Chapter Four
A/N: Jesse is mine. I do not own anything from Treasure Planet, as Disney owns that.
Jesse was saved from answering his brother and the dog-man by the arrival of Silver.
"Why Mr. Arrow sir! Bringin' such distinguished guests into my humble galley. Had I known, I'd 'ave tucked in me shirt." The cyborg stated, and actually tucked in the apron he had on into his pants.
Jesse slipped away and ran up to the deck. There, he began helping the rest of the crew load different parcels onto the ship. He did that, until he saw Jim arrive on deck. That was when he made to hide, as to avoid any confrontation with his brother. He didn't expect his brother to actually grab his arm.
"Ouch!" Jesse winced, as Jim had inadvertently grabbed on to the bruised area of his left arm in his eagerness to speak to his sibling.
"What are you doing here Jesse?" Jim asked again, letting go of his brother's arm upon hearing the exclamation. "Mom's worried sick about you."
"I just wanted to see what was all the fuss was about," Jesse shrugged, unconsciously mirroring Jim as he did so. "It's not like anything could happen."
Jim looked at his little brother in disbelief. He honestly didn't believe anything could happen? "Mom told you not to come, Jesse."
"Why are you here then?" Jesse shot back, narrowing his eyes a little at his big brother. "If it's too dangerous for me, then it is for you too."
Jim didn't have a retort for that and so stormed off to watch the launch. Jesse did the same, only from the other end of the ship. The launch was amazing, something Jesse would have never thought he'd be able to experience in his lifetime. He even managed to do a flip before the artificial gravity was engaged.
"Ooh! That's going to hurt," he muttered as he heard Delbert crash back to earth. Honestly, why was the scientist wearing that horrible suit?
"Jesse!" he heard Mr. Arrow calling after a while and Jesse ran over to him. Though it took him a while to realize that it was Mr. Arrow calling him, as the man had never called Jesse by his first name before. Jesse's excited look, the look he always wore upon helping the crew out, faded a bit after seeing that Arrow was holding yet another mop and bucket.
"Why does this deck get so dirty all the time?" he muttered, though the fact that Jim was doing the exact same thing made it a little bit better. Jim, though, could be seen looking around—an act Jesse had learned not to do on his first day there. Some of the crew weren't the friendliest of beings.
"Cabin boysss sssshould learn to mind their own busssinesss," Jesse heard the familiar hiss and turned around in fear. He hated hearing that voice ever since that first encounter with the spider thing. There, he saw Scroop climb down the rigging and head towards Jim.
"Why, you got something to hide bright eyes?" Jim asked and Jesse groaned. Upon seeing the bug thing pick up his brother, Jesse knew there were two things he could do. He could try to distract Scoop or he could go get Mr. Arrow. He chose the latter, as Scroop was a big bug thing while he, Jesse, was just a tiny eight-year-old boy.
"Mr. Arrow!" he ran up to the rock man, who was overseeing a group of the crew take arms into storage.
"What is it Jesse?" Mr. Arrow asked, a little concerned for the young boy due to the slight fear that was evident in Jesse's eyes.
"Mr. Scroop's got Jim cornered by a mast sir," Jesse said. "It looks to be a fight."
Mr. Arrow went straight to the scene, without waiting for Jesse to show him the way causing the younger Hawkins to run to keep up with the first mate. When Jesse got back to the scene, Mr. Silver was there, helping Jim out.
"What's all this then?" Mr. Arrow walked down the stairs and Jesse saw from where he was hiding that the entire crew had lined up upon Mr. Arrow's arrival. "You know the rules. There'll be no brawling on this ship. Any repeat offenders will spend the remainder of the voyage in the brig."
He turned to the bug thing and said sternly, "Am I clear, Mr. Scroop?"
"Transparently," Scroop hissed after a few minutes of tense glaring. After that, everyone dispersed except for Silver and Jim. Mr. Arrow went back to where Jesse had found him, though he did stop for a minute.
