Author's Note: I made a fun little mood board for the fic, check it out on my Tumblr - erickawrites
Happy Easter everyone!
Ambulances had been waiting at the pier to take Harry and the other injured to the University Healthcare Center as soon as they arrived. She and her friends met Harry at the hospital, but when they walked through the glass entry doors, the receptionist at the front desk informed everyone that regular visiting hours were already over. They'd all have to leave, save for a single visitor at a time.
Gil went in first to check on Harry, but didn't stay long since he needed to get back to the ship to help Uma. Before he left, he said he'd be back to check on him later. After a quick discussion, Jane, Carlos, Jay and the others had decided that Melody should be the one to stay. They waved and gave Melody their well wishes to deliver to Harry on their way out the door.
A medical assistant showed Melody to Harry's room, and she'd found him lying in a hospital bed, wearing a periwinkle blue exam gown with a murderous scowl on his face. No hook, no sword, and nothing in the color black anywhere to be found and she had to stifle a laugh. She could imagine the fuss he probably put up as they confiscated his weapons and stowed them in a hospital locker somewhere.
The doctor came in, introducing herself as Dr. Marion, and asked a thousand questions about the the injury, lifting a suspicious brow when Harry had told her 'Aye, I tripped and fell on me own blade. Embarrasin' but it's the truth I swear it.' When he'd placed his hand over his heart, Melody had to turn away from the doctor to hide her face. The sinister gleam in his Harry's eyes did nothing for his trustworthiness.
Melody was pretty sure the doctor didn't buy it at all, but she hooked him up to IV fluids, stuck monitors to his chest to track his heartrate, and set about to work on the leg with no further interruption. After lidocaine injections to the sites around the wound, the doctor was able to clean it and stitch it without too much difficulty. Harry made a few faces, wincing and sucking air between clenched teeth when she got a little deep, but he didn't say a word. He was obviously no stranger to pain or injury, which made her heart feel a little heavier than she would have liked to admit.
After the wound was cleaned, the doctor sent for something to eat, monitoring his vitals for about an hour afterward. She seemed satisfied after this time had passed that he was stable and there was no further risk of shock and she saw no need to transfer him elsewhere for a higher level of care.
The doctor didn't seem to trust him enough to stay off his leg or stay out of trouble though, so she ordered him to remain in the health center on bedrest until at least tomorrow.
He'd glowered at the doctor, beginning to say something bad-mannered, but Melody put a finger to his lips to shush his protests and he settled back into the hospital bed with his arms across his chest.
The doctor gave one last wave before heading out the door. Then it was quiet, save for the rhythmic beep, beep, beep of Harry's heartrate monitor.
"You don't need to give her any more reason to be suspicious," Melody said, settling back into the only chair in the small room. She glanced out the windows, the sun had set and the sky had shifted to deep purple.
"I wisnae tryin' to, but I dinnae want to be stuck here all night." His words were clipped, his jaw was clenched tight. He was probably still in pain since he'd stubbornly refused the pain medication the doctor offered.
"It's not that bad."
Realizing it was awkward to talk from all the way across the empty space, she scooted her chair next to his bed, and sat down again. "And it would have been better if you'd agreed to take the medicine she recommended."
She let her eyes drift over the white walls of the small room, the sterile equipment, and the array of monitors on a stand behind the hospital bed. One monitor for his heartrate from the wires on his chest, one for blood oxygen and pulse rate attached to his finger, and one for blood pressure from the cuff that squeezed him intermittently. The room had all the technology of a larger hospital. The doctor had even introduced the night nurse who was available at all times. And if Harry had any trouble the doctor would be on call to handle it.
Harry was pulling at the bedrails roughly, trying to sit up higher. "I've slept on rocks more comfortable than this bed."
She shrugged. "It's just for a night. I didn't think pirates were picky about things like that."
