TITLE: Sugar & Spice &Every bit of Fight
AUTHOR: The Chronicler
RATING: PG
WARNINGS: mild swearing, lots of cold
UNIVERSE: HKC: TNG
CHALLENGE: Round Robin
SUMMARY: The girls have a bad trip home.
NOTE:
ARCHIVE: Pretty please.
FEEDBACK: Yes, please.
EMAIL: chronicler_of_knuckles@yahoo.com
~~~~~~~~~~
Sugar & Spice;
& Every bit of Fight
By The Chronicler
~~~~~~~~~~
“Wheels on the bus go round an’ round; round an’ round, round an’ round. Wheels on the bus go….”
“Mommy?”
Peggy paused her singing to glance at her daughter who sat on the floor in the middle of the plane, entertaining little Diamond with her collection of My Little Ponies. “Yea, baby?”
Zoey leaned back and asked “Shouldn’t it be the propellers on the plane or something more, I don’t know, fitting? To our mode of transportation?”
Peggy wrinkled her nose, leaning over the arm of her seat, she reached out to flick the twelve year old’s nose. “You sure do know how to ruin a good song, don’t you my sweet, bitty angel.”
The girl shrugged. “The boys are back in New Jersey. Gotta rag on someone.” she admitted.
Diamond giggled, rocking back and forth.
Peggy huffed at the littlest of the plane’s passengers. “Laugh it up, giggles.”
Zoey smiled at Diamond, distracting her by flying a pretty, little pink pony with ice cream cones on its flank across her vision.
Peggy smiled, watching her daughter for another moment. She couldn’t help but marvel at how good Zoey was with the younger children. It wasn’t hard for Peggy to picture the twelve year old as a mother one day. Funny how she was still terrified of being a mother herself and she was already thinking of being a grandmother.
“Could always try a song a little more mature.” Ducky suggested. She laid across a couple of the seats, one arm tucked under her head, her eyes closed, her booted feet braced up against the window. The fingers of her free hand set lightly on the keys of a small, portable piano that was propped against her legs, waiting for a song that wanted to be played.
Wheels on the Bus was not that song.
Peggy leaned back in her seat and smiled at the sixteen year old. “Oh, what rebellious ways come with puberty.” she scuffed.
Ducky chuckled. “Yes, well, words are just words, but numbers decide the fate of the world.”
Peggy frowned. “And what does that have to do with this?” she wondered.
The teenager opened one eye to peer at her. “Nothing.” She closed her eye again and shrugged. “But I am right, aren’t I?”
She held up her hands. “I learned long ago never to argue with a mathaniac.” Peggy admitted.
“Mathaniac?” young JerseyD asked from where she sat on the floor, her school books spread around her. Though fluent in English, she was, by far, much more comfortable with Celtic. Fact was, she had studied many languages, conquering them without the knowledge of the adults around her. It was the illusion of a language barrier that had been her only weapon in many cases. Thus a word that she didn’t know was a weapon against her.
Ducky sighed. She turned her head to look at the child. “That’s what the math-inept call those of us who can correctly add a McNiles theorem with the constant ray of numbers in a….”
“Math geek.” Rowdy offered the simple translation. Of course, being Rowdy, she couldn’t just leave the tease at that: “Nerd, somebody without a life, can’t find her back side with out a three lined equation…”
“Rowdy, you sure aren’t too big for me to hog tie and throw out the window.” Ducky warned, her fingers tapping out a light death march on her keyboard.
Rowdy jumped to her feet, and put her hands on her hips. “You can’t do that!” she challenged, just because she wanted a fight.
Happened when the girl went too long without her twin.
“My mamma’s the pilot! And she won’t let you!” With that announced, she gave a sharp nod as if physically adding the explanation mark.
JerseyD threw her hands in the air. “air falbh” she cursed in Celtic. Setting her books aside, she climbed to her feet, dusting her hands on her pant legs. The nine year old turned to Rowdy and held up her fists. “You want to fight, I’ll fight you. Just shut up already.”
Rowdy faced the girl, more than willing to take on the challenge. Only two years older than JerseyD, Rowdy was half again her size, twice as strong. And taking kick boxing lessons .
But the only thing JerseyD knew about fighting was how to fight dirty. And, considering she considered everyone a threat, including the Cavaliers and their children, chances were she wouldn’t be pulling her punches like Rowdy would.
