A/N: Thanks pallysd'Artagnan for reviewing again!
Also, thanks to 29Pieces for beta reading this one even though she hasn't even seen the show yet, and to tessseagull for helping me with the Spanish in all my fics. ^_^
"Through Stormy Weather"
2371
Raffi had heard of Commander Helenski's unique brand of "testing" his students in his Survival Strategies course. She'd thought maybe it was exaggerated. And if not, surely she could handle whatever he thought to throw at her.
She'd anticipated it coming nearer the end of the semester, a final exam so to speak. So she had been completely caught off guard mid-Spring when he'd taken a portion of his class up in a shuttle, after having instructed them to deposit everything on their persons in a bucket back at the shuttle bay, and proceeded to beam them out one by one and drop them in the middle of the wilderness to fend for themselves for the next twenty-four hours.
Needless to say, Raffi was not happy. Sure, she understood the idea in principle, but in application? The sun was beating down on her head, her black uniform pants were soaking in the heat like a radiator, and there were insects buzzing around her face and curls. All in all, this sucked.
But standing around grousing wasn't going to improve things. She needed to start with the basics: shelter and water. She picked a direction and began walking.
It wasn't long before she was sweating all the way through her uniform and the humidity was plastering pieces of hair to her forehead while other parts frizzed out. She didn't even want to think about how she'd look—and smell—when she was finally picked up. Her only consolation was there was a group of them out here all being subjected to this humiliation.
Her mouth quirked as she wondered how Rios was making do. She'd love to get higher marks than him on this assessment.
Filled with a new determination, Raffi pressed on, eventually finding a stream several minutes later. She practically flung herself to the ground at the water's edge and splashed the cool refreshing liquid over her face and neck. Thirst hit her like a sledgehammer but she had to catch herself before taking a drink. All the microbes in there would wreak havoc on the human intestinal biome.
She rocked back on her haunches, debating how to approach this. She'd have to boil the water before drinking, which meant she'd need a fire. Phasers could be used to heat rocks to the point where they generated heat, but Commander Helenski was too much of a hard-ass to allow them even that one piece of gear. She'd have to use the archaic—and ridiculous—method of rubbing two sticks together.
Raffi gathered up some dry brush and twigs, then found two larger sticks to rub against each other in order to create enough friction to start a fire.
However, it wasn't working quite like it was theoretically supposed to. She kept at it determinedly, rubbing harder and harder until her arms ached and sweat was beading across her brow again. A brisk breeze cooled her face, offering some relief. Raffi tossed the sticks down with a grunt and plopped back on her ass. Yeah, this was going well so far.
The wind picked up with a forceful gust, and all of a sudden it seemed the sky turned darker. Raffi glanced up to find heavy, ominous clouds had obscured the sun. The sweat that had been sweltering moments before now felt icy as chilled air brushed across her skin. Thunder rumbled faintly in the distance.
Raffi waited, trepidation setting her on edge. It wasn't long before the heavens opened up and unleashed a torrential downpour.
She surged to her feet. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me!"
Lightning forked across the sky, followed by a loud snap of thunder. Raffi scrambled across the ground in search of shelter, boots slipping in the sediment that quickly turned to slick sludge. Her comm badge crackled with a distorted voice.
She slapped the device pinned to her shirt. "Here! Do you copy? Hello!"
Several successive flashes lit up the sky, some branching down to the ground. The interference was probably messing with the comms, and the transporters. Even if Starfleet had wanted to call off this training exercise and retrieve the cadets, they wouldn't be able to. Which meant this taste of practical experience was now a real matter of survival.
A massive boom above her head rattled Raffi's rib cage and sent her heart lurching. She needed to get out of this. But everywhere she turned was a gray haze under the unrelenting deluge.
"Raffi!"
She pulled up short, unsure if she'd heard right over the din. Movement up a ways caught her eye.
"Over here!" It was Rios, standing just underneath a small escarpment and waving to get her attention.
She adjusted course and sprinted toward the partial shelter under a cleft of rock, throwing herself against the back wall and breathing heavily. Water streamed down her face from her waterlogged curls.
"Are you all right?" Rios asked. He was just as soaked through as she was.
"Oh yeah, peachy."
He looked back out at the weather. "Pretty sure this wasn't on the commander's agenda."
Raffi snorted. "If there weren't issues of liability involved, he'd probably wait for a day like this to throw us out here."
Rios canted his head in concession of that. "How long do you think it'll take them to get us out of here?"
"I don't know." Raffi straightened, mouth pressed into a grim line. "This lightning is gonna screw with all the instruments. We could be stuck until it's over."
He ran a hand through his hair, flinging droplets everywhere. Raffi was abruptly reminded of her thirst, and she turned her gaze out at the rain. Part of her wanted to just stick her head out and tip it back to let the water pour into her mouth, but it was coming down really hard, drumming thunderously on the ground.
