Be warned, it's Young/Rush, this means men liking each other and being in the same bed. Deal with it or don't read it.
Completion of this chapter owes massively to Kimmy for pointing out a whole bunch of stuff, and CWR for some really useful info and both being totally supportive. Thanks!
Rush's party sat waiting for quite sometime while Eli and Volker ran sensor sweeps along possible routes.
"I think we're going to have problems." Volker told Young. "The other possible routes all have significant hull damage from drone attacks. The benefits of the original route you and Rush mapped out was that it avoided major hull breaches."
"Is there a safe route?"
Volker looked concerned.
"There's a saf-er route." He said. "We can take them down a deck underneath where they are now. It's a little close to a couple of deep hull breaches on Destiny's underside, but it's the best option so far."
Young leaned back in the chair checking the progress of both parties. Brody's party were on their way back already, journey speeded by the fact they knew where they were going and had fixed all the stuck doors and other issues on the way there. He picked up the radio.
"Rush, TJ this is Young."
"Young, tell me we're moving." Rush's voice was filled with frustration.
"Volker and Eli have a route, but it's risky. It's taking you under the area you're in now and they've got some other issues with it."
Young could almost see Rush's restless scowl before the man spoke again.
"Put Volker on."
Young listened to Rush discussing the problems with Eli and Volker. From the previous explanation and the parts of the conversation he actually understood, it appeared that Eli and Volker's main additional concerns were the fact that the sensors were down in part of the area and they were getting fluctuating readings from the power grid. Eli directed them a couple of corridors along to a working console and started sending Rush data. TJ and Rush were both in favour of taking the risk even if they had to walk through part of it in the dark.
"I can hook some of the sensors back up as we're going." Rush said. "Presuming there are local consoles along the route."
"There should be another whole computer core down there." Eli said. "Not as large, but it's the one you pointed out on the map."
"If it's even working." Rush replied. "With the coolant draining out there's a good chance that most of it is fried beyond repair."
Young could see Volker nodding. He caught the man's eye.
"Have you got any hard data on the risks?" Young asked him.
Volker shook his head.
"No, not without being down there. The sensors are completely out in a two corridor block. The surrounding area sensors look fine. The temperature's a little cool, but it's pretty close to the coolant leak area and several hull breaches so we're losing heat across that area anyway."
"Fine." Young said.
He picked up his radio.
"Okay, Rush, TJ, you have a go."
"Finally."
Young sighed leaning his elbow on the arm of the chair and catching Volker's eye who raised an eyebrow with a slight smile.
"It's pretty beat up down there." Young said.
"Tell me something I don't know Colonel." Rush's sarcasm was as thick as always.
"Take it carefully, Rush. Don't make me come down there to pull your ass out of trouble."
He watched as the group were routed back through the area they had just passed through, down an elevator, and in a circuitous route through corridors. There was no stopping to examine things in this area, just the occasional pause whilst Rush stopped to log in to a console and reconnect sensors wherever possible, or unlock a bulkhead door that was unresponsive to Eli or Volker's efforts from the bridge. Or just unresponsive to Eli and Volker's efforts, Young thought. The man was a menace but he was quick.
"Okay." Eli had the radio in his left hand and was tapping frantically with the right. "This is where our sensor readings drop out completely. It's not even responded to that last data ping you did."
"What about now?"
Eli watched to see if whatever Rush had done was showing, Volker leaning over his shoulder shaking his head.
"Nope, nothing." Eli said. "We're blind."
"I'll try once we get in there, there should be a couple of consoles in the first room."
"Okay."
Young lifted his radio.
"Keep in touch." He ordered. "Regularly. Remember we don't know where you'll be, you have to tell us until you come out of the other side."
There was no pause before Rush shot back.
"Yes Colonel, I think I'm aware of that."
Eli looked back at Young and rolled his eyes. Young shrugged, any response was pointless. There was a short pause and then Greer came on the radio.
"Colonel, Doctor Rush is just opening the door now."
"Thank you Sergeant." Young said, trying not to sound too grateful that Greer at least had sense.
He watched as the four blue dots disappeared from the map.
