Venice ran upstairs to get Damian. He looked rather ruffled when he first parted from Will and glanced up, but Damian was no one to be called thick, and noticed her expression right away.

He and Will gasped when they came downstairs.

Jack Sparrow lie on his stomach in an open doorway, wet, ripped up, and bloody. It looked like he had been in a fight. Venice froze upon seeing him again. She froze and backed up the stairs, slipping away unseen.

Almost. Will noticed how she slipped back, and while Damian looked over Jack, who was unconscious, followed her.

Back to her room, he snaked through the door into the blacklight's shadow. Venice jumped.

"Are you ok?" Will asked.

She stared at him with an expression that said, "What do you think, fucktart?" but said nothing.

"Don't look at me like that. Are you ok?"

"No, I'm not!"

"Why did you run off? I've never really thought of you like that."

"Well you never really knew me."

"You didn't answer my question," Will said patiently.

Venice stood and brushed herself off. She scratched under her sleeve and Will caught a glimpse of blue markings on her upper arm.

Will noticed them, though didn't know what they were. He thought back. Any time he had seen Venice, he couldn't remember her wearing short sleeves. No wonder he had never seen them.

"What are those blue things?"

Venice choked. "Erm. . . doodles. I have a doodling problem. . . you know, that whole artist thing," she said, lying as smoothely as she could.

Will didn't believe her, but nodded and went downstairs. He smiled slightly when he realized Venice followed.

As Jack and Damian came into view, Venice stopped and gasped. Though Jack was awake and upright, he was bloodied and bruised and rather roughed- up. Will noticed that Venice stopped and was starting to back up, and quickly turned and grabbed her wrists.

He pulled her up to him and whispered, "Jack needs you."

Tears welled up in her eyes. She looked down and said, "Jack needs a hospital, not me."

"Well her wanted you then."

Venice looked up, shook her hands free, and backed up a little more.

She ran down the stairs, suddenly, past Will and down to Jack's black and blue arms. Over Venice's shoulders, Will and Damian caught Jack's tear- filled eyes.

Venice kissed Jack lightly, carefully cradling him in her arms. Damian stood and let Venice place Jack's head on her lap, and then he went and stood with Will. After a few moments of awkward silence, the two boys went upstairs, leaving Venice and Jack alone.

Venice stroked the braids out of Jack's face, lightly brushing a bump on his head. He winced.

"Jack, what happened?"

He groaned. Venice realized now was not the time.

She also realized that the place to stay was not on the cold floor of the foyer. Venice stood slowly and said, "C'mon love, let's head upstairs."

Jack nodded lazily, and allowed her to help him up. The stairs were miserable for him, but eventually they made it to the attic with it's comfy couches and the blankets and pillows spread out ahead of time.

Conveniently, the one Jack layed on was the one that rolled down into a full bed, and he and Venice layed together in the dark.

Damian and Will came up shortly after the two became situated and passed out on the other couch together.

Venice didn't stir when she heard them. She intended to question Jack alone, but she stopped herself. Jack was in no condition to answer questions, was he? She'd have to wait until morning.

~***~

Damian yawned as the sunlight hit his face. He accidently woke Will up while rolling off the couch and cracking his back, and a realization hit him.

Actually, two.

The first one was that Jack and Venice had slept together. In fact, so had he and Will. Damian grinned a little bit at this.

The second was that Will had never called home. He made a point of telling Will this when the boy sat up.

"Will, you didn't call home last night. . ."

Will's face fell. "Not much of a home to call. Dad was probably drunk anyway. . ."

Damian dropped the subject. He didn't need the most obvious hints to guess that Will's dad hit him. . . in fact, while Jack and Venice were alone downstairs, he had accidently seen a black and blue mark right below Will's collar bone.

They went downstairs in silence, not disturbing the sleeping duo on the couch one over.

~***~

Jack woke up, surprised to see Venice delicately curled up in his arms. He moved to the side a little and gasped. . . never was he so stiff before. He saw the bruises on his arms and chest first.

What the hell happened last night?

