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It was a cozy and quiet after noon in the C-09 research station and the crew settled in for an quiet and relaxed day as today's task were mostly focused on observation of data. Nikolai made his way from the kitchen with a tray of hot chocolate.
He walked past Jaclyn who was sitting in front of a screen looking at some data while the rest of the crew was relaxing, he placed the mug on the table next to her keyboard, ''Here ya go!''.
''Thanks.'' Jaclyn took the mug without looking away from the screen, it was only that she brought the mug to her close enough to her face that she noticed the smell of it, ''Huh? Hot coco?''.
''Yeah sorry, I know you would prefer coffee but remember that were starting to run low on it.'' He told her in an apologetic tone as he made his way over to the other and hand them their mugs.
Her expression soured a little and she threw a side eye at Uzi who was playing a fighting game with Victoria, ''I wonder why.''.
''Hey it's not my fault that the coffee grounds are flammable!'' Uzi yelled from her seat to focused on her game with Victoria to look away and face Jaclyn, ''And besides your the one that needs to have a cup with every cigar you smoke damn Frenchie.''.
''Téte de noeud blaireau Américaine, Maltraiter le café!'' Jaclyn began to mutter to her self when she noticed something on the screen in front of her, ''Uh, Thad! Do you mind come over here for sec?''.
''Oh sure thing Jay-Jay! What's up?'' Thad put down the book he was reading and made his way to Jaclyn moving past Nikolai and picking up his mug on the way.
''Since you're the tech wizard around here, I was hopping that you could tell me if this is just some error and not actual damage to one of the sensors.'' Jaclyn said with an tired tone as she leaned back from the desk and pointed to the screen.
Thad walked up to the screen to take a closer look, after checking for any possible errors he simply sighed and looked at Jaclyn ''Sorry but, no errors here.''.
''Merde!'' She brought a hand to rub her eye's in frustration, ''And here I thought it could be a quiet day but noooo, there's a far out sensor that needs fixing.''.
''Oh I installed that one!'' Nikolai said having made his way to Jaclyn and Thad's side to see which of the sensors was out of order, ''I can go fix it, if you want! I was planning on going outside to catch a bit of the fresh cold air anyways.''.
''Jesus and I thought the Canadian here liked the cold but not even she would refer to a crisp 19° Fahrenheit as 'catching a bit of fresh cold air'.'' Uzi said while giving Nikolai a confused look.
''Yeah it say that's a bit too cold even for me'' Victoria added with a smile.
''Anyways if your going then I'm gonna tag along, might be good to actually get outside for a bit. Even if it is freezing.'' Jaclyn said as she got off her chair.
''Oh you don't have to go all the way out if you don't want to, I can handle that myself.'' Nikolai told her with his usual smiling and polite attitude, ''I'm sure it's just a simple fix!''.
''No doubt about that, how ever protocol does state that you shouldn't go out that far by yourself. So I'll be going.'' Jaclyn gave him a pat on the back before making her way to get dressed for the cold that awaited them outside, with Nikolai shortly following her.
''You know guys, for the stereotype of Russians being all grumpy and unfriendly. Nikolai sure is a joyful and chill dude.'' Uzi said when the two left.
Thad made his way back to the sofa and picking back up his book, ''Yeah, to be honest I was kinda worried at first when I heard he was gonna be part of the team. But I'm really glad he is!''.
After getting dressed for their trip Nikolai and Jaclyn got to the snowmobiles out side and got ready for the trip, packing only a tool box and a rifle. ''You ready?'' He asked her as he turned the snowmobile on, Jaclyn put her arms around him and gave him a simple answer, ''Oui!''.
With that the made their way to the broken sensor, it wasn't too long of journey with the two not speaking either, they simply admired the was snowy landscape and it's surprising beauty. Something you wouldn't quit expect from a place where as far as the eye can see is just white, be it different shades of white but white non the less, once the two arrived at the malfunctioning sensor they both noticed that it had a slight lean, not too much but just enough to be noticeable.
Nikolai stopped the snowmobile and got his tool box ready to see what part needed to fixed aside from being straighten again and if something needed to be replaced, with Jaclyn deciding to climb up a small snow dune to have a look around as she wouldn't really be of much use to him anyway.
But however as Nikolai got closer to the sensor he noticed that there were foot prints close to it and big ones, ''Hey Jaclyn! I think you should go back to the snowmobile turn it around and just be ready do go!'' he decided to yell out to her once he realized the potential danger they were in, ''I'm seeing Polar bear foot prints, and I'm not sure if it's still around.''.