"Okay, we're in a room, and it's quite cold in here." Greer reported. "Rush has found a console, he says he's trying to restore some of the sensors."
Young waited. He could see Eli and Volker hovering over the console.
"Can you see anything?" he asked them.
"Not so far." Volker said. He took the radio. "Ah Doctor Rush, what are you trying to do?"
There was a long pause.
"There's power in here, though it's not great, but I'm not picking up the sensors at all."
"Uh…" Eli's voice was uncertain. Eli snatched the radio from Volker. "Doctor there's a serious power fluctuation in the areas around you, whatever you're doing seems to be having some kind of effect."
This time the pause for a response was shorter.
"It's having fuck all effect in here."
Young laughed.
Eli was leaning over the console.
"Uh, Doctor Rush, whatever you're doing is causing some serious instability in the local power grid."
"There's no reason why it should."
"I don't know about that, but it is."
Young's bad feeling was definitely pulling at the edge of his mind again.
"Just hold on." Rush's voice was sharp.
"Still fluctuating."
"I'm not doing anything, and based on what I can see here there's absolutely no reason there should be any fluctuations. What are you seeing Eli?"
Eli started describing readings. Young took a moment to check Brody's party, who were almost halfway back. They seemed to be fine, the kino feed showed them talking about food. He turned his attention back to Rush's party on that kino feed. Greer, TJ and Barnes were watching as Rush worked at a console. The lighting in the room was dim, but not poor enough that the kino had flicked to night vision.
"Well, we'll be having to manually open doors if we can't stabilise the power in this section, and that'll slow us up further." Rush sounded irritated. Back to default setting.
Young looked up at Eli and Volker looking at each other then Eli lifted the radio again.
"What about if you…"
There was a rapid back and forth that Young did not understand, and from the look on his face, Volker was having trouble following it as well in places.
"Well I can divert some of the power from the deck above down to you." Said Eli finally.
"I'm not sure that's a good idea." Rush said. "We're risking overloading the…fuck!"
Young started, staring at the kino feed. It had dropped into night-vision. He could see Rush groping for the console and TJ and Barnes patting at pockets before with a bright flare the kino flicked back into normal video as flashlights were turned on.
"Oh no!" Eli was tapping frantically at the console.
"What's happened?" Young demanded into his radio, leaning forward in his chair, staring at Eli and Volker as he listened intently to the radio.
"The power's just dropped out in a whole area of the ship." Eli said, voice high and strained.
"Shield's have thinned thirty seven percent in that area." Volker called over. "I'm boosting the neighbouring emitters to cover some of that."
"Colonel?" It was Greer's voice, his normal lilting tone. "It's gone awfully dark in here."
Greer was looking up at the kino, frowning. In the background he could see Rush pulling open a panel on the console.
"What are you doing?"
"Rush is checking the console, but we appear to have no power here."
Young stood.
"Eli?"
"I'm looking, I'm looking!"
He waited, hand clenched on the edge of a console, eyes flicking from where Rush was working on the dead console by flashlight to where Eli and Volker were frantically working at the screens in front of him.
"Eli?" he growled.
"Look, just let me work!"
Volker turned back to Young.
"Power just shut off, not only in the section they're in, but neighbouring sections and part of the route they've already travelled through."
Volker didn't look happy.
"The implications?"
Volker shot him a nervous look.
"No heat, no light and in the area they are in, the doors will be shut and inoperable."
"So they're trapped?"
"Yes, at the moment. But Eli's trying to reroute power."
"Help him." Young ordered. He could hear raised voices from the kino feed and put the radio to his lips. "Greer?"
"Yeah Colonel."
"How's it going?"
"It's pretty cold in here. We've got flashlightes so we've got light, but Rush has had to give up on trying to fire things up this end. He says the power loss is external to this section. He can't fix it from in here. He's not very happy about that sir."
I'll bet he's not, thought Young.
"Fine, Eli and Volker are trying to restore power from this end. We'll keep you posted."
Twenty minutes passed. Brody and his party were almost back, but it didn't seem like Eli and Volker were making any progress at all. Young sat in the chair frustrated. Greer, TJ and Rush speaking with them on a regular basis, TJ and Greer to update on their situation and Rush to consult with or berate Eli. In the kino feed they sat or walked around, and intermittently Rush had another go at part of the console.
