Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Sir, the Baira D. has been off radio for hours now, we should send a support ship,”

“They haven't sent a distress signal, they're fine,”

“But sir Cunningham was, this is very unusual-”

“Shut yer gob and dae as I say, ye clatty gobshite, I said nae, if they need help, they'll say it.”

“Aye… alright…”

Simon quickly ducked away when the man speaking to the chairman left, cussing to himself, he got up, running up to the person acting as if he didn't just listen into the conversation, “Hey! Uh- what's… what's going on with the Baira D?”

“Simon? Ye heard the concerns?”

“Vaguely, aye,” Simon nodded.

“Well, we dinnae ken what happened, but the Baira D. suddenly stopped communications a few hours ago, last thing we heard was that there was an issue with the drill and that there might be a delay, but we haven't heard any word from them since, but… what Cunningham says goes so… we cannae send a ship,”

“Aye… thanks for telling me,”

“Nae problem,”

Simon walks away, reaching the doctors office, he slumps against the wall with a deep sigh, “fuck… I gotta ken what's happening… what if he's hurt…?” he whispered, sighing heavily.

Simon suddenly perked up with an idea, rushing out of his office and up the stairs and the ladder onto the roof where the pilot and engineer of his crew were working on his helicopter, giving it a good clean after changing the tires.

“Dubois!” Simon shouted, the pilot perked up at his name, looking over with a raised brow as Simon ran over.

“Stewart,” the Frenchman responded, resting a hand on his hip.

“It's Simon-”

“And I'm Nicolas,”

Simon rolled his eyes, smiling before making a serious face, “Nicolas. I have a wee favour tae ask ye…”

“And what's that?” Nicolas raises a brow skeptically.

“So… ye ken how the Baira D. has been off contact for a while… aye?”

“Yes…?” Nicolas narrows his eyes.

“So… can ye… dae me a wee favour and fly over on yer bird tae check on things on the rig?”

“A wee favour? Simon, this is a huge favour you're asking for-”

“I ken, but please! The big man is refusing tae send support or even check on things and I- I-”

“This is for him, isn't it? You're worried about him,”

“Aye… aye it's for him… just.. please?”

Nicolas sighed heavily, nodding begrudgingly, “Fine, I'll do it,” The pilot opens up his plane, sighing, “You'll owe me after this, though,”

“Aye, that's okay, thank ye,”

Nicolas smiled, nodding and getting into his helicopter, “I'll be quick,” he said before shutting the door. After a few minutes, the helicopter finally began to ascend and fly off, Simon watching anxiously.

Once it was out of sight, Simon reluctantly left and went down to the docks to help load up the support ship he was a crew member of.

Simon was just starting to relax, finishing organizing the pharmaceuticals in the designated room of the ship alongside the ship scientist and fellow doctor, Margaret Aldridge, the room used to be a 4 man Offshore Worker Cabin, but was made into a hospital because of how common injuries were while working under Cadal Oil Ltd.

This peacefulness was interrupted by the door being slammed open, yelping in surprise as he whipped around to see Nicolas panting and looking at Simon with wide, horrified eyes, like a man who'd seen horrors beyond human comprehension.

“I don't know what the fuck those bastards drilled into, or what happened, but that rig… it will not survive till midnight,” Nicolas panted out, exhausted from running down here, shakey hands lifting to show a camera with a photo of the rig.

Simon barely processed anything else around him when Nicolas said that, eyes locked on the photo which he snatched to get a better look with horror in his eyes, Simon shoved Nicolas aside and ran past, running up all 3 floors into the Pilot house where their captain, Harvey Dallas, was looking over the controls, the man looking over at the frantic steps behind him.

“Simon? Simon, breathe and tell me what's wrong,” Harvey asked, brows furrowing in concern as he grabbed Simon's shoulders.

“T- the Baira D… h- he… he's on there, t- they're in trouble- w- we need tae go! They need help!” Simon said, shoving the camera he snatched up to Harvey's chest, the captain furrowed his brows as he took it.

“Aye! Keep the heid!” Harvey exclaimed, lifting the camera, staring in confusion at the photo, “What the hell…?”

“Please, Harvey! We need tae go! Nicolas said the rig won't last until midnight! I cannae lose him!”

