But Who's Going To Save You?
Chapter 3: The Couple in the Quarry (pt 1)
Heidi rolled over and smacked the alarm, before rolling back into her original position, releasing a satisfied groan. Keeping her eyes closed, she snaked her hand over the bare chest next to her, grinning as an arm wrapped around her, pulling her closer. "I think I could stay here all day."
"Mmmmm," Jordan mumbled, still half asleep.
"We could, you know," Heidi said, finally opening her eyes to look at her sleeping boyfriend.
"Mmmm," Jordon moaned again, shifting slightly into the pillow to get a more comfortable position.
Heidi turned onto her side using her elbow to prop herself up. With her free arm, she poked Jordan in the chest. "Are you listening to me?"
"Not really," Jordon muttered.
"Well that's charming," Heidi said, pulling a face. Again, she poked Jordan's chest. "I said, we should stay here all day," she repeated, continuously poking.
Without opening his eyes, Jordan shot his hand over, grabbing Heidi's, before clutching it tightly near his heart. "Not with you poking me all day, I'm not," he mumbled.
Heidi sighed, sinking into the nook of his shoulder. "Fine."
"You're the one that set the alarm this early," he opened his eyes, staring down at the red hair. He leant down to it, his lips kissing the line of her parting. "Besides, you're always complaining that we can't chuck a sickie together because then everyone would know. If you didn't want to get out of bed, you shouldn't have bothered."
"I set it early because Michelle wanted us in early for a meeting." Heidi's eyes flew open as she sat bolt upright, head-butting Jordan in the process. "Shit!" she exclaimed. "The meeting."
Jordan gaped at her, mouth open. "Ow!" he said eventually, his tongue already tasting the coppery sensation of blood.
Heidi pulled a face as she leant over. "I'm sorry," she muttered, showering his face in kisses. Then she sat upright again. "We need to move or we're going to be late."
"I thought you set the alarm early so we wouldn't be late," Jordan asked, watching Heidi fly frantically around the room, trying to locate all her items of clothing.
"I set it early so we could get back to mine," she shot back at him, pulling her previous day's clothes on. "I need to get changed and brush my teeth. If you want to stay in bed longer, you want to let me have a drawer here," she told him, darting out of his room and into the bathroom.
Jordan watched her go, eyes wide.
"So, Flick, how are we going to celebrate you surviving your first two weeks on the job?" Dean asked, perching on the edge of Felicity's desk.
"We could start with you not calling me Flick," Felicity suggested. She looked up at him with a grin. "Failing that, a back massage would be good. I have a twinge right here," she added, pointing to a spot just below her shoulder blade.
"Heh, heh, heh," Dean muttered, picking up a pile of paperwork and using it to swot her.
"Would you settle for a drink in the pub later?" Lara suggested.
"Why not," Felicity shrugged. "Cole's got training, anyway." She yawned, popping her back. "That's assuming I don't fall asleep first. Remind me again why we're in so early?"
"It's because I have an important announcement," Michelle answered, appearing up the stairs, still with her bag over her arm. "Glad to see three of you can manage to make it in," she said, her lips forming a thin line.
"I'm here too," Chase called, before eventually appearing behind her – a sausage sandwich in one hand and a can of coke in the other.
"Only because I yelled down your ear for an hour," Dean muttered.
With a mouth full of sandwich, Chase shot him a dirty look and sat down at his desk beside Felicity. "Ah hint her ongs hu wong-"
"Chase, that's gross," Felicity squealed as a piece of chewed up sandwich went flying onto her desk.
He swallowed loudly, offering the sandwich over to her. "Want some?"
"Oh hell yeah," Felicity nodded, swiping the sandwich from him – ignoring his amazed stare – and took an enormous bite.
"Now that's gross," Dean muttered to Lara, Lara nodding her agreement.
"So what is this meeting about?" Chase asked, snatchingthe sandwich back from Felicity.
Michelle dropped her bag off in her office and returned to the others. "Important enough to wait for Heidi and Jordan. I don't want to have to repeat myself. Where are they?"
"It's going to have to wait until later," announced Vince, appearing from seemingly nowhere, his earpiece already in place. "The dodo's are out early today."
