Nathan looked around and saw a woman standing there, rifle in hand. Not sure what to say, he settled for a simple thank you, and ran to the teen who was laying on the ground, unmoving. Checking Lucas' arm, he saw blood flowing through the torn material; the back of his jacket was mangled with blood smeared across the material. He needed to get the teen someplace warm so he could assess the injuries.
"Follow me," the woman said, moving off towards the trees.
Unsure whether he could actually carry the boy, Nathan shook him gently. "Lucas, Lucas?"
Eyes half opened, the teen groaned in pain. "Hurts…."
"I know but I need you to walk, kiddo. I can't lift you so you have to help me out a little here."
"Gunshots," was the boy's questioning whisper.
"There's a woman; she shot the bear. I think she lives near by. We need to get you to some shelter." Nathan put his hand underneath Lucas' uninjured arm, hauling him up as gently as he could.
His arm screaming with pain, and his back not feeling much better, Lucas summoned what energy he could and stood up. He felt Bridger's arm go around his waist and he shifted so he was leaning sideways into the Captain. Taking a deep breath, he swallowed the agony that was spreading through his body.
The woman was waiting for them as they slowly moved forward. A half-mile later, they came to a log cabin. Lucas was feeling weak from blood loss and Bridger half carried him into the small house. The cabin was sparsely furnished, but Nathan noticed that there were books scattered everywhere. Seeing the small bed in the corner, Bridger urged Lucas to keep going and then lowered him on the bed.
The woman was still standing in the doorway, studying the scene before her, until she seemed to shake herself. Grabbing a bottle of whiskey from a cabinet, she fished around for a clean glass, and walked over to the bed. "I'm Annie. The earthquake must have upset the bear; usually they don't attack so quickly. We need to get your son's jacket off." Pouring the whiskey into the glass, she then handed the glass to Bridger. "Get him to drink some of this. I'm going to have to clean those wounds out and it's bound to hurt a great deal. This will dull the pain a bit."
Holding the glass to Lucas' lips, Bridger urged him to take a sip. The whiskey burned as it went down his throat and Lucas choked on it. Weakly, he tried to push the glass away.
"C'mon, kiddo, just a bit more. I'm finally giving you permission to drink and you're not going to take me up on it?" Once again he raised the glass for Lucas to have another sip. "I know it tastes horrible but it'll warm you up." The boy took a few more sips, then turned his face away. "OK, that's good," the Captain said encouragingly. "Let's get this wet jacket off of you." Carefully, he pulled the coat of the boy. Worried about how cold Lucas' hands were, and his lethargic movements, he suggested, "How about you lie down now?"
Wordlessly, Lucas settled gingerly on his side, trying not to put pressure on his arm or his back. The room was beginning to spin and a roaring was growing louder in his ears. Closing his eyes, he let himself slide into the darkness.
Annie was adding wood to the fire so that it was roaring hot. She watched a few minutes as Nathan caressed Lucas' cheek, ran a comforting hand over his hair. "What's his name?"
"Lucas," the Captain said quietly as not to disturb the boy. He could see blood still oozing from the deep gashes on Lucas' biceps. "And he's not my son. I'm his…well, it's hard to explain. I'm Captain Bridger, from the seaQuest, and he's part of my science crew."
Turning back to the kitchen area, Annie tore up a towel, which she dropped into a bowl and then poured hot water from a coffeepot into the bowl. Opening a drawer, she pulled out a first aid kit, and placed it, along with the bowl of hot water on the bedside table. From the first aid kit she picked up a large pair of scissors and cut through Lucas' sweatshirt, pulled off the material, depositing it on the floor.
When she reached for the teen's waistband, Nathan stopped her with a hand and a shake of his head. "He's sixteen and will be totally embarrassed if a strange woman removed his pants."
With a small smile, Annie turned her attention back to the shirt, examining the ripped edges that were crusted with blood. Humming softly to herself, she stood to get a better look Lucas' back. "Don't get many subs around here," she commented. She began cutting the shirt off Lucas, avoiding the injured areas.
"Oh, we're on vacation. A cruise," Nathan explained.
"His parents are on the boat then?"
"No, his parents…Lucas is on vacation with me. He lives on the submarine without his parents. I'm his guardian." Nathan thought about the words he was saying. Why was it so hard to explain? And why did it sound so odd, even to his own ears?
"Boy his age needs his parents." She had finished cutting away most of the shirt, but there were still patches of blood soaked fabric stuck to the ugly lacerations. Reaching for the bowl, she squeezed the water out of the towel and began to clean Lucas' injuries. "I have to be careful here. The shirt acted like a bandage and stopped most of the bleeding but if I pull the fabric too hard I'll rip the cuts open."
While Nathan stood watching the woman wash the dried blood from the deep gashes, he absently stroked Lucas' soft blond hair. The boy was quiet – too quiet.
As she soaked the remains of the shirt, Annie carefully pulled it from the lacerations. This boy may not be this man's son, she thought to herself, but he treats him as one. Walking to the sink, she poured more water into the water and resumed her cleaning. "The cuts on the back aren't very deep but I'm concerned about his arm. It's still losing blood and the lacerations are fairly deep but I don't have any thing to stitch them up. I'm going to bandage them for now and then we'll warm him up. Eventually, a Doctor's going to need to check him out but I think he'll be just fine. He's lucky that bear didn't take his head off." Opening the first aid kit, she pulled out gauze and a tube of antibiotic cream.
"Do you have some means of communication? Maybe I can contact the ship and they can send some help. Kristin will take care of Lucas when we get back." Once she recovers from the shock of seeing him in this state, he added silently to himself.
Applying a large bandage to the teen's back, Annie asked, "Is Kristin your wife?"
"No, she's our Doctor."
"Let me guess, she's part of your crew also," Annie stated a note of humor in her voice. "Did your whole crew go on vacation together?" She pressed down firmly with a piece of gauze on Lucas' arm, trying to stop the bleeding.
For the first time since the earthquake hit, Nathan laughed, finding the whole conversation rather funny. It would seem odd to an outsider, he had to admit. Fatigue replaced the adrenaline he had been running on and suddenly he felt the need to rest. Sliding down, he propped himself against the wall. Bears, earthquakes, exploding helicopters. Next time, he was staying on the seaQuest. Taking Lucas' cold hand into his own, he tried to explain their strange relationship, " Lucas is not an ordinary sixteen year old. He happens to be a college graduate…."