A/N Once again, thanks heaps to Ash and Amorith, and to all the wonderful people putting up with my long breaks between updates and who continue to read and review, you guys rock.
Friday - Day 6, 00.07
The water had frozen Grissom, Catherine and Sara to the bone. All three of them had given up trying to stop their teeth from chattering long ago and had ended up drifting closer together in an attempt to preserve the little heat they held between them.
"Maybe the river wasn't such a brilliant plan after all," Sara whispered and attempted a smirk.
Catherine coughed out a small laugh, "This money we're winning better be worth getting pneumonia for… how much do we get anyway Grissom?"
"Half million," Grissom croaked out and wiggled his legs to keep the blood pumping through them.
Sara and Catherine looked at each other and laughed, "Half a million?" Catherine breathed out, "I am so getting an office out of this."
"I was thinking we could get a new microviper…" he said wistfully.
"Whatever happened to old-school Grissom?" Sara asked, grinning.
"He left when he first picked up a microviper," Grissom said seriously.
Catherine hummed under her breath, "I still expect an office for doing this."
They continued to float down the river, occasionally leaving the packs and swimming some strokes to try and get warm. After what seemed like hours, Catherine finally looked around and pulled out the waterproof map Greg had given her.
"I think we're close," she said, studying the lines in front of her in the moonlight, "the river gets narrower here, just before it widens out again and the rapids begin."
They began to drift towards the bank of the river, pulling their packs along with them. Stiffly, they crawled out of the water and onto the cold, muddy banks. Sara couldn't remember the last time she had felt this exhausted, reasoning that with the lack of food she'd had, the cold water she'd been sitting in for hours, and the sudden adrenalin drop she'd experienced since entering the cave after her sprinting it was really no wonder she was so tired.
She knew she had to move, that they all had to get up and find a place to camp and get out of the wet clothes that were clinging uncomfortably to their bodies but the urge to simply bury herself into the mud and fall asleep was overwhelming.
Suddenly she was emotional and as she turned to look at her friends who looked just as pathetic and broken as she felt, she realized that she wasn't the only one.
The image she saw of Catherine and Grissom that night would never be replaced, she promised herself. Grissom sat next to the water, holding onto the packs that they had not yet managed to drag out of the water. Being waterlogged, the packs now weighed a ton and both Catherine and Sara had unintentionally left the job of hauling them out to Grissom. Grissom was tired though, and merely sat there holding onto them, looking glaze-eyed out over the river, yet still determined he would not let their packs float away.
Catherine looked buggered, lying with her clothes and face now covered in mud. This was definitely a different Catherine to the one Sara was used to seeing. She liked this Catherine, although she had always suspected her female colleague to be more into roughing it than her expensive clothes and sophisticated character implied.
Despite her weariness, Sara grinned and sat up. She sighed loudly, the sound apparently waking both Catherine and Grissom out of their respective dazes. Grissom began to stand up as Catherine struggled to roll onto her back and look up at the night sky. Feeling ten times heavier than she actually was, Sara rose and reached out a hand to help her friend up. Catherine took it gratefully and after a great heave, the two women were standing and helping Grissom drag the heavy packs out of the water and into the surrounding forest in search of a new campsite for their team.
Nick and Warrick watched, thunderstruck, as the enemy team walked in and around their former camp. They were both shivering, from cold or fear, on the other side of the river, hidden from the enemy and their sharp flashlights.
"It doesn't look like anyone's there," whispered Warrick.
"Good, that means our treasure's are safe," Nick said, happy that the others had not waited around for them.
"Yeah, but how do we find Grissom and the others?" Warrick asked.
"They probably left some kind of sign for us," Nick whispered back.
"Well, we better get it before they do – don't you think?" Warrick said as he began to move through the water towards the side their cave was on.
Nick's eyes darted towards the cave and noted the team retreating. Only two remained, they were still snooping around and looking suspicious. Nick grinned to himself, they must be awfully disappointed to find the cave empty, he thought. And pissed off. One of them had just kicked the side of the wall in anger.
