Never Let Me Down Again Part 2
Title: Never Let Me Down Again part 2
Author: Clea2011
Word Count: 7949 total (3726 this part)
Characters: Becker/Jess
Rating: 12
Spoilers: No
Warnings: None
Disclaimer: Primeval belongs to Impossible Pictures, I'm just writing for fun and non-profit.
A/N: This fills the
trope_bingo square '24 hours to live', that's 22/25 done.
Happy birthday (only a day late!) to deinonychus_1! Thanks to celeste9 for the quick beta!
D1 asked for Becker/Jess, chose the '24 hours to live' trope bingo square (there were a lot to choose from back then!) with the prompt, "You are not going to die on my watch." No particular preference which one is dying and which one is trying to save them.
(It's on A03 here.)
Part 1 is here
The worst part of it all, Becker thought, was how painfully slow the process was. They'd had to clear a hole large enough for him to pass through easily without dislodging the precariously balanced remains of the structure. Then they'd had to rig up pulleys that could lower him in, again without causing anything to fall. And then he'd been strapped into another harness and forced to wear a helmet. It all took far too long. Jess didn't have a helmet, or any sort of protection.
Below them the water was rising. It was already up to Jess's waist. They were lucky she'd fallen in a half-sitting, half-leaning position against the wall. If she'd been face down she'd already have drowned. One more shift of the building and she could slide down into the water and be lost. Because she wasn't dead yet, no matter how pale and still she was.
They still hadn't located Connor. The hotel thought the pair had gone out for scuba diving lessons, but nobody seemed to know where those lessons were being held. And he thought Abby at least could already dive so that might not even be the case, they might just have hired a boat. They could be anywhere, out at sea doing what honeymoon couples do in the seclusion of a private vessel. It might be hours before they went back to the hotel. Lester was onto it; apparently he had already ripped into the hotel manager and the owner of a local marina, and was proceeding to make himself unpopular in every area of the resort. If anyone could find Connor, it was Lester.
"Ready?" Turner, his second in command, was preparing to lower him in. Becker nodded, and felt the tension change in the ropes as they lifted him then swung him over the open hole and down.
The hope was that he would be able to pick her up and they could both be lifted straight back out. But things were never that easy. As Becker was lowered in, he could see the full extent of the problem. Jess's lower legs looked as if they were trapped by part of the fallen wall.
He unhooked himself as soon as they set him down, ignoring the protests from above. He needed to be able to move freely, and didn't really care whether they could pull him out or not. Getting Jess out was the priority.
At that proximity he could see the gentle rise and fall of her chest even before he reached for a pulse. He could actually feel the relief wash over him as he knelt beside her.
"Alive!" he called back up in response to the questions he could hear above him. He didn't even bother looking around.
Her pulse was steady, that was good. She felt cold, and the rising water wasn't going to help with that at all. Quickly he checked for obvious injuries, then got the blanket from the pack he'd carried down and wrapped it around her shoulders. There was a bruise darkening on her forehead and plenty of scrapes and scratches, but nothing seemed to be twisted at an angle to indicate a break. Of course, he couldn't see much of her legs. He spent long enough pretending not to look at them on most working days that he thought he'd notice straight away if there was even the slightest change.
The large piece of masonry lying over them would be hard to miss though. Gingerly, aware that the slightest movement might bring more crashing down on them, Becker tried to move it but it wouldn't budge. Next he tried moving Jess, but one of her feet was firmly trapped, and he didn't want to pull too hard because who knew what damage was under there?
"Jess?" He batted her cheek gently, then when that didn't work flicked a little of the cold water at her face. "Jess, you need to wake up."
There was nothing. He examined the debris trapping her foot again, shining his torch under it. There was only one way to see it properly, and as she wasn't going to wake up any time soon by the look of it...
Becker checked once more that she wasn't about to come round, reminded himself he had no choice, took off his earpiece then laid his head in her lap and shone the torch down under the fallen masonry. It had gone suspiciously quiet up above and he didn't want to think about the ribbing he was going to get for that when Jess was safe and everything was back to normal.
The water made it difficult to see properly, and indeed made lying with his head in her lap less pleasant than he'd always hoped it might be. But he could see enough to make out the problem. There was a metal bar held down by the larger piece of debris, and it was the bar that was holding her foot in place. As far as he could see, the weight of the masonry was on that and not actually crushing Jess. If they could get her out, at this point she should be fine.
He wriggled farther down, seeing if he could reach the bar or manoeuvre her foot free. Neither worked, she was stuck fast. Lifting the chunk of what he supposed had been part of the wall didn't help either, he couldn't get it off her and when he moved it slightly a couple of bricks that it must have been supporting slid into the water beside them.
"Becker?"
Yes, he thought, that was typical. Of course she'd wake up whilst he had his face pressed into her thighs and his hands on those shapely ankles. She couldn't wake up a few moments later when he wouldn't appear to be a pervert, his luck didn't work that way.
"See if you can wriggle your foot free," he commanded, not moving, trying to just get on with the job and not think about anything else. "No, stop!"
