Greg was awake before he opened his eyes. He was hoping that the events of the previous day were a dream and not reality, so he kept his eyes closed to try and figure out where he was without looking around. The firm surface that he was laying on told Greg that he was in the raft, in the cave, still on the island, but he didn't want to believe it. His back was sore and his head was still killing him, which only added to his frustration. Eyes still closed, he took a deep breath and let it out slowly. As he inhaled he was met with the scent that he immediately recognized as Nick Stokes. Having worked with the other man for so long, often times in close quarters, Greg could recognize it anywhere. He opened his eyes slowly and his heart fluttered slightly at how close he was laying to Nick. The older man was to his right, still sleeping peacefully. Nick's head was turned slightly towards Greg. He watched as Nick's right hand that was resting on his stomach slowly moved up and down with his steady breathing. Greg realized that his head had practically been using Nick's left shoulder as a pillow, and upon noticing that Greg decided it was time to get up. He slowly and silently stood and stole one more glance at the still sleeping Nick before exiting the raft. He grabbed a banana from their food pile and headed out onto the beach, settling into the warm sand under the early morning sun, staring out at the bright blue ocean.
It wasn't that long before he heard Nick walking down towards him, but he didn't turn around for fear that he would look too excited to see him coming. He didn't know why he would look excited, or why he would care if Nick thought that, but instead of trying to figure that out he just continued to sit there. It wasn't until Nick sat down on the sand to Greg's left that he looked over at the other man.
"Sleep well?" Greg asked.
Nick shrugged. "I guess. Not too bad. You?"
"That raft isn't too bad," he replied. "The fire's are still going strong too," he added, jerking his head over his shoulder at the bonfire still ablaze on the beach.
Nick nodded slightly. "How's your head feeling?" he asked.
"Still a little headache, but nothing too bad," Greg responded.
"You didn't look too good for a while yesterday," Nick commented, seemingly more to himself than Greg.
"Gee, thanks," Greg said sarcastically.
He turned back to look out at the ocean, his dark brown eyes scanning the horizon hopefully. Nick watched him watching the ocean for a few minutes before he looked out as well, seeing nothing but the blue sea stretching until it met the blue sky in a perfectly straight line that they both knew was unreachable. Somewhere on the way to reaching that line was the way to getting home again, but they both silently understood that trying to get off the island was infinitely more dangerous than waiting there to be rescued.
"What are you watching the ocean for?" Nick asked. Greg turned to him to respond, but the older man spoke again before he could. "That's not where they're going to come from," he added, speaking of anyone who was looking for them, or anyone else for that matter. Nick turned his gaze up toward the cloudless sky where he could see nothing but blue. "You should watch the sky."
With that he stood up and started walking away from Greg. Without thinking too much about what Nick had said, because he had been right again, he turned and called after him. "Where are you going?" he asked.
"I'm thirsty," Nick replied without stopping or turning around.
Greg got up and ran after him, catching up with him just as he was about to cross into the forest. "Well you shouldn't go by yourself, neither one of us should."
Nick stopped and looked at Greg with an amused smile. "Why not?"
"Well, what if you get hurt or something?" Greg offered. "Fall and hit your head or get attacked by something? One of our huge benefits right now is that we're stuck here together so we won't go quite as insane as fast and if something does happen to us, someone will at least know about it and be able to help."
"Okay," Nick agreed with a nod of his head. "Then come with me."
"We shouldn't be out of sight from each other," Greg continued as they made their way to the waterfall. "Just in case, ya know? What if you go to get something to drink and fall in and start drowning, and I'm on the beach with the fire or something and I don't know? It's not safe."
"Alright," Nick said with a small laugh, but his smile faded when Greg stopped short.
"That's how you got kidnapped," the younger man said softly. He had fallen a few steps behind Nick, so when he spoke, it was to the Texan's back. Nick turned around slowly to face Greg. "And how I got beat up, and how Warrick was killed. We have to look out for each other here, we have to trust each other."
"I trust you Greg," Nick said. He smiled again to ease the building tension. "I won't let you out of my sight, I promise."
Greg nodded once before continuing on the way to the waterfall. Nick stood in place for a few more seconds, watching Greg as he passed in front of him. In the last twenty-four hours, he was already seeing a completely different side to the other man. He had started to see some of it in the days leading up to them being stranded on the island, but now it appeared Greg's true colors were really coming through. And Nick liked that.