Nikolai tried to remember his Grandfathers teaching about animal tracks but the snow made it hard to judge how fresh the foot prints were, it was good thing that Jaclyn did come along he thought, with her on the snowmobile he could quickly work knowing that there was a quick way to escape. After all despite them having a riffle with them, he rather wouldn't risk it if he could.
After informing Jaclyn of the tracks he got back to the sensor, putting it back up straight and looking into the box with all the important electronic pits, it needs to function. One quick look around showed that there wasn't any damage at all, just some cables getting a bit too loose, he tightened them all back up again and called out to Jaclyn ''Hey Jaclyn! Can you just check in with the others if the sensor is working again?''.
She took her walkie-talkie and began to call ''Jaclyn to station, Jaclyn to station. Can you hear me?''.
''Yup, hearing you loud and clear Jay-Jay! Is everything ok?'' Thad answered her after some seconds.
''I just need you to check the computer again, to see if Nikolai's fix was enough.'' She looked back at him as she asked Thad to check the computer.
''Oh sure thing!'' Thad answered, it was quiet again for a while as he went over to the computer ''Everything is working again as it should.''.
''Great, thanks Thad!'' Jaclyn turned to Nikolai and gave him a thumbs up, he then took the tool box and placed it back on the snowmobile and taking the back seat, with Jaclyn already in the front seat.
With his arms around her for safety, Jaclyn began to drive the snowmobile back to their base, unfortunately how ever when they were almost half way the snowmobile came to a stop. She tried to turn it back on again but it wouldn't work.
''Bon sang! Pourquoi tu ne travailles pas, espèce de merde!'' She said with a pissed off tone as she repeatedly tried to turn it back on again.
Nikolai got off the snowmobile and tapped on her shoulder ''Let me take a look at it's engine!'', without saying a word she simply got off it as well and let him do his work.
Nikolai took a look under the hood at it's engine, and tinkered around for a bit to see where exactly the problem had been. After a couple minutes have passed he found the problem and chuckled to him self, ''Hehe, Seems we have a lot of loose bolt and wires today, Jaclyn! Same problem as with the sensor, might have to do some maintenance of the others when we get back to the station.''.
''Sure if you'd like but please just hurry, the cold is starting to slowly get to me.'' Jaclyn replied with her arms crossed.
Nikolai began to slowly start and tighten back up the first bold when he suddenly stopped, he lifted his head to take a quick look around, feeling like something isn't right. He remembered the foot prinks back by the sensor and quickly got up and decided to take the rifle as if a sixth sense told him to get ready for a unwelcomed confrontation.
''What are.'' Jaclyn began to ask him with a confused tone before being interrupted by him.
''I don't think were alone out here Jaclyn, think you can tighten the bolds while I keep a watch out?'' He told her with a serious tone, something that was unusual for the happy go lucky character that was Nikolai, seeing him like this Jaclyn knew that it was for some good reason, she didn't argue but instead immediately made her way to the snowmobile's engine and finish the job.
But just as she made it she could hear it, from the direction they came from, the sound of a Polar Bear's growl, she looked up to see the biggest land carnivore only 80 meters away from them, she looked at Nikolai only to see him already have the gun pointed at it, and before she could even blink he fired the first shot.
Nikolai had aimed for the easiest way to kill it, by aiming right for it's right eye. He remembered his grandfathers teaching and shot as soon as he saw it move, unfortunately he didn't account for the mind and hit it in the right shoulder.
A quiet curse escaped his lips as he reloaded and readied himself for the next shot, the bear had gotten far closer to them then he would have liked, he knew that bears were fast enough to outrun any Human but this was surprisingly fast. He steadied his breath and took another shoot, this time hitting it in the head but the bear kept it's charge.
Nikolai reloaded again, the beast coming ever closer to them, he had time for one last shot if this one didn't kill it then he and Jaclyn would end up as it's meal but only if the gun remained with him. he finished reloading the gun and made the decision not to risk Jaclyn's life. He yelled out to her fully grabbing her attention, then he passed the gun to her, the Bear was charging him giving not her, so he knew it would be better in her hands than his should the next shot have missed or failed to put it down like the previous two.
He steadied himself for the charge by using his left hand to shield the side of his head and neck, and his right hand to quickly grab his grandfather's old AK bayonet, he lowered his stance making to shield his stomach.
The Bear reached him and began to strike his left side with his paw, he braced himself for the impact while placing the bayonet in the path of the paws strike intend at least hurting it as it would strike him.
It's paw would strike him full force and forcing him to the ground but at the same time burry his grandfathers bayonet deep into it's paw causing it great pain but it made sure to retaliate, as it landed with it's other paw on his chest, pushing the air out of him. He could see the Bear's open mouth heading for his neck and blocked it with his left hand, he screamed out in pain as it bit down on his arm but it was a better alternative then his neck.
