TW: drowning, CPR, BVM/oxygen use, AED pads, medical deterioration.
A poolside rescue spirals into medbay treatment as Red Guard handle their first serious incident — and one of their own starts to feel the aftermath.
The adult lane session began at five.
On the rota, the six of them were Red Guard. The name had started as a joke on the staff chat and stayed because it suited the place: red suits, red shorts, red whistles, red waist packs, and a medbay that had seen more than sunburn and scraped knees.
The shallow half had been cleared. The floats were stacked in the side shed. The children's ropes had been reeled in, leaving the water flatter and louder, divided into four clean lanes with the black guide lines showing through the blue. Heat still came off the concrete. Wet patches remained where families had stood with towels around their shoulders, but most of the deck had dried to pale grey.
Freya North stood by the office door in a red one-piece, barefoot, whistle against her chest, radio on her waist pack. She was twenty-four and already looked like someone older staff would follow. Tall, blonde, hair tied up hard, mouth set unless she had a reason to smile. She did not need to raise her voice often. The others usually heard the first version.
Mara Keene came out of the side building with a clipboard and a pouch of spare ECG electrodes. She wore the white guard vest over red shorts. Her dark hair was pulled back. No jewellery except the whistle. She had the medbay keys on her wrist and a way of looking at equipment before she looked at people.
"Cylinder two is down to a quarter," Mara said.
Freya did not move her eyes from the water. "Use one. Log two. Find out who left it like that."
Mara looked toward the long-haired guard on second chair. "Rowan."
Rowan Bell stood with one foot on the chair step, white long-sleeve top damp at the cuffs, red shorts hanging low on his hips, sunglasses hiding most of his face. He was twenty-three, tall, lean, and a good enough swimmer that he treated the rest of the job like decoration. He disliked checks. He disliked being corrected. He disliked Mara most of all, because she saw the difference between relaxed and careless.
Tessa Vale worked the gate at the far side, red swimsuit, dark sunglasses, blonde hair tied high, blue nails bright against the clipboard. She was good with families and regulars. She remembered children's names. She could make a complaint dissolve before it reached Freya. She also assumed that if something serious were happening, someone sharper would already have called it.
Callum Rook sat in the raised chair at the deep end. He wore the white vest, red shorts, sunglasses, curls still wet from a swim test he had chosen to repeat in front of the teenage lane club. He liked the chair because everyone could see him on it. He liked rescues when they were clean, visible, and ended with applause or gratitude.
Izzie Marr sat behind the desk window with a cap pulled low and her glasses halfway down her nose. She controlled the radio log, the kit records, the incident forms and most of the quiet information that moved through the team. She knew who had swapped shifts, who had been late, who had argued behind the plant room. She wrote everything down when it mattered and plenty when it did not.
The side building held the medbay. The public sign said FIRST AID. Inside, two treatment couches faced the wall units. Oxygen points, suction, a monitor, two AEDs, BVMs in three sizes, oral and nasal airways, gloves, shears, blankets, dressings, cold packs, foil sheets, a locked drugs cupboard Mara was not supposed to have the key for and did anyway. The place looked too prepared until someone needed it. Then it looked small.
The Red Guard medbay was too well stocked for the sign on the door. There were shelves of masks in sealed plastic, cylinders strapped to the wall, spare defib pads in dated packets, suction catheters coiled in drawers, and folded foil blankets stacked beside towels. Mara kept the airway drawer arranged by size. Freya checked the oxygen seals with the same expression she used on late staff. Izzie knew which forms matched which incident before anyone had finished panicking.
The room had a narrow treatment couch and a second fold-down couch for overflow. The first couch had a wipe-clean pillow, a roll of paper sheets and a stain at one corner that no amount of disinfectant had removed from the vinyl. The air smelled of chlorine, alcohol wipes and warm plastic.
At five ten, the adult swimmers were in the water. Lane one had slow breaststroke. Lane two had two women who came every Thursday and spent most of the session talking at the wall. Lane three held steady front crawl. Lane four was the fast lane.
Elise Rainer took lane four at five twelve.
She signed in as twenty-two. Brown hair under a white cap, navy training suit, long narrow shoulders, strong legs, neat turn at the wall. She was not striking from the deck at first. She became more noticeable when she paused: pretty in a practical way, pale mouth, straight nose, eyes that stayed focused longer than politeness required. She had a small tattoo high on one hip that showed when she pushed off hard and the suit shifted. She swam with the concentration of someone who wanted the lane to herself.
Mara watched her through the first few lengths. Fast swimmers made Mara attentive. They tired themselves, held their breath too long, tried drills they had watched online and could not execute safely. Elise did clean underwaters after each turn. Too long for most recreational swimmers, but controlled.
"She all right?" Tessa asked when she came past with lane bands.
"You say that like she's plotting."
"People don't need to plot to drown."
Tessa made a face and left her to it.
At five twenty-four, Freya rotated positions. Callum climbed down from the high chair because Rowan was due on the deep end. The changeover took longer than it needed to. Callum paused at the fence when two women asked whether the evening lane club was cancelled. Rowan took the chair after rubbing the hot seat with his towel and making a show of being inconvenienced by the sun.
Mara watched the handover from the medbay door.