His sharp response made her stiffen. "It's nae even the bed! It's the fact of bein' stuck here like this!" He was pushing himself sideways now, trying to find an angle to slide his leg off without having to bend too far, but the wires on his finger monitor got tangled and he stopped, fisting the sheets and glaring at his leg. Then he let out a throaty yell at nothing in particular and ripped the monitor right off his finger. "I dinnae have time to sit in bed!"
Beep, beep, beep, beep!
The heartrate monitor was going crazy as Harry's anger sent his pulse skyrocketing.
"Woah, woah Harry. Stop, you'll open the wound!" She tried to keep her voice low and calm. "The nurse is going to come back in here and think you need more treatment."
"I dinnae care what the nurse says! We need to figure out what to do about Sparrow!" He glared at her with stormy eyes, fear and anger clouding their normal sharpness. "He'll come back for yeh and we need to be ready. I cannae be in bed!"
"You're not going to be ready for anything if your leg doesn't heal. Remember that peg leg I promised you? You're on your way unless you can figure out how to chill. Now lay back and relax!"
He chewed angrily on the inside of his lip, obviously trying to figure out a way around the situation, but she refused to shiver under his frosty glare. He would not intimidate her into getting his way.
She was up out of her chair now, finding the finger monitor that had been tracking his blood oxygen levels and re-attaching it before the nurse ran in to see what the problem was. "Sparrow won't be back tonight. You were there for the discussion. Uma thinks he was just feeling us out, trying to learn more about the locket or see what type of sea magic we'd heard of."
His face was still drawn up into a frown, but he let her slide the monitor on and helped lift his leg slowly back onto the bed. And when she waved her hand in a gesture to scoot all the way back against the pillow, he obeyed. The angry beep, beep, beep slowed to a nice, easy rhythm and they sat in silence for a minute or two.
Okay, she'd had a moment to breathe. Now it was time to get something else over with.
"Speaking of the locket," she said. "I think it's time for us to have that conversation about why you didn't tell me about the power it held."
He let out a long sigh. "Do we have to do this now? I apologized twice for that already, I dinnae know what else to say. There wisnae any way to know what the locket could do until it was paired with other sea magic."
She did not respond to that, instead, she crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him. If he had any idea, he should have told her. End of story.
"I know I should have told yeh right away. It's just – "
He drifted off but she prompted him to continue, "Just what?"
"It isnae an excuse, but… this is all new to me, lass. I've been lyin' and stealin' since I was a wee bairn. Takin' what I want is what's normal for me." He frowned, fiddling with the pulse rate monitor attached to his finger for a moment, "yeh see, it's a poor excuse. I wisnae worried about hurtin' yeh when we first met. Yeh were naethin' to me. But now… "
He trailed off looking at the wall. Then, as if suddenly making a decision, he rolled over in bed to face her. He glanced down at her hand wrapped around the bed rail and covered it with his own, testing her reaction. "Now, it pains me to have hurt yeh."
She stared at his hand on top of hers as the beeping machine added even more tension to the feelings pulling at her insides. This was as vulnerable as she'd ever seen him. He was without his weapons, without the typical uniform of the wild pirate, sitting here strapped in to monitors and unable to walk. And he was trying, he really was trying to talk to her.
"Harry," she said, looking into those eyes for the answer to her next question. "You don't have to pretend anymore. Did you get close to me just for the locket? Or was any of this real?" She put emphasis on the last word, looking down at their joined hands.
That stormy gaze churned more intensely now. Frustration had sculpted a hard angle in his brow as he stared back at her unblinking.
Then, he squeezed her hand and pulled, hard.
"Damn it, Harry, what the – "
But he cut her off, "Come up 'ere," he demanded. "Sit by me." And the harsh tone in his voice gave her no room for argument. He was in pain, he was frustrated, and he was losing his temper with her.
When she hesitated to move, he started to get up himself.
"Okay, okay," she said, climbing over the railing into the hospital bed next to him, careful to stay away from the hurt leg and not to tangle any of his lines. "Just take it easy."
When she had settled in next to him, he grabbed her hand again and held it in his lap. "What have I done to make you think I dinnae really like yeh? That I was pretendin'?"
"Really Harry?" she said, a sarcastic twist to her voice. "Well, let's see," she said beginning to count all of his mixed signals on her fingers, "there's lying to me as we've discussed, flirting with everyone that moves, and the fact that the only reason you got close to me in the first place was to have my locket."
"I've already told yeh I didn't know what the locket could do," he said, trying to soften his voice. "I admit, at first, I tried to get yeh to like me so yeh'd let me have it for a while to find out."
She started to pull her hand away, but he caught it roughly before she could. His gaze bored into her then, penetrating in a way that was disturbingly intimate. "But I found out something else while I was at it. I discovered I liked yeh very much."
His intensity never faltered and even though she hadn't uttered a word, she felt like her every emotion was on display for him. He was telling the truth and her heart was lighter for it. She felt it in the way her shoulders relaxed and her chest didn't feel so tight. She could finally breathe again as he continued on.
"As for the flirtin' I like to make people react. That's all it is. On the Isle it was a good trick to keep people at a distance. They'd say 'aw that's just Harry, he's like that with everyone.' No one tried to get close to me. The shadows around the eyes, the hook, the flirtin', it's all a part of me armor. Naethin' more than protection."
"But we're not on the Isle anymore, why do you keep it up?"
He paused, looking out the window at the tops of the moonlit pine trees lining the shore.
When he finally responded, his voice was strained and tight. "Just because I'm in Auradon, that doesnae mean I feel safe."
She scrunched her brows together. This was definitely a conversational string she wanted to continue. Later though. One thing at a time.
"Okay, then what about the rest?"
"There's a hundred simpler ways I could have gotten ahold of yer locket outside of bein' friendly with yeh." He quirked a lip into a smirk with that observation.
She eyed him. "Are you trying to say I'm hard to be friends with?"
"Melody, lass. You are the most difficult woman I've ever had the pleasure to spend time with." His face was unreadable at first, but slowly, that full smile crept across one lip and then the other and he tipped his head back and laughed.
"I am not," she said.
He gave her a side-eyed glance as if she had just proven his point.
"Yeh don't know the half of it." He raked a hand through his hair and leaned back as though he was about to tell a very long story. "Once yeh started to warm up to me, I wanted to do more than just hold yer hand. I cannae count how many times I tried after that first night at the beach. I slid my arm around yeh, I was even gonna kiss yeh a few times but yeh looked so uninterested, I dinnae want to push yeh."
She looked at him with brows drawn together. Was he serious? Had she been that clueless?
"But yeh let me hold yer hand all that time, so I figured yeh just wanted to be friends and yeh werenae that interested in me outside o' that. So, I almost gave up on havin' more with yeh than that."
"Almost?"
"Remember after class when yeh pulled me close and told me yeh liked the nickname I gave yeh?"
Her cheeks heated at the memory. "I remember."
"That was the first time I thought maybe yeh liked me a wee bit. So I whisked yeh off to lunch."
That lunch date seemed like a lifetime ago.
She recalled being very forward with him during that interaction. It was the first time she had ever been that way with someone. Had she just been misreading his signals before that? Seas, she really was bad at this.
"And that had naethin' to do with the locket. I already had Uma's ship waitin' for us in the bay by that time, the locket's magic already used. I just wanted to spend time with yeh because I like yeh."
Harry adjusted himself in bed, trying to face her as best as he could.
He was studying her now. Waiting. Searching her face with one eyebrow raised just slightly. What was he looking for?
Then it clicked, he needed a bit of encouragement. A word of what their friendship meant to her. "Harry, this last few weeks have been… well, I feel like I've known you much longer than that. I like you - I like spending time with you, too." And remembering how forward he'd needed her to be before, she hastily added two more words. "A lot."
Wow, great to see all those hours in debate class last year had made her so eloquent.
"Forgive me, lass," he said. "This talkin' thing is still new to me. And I'm nae very good at it."
