1 The first time we were stranded on Mount Rainier’s icy slopes, Jamie ignored my bleeding leg and clipped the only harness to Luna. “She fears heights,” he said, avoiding my gaze. “You’re stronger.” The second time, a mudslide hit, and he gave her the lone oxygen mask. His teammate excused it, citing her weak lungs. Time and again, he left the safest path to her, assuming I’d endure. During the ninth crisis, a mine collapsed, trapping us in separate tunnels. Dispatch demanded a choice. “Save Luna first,” he said instantly. Over the radio, I asked, “And me?” His tone softened, practiced. “You’re trained, Annie. Hold on. I’ll return after her.” I laughed silently and cut the line. Jamie didn’t know this was a classified drill I’d staged. I’d needed to see if he’d ever choose me when survival hung in the balance. … I looked down at the digital watch on my wrist. It had taken Jamie exactly two seconds to make his choice. That was faster than any of the previous eight times. The heavy silence in my headset was broken by the hesitant voice of the chief commander. “Captain Davis, do we proceed with the simulation?” Leaning my head back against the cold, damp rock wall, I spoke quietly. “No.” “Call it off. End the drill.” After a brief burst of static, a loud automated announcement echoed through the entire cavern system. “The joint emergency rescue simulation has concluded. All units, stand down and remain at your stations.” Within thirty seconds, the emergency floodlights flickered to life, bathing the dark tunnel in a blinding, sterile glow. The crew quickly moved the heavy foam boulders off my legs. I pulled off my helmet, shaking out my hair, and walked out through the secondary exit. Right at the threshold of the staging area, I ran straight into Jamie, who was carrying Luna out of the simulated debris field. Luna’s arms were wrapped tightly around his neck, her face buried in his chest. Only when the echoing broadcast repeated did she slowly lift her head. “A simulation?” she whispered, blinking. Jamie stopped dead in his tracks. His eyes locked onto me, completely unharmed, and then drifted to the painted foam rocks behind us. Slowly, the blood drained from his face, replaced by a dark, simmering anger. “Annie, did you lie to me?” I didn’t answer. Luna slid down from his arms, her eyes instantly filling with tears as she looked at me. “Annie, did you seriously trap us in separate tunnels just to force Jamie into making a choice? How could you play with his feelings like that?” Her voice wasn’t loud, but in the quiet of the cavern, it carried perfectly to every rescue worker standing nearby. The atmosphere in the room turned instantly tense. Jamie glared at me, his fists clenching at his sides. “Do you have any idea how dangerous that was?” I looked around at the brightly lit safety exit, marked with highly visible reflective tape. “Dangerous how, exactly?” “Every single collapse point was engineered for absolute safety. The boulders are made of lightweight foam, the communication lines were fully secure, and the medical team was waiting right outside the door. The only real danger here was you, deciding to bypass protocol to prioritize a civilian.” Jamie ground his teeth together, his jaw tight. “Luna has a history of severe asthma. If she panics, she could suffocate. What was I supposed to do?” A dry, bitter laugh bubbled up in my chest. “Did she leave her inhaler behind?” Luna’s face turned incredibly pale. Jamie’s eyes darted down to her utility belt. The standard-issue portable oxygen cylinder was clipped right there, its safety seal completely intact, untouched. A collective murmur went through the watching crew. For a few seconds, Jamie stood there in stunned silence, but he still stepped forward, keeping himself positioned firmly in front of her. “She was terrified, Annie. She probably forgot it was there. You’re a trained professional, why do you always have to hold a grudge against her?” There it was again. That familiar, exhausting line. Because I was a professional. Because I had training, he could leave me in a freezing blizzard while he rescued Luna. Because I had experience, he could push her onto the rescue helicopter during a flash flood and leave me to tread freezing water, waiting for the next turn. No matter if I was injured, freezing, or suffocating, he always assumed I would find a way to survive. Looking at this man whom I had loved desperately for seven long years, I felt a sudden, profound sense of detachment. He felt like a complete stranger. “Jamie.” “In your mind, she is the only one who ever needs saving. Is that it?” He pinched the bridge of his nose, looking incredibly frustrated. “I never said that.” “But that is exactly what you do. Every single time.” “Because you can handle it!” his voice finally cracked, rising in anger. “Annie, you are the most decorated rescue captain in this region. You’ve survived avalanches. You’ve fought forest fires. You’ve pulled dozens of people out of collapsed structures. And Luna? She’s just a wedding photographer.” “Why do you keep forcing me to make these ridiculous, childish choices?” “Because I was supposed to marry you,” I said softly. The entire cavern fell into a dead, suffocating silence. Our wedding was scheduled for exactly three months from now. The invitations had already been sent, the wedding dress had been altered three times, and I had personally drafted the emergency contingency plans for the venue. But today, I finally understood something. Who a person chooses to save in a disaster has nothing to do with who they claim to love. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a small, silver rescue whistle. It was the gift I had given him the day he joined the civilian rescue force. On the back, we had engraved a promise. In step, in retreat, in life, in death. I pressed the cold metal into his palm, closing his fingers over it. “The wedding is off,” I said quietly. Jamie blinked, looking entirely lost. “What did you say?” “I said, the wedding is off.” I slipped the diamond ring off my left ring finger and placed it on top of his closed hand. “I’ll contact the real estate agent tomorrow to put our house on the market. Don’t worry about the venue deposits, I’ll cover them. And I’ll handle the calls to the guests myself.” Jamie’s grip tightened around the ring, his face turning a dangerous shade of red. “You’re breaking off our engagement over a damn simulation?” “It’s not because of this simulation,” I said. “It’s because of the nine times before it.” “Every single one of those times was an actual emergency!” He took a step closer, grabbing my wrist. “Annie, I know I lost my temper just now. But you know my history. You know what happened to me.” “Thomas died saving my life. I promised him on his deathbed that I would look after Luna for the rest of her life. I can’t just stand by and watch her get hurt.” I looked down at his hand gripping my wrist, then slowly looked up into his eyes. “And what about me?” “When I’m the one in danger, do you ever feel a single second of fear?” Jamie swallowed hard, his throat bobbing. “You’re different.” “How?” The words tumbled out of his mouth without a second thought. “Annie, I trust you more than anyone else on this planet. Even if the entire world collapsed, I know you’d find a way to crawl out alive.” I stared at him, completely speechless. I had never realized that being suffocated by someone’s absolute faith in you could feel so incredibly heavy. I slowly, deliberately pried his fingers off my wrist, one by one. “Jamie, I am not immortal.” “I was just too terrified to tell you every time I almost died.” His face froze, his expression turning completely blank. “What do you mean?” I didn’t offer any explanation. I turned on my heel and walked toward the command center. The base director was waiting for me inside, a sealed document resting on the desk. “The transfer request from the Great North International Rescue Center has been approved,” he said, pushing the file toward me. “You leave in a month. It’s a three-year contract. Are you absolutely sure about this, Annie?” I picked up the pen and signed my name on the final line without hesitation. “I’m sure.” The director let out a long sigh. “You turned down this assignment twice because of Jamie. What changed?” I stared at my signature, the ink drying black on the crisp white paper. “I finally grew up,” I said. “Some people are never going to look back, no matter how long you stand there waiting.” A sudden clatter sounded outside the glass door. I looked up. Jamie was standing on the other side of the glass, his helmet rolling across the floor at his feet. He had heard everything. “You’re leaving?” he asked, his voice muffled through the glass as he pushed the door open. I closed the folder, slipping it into my bag. “Yes.” “When did you decide this?” “Six months ago, right after the rescue on Mount Rainier. The center reached out to me with the offer.” “Why didn’t you tell me?” I looked at him, feeling an overwhelming wave of exhaustion. “Because back then, you told me we were getting married. You said you didn’t want us to be apart right after the wedding. So, I turned them down.” “The second offer came right after the valley mudslide.” “But Luna was too traumatized to be left alone, so you took her abroad to recover for a month. Meanwhile, I was lying in a hospital bed undergoing two consecutive debridement surgeries on my infected leg. So, I turned them down again.” Jamie’s lips parted, his face turning entirely pale. “You were hospitalized?” “Yes.” “Was… was it serious?” “A deep puncture wound to my left thigh. It got severely infected.” “Why didn’t anyone tell me?” I offered him a sad, small smile. “Because you left strict orders with the entire team. You told them Luna was in a fragile mental state, and