[CW: shooting, deaths, blood, description of injuries, panic attacks, flashbacks]

S6 EP23&24

"Mr Clark, I'm not afraid to die, you see. So the question is, are you gonna kill me, too?"

They say that bullets travel faster than the speed of sound. In other words, one would feel the tiny steel lodging into their body before hearing the bullet blasting out of the muzzle.

She disagreed, because through experience, she knew that their ears would ring, and the world would fall into pieces around you.

There will be no blasting sound, only the sound of yourself choking while your throat strangles itself. And the screams and shouts if your mind allows.

But she was certain of one thing-it was deadly.

❦ ❦ ❦

THE ER WAS IN A CHAOS. Patients screaming in one end and families dying in another, what a way to live one's life.

The patient Norah was working on had fractures on his leg because he attempted to jump out of a moving vehicle-totally idiotic. Humans are idiots, and that covers up half of the ER cases; it was just like any other day.

Except, this day, nobody had any idea how much harm will be done, how many lives will be lost; the trauma and agony that will be stained upon every being in this hospital would be one that no one saw coming.

It was not any other day.

Norah excused herself from her patient while she carried his X-ray films and flagged down the Ortho attending. She found Callie by the nurses' station, signing off some charts. "Dr Torres," she called out, "Could you do a consult on..."

Callie was frowning at her, the same look many top-tier-gossiper-nurses had. Norah did not care to bother, nor bother to care.

"You're taking sides, brilliant, whatever," the resident sighed heavily, "But can we just keep it professional at work?"

"What, no-I'm not taking sides," Callie quickly defended while she turned to face the resident. She studied the resident's facial expression for another moment as Norah stared back at her confusedly. "The only side I'm taking is Team Sloarie, or something..."

Norah did not know whether she should feel confused or concerned.

"Look," Callie sighed, "Mark is hopelessly in love with you, and when I say hopelessly, I mean staring-at-you-from-afar-when-you're-not-noticing-just-so-I-can-get-a-glimpse-of-you-for-my-day-to-go-on type of hopeless."

Norah took a second to process her words, before shaking her head. "Correction: I noticed," she stated, "I know when he's staring... I always have."

"How are you holding up?" Callie queried.

The resident scratched the back of her neck. "Uh... I haven't thrown myself off the building, so... that's a start, I guess?"

"No-how are you holding up?" Callie emphasised, "Because Mark, he... He may look fine in the hospital, but he's a wreck, a total disaster. How do you do it?"

Norah smiled at the attending, the pit of emotions circling inside her. "Who says I'm not falling apart outside these hospital walls?" she muttered and after a long pause, she lifted the scans to the attending. "Consult, please? Bed 4."

"Dr Lawrence! Dr Torres!" another voice called out and Kirian hurried over to them. "Do any of you have cases I can work on?"

Callie narrowed her eyes at him. "What happened to plastics?"

Kirian flickered his eyes to Norah who raised a brow at him before looking back at the attending. "Well, you see... Dr Sloan switched me out and took Lexie in his service after, uh..."

Norah snorted, "After what you pulled that night? Of course he would," she shook her head, "Come with me, Rook."

They squeezed through the many people in the ER; Kirian bumped into a man and quickly muttered a sorry before hurrying off when a trauma patient was wheeled into the ER.

If only he knew that the man had a gun resting inside the inner pocket of his jacket.

❦ ❦ ❦

LEXIE PULLED TIMOTHY away from the vending machine and draped his arm over her shoulder while walking down the hallway with him. The latter beamed when he saw her and placed a kiss on her forehead.

"I'm getting off earlier than you tonight, so I'm cooking dinner, for a change," she stated and he narrowed his eyes at her.

"Don't burn the kitchen down again," he urged and winced when she elbowed him in the ribs. "Ouch-"

"That was just once-and it was just one pan!" she glared at his tight smile before sighing, "What do you wanna eat?"

He shrugged, "Surprise me, and I'll surprise you afterwards." He smirked when her cheeks went pink and rolled her eyes playfully at him. He lifted his arm from her shoulder and turned to her. "I'm actually heading the other way, see you tonight."