This was not a scene Peggy was willing to let play out.
Rising to her feet, Peggy clapped her hands, drawing the two girls’ attention. “That’s enough of that!” she ordered, using her rare, but unmistakable, I’m-in-charge tone. When both girls snapped about to look up at her, Peggy continued in a gentler tone “Rowdy, why don’t you go up and help your mother.”
Rowdy dropped her eyes. “Yes, ma’am.” she mumbled through clenched teeth. Throwing a glare at JerseyD, she turned and stomped off for the cockpit.
Peggy sighed with relief that, at least the two would be separated until they cooled down a bit. Two hot heads locked up in a plane this long…
Damn, it was simply amazing that they were still in the air!
“JerseyD.” Peggy turned her attention to the remaining girl. “Would you like some help with your school work?”
The girl’s eyes narrowed, but, after a moment, she nodded once, growling “mi gabh thu.” Dropping back down on the floor amongst her books, she added “argumaid no barrachd”
Peggy glanced at Ducky, the only other person on board who knew any Celtic.
Ducky translated “She gets you. No more fighting.”
The lady Banzai frowned. She didn’t like it when the little girl stopped using English. The next step after taking refuge behind the language barrier, always, without failure, was to run.
Which JerseyD was an expert at, even at the tender age of nine.
Last time they didn’t catch her until she was half way to the bus station and the Uilc Dochas Clan had picked up her scent.
At least Peggy could take comfort in the fact that there was little chance of her running away while on a plane.
The floor suddenly rolled under Peggy’s feet, then tipped sharply, throwing her back into the seat she left only moments earlier.
Ducky cried out as she was tossed out of her seat and onto the floor with a rather painful sounding thud.
Diamond started to slip, but Zoey threw her arms around the smaller girl, pulling her into her lap while yelling “Mom! What’s happening?!”
“air falbh” JerseyD cried, the tilt bouncing the back of her head off the hull of the plane.
But then the craft leveled out, and, for the exception of a sputtering sound on the left side, everything seemed fine again.
“Mom!” Zoey yelled again, still holding on tight to Diamond.
Peggy quickly pushed herself out of the seat and dropped down beside Ducky who was slowly pushing herself up. “Ducky?” she asked, taking the teenager by the chin and looking her over.
“I’m alright.” Ducky assured. She glanced about with big, frightened eyes. “What happened? Did we hit something? Something hit us??”
Peggy was already lifting her to her feet. “Get the girls in their seats and buckled up.” she ordered, before turning and heading to the front of the plane.
“MOM!” Zoey screamed.
“Zoey Beth!” Peggy snapped, stopping to face her daughter. She stopped, reminding herself that, as long as she was calm, the girls would be too… hopefully. Taking a deep breath, she spoke in a softer tone “I need you to help Ducky. Sit right next to Diamond. Take care of her. Do that for me.”
Zoey bit her lip, but nodded none-the-less. She glanced up as Ducky stepped around them to check on JerseyD, gently rubbing the back of her head while pulling her to her feet. Zoey’s grip on Diamond tighten a little more. Like her mother, when given the task of caring for someone else, Zoey would step around her own fear and see to it.
After all, that’s what Cavaliers did.
“Good girl.” Peggy breathed and continued on her way.
~~~~~
TommyBoy’s finger’s tightened around the steering column, trying to steady the shaking even though she knew there wasn’t a chance of smoothing it out.
The air craft had been mortally wounded.
It was dying.
It was going to fall out of the sky.
And they were going to fall out of the sky with it.
She couldn’t help but glance at her daughter.
Always brave, always adventurous, always energetic little Rowdy knelt in the co-pilot’s seat, her hands and forehead pressed against the side window, looking back at the engine. “Momma, it’s smoking’.” she mumbled, chewing on her lip.
TommyBoy smiled slightly. No need to point out that the instruments were already blaring that particular information at her with a series of alarming flashes and beeps.
At least Rowdy wouldn’t feel as helpless as her mother was feeling.
So, without a word, she reached up and flicked the engine fire alert light off, and the extinguishers on.
The cabin door opened and Peggy stepped in. After glancing at Rowdy, she crouched down between the seats and looked up at TommyBoy. “Hey, so, we hit a little bump in the road?” she asked with a forced grin.
The pilot glanced down at her, but Rowdy jumped in with the answer.
