FIC: Sometimes You Hear The Bullet Coming (The Russian Assassins Remix)

[t_vos_fics]

Remix of Sometimes You Hear the Bullet by rinkle and Sometimes You Hear the Bullet (The Execution Style Remix) by emmademarais 
Challenge: Bullet



Title: Sometimes You Hear the Bullet (The Russian Assassins Remix)
Pairing/Characters: Charlie
Rating/Category: PG13
Word Count: 300
Spoilers: BackScatter, Hangman
Disclaimer: Numb3rs and its characters do not belong to me. If they did, there would be more kissing.
Summary: No one even knows Charlie's in danger

Author Notes and Thanks: Please see first comment below.

Drops of sweat trickle down his cheeks, mingling with silent tears. He shakes with fear so intense his hands won’t stay in place behind his head. Kneeling down, Charlie feels the cold bite into his knees as they grind into the cement floor with the force of his tremors.

He flinches at the snap of his chalk under the heavy boot of his assassin, audible over convulsive breaths and desperate pleas.

No blindfolds. No restraints. A very bad sign. When he first glanced over his shoulder, he expected Amita or Don, maybe Larry. Not the cold eyes of two men they had previously arrested. Not the enforcers of the Russian mob.

A gun cocks behind his head, preternaturally loud, and panic rises up from the very bowels of the earth and flows into his body. Charlie doesn’t recognize the mewling sounds falling from his own lips.

No one even knows he’s in danger. It’s just another Saturday at his beloved boards. Amita is shopping for wedding gowns. His father and brother are golfing and not due back for another hour.

There will be no daring last minute rescue. No spark of inspiration or clever calculations to help him escape unharmed. Charlie chokes, imagining his father’s face, aghast and ravaged by the sight of his worst nightmare lying on the garage floor.

Maybe he can stall, improve the odds that someone he knows with a gun and badge will drop by at this very moment.

The gun’s muzzle is cold and hard against the back of his head.

There is no more time. He won’t die cowering; he has nothing to lose by fighting back.

Charlie closes his eyes, shudders, and steels himself to act. At least Don will know that he didn't go quietly.

There is a bang and a body falls.

 

Comments

Author's Notes and Thanks

[t-vos-fics.livejournal.com]

So I had read rinkle's fic before but never this particular drabble until Emma remixed it for the N100's remixathon. Both Rinkle's and Emma's drabbles affected me so deeply that I spent the next 45 minutes thinking about it obsessively while I grocery shopped. As I was parking my car and unloading the groceries, I was struck by how different the drabble would read if it was Charlie's experience and not Don's. I shoved the cold items still in bags into my refrigerator, ran to my laptop, and 50 mins later I had a drabble draft of the Charlie remix. That is the shortest amount of time ever it has taken me to write a drabble. That's what good inspiration will do. :D

Thanks to my most awesome and patient of betas emmademarais and melissima. Seven drafts later, they had helped me whip this drabble into shape. They deserve an award for being so helpful and patient, seriously. <3<3<3<3<3

[emmademarais.livejournal.com]

This fic leaves me breathless.

/stunned/

It's magnificent. It's a brilliant addition to the original with every bit as much impact.

Brava.

/ovation/

[t-vos-fics.livejournal.com]

thanks luv <3

I am so pleased you liked it.

/curtsies/

[lark_ascends]

Wow. That works brilliantly. Very well done.

[t-vos-fics.livejournal.com]

THANKS so much for reading! Your original drabble was spectacular. I couldn't resist taking a swing at it. I am always impressed how u pack in so much into such a tiny word count.

thanks again for commenting! i am so happy u enjoyed it. <3

[lark_ascends]

Thank you, too. ;-)

[melissima.livejournal.com]

Wow. Wow. Brava!

You knocked this one out of the park, T.

I can't wait for somebody to ask for angsty recs so I can point them to this! Actually it'll be a lovely trifecta: rinkle's original, emmademarais', and yours. Fantastic.

[t-vos-fics.livejournal.com]

it's oddly addictive. I almost want a whole series of about-to-die-last-thoughts fics on all the characters. Can u imagine Billy's? or Ian's? OR MEGAN's????? not to mention how much fun it would be to about-to-kill-off the Calsci crew.....

huh......../thinking/ some would even have to be other means of death, like accidents or heart attacks, or drowing... /shudders/

ok. maybe not so addictive.

thanks for all ur help, sweets. and all the lovely encouragement and feedback. i am happy u liked it <3