FIGURATIVE HELL AND LITERAL HIGH WATER
By TIPPER
CHAPTER SIX: THE STRAW THAT BROKE THE CAMEL'S BACK
"Oh my God," she whispered, dropping the backpack from her back and pushing herself under the branches. "Rodney! Rodney, can you hear me?" The thin limbs caught at her hair and clothes, and she roughly snapped them to get them out of the way. There were too many—and she ended up on her belly, trying to stay under them as they grabbed at her. "Rodney!"
He was on his back, his eyes closed, his left arm outstretched towards her as she crawled towards him. It was so dark under here—as if she'd crawled into night. As she got closer, she grimaced when she realized she couldn't see his right arm because the tree branches were in the way. She couldn't see his legs either—which was a little terrifying, as, the way he was angled, there was no question that the top of the tree trunk had to be covering them. She grabbed his left wrist, pushing up the wristband of his watch to capture the pulse point. She nearly fainted in relief when she felt it beating—fast, but there. She pulled herself closer, using his arm for leverage. Her left hand crawled up his vest and quickly undid the zipper as far as the P90 still attached to him. Resting her left hand on his chest, her right hand then sought out his left hand now by her right hip, and she held clasped it tightly.
"Rodney! Please, answer me! Rodney!"
He groaned, and his head shifted. She could see that he was partially on his left side—he must have turned around after he pushed her, probably to see how close this falling tree was, and it had taken him down on his back. God—she can't even imagine how much it had to hurt.
"Rodney?"
His eyes fluttered, then closed again.
"No, no, it's okay," she said, trying to get closer, snapping more of the dry branches that pulled at her hair. "Come on, McKay. Stay with me."
His brow furrowed, and his eyelids peeled back slowly. Blinking a few times, they opened enough so that two glazed blue eyes were visible. She smiled when they turned to look at her.
"Hi," she whispered.
His brow furrowed more, as if confused by her closeness, then he suddenly gasped, his head tipping back and his body arching. What began as a soundless groan of pain became a scream as if a dam burst, and he bellowed in agony. She grabbed at his upper torso, using his vest for anchorage, trying to hold him down. His right arm came up, grabbing at her left wrist—thank goodness. She'd been worried his right arm was trapped as well.
"Calm down," she begged, "please! You'll just hurt yourself more. Calm down!"
Whether it was exhaustion or her words, he finally stopped screaming, his jaw steeling shut, the muscles flexing as he gritted his teeth. After a moment, he managed to look back at her, and the fight seemed to leave him—his whole body just suddenly collapsed. He was panting harshly now, his mouth falling open as if he couldn't get enough air. Blue eyes were locked on hers, terrified.
"Ke…Kell…" he sniffed, hissing again as the pain must have spiked through him again. His grip on her left arm tightened and she could feel him trying to shift again, his eyes squeezing closed against the hurt.
"No, no, Rodney, you have to stay still, okay?" she said, her right hand still gripping his left. "Stay still. Stay still!" She waited until his eyes opened again, and he looked at her again. She gave him her most confident smile. "You're going to be okay. Just hang on and don't move—I'm going to try to see what happened to you."
His eyes rolled a little, and he stared up at the branches caging him in, letting out another harsh breath. "Tree," he gasped, then swallowed, "tree fell on me."
"I know," she said unhappily.
He looked at her, and then he frowned. "No. S' what happened to me," he said between panted breaths, as if talking to an idiot. "Tree fell on me."
She blinked a moment, confused, then huffed a laugh. He was responding to her statement about wanting to find out what happened to him.
"Yes," she said, nodding. "I know. What I meant was, I need to see what it did to you. Okay? Try to hold still."
He frowned some more, and, still breathing too quickly, he turned to look up at the branches again. Keller looked up as well, taking a better look at what exactly they were facing. There was about a foot of space between McKay and the spider-web of branches covering him like the bones of a bat's wing. Not a lot of space. Turning to look down his body towards his legs, she could see that, indeed, the top of the tree trunk was crossing his legs at an angle, from left to right. The good news was, she could clearly see that nothing had punctured his torso. As for the bad news…
She squirmed backwards on her knees, staying hunched over, and ended up on her stomach again as she inched her way down the side of his body to get closer to his legs. The branches were even denser here, casting everything inside a deep, dark shadow—making it next to impossible to see. She should have brought a flashlight in with her. Oh…wait, hang on.
