Under The Weather (Deep Blue Sea, Janice) Finished Dec 5 -23

[EveP]

12 hours ago, Chanel_no5 said:

But hopefully this fic won't be a disappointment, at least.   I know how the story ends now, and I'm super excited to get to that part, but there will be at least one more part before that.   Thank you so much! 

 

So far it's anything but disappointing. However, I don't want it to end...

[Chanel_no5]

Well... I don't want it to end either because I'm having so much fun writing, buuuuuut... the story decides its own course.   I love that I've been able to work around the movie events and even use some lines from the movie (and from deleted scenes) in these next parts, but I won't tell how.  What happened though is that what I thought would be two parts, will be three parts.  

There's... more drama than caretaking in this part though.   It was fun writing, I hope it makes for a good read as well.   (and the fever dream thing was an idea from a friend on tumblr, an idea that I absolutely loved and wanted to use.)

***

 

 

Jim jolted awake several hours later from the sound of urgent knocking on the door. At first he was confused about what he was doing here, then he remembered. He glanced over at Janice, who was curled up next to him, tangled in the blankets and sheets and so deep asleep that she didn’t even twitch at the knocking. Not that she’d be likely to hear anything over the sound of her own snoring either way. The poor woman was so congested it sounded like it hurt.

Careful to not rouse her from sleep, Jim slid out of bed, grimacing at how uncomfortable his sleeping position had been, and headed for the door.

“Jan, I need to speak to you,” Susan’s voice – scratchy but still steady – came through the door. “Look, it’s important. It’s about the project.”

She banged her fist against the door again.

“Jan!”

Jim opened the door, blocking the doorway so she couldn’t get in.

“Jan is sleeping. What do you want, Susan?”

Susan did a double take but recovered quickly.

“Oh, I see the knight arrived after all. Protecting the damsel, are you?”

“Cut the crap. What do you want? Jan has a fever and I’m not waking her up unless it’s really important. If you tell me what it’s about, maybe I can help instead.”

“How much do you know about shark behaviour?”

“I’m a neuroscientist, not a marine biologist.”

“Exactly. So wake up the marine biologist and tell her to meet me at the wet lab.”

Jim crossed his arms over his chest and glared at Susan, who gave him a look that was near desperate.

“Please Jim, it’s important.”

Jim ran a hand through his hair, thinking hard.

“Alright,” he said eventually. “But while you’re waiting, I suggest you think of how to apologise to her.”

Susan didn’t reply, she only turned and walked away. Jim considered flipping her the bird behind her back, but ultimately decided against it. Instead he went back inside and sat down on the bed, reaching out to gently shake Janice awake, but before he could, she began tossing in her sleep, ragged breath quickening, she was whimpering in her sleep and the whimpers were punctuated with coughs.

“Jan,” he said, putting a hand on her shoulder, “wake up.”

She fought him now, thrashing in the sheets, coughing, screaming, and he grabbed her a bit harder than he wanted to – she was so delicate, he was afraid he’d hurt her – and shook her.

“Wake up, Jan!”

Her resurfacing from the nightmare that plagued her was like seeing her resurface from shark infested waters, a look of sheer panic and desperation on her face, and she clung to him like he was the life raft.

He wrapped both arms around her and held her tight. She was soaked in sweat, hot as burning coal, and he could physically feel her heartbeat, fast and fluttery, like a frightened bird.

“It’s alright Jan, it was just a nightmare, it’s alright Jan, I’ve got you, I’ve got you, it was just a nightmare,” he murmured over and over until she started to calm down.

“Oh my God,” she wheezed and launched into a harsh coughing fit that shook her body – and by extension his too – then wrapping the fit up with a couple of really rough, heavy sneezes that he felt the spray from all over his shoulder. He didn’t care. What he cared about was calming her down, any means possible.

“It was just a nightmare,” he said again, and this time Janice actually looked at him like she was 100% back in the waking world again.

“I’ve never had a nightmare that real before,” she said, eyes wide with terror. “The test sharks…” she turned away and coughed into a loosely curled fist before she could continue; “you and Susan ended up using gene therapy after all, to speed up trials when Chimera Pharmaceuticals wanted to terminate the project.” She sniffled thickly and coughed again. “And the sharks, somehow, got smarter. And they started attacking us. All of us. It ripped your arm right off. And then the rescue helicopter crashed. A shark dragged me underwater. I was sitting in its goddamn mouth! Oh my God.” She put both hands over her face. “Oh, cue the goddamn waterworks again, I’m sorry, I’m such a crybaby today,” she sobbed.

Jim thought he might have cried if he’d had that kind of nightmare himself, but he wasn’t going to admit that. As he had already pretty much said, he viewed Janice as the strong one because she accepted her sensitivities. He, like most people he knew, just pretended to be tough.

“Don’t worry about it,” he said, stroking her back as she fought to get herself together. “It’s probably the fever. It’s not unheard of to get particularly vivid and terrifying nightmares when you have a fever.”

“Yeah,” Janice said in a choked voice, but she sounded more in control now. “Yeah, I know, that’s probably it.” What she didn’t add was that it felt more like premonition than a fever dream, because how could she, a scientist, argue that, especially to another scientist?

“I wish I didn’t have to tell you this, but Susan asked for you. She needs to see you in the wet lab. Something about shark behaviour.”

“Now?”

He made a gesture that seemed almost apologetic.

“Yeah.”

Janice’s jaw tightened as she bit back a profanity a little bit worse than ‘goddamn’, then she sighed and nodded.

“As long as you come along. I’m not being in there with her alone. I’m not so ‘kind’ I won’t say something I’ll regret if she pushes my buttons. Not today.”

“Sure,” Jim agreed.

***

After Janice changed into a pair of jeans instead of sweatpants – the wet lab meant a great risk of getting splashed with water, and Janice only had one pair of sweatpants with her, no way was she going to gamble with whether she could wear them later or not – she and Jim walked through the complex maze of corridors leading to the wet lab.

Janice had taken an Aspirin before leaving her room and it was actually helping her sharpen up a little bit. Which was a good thing, because you didn’t get many mistakes working and living like this. Her sinuses hurt, though, and standing up straight and moving somehow made the congestion chafe against the inflamed mucus membranes, giving her a near-constant need to sneeze that never really came to fruition.

“How have you managed to work with her for seven years?” Janice asked as they walked. “I’m done with her after a year and a half.”

“Well, that’s thanks to Ophelia,” Jim said. “My second, and most expensive, wife. She was a lot like Susan. I soon learned that the best course of action was to just shut up and let it wash over you, and eventually she’d turn her acid-spewing onto someone else.”

“Sounds like a l-lovely… huh… marriage… huhIKTSSCHHeww!”

“Out of the frying pan into the fire,” he said absently, and Janice wasn’t sure if he meant his marriages or working with Susan. “How did you get dragged into this project? I don’t think I ever asked.”

“She wanted marine biologists who were local to this area and had experience with shark biology.” She sniffled hard. “Which aren’t hard to come by. I pushed a little harder than the others because I had a personal interest.”

“How so?”

“My grandmother had Alzheimer’s.”

“I’m sorry.”

“She never got aggressive, the way many Alzheimer’s patients do. She was quiet, always sweet. Sometimes she was worried, but she was never aggressive. Sometimes she knew who I was. Most of the time not.” She coughed before she could keep talking; “But there was always some kind of recognition, she knew I was someone she cared about, even if she wasn’t sure who exactly I was. Sometimes she called me Erin; that’s my mother’s name. Sometimes she called me Colleen, that’s my great aunt’s name. But it didn’t matter what she called me. She somehow knew she loved me, even when she had gotten lost in time.”

“You miss her very much.” That wasn’t a question.

“Yes.” The hopelessness in that single-syllable word was deeper than the ocean. Then she seemed to shake it off and continue:

“I hoped this project would eventually lead to… I don’t know, providing a map for those with the disease, so they could find their way back to the present. If I could be part of that discovery…” she smiled and trailed off, not quite sure how to continue, and Jim didn’t push her. “Anyway, I thought Susan had the same idea, given her own experiences. But now I think we approached this quite differently.”

“You are very right about that,” Jim said.

Reaching the wet lab, Janice visibly steeled herself before walking inside.

“I’m with you,” Jim reassured her and followed her down the stairs to where Susan was, staring at a computer monitor.

***

”What do you want, Susan?” Janice asked. She didn’t have much left in terms of a voice at this point, but she tried to speak through it anyway.

“Take a look at this footage,” Susan said. “Does this look normal to you?”

Janice leaned forward, but that made her nose run again, so instead, she pulled out the chair and sat down so her eyes were at the same level as the screen. Her eyes were watery and the grainy image on the screen made it difficult to focus, but that didn’t matter. What she was looking at wasn’t just not normal, it was impossible.

“Sharks can’t swim backwards,” Janice said. “They need to always move forward, that’s the only way they can take up oxygen.”

“Guess these have learned to hold their breath,” Susan said.

“Hold on…” Janice squinted at the screen. “Are they… backing away from something?”