"You're up," Callum said.
Rowan lifted one finger without looking at him.
Lane four had Elise near the far wall. She ducked under cleanly, pushed off, and vanished into the blue strip beneath the surface.
Tessa came up beside Rowan's chair with a bottle of water. "You look cooked."
"You say that about everything."
"Because most things are."
He took the bottle, drank, and lowered it. His eyes moved across lane four. The lane looked empty for a second. Then two swimmers in lane three passed in the foreground, sending thin waves across the surface. The bottom line blurred.
Tessa followed his gaze. "Fast-lane girl resting?"
"She's been doing them all session."
Tessa looked again. Her body leaned toward the water but her feet stayed where they were. "Maybe call it."
Rowan lifted his sunglasses. "Or maybe don't make a rescue out of someone touching the wall."
Tessa accepted that because he sounded sure and because accepting it let her return to the easier work. She stepped back from the chair.
Mara saw both of them looking at lane four without moving.
That was the part she remembered afterward: two guards with a possible submersion in front of them, both waiting for the other one to make it real.
Mara was already walking fast.
Callum reached the edge first. He had been close enough to move before the others. He looked down. His face changed before the whistle reached his mouth.
Elise was at the bottom near the black line, angled slightly on her side, one arm away from her body, white cap bright under the surface. No kick. No bubbles. No movement that belonged to a swimmer.
Freya's whistle sounded once.
"Clear the pool. Everybody out. Rowan, in. Callum, in. Mara, medbay. Tessa, gate. Izzie, ambulance standby."
Callum went in clean, a shallow dive that cut straight toward her. Rowan dropped from the chair and entered after him. The two men went under, red shorts sharp through the water. Callum reached Elise first, got an arm across her chest, and started up. Rowan took her legs when they surfaced. Her head rolled back. The cap loosened at one edge.
Mara was already kneeling with towels at the edge. Freya and Callum lifted from above while Rowan shoved from below. Elise came out heavy. Water ran off her suit and pooled around their knees. Her face was pale beneath the cap. The goggles had shifted down onto one cheek.
On the deck, she looked smaller and far more exposed than she had in lane four.
Mara stripped off the goggles. Elise's eyes were partly open. They did not fix on anything.
"Elise? Can you hear me?"
Freya put two fingers beneath the angle of the jaw and tilted the head. Mara leaned close, cheek near Elise's mouth, eyes on the chest.
Rowan wiped his mouth with the back of one hand. "Should we start here?"
Freya looked at him for half a second. "She has a pulse. We move now."
Callum put his arms under Elise's shoulders. Rowan took her legs. Mara kept the head supported long enough for Freya to take over. Elise's wet hair spilled from the cap as Mara peeled it away. The navy suit clung to her chest and hips. The edges had marked the skin. Nothing about her looked like the strong swimmer from ten minutes before except the muscles in her legs, now slack under Rowan's grip.
They carried her into the side building.
The pool emptied behind them. Tessa stood at the gate and repeated, "Everyone out, please. Step back. Give us space," in a voice that stayed calm while her hands shook.
Izzie called ambulance control with the address, the pool entrance, the side access gate, and the words adult swimmer recovered from the bottom of the pool, agonal breathing, pulse present.
Inside the medbay, Callum and Rowan laid Elise on the first couch. The paper sheet soaked through at once. Water dripped onto the floor. Mara cut away the cap rather than untangle it from wet hair. Freya took the head.
"Suction. Oxygen. Bag ready."
Mara turned on wall suction. The catheter went into Elise's mouth. Water and thin vomit came through the tubing. Elise gagged once without waking. Mara cleared the mouth, turned the head, suctioned again, then looked at the chest.
"She's not moving enough air."
"Mask first," Freya said.
Mara took a non-rebreather from the drawer. The green tubing connected to the wall oxygen. She set the flow high enough to fill the reservoir, checked the bag with her gloved hand, then fitted the clear mask over Elise's nose and mouth.
The elastic caught in wet hair. Mara pulled it free, slid it behind the head, and tightened it. The mask covered most of Elise's lower face. Her lips disappeared behind clear plastic. Water stuck to the inside of the rim where it touched her cheeks. The reservoir bag stayed full because Elise barely drew from it.
Mara used two fingers to press the mask down at the bridge of Elise's nose and thumbed the damp hair away from the elastic. The green strap marked a wet line behind her head. The reservoir bag filled against the side of the couch. Elise's lips were hidden now. Only her eyes, pale and unfixed, remained uncovered.
The mask made a private shape out of her face. It turned her breathing into something the room could watch: cloud, clear, cloud, clear, then a pause that made Mara reach for the bag.
She took one weak breath. The mask clouded near the mouth, then cleared.
"Not enough," Freya said.
Mara had already reached for the BVM.
With the bag, the work came closer to the skin.
The non-rebreather had sat on Elise while she tried to breathe. The BVM required hands. Mara placed the larger clear mask over Elise's face and pressed the rim into wet skin. Thumb and forefinger formed the C. The other fingers lifted the jaw. Freya watched the neck and pulse. Izzie stood at the foot with the log sheet, pen ready, lips parted behind her concentration.
