Chapter Text
It reminds him of beetles in a swimming pool. Rainbow bodies, skinny legs kicking, all spikes and black eyes and barely floating for a long minute before it all becomes to much. The always sink into the chlorine.
He’d hated those bugs that littered the bottom of the pool. They’d disgusted him.
The thought is there and then it’s gone and he doesn’t really have time to think as he wrenches his work vest from his shoulders and throws it aside. He’s stumbling over the boulders that give way to pebbles and then he’s hurling himself forward and into the dark, rapidly moving water. He barely remembers in time to bring his arms up over his head and his hands don’t lie on top of each other the way he remembers they’re supposed to. He must look a sight as he breaks the water’s surface with a mighty splash, his body happy to sink into the river and follow after the lump of a child being pulled away in the current.
On the shore there are children panicking, running up and down the stones. Adults are yelling to each other, pointing at the little one whenever its head breaks the surface, pointing at Wikus, holding the child’s mother back, holding Christopher back. Wikus can’t think about them.
There’s an edge of panic underneath his determination and its unexpected. Of course he knows that he sinks now, but he sinks so easily - even with all the air in his lungs that he can handle.
He can’t think about it.
The children should know better than to play by the river. Even most adults avoid it as a matter of course. Water is for drinking. Water is for washing. Sometimes it’s for catching food. Water is for admiring and listening to and once upon a time it was even for traveling, but one should never get into deep water. They don’t even have a word for swimming around here. You might as well try to fly.
It’s too much effort to keep his head above the water. He just tucks his chin to his chest and focuses on going fast, on catching up with the little one, hoping the child doesn’t hit an eddy and spin away from him.
He can’t think about it.
Wikus kicks his legs viciously, gaining on the child.
He was a good swimmer back in the day. The beaches he’d spent his summer at as a child had always had large swells and deep undertows and he’d had to learn young how to keep his head above the water. The instincts he’d developed - when to go with the water and when to push himself to the surface, when it was worth the fight and when he had to save his strength - still resonated in his bones. He’d never been afraid of the water.
Now he feels like a beetle in a swimming pool.
He can’t think about it.
He twists so his body gets close to a boulder jutting up from the river bed and he kicks off it as he passes, his arm reaching out just as he’s really running out of air and he’s grabbing a hold of the child’s wrist and pulling it towards him, kicking up even as his legs ache and his head grows fuzzy.
He breaks the surface with a screeching gasp and hauls the little one up with him, struggling to prop the child’s head on his shoulder and leave his body as unencumbered as possible.
The child doesn’t move.
He can’t think about it.
The river still pushes them onward, further downstream and towards the narrowing rush of the canyon.
He thinks that he has to get them to shore, now, before the water gets deep with a vengeance. Every second with his head above the surface is a struggle, legs kicking through the surge and tow and he turns his eyes towards the boulders and the herd of people running along with them. His legs are strong but they’re not built to do this. It feels like the water is creeping between his plates, getting inside him, soaking into his carapace. He doesn’t like it; he feels heavier by the moment.
The water is cold, but he can’t think about that. It’s dark and fast but he cant’ think about that. He’s a good swimmer.
He thinks about that time that he watched his friend Robbie get picked up by a wave and thrown down with so much force that he’d lost his swim trunks. He remembers that breathless moment: watching, bracing for the surge of water, waiting for his friend’s head to pop up. He’s laughing, throat stinging, full of salt.
He hears a splash over the roar of the current and he picks his eyes up from where he’d trained them on the water just in front of his nose. Christopher’s jumped in just a few meters ahead, one hand stretched out as far as possible while two larger onlookers have a death grip on the other arm, their weight set back to counter the water that’s already dragging at Christopher’s legs.
Wikus can do this.
He swallows and ignores the pain that’s building up inside, the bloated-ness and the cramping in his joints. He fights with every scrap of concentration he can muster to keep moving in the right direction, to keep his head above the water, to keep a firm grip on the child in his arms.
He kicks at the water and refuses to think. He kicks. He kicks. He kicks.
His mind is absolutely blank as he stretches his arm out as far as it can reach. He doesn’t hear the water. Doesn’t feel connected to his body, doesn’t feel anything as he strains towards shore.
Christopher’s hand scrabbles into his and grips tight.
-----
The medics arrive on the scene quickly but Wikus waves them all away, pointing them in the direction of the child huddled and wheezing wetly in his mother’s arms. They don’t want to leave him be until he snaps and reels his hand back as if he’s going to hit one of them. The one that had been reaching towards his abdomen jerks back but not fast enough. He’s saved only by Christopher’s restraining grip that tightens around Wikus’ arm and keeps him from delivering the blow.
