Title: White Water
Summary: The boys go rafting. Originally posted on SentinelAngst.
Disclaimer: They're not mine.
Many thanks to Dawn for the quick beta! Any mistakes
are mine.
Saturday, July 4, 1998
*11:45 pm*
"Chief?"
He stirred restlessly, disturbed by the gentle voice, but didn't waken.
"Chief, come on. I need you to open your eyes."
The relentless voice finally dragged him from his rest. He forced his eyes open, then wished he hadn't as the light caused the headache at the back of his skull to explode to full force. He moaned and closed his eyes again. "Go away."
"Sorry, buddy. You know the routine. I have to check to see how you're doing. Can you tell me your name?"
He sighed. "You're not going to go away, are you? Fine. Blair Sandburg." Opening his eyes again, he squinted in the light to stare at his roommate. "And you're Jim Ellison, today is the 4th of July, and Bill Clinton is the President."
Jim chuckled. "Okay, sounds like you're going to be okay. I do have one more question for you before you go back to sleep. Do you remember what happened?"
Blair groaned. "*Oh*, yeah."
*****
Saturday, July 4, 1998
*8:50 am*
"Are you sure you don't mind?" Jim Ellison studied his partner critically while waiting for an answer to his question.
"Go ahead, Jim. I'm sure that kayaking would be a lot more fun for you than being in a four man raft. I'll be fine. I'll find somebody who knows what they're doing and stick with them." Blair tightened the band around his pony tail and headed off in search of potential raft mates.
Jim watched him head off and shook his head when Blair predictably headed toward a large group of women. The two men had elected to take their holiday weekend away from the stresses of Cascade at a camp that specialized in white water rafting and kayaking. Jim had planned to stay with his partner, as this was Blair's first white water trip, but at the last minute one of the kayakers had had to back out, and Jim had been invited to step into his place.
As he had been rafting several times before, it was a challenge he really hadn't wanted to refuse. The only fly in the ointment had been what to do with Blair. And now his partner was taking care of that himself. Yes, it was going to be a great day.
*****
*8:55 am*
"Hey, Jim. It's okay. I found some people to ride with." Blair skidded to a stop in front of his partner, indicating the three women trailing behind him. "This is Randa, Katie and Kim. And they've all been rafting before, so you don't need to worry about me. Ladies, this is Jim Ellison."
Jim smiled at the women. "Oh, I worry about you all the time, Sandburg. And it has nothing to do with rafting. Nice to meet you ladies."
All of the ladies smiled back. The blonde standing next to Blair spoke. "We'll take real good care of Blair."
"I'm sure you will," Jim muttered under his breath. *How does Sandburg always attract the prettiest women?* He shook his head. "Well, they're getting ready to start, so I'll see you on the river, okay?"
*****
*9:00 am*
"Okay, does everyone have a group of four for your raft?"
A murmur of assent rippled through the crowd, so the instructor standing in front of the group nodded in satisfaction.
"Okay, good. Now, everyone get into your rafts and kayaks and let's get started. I want everyone to paddle to the middle of the water and stop. We need to go over the safety instructions one more time. I also want to introduce the staff to you. Let's go."
Blair settled into his seat at the back left of the raft contentedly. "Okay, ladies. You're in charge. Just let me know what I need to do."
Randa, the blonde that had spoken to Jim earlier, glanced back at Blair over her left shoulder. She was seated in the right front of the raft. "Just paddle for now. We'll get into the fun stuff later."
Kim, seated to Randa's left and directly in front of Blair, nodded and smiled at the novice. "You'll be fine."
Katie, who sat beside Blair in the back, thrust her paddle into the water industriously. "Let's get out there."
Blair grinned back at his raftmates, but the smile lost a little of its strength when the raft jerked and moved off in the wrong direction. "Um, you girls *did* say you've done this before, right?"
"Oh, sure!" Katie smiled enthusiastically at him. "I went rafting with my dad once when I was a kid, and Kim and Randa have both been on trips here in the last year or two. Don't worry about a thing."
"Who's worried?" Blair relaxed and leaned back to listen to the guide, who was now standing on a rock in the center of the water.
"Okay, people, listen up!" The instructor waited until everyone had quieted before continuing. "Okay, good. Now, my name is Tom, and I'll be the main instructor for your trip today. It's my job to make sure that you all get to the bottom in one piece. But to make sure that you do that, I need some help. So I have two other guides helping me. Over here in the purple kayak is Jeri. And don't let the fact that she's a woman fool you guys. She's one of the best guides we have on the river. Over in the green kayak is Steve. He's one of our best, too. So as long as you do what we tell you, everyone will be fine.