“They are,” Susan confirmed. “Carter thought they were getting a bit too cosy up to the cage corridor through the underwater pen, so he pulled the tranquilizer gun out to have it handy.”

“You’re telling me they recognised and recoiled from the gun?” Janice said, shaking her head. “That is learned behaviour. That’s… that’s not…”

“Possible?” Susan said, and Janice nodded while turning away to sneeze. “That’s what I thought.”

Janice sneezed again, really using her whole body for the action, and then straightened up, wiping her streaming nose on her sleeve. Susan gave her a disgusted look that Janice didn’t even care about anymore, she was way too miserable in her own skin to care about what others thought of her.

“What can cause them to do this?” Susan asked. Janice shook her head.

“I told you, it’s impossible. They can’t. They’d have to be way smarter than they…” she fell silent and her eyes widened. “Susan, what have you done?”

Susan squirmed and looked down at the floor.

Jim, sensing that Janice was near her breaking point now, stepped up and put a hand on her shoulder. She was so tense it was as if her body was quietly humming. Jim was upset himself, but right now he thought Janice might be hanging by the very last frayed thread of patience, and if he had to hold her back, he would. For Jan’s sake. Not Susan’s.

“You did something to the test sharks, didn’t you?” Janice said. “What?”

Susan sighed and sat down.

“The hormone therapy took too long, I knew we’d at least have to begin trials within the next couple of months or Chimera would terminate the project. Shut us down, just like that. I couldn’t let that happen.”

“What did you do to those sharks?” Janice asked again, and now she wasn’t just concerned, now she was terrified.

“I used gene therapy. I only meant to increase the brain mass, and it looked promising…”

“You made them smarter.” Janice felt like she’d had the wind knocked out of her, and this time that sensation had nothing to do with the cold raging inside her. “Didn’t you?”

“It seems like that could be a potential, undesirable side effect…”

Janice began to laugh. It wasn’t a laugh sprung from humour, but rather bitterness and anxiety.

“An undesirable side effect, yeah, I’ll say! You don’t want sharks any smarter than they already are! Have you looked at those teeth?! These animals are nature’s perfect killing machines. And you thought increasing their cognitive capacity was a good idea? J-Jesus Ch-Chr… hehh… Christ…!”

Janice barely managed to get the words out before she doubled over with a combined cough and sneeze that sounded every bit as messy and overwhelming as it was, then she coughed several times before finishing with two harsh sneezes that sounded like they came from deep, deep within her. She was completely out of breath when she continued;

“You really are a stupid bitch!”

“You can yell at me and insult me all you want, but if it works, it’s worth it,” Susan said. Janice shook her head, a look of pure shock written all over her face, and she turned to Jim.

“Please tell me you didn’t know about this.”

But the shock on his face mirrored her own, and he slowly slumped down on the nearest chair, covering his mouth with one hand.

“Do you understand what you have done?” he asked Susan. “This research is dead in the water. Literally. Gene manipulation is illegal. We had this discussion the other night.”

“Yes, we did, because I had already seen that it worked, and if you would only sign off on it, we could do it in bigger scale. And openly.” She glared at Janice. “I thought you were as invested in this as I am.”

“I want to find a cure, but gene manipulation is illegal, for very valid reasons.”

“Oh for fuck’s sake!” Susan shouted, straining her vocal cords to the point that her voice cracked and she had to cough. “If we succeed in this, do you really think anyone would care if we overstepped some legal lines?!”

Janice stood up so violently that the movement sent the chair she had been sitting on slamming into the wall.

“Legal lines? You think I’m worried about ending up in court? It’s illegal because we don’t know exactly what we’re creating with it! You’re not even playing God here, Susan, you’re playing Dr Frankenstein!”

Meanwhile, Jim’s attention had been drawn to the other monitor, showing the shark pen and the underwater cage corridor in real time.

“Is Carter coming back up?”

“What? Yeah. He was just checking the cameras.”

“Why?”

“It seems like the Gen 2 shark is, uh, targeting the cameras…” Susan mumbled. “She’s already taken out two of them.”

Jim and Janice exchanged looks.

“Get him back up now,” Jim barked.

“He’s on his way.” Susan coughed again. “Visibility is poor down there, with the storm and all.”

Janice was pacing, running her hands through her short blonde hair until it looked like she was trying for a punk style. The adrenaline rush had kicked in and momentarily overridden most of the viral infection coursing through her body, and the hangover as well, but that was of little comfort.

“Jim, we can’t predict their behaviour at all now,” she said.

He nodded.

“This is just like in my dream,” she said quietly. “We might die here.”

“No one’s gonna die here,” he said. But he didn’t sound convinced, and he pulled Janice close to him as they watched the monitor, waiting for Carter to make it through the cage corridor and back up to the lab… or not.

Edited February 8, 2022 by Chanel_no5

[ID2006]

I love your writing and the fact that you've started writing colds and caretaking... I'm in heaven.

[Purplelily]

Oh no. Now we’ve got two colds and some genius sharks to deal with. Poor Janice! 
 

I have to admit, I’m so hooked on the plot of this now. I haven’t seen the film, but I’m very curious about it now! Amazing writing, as usual! 

[Chanel_no5]

15 hours ago, ickydog2006 said:

I love your writing and the fact that you've started writing colds and caretaking... I'm in heaven.

Oh wow, thank you so much!!   Allergies will always be my own personal favourite, but for some characters, colds just fit them soooooo well...  

10 hours ago, Purplelily said:

Oh no. Now we’ve got two colds and some genius sharks to deal with. Poor Janice! 
 

I have to admit, I’m so hooked on the plot of this now. I haven’t seen the film, but I’m very curious about it now! Amazing writing, as usual! 

Thank you!!   "Poor Janice" is pretty much what I should've named this fic...  Even I feel bad for her, and yet I'm STILL going to make things even worse for her. (she's gonna get soaked. Either in seawater or rain, I'm not entirely sure which yet. Maybe both.  )

The movie is, as someone else commented earlier, not very remarkable. But it did pretty well at the box office in the summer of -99. Most of the characters die in the movie, though, fair warning. And that's why this is both a sneeze/sick-fic AND a fix-it-fic.    Here's the trailer, have a look and see if it seems interesting (no actual deaths in trailer. The 90s had standards.  ).  

 

(you gotta admit, if nothing else, how incredibly hot Jan's voice would sound like with a really bad cold... because it's so pleasant as it is.  )

 

[JayAnders]

I've been obsessed with this character for years! I stumbled across this while googling and -- while I am not exactly a sneeze fetishist -- I am falling in love with this story regardless! Janice has always been overshadowed by Susan (in the movie and in online discussions). Love to see her get some attention and appreciation!

I absolutely adore her hair and perky little nose. She is quite a looker in Deep Blue Sea. I've always had a preference for more down-to-earth girls like Janice. I fantasize about her often.

Your writing is very compelling. The way you portray the characters is very realistic, and it does seem like an alternate version of the movie that never got made. I particularly loved her dream which calls back to the original film. Very clever!

I eagerly await for more!

[Chanel_no5]

On 2/16/2022 at 2:02 AM, JayAnders said:

I've been obsessed with this character for years! I stumbled across this while googling and -- while I am not exactly a sneeze fetishist -- I am falling in love with this story regardless! Janice has always been overshadowed by Susan (in the movie and in online discussions). Love to see her get some attention and appreciation!

I absolutely adore her hair and perky little nose. She is quite a looker in Deep Blue Sea. I've always had a preference for more down-to-earth girls like Janice. I fantasize about her often.

Your writing is very compelling. The way you portray the characters is very realistic, and it does seem like an alternate version of the movie that never got made. I particularly loved her dream which calls back to the original film. Very clever!

I eagerly await for more!

  Oh good God!!!  I'm not sure if I should apologise for inadvertently revealing this weird part of the Internet to you, but... I am VERY glad this is at least a fic with something resembling a plot, so you got something out of it even though you're not a sneeze fetishist!!   I'm not always very plot-oriented in my sneeze fics.   I've never been very fond of the idea that our stuff on this forum shows up on Google searches, but I'm very glad you enjoy this fic, even if it's.... not quite your genre.   And yes, Jan is absolutely adorable.  

Thank you so much!   (I can't take credit for the dream sequence idea though, a friend suggested that one.  )

I hope to get around to the next chapter over the weekend, if nothing unforeseen happens. 

 

ETA SUNDAY: 

Unforeseen shit happened OF COURSE, and I'm gonna spend tonight getting drunk on cheap red wine to cope. Chapter is still in progress though, and will be up shortly. Thank you.

