Hi friends! Here's chapter 21 for you! A little shorter than the last. But I hope you will like it anyway!
Chapter 21 – Rescue
Hazel's POV
Sawyer and Hazel sat on a blanket at the beach. Well, Sawyer was sitting up, Hazel was lying down with her head in his lap. She held her hand in his and they were playing a silly game with them, trying to capture each other's fingers or drawing imaginary patterns on the back of their hands.
For once nothing acute were happening at the CMA so she and Sawyer saw this as the perfect day to take some time off and just enjoy each other's company. Hazel fingered slightly on the necklace hanging around her neck with the hand she wasn't playing with. It was the necklace Sawyer had given her the day before, and Hazel had made sure to wear it. To prove how much she liked it, which she really did. It was perfect! Not to fancy and not to simple. Just perfect.
"Hazel?" Sawyer asked suddenly.
"Yes? What is it?"
"Have you heard anything yet?"
"From who?" She looked up at him with curiosity in her eyes.
"College…"
"Oh… No, not yet." Hazel felt a small twinge in her chest when she thought about it, something she hadn't done in weeks. There hadn't really been time for that. But now that she did, she wondered why… "Why haven't I heard something, Sawyer?" Hazel felt a tear forming in her eye and realized how worried she actually was.
"I don't know…" Sawyer answered quietly. Hazel felt how he monitored for her to sit up, which she did. He took both of her hands in his. "But I'm sure it's nothing. I'm sure you'll get in."
"How?"
"I just do. And besides, would you really want to spend all those years cramped up with me?" He winked at her.
A small smile escaped Hazel's mouth. "Goof" she said and nudged him with her shoulder. She leaned him and kissed him on the cheek before hugging him tightly.
Sawyer's POV
Sawyer released himself a little, only to lean in again and kiss her. It wasn't the sweet kiss they usually shared, it was more fierce, longing. Hazel quickly followed the hint and put one hand around his waist and the other on the nape of his neck, playing with his hair. Sawyer slowly lowered on the ground with him landing on top of her. He started to kiss the side of her chin then along the jaw line. Just when he was about to reach Hazel's neck, her phone ringed.
"Busted…" Sawyer whispered.
"Do I have to get that?" Hazel asked, more to herself than Sawyer.
"It might be important." Sawyer moved to the side to that Hazel could sit up. Her lips were slightly swollen from the kiss and her eyes were dark. "Hello? Oh, hi dad. What's up?" Sawyer had to appreciate the irony. "What?" Sawyer immediately noticed the change in tone. She sounded worried. "Where?" Sawyer watched her listen for a moment. "Oh my god, that's right beside us, we'll meet you there!" She hung up.
"What's going on" Sawyer worriedly asked as Hazel stood up and started to tug at the blanket to make him stand up too. "Hazel?"
"An otter has been washed up ashore. It's pretty bad."
"How bad? Where?"
"Very bad according to the guy who called it in. At the beach beside this one."
They packed up the belongings and started running. They ran as fast as they could to the next beach and when they got there, it wasn't hard to see where the otter had drifted ashore.
Hazel's POV
Everyone had gathered in a circle round something Hazel couldn't see because she was too short, but she already know that the poor otter was the thing they were staring at. She could hear people talking to each other.
"Where did it come from?" a woman asked.
"What should we do about it?" a man said.
"Does anyone have medical training?" another man asked.
"But didn't someone call in a team?" a different woman asked, trying to hold her daughter back. "Sarah, don't go near it!"
"Mommy is it dead?" the little girl asked.
Sawyer marched into the crowd with a stern look on his face. "Excuse us" he said and started to shuffle the crowd to the sides. "Coming through, please move, sir please step out of the way." Hazel followed the trail he left behind.
"Hey, kids!" a grumpy looking man shouted to them when they closed in on the otter. "Don't touch it!"
"We're with the CMA" Sawyer said.
"Yeah right! The CMA sends in a pair of teenagers without equipment? I don't think so."
"We were already in the area when the beaching was alarmed" Hazel answered calmly as she bent down to look at the poor thing. "The rest of the team is on its way."
"You two are kids!" the grumpy man said.
"Actually we are both eighteen, and unlike you we have training. So please sir, back off" Sawyer said between what sounded like gritted teeth. Hazel didn't look at him, but she could hear from his tone how serious and stern his face was. "Who called it in?"
"I did" a man said, breaking free from the crowd.
"Thank you" Sawyer said in a gentler tone. "Good job."
Hazel examined the wounds. It was miracle that the otter was still alive. The lower half of its body was tangled in some sort of fishing net like wire and a large hook that now had pierced right through the body had before made large deep cut around it as it had tried to free itself. Sawyer had taken off his shirt and Hazel slowly lifted the wounded part so that Sawyer could put his shirt under the otter to prevent even more sand from finding its way into the cuts. The otter was so weak it didn't even try to protect itself from them.
"Sawyer do you have something sharp?" Hazel asked.
"Only the bottle opener, but I don't think we can cut the wire with it" Sawyer answered.
"Does anyone have a knife?" Hazel asked loudly to the crowd.
"I have a knife!" a woman said, walking towards them with it.
"Thank you." Hazel took it from the woman and started to remove the wire but cutting it.
In the meantime, Sawyer had taken out some napkins from his bag and gently tried to put pressure on the cuts to stop the bleeding. The otter made a faint sound.
"I know, I know" Sawyer whispered. "I'm sorry."
Suddenly Hazel heard the sound of a large vehicle parking nearby. The crowd scattered to look after what had made the sound, which led to that Hazel could see something else then just scared citizens. She recognized the truck.
"Thank god" she said. "Hey! We're down here!" she added screaming to her dad and the rest of the team.
Her dad was the first in the team to make it down to the beach.
"How bad is it?" he asked before he saw it himself a moment later. "Oh god." He turned around. "Phoebe! Bring in the stretcher now!"
Hazel could hear phoebe shouting something back, but not what. The next one to arrive was Kat who was holding the camera.
Soon enough Phoebe was on scene with the stretcher along with the rest of the team and the started pulling the otter onto the stretcher.
"Nice work, guys" Hazel's dad said.
"Thanks" Sawyer said.
"Hazel, tell the operating theater to be on standby so that we can start stitching we wounds right away."
"Of course" Hazel answered and started dialing the number on her phone. Meanwhile the team started carrying the otter back to the truck. When the all stepped in, Hazel made a silent pray that this poor otter wouldn't die.
If you liked it, please leave a review! Help me reach 200! Please! See you soon in "Treating"!
Simple Swedish of the chapter: Utter – Otter