It's Sunday again! Damn this week went fast.
The last Chapter of Fifty Ways was far and away the most reviewed chapter for this story so I felt compelled not to leave you guys hanging for too long. Thank you all for your amazing and supportive reviews.
I hope you like this chapter and please review again!
Thank you XOXO PPP
"Baby, look at me…Take a deep breath and look at me." I am not sure if I really want to look into her eyes, knowing that I am unable to stop this from happening, knowing that I am about to tell her the worst possible thing. "We are going to crash." I know I shouldn't, but I need her. I take my hand of the steering and extend it to her. Her small delicate fingers lock wit mine and everything feel right and safe. Even though it isn't. I don't want to let her go but a moment is already too long, I give her hand a quick squeeze and then place it back where it belongs. "I need you to stay as calm as possible. Both engines are in flames. I am going to do what I can to get us down safely but no matter what happens… I need you to know how much I fucking love you. All this bull shit and fighting doesn't matter. I love you okay. The first moment I saw you was the best of my life and every moment since then has been a god dammed gift." I can't believe this is happening, not now not like this. All these weeks and months of fighting and being angry have all be a waste of precious time. "Nod if you understand me." I am fighting 7 tons of machinery, gravity and fire but I refuse to surrender. I will land this fucking thing. I pull on the steering with such force that I can feel my shoulder tear away from my body. The worst sound in the world for a pilot is trees and brush scraping against the body of your craft; it means you have fucked up, royally. We are seconds away from contact and I know in my heart I have done my best to get us down safely. I look to Ana, her eyes are shut tightly, tears still managing to see from them. She opens them quickly and looks right at me.
"I love you Christian. I love you." I smile knowing those words could be my last and then everything goes black.
Everything is blurry. I feel dizzy, like I could puke my guts out at any moment. It's hard to open my eyes, they are all crusty and my throat is sore from screaming. It takes me a few moments to realize that I am in the hospital. The strong antiseptic smell in the air burns my nose, the errant screams and moans of the other patients around me; I can even here the faint sound of sirens outside. The burns on my body are screaming out, my lips are dry and cracked from days without food or water. I am covered in bruised of every shade of blue and green and yellow. They ache but I bite down on the inside of my cheek and try my best to ignore them. The pain in my heart far outweighs the pain on my body. I want to cry but I can't there is nothing left.
She is dead. It took two men to separate us. They had to pull me off of her cold lifeless body. Two days I sat there and watched her, held her. Her brown hair matted on her forehead, her blue eyes void and blank. I sang to her and held her hands in mine. There were two days of silence until we were found.
A woman pulls back the curtain. She smells like candy, vanilla and caramel. The sweet smell makes my empty stomach turn. Her short blond hair glows under the florescent lights like a halo. Her doctor's coat is crisp and white and I want to reach out and touch her cheek, to see if it is warm. Her eyes look sad and I know it is because she is looking at me.
"Hello Christian, I am Dr. Trevelyan-Grey." She reaches out to touch me and I scramble as far up on the bed as I can.
"Christian, I need you to calm down okay. I am not going to hurt you. I just need to take a look at your burns and bruises." I shake my head no with fury only adding to my dizziness and I think I might pass out. I know she is lying, another woman tried to stick me in the arm with a needle. I slapped her and bit her and eventually she left me alone. She called me a scourge as she left, whatever that means. She sits down at the edge of the bed and exhales deeply.
"I also need to get an IV started…DO you know what an IV does?" I shook my head no and she smiled softly.
"You haven't had anything to drink for days, an IV will put water into your system. You will feel much better after that." She rests her hand on the top of my bare foot and I want to feel better. "I promise I will keep you safe. No one will hurt you again Christian."
"I promise I will keep you safe. No one will hurt you again Christian."
I hear my mother's voice waking me from my dream. Pain. Heat. Smoke. Before I even open my eyes those three things register. My ears are ringing, my head is throbbing and even though my eyes are closed and everything is black I feel dizzy. I know that my shoulder is dislocated, my arm feels limp and disconnected from the rest of my body, the warm trickle of blood drips into my left eye and it begins to burn. I wipe it away with the heel of my hand. Gasping from breath I can taste the acrid flavor of burning plastic, the composite material of the shell and insulation. The helicopter is on fire. I can feel the waves of heat radiating towards me as my eyes open. First I see the control panel in the dim light of the setting sun. I reach for the radio hoping that I can catch a signal but there is nothing only the scratchy sound of dead air on the other side. Fuck.
My eyes dart around and I see Ana flopped over like a rag doll. Panic sets in but I cannot allow it to take me over. No matter what I must remain calm. I can't tell from my vantage point if she is breathing or not but her body looks contorted and broken. I remember the look on her face the moment before we crashed; her face was full of love and sadness, tears streaming from her face. That can't be the last look. This panic fills my heart once more and I want to rush to her side. That is what my heart is screaming at me to do, but my more dominate brain is telling me to get up and put out the fire.
