Corvus (Stars and Sails, Book 1)

Nineteen

"How have you been feeling?" Jade asked.

Oliver sat on the edge of the coffer and extended his hands towards her. "I don't know Jade, like—"

"Stop moving," she said. Oliver always did an awful lot of squirming. He had a lot of energy. Had trouble sitting still. Even now, he couldn't help his leg bouncing up and down. She untied the bandages and looked back at him, waiting for him to speak. He didn't look good. He looked too sallow for her to assume that he felt okay.

"Like shite," he said. He parted his lips and ground his teeth back and forth. Jade unwrapped the bandages. There had been a halt in the repairs of the ship. Oliver couldn't make repairs with his hands all loused up nor could Jade do the entire lot by herself. Jade was starting to get impatient with it all. Every time she thought about leaving, her feet felt like they needed to move and run faster and farther. She stomped her feet quietly instead, but the weakness in her legs was still there. It was just as stubborn as she was.

She put the bandages aside and bit the insides of her cheeks. Oliver's hands were still torn from the rope burn. The open wounds were yellowing and bruised. Jade recoiled inwardly at the sight of the infection. "Okay, this is fine. I can fix this," she lied.

At the notice of worry on Oliver's face, she cut herself off, then swallowed hard and continued. "I can fix this." She got out of her chair and pulled open her nightstand drawer. Despite being secured to the floor, it rattled about as she rummaged through it. She thought she heard someone yell, but after stilling for a moment, the sound went away. Jade pulled open the bottom drawer. With both hands, she dug through it.

"Did you hear someone?" Oliver asked.

"I don't care right now. Let's keep going."

Jade found the bottle of alcohol and brought it back to Oliver. She uncapped it. The smells of the ship had brewed into something rather vile--Oliver's infection, the soup Jade had been cooking since 2 o'clock, and the open bottle of medical alcohol in Jade's hands. She stifled a cough.

"I don't want that." Oliver pulled his hands away. "It burns."

Jade set the bottle down. She reached out and pulled his wrists back towards her. "I think this will disinfect it."

"It didn't the first time!" He shook his head, scrunching up his eyes tight.

"Well I'm the one taking care of you, Ollie." Jade picked up the bottle of alcohol again and tilted it over Oliver's hand. He shouted and tugged his hand away. Jade pulled his hand back and dabbed it with a clean towel. She stared at the hand. She had no idea what to do with it. She threw alcohol over his other hand and then turned around. She tugged a blanket off of her cot.

"For the love of Neptune, Jade. Get this off me." Oliver pushed the blanket off of his shoulders. His teeth were clenched tight from the burn of the alcohol.

Jade wrapped the blanket around his shoulders. "We're going to the clinic. Come on."

Oliver shook his head. "We can't afford that."

"Yeah? We'll we're not going to pay." Oliver refused to stand up. "Ollie, don't you dare have land morals now. I can't bear to see you like this." Jade's panic whelmed. Oliver's eyes widened, fixed at something behind her.

There was a knock on the door frame. Jade spun around and turned toward the threshold, but before she could even look, the man walked in and sat on her white desk chair in front of Oliver. He pulled at Oliver's hand to look at it, but Oliver violently tugged his hand back. The man had a tight grip on it. He pulled it back towards him. "Please stop," he said. Oliver stopped fighting him. The man looked up at Jade. Jade dropped the blanket.