Okey, this is my first ever "Under the Dome" fanfiction. So bear with me…
I hope more people start writing fanfics about this show, it's got a lot of potential. I also kind of needed a 'hurt!Barbie' fic… So I decided to make one…
I will be sidestepping the storyline of the show, so this isn't a tie-in fanfic. It's more like a this could have happened if… fanfic.
Dale "Barbie" Barbara had gotten into the community by now. And he had gotten used to the new way of life that was forced on him. It was now a couple of months since the dome had come down on them, and the town had run out of most of it's built up resources.
The seasons had now turned into late fall (or early winter if you'd like), and everything had to be done by good old fashion manpower. Every able man, woman and teen worked to keep the community alive, and that included Barbie.
Today some of the men had decided that the needed acquire some wood for heating. Even though the wood would be raw, it would be better than no wood. No wood meant that the town was going to freeze, since the propane had managed to run dry…
Barbie, John, Joe and Alex had volunteered for the assignment of getting some firewood for the town. It would have been easier if they had any gasoline left for any chainsaws, but they would have to make do with old saws that were used early in the 20th century. The kind where you were two persons per saw…
And since all motorized vehicles were down, they had borrowed a horse and a sled to transport the wood that would provide the town with heat.
After about twelve hours of hard labour in a terrain covered with about eight inches of snow, they had what looked like 2 cords of firewood. It probably wouldn't last very long, but it helped.
"Well, what do you think...? Should we call it a day, and get back while it's still light?" Barbie asked as he briefly leaned onto Alex for some support. He had worked as a hero all day long, barely taking a break to eat.
"Yeah…" Joe agreed, "I think it's best if we get back into town before the dark settles."
"Great!" Alex said smacking his hands together, "now we only need to get this onto the sled, then we can go home!"
They had stacked the wood on pallets to make it easier to move from the ground to the sled, and from the sled to the common room they had set up after the temperature had dropped. It made it easier to just heat up a big building where everybody could stay, than to heat all the houses in Chester's Mill. It was far more economic.
"Okey, John… If you take the other side, we just lift this first one up on the sled, there should be enough space for all four of them…" Barbie said as he grabbed a hold of the pallets short side and waited for John to do the same.
Once they lifted the pallet Barbie noticed that one of the corners on his side had come undone. He figured that it would probably be best if they straightened it up before he put his side down.
"Umm… Could you come over here and hold this for a sec?" He then asked John when he had put his side down.
"Why?"
"I'll just straighten up this corner so that it will be more stable while we transport it…" he then explained as John took a hold of the damp wood the pallet was made of.
Barbie bent down and examined the corner before he placed a hand to jiggle it into its original position. He was almost finished when the palled decided that it was time for it to break and land on his hand.
The shock hit before the pain made itself known, and Barbie tried to yank his hand loose. Then it hit him, like a firework had been set off inside his left arm.
"Fuck!" Was the only word he managed to utter, it was impossible for him to pull his hand back unless someone lifted the heavy pallet that was now crushing his wrist.
Joe understood the problem and grabbed a hold next to Barbie on the long side of the pallet.
"Hey Alex! Grab a hold on the other side so that we can lift this thing off his hand!" he commanded the slightly older teen.
Once they had lifted the pallet and Barbie was free from its iron grip, he basically collapsed next to the sled, cradling his injured arm carefully. He didn't want to take a look at it, he knew what was wrong already. He knew that kind of pain.
When they had set the pallet back down onto the sled, Joe knelt beside Barbie. He was careful not to touch him, because he had learned during the past few months that Barbie had been a soldier. And he had read about ex-soldiers having episodes of PTSD, flashbacks, when they were exposed to pain, or when they slept. He had also read that you should never touch someone that might suffer from PTSD, without making sure that they realized that you meant no harm.
"Hey, Barbie… Do you hear me?" He asked, trying to make some contact to Barbie whom sat on the ground, looking straight forward and cradling his left arm cautiously.
"Barbie!" Joe tried once more, hoping that he would respond to his own name.
Joe then shifted position so that he was sitting in front of Barbie, instead of by his side. This way he might be able to make eye-contact.
"Barbie! Can you hear me?" Joe asked staring into Barbie's eyes. This time Barbie reacted and snapped into present time again.
"Huh? Yeah…" He then answered, his voice laced with pain, "I can hear you…"
"How bad is it?" Joe asked, gesturing to the arm.
"Think I broke it…" Barbie admitted, staring down at his hand, which at the moment still was covered by the black mittens he had wore all day. He could already make out that it had started to swell beneath the fabric.
"Ouch…" Joe sympathized. He had experienced fractures himself, and he was positive that the chill air wasn't helping too much… He then shimmied off his own over coat and draped it carefully over Barbie. It wouldn't be good for him to freeze with that arm, and this would hopefully prevent any serious frostbite.
Once the other three had lifted the remaining pallets with wood onto the sled, they helped Barbie into the front seat of the sled. The sheer exhaustion he had worked up chopping wood earlier, topped with the trauma to his hand would make it harder for him to keep up with the rest of them on their way back to town. And it was getting darker by the minute.
Every now and then Joe checked on him, to make sure he wasn't freezing or going into some state of shock due to the trauma.
When they entered the common hall of the school building, they got someone to take out a chair and a first aid kit.
"Should I just cut off the mitten?"
"I'll kick your ass if you even try to pull it off!" Barbie answered, and at this point he was pretty much beyond polite.
Joe nodded and pulled out a scissor from the kit, before he carefully started cutting the fabric. Since the dome had come down, he had used a lot of time to read up on medical stuff… Everything from basic first aid to more advanced surgeries. Just in case he needed that information at some point. He was lucky like that, some of his friends called him 'Spencer Reid' on occasions. And there was reason to it.
Once the mangled hand was free of mitten, he saw that it was pretty much disfigured. It would have to be set, before it had any real chance to heal. But since there were no more people left in Chester's Mill with medical experience, except for Angie, he might just be the one that got the honor of doing just so…
They were so lucky that Angie was on another mission, to get some milk and other stuff for the dinner they planned for tonight. And Joe knew his sister well enough to know that this was beyond her expertize. He had to set it himself…
"Just set it…" Barbie suddenly said in a low voice that almost made Joe jump. He hadn't waited that Barbie would think the same as him.
"But…"
"I know you've read everything you could come over about medical stuff… I think you're my best bet right now…" Barbie said, and tried to offer a smile. "just get it over with…"
Joe knew what to do, he knew what kind of angle he had to pull at, he knew that it would hurt like hell for Barbie, and he knew that it probably shouldn't be done by amateurs. But then again, he was probably the only one there who had even opened a book about first aid even…
"Okey, on three… Right…?"
Barbie answered with a curt nod.
"One…, Two,…" Joe said before he pulled at the injured hand, setting it as best as he could.
Half an hour later they had secured Barbie's arm in a neat sling. They had no chance to put a cast on it just yet. That would have to wait until tomorrow, since it was already dark outside, and the only light they had inside was candlelight.
Well, what did you think? Don't be afraid to let me know!