A shot hitting the bears cheek would cause it to let go of Nikolai's hand before it could do some serious damage, it then turned around to look at Jaclyn as she went in on to reload the gun, it got off of Nikolai and began to take slow steps towards her as it could only walk with one front paw, the other still having the bayonet rammed through it.
Jaclyn took in a deep breath and held it in, she aimed the right at the center of it's head and held her hand as steady as she could, the Bear took one more step closer to her before she pulled the trigger and bulled passed through it's skull to hit it's brain. The Bear fall to the ground as Jaclyn was gonna make her way to Nikolai but stopping when she heard him yell out to her.
''ONE MORE SHOT!!! PUT THE BARREL AGAINST IT'S HEAD AND SHOT ONE MORE TIME!!!'' He yelled out to her, wanting to make sure that it was dead and not take any risk.
She did as he told her and quickly put the gun to it's head firing the last bullet, before discarding the weapon and hurrying to his side. She took her scarf and tied it tight around his arm as a makeshift tourniquet and ripped the sleeve from his jacked and sweater to use those as bandages she knew that these makeshift solution wouldn't do much but it was better then nothing and letting him freely bleed out. she then dragged him over to the snowmobile and leaned him agents it.
''Don't worry I got you!'' She told him as she positioned him, trying her best to make her tone sound reassuring but there was still a hint of panic and worry.
After she placed him agents the snowmobile she went back to quickly try and fix the engine, she had to be fast and get him back to the station as soon as possible. But her hands were shaking which made it harder to tighten the necessary bolds and cables.
Nikolai bit through the pain in his arm and broken chest, he looked at Jaclyn and the panicked state that she was in even though she tried to hide it, he could still see it in her. ''Hey Jaclyn! Take it slow ok.''.
''What!!!'' She said not believing what he had just said.
''You'll make more mistakes and take longer if you stay like that, take a quick second to breath and calm down.'' Nikolai told her as he looked at her, trying to ignore the immense pain to help her.
Jaclyn swallowed some saliva that build up in her throat and took a deep breath, held it in for a short moment and breather back out. Her hands were steady now and she could quickly finish the repairs on the engine.
She then helped him sit on the back seat again before taking her seat and starting the snowmobile back up again, and quickly began to drive it back to the station leaving behind the tool box and the rifle. Those all could wait for somebody to go back for them after all, Nikolai needed to get back to the station as quickly as possible.
She took the walkie-talkie in hand as she drove and called the others ''HEY! ANYBODY PICK UP QUICK!!!''.
''What's up, is everything ok?'' Uzi this time called back from the station.
''No there was a Bear attack, go tell Victoria to get the medical station ready! Nikolai got a nasty bite!'' Jaclyn quickly told Uzi what happened before putting the walkie-talkie back down.
Shortly after that Jaclyn reached the station with Thad coming out as soon as she stopped the snowmobile by the entrance, he quickly rushed to her side to help her carry Nikolai into the station and towards the med bay.
''Shit, how did this happen?'' Thad asked as he and Jaclyn made their way to the Victoria with Nikolai in tow.
''The damn snowmobile stop half way and wouldn't start again, there Bear got to us as we were fixing it!'' She answered as they rounded the corner, they saw Uzi but the door of the med bay.
As soon as she saw them she opened the door for them and yelled out to Victoria ''THEY HERE!'', they quickly moved passed her and got Nikolai on the bed.
As soon as Nikolai sat down on the bed Victoria began to remove the make shift bandage and tourniquet Jaclyn made and give him a proper tourniquet to restrict the blood flow to his arm and the wound. Then she disinfected the wound to make sure he wouldn't die from any of the bacteria carried in the Bears saliva, after wards giving him some morphine to numb the pain before starting to stich the wounds back together.
''Your extremely lucky with these, you could have lost your arm and ended up with a stump for a left hand, and that is on the better side of the things that could have happened considering it was a Polar Bear that attacked you.'' Victoria said as she then worked on stitching the bite wounds shut.
''I am aware Vi, It's a good thing Jaclyn shot him as he bit down on my hand.'' Nikolai said as he looked at Victoria working on his arm, before he turned to look at Jaclyn who had been standing together with Uzi and Thad by the door as none of them wanted to look at the little bit of exposed flesh, ''Thanks for that.''.
''What's there to thank? I should have shot him before got to biting you in the first place.'' Jaclyn said turning away from him, looking at the floor with guilt in her eyes.
''And I should have killed him with the first shot, then again it really seemed to have a thick skull. Point being is that you did great!'' He argued back.
