A car comes to a sudden stop as John gets out of it, holding Jamar with one hand as Ben tries to support him on the other side. Rachel rolls down her window as she looks over at them. In a discrete alleyway, John looks around as he turns to Rachel.

“Are you sure this is the place?”

Ben shuts the door behind them..

“That’s what the GPS says. Think we can trust her?” Rachel asks.

“The Doc isn’t the type to lie about this stuff.”

“Alright.” Rachel says, looking away.

“I’m going to find a place to park, we’ll catch up with you.” Rachel says.

“Yeah, talk to you later.” John replies.

John looks around the place as he and Ben begin to walk down the street. It’s a typical alleyway, with neon signs and boards hanging around to get your attention. Walking together for a bit, Ben struggles to hold Jamar up as John looks over at him. For a commercial area, the streets are relatively empty due to the time and a noticeable lack of homeless people.

“Sorry.” Ben says.

“It’s okay, you’re trying.” John replies.

Walking a bit further they see a neon sign flicker on and off of a green cross. John stops and stares at it as he notices it heads downwards into an underground building.

He looks around and sighs.

Continuing forward, they make their way to the stairs as it leads to an entrance to the underground building.

“Maybe we should wait.” Ben says.

“No, it should be fine. Let’s just hope it’s not an organ farm.”

Making their way to the door, there’s a noticeable hatch at the door. Spotting a button, John presses it as a buzz can be heard. The hatch opens as a pair of eyes looks out at them. He stares at John who’s still wearing his body armor then at Jamar.

The hatch closes as the door begins to unlock.

The door opens as a Doctor looks over at them.

“I heard someone was coming. Didn’t think they’d look like this. Come in.”

Holding the door open slightly, the Doctor gestures for them to head inside as John carries Jamar on his shoulder while Ben awkwardly tries to help him.

“Wait right here, let me grab a bed for him.”

“Alright.”

Standing in a white room that resembles a waiting area, John looks around. There’s a few childrens toys found in almost every waiting area, teddy bears, puzzles along with several chairs that are empty. His eyes stop at a diploma, Doctorates of Medicine from UCSF. Seeing this, John is a bit relieved.

Making their way back with a bed, the Doctor quickly walks towards them.

“Put him on here carefully, don’t want his wound to open up.” The Doctor says.

John and Ben carefully support Jamar as best they can as they stumble and put him onto the bed. Ben fumbles around as John looks over at the Doc who tries to not say anything.

“Alright, good enough.”

The Doctor begins to haul him away as John and Ben follow. They pass by a few medical rooms as the lights inside them are off, coming to a door, the Doctor opens it up.

“Not many patients on the night of New Years Eve, usually they start coming the day after. Not everyone can afford the best doctor or even a licensed one at that. But you’re in luck, I only lost mine for malpractice a few years ago.”

They head inside as the room looks like your typical patient care room but with a few things missing, but the basics are still there with a clean look to it, they move him towards where the patient monitor and other things can be seen.

“What for?”

“Oh, nothing too big. Giving out a few free services here and there, the board found out and well… The health insurance companies were not happy with that. But that isn’t to say I’m running a charity here. I’ve gotta eat too. Things on the blackmarket are a whole lot more expensive. You get what I’m saying.”

The Doctor says as he sets up the vitals machine and connects it to Jamar. It begins beep rapidly as the screen reads 120 bpm.

“Yeah, don’t worry. We’ve got the money.” John replies.

“Great, then I won’t ask any more about that.”

Taking out a light, he begins to perform some basic tests, first checking his eyes.

“Yep, he’s definitely unconscious. His eyes aren’t too enlarged, that’s good. Blue lips. Blood pressure is low. By the looks of it, he’s experiencing Hemorrhagic shock.”

“What’s that?” John asks.

“It’s a condition where the body doesn’t have enough blood in the body. Occurs in stages and by the looks of it, he’s on the 4th one. He’s probably lost around 50 or so percent of his blood. Did a good job with the syringe, filled up the hole and probably saved his life in the process.”

The Doctor moves to inspect the site as John looks over while Ben seems to look down at the ground avoiding it all.

“How’s that even possible?”