"Happy one year," Lexie spoke up and he turned back to her.

Timothy had the cheekiest grin on his face while he scrunched his nose. "Happy one year."

He headed back towards the vending machine and pressed on the button for the chocolate bar that he had previously paid for. The snack fell and he silently thanked the machine for not malfunctioning or scamming his money.

With his phone in one hand and a bar of chocolate in another, he walked into the elevator and pushed on the button down to the ER floor. He chomped down on the bar as he scrolled through on his phone.

The elevator ding-ed and the doors opened.

"Look, you're not even supposed to be back here." The exasperated female voice made Timothy lift his head from his phone curiously. "I'm not a tour guide. I'm a surgeon. Okay?"

Before he could step out of the elevators, he heard a sharp bang-then a thud within a second. His eyes widened at the man in a brown jacket who was slowly turning to him, realising that the elevator was opened.

"S-Sir, I-"

Timothy barely had the time to register the situation, let alone jamming his hand onto the close button of the elevator-another bang made him feel a shock throughout his body as he fell backwards immediately.

He watched the man stepping over the lifeless body of Reed Adamson who was staring right at him.

He could see it; all the blood oozing out from him.

Where he was shot, he did not know.

All he knew was that one minute ago he was thinking about his plans for tonight, and now he was sitting on the cold floors, trembling, while his scrubs and white coat soaked in the pool of red-his pool of red.

He was trapped within the four narrow walls, alone, and he was dying.

❦ ❦ ❦

"HE WAS FURIOUS WHEN he saw me the next day," Kirian chuckled while he opened the door to the stairs after admitting their patient to the psych floor. "I thought I was gonna die, literally."

Norah entered the stairwell and he walked in after her. "He would shoot you," she chuckled, "And you might actually die."

He snorted and shook his head confidently. "No way. I'm a hell of a fighter," he smirked, before nearly tripping but she pulled him steady in time. He sighed when she laughed at him. "I was born a preemie, with less than ten percent survival chance," he resumed, "Look where I am now."

"In this stairwell where you nearly landed on your face just a few seconds ago?"

He rolled his eyes, "Oh, come on, that was-" He was cut off when both their pagers went off, the beeping echoed in the stuffy space.

LOCKDOWN

"Lockdown?" Kirian read out the page with his eyebrows knitted into one. "That means we're supposed to stay where we are, right?" He lifted his head to Norah who nodded slowly.

A prick of chills ran down her spine; one that was felt icy down her back and messing with her senses.

"Lawrence?" the younger resident snapped her out of her thoughts and she lifted her head to him. "I was saying, maybe we should not stay in this stairwell. We might suffocate."

"That's... a bit dramatic, but..." she blinked away her thoughts, "Yeah, makes sense, I guess..."

Kirian opened the door to the next floor they descended to and left after her. Norah was breathing uneasily, one that he noticed and furrowed his brows. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, yeah. Just... chills, you know?" she responded with a tight smile.

"I'm sure it's nothing. Probably just a missing kid on Peds," he shrugged as they continued walking down the hallway.

Just as they made a turn at the seemingly deserted floor, she saw a man strolling a distance from them, the brown jacket sitting on his figure. "Hey, sir, we're in lockdown," Kirian spoke up, but when the man turned to face them, Norah recognised him instantly.

Gary Clark.

She knew then that it was not 'just chills'; it was far from 'just chills'.

"You..." the man's words incited a cold fear within her. "You suggested that my wife's ventilator should be turned off. You suggested to stop my wife's heart," Gary accused in a low voice as he took a few steps towards the pair of residents.

"Who is he?" Kirian whispered but Norah shushed him up.

"Mr Clark..."

"You suggested that she should be killed... Your words killed my Allison."

He nudged her arm when he saw the firearm being slowly snuck out from the man's jacket; both their eyes went wide.

Lockdown.

Gary lifted his arm shakily, the muzzle of his gun was directed pointedly towards her while she stood frozen to her spot. His cold, accusing eyes of him were fixed at her, she knew what was coming.

She had been shot before, she knew how painful it would be, but she was not-never-ready for what was to come.