The BVM left no polite distance. One guard had to own the face and another had to own the air. The mask rim pressed deeper than the non-rebreather had. Elise's wet cheek bulged slightly against the seal. Freya watched for leak, chest rise, stomach rise, anything that would tell her whether the breath had gone where it needed to go.
The movement stopped everyone for a fraction of a second. The same body that had been limp from the water now lifted because Mara put air into it. The wet swimsuit stretched with the rise. Water slid from the hollow of Elise's throat to the towel beneath her neck.
Mara gave the second breath. Better rise. No leak at the cheek.
"Ventilations commenced," Izzie said, and wrote the time.
Callum stood too close. He stared at Elise's mouth under the mask, at the way her chest rose when Mara squeezed, at the exposed skin above the cut edge of the suit. His mouth went dry. He disliked himself for noticing anything except the airway.
Mara held the mask for one more breath, then passed it to Freya. Freya took the seal without comment. Mara picked up the trauma shears.
"Do you need to—" Rowan began.
She cut the navy swimsuit down the centre. The sound of wet fabric under shears was dull and quick. She opened the suit just enough for pads and leads. Elise's chest was pale, marked by the suit seams, goose-bumped from cold water and air conditioning. Mara covered what she could with a towel, then dried the pad sites with another towel using hard, practical strokes.
Mara did not cut more than she needed, but the need was enough. Damp fabric peeled back from chilled skin. The swimsuit that had looked neat and athletic in lane four became something to be moved aside for pads, leads and hands. The staff kept their eyes busy because that was the only decent way to look.
Callum looked away, then looked back. Rowan looked at the floor. Tessa appeared in the doorway and stopped with both hands against the frame.
"Out if you can't keep quiet," Freya said.
The first pad went below the right collarbone. The second went low on the left side. Mara pressed around the edges, firm fingers pushing gel to skin. The pads looked large against Elise's damp chest. Wires ran to the AED on the trolley.
The speaker played the recorded instructions.
"Apply pads to patient's bare chest. Plug in connector."
Freya ventilated. One breath every few seconds. Squeeze. Chest rise. Release. Chest fall. Water and air made a rough sound in Elise's throat when Freya missed the jaw angle by a few millimetres. She corrected it without needing Mara to say anything.
Squeeze. Hsssh. Rise. Release. The bag filled again in Mara's hand. Freya's fingers stayed locked along Elise's jaw. Every breath left a faint blur on the inside of the mask before the oxygen flow cleared it.
It was sudden and wet. Her whole body tightened. Pink foam appeared at the edge of the mask. Freya lifted the mask, turned the head. Mara suctioned fast. More fluid came up. Elise's eyes opened wider, rolled slightly, then lost even the small hint of focus they had.
Mara checked the carotid.
Her face gave the answer before her mouth did.
Callum moved because he had been waiting to be useful and because he could do this part in front of people. His hands went to the centre of Elise's chest: heel of one hand on the lower sternum, the other on top, fingers locked, elbows straight.
His first compression was too gentle.
Elise's chest gave beneath him. The wet skin shifted under the heel of his hand. The towel slipped aside. Mara pulled it clear because the towel had become an obstruction. Callum felt cartilage give, not a crack exactly, but enough to travel into his wrists. His stomach tightened. He kept going.
"One, two, three, four, five."
His voice came out lower than usual. Less charming. Less controlled.
Freya took the head. After thirty compressions, she sealed the BVM and gave two breaths. Elise's chest rose twice, bare under the open suit and pads. Callum resumed. No one spoke about the exposure. No one had room for it.
The compressions pushed water from her hair into the paper sheet. Her shoulders moved with each downward force. The pads held. The leads trembled against her skin. Freya waited at the head with the BVM already sealed, ready to put two more breaths into her as soon as Callum counted thirty.
Tessa watched from the doorway. She had seen training mannequins, not this. She had practised hand positions on a plastic torso in a council leisure centre classroom, laughing when someone set the metronome too fast. She had not seen the sternum of a young woman move under Callum's hands. She had not seen a mask held hard enough to mark the face. She had not seen a body made to breathe while it gave nothing back.
"Analysing rhythm," the AED recording played. "Do not touch patient."
Hands lifted. Freya held her palms in view. Mara checked the tubing. Izzie wrote. Tessa stopped breathing for the length of the analysis and realised only when her chest hurt.
"Shock advised. Charging."
Freya looked at each person. "Clear."
The shock went through the pads. Elise's torso jerked once. Her shoulders lifted from the wet sheet and fell back. Her head turned inside Freya's hand. Water in her hair splashed the pillow.
"Begin CPR," the recording said.
Callum returned to the chest.
The second cycle was better. He found depth and rhythm. The performance went out of him. Sweat ran into his eyes. Water from Elise's body soaked the knees of his shorts. His hands stayed in the centre of her chest, compressing hard enough that the couch shifted slightly under the force.
Mara ventilated after Freya took over the pulse checks. She liked the head position better when she controlled it herself. The mask fitted Elise well. Too well, almost. With the jaw lifted, the clear dome sealed perfectly. Each squeeze raised the chest. Each release let the breath out through the valve and around the edges with a faint damp sound.
"Ambulance?" Freya asked.
"Four minutes," Izzie said.
Elise's rhythm changed during the second analysis.
