A/N: I SOO owed it to myself to finish this. I don't care if that fail of a competition between me and Kix to finish up Ch 9 is over; I had already started. I'm sorry, but I didn't want the time to go to waste. So yes, this is the missing half of our X-mas Special... though it's not Christmas, it is still winter so I'm not too late!
Derek's from California? =3 Well, I've never even been to that half of the States or that down south in the western hemisphere yet so I'm not too familiar with the full extent of the climate there. (So yeah, I've been down south in the Eastern hemisphere and that is one crazy-ass long story).
However I do live in Canada and I'm completely familiar with our winters. O_0 Everything is actually rather realistic (in my opinion, anyway).
And if I got the temperature-in-Fahrenheit nonsense wrong, I apologize. C'mon, I'm sorry if I don't exactly ace in math... and that I'm used to using Celsius. So if my guesses were totally off, then feel free to change "59F" back to "15C" and whatever like I had intended to.
So here's also to one year of writing for me!
Jan 14 – PXLight ^^
And so in dedication, I improvise this story like I used to. =) The mood, as always, is screwed up because I worked on this through a couple different days, my mood completely different each day. The story basically corresponds with what I was feeling, so hehe... Self-explanatory, yes?
Most of those who have spent their entire life in the warm clutches of a southern climate could tell you that snow was something almost unheard of. Those who have never left the comfort of their balmy location might even be led to assume that "cold" is anything that dipped below 59 degrees. Anything lower was surreal; beyond their comprehension.
However, Derek Stiles quickly acknowledged the fact that yes there actually were places that dipped far beyond what he was familiar with. He was finally taken away from the warm temperatures he had close bonds to and up to the frigid north.
To the country directly north of the States.
Canada.
Up there, cold was the formula for a freezing hell.
And somehow, people still managed to thrive in these temperatures.
"Damn, it's freezing!" he hissed as he huddled towards the warmth of the car heater while suffering from a shivering fit. He hugged himself tightly to try and retain as much heat as he could. He and Angie were being transported from the airport towards the hospital via cab where they were to perform their assigned task; to help out with the victims of a massive avalanche that wiped out a major part of Sudbury, a northern city of Ontario. It was said that this was a major natural catastrophe that left many people speechless and others screaming in pain as the wrath of snow made it down into their town and completely submerged many innocent lives.
It was unknown as to why Sidney would volunteer them for this mission; even he was sure that the rescue teams should be more than capable of handling something of this calibre. Nevertheless, their boss gave them this task and they were to oblige.
"It will be a great experience!" Sidney exclaimed the day they were assigned to help out. "You will even get a week to explore the location after you're done. Consider it a paid vacation from us."
It sounded so bright and sunny back there.
But now the surgeon wished he picked Tyler and Leslie instead.
Derek glanced over at Angie who had fallen asleep in the passenger seat behind him. Her head was rested softly to the side on her shoulder, her hair cascading down her white jacket. The car had warmed up considerably and there no longer were any soft white vapours escaping from her mouth and nose with each exhale. Derek sighed and allowed a soft smile to caress his face.
He turned back to face the windshield. It was 6 in the morning and the scenery was marvellous. The ground and road were covered in a thick layer of fresh white snow. They made crunching noises as the tires passed right over them. The trees around the area were cascaded with majestic ice and there seemed to be little footprints of a variety of animals around them. The sunlight glistened from every point Derek could lay his eyes on and for the first time, a shadow actually appeared the colour blue instead of the usual dark grey.
"Aside from temperatures, Canada really is a rather beautiful place." Derek admitted. He took in the sights, his eyes danced from window to window in a trance. His hands continued to be dipped in warmth as he lifted them up to the heater once more. Aside from the frown that was permanently frozen from the contracted muscle in his face trying to stay warm and his burning red nose and ears, it was clear that he was in deep childlike awe. The driver beside him could only chuckle slightly, causing the surgeon to give him a sceptical look.