The man pulled the trigger twice and she squeezed her eyes shut, her ears ringing while she felt her body falling... in what direction, she could not comprehend. She felt it when her back landed harshly on the hospital floor.

She did not feel any pain, though. Was it the adrenaline shock in her system?

It wasn't.

Norah's eyes flew open and her speech was muffled. Kirian stared at her wide-eyed with his hand covering her mouth-and his body was shielding the top half of hers.

She could feel it; the warm liquid soaking her scrubs-except it was not hers.

The steady footsteps were approaching them; she could almost feel the soft thudding and scraping against the floor vibrating within her veins. Norah shut her eyes tight after she saw Kirian doing the same before he loosened his body on top of her.

She heard the footsteps growing louder at every thud, when it felt like they were right next to her, she held her breath. The pressure on top of her was yanked off and thrown aside while she heard the aching groans from the other resident.

The vision under her eyelids went dark for a moment as she faintly traced out the figure who hovered... before shifting to the other body. She felt her heart hammering against her ribcage, it would break free if it was any harder; she was trying her very best to not choke out a sob.

She remained still while she prayed, begging for every god that existed to get the man away.

When she eventually heard the footsteps again, it was languishing away; getting softer, and softer... until she heard the door to the stairwell opening, and the thudding and scraping completely vanished.

She immediately shot up and was greeted with her scrubs stained in blood-Kirian's blood. The younger resident who was still lying on the floor was hyperventilating now as he attempted to sit up, he grunted loudly while he pressed against his wound.

"Oh my god, Rook-" Her eyes went wide while she kneeled next to him and applied pressure on his wound. "What did you do?"

"Took a b-bullet for you, s-seems like it," he choked out, wincing at the pain. Norah quickly held his arm over her shoulder, holding half of his weight on her. "N-No offense, Lawrence, but... y-you jinxed it."

Oh my fucking god.

"Crap, fuck-we gotta-I-I need supplies to save you!" she stammered before taking a deep breath to calm herself. Okay, Norah, not now. Now, you need to focus. "Alright, let's head to the nearest supply closet, okay? C-Can you walk?"

"Yeah, I think so... y-yeah."

They made their way carefully down the hallway to where Gary was standing before. There was a long trail of blood dripping along their tracks, marking their route. It made her sick to the stomach.

The bold letters of 'SUPPLY CLOSET' was on the nearest door on their left and Kirian exhaled shakily. Norah could feel his weight gradually increasing on her, the fact that he was becoming more dependent on her side made her anxious.

When she twisted the door of the supply closet, she was greeted with a familiar face, holding a scalpel in her hand and aiming it at her.

"What the-"
"Oh my god!"

Norah furrowed her brows confusingly. "Lee, what the fuck?"

Nina dropped the scalpel on the floor that was already pooled with blood and rushed to her side, sharing the weight of Kirian as he bit back from yelling. Norah stared at the floor in horror, then at the younger resident's gloved hand also covered with red.

Nina led them in, kicking the door shut behind them; she did not speak, her jaw tightened. Norah could only wildly guess the reason from the pooling blood that was smeared along the floor, its colour gradually becoming faint.

It was like dragging a paintbrush across a canvas, watching the colour turning lighter and lighter, before fading away.

Except this red did not fade away. Lying at the end of the track was Jace Thompson, his scrub top had been ripped off and he already had an IV hanging above him.

His face was pale-too pale, but he managed to muster up a smile. "K-Kirian, hi..." he called out in a voice slightly above a whisper, "Dr... Lawrence, I-I'm glad you... y-you're here..."

Norah felt her hair standing on every inch of her skin-she had two of them to save.

❦ ❦ ❦

LEXIE APPROACHED MARK at the nurses' station with a thick chart in her hand. "They want attending approval to do the auditory evoked potentials," she informed him. She slid the chart across the counter to him, but he did not respond. He was zoned out, the pen in his hand was blotching the paper under its tip. "Hello? Are you there?"

The attending snapped away from his thoughts and turned to the resident with furrowed brows. "Sorry, what?"

"They want attending approval to do the auditory evoked potentials," Lexie repeated, "Can you sign for it?"

