As he jumped into the water, Hornblower wanted to scream. He hadn't realized just how many burns his body must have endured before jumping off the ship.
Everything burned.
And he gasped, the air in his lungs rushing out of his body, leaving Hornblower drowning under the water.
He would have drowned, even though the night was dark. Hornblower could see the edges of his vision graying out, but then he felt a pair of strong arms wrapping around him and pulling him to the water's surface.
He coughed out the water that had entered his body, gasping for air. He then made out Captain Foster's voice in his ear, telling him to catch his breath. That was easier said than done however, for his body still burned ferociously.
Hornblower turned his head away from Forester, gazing around to make sense of their surroundings, jumping into the water had thrown him out of the loop. They were a fair distance away from the burning ship now, and seemed to be right in the middle of Foster's ship and the Indefatigable., although it seemed that Pellew had directed the Indy towards them.
The two captains must have exchanged some words then. But Hornblower was too dazed to make out what exactly either of them were saying. He was working hard enough to keep his head above the water.
Hornblower tried reaching an arm up to grab onto one of the holds of the ship as it came closer to them, but it caused another flare of pain to travel from the limb and up across his back, dropping his arm back into the water.
His back was killing him, the saltwater sending blinding stinging pain across the burns on his arms and back. The wall he had crashed into briefly must have been on fire, for with the way his back felt, Hornblower didn't think there was an inch of untouched skin on his back.
He felt Forester push him closer to the Indy's hull. The pain was blinding him by this point, he couldn't even tell what was going on anymore, let alone keep his head above the water's surface. But he thought he felt hands grab his arms, the touch sending even more pain through him.
Eventually the crew grabbed him out of the water and pulled him aboard the ship, his normally shaggy hair now wet and plastered against the sides of his face.
Hornblower was awake and conscious, but everyone could see he was out of it. "Get him down below to the doctor," Pellew commanded.
Hours later, Hornblower found himself lying face down on a cot in the sick bay as the doctor applied a salve and another bandage around the large burn spanning most of his upper back.
It hurt, greatly.
And he hadn't been given anything for the pain yet.
Luckily though, in the time since he was brought down here, it seemed that his mind had regained some of its functions. Probably since the pain had greatly lessened once he was brought out of the water.
The pain that was becoming a nuisance. Not painful enough to simply knock him out, but too painful for him to fall asleep.
"How is he?" he heard the voice of Matthews ask the doctor.
Hornblower wanted to tell the other man that he was fine. Once the surgeon patched him up he would be as good as new, but only a pained groan left his lips.
"Burnt and in pain," the doctor said. "But lucky for him, none of the burns appear to be that deep."
Hornblower let out another groan, this was lucky?
"A week of rest and my care and he should be good, not completely fine, but good enough for some light duties," the doctor continued.
A week? Hornblower thought. He couldn't be out for a week! Did they know how much stuff happened on a ship in a week? And he still had to finish his Lieutenant's examination.
He tried bringing his arms out from underneath him and pushing himself up, only for pain to shoot across the burns on his back and arms and he went crashing back onto the cot, letting out a long moan of pain.
"Settle down, Mr. Hornblower," the doctor chided him, pushing him down onto the bed. "You are in no condition to be moving right now, I haven't even begun looking at the burns on your arms."
"But sir-" Hornblower started.
"No buts," the doctor shook his head. "You are in no condition to be moving right now, your back is a bloody mess." The doctor continued to work around him, muttering all the while about 'overzealous officers' and 'need to listen to their bodies.'
Hornblower hadn't realized when, but eventually, his eyes started to blink shut, leading him to an annoyingly painful sleep.
A week later, Hornblower figured it was finally time for him to leave the sick bay and return to his duties. Captain Pellew had visited him the morning after he wound up there, and ordered him to stay there and let the doctor tend to his injuries for a week. But a week had finally passed, so that meant that he should be able to go back to doing his actual job now.
He hadn't heard anything about his Lieutenant's examination yet. But at this point, he figured he had failed it, or at least, hadn't passed.
As he wrapped his hands around the ladder rung to climb up to the next level of the ship, he could feel the slowly healing burns across his back pull in pain. He sucked in a breath, trying to quell the pain.
"Sir?" he heard a voice say from above him. He looked up, it was Styles.
"Styles," Hornblower greeted the man.
"You're already out of the sickbay, sir?" Styles asked.
Hornblower managed to climb to the next level, and let out a breath. That short climb had taken a lot out of him, much more than it had ever done before.
"Yes, Styles," Hornblower nodded at the man, trying to ignore the sailor's worried gaze. He needed to reassure the man, quickly. It wouldn't do for the men to be worried about their officers. "I was told to be there for a week, and now that week is up, so I must return to my duties."
Hornblower didn't know what to call the expression that crossed Styles' face after he said that, but he would almost say the man looked… worried? Was that the right word? Either way, Hornblower brushed it off. There was nothing the man needed to be worried for.
Hornblower turned around to head in the direction of the midshipmen's cabin. Every step he took sent waves of pain across his back. He should probably find a place to rest. No, he shook his head. He had rested enough already.
The pain only slowly increased as he continued walking, eventually stumbling into the bulkhead. He hoped no one had seen him do that. But his hopes were quickly dashed as he heard the voice of Bracegirdle call out to him.
"Hornblower! What are you doing up here?" the Lieutenant asked him as he came over and helped Hornblower back into a standing position.
"What does it look like?" Hornblower asked as he pushed Bracegirdle's arms off of him. "I was told to rest for a week, and it's been seven days. I'm more than ready to return to my duties." Hornblower knew that, unless the schedule had changed, there would be an officers meeting being held up on the main deck in only a couple minutes. They both had to be there.
"Back to your- Were you even cleared by the doctor?" the Lieutenant asked.
Hornblower looked away, not making eye contact. "Of… of course," he said. He had been, yesterday.
Well, he hadn't been exactly cleared off. Last night, the doctor only said that if nothing went wrong he should be able to return to duty that morning.
But nothing had changed when morning came around, so Hornblower had taken that as permission to leave.
"Really?" Bracegirdle asked, eyeing Hornblower up and down. "You can barely stand, man."
Hornblower adjusted his stance, making it less noticeable how his injuries still affected him. Only for it to pull something along his back making his entire body twinge.
"You're not alright, just look at you," Bracegirdle said. He then gently took Hornblower by the shoulder. "Let's take you back down, I want to hear the doctor himself say that you're okay."
"But what about-" Hornblower tried to ask as he was pushed ahead. "What about the meeting?"
"I'm sure the Captain will be okay with us missing it just this once."