Edited February 20, 2022 by Chanel_no5
unforeseen shit

[Chanel_no5]

Okay guys, here we go! I’m sorry it has taken much longer than planned. I missed out on a chance to get the perfect education for a dream job that could have gotten me out of a life situation I’ll otherwise be stuck in forever, and watching that chance crash and burn really broke me on a fundamental level. I resigned myself to my fate, threw myself a pity party, got drunk on cheap red wine, and tortured a character less fragile than Janice for a day, and then went back to writing this. 🤷‍♀️

This chapter has some action-drama, some cheesiness, lots of sneeziness, and some mess (not described in detail, but it exists and I'm sorry if it's not your thing. It's not my thing either. It just happened.   )

If anyone is worried, let me reassure you, there will be no character death or severe injuries in this fic. 😏

Ready? Okay, let's get on with it! And please let me know what you think, since this chapter is quite different from the rest and it's not my usual way of writing.  

***

 

Carter had left the cage corridor and pressed the button that opened the hatch leading to the pool up in the lab. He was now swimming the final stretch towards it. This last stretch was unprotected, but it wasn’t an area where the sharks often ventured, and the food was released on the other side of the pen.

Jim’s anxiety dropped significantly when he saw Carter approach the hatch; soon they would see him swim through the hatch, and once he was out of the pool they’d close it again. Intelligent or not, these sharks were sea creatures, they couldn’t get onto dry land.

Janice stood next to Jim, and her anxiety levels had not dropped at all. Quite the opposite. She was shaking her head.

“I don’t like this, Jim, you can’t see any of the sharks on any of the monitors.”

“It’s a big pen,” Susan said from behind them.

“Thanks Susan, given that I was the one advising you on the measurements required, I know,” Janice replied.

“She’s right though,” Jim said. “It is a big pen.”

“And the Gen 2 broke some of the cameras,” Susan reminded her.

“Yes, but still,” Janice insisted. “Sharks don’t just stop swimming. They never stop. We should have seen at least one of them, or a shadow…”

Carter left the view of the last camera, and Jim and Susan turned towards the pool in the middle of the lab, waiting for him to surface. Janice’s eyes were still fixed on the rows of monitors, flickering from one to the next, looking for movement.

Then two things happened simultaneously.

Carter broke the surface and started swimming towards the edge of the pool, almost leisurely now.

And a huge dark mass struck the camera closest to the hatch and cut off the view from it.

Janice turned around and screamed:

“Close the hatch, it’s coming through!”

Susan, standing closest to the button operating the hatch, attempted to close it, but it was too late. The shark was indeed coming through, and at a breakneck speed at that. A huge fin sliced through the surface of the pool like a scalpel as the genetically improved predator fish rushed towards its prey.

Carter growled a curse and picked up his pace, reaching the edge of the pool where Jim grabbed him by the arms and hauled him out of the water.

The creature’s enormous jaws barely missed their target, and it flicked its tail as if conveying anger. Susan pounded at the button to open the hatch again and send the shark back into the deep before it could do any further damage, but the furious fish, now being pulled down by the force of the whirling water, thrashed around violently, halfway in and halfway out of the pool. It tossed itself back and forth, like a bucking wild horse, sending water splashing everywhere. The very tip of its tail struck Janice, knocking her to the floor. As the shark sank back down, it sent a flood of water welling up over the edge. Janice was caught by the force of this water rushing back into the pool, and she slid over the edge and into the water with a shriek and a splash.    

Submerged in the cold seawater, Janice’s achy, feverish body was all but screaming at her to ‘please have mercy, I can’t take much more!’, but her brain was in full fight-or-flight mode. Despite her unfortunate tendency to catch colds, Janice was in great physical shape and an excellent swimmer, but the grip of the current created by the flailing shark and the hatch at the bottom was nearly impossible to swim out of.

Susan got down on the floor and reached Janice’s hands just before the blonde was sucked underneath by the forces of the water. Janice fought to keep her head above the surface, screaming in panic so great that her voice almost carried again.

“Susan help me please I don’t wanna die!”

The shark’s massive jaws snapped after Janice, getting so close its razor sharp teeth ripped one of her sturdy hiking boots right off her, leaving a shallow scratch along her calf that bled profusely. The blood drove the shark crazy, and it fought to get close enough to get a full bite, but it was still – though far too slowly – being dragged downwards.

Unfortunately, so was Janice. Susan’s hold of her slipped, one of her hands lost its grip altogether, and Janice once more vanished below the surface. Susan pulled so hard she thought she might tear Janice’s arm right off, but she wasn’t strong enough to get her out of the water, not when the current was competing with Susan to claim Janice.

Then Jim was beside her, promptly plunging his hands into the whirling, chilly water, trying to get hold of Janice. Janice’s grip on Susan’s hand was getting looser, and Susan made one final, brutal pull, using her entire bodyweight and threw herself backwards. Janice, being smaller than Susan both in height and weight, resurfaced, coughing, swallowing water, getting water up her already tortured nose and sneezing repeatedly.

“Don’t let go!” Jim shouted to Susan, whose fingers dug into Janice’s wrist so hard that Janice would find bruises there later, keeping her upper body mostly out of the water. Janice, exhausted and unable to fight the water sucking her down anymore, clung to Susan’s hands so she at least wouldn’t slip back into the water, but had no strength left to fight the pull and heave herself fully up onto the floor.

Jim reached into the water again, silently thanking God that Janice had changed into a pair of good-quality jeans earlier – not for any fashion reason, but because it guaranteed that the belt loops wouldn’t break when he grabbed her by them and pulled as hard as he could, dragging her lower body out of the water too. The shark, seemingly understanding that there would be no snack, launched upwards one last time, mouth open, as if trying to snatch anything or anyone it could reach. Neither Janice nor Susan saw it – Janice was sprawled out on her stomach on the white tile floor, coughing until she sneezed then sneezing until she coughed, while Susan was examining the bleeding wound on her calf – but Jim looked straight into the monstrous mouth and the rows of sharp, deadly teeth, and one clear thought cut through his mind with the intensity of a lightning bolt

This is what you get for fucking with nature.

Instead of getting a bite out of anyone, the shark fell dead into the water a moment later, sinking into the deep, engulfed by its own blood. The deep was calm for a few seconds, then the two other test sharks attacked from two directions and tore it to pieces.

Then the hatch finally closed.

Susan looked up and saw Carter, armed with one of the harpoons. No tranquilizer gun this time.

Jim sank back, breathing a deep sigh of relief.

“Thank you,” he said. “Thank you. I’ll personally see to it that you get sufficiently hammered on the booze of your choice as soon as we get out of here.”

That was not the reaction his colleague had.

“You killed it!” Susan yelled, scrambling to her feet and pushing Carter backwards so he nearly slipped on the wet floor. “You killed it, you killed our research!”

Carter dropped the harpoon and grabbed Susan’s wrists when she came at him again, holding her away from him until she lowered her hands. But her face had a defiant look, and her eyes were stormy, almost insane, even as he let go of her.

“That test shark was the result of years of research, millions of dollars…!”

“It nearly ate me and Jan, or did you miss that somehow?!” Carter yelled back.

“No, but you didn’t have to fucking kill it!” Susan shouted and pushed him again. This time Carter gave her cheek a hard slap with open hand, and Susan fell silent, staring at him with huge eyes.

“I held back on that for days because I never wanted to hit a woman, but right now, you’ve earned it, fair and square. Now shut the fuck up!”

Susan went to sit down on a chair, hand pressed against her stinging cheek, looking glum.

Carter walked up to Jim, who held a violently shivering Janice in his arms, trying to share his body heat with her.

“Is she alright?” Carter asked. He didn’t like what he saw. Janice’s lips were so blue it almost looked like an over-the-top shade of lipstick.

“She’s gonna be fine,” Jim said, which wasn’t the same thing as her being alright at the moment.

He had made a brief assessment of her condition already. The scratch on her calf had mostly stopped bleeding already. It would need to be cleaned properly, but it was shallow enough that it wouldn’t need any stiches. She’d probably get some bruises from Susan’s grip, but that was nothing. She had no other physical injuries that he could see. Jim was more worried about two different things. The psychological trauma, and her cold turning into pneumonia. And somewhat worried about hypothermia too right now, he admitted to himself as the petite blonde – she was fit, but consequently also with very little isolating body fat to help her conserve body heat – trembled in his arms. She was soaking wet; completely drenched. Her nose was streaming, but it was partly concealed by the tiny rivers of seawater that trickled from her wet hair and down her face. Her teeth chattered helplessly.

“I’m s-s-so c-co-cold…” Janice managed to stutter, and then her face contorted into a desperate pre-sneeze expression, nostrils flaring as she sucked in air in hacked-up, shivery breaths between blueish lips, “…n-nose s-so i-it-itch-itchy…”

Then she curled into herself, away from him, and started sneezing again.

And yes, started sneezing, because it wasn’t just one or two sneezes. Poor Janice could not stop sneezing, and even the sneezes had a shivery quality to them as she couldn’t stop shaking either; she quite literally sneezed while her teeth still chattered, and each sneeze was a full-bodied, messy production.

On one hand, Jim was worried. On the other, if she could sneeze this violently, she was certainly able to draw deep full breaths. And the continuous, intense bodyquakes had to be one way – albeit an odd one – to generate more body heat.

For right now, Jim took what he could get in that department, but he knew they needed to get Janice dry and warm and preferably far away from Aquatica as soon as humanly possible.

