Title: Traumatic Experience
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Ryan Wolfe
Fandom: CSI: Miami
Rating: PG-13
Table: 1drabble
Prompt: 33, Hurricane
Author's Note: One-shot. Spoilers for the CSI: Miami episode "Blown Away." Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my own imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own the lovely Ryan Wolfe, unfortunately, just borrowing him for a while. Please do not sue.

***

It still didn't seem possible that he had survived a hurricane.

Well, it had been a tornado that had tried to pick him up and carry him away. But it had been part of a hurricane, hadn't it? So they were one and the same to him.

Ryan sighed, raising a hand to his head, gingerly touching the lump there. He was lucky that all he had were a lot of cuts and bruises, and a couple of lumps on the head. He could easily have gotten his neck broken -- or worse, have been swept out to sea.

His body might never have been found. He might have been buried under wreckage, or .... Ryan closed his eyes, pushing those thoughts away.

He didn't want to consider all of the possibilities. They hadn't happened.

He was safe, and he was alive. That was all that really mattered. Walter's quick thinking, anchoring him with that string of Christmas tree lights, had saved his life.

Without Walter there, he probably would have died. Ryan shuddered at the thought; that wasn't something he needed to dwell on. He'd come close to death before, but never the kind of death he would have faced if Walter hadn't had such foresight.

That was one of the scariest experiences he'd ever lived through. Just the feeling of flying through the air, not knowing where he would land .... it had been terrifying.

He'd been caught in storms before. Once, he'd even been in his car -- that had been one of the most scary experiences of his life. He didn't want to repeat it.

But even that had been nothing compared to what he'd so recently been through. It still felt a little bit like a dream, as though he was somewhat removed from what was happening, as though it had happened to some other person, and he was just watching.

But it had happened to him. He he come close to losing his life, and he was damn lucky to be here in one piece, albeit with a lot of bumps and bruises.

That didn't matter, though. The physical marks would fade away.

It was the emotional trauma of coming so close to death that would stay with him. Ryan knew that it would probably stick around for a while.

This was a different kind of trauma than what he faced when the team went after criminals. He knew that he could defend himself with a gun, that he had an equal chance against another human being. But against nature -- ah, that was another situation altogether.

Still, he had survived this -- and he would probably survive a lot more during his career as a CSI. Though he hoped that another hurricane wouldn't come his way.

And if one did, he hoped that next time, he'd be much better prepared for it.

***