Cold as Ice

Frozen

'Why is it so cold in here' his body felt like he had been thrown in the ocean

'What was I supposed to be doing again' going up and down with the tide as he tried to ignore the aching chill that was slowly seeping through his skin.

"TK are you getting anything on the ECMO"

'Oh right'

"Nothing yet Cap" he responded. He rubbed at his eyes with a shaking hand as he tried to stay focused on machine in front of him.

"Come on kid, stay with us" Nancy encouraged.

A rhythmic beeping pulled TK out of his fog, as the rest of the occupants of the car waited with bated breath.

The kid's eyes shot open as he coughed up the water that had entered his lungs. Everyone let out a sigh of relief. "Wow those ECMO machines are amazing, I wonder where I can get one of those for my turtles"

TK vaguely registered the rest of the conversation happening around him, as the back up crew of paramedics arrived and Tommy and Nancy followed them to the ambulance answering questions about the boys condition.

"Are you okay dear?" the old woman asked. He pushed through the fog in his mind enough to give her a reassuring smile and promise that he just needed some rest. The woman smiled before following her husband back to their car.

TK glanced back at Tommy and Nancy who were still distracted with the paramedics, when he felt it happen. His body suddenly felt like it was a million degrees, the logically part of his brain telling him that that was impossible because he was still in the middle of an ice storm faded away. All he knew was that he needed to cool down now.

He stumbled backwards, almost tripping over himself as he tried to walk towards where he thought the ambulance was. 'I'll turn on the air conditioning and wait for Tommy and Nancy in there' he thought to himself.

He clumsily pulled at his jacket, somewhat noticing how hard it was to get his hand to form a solid grip on the material. He pulled off his jacket in one rough tug and threw it to the ground.

"Why am I still so hot" he mumbled to himself as he trekked further into the forested area. If he could just find some water maybe he could finally cool down. He roughly tugged off his clothes, leaving them in a trail behind him.

He stumbled again, his foot catching on an exposed tree as he felt his body start to roll forward. His teeth began chattering again as he fell in a heap at the bottom of the hill. His eyes gazed up at his surroundings only to see a thick fog was covering a vision.

"TK what happened to you" his body tried to jerk up as he heard a familiar voice above him. He groaned as he felt the familiar heat take over his body again. The heat was all consuming and he distantly wondered if somehow he had walked far enough to end up in the desert. Wait why is Carlos in the desert with him?

"'Los go away, can't you see I'm trying to sleep" he slurred out. His body curled in on itself trying to preserve what little heat he had left. 

"Tiger you have to stay awake" the familiar face of his ex filled his line of sight and TK couldn't help but smile.

"How did you get here" he tried to reach up to touch Carlos' cheek but realised he no longer had feeling in his arms.

"Your brain is imagining me, it's trying to keep you awake until the others find you" Carlos explained as he ran a hand through TK's hair.

"I just want to sleep" TK felt his eyes starting to droop, Carlos's hand quickly moving to his face. 

"Come on TK. Don't give up on me now

TK!

TK!"

"There he is!" 

"Hey Cap" "Hey Nance" he felt his head emerge from the fog at the sound of his captain and his partner's voices.

"We brought some blankets for you dude" Tommy said. He immediately shrunk back feeling like a caged animal as his captain tried to pull blankets onto him. Couldn't they feel how hot it was around them? Why were they trying to put more blankets on him.

"I'm good thanks" he said as he tried to wriggle away from them. "Said the one with frostbite on his ass" Nancy snarked at him as she tried to help Tommy. His hand whipped out, grabbing at a nearby stick.

"I said get away" he screamed weakly at them as he tried to lash out with the stick. "The snow feels better right now."

He started mumbling under his breath, words that he hadn't heard since he was a kid eagerly trying to show his mom what he had learned in Hebrew school that day, he could hear vague whispers coming from the rest of his team above him. 

"TK! All your blood has left the extremities of your body, that's why you feel so warm right now. It means you're near fatal" The fog surrounding him dissipated. 

'Wait why am I in the snow right now'

'I'm starting to get cold now'

'I need a nap' he felt his eye lids start to droop shut.

"We're not about to let you freeze out here, so you can either walk out with us or we'll drag you out of here" his eye lids slowly opened as he processed the words that came out of his partners mouth.

He still wasn't sure where he was, but he knew his team would keep him safe. He nodded at them and they let out a sigh of relief.

"When were you going to tell us you could speak Hebrew" Nancy tried to joke. He slowly allowed the two to pull him to his feet, allowing them to take most of his weight as he felt his consciousness start to escape him.

"I learned a bit in Hebrew school" he muttered. He thought back to the image of his mother smiling proudly at him as he finally got his pronunciation right. His mother softly kissing the top of his head as they moved onto the next word.

He longed for his mother to be here with him now, kissing the top of his head and telling him that she was proud of him.

"Looks like some of it stuck" was the last words he heard before he felt his knees buckle and everything went black.