Sisters of the Caribbean: Commodore James Norrington

Chapter Twenty-Six - Afraid to Breathe

The water was beating down aggressively against my skin and I ran up the deck. I watched men struggling with the sails as water spilled over the edge of the ship. Other men ran around with crates and Barrels of supplies, attempting to take it to a dryer area. The water caused many men to slip and fall, dropping the crates. Some fruit had been smashed against the deck. I looked around the deck in a hurry to find something useful to do, that's when I noticed the swinging rope of a sail that hadn't been tied down. In tried to fight the waves and the men by dodging and holding onto the ships railing when the water spilled. I huffed annoyedly at the time it was taking to make my way over to the rope, I was irritated beyond belief at myself. I was a pirate, Barbossa's daughter for goodness sake, I should already be over there I now. Finally being fed up, I began pushing through men, earning shouts of disappointment and orders to go back into the quarters from which I came. Men carrying a rather large crate in between them blocked my path and instead of moving around them, I slid under them and stood up, running towards the swinging rope. I have finally made it and I jumped up a bit to grab the rope out of the wind. Once I had successfully caught it, I began tying it back up the way it was supposed to be. In all honesty, I was struggling. It had been a while since I had done this so I was struggling to tie the rope tightly. A few times the rope had almost slipped out of my hands, but I had been able to catch it. Just as it almost slipped again, another pair of hands grabbed the ropes and pulled it down to help me tie it.
"Been awhile eh?" Groves snickered as he yelled over the raging storm.

"Too long!" I shouted back.

Groves and I successfully tied the rope and I was completely soaked. Groves grabbed me by my arm and began to pull me with him.

"Where are we going?" I asked, confused, I had just gotten up here it felt.

"You want to be useful right?!" He shouted, "Follow me!"

Groves sprinted off towards the canons that were stationed on the main deck, I followed quickly after him.

"These cannons have loose ropes!" He shouted, "They've been slipping and rolling since the storm hit! Tie them tighter won't ya?!"

I knew that we was just giving me busy work to keep me out of the way and out of danger and as annoying as it was, I understood why. I technically wasn't supposed to be up here and giving me this task allowed for me to somewhat help. I just nodded subtly as a response. I quickly began working on the ropes, untying them and re-tying them as quick as possible. He wasn't completely wrong, the ropes were very loose. No wonder the cannons had been sliding. As I began untying the third canon, water rushed over the side of the railing that I was on, causing me and the canon to go sliding into the other railing. My head hit the railing hard and I immediately felt dizzy, this didn't help the fact that my head was still slightly aching from the fall I took a while back. The canon landed right beside me, barely missing me, but the rope sling roughly against my stomach, causing me to hunch over a bit. Amidst my pounding headache and aching stomach, I felt hand settle on either side of my face, "Darlin', are you alright?" James voice asked in a gentle whisper that I could surprisingly hear over the water.

          "Mhm," i hummed in response as I attempted to get up.

I managed to stand, but took one step forward and collapsed against him. My vision was blurry....AGAIN, which is just great.

          "You there!" I heard James shout at one of the nearby men, "Tie that canon up! Now!"

James walked me down the stairs towards the quarters, a normal person would give up and decide to just retreat silently into the room....I'm not normal.
I slowly tried to pull away, attempting to not worsen my headache.

          "Would you stop that?" He asked, pulling me back towards him and holding me tighter, "You've already disobeyed me once today, don't do it again."

          "I want to help," I stated groggily, my eyes becoming heavy from the pain.

          "You hit your head again, darlin'," James said, "You did more damage to yourself than anything by helping."

          "I'm fine!" I lied, pulling away again.

          "Kyra!" He exclaimed, pinning me between him and the wall, "You're going to stay in that room, I can not have you running around injuring yourself!"

I stared at him intensely, trying to look upset when truthfully I was a bit relieved, my head was starting to throb even more by the second.

          "Please, darlin', just stay." He asked, putting his hand on the side of my neck and his thumb on my cheek, "You can't tell me you're not in pain."

He wasn't wrong, my head throbbed and my stomach was burning from being hit, I had almost forgotten until now.

          "Fine," I reluctantly agreed.

James smiled and grabbed my hand, leading me back to his room. He slowly shut the door behind us and watched as I kicked my boots off.

          "Your stomach okay?" He asked tilting his head curiously.

          "It doesn't feel okay," I admitted, "I haven't checked for marks yet, I was too busy being pulled and pinned against a wall to check if I had any bruising."

James chuckled a bit at me before walking towards me. I smiled a bit and laid down with a sigh, closing my eyes a bit. That's when he did something I wasn't expecting. I felt his hand slip under my shirt as he pulled it up a bit. I wasn't expecting for many reasons:
1) I'm a pirate, he's a navy men. Theses things don't happen.
2) Bruised or not, men don't usually bother with checking on any injuries that are under a woman's clothing unless that's their job.

          Needless to say that I opened my eyes immediately to see what he was doing. His brows were furrowed as he leaned over my stomach, one hand held up my shirt and the other traced lightly over the bruise. I froze in my spot, afraid to move, afraid to speak, AFRAID TO BREATHE! I just watched him, he just continued to swipe his hand over the bruise. After a moment of realizing what he was doing, he looked up at me and pulled my shirt down, standing up straight.

          "I'll check on you later, darlin'," He left quickly, not even giving me a chance to reply.

As soon as the door closed behind me, I squealed like a little girl and blushed like crazy. I could not believe that that just happened.