AN: Sooo, you may or may not like my portrayal of Hook. I can say he won't be this way forever, but it will get worse before it gets better and certainly he has some issues to work through, what with recently loosing Milah (even if I haven't said it outright in the fic yet) and well, just being a pirate. I never imagined him as super happy go lucky fluffy out on the seas. Not to say he doesn't have a softer side for later ;) Read and enjoy my pretties. XOXO

Posted: 08/19/13

Part of His World

By Morgansgurl

This was bad. Very bad. All sorts of the bad. Lying stranded on the ship's deck, wounded and bleeding, wrapped up in a heavy fisherman's net was exactly the kind of thing she had wanted to avoid. This moment right here was exactly why she had been trying to be so careful and cautious, but alas her curiosity and then her obsession ultimately did her in. Never had she expected to go out like this, she always imagined her time would be a peaceful passing with her soul fulfilled, but whoever expects to be captured and killed.

There would be no redemption for her, no retribution sought. Even if she had been fully accepted back into her community and not exiled there wouldn't have been any consequences for the Pirates. Even if she hadn't been a pariah, and still the favored child of Triton, she doubted anything worse than a violent sea storm would occur, but no one specifically targeted.

Death was just something that happened in life for any creature. Not everyone could have a happy ending, sometimes bad things just happened, even to good people or merfolk. It was a way of life; it was part of the bigger order of things and in the end kept an important balance.

Her only wish was that it would be done with quickly, so she could finally find some real peace. Maybe she would end up where Eric was, where she could exist for eternity in the arms of her Prince. No hurt, no pain, no loss. Just existing together in love. She wondered if that would happen, if she could finally end up where she wanted most to be.

"Can we string her up on the stern, eh Captain?" one of the men asked excitedly, rubbing his dirt crusted hands together in pure glee.

"I think we should sell her to the highest bidder!" another piped up from the crowd that had gathered, most having never seen a mermaid in real life before.

"Don't be stupid, who would you find to pay for a mermaid around these parts!" another yelled.

"I say she gets tossed below deck and we have our merry way with such a beauty." Another added, eyeing her with pure perversion hinting his eyes.

"I just want to touch her for a little bit." Yet another leered while grinning a smile full of missing and rotted teeth.

"She would rip you all to shreds before any of you slobs figured out what happened." Captain Hook pointed out. He walked slowly around her net covered form. His grin was still mockingly wide but his body language was clearly displaying an underlying cautiousness. At least he had the good sense despite his arrogance to be wary. She might be injured but she could still slash a man's neck open if they got close enough, that is if she wasn't tangled up in the mess of her trap.

"Then what are we goin' to do with her Capt'n?" Another asked, with just a hint of sadness lacing his words at the prospect of not getting to defile her.

"I have bigger and better plans then you lot can comprehend for our new pet." He answered cryptically, as he crouched down on the balls of his feet, resting his elbows on his knees he got a good close look at his prize. When her emotionless catlike blue eyes looked up to meet his he smiled wide, a mischievous glint sparling in his eyes. At that moment she knew perhaps her death wouldn't come as quick a blessing as she had hoped. He contemplated her for a few long moments, rubbing the few day old stubble on his chin. She never tore her eyes away from his, watching him in silence trying to will herself to know his so called bigger plans for her.

"You three," he finally said, motioning them over as he stood up, "gather her up and take to the quarter master's room. Leave her in the bath. Be sure to keep her in that net." He ordered firmly but with an edge to his voice. There was no hesitation as the big burly sailors went about picking up various ends of the net, her body swinging as they lifted her from the ground. She hissed at the one near her head, causing him to start and a look of apprehension wash over his face. "For god sakes man, watch her teeth!" Hook snapped, clearly already annoyed at the men.

They started to haul her off but mermaids weren't light, and these men didn't have the pulley system this time to help them like they used before to bring her up the side of the ship. The result was them sloppily having to readjust their grip, making their progress from the deck to their destination slow and choppy. With her enhanced hearing she could catch the rest of the orders being given by their Captain. Four to fetch buckets of salt water, and one to fetch Doc.

