Life starts now - A Bondi Rescue story

New Year Pt. 2

A/N: Soo, I received some prompts for a nickname for Melanie, but I'd love to hear some of your ideas. Right now, I have four possible options. I included the justifications, so...let me know what you think? Pretty please? :)

- Bambi (bc of her eyes and her shyness)
- Goofy (bc she's goofy-footed)
- Fin (from her last name)
- Sunny (bc she's a ray of sunshine)

If you have any better ideas, please shoot me a comment or a message. I'll credit you, of course.

***

Things went wrong as soon as Melanie reached the swimmers.

Two of them were roughhousing, playfully dunking each other. And in the heat of the moment, they ended up in the currents. Just as she had feared. Close to the rocks, where the water was in near-constant turmoil, a number of eddies and whirlpools formed. They were easy to get into and hard to get out of.

"Swim back to shore!", the brunette ordered the rest of the swimmers. They were all around her age, maybe even younger. "It's too dangerous here! If you need help, put your hand up, my colleagues will come get you."

The sight of their two friends being dragged towards the rocks, stuck in the unrelenting grip of the ocean, made them completely compliant. But Melanie didn't have time to watch their progress back towards the beach. She had to get those boys out of there.

Wave after wave crashed against the rocks, the whitewash pushing her to one side, then pulling her in the opposite direction. Water sprayed into the air and rained down on her with each breaking wave. The young trainee was paddling as hard as she could. The boys were screaming for help while they tried to fight the currents.

Melanie reached the first one, grabbing his outstretched hand and hauling him over so the blond could hold on to the board. To the second boy, she called: "Just hang on, mate!"

The rescue board was rocking like crazy and she had a hard time keeping the balance.

The redhead was pulled along, closer to the rocks. "Help!", he cried, arms flailing in momentary panic. "Help me!"

"Shit", the teen muttered under her breath, brain scrambling to come up with a solution for her present dilemma.

Struggling to get closer to the rocks without being smashed into them by the next wave, she asked the boy clinging to her board: "Can you get up there on your own?"

He stared at her for a moment before nodding. "Yeah. Yeah, just...save Justin."

Melanie nodded and instructed him to let the wave lift him up.

The kid timed it perfectly and with a little boost from the lifeguard, he managed to clamber onto the rocks and to safety.

***

Meanwhile, Melanie inched her way closer to Justin. The boy's strength was obviously leaving him and her rescue board was proving to be more of a hindrance than a help. A kingdom for a floatie and a pair of flippers.

An absolutely stupid and ridiculous idea popped into her mind and refused to leave. After a few more moments of trying to manoeuvre the board into her patient's reach, she uttered another soft curse and threw herself into the water.

One of the ground rules of the lifeguards was to stay on the board. It was standard procedure to stay on, let the patient grab hold or pull them over until they could. Then get them to lie down on the board and bring them in.