Twenty-Five Fingers
Fandom: Daughter of the Deep Rating: Teen Genre: Friendship Characters: Gemini, Ana, Ester, Franklin Gem remembered to watch Ana's six, he just forgot to watch his own. Seeing if I can get whumptober going again this year - starting with a new fandom and therefore new characters to play with, but I've been meaning to write something for Daughter of the Deep for a while, and the Day 1 prompt "How many fingers am I holding up" fit one of the vague muses I've had since finishing the book, so here we are! This ended up rather longer than planned (story of my fic writing life), and while it's the first thing I've written for this fandom, I don't plan on it being the last!
There were too many thoughts whirling around Gem’s head and he knew it. Worries, mostly – for Dr Hewett, dragged onto the Varuna without a medic to keep him stabilised and possibly dying, for Ana with the stab wound he’d only been able to do so much for, for the combat situation they were entering with only two guns and a knife between them.
He felt off-balance, with only a single gun in his hand. It hadn’t been a mistake giving the other to Ana, not tactically and not for his peace of mind, either, but the empty air instead of cool aluminium in his palm felt fundamentally wrong.
It wasn’t as though Gem was fully functional, either, not when he could feel dried blood on his temple and an ache around his shoulders from their underwater scuffle, but he was their combat specialist, the least injured (and Ana’s wound worried him; she needed stitches and rest, not the near-guarantee of another fight), and keeping Ana safe was still his priority.
Except his thoughts were whirring too much, the calm state he entered when he had a gun in his hand just wasn’t coming this time, he was distracted and worried and-
He saw Ana turn around, lips parting as though she was about to say something. He saw her eyes widen, heard the start of a scream and too slow, too late, realised he’d been watching her six but not his own and-
CRACK.
The throbbing of his head told him in no uncertain terms that he’d been an idiot.
Everything was black, both his hands were empty, and the simple act of even twitching his fingers because his hand being empty was wrong sent a throb of pain all the way through his body, bright colours sparking through the otherwise prevailing blackness of his vision.
There were noises, vibrations travelling through his body. Familiar noises, even, but it hurt too much to even think and he gave up trying.
He didn’t know how much time passed; something as mundane as keeping track of time was definitely too much effort when his head was pounding hard enough it felt like it was going to explode, but slowly the feeling of something important started to creep up on him.
It wasn’t whatever was causing his hand to feel empty, for all that that felt wrong and like something he should be concerned about. It wasn’t the noises and vibrations that at some point he’d stopped feeling, although something inside him felt a bit concerned at that, too.
It wasn’t strange material against his skin, cool and definitely not a t-shirt.
Well of course, he’d lost his t-shirt earlier, because Ana had been injured and-
Ana.
He tried to say her name, fighting against the black of his vision now because Ana was in danger and he was supposed to protect her but he’d failed again and where was Ana?
After a moment of fighting, his eyelids peeled open and he blinked slowly. Nothing was in focus, not the brown or the blue or the dark blob that appeared a moment later, swallowing up almost everything else.
“Hey…” the blob said, voice faint and shaking but familiar and part of Gem almost passed out again in relief because that was Ana’s voice. All that kept him alert was the fact that she didn’t sound right, didn’t sound like the confident girl that snapped at him more than spoke over the past two years, or the captain that it felt right to follow. She sounded like something was wrong, and Gem pounded his hammering brain into at least trying to be more awake.
“How many fingers?” he heard her ask, and he squinted as a smaller blob separated from the main blob; a hand, no doubt, but he couldn’t make out any fingers at all, just the blob with a blur around the edges.
“Twenty five?” he rasped, knowing that couldn’t be right but if he really squinted it looked like something like that. Maybe it was five?
“Yeah, you’ll be fine,” she said, and Gem wasn’t sure that sounded right, but then again Ana didn’t sound right. If he concentrated enough, the blob looked a bit less blob-shaped and more Ana-shaped, although her face was a bit too shiny.
Water? No, that didn’t seem right.
He forced his brain to start turning again, to analyse the situation because that was what he was supposed to do, for all he’d messed up already, his head still shrieking a reminder that he’d let someone get behind him, hit him hard enough to knock him out and there was no way he didn’t have a concussion.
