A place to send in the prompts/requests for Stitchers fic that have been buzzing around in your head for days. All pairings, ratings, AUs and cliches very welcome. Please use the submit function to send in prompts - one prompt per post. Fanfic writers: do let us know, somehow, if you fill a prompt so we can link to your work.
I'd give my soul for sick Quincy Fisher and caring Cameron Goodkin or the other way around I just have a lot of feelings for these dorks and they scream big brother and little brother.
Cameron/Kristen or friendship: Cameron's medical issues
I’d love to see a fic about Cameron’s medical issues. He said he had a heart valve replaced, and there are 2 options for that. If he got a human or pig valve, it wouldn’t only last 10-20 years, and he’d need another surgery right about now. If he got a mechanical valve, the valve would last but he’d be on blood thinners for the rest of his life. Which means his parents were complete justified in not letting him play sports because any injury could be dangerous with blood thinners.
So! Either a story about how he needs another surgery to get a new valve because the first is worn out - and you can talk about what kind of valve he goes for this time and why.
Or! A story about how taking blood thinners affects his life. (ex. that concussion he got? He needed to be in the hospital for cranial scans because he could’ve had internal bleeding in his skull.)
Maybe Kristen can meet his parents and they can give her their side of the story about how what they did was actually necessary and Cameron has just taken his health for granted because he had surgery when he was a kid and never really understood the gravity of it.
Go wild! Really, I’d love any of the medical details that the show only hints at. :D
Adopt a fic: Cameron isn’t answering anybody’s calls
The first of our new adopt a fic category. Notes from the author, Dee: Please feel free to use this in any way you want. Tear it to pieces - add, delete, change, whatever. I literally don’t mind what you do with it at all. Don’t even credit me if you don’t want to - I honestly don’t mind. I just love reading fic so much, and I know I won’t be able to finish this one, and if it means I help another writer and a reader or two out... I would love that.
Kirsten was woken not by her alarm or even the stitchers alert but by the ringing of her phone. They’d had another long, harrowing day at work and her brain took especially long to claw itself from the deep, nonsensical dream she’d been having. Eventually, still half convinced she was in the middle of the ocean, she managed to get her arm to obey her command to reach up to where her phone was resting on the table beside her bed. After fumbling along trying to find it for a while, her fingers finally enclosed the device and brought it to her ear.
“’lo?”
There was a loaded pause on the other end. “Kirsten? Um… Hi. It’s Nina.”
Kirsten tried to get her brain to go online, rubbing at her stinging eyes. “Nina?”
“I’m… I’m sorry to call you I just… uh… have you seen Cameron?”
Kirsten blinked a few times, looked around her empty bedroom as though she expected Cameron to jump out at any moment and then said, very slowly, “No… not since we left work. Separately,” she felt the need to add, for some stupid reason.
“Right.” Nina, she was starting to realise, sounded incredibly upset. “I just… he was supposed to come over last night. Or… early this morning. Whatever. But he never pitched. And he’s not answering any of my texts or calls so I just…”
Kirsten was awake enough to frown at that bit of information; Cameron was not the sort to ignore a person. Especially since, not a week ago, he’d been so wound up about Nina doing the same to him. Cameron’s game was never one of tit-for-tat, and no matter how exhausted he’d been when she’d said goodbye and he’d told her to get some rest, she couldn’t picture him blatantly ignoring his girlfriend.
“We left work pretty late,” she said, wincing as she realised Nina already knew this, and had experienced it more than a few times already. “Maybe he… fell asleep and his phone was on vibrate or…” There was silence on the other end; silence that was making Kirsten a little bit irritated as her natural inclination made her long to leap to Cameron’s defence. “Uh… I’ll be seeing him in…” She checked her watch. “Just under an hour at work. I’ll... tell him... to call... you?”
Another pause and a sharp inhale. “Yeah. Thanks, Kirsten.”
The line went dead, and Kirsten found herself frowning at her phone, deliberating whether or not she should call Cameron immediately to talk to him about this slightly worrying new development. Something stopped her; some inner voice that told her it was none of her business, really, and if he didn’t want to tell her he was mad enough at Nina he was going to ignore her… There was a logical explanation for his behaviour - of that Kirsten was sure. She just… couldn’t think of what the logical explanation was right then, which was what was worrying her. But that didn’t mean she had any right to stick her nose into things to demand answers that weren’t hers to demand.
