I may never finish it, but I wanted to share some of the scene's I envisioned with you all.
Bonnie clutched Richard and Jason in a fierce hug, even as her mind whirled to discover a way out of their dilemma. Richard's seaplane must be close, she reasoned, for he must have swum from it to the Gertrude's sea ladder. That was it. She, Richard and Jason would find their way up on deck, swim back to the plane, and get away from this awful mess. Bonnie was still congratulating herself on the beauty of her simple plan when a spire of living rock stabbed into the Gertrude's hull.
The yacht shuddered as it was lifted bodily out of the water, impaled on a slowly extending arm of massive crystal. Not designed with bearing such forces in mind, the yacht's structure began to groan and wail, as metal stretched, twisted and tore.
Bonnie, Richard and Jason started for the door of the pantry, but before they reached it the Gertrude broke in half, her stern swinging down toward the raging sea, still attached to the rest of the hull (though only barely) by the yacht's keel plates.
The stern hung there for a moment, but only a moment. Bonnie and Richard, after picking themselves up from the tangle of debris that had come flying out of the pantry's cupboards and shelves, gathered Jason up and considered their dilemma. They didn't have long to think. The tortured metal holding the Gertrude's stern to the rest of her hull gave way. The stern slammed into the sea, even as the bow disintegrated and plummeted from sight.
The stern sank quickly. Bonnie could hear water rushing into it, and feel the wind of displaced air. All too soon, water came flooding in through the ventilation ducts.
That wasn't all bad, though. She, Richard and Jason had only to float up with the water, and let the Gertrude sink away beneath them, and they would be fine. As they floated 'up' towards the pantry door, Bonnie felt a thrill of exaltation. Then a breaking wave slammed the pantry door shut above them, and green water flooded across the small porthole that was the door's only window.
The light faded quickly. Bonnie and Richard pounded on the door, but the pressure of the water outside was too great. On a minor positive note, the pantry had stopped flooding. An air pocket a few inches deep was trapped between the pantry bulkhead and the water below. Bonnie considered it a mixed blessing. Sure, they were in no immediate danger of drowning, but the air meant they might live to freeze to death in the ocean depth's. Already the water was getting colder. And of course, when the pressure got too great, the pantry door or window would fail, and they would drown in seconds.
It was all Bonnie could do to keep from weeping. Not so much for herself or Richard, but for Jason. He would never get to grow up, never get married, never have babies of his own. He was going to die in Davy Jones' Locker, and there was nothing she or Richard could do about it.
And then…
And then…
And then a pair of feet clad in red boots hit the pantry door on either side of the window.
"Jason, get on my back!" Richard commanded, and Bonnie felt a brief, irrational spurt of jealousy at Richard's faith. Faith that they were going to live. Because Kim Possible had come.
Outside the pantry Kim hooked her fingers under one of the lateral girders that formed and supported the Gertrude's hull. As she willed herself upward, she felt the weight of the hull and the water within it. The sinking stern slowed, stopped, and began to rise.
Inside the pantry Richard and Bonnie were staring in joy and wonder, hardly allowing themselves to hope as darkness became light, and then gave way to a gray, cloud tossed sky. Kim let go of the girder with one hand, and used it to rip the pantry door right off its hinges. Reaching down, she said to Richard, "Give me your hand!"
Richard reached up and closed his hand around Kim's forearm, near her elbow, even as she did the same to him.
"Have you got them?" she asked, nodding at Bonnie and Jason.
Richard glanced back at his wife and son, then turned to Kim and nodded.
"Yeah!" he shouted above the wind and sea.
Kim let go of the Gertrude. As Richard glanced down the wreck plunged beneath the waves and disappeared. Looking up, he stared into bright green eyes flanked by water-matted crimson tresses.
"Thank you," he said.