"It's getting pretty cold in here." Greer reported.
On the screen Young could see Rush was on his back half in a conduit and could hear his muffled voice. Greer passed on the message.
"Rush thinks that's a bit odd, but it may be because the hull breaches are so big the shields aren't strong enough to hold in the heat as well as the air."
Eli and Volker were still having no success and Young rubbed at his face.
"We're gonna have to get them out." He said.
Eli spun to look at him.
"It'll take you hours to get to them, and you'll have to force the door open." He said. "If we can just get…"
Young stepped off the dais.
"You've got twenty minutes Eli. No more."
Time passed, Young checked his watch. Brody walked back onto the bridge and joined Eli and Volker. Young drummed his fingers on the railing.
"Bridge? This is TJ." TJ's voice sounded shaky. "Are you any closer to getting us out?"
Young pulled his radio from his belt.
"What is it TJ?"
"It's getting really cold in here. We're sitting together for warmth, but I can see my breath in the air and we're pretty chilled. We really need you to be getting us out of here."
He moved back to the chair to look at the kino feed. All four were sitting down now, shoulder to shoulder and Greer had an arm round Barnes' shoulder. He could see from here they were all shivering. Young stepped down onto the deck.
"That's it Eli, we're going down there." Lifting the radio again he spoke. "Scott, you awake?"
There was a long pause.
"Yes sir."
"Take Chloe," Eli interrupted, "we need to stay here and try and increase the shields to stop them losing any more heat or air. We can talk her through stuff."
Young hit the radio button again.
"Get yourself, Chloe and a small party ready. The infirmary party are trapped, we need to get down there and get them out ASAP."
There was no hesitation.
"I'll meet you by the exit in five minutes. Scott out."
Volker rushed out and came back in a few seconds later with a bag.
"Batteries for Chloe, she may be able to power up some of the doors with them."
Young took the bag and strode out.
Young led the party out at a ground eating trot, the bridge crew giving directions as they went. Most of the significant problems between here and the powered down area had been resolved at least temporarily when the previous party had passed through and slowed them down little, though he was glad Eli and Volker had sent Chloe rather than one of themselves for the simple reason she was fitter and having little problem maintaining the pace the military set.
Anxiety was making his heart race faster than it really should have with the level of exertion and he was having to force himself into the measured breathing pattern that would allow him to keep going.
TJ radioed in a couple more times, the compartment was still losing heat, the temperature dropping and without him asking, Scott raised the pace.
"How long till we make it?" He asked Eli.
"I'm thinking another twenty minutes guys, the elevators down there are all out, you'll have to bypass them and use the emergency stairwells."
Damn. Young shared a look with Scott, determination mixed with anxiety on the young man's face.
"Come on."
TJ could feel herself shivering still, although she wasn't sure she could feel her fingers anymore. Her breath was now misting thickly in the air in front of her nose. She tried to stop the shivers but couldn't and that wasn't a good sign. Rush, in front of her didn't seem to be shivering consistently anymore and that wasn't good either. She pulled him closer to her with difficulty as her clumsy fingers snagged in his shirt, and it wasn't a good sign that he didn't complain. Of all of them he was the oldest, thinnest and least healthy. Barnes was snugged up tightly behind his back and was definitely shivering but had stopped talking.
She heard footsteps and when she looked up, Greer was back, the other flashlight blinding her for a second as he struggled with a massive armful of fabric.
"I got blankets" he said and started to heap bedclothes around them. "There's some quarters back there, but I reckon we wanted to be near the exit here. It feels quite a lot colder back there an' all an' that's saying something."
"Get in." she said. "We need your heat. Doctor Rush is not good."
"Too damn right." Muttered Barnes.
Greer slid into the mass of blankets.
"I hope they get us out of here soon." He said. "This mission has most definitely ceased to be fun."
She heard Barnes laugh. Their body heat started to warm up the nest. Greer started Barnes on a conversation about cars of all things and TJ was reassured when he kept her talking and alert. It took her a moment though to realise Rush, who she'd almost completely buried in the blankets, was shivering again and muttering.
