Researching this was weird

[quettaser.livejournal.com]

Do you know how hard it is to find pictures of someone's palms when you have to? Well, I managed it, so here's a short little ficlet. Kinda mushy, but I had this idea and ran with it. So, enjoy! And no...I don't have a hand fetish...whatever would give you that idea...

Title: Forgotten Divinations
Author: Quettaser
Rating: PG (I don't think there are any curses to make it 13+)
Spoilers: It's post-GD (like everything else I'm putting out right now), but no outright spoilers.
Summary: Greg remembers things he thought he forgot while he visits Nick in the hospital. Post-GD

            He used to have this friend who could read palms. She taught him a lot of it, and he’s surprised he still remembers any. He knew what everything was, he had to know it, sometimes you got palm prints instead of fingerprints, but he also knew the meanings. He remembers the basics, the three main lines, what to look for there. He knows there’s something in the way the fingers bend, and the lines on the side of the palm, but he can’t remember what they are.

            There was the life line, curving steadily around the thumb. It wasn’t chained, that would mean a delicate health, and there weren’t any breaks either. No, it was strong and clear meaning good health, vitality and a nice life expectancy. He wished he had bothered to look before. It would have been something he could put his little bit of faith in. Thank god he didn’t need it now.

            He had forgotten how real these things could be, how each little line on a hand could indicate so much about that person. Sure, they were vague enough to fit, but with all of these things, like tarot cards and all that other crazy New Age shit, there was always a little bit of truth in them. Like how the wide arc of Nick’s life line meant that he was full of strength and enthusiasm and had an improved love life. He laughed to himself in the quiet room. He should certainly hope so.

            He still can’t get over how delicate his hand feels, all the muscles relaxed in sleep, those angry red welts standing out against the lightly tanned skin. He’d never noticed how the head line was separate from the heart line, denoting a love for adventure and enthusiasm for life. What else hadn’t he noticed? What else could he have lost without even realizing it?

            But that was a bad way to think, because he was alive, he was here, he was getting better. He still wrapped his fingers around his wrist, feeling the pulse, steady, even, comforting. It didn’t matter that the machines were beeping behind him, nothing felt better than the warmth in that hand.

            He’d been staring at the hand for days, well, not days. He’d gone home, gone to work, but every free moment he had he was here, staring at that hand. Here while he slept, while he dreamed, while he healed. He couldn’t count the number of times he traced the heart line, from the outside edge of his palm to where it ended beneath the middle finger. It was a rare mark, he remembered that much still. He remembered that it meant a need for love.

            Well, he wasn’t going anywhere. He looked back up at Nick’s face, it felt good to see him look so peaceful, though Greg couldn’t help but morbidly think that he’d probably look the same if he were dead. He intertwined his fingers with Nick’s, noting that his hand is spade-shaped, meaning that he was talented with all things mechanical, a born inventor.

            Of course, palm reading couldn’t tell you everything. There were no marks, no lines on Nick’s hands that could tell the palm reader how much he meant to the people who loved him. No marks that showed how deeply he touched peoples lives, no marks that showed how much Greg was willing to give for him, no marks that showed just how much Nick had been through and the miracle that he was able to smile. But what stood out the most to Greg was that there were no marks that indicated just how wonderful that hand felt because it was alive.

Comments

[shacky20.livejournal.com]

So so touching, the simple things, feeling warmth, feeling a beating pulse instead of a machine. Only wish we got to see more on the show, but great post ep piece. Greg so loves his Nicky.

[kniggit-slash.livejournal.com]

*dies because of that last freaking line* OMFG!!! I had tears. Good god, I had tears. This is a big thing for me. I love this story. You are officialy my new friend! lol

No seriously. This was very good. I loved that you researched it. Makes it seem real. Wonderful job. Now if you don't mind I am going to go off and cry.

[quettaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, researching this was a challenge. I didn't really want to do it unless I could use George Eads' actual hands ('cause then it's all the more real). I really couldn't find any screen caps from CSI, but I did find a few of him waving at award shows.

Let me say that when you're working in Photoshop trying to bring out the detail on an actor's hands so that you can read his life line, things are getting weird. Oh, and thank you and here's a tissue.

[kissingchaos9.livejournal.com]

Heh. I love this so much. I mean, I love this story and I'll comment on that further down, but I love that you did research. Research! It's fantastic, because sometimes I feel a little nutty for reading a 76-page report about PTSD or researching real estate in California online for two hours to find a house in Santa Monica. It's good to know what other people do the same thing, and it adds so much more to the story. I *heart* research.

[electricandroid.livejournal.com]

Wow.

[amethyst-lupin.livejournal.com]

Nicely done. It was very touching.

[obsidian-rai.livejournal.com]

Very poignant piece. *nods* I love how you took palm reading and put it in this setting, showing us how very much Greg loves Nick.

[quietdiscerning.livejournal.com]

Simple and touching. Very nice. :)

[saebuffyboy.livejournal.com]

Do you read palms? Because if not, you did a spot on job of doing so just by online research. I have a friend who does it, and have picked up the basics from her, and you were right on as far as I remember. Excellant follow through.

[quettaser.livejournal.com]

I used to know it really well. My friend had this really amazing and detailed book and we learned to do it out of there. I remember some of the basic stuff, the rest I found online, although still not in the detail that was in that book. Stuff about the way fingers bend, the lines on all the finger joints each have a different meaning, and there were all sorts of things to know about the mounds of Venus and Mars, regardless of the other mounds. And I definitely remember something about the lines on the side of your palm, beneath the pinky finger had something to do with the number of children you were going/wanted to have.

[carolina30363.livejournal.com]

So sweet and movin!
LOved it

[loozy.livejournal.com]

That last sentence had me almost in tears... So beautiful...

[imyourally.livejournal.com]

That was beautiful. I loved the idea of Greg thinking about that at Nick's side in the hospital.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_slytherin_girl/]

Oooooo lovely!

[kissingchaos9.livejournal.com]

Gosh, this is just...beautiful. Tender. Real. I love it. The little details about palm reading, and the image of Greg tracing the lines on Nick's palm. Amazing.

I especially love this line:

He still wrapped his fingers around his wrist, feeling the pulse, steady, even, comforting. It didn’t matter that the machines were beeping behind him, nothing felt better than the warmth in that hand.

Yes. Just yes. That's perfect. And the last line is gorgeous.