“Aye! Aye, go get the main crew! We're off in 10 minutes! Dinnae let Cadal find out what we're doing, tell them we're doing cargo shipments,” Harvey shouted, regaining his senses, he rushed to the control and began to prepare the ship, Simon nodded, running off, he made sure all the main crew were on the ship, only a few of the non permanent crew members staying on-board.

As the ship finally took sail, 10 workers on the ship, all roomed inside the Focsle Deck staterooms as usual, Simon stood on the Focsle Deck, gripping the railing with white knuckles as he anxiously watched as they entered the thick fog, “Please be alive…” Simon whispered, eyes clenched shut.

Simon looked to the side when he felt a hand on his shoulder, looking over to see his co-worker Margaret Aldridge, smiling softly at him, “You okay, Simon?” the English woman asked.

“I… Aye… I think so…” Simon said, resting his head on his hand, his elbow on the railing

“That wasn't very convincing,” she teased, smiling, she frowned again when Simon did not respond, “I'm sure he's okay,” she murmured, gently rubbing his shoulder, “he's always been a stubborn bastard, can never get rid of him if we tried,” she assured, Simon smiled fondly at the thought, nodding.

“Aye… ye're right, thanks Maggie…” he murmured, sighing heavily, “how long dae ye bargain until we're there?”

“Not long, Captain Harvey said 30 minutes at most, he's pushing as fast as the ship can go,”

Simon nodded, staying there. Margaret stood by him, hand on his shoulder, the two watching as the thick fog grew thicker. Soon, they could vaguely see the rig's silhouette. “...where is the flare stack?” Margaret mumbled, eyes wide, eyes only getting wider as they got close enough to see the weird shit all over the rig, “what the fuck…? Thank god we have hazmat suits on the ship…”

“We have hazmat suits?” Simon said and looked at Margaret in shock, he's been there longer than her, and somehow he didn't know, and she did? Guess it sort of makes sense, since she is a Scientist.

“Yeah, let's go, we have to find any survivors of… whatever that is,”

The two rushed inside, informing the captain who sent 7 members of the 10 member crew onto the Baira with hazmat suits and some tools, Simon bringing medical supplies, Margaret had other emergency items and some tools, and Nicolas came along with a toolbox, the Rig was sunk enough they could use the crane to climb up onto the deck, they couldn't help but stare in wonder and fear as they got a closer look of the weird veiny masses covering the rig.

“Let's make this quick, and keep the heid! Remember tae keep yer coms on so we can communicate, help any survivors ye can find, treat the wounded if possible, ye ken the drill by now!” Captain Harvey Dallas said through their communications, “and remember tae give updates, priority areas are: Engineering, Accommodations, Decks, and Administration,”

Most of them separated to cover more ground, staying in at least groups of two, Simon being followed by Nicolas, the two found their way to the Accommodation roof, walking inside the accommodation hut, they found one of the crewmembers, Roy, midway through turning on the intercom, barely able to stand, the man pausing to look at Simon and Nicholas in shock.

“Roy MacNeil, right?” Simon said, rushing over, “are ye alright? What's wrong?”

“I- I need m-... my insulin,” Roy panted out, Simon nodding and guiding him to sit.

“Alright, take a seat laddie, I can help ye,” Simon said, guiding Roy to sit down, Nicholas turning on the heater as Simon dug through his medical supplies, finding some spare insulin, suddenly relieved he packed some just in case after he heard someone on the Baira D. had Diabetes, Simon rushed over to Roy and carefully, but quickly, administered the insulin, “there, give it a moment…” he soothed, once Roy felt a bit better, the two guided Roy to the support ship where the crew remaining on the ship took Roy to the hospital in the ship.

“Alright… let's see if we can get into accommodations,” Nicolas suggested, Simon nodded, the two navigated inside, gasping at the sight of the mutilated bodies they saw once they reached accommodations, Simon felt sick at the sight, thankful he couldn't smell through the hazmat suit, the two men had to crawl through the vent to reach further, the two walking around cautiously.

“Eghn.. Cannae leave it like this..!”