She crawled back up, and fiddling with his vest for a moment, found the switch for the flashlight on his P90. Twisting it, she flipped the light on, then frowned as it cast an unhealthy white light over the tree covering him.
Oh hell.
This was bad. This was very, very bad. She shimmied down to look more carefully at his legs.
She swallowed down the horror she felt, trying to back away from 'oh shit, oh shit, oh shit,' and review the damage professionally. As it always did, thinking medically helped her focus, and a sense of calm took her.
"What?" Rodney asked, clearly unable to see what she could, but obviously catching on to her body language. "What is it?"
She looked back at him, grimacing. Then she pulled herself up so that she was next to his head again.
"The tree…the trees branches have pierced your right leg in at least two places. And I think there is a branch puncturing your left as well."
He just stared at her, eyes wide. Then he blinked, shook his head, and said, "I'm sorry. What? Did you say…did you just say pierced?"
She pressed her lips together, and shook her own head. "It's not good, McKay. You're effectively pinned down by the branches. But, um…" she looked down at his legs, then back up at him, "it could have been worse." She gave a weak smile.
He blinked again, then his brow furrowed angrily. "You…you just said that…that I'd been impaled by a tree…," he let out a breath, "Impaled! And it could have been worse? How? And don't…," his face was red again, as he drew in a breath, "don't you dare say…at least I'm not dead."
She shook her head, "No, I wasn't going to say that. What I was going to say is, that the trees branches are so thick and strong that they're holding the trunk up off the ground—off you. It could have crushed your legs otherwise. You might not have died immediately, but it would have killed you eventually. And painfully."
He just stared at her for a moment, then turned his head away, looking up at the branches, not blinking.
"Fabulous," he breathed out. "Yay for mere impalement."
She grimaced, then looked down at his legs for a moment.
"Okay," she said, "there's really only one way to do this." She patted his left arm. "I'm getting my things. Just hold on; I'll be right back."
He nodded once, then tilted his head to watch her as she crawled backwards on her belly out from under the branches.
Jennifer let out a heavy breath, shaking herself as she managed to escape the grasping hold of the tree limbs. The one benefit of all this was that the tree was keeping the bulk of the rain and wind off of Rodney, and it would do the same for her when she worked on him. Out from under it, the rain was back to drenching as she scrambled for her backpack and the medical case. Closing her eyes, she quickly considered exactly what she'd need…
Opening her eyes again, her jaw locked and she pulled the medical case close. Popping it open, she grabbed a handful of white plastic containers of bandages to put to the side, then dug down deep for the saw. Her arm brushed past the box of morphine, and she considered that she'd need that as well. But first things first…
Her fingers found the saw handle, and she pulled it out.
"Wha…what is that?"
She turned, surprised to notice that Rodney could still see her, though probably only barely. His pale, grimy face was mostly hidden by branches, but not enough to completely conceal him. She tilted her head so she could see him better, frowning at the expression on his face. Rodney's eyes were wide and huge, staring at the saw Keller pulled out.
"It's a bone saw," she explained, holding it up for him to see and hating the fact that she was essentially going to ruin the instrument to use it this way.
"For what?" He sounded terrified.
"For cutting the limbs," she explained, quickly clasping the bag shut and placing the saw and bandages on top before sliding down under the tree once more. She wanted to look more carefully at the damage before bringing the instruments with her.
"No! No, no, no, no, no!" Rodney tried to shy away as she got closer, which was idiotic, Jennifer thought, since all it did was cause him even more pain. His whole face scrunched up as he obviously rode through the shocks of his attempt to move, and Keller crawled faster so that she could grab his left forearm to stop him.
"It's okay!" she called, gripping his arm tightly. "You're okay! Calm down! I told you not to move!"
"Don't…," he whined again, finally gasping for air, tears streaming down his face, intermingling with the rain and swear. "Please don't. Don't do it. Just leave me here. I'll be okay. The others need you, and I…I…" He closed his eyes, his face scrunching up again.
