AN: The final installment of my little trilogy of tags. I have other tags planned, but this is the last one in this little series that follows a theme.
Enjoy!
Drake had never thought that he had a fear of heights. He enjoyed rollercoasters, he'd never had any issues with standing close to a edge of a cliff when they went hiking in the mountains out in the county, and he actively made fun of Craig and Eric when the two of them got queasy when he'd dared them to climb onto the roof of the school. But the moment that Drake got to the ledge of the helicopter and actually looked down, he regretted every joke he'd made at their expense. Being afraid of heights was perfectly logical, and Drake was downright terrified.
He'd told Josh as much, had even tried to convince Josh to leave him behind, but Josh had adamantly refused, grabbing him tight, clipping them together, and leaping from the helicopter. Just as the pilot had said he would, Drake screamed as he and Josh plummeted to the earth. He couldn't even hear Josh screaming behind him through the sound of the air rushing past them as they fell.
Drake's ears popped painfully as Josh pulled the cord, jerking them in the air as their fall was slowed. He felt the back of his flight suit tear as he was jerked around, the carabiner being the only thing connecting him to Josh and the parachute. After some finagling, Josh's arms finally came to wrap around Drake's chest. In any other situation, Drake would've been embarrassed by how quickly he wrapped his own arms around Josh's, clutching onto his brother for dear life.
"Don't let go. Don't you dare let go," he begged, squeezing Josh's arms so tightly that he was sure he was going to bruise his brother.
"I won't, I won't, I promise," Josh replied. He held onto Drake with the same force. Drake didn't mind that he would surely have bruises too. "I've got you. We're gonna be okay."
Drake nodded and closed his eyes, hoping that simply not seeing how high up they were would stop him from being so scared. He turned his head to the side and leaned it back just a bit, just enough so that Josh's chin was brushing against his hair. Drake could both hear and feel his brother's much steadier breathing in his ear, and he tried to use that as an anchor to calm himself down. Josh was calm, which meant they were going to be okay.
Josh, like all other Nichols men that Drake had met since their families had merged, had a tendency to freak out and panic, sometimes at the smallest of things. The difference with Josh was that he only panicked when Drake wasn't panicking. If Drake was mostly calm, or at least level headed enough to think of an idea, then Josh might freak out and panic, but the very moment that Drake started to panic, Josh's panic lessened. And when Drake got downright scared - when he went so far as to tell Josh out loud that he was afraid - Josh took immediate control. Josh's panic was gone, replaced with a firm authoritativeness and take charge attitude. When Drake was scared, it was as if all of Josh's anxiety - of which he constantly had a lot of - completely disappeared. Drake was sure that Dr. Stein would have a field day delving into that, but luckily, Dr. Stein wasn't there hanging from a parachute with them, so Drake didn't have to worry about what that meant or why, and could just appreciate that his brother was there and would take care of him, just like he always did.
"How much did it rip?" Drake asked Josh, referencing his flight suit. From where Josh was, surely he could see.
"It's fine, don't worry about it," Josh answered, but Drake could tell it was a lie. Drake adjusted his grip to hold onto Josh even tighter.
"Seriously man, how much did it rip?" he asked again.
"Drake, it doesn't matter," Josh reiterated, his voice as firm as it had been right before he jumped, pulling Drake with him. "I've got you. I'm not gonna let you fall, I promise."
Drake didn't respond. As much as he appreciated Josh trying to reassure him, he knew by his brother's word choice that the flight suit had ripped a considerable amount from the force of the jolt when the parachute was pulled. Drake didn't know a whole lot about physics, but he knew that all of his weight being placed onto one single part of the flight suit and then being yanked at terminal velocity or something like that, couldn't be a good thing. What if he was literally being held by a single thread?
"Dude, you gotta calm down," Josh said right into his ear. Josh's voice, although loud, felt like a whisper with the added sound of the air rushing past them, even though their fall had been greatly slowed by the parachute. "I can feel your heart racing. We're gonna be okay, I promise."
"How much further?" Drake asked, his eyes still squeezed shut. It wasn't helping as much as he'd hoped.
"Probably just another minute or two," Josh replied. "This parachute was only meant for one person, so we're still going down just a little faster than we would normally. But it's okay, we're gonna land in the ocean, so we'll be alright."
Drake whimpered. He could hear the apprehension in Josh's voice, no matter how hard his brother tried to hide it. Josh was nervous too, but about the speed of their fall or the fact that they were going to land in open ocean, Drake wasn't sure.
He spent the next minute or so trying to force himself to take steady breaths and calm down. It wasn't working. How had he ever thought that he could skydive alone? He'd been so stupid. Why was he always such an idiot?