He seemed to think she was someone else and kept complaining about an octopus, and she guessed it must be something from when he was a kid. Her mind was ticking over hypothermia and if that wasn't a sign of impaired consciousness she didn't know what was. She pulled his shivering form closer to her again.
"No," he muttered into her hair, "you're just lonely. You keep your hands to yourself."
She rubbed his back with her free hand.
"Should never have let you in. Now you keep coming back…or I do..."
He kept talking, but his speech slurred off into incoherence.
"Doctor Rush." She said into his ear.
"Don't want to leave." He said distinctly. "Warm with you."
"I know." She said. "It's fine, you can stay."
"You never did work it out…did you?" he muttered. "'S all about not being on your own."
TJ couldn't work out who he thought he was talking to. This seemed to be an adult conversation. Maybe his wife, or Amanda Perry?
"Doctor Rush?"
"Last place you were warm and safe."
"Doctor Rush, it's TJ."
She felt Barnes shift behind Rush and Greer's arm slid past Barnes to feel across Rush's back and clasp TJ's wrist.
"What's he saying?" Greer asked.
"He doesn't seem to know where he is." She said. "He should start to wake up in a bit once we warm up."
For the moment at least, she thought. Not forever. She laid there listening to Barnes and Greer arguing listlessly about NASCAR. Rush had stopped muttering and was shivering as hard as she had been.
"Doctor Rush?" She tried again.
"TJ?"
"Yeah."
"Did I pass out?"
"Pretty much."
"Bloody freezing here. Shouldn' be this cold this quick."
"Greer says it gets significantly colder down the corridor."
He was silent.
"I'm assuming that's not good either?"
"No." TJ could hear Rush's teeth chattering. "It's means there's possibly….probably…good chance the coolant fluid has a slow leak into this area."
"So it's going to get colder in here?"
"Much colder."
"How fast?"
"Can't tell. Can't see how big leak is…how long have we been here."
TJ fumbled her watch up and was shocked to see it had only been half an hour since last time she checked. That really wasn't good. It felt like much much longer, meaning her brain was playing tricks.
"I think…maybe…two hours?" She said.
He was silent again.
"So that's bad too."
"Very bad…." his teeth chattered, "…Lieutenant."
TJ heard a mumbled 'great' from Greer. She fumbled her radio up through the blankets with unsteady hands.
"Colonel Young? Eli?"
"Yeah TJ?" It was Eli.
"It must've gone below freezing in here and Doctor Rush thinks there's a coolant leak in here. It's getting colder in here…did I say that already…it's getting colder in here a lot quicker than it ought to."
"Coolant!" Eli's voice was a strangled squawk. "Christ!"
"Sitrep TJ." Young's voice was breathy as if he was running.
"It's got to be below zero in here…sir…and getting colder. We're wrapped up in blankets together near the exit and Doctor Rush is conscious again…"
"He was unconscious?"
"Yeah…I think we're pretty screwed unless you can get us out."
"Comforting." Muttered Rush.
"'ll be fine." There was the slightest hint of a slur to Greer's voice.
"We're in a pretty bad way sir."
"We're almost there." Young's voice was even more laboured.
With TJ's radio-in, the whole party had sped up. Young's knee was killing him, but he was keeping up with Scott and Chloe and Dunning was right behind him. They ran into darkness, Scott slowing momentarily to click on the flashlight..
"You're almost there guys." Eli's voice was welcome. "Left at the next junction, the first right."
Thirty seconds later they were standing at a sealed bulkhead door, all panting hard. The air was slightly chill here and the bulkhead door was cold to the touch, too cold.
"Okay Eli, now what?" Scott asked.
"You're going to have to force the door and we're going to sacrifice an area of corridor as I'm pretty certain we won't be able to close it. It'll have a security lock on it, but Chloe should be able to override the lock with the power from the battery Volker gave her and my instructions. Then you force the door with the crowbars."
Young stood back leaning on the cold wall as Eli and Volker started giving Chloe instructions which she appeared to understand. She cracked open the door control and started fiddling with the contents, stopping occasionally to rub chilled hands together. The light flashed orange. And then again. And a third time. Young realised his hands were clenching into fists and releasing over and over.