Kirsten groaned and curled under her duvet again. Emotions were confusing and exhausting and she didn’t like them or like understanding them, she decided.
Sometime soon after that thought she fell asleep again, and would have missed work had Camille not come into her room to wake her up, jokingly checking her feet for any sign Kirsten had been on another mysterious midnight walkabout. She showered in record time, scarfed down the breakfast and snarky comment Camille handed her and half ran out the door so they’d arrive on time and not incur Maggie’s wrath. They’d barely stepped out of the elevator when Kirsten was whisked away to medical for “looking too peaky”, and it was only an hour later that she was allowed to rejoin a furiously-researching Camille and a frantically typing Linus in the centre lab. Everybody was flittering around, unmistakably in stitch mode, and so Kirsten thought nothing of not seeing Cameron at once. Pre the actual stitch, Cameron had his hands and his brain everywhere around the lab, figuring out problems, recalibrating things that even Kirsten didn’t fully understand according to each victim’s brain variables and generally just helping out wherever he could in whatever way, no matter how menial. Usually he was less busy in the moments before Maggie briefed them on the case, but it wasn’t entirely uncommon for him to be helping out even when unbriefed.
So she was completely taken off guard when Maggie approached, Displeased Face firmly in place, and demanded, “Where’s Cameron?”
Camille opened her mouth in surprise and glanced at the other two for the same answer. Kirsten felt some deep sense of foreboding creep like a wave of cold water over her chest.
“He said he was heading to Nina’s,” Linus said with an easy smirk and an eyebrow raise. “So that’s probably why he’s late.”
“He never went to Nina’s,” Kirsten said, the foreboding turning to the first pulses of true unease. She glanced at everybody who was now staring at her and explained, “Nina called me this morning asking if I knew where he was. Said he wasn’t answering her calls…”
“Well,” Maggie said dryly, “at least I know I’m not the only one calling him who is being ignored.”
But there was something about the way Maggie was suddenly standing up straighter that told Kirsten their boss was not as unaffected by the news as she seemed. Camille, she saw, had picked up the same thing - her roommate was staring hard at Maggie, her fingers clutching the tablet in her hands a little tighter than they had been before.
“He probably overslept and is late because he’s still halfway through his hair-coifing routine,” Camille’s voice said lightly, teasingly, while her eyes bored into Maggie as though waiting for some secret signal to spring up and rush into action. “He’s definitely at home,” Linus announced, fingers swiping across the screen of his phone. He glanced up when his declaration was met with silence and pointed to his device. “We both have the Find My Friend app. It’s telling me he’s in his apartment right now.”
Maggie sighed and Kirsten didn’t miss the long look she shot at Camille. Camille casually got up and stretched, putting the tablet down on Linus’ desk. “Well,” she said, still seeming unaffected and positive as Maggie would seem if Kirsten didn’t know that particular set to the older woman’s shoulders. “Google and I had our little date and it’s served its use for me. Why don’t I leave you guys to your mapping and your pre-stitch warmup routines and go and get us some nice baked goods? And while I’m at the bakery, I’ll pop a block over and get Cameron. I’m as good getting a man out of bed,” she said with a loaded wink at Linus.
“You have twenty minutes,” Maggie said shortly, turning on her heel. “And you’d better help Cameron come up with the best excuse he’s ever used in his life before he gets to me.”
“Camille,” Kirsten blurted as her roommate made gun fingers at Maggie’s back and turned to casually saunter out. She saw how Camille’s carefree expression flickered when she looked back at Kirsten, and wondered how much of the inner feeling of dread was showing on her face. “I…” She didn’t know what to say; didn’t know how to rationalise the slowly-building panic when nothing had happened.
“Donuts. I’ll bring donuts.”
But she reached out and squeezed Kirsten’s hand, gentle, calming touch belying her blase take on all of this. I promise I’ll bring him here safe, her hand squeezing Kirsten’s said, and just like whenever Cameron’s gentle concern was poured over her in the form of touch, Kirsten found herself believing the promise given her. She nodded, forcing a smile at Camille, and Camille turned with a wink and left.