Simon froze at the growl he heard. Nicolas also paused. The two both recognized the voice. Simon would never not recognize that voice. “Trots…?” he mumbled, looking towards where he heard the voice from. It sounded… odd, distorted. “Trots! Where are ye!?” Simon shouted, Nicolas looking alarmed suddenly when he spotted the figure slide into the hallway, “Trots-!?” Simon shouted, interrupted when Nicolas yanked on his shoulder.

Simon gasped when his eyes met the eyes of the familiar figure a few feet away, taking a step back, “what the fuck happened tae ye-?” he wasn't allowed to finish tentacles shooting out of the meaty growth of Trots body as he launched towards him, “Nae! Trots!” he shouted, just barely avoiding his head from slamming into the door behind him when Trots leapt on him and knocked him down.

“Ye shouldn't be here!” Trots howled, clawing at the mask of Simon's hazmat suit, Nicolas scrambling away in panic unsure what to do.

“Trots! Nae! Stop it! Iain, please! It's me! Simon!” Simon shouted frantically, the creature, no, Trots froze, eyes widening, he winced and slid off of Simon who scrambled back until his back pressed to the wall, chest heaving with the sudden adrenaline as he watched Trots’ mutated form recoil and claw at his own scalp.

“Simon, Simon…” Trots whimpered out.

“Iain… I- I'm here… i- it's alright, we're here tae help ye-” 

“Look at me.. Agh!” Trots quivered, curling into himself a bit, Simon took a deep breath, before slowly shuffling over to Trots.

“...Simon…!” Nicolas whispered in protest, but too scared to actually do anything.

“H- hey, I- Iain… uh- T- Trots… I'm right here…” Simon whispered, reaching over slowly, Trots flinching away.

“There's nae way tae tell ye, Simon…” Trots cried, “just nae way at all… Oh God…”

“Nae way tae tell me what…?” Simon muttered, shuffling closer insistently and gently placing a hand on Trots shoulder, the man flinched but did not flee this time, looking up at him with cloudy eyes, his glasses cracked and damaged.

“God…! Look at me…!” Trots began to sob, Simon cooed at him trying to calm him, hand sliding up from his shoulder, up his neck until he was cupping his cheek.

“Shh… I got ye, I'm right here, Trots, let's get ye outside…” he whispered, looking at Nicolas who gulped and nodded, using his tools, they were able to travel down to the Crew lounge, where they could see the ship, they called in to have the crane moved and were able to use it to descend back onto the ship, Simon and Nicholas having to work together to haul Trots’ heavy ass onto the ship, they put him into one of the void rooms since the ship doesn't have any isolation rooms and they don't know how aggressive Trots is.

Simon stood by the room for a few minutes until Nicolas practically dragged him back onto the deck, the rig was quickly starting to sink so they were rushing to find all the survivors and infected, they shoved every infected into a seperate locked void room a lot of them were extremely aggressive and were complicated to get onto the ship, but they eventually managed, the hardest parts were Margaret and Simon needing to surgically remove some of the infected crew members from the walls.

When the rig was too far for it to be safe to keep up the rescue, the crew was forced to return to the ship and begin sailing away, Simon and Margaret stood together for a few minutes, watching the rig sink as they sailed away, they planted explosives on the rig, courtesy for one of the crew members, Finlay, who suggested they do that, to avoid the… weird shit… from spreading.

“I'm sure we got everyone who's alive,” Margaret said, interrupting Simon's thoughts, the doctor looked at the woman, nodding, “you should go check on the Baira D. crew members… and if you can… would you mind getting me a blood sample from each of them, if possible?”

“Aye… I'll see what I can dae,” Simon nodded, taking a deep breath, “this is some freaky shite,”

“Agreed, and now it's our job to take care of them best we can,” Margaret said, putting a hand on Simon's shoulder, “one of the infected… uh… Ewan Muir I think his name was, he's in a void room between the left ballast tanks, he refused to part with a crew member by the name of Terry Innes, Muir seems to be the tamest infected, so… see if you can get an x-ray and some other simple tests on him, maybe we can find a way to treat them, I'll be down in a minute… I have to deal with that first…” Margaret gestures at a storage container, the container containing the rig's diving bell and the poor bastard who was mutated partially inside it.

