Tropical Nightmare- Chapter 5: One wrong step (Tony´s POV)
Disclaimer: I don´t own any characters or anything!
Summary: Tony and Kate are sent to Argentina for an undercover mission, but they have to take a detour.They are bound to find out that atropical island can be a real nightmare -at least if you´re on your own out there...
Additional note: I usually don´t write 1st-person narrator, but it seemed to fit rather well for this little story as the POV changes with each chapter.Also, the use of present-tense is wanted here, eventhough it may seem a bit odd. I hope it´s still readable.
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The sun is rising slowly and baths the whole beach in a soft red and golden light. I haven´t slept much last night. First of all, the sand is getting just about everywhere so there´s no way to get comfortable. Secondly, I just felt like I had to watch out for Kate. I still can´t forget the look on her face last night. I try to think about what might be if she had really drowned, but I just can´t imagine that. It´s Kate, after all and for some reason, it feels like she will always be there.
I look around consciouslyfor the first time. Last night it was too dark to see anything, but now I can see palms and small bushes growing about 200 ft behind us. The beach seems endless and stretches into the horizon. I know it´s just an optical illusion though. I get up to get a better look around. There are some boxes floating in the water. They got caught between two large rocks. When I take a closer look, I recognize them. They are transport boxes from the plane. I jump into the water and gather them. There are some normal parcels as well, probably mail for someone living on Hawaii.
As I throw them out of the water, I see another one floating just a few feet away. The water isn´t deep around here and I decide to walk over towards the other parcel before heading back to the beach. The rocks between the sandy ground are slippery and I take a few falls before I finally reach my destination. It´s a large white box wrapped in plastic. The writing on the address label has been washed off, but it seems like there´s food inside. Concentrating on the parcel, I take another step and feel a sharp pain in my left foot all the sudden.
I go down because I try to grab my foot out of a reflex. Salty water runs into my mouth, I think I was about to scream in pain, but I´m still under water. I struggle up to the surface, coughing out water and gasping for air. My vision is blurred from the pain that´s shooting through my whole leg now. I try to lift my leg, but it seems to be glued to something on the ground. From the corner of my eye I can see Kate on the beach, she probably heard me scream. It hurts like hell, but I can´t come free.
I go down again, trying to see what´s holding me down, but the water is too dirty from the sand that´s whirled up. Something touches my arm and I am pulled up. Kate is standing next to me. "Tony? What´s wrong?" She asks, but I can´t talk. I feel awful. There´s something red in the water and I realize it´s blood. "Don´t move." She tells me and is gone a moment later. I feel her tugging on my leg and another pain hits me. My other leg feels weak and I know it will give way in just a few moments. A second later, my foot is free and she resurfaces. "You stepped into something sharp. Let´s get out of here."
Everything starts spinning around me once we´re back in shallow waters. I drop down, but she keeps pulling me up. "C´mon, Dinozzo. Move it or I´ll tell Gibbs." She says and for some reason that works. I don´t want to face Gibbs after we´ve screwed up here. I know he´s not here, but still, I pull myself together and limp onto the beach. I look down and see a hole in my foot. Whatever I stepped on has pierced through it all the way. I don´t mind seeing blood, at least as long as it isn´t my own.
"I think, I need to sit down." I just let myself drop onto the beach. My whole leg is burning and I feel myself shaking. Kate is gone again, I just close my eyes for a moment and hope that this is just a dream. When I open my eyes again, the sun is standing high and it´s very warm. My leg feels heavy and hot. "What the..." I start, but a hand is holding me down.
"Just stay down. Whatever you stepped on must have been either really dirty or poisonous. I´ve never seen a wound getting inflamed so fast." I see her face above me and I know she´s worried. I´ve pulled so many stupid comments on her, I´ve embarrassed her so often and yet she´s worried about me. The only explanation for this is that she´s just too good for this world. I´ve never met anyone who comes even close to her, but I don´t think she knows how I feel about her. "I´ll go look for water -the bottles are almost empty." She tells me and I focus on her eyes again.
"Be careful." I tell her, but I know she will be anyway. She´s always careful, well at least when someone else depends on her. I´ve seen her run out into the worst thunderstorm without a jacket only because her sister forgot something after a visit. I watch her walk up to the jungle and can´t help to smile. For a second, I try to imagine what it would be like if it was her lying in the sand with an infection, but somehow, I don´t want to think about it. I´ve seen her getting hurt before, that´s the risk you take when you accept this job.
I must have fallen asleep again, because it´s dark when I open my eyes again. There´s a small fire burning nearby. I turn my head and look around. Kate is sitting on the other side of the fire, staring into the flames. It looks like she´s somewhere far away. "Kate?" She jumps a bit, like I woke her from a daydream or something. "Did you find any water?"
She comes over and sits down next to me. "There´s a small river about half a mile from here." She replies and hands me a bottle with water. It´s a bit warm to the touch, she probably boiled the water to kill any germs. My leg still burns, but the pain has lessened. I sit up a bit and look at her. There´s a deep cut on her cheek.
"You´re hurt." I tell her, but she just shrugs. I can sense that she doesn´t want to talk about it and lie back down. The soft breeze from the sea is quite cool, but the fire is just big enough to keep us warm. I know that we have to look for some kind of shelter soon, but I don´t want her to do that alone. I hope my dad was right when he told me that everyone in our family had very good healing abilities.