*******
Camille had bought churros to punish Cameron for creating any doubt that he was anything but okay in their heads by being late. To make him know he was in trouble with her, she hoisted the entire box with her as she went up to Cameron’s apartment, phone stuck to her ear as she called him to test the not picking up theory. Her call went to voicemail, and she carefully put a lid on any emotion other than fond annoyance that he had overselpt so badly.
“Oi, sleepyhead, it’s time to rise and shine!” She banged loudly on Cameron’s door, alternating between different beats. “Cameron, I know you’re in there. Linus’ stalker app says you are. Come on, Goodkin. I’ll protect you from Maggie.” There was still no answer and she sighed, scraping her nails down the wood and banging some more before reaching to jiggle the doorknob annoyingly. “I swear, Camero-”
The doorknob turned in her hand, and the front door swung open. Unlocked. It was unlocked. Camille’s breath caught in her throat as she tried to wrap her head around the fact that Cameron had seemingly left his front door unlocked. Camille swallowed hard and refused to admit that a little bit of panic was starting to rise up in her. She would not freak out. Freaking out did nothing but stop you from handling a situation properly. Freaking out got you and those around you in trouble.
She took a deep breath. “Cameron?” And again, when she took a step into the apartment, “Cameron?”
The smell of bleach hit her like a slap in the face. The entire apartment reeked of the chemical, almost making her cough at the force of it. She was reminded instantly of sterile hospitals, and the connotation unwrapped most of the hold she had on her fear. Flinging the churros down on the first surface, she began marching through the loft at top speed, eyes on the ground so she wouldn’t miss it if Cameron was lying on the floor somewhere. She called his name the entire time, checking the neat bathroom and the bedroom with the hasty half-dirty laundry pile and crisply made bed and even in the closet because she couldn’t bear to leave any stone unturned. The sudden sound from the kitchen was so startling she nearly jumped out of her skin, and it took her a while to realise it was the sound of a phone ringing.
“Cameron?” She tried to pretend she couldn’t hear her voice wavering.
There was nobody in the kitchen, slumped on the floor or otherwise. But on the kitchen island was a neat little pile that consisted of Cameron’s phone, driver’s license, ID book, car keys, house keys, NSA badge, wallet and glasses. She reached out to touch the latter and her fingers came away a little sticky. Sniffing at them, half moving out of instinct, Camille found that the substance was more bleach. Panic unfurled hot and uncontrollable in her gut, racing fire over her body and making her insides shrivel under the force of it.
“Cameron?” she tried, one more time. And, before she could stop herself, she added, “Please.”
Nobody appeared. Camille reached for her phone and dialled Maggie’s number, looking desperately around the clean - too clean. There was not a book or cushion out of place, as though it had all been stacked very deliberately - apartment as her phone rang.
“Maggie? He’s not here.” She was speaking in a rush, words almost tumbling over each other. “His stuff is all here - wallet, keys, ID, badge, the works. The door was open and the whole place smells of bleach. Like somebody doused the place to get rid of evidence of some kind. It’s too… put together. Like, Cameron is neat and all but this is… Maggie, he’s not here.”
Maggie actually swore, a quiet, rapid snakestrike. Then she inhaled deeply. “Get back here. No, I don’t want to hear it. We need somebody to do the stitch, and you’re the only other one who knows how.”
“Maggie - ”
“We have a detective on this team, Camille. Let Fisher take over and do his job.”
Fisher. It was only that name and all it represented that made Camille able to leave that apartment, because every step she took away from it felt like she was giving up on Cameron, somehow. She wasn’t usually one to dwell on feelings because expressing them in more than just quiet gestures and small looks felt awkward and inadequate and pressumptious on her part, three things her adolescence had taught her to avoid at any cost. But her footfalls away from the bleach-smelling apartment beat the lyrics to a song she’d known for a while now; I can’t bear the thought of losing him. I love him, I love him, I can’t bear the thought of losing him. If Theo had torn down the strong sanctuary an older brother was supposed to be, then Cameron, right from day one, had built it back up. That lab of people was her family, now, and he fit right in the inner circle.