Scrambling around in the seat, she tugged on her aunt’s blouse until she turned to look at the girl. “The engine had a misfire and then popped and made a wining sound… like something got in there... Like a bird. I think it was a bird! But not one of the ones we saw before. Those were funny looking birds. You know? With long, long necks, and wings, and bony legs…. Like Uncle Jersey…. Long, skinny, bony….”
“Cranes.” Peggy concluded from the description.
Rowdy’s head bobbed up and down. “A whole bunch of them just came right up out of the clouds. Came up like a pretty, shiny cone… It was real pretty. But it didn’t have very big wings. Wish I had wings, but big wings… like Aunt Knuckles‘ big bird.” She held her arms out wide as if demonstrating, but then paused, frowning. “But I’d be smart enough to stay away from engines. Poor guy. Probably sucked his feathers right off before he was half way in, and spat him out like too many prunes shooting out an old man‘s….”
“Note to self.” TommyBoy interrupted. “No more babysitting duty for Uncle Tommy.”
Rowdy grinned at the thought of getting her uncle in trouble… not that he needed a whole lot of help. But, back to the matter at hand…
Looking up at Peggy again, she explained “Bird that big goes through a little engine like that and it bust things up. It’s smoking now.”
“Smoking?” Peggy squeaked, sounding quite a bit more alarmed than she had intended.
Rowdy quickly shook her head, resting a reassuring hand on Peggy’s shoulders. “It’s alright. Mamma’s a real good pilot. She’ll land us and we’ll call daddy and he’ll come and pick us up.” She shrugged. “Maybe not ‘til tomorrow. There’s a football game tonight. So, we’ll have to camp out. No biggie.”
TommyBoy looked at her and smiled her best. “Rowdy, want you to go in back and buckle yourself up now.”
The girl pouted. “but I want to stay with you. I want to see the landing.” she wined.
“Rowdy, please!” TommyBoy insisted. “I need you to go back and buckle in. Now!”
Rowdy’s eyes narrowed. “Mamma?” she whispered, picking up that her mother wasn’t as confident as she should be… considering what a good pilot she was. “You `can’ land. Daddy `will’ come…. Right?”
The smoking engine finally clunked, spitting out it’s last sparks of life and falling silent all together.
The plane started to tilt.
TommyBoy grabbed the stick with both hands, struggling to hold the nose up.
Peggy quickly rose up and snatched Rowdy’s hand. “Come on, kiddo. Go let the other girls know everything is going to be okay. Make sure everyone is buckled up.”
Rowdy looked up at her, glanced at her mother, then back again. Taking a deep breath, she climbed out of the seat and headed back to the main cabin.
Peggy closed the door behind her, and took the seat. “Okay.” she breathed. “So, what’s gonna happen?”
TommyBoy shrugged, flicking an engine switch up and down with unfavorable results. “We’re gonna crash.”
The lady Banzai offered a shaky smile. “No, no need to sugar coat it. I can take it.”
“We’re gonna crash hard.” TommyBoy sighed. “We have only one engine and that one’s starting to heat up with the strain. It won’t keep us in the air for long. We’re gonna go down. If the wind stops fighting us, I might get us over the mountains and on the civilized side. If not, I am gonna find the flattest piece of land I can find. Distress beacon is already on, automated S.O.S. sent out. But, as our luck would have it, it isn‘t giving a strong signal. It might have gotten smacked around too.”
“Flat?“ Peggy looked out the window. “That’s rocky mountain and forest out there, TB.”
“Welcome to Canada.” TommyBoy looked up at her. “Something else.“
Peggy’s eyebrows rose. “You’re gonna pile something else on top of crashing hard?”
Tommy Boy turned her eyes back to her instruments. “Nothing flew into that engine.”
“We really care why we hit the ground?”
“We will if we walk away from this and right into the waiting arms of whoever screwed up my plane.” the pilot pointed out. She gritted her teeth, her arms shaking slightly as she strained to keep control of the craft.
Peggy hadn’t believed that she could get any more frightened. “Sabotage?” she forced herself to ask.
Tommy Boy licked her lips. “Won’t know ‘til I get a look at the engine… But she was flawless when I popped her open preflight.” She dared to glance away from the instruments to look up at Peggy again. “Your turn.”
“My turn?”
“Your turn to go in back and buckle up.”