“Aye… will dae,” Simon nodded before walking off and entering the building on the main deck, going into the hospital room, looking at the men and the one woman in the room, “uhm- hello… I'm uh… Simon Stewart, I'll be, uh… yer doctor…” he introduced, smiling nervously as most of the people looked at him.

“Simon Stewart? The one Trots was always on about?” the woman, Finlay, spoke up.

“Aye… aye that's me,”

“Had nae idea ye worked at Cadal… as a doctor nae less,” the diver, Brodie, spoke up.

“Ah, I'm uh… technically I'm a surgeon but I dae a lot of medical work unrelated tae surgery, since Cadal won't hire more medical staff… so… it's just me and my coworker Margaret Aldridge,”

“Aye… did… Did you get Raffs by any chance? I saw yer crew hauling in the infected…” Brodie asked, brows furrowed in worry.

“...Raffs?” Simon said, confused.

“Aye… uh… Rafferty, he… he's the laddie who's in the diving bell…”

“Och, yeah we got the lad, he's on the deck in a storage container… Margaret is working with him right now,”

Brodie nodded, relaxing slightly with a sigh of relief.

“So, uh.. dae any of ye feel sick? Any injuries or issues? And if ye think ye're infected by that… thing… let us ken immediately,”

“I'm feeling much better after you helped me out,” Roy said, smiling slightly, the man next to him, Cameron McLeary, nodded, the man having stuck to Roy's side like glue ever since they were reunited.

“I've had this killer headache… but it left when we got away from the Baira,” Cameron said, Simon nodded, picking up a clipboard with check-up pages on it, noting down names and symptoms, “I think I have a few bruises tae…”

Simon checks up on the rest of the men and Finlay, they ended up moving a few of them into void rooms just in case, but they seemed alright other than some minor injuries, a few minor fractures, cuts, and bruises, but nothing untreatable.

Simon left and locked the room, there aren't enough beds for everyone, but it's fine temporarily, the crew provided the infected in void room with spare bedding to at least make them more comfortable, and all infected and survivors were provided food if possible, Simon eventually went to get the blood samples, he got help with some of them, and has to wear a hazmat suit while handling the infected just in case.

When he reached where Innes and Muir were contained, he was surprised when he wasn't immediately met with aggression, finding Muir's massive form stuffed into the too-small space with his weird arm things holding Innes who was now conscious, looking up to see Simon.

“Dr. Stewart?” Innes said, sounding calm, Muir shifted, his many eyes opening and looking towards Simon who shifted uncomfortably.

“Just Simon is fine,” the doctor murmured, slowly approaching, he reached towards Innes, seeking to get a better look at him to check for any issues, but froze and shuffled away when Muir growled like a dog.

“Aye, Muir it's fine, he's a doctor, he's just going tae make sure I'm alright,” Innes said, Muir quieted, grumbling, Simon reached over again to Innes and Muir didn't growl this time, “Check my leg, I think it's injured, it's all numb and tingly by my angle,” Innes said, Simon nodded, checking his leg, the calf bone on his left leg was broken, but nothing Simon couldn't take care of, so with great caution and care, he treated the injury with the many tools he brought with him, getting more comfortable when Muir showed no more signs of aggression.

“That should be good… just keep off yer leg for a bit, aye? I'll get ye some crutches if we have any on the deck,” Simon said, Innes nodding with a smile of appreciation, “uh… Muir… would it… be okay if I took a wee blood sample…?” Simon said, nervous, but asking instead of forcing like he had to with the other infected.

Muir grumbled, before shifting and responding, “Aye, make it quick…” Muir said, his voice having that weird distortion to it.

“Aye, thank ye,” Simon nodded, he very carefully got a couple vials of blood from Muir's fucked up arms, before storing it away and standing, “...since ye're so calm… would ye mind helping me out a wee bit, Muir?” Simon asked, slightly less nervous, “I want tae see if I can treat ye and the others, so… I need tae dae an x-ray and maybe some other scans on ye if ye're good with it,”

Muir was silent for a moment, the silence causing Simon to get nervous again, “aye, but only if I can bring Innes,”

“That's alright, ye both can come along,” Simon nodded, he opened the door of the void room, getting all staff to leave the floor before leading Muir to where they had an x-ray set up alongside some other equipment, they had to take many pictures and takes in order to capture his whole body, but once finished, they returned both men to the void room.