"Now, who can tell me what to do if you fall out of the raft?
Someone toward the back of the pack of rafts shouted the answer. "Keep your feet up."
"Very good. And why is that important?" Tom pointed toward a hand raised off to the side.
"Because if you don't keep your feet up, one of them could get caught between the rocks in the shallow places."
"And why is that a bad thing?" Tom pointed to someone in the front this time.
"Because with the water running as fast as it does, if your foot gets stuck the only way to get you out might be to cut it off!"
Tom grimaced. "Well, that's a little crude, but true. I cannot emphasize enough how important that is. Got it?"
"Got it!" The cry went up from all over the group.
"Good, then let's go." Tom stepped down into his blue kayak and headed off down the river. "Everyone follow me!"
*9:45 am*
"How's it going, Chief?"
Blair looked up in relief as Jim paddled his kayak up alongside the raft. "Oh, hi, Jim. Well, it's a lot harder than I thought it would be."
Jim chuckled. "Yes, I noticed how well you and your *expert* raftmates have been doing. Having a hard time going the right direction, huh?"
Blair glared at his partner. "Well, they said they knew what they were doing!"
Randa spoke up. "Well, in our defense, we all *have* gone rafting before. We just didn't do any of the paddling. It didn't look that hard."
Blair rolled his eyes. "Oh, well. I've been enjoying the conversation anyway." He dug his paddle into the water, trying to aim the raft in the right direction.
Jim nodded. "Well that's good." He knew better, though. He had been monitoring the situation for the past half hour or so, and he knew that Blair had little in common with the three girls.
He had also overheard Tom warning Jeri and Steve to keep an especially close eye on Blair's raft. Tom felt that they were the group most likely to have a problem as they got to the progressively faster rapids. He wondered if this would permanently ruin Blair's opinion of rafting.
*****
*11:15 am*
"Okay, people, hold up here for a minute." Tom was back up on a rock again. "This next rapid is called Boulder Rock." He indicated the massive boulder up ahead. "You need to get to the right of the boulder, then paddle hard as you go by. Immediately beyond the boulder is a part of the rapids called The Washboard. You do not want to have any incidents at this part of the rapids. Have you ever seen an old fashioned washboard? The water here is very shallow, but fast, and the rocks would really hurt. Thus the name. So when we tell you to get right, get right. Got it?"
"Got it!"
Blair sighed. This didn't look good.
*****
*11:35 am*
"Okay, next raft. Come on."
Randa grinned. "That's us. This doesn't look all that hard. Nobody else has had any problems with it. We can do it, right everybody?"
Kim and Katie echoed her enthusiastically, so Blair agreed half-heartedly. He had watched as the other rafts went through, and he had seen how hard the groups had worked as a team to get the raft headed in the right direction at the boulder. He hoped they could pull this off. All four of the rafters dug their paddles in and headed toward the rock. The closer they got, the harder the current pulled at them, trying to squeeze them to the left. Blair focused all of his energy on trying to aim them to the right. He could vaguely hear all three of the guides shouting at them.
"Right! Right! Pull to the right!"
When they hit the rock, they were almost completely to the left of it, and Blair swallowed hard. The water funneled up around them, then sucked the front right of the raft under. The next few moments seemed to happen in slow motion, but the results were inevitable. Blair watched as Randa toppled forward from the raft, lowering the nose even further into the froth.
He felt his section of the raft lift up into the air as the raft continued to be sucked in at the front. Kim soon followed Randa into the water, and then Katie. When he was the only one left in the raft, he glanced up straight into the laughing eyes of Jim Ellison, who had stayed off to the side waiting for his friend.
Then the 'slow mo' effect wore off and the raft finished capsizing, hurling him into the frigid water. As he hit, he had two thoughts. *Hold your breath* and *Keep your feet up*.
He came up sputtering, turning toward the capsized raft as he shook wet hair out of his eyes. He struck out toward the raft, vaguely aware of voices shouting all around him. He had landed slightly downriver of the raft, however, and no matter how hard he kicked, he was being inexorably drawn down with the water toward The Washboard.
As he hit the rapids, he gave up and turned over on his back. That was when he realized that Jeri was beside him in her kayak.
"Keep your feet up!"
Blair giggled almost hysterically. "I am!"
"I can't pull you out here, because the current is too strong. But I'm going to stay with you."
Blair barely had time to nod as he was sucked down the rapids, learning first hand how much like a wash board the section actually was. He wondered distractedly if there were any rocks that he had missed. He kept his eyes straight ahead, trying to see what was coming next. From the corner of his eye, he could see the purple kayak as Jeri continued to stay beside him, shouting at him to keep his feet up.