''He's right Jaclyn, you two could have both died out there.'' Victoria added.
Jaclyn didn't reply, staying silent for the entire time as Victoria was finishing up her treatment of Nikolai and his wounds, once she was done she cleaned his arm from the blood and started to cover it with some bandages before then removing the tourniquet. ''There we go, you should rest now. I'm sure your exhausted.'' Victoria told him as she removed her disposable gloves.
''Thanks Vi, I do fell a little woozy.'' He said as he attempted to get on his feed, nearly stumbling over as he did.
Thad quickly rushed to his side, ''Hey there careful, I'll help ya man!'' he helped him to get to his room.
When the two left and were out of side Uzi turned to Jaclyn, ''Jesus so much for a quiet and peaceful day huh, how you doing there Frenchie?''.
''Better now but still a little on edge.'' She replied as she exhaled a deep breath.
''I can imagine, that must have been terrifying to be so close to the biggest land predator. I think you should go lay down too, give your nerves some rest as well!'' Victoria chimed in.
''Maybe but I did leave behind the tool box and the riffle to get him here as fast as possible. Ugh, have to get those back.'' Jaclyn replied as she remembered the left behind equipment.
''Forget about that, me and Thad can go pick it up! You go rest, got that!'' Uzi said with a raised voice, protesting her decision to go back just to pick up some tolls and a rifle, when she should have been taking a break.
''But.'' Jaclyn began before she was interrupted by Victoria.
''No buts! Uzi's right you go rest we take care of the rest.'' She placed a hand on her shoulder and gave her a stern look.
''Ok ok je vais me reposer.'' Jaclyn answered before making her way to her room.
Jaclyn laid in her bed dozing off for a couple hours juts like Nikolai did back in his bed or at least he tried to do that, he managed to do it at first but once the morphine wore off and he woke up with a with a felling of pain in his arm and chest.
He tried his best to ignore it and go back to sleep just for a little while longer but after 10 minutes of an failed attempt to sleep he decided to get up and go ask Victoria for some more painkillers or morphine or anything that would make him not feel the pain.
He got up from the bed on shaky legs and carefully made his way to the door to making sure to be careful and not trip on his way, he reached the door and walked along the wall using it to stabilize himself on, till he reached the common area which also in a sense doubled as a living room. Once he got there he saw Uzi sitting on the couch looking at some books, while Thad was helping Victoria in the kitchen preparing lunch and from the smell of it, it seemed to be a kind of stew.
He was about to speak up and call for Victoria when Uzi noticed him ''Hey Nikolai, what's up how you felling?''.
At the sound the other two turned around to look at him as well with Victoria speaking next ''Nikolai! You should be still resting for a bit, is something wrong?''.
''Yeah hehe, sorry to make you guys worry. I was sleeping for a bit but woke back up again after the pain came back and I was hoping to ask you for something to deal with it.'' He said with a slight chuckle, hoping it would help them not worry so much.
''Oh ok. Thad would you mind to look after this for a while, while I take care of Nik?'' Victoria turned to Thad with him quickly replying with a yes. ''OK Nikolai let me take you back to your room and then I'll go get some pain killers for you.''.
''Thanks Vi.'' He answered her in gratitude and put on a smile on his face depside the pain he felt.
The two then went back to his room where he laid down as he waited for her to come back with the pain killers, which luckily didn't take long, with the pain gone he could finally go back to his nap without worry.
After some more time had passed Jaclyn woke up from her nap, she looked around her room for a bit before rising from her bed, she was rather surprised how peaceful she felt. ''Hein, je suppose que les deux avaient raison, mais je me suis toujours senti merdique à propos de Nikolai.'' She thought to her self as she still laid in her bed, laying there for a couple more minutes alone in her room she decided to finally get up and make her way to the others.
Once she got outside of her room she could smell the delicious food already waiting for her, it lifted up her spirit right away and she made her way to the kitchen, thinking how she choose the right time to wake up. As she got closer she could her Victoria's voice ''Hey Uzi do you mind to go and get Jaclyn and Nikolai, the stew is ready!''.
''Sure thing.'' Uzi replied but before she had the chance to go, Jaclyn already entered the common area.
''Merci, but it won't be necessary. That smells so good I just couldn't stay in my room.'' Jaclyn said as she got in, ''And you don't have to worry about Nikolai either, I'll go bring him his food. Besides I wanna talk with him.''.
''Oh in that case, let get you two a tray ready.'' Victoria replied, immediately filling two bowls of stew and placing it on a tray together with spoons and some bread, before handing it over to Jaclyn.
