The Stolen Ship • Jim Hawkins x Reader (Sequel)

• Chapter 31 •

It happened so quick I couldn't break free from his grip. He held his sword up to my throat and just as I could feels small stream of blood start to trickle down my neck. He was so close to my face, his breath was repulsive and teeth rotten.

"You're not getting away this time girl!" he spat with such disdain.

I saw James appear behind Growler. He snuck up behind him quickly but stealthily. He pressed his finger to his lips, making sure I wouldn't give him away. A thick long rope was untwined around his hand, then holding onto it with two hands he threw the rope around growlers neck and pulled him back with all his strength. I fell free of the old dogs grip and immediately felt relived. Jim spun him around and was able to get enough momentum to throw him across the boat and then quickly ran up to me. Placing his hands on my shoulders he asked me was I alright.

"Don't worry i'm alright. It's just a scratch." I said, wiping the blood away with my sleeve.

As I wiped the blood, I quickly realised it wasn't just a scratch. I winced at the immense pain but quickly masked my expression trying to hide it from Jim. I didn't want him to worried or cause too much alarm. After I took my arm away from my neck the blood continued to flow down my chest. It wasn't a deep wound from what I could feel, Growler  must've just caught a small vein or something. I don't know, I'm not a doctor. James looked extremely worried but feigned a calm expression and pulled me into the small supple closet that was nearby, in the hopes that there would be something in there to help stop or at least subside the bleeding and pain. Just before he shut the door behind him, he made sure that no one was going to follow us in. When he did shut the door we were left in complete darkness. I had one hand held up to my wound and the other searching for a light switch.

"Where is the dammed light?" Jim sort of whisper shouted.

"Oh you mean this one?" said a very familiar voice.

No way. Could it be? We heard the flick of a switch and we could see again. My suspicions were in fact correct. There stood, a very run- down looking, shiny headed, friend of ours.

"Oh my gods, B.E.N. you're ok?! It's been so long. I'm so sorry we left you." I pulled him into a huge hug.

After I pulled back again B.E.N. looked back and forth between Jim and I with a confused sort of expression. He pointed a finger towards Jim and said, "I wanna say.....um....Jeremy? and then you are?".

My heart dropped, "B.E.N. do you not remember us?" I said feeling a lump in my throat. Not so comfortable when you have an open wound on it.

"Here, there has to be a way to fix it. It must just be your wiring, buddy." Jim quickly grabbed him and turned him around.

"Ah i'm just messing with you guys." B.E.N. burst out laughing. "How in the universe would I ever be able to forget you two?" He gave us both a big hug.

"B.E.N.! Why would you do that?! You almost gave me a heart attack." I said, half angry, half laughing.

"Yeah, you had us there." Jim chuckled.

"Been stuck in this closet for quite some time now. Seen a lot of things. Started to work on my comedy. I think I might become a comedian. No one actually NEEDS navigational droids these days. It's all built into these fancy ships." He said patting the wood of the ship.

"B.E.N., we would love to hear about your fun time in this closet but we really need to find some medical supplies." James said as he began to search through the shelves.

"Oh well the medical stuff would be..." He began scanning over on shelf. "Ah yes, here!" He handed the first aid kit over to Jim. "Why do you need it anyway?"

I took my hand away from my neck to show him why and he somehow, even though he's made of metal looked like he'd just turned very pale. All of a sudden he shut down completely and was stood still in the middle of the floor.

"Huh I didn't know he was squeamish. He'll be fine anyway, he should reboot in a few minutes. So let's get this sorted out quickly." James said sorting through the little first aid box.

He wiped away as much of the blood as he could with some small alcohol wipes and then gently pressed some gauze against the cut to try and stop some of the blood flow. It definitely stung but I tried not to show it. He asked me if I could hold it there and keep it pressed down for a second. He grabbed a small box of sticky butterfly stitches and opened them up. We used them because there wasn't enough time for real stitches. I pulled away the gauze and he began to place the butterfly stitches one by one, pulling the skin back together. He was really quick but somehow really careful at the same time. He wasn't usually like this, when he touched me, it felt as though he thought I was so fragile I might break. He was very close and concentrated, I could feel his warm breath against my neck and it gave me chills down my back. This felt very intimate, probably the closest i've felt to him since before we parted ways. He decided to put an extra bandage over top of the butterfly stitches just to be safe.

"There." He said, hands still lingering around my neck and face. "All done."

"Thank you James. Really, thank you." I smiled softly. "How come you weren't this precarious when trying to fix your own wounds, before I had the chance to fix them up for you?" I placed my hand on his face and brushed my thumb over his skin beside the stitches I had put there.

"Oh well you know, it didn't really matter as much." If I wasn't mistaken, I would almost say that he seemed a little nervous after realising how close we were. I can't really say much though,  no matter how long we've been together, albeit on and off a lot, my breath still hitches when we touch. "I really do care about you (Y/n), probably more than you know."

Suddenly, "Wow, that was really beautiful guys" B.E.N. said, clapping his hands.

Jim and I both jumped back, startled by the robot. "How long have you been awake?" I quickly replied.

"Long enough." He tried to wiggle his eyebrows but they just went up and down, which made all of us laugh. "You two are so cute".

"Oh shut it." Jim pushed him away playfully.

Those few moments in the closet seemed very out of place considering our situation but it was really nice. It seemed almost like we had gone back in time and I could forget about what lay beyond the door but we couldn't stay in there forever. We had to summarise what was going on for B.E.N. as best we could.

"Actually one more thing. Can I ask you a question B.E.N.?" I asked.

"Sure thing, what is it?" He replied.

"You said you've been stuck in here for a long time right? but the door was completely unlocked when we came in. Are you sure you were stuck?" I had just been thinking about it and wanted to know.

"No, no i'm pretty sure this door is locked." He grabbed the handle, and the door opened very easily. "Ha, will you look at that? Wide open."

We all laughed again. B.E.N. wasn't the best fighter but wanted to help nonetheless. The three of us readied ourselves to jump back into the fight and did just that.