Jess didn't need to be told, the small collapse beside them before she'd moved much more than an inch was warning enough.
"Damn." He sat up, aware of the water running down one side of his hair and clothing. It was cold and probably filthy, and rising fast. And he couldn't get Jess free from it.
"What...?" Jess looked around confusedly. "How... how did I get here?"
"Apparently you ran after a cat." If Becker got his hands on that cat he was going to wring its neck. Slowly.
"My head hurts."
"You've fallen through the floor of a derelict building. Some idiot decided to build it over an old swimming pool without filling it in properly."
Now that he was down there, it looked to Becker as if the old pool had been used as a sort of basement storage area at one time. There were a lot of empty crates lying around and they couldn't all have fallen through during the collapse, and there was a ladder against the far wall. It made sense, sort of, though he'd bet money they hadn't got planning permission for it. He couldn't see any sign of a drain, but that was probably as blocked as the one in the new pool.
"A swimming pool... that's why it's wet..."
Becker looked at her properly, taking in her pallor and the way she didn't really seem to be focussing on anything.
"Jess, look at me."
She did, but her expression was a little glazed. "You're wet."
"Yes. How many fingers am I holding up?"
"Two. Rude. Supposed to be three. Always three."
It was actually one. He retrieved his earpiece from his pack and reported back.
"I think Jess is concussed. Her foot's trapped, I can't free her."
"We're trying to get the drains unblocked, but something big's got stuck down there. How fast is the water rising?" Matt asked.
Becker had been more concerned about freeing Jess. He took out his knife and made a mark in the wall at water level. "I'm measuring it. I'll let you know in a few minutes. But she's cold and confused, and when we tried to get her free things started falling."
"Okay. I've got Fire and Rescue on their way, they're better able to deal with this but it's not going to be quick."
Becker looked at the mark he'd just made. It was already covered over. He got up and walked as far from Jess as he could, then whispered: "The water's rising fast and it's really cold. We need to get her out."
"Lester's still trying to raise Connor. How's Jess? Can she talk us through it?"
Becker glanced back. Jess was leaning back against the wall, her eyes closed. "Probably not, but we can try. Jess?"
Her eyes opened, and he noted with some concern that she didn't instantly focus on him as he approached.
"Jess." He knelt down beside her, adjusting the survival blanket, though he doubted it was going to do much good as the water rose. "The anomaly reopened. I need you to talk to Matt, tell him how to lock it. Do you think you can do that?"
The little mark was nearly a whole centimetre under the water, and he'd only made it a few minutes earlier. He tried not to look at it.
"The one in the pool?"
"Yes." Good, that was hopeful. She remembered.
"This pool?"
Not so good. "No, Jess, the one you locked. Something went wrong and it opened up again."
"Oh." She closed her eyes again, and leaned back. "I'm tired."
"Stay awake. Listen to me. How do we close it?"
"I need to see it."
It was painfully, painfully slow. "You can't, you're trapped here. I need you to talk Matt through..."
"No, let me see it." She held her hand out. "Earpiece."
He didn't dare let her take it in case she dropped it, but clipped it onto her ear for her. She gave him a small smile.
"Matt?"
Matt obviously had a lot to say to her. It was frustrating only hearing half of it. Becker wished he'd thought to bring down another earpiece.
"Okay, I need to see it. Lower a tablet down, have someone film the device." She closed her eyes again, and this time Becker couldn't stop himself giving her a little shake.
"Stay awake, Jess. You have to stay awake."
She nodded. "Just resting my eyes."
Becker quickly took the earpiece back. "Matt? Can you do what she says?"
"It'll take a few minutes."
Becker looked at the little line he'd made. He had to shine the torch on it directly now. "It needs to be quick. You know I said I'd let you know about the water? Two centimetres."
"Not since you said that?" Becker could hear the concern in Matt's voice.
"Yes. So hurry."
All he could hear after that was a lot of shouting. Some was over the earpiece, some was simply audible from above them.
"Matt's sorting it out," he reassured Jess. She didn't look very reassured.
"I know the water's rising," she told him. "I'm going to drown, aren't I?"
"No. We've got air tanks, you'll be fine, don't worry." He adjusted the blanket again. "You'll be fine."
"Still cold. Too cold."
He didn't have anything reassuring to say to that. Jess wasn't stupid, they'd dealt with enough emergency situations over the years that she knew what the danger was. Too long in the water, and too cold. Only one thing for it. He settled down beside her, and put his arms around her.
"Body heat," he explained. "Best thing for hypothermia."
Jess immediately snuggled as close as she could. "Just the best thing," she murmured.
"Fire and Rescue are coming," he told her. "They'll get you out."
There was no reply, so he nudged her. "Stay awake, Jess."
"Sorry."
"Try moving your foot again. Really, really gently. See if you can slide it out."
"Feels numb."
That wasn't good. The water, which had been up to her waist when he'd first reached her, was now up to her chest. That wasn't good either.
"Becker!" Matt shouted. "Take this!"
