Work Text:
It's Snow Trouble
I wiped my mouth, grimacing at the aftertaste of bile still lingering. Throwing up was never fun. Unfortunately, that's what happens when you get whacked over the back of the head with a wooden plank.
"You done?" My brother asked.
I nodded, then winced as the movement aggravated my headache. My brother must have caught it, because he came closer, mother hen expression firmly in place. I waved him off. "I'm fine, and even if I wasn't, we need to keep moving."
Frank reluctantly nodded, and we set off again.
Why do we need to keep moving, you ask? Well, I'll tell you. Our most recent case had gone very wrong. We were investigating an arson at a ski lodge, what seemed like an open and shut case. We'd found emails incriminating a former employee, Case Bowens, and were going to tell the manager, when Case Bowens knocked us out and took us to a disused cabin. That's where the wooden plank came in.
Bowens didn't want us to tell anyone he was behind it all, so he set fire to the cabin his evidence was in...while we were inside. While he got away on a snowmobile, we untied ourselves and got out, which involved a jump from the second story, resulting in Frank breaking his arm and me getting a nice gash on the front of my head to match the lump on the back.
So here we were, trudging through the snow back to the lodge, me with a concussion, Frank with a broken arm, and both wishing desperately to be somewhere safe and warm. Thank goodness for Frank's compass, or we would be even worse off than we were already.
"Joe? Joe, are you listening?" Oops. Seemed while I'd been reminiscing, Frank had been trying to tell me something.
"Sorry, Frank. What's up?"
He looked concernedly at me. "Do we need to stop? We can take a break if you need to."
I shivered exaggeratedly. "Not a chance, bro! I want to be back by the fire as soon as possible, thank you. With cookies and hot chocolate and maybe even some little marshmallows floating on top."
Still looking suspiciously at me, he continued. "I was saying, it's already getting dark. We have to hurry up if we're going to get back to the lodge before sundown."
I flashed a thumbs up at him. "Walk faster! Got it." I hurried ahead, trying to ignore the concerned look my brother still had. I was fine! It was just a concussion, not like I've never had one of those before. Sure, I had a killer headache, and I was fighting the urge to throw up every second step, but I wasn't dying!
Lost in my own mental grumbling, I didn't notice the time passing until I heard a strange clicking sound. "Hey, F-Frank? Can you h-hear that?"
Frank came up behind me. "That's your teeth chattering, Joe. Is your concussion getting worse?"
I swatted away the hand reaching for my forehead. "No, I'm fine! It's just cold." I pulled at my blonde hair, trying to bring it down low enough to cover my ears.
Suddenly, I felt the warmth of a jacket over my shoulders. "Here, take mine."
"No way, b-bro! There's no point in b-both of us f-freezing!" I shook my head to emphasize my point, then moaned when it exacerbated my headache.
Frank looked smugly at me. "And that just proves my point. You've got a concussion, you should be keeping warm." He stopped and sighed. "If it makes you feel better, I can take yours, but I really think you need them both, and we don't have that far left to walk. The lodge should just be thirty minutes away."
"F-Fine." I begrudgingly took the jacket, wrapping myself up in it. As I pulled the hood over my head, the shivers started to abate. In just a few minutes, they were gone completely, and so were the teeth chattering.
Twenty minutes later, just when I'd started to think this would be easy, I noticed Frank wasn't walking beside me anymore. Turning back, I saw that he was a little way behind me, holding his broken arm close to himself, his face twisted in a grimace. I jogged back, taking off the coat he'd given me. "Frank, why didn't you say something?"
He barely looked up at me. "Hey, J-Joe. T-too c-c-cold."
"Here, take this back. You need it more than I do!" I tried to joke.
Frank just shook his head. "Won't f-fit."
"It's your jacket, man! Of course it will fit!"
He shook his head again. "Won't f-fit. Arm s-s-swollen."
"Oh." Now that I was l looking, I could see that his wrist had swelled up to twice its normal size, with deep purple bruising all around. There was no way his jacket sleeve was going to fit over that. I w surprised I hadn't noticed it earlier, but blamed it on the concussion. "At least have it around your shoulders, alright?"
He didn't disagree, so I draped the jacket over his shoulders and put his good arm around my neck. The effort threw off my balance, and caused a reappearance of my headache. I winced. "Oh, I so did not miss you."
"H-h-huh?" Frank asked sluggishly.
I patted his arm, careful not to move my head. "Doesn't matter."
