Arabella

The Doctor's Dead

It seemed like Arabella had only been asleep for a few moments before she was being shaken awake by rough hands. Confused and blinded by sleep, she blinked, her eyes adjusting to the dim light of the cabin, to see the tall shadow of the Captain standing over her.

Her body reacted instantly in defense, sitting bolt upright and backing as far away from the pirate as possible. Her wide eyes stayed glued to his dim face as he hovered over her, waiting for him to speak.

"Get up," he spoke, his deep voice not betraying any emotion. "Your wounds need to be rewrapped."

Still trying to process what what going on, Arabella did not budge. She blinked hard, trying to get her brain to function properly. She had never been a morning person, and it showed.

Clearly growing frustrated at her lack of cooperation, the Captain stepped forward, ready to drag her off the couch. Before he could, the princess' groggy mind managed to put a functioning sentence together.

"What did you say?"

"Get up," He grunted again, getting increasingly annoyed. "You're bleeding on my couch."

The pirate gestured to the couch she was laying on and, looking down, Arabella say that blood was indeed slowly seeping through her shift and into the couch she had been sleeping on.

"Oh."

She hurriedly stood up, grimacing with the effort. The wounds on her back were definitely oozing, her shift now plastered to the skin uncomfortably. She must have looked a sight, her hair tangled and salty from her swim the night before and dressed in only her shift, dirty and damp due to blood, water, and who knows what else.

The Captain strode over and opened a cabinet above his closet, reaching up to grab something out of it, before turning to walk back towards her. Arabella shifted uncomfortably as she saw that he carried bandages and a vial containing some sort of brown fluid.

"Why do you need that?"

The Captain raised an eyebrow at her question as he reached her.

"So I can stop you from bleeding out everywhere," the pirate's brown furrowed, confused as to why she was asking.

"What about your doctor? What was his name, Hugh?" the girl asked, taking a step back. "Why can't he do it?"

"He's dead," came the simple reply. Before Arabella could ask how, he continued, "I killed him."

"You what?"

"I killed him."

The princess' eyes widened in disbelief and he continued.

"He's dead. Gone. No longer existent."

"But why?" Arabella could not help but ask. "What did he ever do to you?"

The princess was utterly horrified that he could kill a man without so much as a second thought about it.

The pirate captain glanced at her out of the corner of his eye as he began to mess with the bandages in his hands.

"When you're a part of my crew, you learn not to get on my bad side," he muttered. "Or else bad things happen."

"Seriously?" Arabella spoke incredulously, glaring at him. "You killed him just because you can't control your horrid temper?"

"I killed him because I felt like it!" The Captain snapped angrily, his eyes narrowing as he took a step forward. "Now shut up and let me fix your bandages."

"No way," Arabella took a step away from him as her own temper rose. "Don't touch me. I'll do it myself."

"Fine!" He growled, setting down the bandages and vial next to the couch.