Warnings: Swearing, Character Injury, Blood/Gore, Needles, Medical Procedures
Characters: Marvin the Magnificent, Jackieboy Man, Chase Brody, Dr. Schneeplestein, Jameson Jackson
POV: Jackieboy Man

"Safe?" Marvin actually snorted at that. Jackie couldn't help but agree. "How the hell is this area safe? We're barely a kilometer from the Reaper. What if it just… I don't know, wanders over here?"

Chase rolled his eyes. "When I say 'safe' I just mean as safe as it seems this damn planet's gonna get. Considerin' what I've heard from the rest of you, at least the buggers around here are avoidable. And," he added, "lookin' at the Reaper's file, it's way too big to come into this area. So should be safe from that one, at least."

Jackie scraped his broken flare over the stone thoughtfully. "Okay. So we're 'bout as safe as we're gonna get here, right? What about supplies?"

"Lots of metal salvage 'round here that's easy to get. A lot of the blueprints need titanium, so that's covered."

"And the ship?" Marvin ran a hand through his hair, pulling it free from its rebelling bun. "We'll need radiation suits, but none of us have blueprints for them."

"Yeah…that I'm not sure about."

"Let's just focus on a habitat builder and dive suits," Jackie suggested. "Then we can worry about findin' a way onto the ship."

The repairman only shrugged. "Sure. Sounds like a plan."

"Uh… How're we gonna get silver, copper, and gold, though?" Marvin's brows were furrowed as he glared down at his PDA.

"If they're in the blueprints, that means they're within a certain radius of whatever lifepod our PDAs synced to." Chase gestured out at the water, then. "I found copper when my PDA prompted me to break a rock. It was just like. Super crumbly, I guess, and easy to break up. Like crust, sort of? coated around the copper I needed for a scanner. There's outcrops of crumbly rocks everywhere down there. The other minerals might be like that, too."

Jackie shrugged. "Worth a shot."

With that settled, the three of them split up with a final warning from Chase about exploding fish (exploding fish? What was wrong with this planet?) and metal-loving sharks, though kept within view of each other. Night had fallen by then, but the shallows were surprisingly easy to find their way about with the bioluminescent plants and fish. Yeah, even the fish glowed despite how shallow it was. How cool is that? Jackie thought as he watched a Peeper with its massive, glowing eyes dart past.

Finding a stone outcrop like Chase had described, Jackie took his flare and jammed the broken end into the stone.

Sure enough, the thin outer layer crumbled away to reveal—

…Titanium.

There were natural deposits like that? Well, that's great and all, but they had more of the stuff than they needed for the moment. It couldn't have been one of the other materials they still needed instead of the one they already had plenty of? Jackie huffed through his nose and shoved the metal in his pocket; it hadn't even been a decent-sized deposit, for crying out loud.

Jackie was only managing to find titanium, so went to collect the…acid mushrooms? instead. The other two were still gathering metals; he might as well get the plant since he wasn't having any luck with that.

With the three of them searching, it didn't take long for all the materials for the habitat builder to be scraped up and they met back on the rock formation.

"So." Chase gave what Jackie could only describe as a glare to Pod Five, "Who wants to be the lucky winner to go in there and put this stuff on the fabricator?"

"Not me," Marvin almost laughed with a shake of the head. "That doctor seems like a jerk. No thanks."

"Nose goes!"

Both Chase and Marvin touched a finger to their noses.

Jackie only blinked owlishly at them. How old were they, again..?

"Okay, fine. Whatever. Just give me the stuff."

The materials were practically shoved at him and he tossed his flare to Chase for the trade.

He didn't bother slipping his mask back on and just left the entire oxygen tank with the other two.

Entering the lifepod revealed Jameson and Schneeplestein leaning against opposite walls, as far from each other as they could get. Jameson looked exhausted, but he was awake and alert. Good, good. The doctor kept wincing and had his tongue caught between his teeth as he tried cleaning the bite marks in his leg. Now that most of the blood had been washed away, Jackie could clearly see the marks were a lot deeper than he'd thought.

He put the items on the fabricator and selected the habitat builder, then went to kneel at the doctor's side as the machine went to work.

"Hey…need any help?"

"No," the other man growled without so much as glancing his way.

"What about stitches? That…looks pretty bad."

"Is fine."

Jackie cast a look to Jameson, but the chef only shrugged in an "already tried, no luck" sort of way.

"You know what? No. That's not fine. That's a bad injury, and I'm helping whether you want it or not."

The glare he received could cut stone.

"Don't give me that look. You were totally willing to take my help back at Twelve, but now you're too good for a non-officer? That it? Give me the damn supplies and suck it up."