Under duress, his mind reached the conclusion that Ana was crying, and Gem had no way of knowing for sure who hit him but something whispered the name of his house captain – former house captain, because Gem would never accept Dev Dakkar as his captain again, not when Ana Dakkar was right there and so much better – and Dev had always been persistent.
“Is Dev-?” he asked, not sure what to say beyond the older boy’s name, but Ana interrupted him before he had to think any more.
“Taken care of,” she said, sounding almost as bad as Gem felt, and the all-too-familiar taste of failure filled the back of his throat because his single order, sole mission since HP’s destruction had been to protect Ana and he hadn’t managed that once. “I shot him with rubber bullets.”
The shock of her words cut through the pain of his head and nausea of failure, and for a moment he could see Ana’s face clearly, dirty and bruised and red-eyed. Ana loved her brother, had been cut deeper than any of the rest of them, even Gem and his fellow Sharks, by his betrayal. Dev was also the top Shark in hand-to-hand combat, and Ana had faced him all alone. “That couldn’t have been easy,” Gem managed, somehow managing a full sentence although his voice sounded muffled to his own ears. “Ana… are you…”
“I’m okay,” she told him quickly, and Gem didn’t believe her for a moment, not when her voice was shaking and her eyes were still rimmed with red. “I’ll be okay.”
He didn’t get the chance to call her out on it, wasn’t sure if he should; they’d finally started working together, had finally cleared the air from his insensitive blunder when they’d first met, but that was the sort of things friends did and Gem wanted Ana to be his friend but had no idea if she wanted the same or if the past week had just been necessity.
Ana’s hands were shaking as she hooked them under him, and Gem realised she was trying to help him up. Up sounded good, much better than laying limp on the deck, but his muscles didn’t want to co-operate with her and when his head moved the nausea surged. His vision reset to blurs, a blue that was probably the sky taking up most of it while Ana reprised her dark blob appearance, and he groaned, letting gravity yank his dead weight back down to the deck.
At least he was on his back now, rather than slumped on his front.
“I think maybe I should just… stay here for a minute,” he admitted as Ana’s hands slipped off of his wetsuit. After a couple of slow blinks, her blob came back into focus again, haloed by the sky behind her. She looked worried, and Gem almost said something that was supposed to reassure her before he realised what had been so wrong about the lack of noise and vibrations.
“Why has the boat stopped?”
That was wrong, that was a problem because it was just the two of them and unless he’d been out long enough for Ana to beat Dev in a fight, go to the engine room to stop the boat, and then come back-
Two hostiles, his brain dragged up out of nowhere. With Dr Hewett. Neither of them had been Dev.
“I’ll check the bridge,” Ana said, and that told him that she hadn’t done it, which meant active hostiles, and Gem tried to pull himself back up so he could help but his muscles mutinied and his body stayed exactly where it was.
“You look terrible,” he told her, because he couldn’t tell her no, knew she wouldn’t listen even if he did, and out of the two of them she was definitely in better shape, but she didn’t look up to taking down any more hostiles, either.
“Thanks,” she replied. He couldn’t tell if she was being sincere or sarcastic; it could have been either. “Don’t worry, I’ve got this gun.”
Light glinted off of the weapon, drawing his attention to it. The shine of sun on metal made it difficult to look at, and the bright flash certainly didn’t do his vision or his pounding head any good at all, but even concussed Gem knew one of his twins when he saw one.
That was why his hand was empty. He’d given one to Ana.
Where was the other one?
“It’s a nice gun,” he agreed, because it was. There was a reason the rumour that his name came from his guns existed. Still, Ana wasn’t the best markswoman and he didn’t know how many rubber bullets were left and just one gun wasn’t enough, but also Ana was stubborn and he knew he couldn’t persuade her otherwise. “Be careful,” he begged her.
She didn’t reply, and Gem forced his head to turn so he could watch her as she staggered across the deck, looking like the recoil of the pistol would knock her down the moment she fired it. There was no sign of his second gun, not that he could do anything if he had it.
His head still pounded mercilessly, his vision swimming from the movement of his head. Nausea choked up his throat; the best he could do if a hostile found him before Ana came back – because she had to come back, had to beat the LI upperclassmen because if she didn’t, she was dead – would be to throw up all over them.
No-one came.
He couldn’t hear anything, either. No gunshots, no sounds of a fight. Just the sea, lapping against the unmoving hull of the Varuna, and the ever-pounding throb of his head.