"Rodney," she said, pulling herself deeper under the tree, sliding on her belly on the mud until she was only inches from his face, her left hand sliding up higher until it rested on his heaving chest—he was going to hyperventilate at this rate. "Listen to me. It's going to be okay. I'm going to get you out of here. You have to trust me."
He sniffed and opened his eyes again to look at her, and, for a moment, she was startled by how incredibly blue they looked in the pale light—and how young he looked at the same time. "Please, don't," he whispered. Her brow furrowed, and she felt her lips twist in a grimace, wishing she didn't have to do this either.
"I know," she said, trying to sound strong. "And I'm sorry. I am so, so sorry. It's going to hurt, Rodney, but I will make it quick, I promise."
He stared at her for a second, then tipped his head back, breaking out a sobbed, "Oh God." Gulping down a breath, he looked at her again. "Are you sure you have to? I mean…," he lifted his head and attempted to look down at his legs, "there has to be another way."
She nodded. "Short of beaming you out of there, which you know I can't do, it's the only way." He shut his eyes and tipped his head away back in the mud, turning his face away from her completely.
"It just…" he sniffed, "it seems so medieval. Are they really…? I can still feel them, you know. Are they totally beyond saving?"
Keller had been looking down, staring at the leaves and mud on the ground under his left shoulder, but she lifted her head at that. Huh? "What?" she asked. "The branches?"
"No," McKay moaned, looking back at her again, "not the branches! I don't care about the branches!"
Keller was thoroughly confused now. "But you just said—"
"No, no. I don't…" He tipped his head back, staring up through the web of branches. "I don't want to lose my legs."
Keller blinked, then her eyes widened and she burst out laughing. If it was a little bit hysterical sounding, well, that's because it was. She'd been holding it back for a long time now, and it poured out of her like a burst levy.
"Oh God, McKay!" she gasped, trying to stop the punch drunk laughter, burying her head in his shoulder. "The saw is for the tree limbs, not yours! I'm going to cut the branches!" Her shoulders shook, her chest burned, and she knew she was skirting the edge of collapsing into sobs, her control was that fragile. She sucked in a couple of deep breaths, and somehow pushed back the worst of the manic laughter. When she looked up again, she saw that Rodney had his eyes closed, his lips depressed in a light frown—he probably thought she was laughing at him. Her laughter died into a sort of hiccoughed chuckle, the feeling of levity passing almost as quickly as it had come.
He opened his eyes again. "Done?" he asked crossly, a hint of his old self in the tone. Jennifer snorted a laugh.
"Yes," she said, more somber now but still smiling. "Sorry. It's not funny."
"No," he agreed, "it's not. You just scared the hell out of me, you know."
She smiled again, sadder now, and rested her too warm head on his wet shoulder again. "Sorry."
"Should be."
She sucked in another breath, and looked up at him again. He was watching her carefully, no hint of a smile on his face.
"So," he said after a moment, his voice soft, "it's going to hurt?"
That did it. Any vestiges of amusement she still felt died completely. She frowned, studying the hard lines of his cheekbones and gritted jaw, and found she couldn't answer. He seemed to understand, and he turned his head to look up at the leaden sky through the branches again.
Keller dropped her gaze from his face, then she drew away from him to slide down the mud under the branches to get a better look at his legs again. She needed to get closer this time.
It took a lot of shifting—branches caught at the back of her wet hair and her jacket and pants, tugging them the wrong way as she slid closer to the trunk of the tree and his legs. Closer now, she could see more clearly that she'd been right about the pine—the numerous boughs had stopped it from completely hitting the ground; the many, many limbs and branches were propping it up. That was good—it meant she wouldn't have to find a way to lift it off of him when this was over. The bad part, of course…was that three of those limbs were currently piercing his legs in an ugly, ugly way.
Rodney's left leg, the one closest to her, didn't look too bad—the stick piercing it was pretty small and, since his leg was angled slightly on its side, it had gone through the fleshy part of the lower thigh. But the right...
She felt a little sick as she mentally estimated the amount of dark red blood pooling beneath his right thigh. She couldn't tell, but, based on how slowly the blood was bubbling, it didn't look like either branch had got the artery. But there was no question—it was a serious trauma. She blew out a breath then looked up again at his profile. His eyes were closed again.
