For one horrifying moment, Rowan thought he hadn't heard her and she took another breath to try to call him back. If all else failed, she would wrench herself free from both points and pray the cabinet avoided most of her as it fell on top of her. Eyes closed, she took a deep breath, concentrating all of her focus on holding the cabinet up.

Three...two....

one —

At the last count, she realized that the cabinet's weight had...lightened? And she turned to see Malfoy next to her, pressed up against the cabinet and bearing the brunt of it. Her jaw dropped, but she didn't lower her hand, terrified that he would lose his ground and fall and the cabinet would crush the both of them. What in the world were they going to do with this? She stared at him and opened her mouth to ask when he muttered something under his breath and surged forward. She made a sound, somewhere between a cry of protest and surprise as his hands struggled with the buttons on her coat.

If she hadn't already been flushed from exerting the rest of her energy to hold up the cabinet, she would be beet red for an entirely different reason. But she closed her mouth and focused on keeping at least some of the cabinet's weight off of him. Her wrist buckled again as she jerked in surprise at the sensation of his hands on her waist - on her chest - dear lord. His quick apology, muttered quietly as he concentrated on undoing the skirt buttons on her coat, only warranted an understanding, voiceless nod from her as she grappled with keeping entirely still as he worked. It hadn't escaped her that this was the closest anyone had really ever gotten to her.

And then he was done and she had to let go of the cabinet. She cast him a fearful look as she did so, praying to God that he wouldn't be crushed.

Lowering her arms she allowed him to tear the coat off of her, and it finally fell into the water. The jade pendant her mother had given her swung from her neck on its chain as she was pulled away from the wreckage. She reached out her hands to steady him as he spun towards her; a dance that she knew neither of them ever wanted to repeat again. And then they were free.

At this point, for all her spikiness towards him and his indignation towards her, Rowan didn't protest. She was wandless amongst a sinking ship and she was past the point of caring what happened as long as both of them got out alive. The water was past her waist now and she struggled to wade through the water, her skirts still giving her grief. She might as well have been moving through molasses. If she still had her wand, she would have cut them completely off of her, decorum be damned.

But they were almost out - almost away and it occurred to Ro that she would need him again if they were going to apparate back onto the rescue boat. She turned briefly with an inward shout to whoever was listening, praying for him to be not far behind her.

---