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With all things considered, Chris McLean had honestly expected for something like this to happen far sooner than it did.
When you were in a massive forest, there was undoubtedly a shit ton of danger. There were tons of wildlife, and living things that could get you killed in an instant. There were deers, sharks, and even bears . Something that if you ran into them, you’d be gone within a moment.
But out of everything in this massive forest, the one thing that manages to get him hurt, with an injury that was progressively worsening in pain by the second?
a stick.
Out of all of the challenges that the campers had gone through without getting too unharmed , the one thing that manages to injure him on this God-forsaken island is a fucking stick.
Jesus Christ.
As much as he was currently wishing that he could just take a few minutes to lay down before he even thought of attempting to stand up, they had a schedule. A strict schedule at that. One that needed to be followed if they wanted enough footage for the next episode.
Another reason as to why he needed to get up and get moving was that there was an upcoming challenge. Upcoming as in that they needed to be ready and prepared within the next forty minutes or so. And let’s be real, trying to get a group off teenagers, let alone over twenty of them to do anything? No luck.
So right now, he really needed every spare minute that he could get.
Attempting to rise himself to his feet, he let out a pained groan. Taking a look down towards his ankle. He hadn’t actually checked out how bad it was until now, a feeling that maybe he’d jinx it or something. His face contorted into one of nervousness at the way it was bent.
He’d definitely jinxed himself by looking.
The adrenaline he’d received from getting hurt was likely the cause of why he wasn’t screaming out in pain right now, but even then even that wasn’t enough to keep away the buzzing burning feeling.
He’d attempted to use the very-same tree the bastard stick had fallen out from to try and push himself up, letting a hiss escape his mouth as the weight of himself balanced to both of his feet.
So, this was a bit of an issue. It was a no-go for clinging onto trees then, and he was using the nicer path instead of the public one too. The one only he and Chef used to get from the contestants' cabins back to their own personal trailers.
He was ninety percent convinced that they hadn’t discovered this hidden path yet, as it still looked decently pretty around here. And if they’d have been here? He would’ve known. The flowers hadn’t been carelessly stomped on yet, and there wasn’t any gum or litter on the trail.
A beam of realization began to shine through as he realized that Chef was likely going to head down this pathway sometime soon.
That did mean that he’d have to deal with telling Chef how he’d managed to injure himself and that it was kind of difficult to walk. So yeah, he wasn’t exactly too hyped about that.
He’d manage, of course. He didn’t need Chef to deal with this, after all. It was only the aftermath and the teasing that this would entail, so for now he’d deal with it alone and once the injury stopped hurting as badly, he’d resume back to normal!
All he needed to do right now was take easy steps and- GOD that hurt .
Okay, alright. He was stuck. Not in the trapped way, nothing was stopping him from physically leaving, besides the injury . But he knew damn well that this was bad. There was probably only thirty-five minutes before he was meant to be there. Which meant he was running out of time- And he was normally in charge of getting the campers up and moving, so they wouldn’t be ready and-
He was stressing out. He’d been trying to mentally reassure himself these last few minutes that everything would end up being just fine, which it would be! It was only a mild injury, and even if he was behind schedule- It would only take… A day to catch up. One that he nor the contestants would likely seem happy to do.
There weren’t much the campers could do when a challenge wasn’t going on- So if they ended up canceling the challenge for the day, which would mean that everyone would be in a bad mood- And unmotivated , and then he’d have to deal with the calls with his producers and he’d have to explain why no footage got filmed today.
And then in the worst case, they’d have to push back the air date for the episodes, or even cancel the show-!
Chris tried standing again, his injured leg slightly hovering above the ground as he trusted all his balance on his good leg, the right one. Not daring to let his left touch the ground unless he needed to. He had a plan, he’d walk. It was a little stupid, he could admit that! But if he only stood on it for like a second. At least until he made it to the cabins, he could tell Chef to take over!
Perfect, the idea sounded perfect. And he still had half an hour before it was actually challenge time. Chef had been with the campers earlier, and he clearly hadn’t passed Chris at all, meaning he was still there. He was probably already telling them to get ready! God, he was amazing.
But he could fawn over his beloved Chef later, right now he was trying to focus on moving. Moving. Chris started down at his legs, watching them, as if he took his eyes off, he’d lose his balance and fall again.
On three he’d attempt to take a step.
Three.