"The sun is barely up," Lara noted, rolling her eyes, already heading for the stairs.
"Vince we're here, but there are a half dozen abandoned quarry lakes. Any clue as to which one they're in?" Dean asked, as the four of them scanned the area.
"It's cold out," Lara muttered, rubbing her arms. "Why would someone be daft enough to go swimming in this?"
Felicity pulled a face – the only one of the three not wearing a jacket. "Cold? You don't know the meaning of cold. I was talking to my sister yesterday – this may be cold for you, but back in in England it's colder, wetter and summer." She smiled, her eyes closed as she angled her face up to the sun. "This is blissful."
"Flick, you're not going to find anyone up there," Dean chided her. "Vince doesn't have a clue where they are. Lara, you're with me. Chase, you and Flick head that way."
"How on earth did you manage when I wasn't here?" Felicity grumbled after they had parted ways.
"Huh?" Chase asked, giving her a puzzled look.
"Your brother and Lara," Felicity shrugged, her eyes scanning the artificial lake in front of her.
"Dean and Lara?" Chase repeated. "Wait, you think they're… together?"
Felicity's head snapped back to him. "You mean they're not? Really?"
"Have you actually watched them together?" Chase asked, a wide grin on his face. They moved on to the next lake.
"Yeah," Felicity confirmed. "This is the first time I've not been stuck with them. If it wasn't for the fact you lived with him, I would have thought they'd been married a few years. Hell, I thought they were married until I found that one out." She frowned. "They're really not together?"
Chase shook his head, laughing. "I can't wait to tell Dean-"
Felicity leant over and swiped at his arm. "You will be doing no such thing," she told him.
"We'll see," Chase started, but stopped, spotting something ahead of them. "There – in the water."
"Chase, they're face down," Felicity realised. Together, they broke into a run, charging down what was once the gravel road down into the quarry pit, Chase radioing it in to his brother. At the bottom, they dumped their bags and kits to one side and dove into the water.
Chase was first to reach the two women, wearing only bikinis, Felicity only a fraction behind. As soon as his hand touched the shoulder of the closest woman, she whirled around in the water, punching his chin with a squeal.
"What the hell is going on?" the second woman yelled at them.
"We thought you were drowning," Felicity told them, treading water.
"Well you thought wrong, you freak," the woman shot back at her.
"There's no need for that," Chase told her.
"What the hell possessed you to sneak up on us like that?" the first woman demanded, glaring at Chase.
"Enough," Felicity snapped at her. "Get out of the water, now."
"We're not going anywhere," the first woman retorted angrily.
"That's fine," Felicity informed her. "You stay here. I'm getting out, getting warm, then calling the police to arrest your trespassing asses." She turned and started swimming to the shore.
"Wait up," one of the women called after her.
Felicity ignored her, swimming straight for Dean and Lara who were already waiting for them at the edge, blankets ready.
"Alright, what's going on here?" Dean asked the first woman who had followed Felicity out.
"Kady and I were swimming," she told him. "And then these two idiots decided to attack us."
"Exactly as Marcie tells it," Kady nodded, getting out of the water and accepting a blanket.
"It never occurred to you to use a swimming pool?" Lara asked.
Kady shook her head. "Needed to be here."
"Yeah," Marcie agreed. "We read an article on the internet. The water's supposed to be full of nutrients from the mined rocks, and the cold water is supposed to tighten skin and help you lose 16 pounds!"
"There's a reason why the quarry has a giant fence around it," Felicity pointed out, adding a muttered 'moron' under her breath.
"Flick, why don't you and Chase go dry off," Dean suggested, giving her a disapproving look.
"What happened to you two?" Jordan asked, as Chase and Felicity exited the patrol vehicle.
"We decided to lose 16 pounds each," Felicity muttered dryly, manoeuvring past him.
Jordan looked at Chase in bewilderment. "Am I supposed to understand what that means?"
"You would if you turned up to work on time," Dean answered for Chase, as Chace gritted his teeth in a grimace before shooting his friend an apologetic look.
It didn't take Felicity and Chase to shower and change and sit at their desks. Felicity, who was supposed to be writing up her report was busy texting away to Cole, a stupid grin on her face.