"Okay, dude, get ready," Josh said, his voice rising with his nerves. "I've got you, just hold onto me, we're gonna be okay," he repeated.
Drake forced himself to open his eyes, breathing quickly and heavily through his nose. He looked down, and saw the ocean rising quickly up to meet them, the waves reaching up like claws to pull them under.
"Josh!" he yelled, pulling his legs up and scrambling his arms over Josh's, as if that could keep him in the air and above the water. All it did was further cause his flight suit to rip. He heard the tear, then felt the snap as the carabiner - his connection to Josh - was disconnected from him. Drake felt himself slipping and screamed, holding on tighter to Josh than he'd ever held onto anyone or anything.
"Drake!" Josh's arms tightened around him in a vice grip, but it wasn't enough. Drake was still slipping.
Drake screamed again as he felt himself falling from Josh's grasp. No matter how tightly he was holding on, the grip of his fingers alone wasn't enough. Drake could hear Josh screaming his name as the fabric of Josh's flight suit slipped through his fingers, sending Drake down into the water below, alone.
It was probably only fifty feet, but it may as well have been five hundred feet with how scared Drake was as he fell, screaming again just like he had when they first jumped from the helicopter. The wind was knocked out of him as he hit the waves below, plummeting beneath the surface. Drake couldn't stop himself from gasping as air demanded to be let back into his lungs too soon, his dumb lungs not realizing that they were underwater and there was no air to be had. Drake kicked and flailed and fought as he inhaled water, swimming as hard as he could in the direction he hoped was up towards the surface of the sea.
His lungs and throat burned as he coughed and fought to breathe once he breached the surface. Drake's arms kept flailing, searching for something to grab onto to steady himself as he fought to live, but all he grabbed was fabric. He had come up right under the parachute, and was now getting tangled in it. Drake could feel tears mixing with the salt water on his face as he panicked, all rational thought gone from his mind as he flailed and tried and failed to breathe. Where was Josh? If he was getting tangled in the parachute then that meant that Josh was in the ocean too, and if Josh was there then why wasn't he helping him? Josh had promised he wouldn't leave him again, where was Josh, Josh, Josh-
"Drake! I've got you! I've got you, come on!" Josh shouted. Drake felt as the fabric was ripped away from him. Strong hands got a grip on him and began hitting his back again and again, helping him to cough up all the water he'd breathed in. It hurt, it burned, leaving his lungs and throat aching and on fire. "Come on, Drake, breathe. That's it, come on," Josh repeated.
Drake coughed again, this time breathing in a giant lungful of air after the water was finally all expelled from his lungs. The sudden rush of air left him dizzy, his head throbbing. Once again, he was grateful for Josh's arms around him, keeping his head above water. Drake let his head rest on Josh's shoulder, taking in big, panting breaths as he clutched his brother once again, just thankful to still be alive.
"You're okay, you're okay," Josh said, emotion and exertion warring together in his voice. Drake could feel Josh furiously kicking his legs below the surface, that being the only thing keeping them both above water, as his arms were wrapped around Drake, and Drake was still limp against him. "I didn't mean to drop you, I'm so sorry."
"It's okay," Drake forced out, his voice scratchy and the words burning his throat on their way out. No matter how much he didn't want to, he forced himself away from his brother. It wasn't fair to make Josh support both of them. He pushed his wet bangs out of his eyes so that he could actually see. "It's my fault, all of this is my fault," he said. They wouldn't have been in this mess at all if it weren't for him.
"Let's not worry about that right now, okay?" Josh said, now using his arms to help him tread water as Drake did the same. The parachute was detached completely from Josh and was slowly floating further out to sea. As much as Drake wished they could bring it with them instead of leaving it there for some animal to get caught in like he did, he knew they had to think of themselves first. "Let's just get to shore."
Drake nodded, and followed Josh's lead as they started to head towards land. The boys swam silently for several minutes. They were in serious trouble, and they both knew it. Yes, they could see land, but it was pretty far out there, and neither one of them was exactly Michael Phelps. They were in open ocean, already exhausted from the adrenaline crash, with untold sea creatures swimming below their legs. If a shark decided they looked like a fun snack, there would be absolutely nothing they could do about it - and with their brightly colored flight suits, that was more of a concern than Drake wanted to admit. Having grown up only minutes from the ocean, Drake had heard all the old wives tales about what attracted sharks, and bright colors was always one of them. He had no idea if it was true or not, but he didn't exactly want to be the one to test it himself.
"I gotta take a break," Josh admitted after about ten minutes of steady swimming. Drake immediately stopped next to him. Both boys were panting from exertion, and Drake was sure that under his flight suit, Josh was sweating just as much as he was.
