Treasure

Chris

"Quite annoying creatures, aren't we?"

Chris allowed himself a small smile, "From time to time - though it seems you annoy each other more than you annoy us. What exactly did you say to her, or Cook? And don't even try to pretend you don't know this time."

Velna---

"I just gave them my opinion on things." She smiled. "They did what they wanted with it." She continued to scrub pushing a strand of hair from her face.

*tears*

Chris

"Your opinion? And what was that, exactly? And what was the subject?" He folded his arms - he could guess what it was easily enough, judging from Amber's behaviour, but he needed to be sure.

Velna:

Velna shrugged, "The matter of where someone's affections might lie." She replied. "A simple enough opinion that caused a little more reaction then planned." She looked up at Chris. "And why might you want to know?"

She pushed another strand of hair from her face with her wrist and looked down at the floor trying to figure out how much longer it would take to clean it.

Cook woke up the next morning, barely remembering his conversation with Colt from last night. He had brought up more whiskey than usual to try and impress him, but that obviously didn't work out very well. He sat up in bed, holding his head painfully.

Groaning, Cook slipped out from under his sheets and bounded down towards the kitchen to make breakfast. A couple days ago the crew had raided a village, stealing most of their food and animals. The young man sighed as he cracked a porcelain egg against the skillet, dropping the yoke into the sizzling pan.

Tossing the egg shell away Cook wandered to the shelves across the room and snatched some fruit, throwing it into a bowl. "Cook!" a feminine voice called, and Cook swiveled his head toward the source of the noise.

"Amber." he smiled, watching her enter the small room.

"Hey." she greeted, momentarily raised her hand. "Whats for breakfast?" she asked, peeking over Cook's shoulder.

"Eggs and fruit?" he scratched his head. "Its what we have everyday." Amber nodded, pretending to ask interested.

"I see, I see." Cook seemed to be confused by her every action. Amber looked up into his eyes, trying to concentrate. Cook cocked his head slightly.

"What are you looking at?" he asked. Amber shushed him.

"I'm trying to see something." She told him. Her thoughts were soon interupted by Colt's voice and a series of footsteps as he glided down the stairs.

Chris

He nodded, "I thought it might be something like that...And I just needed to know if it was something that would affect enough people to present a problem. Evidently not, though." He looked at the floor, "I think you've earned yourself something of a break. Take over Tim's job - he can clean the floor, you can finish up making the beds."

Velna:

Velna nodded getting up and working on the beds, which shouldn't have taken as long as he was making them take. She quickly moved from bed to bed her limbs aching from the stop in strenuas work, but still working. She frowned, she wasn't about to start tiring. She couldn't, wouldn't. She tucked a few more sheets in and looked out the window. Dark, she frowned, how late was it. She tucked in another sheet then her legs started giving way. She tried to grab something, to steady herself, but she couldn't move. She could just feel herself hit the ground, then footsteps, everything went black as exhaustion took over her body.

Chris

He swore as he saw her legs give out - he'd thought switching her to the beds would make things easier. He crossed over to her and picked her up, pausing for a moment at the door to give Tim a warning look, then locked the door behind him. She needs a proper bed, not just what we leave the hostages with normally. He wondered for a moment what the crew would think, then carried her to his cabin and left her on his bed, before going back out to the cabin Tim was cleaning. He'd just sleep there for the night.

A thump suddenly emanated from upstairs, along with a nearly inaudibl groaning. Ambers gaz shifted to the ceiling, straining to hear what was going on in the cabin abov them. "Did you catch that?" she asked Cook, who continued to stir the stew.

"It's probably nothing; one of the hostages collapsed from work exhaustion, maybe." he suggested causually. Amber's eyes widened slightly with terror and she raced up the steps, the damp, old would nearly cracking beneath her.

Arriving at the cabin, Amber made sure not to bang on the door to loudly. "Is everybody okay?" she asked worriedly. She heard Chris mumble something unintelligable quietly. Lovingly? Who the hell was he mumbling to?

