Return to Camelot
Nate recovered quickly from the mild queasiness he still felt after long jumps. He could see a battle being waged below them, but from their altitude, he couldn't hope to see Ray. "The Arthurian Legends book said King Carson was... was killed in a place called King's Clearing. Supposed to be north of the battlefield."
"Got it." Mick guided the jump ship north of the main battle. Nate could see a small group of people in a clearing, separated from the main battle by a narrow belt of trees. He couldn't make out what they were doing, but something told him this was the right place.
Mick brought the ship down inside the belt of trees, far enough from the small group that their landing wouldn't be noticed. They left the ship and ran back toward the clearing as fast as they could. Nate listened for any sounds coming from the clearing, but couldn't hear anything except their own footsteps and the more distant hum of the main battle. The quiet didn't sit well with Nate, and he pushed himself to run even faster.
When they were level with them, Nate stepped out of the trees and looked toward the small group. His stomach clenched and he froze. Mick came to a halt next to him, and they stared at the scene.
It was Ray. He lay on his back, head and shoulders cradled in the arms of a brown-haired man. A third person knelt beside the brown-haired man, his helmeted head bowed. Ray's hand rested on the brown-haired man's face. The man nodded and Ray's eyes closed, his hand went slack, and his head slumped back.
The man cradling Ray let out a guttural scream that seemed to pierce Nate's very soul. The man clutched Ray to him, rocking and sobbing violently. The other man took off his helmet and lowered his blonde head to the ground.
Nate shook his head, gripping his hair with both hands. He felt like he'd been kicked in the chest - unable to breathe. His eyes blurred with tears. "No. No, no, no, we're too late. We're too late! No! Ray! Ray!"
Nate ran full speed across the clearing. The two men looked up in shock, and Nate had the unnerving experience of seeing his own features mirrored on another face. It was strange to see a slightly-altered version of Constantine staring at him, too. But Nate knew about these two from Ray's letters, and he wasn't deterred by the strangeness.
Constantine clearly had no warning, and he jumped to his feet and stepped around Ray. "God's blood! What devilry is this?" He put a hand out to James telling him to stay, then charged forward, sword drawn. "Back, foul shade!"
Nate stopped short, fighting hard against the urge to steel up. "Let me get to Ray! I have to get to Ray, I have to-"
"Stay back from our king, face-stealing demon!"
Mick caught up to him, and Nate heard the telltale whine of the heat gun charging up. "Back off, blondie!"
Constantine paused a second at the sight of Mick's gun, but came forward again. Nate was about two seconds from steeling up, timeline be damned, when he heard a shout from James. "Stop!" Nate looked toward James, flinching when he saw the dark blood staining the young man's hand as he reached for Constantine. "Don't prevent him, Sire. For the king's sake!"
Constantine's eyes narrowed. He kept his gaze locked on Mick, but spoke to James in a surprisingly gentle tone. "What do you mean, lad?"
"This man is no shade, Your Grace. If I am right, he is a good friend to King Raymond." James looked at Nate, his too-pale face streaked with tears. "You are called Nate, are you not?"
"Yes, I am," Nate said hoarsely, stunned that James knew who he was.
"He is a friend, Your Majesty," James said. "A dear friend of King Raymond. The king... mistook me for him the day we met. Please. Let him through, Sire."
At that, Constantine lowered his blade and Mick lowered the heat gun. With a sympathetic look at Nate, Constantine stepped aside. Nate ran the last few feet toward Ray.
He staggered to a halt the moment he got close enough to really see Ray. His stomach lurched, and he fell to his knees with an agonized groan. Ray's face was unnaturally pale and there was blood trailing from his mouth. An arrow protruded from his chest, and there was a gaping wound in his abdomen large enough for Nate to see... too much. He squeezed his eyes shut against the horrific sight, chest heaving with sobs.
"I am... so sorry, sir," James said. "His... h-his final words were for... me to tell you he loved you."
Nate cried out as if he'd been hit by a physical blow. He covered his face, crying even harder. After a second he felt Mick's heavy hand on his shoulder. He looked up and saw Mick looking down at him, his eyes red. Mick moved closer to Ray and knelt down. Nate could hardly force himself to look up, but he kept his eyes on Mick and tried to avoid catching sight of Ray's body.
Mick bent down close to Ray and looked at his abdomen closely for a few seconds. Then he put his ear close to Ray's face. His eyes narrowed, and he reached for Nate. "Pretty. Dog tags."