Chris could feel his own vision swarming with black in the edges at the edges. C’mon Chris, wake up . One step isn’t going to get you anywhere . He’d moved a bit with that step, he only had to repeat this another sixty . Hell, if he didn’t have any dignity, he’d consider actually crawling.
Though, as he started to re-think it over, crawling didn’t actually sound too bad right now, if anything it sounded more appealing than continuing whatever it is he was trying to do now.
But he had to just snap out of it, he was a host . Of a pretty big show with many people waiting to watch it. He tried to put his focus forward. He could possibly always try and turn back to go get his phone, the one he’d annoyingly left in their trailer after getting one too many annoying calls from the producers. But at this point, he was sure that he was already past the halfway point. It’d be stupid to turn back now.
He had a slight feeling that he was just repeating himself now, if he was being realistic, he wasn’t getting anywhere, not with this pace. This was just bullshit . Nobody was close nearby, and even if anyone was , it wasn’t like he could just ask them-
“ Chris?” No way.
Chris froze in stunned silence for a moment, thinking that maybe he’d just possibly misheard the sound because he could’ve sworn that he’d heard his partner calling out for him.
“Chris, you somewhere around here, man?”
“ Chef?” He’d called out, a little louder than he usually would have yelled. But listen , he was tired. His ankle was killing him, and he was really beginning to stress out. The stress was definitely still there, and still intense. But Chef’s voice seemed to have some sort of effect on him, since suddenly it no longer felt like the world was about to end.
Chris had shifted, deciding to lean himself against one of the nearby trees. Letting all of his weight lie against it, the relief of not putting pressure on himself standing felt amazing . And so was the sounds of small twigs snapping in half as the sound of footsteps began to grow closer, closer and louder until Chef had finally appeared.
He had an odd kind of look on his face, but as he glanced up and down at Chris’s, he spoke. “What the Hell, man?” There was no real heat in the way he said it, his voice just sounded laced with confusion. Chris shot back a look, as if to question on what Chef seemed so confused about.
“I thought I’d see you half an hour ago, the challenge starts in twenty.” Oh, right. Chef being confused made perfect sense now, the host always showed up early to prepare, and he’d always tried not to be late.
“ Right , yup. I knew that.” He spoke as if he were trying to reassure himself. He did know that, Hell. It’s all he could think about, he just couldn’t walk . Chef stared down at him for a moment, as Chris leaned himself further into the tree, arms crossed. Yup, this looked totally unsuspicious and natural.
“Did you shit yourself or something…? Why’re you just standing still like you can’t move?” Chef cracked a smile at his own joke, and the way Chris had quickly snapped his head towards him.
“Uh, No- I didn’t shit myself, thank you. ” As Chef raised a joking eyebrow, Chris spoke embarrassedly, “But, yeah . I can’t do the second thing you said.” He didn’t want to outright say he couldn’t walk, because God the reasoning was embarrassing.
“Wait, you can’t move?” Chef repeated to confirm, Chris only nodded, looking embarrassed.
“I kinda tripped over when I was coming to you- Only slightly though.” He’d settled on. Chef seemed concerned, he hadn’t said anything yet, but he could feel it. He didn’t know how Chef was worrying a little, not knowing the context. If he’d hurt his back or something?
Chef looked down.
“Chris, man. You know that looks really bad.” The other looked away in what was likely embarrassment as Chef knelt down towards the ground, as if seeing the same-ankle closer would tell him anything different. “You cool if I touch it?” To which Chris agreed too, with a little hesitation of course. But he knew that Chef would be careful.
Chef always seemed like he would be a rather intimidating caretaker, but in reality he was actually pretty damn careful when he had to be. Steadily putting his hand gently ontop of Chris’s ankle, he’d heard the way the other had hissed instantly . “Is it really that bad?” He frowned. Chef believed that it hurt, of course. But Chef was being really light with inspecting the others leg, so this was a bit concerning.
“Mmm, don’t worry… It’s not you, I tried moving on it a second before you showed up, now it only hurts more.” He whined, shifting a little. Chef shot up a glare to the other, who pretended not to notice it.
“You are such an idiot.” He sighed, wiping a hand over his face. “You want me to carry you?” It was a pointless question, Chris would be carried either way, no matter if he said no.
“Not at all.” He hummed, grinning down. Chef stood up.
“Then how do you think we’re gonna get you back to the trailer?”