"No shock advised," the recording played.
"Pulse check," Freya said.
Mara's fingers went to the carotid. She held still. Her mouth tightened.
Mara stayed another three seconds. "Pulse present. Weak."
No one celebrated. Freya kept the BVM on Elise's face and gave another breath because a pulse did not make the breathing adequate. Elise's own effort came in thin, rapid pulls that did not move enough air. Mara watched the chest and the stomach. Too much went into the stomach when Freya lost the angle. She corrected the jaw and slowed the squeeze.
Elise's eyes opened halfway.
Tessa stepped forward without permission. "Elise? You're at the pool. You're in the first-aid room. We got you out."
Elise's gaze moved toward the sound, or seemed to. The mask covered her nose and mouth. Her lips moved under the plastic with no words behind them.
"She can hear me," Tessa said.
"Maybe," Mara said. "Don't get in the airway."
Elise coughed again. Deeper. Her body curled slightly to one side. Pink fluid reached the inside of the mask before Mara lifted it and suctioned. Elise's chest and abdomen tightened. Her hand lifted from the sheet, fingers splayed, then dropped against the towel.
"Pulmonary oedema," Mara said.
"Keep supporting breaths," Freya said.
"She's fighting the bag."
"Match what she gives us. Don't overfill her."
Mara adjusted. Smaller breaths, timed with Elise's weak attempts. The mask fogged and cleared in short, uneven bursts. Elise looked awake enough to suffer the mask and not awake enough to refuse it. Her face pressed into plastic. Her open suit lay wet beneath the pads. The towel covered only what Mara had time to cover. Nobody's gaze stayed clean all the time.
When Elise tried to pull against the mask, Mara held the seal and did not apologise. The breath went in smaller this time, timed with the little effort Elise could still make. Her eyes stayed wet and half-open. The plastic rim pressed a red mark across the bridge of her nose.
Callum noticed Mara's hand at Elise's jaw. Strong fingers under the angle, thumb on the mask, practical pressure. He noticed Elise's throat move under the oxygen and thought of the lane, the cap, the graceful turns. Then he thought of the way her body had jerked when shocked. Shame followed, but shame did not erase the image.
The paramedics arrived at five forty-seven.
Two crew members came in first, one woman and one man, with a student behind them carrying the monitor bag. The senior paramedic took the room in quickly: wet adult female on the couch, open suit, pads on, BVM in use, pool staff crowding the walls, one AED already connected, suction tubing used and hanging, water on the floor.
Freya gave it. Adult female, twenty-two, recovered from pool bottom, agonal breathing, weak pulse, BVM support, pulseless arrest in medbay, one shock, ROSC, ongoing respiratory failure, suspected aspiration and pulmonary oedema.
The paramedic listened with one hand on Elise's carotid. The student placed monitoring leads around the pads. The male paramedic cut more of the suit away to clear the chest and attach their equipment. He covered her when he could, but the work took priority. Elise did not react to the fabric being moved.
The paramedic's equipment made the same scene look less like the pool's and more like hospital. Their monitor leads went around the existing pads. Their oxygen tubing replaced Red Guard's tubing. Their hands took the mask and airway with no interest in who had held it first.
"I've got airway," the senior paramedic said.
Freya handed over the BVM. The step back hit her harder than she expected. As long as her hands were on the mask, she had a task. Without it, she had to stand and watch someone else ventilate the swimmer who had gone missing in her pool.
The paramedic's seal was stronger. Elise's chest rose higher, too high once, then more controlled after the paramedic adjusted volume. The monitor showed a fast rhythm that looked organised and weak. Blood pressure cuff around Elise's arm. Oxygen saturation probe on a finger that was still cold from the water. Numbers appeared after a delay.
"She's peri-arrest," the senior paramedic said.
Mara looked at Freya. Freya kept her eyes on Elise.
"Pulse," the senior paramedic said.
The male paramedic checked. "No pulse."
The male paramedic put a hand against his chest. "We'll take it."
Callum stepped back. He felt relief first. Then humiliation because the relief had come before concern.
The paramedic began compressions. He did not know Elise as a fast-lane swimmer. He did not know the tattoo at her hip or the way she had pushed off the wall. He compressed a patient in arrest. The movement was harder than Callum's had been. Elise's chest sank under each push. The pads stayed flat. The tube of oxygen ran clear of the hands. The BVM mask stayed sealed between breaths.
The second shock moved Elise more violently than the first. Her shoulders came up. Her wet hair shifted and left a dark print on the pillow.
Tessa backed into the cabinet. Tears were on her face. She had not noticed when they started. Izzie noticed and did not write it down.
Rowan coughed in the corridor.
Mara heard it but stayed with Elise until the third shock. The paramedics got another pulse, weaker than the first. They prepared to move with BVM support. Elise remained unresponsive. Her eyes were taped partway closed before transport because they would not stay shut and nobody wanted them drying on the way.
They loaded her through the side door. The BVM mask stayed over her face until the ambulance. One paramedic walked at the head and ventilated. One pushed. The student managed the monitor leads and the oxygen cylinder.
Tessa watched the clear mask move with each assisted breath. The last thing she saw before the ambulance doors closed was Elise's chest rising under the cut swimsuit and blankets.