"You are new to Canada, aren't you?" he asked with an amused tone. He didn't have any noticeable accents like Derek had expected; in fact, if he didn't know, the man could almost pass of as a normal American. The driver was a Caucasian male in his late thirties with short brown hair and a nice warm brown jacket on. He only had a medium build; about the same height and size as Derek. The chocolate brown-haired surgeon simply nodded; it was pretty obvious considering that his hands had already caught frostbite despite the fact that they had only been outside for all of five minutes. Even now he was still thawing them out. "Well, I admit, even I'm cold and I'm well-dressed." the driver continued.
Derek rolled his eyes. "Haha, funny." he replied. He had only put on a blue wool sweater over his dress shirt along with black pants, a toque, and nice mittens. It was the warmest outfit he had in his possession. He had remembered Sidney warning him that it wouldn't be enough and only now he had learned to regret it.
The surgeon looked to the built-in thermometer right above the mirror. "-27oC" he muttered. It was the temperature of the world outside the boundaries of the car. The number itself sounded menacing, though he wasn't exactly sure what it was in Fahrenheit, so he had no way in figuring out the full damage.
"I believe that's -16.6oF for you." the driver replied. "I'm used to the conversions because I'm used to having to drive many Americans like you." he continued in order to answer the predictable question Derek was about to ask him. He looked ahead at the road before turning once more to Derek who was about to object. "And yes, that's pretty much the typical temperature around this time." he smirked. "Arctic air blows in and suddenly we're all in a giant iceblock. Only difference between this and an actual iceblock is that the companies expect us to keep working through the weather, which can be a real hassle."
"God, that's hell." Derek replied. His mind, instead of imagining the nightmare of having to come to work in these frigid temperatures, tried to comprehend the number. It took a while before Derek could come up with anything to say about it. "-16.6 degrees Fahrenheit..." he paused. "...That's colder than my fridge."
The driver simply burst out laughing at the surgeon's feeble response before turning onto another road. Suddenly, the forest around the car ended and they were quickly introduced to a northern city landscape. They were at the west end of Sudbury and Derek could already spot some of the damage caused by the avalanche located all the way at the other side of the city.
"Derek... Are we there yet?"
Derek turned around and noticed that Angie had woken up. He surmised that this was caused by the driver's sudden outburst of laughter. The nurse was rubbing her eyes and had a sleepy smile on. "Almost." he replied. "We're almost there."
"That's good." Angie finally had a chance to look around and first spotted the buildings that filled up the environment. "So we're in Sudbury now, I presume?"
Derek nodded. "Yeah. You missed the forest, Angie! It looked amazing!"
"Well, we still have time to look around after we finish helping out this place." She remembered Sidney's generous peace offering. Her eyes wandered around inside the car until they landed on the temperature outside. "-27 degrees Celsius?" Angie asked.
"-16.6 degrees Fahrenheit in other words." Derek sighed.
"Wow, that's colder than your fridge, Derek." Angie chuckled. The driver burst into yet another fit of laughter causing Angie to laugh along with him. Derek face-palmed before making a mental note to turn down the temperature of his freezer so it wouldn't be trumped by the natural temperatures of Canada. There was no way he would allow such shame to come to the Stiles fridge.
The cab made one final turn before finally arriving right by the accident site. "Alright, we're here." he declared. "I'll come and pick you up when you call. You can also pay later." The duo exited the warmth of the car, Angie stretching out and taking in deep breaths while her partner left hesitantly, mentally sobbing for having to be dumped in this giant hell once more. A frigid gust whipped through, causing him to hug himself tightly while cursing beneath his breath.
Angie rolled her eyes. Fortunately, she had been skiing before and was wearing her white ski jacket and jeans. She dragged Derek away from the cab after properly thanking the cab driver. The driver offered his coat to the poor surgeon, but the nurse declined the offer and gave him a wink along with a devilish smile. The driver chuckled once more before driving off.
