Almost Paradise (2/?)

By Carol M.

See first part for details.

Thanks for the kind words, guys! Enjoy the next part!

Claire was the first to wake up after the crash. She looked around in confusion and then after a few moments remembered what had happened. She felt a cold sensation around her feet. As she looked down, she realized to her horror that her feet were slowly being submerged in cold, ocean water.

She looked to her left and saw Bobby slumped against the window, his left shoulder bent at an odd angle. "Bobby!" she yelled, trying desperately to wake him up. She fiddled with her seatbelt and after several failed attempts managed to unhook it. She leaned over Bobby and started to tap him impatiently in the back. "Bobby, you have to wake up, we have to out of here!" she cried out urgently.

With a loud, ragged moan, Bobby jerked awake. He turned his head and saw the terror in Claire's expression. He too could feel the water slowly starting to seep into the plane. "Are you okay?" he asked as he noticed a large blood stain on the sleeve of her shirt.

Claire looked down and saw a large gash in her arm. Other than that, she seemed to be remarkably free from injury. "I'm fine, what about you?" she asked as she stood up and tried to assist him out his seat.

"I whacked my head, and I think my shoulder might be dislocated, but other than that I think I'm okay," replied Bobby as he accepted Claire's assistance and stood up from his seat. "What about Fawkes?"

Claire looked to her right and saw Darien slumped forward in his seat. The only thing keeping him from falling flat on his face was the seatbelt attached securely around his middle.

"Bloody hell! Um, Bobby, can you walk?" asked Claire in a slight panic.

Bobby nodded.

"Good, go check the pilots, I'm going to help Darien," she said as she carefully stepped to Darien and felt for a pulse. It was a little weak, but it was there. She kneeled down next to him and brought his face up to hers with her hands. She noticed a nasty looking gash on his forehead accompanied with a rather impressive bump. "Darien, wake up, wake up, we're in trouble, come on!" she practically screamed into his ear.

A small moan escaped Darien's lips and his eyes fluttered opened. They closed again when the pain of a thousand knives seemed to stab him in his forehead. "Hmmm, hurts," he whimpered in misery.

"I know it hurts, Darien, but right now we need to get out of here. Do you think you can get up?" she asked.

At that moment, Bobby returned from checking the pilots. "Both dead," he said grimly. He knelt down next to Claire. "How's he doing?" he asked as he glanced at Darien's pale face.

"I think he has a concussion, probably other injuries as well. We have to get him out of his seat," she said as she reached for the buckle of his seatbelt. Darien gasped as she inadvertently pressed her hand against his stomach. She played with the buckle and after an eternity got it loose. He fell forward into her arms as the only thing that had been holding him upright was taken away.

"Okay, okay, I got him," said Claire as she managed to pull the lanky agent to his feet. Bobby took his good arm and locked it around Darien's waist. "What now?" Claire asked Bobby.

They didn't have time to make a decision. Water suddenly broke through the back of the plane, rushing towards them with a loud roar. The force of the water knocked them all off their feet and pushed them through the front window of the airplane that had shattered under the pressure of the water.

Bobby and Claire both lost their grip on Darien and ended up in limbo under the water, the suction from the plane preventing them from moving towards the surface. After about 30 seconds, Bobby was able to gain enough power to push himself upwards. He grabbed Claire's hand with his uninjured arm and pulled her up with him. They both broke the surface with hard gasps, fighting for breath. The chill from the water was already settling in their bones, making it hard to think..

"Where's Fawkes?" heaved Bobby with concern.

"I don't know!" cried Claire. She looked around and all she could see were pieces of metal from the plane, some of them bursting with flames.

Bobby dived back under the water and looked around, not seeing anything. He resurfaced in a panic. "Where the hell is he? You don't think he quicksilvered do you?"

Claire shook her head and dived under the water herself. Bobby quickly followed. After about 10 seconds, she spotted a figure floating in the water about 10 feet away. She pointed towards the figure and her and Bobby raced over to it. Sure enough, she recognized the long legs and beat up jacket Darien had been wearing earlier. Claire and Bobby latched on to Darien and quickly brought him up to the surface.

