Once again thank you everyone for reviewing! I know L haven't updated lately, but I had a few set backs. For one I got grounded and was banned from the computer, in fact I still am. And I also still have a touch of writer's block so hopefully this is as good as the last chapters.

Remember I do not own Sailor Moon.

Chapter 5: In Sickness and in Health

"So where exactly are we going?" Serenity asked Nephrite. She was sitting on a chair that had been brought up for her so she could spend at least some time out on the deck. The crew was still growing used to her presence, but were used to having women on board, but they'd never had a Princess especially one as beautiful as Serenity on board. Standing next to her was Nephrite keeping her company for the moment.

"We're going to take you to our secret hideout. It's one of the places where we usually stop and take a break, and to stash whatever we find. But I'm afraid I can't reveal its location because it is in fact our secret hideout."

"I understand, but what happens after that?"

"Like we said, we're going to hold you until we get word that your betrothal is being broken. Then, we'll take you back home."

"Just like that?"

"Yup."

Serenity stared at him for a couple moments then turned back to the ocean. "You guys have to be the weirdest kidnappers and pirates I've ever met."

"Without taking into consideration that you've only met one band of pirates." said Endymion walking up. They had established a sort of routine in the last couple days. Around mid-day Endymion would bring Serenity out onto the deck for a couple hours. Then, she would have to go down below again much to her dislike. Endymion spent as much time with her as he could, wanting to get to know this radiant Princess like his best friends. She intrigued him more and more with each passing day, there was always more to learn about her, and Endymion wanted to know everything.

"Do I have to go in already Endymion?" Serenity asked with a pout. Endymion smiled. She probably got everything she ever wanted with a pout like that he thought.

"That won't work on me Serenity. It's not just my orders but Zoicite's as well. So down below you go." He said reaching down to pick her up. Serenity had grown accustomed to being carried around by him. And though by society's standers it was amazingly improper she couldn't help but enjoy it. It wasn't every day a girl got to be carried around by a man as handsome as Endymion.

"But Endymion I still might see the dolphins today. I see them if I'm not up on deck." Serenity said as one last attempt to get Endymion to let her stay on deck. But Endymion just shook his head, smiling as she tried to persuade him.

He placed her onto his bed making sure her foot was elevated according to Zoicite's instructions. He began looking around for the book Serenity had been reading the other day. While she was in the cabin she had been reading Endymion's readily supply of books.

"Where's that book you were reading Serenity?" he asked giving up his search.

"Its right here silly." Serenity said taking it out from under the pillow.Serenity smiled as Endymion lightly tucked the blankets in around her; she hadn't been tucked in since she was a little girl. And then, a thought occurred to her; why was Endymion and his crew doing this anyway.

"Endymion, why do you want my betrothal broken?" Serenity asked innocently. She saw Endymion pause in what he was doing a dark emotion passing over his features, and then it disappeared abruptly as it came. He resumed what he was doing as if nothing was wrong.

"Diamond and I have an old score to settle." Endymion said avoiding her gaze. Serenity wasn't fooled, and always as curious as she was she wanted to know, but this had to be a part of Endymion's past.

"And what would that be Endymion, the breaking of this betrothal will obviously be horrible for Diamond. I'm not completely ignorant of the political positions of other countries and know Diamond would've greatly benefited from this marriage. The fact that it would be broken is a major blow to Diamond and his country." she caught Endymion's hand as he walked past the bed still not looking at her. "Why do you two hate each other so much?"

"Why don't you allow yourself to be guarded. And from what Eric told me while you were at Kou manor, Lord Sieya made sure every guard was out for the day so you wouldn't say hide nor hare of them." Endymion countered.

Serenity dropped his wrist and turned away to look out of the window to hide a flinch. "That's my business Endymion." she said softly.

"The same Princess."

Serenity felt slightly hurt by the use of the title; she'd grown used to him calling her Serenity. Her hands twisted together, she was surprised to feel the sting of hurt that he wouldn't confide in her about the tension between him and Diamond.

"Is it really that much to ask?" she said quietly.

"In this case yes." Endymion said then walked out the door of the cabin. Serenity turned to call him back but stopped herself. She couldn't expect him to pour his heart out to her when she wasn't willing to reveal her secrets to him. And besides she had just known him for three days; she wasn't even sure if he considered her a close friend. And sooner or later I'll have to leave. she thought. Serenity reached up a hand to her eyes in surprise as she felt tears rise in them.

She didn't want to leave, she wanted to stay aboard this ship for a very long time. She wanted to get to know Endymion like a childhood friend as well as the generals. As soon as she was better she wanted to walk about the ship and learn everything about it. She never wanted to go back to the barren lifeless world as high Princess of Jericho.Serenity realized there was barley anything she would miss from her palace life. Of course her parents, Luna, Andrew, and her favorite places; but she didn't want the life of the Princess anymore. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she realized she would soon have to go back to it.