"How the hell are people supposed to survive in this damned weather?" Derek muttered grumpily. The scenery was fantastic and easily brought his mood up, but as long as he was cold, he could never be happy. Angie walked over to him and hugged tightly onto his arm.
"C'mon, Mr. Blue. Let's go and get you a proper jacket before we help out the crew." She dragged him towards the nearest clothing store she could find which wasn't too hard because they were by a mountain and there just had to be a ski shop close by. "Because the first step to saving others is to..."
"...Save yourself. Yeah, yeah, let's just get out of this cold." Angie let go of her grip and Derek sprinted into the shop and sighed contently as a warm rush of heated air greeted him as he opened the doors. Angie followed, but took her time. Inside the shop, Derek grabbed for the warmest jacket and boots he could find. Angie bought her and her partner a new pair of gloves along with scarves, hats, and anything else they figured they would need to face this extreme weather. The entire time, the shop keeper smirked. Newcomers always were an amusing sight.
Soon, they had what they needed and stepped out in some new clothing. Derek was wrapped in every single possible piece of winter clothing he could place on his body while Angie was simply wearing the same items along with her new scarf and mittens.
"You know, Derek, you didn't have to wrap up with so much stuff." Angie commented as a slight smirk formed at the sight of the surgeon. She could hardly recognise him anymore underneath all of the clothes; there was barely any skin showing. Considering that all of his items were blue, white, and grey, one could almost go to such lengths as to accidentally calling him the abominable snowman.
"Well, I'm perfectly fine. At least I'm warm." Derek protested.
Angie rolled her eyes. She didn't really want to be embarrassed by her partner on their first day together in Canada. She ran back into the store, grabbed a bag, and then pushed the surgeon into a snow bank.
"Hey, what was that for?" Because Derek was wrapped up so well, he could hardly resist as Angie began to tear away at several layers of clothing. Soon, he was stripped down to the basic necessities and everything else remained in a bag.
"We'll save these for the patients we help rescue, alright?" Angie suggested. Derek got up and went back to his shiver-walk while Angie rolled her eyes once more in annoyance and pushed him towards the base of the avalanche. Soon, Derek was walking on his own power and the nurse could walk beside him.
"Ahh... my guess is that you two are the volunteers from Caduceus, yes?" It was a moderately tall Asian man in a nice red jacket. Derek and Angie nodded while pulling out their ID's. The man then led them through the makeshift tent camp they had formed around the base of the accident.
"So where will we be?" Derek asked.
"You'll be in one of the first response tents." the man replied. "Most people will be brought to the hospital and be dealt with there. However, there are more people who are critically injured and will need to be operated on as soon as possible. In some cases, their limbs may have to be amputated, but otherwise, they usually suffer from hypothermia, frostbite..." The man trailed off as he noticed a helicopter coming in. "...Oh, looks like you get to start immediately. Scrub up now and the patients will be brought to you as soon as they're dropped off."
Angie nodded. "Alright, thank you sir." she replied. She headed off to the tent while grabbing Derek's arm and dragging him once more along with her.
...
The two got into their scrubs and entered the fortunately heated tents. The first round of patients were brought in and despite the numbing cold, Derek still retained his skill and agility. People watched and were surprised at how quick he finished the operations whereas it would take a normal surgeon about double the time. However, after ten straight hours of a large rally of operations that ranged from debris removal to repairing broken limbs, Derek finally submitted to his waning endurance and took a break.
The surgeon stepped outside the tent and realized that somehow night had come in and taken over the landscape. The January moon dominated the sky as its pale white glow shone down on Derek's white scrubs. A chilly breeze whipped right through, blowing loose snow around. Derek shivered, but otherwise, his body was simply too tired to be cold.
There were several people around him as he walked towards the base of the large pile-up of snow and ice from the avalanche subconsciously. He was honestly too wiped out to think though any of his actions and just followed along somehow. He stood there, stared up at the moon, and then began to climb up towards it.