All she could do now was to watch and wait.

Once in the quarter master's room, the men ditched her ungracefully in the four clawed bath, her long tail stretching painfully over the end. She was grateful when they decided after a stint of foul mouthed arguing they weren't required to watch her, and as they left the stench of their dirty unwashed bodies leaving with them. At least now she didn't have to breathe in their nauseating musk.

She was provided a few moments of silence before the door to the main room slammed open. She craned her neck as best she could to try and see through the open crack of the bathroom door but to no avail. Ariel could hear the urgent and soft whispers of two males one of which she could identify as the Captain, they were talking so low she could only catch a few words here and there like `clean` and `useless` and `dead`. After a brief pause of silence a much older man, possibly in his late sixties, gently pushed the door open.

He wasn't nearly as dirty as all the other pirates, his clothes not exactly clean but obviously washed despite the stains and rips. His balding head had patches of graying hair here and there, brushed in a comb over that might have looked ok in his younger years. His wrinkled smile was soft, and there was no perverted leer in his eyes. He carried a rickety old wooden chair and a heavy black bag with him. He sat the chair down at the end of the tub by her tail a safe distance back. "They call me Doc missus," he said, with such a compassionate and kind voice that reminded just a little of Eric. She just stared at him, not saying a word, shifting a little to try and ease some of her discomfort.

"He's the ships very own doctor, now ain't that fancy?" Hook asked rhetorically, as he too pushed into the room, the door swinging behind him. She didn't reply, pointedly looking away from his gaze as it washed over her with appreciation.

"I can't do much Cap'n, with all this netting in my way." Doc told him, motioning towards her entrapment. Hook rubbed his chin again in that contemplative manner, the wheels in his mind turning. Now she could get a good look at the hook for his hand, the silver glinting in the dim light of the gas lamps. It briefly sparked her curiosity again about the story behind it.

"Not sure if that's the safest Doc," he said thinking out loud to himself "We shouldn't underestimate how dangerous she is." He pointed out, his brows narrowing. He leaned back against the wall, crossing his arms. This was indeed a peculiar situation. Never had he captured a mermaid before, there was no precedent or protocol to follow. This was a make it up as you go situation. What he did know is that she could possibly help him in his hunt of The Dark One. There were so many legends about the powers of mermaids. He intended to find out which were actually true. "She did just attack our ship."

For some reason his words stung, hurting more than some of her wounds. She felt an anger rising up in her at the accusation. "I did no such thing." She said firmly, fearlessly meeting the Captain's eyes with hers. Her voice was scratchy and almost broke mid-sentence due to years of disuse.

Hook cocked one eyebrow for the briefest of seconds before masking his reaction. "That so," he said his voice just above a whisper as he took a step closer to her. "Because as I recall it, I lost me a good sailing man today." He said darkly, recalling as they hauled up Patch's lifeless body from the sea. Drowned Doc had said. Patch didn't know how to swim, which some would argue made him a terrible sailor, but he knew his way around a deck better than the back of his hand and loved the sea regardless. "You bitches killed one of my crew; I don't take kindly to that." He felt the urge to throttle her and get his revenge for his loss, but he reigned in his temper as he felt Doc's hand on his shoulder bringing him back down.

"Best not to kill her yet if you plan on keeping those plans of yours." Doc advised in a very soothing, almost fatherly voice.

Ariel felt the tiniest hint of remorse for the ships loss. She might have been more inclined to feel worse, but considering the current state of things a bit of vindictive satisfaction was mixed in there at the news as well. The Captain might not know, but she did, that there was no way in high heavens that three mermaids could take an entire ship by themselves. At least not in one night, maybe over the course of a few days.

She watched as the Captain took a deep breath, nodding sharply and then making his exit. She listened as his boots padded heavily across the wooden floors, a string of mumbled curse words leaving his lips and fading away with each step he took, closing her eyes when she heard the main bedroom door slam shut again.