“You can lose up to half of your blood in less than a minute, at the rate he was probably bleeding. He’s lucky to still be here right now.”

The lenses of the Doctor's eyes can be seen compounding as he looks at the entry wound site.

“Ah, that’s not good. The glue isn’t holding to the pressure of the blood, looks like he was shot around Thoracic Outlet. Which is causing the bind to break due to the pressure. Mmm… We’re going to have to remove the seal and do it properly, he’s still going to lose his arm just based on where the injury is but he’ll live.”

“That’s good.”

The Doctor turns to look over at John.

“It’s expensive. Are you sure you still want to do this?”

“Are you kidding me? Of course.”

The Doctor gets up as he starts to make his way over to a monitor.

“Alright, just going to need you to sign a few waivers first. Standard protocol for this kind of thing in case you try to skip town or something.”

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Walking over with a tablet, he hands it to John.

On it:

I agree to take ownership of the patient. … In the case of the death of the patient I will be held liable for any fees or charges from said patient … I agree to pay for all fees expected or unexpected to come from the administering of treatment for said patient … Under the agreement that the Doctor is not liable for attempting to save said life of said patient … The clinic will not be liable for any possible malpractice done due to false or misinformation given by the patient and guardian. The clinic will do whatever it can to save the life of the patient.

Sign here ____

Writing his signature after looking at it for a while, John gives it back to the Doctor.

“Well, at least I know you’re serious about helping your friend.”

“Something wrong with that?”

“No, not at all. Just surprised, that’s all. Alright, you two wait in the waiting area. This is going to take a while.” The Doctor says as he waves them off.

John looks over at Ben who hasn’t said a word.

“Come on, Ben.”

He looks over as they head outside.

----------------------------------------

Waiting in the waiting room, John and Ben sit around.

John spaces out as Ben anxiously taps his feet while looking at his cyberdeck.

“Hey, John.” Ben says.

“What’s up?” John asks.

“About Project SHARD-” Ben tries to say.

“Just let it go.” John says.

“It’s a mass surveillance project, the government, corporations, they’ve all been watching us and recording us. How can we just ignore that?” Ben responds.

“Think. What are we going to do about it?”

“We- we could tell someone.”

John lets out a small laugh as he looks over at Ben who turns away.

“Heh, do you know what they do to whistleblowers?”

Ben doesn’t reply.

“If we’re lucky, maybe they won’t straight up kill us. Maybe they’ll send us to a detention center somewhere for re-education. If anyone asks, just say you saw nothing.”

“It isn’t right.”

“It usually isn’t. But if you want to survive, you have to keep your head down and listen.”

“For what?”

“I don’t know, it’s just a saying.”

Knock. Knock. Knock.

John and Ben look over at the door

“Hey are you guys in there!?” Rachel shouts.

“Yeah! I’ll be right there.” John replies.

John walks over towards the entrance as he looks at the door and the various bolts and complex handles on it, thinking to himself he begins to unlock the door. Pressing on the handle, he finally unlocks the door.

On the other side, Rachel and Peter are waiting for them.

“Took you long enough. Where’s Jamar?” Rachel says as she immediately heads inside while Peter and John just watch in shock.

John looks back as Rachel looks around the dimly lit waiting room.

“The Doc’s working on him.”

“Oh.” Rachel says looking back at them.

Peter begins to head inside while John moves aside for him.

“Thanks.” Peter says.

Walking out of the patient room, the Doctor looks around.

“Alright, alright. What’s going on?” He asks.

He stops as he sees Rachel and Peter.

“Oh, friends of yours?” the Doctor asks.

“Yeah. More like co-workers.” John nods. The Doctor looks at them as he begins to walk back.

“I’m about to start the operation to close up his wound, besides that everything else is in order. Like I said, he won’t be able to use his arm but he’ll live. Got some prosthetics if you’re interested, even some higher end cyberware but let's wait until the patient is up and running.” the Doctor says.

“Sounds good.” John replies.

The atmosphere is awkward as they all just uncomfortably stand around each other. Reading the atmosphere, Peter begins to walk towards the chairs.

“Come on, Rachel.” He says as he does.