Between my concussion, and Frank's broken arm and near hypothermia, we didn't move fast. Despite being only ten minutes from the lodge, after fifteen minutes walking we still had not seen hide nor hair of it. Then, we passed through the trees and saw lights ahead of us. "We made it!" I cheered. Finally! All that walking, and we were minutes away from hot chocolate by the fireplace.
That is, of course, until Frank chose that moment to finally collapse, pulling me down with him.
"Oh no, you don't do this to me now, big bro," I said, slapping his cheek in an attempt to rouse him. His eyes stayed stubbornly shut. "Come on, Frank!" I slapped him harder, but still nothing happened. I knew with my compromised balance, I'd have enough trouble getting myself to my feet again, never mind getting Frank up as well, which left me with only one option.
"I'll be back as soon as I can," I assured my unconscious brother. I pulled the jacket more securely around him, then struggled to my feet. "Let's do this!"
That sludge through the snow felt like it took forever. The whole time I was very conscious of just how cold it was, and how I had left my brother with nothing but a hastily draped jacket to keep him warm. More than once, I tripped or wavered and nearly fell into the snow, and that would have been the end of both me and Frank.
As it was, as soon as the lodge door opened in response to my knock, I collapsed to the floor. "Frank - woods-" was all I was able to get out before the world went dark.
I wasn't out of it for very long. When I opened my eyes again, I was sitting in a chair by the fire, as around me a group of people hustled to find warm clothes and drinks, while another group gathered around a table. One girl glanced over at my chair, and her eyes widened. "He's awake!"
Immediately, one of the men around the table looked up, and when he saw she was right, came over to my chair, crouching down beside it. "Kid, do your think you can point out where on the map your brother is?"
I just blinked at him for a moment, then started to struggle out of my chair. "I'll do better. I'll show you." A sudden spike of pain had me clutching at my forehead, and I sunk back down into the chair,
The man shook his head, his longish blonde hair whipping around. "No way, kid. You're concussed and mildly hypothermic, you need to stay indoors. Just tell us where your brother is, we'll bring him back safely."
"No, it'll take too long!" I crossed my arms. "Look, I know where Frank is, but not on a map. I need to go with you." I continued more quietly, "I left him there. I have to know he's okay."
The man frowned at me for a long moment. I tried to look as determined as possible. It must have worked, because he said, "All right, kid, I don't have the time to argue with you. But get this straight, you take us to your brother, we get him and bring him back. You stay on the snowmobile. We'll handle the rest." He stood up. "Men, snowmobiles, now. And someone get this kid a jacket!"
"My name's not kid, it's Joe," I grumbled quietly.
The girl from earlier smiled at my comment, and handed me a jacket. "I'm Annie. Here, take this. I hope you don't mind the colour."
I took it and winced. Pink was so not my colour. Still, I smiled back at her, saying, "I don't mind at all." Can't disappoint a pretty lady. I slipped on the jacket and stood up carefully. Fortunately, my headache stayed at the same dull ache as before. "Let's find Frank."
In just minutes, we were on snowmobiles, racing over the snow. I gave directions best I could, hindered by how different everything looked compared to stumbling through the dark, on foot and with a concussion. I must have recalled it all pretty well, because it wasn't long before the front headlights of the lead snowmobile picked up a dark shape against the snow. "Frank!" I called.
The snowmobiles braked immediately, and the man from before jumped off before his snowmobile had even fully stopped. I tried getting off, to see my brother, but the man I was riding with held me back. I only caught a single glimpse of Frank, caught in the light of the headlights, but that was enough to make me gasp.
Frank was practically white, his dark hair barely visible through a layer of snow. Even his eyelashes were snow coated. The only place that showed any colour was his wrist, the bruises showing up dark purple against the paleness of his skin. Overall, my older brother looked dead, and I feared we had been too late.
"He's still breathing!" the man shouted. "We need to get back, now!" He rugged my brother up in some blankets and settled him on the back of the snowmobile. Once he wasn't in danger of falling off, we all headed back to the lodge as fast as we could.
Upon arrival, the man hurried inside with Frank, still looking like death even with the blankets. I rushed after him, my headache forgotten at my brother's peril. It suddenly came back at the drastic change between the freezing temperatures outside and the warmth of the lodge. I winced, clutching at my head.
Annie hurried to my side. "Come, Joe, sit down. You've been out in the cold too long!" I let her drag me over to a seat, barely noticing when she left me there for the pain in my head. I only noticed she'd returned when she pushed a mug of hot chocolate into my hands. "Drink that. It should warm you up."
I nodded muzzily, and took hold of the drink.
"Wait, don't!"
Her warning came too late, as I gulped down a mouthful of the piping hot drink. That brought me back quickly! "Thanks, Annie," I gasped, my throat burning. "I think I'll drink the rest later."
