The Chronicles of Medic Bob

When He Wished He'd Heard

Individual Summary: Like many Australians, Bob hadn't heard the news of what had happened during that fateful zip-wire challenge on Saturday Night Takeaway. In fact, he finds out rather by accident when - after a seemingly trivial bump - Dec starts complaining of a sore neck and Ant immediately begins to panic.......

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Please note: This particular chapter refers to events that happen in my fic 'Five Little Words'. You don't necessarily have to have read that fic to understand what's happening here, but it might help give a bit more background for you :)

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When it comes to celebrity news, the Australian media tends to leave things overseas well alone. Unless it involves a home-grown star, or someone who is very well-known, the Aussie journalists tend to not really care about what the world's celebrities are doing.

Unfortunately, this also meant that Bob was often kept out of the loop if either of the boys became ill or were injured throughout the year, and often didn't find out unless he was directly told by a member of the crew or the boys themselves.

Of course - when the 2019 series rolled around - someone neglected to inform him of the horrible accident that had happened barely six months before. Which meant that he found himself rather surprised at the events that occurred after what seemed to be such a trivial bump on the back.

The boys were often a bit rowdy during the first few shows of each series - the long days and early wake-ups not getting to them just yet - and apparently this series was no exception. Today, they were enjoying a game of Frisbee in the tree-house with some of the kids of a few members of the crew. 

Bob had just returned from visiting one of the camp-mates when one of the kids threw the Frisbee towards his mate, but his aim was a bit off and the fast-spinning plastic ended up soaring straight towards Dec instead.

The medic was about to shout a warning when the disc made contact with a loud thwack before it glanced seemingly harmlessly off Dec's shoulder blades and fell to the ground. This wouldn't have raised any concern, except for the pained yelp that was let loose as the Frisbee had made contact.

"OW! Jeez!"

Bob frowned at that - surely the Frisbee couldn't have hit him that hard?

Clearly - going by the fact that Dec's arm was now reaching over his shoulder and protecting the area with his hand, face set in a tight grimace as a number of curses flashed through his mind (not saying them out loud in front of the kids, at least) - it had.

The only thing that surprised Bob more was Ant's reaction.

He would have expected the other man to laugh, to poke fun at his friend's inability to dodge a brightly-coloured, fast-spinning piece of plastic. But he didn't: instead, he immediately rushed to Dec's side, face the picture of panic and fear as he hurriedly asked all sorts of seemingly nonsensical questions. 

His voice didn't carry, so Bob couldn't hear what was being said, but he frowned as he watched the boys whisper back and forth between each other, before Dec pushed Ant away with his other arm and straightened up - face still mildly pained, but better than before. Ant didn't back away immediately, instead hovering by his friend's side, watching him like a protective mother hawk, and only backing off when Dec stared pointedly at him and actually whispered something to him - something that Bob could only guess was a plea for Ant to give him a bit of space.

The medic had little further time to question their strange behaviour, as barely thirty seconds later, Chris was calling for them to get into position on the bridge to start the show.