Rios bent down and sifted through the rock and dirt before picking up a piece of bark with a small dip in the middle. Straightening, he held it out to collect some of the rain.
Raffi crossed her arms. "I bet you made fire rubbing two sticks together," she muttered.
He smirked. "I hadn't even thought to try that. I was still looking for a water source when the storm hit."
"We have water now."
"That we do." When the bark was half full, he brought it back in and took a long drag, then passed it over.
Raffi tried to tip the water into her mouth without having to touch her lips to the rough bark. The cold liquid slaked her thirst but sent a shudder down her spine as a chill wormed its way down to her marrow.
"Are we having fun yet?" Rios said rhetorically.
Raffi wrapped her arms around her middle as the shivering started in earnest. "Damn weather forecast didn't see this coming?" she groused.
"Those forecasts are notoriously unreliable," Rios replied, grimacing as a gust of wind whipped down under the scarp.
Raffi snorted. "By five degrees or so. Not the difference between sunny skies and a monsoon!"
They fell silent, huddling in misery as the storm continued to rage. The wind was gusting so fiercely that the rain was slanting horizontally and bombarding them under their inadequate shelter.
"Want to try looking for some place better?" Rios asked.
Raffi bit her lip as she thought about it. They weren't exactly protected here, and it was frickin' cold. "Yeah," she said. "Staying here isn't doing us any favors."
With grim looks, they ventured from the cleft and out into the full brunt of the storm. Some rocky hills weren't far, and they would hopefully find a cave where they could fully shelter in. Raffi's soaked clothing clung to her frame and added an extra few pounds that seemed heavier than it should have as she slogged her way up an incline. The wind howled.
Lightning suddenly forked down in a multi-pronged branch, striking a large oak tree mere feet in front of them. The trunk split right down the middle with a resounding crack that was almost immediately drowned out by a bone-rattling boom that encompassed everything.
Raffi felt arms throw themselves around her and then she was being flung away from the tree just as it snapped in half and began to fall. She pitched sideways and hit the ground, Rios's arms firmly wrapped around her. They tumbled together, back down the slope for several yards until finally coming to a jarring stop at the bottom in shallow standing water.
Raffi groaned and rolled onto her side, several different places twinging with new bruises. She twisted around, ready to curse Rios out for that brilliant move, but froze when she saw him lying sprawled on the ground, eyes closed and blood streaming from a gash on the side of his head.
"Shit." She scrambled over, grabbing his shoulders and digging her fingernails into them. "Rios. No, no, no. Cris!" She reached under his jaw line to feel for a pulse and found one. She tapped his cheek insistently. "Come on, Rios, don't you do this to me."
He didn't stir. The deluge was still coming down and the ravine they were in was filling with water. Raffi rocked back and forth, trying to focus on taking several deep breaths. She needed to stay calm, needed to keep a clear head. And they needed to get out of here.
Steeling her jaw, she grabbed Rios's arm and hauled him up over her shoulder in a fireman's carry, staggering under his weight. Her legs quavered, but she forced one foot in front of the other, taking slow, strenuous steps as she searched for an easy way out of the ravine.
The slopes gradually leveled out, and Raffi managed to get them both clear before a flash flood happened to strike. Because that would have just been their luck.
A stretch of rocky hills loomed before her, and she scanned their base for signs of a cave.
"Thank god," she breathed, spotting a dark recess in the granite.
Muscles quivering, Raffi pushed on, body bent almost double, eyes on her goal, and Rios's heavy weight across her back. It seemed to take forever but at last she stumbled into the cave, mustering the strength to make it just a few more feet, and then she collapsed, bringing them both down with a heavy thud.
Raffi folded over herself, chest heaving from exertion. She wanted nothing more than to just lay there and not move but knew she couldn't. She took the time to catch her breath, then focused on heaving herself up again and crawling over to Rios. He was still unconscious. Most of the blood had washed away into pinkish trails down his neck and collar, but more was oozing out from the gash.
Raffi straightened and wrestled her jacket off, then peeled her sodden gray shirt up over her head. A fierce shiver shook her entire body as gooseflesh rippled up her now bare arms. Her tank top was also wet but she opted to leave it on.
She bunched up her damp shirt and pressed it to Rios's temple. Head wounds could bleed a lot, she mentally reminded herself. It didn't have to mean he was dying.
"You'd better not die on me," she muttered out loud.
She checked after a few minutes and found the bleeding had slowed. That was one potentially life-threatening thing temporarily taken care of. There was still hypothermia to worry about.
Raffi set about wresting Rios out of his clothes, leaving him in just his undershirt and boxers. She stripped off her clingy pants next. She knew it was important to get out of wet clothing but she was shivering even more now. Rios was icy pale where he lay.
Raffi roved her gaze around the cave, taking stock of it. She belatedly wondered whether there was something already living inside, but there was little to do now if there was.
