Love, It's An Interesting Thing

Chapter 4

I hear the crew cheer loudly, impressed with the duel. Cas and I smiled at each other, both of us staring into the others eyes for a moment before pulling our heads back even though I had the urge to lean in the extra inch and kiss him. Both of us are blushing but it doesn't show because our faces are already red from fighting.

"Wow, I am very impressed. I never would've thought that you would be able to fight like that." Cas compliments.

"Thank you, and you were great too. A very worthy opponent." I laugh and smile back at him.

I feel a sting on my arm and I wince out loud on accident. I forgot about the cut on my arm... My hand flies up to cover the wound but I just feel warm liquid. I look down and see that there's a lot of blood. Cas' eyes quickly glance at my hand.

"Oh my gosh! Did I do that?!" Cas asks, pulling me closer and inspecting my arm.

"Well, technically, I did it. My sword came back and hit my arm when I blocked your attack from the rope swing." I tell, wincing in pain when he touches the wound.

"Well, it's not a long cut but it is deep, we'll have to stitch it up." He tells me, looking back to my eyes.

"No! NO! I hate stitches! I'll just wrap it up, it'll be fine." I plead, trying to pull away from his arm but he doesn't let go.

"That won't work, we need to seal the wound. Here, let's go to the medicine closet." He tells me. I groan and follow him. I really hate stitches. I hate needles. That's why I don't sew. It scares me.

He tells Lucy and Ed what happened and that he was going to treat me. He also asked Ed to look after everything for the few minutes he'd be gone. He puts his arm on my back as he does and leads me to a small room on the side of the ship. He closes the door behind us and I sit down on the chair in the middle of the small room.

Caspian goes to a cabinet and pulls out a small box. He gets on his knees next to me and opens the box. Stitching supplies... I can't look... He rolls up my bloodied sleeve, careful not to hurt me, and starts to pull things out of the box. I close my eyes and start breathing harder.

"Hey, are you okay, have you lost too much blood?" He asks me with a worried tone.

"No, I just...uh... I really hate needles and so this really sucks." I tell him, opening my eyes to look at him.

"I'm sorry, but can I ask you to do something for me." He questions.

I nod and he moves a little on his knees so that he can see both my arm and my face.

"I just want you to look at me and listen." He asks. I nod and look into his eyes.

"You are very strong, stronger than any girl I've ever met. You are adventurous and unique. I've never met a girl like you... and that's a compliment." He laughs, and his hand starts moving but I'm too busy paying attention to him so I don't notice. "I like how you look after your cousins and brother and how you treat everyone here. Most girls that I meet are snobbish and are trying to get me to like them so they can be Queen. The only reason why I'm saying this is because I kind of know what you're going through with the whole marriage thing. Not exactly but kind of. But anyway, you're different from those girls and I like that about you. I'm glad Aslan brought you here... it'd be less fun if you weren't." He says to me.

I just continue to look at him. I then realize how close are faces had gotten. I think notices too because his eyes glace down to my lips a couple of times. He starts to lean forward and so do I. Our eyes close and I can feel his breath on my face...

Our lips are about to meet when-- *Knock*Knock*Knock*

"Hey, are you guys okay in there?" I hear Ed shout from outside.

We quickly separate and Cas shouts back, "Yeah, I just finished stitching her up!"

I look at my shoulder and realized that it was all stitched up...

"Oh, you already did it, thanks!" I say, shocked that I didn't feel it.

But then I realized something, he did it while he was talking to me, he was distracting me... so did he mean all of those things or was he just trying to take my mind off the stitches?

"Did you mean all those things or were you just trying to distract me?" I ask without realizing I did.

"Of course, I did. You're extraordinary, Jess..." He smiles once more and leaves the room.

He meant them?... And we almost kissed?! Oh my goodness... My face is blushing like mad. Wait! I've only known this man for a day! Why am I like this?! I shake out my thoughts and stand up from the chair.

I make myself a makeshift arm sling knowing that I can't stretch my arm much as that risks tearing the stitches. I leave the room and go to my cabin to change out of my bloody shirt into a new one. It was tricky with one arm but I managed.

I leave my room to see Ed and Lucy talking. I walk up to them and I hear Lucy talking about something that has to do with tipping off the edge of the world. Huh?

"And I see you're still talking nonsense, the two of you." Eustace says, looking at Lucy and Edmund as he emerges from below deck.

"Eustace!" I say as I go over to give a side hug to my brother. He shoves me off and eyes my bandage, then looks me in the eye with questions. "Duel." I answer making him scoff. "Typical." He rolls his eyes and turns back to Ed and Lucy. He is used to me being injured from fencing.

"Are you feeling better?" Lucy asks him. I guess she chose to ignore that comment he just made.

"Yes, no thanks to you. It's lucky I have an iron constitution." He starts.

"As effervescent as ever, I see. Find your sea legs?" Reep says, coming from... somewhere.

"Never lost them. Simply dealing with the shock of things. Mother says I have an acute disposition, due to my intelligence." He says. But as soon as he says that phrase about his intelligence, Edmund chokes on his water and I have to hold in my laughter.

"I don't think he has 'a cute' anything." Reep says.

I burst out laughing, unable to contain it after both Edmund and Reep's responses. I glance over to see Cas looking at me. I blush thinking about the almost-kiss.

Little did I know he was thinking about how much he loved it when I laughed. It made him happy.

"I'll have you know, as soon as we find civilization I'm contacting the British Consul. Have you all arrested for kidnapping!" Eustace complains.

"When is he going to understand that we're not in England anymore?" I say to no one in particular.

He starts to stomp off but is stopped when Cas steps in his way so that he runs into him. They make eye contact and Cas speaks up.

"Kidnapping is it? That's funny, I thought we saved your life." Cas says to him.

"You held me against my will!" Eustace complains.

"HA!" Reep exclaims.

"Did I?" Cas says, playing Eustace's little game for a second.

"In, what I must say, are the most unhygienic quarters. It's like a zoo down there!" He continued to complain

"He's quite the complainer, isn't he?" Reep asks.

"Oh, he's just warming up." I sigh. But before he can continue, someone yells from the crow's nest.

"Land Ho!" the person in the crow's nest yells.

Cas runs up the stairs and stands beside Drinian. They share a look and Cas waves us over to him.