Chapter Nineteen: Overcoming the Obstacle
"Hey, Em?" Katie stood at the door to Emily's cabin. "The captain wants a word with us. All of us."
Emily set aside her book with a tiny sigh and followed Emily to the captain's cabin. The others had already gathered and the captain turned when she and Katie entered. "Good," he said in the heavy New Zealand accent, "I'm glad ye're all here." He spread his hands apart in a gesture of defeat. "This is as far as we can go, the ice is too thick for us break through now." His hands dropped to his side in hopelessness. "I'm sorry. I understand what this must mean for you."
"No," Emily murmured in a barely audible whisper, "don't be sorry. It's not your fault." She smiled sadly at him and then focused on Jerry, who seemed to be caving in on himself as she watched. "Jerry?" she asked, laying a hand on his shoulder.
She felt the tenseness go out of them as he turned to face her. "We've come halfway around the world and can't even make it the last hundred miles," he said in a hollow voice. He looked at Katie, a shadow of hope crossing his features. "Is there any way the chopper can make it?"
She shook her head, her brown eyes sad and sympathetic. "I'm sorry, Jer. We don't have enough fuel to make it there and back."
"Simoneta," Charlie said suddenly.
Davis gave him a puzzled look. "What?"
Jerry rolled his eyes. "His imaginary girlfriend. Not now, Coope. We're trying to be serious right now."
"No, no, no," Cooper protested, "Just hear me out. You remember two seasons ago, when I mapped out the penguin routes? Well, due to some ice shifts, they changed their course and ended up taking a path right through the Italian base." His eyes took a dreamy quality. "Where one Simoneta Parocciolle whipped me up a wicked cup of hot chocolate…"
Davis looked confused. "But what's this got to do with –"
"Horses, Doc," Charlie responded promptly, "Rein 'em in. The point is, she showed me around the base. Now every base has the same basic stuff, right? But the Italian base has SnoCat – the Lamborghini of snowmobiles. Now," he continued, gesturing them over to the navigational charts, "here's us, and here's our base, right? And now look at the Italian base, right here. It's half the distance. We can take the chopper to the Italian base, borrow the SnoCat, and take it the rest of the way. We can get more fuel from Victoria to get us back to the Italian base." He scanned their faces triumphantly. "What do you think?"
Davis and Katie traded glances, looking impressed, Bryan nodded pensively, his eyes on the charts, while Jerry stared at his friend with open astonishment and looked like he was about to hug him. Emily smiled. "This just might work, guys."
They wasted no time in getting things ready to go. With no further progress to be made by ship, they saw no reason to delay their departure. Emily and Katie checked the helicopter, readying it for take-off – with the assistance of the ship's deck crew – before returning to their cabins to pack their things.
Emily was in the midst of gathering her cold-weather gear into a mesh bag when she heard a tap on her door. "Come in," she replied without turning around.
"It's Jerry," Jerry announced himself. Mildly surprised, Emily turned around, rubbing her hands on her jeans to warm them.
"What do you need?" she asked, curious to know his reason for coming.
He looked down at the ground and cleared his throat. "Emily," he began, looking pained. He stopped, clearly struggling to sort out his thoughts. "Look, I feel I owe you an apology for what I said to you a few months ago at McMurdo. I was out of line and said too many things I shouldn't have."
Her look softened. "Jerry, I told already that there's nothing to forgive. I understand completely."
He regarded her seriously for a moment, absorbing her words. Suddenly, he changed the subject. "Why did you decide to come? It couldn't have been easy for you to convince your mother to agree to it."
"You're my friend, Jer," she replied simply. "I didn't lie when I said I'd do what I could to help you."
He smiled gratefully and pulled her into a hug. "Thank you," he whispered.
She gave him a quick squeeze in return before pushing away gently. "Now get out of here, Jer," she growled in mock severity, "Katie might get jealous."
He blushed a little, forcing her to stifle a laugh as he ducked out into the hallway.
Author's Note: Short chapter, sorry. Bit of a sweet little moment between Jerry and Emily. Oh, and since I'm still doing this from memory, I have no idea exactly what Cooper's girlfriend's last name is, so sorry if I mutilated it. I need to watch the movie again. When I do, I'll fix it. Please review!