Work Text:
A Failure to hear
by JustJeanette
Simon Banks hated hospitals. He knew hospitals helped people, saved lives, and brought new life into the world. But to him they represented failure; failure to protect his people, his friends. Today he hated hospitals even more than ever for today it represented a failure to listen and act before it was too late.
"Mr. Banks?" The pretty little nurse didn't look strong enough to be in the profession, how could someone so small handle a patient like Jim Ellison? Not that Jim needed much handling these days. "You can go in now."
Did he really want too? That was the question. Did he want to go in there and look at Ellison? Look at the man who only lived because some machine kept pumping food into him, keep him breathing. No, he didn't but he owed Ellison and he owed Blair.
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
"Jim, the verdict came back. Guilty on all counts. The DA is pushing for the chair but it will end up being life." All counts, the only ones that would have mattered to Jim were conspiracy to commit murder and second degree homicide. Brad Ventris had sent his goons after Blair, ordered the beating, hadn't even cared that one blow had been too hard; sub-dural hematoma leading to intracranial bleeding and too much pressure on the brain.
Jim hadn't even made it back to the hospital in time. Jim hadn't been there to help deal with the pain Blair had been in. Jim hadn't seen the look of loss and betrayal in Blair's eyes in those last minutes; a look put there because Jim wasn't.
Blair died never knowing that Ellison had collapsed in the Loft. Simon was almost certain that Jim had collapsed at the same time Blair had been beaten but he'd never prove it. Either way, it didn't matter, Blair was gone and Jim was only here because the machines kept him tethered to life. Tethered to life because Ellison Senior decreed it.
Beep.
Beep.
Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.
Simon walked out. Maybe Ellison Senior's decree wasn't what had kept Jim there.
end