There was something being lowered into their little prison. He carefully disentangled himself from Jess, who gave a little whine of protest, and hurried over to take it. He was starting to get really cold himself, but he ignored that. Saving Jess was the only thing he needed to worry about right now.
It was an iPad, already switched on and with a live feed on the screen to what looked like the new closing device. It looked like a heap of junk to Becker, although so had the first one that Connor had made, and that had worked... eventually. He hurried back to Jess with it and crouched down, taking care to keep it out of the water. That could stop their problems permanently.
"Jess... Jess!"
She was starting to drift off again. Becker had a horrible feeling that if she didn't come up with a fix for the device first time then they wouldn't get another chance. She blinked at him confusedly.
"Cold... Really tired."
"I know. But you've got to concentrate on this." He tried to keep his voice as gentle and calm as possible. "Look at the screen, Jess. What's wrong with the device? Can you see? Why isn't it working?"
"Too many questions," she murmured. "Let me sleep."
"Look at the screen first. Tell me why it won't work. Then you can sleep."
"Promise?"
"Yes."
Jess gave a sigh, and made an obvious effort to look at it.
"Can't see."
"Go in closer," Becker instructed through his earpiece. "Can you see it now, Jess?"
"No... Yes! It's not working."
He wanted to throw the iPad against the wall in his frustration. Emily needed to get down there, she could do calm and patient. Becker wasn't the calm and patient type. Not with Jess trapped there, shivering, the water almost up to her throat. She wasn't going to last much longer.
"How can we make it work? What do we do?"
"Wire."
"A wire? Matt, she said something about a wire! Jess, what about the wire?"
"Broken."
"Which one?" He stared at the screen, but couldn't see what she meant. There was a hand coming down in front of the screen, pointing at something, and a man's voice filtering through.
"This one?"
"Yeah."
"It's just loose, hang on...There! It worked! The anomaly closed!"
There were cheers from above, but Becker wasn't sure if Jess heard them. Her head was lolling forward onto her chest again, this time hitting the water, which seemed to revive her momentarily.
"You did it, Jess. Well done." Becker grabbed his pack, which was now having its claim to be watertight severely tested, and sealed the iPad away inside it. He couldn't leave Jess's side to put it anywhere safer because she would just fall under the water so he just hoped the thing wouldn't have a strong enough charge to actually electrocute them in so much water.
"Tired."
"Stay awake!" He gave her a little shake, and she frowned.
"You said I could sleep..."
"I'm a liar. I'm horrible. You're staying awake." He pulled her close, knowing he was probably too cold himself to do much good but it had to be better than nothing.
The walls were creaking ominously above them. Something was being lowered into the water, a long pipe.
Jess was falling asleep again. No matter what he did.
"Jess! Look at me!" He gripped her face in his hand. "Stay awake! That's an order."
"Bossy," she grumbled.
"That's right. Stay awake."
There was a loud humming noise, like an engine. Jess leaned against him. "What's that?"
"It's a pump. They're getting the water out. It won't be so cold. Jess!" Again she was falling asleep. "You're not doing this to me. Stay awake!" He paused, then added: "I knew you wouldn't be any good out in the field."
She stirred slightly at that, so he continued.
"Girls should be kept in the office, behind the desk. There's no place for them out here in the field. I knew you'd get into trouble."
She actually sat up, almost straight, and managed to glare at him. Wonderful. She might live, and hate him forever. Still, as long as she lived...
"The cat was scared," she told him.
"Should be put down. They... oh! They eat cats in some countries. A delicacy."
The water was starting to go down. It was slow, but it was starting to go down.
"Have you ever eaten cat?"
"Becker!"
"No? I'll take you then. Or France. You could have snails and frogs legs." He pulled the blanket tighter around her and rubbed at her back to try to increase circulation.
"I've had them," she told him. "The frogs legs were nice. So... there!"
"Bet you cried like a girl when they put the snails in front of you though!"
"God, I hate you!" She was shivering hard, but that wasn't necessarily a bad sign. The adrenaline from the anger was keeping her going. He could apologise for the rest of his life, but right now all that mattered was keeping her awake.
A few feet away he was aware of figures being lowered into the pool. Not too much longer now.
"So you did cry like a girl?"
She glared at him, and up close like that he could see the fire of their argument that morning coming back into her eyes.
"I ate three!" she told him. "And they were horrible slugs, just like you!"
He kept rubbing her back. The water was down to her chest. Under that blanket, the bright pink t-shirt she'd worn for the field trip was going to be clinging like mad. It was probably best not to think about it, much less tell her he was thinking about it. So he did. She gave a disbelieving snort, but didn't push him away. In fact, she snuggled closer against him.
So he carried on whispering to her all sorts of things that he probably shouldn't, and that were making her face heat faintly against his throat despite her shivering. That was good though. Heat was good. Adrenaline was good. The water was going down very fast, and that was good too. Best of all, the rescue team were working on getting Jess free.
"When we get out of here, I'm going to slap you so hard," she growled. Strangely though, there didn't seem to be much malice in her voice this time.
