Of Different Waters

Of course he can’t, Ronan thought angrily. And the boy hadn’t been wearing one of the life vests the captain had so nicely provided for his passengers because, “it smelled.” Hell, even Ronan was wearing one, and he obviously had no problem at all with swimming, or the ocean, or swimming in the ocean.

Ronan looked around at everyone else on the boat. They were doing absolutely nothing to save this kid. The family, rightly so, was panicking, inconsolable crying was coming from the mother (who let her child that couldn’t swim ride the boat without the stinking life jacket) and just about everyone else was staring off into the water, a look of absolute horror on their faces. Probably thinking they had just seen a boy die. Well, it they continued to do nothing, he just might. Ronan sighed, his mind made up and took off his life vest, throwing it roughly into his mom’s arms. Then he kicked off his shoes and socks.

“Ronan, what are you…”

He thought about it for a few seconds before pulling off his jeans, they would be extremely heavy once they became drenched in water and he didn’t need them slowing him down. Then, he climbed to the second rung on the boat’s railing, just where Jacob had been, and turned to face the slack jawed expressions of everyone on the boat. He quickly pulled off his shirt and threw it on the floor with the rest of his discarded clothing.

Giving a steely look to everyone on board he finally answered his mom’s trailed off question, “Well, somebody has to save him.” And with that Ronan jumped into the frigid water after Jacob.

~ODW~

Rebecca was a wreck. She stood on the boat nervously peering over the side, looking for any sign of her son. She bit her nails. He had to come up soon. He had been underwater too long. She looked at her watch. 1 5 minutes.

Way too long. For a normal person.

It was the aquarium all over again except this time John wasn’t there to comfort her. And while she knew Ronan was not gonna drown, she was worried about what else could happen to him below the waves.

The fisherman wasn’t helping matters either. He was muttering absolutely awful things about her son.

“No way they’re still alive,” and. “Too cold.”

Rebecca saw what looked like a shark’s tail about 50 feet from the boat. Oh, God. That better stay away from him. She knew, generally sharks stayed away from humans, but… she didn’t know if they’d stay away from Ronan. “Shit,” she whispered in fear, watching the shark swim swiftly in the distance.

She heard a nearby splash and something slapped the side of the boat. Was it the shark? Rebecca was too afraid to look over the side of the boat.

~ODW~

“Hey,” the familiar voice of her son yelled, “we need help here!”

Ronan banged on the side of the boat again. He was breathing heavy and spitting out water every time a wave cashed over their heads. He tried to keep the kid from going under again, holding him up as high as possible, but the boy was starting to get heavy. A rope with a floatation device on it was thrown over and Ronan quickly grabbed it, like a lifeline, with one hand while keeping a tight hold on Jacob with the other. They were quickly pulled back into the boat.

Ronan set Jacob on the deck so that he was laying flat on his back. There was no question… the kid wasn’t breathing. It felt harder for Ronan to breathe too, but he couldn’t concentrate on himself right now, the kid was a lot worse off.

“Get us back to shore, that kid needs a doctor now!” the old man spoke up. Jacob’s mom was still crying in the background with the rest of his family.

Ronan did the only thing he could think of: CPR.

He began the compressions on the chest to the tempo of Staying Alive because he just couldn’t bring himself to use Another one Bites the Dust even as his internal song. He wanted to save this kid and thinking of that song just seemed like counting him out too early. As he continued the compressions his arms began to get tired. They had already felt like Jello from all the swimming and lifting, now they were just going numb. Still, he kept up the pace. He figured he had adrenaline to thank for most of his strength.

Ronan’s lungs were screaming, by now. He couldn’t breathe at all now. It was just like when he got out of the tank at the aquarium. He coughed and belched some seawater out of his mouth. His vision was going black around the edges.

No, I can’t pass out, not yet. He had to stay awake, the kid needed him.

But even as he thought that his body began to sway. “No!” he cried steeling himself against the blackness that was threatening to overtake him.

Rebecca watcher as her son choked up water. She could see him shaking as he continued to do CPR on the little boy. She watched as he started to lose his struggle to stay conscious. There was a bright flash of light from Ronan’s hands as he pushed down one final time on Jacob’s chest, before he fell over with a weak sigh.

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AN: I was in a bit of a ranting mood when I was writing this chapter. Especially near the PFD bit, because, seriously, who lets their child that can’t swim not wear a life vest on a boat ride in the middle of the ocean. And why didn’t the fisherman make him wear it anyway? That’s a lawsuit waiting to happen. If I remember correctly this is the last chapter where it ends with Ronan passing out. I’m not a big fan of ending chapters there, but no patter how hard I try to continue, there’s just such a nice natural break that happens when they lose consciousness. I find it hard to ignore. :)