And that was how Eric found her when he walked in bringing in her lunch. She was staring out the window tears rolling down her face. Unsure of what to do he walked over and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, but she didn't turn from the window.

"Um, are you alright Prin- ah Serenity." remembering she didn't want to be called her title.

But Serenity didn't turn from the window, instead just brought up a hand to wipe away her tears. "I'm fine Eric," she said turning to him with a weak smile, "Besides tears never got anyone anywhere."

"A-Are you sure Princess, I can go get the captain."

"No, I'm fine Eric." she said softly turning back to the window. Eric unsure of what to do for her just shook his head softly and quietly left the cabin. Serenity sighed as she heard the door close.

She turned to see the lunch that Eric had left on the table. She hated being waited on almost as much has she hated being called Princess. But it was hard to get meals yourself when you were bedridden. Usually Endymion ate with her, but she had chased him away with her pestering questions.

Serenity flipped the covers off of her legs which were still covered in bruises. Some of the smaller ones were slowly turning yellow, and after that Zoicite said they would fade. She swung her legs over the edge of the bed moving the to test her mobility. They still hurt, but instead of a constant throbbing it was more of a soreness.

Serenity gently put her feet on the ground, being careful to keep her weight off of her sprained ankle. She leaned her weight against some nearby furniture; her legs weren't nearly ready to take all of her weight. What she did wasn't what you would call walking, but more of hobbling. But never the less she was soon sitting in the chair at the table. Serenity smiled to herself at her accomplishment, but she felt lonely; Endymion wasn't here for her to tell him what she did.

Serenity ate in silence mulling over her thoughts. She couldn't tell Endymion about what happened to her, she hadn't even told her parents in full detail what had happened. No, she couldn't tell Endymion, she couldn't delve into those memories again. But Endymion's might be just as painful. she thought. Maybe she could find something among those piles of papers to help her find out what happened between him and Diamond. She had gone through some already and notice that there were several other pirate ships under Endymion's command. It was unusual for a pirate captain to have two ships under his command, but Endymion had about four or five. It was odd.

Serenity sighed again and hobbled back over to the bed, and laid down. She closed her eyes intending to get some sleep before she faced Endymion again.

Serenity awoke to low serious voices in the room next to Endymion's. She leaned off the bed and peered into the room that held Endymion maps, and other papers and saw Endymion and the generals talking about something that must've been of major importance.

They all had worried looking of their faces, and eve if Serenity could hear them she suspected she would have understood anyway. She stood up quietly and hobbled over to the doorway of the room. She was surprised they didn't hear her, it wasn't like she was being quiet about it, but they were so focused in on the conversation they didn't notice her.

Once she had made it to the doorway she leaned up against the door frame. They still hadn't noticed her, but that was fine with her. But never the less she wanted to know what was going on.

"What's happening?" she asked. They all turned to her surprised that the hadn't noticed her, but also surprised that she was standing up on her own. It was obvious that this Princess had more metal than they were giving her. Endymion just rose and picked her up again and put her back on the bed.

"Endymion! I want to know what's going on, and I was perfectly fine standing on my own." she said as he set her back down on the bed.

"You shouldn't be up Serenity, you're suppose to be resting your legs."

"But laying around only makes them weaker and weaker everyday." Serenity muttered unhappy that she was once again back in the bed she'd been in for the past few days.

"There's a storm coming Serenity, a big one. It could go on for days, maybe a week, and we're more than likely to be blown off course." he said pushing a hand through his hair. He was nervous about many things, and Serenity could see that. If Endymion was worried about this storm that everyone should be worried about this storm.

"Will we get through it?" Serenity asked.

Endymion smiled. "We'll get through it like any other one Serenity. This one will be though, and there's so many things we have to get done before it hits. I'm sorry, but you won't be able to go back on deck until it blows over."

"That's fine Endymion I'll be fine here, go ahead and finished talking to the generals." Serenity said with a smile. He nodded then walked back into the other room, Serenity sat back against the pillows and picked up the book she was reading. She might be reading for several days in a row.

Endymion and the generals had long left the cabin, and Serenity could hear the hustle on the deck. She knew absolutely nothing about preparing a ship for a storm. So she felt extremely useless, but did the only thing she could do. Serenity went around Endymion's cabin putting anything loose away, she was sure Endymion would never get around to it so it made her feel like she was doing something.

