estepheia: (Xmas)
[personal profile] estepheia
I know I'm kinda late for this, and I can't promise I'll end up with 24 pieces of fic this month, but I'll try. I scribbled a longish CSI fic into my notebook yesterday. That should be good for several postings...
I am still looking for a few prompts, btw. Just go back one post...

Let's start with request number #1:

Advent fic #1 - requested by [livejournal.com profile] ludditerobot

TITLE: No Postcards From the Edge (250 words)
CHARACTERS: Riley/Sam
WARNINGS: PG13 - character death
TIMELINE: post-As You Were
Sorry, [livejournal.com profile] ludditerobot, this turned out a lot more depressing than I intended. I hope you like it anyway.


No Postcards From the Edge

Buffy: So, are you and Sam headed back to Central America? Or is that classified?
Riley: Nepal.
Buffy: Sounds fun.
Riley: I'll send you a postcard.
(S6 - As You Were)


Riley never sends the promised postcard.

What would he write? That the Nepal mission went south from the word go? That they lost the first squad in Kathmandu, the second en route to the Kali Gandaki River Gorge, and the third in the gorge itself? That after getting pummeled by a magic hailstorm of stones, Sam's chopper crashed into the rock face of the gorge?

No time to grieve. They went in and took out the Dhenuka-demon's nest.

Riley can't remember the firefight or how many demons he killed. But he remembers cleaning up afterwards: stacking up blue skinned bodies to build a pyre. And he remembers the oily stench as demon flesh is consumed by diesel fire.

Back home, they bury empty coffins.

His CO gives him a folded flag, a medal, and light duty, until Riley's "back on his feet". And he tells Riley to see a therapist.

Riley is a good soldier. Does what he's told.

At first he hears it every night: the whup-whup-whup of the rotor blades, just before they slice into the unyielding rock, just before the trundling chopper, and everyone in it, is torn apart.

He hangs in there. Heals.

But he never sleeps in rooms that have ceiling fans.

When Buffy contacts him almost a year later, to enlist his help for her vampire, Riley watches her from the shadows, but he doesn't talk to her.

After all, she might ask why he never sent that postcard. Or whether Nepal was fun.

END

Date: 2006-12-03 11:08 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sueworld2003.livejournal.com
Excellent, just excellent stuff love.

Poor, poor Riley.

Date: 2006-12-03 11:23 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] petzipellepingo.livejournal.com
Gee, you actually made me feel bad for the pair of them "iz amazed". Good job.

Date: 2006-12-03 12:17 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ludditerobot.livejournal.com
That's a good one. Very good. And you know me. I'm down with the depressive.

I need someone to write good ol' Nick and Nora Fury, but I guess not today.

Thanks!

Date: 2006-12-03 03:37 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] timeofchange.livejournal.com
This is just perfect.

Date: 2006-12-03 04:15 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mahaliem.livejournal.com
Poor Riley.

I really liked this!

Date: 2006-12-03 06:03 pm (UTC)
shapinglight: (Default)
From: [personal profile] shapinglight
Terrific work - sparse and grim and totally gutwrenching.

Wonderful to see you writing fic again too.

Date: 2006-12-03 11:30 pm (UTC)
ext_6732: (Default)
From: [identity profile] kitty-poker1.livejournal.com
I never thought I'd empathise with Riley, of all people. You cut straight to the heart with this one. Terrific.

Date: 2006-12-04 12:11 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ezagaaikwe.livejournal.com
Whoa. Powerful. I don't really like the pair, especially Riley, but I actually felt sorry for the git.

Date: 2006-12-04 02:07 am (UTC)
yourlibrarian: Angel and Lindsey (Midnight descends: indulging_breck)
From: [personal profile] yourlibrarian
Isn't Nepal where Willow was during Angel's call for help in AtS? It just made me think maybe the storylines were connected :>

Given their line of work this wouldn't be too surprising. They were one of the few couples who seemed to get a happy ending in the series but that's probably only because we just saw them once!

Date: 2006-12-30 08:41 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] a2zmom.livejournal.com
I just found this and it was very powerful. In such a few short sentences, you beautifully conveyed Riley's overwhelming emptiness.

Profile

estepheia: (Default)
estepheia

August 2017

S M T W T F S
  12345
6789 101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 4th, 2025 12:59 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios