Start of a Lifetime

The next morning I woke up to a pounding at the door.

“Hey sleeping beauty, are you going to wake up and join us or stay here for the next 5 weeks!!!” I heard Guy yell from the other side of the door. And from what I could guess Harry laughing.

“shit.” I realised I overslept myself and jumped out of bed, getting on my clothes in less than 5 minutes. Pulling the door with a force, Harry and Guy stood waiting on the opposite wall.

“I’m sorry guys, I didn’t hear my alarm. Come we should go eat breakfast and leave for the airport.” I apologised, sheepishly as I closed the door behind me and followed behind them.

***

After eating breakfast, we all headed back to put on our gear. Packing our carry bags and left the hotel.

Once we arrived at the plane developed to land on Ice that would take us to the Ammassalik ice sheet. We got our last briefing. “Okay so, Liv will be carrying a satellite phone, if something should go wrong. A medical team will be standby 24/7 until you’re all back including a helicopter. There will be medical check-ups once every 3 days when a doc will visit you guys.

The moment somebody starts experiencing altitude sickness, it must be called in immediately. So that’s its good luck and I’ll see you ‘all in 5 weeks.” Richard one of the co-founders said. The team nodded their head before climbing into the plane.

After a 20minute plane ride, we arrived at our starting point. Unloaded our gear didn’t take us long and before we knew it the plane was gone and we were left to our own devices.

“Well, this is it then,” I said to myself, turning my attention to the team I would lead across the ice sheet. “Okay, listen up!!!” I yelled out.

“From now on I’m the boss if something doesn’t feel right. You tell me and we’ll see what we can do, don’t try to be tough guys I know you’re army guys. But, It’ll only get you bitten in the ass. You all know how to attach your gear. We leave in 15 minutes.“ I announced, letting them know I meant business. If something went wrong, it would be my fault.

No matter how young I may seem to them, they were my responsibilities. After making sure that everybody was attached to their sledge we left.

“Oh, and by the way, it’s normal to hear cracking sounds once in a while, were on a glacier after all,” I said making it sound like the most normal thing in the world. That day I took the lead. We walked for 8,5 hours and covered the distance we should have.

As we reached the spot we’d stay at that night everyone was beyond tired. Putting up the tents took about half an hour.

“Okay, so here’s the deal, tomorrow we leave at nine o’clock. So melt some ice, hydrate as much as you can, eat something and put your head down for the night. If something’s wrong, you can call me anytime, so good night.” I told them, looking at the circular camp we set up moments before.

“Hey, I see you’re already melting ice. Thanks for that.” I said, crawling into the tent that Harry and I would be sharing.

Pulling off my coat, I sat down. I was actually looking forward to sharing a tent with Harry.

Out of all the guys, I felt the most comfortable with him and I knew him most of all.

But I was also scared cause I had started developing feelings for him. I knew that nothing could come out of this, but still, you can’t decide who you start developing feelings for.

He made me feel safer and better; it was like the sun shone a bit brighter, now that he was in my life. “You’re welcome. You want tea or coffee?” He asked. “Tea please, god I feel exhausted,” I confessed, dropping myself to the ground.

“You and me both Sweety?” he chuckled, stirring in the pot with the ice being melted. “Yea.“ I said making ‘my bed’ for the night.

“Hey, you want me to make your ‘bed’ for the night?” I asked him, looking over my shoulder.

“sure, if it’s not too much trouble,” he smiled back at me. “I wouldn’t ask if it was a problem.” I chuckled.

So I made his bed before I moved on to help him prepare some food. After we had eaten our dinner each of us sat down on our ‘bed’ with a cup of tea.

I still had to write the report of the day and had to make sure our schedule was still as it had been planned.

“So, the day went well? We’re on schedule?” he asked , looking over my shoulder. “Yeah we’re on schedule, if I keep going like this we may arrive a day early at the summit. But my experience tells me to never look at the first day.” I told him, putting down my notebook and binder. We talked for a bit longer, but the exhaustion of the day caught up and we got into our sleeping bags and fell asleep.

***

The next morning I woke up with everybody singing Happy birthday.

“Bloody hell, will you get off those cat’s tails,” I muttered, in a joking manner.

They all wished me a happy birthday and teased me a bit about being a year older at breakfast that morning. At nine o’clock precisely, we left for the second day.

The first week went on like that, not having any problems. Except for the exhaustion and sore bodies. Except for that everything was going great.

Each day we reached our goal distance, on some day we even had some more.

We had 2 visits of the docs: to look for frostbite or any other medical problems. All went perfectly until the 9th day. That day it felt like we had only covered a km by noon.

The almost perfect terrain we had experienced the last 8 days was gone. The terrain covered in pointy pieces of ice and uneven ice had made us all fall.

This was typical glacier terrain. But the worst moment happened in the afternoon. I’d heard the ice crack, the sound being the only thing resonating through the air. But that was nothing strange here, we were, after all, walking on moving ice. I was the last one in the line, Harry was walking first.

I heard a sound that wasn’t familiar or normal here. It was like the ice was tearing apart, echoing through the empty vastness of Greenland.

The entire team stopped walking at looked at me. “It’s fine to keep moving, just be careful,” I yelled out, schooling my features: I didn’t want them to worry.

So we kept moving, but shortly after that, all hell broke loose. The ice cracked harder than it had before and there was again that tearing sound.

As I looked to my left I saw that the ice was breaking into, and the fault line was headed my way. “MOVE!!!!” I yelled. “GET AWAY FROM HERE.”

I knew that this piece of ice was breaking off and underneath was freezing cold water. We all needed to get out of there as fast as possible.

I looked towards the team in front of me and saw they had created, some 30 m distance between them and me.

And then it happened as I put my foot forwards the fault line extended and broke. with a splashing sound, I fell into the water.

I held onto my skies and threw my arm to the side, hoping I would be able to hold on to the edges. But still I didn’t have anything to hold on to, a big hole had been created in the ice. My sledge was pulling me down and I felt my head go under.

I gasped from the cold and got water into my lungs. I tried to kick my legs so I could get to the surface. I felt my heart beating so hard, my lungs burning and my body started to get numb. I kicked and kicked my legs and finally I reached the surface.

the coldness seeping through my body, like the blood in my veins, had been made of Ice as it pumped through my body. my teeth already clattering against one another.

It almost felt like my brain was being turned off. losing the control of my body as the cold, freezing water enveloped me.

***

Harry’s Pov

We’d been hearing cracking and tearing sounds for the entire day already, more so than other days. But then again the train had changed from its flat icy cover to an outstretched vastness with spikes of ice and holes.

but then it changed into chaos as I heard Liv scream to move. By the time I had moved forward. I heard a scream.

looking back I saw Liv falling into the ice.

‘Shit’ I thought I throwing my walking sticks to the side. leaning down to disconnect my skies and disconnecting the harness pulling the sledge.

Before I started running in the direction of the hole. I wanted to jump in but, I knew that I couldn’t. that wouldn’t help her one bit.

I got onto my hands and knees trying to see something in the darkness that should have been water.

by then everybody from the team had joined me at the hole. We all screamed for her. calling out for her.

what felt like ages, but had only been a minute and a half she came back to the surface. She was in the middle of the hole. Her teeth clattering from what I could see, her lips having turned a purple, bluish colour.

calling out to her, hoping it would get her attention as she looked around unfaced, losing focus. like the control had left her body.

We all could see that she was struggling. I couldn’t believe that the person I knew I was falling in love with was fighting for her life right in front of me. And I couldn’t do anything about it.

But I knew that I had to keep my head in this situation. to not start freaking out.

I knew that she couldn’t be the leader here anymore, so I started yelling out orders.

“Go back to where our sledges are and start setting up the tent. Try to heat the camp so we can start warming her up when she comes out.” Only Guy and I remained behind at the hole. While the other 7-team members started setting up the tents away from the broken ice.

“Liv, come on, you need to get here,” I called out to her trying to keep her attention hoping that she wouldn’t go into shock.

She started swimming towards us, only then I saw that she was still attached to her sledge. On one hand, I wanted her to lose the sledge, cause that was probably what was pulling her down. we could see her fighting to keep on the surface.

But on the other hand, we would need the satellite phone that was in her sledge including other things. : like her clothes hopefully, the sledge had been kept water sealed.

From the moment we could reach her we started pulling her out.

followed by her sledge that was still attached to her. I started checking her out. At this point, she was barely reacting to the outside world.

Her heartbeat incredibly low and weak. looking back at the other members I saw they had managed to get two tents set up.

“Guy, you take her sledge back, I’ll carry her towards the tents.” I directed, looking down at her lifeless body laying on my knees. As I took her into my arms with the greatest and softest of care I could manage. I couldn’t help but feel like she belonged there in my arm.