Think Christian. Think. Stay calm. Focus. Focus.
We have been lucky that it has yet to reach the fuel tanks and blow us all to bits. I crane my neck back and can see that the fire seems to be contained to the back of the plane. How in the hell did we lose power in both the engines. My mind is racing with possibilities but my gut only has one answer Hyde. It's only a matter of time before the tanks are compromised. I glance over at Ana once more looking for some sign of life but there is nothing.
I manage to undo my harness, my right arm hanging low and limp at my side. I find the fire extinguisher secured to the wall for emergencies just like this and somehow manage to engage it with my one good hand. The fire is raging on, the whole back end and tail engulfed. The thick black smoke rises up into the sky and for a moment I realize that no one knows where we are. I have deviated greatly from my flight plan and we are now lost somewhere in the Snoqualmie National Forest.
It takes longer to put out the flames then I thought it would and the canister is nearly empty as the last ember dies out. My adrenaline starts to wane and I can feel the pain settle into my shoulder, ribs neck, forehead and back.
My shoulder is going to be an issue and I remember seeing in a movie how a guy slammed his arm into a hard surface to put it back into place. Pain, the self-inflicted kind is an old friend so I don't hesitate to throw my body full force into the helicopter, once and then again until I feel my shoulder pop back into joint. The pain is the worst I have ever felt, it brings a burning tear to my eye, but it subsides a moment later as another wave of adrenaline kicks in. I pull my phone out of my pocket and there is not a single bar, only the words "no service". No fucking service. I resist the urge to throw the phone into the wilderness and instead stuff it back into my pocket.
Ana is the only word I can hold in my head. Is she breathing? Is she broken? I make my way back into the cockpit and there she is, not a muscle has moved since I left her. I take her head gently in my hands and tip it back, her eyes are closed, her mouth slightly agape. I can feel her faint breath on my thumb and I am overwhelmed with relief. I carefully unclip her harness; she slumps slightly and lets out a soft moan that is my name.
Thank fucking Christ.
I ease her out of her seat not sure if there have been any injuries to her back and lay her flat on the floor of the helicopter. The sun has almost fully set and the darkness is making it impossible to see if or where she is injured. I grasp around in the near dark looking for the flashlight. I find it amongst the tattered remains of Charlie Tango and use it to illuminate her body. She has a long gash on her forehead and a few bruises across her collarbone and belly but for the most part she looks untouched. I brush her blood matted hair away from her forehead and run my knuckles along her cheek.
"Ana, baby. Open your eyes." I slap her lightly with the pad of my fingers and she begins to stir. Her eyes open and close quickly and she rocks her head from side to side. Her eyes finally open fully and she focuses on me.
"Ana…Are you okay?" She lets out a chuckle that turns into a giggle that grows into a full blown fit of laughter.
"We were in a plane crash Christian…No I am not okay!" She starts to laugh again, every few seconds wincing in pain this time she covers her mouth with both hands and honestly I can't help but join in.
"It's a helicopter not a plane."
"Oh excuse me… a helicopter… Sorry… You know if you wanted me dead you could have just had Taylor shoot me or something. There was no need to do all of this." She sits up and rests her hands only shoulder. "I am so dizzy. Wow…" He laughter devolves into a sigh and then she starts to weep. I wrap my arms around her waist and pull her up onto my lap. I can smell the blood and smoke in her hear as she cries into my neck.
"Tell me what hurts?"
"My head, my ribs, my back… I feel like I am going to be sick."
"Just breathe baby, just breathe." She takes a few deep breaths as I run my hand gently along her back.
"You're okay, we are okay. Look at me…" She pulls her head back and I rest my forehead on hers. "We're alive. That is all that matters. When the sun comes up we are getting the fuck out of here."
"Wait, what do you men we will get out of here? Won't they come and find us?"
"No Ana, this part of our trip was not on the flight plan. I am sure by now they know we are missing but…"
"They have no clue where we are?"
"No, there are no cell signals and our radio is shot. So…"
"We are on our own…"
"I have a rough idea where we are; luckily you packed for hiking and not fine dining. We are in a national park so there will be rangers and other people; we just need to find them."
The sun rises over us, Ana is nestled between my legs, her head on my chest, a dusty grey blanket covering her. I was worried about her sleeping because I am sure she has a concussion (as do I) but I kept waking her thought out the night. It is cold, and I am not looking forward to the day ahead. My shoulder is sore, throbbing and my fingers feel numb. I know two ribs are bruised best case and broken worse case. I was up most of the night looking at the map.
I can feel her stir and for the first morning in recent memory I have no erection. I chuckle at the thought; it takes a fiery crash to keep my man down, so to speak.
"So I guess that whole crash was not a dream then?" She looks up at me, her face bruised bit her eyes bright.
"No, not a dream."
"Okay, let's get the fuck outta here, shall we."
