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cupidmarwani-archive · 4 years

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Underneath

Summary: During the rescue of Bennett (1.09) Marjan gets trapped. (911 Lone Star Bad Things Happen Bingo: Trapped and Call Gone Wrong)

Warnings: suffocation, injury

WC: 2370 / Also Available on AO3

It was supposed to be fine.

Marjan just had to help free the adventurous father from the cave, and then something collapsed, the rope went slack, and she realized she might not have a lot of air down here. Sure, it’s been frightening since she first began her descent into the cave, ears popping painfully at the pressure, but she didn’t realize it would end up like this.

“Marwani, come in,” Her radio crackles, Judd’s voice sounding just a little too panicked. “Our rope got real tight all of a sudden. What happened?”

She looks above her, where the turn of the tunnel is completely blocked off. She can’t reach it without climbing upward again, and doing that could set everything off again because she doesn’t have any equipment for this. Trying to dig her way out is far too risky. The reckless spelunker asks her what happened, his voice quiet and breathy. He won’t last much longer, and she doesn’t know if she’ll make it too long either. Already the air has started to turn stuffy.

“There was a cave-in, over.”

For a moment, her radio is quiet. Then, Judd says, “Where and how bad?”

“It’s a few feet above me and toward the opening of the tunnel. I can’t reach it without climbing back up, and it’s really unstable. I don’t think I can dig my way out without risking a secondary collapse. Over.”

Saying the over isn’t important right now, or at least it doesn’t feel like it. Judd certainly doesn’t care anymore. But if she does it, then she can pretend this isn’t an emergency, and she’ll be fine. They’ll be able to rescue her, and before she knows it, she’ll be back above ground where it’s safe. Bennett, the father trapped beside her, has stopped moving, and doesn’t respond when she calls his name.

“How’s the air flow? Do you think you can stay there while we wait for another crew? Mateo’s the only one who can fit down there.”

She looks up at the ceiling. The air down here doesn’t feel like it’s moving anymore, and she isn’t sure if she’s imagining it.

“I don’t think there’s any air flow where I am. Bennett is unresponsive, and his upper body is in a different pocket than mine. I think I have… maybe an hour of air, if I’m careful. Over.”

Bennett’s leg twitches.

“I’m sending help down now, okay? We’re gonna get you out of here. Getting a hole in there big enough to free you might take a while, so I’ll send down an oxygen tank too. Should give you a little more time. Hang in there, Marj. We’re coming.”

Michelle is trained for a lot of things, but this isn’t one of them. She’s a paramedic. She is absolutely not a firefighter. But between everyone on sight, Mateo, Nancy, and herself are the only ones who can fit down there, and they need all the hands they can get. Nancy gets a harness for Marjan to bring her back up if need be, she carries an oxygen tank and their rope lead, and Mateo holds onto a shovel and the jaws of life. Without the room or accessibility for the motor, it’ll take all three of them to pry the rock open.

She’s willing to do whatever it takes to get Marjan out of there, safe and sound, especially given the way Judd told them upon arrival how many people get trapped down here and are never rescued. They have to have hope, or else the whole job becomes that much harder. Mateo turns his radio on and tells her that no matter what, all their radios need to be ready to speak. Just in case.

“Be safe,” Judd yells after them as they make their way past the mouth of the cave.

The anchor points left behind from trying to rescue Bennett before the collapse help direct them. As they walk, no one speaks. The situation is far too tense, and Marjan needs to conserve the air she has left wherever she’s trapped. According to Mateo, it’ll take them around half an hour to reach her, maybe less if they’re quick.

Michelle is afraid to be quick. She doesn’t want to trigger another collapse, sealing them in or making another barrier before they can reach Marjan. She steps in the same place as Mateo in front of her each time, so she doesn’t kick a rock, and by the sound of it, Nancy does as well. Neither of them really feel safe in here, and they’re not as trained to push the fear down. They just have to push it down, the way Mateo is, even if his face seems damp with more than sweat as they make their way through the maze.