The doors shut at five fifty-nine.
Nobody spoke until the ambulance left.
The pool was empty except for staff. Tessa had closed the gate and sent the adult swimmers away with the same sentence until she could say it without hearing herself. Medical incident. Pool closed. No further information.
Freya stood on the deck with both hands on her hips. She looked at the concrete. Her bare feet were wet from the medbay floor.
"Inside," she said. "All of you."
The staff room held six damp guards, one half-filled kettle, two plastic chairs and a table too small for a serious conversation. Izzie sat with the log. Freya stood. Mara leaned against the counter. Callum took the chair nearest the door and rubbed the heel of his hand against his own sternum without noticing. Tessa sat on the edge of the other chair. Rowan remained standing until Freya told him to sit.
Izzie read from the sheet.
Five ten adult lane session began. Five twenty-four rotation. Five thirty-one lane four queried. Five thirty-two casualty recovered. Five thirty-four assisted ventilations. Five thirty-six pulseless arrest. Five thirty-seven shock one. Five forty pulse. Five forty-two respiratory deterioration. Five forty-seven ambulance crew arrival. Five fifty-one second arrest. Five fifty-two shock two. Five fifty-six shock three. Five fifty-eight ROSC. Five fifty-nine transported.
The times were clean because times always looked clean after someone wrote them. They did not include the moment Tessa asked whether Elise was resting. They did not include Rowan saying underwaters because the alternative required movement. They did not include Callum's first thought when Mara cut the suit or Izzie's hard little interest when the pads went on. They did not include any part of the shift that would embarrass the living.
"Who first identified submersion?" Freya asked.
Rowan shifted. "I was on the chair."
Mara looked at him. "That wasn't the question."
Freya held a hand up. "What did you see?"
Rowan answered too fast. "Lane looked clear. She'd been doing underwater work. Tessa asked if she was resting. I said probably. Then Mara called it."
Tessa looked down at her hands.
Freya turned to her. "You saw lane four empty?"
"I saw it between lengths. I thought she might be at the wall."
Tessa swallowed. "Thirty seconds. Maybe more."
No one softened it for her.
Callum leaned forward. "We got her out."
Mara looked at him. "Late."
Rowan coughed into his fist.
Freya glanced at him. "Drink water."
"That was not a question."
He stood, irritated, and went to the sink. He drank from a paper cup and coughed halfway through. The cough was deeper than before. It came from low in the chest and ended with him clearing his throat as if he could hide the sound by force.
Mara watched him over the clipboard.
Rowan gave a short laugh. "What?"
"When you went under. Did you take in water?"
"It's a pool. Everyone takes in water."
Tessa did not move. Mara saw that too.
Freya closed the log. "Pool stays closed. Tessa, front gate. Medical incident, closed for the evening, no details. Izzie, start the full report. Callum, medbay with Mara. Restock and clean. Rowan, sit down and stop arguing."
For ten minutes, work gave them a place to put their hands. Tessa handled the gate. Izzie transferred times. Mara stripped the first couch, replaced the suction canister and tubing, wiped the vinyl, changed the pillowcase, checked the BVM valves and counted masks. Callum refilled drawers with gloves and dressings under her direction.
"Do you think she'll live?" he asked.
Mara opened a packet of electrodes and placed it in the drawer. "I don't know."
"Because whatever I say, you'll turn it into something about yourself."
His jaw tightened. "That's a nice thing to say after I did compressions for her."
"You did them after she had no pulse. I am talking about now. Restock drawer three."
He slammed the drawer harder than necessary.
In the staff room, Rowan coughed until his eyes watered. He checked the internal window. Izzie watched him over the top of the report.
"Do you ever stop recording?"
"Then record that I'm fine."
The comment landed close enough that Izzie's pen stopped.
Rowan tried to stand. He had meant to make a point. The first attempt failed. He sat back down too hard and put a hand to his chest, fingers spread over the damp white shirt.
She called louder. "Freya."
Freya came from the corridor. Mara followed because she knew Izzie's tone.
Rowan looked up at them, sweating now. "She's making it dramatic."
Mara stepped close. "Take your sunglasses off."
"Because you're indoors and I want to see your eyes."
He took them off. His pupils were equal. His skin was wrong. Pale around the mouth, red high at the cheekbones. The edge of his lower lip had a faint grey-blue cast that Mara did not like.
He coughed before he finished the word. A long wet cough bent him forward over his knees. When he straightened, his eyes had watered and his breathing stayed too quick.
He stood because pride lasted for another few seconds. He made it four steps before the corridor tilted under him. He reached for the wall. Callum caught him under one arm.
Rowan tried. His knees buckled at the medbay door.
Freya and Callum got him onto the second treatment couch. Mara had the pulse oximeter on his finger before he finished swearing. Izzie appeared in the doorway with the phone still in her hand. Tessa came from the front gate, saw Rowan on the couch, and stopped.
The number took a few seconds.
Mara's expression closed.
"Mara, don't be obscene."
"You're hypoxic after submersion. I need access to your chest. Choose quickly."
Freya leaned over him. "Stop performing."