From behind him, Jackie heard a huff of air that was probably a laugh from their other companion. Another sound from the machine revealed the habitat builder was finished.

"I'll be right back. Let me get that to the other two, then I'll try and stitch ya up."

The doctor mumbled something in a language Jackie wasn't familiar with (was he from a non-Alterra colony? would explain the accent he wasn't sure he'd heard before) as the younger man grabbed the device and slipped back out. Chase and Marvin took it without a word and went to collect…whatever would be needed for a multipurpose room—Jackie hadn't bothered to check before returning to the pod.

More glaring, then the medical kit was shoved at his chest.

"Crab ass."

A shake of the head. He wasn't completely sure what he was doing, he'd never even touched a surgical needle before, but it shouldn't be too hard, right? Clean it (or, finish cleaning it since the doctor had already started), stitch it, clean it again?

He dabbed alcohol from the kit around one of the bite marks. The skin around it was an angry red, and when he used a cotton swab to clean inside the wound itself, he couldn't help a sympathetic wince as the doctor grit his teeth and tried to stay still.

"…Is this down to the bone?" The swab had gone farther than he expected and now that he was actually touching the wound. The skin around the doctor's ankle was practically shredded in places and he didn't have to do much prodding to see the…admittedly, he didn't know what it was called, but the bony parts of the ankle. The part Jackie hated because damn did it hurt smacking them against anything.

Jackie wasn't particularly fond of the sight of the bone. Who'd have thought he'd see it while the person it belonged to was still connected to said bone and still alive? Well, there's a first for everything, he thought with a suppressed shudder. "Shit… And we don't have painkillers or anything? Why the fuck don't the kits have them?"

"To…to keep crew and passengers f-from taking advantage of them. They were i-in the Med Bay and likely did not s…survive the crash." Schneeplestein swallowed. Now he wouldn't even look at his leg.

"Okay… Just. Try not to bite your tongue, okay? That'd be a little harder to fix." Jackie had left his hoodie at the bottom of the ocean, the doctor had one layer of scrubs on… Oh! Jameson always wore something under his work shirt, didn't he? A white shirt? Or…tank top? Whatever it was, it stood out against the black collar. "Uh. James?" He turned to face the chef, who shifted to turn one ear more toward him. "Your work shirt. Can I take it?"

The chef's eyes shifted between him and the doctor before he nodded. No questions asked, the work shirt came off and was tossed over to them.

It was still damp and would taste like salt, but, "Bite this while I try to stitch your leg."

And stitch it he…tried. Twice.

He was security, not a doctor, and he'd be lying if he said he hadn't gagged at least once while trying to thread the needle through Schneeplestein's leg.

Maybe it would be harder than he thought.

"I-I, uh…don't think I can—"

A hand on his shoulder startled him.

Jameson had crawled over and now he was gesturing at the doctor's leg. "Just…" his hands hovered for a moment, like he was trying to think of what to say, "think of it like steak?"

Jackie could practically feel the color drain from his face. At least it seemed like Schneeplestein either wasn't paying attention or didn't understand sign so was oblivious to Jameson's words.

"I know you're tryin' to help, but that really didn't help."

The chef actually rolled his eyes at that and snatched the needle from Jackie's hands.

"You nearly drowned. You're not doing it; you need to just go rest."

Schneeplestein gave a huff—agreement? Jackie couldn't really tell.

"You aren't going to do it, that much is obvious." He nearly poked himself with the needle while signing and proceeded to glare at the offending object. "I've had to stitch up my employees when they got careless with utensils. I can do it again for our doctor. Just help him hold his leg still and I've got this."

All Jackie could think after Jameson got started with stitching the bites was that he was glad the doctor wasn't combat trained. He didn't feel like being knocked away or having his nose broken (again).

Instead, Schneeplestein just bit down on the shirt and…well, he tried to stay still, Jackie would give him that. His leg would occasionally twitch to try and pull away from the needle, or he'd pound a fist down on the floor of the lifepod, causing both Jackie and Jameson to startle at the resounding bang, but he was trying his damnedest to stay still through the pain.

"Almost done," Jackie finally said. He wasn't sure which of them was most relieved. Even the doctor, pale and sweat rather than seawater now the reason for his hair sticking to this forehead, let his shoulders slump as he nodded.

All Jameson had left to do was clean the wound again, wipe excess blood away, and bandage it.

It was honestly adorable the big smile he had as he finished up; the chef was so proud of himself!

"I think that's it then?" Jackie glanced between the other two; Jameson nodded. "Maybe they've got a basic habitat started out there."

"Good. This pod is far too cramped."

"Heh… Agreed. I'll go check, then bring you both down if it's ready." Jackie pulled the bottom hatch open, "James, good job. Thanks," and slipped into the water below.