trans_9 | The Hand that Rocks the Cradle (and then cuts off the oxygen)

He couldn't feel relived, not yet, they needed to get him out of there. He was still drowning. They weren't done yet. He looked quickly around, checking for something heavy to break it open the rest of the way.

'Hold on Conner. Hold on.'

Five minutes, they had five minutes before the brain damage was irreversible. The shorter time the better, they needed to get him out and breathing again.

Rory reached for a chair, covering his ears automatically when Tim barked the order and dropping in some half remembered reflex to avoid an explosion.

The charges exploded and plastisteel shattered, causing Conner to slide out of the tube in a flood of goo onto the Medbay floor.

He wasn't breathing.

"Conner!" Tim rushed to his friend's side the second he was clear of the fluid and the tube, free at least to get some air-- not that that on its own was good enough, and he knew that. He swore again, moving in for damage control-- breathing was an obvious problem, and he began the process to help him, until Rory closed the distance. The nurse was more suited for the job-- but every second counted.

"Conner!" Rory was no less concerned than Tim, though he at least knew what to do. He was quick about it, starting rescue breathing within seconds of the glass breaking and Tim moving. He had a pulse, he was still alive, he just needed air. To clear the water from his lungs.

Breathe, withdraw, breathe. He had to make sure Conner was breathing again. Now he could do something, now he could help. He wasn't stuck helpless, waiting for Conner to die.

Breathe, Conner, Breathe.

Nothing at first. Nothing, and that meant his heart was going to stop, and it'd be much harder to do chest compressions on someone invulnerable.

They were losing him, they were--

"Gckblt!"

He started coughing and hacking, curling over on his side as he choked up the life support pod goo. Luckily, it was meant to not do damage to the lungs like water would, so the biggest problem had just been lack of oxygen, which he was now sucking into his lungs in great heaving gasps as he coughed up the last of the stuff.

Just then, the backup power went back on and the normal lights flickered on. Of course.

"I need--" he gasped out hoarsely, still trying to catch his breath.

"I need--" What did he need?

"--pants."

He was naked. Seriously. Pants, a sheet, something people.

Edited 2011-06-06 08:15 (UTC)

Tim was for once idle, momentarily, unable to do much to assist Rory, but refusing to leave Conner's side. It'd been a moment of panic-- before he started to cough, to recover and to breathe. Tim was able to relax at that, finally-- it seemed like Conner was going to be okay. It seemed like it was over, at least for now. He couldn't even be mad about the power (yet-- that would come later, and he'd look into that).

And he actually laughed just slightly, quietly, at that request. "Right," he said. Of course he could indulge him in that much. He straightened himself, and grabbed a sheet from a nearby empty bed, before turning back and handing it off to his best friend. His best friend who was okay.

"Welcome back then."

Rory laughed, breathing a little hard, hand resting protectively on Conner's shoulder to keep him from pitching over into the viscus fluid. "That's the first thing you think of? Pants? You almost died, Conner." He tried very hard to keep the worry out of his voice, leaning to check his pulse and fuss over him as professionally as he possibly could.

He wasn't a little boy anymore, he couldn't treat him like a little boy. As much as his mind still claimed he should. "Soon as you're ready, let's get you to the bed, so I can make sure you're completely back to normal."

"I did die," Kon said, not really minding the fussing anyway, but he took a few moments to catch his breath again.

"I remember that now. Back home. Before all this. I'm not sure if I just regained the memories or gained time I'd never had before, but I died. And I came back. I'm alive."

That fact seemed to have him in shock a little.

"All this time, people told me I was going to die in the Crisis and come back but I wasn't sure I believed the second part. But I'm alive."

Uncle John wasn't, though, and that fact hit him hard.

"I remember all this stuff now. That I didn't remember before. I remember..."

Tim hesitated at that, but didn't say anything right away, listening to Conner talk. It was strange, and surprising, that he suddenly remembered all of that, that suddenly he had new memories. Tim remembered it clearly himself-- hell, he'd been thinking about that time all too often during all of this mess. How bad it'd been. And now Conner-- somehow-- remembered that too. He'd have to talk to him later, try to help him get his bearings. But for the time being, he was just trying to be glad.

"You're alive," Tim repeated, almost hesitant, before he crouched down and reached out to grab his shoulder. It wasn't a hug, not yet, but it was necessary to him. "That's what matters most right now. You made it."

"Well, if you did die, you're not dead now. So you're in good company. It's a bit disorienting at first, being alive. But you'll get used to it." He nodded, glancing at Tim quietly. "Just breathe for a moment, don't focus too hard on all the new memories. It'll right itself." He gave Conner's shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

It really was one of the most disorienting experiences, having died and come back, having been sure it was over and your life had ended.

He settled back on his heels, letting Tim take over.

Clutching the sheet around his waist, Kon sat up, climbed to his feet, and moved unsteadily to the nearby medbay bed, laying down on it.

"What happened? How'd I get in there anyway?"

Even though Conner seemed to be mostly managing on his own, Tim stayed close as he made it to the bed, practically hovering behind him, hand raised on the off chance he could help support him (not that that was all that reasonable).

"You regressed too far," Tim explained, frowning. "You became blank and... couldn't properly support yourself."

Rory glanced at Tim, not interrupting for the moment. What had happened? The lights had gone out for a reason, even if he didn't know what it was and had been too focused on Conner and the tank and the utter helplessness of the situation. Something had caused it, or worse, someone had caused it. They would need to find out who and why and what had caused it. But for the moment, Conner was safe. Was talking. Was not deaging out of existence. He just needed to convince his heart to stop racing. "But they've reversed everything now, just a small issue with the tanks." He paused, resting his hand briefly on the discarded tangle of cape and blanket and stuffed toy on the bottom of the bed. "How do you feel, Conner? Any tightness in your chest? Trouble breathing? Aside from the new memories, does anything feel off?"

