Nick’s POV

Shivering uncontrollably, (Why am I so cold?) I open my eyes to find myself stuffed into a sleeping bag with Alexia. I squeeze my eyes shut trying to block out the pain inside my chest, just from the pain scale and aching I can tell that I have a crack rib. Though from that fall I’m glad that’s all I came out with, I’m sure Alexia slamming into me didn’t help either.

I check her pulse, it’s strong, she’s shivering but seems not enough to wake her up. First things first, I need to get some clothes on and get a fire going. I look up to the sky, it’s gradually getting more gray as time goes on. And with how cold it is, I’d say we’ll have snow within a day or so. The sun is going down but thankfully I’ll have enough time to get a fire going for the light and protection.

I unzip the bag to get a blast of cold air, making me shiver more and hurt more. (Going to have to wrap my chest for compression later on) I find that we’re both naked (At least she got that right). I lay the top back down onto Alexia and go through my bag as fast as I can with shivering, numb fingers. The waterproof bag is already open from when she grabbed the sleeping bag out of it, so I grab some clothes I stuffed in there a few days ago. I’ve been cycling my clothes on wearing and not to let them breath, as to not have them too stinky, not like we can wash them at the moment.

It hurts quite a bit to put on my shirt and pants, but I manage due to the cold hurrying me. I go back to the sleeping bag and zip it up. I find some tinder close by and grab the flint and steel that I stored in my pack. It’s basically two metal rods, so it doesn’t really matter if it got wet or not. I find some dead leaves around and strike the rods together, it takes a few tries since I’m shivering so much. Doug gave us many lessons through the days in the forest, never know when you might need it.

I continually blow on the spark for it to ignite the leaves, which by the way hurts a bit. After a bit of work it burst into flames, I throw some more leaves on it then put some twigs over it. As one thing starts burning better, I add something bigger onto it until we have a campfire going. I put the fire close to us that away I didn’t have to try dragging Alexia over, would have been impossible in my state.

(Right, when she wakes up she’ll want to get into some clothes) I look around for her pack. (Where is it? Did she perhaps throw it off to swim or to get me?) Whatever, for now I need warmth. I crawl my way back into the sleeping bag, and make sure I don’t fall asleep though it would be hard with this pain and shivering. I snuggle in next her to try and steal some of her body heat. Also side note, I laid my coat out to dry.

Someone’s rustling inside the sleeping bag, an elbow jabs my ribs. My eyes instantly pop open, “AAA!” I stuff my scream into the fabric of the bag. Man I must have fallen asleep, I grit my teeth and check the fire. It’s still going but does need a few more logs. “Sorry, so sorry, did I hurt you?” she tries twisting around to see me, touching and jabbing more. “Stop! Just stop please.” I command almost wanting to cry in pain.

“Are you okay?” she asks worried. “Frankly speaking, no, no I’m not. A cracked rib is close to one of the top ten things to hurt the most. So no, I’m not in the best condition right now” I grimace some more trying to block out the pain.

“Is there anything I can do?” she asks more. “Right now, the best thing you can do is some clothes on. And leave me alone for a moment” I say calmly.

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“Are you sure?” this woman, please “Please just go, and be careful getting out” I say trying to stay calm.

“Close your eyes, please” she politely commands me. “You don’t have to worry about that” I state.

“I know you’ve seen me naked already, but it’s still the decent thing to do and it’s embarrassing to me” she preaches to me. “Ugh, that’s not what I meant! Anyway, go go, my eyes are closed” I’m starting to get frustrated with her.

I shut my eyes tightly and grit my teeth while burying my face into the sleeping bag. Trying to make pain subside is not an easy thing to accomplish. Truthfully, you can’t make it subside, you just have to wait and let it die down.

“What am I supposed to wear?” she asks me, right I didn’t see her pack. “Um, I know it’ll be awkward but just grab a pair from my pack. There should be a clean pair folded at the bottom of the waterproof bag” sorry they’re going to smell but at least they are clean.

After a bit of rummaging about I hear “Ah”, a breath in “Mmm, are you sure they’re clean, they smell. Actually they smell good, kind of like y…” she goes silent. I can only assume what she was meaning and guessing that she’s blushing, I let out a laugh which turns into a cry.

“Okay, I’m done” she calls out. “Good, now bring the waterproof bag and a log or rock near the fire” I ask of her. Here comes the troubling part, I unwrap myself from the sleeping bag and grunt my way up to my feet. I sit down on the log with her help, I search through the bag for what I need. I pull out a long wrapping gauze and some painkillers. “Right, I’m going to need your help with wrapping this around my chest” I hand her the gauze. I grab a water bottle and take one of the painkillers. After a few minutes of letting it take some effect, I take off my shirt with Alexia’s help. There’s purple and deep blue splotches on my back, and very red on my right of my chest over the presumed cracked rib. “Does it hurt a lot?” Alexia goes to touch it. “Oy, don’t you dare point it and ask if it hurts” I say agitated, no it just looks like it hurts.

“Well, good, kind of bad news but overall good news. If I did end up having internal bleeding I would’ve been dead by now. So it seems since I’m alive and kind of well, we don’t have to worry about any internal bleeding. Because if I did have that, I would be dead within a few hours and being able to do nothing about it” I smile a little bit but more grimace towards the pain.

“Alright, so what you’re going to want to do is wrap that gauze as tight as you can. It will hurt a lot, but you don’t have to worry about doing actual damage” I ponder for a few moments “and don’t mind if I end up clinging to you”. “Um, okay, what do you mean by cling?” she asks.

“Oh, trust me, you’ll know when it happens. Okay, let’s do this” I breath in and bite onto my shirt that was taken off. She starts to wrap, it wasn’t so bad until she starts pulling tighter. I grip her shirt and bury my face into her stomach, while grunting and moaning loudly. “Are you sure you want me to keep going?” she asks troubled. “Uuh, it may not seem like it but you’re helping me alot” I say very tired.

She continues all the way until completion, I did end up crying into her shirt. She helps me into my shirt, then tends to the fire. While she’s going that, I grab some food out of the bag by me. Alexia sits next to me with the sleeping bag, she put the blanket I had by the fire since it’s wet. I didn’t have enough room in the waterproof bag, I really don’t use it much. She covers me with it and sits next to me, snuggles in for warmth. I hand her the bag of nuts then lean my head against her shoulder, I’m exhausted. She flinches a little “What are you doing?” “mmm, going to sleep, seems saving you makes me quite tired” I chuckle then moan.

“All jokes aside, thank you for dragging me out of the water” I simply state. “What else was I going to do? I really don’t know how I would go on living anymore if you weren’t there for me. I mean, you’ve saved me countless times. And my heart races so much faster when you’re next to me” (really?) I grab her wrist and feel her pulse “mfft, sure is”.

“Hey, don’t make fun of me when I’m trying to be serious. I think I may be in love with you” she says shyly, sitting right next to me. “Ah, mutual” I drift off to sleep.