Waking to the insistent buzzing of radio static, Buffer found himself in a tangle of upper body limbs with the still unconscious XO who was face down in the dirt; attempting to move he groaned in pain when he found his left ankle had been trapped under a rock that he guessed must have fallen with them on their way down the hill.

Reaching out and shaking Kate's shoulder slightly, he was holding his breath until he heard her moan; coming too Kate carefully turned over and lay on her back while disentangling herself from Buffer. "What hit us?" Kate reached a shaky hands to her forehead intending to wipe away the sweat and dirt from her brow, unfortunately when she moved her hand away she found it was blood coating her fingers.

Buffer watched his XO carefully from his position on the ground "Ma'am that looks pretty serious" he hadn't realised Kate had hit her head on the way down the hill, attempting again to move his foot from under the rock he audibly groaned in pain, which in turn alerted Kate to his distress "Buffer what's going on with you?"

"I'm fine Ma'am; it's you we should be worried about, head injuries can be serious" Despite his own pain, he noticed that the blood was still running freely from Kate's head wound.

Struggling to roll over onto her knees, Kate stopped to take some forced breaths to try and quell the queasy feeling coming over her with movement "Let's try again Buffer and I expect honest answers; what are your injuries?"

Taking time to inventory his body for aches and pains "Ma'am my ankle is trapped under a rock, it's a bit sore but hopefully it's just the weight of the rock bearing down on it. Aside from that, just a few bumps and bruises"

Waiting until the queasy feeling was starting to lessen, Kate carefully and slowly turned her head in Buffer's direction from her kneeling position "No blood around or underneath the rock from what I can see so hopefully you haven't done too much damage; give me a few minutes and I'll come rescue you"

Taking his first good look at his XO, Buffer was concerned "Ma'am how bad is your head?"

"It's fine, let's just worry about getting you from under that rock"

Not to be fobbed off, Buffer urged "Ma'am I was honest with you…"

With a slight huff Kate replied "Getting better, there were 5 of you when I first looked now I only see 4"

"I'd rather you were just seeing one of me Ma'am" Buffer was concerned that his XO had a serious head injury.

Forcing a smile in his general direction Kate tried to deflect focus off of her and onto the situation her team mate had found himself in "Well if there are infact four of you Buffer that means more help to move the rock"

Pushing herself to her feet, Kate wobbled as she stood to survey the scene before her "What you couldn't have found a smaller rock to pick a fight with?"

Smirking from his position on the ground "Sorry Ma'am, this was the only one available"

Breaking into the silence engulfing them a radio crackled to life "X-Ray 82 this is Romeo 82 over"

"Damn I forgot about them" Kate reached for her radio, realising it had smashed on the plummet down the hill she motioned for Buffer to hand over his "Romeo 82 this is X-Ray 82 go ahead" while lowering herself unceremoniously down on the ground beside his head.

"X the swell is building, if it gets any higher we won't be able to make it back to The Hammersley" Rhino had been monitoring the water conditions and was concerned that the RHIB wouldn't be able to break through the waves to open water if they waited much longer.

Kate and Buffer looked at each other, both silently communicating what the only possible course of action could be "Rhino as soon as you see a break in the waves you go; don't wait for me or Buffer any longer – your priority is to get those girls back to the Ship, am I clear?"

"Ma'am, if you're sure"

"I am; Rhino tell Swain to leave any spare medical supplies he can behind and if the RHIB has any bottles of water or snacks stowed leave those too"

Aghast at what he was listening to, a loud "Unbelievable bloody woman" could be heard by those sailors within the general vicinity of the Bridge. Breaking into the radio chatter Mike couldn't contain himself any longer "X-Ray 82 this is Charlie 82, why haven't you and Buffer returned to the beach as ordered X?"

Hesitating momentarily before answering "Charlie 82, we went a little further into the jungle than we meant to Sir"

Gripping his radio so tightly Mike felt the casing move under the pressure "X, how long will it take you to get back to the beach?"

Not committing herself to a direct answer "Sir Buffer and I won't make it back for a while"

Taking time to carefully project his words "X that's not answering my question, how long?

"It'll be a while yet, we encountered a few problems"

"Problems…" His mind frantically running through the scenarios that could lead to his people not getting back to their departure point, realisation dawned on him "X are you or Buffer injured?"

Kate spied Buffer shaking his head off to the side "Few cuts and bruises, but the missing girl may require some medical attention; we can't leave her here if she does"

"X" Suddenly everything made sense, but there was more to the story and he knew it; quelling the rising fear rising in his chest Mike forced himself to listen to Kate.

Deliberately skirting round the implied question "Sir, we're fine but as I said the girl may be injured"

Tiring of the deliberate non-answers to his question "X you and Buffer are to make it back to the RHIB now and return to The Hammersley with the rest of the Boarding Party"

Taking a deep breath "Sir, that's not possible at the moment we're too far away; the RHIB has a small window left to make it away safely, to endanger the lives of everyone else would be a foolish decision and operationally ridiculous"

Spinning round to his Navigator who was standing watching the Captain slowly lose his patience he asked "Did she just call me foolish and ridiculous?" Nikki, not knowing how to answer just shook her head.

Sucking in a breath and deliberately annunciating his words "Excuse me Lt McGregor?"

"Sir neither Buffer nor I are going to make it back to the beach anytime soon, however the RHIB can still get away and the girls can get the medical attention they need. Buffer and I will find somewhere dry to set up camp and keep up the search for the missing girl when we can – you have to know it's the only viable option"

"X what aren't you telling me?" Mike was becoming increasingly suspicious he was being left out of some gem of information that would make everything suddenly clearer.