"My chest hurts. It doesn't usually ever hurt like this."

Tears started rolling down his cheeks, and then he realized he remembered something. His hand went up to his face to wipe them away.

"Oh. That's why."

Taking deep breaths, he tried to make it stop, covering his face with his hand.

"Pa... oh, Pa."

Tim would know what he'd remembered. Uncle John. He hadn't been there to help Uncle John.

Tim looked back at Rory, meeting his glance. He understood that the power situation was likely on his mind, and for good reason-- it was something Tim would investigate later, certainly, but for the time being, he was just focusing on his friend. And he would probably need it.

"Yeah," Tim said, softly. He reached out to squeeze Conner's shoulder, a small gesture of comfort. He knew what he was remembering, and he could understand it a lot more than he'd like to. When he'd been through a similar situation, Conner had been there to support him and to talk. So he also knew there was no point in telling him it was 'okay'. "I'm sorry, Conner," he said quietly, earnestly. "I know."

Rory flinched, then tried to cover it by turning to the scanner, starting a program to make sure that everything was back to normal and Conner had suffered no ill-effects.

Knowing that Conner would grow back up and remember things that had happened before was a rather reasonable thing. But he had cared for the child. Logically, he had known this would happen. Logic and emotion were rather ill equipped for living together.

He'd let Tim handle it, and he'd be professional and be a nurse and not...not a parent. That was his job. Even if he wanted to comfort the boy who wasn't quite a boy anymore. Tim was Conner's friend, had been his friend before this all started. Tim was what Conner needed right now.

"Ah god, little Lian, no, she was such a sweet kid."

Kon sucked in a deep breath.

Why'd he get to come back? Why was it people like him and not like Uncle John or Tana? Or poor little Lian Harper?

There was the ship, though. Maybe the ship had saved them. There was always hope, right? Maybe, just like Tana was, other good people were among the saved.

"I'm okay," he gasped out. "Just...memories. I'm okay."

Deep breaths. Deep breaths. He wiped at his face, the moment now passed.

"What happened with the tanks? I nearly drowned in there."

Tim looked back at Rory again, watching him for a brief second while he let Conner sort himself out. Rory had tried to hide it, yes, but Tim still caught the reaction, made note of it. From the brief time he'd known him, he wasn't really surprised-- he'd cared, that much was obvious.

For the moment, he looked back to Conner, and nodded again. He understood it, all too much. There was a lot in their lives, like that. To suddenly remember so much of that stuff that'd happened... "Yeah," he said again, before Conner changed the subject to what had happened, once again. He hesitated, but there wasn't really a point in keeping it from him.

"There was a temporary power failure," Tim explained. "The equipment malfunctioned-- there wasn't enough oxygen." He glanced at Rory, wanting to give him an opening to get in, to say something more. "Rory and I had to get you out before you suffocated."

"The backups took a couple minutes to initialize, something we should be bringing up at the next ship-wide meeting. Minutes may not seem like a long time, but with as sensitive as the equipment is and the necessity of it to some of the people here, it might as well have been hours."

If they hadn't reversed the clock, then Conner would have died and there would have been absolutely nothing he could do to change it or stop it.

He glanced at Tim again, wondering what had caused the suddenly blip. "We were lucky you aged up when you did, considering everything." He crossed to the bed smiling reassuringly and starting the scan to make sure everything was where it should be. His fingers rested briefly on Conner's arm in an attempt at reassurance. "As far as the scans are indicating, you're fine now."

That was a relief, Conner being ok. Even if he couldn't fuss as much as he wanted, Conner was ok. The scans confirmed it.

Edited 2011-06-08 01:44 (UTC)

Superboy breathed out a sigh of relief, then an odd expression crossed his face.

"Stacy doesn't usually randomly conk out Medbay, does she? What could have done that?"

Edited 2011-06-08 03:51 (UTC)

Tim nodded, standing quietly as he let Rory work to fill in some of the gaps for Conner, as well as check up on him. Tim was relieved that he was-- at least physically-- fine now.

"No," Tim said to Conner, and cast a brief glance at Rory again. "It's unusual. I'll have to investigate it." He would have to approach Stacy herself-- but also check first hand, just in case.

"I'm hoping that there is a logical and concrete explanation, so we can fix it and make sure it doesn't happen again. You weren't the only patient in here, during a major outbreak, we would have lost people. That's unacceptable."

He met Tim's gaze, still frowning. Now that some of the panic had faded he could worry about the bigger picture again. "We need to make certian that the backups click on faster, a minute or two on the rest of the ship is nothing. A minute or two here, on the other hand..."

He shifted, turning his attention to Conner. "How do you feel, physically? Aside from the new memories and the tightness in your chest."

"I'm okay. I feel okay. Everyone else is okay, right?"

He looked around and was heartened to see there wasn't mass chaos. They were lucky that it was just him and a few others in here.

"Hopefully," Tim grunted an answer out to Rory. He was uncertain, honestly-- but he would find out what he could about that. He looked at Conner again, and shook his head. He didn't really want to leave his friend alone, but the sooner he figured out the problem, the better. And he was fine now.

Plus, leaving for a few moments might have another benefit. "I'll find out what I can," he said, before ducking away, "And I'll be back soon."

"Let me know what you find out. And don't get yourself hurt, if it's an electric problem, take people with you." The words were mostly spoken to Tim's back as the teenager slipped away.

He glanced back at the scans. "Everything looks fine. You gained handful of centimeters and a few kilo but otherwise all your scans are matching up with everything that was in your file before. Whatever the clock did, it has been completely reversed." He sighed, finally letting himself relax. "I'm glad you're alright, Conner."

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