Treasure Planet

You Were Gone

  It took Sophie longer than she expected to climb up the hill, clambering clumsily as she desperately tried to stay as quiet as she could. Morph had gone ahead and she could hear him chirping to Jim, who was telling him to hush. "Jim!" Sophie whispered loudly, he appeared at the entrance with gun in hand, blue eyes frantically searching for the source of noise. "Jim, it's me!" Sophie called a bit louder to his left, he turned and looked at her with wide eyes dropping the gun as he took in deep breaths. "Jim, help her in!" Doppler called from inside, for once listening to the doctor and helped the blonde to climb over the wall. "S-Sophie! I-I... Silver! Silver said you were gone!" Jim stammered, his hands holding between her cheeks, sides of her head and shoulders, as if he believed he was seeing a ghost. The blonde began to cry again, with wide eyes Jim gathered her in his arms and sank to the floor with her. His fingers locking through her blonde hair, his cheek pressed against the top off her head. Amelia groaned at the disturbance and opened her eyes slowly,"Sophie..." She mumbled, the blonde pulled away from Jim with watery eyes, gasping when she saw her godmother lying injured. "She'll be alright, Sophie." Doppler assured, Jim raised his eyebrows questioning him which was answered with a shake of the head and a worried look. "OH! Some more romance! You didn't tell me you had girlfriend, Jimmy!" B.E.N shouted in excitement, "It's Jim." The brunette replied tensely, Sophie jumped away from the robot with a squeal and clung to Jim's arm. "Sophie is it? Wow, you're so pretty! Enchanté." He smiled, bowing a little and attempting to kiss the blonde's hand until Jim moved him off her with a glare. Sophie giggled a little at B.E.N, he was nice but very forward. "Sorry Jim! I'll give you lovebirds time alone." The robot awkwardly spoke before darting off, Jim quietly pulled Sophie into his chest, arms around her neck and shoulders.

"I'm sorry we left you behind." He whispered, regretting believing Silver over her – he should've known that Sophie was stronger than Silver. "It's nobody's fault." Sophie replied, her voice thick from crying, clutching onto Jim's shirt. Doppler smiled at the pair, elated that Sophie was safe and began to wonder what Sarah would think of Jim's girlfriend. "Mr Hawkins!"Amelia called, wincing a little. "You may have my blessing but it does not mean agh! Does not mean you parade public affection in front of me." She scolded, her feline instincts picking up on Jim leaning to kiss Sophie. "Sorry ma'am." Jim apologised quickly, looking at Sophie intently – she was covered in bruises and there were a couple of scratches on her cheeks, not thinking he brushed his fingers along them to which she winced. "Sorry." He mumbled apologetically as Sophie brought her eyes to his, "It's ok. Suppose it's what you get for sassing Scroop and the rest of the pirates." Sophie replied quietly, glancing at her godmother. "The doc thinks it's a couple of cracked ribs but she'll be fine." Jim explained making the blonde face him again. "I'm gonna get us out of this." He promised, quickly pecking her forehead before hugging her again, back against the wall. Morph settled into the crook of Jim's neck for a few minutes while Jim began to think over a plan.

It was getting dark, Sophie and Jim had barely moved though Morph chose to roam around the area whenever he got bored but huddled with the teenagers. B.E.N watched the teenagers as if it were his favourite romantic movie lying on his stomach and leaning on his elbows, face in his hands. "Aww isn't that sweet? How long have they been together?" B.E.N sighed before asking Doppler, who was tending to Amelia. "Um... I-I'm not sure, to be perfectly honest." Doppler stammered, now wondering himself. "He's less cranky now that Sophie is here. Aw look! She's falling asleep!" B.E.N pointed out, "Well... um, um Jim!" Doppler started before calling to the brunette.

"Shh, I'll be here when you wake up. You need to sleep." Jim whispered to a drowsy Sophie, having shifted so she would lie comfortably in his arms, his comforting was interrupted when Doppler called him. Raising his eyebrows instead of replying to not disturb Sophie, Doppler pointed to Amelia who was waking up with an urging look on his face to which Jim responded with a gentle shrug, glancing down at Sophie – not caring if Amelia chewed his head off, he was only looking after Sophie. Doppler choked on a word, covering his mouth then tearing at his hair in a state of panic until Amelia opened her eyes with Doppler just managing to return to a calm demeanour as she smiled weakly at him. Jim glanced down to see Sophie sleeping, head on his chest a hand clutching his collar gently as she took gentle breaths through her nose. "Look after her Morph." Jim murmured to the pink shapeshifter, he quietly chippered a salute as Jim gently lay Sophie on the floor and made his way over to Doppler.

"Gentlemen... we must stay together and... and...ohh." Amelia spoke, suffering from a fever as she struggled out her orders."And what?!" Doppler yelled hysterical as he took off his glasses, "We must stay together and what?!" Amelia smiled dreamily at him, Jim glanced back at Sophie, undisturbed by the shouting. "Doctor... you have wonderful eyes." She smiled before falling back to sleep. "She's lost her mind!" Doppler shouted in panic, Jim worrying himself stepped closer to Doppler. "Well you gotta help her." He said, trying to remain calm but his tone said otherwise. Doppler turned quickly, pointing a finger at the brunette, he had really come out of his shell during the journey. "Dang it, Jim! I'm an astronomer, not a doctor! I mean, I am a doctor but not that kind of doctor. I have doctorate but it's not the same thing. You can't help people with a doctorate, you just sit there, and you're useless!" Doppler ranted, throwing his face into his hands as he got more upset, unsure what to do Jim patted Doppler's back in reassurance. "It's ok, Doc. It's alright." Jim murmured, looking out of the window again, putting a hand to his lips in thought. "Yeah, Doc! Jimmy knows exactly how to get out of this. It's just Jimmy has this knowledge of things!" B.E.N spoke encouragingly as he wandered behind Jim, who was now standing with slouched shoulders at the entrance. "Jim, any thoughts at all?" B.E.N whispered, the brunette looked stressed – never even imagining being in this sort of position, never mind it being reality. He sighed and relaxed his arm, "Without the map, we're dead. If we try to leave, we're dead. If we stay here-" He spoke, glancing at Sophie, "We're dead! We're dead! We're dead!" Morph sang, Jim shut his eyes tightly at the thought of going through the emotional pain of losing Sophie and shook his head, turning away. "Well, I think that Jimmy could use a little 'quiet time', heh. So I'll just use the back door." B.E.N spoke quietly before darting off to his 'back door' with Jim perking up, an idea hitting him, "Back door?" He repeated.

Jim ran over to B.E.N, helping him to turn a sphere in the ground. "Oh yeah. I get this delightful breeze through here... which I think is important... because ventilation among friends-" B.E.N narrated as he leant one arm on the sphere as Jim peered down, "Whoa! What is all this stuff?" Jim awed, never seeing so much machinery before. "You mean the miles and miles of machinery that runs thought the entire course of the inside of this planet?" B.E.N asked in reply, "Not a clue!" He answered for himself. Sophie shifted but remained asleep, Jim's eyes lingered on her for a few moments – he was going to fix this and she would be safe. "Hey, Doc! Doc! I think I found a way out of here!" Jim called to the canine climbing up onto the sphere and standing on top of it. "No, no. Jim, wait. The captain ordered us to stay-" Doppler protested, worrying about the female's reactions to Jim not being there. "I'll be back." Jim simply interrupted, emphasising his point with his arm before jumping down the ladders. "Cannonball!" B.E.N cheered as he and Morph followed the brunette, "Woof." Doppler spoke to himself.