A/N: The amazing cover for this story was graciously provided by my friend sonamy4eva210/RosemaryRainbow on deviantART. Go to my profile to check it out!

This was another thing he never thought he'd be doing.

Jim straddled a board that hung over the side of the ship. He didn't mind heights at all, but because he was hanging over an abyss of blackness instead of ground, he wasn't too keen on them today. He had a putty knife in one hand while his other held the rope that connected him to the ship tightly. Jim angrily scraped at the many barnacles on the side of the ship's bottom exterior. Each one was hardened, making it more difficult to get rid of.

"Put some elbow into it," Silver ordered beside him.

"What do you think I'm doing?" the teenage boy grunted. With a hard scrape he succeeded to remove one of the nasty suckers.

Great, he thought, only five bazillion more to go.

Silver was true to his promise of keeping Jim out of trouble. If he wasn't scrubbing floors, he was washing dishes, and if he wasn't doing that he was cleaning something else or cooking meals. It went like that for days, and he never once caught a break. His head immediately hit the pillow of his cot when he was released, and today would be no different.

"You're the one with the mechanical arm, why don't you help?" Jim suggested.

"This ain't 'bout work, it's 'bout buildin' character," Silver said, "now get scrapin',"

His hands grew the beginnings of callouses from holding the knife so tight and for so long. He worked another hour or two, only removing another few dozen barnacles before Silver let him stop, "A'ight boy, that be enough for t'day. Start heavin' ye got floors to scrub," Silver grabbed the rope on his end and started pulling.

"Oh come on, can't I have a break? I've been working all day," Jim almost begged.

"I told ya I'd be poundin' some skills into that skinny body a yours, and that's what I be doin'. Hurry up, we don't have all day. If you're lucky, Nessie will have already started and you'll have less work to do,"

They tugged at the ropes until the platform was level with the edge of the boat and hopped off. Sure enough Vanessa was on her knees in the middle of the deck with a wooden bucket and a scrub brush, though at the moment she wasn't scrubbing. She stared at her hands, and as Jim approached her he noticed they had blisters and were bleeding.

"You should get those treated before they get infected." He informed her.

Vanessa glanced up at him only a second before shaking her head and going back to work. He persisted to gape at her, this time with disbelief, and knelt beside her, "You need your blisters treated, Vanessa,"

In a tone just above a whisper, she said, "I c-can't stop, I haven't finished the f-floor,"

"They're not going to get clean if you're bleeding on them," he held out his hand to help her up, "Doc'll get them bandaged. He's not that type of doctor, but he's the best we got for now,"

She stared tentatively at the floor before standing, ignoring his hand completely. She never let anyone touch her, no physical contact at all. Every time a person went to touch her – mainly him, Silver, or the captain – she recoiled, like they were going to wound her. It was getting to the point where Jim was getting annoyed. He wasn't going to hurt her. What made her think he would?

They left the bucket and scrub brush on the floor and journeyed below deck to the captain's quarters. Outside the door, they heard the voices of Captain Amelia and Doc. The two were shouting, but their words could not be heard. Jim knocked on the door and the argument died almost instantly. The door opened, revealing a frustrated Doc and a furious captain beside her desk.

"Oh," Doc ran a hand through his already messed up hair, struggling to calm his expression, "Hello Jim, Vanessa, what can we do for you?"

Jim awkwardly cleared his throat and pointed to Vanessa's damaged hands, "Um – Vanessa needs her hands looked at,"

Doc took notice of the girl's scratched and bleeding hands and gave her a sympathetic look, "Oh dear, yes, let's get you fixed up,"

The teenagers were let into the office. Doc asked Vanessa to sit down while he went for his first aid kit. When he sat next to her, the doctor went to take her hands and check the open sores more closely, she flinched and retracted her limbs.

"It's alright, I won't hurt you," Doc insisted. He waited patiently for Vanessa to relax, and very timidly she put her hands in his, "It doesn't look too bad," he declared, "I'm just going to clean and wrap them, okay?"

Vanessa nodded and closed her eyes, taking deep, shuddering breaths. Jim stood by the back wall and watched the medical treatment take place. He tried to think of all the possible reasons she was so afraid of being touched. Her parents loved her, and wouldn't think to hurt her. Neither would her friends. But the pirates . . . it was obvious they beat her. You only had to look at her body a minute to see she had black and blue bruises covering her sun kissed skin, and even longer to see she had scars. Being beat, however, wasn't enough to swear off all human contact, or at least that's what he thought. Something else would have had to happen.

