Captain of the Bloody Rose

She laid there thinking for a while, letting him rest undisturbed until her bladder would allow it no longer. It was slow going, getting herself free from his embrace since she had to stop moving every time that he remotely stirred, but she eventually got herself free.

She stood, careful to not make a sound and went to the loo. Leaving him alone on the bed while she was gone.

When Jane returned to the room, Joseph was missing from the bed. He was instead pulling his shirt on a few lazy steps away, his hair a mess all around him.

He looked over when he heard her foot steps and blinked. "Morning." he greeted.

"Morning. I didn't wake you?" She asked, sitting back on the bed, her hair tousled and more wild than usual. She pulled it over one shoulder and ran her fingers through the mess, trying to to tame it somewhat.

While some women could wake up in the morning and look absolutely horrid, Jane was the exact opposite. In fact she seemed to shine more than usual. Perhaps it was because in the early morning light she hadn't pulled up her walls yet, her defensivness was not in place. She had none of her usual surliness that made her standoffish. More importantly, the deadness to her eyes had yet to creep in. Instead there was that vibrancy that he had first became enamored with, the light and playfulness of her eyes with the mischeivousness that made her Jane.

Yet even as he watched, slowly but surely as she ran her fingers through her mane of hair the defenses came up, and her eyes seemed to bleed out their light to let back in the darkness.

"No." he said. "You didn't wake me." he assured her. He wasn't lieing either. It had been the cold that woke him up; the absence of her.

He stretched his stiff muscles, forcing his eyes off of her. He couldn't stand seeing her like that. Not really. Hopefully being on a ship would knock some of the life back into her. He could only hope really.

"What can I carry?" he asked looking at her pile of things. "We should be headded back."

She looked over at her purchases and sighed, wishing she had bought a rucksack. Standing she walked over to the bags and started pulling out everything she had bought, cringing for a moment when she pulled out the rather large bottle of rum. However, she didn’t pause, refusing to make the bottle any more obvious to him, and put everything on the blanket. Without missing a beat she wrapped everything in the blanket and pulled it over her shoulder, smiling slightly at his dumbstruck expression.

“I believe I’ve got everything.” She said, holding the makeshift bag.

"Do you ever run out of ideas?" Joseph let out a low whistle, impressed by her ingenuity. He pushed open the door for her and grinned,bowing low and over dramatically as he swept one arm out. "After Mi'dear." he said. Ah- the ever reliable libido. He fully intended on getting a nice glance at her rear as she passed.

She smiled, and as if she knew exactly what he was looking at, every step she took accentuated her rather generous curves. Even with so little weight on her she was still beautiful, and quite frankly breathtaking. The best part was that Jane, unlike many women, was neither blind to the effect she had on men nor was she cocky and insufferable. She knew she was sought after, and yet she refused to be like so many other women and lord it over everyone.

Once they made it out of the inn, Jane did one up for Joseph. Sneakily, she brushed his hand with her own, before wrapping her hand around his.

Naturally, Joseph was a man. And like any man might do, out of curiosity as to why she took his hand, he looked over, seeing as how she was currently walking on his blind side. And also, like most men, his eyes tended to wonder a bit.

Thankfully he was respectable for a pirate and pulled them away quickly enough. "I just realized your dress is made of a flag." he noted. "You really are the most resourceful woman I know."

Jane shrugged, holding her blanket turned to bag a little tighter as they walked through a shadier part of the town.

“I got in a bit of a scrap one day and my clothes were trashed. I didn’t have any money so I made do with what I could steal. I make do with what I have. Nothing too special there.”

She actually seemed bashful at the compliment, like she had to prove him wrong. Sure, Jane knew full well that she was a beautiful woman, but to hear anyone say it or anything else nice about her for that matter, she couldn’t seem to take it. Just had to disprove them.

“I’ve been meaning to get something a bit hardier for a while, but this is easy and works well for…things.”

She didn’t want to tell him exactly what things of course. She doubted he’d take kindly to knowing that she used the revealing and clingy nature of her clothing to distract and flirt her way into getting things she needed.

"We'll get you into somethin' better suited back on the ship." he promised her. "Tonight, I'll be introducing you to the crew and we'll be leaving port. You ready?" he asked.

