>Keep me warm by Julian De Vizio<

"SAM!" Penny exclaimed in fear as the ice finally broke and the car disappeared into the icy water in a matter of seconds.

Without thinking, she ran onto the ice and carefully lay down in front of the hole in order to crawl to the edge of the break and thus shift her weight so that the ice didn't collapse any further.

The next moment Sam appeared and she breathed a sigh of relief, even though the danger had not yet been averted. She had to get him out of there before the cold paralyzed him and the current of water swept him away and dragged him under the ice. "Sam!" She reached the edge and held out her hand to Sam as he turned to her. His lips were already blue and his movements stiff as he swam over to her. The water must have been terribly cold.

He took her hand, but no longer had the strength to grasp it properly. The ice-cold water drained all his energy. Penny firmly grasped his wrist and pulled him towards her. Sam put his arm on the edge of the ice, but as soon as he leaned on it to pull himself out, a piece broke off.

"Go..." he panted shakily, trying to pull his arm away from Penny so she could save herself.

"Forget it! I won't let you go, no matter what happens!" she replied seriously as she laboriously worked her way out of her jacket. "Turn around!", she then told him as she wrapped her jacket around his upper body and under his arms to use it like a rope, but did not let go of the sleeves, the ends of which she wrapped around her hands and used them to pull him out. She tried to pull away with him, but instead she pulled herself even more towards the water rather than letting Sam move even a little out of it. She lay on her back and called to Ben to stay at a safe distance when she saw that he came closer to help her.

Her shoes slid across the ice, searching for support so she could exert more force. She found something to brace her heels against and pulled as hard as she could, using every bit of strength she could muster and sure enough she was able to slowly but surely heave Sam out of the water, pulling him out more and more. Even though she kept losing her footing with one foot ever again, she was always able to find a notch in the ice or a little bit of packed snow again that she could use to gain more strength and to be able to work with her whole body.

When he was up to his waist out of the water, she sat up and slid her hands under his arms to grab him in a rescue hold and sat back down flat on the ice with him on top of her.

Sam felt weak, tired and incredibly cold, but he realized what she was trying to do and raised his right arm so she could grab it with both hands, to keep him in a rescue grip. He knew he was too heavy for her and yet he admired the strength she mustered and her will not to give up on him. He had to help her as best as he could. He didn't want to risk anything happening to her because of him.

Only a moment later he found himself half-lying on top of her, cursing himself for his weakness as he felt how much effort it took her to keep both of them lying on the slippery and snow-covered ice, working forward with only the help of her legs which she didn't find enough support to push them both off. She couldn't stand up with him to carry him away on her legs, as the ice so close to the breaking edge could still break easily if she didn't distribute her weight enough. So he helped her as best he could with his legs, even though he no longer had much control over his almost stiff limb.

When they had almost made it back to the shore, Ben came to their aid and helped Penny stand up as well as lifting Sam up too and getting him off the ice along with Penny. Sam tried to keep up as best he could, but his muscles were stiff with cold and he stumbled more than actually putting one foot in front of the other.

They laboriously worked their way up the snow-covered slope, while Sam felt like he was becoming more and more immobile and the cold was working its way into every fiber of his body.

"Ben, please look for Sam's suitcase. He needs to get out of the wet clothes. There should be a towel in mine, we need that too!" Penny said to Ben and he immediately tore open the trunk as Penny started to tell Sam unbuttoning his shirt as soon as they got to the car.

Penny knew that she had to hurry - not only because Sam was still in danger of freezing to death, but also because standing there, even on the shoulder of the highway, was still life-threatening - especially in this weather.

"Everything's...okay...Pen...I'll...get it..." he started, but between trembling and chattering teeth, he could barely get a word out clearly while he was still unsuccessful fiddling with the top button of his shirt.

"You can't even get the first button on your shirt undone," she stated immediately and quickly unbuttoned the last buttons herself and then unbuttoned his trousers while Ben was still sorting through the suitcases and tossed her a towel from hers, which she used immediately and began to rub Sam's hair. Meanwhile, Sam tried to peel himself off his shirt, but he was shaking so hard, feeling so frozen, that all his movements seemed awkward and tired.

On a spur of the moment, Penny took it off and helped him out of the shirt he was wearing underneath and quickly but carefully rubbed his upper body dry with the towel, when Ben threw her a sweater, which she immediately put back over Sam's head. Penny was so engrossed in the need to get Sam dry as quickly as possible that she just gave in and mindlessly turned back to his trousers as soon as she had pulled the waistband of his sweater down. She only stopped when she was already reaching for his waistband to take his trousers off and only now registered what she was doing here, which was also accompanied by a constant clicking that had been going on the whole time and she was only now really aware of it.

