Thomas closed the door behind him quietly, making sure not to make any noise. Bella had stayed in his arms for several hours. It had taken him a good bit of convincing on his part to get her to stay on the Sirius, as she'd continued to say that she had to get away over and over again. But he refused. She'd cried uncontrollably, and he'd held her in his arms, comforting her until she'd finally fallen asleep. Even after he'd felt her fall asleep, feeling her shallow breaths, he continued to hold her, stroking her hair gently.

The amount of rage he'd felt when she'd been telling him about her past, was beyond the point of even being able to describe it. He'd somehow managed to contain his anger, allowing her to finally let everything out, and cry in his arms. Every mark on her body, every scar, every blemish on her perfect skin, stirred something in Thomas that he had never felt before. It brought about an anger inside of him that he didn't know he was even capable of.

But he desperately wanted to march back upstairs, track the Rika back down, and give this Jeremy guy the beating that he so deserved. This woman though, Thomas thought as he looked down at her, this beautiful, shy, quiet woman had essentially gone through hell. And she was still standing. She was a hell of a lot stronger than she gave herself credit for, and he was going to make it his mission to make her realize that. This guy had tortured this woman, in every possible way you could torture someone. This same woman Thomas found himself so desperately in love with that he could barely breathe. But if she thought for a minute that her past was going to deter him from loving her, she was dead wrong. It only made him love her more. He couldn't tell her how he felt about her, not just yet, she wasn't ready for that just yet. He'd have to continue to be patient with her, as she carried just as many mental scars as physical ones, but the time would come. She'd finally let some of her walls down, and had let him in. He couldn't get greedy just yet.

He untangled her arms from around him, wanting to get some water from the kitchen for her. He was going to run in and run out, hopefully before she woke back up. He didn't want to leave her alone any longer than he had to, wanting to continue to hold her in his arms. He wasn't sure if holding her was comforting her more, or himself. He softly tucked her into her bed, and walked outside. Closing the door gently behind him, he heard a shuffling noise coming from the room next door, and sighed.

"You can come out now." He whispered. He glanced down the hallway and saw two heads pop out from the next room down, Fuzzy and Russell. They walked out of the room and came to a stop by him. They'd surely heard everything that Bella had said, as he saw tears streaming down Fuzzy's face. That in itself was incredible to Thomas, as he'd never seen Fuzzy shed a tear.

Fuzzy hiccupped quietly as she rubbed a hand over eyes. "P-Poor Bella…"

"I… I had no idea…" Russell whispered.

"None of that matters now. The only thing we have to worry about now, is keeping her safe." Thomas replied.

"Do you think he'll be back?" Fuzzy asked, his eyes meeting Thomas's.

Thomas's eyes narrowed. "I wouldn't doubt it, from what she told me. But I'd rather die than let him lay another hand on her ever again. If I catch him step a foot on this ship ever again, or anywhere near her for that matter, he's going to pay for every single scar on her body. Because by the time I get through with him, he'll be praying that the devil takes mercy on his soul."

Russell's eyes widened considerably. "T-Thomas…"

"I'm impressed, I didn't ever think Thomas would ever get so worked up about anyone that he would get this angry. Not that I blame him, it's just strange hearing such anger coming from sweet little Thomas." A voice came from behind him. Thomas glanced over his shoulder to see Eduardo behind him, smirking down at him as he stepped forward. He was shortly followed by Nathan, Morgan, and Christopher. Not wanting to disturb Bella, who was still to his knowledge asleep, Thomas ushered them all back upstairs out of ear shot.

"How much of that did all of you hear?" Thomas asked quietly.

Morgan shrugged. "We didn't, those two were eavesdropping after you kicked Fuzzy out of the room. They came and told us."

Thomas nodded. "Don't… don't let her know that you all know."

"We understand. She'll tell us herself when she's ready. But at least she was able to open up to you Thomas." Nathan replied softly, patting Thomas on the back.

"I'm not surprised now though, about her always wearing those long baggy shirts. I'd been afraid several times that she'd get a heat stroke in those things with the weather we've had lately. I'd had a feeling that there was a reason she wore them, I just had no idea it would be that…" Christopher stated, looking concerned.

"How bad are they?" Fuzzy asked.

Thomas sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "There's too many too count."