The pure white snow became blood-stained as he climbed up; his used surgical gloves did nothing to keep his hands from feeling pain from the frigid temperature of the ice. Still, no one paid him any attention; everyone was too absorbed with their own tasks to take the time and look towards the pile of snow that had devastated so much of the city. For some reason, Derek found energy to make the climb up to the top which was about 20 feet from the ground where he laid down on an angled part of the snow hidden from the entire relief camp. His mind drowned out all the sounds as he continued to stare up at the moon as though in a trance.
"It's pretty..." he thought quietly. "The night sky here is so... big." Unlike back at Angeles Bay where pollution, lights, and skyscrapers clouded the sky, the northern skies of Canada were unimaginably vast. There were millions of stars; for the first time in his life, Derek was unable to figure out how many stars he could find in the sky like back in the city.
Suddenly, he heard a high-pitched shriek from behind him as a bunch of snow and ice broke free from the pile up. A massive energy shock jolted into him as a response; to save people in need was simply built into his instinct these days. He got up from the imprint he made into the snow and looked down to find Angie hanging onto a piece of us. A lot of snow had collapsed below her. The slope was suddenly drastically steep and it was about ten feet down.
"Dr. Stiles!" Angie screamed.
"Angie, what are you doing here?" Derek whispered. His voice was soft and there was no way Angie could have heard it if it weren't for the adrenaline suddenly rushing through her body that enhanced her senses.
"I... I was looking for you...!" Angie replied. "I... was lonely..." She blushed hotly, her feelings warm enough to provide heat for the both of them.
"Oh... I'm sorry..." Derek replied meekly. "I should've stayed with you..."
"Yeah, well... now it's t-too late to think about...that...!" Angie exclaimed. The ice ledge she was somehow holding on wasn't going to hold her forever. It made this fact known by chipping off. She let out a tiny scream in response. Her legs began to try and find grip along the side, but the ice wall was too steep and slippery so her efforts were futile. "...Umm... do you mind, Derek?" She gave the surgeon a weak smile. Derek blinked, a bit confused by what she meant, but then he remembered that her life was still on the line here.
"Oh right!" He jumped to action as soon as the idea clicked into his mind. A bit of snow fell from where Derek was standing and into Angie's face. She shook her head and spat out any snow that may have made it into her mouth.
"Watch it, Dr. Stiles!" she protested.
"Understood!" Soon, Derek found a way to get close enough to Angie from the right side of the snow mound, the same way he got up, to reach out and grab her. He then pulled her up over the ledge and began to breathe erratically. That was way too much physical work for him. "Are you alright?" he asked.
"Yeah... thanks." Angie replied. Derek helped her up and the two made it back to where Derek was sitting last time.
"So?"
"Hmm..?"
"Are you still lonely?"
Angie smiled. "Not anymore." she replied. "But I'm kinda cold." Remembering that fact, she removed the jacket and gear she had wrapped around her waist before attempting the climb and gave it to Derek. There was a bit of snow, so it obscured its true shape.
"What's this?" he asked as soon as he received the pile of fabric.
"It's your jacket and things. You left without them, so I thought you'd be cold."
"Oh thank you." He put the things on, but cried out as snow that had incidentally been in the hood went down his back. "Cold!" he screamed. "Ice down my back! Ice down my back! Ahh!" He got up and allowed the snow to make it down and fall to the ground before sighing in relief and sitting back down beside the chuckling nurse. "Okay, it wasn't funny." he groaned.
"Well, now we're both cold." Angie replied after her chuckling fit faded off. She stared up at the moon and smiled as though just looking at the landscape around her gave her confidence. She nuzzled closer to Derek which surprised him a bit, but he didn't protest. "Keep me warm, Dr. Stiles." she whispered. "You wouldn't want me to get sick, would you?"