Simon checked on the patients in the hospital before heading up into his stateroom which he shared with Margaret Aldridge, sitting at the desk mulling over the results of the various tests, having also managed to get scans of the motionless and less aggressive Infected such as O'Connor, Roper, Rafferty, and Cranstoun, Margaret sat not even a foot away at the same desk, the desk made for both to use at once, the woman was using a microscope to look at the blood of the various infected, to find trends and testing the infected DNAs reactions to different chemicals.

Simon perked up slightly as he noticed something within the masses on the scans, realising something huge , “Maggie!” he exclaimed, the woman lifting her head to look at him with wide confused eyes, “I know how tae fix them!”

“what-? What are you on about?” Margaret questioned.

“Look!” He lifts one of the x-ray images of Muir, “right here!” he points at the middle of the mass.

Margaret narrows her eyes at it, not seeing it, “what? What's there?”

“Look closely!” he grinned, holding it closer to her face, her eyes suddenly widening, “ye see!? their bodies are still in there! From looking at these images, it looks like there's a singular point which the infection bursts out of, mutating the body tae engulfing the rest of the human form, the body is still in there, even if damaged, they all seem at least mostly recoverable!”

“I see it! My God, Simon, you're a genius!” Margaret cheered, grinning and patting Simon's back, “we'll see how we can do on them tomorrow, for now… let's get some sleep, can't have you doing big operations like that on no sleep,”

Simon chuckled, nodding, he got into the top of the bunk, Margaret taking the bottom, “aye, ye're right, tomorrow… we fix this.”

It took a while for Simon to fall asleep, but when he did, he had a surprisingly decent sleep, the next day was spent fully taking care of the injured survivors and making operation plans for the infected who seemed simpler, due to being tame, Rafferty.

Once that day passed and the next arrived, they were ready, all staff stayed inside after the diving bell and Rafferty were removed from the storage container, Margaret and Simon would have to do this operation as a team of two, it wouldn't be easy, but its better than nothing.

First order of operation, they pumped the bastard with a shit ton of anesthesia until they were sure the infected was out, hard to tell when their face was always making the same expression.

They started by removing the larger masses of unneeded flesh, which were all stored in a designated container with a sturdy lock they'll be shoving in the freezer, they had to get more careful as they reached where Rafferty had been infected and burst open, they were able to remove him from the bell, the bell being discarded into the water once all remnants of infected bits were removed, they weren't too far from the Baira yet so it may be believable that it got this far, maybe.

They couldn't find one of his legs, eventually discovering it had melted into a useless mass of meat alongside the excess flesh, so they weren't able to recover him in one piece, but luckily, they were able to put his organs all back with minimal damage and leaving him almost completely normal looking, besides some abnormal skin here and there.

When the operation was done, Rafferty was put into the hospital room once they had confirmed that he couldn't spread the infection anymore, and once placed in there, the survivor Brodie thanked them rigorously and refused to leave the younger man's side.

Great, now they just have to do that with everyone else…

The next one they treated was O'Connor, who was no longer motionless, instead he was always curled up in the void room he was stored in with the provided blankets wrapped around him, he'd been provided tons of pain medications up until this day, it was easier than treating Raffs, they removed the pieces of excess that clung to his arms, and operated carefully around the extension of his spine, which they left alone mostly, only shifting its position a bit to prevent it from pinching nerves anymore and to lessen pain from it, he too was allowed to leave the void room after treatment due to not being able to spread the infection anymore either.

They did the next operation a few days later, now on Roper, who'd been fully unconscious and unmoving for days now, they still administered anesthesia, before removing the body melded into his back and fixing the growth on his torso, some of his ribs were permanently mutated and stuck sticking outward, so those were left alone, they couldn't remove the arms of the person melded into Roper's back for safety and health reasons, so they were left, as well as some masses on his back that were too risky to remove, after being operated on, Roper woke a few days later, same day the ship docked to resupply before sailing off again, this time with no destination in mind.

Next was Alex Cranstoun, he was easy, the man was found in a vent barely alive when he was saved, he only started mutating once on the ship, so they removed the growth in the target area and the mutating stopped, some parts of mutation were left due to now containing essential parts that couldn't safely be changed, moved, or removed, he was never contagious so he was let out of the void room.