"Okay," she said softly, sliding back up to him so he could hear her better. "Yes. This is going to hurt. It's going to hurt a lot. I need to saw through the branches, and, even if I'm holding them as tight as I can, they're invariably going to shift a little while in your legs. I'm going to pack bandages around your thighs to muffle the movement as much as I can, but it's going to hurt no matter what I do. The morphine will help, but…"
"Yeah," he said hoarsely, finally opening his eyes again. "I get it. Lots of pain. Great, because I needed more of that today."
She gave an unhappy smile at that.
"But...," Rodney swallowed, his adam's apple bobbing up and down slowly, "see, here's the thing—how long will it take?"
Keller frowned, and looked again at his legs. The two branches that had pierced the right, and the one branch that had caught the left, were all different sized, but even the thickest only looked to be about an inch around.
She looked back at the thin saw on her bag, then again at the branches. "I don't know," she admitted. "Maybe ten minutes? Fifteen?"
"And then what?"
She frowned. "And then I pull you out of there."
"And then?"
Yes, Keller thought, and then what? She couldn't drag him the rest of the way, and, obviously, she couldn't carry him. It would all depend on whether he could walk. His left leg could carry him, probably. His right…would be a problem, but with her as a crutch, they could do it. She was sure. And even if Rodney gave up on her…
She wasn't going to leave him. She would find a way.
"And then," she said quietly, firmly, "we're going to do what we came to do. You're going to get me the rest of the way to that hovel and we're going to save your team."
Rodney grimaced, blinking up at the sky. A few random raindrops were still hitting his forehead and cheeks, but most of the water was hitting the tree and sliding off away from where he was stuck. It created the sensation of being surrounded by a river of water, the liquid rushing down, past and around you, but very little of it touching. It made Keller feel cold and small—but it didn't look like Rodney even noticed the rain anymore.
"Realistically," he said quietly, startling her a little after the long silence, "what it boils down to is, if you try to get me out of here, not only will it take time—something I don't know Ronon or Sheppard has—but it may not even work. If I can't walk, you can't take me with you anyway."
Keller grimaced, then shook her head. "Rodney—"
"I think I should stay here," he said then.
"No."
He tipped his head towards her, and he looked so scared, it almost belied the next words out of his mouth. "Face it," he stated, his voice shaking, "it's not going to work. You can't save me and them. And I want you to save them. It's why I brought you here. They're not far, like I said. No more than a half mile. We've wasted too much time as it is. Take the life signs detector, it'll lead—"
"No!" Jennifer said again, more firmly this time.
Rodney looked pained, his face so pale and wet under the dirt it was almost translucent. "Look, I know. Believe me, I don't want to stay here and I don't want to die either." His voice was almost too soft to hear now. "But if you move me, I'll probably pass out, and then what will you do? You won't leave me, will you? You'll stay with me as I bleed to death in the freezing rain, when Ronon and Sheppard need you more, when they can be saved and I can't. But if I stay here, right here, and I stay really still, maybe I won't bleed as much and you can save them, and then you—"
"Stop it!"
"…And then you can come back for me," he finished, as if she hadn't interrupted him. "I'll be okay. It's not that bad, right? I mean, I can feel both legs, so it's not that bad. So, you can go. Then come back when they're okay. Okay?"
She shook her head, no longer trusting her voice. Rodney's brow furrowed.
"Please," he begged, his voice shaking so much it hurt to listen to. "You have to go. Your plan won't work. You have to leave me here. Please."
"I'm not leaving you."
"You have to!" he snapped, his face reddening.
"I won't!" she snapped back, tears in her eyes as she glared at him. "If I leave you, you'll die!"
"I don't care!" he shouted. "Do you hear me? I don't care! I want you to go! You have to go save my team!"
"And I will!" she yelled. "But I'm getting you out of here first!"
"There's no TIME!" He grabbed her wrist. "Damn it, Keller, go! Leave! Get out of here!" He drew in a deep breath, then his eyes softened, pleading with her. "Please. "
She closed her eyes, every muscle in her body shaking. "I'm going to get my things."
