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tj_teejayTitle: Unexpected And Terrifying
Author: TeeJay
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whitecollar100 Prompt: #18 Check
Genre: Gen
Characters/Pairings: Neal, Peter
Word Count: 300
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Neal just wanted to cash a check. He'd never expected to walk into a bank heist.
Author's Note: This is from the excellent and very educational Doctor Grasshopper's blog, titled 'Life. And Death.': "Real-life CPR is ugly. It’s messy. Fluids spurt everywhere. Large needles are dug over and over into sensitive areas, desperately dowsing for access to a failing circulation. Ribs are cracked. Heads are cranked back for tubes to be shoved down throats. Doctors and nurses press around the bed in a nearly suffocating pack. The energy in a room like that is negative, and feels desperate. And CPR is only successful about 15% of the time. Mostly on young, healthy patients."
I was chatting with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kanarek13 this morning, among other things about that blog, bouncing ideas off each other. And suddenly this flooded my brain and demanded out. I know I've written too many of these, but I can't help coming back to them. Welcome to Neal!Whump Central.
Disclaimer: White Collar, its characters and its settings belong to Jeff Eastin and USA Network. And, guys? Your characters are not only welcome, they're wonderful. I'm just borrowing, I promise.
It's not like what you see on TV, Peter thinks as he watches through the ICU's window.
A cluster of doctors, nurses, med students pack around the hospital bed, discussing something he can't hear in a kind of quiet, yet charged panic. A petite woman kneels on the bed, hovering over Neal's body, pressing her weight through the heels of her hand into Neal's chest in fast-paced compressions.
Peter watches in catatonic desperation as Neal's head is shoved back, an intubation tube being inserted into his mouth. The hands of a nurse press air from an ambu bag into his lungs in rhythmic patterns. Blood from somewhere he can't see drips onto the tiled floor. Drugs are injected frenetically into IV lines. Hands clad in blue nitrile gloves come away bloody. Eyes search out the heart monitor and don't see what they hope to see. It's messy and ugly and real.
Peter's own hand comes up, his palm pressing into the glass, fingers apart. He wishes he could give some of his own life to save Neal's.
How had this happened? Neal said he was going to cash a check. He'd just be two minutes. He went into the bank, and then all hell broke loose. Shots rang out, and twenty minutes later, Neal was wheeled into an ambulance. Surgery, intensive care, distraught and seemingly endless desperation in waiting rooms and visitor areas. And then this—unexpected and terrifying.
After what feels like half an eternity but can't have been more than a few minutes, chest compressions stop, and something akin to a sinus rhythm flickers across the heart monitor. Doctors shift and discuss, and the tension seems to ease just a little.
Peter breathes a small sigh of relief. Hope is a long way to go, but it's tangible.
Author: TeeJay
whitecollar100 Prompt: #18 CheckGenre: Gen
Characters/Pairings: Neal, Peter
Word Count: 300
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Neal just wanted to cash a check. He'd never expected to walk into a bank heist.
Author's Note: This is from the excellent and very educational Doctor Grasshopper's blog, titled 'Life. And Death.': "Real-life CPR is ugly. It’s messy. Fluids spurt everywhere. Large needles are dug over and over into sensitive areas, desperately dowsing for access to a failing circulation. Ribs are cracked. Heads are cranked back for tubes to be shoved down throats. Doctors and nurses press around the bed in a nearly suffocating pack. The energy in a room like that is negative, and feels desperate. And CPR is only successful about 15% of the time. Mostly on young, healthy patients."
I was chatting with
kanarek13 this morning, among other things about that blog, bouncing ideas off each other. And suddenly this flooded my brain and demanded out. I know I've written too many of these, but I can't help coming back to them. Welcome to Neal!Whump Central.Disclaimer: White Collar, its characters and its settings belong to Jeff Eastin and USA Network. And, guys? Your characters are not only welcome, they're wonderful. I'm just borrowing, I promise.
