Love Bites

Jack: Six

"Another great day in Shark Land!", Billy cheered before high fiving Jack, Jolene and Santos. Jack remembered the first time he pulled that move and how Santos used to glare at him. Now they were used to his enthusiasm and played along. It took less time to do that than to teach him to quit it. The kid was relentless and would insist until the members of his crew complied anyway.

"No rookie changed their mind. They still want to get on the team.", Jolene told them before cursing. "Jae's sidekick managed to take her samples without me noticing. She's a fox, that one. I wonder if that's why Jae hired her. She's a tiny, sassy version of you, Keller. It's frightening.", she commented before cleaning up her equipment and going back inside, probably to the lab.

Billy followed, eager to analyze the data they so successfully collected.

"Storm coming. A bad one.", Santos said after a moment.

Jack nodded as he looked up at the sky.

"Make sure the platform is secured. We don't need the nerds to start fretting over the material.", Jack told him, even if he knew the old man would do it without anyone asking him to.

Once alone, Jack stretched to ease his muscles. He was glad about how things went today but he wasn't completely at ease. He couldn't tell what was bothering him but it was there.

He went to the cafeteria to pick up a sandwich and one of the scientists congratulated him about earlier.

"I would have loved to see you bring in another one. But I just heard that the storm would be too bad for anyone to work on deck.", the man sighed.

Jack chuckled and patted his shoulder."We'll get to bring bigger sharks in soon. No worries. Tomorrow is another day.", he assured him before heading to the door.

"Wait, you're going to eat outside?", the scientist asked. "With that weather?".

Jack pretended to think about it. Then nodded and grabbed a beer from the fridge before walking to the door again.

"That should keep me warm!", he chuckled.

There was no crow's nest on that kind of boat. Jack was sure that he had been a pirate in another life. On land, he never felt totally at ease, not with everyone looking up at him and asking him how it was to be so tall.

But on a boat, he felt like he was home. He liked the way the sea rocked the floor under his feet. He loved being in the water and being able to move easily, gracefully almost. Basically, on land, he was like a shark out of the water, not daring to move because they didn't know how to in that dry environment. But in the water?

Different story.

He found himself a spot on the upper deck, sitting down and sliding his legs under the railing to let his feet hang far above everything.

The sky was turning dark gray and lightning was offering a beautiful contrast with the dark shades of the cloud.

He was planning to stay there for a while, until the rain would chase him away or until it was time to join the others for movie night, he wasn't sure yet.

Chewing on his sandwich, kicking his feet easily, he watched the show Mother Nature was pulling off.

He noticed Jae... Well, Dr Olson, looking in the distance again.

He wished his heart would stop aching like that every time he caught a glimpse of that guy. The very same guy who left and stated it was over for good.

Clearly, Jack was too stubborn to get that statement.

Something else caught his eye though. And made him frown.

A big shadow was tagging along the boat and on the deck, one of the cameramen was trying to get a good shot of the storm approaching.

"He's gonna fall.", Jack said out loud before pulling himself up. He walked to the side and tried to see if anyone was lower on deck so he could tell them to get that moron away from there.

Seeing no one, he waved at Jae and pointed at the guy, yelling at him to look... But the wind stole his words away and the next wave hit the boat so hard that the doom scenario playing in Jack's mind became reality.

Washed away by the water, the cameraman lost his balance and fell overboard, right next to the dark shadow Jack spotted.

Jack grabbed his radio and shouted "Man overboard! Stop the damn engines now!".

He knew it was a matter of minutes before the guy's life ended right under his eyes.

He looked at Jae and saw him grab his radio as well.

Probably to tell him not to do anything stupid.

"Fuck. Fuck!", Jack said as he kicked off his shoes.

But as he did, someone decided to do the stupid thing before him.

Jae was pulling off his shirt, rushing outside.

"Oh no, you don't.", Jack muttered.

But he was too far to stop him.