"Oh, yeah, sure," Mark took the chart and scribbled a signature inside one of the boxes, "This lockdown thing... You think it's uh, serious?"

"I really hope it's not."

"Why? You have plans for the night?" he asked as he handed the chart back to the resident; she narrowed her eyes at his words.

"Dr Sloan."

It took him a moment before he recalled what he had said. "No, god, no. I didn't mean it that way," he corrected himself. "I meant like... You look cheerful, and excited to get out of this place," he pointed out with a sigh, "And Shadow-Shepherd just requested for my OR, so I might have to push our surgery to the night. Do you need to switch with someone?"

"Oh, if you're offering-yes, then. I do have plans for tonight, actually," Lexie smiled at the thought of it. "I'm cooking tonight for Tim and I's one-year anniversary, and we..." she trailed off when the attending had a bitter look on his face.

"Oh, god. I'm so sorry," her eyes widened but Mark merely shook his head and return to his charting, "I know I have no business to ask, but... are you and Norah really... done? I-I mean, you look really depressed, you both do..."

He fished out his phone from his pocket and unlocked it, showing her his call log that was filled with a screen of red icons. "We're in lockdown and she missed all of my calls," he sighed heavily, "What do you think?"

"Well..."

"Sir, you can't leave this area," the nurse informed loudly at the man in a brown jacket that was walking up the stairs in the lobby. "The hospital is in-"

She never got to finish her sentence when gunshots were fired again. Three, this time.

Mark immediately pulled Lexie and dove down, falling flat to the ground. The visitors gathered in the waiting area had erupted into chaos. There were screams, loud earth-shaking steps when everyone started scrambling in different directions like ants in a burning pot.

Mark had dragged the resident away from the nurse that was already dead and they scrambled into the human stampede, making their way to the elevators. He spammed the elevator button repeatedly whereas she was panting, her mind unable to think right.

"Come on... Come on..."

Mark felt terrified. Not for himself, but for the whereabouts of her. It was the not knowing that was driving his mind in circles. He begged to know whether or not she was safe.

But when the elevator arrived and the doors opened, his mind was diverted at one point; Lexie gasped loudly next to him. Their eyes went wide at the figure sitting, his head leaning against the wall while the floor was covered in red.

The half-eaten chocolate bar and the cracked phone screen sat in the bath of red fluid. The white coat was already dyed in his blood.

"Hey... I knew y-you... would f-find me..." Timothy managed out frailly, "S-Save... me...?"

❦ ❦ ❦

NORAH WAS LIVID.

She was working back and forth between the two men lying next to each other while Nina assisted her in every way possible. They had already gone through half a box of gloves while switching between the two.

The only upside to this whole situation was that they were inside a supply closet, hence almost everything they needed was in reach.

And the only thing she was reciting over and over again in her head was a paragraph of curses and swears. She did not even have time to think of anything, or anyone else. Her concerns were washed away, the whereabouts of everyone-especially the shooter-was no longer relevant in her head.

All she needed to do was to save the two lives before her eyes. She needed to save them.

One thing that was annoying her and dragging her concentration away from saving lives was her phone that was constantly ringing. "Lee, check it, please," she finally snapped and Nina took off her gloves and picked up the phone on the floor.

"It's Dr Shepherd," she informed and Norah shook her head, gesturing to ignore it.

"Any... messages, or... missed calls?"

"Um... two more from Dr Shepherd, a few messages asking where are you..." the younger resident notified as she scrolled the notifications bar, "Six missed calls from... Dr Sloan. And-"

"Timothy?" Norah asked hopefully but Nina shook her head. "A-And?"

"And five from me..." Nina admitted. "I-I found Jace here and... I could only think of paging you. But I-I lost my pager, so I called you." The older resident raised a brow at her confusedly while she added more gauze to Jace's wound on his upper chest.

"You said to page you whenever we're unsure of something..." Nina stated, "Rule number four?"

Kirian and Jace both chuckled weakly as they, too, recalled the first day of their intern year. "Lawrence?"

"J-Just Norah."

"Norah... I just n-need to tell you this 'cause I uh, I f-feel a little light-headed right now," Kirian spoke and Nina changed into a new pair of gloves while she