If he wasn't good at it, what did that make her?
"What did people do back on the Isle? You didn't talk?" she asked.
"Well, that isnae exactly what I meant. Sure, we talked. I talked to Uma and Gil some, but my friends knew I cared for 'em by the deeds I was willin' to do for 'em. Relationships were dangerous 'cause it was summat that could be held over yer head. If yeh were attracted to someone, yeh just, well…" he trailed off, color had come to his cheeks now, giving him a boyish charm in that moment.
Beep, beep, beep, beep.
The monitor was speeding up and before she could consider what that meant, Harry raised tentative fingers to brush the hair from her face. A light flutter had begun in her chest and her breath came shallow as he buried that same hand in the hair at the back of her neck and pulled her close.
She could still taste the salt of the sea on his lips as he pressed his mouth against hers. And in that moment, everything else fell away aside from the softness of his lips and the way his scent, his taste invaded all of her senses at once. The flutter in her chest intensified until she was light as air and she opened her mouth to deepen the kiss.
He washed over her like a warm wave, unfurling a heady mix of sensation inside of her, potent enough to silence the racing thoughts in her mind that said this was a mistake, he'd lied, he was a villain. His touch rinsed it all away, like sand in the surf. Until there was nothing left but their bodies, and the wonderful heat he was building inside of her as they kissed.
She wasn't even aware of her own hands until she found her tingling fingers had begun to explore his warm skin, exposed where the back of his gown had fallen open. He sighed against her mouth and pulled away to look at her.
His cheeks had bloomed with color and his kiss-swollen lips parted into a sensual smirk that twisted something inside of her with an uncomfortable tension. Oh yes, that reckless spark was definitely back in those eyes, as he trailed his gaze over her expression. The monitor's beep was dangerously fast now, and building, like a time bomb about ready to explode.
"The doctor's going to think you've got tachycardia," she warned, surprised by the breathy tone of her own voice.
"I have nae idea what that means," he said. "But the doctor's welcome to watch if she likes."
Then he pulled her close again, claiming her mouth, hungry and more insistent this time and she was more than willing to give him what he wanted. The taste of him was addictive and she felt her limbs weaken as her entire body focused on him. He made a sound in the back of his throat, sort of a half-moan, half sigh, and she fisted his gown in her hands to fight back against the heat coiling in her belly.
A high-pitched alarm issued from the monitor notifying everyone within a one-mile radius that Harry's heartrate had spiked to dangerous levels. Melody reluctantly pulled away from him just as the night nurse flew through the door. She took one look at them, Melody's hand still tangled up in Harry's gown, Harry's face flushed and panting, and she shook her head.
"Best leave that for later," the nurse said. "Otherwise, doctor's going to read your ECG and think you need another night here."
She winked and strode to the monitor to clear the alert sound. When the screaming alarm had transitioned back to the normal rhythmic beep, the nurse offered Harry one more warning glance before leaving the room.
Harry turned to Melody and buried his nose between her neck and shoulder. "Another night here isnae lookin' so bad now," he growled, his voice rougher than it had been before.
She smacked him in the chest. "Cut that out before you give that poor nurse a heart attack." And Harry laughed, a breathless, care-free thing that brightened his eyes and his smile grew as wide as she'd ever seen it.
She started to push herself out of the bed to put some space between them, but he grabbed her by the arm. "Just let me hold yeh, then. We dinnae have to do anything more, but I like yer warmth beside me."
And with her chest still light and bubbly and the taste of him still fresh on her lips, she crawled back onto the bed. He used the bedside remote to lower them into a semi-reclined position and opened his arm to offer her a place to lie down. She nestled herself beside him, resting her head on his chest and he held her close, like she'd been meant to fit there all along.
She let the rhythmic beep of the monitors and Harry's even breathing soothe her as her thoughts drifted. She was so tired, it didn't take long until sleep took her. And that's how Uma and Gil found them later when they snuck in for a visit.