that no one was to disturb you with minor issues from the base.” Jamie stood frozen, his eyes wide as he stared at me, looking utterly lost. It took him a long time to find his voice. “I… I didn’t know.” “Now you do,” I said, stepping past him. “But it doesn’t matter anymore.” The news of our canceled wedding spread through our social circles like wildfire. Jamie’s parents arrived at the rescue base late that very evening. The moment his mother saw me, she let out a sharp sigh of disapproval. “Annie, Jamie is just a loyal boy. You can’t expect him to turn his back on a family obligation. Thomas gave his life to save our son, it is only right that Jamie looks after Luna.” “You’re a rescue captain, surely you understand duty better than anyone?” I poured her a glass of water and set it on the table. “Mrs. Vance, I’ve never stopped him from looking after Luna.” “I’m just choosing not to marry him.” Her expression shifted, a flicker of panic crossing her face. “You’ve been together for seven years, Annie! You can’t just throw all that away over a misunderstanding. Think of our family’s reputation, the invitations have already been sent!” So, it was about their reputation. His father sat in the corner, his face grim. “Marriage requires compromise, Annie. Jamie saved Luna because she is physically weak. Using a safety drill to test your fiancé is a childish, manipulative game.” I nodded slowly. “You’re right,” I said. “And now that I have my answer, I’m not throwing a tantrum, and I’m not asking him to change. I’m simply walking away. Is that not compromise enough?” His mother was left completely speechless. Jamie stood by the window, his eyes bloodshot, dark circles bruising the skin beneath them. He looked as though he hadn’t slept in days. Only after his parents finally left did he drag his feet over to my desk. “We can postpone the wedding,” he said, his voice barely a whisper. “We can do it after you get back from the Great North.” I didn’t look up from packing my gear into my duffel bag. “I didn’t say postpone, Jamie. I said cancel.” “Annie!” He finally snapped, his voice tight with suppressed rage. “What do you want from me? Do you want me to cut Luna out of my life completely? Do you want me to leave her to drown, just so I can live with the guilt for the rest of my life?” I set down the climbing rope I was coiling and looked him in the eye. “You don’t have to do anything for me.” “You can look after her every day. You can take her to her doctor appointments, take her on vacations, and save her first in every disaster. That is your choice.” “And my choice is to leave.” Jamie’s eyes burned with a mixture of anger and hurt. “You’re just using this transfer to punish me, to force me into choosing you. Annie, you used to be so different.” I paused. “Different how?” “You were rational. Calm. You always saw the bigger picture.” He stepped closer, his voice softening into a plea. “You would never let petty jealousy ruin what we have.” A sudden memory flashed through my mind, vivid and painful. It was that first night on Mount Rainier. A jagged piece of ice had sliced a deep gash into my right thigh. As he carried Luna down the mountain, Jamie had looked back at me over his shoulder. “Annie, hang tight! I’ll get her to the medical tent and come right back for you!” I had waited in that howling blizzard for forty-seven minutes. Only later did I find out that because Luna was crying and hyperventilating, he had ridden with her all the way to the city hospital. By the time my team found me, my body temperature had dropped to dangerous levels, and I was severely hypothermic. During the mudslide, when he gave her the oxygen mask, I had inhaled a massive amount of toxic dust. My lungs got severely infected, and I coughed up blood for two weeks. During the flash flood, he gave her his life vest. During the forest fire, he left the last bottle of water for her. During the cable car failure, he pushed her into the first evacuation pod. When we lost signal in the wilderness, he used the final bar of battery on the satellite phone to call a specialist, just to ask what dosage of anxiety medication Luna should take. When the frozen lake cracked, he pulled her out of the freezing water, completely failing to notice that I had slipped into a adjacent crevice. During the aftershock, he shielded her with his body, leaving me to evacuate the remaining casualties in a collapsing building alone. Through all of it, I had never complained. When my teammates criticized him, I had even made excuses for him. Because I was the captain. Because I had to focus on the big picture. I had stayed silent for so long that he had forgotten that I was human, too. He had forgotten that I was never obligated to endure any of it. “Jamie,” I said, staring at his face. “You never loved the rational Annie.” “You just loved the Annie who would never leave, no matter how many times you abandoned