Peggy shook her head. “I can help you up here. I took that pilot class thingy….”
“Peggy, no sugar coating?” TommyBoy tried a few more switches without success. “We have five kids back there. They depend on us to get them through this. We can only do that alive.”
The other engine began to hum loudly.
TommyBoy tapped the temp. gage for that engine. Licking her lips, she turned in her seat and faced her friend. “One of us has got to survive the crash. There is a better chance of that if we are in separate sections of the plane.”
“I don’t like what you’re saying.” Peggy warned.
“Honestly, Peg, as much as I love you, I don’t care if you like it or not.” TommyBoy answered, the softness gone from her tone. “Our kids….”
“I know!” Peggy cut her off. “Don’t mean I have to like it.” She reached out and gently squeezed her friends shoulder. “I’ll see you on the ground.” Her squeeze tightened. “And don’t do one of those dumb, self sacrificing pilot things like hitting nose first or something!”
“Wouldn’t think of it.” TommyBoy assured, not entirely sure if she was going to have much of any control over the crash, much less what part of the plane hits first. But, hey, why not give it a shot?!
~~~~~
Little Tom shot up out of bed with a startled cry.
Instantly, Oddity was on all four paws, barking a warning to whatever had spooked one of his kids.
“Oddity.” J.B. groaned, rolling over in his bed and taking a swat at the dog.
But Oddity was already bouncing across the bedroom to squeeze between Tom’s knees and wine at the boy, trying to comfort him.
Frowning, J.B. propped himself up on an elbow and glanced about. “Tom?” he mumbled. He reached up to turn on his bedside lamp. Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, he asked “Tom? You okay?”
“Where’s Rowdy?” the eleven year old demanded. He spun about, searching for his missing twin.
“Rowdy?” J.B. repeated. “What do you mean where’s Rowdy?”
There was a soft knock on the bedroom door and Buckaroo, wearing only pajama bottoms and socked feet, eased in. “Hey, guys, wanna keep it down? Some of us are trying to sleep.” he teased, though he could see at once that something was wrong.
Little Tom was still spinning about, finally heading for the window to see if he could see his sister from there.
Oddity stayed at his side, his head at the boy’s hip, right at hand dropping level.
Buckaroo glanced at his son, hoping for an explanation.
With a yawn and a scratch at his head, J.B. shrugged. He didn’t have a clue what had woken his bunk mate. “He wants to know where Rowdy is.” was all he could offer.
“Rowdy?”
J.B. shrugged again. “Maybe it’s a twin thing.” he suggested. But, alas, it was one in the morning, his father was there, he was willing to wait until morning…
real morning, that is, where they actually woke up and did stuff…
… to hear about it. Falling back on his bed, he threw an arm over his eyes and waited for quiet and calm to return to his room.
With a huff, Buckaroo started for Tom, pausing only long enough to tug his son’s covers up over his head. Dropping down on a stool beside the window, Buckaroo turned the boy to face him. “Hey, Little Tom, what’s going on? You know Rowdy’s heading home right this minute. You’ll see her tonight.” he promised.
Little Tom was frowning. “Something’s wrong.” he mumbled.
“What’s wrong? Did you have a nightmare?” Buckaroo tried to pry out of him.
But Tom shook his head. “Not really… it’s just…. I just know! Something’s wrong!” he insisted. Again he started to look around. “Where’s dad? I gotta tell dad.”
“Alright, we’ll go tell your dad.” Buckaroo assured. Rising to his feet, he offered his hand down to the boy. “Let’s go wake him up. Shall we try the jumping on the bed technique? Or the hand in warm water?”
“I suggest the warm water.” came a muffle reply from under J.B.’s covers. “But, hey, bed’s a loss either way.”
It was just enough to bring a smile, if a shaky one, to Little Tom’s face. Reaching down he took Oddity by the collar and pulled him along, just incase the dog needed encouragement to look after one of his kids.
Closing the door that lead back to his own room, Buckaroo opened the hall door and started out, but stopped. To his left, at his own bedroom door was Rawhide.
The big cowboy was wearing nothing but sweat pants and a cowboy hat, his knuckles poised over the door, ready to knock. When he heard the other door open he was almost startled to see Buckaroo. “You’re awake!?” he noticed.