Her hands shook as she drove away, and she couldn’t help but remember he’d been the last one to hold them; her fingers tucked carefully into his bigger palms the day before when he’d soothed her rattled nerves with a face-wide smile and a quip and the quiet warmth of a second-long squeeze of her hands.
The lab stunk of fear and worry like Cameron’s apartment had stunk of bleach, and the sharp angles that spoke of both terror and fury on Kirsten’s face cut like knives. Nobody wanted to do this stitch, but their slowly widening sinkhole of anxiety-grief did not warrant letting a monster go free. It was only once Camille was standing behind the computer watching Kirsten get into the fishtank that the reality hit home - Cameron wasn’t there.
“Uh… Camille…?” Chelsea hovered unsure around her table. “You don’t know anything about the systems of…” She didn’t finish her sentence, reading her answer already in the horror dawning on Camille’s face. “Never mind,” Chelsea said, quickly. “Sorry. I’ll just… I usually just… but Cameron’s always here to make sure I… Never mind. I’ll just…”
Everybody else in the lab had frozen, staring at their work stations by obviously doing so unseeingly. Camille curled her hands into fists, squared her shoulders and turned to the middle of the lab. “Lights at twenty percent, please. I need a go/no-go for stitch neurosync.” Her voice, steady through the procedure, betrayed her emotions as it morphed to brittle gentleness and empathy when she asked, “Kirsten?”
“I hear you,” Kirsten said, saying a lot more under those words. “Camille? You’re gonna be great.”
“I shouldn’t have to be,” she replied without thinking, and the silence was answer enough.
***
“Fisher.”
Camille’s greeting made Kirsten speed out into the lab, not caring that she wasn’t entirely dressed yet. “What happened? What’s going on? Where is he?”
Fisher looked at her when he shook his head, mouth twisted grimly. “We don’t know. That entire apartment was cleaned down thoroughly. They didn’t leave a single thing on Cameron we can use to track him.”
“But what about the security cameras?” Camille demanded. “Surely they can tell when he came and left and who with? Even just… half a face? Something? Aren’t they supposed to check up on suspicious looking people?”
“They are. But there just happened to be these guys with their hoods pulled up that went in and out all day that day. Sometimes they were carrying things, other times they were carrying friends and eventually the security guards stopped asking them questions. Cameron arrived home at eleven forty eight and went straight up to his apartment. Just past midnight two hoodie guys carrying a third guy in a hoodie came out and took their friend off camera. It could have been Cameron. It could also not have been. The guards don’t remember seeing these guys get into a car, and there’s no car on any of the tapes. Not even those belonging to the surrounding places; I’ve checked.”
“So he’s just… what? He’s just…?” Camille’s hand appeared on her shoulder, thumb stroking little circles. It was meant to soothe her, but Kirsten’s insides were too full of acid. “What do we do now? What’s the plan?” she demanded, arms crossing over her chest protectively. She felt small, even in the place that had become home. She felt useless and stupid and meaningless. Guilty and angry and scared.
“I’ve got everybody I know on this,” Fisher promised, but it sounded empty to her. Cameron was gone. Of all the people to follow the pattern of walking out on her and her life, she had expected Cameron the least. “As soon as anybody - ”
“Fisher.” Maggie’s voice interrupted from above, carefully controlled. “We just got a call from one of our people reacting to that description you sent out.”
Fisher stopped leaning on Linus’ desk, hands already checking his keys were in his pocket. “Which contact?”
Maggie’s face, for one brief moment, cracked. “The morgue.”
Kirsten’s life spiralled around her, ears rushing and chest concaving and all she could remember was feeling no life beneath her palms when she pressed them to Cameron’s chest and the sting of salt on her lips for the first time in years and the ferocity of a breaking heart and his voice, shaking, telling her this time you won’t be able to bring me back.
“I’m coming with you. To identify the body.”
“No,” Maggie said simply, and Camille’s hand curled around Kirsten’s.
Kirsten wanted to put up a stronger fight, but somehow she’d lost the ability to articulate. If she opened her mouth, she was afraid she’d just scream. They watched Fisher go; Maggie from her lofty perch on the balcony, Camille at Kirsten’s side and Linus at Camille’s, pressed close to her to try and garner support that was impossible right then. Kirsten wondered, ears still buzzing and eyes stinging but too full of raw shock and horror to shed tears, if this was her fault. If Liam or her father or some other person she’d pissed off trying to find the answers had…
“Maybe he… maybe he just… went somewhere… and… forgot…” Linus had stopped believing in his own justification after the first maybe.
