A/N: I was not planning on writing this, but here is a lil part 2 to my Fire Country tag!
xxx
“Bode? Bode, c’mon. Come on, Bode!”
Jake pats at Bode’s face, shakes his shoulders, but nothing works. He just watches helplessly as Bode’s lids flutter, and then his eyes roll back in his head, his face going slack.
“Oh my god, Jake is he--” Freddy begins, and Jake waves him off with the hand that’s not currently at Bode’s neck feeling for his pulse. He knows how that sentence ends and he doesn’t want to hear it, doesn’t want to even think it.
He feels the thump thump of a heartbeat a second later, just like he knew he would (hoped he would).
“He’s alive,” he says, and out of the corner of his eye he sees Freddy nearly collapse with relief. “But he’s tachy.”
“Tachy? What does that mean?”
Jake looks at Bode’s sheet-white face, at the sweat beading his forehead and the paleness of his lips, and his stomach knots with worry.
“Jake?”
Jake looks up at Freddy, who’s staring at him wide-eyed. He looks like he might burst into tears at any second, which is how Jake is how Jake would be feeling if he stopped to let himself think anything.
“It means his heart is beating too fast. It’s his body trying to compensate for blood loss. He needs that ambulance, Freddy.”
“Is there anything I can do?” the man asks helplessly.
“Actually, yes. I need you to go find Captain Perez and ask him for an update on the ambulance. And bring me some blankets!”
Freddy nods and jogs off toward the smoldering fire camp. Jake turns his attention back to Bode.
“Alright, Bode, come back…” He makes a fist and rubs his knuckles firmly and quickly against the man’s sternum. Bode groans, one hand reaching up to bat weakly at Jake’s, and Jake lets out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. “Good, Bode, you with me?”
“What th’ hell?” Bode slurs, one eye opening and then the other as he glares up at Jake with an expression that’s equal parts confused and pained and that’s a million times better than unconscious.
“You passed out there for a sec, B. You’ve lost some blood but you’re gonna be okay. Ambulance is coming. You need to stay awake though, okay? Don’t--don’t do that again. You scared me.”
“‘m sorry. I…I screwed ever’thing up.”
There’s a part of Jake that agrees, but a bigger part that knows if Odin had gotten away then he would’ve gone on to cause more damage, hurt more people.
“Naw, Bode. You had to stop him. He was dangerous.”
Bode puts one hand over Jake’s, and Jake can’t help but notice that his hands are clammy and trembling.
“‘s not what I mean.”
Jake frowns slightly and Bode continues.
“Back when I…left, I--” Bode swallows thickly. “I should’ve--should’ve said somethin’, I should’ve…”
“Hey, that’s all in the past now,” Jake says. He thinks the blood has finally stopped, but he’s afraid that if he takes any pressure off then it’ll just start again and Bode will bleed out, so he keeps his blood-slick hands over the pile of reddened gauze.
“And I’m--I’m sorry about Gabriella.”
Jake sighs, closing his eyes for a moment. Freddy comes jogging up right then, and Jake is grateful for the disruption.
“Here,” Freddy says breathlessly, his arms piled high with blankets that smell like smoke.
“Good, drop ‘em here. We need to get one on him, and use the others to prop up his feet.”
Freddy nods obediently, dumping the blankets onto the floor. He piles all but one next to Bode’s feet.
“I won’t hurt him if I move him?” he says.
“‘m okay, Freddy.” Bode’s voice is low and scratchy, not at all convincing, but Freddy nods seriously.
“K, I’m gonna lift your legs up, now.”
Bode’s brow furrows as Freddy lifts his legs, jaw tightening, and Jake is glad that Freddy can’t see the pain on his face.
“There we go, buddy. Jake, is that good?”
Jake looks over and nods. “Yeah, looks good.”
“Here.” Freddy holds out the last blanket.
Jake still doesn’t want to move his hands, but he’s certain now that the bleeding has stopped and Bode needs to stay warm, so he carefully lifts his hands away from the wound, watching for any fresh blood and, on not seeing any, takes the blanket and drapes it carefully over Bode.
“What’d Cap say about that ambulance?”
“He called again, said they’re getting close. Maybe eight minutes out.”
Eight minutes. It’s not a long time, usually. An eight minute wait at a restaurant, or eight minutes until kickoff of the big game, even eight minutes on hold isn’t too bad. But there are other times when eight minutes feels like an eternity. Eight minutes in a bad fire can feel like an eternity.