I hoped that we could warm her up and reach the medical standby team. When we reached the camp I got into one of the tents, laying her down on the ground.

I started undressing her. My medical training from the army taught me that she needed to get out of her wet clothes, in order for us to warm her up.

undressing her felt like I was doing something I shouldn’t do. Especially after hearing her talk to Conrad. but what other choice did I have? undressing her to her underwear. I laid her down in the sleeping bag and covered her with as many blankets as I could find.

Making sure she was still breathing, I went outside in search of the satellite phone.

“Have you looked for the satellite phone?” I asked the guys.

“Yeah, we did and found it. But it broke water damage. The tarp covering the sledge was torn and water ran into it.” Mark explained, holding up the phone, water seeping out of it.

“Shit, whose brilliant idea was it to only have one satellite,” I asked looking towards the guys, but they weren’t at fault, though.

“Okay, so I guess that she doesn’t have any dry clothes or sleeping bag?” I assumed

“Not, as far as we looked, the food everything else is still dry cause of it’s sealing.” Guy informed me.

“Great, well, we might as well set up camp and prepare for the afternoon and evening, is that our tent, she’s in?” I told the guys, they’d set up camp a 250meters away from the hole and the terrain here was relatively flat. “Yes, it is I took it out of your sledge,” Mike replied, nodding back to the tent, Liv was still unconscious in.

As the rest of the team started setting up their tents. I pulled out Liv’s sleeping bag and some clothes to dry inside our tent.

When I got back inside the tent Liv was still unconscious or sleeping. Pulling off my jacket I laid it over her. Starting to melt some ice to prepare the food.

While I was waiting for the water to melt I tried to repair the phone. deciding to open the phone and let it dry next to the fire.

After a little while, Liv woke up with a groaning sound “What the hell happened?” she inquired her voice gruff and hardy.

“You fell through the ice and lost consciousness,” I informed her, getting up and crawling to her, pushing back her hair.

“Shit, did anybody else fell in?” she questioned, looking around our tent.

“No, it was only you,” I told her, still recovering from seeing her in the damn hole.

“Thank god for that,” she muttered softly. After telling her the short version of the event she was hell bent to go and check the other team members for herself.

I lend her some of my clothes and she went out to check the other members. I knew that she would want to carry on tomorrow without getting checked by a doctor. She said that she was feeling all right, despite the cold.

That woman was so stubborn, he hadn’t met women that stubborn and independent as her.

***

Liv’s Pov

“So, tomorrow we leave again at nine,” I said, getting back into the tent that I shared with Harry.

“You sure that’s a good idea?” Harry questioned, looking up at me.

“Yea, I’m sure. I assure you I’m fine. I’m still a bit cold, but I’m fine. Is my sleeping bag dry yet?” I asked Harry, looking around the place.

“No, I think it will take another day, your clothes are half dry, they should be completely dry by tomorrow,” Harry told me in an assuming tone.

“Thanks again for everything you did, I heard what you did, so thanks.” I thanked him, hoping it was enough, but he’d basically saved my life. how could I ever repay him for that?

“Your welcome and you would’ve done the same.” he stated with a smile.

We talked for a bit longer before I realised another problem.

“Hey, how are we supposed to sleep, I mean I’m wrapped in your sleeping bag, mine’s still drenched,” I questioned, looking down at the sleeping bag I was sitting on, which was Harry’s.

“I’ll just sleep with a blanket and with my jacket on, you take the sleeping bag.” Harry pointed out.

“No, no way you’re getting cold tonight.” I couldn’t believe I was about to ask this. I’d never slept with men under the same sheets but he’d been so nice to me this whole trip and now with the accident.

Sure, it would help my attraction towards him, but anyway. ”How about we put the mattresses together and share the sleeping bag?” after discussing it for a little bit Harry finally agreed.

The next morning I felt a bit sore but that wasn’t anything too bad. Nothing I couldn’t handle.

After basically begging the guys to leave. telling them I was fine. They finally agreed to carry on with the expedition.

So that day, we carried on as and by the end of the day, my sleeping bag was dry.

***

Week 2

After last week’s dive in the cold water. I’d been checked by the medical team the evening after the accident. After making sure I was 100% okay, they had let me carry on as the expedition guide.

We’d gotten two new phone this time. The rest of the week went by uneventful. It was a pretty easy expedition, without too much trouble and I was really enjoying myself.

