After some encouraging words, I thought I'd just finished this off and get over it ...

Chapter 9.

Jill woke up with a really bad headache. She blinked a few times, trying to remember where she was. Oh, yeah. Beach. Plane crash. It all came back to her when she watched her friends and co-workers sitting at the beach. For how long had she been sleeping? She didn't know. What time was it? What day was it? She didn't know that either. Her stomach was screaming, she had never been this hungry in her life. She looked up and remembered what had happened last night when she saw John. Suddenly, she noticed how Mike sat down next to her.

"How is he?" Jill asked, still with her focus on John.

John was on his back, wrapped into a blanket, laying in the cool grass just to the edge of the beach. Justin and Andrea was sitting next to the very pale man.

"I'm not sure. His fever raised after you fell asleep, I think it was up at 103 last time they checked."

After discovering an infected mosquito bite last night, Justin was pretty sure that John had been infected with dengue fever. It's not that uncommon in these parts of the world, and John was wearing shorts and a t-shirt, without any type of protection at all when it came to save himself from the insects, just like all of them. Justin did think for himself that it was uncommon for John to get sick so early, it often takes several days before you get sick, but he kept that thought to himself not to scare the others.

"Don't worry, Justin is taking care of him. As long as he's not showing any signs of internal bleedings, he will be okay."

Jill nodded, but she was still just as worried as before. The others had stayed up all night watching over him, and Jill had tried to stay awake for several hours, but she was just so tired so she had eventually fallen asleep.

"How are you feeling?"

"Got… headache. Hungry."

"Want the last of the airplane food?

"Yeah, please."

As Jill ate, she watched the others. As they all sat around the fire that now had burned out, talking and smiling - trying to keep their hopes up by discussing old memories - Jill began thinking of her friends.

"Jill, watch out!" Kelly yelled through the laughter.

Just as Jill turned around, she was soaked in the water that came from the bucket that her little sister tossed at her. Kris had a huge smile on her face, and she hesitated a second before she dropped the bucket and fled. Jill ran behind her, caught up with her, and wrestled her to the ground. The sisters wrestled for a while before Kris got out of Jill's grip and ran away along the beach. Jill grabbed the bucket and filled it in the ocean, and just as Jill threw it at Kris, Kris ducked behind Bosley, who, a second later, got soaked in water. All four angels broke down in laughter, and soon Bosley joined in too.

"Girls! What are you doing?"

"She started!" Jill defended herself, pointing towards Kelly.

Kelly stared at her, looking all innocent, but with a devilish smile on her face.


Jill felt tears well up as she thought of her friends, and her family. That day had been about a year ago, Jill was back over the weekend, and she had surprised them all at the office. It had been a really hot day, and they decided to go down to the beach and relax. Kris had walked out from the house in the smallest bikini ever, and the other three angels had begun wolf-whistling. Sabrina had said something about Kris' need to cool off, and Kelly had just turned on the water hose, starting the water war that afternoon.

"Jill, are you okay?"

Jill looked up and met Jess' eyes. She was sitting down in the sand, leaning back towards a big rock, and her blue-purple foot was up in Mike's lap as he sat next to Jill. Jess' long, dark curls were hanging flat against her back, and her dark eyes were faded. She looked so tired Jill thought, and she guessed she was in a lot of pain.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm okay." Jill said, smiling shortly, wiping the tears away.

Jess sat up straighter, and rose with Mike's help. She jumped over to Jill and sat down next to her, wincing a little as she did. She took Jill's hand and squeezed it, looking into her eyes.

"You're not okay. You're crying. Does the head hurt that bad?"

"No, no." Jill answered quickly. "I… I just miss my sister. And my friends back in LA. And I'm scared. What if no one finds us? What if they think we went down together with the airplane?"

"Don't worry, they'll find us. If I remember your stubborn sister right, she won't stop looking until she's found you. You'll meet them again soon, just keep your hopes up. Soon you'll be laying on the beach outside your sister's beach house instead of this island. You won't be able to drive in Australia anyway, so you should go back home and spend time with them."

"What do you mean I can't drive? Of course I can still drive, the try-outs isn't until a couple of days."

"You think you can, or will be allowed, to drive race cars when you have a concussion?"

"Oh. Didn't think of that. Darn, I'm going to lose points at this!"

"Jill. We crashed with an airplane."

Jill smiled embarrassed, and realized what she was saying.

"A vacation will do me good I think."

Jess nodded, in the same time as they suddenly noticed how Mike threw himself to his feet and ran down towards the water. Andrea saw what he was doing, and she ran after him.

"What's going on?" Jess asked, trying to see what their friends saw.

"I don't know…" Jill answered confused.

"Boats!" Mike yelled.

Mike and Andrea were shouting, jumping and waving. The others watched how the boat that was far out in the water suddenly turned and drove to their direction.

"Yes! Finally!" They all smiled, and begun hugging each other, smiling and laughing.

Just a few minutes later, about ten people walked onto the beach.

"Hello! I'm Aran, I'm the leader of this search boat. You are the American racers, right?" The short man asked them with a thick accent.

"Yes, that's us." Mike smiled happily.

The man said something to a younger man in Indonesian, then turned back to the gang.

"He'll call the coast guard, to make sure you'll all be looked over. Does anyone need immediate medical attention?"

Mike nodded, and pointed to John, and to the three women who had gotten themselves down to the beach, but they were sitting down a few feet away.

"How bad are they?"

"He's worst, he might have dengue fever. The girls have an injured ankle, some possibly broken ribs and probably a concussion."

"Okay. Well, the coast guard with medical people should be here within a few minutes."

"Thank you."