“We’re not going to the trailer, we’ve gotta go to the campers, we’ve got a competition soon.” Chef was frowning more now, this was stupid. Chris was being stupid.
“Like Hell you are, I’m getting you checked over to make sure you haven't broken something, and then I’m going to take over the challenge.” It wasn’t a debate.
Yet Chris began to turn it into one.
“I have to host it, I run the show! You remember how pissed the producers were last time, this would be the third time I’m letting you take over a challenge and I don’t think they’d like it.” Right, they loved each other but they knew that the producers wanted Chris to host it, because well… It was his show, obviously.
Chris looked at Chef, almost pleadingly. “You think there’s any chance we can maybe get something sorted out in… Say, seventeen minutes?”
Chef just sighed as he reached out his arms to pick Chris up.
“You’ve broken it.”
“No.”
“What the Hell do you mean no- Chris, just- Look at it.” Chef had huffed in exasperation, the two of them had managed to arrive in mostly one piece, (besides Chris’s ankle). And they’d actually managed to get there with little to no campers spotting them! Though that probably meant some gossip was about to start, which was going to be wonderful to explain.
Chef had lowered Chris onto the medical chairs so that he could actually see the damage because until now he’d just been guessing that it was broken. But he’d have to take his shoe off to see that. Another thing the pair weren’t looking forward to.
As one of the campers approached the tent to see what was going on, and to ask what would be happening, Chris just instructed them to begin heading over to their next challenge, and specifically not to mess with anything before it started. But in reality, knowing those kids… They were probably exploring it as they speak.
But, yeah. This lead them to where they were now.
“Chef, cmon… We’re running behind, and it really doesn’t hurt as much now! Can’t I like- Put a bandage on it and call it a day?”
Chef groaned again, he seemed to be doing that a lot today. “Unless you want to taint your perfect body figure by getting a deformed ankle, I’d say you should probably get a cast .” He paused, “By a professional. At the Hospital. ”
“It doesn’t hurt.” Chris lied.
When Chef outreached his hand above the injury, Chris shifted a bit before he could even touch it. Chef, raising an eyebrow to which the other flushed at.
“Alright, it’s still a bit painful, but I still don’t wanna deal with the producers because of this…” He huffed, unhappily. Chef felt a pang of sympathy. The producers were great for greenlighting almost all of their ridiculously dangerous games, though they tended to get on their case when it came to the Hosting aspect.
He could tell that Chris would probably have to fill out some forms later, reasons on why he was absent for the episode, hopefully, they’d be understanding.
“Well, you can’t drive yourself to the Hospital, and I can’t take you and host the competition at the same time, I’m thinking we might need to postpone it after all.” Chris paused.
…
“I think I have an idea.”
So maybe they’d improvised with this challenge a little, and maybe they’d changed it from the original plan just a bit , but it worked! As the campers squabble amongst each other on who was winning. Chris knew it would be absolutely delightful once he returned.
They’d told the campers that this challenge was up to them. And to their confusion, he explained how this challenge… They had to make their own, the two teams would have to create up their own idea and decide the winner. And this simple idea had absolutely gone mental.
He’d asked the interns to keep them informed as Chef drove the two to the emergency room, the staff sending occasional updates, telling how the fighting and arguments were growing. Oh they were so looking forward to rewatching the footage later. Squabbles and fights over, ‘Just let us win! You won the last two!’ And so on and so forth.
And the loophole he’d discovered, as long as he occasionally called over the speakers, they were good! No producers on his ass for a little while. So as the flatscreen displayed Chris as he video-called on the way to the emergency room, they knew that this day would be just fine.
And as the two drive in silence in the car, Chef spoke up.
"You never did tell me what you tripped on."
Bonus:
“And… Hello, campers! We’re back!” Chris cheered as he carefully climbed out of the red convertible, crutches in tow. The other campers drew closer, eyes glossing over the walking-aid.
Oh, right. They may have just slightly forgotten to tell the campers about the whole broken ankle incident. It had taken him a few minutes in the Hospital to figure out how to actually move with these damn things, and Chef had been hovering by his side in case he were to fall and hurt his other leg.
The voices were beginning to pipe up, “That’s so cool! Can I sign it?” And apparently, this was all it took to start a chorus of voices.
“ And me! Can I too?”
“Yeah! I wanna!”
Chris shot a grinning glance to Chef, the other paused for a minute.
They were going to need more markers.