Finally the torture was over. The rapids receded, leaving him in a calm, clear pool. Blair wanted nothing more than to close his eyes and rest. But Jeri wouldn't allow that.
"Look at me. I want you to grab the rope at the back of my kayak. I'm going to pull you back to the group. Hold on tight."
Blair watched blearily as she swiftly spun her kayak in the water so that he was facing the back of it. At the very tip, a thick rope looped out from the back. He grabbed it with both hands. As Jeri began to paddle back to the group, he realized that the torture wasn't really over. With each stroke of Jeri's paddle, the rope cut into his hands, leaving him to wonder if he would be able to hold on.
Finally, they reached the rest of the group, and Jeri stopped beside Blair's raft, which had been turned rightside up once more. His three raftmates were already inside, watching remorsefully as he was rescued. All three of the girls reached to pull him back into the raft, nearly capsizing it again. Blair settled back into his seat, still in shock from his wild ride.
"Are you okay, Blair?" Randa leaned back toward him in concern.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Blair tried to slow his breathing to a normal rate. "What about you girls? Are you all okay?"
Kim giggled nervously. "We're fine. Actually, they managed to grab us before we hit the rapids. You were the only one who went down."
Blair sighed. *Just my luck!* He looked up to see Jim paddling furiously toward him. The smile was gone from his face, leaving only concern. *Oh, great! Blessed protector mode!*
"Okay, people. The excitement's over. Let's pull in to shore up ahead. We'll stop for lunch." Tom climbed down from his rock and led the way once more.
"Are you okay, Chief?" Jim had finally reached the raft. He leaned over the edge and grasped Blair's arm gently. "You're bleeding!"
Blair looked down in surprise. He hadn't really felt any aches or pains, but his left arm was dripping blood, and there were burgeoning bruises and scrapes all over his exposed skin. "I didn't feel a thing, Jim."
Jim nodded. "That's the cold water. It kind of anesthetized you. Trust me, it'll wear off soon."
"Great. Something to look forward to."
The trip to shore seemed to take forever, even with Tom and Steve towing the raft behind them. Finally, they scraped across the rocks and stopped. Blair sat still, letting the guides and his partner swarm around him. Gentle hands lifted him from the raft and guided him to a seat on a boulder.
Jeri was already set up with her first aid equipment, and as soon as he was seated, she began to treat his cuts and scrapes. Randa stood nearby watching with Kim and Katie.
"You might want to check his head. I'm pretty sure he hit it on a rock when he went in."
Blair looked at her in surprise. "Thanks for the concern, but I'm fine. You must have been seeing things because I didn't hit my...ow!"
"Sorry, buddy." Jim grimaced at the goose egg on his partner's head. "I beg to differ, but you *did* hit your head. Another thing to look forward to as the cold water wears off."
"That's just great." Blair sighed, then recovered himself enough to smile engagingly at Jeri. "Hey, thanks for the rescue."
Ellison rolled his eyes. "Yeah, you'll be fine."
Jeri smiled back at the two men. "Well, I think we should get Blair down to the bottom as soon as possible. I'm going to go with him, just to make sure everything's okay. Ladies, did you want to switch to other rafts, or do you want to come with us?"
Randa smiled ruefully. "I think we've had our fill of rafting." Kim and Katie nodded emphatically.
"Okay, well let's get moving then."
While Jeri packed up her first aid equipment and tied her kayak on behind the raft, Jim and Steve helped a shaky Blair to walk to the raft and settle back in. The three girls got in around him, leaving room for Jeri to sit in the front.
"I think I'll tag along." Jim headed back to his kayak. "Just to make sure he gets back in one piece."
Blair rolled his eyes halfheartedly. "Mother hen," he muttered.
11:46 pm
"So is this my last neuro check? I'm getting really tired of waking up!" Blair looked at his partner in annoyance.
"Not quite, but I think you're going to be fine." Jim studied Blair solemnly. "I'm really sorry I talked you into this. I should have ridden in the raft with you instead of switching plans at the last minute. Then you wouldn't have ended up with three incompetents as raftmates."
Blair grinned. "Hey, it's okay, Jim. Don't worry about it. It's not *all* bad, you know."
Ellison cocked his head quizzically. "What do you mean? How could anything that happened today be good?"
Blair held up the paper in his hand. "I got Jeri's phone number, man!"
Ellison threw up his hands in mock disgust. "I really wish I knew how you do that!"
Blair chuckled. "It's a gift, man. It's a gift.
Finis