Janice, safe from drowning in the ocean, now appeared to be at risk of drowning in her own cold, as the sneezes kept forcing themselves out of her, nearly tumbling over each other in their haste.

“HaaaIISSSHH! AaISSSCHH! AhhhIISSCHeew! Oh G-god… aah-djESCHew! Huh.. uhhEESSHHuhh!”

Jim helped Janice stand up, and she leaned against him but turned her head away, sneezing into her freezing hands, shivering and dripping with water.

“Can you walk?” he asked. She nodded, trying with everything she had to suppress the sneezes, force them into retreat, but she was so cold and her body so exhausted, there simply wasn’t enough strength in her to do so. When Jim moved slightly to the side so he could open the doors while still supporting Janice, (and grimacing at the pools of icy-cold water dripping off her clothes) she accidentally sneezed wetly all over his arm.

“I’m s-so-sorr-y….”

“Stop apologising,” Jim said pointedly, shaking her a little, “you just fell into a shark pen, I don’t care if you get snot all over me! For God’s sake, I’m just happy you’re alive!”

He turned to Carter and Susan. Susan was coughing persistently now, but Jim felt no sympathy for her. She may have helped save Janice, but Janice wouldn’t have been in danger in the first place if it wasn’t for Susan.

“I’m gonna make sure Jan warms up. You should do the same. Then gather the others in the cafeteria. We have to talk.”

Carter made a half-hearted salute which would have been amusing under other circumstances but now only made the situation seem even bleaker than it was. Not that Jim’s immediate concern was about the general situation.

All he was concerned about right now was Janice.

***

A short period of time later, Janice was in the shower, huddled under the brunt of water as hot as she could stand.

Jim had made sure she was as alright as she could be all things considered before he agreed to let her be alone. He too was soaked from holding her, and she had sent him to his room to put on a change of dry clothes too. She knew he’d probably catch this miserable sneeze-fest of a cold from her anyway, but they didn’t have to make the risk greater than it already was.

And she needed a few minutes to herself.

She was overwhelmed to a point where she had crossed the line to panic and gone so far into that realm that she had reached a point of calm, almost zen.

If I can get through today, I can get through anything. Anything.

Only today felt like it had gone on for weeks now, with no end in sight.

Yeah, but even today can’t go on forever, she told herself.

The hot steam in the shower cabin loosened up the congestion that was tightly set in her sinuses, and her nose started running again. She groaned at the idea of having to step out of the hot, humid, almost tropical environment to blow her nose, then thought

Oh, what the hell, who cares?

and simply blew her nose into her hands, rinsing them off without looking at them. Being able to breathe freely was a relief, even if she knew it wouldn’t last very long.

She remained in the hot, soothing waterfall, zoning out, leaning her forehead against the tile of the wall, and while she was never going to admit it to anyone, she somehow managed to fall asleep in the shower for a brief moment. She snapped back to reality when Jim knocked on the bathroom door.

“You alright, Jan?”

She cleared her throat.

“Alright is pushing it, but I’m still here. HuhISSSHEW! Still standing.”

“Bless you. Good.”

“I’ll be out in a minute,” she said, coughing as she reached for the shampoo.

“No rush.”

***

A couple of minutes later, Janice emerged from the bathroom, wearing her sweatpants again, along with another comfy hoodie.

“I didn’t know you had such a stash of hoodies,” Jim joked.

“I told you, I get sick a lot,” Janice said, as if that explained her fashion choices. And thinking of it, Jim supposed it did.

He took a good look at her, a concerned frown on his face. Her cheeks were rosy from the shower (and the fever too, no doubt), but underneath, her complexion was still sickly pale, and she had dark circles under her eyes.

“Yeah, I look like shit,” she said and coughed into the sleeve that she had pulled down over her hand the way she had yesterday. “I know.”

Jim gave her hair an affectionate ruffle and placed a soft kiss on her forehead. Janice blinked in surprise, smiled, and looked away, suddenly feeling a pang of shyness again.

“You’re alive,” he reminded her. Then he smiled. “And you smell good.”

“I can’t smell a thing, myself,” she replied, and he chuckled.

“Take my word for it, then. Come on, let’s go get something warm to drink, and talk this… shark development… over with the others.”

Janice smiled and nodded. She was beat, completely running on fumes, she had been closer to death today than ever before, and to top it off she could feel the battle raging inside her between the invading viruses and the tired, poorly equipped defense troops that her body could rally, but warming up and putting on dry clothes had significantly improved her mood nevertheless. At her core, Janice had a sunny personality and once she reached rock bottom, she bounced back fast.

It was another one of her many lovely traits that Jim admired, and that he suspected he was about to fall in love with.

No, he corrected himself. He wasn’t about to fall in love with her. He already had.

So when they made their way to the cafeteria, he took her hand, so gently it was like a physical question. Janice let him. Then she, equally gently, asked her own question by lacing their fingers together.

From there and onward, they both knew the answer was yes.

 

 

Edited April 25, 2022 by Chanel_no5

[Chanel_no5]

I forgot to add this when I posted chapter 6 yesterday;  @JayAnders  I've been thinking, and since I’m only too familiar with the concept of desperately searching for something – anything! – about a favourite character only to find nothing, well… if you contact forum staff and give them your email so they can pass it on to me (posting personal information on the open forum isn’t allowed, and only validated members can access profiles and private messaging), I can contact you outside of the forum and write you a fic about Janice that isn’t a sneeze fetish fic. It wouldn’t be as long, but it wouldn’t cater to an extremely niche audience with preferences you don’t share.   I don't usually do this, but I'm guessing you don't usually sign up on obscure fetish forums over a story about an underappreciated character either, so it probably evens out.   No pressure if you don't want to. Just thought I'd offer, since Jan is a sweetheart and I wouldn't mind writing something else about her at some point.  

[Purplelily]

Oh. My. God. I can’t even begin to say how amazing this was. This should absolutely be called “poor Janice,” because...poor Janice! She seems like such a sweetheart too. And Jim caring for her is just so sweet! I don’t usually like straight pairings, but this is so perfect that I don’t even care. Janice deserves something nice. Now I want to write a cute story with her too, but I have way too many other writing projects 😅

I’m sorry to hear that the pathway to your dream job didn’t work out. I hope other opportunities arise and that you’re coping as best you can  (cheap wine and torturing your favorite characters is also my go to for sucky life situations!) 

 

[NoV]

On 2/23/2022 at 6:11 PM, Chanel_no5 said:

some cheesiness

As someone who loves watching cheesy B movies, I actually really enjoyed this element to the latest update  

On 2/23/2022 at 6:11 PM, Chanel_no5 said:

lots of sneeziness

^And of course, this is top notch. I have been greatly enjoying this story!

[JayAnders]

@Chanel_no5I used the Contact Us form get ahold of someone to see about exchanging emails! Thank you!

Another great chapter BTW! Very tense! I wonder how this is all gonna play out!

[TheCakeIsAlive]

1 hour ago, JayAnders said:

@Chanel_no5I used the Contact Us form get ahold of someone to see about exchanging emails! Thank you!

Another great chapter BTW! Very tense! I wonder how this is all gonna play out!

@JayAndersAll passed on!  Have a good day!

[ID2006]

Was so excited to see another chapter.

[Chanel_no5]

On 2/25/2022 at 8:50 AM, Purplelily said:

Oh. My. God. I can’t even begin to say how amazing this was. This should absolutely be called “poor Janice,” because...poor Janice! She seems like such a sweetheart too. And Jim caring for her is just so sweet! I don’t usually like straight pairings, but this is so perfect that I don’t even care. Janice deserves something nice. Now I want to write a cute story with her too, but I have way too many other writing projects 😅

I’m sorry to hear that the pathway to your dream job didn’t work out. I hope other opportunities arise and that you’re coping as best you can  (cheap wine and torturing your favorite characters is also my go to for sucky life situations!) 

 

I am so glad you enjoy this fic. ❤️ Thank you so much! Yes, she really is "poor Janice", I'm such a horrible person! 😇😅 😈I really do feel bad for her, but clearly that doesn't stop me.. 🤷😂 I usually don't care much for straight pairings either, unless there's real chemistry, and, well... There is between them. Jim adores her and my God does she deserve that!? Yes she does!! 😅 ❤️ Oh GIRL, I would kill to read more about her (or any character played by that actor) so if you ever get around to writing a cute fic about Jan after you finish your other projects I'd read the SHIT out of it!! ❤️ 👀 

Thanks by the way. 🥺 Things were rough for a while, but I'm getting there. Nothing changed except my insight in just how important money is if you can't keep up naturally. Oh well. Thanks for sticking to this fic, just knowing that alone helps a lot. I will update as soon as I can. ☺️ Sorry the next part is taking so long, but I promise I haven't abandoned lovely sweetheart Jan in a bad situation. 😉

 

On 2/25/2022 at 2:47 PM, NoV said:

As someone who loves watching cheesy B movies, I actually really enjoyed this element to the latest update  

^And of course, this is top notch. I have been greatly enjoying this story!

