if not surgery then...

[savedthatjaffa]

[[Music inspired by: Bear McCreary's Violence & Variations]]

She was restless to the point where it was getting on her nerves and making her jittery as hell. When she woke, Lam packed herself a lunch, put on a swim suit, tossed on a cover-up, and went walking. She hadn’t worn sandals since she was about five, but they were simple and the box had

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[sgmitchell]

He was running to clear his head--harder since the fall he'd taken. Not only because his shoulder and leg smarted. The beach and the sound of the ocean helped him focus away from thought, however, and he'd just settled into a groove, when he saw someone plummet into the ocean. Judging from the height of where they must have fallen, the landing had to have been painful.

He kicked off his shoes, and dove into the surf with a concerned shout. His shoulder would let him know just what a bad idea this was later. For now, all that was important was to get the person before they drowned.

[savedthatjaffa]

The water was cooler in the shade of the cliff. Hitting it was startlingly refreshing and she'd done the dive right. Only her fingers stung and there might have been a little bit of red in her cheeks, but she didn't really think about it as she hit the water and plunged down into the darker depths of the darker sapphire water. It was cooler in the depths, too, a refuge from the constant heat.

Splashdown was terrific, but didn't come close to those few second of near flight.

If she thought she heard a shout, she dismissed it as her imagination as her ears popped. It was too bad she didn't have swim goggles. She could only imagine what lie around her or what the water looked like with the sunlight streaming in shafts through it. Eventually, her air was going to run out, and she started moving back toward the surface.

[sgmitchell]

Oh yeah, this was gonna set back the shoulder recovery a bit. It probably wasn't the most advisable course of action to open his eyes in tropic waters, either, but there was no other way he would find the one who fell, if they'd been dragged under.

Thankfully, they seemed to be conscious, lightweight, and not so far away--therefore, he was able to reach them fairly quickly, and snatch them around the waist. He was sure there was a procedure to follow for rescuing drowning women, but that would be more the Navy's area of expertise.

[savedthatjaffa]

The arm around her waist was massively unexpected. massively, and her first instinct was to struggle. Her second was that whomever decided to play hero in this case was just trying to help, ergo, struggling was going to be a stupid course of action. Lam took a half second to choose Option Two, and tried to relax her suddenly tense muscles.

When they broke the surface she sucked in a breath and got hit with splash in the face. It made talking impossible as she coughed the water back up and rubbed at her eyes with the heel over her hand. Too blurry.

"I was fine!" she said hoarsely, and cleared her throat, still trying to rub her vision back. Her hair was everywhere and she tried to clear her face of it. "The water's deep here."

[sgmitchell]

He frowned, and ran a hand through his damp hair. "You'll get yourself killed jumping like that, Doctor. Y'never know what the island will do."

He shrugged, taking a step backward. "I'll just be on my way, Doctor. Leave you to your afternoon."

His own discomfort with the box's choice in her outfit aside, spending an overt amount of time with her would only make things more awkward and uncomfortable for her. He didn't want to do that to her--she hadn't done anything wrong.

He offered a slim smile. "See you around, then, Doctor?"

[savedthatjaffa]

She drew her knees back to her chest and tried not to flinch as he stepped away, her fingers tightening around a handful of her skirt. Painfully awkward now. Lam glanced up at him and managed a smile. It wasn't really much of one, but it was there.

"I'm not going anywhere," she murmured, closing her eyes, "I so I guess you will."

She was silent for a second and then spoke in a small voice.

"Colonel."

She stepped forward in one conversation, then backward, then further backward. Would they step back so far that they wouldn't know each other? She lay her cheek against her knees, her eyes on his boots. Doctor and Colonel. Always formal.

Always formal.

[sgmitchell]

He paused when he heard her speak after her silence. It wasn't quite a question, but it might have been a lead-in to a statement of some sort. Perhaps scolding him for calling her Doctor.

It did not come, however, and after a moment, he turned to leave, grabbing his boots.

It was mostly curiosity that held him back. Mostly. "Did you...need something, Doctor?"

[savedthatjaffa]

Her laugh was barely audible. Not possible to answer that, not really.

"Take the towel," she said softly, pushing herself to her feet to retrieve it. "You need it more than I do." Lam held it out to him, feeling suddenly drained. Any of the good humor she'd had was gone and she frowned down at her outstretched hand as if it was offensive.

There was nothing she could do.