Author's notes:
I’ve never been entirely satisfied with how the show depicted Scarlet’s first return, it always seemed very... undramatic. It’s a topic that’s been covered by many fans and this is my take on it.
Content warning: description of dead body.
“Security to operating room!”
The shriek over the intercom shattered the grim atmosphere in Sickbay.
Fawn bolted upright in his office chair, reports forgotten and one thought running through his mind. “That’s where the two bodies are…”
He got there in moments, shouldering his way past a pale-faced Nurse Kirimiko and two equally pale but resolute security guards nervously looking in the glass insets of the closed double doors to see Captain Scarlet… the second one… who had been very dead and delivered to Sickbay in a body bag not two hours ago, lifting the sheet that had been draped over the original Captain Scarlet’s body.
Fawn halted at the door in the act of opening it, his brain trying to process the impossible thing that was happening right before his eyes.
From the looks of it, the second Scarlet was having that same battle too.
Silent and horrified, Scarlet stared at the battered corpse lying on the table. He looked up at Fawn, a tumult of emotions cascading over his face. “Doctor… what… what is going on here?” he asked, looking so hopelessly lost and confused, even more so as security guards, with weapons aimed at him, carefully flanked Fawn while more gathered around the theatre doors.
“Scarlet… don’t you remember?” Fawn heard himself asking. “That’s… that’s you.”
“I… I don’t understand…” Scarlet turned dangerously white and leaned heavily on the edge of the operating table for support, his arms shaking as he stared at his own dead face with its sunken eyes and greying skin hideously marked by the pseudo-bruises of lividity.
Fawn didn’t blame him one bit when Scarlet quite suddenly fainted, cracking his head on the edge of the stainless steel table on the way down.
“Move!” Fawn ordered the security guards out of his way, crossing the room with three quick strides to crouch at his patient’s side. “Scarlet?” he asked, probing around the oozing gash with careful fingers. Blue eyes flickered open for a moment, then he was unconscious again.
Fawn twisted and looked to the door. “Kirimiko, get in here, I need help!” he ordered, then looked at the cluster of security guards, clutching their weapons and looking uncertain. “The rest of you, give us some room and someone tell the colonel.”