Cheesy can be all you want sometimes. 😋 I was mostly thinking of the romance aspect, but the horror flick parts are a whole other level of cheese indeed!! 🤣🤣 ❤️ I hope you're going to like the next part too, there will be less dramatics but more miserable sneezing and sniffling (without the immediate death threat).. 😉 

On 2/25/2022 at 4:49 PM, JayAnders said:

@Chanel_no5I used the Contact Us form get ahold of someone to see about exchanging emails! Thank you!

Another great chapter BTW! Very tense! I wonder how this is all gonna play out!

I haven't forgotten about the other fic. 😈 

I'm very glad you enjoy this story so far, I'll have it updated as soon as possible! 😏 ❤️

On 2/27/2022 at 8:44 AM, ickydog2006 said:

Was so excited to see another chapter.

Next is in progress! 😉 😈 I'm so glad you enjoy it!! ❤️

 

On 2/25/2022 at 2:47 PM, NoV said:

 

[Chanel_no5]

Ummm, guys… the story has ballooned even more. So after THIS part, there will be two more parts. I think. Unless it keeps getting away from me. 😏

And don't go being fussy about facts now, I’m making up shit as I go.   For example the size of the batteries and where they fit here, because there’s an actual scene in the movie (or a deleted scene) where Scoggs muses about this topic when they search for batteries and then end up using them from alarm clocks, but I figured it was the perfect way to 1) force Jan back out in the storm, and 2) embarrass her thoroughly. Because it’s not like the poor girl has been through enough already. Oh no.   

I'm sorry this part took so long. I hope it's worth the while though.

One more thing; I've stared at the text for so long now I feel snow blind, if there are any typos I've missed, I'll have a look through it again when I've slept.    

---

***

Considering how intense the events down in the wet lab had been, it took a surprisingly short time to tell the rest of the crew about it. The shellshocked silence after this was deafening and seemed to drag out forever, but was broken by a loud booming noise from deep below them, and then the power went out.

The silence became even more pressing.

“What the fuck was that?” Scoggs eventually said.

Nobody replied, until Carter emptied what was left of his coffee and stood up.

“Don’t know, but we’d better check.” He gave Scoggs a pointed look and the other man reluctantly joined him. “It’s probably nothing, just the storm messing with the equipment, but given what the sharks have been up to so far, I don’t put a damn thing past them.”

Brenda stood up too.

“There could be some battery power left in the computer backup, I’ll see if any of the monitors in the pens or lower levels still work.”

“Maybe we should all head up to the comms tower until we know what the hell is going on,” Jim suggested, and Carter nodded his agreement.

Janice was still sitting by the table, an almost finished cup of steaming tea in front of her. From feeling almost okay, she now felt like she wanted to cry. Preacher had promised to make some hot soup for them, and without power, that comfort had been snatched from her. Her throat was sore and tingly, and she felt like every cough turned into a sneeze and vice versa, so she struggled her hardest to suppress both, meaning that when something managed to sneak past her desperate attempts, it quickly became messy. She had a box of tissues with her, and the discarded, crumpled ones littered her immediate surroundings. Her nostrils, the wings of her nose, and her upper lip, were a deep cherry red and painfully chapped.

“Jan,” Jim said in a gentle voice. “Come on.”

She closed her eyes, gathering strength – what little inner strength she still had to call on – to brave the elements. Then she took a deep, raspy breath, finished her tea, and stood up.

She felt like she was on autopilot the whole time they left Preacher’s realm, went into the realm of the ill-spirited weather gods, and then into Brenda’s realm. At least the end destination was the comfiest one.

Once they were all out of their raincoats, the first thing Brenda did was getting Janice a blanket and directing her and Jim to the small couch in the corner, Preacher and Susan to the chairs where they were out of her way, and then she sat down and checked the computer.

“Well?” Jim said. “What about the monitors?”

“Sorry guys,” Brenda sighed. “I hoped there was enough battery saved, but apparently not. They might be functional, but I can’t check them.”

Janice didn’t really listen; she was far too focused on the rising and falling prickle deep inside her nose, a pepper-like burning that made her feel like she might sneeze… but maybe not… but probably… or no… but yes.

“…TSSSHHieew!”

The sneeze came out in one drawn-out syllable and it was so wet it completely soaked the tissue she held up in front of her face.

“Bless you,” the others said.

“Sorry, I’m so sorry,” Janice mumbled and pulled the blanket tighter around her. This was so embarrassing, in her mind she had almost convinced herself it had to be a bad dream.

If it was, it steadily grew worse, because now Carter and Scoggs joined them. Carter was furious and Scoggs looked like he was about to give up. Janice knew how that felt.

Carter grabbed Susan by the shoulders and stared straight into her eyes.

“Those sharks you’ve been playing God with. They have used the cage corridor to bust open the underwater hatch to the maintenance room. It’s flooded, Doc. The entire floor is flooded. The generator. The backup generator. The emergency submarine. Everything.”

“Then we can’t call for help either,” Brenda said. Her beautiful tan had paled into something almost ashen. “We were promised an updated emergency transmitter, but…” she looked at Susan, “…apparently there was a delay.”

Susan only looked away. Carter grunted and let go of her.

“I think I could turn the regular radio into a transmitter,” Scoggs said. “I did that shit for a hobby years ago. But we’re gonna need batteries. Anyone got a battery supply in their room?”

“Well, for the alarm clocks maybe…” Brenda said hesitantly.

“What size are those?”

“Triple As I think.”

Scoggs shook his head.

“Too small. I need double As.”

Silence. Everyone looked at each other, except Janice who had closed her eyes and leaned her head against Jim’s shoulder.

“Well?? Doesn’t anyone have any batteries that size?”

Scoggs looked around.

“Jan and Susan, you’re both young, healthy single women –“

Janice sneezed messily into her tissues twice, as if to contradict his statement about being healthy.

“- you’ve gotta have something in your rooms that runs on batteries.”

Janice groaned – it was unclear if it was in response to what he implied, or just a vocal manifestation of her miserable condition – and leaned her forehead into her hand, swiping the tissues under her chapped, sore nose with the other hand.

Susan rolled her eyes.

“So, what is Brenda then?”

Brenda huffed.

“Scoggs knows I don’t need that stuff, I’ve got him.”

Everybody looked at her, then at Scoggs.

“Thanks for outing us,” he muttered, and Brenda grinned at him.

Preacher threw his arms up in a ‘I can’t believe this’-gesture.

“Are y’all hooking up like this place is the fucking Love Boat? Come on!”

Susan, ignoring the others, walked up to the window and looked out at the storm.

“Jan.” Scoggs looked at her, and he wasn’t smiling. “I’m sorry if it embarrasses you but in case you haven’t noticed, we could fucking die here. We need some way to contact land.”

Normally, Janice would have blushed furiously at his question, relevant to their survival or not, but she was still too frozen for her body to afford any excess of its hot, live-saving blood rushing to her face.

“I have batteries,” she rasped. “I’ll get them.”

“You really should stay here,” Jim interrupted, but Janice had already dropped the blanket and gotten up.

“I know where they are, the rest of you don’t. I’ll get them. It’s alright. I just want off this fucking rig.”

There was a collective flinch going through the room upon hearing gentle, soft-spoken Janice using the F-word.  

“I’m coming with you,” Jim said. Janice gave him a look that he supposed was meant to convey that she rather he didn’t. He didn’t care. “Jan, visibility is near zero and the storm is peaking, I don’t want anyone going anywhere alone.”

Susan was de facto the person in charge here, not Jim, but she had very clearly abdicated her responsibilities, as she sat quietly staring out the window at the roaring waves and whipping rain.

And so they put on raincoats, preparing themselves the best they could to be pelted with the harsh rain and strong winds, and went outside.

Rain, as cold as the ocean she had fallen into just a short while earlier, rapped Janice in the face with an intensity that seemed almost intentionally cruel. Her skin was already sensitive and made even more tender by the fever that had returned with a vengeance, and now the rain stabbed at it, sharp as icicles.

She was crying silently as she forced her body to move forward despite her feverish haze and the pain that was now omnipresent, her entire body felt like one big, throbbing bruise. She could have cried in loud wailing sobs too and no one would have heard her over the sound of the wind and rain and roaring waves, but she was too exhausted to cry like that even if she wanted to. All she wanted was for this to be over. She wanted to go home to her small seaside apartment, down an entire bottle of Nyquil, go to bed and sleep for a week.

She slipped on the wet metal staircase and nearly fell, grasping for the railing but her fingers were too cold to get a firm grip. She saw a massive wave flood the deck below, then pull all loose things back with it into the ocean, and thought

Oh God, I can’t fight the sea all over again…

Jim grabbed her by the arm before she was forced to test her survival instincts once more, and pulled her into his arms, keeping her steady until she felt steady enough on her own.

“I’m not letting you fall, Jan,” he said, speaking close to her ear so she heard him over the storm. His voice was as soothing as hot chocolate would’ve been. “Okay?”