"No, Keller. I mean it. I'm your boss and I'm ordering you to leave, to go to my team. You can't save me and staying here just wastes time they don't have. You have to go. Please."
She stared at him, and something inside her snapped. Setting her jaw, she once more pulled herself close to him, stopping only when her face was inches from his.
She had never been so angry at anyone in her entire life.
"Now you listen to me, Doctor Rodney McKay," she snarled, feeling her anger radiating off of her in waves. "I may look like I'm only right out of high school, but I have ten years practical experience under my belt, including three years working with Medicins Sans Frontieres in the Sudan and two years in the A&E ward at Glasgow University hospital, all after earning an MD/PhD from Harvard Medical School, one of the most cutthroat schools in the world. With the exception of one man, I am the best damned doctor you are ever going to meet. That means, when I tell you that you will not survive if I leave you here, then you have to believe that I am telling you the truth. And, equally, if I tell you that I can save your life, that I can get you out of here, and I can get you to that cabin to where the rest of your team are, then you have to believe that I can do it. Because I can. And that is exactly what I'm going to do."
He opened his mouth, but she put her hand over it before he could speak.
"No. Not one word. For the last two hours, I have been listening to you say 'trust me' at every turn, and I have, because you knew better. And you got us through. But now it's my turn." Pulling her hand off his mouth, she stabbed a finger into his chest. "As far as I know, McKay, the only one of us around here with a medical degree is me, so stop trying to sound like you know what you're talking about and trust me!" Her eyes narrowed. "You are going to let me do what you brought me all the way out here to do. I'm going to save your team and, right now, that includes you. So shut up and let me do my job."
He just stared at her, not answering for a moment. Then, blinking a little, he quirked a smile.
"Wow," he said weakly. "That was really hot."
Jennifer just stared at him, then groaned deeply and rolled her eyes. Anyone else had said that, she would have slapped them. But, she had to admit—it was so McKay. She bowed her head to hide the smile she couldn't quite stifle. "You are such an ass," she whispered.
"I know," he said pathetically, snorting a laugh. "Sheppard says all the time that it's amazing Teyla hasn't killed me yet. "
Jennifer laughed, her head still on his shoulder. When she looked up again, she was smiling. "So," she asked, "we good?"
He gave a wry, sad smile in return. "Yeah," he closed his eyes and tipped his head back, "we're good."
She smiled more.
"Okay then. You ready?" she asked.
He grimaced then, opening his eyes to look at her again. "Well, since I don't have a choice…"
She shook her head. "No."
He swallowed, then nodded. "Then I'm ready."
She smiled again, nodded at him once, then turned and slid back out of the branches. Finding her bag, she picked up the saw, the bandages and quickly also pulled out some morphine for the pain. Sliding back under, trying to keep everything in her hands up and out of the mud, she shifted down, sliding on her belly to get down by his legs. She got snagged a couple of times, but, with some shimmying, she finally got to a place where she could brace her feet on large bough and saw at the same time.
Quickly, methodically, she pulled the bandages from their containers and packed them around his legs. Her hands moved almost without conscious thought, and a sort of calm took over, as it usually did when she was finally doing something she knew how to do—and do well. Within minutes, she had the saw up and pressed against the first branch, her hand gripping it just above where she wanted to cut it. The goal was to leave about two inches of branch sticking out of his leg—which left about three inches to work with above where she wanted to separate the branch from the tree. Not a lot, but she was sure she could do it.
She glanced up at him through the branches—he was mostly hidden, but she could see the curve of his chest as he breathed, and the set of his jaw. She could also see his eyes blinking up at the sky—she wondered what he was thinking about. Of course, she knew what he was trying not to think about.
"Okay," she called out, raising her voice to be heard above the rain still coming down, "I'm going to start sawing now. Just...hold on, okay?"
She saw him nod, and then close his eyes. "Okay," he said.
She just nodded, sucked in a breath…and started to saw.
He held it in for about a minute, but when she accidentally jerked too hard on the branch—he let out a scream that cut right through her. But she didn't stop. She couldn't.
She continued to saw the branch, tears running down her face.
TBC…