And so, it turns out, can eight minutes waiting for an ambulance to come for your ex-best friend turned rival turned whatever the hell is going on now. He still doesn’t know exactly where they stand, still has a lot of anger and hurt over a lot of things, but he does know, is absolutely certain, that he doesn’t want Bode to die.
“How we doin’, Bode?” he asks.
“Pain’s not…not so bad anymore. Gettin’ cold.”
Jake feels a spike of concern, and he feels Freddy move closer to him.
“That’s bad, right?” he whispers.
“We’ve just gotta keep him talking,” Jake says.
“Hear that, Bode? Keep talking!” Freddy encourages.
Bode’s breath is coming in in fast, short bursts now, his skin ashen, and Jake guesses that if he could see better, he’d see a bluish tint to his lips. He’s obviously struggling to stay awake, but he’s fighting and that’s what matters. As long as he keeps fighting…
“Come on, Bode.”
“If--if…”
Jake has the sick feeling that he knows where this is going.
“If I don’t--”
“Don’t talk like that,” he says gently.
“No!” Bode says it with surprising strength, then winces. When he speaks again his words are quiet and halting. “Jake, if I don’t…if I don’t make it I need…I need you to tell my mom that I. I tried. I just w-wanted to keep her safe. ‘n tell my dad I just…I hope I made him-m proud.”
Jake reaches under the blanket, finding Bode’s cool, clammy hand and gripping it tight.
“You’re gonna be fine, Bode. You can tell them all of that, and more, alright?”
“‘n tell Gabby…”
Jake feels a stab of jealousy and guiltily shoves it down.
“Tell ‘er thank you. For savin’ me. And--and thank you. For not turning me in.”
“It was nothing,” Jake says. “I…probably deserved that punch.”
Bode’s mouth turns up in something approaching a smile and he nods once. “Yeah.”
“Do you hear sirens?” Freddy says suddenly, and Jake looks up toward the road. He can hear the faint sirens, and distant red lights are visible through the trees.
“They’re here, Bode! They’re almost here, you’re gonna be okay. You hear me?”
“Hear you,” Bode breathes. It’s obvious he’s getting tired, though, his eyes getting a distant look to them that Jake doesn’t like.
“Hey,” he says firmly, reaching up with both blood-caked hands and taking Bode’s face between them. “Stay with me now, I mean it this time.”
He doesn’t pay much attention to the ambulance as it pulls up, focused as he is on trying to keep Bode awake. He barely hears the sir, we’ve got it from here. Hands he doesn’t know reach for his arm and he pushes them away.
“Sir!”
“Jake!”
It’s Gabby’s voice that finally reaches him. He turns to see her cutting through the small clearing, face twisted with sadness and worry. Her dad is hot on her heels.
��You have to let them do their job,” Manny says.
Jake blinks and stands slowly, letting himself be jostled out of the way as the paramedics kneel on the ground next to Bode and get to work. Gabby stands near them, talking tearfully to the barely-conscious man. Manny takes Jake by the arm and leads him off to one side, and then pulls him into a hug.
“You did good,” he says. “They’ve got it from here.”
Jake doesn’t return the hug, standing stiffly and staring off into the darkness.
“Hey, you good?” Manny says, pulling away. “Jake?”
Slowly, Jake shakes his head.
“I didn’t say it back,” he finally says. “I didn’t tell him I was sorry.”
xxx
59 notes
·
View notes
Hands in Whump
-Running a gentle hand through Whumpee's hair, whispering reassurances into their ear.
-Grabbing Whumpee's arm to stop them from escaping, digging their nails into the flesh.
-A red, stinging handprint left on the side of Whumpee's face after a slap.
-Caretaker using their thumb to wipe tears off of Whumpee's face.
-Fingers intertwined, comforting pressure on the hand.
-Placing the back of the hand on Whumpee's forehead to check their fever.
-A hand broken after being stomped on by Whumper, Whumpee trying to get their fingers to move.
-Palms and fingers burned on a hot pan or stove.
-Fingernails being broken or ripped out.
-Cupping Whumpee's face.
-A hand clasped over the mouth to keep Whumpee from screaming
-Gentle hands applying bandages to aching wounds.
-An outstretched hand, offering aid and protection.
-Hands in the air to signal surrender.
-Whumpee covering their face with their hands so nobody can see them cry.
-Hands clasped over the back of Whumpee's neck as protection from an imminent beating.
And so, so much more!
261 notes
·
View notes