Vesper - Melting the Ice
Chapter 1
The steel cage plunged downwards with a sickening lurch, and James's heart stopped. Time suddenly slowed as he watched Vesper sink into the water. Without thinking, he dived in after her. He swam over to the elevator and frantically started to pull on the doors, shouting, screaming.
He saw her in the corner, watching him, her brown eyes sad and face solemn. She glided towards him and held his hands, pressing her cheek against them. James calmed momentarily. Vesper pushed away from him and in another heart-stopping moment, he realised what she was about to do. He wouldn't let that happen, he couldn't. He kicked the doors with all his strength. Vesper's eyes had started to shut and he knew she had little time left. James wasn't one to panic. His 00 training had taught him that much. But it all went out of the window. He panicked, and with brute force smashed the metal door off its hinges, which sunk slowly into the darkness. He forced his body through the tiny gap, attempting to reach her.
His hand flailed uselessly about the water until he managed to grab Vesper's wrist. Her eyes had closed and her body was limp. With every last bit of strength, he dragged her out of the deathly cage, and swam as hard as he could towards the surface.
With a huge gulp of Italian air and exhausted panting, he reached the surface and pulled Vespers head above the water and held her close to him. He could see the remainder of the building's rooftop not far away. He struggled over towards it, clutching Vesper in one arm and holding onto debris with the other to keep himself afloat. James grabbed onto the rooftop, and placed Vesper down onto it, as carefully as he could manage, before hauling himself up on top of her.
"Breathe" he pleaded as he patted her pale cheek and felt her neck. Immediately, his hands found her chest and he started compressions, pushing down as hard as he could; he leant over and placed his mouth on hers, sending her body the air it needed. He repeated this over and over; hope ebbing away and his emotions threatening to consume him. "Breathe" he muttered, almost sobbing – "BREATHE!"
He brought his fists down with such a force her body shook. Then suddenly, her eyes flicked open and she turned sideways, coughing violently, water gushing out of her lungs. James sat back on the roof, panting heavily his eyes red and tears streaming down his cheeks.
As Vesper tried to gulp down air and restore her breathing, James stared at her. No one said anything for what seemed like hours, but was in reality only minutes. The water continued to rush past them over the canal's destruction but seemed to be calming in time with their shaky breaths.
"What were you thinking?" James asked quietly, his blue eyes on hers. Vesper looked back at him, her face etched with guilt, water dripping off her soaking hair onto her eyelashes. "I…. you …. You wouldn't believe me" she stated flatly. "After what I'd done to you … they wouldn't let us both survive. I couldn't live with the guilt" she tried to explain, before breaking down. She shook not only with the silent sobs that wracked her body, but with the chill that had now consumed her as the effects of the water took their toll.
James didn't know what to say. Part of him was angry with her, for not telling him. Another part was just so elated to see her sitting there, but terrified at the thought of what had just happened.
She looked so vulnerable sat in the translucent remains of her red dress, plastered to her pale skin, revealing her thin body battered and bruised. He dropped down onto his knees and pulled her to his chest, cradling her in his strong arms and holding her tight; letting her cry into his already water-logged clothes.
As they sat there, he too allowed the tears to fall from his ice blue eyes.
It seemed that ice had been melted.