"Bring me some boiling water and fresh bandages."


-Chapter 14-

Fatima worked the remainder of the day and well into the night and wouldn't have stopped then, but the ship's cook came and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Brought some soup for ye' Miss. Captain says I'm to watch out for ye' and make sure you don't go make yourself sick, 'cause then where'd we be?" Fatima smiled at the man seeing honest kindness in his twinkling blue eyes. She accepted the soup and sat down to eat, her legs nearly giving way underneath her.

"Steady there Miss. Can't 'ave you collapsin' on us now can we? We need you te' fix our mates. And besides I'm not one to leave a lady to become ill, ts'not in my nature, why don't you 'ave a lie down and you can just tell me what these lads need and I'll take care of it." Fatima nodded and moved over to a small miraculously unoccupied bunk. Before allowing herself to sleep she gave the ship's Captain her instructions.

"You'll need to boil some more water and swath any wounds that look like they could use a cleaning. Then you'll need to check the bandages to see if they're dirty or leaking, if they are you'll need to replace them. When you do make sure they're tied tightly, but not too tightly otherwise you'll cut off their lifeblood. Thank you, Mr…."

"Curly Ma'm and pleased to be of service."

"Yes thank you Mr. Curly, truly I do appreciate it." Curly, what an odd name. Fatima thought to herself before allowing herself to sleep, Now where have I heard that name before? It doesn't matter, all that matters now is sleep. With that she curled underneath the thin, tattered blanket closed her eyes and was asleep within seconds of her head reaching the pillow.

Nom crept through the village garbed in shadow. He snuck along the surfaces of the simple houses becoming one with the darkness cast by their walls. Strapped to his back were his trusted twin swords and a staff with the nicks and chafes of many battles. To avoid detection he rolled his feet into the soft sand around him with each step he took being more silent than the breeze. Perfect, no one has woken up, no to slip onto the ship free Fatima from whatever vile prison they're keeping her in and bring her back to safety.

"You're going to start a war doing that." A voice came from the shadow it's body following it. The figure of his father separated from the darkness, Nom glared at him.

"What do you care? It's your fault she's trapped there. If you hadn't come here they wouldn't have either and then she would still be here and safe instead of in the hands of the enemy." Nom supplemented his speech with a spirited spit at Hook's feet.

"As I recall I didn't really have much of a choice in the matter of coming here. I seem to remember floating here passed out on a hunk of my ship." Hook's blue eyes pierced Nom's hazel ones trying to force him to come to terms with how ridiculous his accusations were. Nom reached for a sword and Hook laid a hand on his shoulder trying to calm him.

"Well then you should have left as soon as you were healed, by her I might add. And how do you repay her for saving your worthless life? By getting her captured and forced to pay for your crimes." Nom roughly pushed his way out of Hook's hold and continued on his way blending with the night once more. Hooks voice carried after him.

"All you'll cause by this is more bloodshed, something that she would abhor." When Nom didn't turn around Hook sent a silent prayer to heaven for his son's safety.

Nom what are you doing? Fatima can handle herself; you'll only make her angry by assuming she needs rescuing. But she does need rescuing. Okay whatever you say but if this starts a war it's all your fault. But you're in my head, how exactly does that work? Shut up. Oh great, Nom thought to himself, now I'm arguing with myself. Well at least you'll always win. Nom glared at the innocent sand beneath him, it'd only been a day but already worry over Fatima's safety in the hands of the British was making him mad with worry. Well it'll all be over soon. He thought as he looped his arm through some rope hanging off the side of the ship. As he made his way silently across the deck he saw sailors all around him passed out from booze, Typical, he thought judging them against the stories he'd heard of the British Navy. He went down a hatch and made his way to the makeshift infirmary using the familiar scent of creosote, mesquite and agave to guide him. As he came in the overwhelming stench of illness met him but he refused to be thwarted by it. Finding Fatima curled in sleep on a bunk he went to her and shook her to wakefulness. He smiled gently down on her expecting to be greeted as a praised rescuer with perhaps a snarky 'what took you so long' to ensure that she didn't get too mushy. What he didn't expect was this.

"What are you doing here?" Fatima hissed in a whisper to Nom.

He looked back at her shock filling his eyes. "Rescuing you from the vile British of course, now come on, we have to go before one of them wakes up." He glanced suspiciously around the room at the men lying in the bunks there.

"No." she said it simply, calmly almost as if she had planned for this.

"Excuse me?" he asked puzzled by her reaction.

"No I'm not coming back with you Nom, now go before you get caught." Nom shook his head taking her hand in his.

"I won't leave without you." Fatima smiled sadly at him but pulled her hand back.

"Yes you will now go." She motioned to the door.

"Fatima, this is ridiculous, come back with me to safety!" Fatima saw the fear in his eyes but shook her head.

"No Nom I will never turn my back on people who need me."

A/N Well there you have it an update finally. And a somewhat longer one than lately at that. Two things in here 1) I hid an original Peter Pan reference in this chappie, first person to tell me who it's referencing and when gets a oneshot of their choice done by my, the only parameters are that it has to be with characters in a series I know and it can't be rated above a T. The second one is a bit more tricky, I hid a reference to a popular cartoon in this chapter as well first person to tell me what cartoon and what I referenced in this chapter also gets a oneshot. Virtual cookie if you can tell me what character and when. Well RER! And I hope to see you guys soon,

Animetor777

Reviewers for this chapter

As always LadyLioness, thank you again for your reviews, in answer to your question the men are sick with a number of illnesses including influenza and scurvy, but they also have infections from their wounds that they received in battles at sea with pirates. The ship has no actual infirmary because it is a battle ship and the Admirals decided it didn't need one, stupid Admirals, you always need an infirmary and skilled healer when heading out to sea for any period of time with a large number of people, but they were too war-crazy so they decided against it. Again thank you for your reviews and I hope to hear from you soon,

Animetor777