“Something like that.” Buckaroo answered. He tilted his head, indicating the eleven year old who had a suddenly very firm hold on his fingers. “We’ve had something of a disturbance. Off to wake up Thunder. You?”
Rawhide frowned, glancing down at Little Tom. “We have a most definite disturbance.” Scooping up Tom, he suggested “Why don’t you go to the Bunk House and Tom an’ I’ll go thunk Thunder into reality.”
Buckaroo’s eyes narrowed, but didn’t say anything as Rawhide carried the child down the hall and away.
Rawhide didn’t come knocking on his door at 1am for no good reason. Add on “disturbance” and “Bunk House” and Buckaroo Banzai knew something bad had happened. Take into consideration that Little Tom had a nightmare about his twin sister….
“Mom and Zoey are with Rowdy.” J.B. pointed out from where he had appeared in the doorway.
Buckaroo glanced back at his son. “Yea, I know.” he answered, not at all surprised that the fourteen year old had come to the same conclusion as he had. Of course J.B. would. The kid was smarter than he was. He was probably two steps ahead of Buckaroo already! Still…
“Ducky’s with them. She’ll take care of them.” J.B. offered, though it sounded like he was trying to reassure himself as much as his father.
Buckaroo smiled slightly. “Go back to bed, Jamie. I’ll come and get you if it’s something important.” he promised.
J.B huffed, crossing his arms over his chest. “Uncle Rawhide came knocking on the door in the middle of the night. It’s important.” he answered, reaching back into his room to grab his robe. “What are we waiting for?” he wondered, turning and heading for the Bunk House.
~~~~~
Billy Travis was working franticly on about three computers at once, his fingers jumping from one keyboard to the next, his eyes shifting just enough to take in every blink of the three screens.
Reno stood in front of the big screen, looking over a topographical map. “What about here?” he wondered, highlighting a spot on the map.
Radar glanced up from his computer note book and shook his head. “Not a chance, mate. ‘Less their hanging by their beamers from rocks jutting from a straight up an down mountain side.”
Reno frowned. “That’s a mountain?”
“Straight up and down.” Billy mumbled, neither fingers nor shifting eyes pausing.
The writer threw up his hands. “I give up. This thing doesn’t make any sense to me.” he looked back at Radar. “So? Where the hell are they?”
“Where’s who?” J.B. asked as he and his father stood in the door way.
Reno’s head snapped about to look at the boy. “J.B… what are you doing up?” He looked up at Buckaroo, really wishing he would send his son to bed before they had to tell him his mother and sister disappeared ninety thousand feet up in the mountains of Canada.
J.B. shrugged. “That’s what I’d like to know.” He walked across the room to look at the map. “you have a particular interest in rock face, Uncle Reno?”
Radar chuckled, drawing a glare from Reno.
“No interest at all.” Reno grumbled, clicking the highlight off.
“Allo, Boss.” Radar greeted Buckaroo. “Sorry for the wake up.”
Buckaroo shrugged. “No worries, Radar. Didn’t know you were in town.”
The British BBI shrugged. “Layover you might say. Rather well timed too, I might add.” He glanced at J.B. “Might I have a word with you?” He tilted his head toward the back of the room behind Billy’s station.
“If it’s about mom and the girls…” J.B. spoke up quickly glancing up quickly at his father then at the men in the room. “I want to know too.”
“Hey, kiddo,” Reno laid a hand on his shoulder. “Why don’t we get a hot chocolate?”
“Because it sure be better if you fill me in before you have to fill me in in front of Tom, who, I might point out, already knows his sister is in trouble and freaking out.” J.B. answered, stepping out from under Reno’s hand, and dropping down in a chair, arms crossed over his chest.
He wasn’t going anywhere.
Both Radar and Reno looked at Buckaroo.
The father tilted his head to one side. “He’ll be alright.” he assured. “Fill me in.”
Reno took a deep breath. “We received an automated S.O.S. from the Falcon. Signal was weak, lasted only a few moments.”
Buckaroo resisted the urge to glance at his son. Instead he looked at Radar. “Long enough?” he asked.
Radar was focusing on his note book. “We have an aprox. But no pinpoint. And, if the go-phones are putting out, they aren’t making it over the mountains.”
“I’m keeping every input open.” Billy spoke up. “The RCP has been notified and Alaska Anne is rounding up the troops and heading down from Alaska to meet them.”