"What?"
"Your grandfather's dog tags, give 'em to me." Nate pulled off the chain with shaking hands and gave the tags to Mick. Constantine came closer, and they all watched as Mick rubbed one of the dog tags against his shirt. He held it right under Ray's nose, and Nate suddenly knew why he wanted them. He felt sick with nervous anticipation.
After a few seconds that seemed to last years, Mick's shoulders slumped and he sighed. Nate's gut twisted, but when Mick turned back to him, he was smiling. "He's alive."
"What?" Nate whispered.
"He's alive!" Mick stood up and handed the dog tags back to a wide-eyed Nate. "Gonna get the ship. Stay with him."
Mick ran back toward the jump ship. Nate smiled at James, who barely dared to look hopeful.
"What does he mean, 'get the ship'?" Constantine asked.
Nate stood up and looked at Constantine. "Listen, we're going to have to take him away to help him."
"Take him where?" Constantine snapped. "He cannot be moved even a few feet, much less taken on a ship! Or is this some vile trickery?"
Nate looked at the suspicion on Constantine's face, and imagined trying to explain things. He sighed and steeled up. Constantine jumped back, and while he was still stunned, Nate knocked him unconscious, caught him and lowered him gently to the ground.
He relaxed and un-steeled before looking toward James again. The young man crossed himself and stared fearfully at Nate. "Don't be afraid, James," Nate said. He came back and knelt across from the frightened man. "Listen to me. I'm not going hurt you. I'm sorry I had to hurt him, but I don't have time to explain, and he won't understand. I think you will. You say Ray... King Raymond told you about me?"
James nodded. "He s-said you were his closest friend."
"He's mine, too," Nate said. "I love him more than life itself." Nate heard the jump ship approaching. James looked up nervously.
The jump ship touched down, still cloaked. The doors opened and Mick came trotting out. "Oh, God," James whispered, gazing in terror at the ship. "God help me."
"James." The young man looked back at Nate, startled. "I need you to trust me, okay? I would cut my own heart out before I would ever hurt Ray. We have to take him away from here to help him."
James looked down at Ray's face for a second. Trembling, he looked at the doorway, up at Mick, then back to Nate. "You can save him?"
"Yes."
"Then you must take him."
Nate smiled. He and Mick carried Ray to the jump ship, moving as quickly as they could without jostling him too much. James came with them, walking beside Ray and watching him closely. When they got to the door, Mick and Nate carefully maneuvered Ray onto the floor of the jump ship.
"I'll secure him somehow," Nate told Mick. "Constantine needs a flash. Back before you discovered Ray wasn't..."
Mick nodded, grabbed one of the flashers and ran back to where Constantine lay. Nate looked around for a way to secure Ray against the movement of the ship. He paused when he caught sight of James staring into the jump ship with something like horror in his eyes.
"Hey," Nate said, coming to the door. "You okay?"
James looked down at Ray, and his eyes started to shine again. "He never really belonged to us, did he?"
Nate shook his head. "No," he said gently. "But he's loved Camelot since he was a little boy. So in a way, he did belong to you, and he always will."
James looked at Nate and smiled when Nate nodded. "Will you t-tell me if..."
"Yes, I'll find a way to let you know. I promise."
"Thank you, sir."
Mick came running back. "It's done. What about him?" He pointed to James, but Nate shook his head.
"He won't tell anyone about us, right James?"
"Right," he said, looking nervously at Mick.
Mick "hmmmmed" and clapped James hard on the shoulder. "You're a good kid," he said in his usual gruff tone. Then he stepped in. "Gotta move, Pretty."
"Okay." He turned to James, talking fast. "Constantine won't remember anything after Ray- King Raymond died. You have to make something up. He can't know the king is still alive. It would cause havoc to the ti- the kingdom. And obviously he can't know about this," he said, gesturing to the ship.
"I understand. I'll think of something."
"Good." Nate put a hand on James' shoulder. "Thank you. For taking care of him while I couldn't."
"It was my honor, sir." With another worried glance at Ray, he said, "Goodbye, and God speed."
"Good luck, James."
James backed away from the door, and Nate closed up. He quickly found some storage boxes and tucked them on one side of Ray. Then he lay down on the floor beside Ray and braced his arms against the storage boxes, effectively wedging Ray in. He steeled up and looked at Mick. "Ready."
"Hang on."
