Almost Paradise (1/?)
By Carol M.
Summary: Darien, Claire and Bobby crash land on a deserted island with injuries and no counteragent. Will they survive?
Rating: PG-13 for violence and possible reminders of Sept 11 attacks
Spoilers: None in this part
Disclaimer: Come on UPN, WB, TNN, TNT, etc. you know you want to be the new owners of this wonderful show!
Note: Pull out the ropes people, I'm giving you a few cliffs to hang off of. The next Devil's Silver story will be coming soon, but right now I wanted to have a little adventurous fun with our favorite trio. This fic is one part Castaway, one part Survivor and about two parts Gilligan's Island. Probably won't be posting everyday cause I'm pretty busy, but I will try to get this thing really rolling soon. Anyways, Happy Thanksgiving everyone and enjoy the story!
An old guy named Tennyson once wrote "And paint the gates of Hell with paradise." Well, what we were about to find out is that sometimes even the prettiest pictures have evil lurking behind them.
"Keep, have I ever told you how much I hate to fly," came the slightly annoyed voice of Bobby Hobbes as he stared at the large, ancient-looking military jet sitting on the slick runway of the Misawa Airbase in Japan.
Darien, who was standing next to his partner with heavily lidded eyes that were threatening to shut, yawned. "As long as I can curl up and go to sleep, I really don't care if we fly halfway across the world," said Darien.
Claire smiled in amusement as she handed the last of her luggage to the bag handlers. "Actually, the distance from Japan to San Diego is approximately half-way around the world, Darien."
Darien rolled his eyes. "Okay, can we save the geography lesson until after my nap."
Bobby shook his head. "I don't know how you can sleep on these things, Fawkes."
"Awww, what's the matter, secret agent man afraid to get in a little airplane," mocked Darien as he started walking towards the plane.
"Yeah, yeah, make fun all you like, Fawkesy, but do you know what to do in the event of a crash, huh?" asked Bobby with raised eyebrows as he followed his partner.
Darien turned and looked at Bobby. "Bend over and kiss my skinny see-through ass goodbye?" he said with a half smile.
"Funny, Fawkes, very funny," said Bobby sarcastically.
"Hobbes, we went over all of this on the flight over here, can we not do the whole déjà vu thing now?" asked Darien with anger.
Bobby looked taken aback. "Yeah, sure, whatever you say, Fawkes," he said in a hurt tone.
Darien turned around with an apologetic look on his face. "I'm sorry, man. It's been a tough couple of days, you know?"
Bobby nodded and patted Darien on the back. "Not a problem, partner."
Darien took a moment to look back towards the military base that just three days earlier had held the possibility of freedom and a normal life. The trio had flown to Japan to meet Dr. Harry Grey, a brain surgeon that Claire had discovered had worked with Kevin during the planning stages of the quicksilver gland. She had contacted the doctor and explained Darien's situation. Dr. Grey had agreed to meet Darien and see if there was a way to get the gland out of his head for good.
Surprisingly, the Official had given them all permission to go to Japan. Claire had gone along to assist the doctor with his tests, and Bobby had gone along to protect his partner in case any locals got wind of the Invisible Man being in town and tried to steal him. It had been a hard and exhaustive trip, especially for Darien. After three days of quicksilvering, tests and lots of needles, Dr. Grey determined he could not remove the gland without killing the host.
Darien tried to act like it was no big deal, like he had expected Dr. Grey to fail from the beginning. But the truth was, Darien was taking the news very hard. He wanted nothing more than to go home to his own bed, bury himself under the covers and cry like a baby.
At the moment however, he would settle for curling up in the uncomfortable seats of the plane the Official had chartered for the trip. Darien sighed as he stepped up the rusty stairway to the rickety old plane, feeling sore and exhausted.
"Looks like this baby's on her last legs," commented Bobby as he followed Darien up the staircase.
Claire chuckled from behind him. "I really don't think the Official would let his two most valuable agents fly in a plane that was unsafe, Bobby," she said as she clutched a shiny black briefcase tightly to her chest.
"Don't count on it, Keep," said Bobby.
The trio made their way up the rest of the steps. At the top of the stairs, they were greeted by the stocky, gray-haired pilot and his only slightly thinner and slightly younger co-pilot. "Good to see you folks again. Did you have a nice trip?" asked the pilot.
"Yeah, what can I say, it was wonderful," said Darien sarcastically as he sat in a tacky, orange seat in the first row of the 40 row plane. His long legs protested the large metal panel directly in front of him, but then again airplanes were never known for their leg space.
"Ignore my partner. He just got a little bad sushi, that's all," said Bobby as he took a window seat across the aisle from Darien and immediately buckled his seatbelt.
Claire gave Bobby a sharp look and took the aisle seat next to him. She immediately pulled down her tray table and took several file folders out of her briefcase.
"Doing a little light reading there, Keep?" asked Darien as he glanced at the classified documents spread across her tray table.
She looked over at Darien and smiled sympathetically. "I'm just going over this data again. We might have missed something."