Serenity looked longingly out the window, she had wanted to go on deck before the storm ran in. Instead Serenity made her way over to the window and sat on the sill. She pushed the window about four inches open so the sea air wafted into the room. Serenity took a deep breath and sighed, she leaned up against the windowsill and closed her eyes, and soon she was in a peaceful slumber.

Serenity shivered violently, for some reason she was inexplicably cold. No, not cold, freezing, and she could barley lift her eyes. Her dress stuck to her like a second skin soaked with freezing cold water. When she finally got her eyes open the room refused to stay in place.

That's because you're on a boat dummy. she thought giddily. But it wasn't just that as she glanced out the window she saw the sea raging outside and rain pelting down from the heavens.

Serenity's mind was hazy and her shivering wouldn't stop. She must've slept through the beginning of the storm and the water must've soaked her through the window. Serenity hopped off the windowsill, but her legs didn't seem to work. She landed flat on the floor, the breath whooshing out of her.

The room kept spinning, and spinning and Serenity tried to push up on her knees. Then, a wave of heap washed over her, so intense she feel to the ground again. She had been so cold her shivers had looked like a seizer, and now she felt like she'd been thrusted into a pool of lava.

Then, the feeling hit her, and that scared her more than any intense wave of heat. Serenity had always known when someone she cared about was in danger. She could always sense, the one time her father had been injured in battle she'd been the first one to rush to him once he got home. And now she had that same feeling and she couldn't ignore it. Whoever it was in or about to be in life threatening danger.

Serenity somehow pushed herself to her feet, and stumbled to the door, barley able to keep her footing. She pulled in open and was thrown out of the door by a huge lurch of the boat. She hit the opposite wall and clung to it trying to keep her footing. She glanced up the stairs that lead to the deck and water was pouring down the stairs. The heat assaulted her from all sides and threatened to send her sprawling to the floor but widened her feet to keep from falling. Thunder boomed and rolled drawing a terrified squeak from her. But the feeling jumped inside her again and that sent her running up the stairs into the storm.

The first step on the deck Serenity was almost blown over by the wind. She clung to the boat she would've been afraid for her life in a storm like this, but the feeling inside her insisted there was another life that was in more danger than her's; someone close to her. She looked around slowly, it was so hard to see in all the rain and waves crashing against the boat. Following the feeling inside of her she looked to her right and saw Endymion yelling out orders to her crew and tugging on some sort of rope.

Serenity took off in a run towards him the same time a wave twice as high as the other ones crashed into the boat sending tons of water washing over the deck with astounding force. Endymion who hadn't been paying attention to the huge wave stumbled toward the edge of the deck as the wave crashed into the boat and with the gush of water Endymion was washed over the edge. Serenity had somehow made it across the deck and leaned dangerously over the edge to snag Endymion's hand.

Once the weight of him settle on her arm it felt like it was ripped out of it's socket, but she reached down with her other hand and grabbed another part of his arm.

"Serenity?" he yelled into the storm but Serenity could barley hear him. The only thing that matter was that she get him back onto the deck. She pulled with all her might, and got no head way. She pulled again, and again, and again but still no luck. Not willingly to give up she pulled again with all her might and with some help from Endymion she was able to pull him over then railing and onto the deck.

The strength gone from her arms they collapsed uselessly to her side. She looked up to meet Endymion's stormy gaze, she'd never seen her this mad before. But Serenity felt a feeling of peace settle over her, the bad feeling was gone, Endymion was safe.

More water washing over the deck almost sent her crashing into it, but Endymion's arms steadied her. Hi look as thunderous as the storm raging around them he lead her back below, and stopped in the hallway.

"What the hell were you doing out there Serenity! You could've been killed or seriously hurt, I told you not to come out on deck!" he yelled.

While, Serenity was sure the words he was yelling out were very loud in volume, but none of it reached her ears. There was a growing roaring in her ears, and all she could do was say, "Sorry Endy."

Endymion let out a huge sigh and lead her back into the cabin and set her down in the chair and said, "Now stay here Serenity, if I don't want to see you back on deck."

Serenity managed a feeble nod, and watched Endymion walk out the door and back into the furry of the storm. Suddenly, all the heat form her body was gone and she felt inexplicably cold. Shivers overtook her body again, Serenity was sure her lips were even blue.

Serenity rose form the seat and stumbled over to the bed, but her legs did that funny things again. She found herself on the floor again and the coldness sweeping through her like a plague. She reached up to the bed and groped for the covers. Once she found it she dragged it down to the floor and wrapped it around her. The freezing temperatures seemed to have settled into her very bones. Her eyes felt weighed down and her body useless, like all of her nerves had been severed, and she could no longer move. As her eyes slowly shut, she smiled.

At least I saved you Endy. She though darkness taking the room from her vision.