Amber twisted the doorknob, cautiously entering the cabin. Inside she saw just Velna, sleeping on Chris's bed. She looked around curiously, discovering Chris himself was nowhere inside. 'I don't think Christopher will enjoy the fact that a hostage is sleeping in his bed.' Unless Chris himself put her in his bed, because she collapsed.

Why would he do that?

It took her a moment to figure it out. Oh, beautiful. What we need is a bosun falling in love with a hostage.

Chris

"Evening, Amber." The bosun murmured. The girl froze, startled.

"Oh, uh, Chris. I didn't see you there."

"Don't worry. I'm guessing you've already drawn your own conclusions from this, but I have my reasons." His mind was racing - he had to come up with something other than the obvious.

"And those would be?"

He smirked, "I don't need to make excuses to you, but for the sake of my reputation: if I'd simply left the hostage in that cabin, whether on the floor or on one of those so-called 'beds', her recovery would've been a lot longer, and that would've meant less work getting done. And as bosun..." he trailed off, seeing in her eyes he wasn't fooling her. He sighed, his eyes softening a touch, "Don't tell anyone, Amber. Give them a better excuse than I could come up with, but only if they ask. I don't need something like this hanging over my head. Just please, don't tell anyone. Including her."

Amber glanced at Velna, then back at Chris. Wasn't this convienient. Rolling her eyes, Amber folded her arms and gave Chris a hard look. "You may be above me Chris," she began. "But I know well enough that you shouldn't fall into something like this." She saw the expression of fear on his face. "I won't tell anybody." she muttered, scratching the back of her head bashfully.

Chris nodded, approaching the bed. "Thank you." he smiled. Amber shot him a quizzical look.

"I hate to be dramatic, Christopher," Chris turned around. "But if your feelings persist, this isn't going to work out well." Amber warned. Velna stirred peacefully in the bed, giving out a slight moan. "Good luck." And with those words, the young beauty sauntered out the door.

"Hey Colt." she greeted, passing him in the hallway. Colt looked startled, seeing how she had just come out of Chris's cabin.

"What were you doing in there?" he asked cautiously. Amber turned to him, a stream of curses silently escaping.

"Chris needed help," she stated, making the volume in her voice grow louder so she wouldn't sound as if she was lying. "With Velna, one of the hostages. She collapsed, and I'm getting her water." Good lie Amber.

"Why do you care about Velna's well-being?" he asked, his suspision growing. Christopher was a fairly attractive man. Well built, well-mannered, well-ranked. And he thought his only competition was Cook.

Amber laughed like he was one of the most stupid people she's ever met. "Because I actually care about people. I suppose I was mistaken when I thought you were a good person." Colt was taken aback by her harsh statement. "I'll see you at dinner." She half-smiled, turning on her heel and walking away.

****I'm going to post for COlt. And where on earth did that come from? He never did anything to her.*****

Colt:

Colt watched her walk off and frowned. "What the hell was that about?" He muttered outloud. He walked to Chris' cabin and knocked on the door. Why would she be getting Velna water and taking it to Chris' cabin. That didn't make any sense. He stepped in and frowned. Velna was asleep on Chris' bed. But what was surprising was Chris was in there.

"She pass out?" Colt asked.

"Yup." Chris replied.

"Oh." That made sense, he couldn't leave her where one of the saliors would find her passed out. That never ended good.

Amber walked towards the steps leading down to the kitchen. "Cook!" She called, cautiously stepping down the dangerously old stairs. Cook poked his head out from around the corner.

"Yeah?" he asked; Amber leaped off the last step and made her way to Cook, peering over his shoulder to admire the stew. "Is this what you wanted? To ogle my soup?"

Amber took her eyes off the soup and let out a quiet chuckle, making Cook raise his eyebrow. She cleared her throat, "Do you have a pot of water I could have, please?" she asked politely. Cook was known as one of those people who scolded you if you failed to be well-mannered.

