White Collar - "Unexpected And Terrifying"
Title: Unexpected And Terrifying
Author: TeeJay
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 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.
Author: TeeJay
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 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.