Fuzzy covered her mouth and turned, burying her face in Russell's chest, who wrapped an arm around her while looking at Thomas. "Everywhere?"

"Yes. Her arms, her back, her legs. She only showed me the ones on her arms though. And even just that is bad enough."

"Shit." Eduardo cursed angrily.

Morgan folded his arms over his chest. "So what are the plans?"

"I say we go find the son of a bitch and kick the crap out of him now." Nathan said, cracking his knuckles.

Thomas shook his head. "No."

"What the hell do you mean no? What the hell happened to the whole 'praying to the devil for mercy' spiel from earlier?"

"Going after him right now would only upset her more. She's terrified that he's going to hurt us to get to her. Chasing after him right now would just make her worse. No. For right now, we continue sailing the way we had been. There's a storm coming, a pretty big one from what I've seen up on the eagle's nest. We should prepare for that. And if… if he does come, if he tries to come for her during that time, then we give him the hell on earth that he deserves."

Morgan nodded and slapped Thomas on the back. "I agree with Thomas. I like his plan."

"Me too." Christopher and Eduardo added at once. The rest of the group slowly agreed, and the plan was set.

Thomas turned towards the stairs to head back towards the room, but as he did, he saw Bella walking towards them. Her face was still tear stained and her hair was in a slight disarray, but she looked much calmer than she had earlier, and her usual soft smile had returned to her face. The group stood motionless as she came over and stood next to Thomas.

"Bella…" Nathan went to say, but she held up her hand, silencing him.

"Sorry, I just happened to overhear you guys talking just now, so I won't say all of what I told Thomas all over again. I would just rather not have to say it again if you guys don't mind. There are just a few things that I would like to say to you guys. I don't want you all to baby me or treat me any differently just because you all know the truth now, I don't want any kind of special treatment, so you all can just forget about any of that. I want you to treat me the same way you've been treating me since I came on this ship. Now, I do I agree with Thomas's plan. We should focus on the upcoming storm, as it is going to be considerably large from what Thomas has told me. If Jeremy does happen to show up again, we will deal with it at that time. But I want you to promise me that you won't go looking for a fight. It's bad enough I brought him here to you all, but I'll be damned if he hurts any of you because of me. So you all must promise me that you won't go looking for trouble." The group exchanged glances with one another, and nodded their agreement to Bella.

Bella smiled then at them and sighed. "Good, thank you. Now I'm going to head back down to bed, so I will see you all in the morning." As she went to turn to leave, Fuzzy came forward and grabbed Bella, pulling her into her chest.

"I'm sorry; I just wanted to hug you… I want you to make us a promise as well…"

"What's that?"

"That you'll depend on us a little more. We're here for you when you need us." Fuzzy sobbed as she squeezed Bella one last time before releasing her.

Thomas saw as Bella nodded, her own eyes teary again as she smiled up at Fuzzy. "I promise. Thank you Fuzzy." With smiles on their faces, the rest of the group slowly dispersed, heading to their bedrooms for the night. Bella and Thomas headed back down to their own room, and Thomas closed the door behind them. Bella headed back over towards the bed and sat down on the edge, looking up at him.

"I'm sorry I didn't know…" He started.

"It's ok," She interrupted, "I'm actually glad they found out that way. I don't think I could've handled telling each of them that over and over again."

He nodded and rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. "Well I'm sure you're probably going to want to go back to sleep, so I'll just go over here." He went to head over to his hammock on the other side of the room, but felt her grab his wrist.

"Wait…" She said softly, looking up at him with soft eyes.

"What's the matter?"

"…Could… Could I ask you for a favor?"

Thomas smiled gently. "Anything."

"Would you… would you sleep in the bed with me tonight and hold me?" She asked quickly and quietly, her face blushing as she looked down.

He felt his own face blush as he looked down at her. "O-Of course."

She looked up into his eyes again. "Really?"

He nodded, looking into her eyes as she smiled. She scooted over as he went and sat down on the bed. He grabbed the blanket from the end of the bed and pulled it up as he laid down next to her, pulling her into his arms and covering them with the warm blanket.

"I'd do anything for you Bella. And I promise you that I'll protect you no matter what." He whispered into her ear, and they soon both fell asleep, snuggled closely in each other's arms.