"Sir Buffer has twisted his ankle, we're not going to get up enough speed to make it back to the beach" Sparing a quick glance to Buffer, Kate saw him glare daggers at her and frantically pointing to roughly the same area on his head where blood was still flowing from Kate's open wound whispering "and what about your injury?" Mouthing "sorry" Kate continued "Buffer's ankle isn't too bad but it's going to hold us up; where we are is fairly dry, good tree cover and we can rest up here for a while before moving on to dryer ground. This is the only viable option we have to work with; I'm sure you'd agree if you were here instead of me."

Knowing she had him Mike finally assented to the plan "But X, when you get back to The Hammersley we are going to have a serious conversation about what has happened here today."

Muttering "can't wait for that" loud enough for Buffer to hear, Kate spoke into the radio again "Yes Sir, X-Ray 82 out"

Knowing he had held the RHIB up, Mike contacted the driver "Romeo 82 this is Charlie 82 over"

"Charlie 82 this is Romeo 82 go ahead"

"Rhino, leave whatever you can behind for the X and Buffer and make it back to The Hammersley as soon as"

"Roger Charlie 82" Relief flooded through Rhino as he turned the ignition, he was beginning to fear the RHIB would be beached on the Island; spying a lull in the waves, he gunned the engine and headed for open water.

"X-Ray 82 this is Sierra 82 over"

"Sierra 82 this is X-Ray 82 go ahead" Kate heard the roar of the RHIBs engine crackling in the background and was glad that they had been able to make it off the Island in time.

Shouting to be heard over the RHIB and increasingly angry sea "Ma'am, I've left a fully stocked med bag at the clearing where we landed, unfortunately there isn't much in the way of provisions we only had a few bottles of water and energy bars on board"

"Thanks Swain, we'll grab it and head for dryer ground; safe travels X-Ray 82 out"

"X-Ray 82 this is Charlie 82" not waiting for her response "X, we're headed for calmer water but it could be tomorrow at the earliest before we can safely launch a RHIB to pick you and Buffer up. Make sure you are close to the beach for evacuation"

"Roger Charlie 82, we'll be there"

Reaching the radio back down to Buffer, Kate took a moment to take a few deep breaths to quell the rising queasy feeling that was steadily growing again "There's no way I can possibly move that rock on my own, I need something to lever it up with" Smirking at her stricken team mate "Stay here and I'll have a look around for something"

Shaking his head, Buffer watched the shaky XO push herself to a standing position and walk away, scanning the area around them.

15 minutes later Kate returned dragging a sturdy tree branch in her hands, dropping it beside Buffer she sat down for a moment "Just need to find a smaller rock to push against and we'll get the rock moved"

Surveying the ghostly white face of his XO who was soaked through due to the unrelenting rain he could hear in the distance "Ma'am how's the head?"

"There's still 4 of you Buffer if that's what you're asking"

"Not quite X; maybe we should have had Swaino or Cheffo stay behind"

"Then there would be 3 of us camping out tonight; plus had we kept Cheffo here the CO would likely be dealing with a mutiny on board"

Not quite connecting Kate's train of thought "Ma'am?"

Smiling as she remembered the last time somebody had to be assigned galley duty on-board "RO would have to cook and nobody would want that again" The smile quickly disappeared when she thought about why Cheffo had been incapacitated and that the Ship has lost a junior sailor, "anyway lets' get this rock moving shall we." Kate in her haste to repress the death of Jaffa attempted to stand quickly to her feet only to end up landing on her bum on the ground

"X we're in no hurry, maybe you should let the world stop spinning first"

Shuffling back to the tree trunk she had been initially leaning against, Kate used it to push against whilst she made it up onto her feet "Buff we're both getting soaked here, we need to get moving to somewhere more sheltered"

Kate moved around the area before reaching down and grabbing a largish rock, she made her way over to the large boulder pinning down Buffer's ankle. Pointing at her equipment "lever and fulcrum, who actually thought school physics lessons would ever payoff"

Whilst setting up her make-shift equipment, Buffer noticed how heavily she leaned on the tree branch to keep herself upright; "right, you know the basics behind this as much as I do; I'll do the heavy lifting and you move your foot clear"

After a few attempts at moving the rock, Kate eventually ended up on the ground flat on her back; he head was spinning and her visions was coming in and out of focus. "Ma'am, are you alright?" Buffer had twisted his body as far as he could to try and reach out to his X. "Just give me a minute Buffer" she rasped out, trying to quench the vomit she knew was rising in her body.

10 minutes later, Kate felt her body had calmed enough to again and move again; using the tree branch to help her stand, she moved it into place and took a deep breath before exerting all the energy she had left in her body to force the branch down to the ground. Buffer felt the rock shift "Just a bit more X, it's moving"; Kate let out a guttural scream and pushed harder again on the branch; when she had no more energy left she collapsed in a heap on her knees, the vomit pushing its' way out of her mouth. She was startled when she felt hands reaching for her back, rubbing soothing circles on it.

When she was finally rid of the contents of her stomach, she wiped at her mouth and pushed back away from the mess she had left behind; Buffer, who had been sat behind her moved in tandem with her shuffling and the two of them reached a tree trunk and leaned against it.

Suddenly realising that Buffer was sitting beside her "You got free then?"

Reaching under his knee to lift his leg up and rest it in an elevated position on a rock beside him "Yes Ma'am, thanks to you. How's the head?"

Automatically deflecting his question "How's the ankle?"

Not to be deterred and needing to assess their immediate situation "Ma'am, I'm serious…how's the head?"

Relenting Kate assessed the various pains making themselves known in her body now she was as a standstill "Sore, bleeding has stopped but the double vision is a bitch"

"So two of me have disappeared then?" Letting out a small laugh Buffer turned his head away from her and lay it back on the tree trunk they were sharing "that's progress I suppose"