The rain has lightened and I’m not sure how this boat hasn’t sunk…but it hasn’t. About an hour ago, I had a panic attack. I thought I was going to die from lack of air and realizing that Guy and Luke aren’t coming back for us. They really left us and that hurts worse than anything. Our job is search and rescue, and here we sit two US Coast Guard faithful, stranded and waiting.

The waves are making me nauseous and Nixon asks me, “You okay?”

“I need air,” I tell him and he says, “Let me go check on the conditions.”

“NO!” I screech, knowing how easily we can get separated. “We’ll go together.”

“Okay,” he agrees, not arguing. “On the count of three,” he tells me and then counts. The second that he says “three,” I breathe in before we go under, pushing off the boat with my feet. As we surface, the rain is lighter and you can see the storm moving away, but the waves are still heavy. “Let’s try and get on the boat using the motor to climb up on.”

We move around the back and I grip it, then Nixon pushes my ass up with one hand and I lose contact with him. Right away, I panic, but I’m on the boat and he’s pulling himself up too. I straddle it like I first did when I came down, and he does the same. He’s exhausted; I can see it all over his face.

Leaning over, I hold his hands so we stay connected and tell him, “Thank you for not leaving me.”

“Cam, I’ll never leave you again, no matter what.”

“Thank you.”

“You’re everything to me.”

“Me too.”

“I love you, Cam.”

Those three little words are the first he’s ever said to me. We never said it when we were younger, even though I think we both felt it.

“I…I love you, too. I always have. I’m sorry I made us come to work today.”

“Don’t be sorry. We’re together, and that’s all that matters. Everything happens for a reason and here we are.”

“You really feel that way?”

“Yeah, I do.”

I can’t stop the tears, feeling so emotional, so lost out here. “Are we gonna die?”

“No, not a chance in hell. We could survive for months, and you know the entire Coast Guard is out looking for us.”

“Why hasn’t anybody come yet?”

“I don’t know, but they will. We’ll stay with the boat, and it won’t be long.”

I nod, knowing that he is right, but as the sun begins to set and nightfall isn’t far away…I begin losing hope.

“Don’t fall asleep, baby.” Nixon shakes me by my hands, and I blink heavily.

“Just five minutes?” I ask, the swaying motion and pure exhaustion making me so tired.

Then there it is…the sound we’ve been waiting for. “Do you hear that?” he asks me.

“Yeah, it’s a boat!” We both begin to wave our free arms at the small watercraft, being sure that we are still holding hands with the other.

The boater seems to be coming right towards us, but it’s not the Coast Guard. “He sees us,” I exclaim.

“I know.”

As the boat pulls up, there are a few fishermen on board. “What are you doing all the way out here?” the man driving it asks us in his thick tropical accent.

“We’re with the US Coast Guard in Florida and were attempting a rescue when we both fell from our aircraft,” Nixon says.

“You’re far from home, my brother,” the man says.

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“You’re five miles off the coast of the Bahamas.”

“What?” I shriek.

“The Gulfstream must’ve pulled ya. Which is a good thing. I hear Florida is getting hit hard by that storm,” the man says. “We can take you back to our place?”

“Okay,” Nixon agrees; we don’t have any other options. We need to get to safety.

The men help us climb on board, and I’ve never felt better.

I cling to Nixon and he asks them, “What are you all doing out here?”

“Fishing!” He nods his head and another guy opens a huge cooler packed with a ton of fish.

“Thank you for stopping,” Nixon says. “You have no idea how grateful we are.”

“Of course, my man, it’s what humans do, we help each other out. Were you guys out here long?”

“I’m not sure,” he says, and that’s the last thing I remember…

* * *

“Baby, wake up,” Nixon says and I fight to open my eyes. The engine to the boat cuts off and everyone starts to clamber onto the dock. Nixon boosts me up as another man grabs ahold of me until he gives me back to Nixon.

My eyes follow the long dock that leads to an old tropical hotel. There are tiki torches lining the walkway and Nixon says, “This place is beautiful, Beni.”

“Thanks, it’s been in my family for over fifty years now. This is my wife, Tama.” We shake her hand as she greets us and he says, “Could you set them up in a room and bring them some food? They were stranded.”

She nods shyly, smiling. She’s a gorgeous woman, but a woman of few words.

I’m still wobbly as we follow her into the office of the hotel and she grabs a key off the wall, then leads us to a room. “Here you go,” she says quietly, opening the door to the cozy space. Right away, Nixon looks in, then says, “Do you have a phone I could use?”

“No, no phones here.”

“Is this good?” Beni asks, popping his head in as his men carry the coolers with fish behind him.

“Yeah, um…no phone though?”

“Oh, no. I’m sorry. I didn’t even think about that. We could take the boat where you can make a call, probably three hours? But it needs gas and I’m afraid they’re closed for the night.”

“What?” I shriek, feeling so lost. But at the same time, if I was to have to get on another boat, I might be sick. As much as I love the ocean, I don’t think I could go near it right now, even if I had to. Going through what we did today was the scariest thing I’ve ever endured.

“We’ll go in the morning,” Nixon says, “This is great. Thank you both so much. We’ll pay you back.”

Beni and Tama close the door and I slide down the wall, sitting on the floor with my knees huddled to my chest.

“You all right?” Nixon asks me, panicked, and I swallow the tears. Not even knowing myself if I am.

“What the fuck are we gonna do?” I’m still in shock with everything we’ve been through and scared that no one knows where we are.

He sits in front of me, resting his arms on his knees and says, “We have a plan, we’ll call home in the morning. We should feel very lucky to be on land and safe and together.”

“What’s the chance that the one person who finds us has no way to contact anyone? What about on his boat, does he have a fucking radio?”

“I looked, Cam, and he doesn’t, but who cares? They left us, they can wait ‘til morning. ”

“Nixon!”

“I’m sorry. It’s going to be okay, babe. We’re safe now. If back home is getting hit by the storm, then they can’t search for us and are probably without power too.”

“They are going to be worried sick.”

“Good. They fucking deserve it. They abandoned us.”

I still can’t believe that Luke and Guy actually left us. Our number one rule in the Coast Guard is to look after your team.

Reaching down, he unzips my vest and says, “Let’s get you out of these clothes.” I agree and let Nixon help me stand so he can undress me. I’m wobbly as he takes all of my layers off and once he finally puts the robe from behind the door on me he says, “Why don’t you lie down?” And I couldn’t want it more.

“How are you so steady?” I ask.

“I’m a SEAL, babe, I lived in and on the water for four years.”

He takes an extra blanket out of the closet and wraps me in it. He strips naked and wraps a towel around his waist. Then pulls the covers back and lies down himself. Just then there is a knock on the door and he answers it. Tama has a huge tray of food and sets it on the bed in front of me. “We stay in room two, if you need anything.”

“Okay, thank you very much,” I tell her.

She leaves and I grab something fried off the plate shoving it into my mouth.

Nixon smiles, watching me eat it, then does the same. “Are those conch fritters?”

“I don’t know, but they’re so good.”

We eat in silence, not really saying much. My mind is racing so fast, I couldn’t make a coherent statement if I tried. After everything that we went through today, from almost dying to now being secluded and stranded on a tropical island, I can’t help but feel there is someone or something behind all of this.