"Promise?"
"You promised I could go to sleep!"
"Not on my watch," he whispered. "I'll never lose you on my watch."
"No." Momentarily she looked up at him. "I know you never would."
He leaned forward, thinking that it was probably a really good time to kiss her. After all, that would help with the whole adrenaline and keeping warm thing.
"Miss?"
He'd forgotten about the rescue team.
"We're going to lift this off you now. Try to keep still."
It was of course a good thing. It really was. He still felt cheated though because the moment was lost and Jess was watching them start to hoist up the slab and he'd probably never get a chance like that again.
He waited as the slab was lifted. Jess gave a little gasp of pain as the pressure was relieved on her foot and sensation started to flood back. Becker carefully scooped her up, because he wasn't going to let any of those rescue workers do that, and she smiled at him gratefully.
"Let's get her out of here," one of the rescue workers said. He was opening up the harness they'd come down in. "Won't be long now, miss. We'll have you warmed up and someone looking at that ankle in no time."
And then, after all that, she was taken from him and hoisted up through the roof, gone.
"You're next, sir," the man told him. "Do you need any help?"
The look Becker gave him would probably have felled a lesser man.
---
Whilst the university was lacking in health and safety in certain remote corners, it did at least have a very good health centre and that was where Jess had been taken.
Her foot was bruised and swollen, and she wasn't going to be wearing any of her favourite shoes for a while. She also apparently had mild concussion, though she felt fine, and was being treated for cuts and bruises as well as hypothermia.
Now that she had stopped shivering and was out of danger, the being treated for hypothermia part was pretty good. She was on her second mug of hot chocolate, was snuggled up in countless blankets, and was sitting on a sofa in front of an electric fire. And people were fussing.
Most particularly, Emily and Becker were fussing. Matt had gone off to reassure Lester that everything was fine, and to tell Connor to go back to his scuba diving class (which apparently he'd been literally pulled out of on Lester's insistence when he'd finally been located) and to oversee what was happening with the anomaly. Matt's idea of fussing had been to check with the doctor that she would be okay and then to hurry off to do what he had to do. But the other two had more than made up for it. Emily's hot chocolate was the best, and Becker had gone off and found real chocolate. He'd had to change into dry clothes, but as there were always spares in the ARC trucks that wasn't a problem. Then he was hovering near the doorway, watching whilst Emily mothered her.
Jess wished she was still cold enough to need body heat to warm her. Well, perhaps not that cold, but cold enough that it would be beneficial. Because a bit of body heat was always going to be beneficial, especially if it was Becker's.
"You must be cold too, Becker," Emily suddenly considered. Jess could have hugged her for the opening.
"You're right. Becker, have one of my blankets."
It was quite comical, watching the look on his face when he didn't know quite what to do with himself. She could see him glance at the door, probably considering running away.
"Sit here," Emily instructed, tapping the space on the sofa beside Jess. "I'll go and get some more hot chocolate."
She strode out purposefully, leaving Becker to perch uncomfortably on the edge of the sofa. Jess offered him a blanket, but he put it back around her.
"Thank you. No, you need it. I'm fine."
"You saved me. Again."
"It's my job."
Typical. Difficult to the last. She wasn't going to let him get away again though, not after what he'd said to her, because depending on which parts were lies and which was the truth, he either deserved a good slap or a good shag. She hoped it was going to turn out to be the latter. "Well, thank you. Now about what you said..."
"Oh no, that was all just to make you angry, I didn't mean any of those things. You know I was just trying to make you stay awake. You don't need to mention it to my team, the girls are already furious with me from this morning."
Jess nodded. "That's fair enough. I won't. I wouldn't want them thinking their commanding officer had some kind of wet T-shirt fetish, and that he's going to take me out to eat someone's pet cat."
"I'm not going to take you to eat a cat!" Becker exclaimed.
"Good."
She noticed he looked a little disappointed at that reaction, which was what she was hoping for, so she added, "I like Thai food though. And Italian. And Chinese. Especially Chinese. It's my favourite. You can take me to one of those."
Nearly dying did seem to make you bolder, she thought. He looked quite bemused, but was nodding. That had to be a good sign, that surely meant a date, didn't it? She gave a little shiver of excitement.
"Still cold?"
Jess nodded, hopefully, and sure enough he started holding her and rubbing her back again. It was lovely. Jess thought she might not feel warm for really quite some time.
"I did notice," she told him a little later, snuggled up against him in her nest of blankets. "That you didn't deny the wet T-shirt fetish."
He smiled. That didn't happen often, and it just had to be a very good sign...
---
Matt Anderson had lived a thrilling life. It wasn't a good kind of thrilling, and not one that he'd recommend to anyone else. But still, it was thrilling. And it had been for the most part quite noisy, and that noise had usually been accompanied by pain and fear. As a young man he'd learned to appreciate when things were quiet.
The trip back was very, very quiet. And Becker was even letting him drive, because Becker was sitting on the back seat with their Field Coordinator curled up against him, fast asleep.
Apparently a promise was a promise.
