Proving Ground
Summary: "Spider, you idiot, you didn't have to prove yourself to me." The crew deal with a mission gone wrong.
Disclaimer: If I owned Sea Patrol then they would act a little bit smarter (ie. Monday's ep, why did no one think to check if the guy they showed around their entire ship was a baddy??)
Authors Note: This is set in season 3 (no specific date or anything, but after early season 3 events) and so there are some spoilers.
The process of waking up, Bomber decided, had gotten decidedly harder since she tried it the day before. Instead of being able to spring up out of the bed, ready for another day, she was finding it hard to get the energy to even open one eye, and the thought of being able to move even her pinky finger made her want to stay asleep for at least another three days.
She groaned and fought with her eye-lids, which were being decidedly uncooperative. It felt a little bit like a really really hideous hang-over, but she could tell by the slight movement beneath her that she was still on Hammersly, so how on earth had she managed to get that drunk on duty?
Her senses were coming back in spits and spurts, and increasingly she could hear people moving around her, talking in quiet whispers. This, even more so than the epic hangover that was going on, confused her. Usually when she was waking up the rest of her bunkmates were fast asleep, after all, no one else wanted to be up at the crack of dawn to help her make breakfast (not that she wouldn't have appreciated the help).
She groaned again, slightly louder this time, and succeeded in opening one eye. The other was still refusing to cooperate, but she couldn't really be bothered to think about reasons for this just yet. Apparently the slightly primal sounds she had been making had attracted some attention, because next thing she knew Swain's voice was hovering over her, and she was having a pen-light shone in one eye, (which woke up a headache she would have preferred to live without, thankyou very much).
She tried to shove him away, but her arm wouldn't work, and her attempt to bellow something rude about where he could go stick the pen-light failed, instead coming out something like "Sw'n…li'…'ve…'ss!"
Apparently, though, Swain was going mad, because her somewhat garbled insult became cause for celebration. He had patted her on the shoulder, and then she had heard him triumphantly calling down the CO to come and see for himself.
Bomber was extremely confused. They were men, yes, so this possibly explained some of the madness of wanting to observe and celebrate over the awakening of a woman who must have been absolutely potted the night before, but not even their gender could completely explain the insanity that had taken over the crew. After all, Swain had always been a man, and had seemed somewhat more rational previous to this.
When she tuned back in again Swain had put the pen-light down and was now poking and prodding her, waking up previously unknown pains all over her body. A sharp ache was starting to make itself known in her wrist, her ribs well hurt, and the headache begun by the pen-light was expanding, encompassing not just her entire head and face, but also giving her neck a stiffness she didn't think had been there yesterday.
Swain, as he poked, seemed to be saying something, and she tried to tune in, hoping for an explanation of how this had all happened. He was using the tone that she called his "calming medic voice", which concerned her, because it meant she was either on the verge of death, or about to be hit on.
And that was when it hit her that maybe she wasn't hung over (because, generally, achy wrists and painful ribs were not a side-effect of drinking too much), but that something somewhat serious had happened. (This would also explain Swain and the CO's apparent desire to celebrate her waking up.)
She tried to sit up and ask Swain what exactly was going on, but it came out more of a little wiggle and "…'t hap'ned"
Thankfully Swain had obviously had a lot of practice at decoding the mad sounding mutterings of people waking up in Bomber's condition.
"You don't remember Bom? You were on a fishing boat, and there was an explosion. You've been unconscious for almost 12 hours."
And then it all came back, her memory surprising her with is intensity. A fishing boat that had been floating in the ocean, a team dispatched to check out what was going on, she had turned around to tell Spider off for dropping something, and then a shove, and then nothing.
She groaned, frustrated this time, how was it that she had been unconscious for 12 hours and yet there was no Spider, the clumsy oaf, sitting by her bedside ready to apologise for distracting her so she didn't see the bomb before it was too late. (She also took a moment to consider the irony of being blown up when her nickname was bomber.)
She took a moment to try and moisten her dry lips before speaking again, and this time her words almost came out the way she meant them.
"Where's Spider?"
Swain, who had the worst poker face on the ship, looked startled for a moment, and dropped into "calming medic voice".
"You've been through a lot Bom. The CO is on his way down here, but it might be easier if you try and grab some sleep and he can talk to you later."
This, a blatantly awful attempt to subtly change the subject, got her attention as quickly as if he had done an interpretive dance that something was not right.
"Swain?" This time her voice trembled slightly, concerned. Because in her memory she was beginning to hear not only the terrible concussive blast of an explosion, but a shout, just before it. Something that sounded awfully like a "Get down Bomber" was proceeding the shove she had received, and now the last thing she could remember was a warm body covering hers before the darkness arrived.