There was some dried brush scattered about, enough to clump together for kindling. She picked up some stones and turned them over in her palms ruminatively. Rubbing two sticks together had been an utter failure, but she could try striking two stones against each other.
Taking a breath, she knelt in front of the dried brush and scraped one stone across the other in a quick, sharp movement. Nothing happened. She tried again, and again, fighting the urge to cry when it still didn't work.
Then, just as she was about to scream in helpless frustration, a spark ignited, flitting down to land in the dry grass. Raffi held her breath as she watched it catch and slowly simmer. She bent down, heart jackhammering, and gently blew on the embers, hoping to fuel them. The dried pieces crackled as the flames took hold, spreading out into a small fire.
Raffi rocked back and let out a delirious, choked laugh, then thrust her hands over the flames, shuddering at the warmth kissing her frozen flesh. Twisting around, she grabbed Rios under the arms and scooted him closer, settling his head in her lap as she curled around his upper body to share body heat. It didn't feel like it was working, and Raffi's throat constricted under suffocating despair.
But eventually her shivers eased as her skin dried. Her underclothes were still damp and uncomfortable but bearable. The insulated cave began to keep the scant heat the fire generated inside its confines.
Rios let out a low moan.
Raffi jerked upright and leaned over him, brushing lank hair back from his brow. "Cris? Can you hear me?"
His face puckered slightly and he turned toward her voice.
"Rios," Raffi said more loudly. "Come on, open your eyes, dammit."
Slowly, very slowly, his eyelids cracked open. "Raffi?" he murmured.
She let out a shaky smile. "Yeah."
"What…happened?" He squinted at her as though in pain.
"Lightning hit a tree and we fell," she explained. "I found this cave though. So we can just sit here, dry and warm, until the storm's over."
"Mm." His eyes closed, then slowly peeled open again and he lolled them to the side. "You made fire," he whispered, sounding impressed.
"Yeah. I should get an A after this."
Rios hummed in what sounded like agreement as his eyes slipped closed again.
"Hey." She tapped his cheek. "You have a head injury. You need to stay awake."
He jolted them open again, obviously trying to do as told, but they kept dropping to half-mast.
"Teach me some Spanish," Raffi said.
Rios forced his eyes open yet again. "Now?"
"Yes."
He let out a pained groan that might have been protest, but after a moment said, "Fuego."
"Did you just cuss at me?"
The corner of his mouth ticked up before quickly morphing into a grimace. "It means 'fire.'"
"Fuego," she repeated.
"Mm. Tormenta."
"Torment? Are you in pain?" she asked worriedly.
Again, he smiled faintly. "I am, but that means 'storm.'"
"I see we're going with a theme. Alright, what's the word for 'rain'?"
"Lluvia." His breath hitched and he muttered, "A la mierda con esto."
"And what's that mean?"
"That I'm so over this survival training," he said tiredly, voice fading.
Raffi swallowed hard as Rios obviously lost the battle to stay awake. She folded her arms around him and rested her chin on the top of his head, huddling together in silence for warmth and listening to the storm. At some point, the lightning and thunder stopped, and about an hour after that, Raffi saw the bright swirls of transporter lights appear outside the cave.
"Hello!" someone shouted.
"In here!"
A rescue team, along with Commander Helenski, jogged in. Two medics immediately crouched down beside Raffi and Rios and began running medical tricorders over them both.
"He hit his head," she said. "I tried to keep him awake."
"You did well," one of the medics assured her as the other brought out a triage blanket to drape over Rios. She tapped her comm badge. "Get ready to transport."
Raffi looked up at the Commander and felt her cheeks flush hotly as she abruptly remembered she and Rios were in their underwear. "We weren't- our clothes were soaked," she rushed to explain. "I was worried about hypothermia—"
Helenski held up a hand. "You did well, Cadet."
Raffi looked back down at Rios as he was carefully lifted off her lap. Before she could ask if he'd be all right, the medic signaled for them to be beamed out. Lights swirled, and the cave was momentarily replaced with sparks before Raffi blinked and found herself in a sickbay. Rios was whisked away to a bio bed and surrounded by medical personnel.
Raffi was guided to her own bed and checked over. Her abrasions and contusions were tended to, and someone brought her a set of dry clothes fresh from the replicator. The doctor then released her to go home and curl up in bed with a hot drink, but she insisted on staying with Cris until he woke up. He'd had a pretty bad concussion but was being treated.
After changing into the dry clothes, she dragged a stool over to his bedside and settled in to wait. He was still slightly pale and a warming blanket had been pulled up to his shoulders, but a dermal regenerator had erased all evidence of the garish wound from before.
He stirred at some point, eyes sluggishly opening, but instead of confusion when his gaze found Raffi, he smiled.
"Mi heroína," he breathed.
Raffi leaned forward, arms on her thighs. "And what's that one mean?"
Rios closed his eyes and said sleepily, "My hero."
She smiled back and patted his arm. "Yeah, well, you saved me first."