Matt didn't think he'd ever quite understand Becker.
Author: Clea2011
Word Count: 7949 total (3726 this part)
Characters: Becker/Jess
Rating: 12
Spoilers: No
Warnings: None
Disclaimer: Primeval belongs to Impossible Pictures, I'm just writing for fun and non-profit.
A/N: This fills the
trope_bingo square '24 hours to live', that's 22/25 done.
Happy birthday (only a day late!) to deinonychus_1! Thanks to celeste9 for the quick beta!
D1 asked for Becker/Jess, chose the '24 hours to live' trope bingo square (there were a lot to choose from back then!) with the prompt, "You are not going to die on my watch." No particular preference which one is dying and which one is trying to save them.
(It's on A03 here.)
Part 1 is here
The worst part of it all, Becker thought, was how painfully slow the process was. They'd had to clear a hole large enough for him to pass through easily without dislodging the precariously balanced remains of the structure. Then they'd had to rig up pulleys that could lower him in, again without causing anything to fall. And then he'd been strapped into another harness and forced to wear a helmet. It all took far too long. Jess didn't have a helmet, or any sort of protection.
Below them the water was rising. It was already up to Jess's waist. They were lucky she'd fallen in a half-sitting, half-leaning position against the wall. If she'd been face down she'd already have drowned. One more shift of the building and she could slide down into the water and be lost. Because she wasn't dead yet, no matter how pale and still she was.
They still hadn't located Connor. The hotel thought the pair had gone out for scuba diving lessons, but nobody seemed to know where those lessons were being held. And he thought Abby at least could already dive so that might not even be the case, they might just have hired a boat. They could be anywhere, out at sea doing what honeymoon couples do in the seclusion of a private vessel. It might be hours before they went back to the hotel. Lester was onto it; apparently he had already ripped into the hotel manager and the owner of a local marina, and was proceeding to make himself unpopular in every area of the resort. If anyone could find Connor, it was Lester.
"Ready?" Turner, his second in command, was preparing to lower him in. Becker nodded, and felt the tension change in the ropes as they lifted him then swung him over the open hole and down.
The hope was that he would be able to pick her up and they could both be lifted straight back out. But things were never that easy. As Becker was lowered in, he could see the full extent of the problem. Jess's lower legs looked as if they were trapped by part of the fallen wall.
He unhooked himself as soon as they set him down, ignoring the protests from above. He needed to be able to move freely, and didn't really care whether they could pull him out or not. Getting Jess out was the priority.
At that proximity he could see the gentle rise and fall of her chest even before he reached for a pulse. He could actually feel the relief wash over him as he knelt beside her.
"Alive!" he called back up in response to the questions he could hear above him. He didn't even bother looking around.
Her pulse was steady, that was good. She felt cold, and the rising water wasn't going to help with that at all. Quickly he checked for obvious injuries, then got the blanket from the pack he'd carried down and wrapped it around her shoulders. There was a bruise darkening on her forehead and plenty of scrapes and scratches, but nothing seemed to be twisted at an angle to indicate a break. Of course, he couldn't see much of her legs. He spent long enough pretending not to look at them on most working days that he thought he'd notice straight away if there was even the slightest change.
The large piece of masonry lying over them would be hard to miss though. Gingerly, aware that the slightest movement might bring more crashing down on them, Becker tried to move it but it wouldn't budge. Next he tried moving Jess, but one of her feet was firmly trapped, and he didn't want to pull too hard because who knew what damage was under there?
"Jess?" He batted her cheek gently, then when that didn't work flicked a little of the cold water at her face. "Jess, you need to wake up."
There was nothing. He examined the debris trapping her foot again, shining his torch under it. There was only one way to see it properly, and as she wasn't going to wake up any time soon by the look of it...
Becker checked once more that she wasn't about to come round, reminded himself he had no choice, took off his earpiece then laid his head in her lap and shone the torch down under the fallen masonry. It had gone suspiciously quiet up above and he didn't want to think about the ribbing he was going to get for that when Jess was safe and everything was back to normal.
The water made it difficult to see properly, and indeed made lying with his head in her lap less pleasant than he'd always hoped it might be. But he could see enough to make out the problem. There was a metal bar held down by the larger piece of debris, and it was the bar that was holding her foot in place. As far as he could see, the weight of the masonry was on that and not actually crushing Jess. If they could get her out, at this point she should be fine.
He wriggled farther down, seeing if he could reach the bar or manoeuvre her foot free. Neither worked, she was stuck fast. Lifting the chunk of what he supposed had been part of the wall didn't help either, he couldn't get it off her and when he moved it slightly a couple of bricks that it must have been supporting slid into the water beside them.
"Becker?"
Yes, he thought, that was typical. Of course she'd wake up whilst he had his face pressed into her thighs and his hands on those shapely ankles. She couldn't wake up a few moments later when he wouldn't appear to be a pervert, his luck didn't work that way.
"See if you can wriggle your foot free," he commanded, not moving, trying to just get on with the job and not think about anything else. "No, stop!"