"Thanks for trying, Claire, but you aren't going to find anything new," said Darien dejectedly.
"I can try," she said with a determined look on her face.
Darien gave her a small appreciative smile and then stretched out in his seat, closing his eyes.
Claire's eyes darted to the window as she heard the engines of the plane roar to life. Late afternoon light drifted through the window onto her seat causing her to feel warm and toasty on the chilly plane.
"Should be about a 14 hour flight, folks. Make yourselves comfortable and enjoy the ride," shouted the pilot from the cockpit.
"Yeah, easy for you to say, pal," whispered Bobby under his breath.
Claire rolled her eyes and went back to reading.
An hour later, Darien was snoring softly in his seat and Bobby was staring nervously out the window. Claire glanced at her watch and realized it was time to give Darien his shot. She reached into her briefcase and pulled out a shot of counteragent and an alcohol wipe. Then she carefully unbuckled her seatbelt and stood up, stepping quietly towards Darien.
She grasped one of his arms, which was curled up at his side and gently straightened it, trying not to wake him. She turned his wrist to check the tattoo, which read six red, three green.
Darien moaned softly and opened his eyes. "Wuz happenin?" he mumbled.
"Shh, I'm just giving you your shot," she whispered as she swiped the crook of his arm with the alcohol.
She inserted the needle into his vein and injected the counteragent into his body. Darien hissed at the initial pain and then after a few moments, relaxed back into the seat. He looked up at her with wide, lazy eyes.
Claire reached up into an overhead bin and pulled out a blanket, draping it over Darien. "Go back to sleep," she whispered.
"Hmmm mmm," muttered Darien as he once again closed his eyes.
Claire sat back down in her seat and buckled her seat belt. She glanced at Bobby who was looking over at Darien with concern. "Is he going to be okay?" he asked.
Claire smiled sadly. "I think he's worn out and depressed from getting his hopes up so high. I know he's trying to hide it, but this has got to be very hard for him."
"Maybe when we get home we can take him out on the town, you know, cheer him up a bit," offered Bobby.
Claire nodded in approval. "I think that would be good for him."
She was about to go back to her reading when a sudden shimmy caused her to look towards the cockpit in a slight panic.
"Just a little turbulence, nothing to worry about," the pilot shouted back at his passengers.
Another bump, this one even larger forced Darien out of his much-needed sleep. He looked over at Claire and Bobby with bleary-eyed concern on his face.
Claire opened her mouth to explain, but all that came out was piecing scream as the plane violently started to shake.
"Oh god, oh god, we're crashing, we're crashing!" screamed Bobby.
"You folks might want to buckle your seatbelts. We've hit a rough patch of air," shouted the co-pilot back at the trio.
Darien sat up and immediately buckled his seatbelt. He looked out the window and realized that the now dusky view of the Pacific Ocean seemed to be getting closer. "Aw crap," he whispered as his face went deathly pale.
The plane started to lean down in an almost nose dive, throwing the crew and passengers forward roughly. The plane picked up speed as it plummeted towards the ocean. An alarm sounded in cockpit causing the pilot to mutter a string of curses. "We're losing altitude, brace yourselves, we're going down!" he yelled.
Claire and Bobby instantly grabbed onto one another both nearly hyperventilating with the intensity of their breathing.
Darien looked over at his two friends with terrified puppy dog eyes. "I love you guys!" he shouted.
Claire reached her hand across the aisle and grasped Darien's hand so hard her knuckles turned white. "Darien, Bobby, I love you both," she tearfully screamed.
Bobby grabbed on tighter to Claire and reached over with his other hand to try and touch Darien. "Fawkes, you're the best friend I ever had, bro. Claire, you're gorgeous, smart and funny, and Bobby Hobbes loves you," he proclaimed loudly.
The three friends continued to hold one another as the ocean got closer and closer. After a few moments, the plane started to shake even harder causing the trio to break apart. Darien's hand was forced out of Claire's and his body was jerked to the right against the window.
"Keep!" he screamed in a panic. His body started to randomly quicksilver, making different parts of his anatomy disappear, appear and then disappear again.
"We're about to hit! I can make out a small piece of land up ahead, I'm going to try and land her," yelled the pilot.
Darien stole a glance out the window and a few seconds later, saw a stretch of sand covered in palm trees. The bottom of the plane took out the tops of several trees as the aircraft barreled past the island.
"Son of a bitch!" screamed the pilot.
The plane skipped across the water once and bounced back in the air, tossing the plane's occupants around in their seats.
Darien closed his eyes as the plane was about to make its second and final descent into the water. "See you in a few minutes, Kevin," he whispered to himself.
Seconds later, the plane impacted with the water. Darien's body was violently lurched forward, his head bashing against the panel in front of him and his seatbelt clawing at his stomach painfully hard. He blacked out almost instantly.
Claire and Bobby, still gripping one another tightly, were thrown side to side in their seats, sending Bobby into the window and flinging Claire into the armrest. As water slowly started leaking into the plane, an eerie silence filled the cabin as it was slowly turned into a metal coffin.
TBC