Dear Theodosia: blow us all away (philidosia)

5: Stay alive (part one)

Philip wakes up with a jolt, freezing cold water splashing onto his face. The boat is rocking and something is thrashing in the water, causing water to splash onto Philip. His stomach drops as he realizes what is thrashing in the water. Theodosia.

Philip immediately stands up and dives into the water. Underwater, he searches for Theodosia and finds her, sinking towards the bottom. She's thrashing and struggling, but suddenly she stops fighting. Theodosia starts to swim towards the bottom. What is she doing? Trying to drown herself?

Philip struggles to get to her. Once he reaches her, he grabs her around the waist and tries to haul her back up to the surface. Theodosia is struggling to get out of his arms, so Philip is having trouble swimming up to the surface with her. As Philip struggles to hold her and swim, he hears the faint sound of screaming.

Why is Theodosia fighting him so much? Philip is running out of air. He has to get to the surface soon, or Theodosia is going to drown both of them. Theodosia is slipping out of his grasp and he fights to keep his hold on her.

Philip finally manages to get a good grip on her and with some difficulty makes it to the shallow water. He drags Theodosia out of the water and begins to pull her along the shore. Theodosia flails her body and screams.

"I want to go back! Let me go!" she screams, "Mom!"

Once she's on the shore, Philip picks her up and starts to carry her. Theodosia is still fighting him. She beats her fists on his chest and screams, "Mommy! Mommy! I want to go back! Let me go back!" She begins sobbing, broken, "mom..."

When she begins sobbing, Philip's eyes fill with tears. It breaks his heart to hear her so sad, so broken.

Finally Theodosia stops fighting. She closes her eyes and drifts off into sleep.

Theodosia slips out of Philip's hands and he collapses onto the ground. His vision is going black at the edges. He struggles to stay awake, to revive Theodosia. Philip crawls over to her, but he can no longer keep his eyes open. He passes out.

When he wakes up again, he sees Aaron Burr standing over both of them. Burr is reviving Theodosia. Philip slowly sits up and watches, hoping that Theodosia will wake up again.

After about an hour of this, Aaron Burr seems to give up. Theodosia is dead. There will be no reviving her. Philip crawls over to her, refusing to give up. Philip does compressions on her chest, but it seems to be doing nothing. Finally, he just hits her in the gut as hard as he can.

She sits up, coughing out a stream of water, and gasps for air. She starts to cry and Philip reaches for her, but is pushed to the side by Burr. Burr gently picks her up and she buries her face in his chest.

"Daddy!" she cries.

"Shhh," he soothes.

Philip tries to stand up to reach her, but she is too far away. Burr is walking too fast and Philip is blacking out again.

When Philip next wakes he is lying in a bed, tucked in so tight he can hardly move. Angie sits in a chair next to his bed, fast asleep.

"Ange-" he whispers, his throat raw, but she doesn't stir. "Angie," he tries again, louder this time. Angie slowly wakes up, looking around the room. When her eyes fall on him, she lets out a sob.

"You're awake!" Angie leaps out of the chair and onto his bed, hugging him as tight as she can. "You're okay!" she sobs, "You're really okay!"

"Why wouldn't I be okay?" Philip asks hoarsely.

"We thought you were dead!"

"Oh," he says lamely.

"Everyone was really worried this morning when we woke up and couldn't find you. We were looking all over then a neighbor came by the house saying that you were down by the river and they weren't sure if you were going to wake up! Mom fainted. What were you doing by the river?"