Jess didn't need to be told, the small collapse beside them before she'd moved much more than an inch was warning enough.
"Damn." He sat up, aware of the water running down one side of his hair and clothing. It was cold and probably filthy, and rising fast. And he couldn't get Jess free from it.
"What...?" Jess looked around confusedly. "How... how did I get here?"
"Apparently you ran after a cat." If Becker got his hands on that cat he was going to wring its neck. Slowly.
"My head hurts."
"You've fallen through the floor of a derelict building. Some idiot decided to build it over an old swimming pool without filling it in properly."
Now that he was down there, it looked to Becker as if the old pool had been used as a sort of basement storage area at one time. There were a lot of empty crates lying around and they couldn't all have fallen through during the collapse, and there was a ladder against the far wall. It made sense, sort of, though he'd bet money they hadn't got planning permission for it. He couldn't see any sign of a drain, but that was probably as blocked as the one in the new pool.
"A swimming pool... that's why it's wet..."
Becker looked at her properly, taking in her pallor and the way she didn't really seem to be focussing on anything.
"Jess, look at me."
She did, but her expression was a little glazed. "You're wet."
"Yes. How many fingers am I holding up?"
"Two. Rude. Supposed to be three. Always three."
It was actually one. He retrieved his earpiece from his pack and reported back.
"I think Jess is concussed. Her foot's trapped, I can't free her."
"We're trying to get the drains unblocked, but something big's got stuck down there. How fast is the water rising?" Matt asked.
Becker had been more concerned about freeing Jess. He took out his knife and made a mark in the wall at water level. "I'm measuring it. I'll let you know in a few minutes. But she's cold and confused, and when we tried to get her free things started falling."
"Okay. I've got Fire and Rescue on their way, they're better able to deal with this but it's not going to be quick."
Becker looked at the mark he'd just made. It was already covered over. He got up and walked as far from Jess as he could, then whispered: "The water's rising fast and it's really cold. We need to get her out."
"Lester's still trying to raise Connor. How's Jess? Can she talk us through it?"
Becker glanced back. Jess was leaning back against the wall, her eyes closed. "Probably not, but we can try. Jess?"
Her eyes opened, and he noted with some concern that she didn't instantly focus on him as he approached.
"Jess." He knelt down beside her, adjusting the survival blanket, though he doubted it was going to do much good as the water rose. "The anomaly reopened. I need you to talk to Matt, tell him how to lock it. Do you think you can do that?"
The little mark was nearly a whole centimetre under the water, and he'd only made it a few minutes earlier. He tried not to look at it.
"The one in the pool?"
"Yes." Good, that was hopeful. She remembered.
"This pool?"
Not so good. "No, Jess, the one you locked. Something went wrong and it opened up again."
"Oh." She closed her eyes again, and leaned back. "I'm tired."
"Stay awake. Listen to me. How do we close it?"
"I need to see it."
It was painfully, painfully slow. "You can't, you're trapped here. I need you to talk Matt through..."
"No, let me see it." She held her hand out. "Earpiece."
He didn't dare let her take it in case she dropped it, but clipped it onto her ear for her. She gave him a small smile.
"Matt?"
Matt obviously had a lot to say to her. It was frustrating only hearing half of it. Becker wished he'd thought to bring down another earpiece.
"Okay, I need to see it. Lower a tablet down, have someone film the device." She closed her eyes again, and this time Becker couldn't stop himself giving her a little shake.
"Stay awake, Jess. You have to stay awake."
She nodded. "Just resting my eyes."
Becker quickly took the earpiece back. "Matt? Can you do what she says?"
"It'll take a few minutes."
Becker looked at the little line he'd made. He had to shine the torch on it directly now. "It needs to be quick. You know I said I'd let you know about the water? Two centimetres."
"Not since you said that?" Becker could hear the concern in Matt's voice.
"Yes. So hurry."
All he could hear after that was a lot of shouting. Some was over the earpiece, some was simply audible from above them.
"Matt's sorting it out," he reassured Jess. She didn't look very reassured.
"I know the water's rising," she told him. "I'm going to drown, aren't I?"
"No. We've got air tanks, you'll be fine, don't worry." He adjusted the blanket again. "You'll be fine."
"Still cold. Too cold."
He didn't have anything reassuring to say to that. Jess wasn't stupid, they'd dealt with enough emergency situations over the years that she knew what the danger was. Too long in the water, and too cold. Only one thing for it. He settled down beside her, and put his arms around her.
"Body heat," he explained. "Best thing for hypothermia."
Jess immediately snuggled as close as she could. "Just the best thing," she murmured.
"Fire and Rescue are coming," he told her. "They'll get you out."
There was no reply, so he nudged her. "Stay awake, Jess."
"Sorry."
"Try moving your foot again. Really, really gently. See if you can slide it out."
"Feels numb."
That wasn't good. The water, which had been up to her waist when he'd first reached her, was now up to her chest. That wasn't good either.
"Becker!" Matt shouted. "Take this!"
