I saw Jim look at the ground with anger and hurt on his face. I felt a sting in my heart and looked at the night sky in hopes to ease my emotions. What's it like to have both a father and a mother? Someone to brush and braid my hair, and someone to threaten a boy with the shovel talk? It hurts never knowing that possibility. I wasn't wanted. It's just a fact of life unfortunately. I eventually set my mop to the side and gazed at the stars.

Silver did pick up on the silence from us both. "Your fathers not the teachin' sorts?" He asked, unease in his voice. I don't blame him for sounding nervous about asking that. How comfortable could it be to ask two children about their dads? Not very comfortable.

"No." Jim said. He mopped a bit as he came close to me. "He was more the taking off and never coming back sort." I watched as he continued mopping to distract himself.

"Oh." Silver said. He walked next to me and placed his arms on the wooden railings. "Sorry, lad." He looked at Jim in pity.

"Hey, no big deal." Jim said as he stopped at my free side. He placed his mop next to mine. "I'm doing just fine and it's her dad that should teaching her that lesson more. He failed at that too."

I don't know what came over me in that moment. In an instant my eyes welled up with tears and they started falling down my face. I sniffled in an attempt to get air in my lungs but more tears fell. "A-At least you s-still have a m-mom!" I said, wiping my eyes with my sleeve. "B-Both of m-my parents are the a-abandon your d-daughter sort. I DON'T K-KNOW WHERE T-THEY ARE!" I took a few breaths to calm myself down.

"Wait a minute." Jim said. "When the Captain asked for your last name, and you didn't give her one it's because..." Jim said, not wanting to finish that sentence. I nodded to confirm that ending. I eventually got myself to talk without stuttering but tears still fell.

"My parents dropped me off at an orphanage where the head lady treated us all like slaves. She even kicks us off when we turn twelve and a lot of us die on the streets in a year. I don't care where my parents are or why they dropped me off." I lied when I said that. I do care to know where they're at. I wanna know why they left me behind. As I wiped my eyes with my sleeve I felt an hand on my shoulder. I looked at Silver.

"I'm so sorry about that lass." He said.

"It's fine." I wiped the last of the tears away. "Right now, I need to move on from there. I'm gonna be okay on my own."

"Is that so?" The cyborg asked. He doesn't believe either one of us. "Well, since the captain has put you two in my charge, like or not, I'll be pounding a few skills those thick heads of yours to keep you two out of trouble." His poked Jim and I in the forehead with his hands. Jim got the flesh hand and I got the metal one, thankfully it wasn't as hard as I thought he'd poke me with it.

"What?" Jim and I said.

"From now on, I'm not letting either of you out of me sight." Silver went on.

"You can't do—" Jim started to say.

"That's not—" I started to say but the cyborg interrupted us.

"You two won't so much as eat, sleep, or scratch your bums without my say-so." His metal hand formed a fist and he pounded it against the wooden rail.

Jim and I sighed. "Don't do us any favors!" Jim said.

"We don't owe you anything!" I said.

He wrapped his flesh arm around us and patted my head with his metal arm. "You can be sure of that, my lad and lass. You can be sure of that." He laughed as we both groaned. This is gonna be a busy voyage.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was hard to get some sleep that night. I stared at the roof, or the bottom of an empty hammock. Almost being killed today ran through my mind and everytime I closed my eyes, I saw that claw. I sat up and pulled my glasses case out from the jacket pocket. After I slipping them on, I slid on my jacket and got out of my hammock. I quietly walked by the sleeping members of the crew until I reached the stairs. I doubt that having a child sleep in the same room as adult men was a smart idea but I can always scream bloody murder if anyone tries anything.

I walked up the stairs until I came onto the deck. I was glad I brought my jacket, since the night breeze is cold as it blew against my face. I walked to the shrouds and started climbing them. I sat somewhere in the middle of the rope ladder and looked at the stars. For a moment all I did was stared at the stars, admiring the beauty of those lights. Back then it would be rare to see a star but now, there's more than I count. My thoughts began wondering from random topic to topic until I remembered Bones warning for me. "Who in this world has bat like wings?" I mumbled. It doesn't make any sense to me.

"What?" Another voice said. I jumped in surprise and turned around. I saw Jim standing on the deck, looking up at me.

"Nothing." I said.

"You should get down from there. You don't want Silver to throw some more 'friends' at you."

I giggled seeing the quotation marks he made with 'friends' before climbing down. "What are you doing up?" I asked him.

"Can't sleep." He shrugged, like it was no big deal. "I assume that's why you're out here too?"

"Yeah, looking at the night sky helped me back at the orphanage. I thought it would help here too."

He nodded at looked at the stars. He looked really troubled about something and I didn't know if I should ask him. "You have the same name as her." He said.

"Who?"

"My sister. Her name was Emma too."

"...What happened to her?" I felt bad for asking that question since the topic is as sensitive as his dad. And my parents. He stayed silent for a while until he sighed.

"She was kidnapped shortly after she was born. I woke up hearing Mom screaming. The next thing I knew she was telling me that she was gone. The cops searched for a while but found no trace of her. They proclaimed her dead and stopped looking."

The way he spoke about it was like it happened yesterday, not years ago. It felt eery listening to him speak like that. "Do you believe she's dead?"

"No. I believe that she's out there somewhere. I want to find her one day and hopefully bring her back to Montressor if she wants to go there. But since we're spilling stories, how did you end up at that orphanage?"

I shrugged. "I really don't know. I know that one kid said that someone banged on the door in the middle of the night and ran. When Mistress opened the door, I was laying on the doorstep sleeping. Basically how any kid would get left at an orphanage."

"Are you going to find your parents?" He hesitated asking that question.

"I want to but, I don't want to see their reactions to seeing the daughter they abandoned. I mean, I must've been difficult if they abandoned me like that." I felt tears building up in my eyes and blinked them away. A hand was placed on my shoulder and I saw Jim looking at me. Before I could say anything else, he pulled he into a comforting hug.

"It'll be okay." He said. "We'll find our families."