She nodded. She was a sensitive girl who often (unintentionally, despite what people like Susan thought) gave the appearance of being too weak to handle anything, but there was a hidden foundation of pure steel within her, and she only needed someone to remind her of its existence sometimes. Jim did without even knowing.

“Just a few more steps, and then a few more, and then we’ll be inside. Okay?”

“Yeah.” She sniffled and wiped her face with her hand, which was as wet as her face and so didn’t make any difference. “Yeah, okay. Let’s go.”

They made it down the stairs and across the deck to the door, and made it inside. They stopped for a moment, getting themselves back together, and looked at each other, mildly shocked both at how bad their situation was, and that they had gotten this far.

“I didn’t sign up for this,” Janice muttered and coughed, only turning away but not bothering to cover.

“Join the club,” Jim replied, taking a flashlight from the rack on the wall. Apparently, at least some of the emergency materiel were where they were needed. He turned it on and shone down the corridor. Janice turned around to say something, but looked straight into the light beam which immediately triggered a combination of her photic reflex and her cold.

“HehISSCHEW! aaISSCHHoo! Hah-ESSCHHEW!”

“Bless you,” he said automatically.

“Ughh, ooooh my God,” Janice groaned and sniffled. “I’m so tired of this cold.”

“I don’t blame you. It sounds almost painful.”

“It is,” Janice admitted and coughed, pressing her hand to her chest. “Oh, ow... Well, onward we go, I guess,” she said and continued down the corridor to the stairs leading down to the living quarters.

Jim followed, admiring her perseverance quietly but immensely.

***

“Do you want me to wait outside?” he asked as Jan opened the door to her quarters.

She laughed. It was a bitter laugh, but not completely devoid of humour.

“It’s rather pointless trying to be prudish now, considering everything, isn’t it?” she said.

“I really don’t care what you’ve used those batteries in, Jan,” he said softly.

“It’s funny though,” she said, but she didn’t elaborate what the funny thing was, because a loud, deep boom rocked the facility. They stared at each other. It had definitely come from underneath. From the wet lab or the flooded maintenance room.

Or the shark pens.

“I think we’d better speed this up,” Jim said, handing her the flashlight.

“I think you’re right about that,” she said.

***

Shortly, they were heading back towards surface level, hearing rumbles and creaks in the structure.

“What the hell is going on?” Jim said out loud.

“Do you think… they’re deliberately trying to sink us?”

“Well… they’re much smarter than they’re supposed to be.”

“I kinda noticed.”

He chuckled.

“I’ll try not to state the obvious. I don’t know if they’re deliberately trying to take revenge on us… or if it’s just the storm shaking us around a bit… but I have a bad feeling.”

“Yeah,” Janice said. “Me too.”

Another rumble shook the structure and Janice grabbed Jim’s arm. At first he thought the sound and shaking had startled her, but he soon realised that wasn’t it at all; she had barely noticed.

“Shine the light here,” she said, pointing to the welded joints between floor and wall. Jim asked no questions, and they stared at water coming through. Not much… but when you’re on a floor level beneath the ocean surface, you don’t want to see any water coming in from anywhere.

“Shit,” Jim hissed. “We have to get out of here.”

“And go where?” Janice said. “We’re stuck out here.” She coughed, and the thick rattle in her chest made Jim wince even more than she did.

“Jan, I don’t like the sound of that cough at all,” he said.

“I think my cold is the least of our problems,” Janice replied when she had caught her breath again. “Let’s hope Scoggs can fix that radio.”

“Amen,” Jim said, and they walked towards the surface level a bit faster than before, not sure what was going on beneath them, and not really wanting to find out.

Back out in the biting, whipping storm, Janice stopped and looked down at the open shark pens.

“Jim, something’s wrong!”

“Everything is wrong,” he shouted back, grabbed her by the shoulders and steered her back towards the stairs. Janice, agreeing that they couldn’t have a conversation in a storm that tore the words straight from their lips and carried them out to sea, began climbing the slippery, treacherous stairs again.

***

Once back inside and with the dripping raincoats hung up right inside the door, Janice tossed a bag of batteries on the table and then turned to Jim.

“The gate between the shark pens was bent.”

“That’s impossible. It’s made from titanium.”

“It was bent, so it’s clearly possible,” Janice persisted, voice a mere whisper but even so showing an urgency that convinced Jim she meant what she was saying.

“Visibility is near zero out there, you probably just…” Scoggs began, and Janice turned around, glaring at him with a fierceness that made him shut his mouth.

“I just, what? Saw things that wasn’t there? I’m sick, sure, but I’m not hallucinating. It’s one thing if they’re trapped in here…” she interrupted herself with a deep, chesty cough and winced before she continued, “but if they’re released into the ocean there’s no telling what could happen.”

“Well,” Carter said, standing up. “Guess we better go take a look.”

Jim made a move to put his raincoat back on, but Carter stopped him with a gesture.

“Not you.”

Janice sighed and went to get her raincoat, resigning herself to yet another round into the rain, probably as the resident marine biologist, but Carter almost laughed.

“Definitely not you. I don’t think you’re hallucinating, but I have no idea how you’re still standing. Go sit down,” he pointed to the couch, “before you fall down.”

He then gave Susan’s shoulder a harder-than-necessary pat.

“Come on, Doc.”

She turned and gave him a pouty look that Janice thought looked suitable on a five-year-old who didn’t want to eat her veggies.

“Time to patrol the perimeters.” Carter tossed one of the raincoats to Susan, and she caught it, looking even poutier, but she didn’t protest.

“Be careful,” Jim said.

“You bet,” Carter replied before he opened the door and stepped out into the howling storm. Susan followed suit, looking like she wanted to murder someone.

When the door closed behind them, Janice sank down on the couch, and started coughing. She tried to muffle the cough into the sleeves of her hoodie, but it was very obvious that it had gotten way worse since this morning. There was an almost crackling sound in her chest as she coughed.

Brenda frowned and sat down next to her, putting one hand on Janice’s forehead.

“You’re burning up, babygirl.”

“Really? Because I’m freezing.”

Brenda sighed.

“I wish we could get you something warm to drink, but without power…” she shrugged. “But, I have something else that might warm you up.”

She got up again and took a bottle of whisky out from behind some of the equipment.

“Secret stash,” she said, winking at the blonde, who smiled weakly in return.

“But I’m still hungover,” Janice said.

“So am I,” Brenda replied. “Well. A hair of the dog and a shock outburst of adrenaline from hearing your horror story from the wet lab kinda helped with that.” She poured a healthy amount of the amber liquid into a small glass and handed it to Janice.

“Thank you,” she said and took a sip, grimacing. “Oh my God.”

“Treat it like the shots you knocked back in college,” Brenda said. “What? I’m supposed to believe you didn’t rebel the slightest in college? Come on Jan, I know you’re a good girl, but I doubt you were ever a goody two shoes.”

Janice rolled her eyes and downed the whiskey in a single gulp.

“Atta girl,” Brenda said. “Want another?”

Janice coughed and shook her head. Her eyes watered and she hid her face behind her sleeve-clad hands, still coughing. Her shoulders shuddered with each raspy fit and in between she gasped for air.

Jim looked at Brenda.

“She’s not doing okay. I’m worried she might get pneumonia if she can’t warm up properly. She can’t stay out here until Monday even if Aquatica remains afloat. None of us should, but she can’t.”

“She can hear you, you know,” Janice said in a laboured, whispery voice between coughs. “Oh God… uhhhESSCHHOO! hehh… ehh-yISSSCHew!!”

Jim sat down next to her on the couch, pulling her up against him, stroking wet, dishevelled hair from her brow.

“I know. And maybe you need to hear that we’re taking your illness seriously.” He sighed and put the back of his hand against her forehead. “I suspect it’s the flu. Your fever is way too high for a regular cold.”

“I hate my body,” Janice said tiredly and leaned against him, her cheek resting on his arm. She sniffled and closed her eyes.

“Your body is doing its best,” Jim said. “It’s just overwhelmed.”

Janice looked up at him with hazy, heavy-lidded eyes.

“I want to kiss you, but I don’t want to pass this on.”

“What a dilemma.” Jim said, then leaned in and gave her a kiss. It was soft and gentle and just brief enough that it didn’t deprive her of air, since she couldn’t breathe through her nose. “I take full responsibility if I catch it.”

Janice smiled.

“Why don’t you lie down for a bit? Try to get some sleep?”

Normally Janice would’ve asked him if he was insane; sleep in a situation like this? But she was so exhausted and feverish, and a nap didn’t sound like a bad idea at all.

“Only if you stay here.”

She hated how clingy it made her sound, how childish, but she really didn’t want him to leave her side right now. Jim didn’t argue or made her feel silly for requesting this; he simply adjusted his position to make sure Janice could lie down and rest her head on his lap.

She hadn’t expected to be able to sleep; like Jim had said, everything was wrong, but when he slowly started running his fingers through her hair, despite the circumstances, Janice felt completely safe and she mentally handed over the reins to him, and was out like a light.