"Don't mind him missus," Doc said when he too heard the door shut and knew they were alone for now. Ariel's eyes met his as she watched him, still with an emotionless expression "Man's got a dark heart right now." The sadness that entered Doc's eyes made her want to question further, and she had a feeling that he was about to tell her more before it looked as if he changed his mind and thought better of it. When she tried to adjust her position again she took in a deep gasp of pain, one of the strands of the net had worked its way into one of her slashes on her fin and dug in deep, blood starting to drip to the floor as the wound was agitated. She tried to shift again to relieve the pain only to find it made it worse instead.

"Now now," he soothed, reacting quickly to her pain, scooting his chair closer and reaching into his pocket pulling out a switchblade. "Don't move." He ordered, leaning in closer to her wound "Just let me…." His sentence trailed off as he concentrated, biting his lower lip between his teeth. As soon as he had sliced through the offending strand of rope and removed it from her gash she let out a deep sigh of relief as the pain subsided. "You're welcome." He said in response to her reaction, not having actually expected her to voice the words to thank him, pulling out a clean rag and patting the blood from the wound. His touch was practiced and gentle, much like his personality seemed to be.

There was a part of her that genuinely wanted to believe this man was as caring as he seemed, then there was the other part that was skeptical and wary of it all being some kind of act. A way to get her to drop her guard and make her feel comfortable in a place she clearly shouldn't.

"Tore you up good," he observed while leaning over her tail and eyeing some of the wounds, sometimes squinting. He glanced up her body to note the others but careful not to get to close. "Can't say I know a lick about treatin' your kind, but we sure can't leave ya in this state." He said out loud, furrowing his brows in thought. "Maybe we can stitch up some of the worst," he looked up to meet her eyes "You think you could let me do that?" he asked, not sure if she would actually respond.

Ariel thought about it for a moment, before nodding her head in the affirmative. Doc gave her an approving smile and nodded his in recognition of her agreement as well. "It won't feel any lick of nice," he warned her as he pulled out a glass jar of alcohol and pulled the stopper out of the top, "some these cuts be mighty deep." Now he was just making conversation to fill the silence of the room, he found that when he spoke it sometimes helped put his patients at ease while he worked.

He tipped the alcohol onto a rag and began cleaning the outside the largest wound that the rope he had to cut away had dug into earlier. She hissed deeply and her tail instinctively flinched away, but Doc was very patient and understanding. It was when he started to notice her scales drying quickly, cracking, and flaking apart that he narrowed his eyes again and set the rag down. This obviously wasn't going to work, she was reacting to the alcohol like she was allergic to it.

"You need kelp paste." She said softly. He jumped as her soft spoken words startled him.

"Kelp paste?" he asked, as a doctor he had never heard of such a thing. Then again, she wasn't anywhere close to a normal patient.

"You have to grind it up into a fine paste," her voice started to hurt, she had spoken more today than she had in years. Regardless her voice was still such a sweet sound to hear, even with raw undertones. "It's what we use to heal faster." She explained. Granted she could feel some of the more superficial wounds already mending themselves, but the deeper ones, if left untreated, would take longer. Mermaids didn't have to worry about infections or scars, but it could ease the pain and speed up the natural process. Why suffer for longer then you had to?

"I see," Doc said, thinking about her words. Before he could say much else the door swung open again and Hook walked in lugging two large chains over his shoulder with shackles swinging from the ends. He dropped them on the floor by the tub without much care, the heavy metal clanking together. Doc recognized the oxidized metal as having come from the brig deep in the hull.

"If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself." Hook shrugged at Doc's clear quizzical question written on his face as to why the Captain had gone to fetch the chains and not sent a deck hand. After him entered two other burly looking pirates. "Grab her arms.' Hook ordered, watching as the men hesitated at first "Sometime today!" he snapped, forcing them into immediate action.