They drank as much as they could from the waterfall before heading back to the beach. They ate fruit on their way and collected more tinder that they threw on the fire to keep it going strong. They then opted for playing hangman and tic-tac-toe in the sand to try and pass the time. After Greg beat him for the fifth straight time, Nick sighed and he shook his head and looked up at the sky out of compulsive habit at this point. When he turned his attention back to the shore, a bright glint of something reflecting from the ocean caught his eye. He looked out at the water, trying to figure out what it was.
"What are you watching the water for?" Greg asked, mocking Nick from before.
Nick didn't reply. His eyes were fixated on the reflection in the water that was slowly getting closer and closer to the beach, apparently riding the waves in. Greg stopped asking Nick what he was looking at because the other man wasn't replying and instead looked for himself. He could only assume that Nick was staring at the glinting in the ocean because there was nothing else to look at.
"What do you think it is?" Nick finally spoke.
Greg shrugged. "I have no idea. Maybe debris from the plane or something? Maybe we're close to the crash sight."
Again, Nick didn't reply. He instead stood up slowly and started walking toward the water. Greg's eyes flicked back and forth between Nick and the shining object, noting how quickly it was nearing them. Nick apparently didn't want to wait and see if whatever it was would eventually wash up on shore; he opted for going right into the water to find out for himself. Greg watched as he waded into the water, with his clothes still on, until finally it was too deep and he had to swim the last few feet until he reached the reflective object. Nick paused when he got to it for almost a whole minute, making Greg very nervous for those sixty seconds. Finally, Nick turned around and began swimming back to shore, tugging the object with him
It wasn't until Nick was completely out of the water and standing on the beach that Greg realized he had a silver suitcase in his hand.
"It's one of those hard shelled suitcases," Nick said when Greg came up to him, the waves still crashing by his feet.
"I didn't know they floated," Greg said. His eyes were fixated on the suitcase, overly anxious to see what was inside.
Nick shrugged. "I guess they're supposed to."
He dragged the suitcase up onto the dry sand before he knelt down to try and open it. There was a combination lock keep it closed. Greg knelt down next to him and studied the combination, which required three numbers, and was set at all zeroes.
"Maybe the guy is dumb enough to make his combination 1-2-3," Greg offered.
Nick glanced at Greg and couldn't help but smile. "Can't hurt to try," he mused.
So try they did, and to Nick's surprise and Greg's elation, the combination of 1-2-3 worked. The locked snapped loose, and they threw open the suitcase in excitement. Greg's assumption that it had been a man's suitcase was in fact right as well: inside was an abundant amount of clothes and necessities for a man on a beach vacation; not surprising considering the plane they had been on was returning to Las Vegas from Hawaii.
Inside they found three pairs of bathing suits, countless shorts and t-shirts, a few warmer shirts, three beach towels, souvenirs that weren't of any use to them, and a toiletries bag with an electric razor, tooth brush, Q-tips, and other grooming needs. As Greg continued to rummage through the bag, Nick looked around their immediate surroundings with a puzzled look on his face.
"What's wrong with you?" Greg asked.
"I feel like we're on a reality show where we just think we're stranded on a deserted island, but they're making sure he don't die by giving us water, shelter, and plenty of clothes and stuff."
Greg couldn't help but laugh. "And you think I watch too much television?"
A subsequent search of the rest of the island rewarded the pair with two more suitcases, neither of them hard shelled so the contents were water logged, but it allowed for them to gain access to them by cutting into them with the scissors. They would be able to dry the new additions of shirts and towels out in the sun anyway. The north side of the island proved to be the closest to the crash site because that's where they found the other two suitcases along with debris from the plane. Nothing else was useful that they found, but they reasoned that if this stuff washed up here, they couldn't be that far from the crash site, so they were in search range. Also, they were lucky to now have several changes of clothes that were lighter and better equipped them to handle the tropical heat.
After changing in fresh and dry shorts, the two men stashed away the rest of their new clothes in their cave before returning to the beach. Greg was scanning the beach and water for any more signs of anything else out there when he realized Nick was looking at him.
"What?" Greg asked, surprised at the inquisitive look Nick was giving him.
Nick quickly stopped thinking about how good Greg looked in shorts without a shirt on and answered him with the first thing that came to mind.
"Have you ever been fishing?"
Sorry it's been kind of slow so far, I promise it'll pick up, as will their developing relationship. Thanks for reading, and a special thanks to those who reviewed!