Stephen plight

part 2

"I didn't give you permission to take the longboat out. What do you think that shows the crew when you deliberately do things i haven't approved of."
Jack threw himself into a chair. Stephen stood near, his pale skin slightly colored, and his frail hands clasped behind his back.

"I didn't realize that i needed your approval to take the longboat out dear, as I've taken it before with no complaint." Jack raised an eyebrow.

"Cereful, doctor."

Stephen glared at him for a moment before moving to his own chair and taking up his cello. He picked at the strings for a while, getting lost in thought.

"Jack dear?"

"Yes?" Jack watched him closely.

"You've recently acted quite differently. Are you feeling alright?"

"The way you act around barret bondon has been... quite different." Stephen shifted but held his gaze.

"I can't be friends with the crew?"
Jack huffed and leaned forward. "You don't act like a friend to bondon."

"However, so?"

Stephen felt cold sweat prickle on his nap. He had never considered that he might like bondon more than just a friend until the boat accident.

When bondon had jumped in to save him without hesitation, he had felt a ping in his heart that he knew was fondness, but then when bondon had fallen on top of him, he felt something he didn't have a name for.

Now sitting here under his friends' piercing gaze, he felt fear that Jack might be right. He might have feelings that are not friendly for his friend.

"The way you look at him? How no matter what time of day i come visit you in sick bay, he's there?" He smirked. "Unless he's the most clumsy man on earth, there's no reason he should be down there that much."

"I look at you no differently, and he has always had a valid reason to be at the sick bay. Is it a crime to be clumsy?"

Jack stood at this and walked to Stephen. Stephen looked up at him indifferently, but his hand trembled slightly on his thigh.

"No, it's not." He ran a finger across Stephen cheek, letting it linger on the sharp bone there. Stephen stared at him wide-eyed. "Sorry, you missed a bit of blood there." He said before he turned and left the room.

Stephen exhaled. What was he going to do? This wasn't the first time Jack had acted like this, but the times that it was happening were becoming far more frequent.