This is how my days and weeks went. I would wake up and head off to breakfast where i would make my plans for the day and review what areas were what.
Then i would spend my morning on my feet moving all around the base fixing things that needed to be fixed and helping build new areas to the base with the other mechanics. After my morning of working i would have lunch with Caleb and others where we discussed a lot of different things the whole time i woul feel that stare on my back that disappeared everytime i turned around.
We would go our own ways and often have dinner at different times due to our schedules being different. I would after work get in a workout while listening to books on mechanic work and songs that were recommended from Caleb and Gwen i would practice my medicine everyday around dinner to keep my skills up. After working out i would go back to my room shower and slip into some pants and fall asleep letting the cycle start all over.
This went on for months until one day i messed up. My day was normal i was doing my tasks and while fixing a connector to one of the upper floors the metal siding broke cutting into my hand. I grabbed the cloth that was hanging in my belt loop and wrapped it around my hand keeping it tight. I checked the side panel and made sure nothing serious happened. I couldn't find anything more wrong then the original problem I had so I marked it as red and headed off to the med bay.
I hear the lunch bell go off, not wanting anyone to see my hurt hand. I step into a closet in the hallway and wait until all of the walking has passed then head to the med bay. I got there making sure it was empty and set down my tablet then quickly grabbed some alcohol wipes as well as pain killers and the staple gun.
I clean out the cut and staple it closed 4 times then wrap it up. I grab a pair of fingerless gloves I am able to find in the cabinet of the med bay. I slip the right one on carefully using the tightness of the glove to hold everything together. I see a message from Caleb on my tablet asking where I was. I send a, on my way before putting my tablet over my shoulder and then heading out to the dining hall.
As I enter the dining hall I run into Richard and a older man i recognize from the cyclops he was one of the men that were trapped in the lifepod along with Charlotte wearing my hat beside him. Richard sees me coming in and calls me over to greet the older man. "It is great to see you again outside of the med bay on the cyclops" the older man says reaching out and grabbing my hand with both of his tightly and shaking it. "The quick work you did on my wife is something i can never repay thank you" I force a smile and nod fighting back the urge to wince and pull my hand free.
He lets me go a smile on his face and goes back to his discussion with Richard. I take my leave heading off to the food line clutching my hand into my leg fighting the pain.
I feel a tug on my left arm causing me to turn and face the puller. It was Charlotte she now had her hand on my inner bicep and pulling at me."Let's go" She starts walking, pulling me along. I give a shrug to Caleb when i meet his eyes while being pulled out of the room.
She leads me back to the medbay i just left. She locks the door behind us. "Are you hurt in some way and need my help?" I ask putting my arm behind my back and praying she doesn't need me. She answers me with a disapproving look. "Sit" She points to one of the beds. I do as she says.
She lowers the bed and pulls over a stool and table. She grabs my arm and sets it on the table and takes the glove off to reveal the badly done wrap that had blood coming through already. She sighs and unwrapped the bandages to see my staple work. "Are you serious?" She finally asks just holding my hand gently in her hands. My hand was so much larger than hers making her touch feel so much more delicate. She sets my hand down and grabs some supplies from the cabinet and sets them on the table next to my hand.
First she grabs a staple cutter and cuts through the middle of the stables then pulls them out one piece at a time. Her focus was completely on my hand and yet I couldn't help but focus on anything but her face.
She grabbed a disinfectant and cleaned out the cut again before beginning to stitch the cut closed. Her technique was perfect, she even made sure to dodge the areas that were now wounded from the stables. After closing off the stitches she grabbed some wrap and began wrapping my hand.
Since the cut went from the outside of my pointer finger down to the middle part of my wrist she wrapped to my first knuckle on my pointer and middle finger then around my thumb and down my wrist for two wraps before tying it off. She then turned to grab some painkillers but I grabbed her hand stopping her and making her turn to face me.
"I already got some of those" I said realizing i was holding her hand and letting go. "So you do have some sense. I figured you would have a lot more with the reputation that you have but i was mistaken" She looked angry as she spoke.
"Hey did i do something?" I ask genuinely confused
. "You are acting recklessly" She said now looking at her hands that were clutched in her lap. "First you take over the mechanic work and now you hide your injuries, what's next? You break your hand and can never perform surgery again?!" She looks up and meeting my gaze when she yells that last part.
I felt angry, not only for my foolishness in taking care of myself but how frustratingly correct she was . Her emotion changed quickly when seeing my face, almost to dread from what she just said. I stand up and head for the door. I cut her off from speaking "Thank you for the wrapping and stitching, i will deal with it better next time so you don't have to trouble yourself" I walk out of the medbay and to my room.
I skip lunch and just stay in my room thinking. I mark my task as uncomplete so they move to my list for tomorrow.
Unable to stay still any longer I head to the gym. I have my ear buds in and grabbed some lifting gloves before heading to the gym. I use the gloves to hide the wrap on my hand and hit the treadmill. I run off my frustration I run and try not to think about anything else but my keeping my legs moving. After 4 miles i am covered in sweat and my legs were worn out. I head back to my room and take off the gloves and wrap and rewrap the hand with a carbon fiber wrap that was water resistant.
I hop in the shower and rinse off all of the sweat from todays work and workout. I grab some shorts and get into bed letting my exhaustion knock me out.
