I'm sorry it takes so long for me to update: I'm home sick today, so I took the opportunity to finish this chapter. Enjoy.

Chapter 4

Her Weakness

From the second Theo opened her eyes the next morning she felt thick heat and humidity consume her. A beam of orange sunlight was hitting her face, blinding her. She moaned and rolled over, wiping some sweat off her forehead. She had taken the un-occupied cabin that Jack had suggested last night: it was a spacious but dark room, with two small windows opposite of the bed. Due to the sudden heat, Theo had kicked off any sheets that were on the bed and slept with her shirt tied up in a knot so her stomach was fully exposed, and her pants rolled past her knees. Theo had always been used to the hot weather of the Caribbean her whole life, but it was especially hot today. It would no doubt be one of many others that week.

Theo pulled herself up into a sitting position. She tied her hair back into a messy ponytail, hair falling out every which way. She stretched her arms, yawning loudly. She got into a cat-like position and stretched out her tight leg muscles.

Theo would have loved to get another hour of sleep, but thanks to the loud strings of curses from above deck she had woken up. It was mid morning and she was most likely the only one still in bed. She was surprised the captain let her sleep in. Suddenly, there were two quick knocks at the door.

"Come in." Theo called wearily.

"Rise and shine." Jack called, attempting a sing-songy voice from the other side of the door.

Speak of the devil, Theo thought as she bit her lip.

"I'll be on deck in a tick." Theo said, forcing her legs to cooperate and land on the floor. She her foot land on one of her boots, which was halfway under her bed.

Jack decided to invite himself into the room.

"How was your sleep?" he asked, walking around with his hands behind his back.

"Fine." Theo replied as she got down on her knees and grabbed the boot that was under her bed. Out of the corner of her eye she watched Jack. His eyes were locked onto her and follow her every move.

"What?" Theo asked suspiciously.

"You've got a bit of dried blood on that shirt of yours." Jack announced, leaning against the wall. Theo looked down and saw the stain.

"It's an old shirt."

"Would you like a new one?"

"You have something against my attire, Captain?" Theo asked, continuing her search for her other boot.

"Just being the polite, charming Captain I am." Jack said, tipping his hat. Theo laughed loudly, throwing her head back.

"That laugh could wake the dead." Jack said, cleaning out his ears with his pointer finger.

"Oh, it's not that bad…is it?" Theo asked. Jack shrugged.

"I guess a new shirt won't kill me." Theo said with a sigh. Jack nodded and left the room quickly. After a few minutes her returned and tossed her a relatively new shirt that was wrinkled, but looked somewhat clean.

"Thank you, Captain. Now, may I have some privacy?"

"On this ship, love, everyone is as open as possible. So you shouldn't mind if I remain…"

"What I was trying to kindly imply by that was beat it." Theo said impatiently. Jack stood still, smirking. He leaned back against the wall once again.

"Would you like me to use force?" Theo said through her teeth. Jack chuckled, and turned around to face the wall.

"I won't peak: promise." Jack called. Theo sucked in her breath impatiently, but began to strip off her old shirt. She felt the old beat up cloth slide of her smooth skin. The cool breeze from the window felt soothing on her swollen back. She put on the new shirt, buttoned the buttons and rolling up the long sleeves. It felt a little too tight, but she would get used to it. She turned around to see Jack looking at her, standing away from the wall. He had a funny look in his eyes.

"What?" Theo asked carefully. Jack walked over to her, walking in his strange, swaying fashion, and stopped in front of her. He took her wrist in his hand, strongly. He ran a finger over a burn, no, a brand, right above the half of her arm. He raised his eyebrows and pulled Theo's sleeve up higher.

"Who gave you this?" he asked quietly. Theo pulled back.

"It's… none of your business." Theo said, sticking up her nose. Jack grabbed Theo's arm once again, more forcefully, and looked her in the eyes.

"Whoa there…" Theo coaxed, surprised at his forceful pull.

"Tell me." he repeated.

"I'll tell you when I feel like it." Theo said stubbornly. Jack squeezed her arm tighter.

"You can squeeze all you want but I'm not tellin." Theo said quietly. The rings on Jack's fingers were digging into her skin. He waited a few seconds, and then released his tight grip slowly. He let Theo's arm fall back into place, noticing the pink spots were his rings had dug into her.

Jack let out a sigh and began to walk to the door. Theo followed behind him slowly; she was slightly afraid Jack would leap at her and demand information on her brand. But Jack did no such thing: he opened the door for her and gestured for her to walk out. But before she could walk out of the doorframe, he grabbed the shoulder of her shirt. She was jerked back and ended up in front of Jack. He pulled it so the top of her arm was exposed, to reveal a tattoo of a small heart on wings.

"So this is one of your tattoos. Let's see if can find the other four." Jack said with a knowing grin. Theo rolled her eyes and stood there, feeling slightly defeated.

"That's for me to know and you to never find out."

"Would you like to bet on that?"