 

 

***

Okay you guys, one more chapter (probably) where Jan is still sick. The last chapter will be kind of an epilogue - she will be sneezing in that one too, but most likely from allergies or something else - sooooo... more suffering before she gets some comfort? Or has she taken enough and should be treated with velvet gloves (like she actually deserves) now?   

Edited April 14, 2022 by Chanel_no5
lol I forgot about Susan!

[emten10]

I know you said it was different from the movie, but now I really want to watch it! 😂 This is so well written & I’m loving the story!!

[Chanel_no5]

On 4/14/2022 at 3:08 AM, emten10 said:

I know you said it was different from the movie, but now I really want to watch it! 😂 This is so well written & I’m loving the story!!

Thank you so much, I'm so glad you like it!!  

It's not a great movie, but it's not BAD. I just don't want to hype it up so everyone thinks the movie is about these two characters and their relationship; tbh the first time I saw it back in -99 or -00, I barely realised they were a couple (he seemed too grumpy and she too easy-going, it seemed to me more like she had a schoolgirl crush on him. The deleted scenes at least make it clear they're in an established relationship.) They're just supporting characters and, well... gruesome character death warning. For both.  So this is both a sneezefic and a fix-it-fic.   I'm having so much fun writing it, omg...!  

[JayAnders]

Wow, you actually worked the infamous vibrator reference into it! Haha, great stuff! Did not expect that at all!

Although I must admit, Janice's condition is starting to become a bit concerning. Her sneezing and sniffling was cute at first, but now it sounds like it's getting serious! Poor girl....

[sneezemeister]

Loving this update!

[Chanel_no5]

8 hours ago, JayAnders said:

Wow, you actually worked the infamous vibrator reference into it! Haha, great stuff! Did not expect that at all!

Although I must admit, Janice's condition is starting to become a bit concerning. Her sneezing and sniffling was cute at first, but now it sounds like it's getting serious! Poor girl....

Hahaha, thank you! I wanted to work that in somehow but wasn't sure I could, then the opportunity presented itself! A friend and I discussed it and reached the conclusion that of course she would have one.  Definitely if she wasn't in a relationship with Jim... but probably anyway.  

Aww, don't worry, she's gonna be fine, I promise!  A bit more misery and then the poor girl will get to go home and be properly cared for, chicken soup and all.  She sounds worse than she is. (that is, she doesn't actually have pneumonia or anything like that, it's just a "system overload" thing. But I must say, she's way tougher than I am. I wouldn't have gotten out of bed that morning.  ) 

 

6 hours ago, sneezemeister said:

Loving this update!

Thank you!!  

[nothin2sneeze@]

Me being more of a cough fetishist and less of a sneeze fetishist, I feel like I’m always a little deprived (I must be some sort of freak EVEN among the obscure fetishists since there isn’t much cough content on the internet haha) so I’m always appreciative when someone features descriptive coughing (especially the chest cold kind—yummmmm) in their stories or observations. Coughing from pneumonia however is just plain scary and sad so I’m glad to hear Janice won’t get it. Thanks for another great update Chanel!

[Chanel_no5]

On 4/18/2022 at 7:18 AM, nothin2sneeze@ said:

Me being more of a cough fetishist and less of a sneeze fetishist, I feel like I’m always a little deprived (I must be some sort of freak EVEN among the obscure fetishists since there isn’t much cough content on the internet haha) so I’m always appreciative when someone features descriptive coughing (especially the chest cold kind—yummmmm) in their stories or observations. Coughing from pneumonia however is just plain scary and sad so I’m glad to hear Janice won’t get it. Thanks for another great update Chanel!

Ah, I see. I don't usually include it since coughing is more of a phobia than part of my fetish.  However, a few years ago there was this one character that I could push any of my limits with (coughing, contagion, mess... only thing that didn't work for me with her was caretaking; I added some of it for the sake of the fics but never felt anything about it). Although it was unique for that character, I found that afterwards, I'm much more open to adding things I didn't like at all before, but only with characters/people that I'm REALLY into. And now... with Jan, as with any character played by the same actress, everything works.   Some things more than others (I'll always be an allergy fan above all, and I'll always prefer sneezing on its own), but everything is hot.  And for some reason I also have a ridiculously strong caretaking urge regarding her that I've never experienced before. It's actually hilarious, because this lady is definitely not a weak and helpless person who would naturally stir that kind of urge in people (she does kickboxing ffs  ), and her other characters that I've written are pretty badass. Jan has a fragile streak, but the rest of them don't. So you wanna talk about feeling like a freak among already obscure fetishists?  I even confuse myself. 

Anyway. I should have the next chapter ready by the weekend, and I'll remember to add cough descriptions.  

[Chanel_no5]

Yeah, hi, once more the story outgrew my plan, so after this chapter, there are STILL two more chapters to go.   On one hand I feel like I should apologise for never getting there with this fic, but on the other hand, well… for those who like the story, it’s a good thing it’s not ending yet, right?

If you didn’t hate Susan already, you will in this chapter. I am tempted to throw her to the sharks, but that would mess up the plot I actually do have planned, so I won’t. And I felt bad for poor Janice so I granted her a little bit of respite and let her sleep for a while. 🥺 

Soooo yeah, without further ado, here's chapter 8. 

***

 

The door opened and Susan and Carter returned inside, bringing with them a gust of ice-cold wind and rain. When the chilly wind blew through the room, Janice shivered in her sleep and curled up into a ball, like a sleepy kitten.

“Well?” Jim said as they took off their raincoats.

“We couldn’t get very close, the waves are so high they keep washing over the deck,” Susan said.

“But the gate is definitely bent,” Carter said, running his hand through his hair. “And the only reason it could be, is if the sharks have done it.”

Susan glared at him, but he didn’t dignify her with as much as a glance, he just went over to one of the unoccupied chairs and sat down.

“How’s the radio coming along?” he asked.

“Well, Scoggs is still working on it,” Preacher said. “With a little help from above, he might even succeed.”

Scoggs said nothing, he simply kept at it as if nothing else existed.

Susan stifled two sneezes, rubbed her nose, and sneezed once more, only succeeding in making it a half-stifle this time. She walked up to Janice and snatched a tissue from the box next to her.

“Since you shared the cold I hope you share the tissues,” she muttered, but Janice was still asleep and didn’t hear her.

“Uncalled for,” Jim said. Susan stopped with the tissue half-way to her face.

“Little Princess Jan, finally found her Knight In Shining Armour,” Susan said with a sarcastic head tilt, then she blew her nose.

“Even more uncalled for,” Brenda said, crossing her arms. “Jesus, Susan, what’s wrong with you?”

“Except for Jan’s germs?” She rolled her eyes. “I can’t believe none of you seem to understand that all our hard work is about to go down the d-drain… hehESSCH!”

No one blessed her. Susan didn’t look like she expected it either.

“Do you think Chimera is going to fund further research if we screw this up? We’ll be out on the streets!”

“If we live long enough to get back to dry land, that is,” Brenda said. “Which, considering our current situation, doesn’t seem very likely.”

Jim was far more worked up.

“You violated the ethics guidelines!” he shouted. Janice stirred on his lap, moaned in her sleep and let out a few raspy, thick-sounding coughs before settling again. “The research is already down the drain. We’ll be blacklisted in the medical research community for decades, and if those monsters you created escape from here, the damage they can do is immeasurable,” he added in a softer voice.

“I’ve been thinking about it, and I have an idea. If you back me up on this,” Susan said, looking around the room at each and every one of them, “we can still get the funding and finish this project with success.”

She either mistook the shocked silence for interest, or she simply didn’t care about their lack thereof. With Susan, you could never be sure. She continued:

“All we need to do is claim the storm caused the problems out here. How? We don’t know, it happened during night, when we were... asleep.”

She couldn’t help sending a condescending side glance at Janice, which prompted Jim to place a protective hand on her, not considering the fact that he was only playing into Susan’s view of Janice by doing so.

“All we know is that we woke up in the early morning hours and the whole place sounded like it was falling apart. Water rushed in. Power went out. Who knows what happened down in the shark pens, we couldn’t get there and since the power was out we couldn’t check the monitors either.” She stifled two rapid sneezes and groaned in annoyance before pushing on. “The sharks won’t get out from their pens, even if the whole facility goes under, they’re still caged. And they’ll survive.”

Her eyes once more flickered towards Janice, this time as if she expected her to wake up and object to the statement; Susan spoke of these things with absolute confidence, but the truth was that she was no marine biologist and knew next to nothing about sharks and their survival. But the marine biologist on site was still asleep, snoring lightly because of the congestion that all but bricked up her upper airways, and all that mattered to Susan was that she could bluff her way through this unopposed.

“Once the storm is over we can recover the sharks and move them to another facility, recover what we can in terms of other th-things…” her breath hitched, and right before she pitched forward with another stifled double, she glared at the sleeping blonde, as if it was her fault Susan had to succumb to something as undignified as sneezing. Technically, perhaps it was, but in comparison to everything else going on, it seemed like a non-issue.