Two weeks after the rig rescue mission, Margaret made a great discovery, a chemical composition that could be put into a pill form and taken by infected that stopped the mutation from growing, allowed the infected to regain their sense, and stops them from being contagious, all infected were directed to take this medication, Memoria Carnis , every day with breakfast, all infected were no longer dangerous and hazmat suits are no longer needed.

After this discovery, the operations went much quicker, and everyone infected was fixed up to the best of Simon and Margaret's abilities.

An infected crew member, Cameron McLeary, who they didn't know was infected until much later, volunteered to not take the medication so Simon and Margaret could learn about the infection by seeing the process, they allowed it since Cameron McLeary was not contagious or aggressive despite infection.

Chapter Text

Caz never expected to be rescued, frankly he would've expected Cadal to kill them off themselves before they even consider saving them, yet here he is, two or so weeks after they got off the Baira D.

He doesn't know why he volunteered to not be cured, it fucking hurts, even with the pain meds, and his eye is always itchy with the little coral-like growth growing from his tear ducts, his spine always ached and now he has this weird tiny tail thing, he's gotten used to it mostly, but it's still annoying.

“Hey Caz, how do?” Roy said when he saw Caz enter the galley, the Harvey Support Ship crew was thrilled when Roy began cooking, because apparently they didn't have a cook.

“Aye, I'm awright, what about ye?” Caz said, smiling when Roy handed him a tray of food.

“I'm good, hope you enjoy what I've cooked up, had to experiment a bit with the limited options,”

“Aye, I appreciate any scran made by ye, Roy,” Caz smiled, Roy chuckling and nodding.

“Whatever you say, McLeary,” Roy said, Caz turning and going into the mess, where he sat beside Brodie and Raffs.

“Good morning, Caz,” Brodie greeted, Raffs giving Caz a small wave, he wasn't very talkative before, much less now.

“Good morning Brodie, how's the wee lad?” Caz asked.

“He's getting better, finally getting used tae the prosthetic Nicolas crafted up for him,”

“Aye? Well that's good,”

“How's the growths?” Brodie asked, brows furrowed in concern, “Doesnae seem comfortable,”

“Nae, it's nae the best, especially annoying on chairs,” Caz huffed, slouching now due to being unable to comfortably rest his back against the chair, “but that's nae new, I'm getting used tae it,”

“Better than nothing, eh?”

“Aye, guess so, nae head pains or anything recently either,”

“That's good tae hear,” A new voice spoke up, Caz gasped, turning at the new voice joining the conversation.

“Jesus Simon! Ye're going tae give me a heart attack!” Caz said, glaring half-heartedly at Simon who grinned sheepishly.

“Sorry, McLeary,”

“What are ye even doing here? Ye dinnae usually arrive here this early,”

“Oh, I came tae fetch ye,”

“Och, now?”

“Well- I can wait, dinnae stress,” Simon assured, putting his hands up as if in surrender, “...guess it wouldnae hurt if I had brekkie today…” he murmured, going to the galley and returning with a smaller breakfast, sitting beside Caz, “has anyone had any troubles recently?” Simon asked as he sat.

“Raffs here has been healing well, but Gibbo has been complaining about his third arm tingling and going numb,” Brodie said, humming in thought.

“Aye, that's tae be expected when ye have an extra limb ye're nae supposed tae have,” he hummed, “how about Roper? Have ye spoke?”

“I have, Roper has the same issues he's been having for weeks in his new arms: pain, numbness, weakness, the usual,” Caz said, nodding.

“Aye, nothing new then… I'll have tae speak tae him myself later though,” Simon smiled, deciding to free them of discussion of their health, they eat together with occasional talking, and once finished, Caz follows Simon out to his room, which doubles as Simon and Margaret's office, Caz sat on the cozy cushioned chair near the lockers in the corner, while Simon sat in his desk chair, picking up his clipboard and spinning to face Caz.

“So… is this just a usual check-up?” Caz asked, Simon nodding.

“Aye, just like I said last time, we need tae keep an eye on yer health since ye're infected and nae taking the medication,” Simon said, Caz nods, already knowing that, “so… any issues? New symptoms, growths?”