Only one problem my attraction towards Harry was getting bigger and bigger. Sometimes I would just stare at him while we were eating and since we slept together the night of the accident. Harry proposed to share the two sleeping bags.

Something about having more warmth if we were sharing body heat as well. Yeah, that is going great. Every day I’m falling more and more for him. And I know that he wouldn’t want anything to do with me after this expedition I couldn’t help it. But I have 10 more days to go and then everything will be fine.

***

Week 3

21 one days had gone by. We had five more day’s to go and we would reach the summit. My attraction had only multiplied for Harry and we were growing closer still.

But this, the attraction towards him couldn’t keep going like this. Thankfully, I had 10 more days before we reached London again.

We still shared the sleeping bags and by now we were practically sleeping in each other’s arms. My back towards his chest.

I didn’t mind a bit, but that wasn’t helping anything on my part. The expedition itself was a bit ahead of schedule, so that was great.

Except for a few bloody noses this week, nobody had any terrible problems. Of course, everybody was getting exhausted and beyond sore and had blisters all over their feet. But all together it was going great.

****

The last evening.

After we had settled for our last night on the ice. I had gone a bit outside the camp and sat down to reflect the expedition and myself.

a little while later Harry joined me. “Hey, what’s wrong?” He asked, sitting down beside me.

“Nothing, just thinking,” I told him, keeping my eyes on the stretched out plains.

“About what?” he questioned, 'damn him and his questions’ I thought to myself. he was worse then women sometimes.

“On one hand, I’m happy it’s almost over. But on the other hand, I don’t want to leave.” I admitted, being here had been had been great. having a chance to gather my thoughts again.

“Yea, I know what you mean.” He confessed, shuffling a bit closer. “You do?” I asked, surprised to find out he felt the same.

“of course, here you’re free. You don’t have to worry about everyday problems. In my case, I don’t have to worry about the paparazzi following me around. Or having to be followed by Protection offers.

Here I can be myself. An army guys between army guys. I don’t have to worry about anything.” He told me with a sigh as his eyes looked over the vastness of Ice as well.

“Yeah, it is. But for me, it’s still a bit different. I mean here there’s nobody around. You don’t have to worry about people finding you; you don’t have to worry about anything. The only thing that matters is this.” I said, explained, taking my eyes off the sheet of ice for a second to look at him.

“Yeah, you’re right.” He said, nodding his head. After talking for a bit longer we went to bed for the last time.

The next day we reached our destination. Finally, after 25 days on the ice, we’d made it.

Everybody of the expedition team started hugging each other once they reached the plane. Yes, press was present recording the moment but no one cared as we had reached our goal.

Everybody hugged each other and everybody cried of joy, of having made it after 25 days.

Putting our gear on the plane, we boarded ourselves. This time, we would fly to Reykjavik without stops.

That evening when we landed and arrived at our hotel we celebrated until the early hours. We’d made it after 25 days of hard work we had reached our destination.

After a little while, it was a little too hot in the bar so I went to the private balcony. Nobody could see me here it was hidden from view and that’s what I needed now a little solitude.

After 20 minutes or so Harry joined me. “Hey, Can I join you?” he asked me, looking down at me a glass in his hand.

“Of, course,” I answered, looking up, making a place for him.

“Searching for the last piece of solitude are you?” He asked me, looking at me as he sat down.

“Yeah, you could say that. Tomorrow I’m back home where my friends moved in by now and the day after tomorrow we leave on holiday.” I told him, taking my eyes off the surroundings of our hotel and at him.

“Well, you deserved it, it’ll do you good to spend some time on holiday, you blew up your holiday for us after all. Where you going?” he asked.

“Well, normally we would be going to Cancun. Luke promised me he would get me a holiday the day after we arrived. An hour ago I got an email saying that he booked us a resort on Mystique.” I explained.

“I’ve heard it’s a wonderful place. Wills and Kate go there every year.” He smiled, looking ahead.

“I know,” I smiled, sheepishly.

“Yeah, I forgot you were a fan of my sister-in-law.” he smiled in a sweet way.

“Yeah, sorry for that,” I said looking down at my hands

“Can I ask you something and it’s okay if you don’t want to answer.” He asked looking down at his hands, wringing them together.

“Sure. Ask away.” I replied, tilting my head, giving him my full attention.

“Okay, when we left London I overheard you and Conrad speaking. About being scared of him finding you, now that you would be on television. Who are you so scared of that you fled your home country and still flee the UK, where you came to be safe you said?” he said looking me right in the eyes, shuffling the tiniest bit closer.