Nick bit back his laugh and stealthily followed Warrick closer to their cave.
As they got closer, Nick had noticed that one of the bushes just outside the door of the cave was moving oddly, as if something was in it. As he wondered what wild animals travelled around the forests of Canada and began to imagine lake eels swimming up his pant legs, the two enemy team members also noticed the bush. The taller one tapped his friend on the shoulder and pointed silently to the bush as they crept slowly towards it.
Warrick and Nick (who forgot momentarily about the imaginary eels) watched curiously as both of the men stopped abruptly, and then pounced viciously into the bush, coming back out to produce a wild, carnivorous, annoyed…Greg. A tired – and livid – Greg Sanders who struggled angrily against the two men.
"Well well well!" one of the men said and laughed, quite obviously pleased with himself.
Greg said nothing, merely grunted and continued to struggle against the two bigger men. He was doing not too badly when Nick realized Warrick had lifted himself out of the water and was galloping towards the small group to try and help Greg. A split second later and Nick was at his side, taking the unknown men (and Greg) by surprise. Warrick easily overpowered one of them, who had begun to shout out to his mates who had already begun their journey back to their own camp. Warrick clamped his hand over the mans mouth and struggled to get him to the ground, kneeling on him as he watched Greg and Nick chase and catch the other man who had begun to flee as soon as he knew he was outnumbered. They dragged him down next to his teammate, Greg sitting on his back to keep him there.
"Grab the treasures Nick!" Warrick croaked to his friend, who was one step ahead of him and already running towards the small pile of treasures they'd dropped before the struggle. Nick sprinted back to the cave entrance and dropped the pile next to them before tearing open an enemy pack and emptying it. There were no treasures, but they did have rope and some material they could use as gags.
The three men set to work on the two strangers who were both furious and humiliated. It was only when Nick, Warrick and Greg had them tied together and gagged that they were able to acknowledge their reunion.
"Hey Greg," Warrick grinned as he hastily picked up the treasures and shared them with his friends, "I take it you're our guide?"
Greg grinned as Nick slapped him fondly on the back, "Follow me."
Leading them away from the river so as to trick their witnesses, Greg bounded determinedly along – Nick and Warrick happy to follow.
Sara, Catherine and Grissom sat huddled around the new campfire, partly naked under the blankets they held tightly around their bodies. After building the fire and setting up a small camp not too far from the river, the three of them had come to realize that only some of the contents of their packs had been made waterproof. The blankets had survived, along with some socks they suspected belonged to Greg (which they had all been oddly excited about). Catherine's spare pair of boots were okay and most of their sleeping bags were fine. They'd lined everything else up around the fire in the hopes of getting some of their clothes dry enough for them to wear.
Sara had to admit it was possibly the most bizarre moment of the whole trip; sitting almost naked, next to an equally almost naked Grissom and Catherine trying to get warm and dry by the small fire they'd been able to light. They were all so exhausted and intent on getting dry that it seemed almost normal, she just hoped there weren't any surprise raids because she didn't think she could handle rushing to pack everything up with Grissom running around in his boxers and Cath in her underwear. The mental image made her hum out a laugh and she glanced at Grissom who was staring at her. Embarrassed, and unreasonably suspicious that he knew exactly what she was thinking, she quickly turned away and began studying the fire.
After a moment where Sara felt oddly like a specimen under her boss's gaze he spoke up. "One of us will have to go back down to the river soon and wait for the others."
Sara turned to look at him, ready to volunteer, but he was now focussed on Catherine who seemed aware of his gaze too. She rolled her eyes, "Okay," she sighed good naturedly and pulled her boots on over a pair of Greg's fluffy socks, "since your boots were coincidently saturated."
Grissom smiled at her as she stood up and began picking up a random assortment of clothes whilst clutching her blanket around herself. "No peeking," she joked as she moved away to change.
Her clothes had dried up quite well, although they were still a little damp. She returned the blanket around her shoulders and, waving bye to Grissom and Sara (and smirking at the situation she was leaving behind), she began her small hike back down to the river to wait for the boys.
TBC