Numb3rs Fic: Kaddish
Written for numb3rs100 Challenge January 2009 Rewind - Bullet, Blood, Luck, Survival
Title: Kaddish
Pairing/Characters: Don/Robin, Buck, David, Colby, Nikki, Liz, Charlie, Alan
Rating: PG13
Word Count: 400
Spoilers: Seasons 1-4, Scan Man, Arrow of Time
Summary: Buck goes down shooting (Arrow of Time Alternate Ending)
Notes/Warnings: Read the disclaimer on my LJ
073. Bullet
Buck goes down shooting.
Everyone hesitates a split second - admonished so many times to wait for Don, to wait on David's approval - and in that fraction of the arrow of time he gets one shot off before they open fire on him.
One.
The bullet misses Don's vest by an inch.
It misses his carotid artery by less.
His mouth forms words, but there's no sound. Colby's putting pressure on the wound. Nikki's calling for an ambulance. David sees Don's lips move and understands.
He gets Robin.
Then he gets the rabbi.
"Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad..."
174. Blood
There's blood on Robin's hands, her clothes. There's a smudge on her face from where Don had reached up with the last of his strength to tenderly caress her cheek the second before he lost consciousness.
She clutches his hand through the whole ambulance ride pleading with him not to die.
Tires screech, doors are thrown open. Strong swift hands drag the gurney out of the ambulance and propel it, careening, through the double doors where she can't follow, but a crash cart can.
She stumbles into the chapel and collapses into a pew.
"Pater Noster, qui es in caelis..."
013. Luck
By luck, or perhaps divine intervention, the best vascular surgeon in LA is at Cedars-Sinai, scrubbing up before Don's ambulance even arrives.
David drives Alan, silent and ashen. Colby corrals a flailing Charlie.
They come. They wait. They pray, each in their own way.
Liz silently presses a change of clothes from her trunk into Amita's hands as she leads a dazed and trembling Robin into the ladies room.
Amita helps her clean up - for when Don wakes up. When, she stresses.
After three hours in surgery, the doctors thankfully don't make a liar of her.
"Thiru anga malai..."
021. Survival
Don pulls through, still in the ICU when Buck is buried - a pauper's grave for a felon with no family left to mourn him. The bullet might have missed his spinal cord and windpipe, but it still ravaged a trail through his neck that takes weeks to heal.
After he gets released, he shakes off Robin's smothering and asks his father to drive him to temple.
He recites the Mourner's Kaddish for the man who tried to kill him and for the woman whose life Don took.
He prays for peace: theirs and his.
"Y'hei sh'lama raba min sh'maya..."
=
Title: Kaddish
Pairing/Characters: Don/Robin, Buck, David, Colby, Nikki, Liz, Charlie, Alan
Rating: PG13
Word Count: 400
Spoilers: Seasons 1-4, Scan Man, Arrow of Time
Summary: Buck goes down shooting (Arrow of Time Alternate Ending)
Notes/Warnings: Read the disclaimer on my LJ
073. Bullet
Buck goes down shooting.
Everyone hesitates a split second - admonished so many times to wait for Don, to wait on David's approval - and in that fraction of the arrow of time he gets one shot off before they open fire on him.
One.
The bullet misses Don's vest by an inch.
It misses his carotid artery by less.
His mouth forms words, but there's no sound. Colby's putting pressure on the wound. Nikki's calling for an ambulance. David sees Don's lips move and understands.
He gets Robin.
Then he gets the rabbi.
"Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad..."
174. Blood
There's blood on Robin's hands, her clothes. There's a smudge on her face from where Don had reached up with the last of his strength to tenderly caress her cheek the second before he lost consciousness.
She clutches his hand through the whole ambulance ride pleading with him not to die.
Tires screech, doors are thrown open. Strong swift hands drag the gurney out of the ambulance and propel it, careening, through the double doors where she can't follow, but a crash cart can.
She stumbles into the chapel and collapses into a pew.
"Pater Noster, qui es in caelis..."
013. Luck
By luck, or perhaps divine intervention, the best vascular surgeon in LA is at Cedars-Sinai, scrubbing up before Don's ambulance even arrives.
David drives Alan, silent and ashen. Colby corrals a flailing Charlie.
They come. They wait. They pray, each in their own way.
Liz silently presses a change of clothes from her trunk into Amita's hands as she leads a dazed and trembling Robin into the ladies room.
Amita helps her clean up - for when Don wakes up. When, she stresses.
After three hours in surgery, the doctors thankfully don't make a liar of her.
"Thiru anga malai..."
021. Survival
Don pulls through, still in the ICU when Buck is buried - a pauper's grave for a felon with no family left to mourn him. The bullet might have missed his spinal cord and windpipe, but it still ravaged a trail through his neck that takes weeks to heal.
After he gets released, he shakes off Robin's smothering and asks his father to drive him to temple.
He recites the Mourner's Kaddish for the man who tried to kill him and for the woman whose life Don took.
He prays for peace: theirs and his.
"Y'hei sh'lama raba min sh'maya..."
=