"Oh god, how is he?" asked Bobby as he held Darien in place so Claire could look him over.

"I got a pulse, but he's not breathing," cried Claire. Bobby held Darien tighter against him, Darien's head flopping back onto Bobby's chest. Claire forced Darien's mouth open and started to breathe for him.

"Come on, buddy, don't die on me," yelled Bobby as Claire continued to breathe into his partner's mouth.

After about two minutes of mouth to mouth, Darien finally coughed up the ocean water much to Claire and Bobby's relief. He opened his eyes and looked around at the crash site around them. "This isn't happening," he moaned.

"Actually, it already happened, my friend," said Bobby as he continued to hold Darien up in the water.

Darien whimpered as a slice of pain ripped through his body. He started to shiver violently as the cold water chilled him to his core. Claire took him from Bobby's arms and put him in her own, inspecting his head wound. "We have to get him out of here," she said grimly.

"Yeah, well where the hell do you want to go, huh Keep?" asked Bobby.

"Island," muttered Darien as he struggled to keep himself above the surface. He pointed to the south. "We passed land about 30 seconds before we crashed," he whispered breathlessly.

Bobby looked to where he was pointing and could faintly make out a line of palm trees in the dusky light that was quickly turning very dark. He looked up at his partner. "Think you can make it, Fawkesy?"

Darien nodded weakly, looking not at all sure of himself. "I can try," he said.

Claire grasped Darien's right arm while Bobby grasped his left arm and together the trio slowly began swimming towards the island.

It took them nearly 45 minutes to reach the small stretch of sand and by the time they did, it was in the pitch black of night. The trio staggered in exhaustion up the shores of the island. Darien's legs gave out from under him and despite the fact that both Claire and Bobby were gripping him tightly, he fell face first into the sand.

"Oh god, Darien!" said Claire as she sat down next to him and rolled him over. Sand was stuck to his face, but Darien didn't really mind since he had passed out into oblivion. Despite his unconscious state, his body shivered violently from the cold of the ocean. Claire pulled up his eyelid with her finger, trying to see if his pupils were dilated but she couldn't tell anything due to the lack of light. "Bobby, I can't see anything, how I am supposed to help him if I can't see his injuries!" yelled Claire who was nearly in tears.

Bobby put a hand on her shoulder and knelt down next to her. "Claire, just calm down, okay. Will just let him sleep it off and tomorrow, bright and earlier you can look him over. There's not much we do right now anyway," he said in the calmest voice possible.

Claire closed her eyes and nodded miserably. "How's your shoulder?" she asked.

"It's out of the socket. We can fix that later," said Bobby, not really wanting to deal with the intense pain that came with putting a dislocated shoulder back in place. "Besides, the ocean water has kind of numbed it up."

"Right," said Claire. She looked back at Darien and shook her head. "Look, can you go dip this in some water so I can wipe his face off," said Claire as she removed her jacket and handed it to Bobby.

"Sure thing, Keep," said Bobby as he stood up and turned towards the shore.

At the same moment, Claire rose and grabbed Bobby injured arm, pulling it firmly back into place.

"Owwww!" yelped Bobby. "What did you do that for?"

"I wanted you relaxed so it wouldn't hurt," she said as she sat back down next to Darien.

"A little too late for that, don't you think?" he said as he stalked off towards the water, rubbing his aching shoulder.

Claire turned back to Darien and tried to finger comb his wet, sandy hair. "It's going to be okay, Darien, I promise," she whispered.

Bobby returned several seconds later with her now dripping wet jacket. Claire took it from him and wiped all the sand off Darien's face and hair. Then she stuck the jacket over his head wound to try and clean it off a little.

"Hey Keep," said Bobby.

"Yeah," said Claire absently.

"You're bleeding," he said as he took off his jacket and ripped off a sleeve.

Claire looked down at her arm and realized it was covered in blood. "Damn it!" she yelled through clenched teeth.

Bobby knelt down and wiped off the blood with the sleeve off his jacket. Then he tore off another section and tied it firmly around her arm despite the yelp of pain she gave as he fastened the makeshift bandage tightly around the cut. Claire looked up at him gratefully. "Thanks. How's your head?"