“… and then we can keep going with the research until we reach the goal,” Susan finished. “We can still pull this off.”

“Assuming we’re onboard with your genetic tampering, then?” Jim asked.

“Of course,” Susan replied. “We only have two test sharks now, we can’t afford any further delays.” She smiled at Jim. “But we can still succeed, Jim. We can still do this. What do you say?”

Jim looked down at the sleeping, feverish woman whose head rested on his lap. The pain lines on Janice's face had smoothed out when she was sleeping, but she looked fragile, worn-out, needing protection. Jim knew that she was very capable and very resilient when it truly mattered, but physically, she was a delicate woman, and yes, he was in love with her. He had neglected everything but his job and his research for decades, and nothing had ever come along to really make him question that choice, not until now. Even personal ethics could be tweaked if the results or rewards were grand enough. Love, on the other hand, couldn’t be tweaked. Love was as delicate yet resilient as the woman who trusted him enough to fall asleep on him, twice, today.

“No.” He spoke quietly but not in a weak voice.

“Excuse me?” Susan sounded like she had never heard anything more preposterous.

“I said no, Susan. And judging from your reaction, I think it has been a very long time since anyone told you no.”

Resorting to the emotional argument that usually worked on people she needed to convince, Susan said:

“Have you ever actually known a person with Alzheimer’s? I mean not a patient, but someone you know?”

“My uncle died from it this Christmas,” Jim said. “Yes, I know how hard it is to watch a relative deteriorate. So don’t try the weepy-eyes card with me.”

Furious to have been called out, Susan bared her teeth in something that wasn’t quite a smile.

“The weepy-eyes card seems to work for others.”

“What is your problem with Jan?!” Scoggs exploded from the other side of the room. All heads turned in his direction; they had all forgotten about him as he was deeply focused on the radio he was working on, and it had seemed like he wasn’t aware of anything around him either. “You think she can help that she has a shitty immune system? Fuck, I was sick all the time when I was a kid, it was definitely not a choice I would’ve made had I gotten a choice.” He slammed the tools down on the table with a thud. “And if it’s not that, what else is it? Jan is like the nicest person here, even if we count the full crew, picking a fight with her is like picking a fight with… with… hell if I know, with Minnie Mouse or something!”

“Yeah. You’re not even in the same field of expertise so it can’t be good ol’ rivalry either,” Brenda said. “Jealousy?” She gave Jim a pointed look, and he shrugged. He had never noticed any signs that Susan had an interest in him.

“Jan and her little ‘damsel in distress’-act is a magnet for tinfoil knights and I’m tired of it, it’s pathetic,” Susan said.

“Because no one ever comes to your rescue, or…?” Carter said, leaning back in the chair with his arms folded over his chest.

Susan’s cheeks flushed blood-red.

“It’s not like that.”

“Right. Sure. If you say so, Doc.” He huffed and walked up to the window. High waves washed in and flooded the deck, overflowing the pens, and he was concerned that the fences wouldn’t be enough if the sharks figured out that they could escape that way.

“Did it ever occur to you that maybe people are nice to Jan because she is nice to them?” Brenda said. “Shocking hypothesis, I know.”

“Whatever,” Susan said, dismissing the whole subject. “You’re abandoning the project, even if we could still salvage it, do I have that right?” she asked.

“Yes.” It was unanimous.

“I’m going to view that as mutiny,” Susan said. “And I will maintain my version of events.”

“Until we’re back on solid ground, I think our main goal should be survival,” Jim muttered.

Janice squirmed in her sleep, then started coughing. It was a heavy, chesty, wet cough that made her delicate frame shake from its force, and she gasped for air and kept coughing, the congestion in her chest audibly shifting but not surrendering to her body’s fierce attempt to get rid of it. Eventually she coughed herself awake, looking around disoriented and dizzy.

“Ah, I see Sleeping Beauty didn’t even need a kiss to wake up this time,” Susan snarled as Janice finally managed to get the cough under control. She sat up and rubbed her face, then more specifically her poor, chapped, red nose.

“Doesd’t it start to get old, Dr Susie?” Janice croaked, reaching for the tissues. “We get it. I’b a weak, pathetic, disgustig bess. Uhhh-ESCHGHhhuh!” She attempted to blow her nose, realised she was far too congested, and just leaned her head into her hand instead, pinching the bridge of her nose while breathing through her mouth. “Ad hodestly, you cad save your breath, I dod’t care what you say adybore… snrrff! Ugh… snrrrk! Oh by God…”

She made a new attempt at blowing her nose, but the congestion wasn’t budging. The concrete wall within her inflamed sinuses was impenetrable, but the tickle was also behind it, so far back in her sinuses that it was almost a tickle in the back of her throat. Her exhausted body didn’t seem to know whether to interpret the irritation as the urge to sneeze or the urge to cough, so when her breath hitched in the buildup to a sneeze, it set off the irritation in her throat again, and she started coughing. It was raspy and deep, sounding like it came from the very bottom of her lungs. She was still coughing all the way into the sneeze, turning it not into a cough-sneeze but something more than the sum of its parts, made even worse by how incredibly stuffed up she was. 

“Ohhh I have to sdeeze agaid…” she moaned in a strangled, hoarse voice, “…eihhGDSCHuuh! Guhh…DJSCHkk!-ohhhbygod… snnrrf… snrrrk!… uhhh-eGTSHKK!-uhh...”

Susan rolled her eyes when Jim put an arm around Janice’s slender shoulders, rubbing her arm in a soothing way.

“Knock it off, Susan,” Jim said. “You’re a doctor, a hint of sympathy wouldn’t hurt.”

“Dod’t bother, Jib,” Janice said, giving his thigh a brief but affectionate pat and actually managing a smile as she dabbed at her nose with the tissue. “I’d rather be the dabsel id distress thad the villaid of the story.”

Susan’s jaw dropped, but before she could hurl another scathing insult Janice’s way, Scoggs let out a triumphant shout.

“Yes! Yes! Wohoo! Ladies and gentlemen, we have communication!” And then, possibly in a slight contradiction to what he just said: “Everybody shut the fuck up!”

Janice took several tissues and pressed them over her mouth, ready to muffle the next outburst of sneezes or coughs once it decided to break through. Scoggs noticed this and chuckled.

“Jan is excused, she can’t help it.”

She looked at him with watery eyes.

“Still godda try,” she promised.

And she did try, she really did. She tried with all her might to hold back the burning urge to cough and sneeze, but it was too strong and her body was just too tired to fight it. So she did the second best thing; muffling her scraping coughs and congested sneezes into the tissues, trying to be as quiet as she possibly could, while tears from the effort streamed freely down her flushed cheeks.

Brenda rinsed out the glass that had contained whiskey and poured some water from a bottle in her mini-fridge and handed it to Janice. She gratefully took a few sips and was finally able to get the coughing to calm down.

“Thank you,” Janice mouthed and wiped the tears with her sleeve, then leaned her head against Jim’s shoulder again, tired and achy.

Scoggs wrapped up the transmission and leaned back in the chair, heaving a big sigh of relief.

“Coast guard will send a rescue helicopter and get us the hell out of here.”

“Can they fly out here in this weather?” Preacher asked.

“So they say,” Scoggs replied. “Listen, I think we need to plan out in advance who should get on the helicopter first, make this as smooth as possible. I say it should be Jan first.”

“… of course,” Susan mumbled.

“And since Susan is so concerned with the sharks and the project, how about you just stay here?” Scoggs continued. “You can swim with your little fishes all you want without us getting in your way.”

“You still work for me, remember?!” Susan spat.

“Well I quit!”

“Alright, that’s enough,” Jim said. “All of you. All of us. We’re getting out of here and then we can discuss matters once we’re back on the mainland. Okay?” He looked specifically at Susan, who shrugged.

“Alright, fine. But if this project is shut down…”

“It already is, Susad,” Janice interrupted her, looking tiredly at her colleague. “It’s over. Please, just accept it.”

Susan glared at her, but Janice calmly looked her in the eye and shook her head.

“I cad’t wait to get away frob this place, dever see you agaid,” she said.

Jim didn’t think it would be quite that simple, but he held his tongue.

A few tense moments passed, but nobody wanted to be the one escalating the situation, so eventually Susan sat down and sighed.

“Okay. I guess we wait for the cavalry now?”

“Yes,” Jim said. “Now we wait for the cavalry.”

Janice sneezed again, a scraping, throaty sneeze, groaned, and made another futile attempt at blowing her nose. It was probably too much to wish for that the cavalry would have nose spray with them, but at least she would soon get to go home. This day felt like it had gone on for weeks!

 

Edited April 25, 2022 by Chanel_no5

[Purplelily]

I know I haven’t commented on the last few parts, but god this is amazing. I’m so curious about the plot too, I want to know how they’re going to fix this mess! And what’s going to happen to Susan! 
 

But poor Janice. She’s really going through it here! I’m glad they’re getting of the boat soon, hopefully she can be tucked into bed with warm clothes and soft tissues!