However Do You Want Me... || Chenford / The Rookie

Part 19

Night falls quickly on the glacier, the intensity of the darkness and plummeting temperatures ratcheting up the stakes in a way Lucy isn't fully prepared for. The final checkpoint of the night proves to be one of the most daunting — a plunge into an icy river so cold that more than thirty seconds in the water will cause hypothermia, the medics on standby inform them.

Lucy and Tim tuck into the warming van to strip down to their thermals. And for Lucy, the idea of simply being outside of the van in so little clothing is absolutely unbearable, and the idea of jumping into the frigid water is absolutely unfathomable. "I can't believe we have to do this. Are they trying to kill us?"

Tim glances at her in confusion. "Are you kidding? I've always wanted to do a polar plunge. This is going to be great!"

They stare at each other in disbelieving silence until a medic joins them in the van to offer some final instructions, "Try to avoid falling, do not dive, don't go so fast that you fall into the water — it will be too much of a shock for your system."

Lucy groans as Tim jumps to his feet, preparing to exit the van. "Ready?" he tosses back at her, not waiting for a response as he pulls the door open and bounds out into the snow.

The cold outside is so biting that Lucy can barely process the chunks of actual ice floating by in the river as they wait for their official start. The air horn blows and they are off, Tim's longer strides putting him into the water in front of her as he races to the buoy they've been directed to touch before turning back. The water is so cold that Lucy feels as if all of her breath has been sucked out of her in a painful whoosh, like a stack of bricks have been thrown right through her center, not sure how she is even managing to function, putting one foot rapidly in front of the other in Tim's wake. Tim makes it out of the water first, stripping off his soaking thermal shirt before reaching back to yank Lucy to safety, and then they are both stripping completely naked as they bolt back into the van, only covered by the blankets the crew is holding up to offer a modicum of privacy.

Lucy barrels into Tim's arms as he holds open the blanket for her to join him on the seat of the van, teeth still chattering and still far too stunned from the cold to give a damn about modesty or the crushing closeness of their naked bodies. She burrows closer into him still, grateful for his warmth and the heat in the van as her breathing gradually slows, and she starts to feel the teensiest bit more human, starts to become the teensiest bit more aware of body parts and hands and complete and total nakedness with Tim Bradford.

"That was insane," Tim declares, leaning forward in his excitement when a member of the film crew climbs in to join them. Lucy scrambles to clutch the blanket to her chest, his sudden movements threatening to deliver a peep show to the unsuspecting cameraman. She glares as he turns to grin at her, "That was incredible, right?"

***

Lucy lingers in front of the fire that's been set up in the center of the circle of crappy tents that will serve as their accommodation for the night. The other contestants and Tim have all retired to their tents, but Lucy is unable to step away from the flame for more than a moment before the misery of the intense cold drives her directly back to the only available heat source, her exhaustion warring with her need for warmth as she tries to wrap her head around the idea of spending an entire night out here in this unbearable cold.

Some powerful combination of sexual frustration and actual frustration at their meager accommodation and outright exhaustion leaves them both deeply irritated by the time Lucy finally slips into their tent, already shivering again and close to tears of misery. She finds that Tim has already settled himself into the lone thermal sleeping bag, looking a bit like some kind of alien burrito with only his head poking out of the top of the silver bag. She'd laugh if she wasn't so positive it'd immediately turn to tears instead. Tears that would freeze on her goddamn cheeks, it's so fucking cold.