Almost Paradise (7/8)

By Carol M.

See first part for details

Thanks for the feedback guys! Hope the climbing gear came in handy. On with the story…

Bobby dived towards the edge of the cliff, barely grasping onto Darien's hand. His shoulder flared with pain as Darien's weight pulled it down.

"Claire!" he yelled.

Claire was instantly at his side, grabbing on to Darien's other hand.

"Let me go!" yelled Darien, a pleading look in his eyes.

"No freakin' way, partner," groaned Bobby.

The edge of the cliff started to give, sending Darien down a few inches and causing Bobby and Claire to slide halfway off the edge.

"Let go of me, I'm going to take you guys with me!" screamed Darien.

"If we go, then we go together," said Bobby, looking Darien in the eye. He looked over at Claire. "Come on, Keep, we can do this."

Claire nodded.

"On the count of three, one…two…three…"

Bobby and Claire hoisted Darien off the edge with all their strength. The force caused Darien to land stomach first over the side and propelled Claire and Bobby roughly to their backs on the ground.

The trio lay panting on the ground for a few minutes, trying to catch their breath and their wits.

Darien was about to pass out again. He lay on the ground breathing in sand and gravel, trying to comprehend what had just happened. A hard, sharp ache worked its way from his chest to the pit of his stomach.

Claire picked herself off the ground, ignoring the blood pouring from her reopened cut and crawled to Darien. She pulled him farther away from the edge, all the while eyeing him with intense concern. "Are you all right?" she asked as she gently turned his head towards her.

Darien, who could barely breathe, let alone talk, whimpered and shook his head.

Claire gingerly rolled him over and began examining his new wounds. His shirt had been ripped to tatters with blood peaking through from the skin underneath. She pushed the shirt aside and cringed when she saw the bloody scrapes and bruises all over his torso. She gently pressed against some of the bruises around his ribs causing Darien to groan. She shook her head, knowing that his ribs were at least cracked if not broken.

"We have to get him off this cliff, Bobby," she said softly.

"Aw crap," was Bobby's reply from his position on the ground.

Claire turned her head and looked at him. "What's wrong?"

"I think I whacked my shoulder again," he said as he tried to move the useless limb at his side.

"Bloody hell," muttered Claire under her breath. She patted Darien on the arm and then quickly got up to examine Bobby. She reached for his shoulder and realized that it was indeed dislocated again. "This is gonna hurt," she said grimly as she put her hands into position to pop it back into place.

"Tell me something I don't already know," he said through gritted teeth.

"One, two, three..." Claire jerked Bobby's arm hard and expertly popped it back into place. Bobby's face paled and he fell back on the ground.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

Bobby nodded and sat back up. "You're cut opened up," he said, eyeing her bloody arm.

Claire nodded. "I know," she said. She stood up, walked over to the waterfall and stuck her arm in, letting the water clear away the blood. After a few seconds, she took her arm out of the water and tore off the sleeve of her shirt, tying it around the wound.

She looked back at Darien, whose eyes were closed and whose arms were wrapped tightly around his middle.

"All right, how are we going to do this?" she asked as her glance moved from Darien to Bobby.

"I'll carry him," offered Bobby.

"No, no not with your shoulder. You'd probably drop him anyway," said Claire.

She bent down next to Darien and stroked his forehead. "You're going to have to walk, Darien."

Darien opened his eyes and shook his head. "Leave me. I'm not going back with you," he whispered in a pain-filled voice.

"That's where you're wrong, my friend," said Bobby as he carefully got off the ground and walked over to Claire and Darien. He used his good arm to hoist Darien into a sitting position. Then he and Claire grabbed Darien's arms and pulled him to his feet, despite the ragged moan that escaped Darien's lips.

Darien was powerless to stop the forward motion from having Claire and Bobby at his side. He carefully put one foot in front of the other and slowly started walking back down the path with their assistance.

"I'm sorry," he whispered after several minutes of silence.

Bobby stopped the motion and turned Darien so they were face to face. "You got nothing to be sorry for, partner. You were just doing what you thought you had to," he said as he pulled Darien into a strong hug. Darien gently returned the head and let his head rest on Bobby's uninjured shoulder. After several seconds, Bobby broke the hug and made Darien look him in the eyes. "If you ever pull a stunt like that again, I'm going to kill you myself. And don't think for a minute that I won't do it," he said. "Bobby Hobbes," he said hitting his chest with both of his hands.

Darien smiled slightly and nodded. "Check."

He looked over at Claire and gave her an apologetic puppy dog eye look. Claire picked up his hand and gave it a tight squeeze. Then she leaned forward and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "All right, kids, what do you say we get off this bloody cliff so we can be rescued."

Bobby nodded. "Sounds like a plan," he said as he and Claire once again grabbed Darien and led him further down the path.

***

It took the trio nearly three hours to get down from the top of the cliff. The longer they walked, the weaker Darien became and by the time they got down to the sand, Bobby and Claire were practically dragging him towards the camp.

When they finally got there, Bobby and Claire gently laid Darien down in the sand and then collapsed at his side. Darien rolled over and passed out, ending the hours of pain that had been ravaging his already weak body. Bobby continued to lay in the sand next to his partner, his shoulder one giant ache that wouldn't let up. "You know, all I have to say is that we better be getting paid for our five days out on Gilligan's Island."

Claire smiled and sat up. "You mean Darien's Island."