Buckaroo frowned. “Isn’t that jumping the gun?” he wondered. “How long have they been off the radar? Couldn’t it just be a malfunction?”
“Could be.” Reno nodded. “But, the nearest airport was just a couple of mountains over, maybe ninety minutes by plane. They didn’t make it.” he tapped the map. “The area is deep snow, rugged mountains. Nowhere to land, and if they crashed…” He stopped, his eyes shifting slightly to where J.B. was sitting.
The boy’s eyes narrowed. “If.” he repeated. He looked up at his father. A little too calmly for a boy his age, he told him “If they didn’t land at the airport, then they are on the ground somewhere else. If there is no safe landing place somewhere else, then they didn‘t land and crashing isn’t an if.”
Buckaroo nodded slowly. His wife and his daughter and several other very important women in his life had crashed somewhere in the dangerous, snow covered, wild mountains of Canada.
He felt as if he had been punched in the gut.
And he could only think of one thing to say:
“Saddle up.”
~~~~~
She was cold.
Very, very, cold.
Peggy tried to wrap her arms around herself, warding off the cold, but a tarring feeling ripped up her arm from her wrist. She cried out before she even knew what she was feeling was pain.
“Mom!” came an answering cry.
Warm hands cupped her face. “Stay still, Aunt Peggy.” came a calm voice.
Clamping her teeth on her bottom lip, Peggy forced her eyes to open.
Leaning over her, her hands wrapped around her face, her tangled blond hair hanging down on either side of her, was Ducky. “Stay very still.” Ducky repeated. “Do you understand me? Blink once if you understand me.”
Peggy blinked.
Ducky closed her eyes lightly, sighing.
“Ducky?”
Peggy’s eyes shifted, just enough to see her daughter at Ducky’s elbow.
Zoey’s eyes were bigger than she had ever seen them. Her chin trimbled, but she stood very still, a bottle of water in one hand, a torn cloth in the other, bravely waiting for instructions.
“She’s gonna be alright.” Ducky said, not looking back.
Peggy’s eyes snapped back to the older girl.
Ducky wasn’t looking at Zoey. She was looking at her, making eye contact.
She wasn’t talking to Zoey. She was talking to Zoey’s mother.
Zoey was going to be alright!
The woman’s eyes closed lightly.
“Aunt Peggy?” Ducky quickly called to her.
Peggy’s eyes opened again. She swallowed, testing her throat. The was only soreness. She knew that feeling. Some whiplash. But otherwise…
“Ducky.” Peggy breathed.
Again Ducky sighed with relief. “Okay.” She finally released her face. “Aunt Peggy, your wrist is caught between the seats.” she explained. Despite trying her damnest to sound calm and in control, her voice trimbled slightly. “It… there’s blood… not a lot. I think it’s broken.”
Peggy blinked. “Alright.” she breathed. Her mind raced through her years of schooling, training, experience, all of which should make this all a snap.
Pulse…
Feeling in the fingers…
Vein…
How the hell did her wrist get caught between two seats?
The lady Banzai’s eyes widened. “We crashed….?”
Ducky hesitated, surprised that that was what the woman chose to ask her. “We crashed.” she finally answered.
Suddenly Peggy remembered.
Engines were gone.
The girls were screaming.
“Close your eyes!” she yelled at them over the wine and roar of riding a steel missel.
Rowdy had screamed for her mother, had tried to get out of her seat belt.
JerseyD had grabbed her hands, cursing at the other girl.
Zoey was sitting across from Peggy, her arms wrapped around Diamond’s head, the littlest girl strapped into her car seat beside her.
Ducky was in the seat behind her, yelling at Rowdy and JerseyD, trying to get them to calm down.
The plane jerked.
The sound of ripping steel deafened her.
The cold air hit her like a mountain falling down on her.
Don’t panic. Don’t panic. Don’t panic. Don’t panic.
Taking a shaking breath, Peggy asked “The girls?”
Ducky glanced over her shoulder. “Some scrapes and brusies. Some cuts, but not bad. JerseyD broke a finger. Maybe her hand. Rowdy cracked her head on something, but her eyes look good and the bleeding’s stopped. Diamond was having trouble breathing, but Zoey calmed her down quick. She’s fine as long as Zoey is in sight.”
“Her inhaler…” Peggy started, remembering that the little girl’s life saving medicine was in her pocket. Her fingers flexed, reaching for it, but pain ripped through her arm again. She quickly bit her lip, turning her cry into a whimper.