That landed. Rowan pulled the wet long-sleeve shirt over his head with Callum's help. He was shivering. His chest was lean, sun-reddened at the collarbones, wet hair stuck to his forehead and neck. Chlorine had dried in white marks on his skin.
Rowan had been on the rescuer side an hour earlier. Shirt off, wet, shivering, he looked less like staff and more like the kind of patient he normally mocked afterwards. The whistle against his bare chest made that worse. He kept his chin high until Mara put the mask on him.
Mara placed a simple oxygen mask over his face.
He lifted a hand at once.
Freya caught his wrist. "Leave it."
He glared through the clear plastic.
"You know better," she said.
The mask fogged hard when he breathed out. His breathing had been faster than he had let them see. The elastic strap ran behind his head and flattened his hair. The green tubing dropped over his bare shoulder. His red whistle still hung around his neck, resting against his sternum between the mask tubing and the first ECG lead Mara placed a moment later.
The mask changed his face at once. Rowan had a mouth made for smirking, arguing, getting away with things. The clear plastic covered all of that. His eyes had to do the talking now, and they were not as casual as his voice had been.
Tessa stood in the doorway. She had known Rowan for two summers as lazy, irritating, sometimes funny, sometimes cruel. She had never seen him obedient under a mask. The sight went through her in a way she did not want to examine. His mouth was covered. His anger had nowhere to go except his eyes. His chest rose and fell too fast under the electrodes Mara pressed onto damp skin.
"What happened?" Tessa asked.
"Then stand outside this door and be quiet."
Tessa stayed where she was.
Mara listened to Rowan's chest. Right side acceptable. Left base wet. Wheeze over both. She moved the stethoscope and listened again. Rowan watched her face through the mask. The plastic flattened his voice when he spoke.
"Your left base is wet and your sats are falling."
"Don't talk about me like I'm not here."
"Then stop lying about your breathing."
Freya took the stethoscope from Mara and listened herself. She did not like what she heard either.
"No ambulance," Rowan said.
Izzie had the phone out already.
Rowan's hand tightened around the edge of the couch. Callum saw his knuckles go pale. Then Rowan's breathing changed. It went from fast to uneven, with short gaps between pulls.
Rowan looked at him. No joke came. His eyes shifted away and then back.
The saturation dropped to eighty-two.
Mara removed the simple mask and replaced it with a non-rebreather. Higher flow. Reservoir bag filled. Strap behind the head. Rowan tried to push up on one elbow.
Freya moved to the head. Callum stepped back. Izzie gave the address again and said second adult casualty, lifeguard, respiratory distress after submersion exposure during rescue. Tessa pressed herself to the door frame.
Mara tightened the non-rebreather. The mask sat hard against Rowan's face. Each inhale pulled the plastic in slightly. His neck muscles worked. His bare chest rose in sharp uneven movements. The red whistle and the white ECG stickers made the scene look wrong in a way no one wanted to say aloud.
He breathed through the non-rebreather with his shoulders lifting off the couch. Each pull drew the mask tight for a second. The reservoir bag stayed full because the flow was high, but Rowan still looked as if he were working around the plastic instead of through it.
He looked at Freya because she was the person he least wanted to need.
She held the edge of the mask with one hand and felt the pulse in his neck with the other.
He nodded once, small and furious.
Then his eyes rolled upward.
Mara had the BVM in her hand before Rowan sagged fully.
His body stiffened for a second and then slackened. The non-rebreather lost its seal when his jaw fell. The saturation fell into the seventies. The monitor showed a fast rhythm, then poor pickup from movement, then a rate that did not match the effort in the room.
Freya checked the carotid.
"Pulse present. Weak. Bag him."
Mara fitted the BVM mask over Rowan's face. It was larger than the non-rebreather and sealed over nose and mouth with more force. Freya lifted the jaw. Mara squeezed.
The BVM made him still in a different way. It was harder to fight a mask that someone else was holding with purpose. Mara's palm steadied his forehead. Freya's fingers lifted under the jaw. The seal took his mouth away from him completely.
Rowan's chest rose shallowly.
Mara adjusted his head and squeezed again. This time the rise was clear. Rowan's ribs lifted under the leads. His abdomen stayed flatter. Better.
Callum stared at the movement. He had watched Elise's chest rise under forced breaths less than an hour before. This was worse because Rowan's body was familiar. Rowan's whistle lay against his sternum. Rowan's hair was damp on the pillow. Rowan's chest moved because Mara's hand compressed the bag.
Tessa made a small sound.
Freya did not look at her. "Quiet or out."
Tessa covered her mouth with both hands and stayed.
Rowan gagged under the mask. Mara turned his head, suctioned water and vomit, then resealed. The BVM breaths continued. The mask fogged with exhale and cleared as oxygen went in. His eyelids trembled but did not open.
"Pulse dropping," Freya said.
Callum said, "No," with no use to anyone.
Mara stayed on the BVM. Izzie grabbed the AED pads. Callum cut the lanyard cord because the whistle lay where the upper pad needed to sit. The whistle fell beside Rowan's shoulder. Tessa heard the small plastic sound on the sheet and flinched.
Izzie dried Rowan's chest. He was damp enough that pad contact mattered. She worked quickly and with no gossip in her face now. Upper right pad. Lower left pad. Smooth the edges. Press. Connect.
