CRASH! || Top Gear / the Grand Tour & Lost ✔

Chapter 1

As soon as he regains consciousness, Richard is hit with a searing pain shooting up his arm, and a pounding headache. His first thought is that something has gone wrong with one of the cars around the Top Gear track and he's crashed, but he's quick to cross that off the list of possibilities as he remembers that he, James, and Jeremy aren't back in the UK right now.

They should be in LA doing a bit of filming - which even that isn't exactly true, as the last thing he remembers is sitting on a plane with his co-hosts and partners flying from Sydney Australia (where they also did a bit of filming and a tiny bit of holidaying), to LA in the States. And wherever he is right now is definitely neither of those places.

Sitting up, he lets out a small whimper as his left arm throbs with pain. He seriously hopes it's not broken.... Looking around, he's made aware of the wreckage around him strewn across the sand. The wreckage of the plane he was just on mere moments ago. And as he looks around, he cannot spot James or Jeremy anywhere, and it sends him into a panic.

He's been in a plane crash, and both his partners don't appear to be anywhere near him. He can't see James or Jeremy anywhere from where he's sitting on the beach.

Getting up, he breaks out into a run, shouting out for James and Jeremy. Unfortunately with the amount of screaming and shouting happening on the beach, and the plane's engine still blaring until it eventually explodes, Richard cannot hear a reply from either of his partners, and he has no fucking clue if they can hear him. If they're even still alive that is, and he hopes to god that they're both still alive. He doesn't want to deal with all of this without them. He can't deal with this without them. He just can't.

Not finding either James or Jeremy, Richard falls to his knees on the sand, a sob erupting out of him as he digs his fists into the sand. He doesn't want to believe the very real possibility that the two men he loves most are gone. That they've perished in the crash, and he'll never see them again. Doesn't want....

His head snaps up as he faintly hears his name being called, and looks around, scrubbing the tears out of his eyes in an attempt to clear his vision. Unless he's imagining things, and dammit what sort of cruel fucking joke is his mind playing on him if he's just imagining it, he can only just hear Jeremy shouting for him.

"Jeremy!" He shouts back, hoping like hell that Jeremy can hear him. If Jeremy is actually calling out to him.

"Richard!"

The shouting sounds closer now, so close, and Richard wants to get up and run towards it. Unfortunately, he finds that his legs don't want to move and carry him towards the arms of his partner. Not even when he can finally see Jeremy running towards him.

"Jeremy!" He sobs in relief as Jeremy drops to his knees on the sand next to him and pulls him into his arms.

He clings onto Jeremy, sobbing into the older man's shoulder as he holds him just as tight, refusing to let go even when his injured arm screams at him to.

Jeremy's alive.

Jeremy's alive and here with him right now, and appears relatively unharmed from what he can tell.

Reluctantly looking up from Jeremy's shoulder, he looks around through blurry eyes expecting to see James running towards them. But, there's no sign of him. Absolutely nothing. Not one single thing.

"Wh-where's James?" He croaks. "Jeremy, where's James?"

Jeremy's hold on him grows tighter, so tight that it hurts, but Richard doesn't say anything about it. He doesn't want Jeremy to let go of him at all anyway.

"I... I don't know." Jeremy says, voice shaky. "I couldn't find him. I looked everywhere, but he's just..."

That's not what he wanted to hear at all. Jeremy can't find James.... James is nowhere to be found, and could very well be dead out in the water somewhere. He really fucking hates the thought of that, and now all he can think about is that James might be gone, and he'll never see him again.

"Fuck, Rich. I thought I lost you too." Jeremy sobs, pulling Richard even closer, and Richard lets him. "I can't lose you too."

Richard can't lose Jeremy either. Can't lose James either, but it seems awfully likely that James is gone. However, he refuses to believe that James is truly gone. Not until he finds a body.

He'll search this whole fucking place for James if he has to. Doesn't care how long it'll take him. He's not going to give up until he finds James alive or dead. Or if it kills him himself. He needs James just as much as he needs Jeremy.

He'd start looking for James right this instant if it wasn't for the fact he can't summon the energy to get up and look. That and Jeremy is still holding onto him tight, like he's afraid that if he lets go, he'll be gone. And to be completely fair, Richard is holding onto Jeremy just as tight and for the exact same reasons.

"Jezza." He sniffles, tears still spilling down his face. "We have to find James."

Jeremy looks down at him, tears streaming down his face also. A determined look crossing his face at Richard's words, as he nods.

Whatever it takes, they'll find James. They have to find him, no questions about it.

However, as much as the pair of them want to go out and search for him right this instant, they're in no shape to do so. And they just don't want to break free of each other's hold at all.

So they just sit there, holding each other tight, surrounded by the debris from the plane, and the screaming and shouting of their fellow survivors. Refusing to let each other go now that they've found one another.

As soon as they summon the energy to break away from each other and go out looking for James, they'll do just that, and they won't give up until they find him, dead or alive.

They'll even refuse to get on the rescue boat until they find him. They're not leaving James behind.

Little do they know however, they won't have to worry about refusing to get on the rescue boat until they've found James alive or dead. Rescue doesn't come as soon as they'd like.

108 days it takes for rescue to get here. And the freighter that does arrive.... Well, it's not exactly sent to the island to rescue the survivors of Oceanic 815. Nor does anyone but six of the group make it off the island. Including Richard....

But worst of all... at least worse than it taking 108 days for rescue (a pretty damn poor rescue at that) to arrive and for only six of the survivors to get off the damn island, and for Richard being the only one out of the three of them to make it off, in the opinion of Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond, is that they don't find James at all despite their best efforts of looking for him.

That is, until fourty-eight days after the crash, James May comes waltzing right out of the jungle and onto the beach alongside the survivors of the tail section of the plane....