Thomas had been walking through the market for quite some time, walking in silence when he looked back to check in to see how Bella was. She had been quiet for a good ten minutes, and he was beginning to wonder if she was alright. She wasn't a chatty person, but the two of them usually talked a good bit when they were wandering around the market. As he turned to look at her, he swiftly realized, to his horror, that she wasn't there. It took him a moment, as he looked through the crowd behind him, before he began running. He quickly began back-tracking where they had been walking, calling out her name as he began to desperately search for her.
Where had she gone? She'd just barely been behind him the whole time. Had she gotten caught in the crowd somewhere? Had she called out to him, and he just hadn't heard? He mentally kicked himself as he squeezed through the crowd. He should have been paying more attention. Moldor was an extremely busy place this time of day, and particularly this time of the year when the summer weather was beginning to roll in, and a lot of ships came into port. Especially other pirate ships. Pirate ships were always known for making more stops into port towns to gather more water and food supplies. What if Bella had gotten caught up with some of the other pirates in town? Worse, what if the Rika was there?
Thomas groaned as he continued to search, standing on his toes to look over the crowd. Captain Alan, in particular, was who Thomas began to worry about the most. A few months back he and the Rika had suddenly popped in, coming aboard the Sirius to taunt Morgan about something, Thomas couldn't remember what. But with Alan, it was probably something miniscule and was just something he wanted to brag about to make himself feel more important. Bella had been on the deck, helping him untangle some of the ropes, when Alan had come down from speaking with Morgan up in his office. He'd laid eyes on Bella and had apparently been smitten, or so he claimed very loudly. He'd come over to her and had tried to convince her to run away with him, or some nonsense like that. But she'd appeared frightened of his rather aggressive mode of trying to woo her, and it had taken both him and Eduardo to peel Alan away from her. Alan said that he would come back for her one day, and had gone back to the Rika. But that had been months ago, and he hadn't been back since. Thomas hadn't seen the Rika when they'd been in the port earlier, so he hoped that he wasn't anywhere nearby. Especially with Bella all by herself now, if he was close by, she would be in danger of being kidnapped by him.
The lunch crowd started to die down slowly around him as people began slowly heading back to work. Thomas hoped that it would make his search easier, having less people roaming around. He thought of Bella and how frightened she must be all alone with all of these people around her. Ahead, he could see the town's large oak tree and made his way towards it. It was a quite tall tree, its branches reaching high into the air, and spreading over the town like wings. Having been so large, the town had merely paved the cobble-stone streets around it, and had become one of the main attractions of the town. It had gotten hotter that day, and the shade would prove a much cooler place. Maybe she'd gone there to wait for him?
He made it to the tree and frantically searched around its girth, hoping Bella would be somewhere underneath. But to his disappointment, she was nowhere nearby. In frustration, he kicked the tree and rubbed the back of his neck. He stepped up onto one of the roots that had grown up through the ground, hoping maybe he could get a better vantage point. No such luck there as well. Although her auburn hair would stand out in the crowd, being quite small in stature, he wouldn't be able to see her hair amongst the crowd anyway. A bird landed on a branch next to Thomas, and he briefly looked over at it, as it began whistling near his ear. It was a little bluebird, smaller than most Thomas had seen before.
Bella reminded him so much of a bluebird, he thought as he shoved through a group of men. When he'd been a young boy, living at home, he'd always seen them outside his window. He remembered thinking of how joyful and cheerful they always appeared, always whistling a happy tune. But they were also easily spooked if you got too close to it. Just like Bella. She was a shy and often quiet person, but she always appeared to be happy around everyone.
He made his way back towards the town central, and looked over towards the main fountain. He remembered making a comment the last time they'd been in the market about it, maybe she'd remembered that and had gone there. He excused himself through a crowd of women surrounding one of the food stands, and made his way towards the fountain. Thomas squinted his eyes and saw a woman sitting down on the edge of the fountain, on the other side. Her auburn hair shined in the sunlight and he began to run towards the woman. As he rounded the corner, relief swept over him as he saw Bella sitting there, looking down at the ground. He called her name out as he ran towards her, and she looked up, smiling weakly at him. He stopped in front of her and placed his hands on his knees, panting and laughing all at the same time.
"Thank goodness I found you." He panted, smiling up at her.
Her fingers tangled with one another in her lap. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to get separated from you."
"It's alright, I'm just glad that I found you. Are you ok?" He asked.
She nodded, but looked down at the ground, her eyes diverting away from his. "P-Please don't be mad at me. I didn't mean to get lost. I was going to try to just catch up with you at the hardware section, but I couldn't remember where it was. I'm sorry…"
Thomas knitted his brows together and looked up at her. "Why would I be mad at you?"
"I wasn't paying attention like I should have. I ended up taking precious time out of the day, when we could have been getting supplies for the ship, for you to have to come look for me."
Thomas laughed and sat down next to her. "I doubt the guys will mind terribly if we spend a few extra minutes out here. It's not a big deal, don't worry about it."
She hadn't seemed to have heard what he'd said, and just repeated herself, looking down at her lap. "Please don't be mad."
He laughed. "I'm not mad, I promise."
Thomas went to put a hand on her shoulder, to squeeze it gently to comfort her. He had no idea why she would think he would get mad at her for something like that. It hadn't been her fault, it'd been his. He was the one who should have been paying more attention. But it was then, when he put his hand on her shoulder, that he realized that she was shaking. Her body was shivering as if they were sitting in the midst of a winter breeze. But the weather was warm, and the sun was blazing in the early summer month. His eyes widened and he quickly went and dropped down onto his knees in front of her, lifting her chin to look at him.
"Bella what's wrong? Did something happen? Why are you shaking?" He asked softly, looking her over frantically to see if she was injured.
She shook her head. "No, I'm fine, I'm sorry. I just got a sudden cold chill for some reason is all, I'm sorry. Please don't worry."
Without thinking he bent forward and pulled her into his arms, pressing her into his chest as his arms wrapped around her. He knew she was lying, just from the look in her eye. Something had spooked her, that much was obvious to him. She would likely never admit it to him, but Thomas knew better. Bella didn't shiver or shake like that for no reason. Granted she was a smaller woman, but she was always bundled in her long sleeved shirts and long pants, there was no reason for her to be cold in this kind of weather. Thomas wanted desperately to hit himself for not being there for her when she needed it. She resisted him only for a moment, flinching in his grasp as she had when Russell had gone to give her a high five days before.
"Thomas you don't…" She started, but Thomas silenced her by squeezing her gently.
"Sorry to suddenly hug you like this. Just stay like this until you calm down, ok?" He whispered into her ear. She nodded into his shoulder and he felt her arms slowly wrap around him, to return his embrace. What could have possibly frightened her this much?