"Can we get these off?" Drake suggested, gesturing to their flight suits. If nothing else, the suits were weighing them down that much more, making it that much harder to swim.
"Good idea," Josh said with a nod. The boys kept treading water as best they could as they unzipped their suits and got their arms out relatively easily. It was getting their legs out of it that was proving to be more of a challenge, but after taking turns holding each other up so each one could pull their legs out with both hands, they were freed, and once again left something in the water that they wished they wouldn't have to. "We can't ever tell Mindy about this," Josh said with a forced smile.
Drake huffed out a slight laugh as they continued treading water for a minute. He didn't like Mindy, but he knew how much she loved sharks, and the ocean in general. Them leaving multiple things in the ocean would be something that she would hate even more than they did, despite them having a very good reason for it.
"What are we gonna do?" Josh asked, the anxiety creeping back into his voice - Drake shouldn't have been surprised, since he was mostly calm again, so Josh unraveling a bit would be consistent with the pattern he'd noticed. "I don't think either one of us is a strong enough swimmer to make it all the way to shore, dude."
"I don't know, Josh, we don't have a choice," Drake said. "It's that or die, and I don't wanna die." They were both scared, but too exhausted to freak out like they'd done on the helicopter. "We have to keep going, we have to try." He barely kept in a whine as he looked at just how far away the shore was. "Come on," he said, and started swimming in earnest again, Josh right next to him.
The two continued swimming for well over an hour, stopping every now and then to just tread water and try to catch their breath, but it didn't do much good. Drake pretended not to notice that there were tears mixing with the salt water on Josh's face, and he was sure that Josh was pretending not to notice the same thing with him. They were frustrated, and scared, and so damn exhausted, and the shore was still just so far away. Drowning before they reached safety was a very real possibility.
"I'm sorry, Josh," Drake finally said as they stopped for another break. His entire body ached, his throat was still burning, and he was completely overwhelmed with guilt. Josh could die, and it would be Drake's fault. He never should've gone up in the helicopter in the first place. "This is all my fault. I didn't mean for this to happen, you're not even supposed to be here."
"But I'm glad I am," Josh immediately responded. Like Drake, he was panting and clearly exhausted and sore, but he held eye contact with his brother and they tread water together. "I don't even want to think about what could've happened if something had gone wrong and I wasn't there. If something had happened to the pilot and you were alone up there?" Josh shook his head as a single tear fell. "No matter what happens now, I don't regret getting into that helicopter with you. I promised you, I swore to you that I was never gonna leave you again, and I'm gonna keep that promise. I wasn't gonna leave you alone up there, and I'm not leaving you alone down here either. I promise. And this isn't your fault, I promise that too. Like you said, you didn't mean for this to happen. We both made mistakes, but they were all accidents. So it isn't your fault, okay?"
After a moment, Drake nodded. He went to wipe at the tear that fell from his own eyes, but stopped. What was the point? His face and hand were both wet anyway. All of him was wet anyway.
"I love you, Josh," Drake blurted out. "You're the best brother in the world, and if I'm gonna drown today then I need you to know that." All he wanted to do was hug his brother, but they couldn't do that and stay afloat with how exhausted they were. The realization that they could die and Drake wouldn't even get to have one more 'hug me brother' forced another tear from his eyes.
"You're not drowning without me," Josh said, shaking his head. "We're in this together. You're my brother, and I love you, and I'm not leaving you. Whatever happens now, happens to both of us." He wasn't smiling like he normally would be, but Josh's eyes had the same look to them that they always did after a 'hug me brother', and that would have to be good enough.
Drake nodded wordlessly. Dr. Stein sure would have a field day with that, but if nothing else, at least Drake would probably never have to see the man again. Another silver lining was that Josh wasn't panicking or freaking out. Drake knew that the one and only reason for that was because of how exhausted he was, but at least it allowed them to have a softer moment.
"I'm scared, Josh," Drake admitted for the second time that day, his voice breaking. He didn't wanna die, especially by drowning. His earlier experience with drowning an hour earlier had been one of the worst moments of his life, and the thought of repeating it was more terrifying than looking out over the ledge of the helicopter had been.
"I am too," Josh admitted with a nod. "But we're gonna be okay. No matter what happens, we're gonna be okay, because you're right here with me and I'm right here with you, and-." Josh broke off, his eyes widening as he looked over Drake's shoulder. His eyes widened even more and a shocked smile broke out over his face. "Drake! Look!" he shouted, pointing past his brother. "I think I see a boat."
Drake almost gave himself whiplash with how quickly he turned his head. Josh was right, there was a boat out there, and it was already getting closer and closer.