Venice stirred. She blinked like a kitten and sat up, stretching. Finally she remembered that Jack was next to her.

She eyed the bruises on his arms and chest. She had taken his shirt off last night and it now lay neatly folded by the sofa.

"Geezes, Jack," She said, fingering the bruises gingerly, "You scared the fuck out of me."

"What happened?" Jack said, relatively awake because of the jolt of pain he received whenever he moved.

Venice's eyebrows furrowed. "I was hoping you'd know."

~***~

Jack and Venice appeared in the kitchen doorway, where Damian and Will sat eating Lucky Charms. Damian smiled cheerfully and said, "'Ello, morning, how are you all?"

Jack raised an eyebrow at him and pulled Venice up to him. "He isn't always like this in the morning, is he?" He asked Venice, staring alienatingly at Damian's bright smile.

Venice giggled as whole-heartedly as she could at 9:00 in the morning. "'Fraid so, love. You get used to it."

Jack shook his head. "No," He mumbled, "No, I'd never get used to THAT!"

Will laughed and sugary milk shot out his nose. Damian snorted with laughter as he handed Will a towel and a tissue. Venice sat down at the table, and pulled a chair up close to her for Jack to sit down in.

She took the napkin from her place (it was always layed out for breakfast the night before) and wiped up a few remaining spots from the glass surface in front of her and Jack. Then she took two bowls that Damian had pulled out for the two of them and handed one to Jack, picking up the cereal simultaneously with the other hand. She watched as the marshmellows and sugar-coated bits fell into her blue bowl, hypnotized, before handing it solemnly to Jack.

Jack busied himself with pouring his own cereal before realizing that Venice was picking the marshmellows out of the bowl and putting them on the placemat around it.

Except for the blue horseshoes. Those she left in.

Damian caught Jack's look, and grinned. "She's done that for ages, since she first had them."

Jack raised an eyebrow. "And just randomly leaves the blue ones in?"

Damian grinned and shrugged. Jack soon bored of Venice's tireless marshmellow picking and looked at the leprechaun on the cereal box.

"What a little cunt he looks like," Jack said to no one in particular. Will looked at him and smiled.

"He's a leprechaun. . . be nice to him and he'll give you lots of money."

Jack stared forlornly at Will before looking to Venice. She was done seperating the marshmellows and now poured the milk in.

She took two spoons from by the bowls had been laid out and gave one to Jack. It didn't take long for him to realize that though the spoon she had given him was normal, she herself was using a tiny coffee spoon.

Jack looked back to Damian, who shrugged. "She isn't through yet."

Will and Jack glanced at each other.

And Damian, of course, was right. When Venice finished the tedious task of eating her marshmellow-deprived cereal, she drank the milk straight from the bowl, then got up and went to the refridgerator.

She dug around for a moment, then re-emerged with a white, plastic container in her hand; raspberry yogurt.

After opening it carefully, she picked up all the red balloons and put them in, then the clovers and rainbows, hearts, stars, moons, and pots of gold in, mixing it between each separate type of marshmellows.

During this entire time she had been totally silent and focused, but Jack broke in to her procedure.

"Ok. . . I'm just going to ignore most of that.but I do have one question."

Venice looked at him with wide, innocent eyes.

"Why do the blue ones stay in the cereal?"

Her eyes widened and she looked around. She leaned importantly into Jack and whispered, "Because they taste bad in the yogurt."

Slowly she pulled back, and responded to Jack's questioning look with a solemn nod, staring him straight in the eyes before going back to her yogurt.

Which, he noticed, she ate with a different spoon.

Jack rolled his eyes and looked towards Damian. "Your sister is insane."

Venice nodded eagerly at the reference to herself.

"Does she know that all of them taste the same?" Will asked, staring at her robotic actions.

Damian nodded. "Yup."

Will's mouth opened to start another question, but Jack kicked him under the table and gave him a look that said, "Just shut up, love."

Jack looked at the marshmellows and saw that a bit of a blue horseshoe was in the bottom of Venice's bowl.

He looked at her arm, where the sleeve was a little rolled back, revealing a touch of blue. And he saw that they were the same blue.