“Smashed.” Ducky said. She held up the remenants of the inhaler. “It was in your hand when I got to you.” she explained. “I think you were getting it when we… hit.”
“Back up inhaler is in my bag in luggage.” Peggy quickly told her.
Ducky and Zoey exchanged glances.
Peggy’s eyes narrowed. “What?”
“Mom,” Zoey spoke softly. “There is no luggage department anymore.” She looked pass her mother’s seat. “There is no back of the plane anymore.”
Peggy stared at her.
No back…
The ripping sound!
Don’t panic! Don’t panic! Don’t panic…
“TommyBoy?” she asked.
Ducky dropped her eyes. “I… can’t get the doors open. I’m… we’re not strong enough… I can’t…” She squeezed her eyes closed, trying very hard to hold onto her calm.
Peggy understood.
Ducky was only sixteen. She couldn’t do this by herself. She needed Peggy to snap to. She needed an adult. She needed someone to take care of them.
Which meant, Peggy needed to get out of this seat.
“Zoey…. find a bar… a long piece of metal… something we can use as a lever.” Peggy instructed. “Find one and come back. And Rowdy too.”
Zoey licked her lips. She glanced up at Ducky, then spun about to find what was needed.
“Ducky.” Peggy turned her attention to the other girl.
Ducky’s eyes snapped open. “Yea?”
“It’s going to be alright.” Peggy assured. “You’re doing a great job. Just hang in there, okay?”
She took a deep breath and nodded.
“Good girl.” Peggy tried a smile. “Okay. I need you to tie a turniket around my arm, just above the elbow. When you pry the seats apart, you might find out the bleed worsen.”
Ducky shook her head. “It isn’t bleeding bad.”
“That might be because of the preasure of the seats.” Peggy explained. “You’re gonna need to bandage it quickly and tightly. Don’t worry about hurting me.”
The teenager’s eyes went big. She opened her mouth, but couldn’t think of what to say.
“Ducky… Donna.” Peggy called to her. “Pain just means that I’m alive. Remember that. It might hurt some, but it will get better. I promise you.”
Ducky’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t make promises, Aunt Peggy.” Ducky reprimanded her. “Dad always said…. don’t make promises. Don’t know what’s coming on the next page, so you don’t make promises.”
Peggy frowned. “Rawhide said that? To you?”
Ducky looked up at her. “He said it to mom.” she admitted, before preoccupying herself with ripping a strip of cloth from the seat beside them.
“Ducky… he’d never say it to you.” Peggy promised. “You shouldn’t be mad at him ‘cause he and your mother never stayed together.”
“Peggy, I’m sixteen. I’m supposed to be mad at my parents.” the teenager reminded her, far too aware of herself for her age. “Sides, don’t we have more important things to talk about?” Leaning over her aunt, she carefully tied the cloth around her arm just above the elbow. “That’ll keep it out of the way when we pry the arms apart.” she explained. “Can you feel your fingers?”
Peggy closed her eyes, concentrating. Pain was pulsating up her arm, stabbing deep through the joint of her elbow. It was duller in her shoulder, but still there. But, below her wrist… tingling in her palm. her fingers hung heavy, but with no feeling, like they were asleep. “Fine.” she breathed, lying. “They’re fine.”
“Aunt Peggy?”
Peggy’s eyes opened again and she looked right up into Rawhide’s strong, unwavering eyes. “Ducky.” she returned, more correcting herself, than answering.
“I didn’t ask if they were fine.” the girl pointed out. “I asked if you could feel them.”
Peggy blinked at her.
Ducky sighed. “Which means no.” She glanced back as Rowdy’s voice rose, arguing with Zoey about something. “Aunt Peggy, Zoey’s the best nurse we have right now. You’ve gotta be straight with her.”
“I don’t want to scare her.”
“We‘re crashed on a snow covered mountain in the middle of nowhere. Zoey‘s already scared.” Ducky reminded her. “Sooner she get’s beyond fear and down to work, the better we’ll all be.”
Peggy watched her for a moment, before asking “What about you?”
Ducky chuckled. “Aunt Peggy, I’m moving beyond fear right about now.” Despite her chuckle, her eyes were very serious when she looked at the lady Banzai. “I’ll do what needs to be done. We all will.”