“I think Bennett is dead,” Marjan says on the radio. “I can’t get a pulse on any part of his lower body. And it’s official that there’s no air flow in here. It’s getting hard to breathe. Over.”

Judd responds by asking Mateo for their ETA.

“About ten minutes,” he says, touching his gloved hand to an anchor point on the old rope. “I don’t know how long it’ll take us to get through the collapse though.”

His response is followed by a crashing noise and an audible, if faint scream from further down the tunnel. All three of them freeze. Michelle grabs for her radio and clicks the speak button on. “Marjan, what happened? Over.”

“Secondary collapse. Some- some of the debris fell on me. I think it broke my leg. Over.”

“Okay, just take a deep breath. You’re breathing really fast, and you need to be careful with your air.”

Now she has to focus on first aid over the radio as she continues to make her way deeper into the cave, her ears popping in protest.

“Is it a compound fracture? Is the bone coming out of the skin?”

“I don’t think so, over.”

“Can you move whatever fell on you?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay. Are you bleeding at all Marjan?”

They make it another few feet in silence. Thirty seconds tick by, and Michelle’s chest hurts at the sudden lack of communication. She needs to know if Marjan is okay.

“You still there?”

“Sorry. Getting kinda dizzy.”

Mateo suddenly stops and holds up his hand. They’ve reached the collapse. The rocks are all tightly packed, and pulling the wrong one could be disastrous. Michelle’s heart is beating too fast, but she just presses her palm lightly against the rubble.

“Can you hear us, honey?” she asks.

After a moment, she hears Marjan groan. She’s still alive. Nancy ties off their rope lead and harness, and pulls on the gloves Mateo hands her to protect her palms from the jagged rock. Michelle takes a pair too, and wait for his instruction on what to do.

“Chavez to Ryder,” he says before they touch anything. “We’re at the collapse now. Marjan is still alive, but she’s injured and running out of air. Any idea how much time we have left? Over.”

“She said an hour of air, you’ve been down about forty minutes. You have maybe twenty left to at least get her some more oxygen.”

At that, Mateo starts working. He says to lightly run their hands over the debris to find out what’s loose and structurally safe to remove, at first. Just thinning the rock out helps. Michelle’s hands are shaking pretty badly as she does it. At first, just little pebbles and shards come, but then they’re left with larger rocks lodged into the wall. This is where things will get dangerous. This wall could be holding up the tunnel. It could collapse backward and fall on Marjan, burying her delicate body beneath it. Already, there’s been one secondary collapse that’s hurt her badly enough. There’s no telling what another could do to her.

“Marjan,” Mateo calls, beginning to open the case holding the jaws of life. “We’re going to pry open the wall. If you can, I need you to move as far away from the collapse as possible and brace yourself. Do you have your helmet on?”

There’s no response.

“Marjan, I need you to put on your helmet and get back,” he repeats, a little louder, a little more frantic. “Marjan!”

Michelle clicks her radio on. “Captain Blake to Ryder. Marjan is no longer responding to us.” She takes a deep breath. “Continue with search and rescue, or retreat? Over.”

“Do you have any reason to believe she is dead as opposed to unconscious?”

“No way for us to tell right now, over.”

“You’re already there. Proceed with the rescue.”

She helps grab one of the levers on the jaws, Nancy helping her, while Mateo holds the other. As opposed to up and down, they have them set up sideways, which should allow them to clear out a small enough window to at least see how Marjan is doing, and get some air to her.

When they manage to open it up a bit and start digging out rocks, Mateo takes off his gloves. Michelle tells him not to, but he doesn’t even seem to hear her. It’s easier to get a grip on the smaller pieces like that, even if she watches cuts appear on his palms until there’s a small enough window to peer through. Marjan isn’t visible, but they can see the slight glow from further down, probably from her head lamp. They’ve found her.

