I wish I had known then what I know now…maybe things would have turned out differently…
The next morning, Jim woke just as the sun was rising. He got up, bathed, and then dressed for the day – light brown shirt, green pants, brown belt, and black boots- before heading down stairs to find breakfast. On his way down the hall, he paused at Chloe's door. What Silver had said the night before was beginning to nag at his mind again. You ain't got no choice in t'e matter. Jim tried to shake it off as he knocked on Chloe's door. He had the vague thought that he should call her Vivian as he heard her call 'Come in.'
Jim cracked the door open and poked his head in; Chloe/Vivian was lying on her bed, the blankets pulled half way down. The side of her face was pressed into the mattress just below her pillow. She glanced at Jim out of the corner of her eye. "Good morning," she muttered as she reached her hand up to scratch her head. Her hair was fanned out on the mattress and pillows, having been left out of its usual braid.
"Morning," Jim said, opening the door a little wider, poking his torso into the room. "I was uh…wanna get breakfast?" He asked, hitching a thumb over his shoulder.
Chloe rubbed the sleep from her eyes with the heels of her hands and inhaled deeply. She turned her head toward the ceiling and stared up at it blankly. "Sure," she said. She pushed herself up out of the bed, yanking the covers off of her legs as she did.
"Well, erm…" Jim started, scratching the back of his neck. "Okay, I'll see you down there." Jim began to pull out of the door way to begin heading downstairs.
"Jim, wait, I…" Jim poked his head back into the room as Chloe stood up from her bed. She went to the trunk at the foot of her bed, opened it and pulled out a blue dress. It was long, probably landing on the ankles, with light blue cloth except for the dark blue vest. Chloe folded it over her arm as she closed the trunk. She heaved a sigh before casting a look to Jim. "Jim…what are we?"
Jim raised an eyebrow slightly, not entirely sure what Chloe meant. "I er…what?"
Chloe sighed as she went back to her bed side table to grab her hair brush and hair tie. She walked back toward the door and looked up into Jim's eyes. "What are we? The two of us?"
Jim was taken aback; he wasn't sure what the correct answer was. He pushed the door open a bit more, leaning against the door frame as he scratched the back of his neck. "Well, I uh…I mean, we're friends, right?"
He knew as soon as the words left his lips that they weren't what Chloe had wanted to hear. Her face fell a little and she cast her gaze to the ground. "Oh, well…" she glanced back up at him, a forced smile on her face. "Yeah, we're friends. Excuse me," she attempted to push past him into the hall way.
"Wait," Jim put an arm in front of her to stop her, resting his hand on the other side of the door frame. "I didn't mean it like that, I erm…" he ran his other hand through his hair.
Chloe gave him the forced smile again; it was rather convincing, but he could tell that she wasn't very happy. "No, it's okay Jim; I understand. You're a good friend. Now, if you'll excuse me…" She ducked under his arm and quickly scurried down the hall and into the bathroom.
"Chloe, wait a-"Jim was cut off by the bath room closing loudly. He heaved a sigh, shaking his head. "Way to go Jim," he said under his breath as he began walking down to the kitchen, his feet dragging slightly as he went.
On the other side of the bathroom door, Chloe was pacing, still in her pink night gown. Her hair was hanging loosely around her shoulders and she had taken to twisting a large swatch of it in her hands. Left, right, left, right. Stupid, stupid, stupid! She thought. Why did you have to go and ask that stupid question? Your big mouth always gets you into trouble!
Chloe stopped pacing; she suddenly knew that her mouth did always get her into trouble, even before she came to the Benbow. She couldn't remember what she had said, or who to, but she knew deep in her stomach that she had gotten into a lot of trouble throughout her life for not watching her mouth.
She shook her head and quickly got ready to face the day…and face Jim again. Can't hide out in the bathroom forever…despite how much I want to. Chloe bathed quickly, then dressed and ran her brush through her hair. As she weaved her hair into a braid, Chloe caught sight of her ring. She finished with her hair before eyeing it for a long moment.
