WARNING: descriptions of injury.
No One Left Behind
His head burst above the water, finally able to suck in a lungful of air. Spluttering, heaving, Gordon moved his leaden limbs, striking out for dry land. It was instinctual, no real thought behind it, but he found it soon enough. Fingers clawing, sinking in the mud, he crawled out of the rushing water and collapsed in a heap.
Shivers wracked his body, jarring him. With each tremble he became more acutely aware of his battered body, of the injures he'd sustained. He logged each one, prioritising them from least to most concerning in his mind. He'd deal with them in a moment. Just a moment. He just… needed to catch his breath first.
Quickly enough the burning sensation in his leg became more urgent. He hadn't quite managed to get his breathing under control, but it was close enough. He sat up, grunting with the effort, and examined the wound. It was a large gash, deep too. Gordon's stomach somersaulted at the sight of it. He swallowed down the rising nausea. Without looking at to too closely, he clamped down on it as best he could. It wasn't yet bleeding as much as it could have been – the cold water saw to that. As far as he could tell, his other injuries were just bruises, a bump on the head and some abused feeling ribs.
Removing one hand from the wound, had scrabbled around for his miniature med-pack. Being small enough to fit in a pocket on his sash, there wasn't much in there, but there was expandable gauze. Working as quickly as he could with numbingly cold hands, he wrapped his leg tight. It was all he could do for now.
The next thing to do was to figure out exactly what had happened. Gordon frowned. Last thing he remembered, he was with Alan. They were on a mission; that much he could gather from the fact that he was in uniform. But he had no idea what the mission had been, where in the world he was, or why he'd ended up in the water. Had he been in the middle of rescuing someone and been swept away? He hoped not. If Gordon had been swept away, who knew what might've happened to the person he was trying to help. To be honest, Gordon wasn't convinced of that theory anyway. From what little he could remember, he and Alan had been on dry land. Where was Alan anyway?
It was that thought more than anything that had him clambering to his feet. Difficult on only one leg, but Gordon was nothing if not resourceful in the face of limited mobility. If Virgil could see him now he'd have kittens but, well, big brother instinct trumps pain. Always had, always would. That was an argument they all agreed on, even if they didn't like to admit it.
He looked around. There was no one in sight as far as the eye could see. Just an open expanse of land and the beginning of a forest in the background. The sky was clear – no Thunderbirds in view, and no sounds of an engine. None of that was particularly strange, missing younger brother aside. What was weird was the water. To Gordon's trained eye, it most certainly didn't belong here. In fact, it kinda looked like the ends of floodwater. Gordon frowned. Was that what had happened? Had he been caught in up in floodwater? It sounded plausible, and with any luck perhaps Alan had escaped it.
But that did mean that he had to get back to… wherever he had been in the first place. Welp, no good standing around all day. He was cold, wet, and tired. Thinking was hard. It was time to call for back-up. He tapped the comm button on his sash.
Nothing.
O-kay, that was odd. He squinted down at it. Ooh, that was bad. It definitely wasn't supposed to look like that – all jagged and exposed wires. He'd blame not noticing that earlier on the minor head injury; at least, he hoped it was minor. He couldn't recall losing consciousness, but the gaps in his memory were concerning. So… no back-up then. Okay. Plan B it was.
He cried out at his first attempt at a step. Man, that was agonizing! He could hardly stand to put any weight on the injured leg at all. But doing nothing wasn't an option… why that wasn't an option, he wasn't sure, but there was this voice nagging in the back of his mind that he needed to get moving.
So… if he'd been swept away by floodwater, and he wanted to get back to where he had last seen Alan, there was an easy answer. Retracing his steps. Well, kind of. Actually, it was more like following the trail of water until he found the source. Or, you know, familiar surroundings at least. Gritting his teeth and trying to think about anything but the pain, he began to hobble along.
