May was finally let into recovery (for the second time today), the sky had turned into that soft gray-blue before sunrise. Everything felt strange in the aftermath.
Too calm. Too still.
“He’s still pretty groggy,” she warned gently. “Pain meds are strong right now.”
May nodded immediately, “I don’t care.”
The nurse gave her a small understanding smile and stepped aside.
May pushed the door open carefully and there he was.
What hit her first was how pale Ravi was. Paler than she’d ever seen him, against the stark sheets and dim lighting. His right shoulder and arm was heavily bandaged, immobilised against his chest, IV lines trailing from his hand while monitors blinked steadily beside him.
“...hey, baby,” he rasped, clearly drugged half out of his mind.
“Oh my god.” She crossed the room so fast, grabbing his right hand carefully like she needed the physical proof that he was okay. “You scared me.”
Ravi blinked slowly, “sorry.”
May stared at him, let out a watery laugh and brushed his damp curls back. “You got shot; you are not allowed to apologise.”
He considered that very seriously for a moment.
“…okay. Flowers instead.”
God.
The pain medication had clearly obliterated whatever filter he normally had left.
May almost started crying again right there.
Ravi shifted slightly and instantly winced hard, face tightening.
“Hey, hey, don’t move,” May said quickly.
“Feels bad,” he mumbled.
“I know.”
“No,” Ravi whispered, sounding genuinely offended now. “Like. Really bad.”
May snorted unexpectedly through her tears.
“That’s because you got shot.”
He looked faintly surprised by that information.
“Oh.”
May covered her eyes briefly with her free hand because she was dangerously close to laughing hysterically from sheer exhaustion.
“You’re okay,” he whispered.
May’s breath caught.
Even now.
Even drugged and injured and barely conscious, that was his first concern.
“I’m okay,” she promised quietly.
“And your mom?”
The question cracked something open in her chest.
“She’s okay too,” May said quickly. “She’s getting woken up in two hours. Harry’s with her right now.”
“Good,” he states as he exhales slowly.
May stared at him.
“You almost died.”
He opened one eye slightly. “Yeah. Didn’t love that.”
“I thought you were gone,” she whispered.
His brows pulled together weakly.
“I’m here.”
May shook her head hard, gripping his hand tighter.
“There was so much blood, Ravi.”
Her voice cracked completely on the words.
Some of the sleepiness faded from his face then, enough for him to really see how shaken she still was.
How terrified.
Ravi’s expression crumpled a little.
“…sorry,” he whispered again.
May laughed wetly through another tear. “Stop apologizing.”
“But you’re crying.”
“Well, yeah!” she whispered incredulously. “You got shot!”
He blinked at her slowly like he was still processing that fact every few minutes, “…right.”
May huffed out another helpless laugh and brushed her thumb carefully under his eye. “You scared me so badly.”
Ravi frowned faintly at that.
His hand shifted weakly in hers before he made a tiny unhappy noise.
May immediately leaned forward. “What? What hurts?”
“Everything.”
“That tracks.”
“No, but specifically,” he paused, visibly struggling through the painkillers, “my arm feels… evil.”
May actually snorted.
Ravi looked offended by her amusement. “I’m serious.”
“I know, baby.”
His face softened instantly at the word baby. Then, because apparently almost dying had removed every ounce of restraint he possessed, Ravi looked at her blearily and mumbled. “Come here.”
May blinked. “I am here.”
“No.” His fingers weakly tugged at her hand. “Here.”
He shifted slightly toward the empty side of the hospital bed. Immediately deeply regretted it as a sharp hiss escaped him and his face twisted in pain.
“Okay, nope, don’t do that,” May said quickly, gently pushing him back down.
“Wanna hold you,” Ravi complained softly. The sheer sincerity of it nearly killed her on the spot.
“You have IVs in both arms.”
“Still.”
“Ravi—”
“Please?”
Oh, the morphine was evil.
May could actually see it happening in real time every coherent thought dissolving into exhausted honesty. He looked absolutely miserable about the idea of her sitting more than two feet away.
“You’re impossible,” she whispered affectionately.
Ravi’s eyes were already drifting half shut again.
“…got shot,” he mumbled, as though that explained everything.
“It does not get you whatever you want.”
He looked at her very seriously. “…pretty sure it does.”
May burst into startled laughter so suddenly she had to cover her mouth to keep from waking half the recovery ward.
Ravi looked deeply pleased with himself for approximately three seconds before exhaustion hit him again.
His eyes fluttered closed, then opened halfway.
“…May.”
“I’m still here.”
Another weak little tug of her hand.
“Bed.”
She looked at the tiny hospital bed skeptically. “Absolutely not.”
Ravi’s mouth pulled into the faintest pout.
This man had nearly bled to death hours ago and was now pouting because she wouldn’t climb into a cramped recovery bed.
“Cold,” he mumbled.
May immediately melted.
“Oh, you manipulative little—”
“Please.”
God. She glanced toward the door like a nurse might appear and arrest her personally for this.
Then she looked back at Ravi.
Barely staying awake. Looking at her like she was the only thing grounding him to the planet right now.
May sighed. “Fine. But if you rip out an IV because of this, I’m breaking up with you.”
Ravi smiled sleepily. “Okay.”
“Not reassuring.” Very carefully, trying not to jostle his injured arm, May slipped onto the very edge of the bed beside him.
The mattress dipped slightly, causing Ravi to relax instantly.
One careful movement at a time, May settled beside him while avoiding every wire and bandage possible. Ravi shifted painstakingly closer with a soft relieved sigh, resting his head carefully against her shoulder.
“There,” he mumbled.
May wrapped one arm gently around him, terrified of hurting him and needing to hold him at the same time.
“You’re such a baby.”
“Got shot,” he reminded her again, already halfway asleep.
“You mention that one more time and I’m leaving.”
His eyes stayed closed. “…worth checking.”
May laughed quietly into his hair.
And finally for the first time since the nightmare began, sitting there in a cramped hospital bed while monitors beeped softly around them, she finally let herself believe he was really going to survive. That everyone was going to be okay.