"Well..." Derek put on a goofy smile, but seeing that Angie didn't find it funny, he wiped it off his face. "For climbing a pile of snow just to give me my things, I at least owe you that much." he chimed. He placed an arm over her shoulder and allowed her to rest her head on his chest. His breathing slowed down as it synchronised with the nurse's rhythm.
They then just sat there for the next few minutes and allowed the serenity of the Canadian landscape to take over. The stress of saving those faded off as their awareness soon only focused on each other. Angie listened closely to Derek's calm heartbeat while Derek stroked her hair to the best of his ability considering that he had mittens on.
"The moon's pretty, Derek." Angie whispered. "I've never seen anything like it."
"Same here." Derek replied. "But there's only one thing I've seen that's prettier it."
"What's that?"
"You, silly!" Derek chuckled. Wisps of breath came out calmly as he continued to stroke the nurse's blonde hair. "There is no way some space rock is going to be more appealing to me than you are, Angie."
Angie closed her eyes and couldn't help but smile. "Aww, you're so sweet, Derek." she replied. She loosened any other muscles that were tense and allowed her being to meld with Derek's. Somehow, despite the frigid negative temperatures of northern Ontario and the freezing snow around them, the two were the coziest they had been in a while. Both of them soon lost their consciousness to the calm.
"Hey, I think I can see two more people!"
"Alright, I'll go grab Dr. Stiles! ...Hey, where the hell is he?"
"What, you mean he's not in his room?"
"No! Neither is Nurse Thompson!"
"Oh dammit! We have to find them! Those two are American national treasures!"
"Wait, don't panic! I think I found them! They're over here, but they seem to be unconscious!"
"Well, get them down now! They might be suffering from hypothermia! We need to treat them immediately!"
"...Wait, wait, we're fine!" Derek shook off any remnants of sleep he had left and yawned. He stood up to reveal himself, massaging his neck a bit expecting some pain considering he had just fallen asleep on snow, but the pain never came. In fact, considering how he felt, that was the most relaxing sleep he had in a while. He might not even need his daily dose of coffee today considering how he felt. "We're both just asleep! It's fine!" He looked beside him to the man who had thought he had found two more bodies but instead stumbled upon Angie and him. Below down at the base of the avalanche stood both the Asian man from before and another who they didn't recognise.
"...Derek, is it morning?" Derek looked back and found out that Angie had woken up peacefully as well. The commotion must've awakened her like it did him.
"Yeah, it's morning." he replied.
"What time?"
"Umm..." The surgeon looked towards the man beside him who flashed Derek his watch. "...It's 7:09 AM."
"Oh, alright." Angie got up from the snow and brushed herself off. "Umm... we fell asleep in the snow?"
"Apparently so." Derek replied. He looked back out at the scenery. It was still majestic, but it didn't seem to have the same magic as in the night. He looked to Angie who had the same thought.
"After we're done here, I have the feeling that we'll have to extend that vacation." Angie smirked. Derek smiled in agreement and with his arm around her shoulder, the three finally made it down.
A/N: WHAT WAS THIS? Okay, if you guys were expecting for me to make Derek and Angie have sex back there, just know this...
One: I'm sorry... I'm too weak still to write lemon/anything involved a pairing taking off their clothes.
Two: Really? On a pile of snow? Like seriously? I'm bizarre and over-the-top and DerekXAngie is my TC OTP, but there is NO WAY they will have it on a pile of snow in Canada... I mean, even on a grand piano is a lot more logical than that. O_0
And yes, winter forests are even more majestic at night. =)
And -16.6 F (-27C) isn't the usual temperature... only happens on certain days when the Arctic jet stream is directly over the city or something... and no, I don't live in Sudbury; I don't even know if there are even any mountains that could cause something like that to happen.
So I'm not TOO particularly proud of this one-shot, but hey, I got my "X-mas" fic finished. Haha, I really hoped you liked it... I'm not much of a writer, but psh, I've only been writing for a year (wait a minute...) So have a good one, I guess! =D
BTW, thanks BloodyRosalia for beta-reading this oneshot. =P