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LOUISE KNEW SHE WAS RIGHT. Her fear of the ocean was never irrational like her family and friends had told her. There were multiple things that had every right to be feared - the ocean being one of them. And in the very moment when her hospital ship shook at a deadly force was one of the thousands of reasons why she feared the ocean.
She was about to die. She knew that. There was no getting around it. The young brunette was still below deck, behind herds of nurses, injured soldiers and medics and the ship was slowly tilting. There was no way that she was getting gout of this. Louise muttered a silent prayer under her breath as she saw that Carey and Viola had passed the door and could escape the fate that Louise was facing. She pushed the young soldier in her grasp in front of her once they were close to the open door. Eddie stumbled to grab onto Louise's arm but the ungodly jolt that shot through the ship caused Louise to stumble away from the open doorway and Eddie down to the floor. Thankfully though, Finneas and Samuel who were both on the other side of the door picked him up and carried him out from below.
Louise hissed, an ache shooting up her leg. She tightly clutched her ankle, knowing at the very least that it was sprained from her falling on the metal ground. Masses of dirty water began to gush into the compact medical bay, immediately soaking the skirt of Louise's blue dress.
The ship was close to a 90-degree angle to the water's surface, causing Lousie to hastily clutch to the edge of the doorway, keeping her body up from her sinking down to her fear that was rising below her feet. It took a lot in Louise not to burst into tears - both from the pain in her leg and sore palms and the nagging fear of her drowning - but she didn't. Instead, she painfully tried to haul herself up the doorway, in hopes of climbing around it so she could get to the top deck. But even if she used all the strength in her small body, nothing would've worked. She was exhausted; both mentally and physically drained from the rapid events occurring around her.
Louise felt her fingers slipping from the doorframe and that's when she felt a sob ripple through her throat. She let out a strangled scream as she desperately pried at the metal edge. The slimy seawater seeped between the metal and her fingertips, pushing her to let go and fall into the growing pool below her and her exhaustion found the thought tempting.
Just as her body was about to let go, she felt two firm hands grip her forearms. Louise blinked through her tears and looked up at her saviour. It was Murphy - her cold and aggressive patient. Murphy hauled Louise's small frame around the doorframe, and once he noticed how weak she was, he picked her up and threw her body over his shoulder as he made his way to the top deck.
Murphy shifted Louise's frame in his arms as he jumped down into the ocean water and hauled both of their bodies away from the vessel. If this were any other circumstance, Louise would be thrashing around in Murphy's arms and screaming her head off at the mere thought of being submerged in the ocean's water. But she was far too fatigued to cause a commotion. Instead, she just drifted off in her head, pretending she wasn't encompassed around her worst fear.
Murphy pulled Louise onto a round piece of shipwreck, then pushed himself beside her, falling on his back as he took a shaky breath, closing his eyes in fatigue. "Why did you save me?" Louise weakly spoke, her voice trembling from fright and exhaustion.
Murphy sighed heavily before slowly rolling his head to face Louise. "You saved me. I save you. That's how this works, Nurse."
Louise nodded tiredly, her arms shakily wrapping around her knees to hug them to her chest. "You can call me, Lousie, private."
Murphy glanced up at the shivering form of Louise, noticing she was only wearing a soaked short-sleeved dress and tights. He shed his coat from his body and placed it over her shoulders. "Then you can call me Murphy, Louise."
Louise began to protest at the feeling of his jacket on her shoulders. "You'll die from pneumonia if you don't wear your coat," she mumbled, trying to pry the coat from her frame but Murphy's heavy hands remained firm on her shoulders, holding the thick material down on her arms.
"So will you, Louise," Murphy grumble out. "Now shut up and keep the coat," Murphy lied back down of the metal piece of wreckage, trying to sleep away from his nagging thoughts.
Louise still shivered even under the thick coat draped around her as she and Murphy drifted away from their shipwreck. All she could do was to pray her family was still alive.