Theo was sitting up in the crows nest, humming to herself and carving a piece of old wood she has found lying on deck. The knife was using was an old gift that she had owned practically her whole life. She was carving a dolphin, and it was coming along quite nicely. Theo was relieved when Jack assigned her to the crows nest for the morning. She was getting a lovely breeze

Theo looked down at her arm at the wrinkled pink flesh of her brand. Before she could think about that night, she shook her head in disgust, as if she were trying to shake those thoughts out from her ears. The painful memories that came back when she saw it….

The pouring rain running down her bloody back, mixing with her hot blood. The ugly crew members surrounded her, laughing at her, mocking her. The deep thunder booming in the distance.

"No…" Theo mumbled. She continued to carve, digging into the wood harder now.

The cackle of the captain before he grabbed her arm and placed the burning metal on her arm.

"No, no, no." Theo whispered to herself, digging into the soft wood. Suddenly, she carved into the wood to hard, and the knife slipped and cut a deep line across her hand and down to her wrist. She cried out in pain, and then cursed for doing something so foolish. The ruby red blood was dripping down her hand quickly, the sting burning sharply. She looked around for a piece of cloth to wrap her hand with, but she saw nothing. Not good: the blood was coming quickly. She began to climb down to the deck. She wanted to move quickly, but her bloody hand was practically useless. It was slippery with her blood and the sting was becoming close to unbearable. The minute her feet hit the deck, she rushed to her cabin. But she foolishly bumped into someone along the way. She landed on deck, cringing once she felt her hand hit the deck.

"So sorry, ma'am… oh my, what have you done to your hand?" a smooth, kind voice asked. Theo looked up to see a scruffy looking man standing over her, holding out his hand. She took it with her good hand, as she pulled her up gently.

"I…cut it." Theo said weakly, the smell of her blood filling her nose. She was getting dizzy.

"Let's get you some help. What's your name?" The man said kindly.

"Theo…" she said meekly. She wanted to go lie down and stick her hand in a bucket of freezing ice water. To make matters worse, a lot worse, Elizabeth came up to the two.

"Theo, what did you do to your hand? Let me go get Jack." She said, running off.

Stupid, stupid Elizabeth Theo thought a she sighed angrily.

The last thing she wanted was for people to get involved, especially Jack. She just wanted to be alone. Theo was getting tired of the attention. She pulled away from the kind man who had helped her and walked to her cabin, the blood dripping from her hand. James followed eagerly, and she heard distant footsteps and the muffled voices of Elizabeth and Jack. When Theo reached her cabin, she went in and shut her door quickly. She heard the three arguing outside her door. Seconds later, they burst in on her. Theo sighed, and just when she was about to scream at the three of them, she felt herself become terribly dizzy. She soon found herself in Jack's arms, after falling to the floor. She felt her cheeks flush with embarrassment. Jack helped her over to her bed while Elizabeth remained in the shadows, watching them. Jack had grabbed a bottle of rum and her old shirt that was lying on the bed. He opened the bottle and dropped some onto the cloth after ripping it into strips. The kind man sat next to her on the bed, holding her up. She moaned and looked down at her hand.

"I can do it myself." Theo said shakily. Either of the men replied. Jack cleaned Theo's cut, watching her face. After her cleaned it, her wrapped up her hand and tied it. When he saw the red blood seeping through the cloth, he wrapped Theo's hand with another layer of cloth.

"You didn't even wince through that." Jack mumbled. Theo looked down, feeling her head clear slightly. The smell of blood always made her extremely dizzy and uncomfortable. The smell had faded, and so did the dizzy fog in her head. Jack sat on the other side of Theo as Elizabeth came over and stood over Theo, Jack and James.

"You don't look very happy." Jack said quietly.

"I don't have a strong stomach when it comes to blood." Theo confessed softly.

"Funny, you don't seem like that type of person." Jack said, offering a bottle of rum to Theo.

"I know…" Theo began, accepting Jack's bottle. "It wasn't always that way, you know."

Jack got closer to Theo and waited until she looked up at him. Theo finally looked at him, her eyes wide. She sighed and pulled her legs up to her chest.

"Do you really want to know the whole story?" Theo said quietly. Jack nodded; there was no need for words.

Theo looked at Elizabeth and James.

"I don't mind if you stay." She said, looking down. Elizabeth, not wanting to miss any of this, grabbed a chair from the corner of the room, and placed it in front of the bed. She sat in it, crossing her legs daintily. The kind man stood and went for the door.

"It's alright; I don't want to be rude. We'll converse another time." He said before leaving.

Nice guy: I wish Elizabeth would follow his example Theo thought with a small grin. She didn't even know his name…

Theo soon realized Jack and Elizabeth were staring at her, waiting patiently for her to speak.

"Alright, but as I said before, it's a long story. It starts back a long, long time ago…"

A/N: Next chapter is all about Theo's past. How fun. It's going to get this story on a roll. Thank you to my rare reviewers.