[He goes quiet a minute, breathing turning audible as it comes through obviously gritted teeth, and the weight of his otter helps because he has to try not to disturb the slow rhythm of rising and falling she's grown accustomed to as she sleeps, lest he accidentally wake her up.
So. Slow and steady. And quiet. And careful, deliberate word choice.]
He wasn't the only person who died that night. Far from it. He was the only one I managed to do anything about.
He got a blood transfusion and I restarted his heart. There were two doctors with me and they said the same thing you were getting at. That he was dead and that was it, there was nothing. They were going to give up on him.
He is fine now. I've talked to him. They checked him out and said it was a miracle. Maybe it was. But his body isn't dead, and he's not stuck anywhere. I didn't chain him down to anything; the tough old bastard just...survived, even that.
[...]
So what you said. If I'd accepted that, like the doctors did, then someone who could've been saved would be gone, because I'd abandoned him when I still could've helped.
But don't start trying to split hairs over "really dead" and not. He was dead. I say a lot of shit about my granddad, and I can't explain what it was that made things happen the way they happened. But if there's anyone in the entire world who could figure out how to cheat death and sneak back out with a scheme in his eyes and a stupid grin on his face, it's him, and maybe that's what happened. All I did was make a body work again. That he came back into it at all...that wasn't me in the least.
no subject
[He goes quiet a minute, breathing turning audible as it comes through obviously gritted teeth, and the weight of his otter helps because he has to try not to disturb the slow rhythm of rising and falling she's grown accustomed to as she sleeps, lest he accidentally wake her up.
So. Slow and steady. And quiet. And careful, deliberate word choice.]
He wasn't the only person who died that night. Far from it. He was the only one I managed to do anything about.
He got a blood transfusion and I restarted his heart. There were two doctors with me and they said the same thing you were getting at. That he was dead and that was it, there was nothing. They were going to give up on him.
He is fine now. I've talked to him. They checked him out and said it was a miracle. Maybe it was. But his body isn't dead, and he's not stuck anywhere. I didn't chain him down to anything; the tough old bastard just...survived, even that.
[...]
So what you said. If I'd accepted that, like the doctors did, then someone who could've been saved would be gone, because I'd abandoned him when I still could've helped.
But don't start trying to split hairs over "really dead" and not. He was dead. I say a lot of shit about my granddad, and I can't explain what it was that made things happen the way they happened. But if there's anyone in the entire world who could figure out how to cheat death and sneak back out with a scheme in his eyes and a stupid grin on his face, it's him, and maybe that's what happened. All I did was make a body work again. That he came back into it at all...that wasn't me in the least.