Jim froze, his blood running ice cold and a fire starting in his chest, as the worst possible scenario came to mind.

"And there you are," Doc lightly patted her gauze wrapped hands, "Try and be careful,"

Vanessa's response was to give him the smallest of smiles.

"Go and finish the floor," Captain Amelia ordered, "Then you can be done for the day, Ms. Kendrick. You, on the other hand, Mr. Hawkins, will report back to Mr. Silver and will be given more work until he discharges you,"

Jim groaned aloud.

Vanessa couldn't remember exactly how many potatoes she had peeled in the last hour, and there was no definite way to tell. All around her were barrels of these starchy veggies, both peeled and unpeeled, their skins left curled up on the floor. How twenty men were going to eat all this, and more, she would never know, but she was sure they'd find a way.

Silver sat in front of the pile of yellow-brown skins on the far side of the kitchen, while Jim leaned up against a wall on the other side and Vanessa sat on one of the wooden tables, each with their own knife. All was quiet in the galley, and fairly dim, the only light coming through the grate above. Vanessa sighed and picked up her knife and a potato and began peeling. She rotated the sharp blade and watched as the vegetable's skin curled into a spring shape and fell to the floor. She grabbed it and threw the peel into the pile in front of Silver, then tossed the naked potato in a barrel.

At one point Silver stood and left the galley to "take care of something," leaving Jim and Vanessa alone. Jim cast a casual, lazy, but curious glance to the girl just a few feet away from him. In the month she'd been here, she had gained weight – a good thing, because now her ribs were not visible from a distance. Some of her bruises had yellowed over time, allowing his eyes to latch onto her more visible scars. There was a long, deep red slash along her right arm about as thick in width as his pinkie, and three scars wrapped around her left calf. Unlike the one on her arm, clean and straight, this one was jagged, looking like a creature had dragged its claws across her skin.

"How'd you get those?" he asked quietly, "The scars?"

Vanessa's eyes met his briefly before trailing down her thin body. She finished peeling a brown vegetable before speaking, "Trying to escape mostly,"

Jim hadn't expected her to answer. The fact that she did answer him was enough to make him freeze and turn his whole body towards her. He'd been asking for weeks what had happened, why she was taken, what they did, and this was the first time she'd even let slip something of the like. He couldn't let this opportunity go, "Did you? Before now, I mean,"

She had stopped her work too, but chose to stare at the tips of her black rain boots than him, "O-Once" she noted, licking her lips, "On the planet Quatin in the Coral Galaxy. I m-managed to escape for ab-bout a week b-before they f-found me -" she cut off her sentence, a sticky feeling in her throat preventing her voice from coming out and making it hard for her to breathe. She shuddered as the events that followed her return to The Twilight Horror broke through the wall she'd built to keep them away.

Then Vanessa felt a wide hand gently touch her shoulder, and a soft voice whisper, "Vanessa, it's okay -"

A hybrid of a gasp and a scream escaped the trap in her throat and she shoved his hand away, scooting back on the table and hunching over in a somewhat protective ball. "P-please don't t-t-touch me!" she shrieked. Her heart hammered wildly in her chest, like an Indian drummer at the height of his song. Her head swarmed with the harshest of memories and the horrid possibility that one simple touch could bring.

The hand left as quickly as it had come to rest on her body. Vanessa stayed in her balled up position a while longer, long enough to hear the thud of footsteps coming. She lifted her head and found that Jim had returned to work at his seat against the wall.

"Pay attention now, this be the tricky part,"

Jim groaned and tilted his head back to look at the thousands of star in the purple hued galaxy above him, suddenly wishing the length of rope he held was a noose around his neck. He let out a deep sigh as his eyes closed. Eventually Silver's droning voice drifted off to a dull volume. Colors swam into his darkened vision, twisting and writhing to make shapes. He saw his mother's face, a smile lighting up her face and humor in her eyes. He saw her laughing at his silly antics, applauding as he achieved things almost impossible for his age. Then her expression changed; tears ran down her cheeks. He saw her weeping uncontrollably, screaming at him after he was released from juvenile hall, her near depression three days before he left with Doc to find Treasure Planet. Jim screwed up his face a little and opened his eyes, the images replaced with a vision of reality.