“He wouldn’t leave,” Camille said, with fierce and quiet certainty. “This is Cameron. I know what people who abandon their are family like and he…”
Kirsten squeezed her hand, remembered Marta and the grief on Cameron’s face when he tried to convince himself and Maggie that he wasn’t going to return to the programme. The three did not move until Maggie came out of her office again, phone pressed to her ear.
“It’s not Cameron,” she said gently, and the world continued moving. “Fisher is going to stay out looking. The refractory period is a long one; go home and get some proper rest.”
By which, of course, she knew they’d take to mean go to Cameron’s apartment. With Fisher’s blessing they cleaned away the small signs the police had been there, and then they sat on his sofa to wait. Pizza came, got picked at, got put away for later. Blankets were fetched and discarded. A photograph of the four of them being idiots was discovered pinned to the inside of his bathroom mirror and was stroked absently, faces creased in thought. Midnight came and went. People dropped to sleep on each other, woke up, looked around, fell asleep again.
So after getting a really nice message from a Tumblr Stitchers fan about this topic, those running this blog discussed it and we decided that while it’s not a typical prompt, adopting a fic is pretty much a fanfic prompt as well, just a lot more detailed than usual.
So we’ve decided to open our blog to such things and to encourage submissions (the first one will be made a few minutes after this announcement.)
what do we mean by fic adoption? It’s basically when you have an idea for part of a fic/ a scene of a fic but don’t have any resolution for the plot or anywhere for the scene to go. So you write what you can - what you have in your head - and then you offer it up for adoption. Another writers sees it, gets inspired to finish the fic, and does so.
You can put in long things without an ending, endings without a beginning, a line of dialogue, just a cute description of cuddles... whatever you feel you have in your head that you know needs somebody else’s brain to complete in whatever way.
Anonymous or named; that’s your pick, too.
Just obviously please note that you’re giving up the ending or beginning or whatever of your fic. You’ll be trusting somebody to use your words. It’s a big ask, but it could turn into some lovely things - just imagine how many different endings to a fic there could be! That excites us so much.
Please feel free to add an author’s note with general requests.
Things such as “please don’t change any of my words” or “take out/add whatever you need to my part” or “Please don’t make any pairing except x” are totally allowed. Try and make the requests as limited as possible; trust other authors and have so much fun where this could go :)
tl;dr - you basically send in a bit of writing, yell TAG and another writer adds on the end or beginning or both to that bit of writing with their own writing.
Can also be romance, if you’re as Camsten trash as I am.
Basically - Cameron’s new lease on life and his recklessness during fieldwork assignments finally catch up to him and he gets himself pretty banged up. Cue Kirsten having to help him hobble back to civilization and then take care of him when he keeps insisting he’s totally fine and he’s obviously totally not.
Some suggestions of moments/injuries include
-Cameron ignoring a busted hand or leg and insisting on walking up and down stairs and manning the stitching station himself. Because he's fine.
-Cameron loopy on pain meds.
-Busted ribs mean Kirsten has to help him remove clothing.
-Concussed Cameron totally not almost passing out a few times - he was totally just resting his eyes. And he only has a small headache, guys, stop hovering.
Inspired by the prompt about fieldwork injuries: on a fieldwork assignment Cameron (accidentally? purposefully?) gets stabbed with an EpiPen. Now while this is great for somebody having an allergic reaction, it’s the exact opposite for somebody with any kind of heart problems as the drug inside is very similar to pure Adrenalin. Cameron getting stabbed therefore makes him pretty tachycardic and whoever (totally up to the writer who) freak(s) out.
Also this time he doesn’t bounce back quite as quickly.
Fisher&Cameron, T, Fisher shows up at Cameron's apartment
So Fisher showed up at Cameron’s apartment in the last episode right? And Cameron had no problem leaving him alone with little instruction. So how often has Fisher done this?