It was disconcerting, and after what he thought were a few minutes had passed he tried to roll over with the intention of staggering to his feet.
He got as far as laying on his side rather than his back before the nausea protested and he threw up. The world span alarmingly and he completely lost his bearings.
When everything stopped moving again, he was back on his back, staring semi-blankly up at the sky. Beneath his head, the deck vibrated in short, sharp bursts.
Footsteps.
“Ana?” he called, but the girl that appeared in his vision was completely the wrong colours.
“Ana passed out,” Ester said, and Gem’s eyes sluggishly tracked her as she crouched down next to him. “She lost a lot of blood but I stitched her up. You have a concussion.”
Where had Ester come from?
“Ester?” he asked. “How..?”
“Your pupils are dilated and your reaction time is very slow,” the Orca informed him. “You’re also bleeding. You know head wounds bleed a lot?”
“I… yes?” Gem winced as she leaned over him and touched his head lightly. It flared, not appreciating the extra contact, and he groaned a little.
“I can’t carry you,” Ester told him after a moment of gentle prodding that nonetheless had his head screaming. “Can you stand?”
Gem wanted to say yes. He wanted to get away from the deck and at least to the infirmary with Dr Hewett and no doubt Ana as well, but he knew there was no way he could even sit up, let alone stand, even with Ester’s help. “No,” he admitted.
Ester nodded. “Okay,” she said. “You should stay still, then. I’ll be back.”
Gem blinked as she disappeared from his view, left alone with his throbbing head and several questions. How had Ester got on the Varuna? Was anyone else with her? Were all the hostiles accounted for?
Ester hadn’t seemed worried, so he was going to hope the answer to the last question, at least, was yes. He didn’t think she’d have left Ana’s side if she thought there was a danger to her.
True to her word, she didn’t take long to return. “Painkillers,” she announced as she knelt down next to him with a syringe in her hand. “I didn’t think you would be able to swallow any,” she explained, and Gem gave her a small nod of acknowledgement.
“Probably not,” he admitted. He barely felt the prick of the needle past the throbbing in his head.
He did, however, feel the antiseptic as she dabbed at the source of the pain on his head. Gritting his teeth didn’t stop the groan as the sting made its presence known, but Ester didn’t hesitate.
“This might need glue or stitches once the Nautilus arrives,” she told him as she lifted his head enough to wrap bandages around it. “But I can’t move you by myself so it will have to wait.”
“That’s okay,” Gem assured her. “How’s Ana? And Dr Hewett?” He shouldn’t have been surprised when his head was put down on something made of fabric – not as much give as a pillow, but far more comfortable than the hard deck – but he was. He appreciated it, though.
“They’re both unconscious,” Ester told him. “Ana’s lost a lot of blood and needs a transfusion. Dr Hewett needs better equipment.”
Gem wasn’t surprised at either status, although neither of them were good news.
“Go back to them,” he told her. “I’ll be fine.”
“You have a concussion,” Ester protested. “You should be kept under observation.”
Gem appreciated her expertise, but, “it’s just you, right?”
“Yes,” she confirmed. “But the Nautilus is on the way.”
That, Gem didn’t doubt for a moment. He expected nothing less of Nelinha than to get their submarine operational as quickly as possible to come and back up Ana. “Go back to them,” he repeated. “Please,” he added almost immediately. “I’d feel better knowing you’re with them.”
Even if there was nothing more Ester could do with the Varuna’s supplies, the idea of either of them being left unsupervised while they were unconscious worried him. Ester was resourceful; if something went wrong before the Nautilus arrived, she would work something out. She couldn’t do that if she wasn’t with them.
“I should stay with you,” Ester said. “You need to stay awake.”
“Please,” Gem begged her. “I can keep myself awake. Just… make sure they’re alright.”
She frowned, but to Gem’s relief, she caved. “Don’t fall asleep,” she said firmly. “I’ll check on you.”
“Thank you,” Gem sighed.
Laying on the deck would be boring if not for the throbbing of his head – less than it was, but the painkillers weren’t enough to douse it entirely – and the persistent worries in the back of his mind. There were several of them, from the hostiles he couldn’t confirm had all been secured, to Ana’s injuries, to the fact that Dr Hewett’s cancer must have worsened whilst in the hands of LI.
