Both men looked to bend the other to his will.
"There's only one option." Mick said.
"I agree." John responded.
Mick rolled his eyes and glanced out at the water.
"I've seen dozens of these cases and I'm telling you he will be fine."
"And did you wait to see what happened before making a decision?"
Mick didn't answer.
"It's twelve hours to get back. What if you're wrong?"
The catarmaran rocked gently in the waves. John kept his hand on the door frame while Mick stood with his arms folded.
The captain shrugged.
"I say we wait and see. We gave him some oxygen and he just laid down to sleep. Let's see how he feels when he gets up. He's probably just exhausted from traveling halfway around the world."
"Couldn't that be too late?"
"Too late for what?"
"I don't know. Too late for…"
"Exactly. You don't know because you've never done this before. You've had your cert how long?"
John shifted his feet and looked down.
"A month."
"Right. I've been out here for thirty years. You think this is the first time I've had something like this happen? Sometimes equipment malfunctions and you just deal with it. You don't call off a fifty thousand dollar trip just for a small incident."
"You call that a small incident? He could have died."
Mick rolled his eyes.
"What?" John said.
"Of course he could of died. What do you think we're out here doing? We're not going for a stroll in the woods. You're going a hundred feet under the water. There's sharks, poisonous coral, and a thousand other things that could kill you. Not to mention, if something _does_ go wrong with your equipment, you've got — well, how long can you hold your breath?"
"Yeah but this is different."
"How?"
"He almost died!"
"God! Don't be a dramatic little girl about it."
John bit back his retort. He was regretting hiring Mick to bring them all out here. Alexa had told him it was too much. She was always riding him about everything having to be this huge production instead of just keeping things simple.
But damnit, it's been twenty years! And the first time in a decade they were all getting together! What better reason to go big?
Maybe this was the reason.
John took a deep breath.
"Look Mick, I'm the customer. I put up the money. I want to go back. You can keep the deposit, but…"
"Deposit? You think you're getting a refund for this trip?"
"Yeah, of course. It's getting cut short —"
"Because you're cutting it short."
"No, it's getting cut short because your equipment malfunctioned."
"And now you're scared to go back down. That's not my problem. You want me to take you back, that's fine, but you and everyone else aren't getting a single cent back."
"So that's what this is about?"
"What?"
"The money. That's why you don't want to go back."
"I don't want to go back because you're making a big deal out of nothing. He's fine. There's nothing to worry about."
"Ok, let's play worst case scenario. If we stay, worst case scenario is he gets worse and we could have gotten him back sooner. Worst case scenario if we go back, there's nothing wrong with him and he's fine."
"And you and your friends lose out on your money."
"Why couldn't we just come back out?"
Mick scoffed.
"I'm not doing that. No way. That's stupid. We'll lose a day and a half off the trip and you'll be bitching at me about that the rest of the week and want a refund for the missed day.
"No, no I wouldn't."
"Well if not you, then one of you other little friends."
"Fuck Mick, I don't get why you're fighting so hard against this. We're the customers, your equipment fucked up, why is that on us to deal with?"
The door to the cockpit slid open and both men looked over. Alexa walked in and shut the door behing her. 
In her mid-thirties, she still turned heads. She had long brunette hair and a body that bikinis were made for.
"What are you two girls arguing about?" she asked.
John looked back to Mick and a chill ran down his spine at the way he was looking at Alexa.
"Your hubby here wants to cancel the whole trip and lose everyone's money because he's a little nervous about what happened."
Alexa looked quizzically at John.
John sighed.
"After what happened this morning, we don't know how bad it is. I'm worried if we don't go back now then it could get a lot worse. Mick wants to stay and see what happens because he's afraid of losing out on his money —" Mick folded his arms again and scoffed, "but I want to go back to play it safe. I offered for him to keep the deposit…"
"And I said there would be no refund. He's fine. There's no problem. We have equipment issues sometimes and it doesn't mean we have to cancel an entire trip. If I take you back now, the ship stays docked the entire week and I lose the chance to make the money. So unless there's a legatimate problem, we're not going back and, if we do, there'll be no refund."
Alexa put her hand on John's arm.
"Hon, this was your idea and everybody spent a ton of money to get out here. I'd hate for everyone to lose it."
John looked down and ran his hand through his hair.
"We'll keep an eye on him and see how it goes," she said.
"Fine. Ok. We'll wait."
Mick smirked at John.
"But if he shows any more signs, we leave first thing in the morning and," John leveled a stare at Mick, "we get our money back."
"That sounds reasonable, doesn't it Mick?" Alexa said, flashing her smile at him.
Mick waved them off.
"Fine, whatever. I'm telling you he's fine. I've seen stuff like this before. There's nothing to worry about."

Alexa slid open the cockpit's door and headed down the stairs. John glanced back at Mick who was fiddling with the controls and then followed Alexa down the stairs. 
When they reached the main main deck, Alexa started walking to the bow of the ship. 
"I'm going to the whirlpool to catch some sun."
John didn't answer. He only watched her go.
As she disappeared to the upper deck, he held his hands out in front of him. He had to concentrate to get them to stop shaking.
This was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime. John had started planning it over two years ago. Then the first full day of the trip Adam almost dies. 
Or maybe not. Maybe Mick was right and it wasn't a big deal.
John had been so gung-ho about the scuba diving trip. Remote Austrailia. A little danger for the guys. Sunning on the deck for the gils.
The perfect trip.
Until.
John shoved his hands in his pockets and headed up the hall.
The image of Adam shooting to the surface struggling to get out of his vest was stuck in John's head.
The number one thing they crammed into your head during scuba certificiation was the fear of decompression sickness — the bends.
Don't stay down too long. Don't come up too fast.
Breathing the air from the tank puts nitrogen in your body. It gets spread out through your whole system. If you stay down too long, too much nitrogen gets stuck in your system. If you come up too fast, the nitrogen bubbles up in your joints.
They say it's like shaking up a can of soda and then opening it in your tissue. 
It causes paralysis, brain injury, blood clots, organ failure, extreme joint pain…
John shook his head to clear his mind.
Adam had gotten free. After the valve to his vest had stuck open, it filled with air and started dragging him to the surface. Around 30 feet he'd finally been able to free himself from the vest and let it, and the tank, shoot to the surface. John reached him within a couple minutes and was able to get him air so they could finish the ascent together.
But ascending seventy feet in less than a minute was plenty to cause the bends.
John slid the door to Adam's room open and looked in on his friend. He was asleep, but sweating and shivering under the heavy blanket.
Maybe he was just exhausted from the trip like Mick said. They had given him some oxygen and Adam had felt better. Knowing him, he'll be up cursing and drinking first thing in the morning, ready for another deep dive.
If not — John shut the door and shuddered — he did not envy the pain Adam would be if they were wrong.