It was painfully slow progress. By the time he made it to the treeline, the sun was starting to set, and his shivers had pretty much stopped. He leaned against a tree. Oh man, this was not fun. This was not fun at all. How long had that taken him? Too long, that was for sure. And he was beyond exhausted. Even his uninjured leg felt like jelly. And maybe stopping had been a mistake because now he had no idea how he was supposed to get his legs going again. Or any part of him, for that matter.
With a whine, he slid down the tree. Oh, this was bad. This was very, very not good. He was, without a doubt, the worst brother. The absolute worst. How hard was it to keep track of one Alan in the vast wilderness? He was just one Alan. That wasn't supposed to be hard, right? He had enough hands to take care of one single Alan. If Virgil could take care of one Alan and one Gordon, why couldn't he take care of one Alan? Did that make sense? He wasn't sure that that made sense.
Gordon blinked. Once, twice…
On the third blink, he opened his eyes to a harsh white light. With a groan, he squeezed his eyes tight shut again. Ow.
A warm chuckle came from beside him. With a monumental effort, he convinced himself to open his eyes again. Virgil was sat beside him on a very uncomfortable looking… oh crap. Gordon looked around. Yep, he was in the infirmary. Welp, that did not make sense at all. He tried to ask Virgil what was going on, but it came out garbled and crackly.
'You're okay,' Virgil said softly, 'you're home. You're safe. Gave us all a bit of a scare though. Here.' He held out a small cup, cradling Gordon's head with his free hand as he encouraged him to take a sip.
'Alan?' Gordon croaked when he was done.
Virgil frowned. 'What about him?'
'Where's he?'
'Right now? He's in Peru with Scott. A couple of hikers took a bit of a tumble, local search and rescue were having a tough time getting to them.'
'He okay?'
'Yeah, he's fine.' Virgil smiled, though his brow was still furrowed. 'You've got your mind in a bit of a muddle, haven't you? Can't say I'm surprised. How much do you remember?'
'I was looking for Alan,' Gordon insisted. He didn't understand. A few minutes ago, he and his brother were on a flood rescue, and now Alan was in Peru looking for hikers. And he was home. And none of it made sense. 'Where is he?'
'He's in Peru with Scott,' Virgil reminded him gently. He put the back of his hand to Gordon's forehead. 'Still a little warm. Um… where to start? Well, the four of us were on a rescue; someone set off an emergency beacon, we were having trouble pinpointing the exact location because something was messing with John's scanners. So, me and Scott went one way, you and Alan went the other. Turned out someone's off-roader had tumbled off a cliff. No injuries to report, but they were pretty stuck. Scott and I got them out, you and Alan were still quite a trek out. I told you to stay put, we'd pick you guys up in Two.'
He took a deep breath and continued. 'The way Alan tells it, there was this loud cracking sound, and suddenly you were ordering him up a tree. Next thing he knew, there was water everywhere and you were gone. Apparently, a nearby dam collapsed and completely flooded the area. Your tracker was shot, and your core temp had dropped so low that we struggled to find you on the heat scanners. By the time we got to you, you were unconscious. You've been out for three days, though that's partly been down to the infection in your leg.'
Gordon blinked. That was… a lot of information. He understood… parts of it. But there was only one thing he really cared about. 'So, Alan's okay?'
'Man, you're incorrigible.' Virgil sighed. 'Yes, Alan's fine. He was never in any danger, thanks to you.'
'Oh. Okay.' Gordon yawned. 'M'tired.'
'I bet,' Virgil replied, smiling softly at him. He ran a hand through his hair. 'Get some sleep, it'll help fight the last of the infection. I'll do my best to make sure Alan's here next time you wake up, okay?'
'Hm? 'Kay.' His eyes were already closed. 'G'night, V. Thanks for comin' back for me.'
'Of course, Squid,' Virgil murmured, his soft tone lulling Gordon further towards sleep. 'We'd never leave you behind. Never ever.'