The AED speaker played instructions already completed.
Freya's fingers remained at the carotid. The pulse faded beneath them.
"No pulse. Start compressions."
Callum stepped in and stopped.
He could not put his hands on Rowan's chest. Not fast enough. Not after failing to call lane four. Not after the paramedic had replaced him with Elise. Not with Rowan under the mask and the cut whistle on the sheet.
Mara looked up. "Callum."
The pause lasted only a second or two. In arrest, that was enough for Freya.
"Tessa. Compressions. Now."
She came forward. Her hands found the centre of Rowan's chest. Lower half of the sternum. Heel down, other hand over it, elbows locked. His skin was warm under her palm despite the shivering. She had touched him in jokes before, elbows and shoulders and careless poolside contact. This was not contact. This was use.
"Hard and fast," Freya said. "I'll count."
Rowan's chest compressed beneath her. The first one felt wrong enough that she almost stopped. His sternum gave under her hands, not like a mannequin, not like training mats, not like anyone in a classroom had properly described. She pushed again before fear could catch up.
"One. Two. Three. Four. Five."
Her arms found rhythm. Her face changed. The friendly softness went out of it. Sweat mixed with pool water on her upper lip. Rowan's body rocked with each compression. Freya kept the head stable. Mara ventilated after thirty.
Callum stood at the side with both hands open. The strongest man on shift had missed the first minute of Rowan's CPR. Izzie saw it. She wrote Tessa compressions commenced 18:17 and kept her eyes on the page because, for once, recording was kinder than looking.
"Analysing rhythm," the AED recording played. "Do not touch patient."
Tessa lifted her hands. Mara paused with the mask sealed but the bag uncompressed. Freya held off the pulse check until the analysis finished.
"No shock advised. Begin CPR."
"Good," Freya said. "Keep going."
The word did something to Tessa. Her eyes filled. She kept the rhythm. Rowan's chest compressed under her hands. Mara ventilated. Freya watched face and pulse and monitor. Izzie logged. Callum finally moved to prepare the second oxygen cylinder. It gave him something useful to hold.
After the second cycle, Rowan's rhythm organised. Freya checked the neck.
Mara kept the mask sealed. "Respiratory effort?"
Freya watched. "Poor. Continue ventilations."
Tessa stepped back and looked at her hands.
Rowan's eyelids opened halfway during the third minute of bagging. His eyes moved from ceiling to Freya to the mask. Panic arrived fast. His hand jerked toward his face.
Freya caught it. "Leave it."
"Rowan. You arrested. We are breathing for you. Leave the mask on."
The words reached him in fragments. Arrested. Breathing. Mask. His eyes widened. Mara squeezed the bag again and his chest rose against his own weak resistance. The breath went in anyway. He exhaled around the valve. The mask fogged.
Mara waited until the exhale finished before she squeezed again. She watched the lower ribs and not his face. That made it worse for him. He was used to people looking at his expression, waiting for him to turn a moment into a joke. Under the mask, with air being given to him, there was nowhere useful to put the joke.
The shame came before the fear. Everyone saw it. He had been the one who said fine. The one who delayed. The one who did not want Mara looking at him. Now his bare chest carried pads and leads. His whistle lay cut beside him. A woman he teased for being too nice had compressed his heart while another woman forced oxygen into him through a mask.
"Don't fight it," Mara said. "Let me ventilate you."
There was nothing tender in the sentence. It worked anyway. Rowan stopped trying to pull the mask away. His fingers twisted into the sheet. Mara continued with slower breaths, watching the chest. Freya kept the jaw lifted and checked the pulse every few seconds.
Tessa stood near Rowan's feet, breathing hard as if she had been underwater. She could still feel the depth of his sternum under her hands. The feeling did not leave when she stopped.
The second ambulance crew arrived at six twenty-four.
They found Rowan shirtless on the treatment couch, wet red shorts, AED pads on his chest, ECG leads between them, BVM sealed to his face by Mara, Freya at the head, Tessa pale beside the trolley, Callum managing oxygen, Izzie with two pages of times.
Freya gave it. Adult male lifeguard, twenty-three, submersion exposure during drowning rescue, delayed respiratory distress, hypoxia, respiratory arrest progressing to pulseless arrest, CPR commenced, no shock advised, ROSC, ongoing assisted ventilation, suspected aspiration.
The paramedic looked at Rowan. "You've had a full shift."
Rowan could not answer. The mask covered his face. His eyes moved toward the voice and failed to stay there.
"We'll take over ventilation."
Mara held for one more breath, then handed the mask over. Her fingers released reluctantly. She had not expected that from herself. The paramedic's grip changed the seal. Rowan felt it and tried to turn his head.
"No," the paramedic said. "Stay still."
Rowan obeyed because there was not much else he could do.
They prepared him for transport. The BVM remained in use until his own breathing improved enough for a non-rebreather. He fought that too, less from refusal than from fear. The paramedic tightened the strap. Rowan shut his eyes while the mask fogged with faster breaths.
The non-rebreather went back over his face for transport. Rowan flinched at the strap, then stopped himself because everyone saw it. The paramedic pulled the elastic tight. The mask sealed. Rowan's chest rose in fast, shallow movements under the pads until the oxygen steadied him enough to load.