"Come on, Morris! That's such a great show! I'll make you a photo book for Christmas tomorrow with the pictures!" Ellie cheered her on from the car and Penny took a quick look past Sam back to the car, only to be not really surprised to see that Ellie was obviously actually taking an detailed photo documentation of her first aid to Sam over the backrest through the open trunk. She felt Sam trying unsuccessfully to take a step back and looked up at him as the blush rose to her cheeks. "Ben, will you continue please?" she then asked her colleague and he immediately came to her side while she quickly turned her back on the two of them, pulled a pair of trousers and underwear out of Sam's suitcase, which she threw both to Ben and then sort out the trunk in order to get a blanket out - and of course to stand in Ellie's way so that Ellie wasn't able to look back and continue taking photos of Sam, especially not naked below."When will the emergency Services come?" She then asked, also to make sure that Ellie will focus on her, while Penny put the blanket over the passenger seat, so Sam could sit in it and wrap himself up when he finally finished changing.

"I just called them again. They'll need another hour or so. The roads in Stirling are closed. Traffic accident," Ellie replied, holding her hands on the woman's upper arms who was sitting between her and her sister with the girl on her lap and Ellie rubbed her upper arms so that she wouldn't get too cold thanks to the open trunk.

"This is taking too long," sighed Penny and let herself fall into the passenger seat for a moment. "The Stirling exit is a few hundred meters further. We'll take the woman and the child to the hospital ourselves and it wouldn't be bad if they did take a look at Sam too," Penny objected thoughtfully and couldn't resist taking a quick look in the rearview mirror. Unfortunately, Ben was already pulling Sam's new trousers up over his bottom. Unfortunately? What was she actually thinking here?! She immediately shook off the thought when Ellie talked to her.

"Then two of us have to stay here. We can't all fit in the car."

"Maybe we do," Penny murmured thoughtfully as she remembered something based on the fact that Sam desperately needed as much warmth as possible. She jumped up and turned to Ben and Sam, who had just finished. "Ellie, you take the little one on your lap! Jodie, let me know if it gets too tight and Ben, you drive!" Penny objected, as she began to lower the back of the passenger seat until Jodie informed her that she had reached her knees. She glanced at the woman in the middle, whose laceration Ellie had expertly treated and Ellie now held the girl safely in her arms, also wrapped in a blanket and anxiously holding her cuddly bunny to her chest. It was tight now into the car, but it would work. She was sure of that.

She intercepted Sam, who was being led to her by Ben, and helped him get into the car.

"What...are you...planning...Pen?" he asked shakily as she took off her own sweater, whose arms were wet anyway, and threw it onto the dashboard of the car and then lead Sam to get in. Her jacket must have been left somewhere on the river bank, but she didn't care. It was more important to take care of the woman and Sam right now. Meanwhile, Ben walked around the car and slammed the trunk before sitting in the driver's seat.

"I'm sorry, Sam, but you can use any source of heat right now," Penny replied immediately, only to crawl into his lap the next moment and pull the blanket behind him around them both while Ellie started cheering suggestively in the back - which only increased the heat in Penny's cheeks as she leaned against Sam, who seemed to get a little stiffer as she wrapped one arm around him and held the blanket tightly around them with the other. He was so cold.

"That I'm able to see you like that finally!" Ellie shouted happily and immediately took a photo of the two of them. "First you undress him on the street and now you're cuddling up in the passenger seat wrapped in a blanket," she shouted with enthusiasm, which even made the girl laugh.

"Do you want to swap, Ellie?" Penny asked her skeptically.

"No way!" Ellie and Sam protested at the same time and Penny felt him put his arms around her under the blanket. She looked surprised into his eyes and couldn't stop herself from blushing even more.

"If the police will see us, we won't just get a ticket because you're not wearing a seatbelt, Penny!" Ben interjected worriedly as he buckled up and started the engine.

"I think the police have other things to worry about right now and I'm counting on you to drive properly! Don't get into an accident!" she replied seriously.

"I have...you. I...won't...let you go...no matter what...happens," Sam murmured quietly and their eyes met again before she returned his weak smile and decided to leave it to relax. There was nothing more she could do anyway, except to hope that Sam would get warmer quickly and that they would get to the hospital soon, while she herself started to shiver. Whether it was the adrenaline leaving her body or the cold radiating from Sam's body, she couldn't say, but she immediately forgot about it as Sam pulled her a little tighter and she rested her head on his shoulder.

To be continued...