If it weren't for this ring, Silver would have never found her. It was the only tie she had to who she really was, but after living with everyone at the Benbow for a month, she wasn't sure she wanted to regain her memories. Her family had three other daughters apparently; she wouldn't really be missed. But then she remembered what Silver had said about her impending marriage. She began to wonder if her future husband missed her.
Chloe shook her head sharply, tearing her gaze away from her ring. Even if her intended missed her, she couldn't bear the thought of leaving Jim. Even if they were just friends. Chloe sucked in a determined breath and left the bathroom.
Downstairs in the kitchen, Jim had taken a seat at the table and had his forehead pressed into the unfinished surface. B.E.N. gave him a concerned look as he cooked breakfast for the guests; Sarah raised an eyebrow when she came in to pick up orders. "B.E.N., what's wrong with Jim?"
The robot shrugged as he loaded plates onto the tray Sarah was carrying. "I'm not sure; I mean, I asked him, and he didn't even tell me to be quiet."
Sarah set the tray down on the counter and walked over to her son, gently setting her hand on the back of his head. "Jim, honey, are you feeling well? Do you need to go back to bed?"
Jim shook his head, scratching his forehead against the wood of the table. Sarah smoothed her hand over his hair as the kitchen door swung open. Chloe walked in to the kitchen and could immediately sense something wasn't right. She noticed Jim sitting hunched over the table. She took a step toward him, but remembering their brief exchange of words from earlier, she decided it would probably be best for her to give him some space. She went to pour herself a glass of purp juice.
"Oh, Chloe," Sarah said, still rubbing the back of her son's head as she spoke. "I need you to run to the market for me. We're running low on a couple things I'm going to need to cook lunch."
Chloe nodded, drinking her juice quickly. "I'll go ahead and go; do you have a list?"
Sarah nodded, leaving her son's side to go over to the counter. She handed Chloe the list before picking up the tray of forgotten food for waiting guests. "Take Jim with you; I think he could use the fresh air."
Jim's head jerked up at the mention of his name; his gaze met Chloe's but he immediately looked away. He felt bad about the misunderstanding they had had, but he wasn't sure how to smooth it over. He pushed up from the table and shoved his hands in his pants pockets. "Let's go then," he said softly to Chloe, who led the way out of the kitchen, list in hand.
XD XD XD
A few short hours later, Jim and Chloe were beginning to walk back to the Benbow after they had finished at the market. Jim carried a large sack of flour over his right shoulder and a bucket of some strange aquatic creatures in his left hand. Chloe had a similar bucket with different – though equally strange- aquatic creatures inside it in her left hand and a basket of vegetables in her right. "What do you think your mom's making?" Chloe asked a slightly frightened tone in her voice.
Jim laughed a little as they walked through the crowded market. "I have no clue."
Chloe glanced back over her shoulder; she had been doing that a lot since they had been out. Jim had noticed it, but hadn't said anything. He also hadn't tried to clear up the misunderstanding from that morning. He wanted to tell Chloe that he wanted them to be more than friends, but he had no idea how.
Jim didn't have much experience in talking to women; the only women he had ever interacted with were his mother and Captain Amelia, and they didn't really count. Not the same way Chloe did. The only experience Jim had with women that weren't maternal or authoritative figures was from his school days; he had had his share of crushes, but he had only acted on one.
Her name was Lilia; she wasn't obviously beautiful (dark hair, dark eyes and dark skin), but she and Jim had always gotten along rather well. They would sometimes ditch school together to ride solar surfers. Nowadays, Lilia was married to a merchant and they had a daughter. She still lived on Montressor, but Jim never saw her.
Jim could remember when he had told Lilia that he had a crush on her; they had ditched school and had spent the day showing solar surfing trick to each other. They had been taking a break and Jim had kind of blurted it out in a rather unintelligible manner. Once she had realized what he had said, Lilia had smiled, kissed his cheek, and told him, "Jim, you're awesome, but…you're uh…more like my brother."
That had stung; Jim wondered if that's how Chloe felt when he had said they were friends. He knew that he needed to try and make things better between them, but damn it all, he just had no idea how to do it.