"Thank you lad," he told Jesse. "The captain needs all the eyes she can get if this is to be a calm voyage."
"You're welcome," Jesse smiled; thankful the rock man wasn't mad at him for interrupting what he had been doing.
"Now, get back to mopping," Mr. Arrow said with a smile and Jesse made a slight face behind his back. Jim and Jesse mopped from that time all the way to dinner, stopped for a bit to get something to eat, and then Jim went back up to mop some more. Jesse snuck up to the deck to try to see if Jim was all right and that Scroop didn't harm him, but stopped when he heard Silver talking.
"Didn't your pap ever teach you to pick yer fights a bit more carefully?" Silver asked, and Jesse actually held his breath. Jim never talked about their father, except when Jesse would ask when Dad was coming back. There was silence where Jesse had expected Jim's voice to be.
"Yer father not the teaching sort?"
"No. He's more the running away and never coming back sort," Jim told the cyborg, and Jesse froze where he stood. No, Jim had to be lying.
But why else would Jim hate talking about Dad? A nasty little voice in his brain asked. If Dad was just on a 'business trip', surely Jim would be talking about him. Mom wouldn't cry whenever he's mentioned. And the other kids….
The other kids wouldn't pick on him if his dad was on a business trip. Jesse gasped audibly and ran off, not realizing that the gasp had alerted Jim to the fact that his brother had heard everything.
"Jesse!" Jim called after his brother and tried to run after him, but it was no use. When Jesse wanted to hide, only people he wanted to be found by could find him. Sighing, Jim walked over to Silver.
"What's wrong with the lad?" Silver asked, having seen the whole thing.
"He heard me talk about our father," Jim sighed and looked over the side. "Mom and I have been telling him that our dad's been on a business trip for four years, and now he's finally found out."
Silver looked thoughtful at that. "Well, I don't know about you Jimbo, but I'd recon that Jesse'd like to know the truth. Go and find him, before I put you to work."
Ignoring that comment, Jim tried to find his brother. He checked everywhere, but the most logical places were void of any eight-year-old little brothers. Then it hit Jim like a solar flare. The crow's nest! It'd be the last place anyone would look for Jesse.
"Jes?" Jim called as he hopped over the crow's nest and stopped when he saw his little brother curled up into a ball, crying with his bear clutched in his hands. Obviously, Jesse had stopped by the crew's quarters before taking up his spot in the crow's nest due to the fact that the bear was not something Jesse carried around everywhere he went. "Jes, you okay?"
"Go away!" Jesse shouted at Jim, his grey eyes clouded with tears and distrust. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Look," Jim sighed to try to calm himself down before he ended up yelling at his little brother, but then a sudden thought hit him and he looked at Jesse. "Why were you eavesdropping?"
Jesse glared right on back at Jim, though the look was diminished by the tear tracks streaming down his face. "I heard Silver mention Dad. Sorry for being curious."
"I never eavesdrop in your conversations with mom," Jim shot back. "Besides, don't you know eavesdroppers always learn information they didn't want to know?"
"Oh, so if you knew I was there, you'd have made something up?" Jesse asked and the truth was so bitter, Jim actually backed up. "Isn't that great? I can't even count on my own brother to be honest with me?"
"If you didn't sneak on here, you'd be fine," Jim told him, waving his hands in the air. "You know what? Fine. I came here to explain, but apparently you don't want to hear it."
"No, I don't," Jesse glared at Jim and sat back down. Jim grabbed the rope and slid down it, sighing when his feet touched the ground. He knew his brother, and knew that sooner or later Jesse would come down from the crow's nest. He was right, but Jim didn't want to talk with Jesse right then. He was too annoyed.
Jesse knew that Jim was watching him. It's what he did. But the young boy really wished for once, his brother would leave him alone. Dragging the bear on the ship's deck, Jesse walked glumly into the crew's quarters and climbed into his hammock. That night, he didn't curl up with his bear nor did he allow it into his bed.