''Thanks.'' Jaclyn took the tray and made her way to Nikolai's room, the entire way taking in the delicious smell of the stew Victoria prepared but also in the back of her mind dreading to see Nikolai and his injured arm.
She stood in front of his door and nocked slightly on it waiting for his reply, when nothing came she figured that he been sleeping like she was and while normally she would have let him after what happened today, she figured that he should eat too. So she carefully opened the door and made her way inside of his room, seeing his sleep in his bed but the thing that immediately caught her attention was his injured arm as it stuck out of his blanked.
A frown formed on her face as she looked at it, she placed the tray of food on top of the drawer next to his bed. Before she could wake him up, she saw that he was starting to wake up on his own from the smell of the stew.
''Bozhe, kak vkusno pakhnet!'' Nikolai said as he slowly rose up from his bed.
''No idea what you just said but that smile makes me think it's something good.'' Jaclyn replied while taking a chair and placing it next to his bed to sit on.
''Oh! Hi Jaclyn, I just said how lovely it smelled. I see that Vi has finished her stew.'' Nikolai was getting himself in a upright position to lean against the wall with his back, ''Huh? Two bowls?''.
''Yeah, I thought I'd bring you your food and eat with you so that you won't be lonely.'' She took her bowl of the tray and placed the tray with his on his lab.
''Thanks, it's always great to have company and share food with but I could have made my way to the kitchen.'' He said with a smile as he looked at her.
''Oui but I figured that you should rest for a day or two in bed, considering everything that happened.'' She replied ''And besides I did want to say sorry.''.
''What for? Taking the bigger bowl?'' He knew what she meant but played it off, after all it wasn't her fault.
''What? No, not the bowl! Your arm, I could and should have shot earlier.'' Jaclyn said looking at the ground with guilt in her eyes.
Nikolai took her hand and with a form look told her ''Jaclyn listen to me, yes you could have shot earlier but I could have also not fumbled the first shot, the snowmobile could have worked same for the sensor. There's a million things that could have gone differently and lead to me not getting a nasty love bite from a 450kg teddy bear but also there's a million things that could have made this so much worse, point is Jaclyn. You did amazing and I own you my life!''.
The room was silent for a moment before Jaclyn opened her mouth and spoke ''Your right but I'll still fell sorry.''.
''The only thing to fell sorry for, is how many times I made my grandpa turn in his grave.'' He replied.
''What?'' Jaclyn said with a confused expression and tone.
''He was a sniper in the army back when the Soviet Union was a thing, taught me to be as good a sniper as he. Because he wanted me to become one in the Russian army but as you can see life took me on a different rout.'' He spoke as he looked town on the bowl with a bittersweet smile.
''So he'll turn around in his grave because you became a researcher and not a soldier?'' Jaclyn asked.
''No, It's because I made the dump mistake of panicking and shooting to early, not taking the wind in account and messing up the first shot.'' He said before finally grabbed the spoon and took a bite of the stew.
Jaclyn chuckled slightly ''Ah I see!'', she then went to take a bite herself.
''Bozhe moy, eto vkusno! The only thing that could make this better is some Russian salad!'' He said enjoying every single bite of the stew.
Jaclyn followed soon with her own addition ''I would love some garlic or onion confit with a fresh baguette!''.
''That sounds amazing too Jaclyn.'' He answered while going in for another bite.
''Say Nik, how come you always say my name instead of using my nickname sometimes like the others?'' She asked.
''Simple, my mother always told me that a man shouldn't call a women he likes by a nickname unless their together.'' He answered.
Jaclyn grew a slight blush, ''Careful there, or I might think you seriously like me.'' she said as she looked away from him.
''But I do! I mean how can I not?'' He said equally not able to look at her directly, ''Your incredibly smart, undoubtedly elegant, your hair looks like silk, your headstrong, I love your personality and your beauty makes Aphrodite jealous with your radiant golden eyes and cute freckles.''.
Jaclyn's blush grew bigger as she listened to him describe her and list the things he liked about her ''Y-yeah, well your aren't a bad to look at either! Plus your smile always lightens up any room, I always feel more relaxed and in a better mood with you and your infectious happiness around, your technical skill is impressive, you make me laugh and I really appreciate how you do your best to help everyone.''.
Nikolai's eyes widened and he started to blush as well ''Oh T-Thanks.'', the both of them now looked away from each other ''Uh, so. . . those that mean you, like me too? In that way I mean.''.
''O-Oui Nikolai, Je t'aime de cette façon!'' She answered, after another moment of silence the two dared to actually turn to face each other and look into one another's eyes.
''So those this count as a dinner date or would you like an actual one?'' He nervously asked.
She chuckled a little ''No, this is perfect!''.