I wake up with a soreness in my hand and legs. I grab a change of clothes and some fitting work gloves before heading out to grab some breakfast. As soon as the smell of the food hit my nose my belly growled from the lack of food yesterday. I grab more than usual to eat today and eat my food quickly. I feel that stare again on my back now unwanted. I get up leaving my dish in the dirty pile and heading out to work. I listen to music all day as i work letting myself be in my own world for a little while.
I had to skip lunch to catch up on the things i missed yesterday. Getting a break before having to help weld on a new area i go to the kitchen to make myself a small meal. I put my earbuds away and head into the back room turning on the light as i walk in. I clip my work gloves to one of my belt loops and wash my hands before grabbing some food to make a sandwich. I put all of the ingredients on the counter, i open the hoagie bread open as the door opens.
I quickly put my hand behind my back looking up at the person that opened the door. Charlotte walks in clearly as surprised to see me as I was to see her. I take my hand out from behind my back and continue to make my sandwich.
"Do you want a sandwich?" I ask barely looking up to see her answer. She shook her head no but I started to make her one anyways. I make the sandwiches quietly grabbing stuff out of the fridge and drawers as i need them.
"I'm sorry" She says breaking the silence in the room. I stop working on the food looking up at her and she wasn't looking at me.
I go back to the food after a second finishing up both sandwiches. "Thank you for the apology, now eat" I said moving the sandwich across the counter to her. I look over at her letting go of her sandwich to see her staring at me intensely sorrow across her face.
I take a step towards her and grab her arm pulling her into my chest and hugging her. One arm around her back and the other on her head rubbing it gently with her hands on my chest.
"It's okay, it's okay" I tell her, holding her close. She leans into the embrace making me want to hold her tighter. My watch beeps ruining the moment, Unhappy with the coolness on my body I can't help but frown.
As i let her go checking my watch alerting me that it is time to go add the new piece of the base. I quickly explain i have to go wrapping my sandwich in a napkin and putting on my gloves then heading to the door. I stop at the door turning back real fast.
"Make sure to eat that" I point at the sandwich on the counter before turning and jogging off. I eat my sandwich on the way to the new area. I was able to finish it as i got there because a few other men were running late. I threw away my napkin and got changed into a wet suit. I make sure to grab some waterproof gloves and slip them on while in the changing room.
I grab some diving boots when i get out of the changing room from the drawer and sit down on the floor nearby the other men getting ready and making sure the equipment works. I set Charlotte walk up and give her dad a hug when he gets a break between instructing people. She starts to look around and meets my eyes giving me a smile. That coolness feeling from earlier is now completely gone with my ears feeling like they are heating up.
She breaks eye contact when her dad puts his arm around her pulling her close to him now that he is done instructing. I clear my throat and now focus solely on zipping up my shoes and making them secure as i feel the warmth on the ears. We are called to attention a few moments later, i stand up and stand in a line grabbing the equipment as it was handed to us.
I grabbed the mask and welding kit before stepping out of the way and putting them on. The one by one we all put earpieces in and headed outside the hatch. Around 5 men swam down and hooked their hooks onto the new piece that was built and laying on the ocean floor below up and swam up to the base hooking the otherside of the hook to the base then on the count of three they all started their small machines that pulled the rope up to the base. There was a team of ten welders that swam around until the new piece got locked into place then we started our job. It didn't take us long to fully weld the first part. After we finished the people with hooks headed back down to bring up the next part.
Again all of them setting off their machines at the same time. Once it got all the way up they locked all of the locks holding the pieces together and we started welding. We did this for all of the pieces. After finishing up the last piece we swam over to the other side of the base and added the new room over there as well.
It took us about 3 and a half hours of work. We all start heading in when i hear a snap and look over to see one of the other men bleeding and a piece of the metal pop out like the other one did yesterday.
I swim over quickly grabbing under his arm and head towards the hatch. I call out to one of the welders to go weld down that piece of metal as im carrying the injuried man inside. Another man close to us sees me struggling to swim with him and comes over to help we get into the hatch quickly.
Richard and Charlotte standing right in front of the hatch as get through. I feel my hands shaking from exhaustion. I see him bleeding and start panicking when im not able to stop my hands from shaking. I put my arm under the man helping him up and over to another man that was dry inside the base. He takes him from my arms supporting him and starting to carry him off to the med bay. Richard is taking the gear off of my back setting to the side and pulling me with him behind him following the man to the med bay.
"I need you to get ready to treat him" He says pushing me in front of him. I force myself to jog and get in front of the group that is now carrying the man with a large cut across his chest. I get to the new surgery room and take off my wetsuit in the changing room along with my gloves and boots. I grab a pair of scrub pants and slip them on, i tie the pants as the door opens with Charlotte walking in. She catches me tying my pants and tears her eyes up from my pants to meet my eyes. She steps closer to me.
"You can't do this surgery" She says grabbing my hands feeling how badly they are shaking. "I have to, you know this" I say taking a deep breath trying to stabilize my hands. "Let me do it" she says holding tighter to my hands. Before i can even protest she grabs a scrub shirt and throws it at me before grabbing some scrubs herself.
She takes her shirt off changing in front of me. I turn quickly feeling my whole face turn red. I put my shirt on quickly and grab some socks and shoes out of the drawers. I grab some gloves slipping them on then grabbing some for Charlotte, glancing over to see if she was done changing. She finishes slipping on her shoes and pulling back her hair then grabs the gloves from me putting them on.
She opens the door into the surgery room pushing me into the room following right behind me.