“Wikus!” The larger male yelps, the arm he has wrapped around his mate’s chest pulling him in tighter, securing him more firmly in his lap and Wikus growls.
“I’m fine!” He snaps after a moment, trying to twist his arm out of Christopher’s grasp but his grip is unrelenting. “Let go of me!” The words are a snarl as they rip out of him and Christopher does no such thing.
“What is wrong with you?” Wikus twists at the concern, tries to get away. “Are you hurt?”
Wikus’ lungs are still heaving from the swim, and the ache in his legs keeps on burning, his muscles so overworked that as the adrenaline wears away he’s realizing it might be awhile before he can really walk again. The tissues beneath his leg plates are already tender and swollen. The colour of that fragile chitin too gray, unhealthy, and one of the medics who stepped back just enough to give him some space is eyeing him warily.
“He has muscle damage, and his body is waterlogged.” He mutters to Christopher. “I don’t imagine he’s torn anything but we want to deal with that swelling quickly.”
“No!” Wikus snaps, trying to move his leg to kick out at one of the medics and his eyes get big when he feels nothing but more pain, his limbs not wanting to obey.
Christopher’s hand has curled over his abdomen now, cradling the swell there. It’s hardly noticeable, only a few weeks old, but some of the fight goes out of WIkus even as his fury remains. “Why not?” Christopher asks, voice pleading , and WIkus is so fucking exhausted. He slumps in Christopher’s arms, chest heaving, arms shivering.
“I don’t know.” he grits out at length. Christopher must have leaned his head down because Wikus can feel his mate’s forehead touch the back of his own head, feel their antennae brush.
Christopher asks gently “please let them help you?”
Clouds move over the sun, turning an already cool day even chillier and Wikus shivers. He startles as suddenly he starts hearing the water again, a thunderous, sloshing rush. It’s such a big sound, it fills his ears for a long minute accompanied by a ringing and he squeezes his eyes shut tight, he makes a fist and he can barely get a grip, his hand is shaking.
He coughs, eye snapping open, then struggles to find a rhythm again to his panting and finally he just nods in defeat.
“Fine.” He manages to gasp.
Christopher murmurs something that is probably a thank you, then Wikus feels his mate shift as he nods to the two medics ready to approach. One leans in with a little scanning device focusing on his belly, the other begins prodding gently at his still swelling legs, looking for muscle tears and testing the extent of his strain.
“Are you alright?” Christopher murmurs next to his ear and Wikus just wants to go to sleep. He wants everyone to go away and leave him alone and he wants to go to sleep.
“The little one?” He asks instead, mandibles clicking together a little bit because he can’t control them and the grip Christopher has on his wrist has loosened and turned soothing, his fingers sliding forward to lace their hands together.
“He is going to be alright, there are medics with him now.”
Wikus clenched his maxillae together and tried to control his breathing. ‘I’m a good swimmer.’ He thinks vehemently.
“You are, that was extraordinary.” Christopher murmurs and Wikus realizes he must be speaking aloud and he’s having trouble thinking even though he can think now; it’s okay, he’s okay, the kid is okay.
“I’m tired.” He mutters and one of the medics looks up at Christopher sharply, his antennae swiveling as he thinks.
“He’s in shock.” He declares, like it isn’t obvious, and Wikus wants to roll his eyes and shrug away but even his eyeballs are tried and he just wants to shut them so he does. The medic’s still talking and he lets it wash over him barely registered. “He’s confused right now but he should be alright. The egg is fine, we’ll get some inflammation reducers in him and the swelling in his legs will go down. He’s going to be alright.”
“I want to sleep.” He snaps out at the medic, eyes still shut, but they’re not actually paying attention to him. Christopher churrs in his ear.
“Then sleep.”
“I want them to leave me alone.” He whines a moment later, eye lids peeling back just enough to see Christopher’s arms in the edge of his periphery. Christopher strokes his antennae back like Wikus can remember his mother pushing back his hair and for a terrible moment he thinks he might cry.
“They’re trying to help. It will be alright.”
“Is the egg okay?” The words come out choked and Wikus holds his breath once they’re free.
“The egg is fine, everything is fine. Trust me dear one, you’re safe now. You did well, you are extraordinary.”
“No I’m not.” Wikus slurs and he’s so tired now. It seems so very far away that he can hear a child begin to cry and he droops into his mate.
“Is the baby okay?”
The medics have brought a blanket to wrap Wikus in and they murmur to each other about how best to get him back to his nest. Christopher ignores them speaking softly against the top of Wikus’ head.
“Everyone is well, Wikus. I am proud of you.”
“No-” Wikus groans quietly but he’s asleep before he even knows what he’s talking about.