Honestly, he was concerned about her mental stamina given the job he had assigned her. First mate was, in Josephs eyes, second captain. She would find that out soon enough.

Jane swallowed, hard, as she thought about going out to see again. She wasn’t worried about meeting a new crew or even being in command. That was what she was good at. She thrived being at the helm, telling others what to do, and as First Mate the only one who could override her or dare ignore her was Joseph, and she didn’t mind taking orders from him.

No, what was scaring her was the same thing that made it hard for her to go on any ship. She had serious trust issues now, and was terrified of getting close to anyone let alone a whole crew. She knew that she’d have to trust them to do their job, to take care of each other, and after what she’d seen on her own ship she didn’t know if she could. There of course was also the terror of something happening to Joseph now that she had found him again.

“As ready as I’ll ever be.” She said quietly, having reached the docks to see Josephs ship before her. She knew she would have to be prepared for anything, and anyone for that matter. Squeezing his hand for a moment before she let go, she stepped onto the deck, knowing that as long as she had him, she could get through anything.

Joseph clapped ehr on the shoulder lightly. "I'm not asking you to trust my crew. I'm asking you to trust my judgment." Joseph said.

"Cap'in!" a man came over to the pair, his long red hair a fiery mess. "Gots the cargo loaded stock all stocked and food all stored. Shall I be makin supper for the crew tonight or are we still stayin' at port?"

"We'll be headed out tonight Mr. Ferrel. Feel free to make dinner, but something light. We've got a long trip and I'll be wanting those rashions to last." He said.

"Aye!" the red headded man nodded, looking to Jane. He paused, then pointed to her, looking to Joseph. the man was missing a hand and pointing with a stub... " 'Oo's she?"

Jane looked at the man and for a moment she seemed to shrink back, as if she was afraid. Then she did something rather miraculous for the broken and tarnished woman. Instead of letting Joseph speak for her, instead of letting herself fall into the background like she wanted to, she blew away all expectations for her and grinned.

It wasn’t the smile she had for Joseph, or even the amused look she give Collins or Skip. No it was the grin she gave to her crew when she had been a Captain, a grin that said essentially I may be pretty and nice, but this cat has claws.

“Nice to meet you Mr. Ferrel. The name is Jane. I’ll be joining you all as First Mate. I’m sure we’ll get along swimmingly.” She said, though what she didn’t add and what was definitely hanging in the air unsaid was, or else.

Jane was very interesting in that way. Fierce and independant when she needed to be. Seemingly indominatable. Yet, Joseph had seen her at her very worst, broken and sobbing her pain. Even now he could see it was simply an act, even if Ferrel fully believed her little show.

"A-Aye ma'am! I'm sure we'll be getting along just fine." the man nodded eagerly. "Wouldn't dream of causin any trouble." he assured her with a toothy smile. Well.... Would be toothy smile. The man was missing a few of his pearly whites.


Joseph nodded. "Well, Mr. Ferrel. If you would be so kind as to show Ms. Jane here to her quarters..."

"Aye sir!" the cook nodded. "This way, Missy."

Jane looked back to Joseph, a moment of panic bleeding into her eyes before she steeled them and followed the cook away from the only thing that seemed to tether her down. She knew that realistically she wouldn’t be able to be around Joseph all the time, he’d have work to do, and very soon so would she. She’d have to learn to stand tall without him around. So she did what she had for the last few months, withdrew behind her defenses, cutting off emotion and becoming far more stoic, and to the poor man a lot scarier.

“Here ya are miss.” He said opening the door to her cabin for her, Showing a room very much like the inn with a bed nailed into the wall and a small table with a chair. She walked in and put her blanket on the bed, the contents held within it tumbling out onto the mattress. The man’s eyes widened for a moment when he saw the large bottle of rum, wanting to ask but afraid to at the same time. Jane seemed to take pity on him, and softened just a bit.

He was not her enemy. Before today she’d never seen him in her life. He deserved at the very least a clean slate, a chance to prove trustworthy to her.

“Here have a swig.” She said, handing him the bottle. He didn’t need to be told twice, taking a hearty drink before giving the bottle back.