She nodded, covering her smile with one hand. "You do that."
"Where's Frank?" I asked.
Her expression turned serious. "They took him into the other room, closer to the fire. I hope he's okay."
I did my best to smile at her. "Don't worry. Frank will be fine." As I walked away, I continued more quietly, "If he's not, I'll kill him myself."
The pain in my head now manageable, I went to find my brother. It didn't take long. As Annie said, he was by the fire, wrapped up in blankets. The snow had melted from his eyelashes, but his hair still had traces of it. The man from before, the one I still hadn't caught the name of, called me over. "Hey kid, come give us a hand here!"
I hurried over. "What can I do?"
He gestured to Frank. "Your brother's all cold and wet, and we need to fix that. So give us a hand getting him out of those wet clothes, okay kid?"
I considered reminding him again my name's Joe, not kid, but I let it go and just nodded my understanding. We worked together to wrestle Frank out of his cold, wet clothes, made even more difficult with his broken arm, and then covered him back up in the blankets.
The man stood back. "That won't be enough, he's still too cold." He thought for a moment. "Hey kid, get under the blankets with him. That should keep him warm."
Normally, Frank and I are close, but not that close. Still, if it saved him from freezing, I'd do anything. No matter how awkward.
I got under the blankets with him and put my arms around him, rubbing my hands up and down his upper arms in an attempt to warm him up. It took a few minutes, but my efforts were rewarded with a twitching of Frank's eyelashes, followed a few seconds later by a faint frown. Finally, finally, he started to shiver, and I breathed a sigh of relief. As uncomfortable as it was to be stuck so close to my brother when he was practically shivering to pieces, shivering meant he was warming up, and that he was now on the road to being okay. Or at least, back to his usual dorky self.
***
Two days later, you'd barely know anything had happened at all. Frank was fine, his arm was casted, and once he heard what happened, in good enough shape to lecture me for going back out into the snow with a concussion. Of course, we both knew that I'd do it again if I had to, but I was so glad he was okay, I didn't even complain...much.
It turned out we weren't the only ones caught out in the cold that night. Case Bowens had been found the next morning, frozen to death. Apparently his snowmobile had run out of fuel, and he hadn't noticed until it was too late for him to go for help. I would have felt worse for him if my brother and I hadn't so narrowly avoided the same fate.
Fortunately, though, avoided it we had, and this morning we were leaving, heading back home to sunny Bayport, hopefully never to return! I stuffed the last of my things into my bag, and faced the door, where Frank already stood, looking exasperatedly at me. "You were supposed to be finished packing hours ago, Joe."
I grinned at him, still really happy he was even here to lecture me. "I forgot some stuff."
He rolled his eyes. "Now have you remembered everything?"
"Yep!" I thought for a second. "Nope, wait, one more thing."
He waited in the doorway.
"Not in here, so get moving!"
Ignoring another eye roll from Frank, I shouldered past him and walked out of our room to the kitchen. Thankfully, I found who I was looking for there. "Annie!"
She looked up at me. "Joe! You're leaving?"
"Yeah, heading home." I peered down at the book in her lap. "Whatcha readin'?"
She blushed. "Just some Sherlock Holmes."
I winked at her. "You like detectives, do you?"
Her blush deepened, but she didn't say a word.
Holding off on the teasing for now, I continued with what I came for. "Anyway, I just wanted to give you back your jacket." I pretended to frown. "I just don't think pink is my colour."
She laughed, her blush receding, and took the jacket from me. "You might be right there, but I'm glad you could use it. Is your brother better?"
"I'm much better, thanks."
We both started. I hadn't noticed Frank standing in the doorway, and by the look on Annie's face, neither had she. He smiled at our surprised faces, then continued. "Joe, the car's out front, we'll need to go soon."
"Yeah, I'll just be a sec." He nodded and left, leaving me to say my goodbyes to Annie.
We stood there for a few moments, fumbling awkwardly. "I should probably go now, to stop Frank lifting all our luggage with that broken arm!" I tried to joke.
She gave a small smile, but it quickly fell flat. "Yeah, I guess you should."
"Bye."
"Goodbye."
I waited a moment longer, then turned to leave, feeling strangely disappointed. Then, I felt a pair of lips brush mine, before a soft squeak, and Annie was gone from the room in a rush of brown hair and bright red blush. Smiling softly, I continued out to the car.
Frank noticed my smile and looked suspiciously at me. "What happened?"
"Nothing," I said, whistling innocently.
"Whatever you say, Joe. Whatever you say."