musicalluna

Title: Shafted: Part 5 of 7
Fandom: Psych
Author: MusicalLuna
Rating: T
Characters/Pairings: The Regulars/None
Genre: Drama, Hurt/Comfort
Warnings: Little tiny bit of gore.
Complete: Yes
Summary: Only Shawn could injure himself whilst searching a cordoned off office building with a faction of S.B.P.D. officers. Shameless Shawn whumpage. XDDDDD
A/N: Yay, whump!
Disclaimer: I do not own Psych nor do I own any of the wonderfully adorable characters who inhabit the Psych world.

"So what are we dealing with?"

The fire chief, half a dozen of his men, four paramedics, a gurney, the dozen officers who were there initially, and Gus stood crammed into the fourth floor hallway in a quasi-circular shape around Lassiter, looking expectantly to him for instruction. It was sort of empowering.

He leveled his gaze with the fire chief’s and said, "We have a man trapped in the ventilation shafts." He held up the blue prints which he had marked with the path Shawn had taken, a large shaded white square over the duct where he was located. "He fell eight feet and landed here, just between floors, upside down."

One of the firemen looked incredulous. "Upside down?"

Lassiter nodded curtly. "Upside down. He fell headfirst down the shaft, apparently put out his arm to stop the fall and broke it. My junior detective tells me the bone broke the skin." Everyone grimaced.

"Compound fracture," one of the paramedics murmured.

"He also has a concussion and some sort of head wound. O’Hara says there’s too much matted into his hair to see exactly what it looks like."

"So we’re definitely dealing with a potential neck injury," a blonde paramedic said.

Lassiter nodded. "Yes, in the position he is, I wouldn’t be at all surprised."

"We’ll have to be really careful that he isn’t moved unnecessarily," the other paramedic said.

"We need to work quickly too," Lassiter continued, "He’s having trouble breathing because all of his body weight is pressing down on his lungs."

"Well, then let’s get to work," the fire chief said. "Have you got a plan for us, or—"

Lassiter quieted him by pointing to a spot on the ceiling just overhead. "I’m standing approximately underneath the duct where Spencer is located. Since we can’t remove him by simply pulling him out by his feet because of the potential for injury to his spine, I figured coming in through either the side or bottom of the duct, depending on which is more practical, would be the best course of action. I have two officers posted at the top of the shaft to yank him out, should he pass out or find himself unable to lift his legs to breathe. That’s our last option though. So," he concluded, "We need to remove this ceiling."

The fire chief looked pleased. "All right, boys, you heard the detective, get to work!"

~ * * * ~

Juliet couldn’t help it. She couldn’t look at Shawn for very long. It made her feel helpless, which she disliked, especially because Shawn was in so much pain. It also turned her stomach, which bothered her even more, because she was a homicide detective for heaven’s sake and she should be able to handle a little bit of blood and bone. She shook her head and looked determinedly through the grating. "How are you doing, Shawn?" she asked softly as he lowered his legs again after taking a few deep breaths.

"Tired," he said, and she could tell it was already getting hard for him to breathe again.

She hated saying it, but knew it had to be said. "You can’t sleep, Shawn."

"I know, Jules," he said, tone slightly annoyed. "Trust me, the crick in my neck is keeping Mr. Sandman firmly at bay."

She grimaced and was wondering how to reply to that when her phone rang, making both of them flinch and she pulled it out. "O’Hara."

"Hey. The fire and rescue guys are here, they’re busting into the ceiling now," Lassiter said, loudly, and she could hear the racket as they began tearing into the ceiling below them.

"Oh, thank goodness," she said softly, eyeing the back of Shawn’s head.

"Is he all right?" Lassiter asked, her tone of voice raising his concern.

"He’s getting tired," she replied, "And he’s having so much trouble breathing, I, for one, will just be really glad when he’s out of here."

"They all understand, so hopefully soon," Lassiter said.

"Okay," Juliet said. "Thanks." She hung up and turned back to Shawn. "Hey, they’re going to get you out of here soon, Shawn."

"Aw, and I was just starting to feel at home."

Juliet smiled. Well, you couldn’t say he didn’t have an indomitable sense of humor.

~ * * * ~

Lassiter stepped out of the way as the firemen working to open up the ceiling dropped one last large piece to the ground, exposing the ducts in the ceiling, and sighed imperceptibly. Finally they were getting somewhere. They all edged closer, peering up at the shafts and the fireman at the top of the ladder (Charlie, the chief kept calling him) leaned forward, inspecting the metal. There was a dent in the bottom of the shaft that rose upward into the ceiling, and a bit of blood was seeping through the seam created by the grating and the duct.

"O’Hara?" Lassiter called, and her face appeared behind the vent a few feet down.

"Yes?"

"How big is that pool of blood now?" he asked and she looked worried.

"Pretty big. I had to move back."

"So we’re going to be showering in blood if we’re not careful, is what you’re saying," Charlie said.

"Possibly," she said and grimaced.

They all turned back to continue scrutinizing the ventilation shaft and Gus stepped under the vent to talk to Juliet. After a moment, Charlie said, "All right, so here are our options. We can cut into the shaft up there above him and then take out the wall after we get a better fix on his position. We could also take out a piece of that shaft—" He pointed to the horizontal shaft Juliet resided in. "—and then remove the grating and pull him out that way. Or, we can take out this bottom part of the shaft, which is a separate piece, and lower him out there. Thoughts?"

"We can’t pull him out through the grating," one of the female paramedics said. "There’s way too much risk of damaging his spinal cord."

"Okay, fair enough," Charlie said. "How about our other options?"

Lassiter shook his head. "He’s crammed in there pretty tightly. I don’t think you can cut into the walls of the shaft without risking injuring him further."

Charlie smiled humorlessly and said, "Human elevator it is then."

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 6 Part 7