Bobby put a hand to his slightly achy head and came back with no blood. "It's fine, just a little sore, but I don't think I have a concussion," he said as he dropped down on the ground on the other side of his partner who was shaking badly. Bobby took his hand and started to rub it against Darien's arms, trying to warm him up.

Claire sat down on the other side of Darien and started to do the same thing. "We just need to keep him warm. We'll keep him warm and then in the morning I'll examine him and a search plane will find us and everything will be fine," babbled Claire.

"Keep, it's going to be okay," said Bobby reassuringly.

Claire nodded and smiled. "I know," she said. A couple of seconds later, she lay down in the sand and brought Darien into her arms. "We should try and get some rest."

Bobby agreed and stretched himself out against Darien's back, resting his good arm against Darien's shoulder blades and tucking his bad arm underneath him.

Within minutes, Claire and Bobby were fast asleep with their unconscious friend tucked protectively between the two of them.

Five hours later, Darien woke up feeling sick to his stomach, dizzy and cold. He jerked up and instantly regretted the motion as not only his head, but also his neck protested with waves of intense pain. Claire and Bobby woke up at the sudden motion.

"Darien, Darien, are you all right?" asked Claire as she put her hand on his chest and pushed him back to the ground.

Darien shook his head. "I'm gonna be sick," he managed to get out before he pushed himself up and turned around, vomiting everything he had eaten that day and then some. He felt two pairs of arms supporting him so he wouldn't fall face first into his mess.

"God Fawkes, why'd you have to throw up near our bed?" said Bobby jokingly, trying to lighten the mood.

Darien shook his head in misery and couldn't hold back the tears that pierced his eyes. He looked at Claire and his pitiful expression nearly broke her heart. "I want to go home," he whispered as he tilted his head up stiffly. "And I think I have whiplash," he added.

Claire shook her head and pulled him into her arms. His body was shaking again, even worse then before. She let his head fall against her shoulder and held him tightly as he broke into sobs. "Shh, it's going to be okay. You're going to be fine," she whispered soothingly. After a few minutes he seemed to calm down a little bit. Claire eyed Bobby, pleading for some help.

Bobby took the hint and stood up from his sitting position. "Come on, buddy, we're going to move you to a nice fresh stretch of sand, okay."

Darien nodded and let himself be pulled up to his feet with assistance from Claire and Bobby. They slowly walked him about 10 feet to the right and sat him down again. Darien looked at both of them with a slightly embarrassed look on his face. "I'm sorry I kinda lost it back there," he said softly, wiping at a few stray tears.

Bobby shook his head. "Don't be partner, it happens to all of us, including yours truly."

Darien snorted. "Yeah, some how I doubt it, but thanks for trying to make me feel better, partner," he said as he lay back in the sand. A small grimace escaped his lips as his hand drifted to his stomach.

"What's wrong, Darien? Does your stomach hurt?" asked Claire with concern as she moved his hand and replaced it with her own.

"Owwww, yeah it does," he said as he felt her hands probing his sore midsection. "Seatbelt got it," he said breathlessly.

Claire continued to palpitate the area, trying to determine if there was any internal bleeding. Not that there was much she could do about it right now, she thought to herself grimly.

"Claire, stop, please… it hurts," whimpered Darien through chattering teeth. He closed his eyes as a wave of dizziness passed through his body.

Claire stopped examining Darien's stomach and gave him a reassuring caress on the forehead. "From what I could feel, you just have some swelling and bruising and maybe a few cracked ribs, but I don't think you have any internal bleeding."

"Hmmm mmm," mumbled Darien as his eyes rolled back in his head and he passed out again from pain and exhaustion.

"Damn it," yelled Claire in frustration. She once again lay down and took Darien into her arms, still feeling his quaking body.

"Well, at least he woke up, right," said Bobby as he lay down next to Darien again.

"Yeah," she said quietly.

"It'll be better in the morning, you'll see. It'll warm up, you can examine Fawkes closer and we can try to figure out a way off this island," said Bobby as he stifled a yawn.

"I hope you're right," she said as she rubbed her hand repetitively across Darien's chest. But somehow she knew that things were going to get a whole lot worse before they got better.

TBC