The Chronicles of Medic Bob

Totally Unexpected

Individual Summary: The link with Bob during the 2017 series of 'I'm a Celebrity' was meant to be played as a joke, a parody of what had happened before the trial. But when the medic notices that something's actually wrong, can he make things better in time for the next link?

*****

It was meant to just be a joke, making light of the fact of the first time this had ever happened in the show's fifteen year history. Because it had never happened before: Medic Bob had never had to rule a celebrity out of the trial before that trial had even started.

At least - like Becky's participation in the trial - that had been the plan.....

And it would likely have gone that way if Dec hadn't been feeling like death warmed over and then killed again.

He'd spent the night battling what he thought was a 'mini-migraine' - not quite as severe as a full-blown migraine, but still annoyingly painful - and had barely gotten an hour's sleep. On top of that, he was starting to feel slightly overheated under his jacket, he felt dizzy and nauseous, and absolutely worn out.

Everyone who saw him thought that it was the pale jungle light beaming sluggishly through the thick clouds in the heavily overcast sky above that was making him look washed out and ill. Not even Ant suspected anything - not that he said to Dec, anyway.

In fact, the only person who harboured any kind of suspicion was Bob himself.

But nothing seemed confirmed until it came time to actually do the link itself.

Everything seemed normal, until Bob stepped in to pretend to take Dec's temperature by feeling his cheek.

He had been expecting it to be cool - being that Dec tended to run a bit cooler than Ant, and it was a cool morning today - but instead, he was surprised, and more than a little concerned, to find the skin actually rather warm.

Stowing his suspicion, he continued onto the next part of the script - feeling his pulse. There too, there was something a little concerning.

Bob had taken both boys' pulses in the past - for various reasons - and he'd always found Dec's pulse rather easily, especially in his wrist. Today though, it was a bit harder to find, and he had to shift the position of his fingers ever so slightly to find the beat under the skin. Even then, his pulse felt weak and it seemed to be almost racing.

"I'm sorry Dec, I've got to rule you out of today's link" Bob recited, although he was thinking in his mind 'And I'm going to give you one serious check-over after this link is done.....'

"Th-the...the link?" 

"Yeah, sorry" he apologised, following the script he'd been given earlier, although he was close to pulling the plug and ruling Dec out of the show for real.

Dec must have caught something in his face, because his eyes flashed briefly with a hint of stubbornness, and Bob mentally sighed as he knew that there would be no stopping the younger man from continuing the show.

And so the link continued, with Dec going off and sitting back and pretending to breathe in the oxygen through the mask that had been conveniently placed there, while Ant pretended to stumble through the rest of the link until Bob walked back in and joined him.

The medic forced a smile onto his face as he and Ant joked about, listening out for any audible clues behind them.

But - being the professional he was - Dec pushed through, clambering up onto the chair and popping up between Ant and Bob's shoulders with a squeak at the jokey prospect of being replaced by the medic.