"Hey!" Josh shouted, his voice rising above the sound of the sea. "Hey! Help us!"
"We're over here! We need help!" Drake joined in, his voice weaker than Josh's, and much scratchier. His throat still burned from the sea water.
"Come on! Please!" Josh kept going after Drake stopped to cough again, only stopping when it became clear that the ship - really more of a boat - did in fact see them and was coming their way. "We're gonna be okay," Josh repeated to Drake, this time with a smile on his face and tears of joy falling into the water below.
Only a few minutes later, the boat came to a stop next to them, and the men on board were throwing life preservers tied to ropes at them. Drake could have cried in relief - okay, maybe he did a little - as he grabbed it in his arms, allowing it to hold him up as Josh did the same. Drake barely even kicked his legs to help as the men on the boat pulled the ropes closer, until they were right next to the small ladder going into the sea.
"Come on, Drake," Josh said. "It's almost over." Josh motioned for Drake to climb up the ladder first, and Drake didn't have the strength to argue. He barely had the strength to climb up the ladder and onto the boat.
Drake stood on the deck for only a brief moment before his legs crumbled beneath him, leaving the men to grab onto him and hold him upright.
"Woah, woah, kid, you okay?" a man with a thick beard and mustache asked him. He helped Drake to the side of the boat, where he slowly lowered him to the ground where he could sit and lean back against the edge.
"Josh," Drake said in lieu of answering the man's question, his eyes focused on the ladder. He breathed a sigh of relief when Josh appeared at the top, and quickly began to fall just like Drake had. Another man went to help Josh to the opposite side of the boat, but Josh wouldn't let him.
"No, my brother," Josh muttered, just loud enough to be heard, as he reached out towards where Drake was. The man holding him up got the hint and helped him over to Drake.
The moment that Josh was sitting down next to him, Drake let himself fall into his side, his head coming to rest on Josh's shoulder, and Josh's head resting on top of Drake's. Drake couldn't bring himself to care who was watching as he started to cry. He had been so scared, and he was so exhausted, and so in pain, and he was just so happy to be alive and that Josh was alive too. It was all just so overwhelming and Drake didn't think he would've been able to stop himself from crying if he tried.
"We're okay," Josh said. Drake could hear the tears in his brother's voice too. "We're okay." Josh lazily moved his hand onto Drake's knee and gripped the soaked fabric just as hard as he'd gripped his flight suit earlier. Drake did the same, his hand moving to Josh's soaked tee shirt.
"What the hell happened to you two?" one of the men asked.
Drake forced his eyes open and made himself actually take a look at their surroundings. They were on a small fishing boat, and he could only see two men crewing it: the man with the beard, and a bald man. The bald man was holding a few towels, and held them out to the boys. Josh took the towels in his hand not gripping Drake, and helped to wrap the both of them into the large towels together.
"Jumped out of a helicopter with only one parachute," Drake muttered in reply. "It wasn't an ideal situation."
The two men looked between each other and just shrugged. Drake was grateful that they didn't press for more information.
"Thank you so much," Josh said. "We'd already been out there for over an hour, we're not good swimmers, I don't even know how much further it is to land. I don't know what would've happened if you guys hadn't shown up."
"Glad we could help," the man with the beard said before he returned to the bridge.
"Where can we drop you off?" the bald man asked.
"Anywhere that's land," Josh replied with a scoff. "We'll figure it out from there." Drake just nodded in agreement, not moving his head from Josh's shoulder. He could feel his eyelids getting heavier and heavier as the exhaustion of the past few hours demanded to be felt, but he could still feel how stiff Josh was beside him, despite how equally exhausted he must've been.
"We're okay," Drake said to his brother. "You can relax now, we're okay." He thought about moving his head to look his brother in the eyes, but thought better of it as his body ached more with every little movement.
"We almost weren't," Josh replied. "You almost weren't." Drake could feel his grip tighten again.
"But I am," Drake insisted, his eyelids falling closed once again. "You kept your promise. I knew you would."
"Of course I did," Josh quickly replied, but Drake could feel him beginning to relax. That was definitely what Josh had needed to hear. "I promised I would never leave you and I meant it. I still mean it."
"I know you do," Drake affirmed. He was quickly losing the battle with sleep now that Josh was relaxing too. "And so do I."
"I know," Josh echoed.
The weight of Josh's head on top of Drake's increased as Josh further let the exhaustion win out. It was surely still going to be a while before they made it to shore, and all the horrors of home - like how on earth they were going to explain this to their parents - could wait to be dealt with until then. Right now, the only thing that was important was that they were okay, and they were together, and they always would be.