Something drew her eyes back to the spot where she'd last seen him. The water was just over eight feet deep there, she estimated. She knew there were kids below the age of six who swam like fish, but he'd look so small and alone.
She glanced automatically toward the bottom of the pool.
A moment later, she was on her feet, her heart in her throat. She reached the side in two steps, slinging off her sunglasses before making a clean, shallow dive.
The boy was lying facedown on the bottom of the pool. Jane scooped him into one arm and kicked forcefully toward the surface. By the time she reached the side of the pool, the others had just realized what was taking place. The lifeguard, his face pale, was there immediately to lift the little boy out of her arms.
Jane heard someone scream, heard a couple of the younger children start to cry, heard the panicked, excited babbling of the teenagers, but her eyes were on the child as she boosted herself out of the pool and rushed to kneel beside him. Still flustered by being caught unprepared, the lifeguard hesitated, and Jane automatically took charge. The child had a pulse, thank God, but he didn't seem to be breathing. She rolled him into his side, and lifted one arm above his head, hoping that would clear his lungs. She was prepared to do artificial respiration, but she was incredibly relieved when he began to cough and gag.
Steadying him, Jane watched as liquid sputtered from his mouth. He'd taken some water into his lungs, she realized, relieved that someone had run to call an ambulance. He hadn't been underwater more than a couple of minutes, so there should be minimal danger of brain damage, but there was always a chance of complications from water in the lungs. Pneumonia, for one, she remembered. The child should definitely be checked out by trained medical personnel.
He was crying now, in choked, gulping sobs. Jane drew him into her arms, murmuring reassurances. "You'll be fine sweetie. Just fine."
"I didn't see him," the lifeguard muttered in a trembling voice. "I never even heard a splash."
"A child this small doesn't make much of a splash," Jane answered, trying to speak gently despite her annoyance with him. She could tell he would pay for his negligence by painfully imagining what might have happened had she not been there.
"Oh, God, is Tom all right? His dad is going to kill me." The young woman who'd been playing with the toddler rushed to Jane's side, the dripping little girl on her hip.
The boy—Tom—buried his face more tightly in her neck, whimpering and shivering. Instincts Jane hadn't known she possessed kicked in, making her cradle the wet little body closer. Suddenly feeling smothered by the pressing crowd of gawkers, she looked at the lifeguard. "Maybe you could send everyone back to what they were doing?" she suggested in a low murmur.
He nodded, gathered his composure and stood, giving a short blast of his whistle. "Okay, everyone, back up and give the kid some room. You're making him nervous staring at him this way."
Even as the spectators slowly moved away, Jane could hear a siren approaching in the distance. She looked up at the frantic woman with the little girl on her hip. The woman couldn't have been much more than twenty. Her face was pale, her eyes wide and horrified as she stared at the shivering boy. "Is he yours?" Jane asked.
"I'm their nanny. Oh, ma'am, is Tom all right? I'll never forgive myself if—"
"He's fine," Jane broke in quickly, patting the boy's back and speaking in a tone meant to calm both him and the overwrought nanny. "Tom's going to be just fine."
"He was sitting on the side," the nanny babbled. "He wouldn't come in the water, so I told him to stay put while I played with Amy. I checked on him a couple of times and he was fine. Then I looked at Amy again, and the next thing I knew, you were pulling him out of the pool. Tom, why did you go in the water? You know you can't swim."
"I slipped," the child murmured into Jane's neck. "I was just going to stand up and I fell in the water."
"It's okay," Jane said. "No one's blaming you, Tom." There was plenty of blame to spread around, she thought, but none of it was Tom's.
*A/N: Hi, full story is available in my Patreon page, please look for creator Zetar086. Thank you for the support.