..oOOo.. His vision dimming with shock, Byers only vaguely felt the strong arms of an orderly pull him away from the crumpled body. He watched silently, dull voices shouting around him. "Get a gurney in here," "Page Dr. Larson, NOW," "Call the O.R., tell them we’re bringing Mr. Langly up immediately." The trembling man saw them slowly, carefully lift the now-still figure from the floor, the amount of blood lost even more apparent now as Langly was placed onto the gurney and taken from the room. The sheet the nurses draped over him was already stained with red blotches. Byers had no idea how much time had passed, but he soon felt a hand shake his shoulder, trying to pull him from his distant place. He blinked rapidly, saw that he was still seated on the cold tile floor. He looked up into a pair of warm, concerned eyes. "Mr. Byers? Can you hear me?" the soft feminine voice came into focus. He recognized her, a nurse who had been looking after them most of the time. Cassie, he remembered. His throat still too tight, mouth too dry to form words, Byers simply nodded. "Mr. Byers...John, listen carefully. They’ve taken Ringo up to surgery, and Dr. Larson has been paged. We’ll keep you informed as to the situation, but for right now it would be best if you stayed here. Come on," she gently took his arm. Following her lead, he let her pull him to his feet. He couldn’t feel his legs moving, his mind numbed beyond physical comprehension. Dimly aware, he noted that he had been seated on the edge of the bed, on the opposite side of the place where Langly had fallen. He sat quietly for a long time, not noticing an orderly coming in to clean up the blood on the floor. He never heard the concerned inquiries about his health. Once he had gotten his body to stop shaking so violently, and found his senses returning to normal function, only then did he reach for the phone. The second ring was cut short by the answer from the other end of the line. "Lone Gunmen." "Mel?" Byers couldn’t even recognize his own voice, the tight, pained tone not resembling the soft, gentle one he had grown accustomed to. "Yeah...John? That you? Hey, you okay, buddy?" Frohike hurriedly switched off the recorder. "No...I--" Byers choked, swallowing hard. He rubbed a shaky palm against his eye, trying to stop the stinging. "John, what happened?" Frohike asked calmly, his own pulse pounding in his ears at the helpless silence from the other end. "Did something happen to Ringo?" Byers released a harsh, breathy sob and nodded, forgetting for a moment that he was on the phone. "Yeah...he...God, I don’t know..." "I’ll be right there, okay, John? I’ll call Scully and we’ll both be there in a few minutes. Are you still in the same room?" "Um...yeah, I am..." Byers glanced around, as if to confirm it for himself. "All right, just hang tight there. We’re on our way." Unable to form a response, Byers listened as the phone clicked, Frohike hanging up. He took a moment, and dropped the phone back in its place on the bedside table. Pulling his legs up to his chest, he wrapped his arms around them and dropped his head onto his knees, and waited. ..oOOo.. Byers looked up, pushing aside the fog in his mind, when the door opened and his two friends entered the room. "John," Frohike went to him quickly, Scully close behind. The younger man opened his mouth to reply, but no sound came out. He felt the tears spilling down his cheek before he could register their presence and he shook his head in disbelief. "Oh, god, John," Frohike whispered, moving closer to gather the shivering man into his arms. He held his friend tightly, rocking him as he waited for Byers to come back to him. When Byers finally moved, indicating that he had composed himself, Frohike released him but kept his hands on the other man’s shoulders. "Can you tell me what’s going on now?" he asked gently. Byers gave a shaky sigh, glancing at Scully with an embarrassed smile. "Um...when Ree woke up, he felt sick again. I wanted to get a nurse, but he wouldn’t let me. He...I tried to help him but...he--he was in so much pain, it happened so fast and he kept screaming," Byers’ words came in a frantic rush, his eyes focusing on nothing, just staring right through the other man. "The nurses came and they took him...there was so much blood..." he broke off with a choked sob. The older man squeezed his shoulder, his other hand moving up to stroke Byers’ hair slowly. "They took him? Where?" "Surgery...they said they paged Dr. Larson and they’d let me know what was happening. I’ve been here since they left... I don’t know how long it’s been." Byers sniffed quietly and rubbed his hands over his flushed face, clearing his vision. Frohike sat on the bed next to him, keeping his hand on the younger man’s shoulder as he glanced at the still-silent agent. "We’ll wait with you," Scully told him. ..oOOo.. 12:03 pm The trio remained in uneasy silence for several hours, their attempts to get any word on Langly met with apologetic shrugs and promises that they would be told when any news came. Byers remained seated on the bed, eventually turning to lean against the headboard as time went by too slowly. Scully mostly sat in the chair, while Frohike alternated between restless pacing, hounding the nurses for information, and staring sightlessly out the window. It was early afternoon when someone came to the room, her weary appearance a testament to her relentless dedication. She gave them a brief, tight smile as she closed the door behind her. "Dr. Larson?" Byers inquired from where he sat slouched on the bed. The simple question held all the desperate need for his lover’s safety in only the shaky tone. "First of all, Ringo is stable," she assured him, and saw that her assumption was correct when Byers released his held breath. She went on. "His condition is still critical, however. He had a great deal of blood loss and it took us a long time to figure out why. He’s been moved to intensive care, and is still unconscious." Before Byers could ask, she held her hand up to stop him. "You can see him soon, but I need to tell you what we found." She glanced at the room’s other occupants curiously. "We should hear this too," Scully read her mind. "We’re his friends." With a curt nod, the doctor continued. "As far as we can tell, it looks like the pressure from the blood building up in his lower back became more than his body could handle. Apparently, by this morning it just...gave in," she shook her head uncertainly. "He nearly bled to death. It wasn’t until we were able to control the bleeding and perform surgery that we discovered the cause. "What at first appeared to be a blood clot was removed from near his prostate, between his lower abdominal organs and spine. We assumed that the blood had been caught there by the mass and causing the build up. We repaired the damage and are monitoring his organ functions as a precaution. While we were finishing up, I took a closer look at the mass we removed." She stopped, glancing around to make sure the others were still with her. Finally, she looked away for a moment to gather her strength to continue. "I confirmed my suspicions with another doctor. It’s... it *was*, the early development of a fetus. Ringo was right...he *was* pregnant." Frohike and Scully stared at her for a moment, too stunned to move. They both looked to Byers, however, not knowing what his reaction could possibly be. To their surprise, he simply nodded. He shifted, moving off the bed to stand and walked up to Larson. His voice almost too low to hear, he avoided looking at her. "Can I go be with him?" "Of course," she replied, taking his arm and leading him out the door. The two others remained behind, staring at each other in disbelief. Unconsciously, Scully rested a hand on her stomach, the precious life under the surface all the more apparent as she realized how quickly it could be lost. ..oOOo..