“Thank you kindly missy. You’re a good soul.” The cook said before leaving her alone. She smiled softly, knowing with that intuition of hers that she’d made her first ally on that new ship

Joseph retreated to his cabin, grabbing himself a glass of wine. He took a small sip form the vile Collins had given him and grabbed an apple out of a small basket he kept of them, frowning. He hadn't eaten the day before ad his stomach screamed at him not to try something so heavy so soon.

he ignored it, being his typical suborn self and took a bite out of the fruit looking at the map on his desk. They had quite the trip ahead of them. At least three weeks to the halfway mark.

Jane put away her only worldly possessions quickly and spread out the blanket on the small cot, before laying down for a moment. She had only woken up an hour ago and yet she felt exhausted. All from her interaction with one man. How she was supposed to meet the whole crew that night, guide them, order them to do what needed to be done, she wasn’t sure.

Turning her head she saw her bottle of rum, barely touched by the drink she’d given the cook. Making up her mind she sat up and took a swig, and then another, letting her belly fill with the alcohol rather than food. She hadn’t eaten at all that day but that didn’t matter much to her. All that mattered was pushing the pain down and resting for the moment, getting her bearings again.

However she accomplised that was not important.

It wasn't long before someone thundered past her room, followed by the sound of a door opening and closing quickly.

--

Joseph entered Collins room unannounced, holding a bucket filled with apple and blood. His face was pale and he looked ready to be sick again.

He frowned, knocking his fist against the wall to wake the old man up. "Your syrup didn't work..." he said, a hand over his stomach.

Collins looked up surprised from a medical book he had been reading, and the color drained from his face. He hated it when anything didn’t work right. Especially when it was someone he happened to care about in any way, shape, or form.

“Damn it.” He said, pushing Joseph down into a chair and taking the bucket from him. He actually examined the contents of his sick, before examining Joseph, looking at his mouth and throat as well as feeling his stomach. Suddenly he realized what he had forgotten to mention to the Captain.

“Did you take this with alcohol?” he asked nervously.

Joseph's face contorted in pain, still holding his stomach. "Should I have?" he managed to breath out. It burnt like a son of a bitch.

He opened one eye to watch Collins, obviously annoied, in pain and all in all not pleased with his current state of being.

Collins shook his head, and started mixing something else. Bottle clinking together as he made a quick draught.

“Take this.” He said calmly, waiting until the Captain had drank it all before sitting down again.

“The medicine I gave you, you’re not supposed to mix it with alcohol. Makes it too acidic so it burns your stomach. I should have told you that.” Collins looked absolutely miserable. For some reason he’d assumed the man knew not to drink when you barely had any insides left to destroy. He’d been wrong.

Joseph stayed sitting, holding his stomach with a frown. What ever he just drank he supposed woudl stop any further damage, but he had been the idiot to hurt himself and so now was paying for it.

"What I get for trying to eat an apple..." he muttered before sighing, wiping some sweat off his forehead that had formed while he sat fighting off the pain. The captain looked a lot more like a cabin boy at the moment who had eaten something foul. He was still holding his stomach, his two toned eyes droopy and tired. It had hurt even more having to upchuck. His insides were a mess and that sort of violent upchuck motion had hurt.

Collins chuckled lightly at the sight before him putting away his bottles of medicine again and putting the bucket of sick next to Joseph in case he needed to upchuck again.

“The apple aint what did it sir.” He said, taking a seat on his cot since Joseph was sitting in the chair opposite him.

“Gotta say, I was hoping to talk to you today but not like this.”

"I'm all ears." he said, closing his eye again, just concentrating on feeling better and pushing aside the pain. A sort of meditation really. "What's on your mind, collins?"

Of course, Joseph would take a drink over an apple any day. No drinking meant headaches and other unpleasantness.... Joseph was a man who needed his liquor.

“Just curious over how things are going.” There was no need to further explain then that. He would know exactly who Collins was referring to the moment the words left his mouth.

Rather than simply sit there however, Collins decided to make himself busy and began mixing together another mixture from his many bottles, their tiny labels hard to read but telling Collins everything he needed to know about each substance.