The ship lifted off and Nate held tight through the jump. The trip was bumpier than usual when riding it out from the floor instead of safely strapped to a chair. Nate focused on keeping Ray still as possible. He kept holding on through docking with the ship. Mick touched down as softly as he could, but there was still some jostling that couldn't be avoided.
Feeling a little paranoid, Nate pulled off his dog tags again and held them close to Ray's face. "Mick! He's not breathing!"
"Get him up, we gotta move!"
They got Ray up and raced through the ship, toward the med-bay. They passed Sara and Z on the way. "Is that-? Oh my-"
"Gotta move!" They pressed themselves to the wall as Nate and Mick sped past. Sara frowned, and Zari held a hand to her mouth and made a wretching sound.
Nate and Mick burst into the medbay and laid Ray's body on a chair. "Gideon?" Nate snapped, clamping the bio-monitor to Ray's wrist. "He's not breathing! Can you help him?"
"Dr. Palmer's brain is still functioning, Dr. Heywood."
"Oh, thank God!"
"Providing oxygen and heart stimulation now. However, he has suffered severe abdominal trauma, and will likely bleed to death if the damage is not repaired immediately."
"What can we do?"
"Please remove Dr. Palmer's shirt without disturbing the arrow shaft. Then I'll need the gastric regeneration shield."
"The who-"
"Got it," Mick said. "Get his shirt." Nate found scissors, while Mick pulled a broad, white, u-shaped object from a low cabinet. Mick nodded at Nate, and he hastily cut Ray's tunic away from the bloodied arrow and carefuly took it off, gritting his teeth against nausea as he pulled the blood-drenched cloth away from Ray's stomach. As soon as Nate finished, Mick placed the hood over Ray's, covering the horrifying wound. Mick clamped the hood to either side of the chair, and it lit up as Gideon's scanning beams moved over Ray's body.
Nate struggled to hold it together while Gideon worked. He watched the large screen with its angry warning lights. Blood pressure, oxygen level, pulse - everything was dangerously low, while most of his organs flashed white on the screens.
"How is he?" Nate glanced at Sara before gazing back at the screens again.
"Not good, I'm guessing," Nate said. "Gideon hasn't said a word since Mick got that hood on."
"Dammit," she hissed. "I put a hold on anymore time jumps until he's better."
"What about the storms?" Mick asked.
"Settling down, since we fixed the first anachronism. We still get hit with waves, but they're not hurting the Waverider."
"Good."
"Please stand by to remove the arrow from Dr. Palmer's torso," Gideon said.
"Are the feathers already gone?" Sara asked.
"Yes," Mick answered. "Broke off in the battle."
"I'll clean it up," she said. "Can we move him safely, Gideon?"
"Yes, Captain."
Nate helped tilt Ray slightly so Sara could cut the rough, broken edge of the arrow shaft. Soon after, Gideon asked them to remove the arrow. Nate slowly pulled it out, panicking for a second when Ray's lung started to collapse. But Gideon repaired the damage quickly, and Ray's labored breathing settled down.
Finally, after what seemed like ages, Gideon announced that she was finished. "I have repaired the physical damage. Dr. Palmer is now stabilized."
"Thank you, Gideon!"
"You're welcome, Dr. Heywood."
"Good work, Gideon," Sara said. "Is there anything we can do for him?"
"Thank you, Captain. I would recommend refraining from any time jumps for at least twenty-four hours to allow a full recovery."
"You got it, Gideon." Sara clapped Nate and Mick on the back. "Good work, guys. I know you're not gonna listen to me, but you both look exhausted. You should get some rest."
Nate was about to protest when Mick startled him by saying, "You're right." Sara and Nate both looked at him in surprise. Then Mick took a seat on the other bio-bed. "We're not listening."
Sara smiled and shook her head. She moved to Ray's side and rested a hand on his forehead for a brief moment. "Get back here on the double, Ray Palmer. We need you out there." She looked up at Nate. "Seriously. You two get some sleep. I'm gonna go tell Zari she can stop puking all over the ship now."
Sara left the room, and Nate took her place beside Ray. "Hey," he whispered. "Rest up as much as you need to, buddy, but... I... Sara's right. We need you out here. Okay?"
He stood there for a few moments, but there wasn't even a flicker of change in Ray's sheet-white face. Nate sighed and turned away. "Here," Mick said, hopping off the bed and patting it. "Take a seat."
"What about you?'
"Gonna get a chair. And some beer."