Basically Fisher pops by Cameron’s apartment pretty often and Cameron stopped questioning after the first few times (the excuses were always different, i.e. “You’re apartment is closer to everything and I have a meeting down town early in the morning” and “I wanted to ask a few questions about this case”). Cameron knows Fisher doesn’t like going home to an empty house and he doesn’t mind the company, so when Fisher does show up at his door, he just lets him in and orders Chinese food (he tried to teach Fisher to cook once-let that be a fic of its own, needless to say it didn’t go well, the detective could burn water). Cameron never mentions that he knows why Fisher is there. After Cameron died, Fisher showed up and stayed for three days. He didn’t leave early in the morning like usual. (Big Brother Quincy Fisher couldn’t believe he let Cameron die and he is feeling all emotional about it and he wants to watch to make sure he’s really ok) Cameron finally confronts him and they have a serious talk about family and safety…
(Based on how Maggie reacted to Cameron dying) Maggie has always viewed Cameron like a son she never had (or maybe one she lost if you wanna get angsty?). After watching him grow in school, beating all the odds, and then introducing him into the stitcher’s program, she feels like a proud parent. When he ends up hurt in the field she feels responsible for him and will go to any lengths to keep him safe.
Bonus points if:
-Whoever hurts him was trying to get to her
-she goes 300% mama bear and everyone at the lab is 10x more terrified of her than ever
-She gets badass revenge
-There are cute conversations about how she feels about him (and Cameron thanks her for never treating him like he was breakable, but still being there for him)
-Hints at Camsten because I’m #CamstenTrash
BONUS FIC IDEA
Maggie meets Nina and is literally a Mom and Dad rolled into one and Cameron realizes he’s made a horrible mistake introducing them. (Bonus if Maggie is also Camsten Trash)
Camille's cover is blown and she ends up at Cameron's doorstep injured (up to writer how). He takes care of her. She admits her assignment to him (because she's freaking out). And she tells him how Kirsten and Linus both hate her because she's been lying to them. They have a heart to heart because she really can't do this anymore and Cameron doesn't push her even when he sees she's crying because he knows what it feels like to have people treat you like you're fragile. (Fluff/angst)
Inspired by the prompt about fieldwork injuries: on a fieldwork assignment Cameron (accidentally? purposefully?) gets stabbed with an EpiPen. Now while this is great for somebody having an allergic reaction, it’s the exact opposite for somebody with any kind of heart problems as the drug inside is very similar to pure Adrenalin. Cameron getting stabbed therefore makes him pretty tachycardic and whoever (totally up to the writer who) freak(s) out.
Also this time he doesn’t bounce back quite as quickly.
Kirsten gets a huge lead in the finding her father case and starts working extra hard to try and make it turn into something. Her friends help, and so they also start giving up on a lot of sleep etc just so they can support her and get to the bottom with her.
Cameron gets sick, but refuses to acknowledge it because he wants to help Kirsten out. Eventually, he ends up a fevered mess in Kirsten’s sweater, utterly miserable.
Can also be romance, if you’re as Camsten trash as I am.
Basically - Cameron’s new lease on life and his recklessness during fieldwork assignments finally catch up to him and he gets himself pretty banged up. Cue Kirsten having to help him hobble back to civilization and then take care of him when he keeps insisting he’s totally fine and he’s obviously totally not.
Some suggestions of moments/injuries include
-Cameron ignoring a busted hand or leg and insisting on walking up and down stairs and manning the stitching station himself. Because he's fine.
-Cameron loopy on pain meds.
-Busted ribs mean Kirsten has to help him remove clothing.
-Concussed Cameron totally not almost passing out a few times - he was totally just resting his eyes. And he only has a small headache, guys, stop hovering.
Kirsten gets a huge lead in the finding her father case and starts working extra hard to try and make it turn into something. Her friends help, and so they also start giving up on a lot of sleep etc just so they can support her and get to the bottom with her.
Cameron gets sick, but refuses to acknowledge it because he wants to help Kirsten out. Eventually, he ends up a fevered mess in Kirsten’s sweater, utterly miserable.
This is a PSA that this blog is rearing to really get going - tell your friends, come send in your requests, and let’s see if any of them get filled. We may be a small fandom, but we have heart and the obsessive streak and some damn good writers, if the fic I’ve read is any indication.