True to her word, Ester kept coming back on deck to check on him. Neither of them were willing to risk moving him – Gem’s nausea and vertigo was not abating, and he was too tall for Ester to feel comfortable lifting – which left him on the deck, but as hostiles remained absent and Ester had no worsening news about her other two patients, Gem found himself starting to relax.
The first sign of the Nautilus docking alongside them was the vibrations of the ship as something hooked onto the Varuna. Almost immediately he heard familiar voices, although that didn’t stop his head from throbbing at the noise as feet landed on the deck.
“Gem!” Multiple footsteps ran towards him and he winced as Cooper came into view, golden light glinting off of the Leyden gun in his hands. Behind him, Gem could make out the rest of the Sharks spreading around the deck, guns at the ready, and finally relaxed fully. The rest of his house would make sure the ship was secure.
“Cooper, make sure Dev’s not going to give us any more nasty surprises.” A shock of blue hair heralded Franklin’s arrival as the Orca prefect nudged Gem’s fellow Shark out of the way. He still looked almost as awful as he had the last time Gem saw him, but that didn’t stop him kneeling down and checking Gem’s pulse. “You look like you should’ve kept a few more weapons,” the other boy said. “That’s a bad concussion.” He held up a hand. “How many fingers?”
Gem blinked at it. “Three?” he guessed, before his vision focused a little more. “Ah, two.”
“Got it the second time,” Franklin confirmed, bringing his hand back down. “Let’s get you off this deck. Rhys, give me a hand. Linzi and Brigid, go see what help Ester needs with Ana and Dr Hewett.” Gem hadn’t noticed the other Orcas lingering around, and glanced up at Rhys as she knelt down on his other side.
“Do you think he can stand?” the other Orca asked. Gem grimaced, and Franklin frowned.
“I want to try,” he said. “If he can’t, he’s worse than he looks. We’ll take it slow. Think you can try, Gem?”
“I can try,” Gem confirmed, although the nausea in his throat didn’t seem too keen. Franklin and Rhys slid their hands underneath his shoulders, and Gem closed his eyes as the world spun. Nausea threatened again, but somehow it stayed down as the Orcas got him up into a sitting position.
They paused then, letting him resettle for a moment as he breathed through the nausea and the still-persistent throbbing of his head. “You good to keep going?” Franklin asked him, and Gem opened his eyes a crack.
“Yes,” he said. His shoulders, lightly aching but nothing compared to his head, made themselves known a bit more as Franklin and Rhys looped his arms around their necks.
“On three,” Franklin said. “One, two, three.” Gem closed his eyes again as he was pulled to his feet, feeling his body sway as his balance struggled to settle. It took a few more moments before he felt remotely steady, and his supporters held still as he staggered to get his feet under him. Walking was a challenge, but opening his eyes a crack, Gem managed to stumble over to the side of the ship, catching sight of the Nautilus bobbing in the water next to the Varuna.
Boarding was harder, and Franklin enlisted extra help in the form of Virgil and Jack, but eventually Gem found himself being lowered onto a bed in the Nautilus’ sickbay, and he sank gratefully onto it. The extra anaesthetic supplied by the submarine helped the throbbing of his head fade away further, even when Franklin removed the dressing Ester had placed to give the epicentre of the pain another clean. To his relief, after some discussion between the Orcas and Ophelia, the decision was reached that his scalp didn’t actually need gluing or stitching back together, just secure bandaging and bedrest.
The biggest relief, though, was when he saw Ana and Dr Hewett being transferred in a short time after his head was re-wrapped. Both of them looked awful, but the Orcas and Ophelia were all hopeful that Ana, at least, would make a full recovery. Dr Hewett was still up in the air, but Nautilus immediately started producing something for him, which Ophelia also declared a good sign, and the knot of worry that had been sitting in Gem’s chest since finding his mentor passed out a week earlier loosened slightly.
Not everything was resolved – LI were still a distant threat, despite the defeat of their upperclassmen and the destruction of the Aronnax, and Ana and Dr Hewett were still very much unconscious and expected to stay that way for at least a day – but the main battle was over, Ana, their class, and the Nautilus were all safe, and after a few more checks by Franklin, Gem was cleared to finally pass out from exhaustion after running on adrenaline and shock for the past week.
It didn’t take him long to do exactly that.