Work Text:
The Search & Rescue chopper rises quickly, swinging Sandburg's Stokes basket beneath.
What the hell? The basket was way too low, the trees way too tall…
The basket seems to hit the huge Douglas fir in slow motion; Jim waits for the line to the chopper to snap, but instead the chopper angles toward the ground, it and the basket both falling….
And now Jim is running through the trees, ignoring the scream of wrenched metal, listening for the screams of wrecked men. There are three he hears, two unfamiliar but one is Blair…
He's moving fast, but Simon is keeping pace at his side. "The chopper, Jim, we've got to get those men out!" But Jim ignores him, veers toward the Stokes basket caught between trees and brush; he can't see Blair…
No - yes! Blair's still in the basket, which is probably why he's still alive. But the rigging is taut; the chopper, so close it's shaking the ground, is still pulling. He needs to get Blair out! Jim's knife is useless against metal, but the straps are fabric, and Jim tears through them; and then Jim folds Blair and lifts him up and out and away, and the brush releases its hold and the basket disappears…
Now Blair is beneath Jim, sharp cries coming with every breath, but Jim keeps him pinned, waiting, waiting…
The explosion knocks Jim completely flat against Blair, so it's his body that absorbs the heat, the flying debris…
He needs to get them out of there, he NEEDS to, that blast has to have started a fire… but, no, everything is too damp, maybe. And if Blair's back is injured, he's done enough additional damage already. They'll wait.
It would be best, Jim knows, to lie Blair on level ground, check head and back and arms and legs… instead he shifts them so that Blair's head is against his shoulder. When his own head stops spinning, maybe he'll try something better.
Blair's quieter now, his breathing more normal.
"You okay?" Jim asks.
"No."
"Yeah, gotcha," says Jim. "I think we'll be here a while."
"Kinda figured," says Blair. "What happened?"
"Tell you later, okay? Just rest, I'm right here."
"Okay," says Blair.
THE END