Cast Away

Chapter 8

(Dipper pov)

I sit in Bill's room bored out of my mind. I think he's had me in here pretty much all freaking day. It is so boring. I stand up going over to his desk opening a drawer, trying to find something that might cure my boredom. A book or something, or even just a paper and pen for me to draw with. Just anything to potentially cure my boredom.

The only things I find are some papers that look like inventory and some maps. I open one drawer and find a bottle with some brown liquid in it. I take the cork off the bottle and take a wiff of it, instantly recoiling at the strong alcoholic odor.

Rum. Pretty sure that I just found Bill's secret stash of rum. Figures that a pirate would have this.

Personally, I am not a huge drinker. Ford and Stan have let me and Mable half like half a glass of wine watered down on special circumstances but nothing like this.

I pick up the bottle as I debate if I should drink it or not. I normally wouldn't go for something like this, it just seems really strong. But none of the things that's happened to me are things that I normally would do. This whole situation is complicated and Bill himself just makes everything even more complicated on an hourly basis.

"Fuck it." I mutter as I bring the bottle to my lips and tilt my head back.

I cough harshly as the liquid burns its way down my throat. This feels so much worse than watered down wine.

Once the burning sensation is gone I take another drink. It still burns on the way down but less. Any aching pain I had in my body starts to hurt less as well.

Carrying the bottle I walk out of the room and back onto the main deck. Glancing around I realize that Bill isn't up here either. Where on earth is he?

I sit on the deck with my back leaning back against the railing as I take another drink from the bottle, the burning sensation almost gone altogether.

Why did he save me? He made it pretty clear that he could kill me if he so wished to. He's only keeping me here as some advantage over my family if they try to hunt him down. Is that why he didn't just let me drown? Because then he wouldn't have an advantage over them? That theory makes sense but it doesn't sit right with me.

I take another swig of the alcohol, glancing up hearing his familiar voice. "Pinetree?" Bill leans on the railing as he looks down at me. "Where did you get that?"

"I took it from your desk drawer."

"Why were you going through my desk?"

"I was bored. You had me in that room for hours. I was looking for something to do. What else was I supposed to do? You just told me to wait in your room for no reason."

"Because you had a panic attack just from seeing water." He sits down next to me, one of his knees pulled to his chest. "Guessing that you have PTSD from drowning."

"Sounds about right." I take another drink from the bottle before he takes it from me and drinks from it himself. "I really don't understand you."

"What do you mean?"

"You take me away from everything, threaten my life, yet you saved me when you didn't have to."

"We take care of our own here."

"But I'm not part of your crew. You took me against my will. You hate my family."

"But I don't hate you."

"Why? Why is that?"

"You want me to be fully honest? To tell you the truth?"

"Obviously yes."

"......I don't know. I don't know why I find myself obsessed with you. I know I should hate you, for who your family is, but I don't. I know that I never will. There is just something about you that makes me want to keep you safe from everything. That feeling has been there since I first saw you at that party. It's why I made that deal with you to save the Northwest family."

"Did you let me win?"

"No. Even if you have no sword experiance I don't go easy when I am fighting for a reason."

"I have sword experiance, just not much. "

"You don't know much about the sea."

"I chose to ignore most of the stuff they said about how to survive at sea. I never really had any intention of ever ending up on a boat so I didn't think I should listen to what they said. I realize that was a stupid thing to think now."

"Yeah......my father used to say you can never have enough information in your head, even if most of it is just useless garbage that you will never need to know. Better to have it than to not have it."

"He sounds like a smart man."

"He was." I take the bottle from him drinking from it again. "You're drunk, aren't you?"

I give a small shrug. "I don't know, I've never been drunk. Probably." I yawn suddenly feeling tired.

"Come on, let's get you to bed. You're going to pass out at this rate." I stand up, leaning against the railing. I take a steo forward, stumbling slightly and fall against him. He gently holds my shoulders and braces his body against mine to keep me from falling. "It's okay, I've got you."

He picks me up bridal style as he carries me back into the hull of the ship. I think about protesting about him carrying me like this but honestly I am just too tired to give a damn about anything at this point.

He lays me on the bed as he sits on the edge taking the boots off my feet and sets them on the floor.

"Bill, how did you lose your eye?"

He just smiles gently as he leans towards me as I struggle to stay awake. "Who said I lost it?"

I want to ask what he means but I instead welcome the blissful sleep that overtakes me.