"It's not working Eli." She said in frustration, rubbing her hands on her pants to warm them. A bunch more instructions came through, then she spoke again. "Look, let me try something."
She started fiddling with the controls again, breaking further into the panel before they finally flashed green.
"Done." She said.
"What did you do Chloe?" Eli demanded.
"I'll tell you later." She stepped back looking at Young, Dunning and Scott. "I'm done."
Young didn't wait, just stepped forward and started forcing the crowbar into the seam at the edge of the door, Dunning grabbed the crowbar, his hands above and below Young's and they pushed and jiggled it back and forwards. It seemed to take ages to ever get it a millimetre into the seal. Scott moved in below him, grabbing the other crowbar, crouching and starting to work at the seal lower, Chloe adding her strength to his.
"This isn't working." Scott's voice was taut with anxiety.
"Keep going!" Young snapped. "We're not leaving them in there."
They continued to struggle with the door, forcing the crowbars in another millimetre or two.
There was a clattering of feet on the decking behind him and he turned to see Brody, Varro, Cole and Becker.
"Step…out of the…way." Brody was breathing so hard he could barely talk.
Varro hauled Scott and Dunning bodily away from the door, then shouldered Young out and Brody was putting something on the door. With a wrenching grinding noise the door began to open and Young realised suddenly it was the device the Lucian Alliance had used on the opening mechanism of the gate room to break out.
As soon as there was enough of a crack, Young was grabbing at the door and he Varro and Scott managed to force it open enough to force their way through the gap. The cold hit him, it was like walking into a freezer and there was a slight chemical smell. Chloe was holding the flashlight at the top of the doorway, illuminating the room. Young paused a moment, his breath a cold mist in the air. Through the icy haze Young made out a pile of blankets in the corner opposite. He gave a shout, with no idea what he had actually yelled and ran over ignoring the pain shooting through his knee.
"We got them." Scott said into his radio.
He grabbed the nearest body and dragged it up and out of the room, only realising it was Greer when he was passing him out to Dunning in the corridor. Scott and Varro brought out two more, and he went back in for the last, realising by the weight or lack thereof, it must be Rush.
As he half carried, half dragged him out, Brody and Varro were trying the Lucian gadget again. His knees gave out and he collapsed on the corridor floor watching over Rush's head as the door slowly ground closed. Brody collapsed opposite him.
"Sir?" Cole was talking to him and he realised he had collapsed with Rush in his arms against his chest, Cole was trying to take Rush. His arms tensed for a moment, then he let her help him struggle to his feet, bringing Rush up with him. Becker was pulling blankets off the kino sled taking protein powder cans out of them, and another sled was behind.
"Get him up here." Said Cole.
Rush was a dead weight, but he helped Cole manoeuvre him onto the sled. He jumped as his hand touched the metal can. It was hot.
"Cans full of boiling water, sir." She said. "Well, hot by now. We wrapped the cans in blankets to keep them hot."
She was wrapping Rush in the hot blanket, and settling him against TJ on the sled, then piling blankets over the two, creating a warm nest with both them and the cans inside. She took a look at Brody who had pretty much collapsed with his head on his knees, and gestured to him and Young watched Varro haul Brody up and sit him on the end of the second sled with Greer and Barnes.
They started off for home hauling the sleds by straps tied to the front. Young was limping hard and Cole paused the party after only a couple of minutes to order him onto the sled with Rush and TJ, pushing him down to sit on the rear. The sled was crowded and he ended up sitting at an angle with Rush's head practically in his lap, but he was able to stretch his leg out almost straight and take the pressure off his knee.
The journey seemed to take forever, but he felt TJ start to move before they had returned to the inhabited area. He squeezed TJ's shoulder and she mumbled something.
"It'll be okay." He said.
He had one hand on her shoulder to hold himself on the sled and the other in Rush's hair, stroking reflexively over his scalp. He felt so cold. He leaned a little, trying to see ahead to see the other sled but couldn't see if Greer and Barnes were moving. Young's mind felt frozen too, praying they had got there in time. He turned back and just sat there, holding on and stroking their hair as they made their way through the corridors and he began to allow himself hope they would be okay.