"Tie it 'round the base like 'dis, pull it under here,"

At his side was Vanessa, who Silver insisted she be here for his knot tying lesson. This was the closest he'd ever been to her. Their knees almost touched in this cramped nest they were cooped up in, albeit she seemed to be trying to a great extent not to touch him. Jim rolled his eyes and let them close again. This time Vanessa's profile formed behind his lids. She was actually smiling, a wide grin that reached even her golden irises. He imagined her with him on Montressor in the summer with sunlight shining on her red hair. She was happy.

His heart gave a small jolt.

And then she was crying too, and she was terrified. She looked the way she did when she pushed him away – a lonely, terrified animal in an environment she didn't understand.

"The end a the rope then goes into the hole,"

Memories flashed like a flipbook. Trying frantically to gain his dad's nonexistent attention, his mom bawling, his dad leaving, getting locked up for a week, all his stupid mistakes, the inn burning down . . .

Jim's eyes snapped open and he sat up quickly. Silver, almost done crafting his knot, hadn't noticed that he wasn't paying attention. Vanessa didn't seem to be paying devotion either. She stared up at space with her length of rope stretched loosely across her lap, her arms folded behind her head.

He couldn't stand being up here anymore. Tying his rope into the tight knot Silver was trying to teach them, he hooked it onto a hook in their nest and slid down to the deck.

"And there ye be, ye got yourself a knot!" Silver exclaimed, proudly gesturing to his handiwork, "You got all that, you two?" the cyborg shifted his gaze to Jim's now empty seat, "Jimbo?"

Vanessa took her gaze from the stars to take in the situation. Sitting up straighter, she saw Jim slowly trotting along the very edge of the ship. How could he do that without being scared? She would be afraid to fall off the edge.

"Hey, get back here!" he shouted shaking his mechanical fist in the artificial air. Jim ignored him and continued his walk. Muttering curses, Silver climbed down to the deck, leaving Vanessa by herself. She studied Jim in silence, watching how his head hung and his shoulders slumped over. She had never seen him be something other than angry or enthusiastic. It was strange to see him look almost dejected, and this sparked her interest. Walking down the steps provided, Vanessa leveled with him on the deck.

"A-Are you okay?" she asked quietly.

Jim didn't look at her, but a small, mirthless smile added to his expression, "Yeah, I'm fine. Guess I'm just a little homesick,"

All sorts of questions popped into her head, most of them about him. She was suddenly curious to know more about him. After deciding to break her mother's rule because she thought Jim was different, she had only gotten a little closer to him. He was the only one her age on the ship, the only familiar being from her old life, even if she barely knew him.

"Jim? W-What's your life like on M-Montressor?"

Jim tilted his head toward her, his smile now consisting of kindness and wit, "You stutter when you speak, did you know? Is it some kind of hereditary gene?"

No, she thought, More like something I picked up after being frightened most of my life.

"Tell you what," he said, "Let's play Twenty Questions,"

Vanessa quirked an eyebrow, "W-What's that?"

"It's a game. You take turns asking questions until you get to twenty and you have to be honest about your answer. If there's a question asked that we cannot answer, you pass it,"

Hearing the game's description made her feel wary of the questions he'd ask her, but she agreed to it anyway. Jim allowed her to go first, and for a moment she had to come up with an inquiry, regardless of the ones already swimming in her head. She didn't want to bombard him with questions too personal just yet.

"Do you r-remember Taline Hobbs from fifth g-g-grade? She was my b-best friend?"

"Yes, I remember her. That isn't your question, is it?"

"How is she?"

Jim ceased his pacing on the edge and hopped onto the deck, "Fine, far as I know. She kinda fell into this depression after you went missing, but she went to a therapist and she's okay now,"

Vanesa bit her lip and glanced down at the wooden planks of the flooring. She hadn't meant to harm anyone with her absence. If she'd been a little more cautious . . .

"Don't think it's your fault," his tone was demanding and almost harsh.

"W-What?"

"Getting kidnapped was not your fault, so don't go blaming yourself for things you could have prevented when you weren't even here," Jim made sure she agreed with him before going on with the game, "My turn: What's your favorite color?"

Such a simple and non-personal question stunned her. Vanessa expected to be bombarded with questions about her kidnapping and life on a pirate ship, not this, "Um . . . white. What's your favorite type of music?"

"Rock and roll. What is your full name?"

"Vanessa Gwen Kendrick. W-What's your favorite word-d?"