"You look happier," Chase muttered, glancing up from his computer.
"Date night," Felicity told him. "It feels like all I've done since I've got here is go out to some random club with Cole and his team mates. Which is nice, don't get me wrong, but I'm looking forward to a little 'us' time." She glanced up, spotting Michelle and Vince heading over and put her phone down, relaxing into the chair.
"So what's this big announcement?" Heidi asked. "Lifeblood are suddenly being reinstated?"
Michelle sighed, folding her arms. "They might as well be. It's about the helicopters."
Heidi's face fell. "Don't tell me they're retaining control over them?"
"Hardly," Vince scoffed.
"No," Michelle confirmed. "But they have had an effect on them. After their disastrous record of engine and machine checks, or lack thereof, the minister, in her infinite wisdom, has decided that they now need to be checked every two weeks, with a mini check before each shift."
"And how does that affect us?" Dean asked.
"Budgets have already been set and they can't change them until the start of the next financial year," Michelle sighed.
"What does that mean?" Jordan asked, pulling a face.
"It means that we're going to have to ground and sell one of the choppers," Vince explained.
"And even then, it leaves us about four thousand short on what they're asking for," Michelle added. "We may have to sell a second."
There was a stunned silence as all six members of the rescue team stared at Michelle and Vince, processing the information. "That's the most ridiculous thing to come out of this government," Dean finally declared, breaking the silence. "How do they expect us to save lives properly when they are compromising our efforts?"
"Oh don't worry, I asked the minister the same question," Michelle assured him. "I may have well as been talking to the wall for all the good it did."
"I'm failing to see the problem," Felicity said, frowning.
"The problem is, if they take the choppers away, then there are going to be people we can't save," Heidi exclaimed.
"Well I get that," Felicity told her, watching her teammates stare at her like she was a few sandwiches short of a picnic. "But I fail to see how a lack of money is causing such a concern."
"Because if we don't have the money, we can't pay for the maintenance," Michelle explained in exasperation.
Felicity sighed, leaning forward in her chair. "Okay, let me put it like this. Back in England we have volunteer organisations which are funded by the government, but like this government, never give as much money as we like. So we raise the money ourselves. Hell, I have friends in the south who, over a couple of years, managed to raise enough money for a brand new boat for the coastguard. Are you seriously telling me that you've never heard of an organisation doing that?"
"We'd have to have the money by the end of the month," Michelle pointed out. "We don't have a couple of years."
"Any idea how to raise four grand in three weeks?" Jordan asked her.
Felicity slumped back into her chair, shaking her head.
"It was a good idea, babe," Lara told her, sympathetically, patting her knee.
"Flick's got a point," Heidi announced suddenly. "I'm not losing my helicopter without a fight. Why can't we raise the money? We could have a kissing booth," she suggested, grinning at Jordan.
"The point of a kissing booth is to raise money by having someone kiss you," Vince told her. "Not to pay you lot to eat each other all day."
"Vince, that's not a bad idea," Felicity said, eyes wide.
"Flick, no one is going to pay to watch those two morons–"
"Hey!" Heidi objected, shooting a glare at Vince.
"Eating. A bake sale. That's a start!" Felicity clarified, laughing at Heidi who was now pouting.
Michelle nodded, slowly. "Have an open day. Get the public in. Explain the situation. We can get activities organised – get them climbing the wall. Face painting for the kids."
"I know someone who has a bouncy castle," Vince added.
"You reckon we can make the money in time?" Chase asked, dubiously.
Heidi shrugged. "I don't know – but I'm going to try."
There's something about this chapter I don't like. But after staring at it all weekend, I can't put my finger on it. So I'm posting it anyway and hoping for the best!
Asha331 - I'm happy you like! Bless Chase, I love him too - nearly as much as Vince!
Miley - I'm sorry to have kept you waiting so long! After this chapter, I hope I haven't put you off!
retardedgazelle - I'm just down the road from you in Hull! I've given up watching them on TV. I've downloaded them until the box sets eventually get released over here!
kit147 - My intention is to have Chase 'grow' a little. I thought they were getting there after his visit to the psychiatrist, but then... nothing.