In the infirmary there were more containers full of hot water waiting, and Camile, James and Calvos. Young struggled up from the sled, pain shooting through his knee and he grabbed for a gurney. Cole was rapping out orders to get the four frozen people up from the sleds. She saw him swaying.
"Lieutenant James, get the Colonel on that bed!"
He frowned, but James and Calvos picked him up bodily and set him on the bed next to Rush.
"Wait there!" Cole instructed. "I'll get to you."
He watched as Cole took temperatures and the four were packed in blankets with containers of hot water to warm them. TJ and Greer were already coming round and as soon as they were alert enough were being fed hot tea.
He only realised Chloe had gone when she walked back in and wasn't Chloe.
"I'm Doctor Macarthur." She said, a little uncertainly, looking back to Dunning who had led her in.
Cole was immediately with her.
"We have four patients suffering from hypothermia."
Young's energy was flagging, he wasn't able to follow the conversation and his knee was throbbing with a rhythmic intensity that was making it even harder to concentrate.
Cole walked over. He let Cole help him out of his boots and pants and look at his leg. There was a nasty fist sized bruise already beginning to bloom on the side of his knee and she started to strap his knee up with tape. She went and came back with a cup of green coloured tea.
"Drink this." She said. "It'll help with the pain."
He drank the tea. It was disgusting, but the pain began to recede, although the room became fuzzy and it was a little harder to concentrate. He could see Brody was sitting on his other side, collapsed back against the pillows, and Scott was sat on the end of the bed, leaning forward on his knees.
"Scott." He said. "I'm pretty certain this tea is going to knock me out. You're in charge. Let Camile take the bridge after you."
He slumped back against the pillows and the drugs took him under.
He dreamed of the sound of the sea and an all pervading cold that sank into his bones and made his joints ache. There was a warmth there if he could only get to it, but he was frozen, unable to move. He woke with a start, disoriented, expecting to see the ceiling of a cave, but seeing only grey metal. Someone had pulled a blanket over him, but it was half off the edge of the gurney and he pulled it back over him, looking left and right. Brody was asleep on the bed still, and on his other side, Rush was still wrapped up tightly in blankets which had the bulky look that suggested there were still hot water cans under there.
Cole had obviously heard him shifting as she walked over from where she was sitting writing at TJ's desk to his bed. It must still be early, he realised, as the dimmer night lighting was on.
"How are they?" he asked quietly.
"I think they're going to be fine." She said. "More importantly, Doctor Macarthur thinks they're going to be fine. I hope you don't mind, but I sent Chloe for one of the Homeworld Command doctors as soon as we got back."
She looked quite nervous.
"You were the medical officer on duty." Young said. "It was your call, a good one."
It was a bit fuzzy on that front as Cole wasn't officially a medic yet, but it was good enough for Young. She smiled at him gratefully, as Doctor Macarthur walked round from behind a screen.
"Hi." Young said. "How are they?"
"Fine, or they will be. They're all asleep right now, but they've all been conscious," her eyes flickered down to the name embroidered on his shirt, "Colonel. Sorry, we haven't been introduced, I'm Doctor Macarthur. This is all a bit new to me."
"First time on Destiny." He said.
"First time in someone else's body, first time off world."
Young smiled at her.
"You get used to it."
"Okay," she said. "I hope so. Well, Airman Cole and her team did mostly the right thing warming them up after you got them out. I'm pretty confident you've avoided any major frostbite and so now, considering your facilities," she looked around a little helplessly, "it's just a matter of wait and see. I'm most concerned about Doctor Rush, his hypothermia and frostbite was the most severe, and his heartbeat was a little irregular. The others responded well to being warmed up, he's been lucky that the warming process worked so well for him. Considering the severity of his condition, it could have gone very wrong, warming him up so quickly, it can cause an arrhythmia..." she looked at Young's slightly blank expression, "…it could have been bad for his heart, it was risky, especially for him. He's also significantly underweight and I'm recommending he goes on a diet to increase that."
Young laughed.
"Good luck with that." He said.
She gave him a long look then shrugged.