She hissed and snapped her fangs at them, in response Hook back handed her across the face with is hooked hand, startling her long enough to allow one of the men to yank her back by the tresses of her red hair while the other forced one arm at a time through the netting, painfully twisting one of her shoulders. The Captain used his hook to hold her arm in place while he clamped the shackles over each wrist as it was pulled out behind her. All the men kept wary and watchful of the sharp claws she had for nails.

Doc stayed back watching in silence, a deep sadness filling his eyes. Once both her wrists were secured Hook took the lead of the chains and wrapped them through one of the hooped rivets in the wall, testing the strength and appearing satisfied. She heard the sliding of the metal of his sword coming out of its sheath before she saw it; she sucked in a deep breath and closed her eyes, ready for the worst.

The anticipated pain never came, what did was the feeling of her confinements relaxing their grip and ripping apart as he cut them away and had the men pull the remnants of the netting off. Once it was all torn away she shifted and adjusted, sitting up straighter, her tail still hanging over the side, but at a more comfortable angle as she pulled what would have been her knees up a bit.

When some more pirates brought in large barrels of sea water and poured them over her and filled the tub to the brim she let out a sigh of relief, her skin having started drying out as soon as she had been pulled out.

"Don't mistake my hospitality Mermaid," Hook warned, spitting out the word like it was poison in his mouth. "I'll be expecting return on my kindness."

Kindness? Hospitality? She mentally balked at the words. Was it not moments ago that his false hand was the very cause of her now bruising cheek?

Doc took this moment to interrupt, "Captain, I need some of the men to go fetch me some fresh kelp."

Hook didn't hesitate in turning around to the men who had just brought in the ocean water, "Well you heard him lads. Get going." They all exited much to Ariel's relief, if only the Captain would follow as well, she would much rather Doc's company, at least he didn't seem completely heartless. He was so out of place amongst the rest of these sea mongrels.

As soon as Hook was sure it was just the three of them again he turned to Doc, "Prognosis?" he asked simply.

"She'll live from the looks of it." He advised in a very professional tone.

"Good." Hook seemed pleased as he clapped the older man on the back with his real hand. "If the fish gives you any trouble don't hesitate to fetch me" he told the doctor, turning his eyes to meet Ariel's "I'll gladly put the bitch in her place." He finished, eliciting a snarl from the mermaid, which only caused him to chuckle.

Doc nodded his understanding and watched as his Captain started to exit the bathroom again, just before he cleared the door he leaned back in and gave Doc a meaningful and pointed look "as soon as you get her patched up, I want to be the first to know. I need to have a little chat with our new pet, alone." He said, not waiting for a response as he made his way out.

Doc went about the rest of his work in silence. He was uncomfortable with the treatment the Captain bestowed upon their captive. He fully understood she was a prisoner of the ship now, but still as a God fearing man he didn't feel the rough treatment was necessary. Then again he had only heard the tales of a mermaid's ruthlessness, this being his first time ever seeing a real one, but in his short moments with her he had only seen the actions of a trapped creature reacting out of fear.

In a way he felt for her, especially every time she winced as the needle threaded through her flesh. He knew there were worse times then this ahead of her, the least he could do was treat her with respect and heal her wounds.

"Tomorrow is another day," he told her with a sad smile, after he was finished smoothing over the last of the kelp paste the men brought him earlier over the stitched up wounds. He started to gather all of his things, cleaning up the mess that had been made over the last couple hours. "I'll tell the Captain that you passed out from the pain and that you will need to rest until you awake tomorrow. That will give you some time, but that's all I can do." He told her when he was done straightening up; he turned and made his way to the door.

"Thank you." She whispered softly. Sincerely meaning it.

He stopped at her words but didn't turn around, "Don't thank me just yet." He replied gravely, as he disappeared and left her to her thoughts.

AN: Well there you have it; I plan to have more in depth Ariel/Hook interaction in the next chapter for you all. I have some big plans for this fic, already have the next couple of chapters planned out just have to get them on the page. Stay tuned for more!