'Oh god, what the hell should I tell him, ‘Should I tell him the truth or lie.’ I thought to myself as I broke eye contact. Looking over the balcony.

But I couldn’t lie to him. I respected and loved him too much, already. 'Why did I have to fall fo him so quick and hard?’ I asked myself.

By the time I had sorted my mind, Harry had taken my hands in his and was wiping away the tear that ran down my cheek. “My father,” I whispered, looking up at him, our eyes connecting.

I wasn’t sure if he’d heard me. “What did you say?” He said.

“My father, that’s who I’m running away from,” I told him, looking at our now intertwined hands, while more tears ran down my cheeks.

“Hey, look at me, he won’t find you. I promise. I won’t let him find you and I won’t let him hurt you.” He said taking my face in his hands.

“Why would you do that? I’m just a stranger to you.” I told him, shaking my head.

“You know why?” He asked me wiping away my tears. “Please, don’t be mad about what I’m going to tell you, or don’t run away. So you want to know why?” He asked. “Yes,” I answered.

***

Harry PoV

“Because I love you, I know that we haven’t known each other for a very long time. But whatever this is between us feels right to me.

I’ve never been happier than now. You make my life a little easier. And whatever happened between you and your father, I would like to know, so that I can protect you from it.” There I put it out and I hoped with every fibre of my being that she loved me too.

Cause I knew that she was the one for me. Nobody else would be her and would be able to compete with her. If she didn’t want me then there would be nobody else for me.

I looked at her face that had completely drained from its colour. “Say something,” I begged of her, squeezing her hands in mine.

“Please don’t tell me I’ve screwed this up.” I hoped I hadn’t. I would have her in my life, no matter what. If she didn’t love me. I would have her as my best friend, cause that’s who she was to me already.

“You can’t.” I heard her say. “Why can’t I love you,” I said, looking her in the eyes, putting my forehead against hers. “You just can’t,” I questioned, not understanding why.

“Tell me, why can’t I love you. Cause there’s nobody else but you for me. Do you have a boyfriend that I don’t know about?” I asked her, hoping the answer was no. Cause I hadn’t heard her talking about a boyfriend and with the way she travelled I doubted she had one.

“No, there isn’t. There’s never been a boyfriend that’s the point. You can’t love me. Cause I’m not capable of having somebody, I’m not capable of…” she started rambling and shaking her head.

“Why aren’t you capable of having somebody, cause I’m getting the feeling that you’ve got feelings for me. Otherwise, you would have told me that you didn’t love me.” I challenged her.

“I’m not capable having somebody cause I’m scared to be hurt. I’m scared of the future and most of all I’m scared of what that person might do,” she told me sniffling.

“You don’t think I would hurt you, do you. I would never hurt a woman on purpose.” I told her, rubbing my thumbs back and forth on her cheek.

“I know that you’re too sweet to hurt somebody, but, God, I don’t know.” She said throwing her hands in the air and losing the contact we had. I took her hands back in mine.

“Tell me what you feel, what do you feel for me?” she looked down at our intertwined hands for a minute.

I felt a few of her tears touch my hands. But I didn’t want to let go of her hands.

“I have feelings for you too.” She whispered, I barely heard it, but I did, and in that moment I couldn’t wipe away the grin that broke out on my face.

I took her face in my hands and made her look up at me. “Hey, you don’t have to be scared of me or anybody.”

“We’ll take things slow, okay?” I told her wanting to assure her I would do anything in my power to protect her.

“I don’t know Harry I need some time. I need some time to think this through; I’ve never had a boyfriend before. There are things, horrible things that you don’t know and I’m afraid to tell you, cause when I do, you will go away.” She told me with tears running down her cheeks.

Whatever had happened to her must have traumatised her. But I didn’t want her to be scared anymore.

I wanted her to be happy. “Hey, I would never run away from you no matter what,” I promised her and I wouldn’t. I couldn’t walk away even if I wanted to.

“Yea, we’ll see.” She stated her eyes locking with mine and I saw the distrust in them.

“How about this, you think some things true while you’re away to the Caribbean, think about us. Cause I really, really want you to be my girlfriends. So go away to the Caribbean, think things through and give me an answer when you come back.” I suggested hoping she would do it.

“Okay, I’ll do that. I promise to let you know when I come back from the Caribbean,” she said.

We talked for a bit longer about different things before she suggested we should go to bed. So I walked her to her door and went to my own.