"You're all underweight." She said. "But his is problematic. I also kept Mister Brody in all night to keep an eye on him. He's just exhausted himself. He's also somewhat too underweight and could do with eating a bit more." She shrugged.
"When can I get out?" He asked her.
"Now if you want, but you'll have to keep off that knee as much as possible and use a cane until it's healed."
"Have you had the grand tour yet?" Young asked her.
Macarthur looked nervous.
"I don't really have clearance." She said. "I didn't know about this project, but I was the only doctor on site with any significant recent experience with hypothermia, I've been in Antarctica. I've only recently found out about the programme at all."
"Well," said Young, "once you know about the whole 'people accidentally stuck on a several million year old spaceship across the other side of the universe' thing the rest is pretty much a moot point. Cole, make sure someone takes Doctor Macarthur to get breakfast and at least to the observation lounge."
Cole grinned.
"I'll take Doctor Macarthur when Varro comes to take over." She said.
She and Macarthur disappeared back to the desk, Young could hear then talking quietly, the occasional laugh coming through.
He slid down off the bed, carefully onto his good foot. The air in the infirmary was chilly against his bare legs and the tape around his knee was pulling at his leg hair uncomfortably but he grabbed his pants and with extreme care, pulled them on over the injured knee, wincing. He gritted his teeth and limped over to TJ. She was sound asleep but looked peaceful and relaxed. Someone had taken all the pins out of her hair and they were in a heap on the side table. Her hair was fanned across the pillow. She wouldn't be happy about that, her hair would be a tangled mess when she woke, like it always was if it wasn't plaited. He stroked her hair gently then turned.
Rush was asleep on his bed, lying on his back. Both his hands were bandaged and lay on the covers on his chest. It looked like a distinctly unnatural position for him. He was shifting restlessly and his hair was across his face. With a quick uneasy look around Young reached out and pushed the hair off Rush's face.
Rush's eyes flicked open and Young yanked his hand away. Rush's eyes were doing the slow sleepy blink that usually slid into either beady suspicious brightness or a glare, but this time the exhausted blink didn't change.
"Hi." Young said.
"Hi." Rush replied.
His voice was quiet and his eyes dark shadowed.
"How are you?"
"I feel like shit, and they've put me in mittens."
Young raised his eyebrows. Rush lifted a hand and looked at the bandages.
"I have frostbite." He said sourly. "Both hands."
"Painful."
"Not at the moment." His eyes flicked slowly to an empty beaker on the table, before floating back across to Young. "Apparently it's not too bad considering. Should heal up." He looked at the bandages then up at Young again. "I've been spoon-fed." He said in disgust.
Young grinned at him, then winced as his weight shifted on his bad knee. He hauled himself up to sit on the edge of Rush's bed.
"Doctor Macarthur has instructed me to ensure you're given extra rations till you put a bit of extra weight on. Brody too."
Rush shot a glare in the direction of the desk.
"As if anyone would want to eat additional rations of what's served up here."
Young laughed, a little louder than he'd intended, and Doctor Macarthur put her head round the screen.
"You're awake again?"
"Evidently." Rush's voice was flat.
She came over, standing on the other side of the bed, and started asking him questions in a cheerful voice. Young went to slide off the bed, but Rush caught his eye past the woman's shoulder and he stopped. He watched as Doctor Macarthur sat Rush up and lifted his shirts to listen to his heart. Young realised he'd not actually seen Rush without his shirt on, but Rush looked as thin as he always felt to Young, ribs visible all the way up to his collarbones. She pulled his shirt back down, Rush's bandage mittened hands not up to the task and moved down to examine his feet.
"Your feet look fine." She said happily. "Those knitted socks appear to have done a good job."
Rush looked up at Young with a savage expression and mouthed.
"Get me out of here."
Young shook his head.
"Not a chance." He mouthed back.
Doctor Macarthur finished with his feet and finally left them to it.
"I thought I told you not to get into any trouble." Young told Rush with a grimace, he looked at him a little uncertainly for a moment then contented himself with putting his hand on the other man's shoulder and squeezing.
"Bugger off." Rush said quietly, as Young pulled the covers up where they'd been pushed down by Doctor Macarthur's examination. But it didn't sound like Rush's heart was in the declaration.