"Hey, if anyone's going to have an island named after them, it's going to be me," he said.

Claire nodded. "Whatever you say, Bobby," as she slowly got to her feet.

"Where you going, Keep?" asked Bobby in a tired voice.

"I'm just going to get some more aloe. I'll be right back. Make sure Darien doesn't run away again," she said.

Bobby glanced at his unconscious partner and shook his head. "Keep, I don't think ole' D is going anywhere for awhile."

"Yeah, well watch him anyway," said Claire over her shoulder as she disappeared into the forest of palm trees.

"Whatever you say," he said as he rolled over, closed his eyes and promptly fell asleep.

When Claire returned with supplies a half-hour later, she couldn't help but laugh at the scene in front of her. Somehow Bobby had wound up falling asleep with his arm draped across Darien's back, like a big brother protecting his little brother. It was actually kind of sweet.

She carefully moved Bobby's hand off of Darien and then rolled Darien over so she could examine his stomach. She lifted up his shirt and reached for a piece of material she had dampened with water. She ran the water across the scrapes on his chest and stomach, trying to clean them out somewhat. She did the same thing for the scrapes and cuts on his knees and hands. Then she broke a few aloe twigs in her hands and coated the cuts on his hands and knees with the soothing mixture. She moved to his chest and stomach next, rubbing the aloe into the bloody gashes. She cringed as Darien's stomach muscles quivered at her touch, as if trying to ward off the pain. When she was done, she brought his shirt back down and gave him a reassuring pat on the leg.

She was about to lay down in the sand and take a nap when a harsh scream caught her attention. She looked at Darien and realized that he was once again conscious. He was clawing at the back of his neck, looking as if he was trying to pull the gland out of his head.

"Damn it," she said as she instantly grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him into her lap. Darien jerked up and groaned, his neck arched and his throat exposed to her. "Help," he whispered softly.

Bobby quickly awoke from all the commotion and looked at his ailing partner with concern. "What's wrong?"

"He's having a pre-QSM attack," said Claire as she rubbed the area between Darien's shoulder blades.

Darien convulsed against her in pain and then just as quickly as the attack had appeared, it disappeared, leaving Darien panting against her chest.

Claire reached Darien's arm and looked at his tattoo, seeing he was at 7 segments red, 2 segments green. Bobby glanced at the tattoo and then stared at Darien. "Why is he getting attacks so early?"

Claire shrugged. "Possibly from all the quicksilvering he did last week. His body might have built up a temporary resistance to the counteragent, causing it to not work as long."

Darien brought his arm up and grabbed Claire's shoulder. "Tie me up, knock me out, do something," he murmured weakly.

Claire shook her head. "Not yet, you're not far enough along to be dangerous," she said as she looked up at the sky. "Now would be a really good time to be rescued."

***

Hours later, the search planes were still actively searching for the trio, looking for any sign of life. Clyde himself was piloting one of the planes, as much to rescue Darien, Claire and Bobby as to get away from the hovering eye of the Official.

He looked towards the sun, which was getting ready to set in about 20 minutes. Time to call it a day. He picked up his radio and connected to the other search planes. "Yeah, guys, it's getting dark. We're going to call off the search for today," he said over the radar.

He put the radio down and looked out his window, enjoying the colors reflecting off the ocean. He was about to make a hard turn to the right and head back to the air craft carrier, when a dot of white ahead caught his eye. He lowered the altitude of the plane slightly and got closer towards the speck of white. "Hot damn," he said as he saw the tiny island with a HELP sign spelled out in the sand.

He noticed much to his chagrin that there was absolutely no place to land the large plane on the small island. He also noted the fact that it was getting dark.

He picked up his radio once again "Yeah, this is rescue 1. I think I found them, but there's no place to land. Requesting that base send us a rescue helicopter so we can chopper these people out in the morning, over and out."

Clyde smiled to himself and then finally took that hard right, waiting in anticipation to tell that fat bastard that he had found his men.

***

"Darien, Darien, do you see that! We're saved, we're saved," said Claire, nearly jumping up and down with excitement.

Bobby smiled with delight. "See Fawkes, what did we tell you?"

Darien sat up and looked up at the sky. "So I was wrong, okay?" he acknowledged softly as he watched the plane swerve to the right. "Wait, a minute, why is it turning around?"

"Probably has to go back to the base and get a smaller plane," said Bobby.

"Well yeah, but it's getting dark out. Would they come back and look for us in the dark?" asked Darien with concern.

"Sure they would, wouldn't they?" said Claire as she looked at Bobby.

"What are you asking me for?" asked Bobby.

"Cause you're the one who used to be in the military here, Hobbes," said Darien. He felt a familiar sensation growing in the back of his neck. "Oh god, not again," he said as the pain exploded in his head. He crumpled down into the sand, moaning and groaning at the excruciating pain. "Ahhhh, god, please make it stop" he whimpered.

Claire pulled him off the sand and put him back in her lap, massaging the back of his neck with her hand. "Owwww," moaned Darien. The attack gradually faded and he sunk deeper into her lap, barely able to move.

Claire picked up his wrist and a look of panic swept across her face. "Um, kids, we might not be able to wait until morning," she said as she showed Bobby his partner's wrist. It now read 8 red, 1 green.

"Keep," moaned Darien. "Let me see," he said.

She helped him flip over and then held up his wrist so he could see his tattoo. Darien's face turned white and he collapsed back into her arms. "Aw crap," he whispered.

TBC