There was something being lowered into their little prison. He carefully disentangled himself from Jess, who gave a little whine of protest, and hurried over to take it. He was starting to get really cold himself, but he ignored that. Saving Jess was the only thing he needed to worry about right now.
It was an iPad, already switched on and with a live feed on the screen to what looked like the new closing device. It looked like a heap of junk to Becker, although so had the first one that Connor had made, and that had worked... eventually. He hurried back to Jess with it and crouched down, taking care to keep it out of the water. That could stop their problems permanently.
"Jess... Jess!"
She was starting to drift off again. Becker had a horrible feeling that if she didn't come up with a fix for the device first time then they wouldn't get another chance. She blinked at him confusedly.
"Cold... Really tired."
"I know. But you've got to concentrate on this." He tried to keep his voice as gentle and calm as possible. "Look at the screen, Jess. What's wrong with the device? Can you see? Why isn't it working?"
"Too many questions," she murmured. "Let me sleep."
"Look at the screen first. Tell me why it won't work. Then you can sleep."
"Promise?"
"Yes."
Jess gave a sigh, and made an obvious effort to look at it.
"Can't see."
"Go in closer," Becker instructed through his earpiece. "Can you see it now, Jess?"
"No... Yes! It's not working."
He wanted to throw the iPad against the wall in his frustration. Emily needed to get down there, she could do calm and patient. Becker wasn't the calm and patient type. Not with Jess trapped there, shivering, the water almost up to her throat. She wasn't going to last much longer.
"How can we make it work? What do we do?"
"Wire."
"A wire? Matt, she said something about a wire! Jess, what about the wire?"
"Broken."
"Which one?" He stared at the screen, but couldn't see what she meant. There was a hand coming down in front of the screen, pointing at something, and a man's voice filtering through.
"This one?"
"Yeah."
"It's just loose, hang on...There! It worked! The anomaly closed!"
There were cheers from above, but Becker wasn't sure if Jess heard them. Her head was lolling forward onto her chest again, this time hitting the water, which seemed to revive her momentarily.
"You did it, Jess. Well done." Becker grabbed his pack, which was now having its claim to be watertight severely tested, and sealed the iPad away inside it. He couldn't leave Jess's side to put it anywhere safer because she would just fall under the water so he just hoped the thing wouldn't have a strong enough charge to actually electrocute them in so much water.
"Tired."
"Stay awake!" He gave her a little shake, and she frowned.
"You said I could sleep..."
"I'm a liar. I'm horrible. You're staying awake." He pulled her close, knowing he was probably too cold himself to do much good but it had to be better than nothing.
The walls were creaking ominously above them. Something was being lowered into the water, a long pipe.
Jess was falling asleep again. No matter what he did.
"Jess! Look at me!" He gripped her face in his hand. "Stay awake! That's an order."
"Bossy," she grumbled.
"That's right. Stay awake."
There was a loud humming noise, like an engine. Jess leaned against him. "What's that?"
"It's a pump. They're getting the water out. It won't be so cold. Jess!" Again she was falling asleep. "You're not doing this to me. Stay awake!" He paused, then added: "I knew you wouldn't be any good out in the field."
She stirred slightly at that, so he continued.
"Girls should be kept in the office, behind the desk. There's no place for them out here in the field. I knew you'd get into trouble."
She actually sat up, almost straight, and managed to glare at him. Wonderful. She might live, and hate him forever. Still, as long as she lived...
"The cat was scared," she told him.
"Should be put down. They... oh! They eat cats in some countries. A delicacy."
The water was starting to go down. It was slow, but it was starting to go down.
"Have you ever eaten cat?"
"Becker!"
"No? I'll take you then. Or France. You could have snails and frogs legs." He pulled the blanket tighter around her and rubbed at her back to try to increase circulation.
"I've had them," she told him. "The frogs legs were nice. So... there!"
"Bet you cried like a girl when they put the snails in front of you though!"
"God, I hate you!" She was shivering hard, but that wasn't necessarily a bad sign. The adrenaline from the anger was keeping her going. He could apologise for the rest of his life, but right now all that mattered was keeping her awake.
A few feet away he was aware of figures being lowered into the pool. Not too much longer now.
"So you did cry like a girl?"
She glared at him, and up close like that he could see the fire of their argument that morning coming back into her eyes.
"I ate three!" she told him. "And they were horrible slugs, just like you!"
He kept rubbing her back. The water was down to her chest. Under that blanket, the bright pink t-shirt she'd worn for the field trip was going to be clinging like mad. It was probably best not to think about it, much less tell her he was thinking about it. So he did. She gave a disbelieving snort, but didn't push him away. In fact, she snuggled closer against him.
So he carried on whispering to her all sorts of things that he probably shouldn't, and that were making her face heat faintly against his throat despite her shivering. That was good though. Heat was good. Adrenaline was good. The water was going down very fast, and that was good too. Best of all, the rescue team were working on getting Jess free.
"When we get out of here, I'm going to slap you so hard," she growled. Strangely though, there didn't seem to be much malice in her voice this time.
"Promise?"
"You promised I could go to sleep!"