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It's not like what you see on TV, Peter thinks as he watches through the ICU's window.
A cluster of doctors, nurses, med students pack around the hospital bed, discussing something he can't hear in a kind of quiet, yet charged panic. A petite woman kneels on the bed, hovering over Neal's body, pressing her weight through the heels of her hand into Neal's chest in fast-paced compressions.
Peter watches in catatonic desperation as Neal's head is shoved back, an intubation tube being inserted into his mouth. The hands of a nurse press air from an ambu bag into his lungs in rhythmic patterns. Blood from somewhere he can't see drips onto the tiled floor. Drugs are injected frenetically into IV lines. Hands clad in blue nitrile gloves come away bloody. Eyes search out the heart monitor and don't see what they hope to see. It's messy and ugly and real.
Peter's own hand comes up, his palm pressing into the glass, fingers apart. He wishes he could give some of his own life to save Neal's.
How had this happened? Neal said he was going to cash a check. He'd just be two minutes. He went into the bank, and then all hell broke loose. Shots rang out, and twenty minutes later, Neal was wheeled into an ambulance. Surgery, intensive care, distraught and seemingly endless desperation in waiting rooms and visitor areas. And then this—unexpected and terrifying.
After what feels like half an eternity but can't have been more than a few minutes, chest compressions stop, and something akin to a sinus rhythm flickers across the heart monitor. Doctors shift and discuss, and the tension seems to ease just a little.
Peter breathes a small sigh of relief. Hope is a long way to go, but it's tangible.
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no subject
Date: 2011-08-20 06:45 pm (UTC)Excellent work with so few words.
no subject
Date: 2011-08-20 06:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-20 06:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-20 07:14 pm (UTC)Yes, it is, and I'm glad that came across. It was certainly the point that Doctor Grasshopper made in their blog.
no subject
Date: 2011-08-20 07:50 pm (UTC)It's amazing that it only has 300 words and yet it's so powerful, I have read it a couple of times today and I think the thing that gets me the most is the moment when Neal's head is pushed back and the tube is inserted while Peter is just standing there watching because that's all he can do. I dunno but this particular bit just got an image stuck in my head of Neal's lifeless body just lying there, I don't think it gets more terrifying.
I love this drabble so much! Just awesome :D
no subject
Date: 2011-08-20 07:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-20 10:05 pm (UTC)I've said this before in another Neal!Whump fic: Caffrey is bound to get hurt somehow, sometime. It is inevitable.
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Date: 2011-08-20 10:29 pm (UTC)Yeah, but we won't see much of it on the show. Ever. But that's what fanfic is for, right? :-) Thanks for your comment!
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Date: 2011-08-21 03:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-21 05:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-21 07:10 am (UTC)Thank you! :)
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Date: 2011-08-21 04:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-23 01:28 am (UTC)I'd love to see the aftermath of this: Neal pale, tired, in pain, grouchy, hair a mess, stubble, him looking fragile in a gown... *happy sigh*
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Date: 2011-09-02 06:49 pm (UTC)Gaaaah! You're making me want to write things I should not be writing!!!! Because I can surely feel the urge. Truth is, though, I've written that particular thing one too many times. Which is why I really shouldn't. We'll see...
no subject
Date: 2011-08-23 02:40 am (UTC)This was wonderful, and tense, and so, so satisfying. >_> You know what I mean <_< Visceral and real and disturbing, and I love it soooo! Wow!
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Date: 2011-09-02 06:48 pm (UTC)Anyway, thanks so much, that comment really made my day! It was surely an intense fic to write, and I guess you can also thank
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Date: 2011-09-03 04:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-03 09:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-03 11:02 am (UTC)<---- It made Neal wibble...
Meep!
Date: 2011-10-14 11:53 am (UTC)Re: Meep!
Date: 2011-10-14 02:07 pm (UTC)Re: Meep!
Date: 2011-10-15 07:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-01 06:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-08-10 10:32 pm (UTC)