"Jim," Chloe said, pulling Jim from his thought. "I think we're being followed."
"What?" Jim looked back over his shoulder to see a large man in a dark traveling cloak walking behind them. He maintained a distance of about ten feet, but from the way he matched their pace perfectly, you could tell that he was following them.
Jim moved closer to Chloe. "Don't worry; I won't let him bother you."
Chloe nodded a little, but still continued to glance over her shoulder every so often. They were almost back to the inn; they had maybe five minutes before the main street of the market turned into the dirt road leading to the Benbow.
Out of nowhere, two more cloaked figures appeared on either side of Jim and Chloe. They closed in quickly, grabbing the couple before they could react. "Hey!" Jim's attacker grabbed his arms, forcing him to drop the bucket and flour sack. The person was the same height and build as Jim, but was stronger by a long shot; he twisted Jim's right arm behind his back and forced him to his knees.
"Jim!" Chloe's attacker had grabbed her around the waist and picked her up, forcing her to drop her goods as well. Chloe squirmed as her attacker began briskly walking back in the direction of the market. "You let me go you brute!"
Chloe kicked her food backwards, and her heel clearly connected with something because her attacker doubled over in pain. Jim's attacker laughed lowly. "Bloody pansy," he muttered. His concentration was broken for only a moment, but Jim used that moment to twist free. He spun around on his assailant, driving his fist into the man's face hidden by the hood of his cloak.
Chloe had gotten free from her attacker and Jim ran to her. "C'mon!" He grabbed her hand and began dragging her up the road toward the inn.
"No!" she called. "Then they'll know where we're staying!"
Jim twisted around to try and take them back into the crowded market, thinking they could lose their attackers there, but he ran into some one. He hit whoever it was with such force that Jim was knocked to the ground, pulling Chloe with him. She cried out when her head struck the ground.
The original cloaked figure held out a gun with his right hand. Jim's eyes narrowed when he realized that the arm was mechanical; there was no right hand, the gun was a part of the arm. "I thought I told you to stay out of trouble," Jim said darkly.
"Aye, ya did lad," Silver's voice drifted from beneath the hood of the traveling cloak. "But tis all jus' good business. Ya understand." The other two cloaked figures appeared on either side of Silver. "Take t'e lass back to the ship; we's te leave as soon as we get clearance."
Chloe was dazed as she lay on the ground on Jim's right. Silver's accomplices came and began trying to force her to stand up. She had enough sense about her to fight as they pulled her to her feet. Jim continued to stare down his former friend, the barrel of a gun hovering just feet away from his face.
Once the accomplices had Chloe on her feet but firmly in their grasp, they began backing away from Jim. Silver didn't say a word as he began backing away from Jim, the gun still on the young man.
Chloe came out of her dazed state for a moment, pulling herself out of the grasp of her captors. "Jim!" The shorter of the two, the assailant who had originally grabbed Chloe, ran and tackled her to the ground. Her forehead hit the packed earth, and with one final groan she fell unconscious.
"No!" Jim began scrambling to his feet, but froze when he heard Silver's gun cock. He sat crouched on the ground, a death glare plastered on his handsome face as he watched the trio carry Chloe's limp form away. They disappeared into the flow of foot traffic of the market. The other shoppers didn't show any sign that they had just witnessed a brutal attack and kidnapping.
Jim shook his head in disgust as he forced himself to his feet and bolted for the Benbow Inn.
Muahahah *cough cough* cliff hanger! I hope this chapter sounds okay; I've had a hell of a day and I refused to go to sleep until I finished this one.
Hope you liked this one, there will be another one soon, I swear. R&R please!
Also, I just wanted to let ya'll know: Chloe isn't weak; she just get incapacitated by blows to the head very easily. I'm the exact same way. Seriously, if I hit my head, I'm drunk as a skunk pretty much for the rest of the day. Don't worry, she'll get to show her stuff in the next chapter, and trust me, she's totally kick ass!
Till next time ~ BBTM