"Hmm," Jim pursed his lips and rubbed his chin in thought, "I'd have to say . . . pie,"

Vanessa giggled, and the sound made Jim smile widely. She had a cute laugh, "Pie? Really?"

"Yes, pie. Whenever someone says it, I get hungry. Mom used to make pie all the time when I was little, before the inn got really busy, and when that happened she made them less and less,"

"Your m-mother works at an i-inn?"

"We own it, actually. The Benbow Inn . . . or at least we used to," his expression fell for a second, and then he sent a smirk her way, "Hey, that was two questions!"

"T-Then ask me t-two questions" Vanessa countered.

"Alright, what do you like to do for fun?"

She hadn't done anything "fun" in a long while, so she had limited options on her answer, "I-I like to . . . learn the meanings of n-names and examine m-maps,"

"That's . . . different," he noted, "This doesn't count as my next questions, but what does my name mean, do you know?"

Right off the bat Vanessa knew, "Jim is the sh-short form of the H-Hebrew name James, meaning 'he who s-supplants,'"

Jim wrinkled his nose, "He who supplants? What's that supposed to mean?"

"Supplants means t-to replace or uproot a-another,"

"That makes more sense. What about Doc's name? What does Delbert mean?"

"Delbert is an O-Old English name meaning 'day bright,'"

"That's amazing! What about Silver's name?"

"J-John is a Hebrew name meaning 'God is g-g-gracious,'"

"The captain's?"

"Amelia. A latin and O-Old German name meaning, 'industrious, striving,'"

"And what does your name mean?" he asked gently.

"It's a Greek n-name meaning 'butterfly,'"

"Butterfly," Jim repeated, "Nice. How many questions are up to now,"

"I've asked f-four and you've asked th-three, it none of those c-c-counted,"

"Okay, next one," suddenly Jim's composure became serious, and she knew he was about to ask her a question about her kidnapping, "How were you kidnapped?"

She didn't answer right away, and thought about passing. Jim didn't press her on it until she said, "I-I'm not sure I want to t-talk about it,"

"Pass if you want," he suggested, "But it might help to talk about it. Then you have someone who knows what you went through and you might not be so timid all the time."

Vanessa gave him a look. She knew she was a little timid, but he made it sound like she was nothing but timid. Then again, maybe she was.

"Yeah, you're so timid and afraid of everything, it's like you just crawled out of a hole you'd been living in your whole life and you think everything around you is dangerous," Jim explained after she told him this, "You need to loosen up a little, stop being so terrified and live your life. The worst part is over now, you're free to do as you please,"

For a boy her age, he had some wonderful insight. Vanessa locked her eyes on her boots as Jim locked his eyes on her. A calm wind blew past them, making her braids fly back. She took off her bandana and tucked it into her pocket, and then began to undo her braids. Jim noticed that, with her braids her hair reached just above her chest, and without, down to the middle of her back. He was so engrossed in her hair for a reason unknown to him that he hadn't noticed she was speaking again.

"I was on m-my way home from school one d-day when the p-p-pirates grabbed me. I screamed b-but they stuck a r-rag with s-some kind of substance on it over m-my nose, a-and I w-was k-knocked out a-and the n-n-next thing I-I knew I w-was on th-th-their ship w-with s-seven other p-people -"

"Vanessa, calm down," Jim told her gently as her stuttering became more frequent and her words got faster, "It's alright, you don't have to tell me anymore,"

She sighed and nodded, grateful for his interruption.

"It's your turn to ask a question," he reminded her, "Go on, ask me anything,"

"Y-You said that y-you used to own th-the Benbow Inn. What did you m-mean by used to?"

"Um . . ." Jim rubbed the back of his neck, "Well . . . a few months ago it burnt down,"

Vanessa paused, strands of her hair twisted around her fingers, "W-What happened?"

Jim shrugged, his head rotating on his neck and eyes narrowed in suspicion. When he spoke next, his voice was in a low, cautious tone, "Some old salamander crashed his boat on one of our docks, kept saying a cyborg was after his treasure. Next thing I know, a band of rogues are tearing down the building and lighting it on fire, searching for that treasure,"

"I-I'm so sorry. What was the t-t-treasure?"

"The map to Treasure Planet. That's why I'm on this journey. With all that treasure we can rebuild the inn bigger and better than before. Maybe then, when all this is over, I won't feel like such a screw up,"