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“I think I feel something,” he announced.
“I’m coming over,” Ellie declared.
He held up a hand. “Wait there.”
Adam dropped under the water. He popped back up again a moment later.
“There’s a tunnel,” he announced.
Ellie pushed from the wall and swam across the pool to join him.
“A tunnel?” she echoed as she arrived.
“Three, maybe four feet wide,” he confirmed.
“We must try it,” she declared firmly.
“Not we,” Adam returned as he leaned down to reach under the water, hopping a bit awkwardly as he did so.
He pulled a sodden boot to the surface with a splash and thrust it at her.
“Hold that,” he ordered.
“Surely the risk would be minimized if the pair of us—”
“Nope,” Adam countered, tugging under the water again. “I’ll be back in a minute. Well… maybe a little more than a minute.”
“Bates…” Ellie protested. He tossed the other boot at her and she caught it awkwardly as he moved away. “Adam!”
He paused, and then turned back to catch her by her belt and haul her closer for a sudden, firm kiss.
He smiled at her through the dark.
“That sounds nice,” he concluded, and then dropped below the surface.
“Grrraaaah!” Ellie kicked at the water as her frustration peaked. She was still clutching Adam’s wet boots. “Incorrigible, arrogant, reprehensible—”
She forced herself to take a breath as she fought for calm… and then hesitated thoughtfully. She shifted her grip on the boots, took a deeper breath, and held it.
And held it.
The breath came out of her in a whoosh as her lungs burned with desperation for air.
The water before her remained still.
It was taking too long.
The realization sparked a quick panic. She could not lose him. Not now. Not like this. Not when she’d only just started to realize… to admit…
She would go in after him. Ellie quickly knotted the laces of his boots together and slung them over her shoulder. She hopped awkwardly, her balance off thanks to her buoyancy in the water, until she had yanked her own boots free.
She would dive in there and pull him back out again. And if he was… If he wasn’t… If she had to…
“Stop it,” she said aloud to herself, firmly as she tied her own laces together. “Stop it, stop it, stop it. Just go. Just…”
She took a quick, deep breath—and then another, readying herself to dive. She tried desperately not to think of how it had already been too long.
Too long.
