The Rookie Pirates (Parts 1-6)

15. Affection

Jessica's body tossed and turned when her never-ending nightmare pursued her dreams. Her fast breathing paced and heavy, and her heart raced faster and faster by the second.

If Jude didn't do something soon, she would be in danger of dying from overexertion to her heart.

The second Jessica had blacked out, Jude caught her in his arms and took her to the infirmary on his captain's ship. He laid her down on a bed in his medical room and kept an eye on her vital signs.

As a physician, he understood why he had taken her to the infirmary, but what Jude didn't understand was the uneasy feeling in his stomach, or why his legs nervously tapped while he waited for her to wake up. He had never felt like this with any of the crew when they were in mortal danger, so why with her?

Jude sat down on a wooden chair, frowning, watching the heart monitor as it beeped louder and louder. He didn't like how fast her heart was beating, but there wasn't much else he could do but wait. Jude had already given her sedatives, but they either hadn't worked or the ones he had weren't strong enough. He was running low on medical supplies at the moment.

He wished he could take the pain away from her. It was his fault; he shouldn't have blindly taken her choker necklace off without anticipating some form of a reaction. She hid those scars on her neck for a reason, and he had humiliated her by revealing them.

He stood up and looked over her; she tossed about on the bed, a cold sweat running down her temple. His finger stroked the ugly red marks on her neck. It made him wonder why anyone would want to hang such a beautiful creature.

Jude frowned; Jessica had stopped tossing. He looked back at the heart monitor. It had slowed down. He took his hand away from her, and almost immediately, she started to murmur in fear, and her heart sped up again.

He stroked the back of his hand against her bronze cheek. Jessica instantly calmed down and rubbed her face against his hand, yearning for his touch.

Jude smirked to himself, chuckling at her reaction to him.

"You like my affection, Miss Azalea. I'll keep that in mind."

He continued to stroke the backs of his fingers against the soft skin of her cheek as her heart steadied.

His hand shot away from her when Paddy walked in, his lips turned down in a frown.

"Will she be okay?" Paddy asked.

Jude looked back down at Jessica, and he once again stroked his hand against her cheek, noticing she was starting to whimper without his touch.

"I won't know until she wakes up," Jude said, still confused himself as to what happened. It was like her body had shut down from her panic attack.

"Did you find her stuff?"

The feline nodded. "It's all in the galley except for the sword you requested."

Paddy passed him her rapier sword.

Jude nodded at the feline in thanks. He had left her basket of apples, bag, and rapier sword at the roadside when he teleported her back to the ship. He felt obliged to retrieve them for her and had asked his captain to collect them.

"Good. Make sure the rest of the crew doesn't eat the apples. They're for Az... Jesse only," he corrected, remembering to call her by the name she preferred.

He didn't understand why she went by the name Jessica, but she seemed scared when he had called her Azalea. Plus, he liked that only he knew her real name. He didn't want the rest of the crew or anyone else to know or call her by that name.