Help!

[kriadydragon]

Attention Thoughtcrimes fans! I need help with a plot.

I want to do a story in which Freya discovers that something unpleasent is happening to Brendan. I wanted to do something along the lines of Brendan in the hospital and maybe a nurse mistreating him or not taking care of him right, but neither Brendan nor anyone else is aware except for Freya. But I want to do it in a way that's plausible and not like I'm dissing the nursing profession or something.

Anyone know how I could accomplish a plot like this? Or know of another way I could pull it off? I was also thinking that Brendan is healing at home and a relative or someone who's supposed to be taking care of him isn't. The thing is, it has to be that Brendan isn't aware of it.

My brain refuses to work the problem out. I need help. Know what I could do to make such a plot work?

Comments

[bratfarrar]

After my grandmother had a series of ministrokes, she had a rotating series of live-in aides. I don't think any of them were actually nurses - one of them was trying to get into the modeling business. Maybe something along those lines?

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

I was thinking about that. Something would need to happen to Brendan where he would need one, but nothing that was long term. That's when I started leaning toward it being a family member - like a cousin or something.

So now the question is - what could I have happen to Brendan where he would need that kind of care? *Ponders*

[karri-kln1671.livejournal.com]

Hm, well, you could use your established backstory for the poor boy and do something like:

Brendan is injured or sick or both and Freya can't tend to him cause she still in the middle of the case he was injured on or is otherwise preoccupied with something, so she calls Aunt Marge. Aunt Francine either intercepts or overhears Freya's calls and arranges to go in Marge's place. The simplest way would be for her to intercept the call and go in her place without Marge ever knowing anything, but you could also have Marge with a broken hip or Francine drugging Marge's tea or something, so that Marge has agreed to go but it's Francine who actually ends up at Brendan's. Francine, maybe, wants to show what a big cry-baby hypochondraic Brendan is and so only pretends to take care of him to prove he's not really in as bad of shape as he is. Brendan could be either too loopy from drugs or too fever-addled or have had his brains shook up a bit too much to realize that Francine is there and think he's just have nightmares about his mom and no one is there taking care of him. Freya comes for a visit and realizes who is supposed to be caring for him and that she hasn't been but lacks actual proof, since Brendan is too out of it to comprehend what's been going on.

I'll ponder a hospital scenario and see if I can manage to come up with anything.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm, I like that. I don't think Francine would sink low enough to drug her own sister, but I could see it that Marge isn't able to take care of Brendan and Francine is the only one available out of all the sisters. She tries to appeal to Francine's better nature, but Francine just can't let go of her prejudices...

Yes, things are starting to come together. But I'm still open to further ideas. I'm also considering a free-loading cousin who keeps stealing from Brendan rather than cares for him.

[karri-kln1671.livejournal.com]

Taking a benign route, there could be a computer glitch at the hospital that either says he's already received treatment that hasn't been given or says there's no one in the room, so each shift gets thrown off a while before realizing he's there. Less benign, of course, would be intentional tampering with the computer.

[drufan.livejournal.com]

Make the caregiver a plant. Maybe somebody who is involved in the case and needs him out of the way. She's taken the place of the real nurse.

[jackfan2.livejournal.com]

Slightly off topic... anyone know how or where to find a copy that one could view of this show? I've seen pieces of Thought Crimes posted over at YouTube, but that's it. I'd rather like to see the entire thing, but it's only sold on DVD's that play in Europe.*eyeroll*

Unless that show was a byproduct of England, it makes no sense.

Any ideas? Any one? Bueller?

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

What I did was buy a European copy then sent it to this place where they converted it to a DVD I could play on my DVD player. If you want, I can give you the link to the place (I have to find it first but it's somewhere On my journal.) It was really quite easy and not too expensive.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

I actually have something like that going on in a longer TC fic I'm working on (except the fake nurse is after someone else). I'm looking for something more simple because I want this to be a one-shot. I need to cut back on chapter fics for a while. the slave one nearly killed me.

[karri-kln1671.livejournal.com]

Meanwhile, come on over to the fanfiction community and read the fanfic. :D

[jackfan2.livejournal.com]

OH! Yes.. that would be eversomuch appreciated if you could send that link along. Gracias.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

Here it be.

http://www.world-import.com/conversion.htm

I got my copy of TC from Amazon, in case you needed to know. Not many other places to find it I'm afraid.