At the ambulance doors, Tessa stepped forward.
She had meant to say something useful. Nothing useful came. She looked at the mask, the pads still under the blanket, the cut red cord on the medbay counter behind them.
"You came back," she said.
Regret hit her as soon as the words left her mouth. They sounded like she had already put him somewhere else and was surprised to see him again.
Rowan's hand lifted a few inches and stopped.
The paramedic closed the doors.
The second ambulance left at six thirty-six.
Freya called it herself. No statement beyond medical incident. No names. No speculation. Staff remained for accounts, equipment check and management handover.
Tessa sat on the floor outside the medbay with her back to the wall. Her red swimsuit had dried except where it was damp at the front from Rowan's chest and the couch. She did not know whether the damp was pool water, sweat, or something from the resuscitation. She did not want to know and could not stop thinking about it.
Inside, the medbay had two stripped couches. Both paper rolls had been torn off. Both pillows needed replacing. The bin held cut fabric, used dressings, empty electrode packets, suction tubing, towels, wrappers, the snipped remains of Rowan's lanyard, the first BVM valve in a labelled bag, and gloves curled inside out.
Callum cleaned. Cleaning gave him a reason not to speak. He wiped the couch rails, the vinyl, the trolley, the oxygen knobs, the cabinet handles. He paused over Rowan's red whistle, which someone had set on the counter.
Izzie sat at the desk and copied rough times into the incident report. Her handwriting stayed neat. She hated that. She wanted one letter to show that she had watched Elise shocked three times and Rowan bagged on the second couch. Nothing changed in the handwriting.
Freya called the hospital at seven twenty. She gave her name, position, site, and the fact that two adult casualties had been transported from the pool. She was put on hold twice.
When she came back into the medbay, everyone looked at her.
"Elise is in resus," Freya said. "Critical. They are ventilating. Rowan is in ambulance handover. Conscious intermittently. High-flow oxygen. Treating aspiration."
"Conscious is good," Tessa said.
Tessa met the look. "I know it doesn't mean safe."
At eight, the manager arrived. Duncan wore a polo shirt over jeans and looked at the medical waste as if it had been left there to inconvenience him. Freya gave him the timeline. Mara gave him the kit replacement list. Izzie gave him nothing until he asked for it properly.
Duncan skimmed the first page. "We need to be careful with wording around liability."
"I understand emotions are high."
He opened his mouth, then closed it. Freya still wore the red swimsuit, barefoot and damp in places from kneeling beside two patients. Mara still had drying blood and adhesive on one glove cuff because she had not noticed it. Callum looked as if he would break something if given an excuse. Duncan chose not to become the excuse. He left to call head office.
At eight thirty-five, the hospital called back.
Freya took the call in the office and closed the door. Mara watched through the internal window. The answer was clear before Freya hung up. Freya did not cry. She stood very still, listened, said thank you, and placed the handset back in the cradle.
"Elise died in resus at eight twenty-nine."
Tessa made no sound. Callum sat down on the nearest chair. Izzie closed the folder and put both hands flat on it.
"Assessment. Oxygen. Awake sometimes. Not leaving tonight."
No one said that was good. Good had become too small and too easy to misuse.
They stayed another hour because forms needed signatures. Each person wrote an account.
Tessa wrote hers twice. The first version said she saw lane four empty and thought the swimmer was at the wall. The second version added that she had asked Rowan and accepted his answer. Freya did not tell her to add it. Tessa wrote it because the first version was too clean.
Mara's account was exact and cold.
Callum's used the word we too often. He crossed it out in two places and replaced it with I.
Izzie's had times down to the minute and no mention of the look on Rowan's face when Tessa spoke at the ambulance doors.
Freya's was the shortest.
By ten, the pool area was dark except for the security lights and the office. The water remained uncovered. The black line in lane four showed through the surface. A maintenance worker would test chemicals in the morning. Someone would ask whether the pool could reopen. Someone would check the rota. The adult lane swimmers would talk about it in the car park and online.
Tessa stood by the deep end before leaving.
Tessa did not look over. "Don't what?"
"I was going to say I should have called it."
The answer was cruel. It was also cleaner than comfort.
"Do you think Rowan heard me?" Tessa asked. "At the ambulance."
Tessa folded her arms tight across her chest. "I didn't know him looking like that would feel that way."
Inside the office, Izzie put Rowan's cut whistle into a small evidence bag because she did not know where else to put it. She labelled it with his name, the date, and the time it had been removed. She did not write that it had fallen beside his shoulder when the pads went on. She did not write that the red plastic looked obscene against the white sheet while Tessa compressed his chest.
Some details had no line on the form.
Freya locked the medbay last. Before she did, she counted the oxygen masks, checked both BVMs, replaced the AED pads, checked the suction canister, folded two blankets, and put fresh paper on both couches. She opened the drawer with the non-rebreathers and counted them twice.
Then she turned off the overhead lights.
The staff left by the side gate.
The next morning Freya arrived before opening and went into the medbay alone. She wrote two names on the whiteboard under follow-up.
After Rowan's name she wrote hospital: update pending.
After Elise's, she left the line blank.
She opened the oxygen cupboard and counted the masks again.
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