John looks over at them, Rachel grabs a remote from the table as she turns on the TV. On it, a strange Japanese TV show is playing, it's an animated kids cartoon aimed at young children. Strangely enough, she doesn’t change the channel as her eyes stare at it dead.

Seeing all of this, he sighs.

“I’m gonna head out for a breather.” John says.

----------------------------------------

Outside, it’s begun to rain. John stands in front of the clinic as he looks up at it.

He stands in complete silence.

Busy thinking to himself, John’s eyes begin to drag as he looks down at the ground as rain continues to fall around him. We see his face as tears begin to form in his eyes. They fall one by one as John continues to stand in silence.

John sighs.

Wiping his tears every so often, he sniffles.

A sound comes from the doorway behind him as he looks back. It’s Rachel who looks over at him. Then away avoiding his gaze as she stares at the ground too.

“I can leave if you want me to.” Rachel says softly.

“It’s alright.” John says weakly.

Looking around at the ground, Rachel tries to avoid looking in John’s general direction as she slowly makes her way towards him. Her footsteps echoing against the raindrops.

“I’m sorry, that you had to see this part of me.” John says.

“Don’t be. Nobody has to be strong all the time.” Rachel responds.

John lets out a small laugh.

“What’s so funny?”

“Nothing.”

Rachel smiles.

“Nobody’s ever told me that before.”

“Really?”

She looks over at John who stares at the sky. She does the same.

“Never had a family of my own, eighteen years in the institution where there were hundreds of kids just like me, the caretakers were always so busy and we’d always compete for their attention. Met a few veterans that were like me and then it was straight into the military. Where I met Jamar, he was my best friend. We were together since basic, met his family, they took me in as one of their own. But it wasn’t the same. Eventually, I left.”

“I never knew you and Jamar were so close.”

“Yeah, and now he’s hurt. His momma always told me, ‘keep him safe’ ‘keep him safe’. Now he’s lost an arm just trying to help me out.” John says as he gradually breaks down.

“I’m a terrible friend.” John says as he tries to calm himself down.

“No, you’re not. Don’t say that.”

“Shut up.” John says as he begins to break into tears again.

“You did the best you could.”

“It wasn’t good enough. It’s never good enough.”

“No one has a magic crystal ball.”

“I could have done so much more. Always needed him to help me with things.”

“That’s what teammates are for. You don’t do everything by yourself.”

John pauses as he thinks to himself.

“Yeah, you’re right.”

He sighs as he looks over at Rachel, she looks back at him as she seemingly looks away.

“Thanks.” John says.

“Thanks for listening.” He continues.

Rachel crosses her arms as a smile forms on her face.

“Ready to head back inside?” She asks.

“Yeah.”

John nods.

They begin to slowly make their way back towards the clinic.

----------------------------------------

Walking back inside the clinic they see the television is still on as it plays the same animated show on the screen, Peter and Ben are looking over at it as they seem to be enjoying it. Carefully closing the door behind him. The Doctor makes his way towards them.

His face looks serious as the others turn their attention towards him.

“Well, the operation was a success. But he won’t be able to use his right arm ever again. Due to where the bullet wound was located, I had to cut it off as important parts of it had already undergone necrosis. His blood pressure is back to normal and he’s asleep. He’s probably going to have a hell of a morning tomorrow.”

They look over at each other as their eyes stop on John.

“That’s good. You did good, Doc.” John replies.

“Just doing my job.” He replies.

“So… Can we see him?” Rachel asks.

“No, probably just better if you wait until he’s up, he’s undergone a traumatic experience, it’s best if you leave him alone until he’s ready to talk to others.” The Doctor says.

“Oh.” Rachel says.

“You’re free to stay and wait but it’s been a long night. It’s probably best if you all went home to rest. I’ll be here all night of course.” The Doctor says as he walks towards a receptionist desk. They look over at him as they seem unsure of what to do next.

“He’s right.” Peter says.

“Guess we should all just head home for the night.” John continues.

They’ve formed a circle around each other as they look around.

“Guess we can just meet back here tomorrow in the morning?” Rachel adds.

“Yeah.”

“See you all then.”