"Sure." he obliged, lifting a large pot off a rack. He began to pour water into it into it was halfway full, and then handed it to Amber. She graciously took the pot, immediately bending over as it dropped onto the ground when he let go. "Do you want help?" he asked worriedly. "Can you.." he watched her struggle with the weight. "Handle that?"

Amber nodded, overcome by her strict determination. "I'm fine." she breathed, groaning painfully as she lifted the pot successfully. She waddled over to the stairs and felt around for the first step, leaning on it cautiously. First step. Second step. Third step.

"Amber?" Fourth step. Fifth step. "Those stairs are a bit unstable. Maybe I should..." Seventh step. Eigth step. Amber felt around for the ninth step for a couple seconds, breathing heavily.

"Ninth step." she voiced. Cook watched over her carefully, as if his eyes would protect her.

They didn't.

The tenth step gave in, and Amber fell along with her giant pot of water. Her scream pierced the air, causing every single crew member to lift up their head in worry. "AMBER!" Cook abandoned his soup and sprinted to the steps until he got to the one that collapsed. Amber lay on the ground, her forehead wielding a long, bloody cut. The water had spilled on her, drenching her from head to toe.

"Amber?" Colt was at the steps in mere seconds. His eyes laid upon the tenth step, and he bent down and looked below. His breath was caught in his throat as he entered his head into the hole. Immediately he dropped down to the maidens side.

COlt:

"Cook, get some hott water and clean rags. This might be deep." Colt ordered. Cook didn't look to happy about leaving Amber, but did as he was told. Colt yelled at one of the crew to take care of the soup as COok got the stuff he needed. He gently lifted Amber up onto one of the tables and when Cook got back he started cleaning off the cut. "We'll need to stich it up." He said running a hand through his hair.

"With what?" COok demanded.

"Doc's got to have something." Colt replied looking at Amber. He didn't like seeing her hurt, not one little bit.

Cook raced out of the kitchen and into another cabin. Ripping the door open he spotted an elderly man sitting at his desk, drinking tea. Seeing Cook, the man gently put down his tea and smiled tenderly. "Hello Cook." he greeted.

Cook didn't have time to exchange greetings. He snatched Doc's wrist and pulled him out of the cabin. "Whats the rush?" he asked as he ran with Cook to the kitchen.

"Amber," Cook breathed, beads of sweat rapidly forming all along his forehead. "She fell down the stairs." He explained. Within a minute or two they arrived at the kitchen, Amber sprawled along the table. Releasing Doc, Cook ran to her side.

Doc approached Amber, placing his hand on her forehead. He ran his finger along side the cut, feeling the texture of her bloody skin. "Do we need stitches?"" Colt asked, his eyes not leaving Amber's face.

"Of course not." he glared. "Why do you young one's always assume the worst?" Colt frowned. "Somebody fetch the bandages from my office. Her head will heal within due time." He looked at Colt, who's eye still showed doubt. "She will be fine, Colt. Don't worry."

None of them noticed Cook had even left until he came back, gripping a roll of bandages. He threw it at Doc, who caught it skillfully as he continued to wipe the excess dirt and blood off Amber's forehead. He began to wrap her head up in guaze and held it gently, carefully applying the bandages.

"Somebody carry her to her room?" Once again, Cook was the first one at her side. Colt watched in envy as Cook carried her away into another cabin.

After a couple minutes of debating within his mind, Colt decided to follow the duo. Carefully avoiding the fallen step, Colt approached Amber's cabin and cautiously twisted the door knob not to make any noise.

Inside, Cook had already placed Amber under the covers; he was softly stroking her face. His eyes were fixed on hers, his gaze reflecting sheer adoration. Colt watched him from the slight opening in the room. Hesitantly, Cook kissed Amber lightly on her lips and watched her admiringly.