“I’m small enough to get through that gap,” Michelle says. “Send me through and I’ll get the oxygen to her, bring her closer. Then we can go from both sides to try and get a bigger opening.”

“That’s a bad idea,” Nancy says.

Mateo shrugs, as though it’s up to her.

She pushes the oxygen tank through the gap first, and then clears away some larger fragments to make it easier to squeeze through. There’s a few ominous cracks, but she’s still able to do it. The thin polyester of her uniform is finally good for something. It takes almost a full minute to get through, and she’s left with scrapes all over her body, but finally, she’s on the other side. She picks up the tank and finds the area where the tunnel takes a sharp turn downward, and Marjan is visible at the bottom beside Bennett’s legs. She’s so very still, with smears of blood around her body and covered with rocks and dust. Carefully, Michelle climbs down to her, and presses her fingers to the side of her neck.

Her pulse is weak and slow, but it’s there.

“Captain Blake to Ryder and Chavez. Marjan has a pulse. There’s some blood loss, but I can’t evaluate her injuries here. Putting her on oxygen now. I’m going to climb back up to help open the wall and get the harness. Over.”

“Michelle, you did not go down there,” Judd says.

She doesn’t answer him, instead fixing the oxygen mask over Marjan’s mouth and nose, opening the valve, and starting the climb back up to the collapse.

When she gets there, it seems Mateo and Nancy have made some progress. Not a lot, though. They hand the harness through and she goes back down to fix it around Marjan’s limp body. Anything to get her to safety. Michelle helps them tug the rope, slowly and carefully, to pull Marjan up from the dip in the tunnel without hitting her against the wall. It’s terrifying. Especially with the added weight of the oxygen tank wedged into the harness with her. When they’re almost up, Marjan’s eyes open and she weakly struggles.

“Relax, we’ve got you,” Michelle says. “We’re pulling you up. Just stay still, okay?”

Marjan mumbles behind the mask and obeys, allowing them to finish getting her back to level with the collapse so they can keep working, knowing that she’s safe for now. Michelle starts pulling away large rocks above the jaws of life, ignoring when it causes some to fall on her gloved hands. She doesn’t have to be so careful anymore, and she doesn’t want to be either. She just wants to get Marjan back up to the surface.

“Careful,” Mateo says, and removes the jaws to put away. There’s a moment where they just wait to see if disaster will strike. Thankfully, it seems alright, and Michelle helps him and Mateo make a larger hole so they can climb to safety. "We'll have to carry her up ourselves," he adds as they work. "The rope we have is just a lead now, since the other one is caught, plus all the twists and turns. We'll have to carry her."

"Whatever it takes."

In just a few more minutes, they have a large enough hole to safely pull Marjan through, and Michelle follows soon after. Mateo radios the progress back to Judd. Nancy looks rather pale, arms crossed over her chest as she stares at what’s left of the site of the collapse. Michelle gets the discomfort. Her head is starting to hurt and she’s getting a little lightheaded, and she’s got the distraction of someone she cares about more than she’d like to admit in her arms to bring to safety. Mateo is a full on firefighter.

“Go back up,” Michelle says to her softly. “We’ll be right behind you.”

Nancy nods and takes off with the equipment, following their lead, but leaving it in place for Michelle and Mateo to follow to the surface. Everything is going to be okay. Between the two of them, they lift Marjan carefully and carry her slowly along the path back. There’s so many twists and turns, narrow openings, jagged rocks that catch their clothes and skin. Michelle tries not to notice the blood on Mateo’s hands from scraping up on the rocks, now smearing on the reflectors of Marjan’s coat.

They’re so close to the surface Michelle can almost taste it. She can see the gleam of the light reaching out toward them. Nancy and Tim are at the ready. They’re almost out, when the cave around them gives an ominous creak, a crack, a rattle, and the light is gone.

#lonestarbth #911 lone star #michelle blake #marjan marwani #mateo chavez #mine #fic

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