Fic: White Light, Chapter 18/20 (CSI Miami, Eric Delko / Ryan Wolfe)
Title: White Light, Chapter 18/20
Pairing: Ryan Wolfe / Eric Delko
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Not mine, etc.
Feedback: Always Welcome
Notes: Inspired by the movie Just Like Heaven
CSI Miami Main List
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 (NC-17) Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 (NC-17) Chapter 17
Eric wasn’t sure how long they had sat on the hallway floor. Ryan leaned heavily against his shoulder, not saying a word. The weight of him felt reassuring in a weird way.
“Eric?”
“Yeah?”
“What do you think comes afterwards?”
“After what?”
“Death.”
“I don’t know. Purgatory I guess. And then Heaven.”
“Or Hell.” Ryan added. “Are you catholic?”
“Yeah. Well… I don’t go to church that often, but yeah.”
“Do you really believe it?”
“Which part of it?”
“Heaven and Hell. What if there’s nothing after death? Just… pack up your bags and go and just one-way tickets.”
“Well, I didn’t believe in ghosts till you showed up, so I should keep an open mind.”
“What if I’m not a ghost?” A small smirk appeared on Ryan’s face. “What if I’m some kind of a… astral projection?”
“What’s that?”
“I’m not sure, but that’s how they explained ghost in some TV-show. Body’s out of order so insides escape somewhere else. Or maybe I’ll be reborn as a holy cow in India.”
“Holy cow?”
“They’re operating my head right now, so don’t doubt me. Or maybe a little newborn in New Jersey. That would be nice.”
“To be reborn as a whiny little baby?”
“Yeah, fresh start, all the way from the beginning.”
“I don’t like it.”
“Why not?”
“I would have to wait for eighteen years till you’re legal before I could make a move.”
“Aren’t you romantic… I could be reborn as a girl, did you think about that?”
“I don’t mind.”
“Maybe I’d grow up to be a cheerleader. Or the president of the school chess club.”
“We never had a chess club in my school. We had couple kids who played, but we beat it out of them.”
“That better be a joke.”
“It was a joke.”
“And a really bad one.”
“What else do you expect?” Eric shrugged. “We’re waiting to hear if you’ve kicked the bucket on the operating table and you’re talking about death. You try lightened up the conversation and we’ll see how well you’ll manage.”
“Sorry, but I’m about to figure out firsthand if there’s life after death, so I can be as cranky as I want to be.”
“Fine, be a bitch.”
“This is starting to sound just like when you first moved into my place.”
“It’s my place now.”
“You get hung up on little details like that and I’m the bitch?”
“A really bitchy bitch.” Eric stated with a smug grin. “Soon you’ll start throwing stuff around again.”
“There’s nothing to throw around here.” Ryan made a quick, short leap, and ended up straddling Eric’s lap. “I have to come up with alternative methods.” He pressed Eric’s against the wall by his shoulders and kissed him. Eric’s arms wrapped around his back. “Maybe a baboon…”
“What?” Eric had no idea when baboons had entered the conversation.
“I was thinking what you’d come back as. I could definitely imagine you hanging on a tree branch in the zoo.”
“First you imagine me as a baboon, and then you lock me up?”
“How bout a walrus?”
“No way. I wanna come back as a…” Eric had to take a minute to think about it. “… as a wild stallion.”
“I don’t think there’s any of those left.” Ryan ran his hand down the bare skin on Eric’s neck. He tilted his head down and rested his forehead against Eric’s. He breathed deeply and sighed.
Eric could feel the flesh under his hands changing, solid feeling slowly disappearing and being replaced by something else. Ryan had obviously noticed it and he pulled back a little, staring at Eric with a scared look on his face.
“What’s happening to me?” The questioned seemed to be more of a sign of horror than a real question.
The weight of Ryan became smaller and smaller and Eric could hardly even feel the man sitting on his lap. Ryan’s pale skin was now snow white and he could almost see through him. The man’s face was stuck in a wide-eyed horror.
He disappeared the way he had done when they had first met, but this time it felt different. Eric could tell Ryan wasn’t playing games to scare him, Ryan was scared himself. A small cloud of mist he had left behind dissolved into the air.
Eric leaped up and run down the hallway. The most likely explanation kept coming back to him, but he pushed it out of his mind. When he reached the waiting area, he was panting like a steam engine.
“What… What’s…. What’s going on?” He managed to gasp out.
Ron Wolfe looked up from his cup of coffee. Jackson was nowhere to be seen.
“Nothing they would have told us. Evan went to get some more coffee.”
“Excuse me.” An elderly man in blue surgical scrubs entered the room. “You’re waiting to hear from Ryan Wolfe?”
“Yes.” Ron Wolfe got up from the couch. “Is he…?”
“Alive. Yes, and considering all factors he was very lucky. If he hadn’t been treated as quickly as he was, his chances would have been a lot grimmer.”
“How is he doing now?”
“We had to remove the bullet because it had started moving. That was actually a little stroke of luck because the bullet had move to an easier position to operate. In cases like this couple millimetres can make a big difference. Judging by the potion of the bullet and the tests we did after the shooting we can assume the operation won’t effect his mental abilities. But it’s likely that he will loose some of the mobility of extremities. He was already quite weak after the coma, so it will take a lot physical therapy to built back the physical strength.”
“You said some of the mobility.” Eric stated and gave him a questioning look. “How much is some?”
“After the therapy he could regain eighty, maybe even ninety percent of his normal mobility. He’ll never be a police officer again, but he should be able to live a perfectly normal life.”
“Can I… I mean can we go see him?”
“He’s in recovery, and it will take a while before he wakes up. You can see him very briefly, but that’s all. Follow me.”
Ron Wolfe shot Eric suspicious glare, but didn’t say anything. He followed the doctor with Eric in tow to the recovery room. A nurse was writing down the numbers flashing on one of the monitors.
“Two minutes.” Doctor informed the nurse and she nodded. The doctor walked out and Ron approached the man laying in the bed. Ryan’s head was covered with white bandages. Eric stayed in the background, but his eyes kept wandering to the closed eyes. The eyelids fluttered, like was having an interesting dream, then it stopped.
Chapter 19/20