“Nae, eye is still itchy and back achy, but that's nae new… I'm scunnered with the pain, but I'm getting used tae it, the only new thing is my chest has been bothering me more than before,”

“Awright, dae ye mind if I look ye over?”

“Go ahead,” Caz said, pulling off his shirt as Simon stood, Caz also standing so Simon could get a good view of his back and chest, Simon observing curiously and taking notes.

“This is new…” Simon said, reaching over to gently rub under the coral-like growths between Caz's pectoral and abdominal muscles, under the growths, a small slit formed, “ye got a scar or something here,”

“Jesus- that feels fucking weird,” Caz grumbled, looking down at Simon's hands, he wasn't the most comfortable with being touched, but it was necessary in this case.

“Aye… I need tae dae another Ultrasound on ye, tae check on yer internals, wish i had a CT scanner,” Simon muttered, once Caz had his shirt back on, they head to the hospital room and Caz laid in his designated bed.

“It feels unusual tae get ultrasounds so much, ye'd think I was a pregnant woman,” Caz mused, Simon chuckling as he set up the scanner.

Caz was once again stripped of his shirt, and Simon checked his entire torso, checking around the coral-like growths last, Simons eye's widening as he observed, “what the hell…?” Simon muttered, Caz looked freaked out by Simon saying that.

“What? That's nae exactly something anyone want tae hear their doctor say-”

“Ye got… more organs?” Simon murmured, going over a few times with the transducer, “Aye… I think ye're growing gills… underneath the growths,” 

“Like… fish gills?” Caz asked, brows raised in surprise.

“Aye… Aye, like fish gills…” Simon puts the ultrasound stuff away, letting Caz get up and put his shirt back on, “but ye still have human lungs so… that's good, eh?”

“Aye, it is, I still want tae breath on land, thank ye,”

Once Simon left, Caz sighed and laid in the bed, only a few people were still in the hospital room, the rest of them assigned a bed in the stateroom unused by the Harvey Support Ship crew outside the hospital, it's convenient too, being the room next over, but some people do have to share a bed since capacity is limited.

Caz got up and went up to the top bunk to lay down, the bottom one was actually shared by Raffs and Brodie, which the two men had agreed on, since Brodie was a fatherly figure for Raffs, it wasn't so odd.

Caz lays on his stomach with a pillow under his belly so the growths aren't crushed, it wasn't very comfortable laying on his back anymore. He sighed, looking out the window. It was a small window, but he could see the North Sea through the glass.

“Cameron McLeary.”

Caz snaps out of his staring at Rennick's voice, narrowing his eyes and looking over at the wheelchair bound prick, “what dae ye want, Rennick?”

“Ye looked like yer head was gonna melt from zoning out so much,” Rennick scoffed, chucking a newspaper up onto Caz's bunk with his mutated arms, “Nicolas picked up some newspapers from shore last night, I was told tae gie ye one,” Rennick grumbled, lifting himself from his wheelchair and sitting in his own bunk, the bottom one of the bed beside Caz, Brodie, and Raffs’ bed, the top bed of Rennick's bunk was Gibbo.

“Thanks,” Caz said, unsure what else to say, he took the paper and looked through it, scanning the page and stopping at one article. “Baira D. Oil Rig Run By Cadal Oil Ltd. Mysteriously Blows Up, Families Gather to Mourn Together” the article read, “shite…” Caz murmured, looking at the grainy photo of the families of the “lost” men, “I miss my wife…” he mumbled, he vaguely recognized a few faces in the picture, but did not see Suze or his weans.

“My twin grandchildren are on the cover…” Rennick suddenly spoke up again, Caz looking over curiously, seeing the unnaturally soft look on his ex-bosses face.

“Aye? Which one's are they?” Caz inquired.

“The two boys on the left, with square glasses… I was supposed tae be looking after them this Christmas… but Cadal gave me more shifts instead,”

Caz's eyes widened, having not expected the genuineness of Rennicks words, Caz looked at the paper, seeing the two boys, “aye… I promised my weans I'd be back for Christmas… but I wasnae…”

The two men sat silent together, and oddly enough, Caz felt like he just bonded with Rennick, as if they just got closer, even if just a little.