"Not on my watch," he whispered. "I'll never lose you on my watch."
"No." Momentarily she looked up at him. "I know you never would."
He leaned forward, thinking that it was probably a really good time to kiss her. After all, that would help with the whole adrenaline and keeping warm thing.
"Miss?"
He'd forgotten about the rescue team.
"We're going to lift this off you now. Try to keep still."
It was of course a good thing. It really was. He still felt cheated though because the moment was lost and Jess was watching them start to hoist up the slab and he'd probably never get a chance like that again.
He waited as the slab was lifted. Jess gave a little gasp of pain as the pressure was relieved on her foot and sensation started to flood back. Becker carefully scooped her up, because he wasn't going to let any of those rescue workers do that, and she smiled at him gratefully.
"Let's get her out of here," one of the rescue workers said. He was opening up the harness they'd come down in. "Won't be long now, miss. We'll have you warmed up and someone looking at that ankle in no time."
And then, after all that, she was taken from him and hoisted up through the roof, gone.
"You're next, sir," the man told him. "Do you need any help?"
The look Becker gave him would probably have felled a lesser man.
---
Whilst the university was lacking in health and safety in certain remote corners, it did at least have a very good health centre and that was where Jess had been taken.
Her foot was bruised and swollen, and she wasn't going to be wearing any of her favourite shoes for a while. She also apparently had mild concussion, though she felt fine, and was being treated for cuts and bruises as well as hypothermia.
Now that she had stopped shivering and was out of danger, the being treated for hypothermia part was pretty good. She was on her second mug of hot chocolate, was snuggled up in countless blankets, and was sitting on a sofa in front of an electric fire. And people were fussing.
Most particularly, Emily and Becker were fussing. Matt had gone off to reassure Lester that everything was fine, and to tell Connor to go back to his scuba diving class (which apparently he'd been literally pulled out of on Lester's insistence when he'd finally been located) and to oversee what was happening with the anomaly. Matt's idea of fussing had been to check with the doctor that she would be okay and then to hurry off to do what he had to do. But the other two had more than made up for it. Emily's hot chocolate was the best, and Becker had gone off and found real chocolate. He'd had to change into dry clothes, but as there were always spares in the ARC trucks that wasn't a problem. Then he was hovering near the doorway, watching whilst Emily mothered her.
Jess wished she was still cold enough to need body heat to warm her. Well, perhaps not that cold, but cold enough that it would be beneficial. Because a bit of body heat was always going to be beneficial, especially if it was Becker's.
"You must be cold too, Becker," Emily suddenly considered. Jess could have hugged her for the opening.
"You're right. Becker, have one of my blankets."
It was quite comical, watching the look on his face when he didn't know quite what to do with himself. She could see him glance at the door, probably considering running away.
"Sit here," Emily instructed, tapping the space on the sofa beside Jess. "I'll go and get some more hot chocolate."
She strode out purposefully, leaving Becker to perch uncomfortably on the edge of the sofa. Jess offered him a blanket, but he put it back around her.
"Thank you. No, you need it. I'm fine."
"You saved me. Again."
"It's my job."
Typical. Difficult to the last. She wasn't going to let him get away again though, not after what he'd said to her, because depending on which parts were lies and which was the truth, he either deserved a good slap or a good shag. She hoped it was going to turn out to be the latter. "Well, thank you. Now about what you said..."
"Oh no, that was all just to make you angry, I didn't mean any of those things. You know I was just trying to make you stay awake. You don't need to mention it to my team, the girls are already furious with me from this morning."
Jess nodded. "That's fair enough. I won't. I wouldn't want them thinking their commanding officer had some kind of wet T-shirt fetish, and that he's going to take me out to eat someone's pet cat."
"I'm not going to take you to eat a cat!" Becker exclaimed.
"Good."
She noticed he looked a little disappointed at that reaction, which was what she was hoping for, so she added, "I like Thai food though. And Italian. And Chinese. Especially Chinese. It's my favourite. You can take me to one of those."
Nearly dying did seem to make you bolder, she thought. He looked quite bemused, but was nodding. That had to be a good sign, that surely meant a date, didn't it? She gave a little shiver of excitement.
"Still cold?"
Jess nodded, hopefully, and sure enough he started holding her and rubbing her back again. It was lovely. Jess thought she might not feel warm for really quite some time.
"I did notice," she told him a little later, snuggled up against him in her nest of blankets. "That you didn't deny the wet T-shirt fetish."
He smiled. That didn't happen often, and it just had to be a very good sign...
---
Matt Anderson had lived a thrilling life. It wasn't a good kind of thrilling, and not one that he'd recommend to anyone else. But still, it was thrilling. And it had been for the most part quite noisy, and that noise had usually been accompanied by pain and fear. As a young man he'd learned to appreciate when things were quiet.
The trip back was very, very quiet. And Becker was even letting him drive, because Becker was sitting on the back seat with their Field Coordinator curled up against him, fast asleep.
Apparently a promise was a promise.
Matt didn't think he'd ever quite understand Becker.