her.” “But she died during that ninth collapse.” A week before my scheduled departure, our base received an urgent distress call. A massive landslide had occurred upstream of the Clearwater Canyon. A tour bus carrying over twenty passengers was trapped on a crumbling ledge above the raging river. The rain was pouring down in relentless sheets. As our primary geological consultant, Jamie joined our dispatch team. But just as we were loading the trucks, Luna showed up, carrying a heavy camera bag. “I’m the official documentary photographer for this mission,” she said, flashing a media pass. “The public channel is covering this rescue, and I have full clearance to document the operation.” I looked at Jamie. He quickly avoided my gaze, muttering under his breath, “She’ll stay on the perimeter, Annie. She won’t get close to the danger zone.” I didn’t waste my breath arguing. When we reached the canyon, the situation was far worse than we had anticipated. The tour bus was wedged precariously between two shifting rock slabs, suspended directly over a roaring torrent of muddy water. Six children inside the bus were injured, the youngest only seven years old. I hooked my harness to the main line and rappelled down to begin the extraction. Jamie remained at the staging area above, monitoring the geological sensors. By four in the afternoon, the rain intensified into a torrential downpour. Jamie’s voice crackled through my earpiece, sharp with panic. “The eastern rock slab is shifting rapidly! All units, evacuate the gorge immediately!” Just as I secured the safety line around the last child, a piercing shriek echoed from the cliffs above. “Jamie!” Luna had bypassed the safety barrier to get a dramatic close-up shot of the sliding earth. The ground beneath her feet crumbled, and she began sliding down the muddy slope toward the sheer drop of the cliff. Without a single thought for his post, Jamie dropped his instruments and lunged forward to grab her. In his panic, his foot caught the data cables, ripping them from the main console. Instantly, the command center lost all real-time telemetry on the shifting mountain. At that exact moment, a loud crack echoed from the underside of the bus. “Captain, the support beam is snapping! The bus is going down!” my teammate screamed. I didn’t have time to look up. I shoved the child into the arms of the climbing specialist above me and lunged back into the tilting cabin of the bus. The driver was still trapped, his leg pinned beneath the crumpled dashboard. “Captain, leave me!” the driver screamed, rain splattering his face. “This thing is going down!” I swung my rescue axe, slamming it into the distorted metal frame. “Shut up!” “We don’t leave people behind.” With another deafening groan of metal, the bus began its final slide into the raging waters below. Using every ounce of leverage I had left, I clicked my spare carabiner onto the driver’s harness and shoved him out the shattered windshield. The next second, the bus broke free, plunging into the abyss. My safety line snapped taut, the violent jerk slamming me hard against the jagged stone wall of the canyon. A sickening crack echoed in my ears as a blinding wave of pain exploded in my right shoulder. “Annie!” The comms channel went into absolute chaos. Suspended over the raging waters, my right arm hung completely useless at my side. The dispatcher’s voice screamed through the radio, frantic. “Jamie! Captain Davis’s anchor point is slipping! You’re closest to her position! Get down there and reinforce the line!” After a few agonizing seconds of static, Jamie’s voice came through, tight and strained. “Luna fractured her ankle. She can’t move. I have to get her to the medical tent first.” The dispatcher let out a furious roar. “Her anchor point is going to fail in less than two minutes! Let someone else carry her!” “Annie can hold on,” Jamie replied, his voice shaking. “She’s strong.” I closed my eyes. This was the tenth time. I couldn’t believe that even after the ninth, there was still a tenth. Cold rain lashed against my face as the metal piton slowly ground its way out of the crumbling rock face. I couldn’t wait for him. Using only my left hand, I reached for my gear loops, pulled out a backup piton, and slammed it into a narrow crack in the rock. I struck it once. Then twice. The impact sent a jarring shockwave up my arm, splitting the skin of my palm. Hot blood began to mix with the rain, flowing down my wrist. On the third strike, the original anchor point failed completely. I plummeted straight down. At the very last second, the backup safety line snapped taut, stopping my fall with a violent jolt. My injured shoulder slammed into the rock wall once more. Before darkness claimed my vision, the last thing I heard was the dispatcher screaming through my earpiece. “Jamie! She’s fallen! Annie has fallen!”
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