Chapter Text
The next day Belle waited for her sister in the garden after breakfast. When Fanny finally came towards her she was already back and forth impatiently.
“Where have you been? I thought we agreed on meeting right after our father left for his meeting.”
“Calm down, Belle. Jack won`t be running away because you get to the hospital two minutes later. And I really needed to find the right hat for this dress. I don`t want the sun to burn my skin.”
“Fine. But can we leave now? Please?”
Before Fanny could say anything, their mother suddenly went through the door.
“There you are. What are you up to? Are you going into the town?”
“Yes”, Belle quickly said, “I wanted to visit the hospital to… greet Dr Sneed. We didn`t have a lot of time to talk yesterday. Fanny is so kind to accompany me. I need to get my scar checked anyway so it is just practical to get there today.”
“But I could go with you. Fanny, you don`t even like the hospital, you said it yourself.”
“I know”, Fanny said quickly, “but in exchange for me going with her, she promised to help me find a new dress.”
Belle smiled at both of them and hoped that her mother wouldn`t try and come with them.
“Fine. But please be here for tea. Belle, we should start talking about the wedding.”
“Sure”, Belle said and quickly followed Fanny who already walked towards the front of the building where the carriage was waiting.
“I already thought she would ask us to come with us”, Fanny said and leaned back against the wall of the carriage.
“Oh, you as well? I was already thinking about excuses but I couldn`t find any. So, thank you for your help.”
“Anytime. I probably don`t have a chance of actually getting your help with a new dress, right?”
Fanny just looked at Belles face to get her answer and sighed before she started to look outside the window. They quickly got into the town and stopped in front of the hospital.
“Alright, I will go and ask Sneed if he can show me around so I can talk to some of the patients. That should keep us busy for some time so you can go and see Dr Dawkins. But you need to be back here in time for us to leave and please remember that maybe I can talk a lot but I can`t take care of Sneed all day. So whatever you two need to discuss, you better be quick about it.”
“Sure”, Belle said, “thank you, Fanny. Just… can you give me at least an hour?”
“A whole hour? What on earth do you need that much time to talk about?”
“Well, there is this new procedure I read about and I want to hear Jacks opinion on it. It may be very helpful in some cases, you know? But I don`t think you really want to hear about the details.”
“Yeah, no, I`m fine without all the storys about blood and other… fluids. I`ll go and look for Sneed now. Follow me in a few minutes, then the air should be clear.”
Belle stared at her sister, trying hard not to laugh at her words. Fluids… if she just knew how close that came to the truth. She waited next to the door and tried to listen to any noises from the inside but since Sneed wasn`t in the entry hall, she couldn`t hear them. After a few minutes she opened the door a bit and looked inside. Everything was silent so she slipped inside and quickly walked towards the room where Jack performed his surgerys. Different from the last time it was empty today and she quickly left it to enter the stairs for the first floor. When she suddenly heard his voice she stopped. He seemed to be in the next room, talking to a patient. When the door opened, he could hear his words much clearer.
“I will see you later today. In a few days you will already be back on your ship, you will see. Your injury should be healed by then.”
He wiped his hands on a towel when he turned away from the door and suddenly stopped right in front of her. He seemed to be surprised and pleased at the same time.
“Belle”, he whispered and looked above her shoulder to check if there was anyone, “what are you doing here?”
“Well, you asked me to come here. Have you already forgotten our conversation yesterday?”
She smiled when she noticed he actually blushed a little before answering.
“No, I didn`t. I just didn`t think you would be able to actually come.”
“But I did. My sister is covering for me, so maybe we should continue this somewhere… less public.”
Jack nodded slowly and with a last quick glance around he took her hand to make her follow him upstairs until they reached the last floor. He opened an old wooden door and made a gesture to invite her. Curious where this was leading she went inside and understood instantly that she was standing in his bedroom. The room was actually a lot bigger than she expected it to be. There were several tabled with medical instruments on them. His bed was standing near a small window next to a big wardrobe. Even though she had only seen him working very organized and clean the room wasn`t very tidy. Some clothes an towels were lying on the floor and on his bed and from what she saw in his wardrobe it could use some cleanup as well.
“I`m sorry, I should have taken care of the mess”, Jack excused the view and quickly collected the clothes from around the bed and threw them in a basket.
“It`s fine. I like it”, she said quickly and took a few steps around the room before stopping in the middle and looking up at Jack who was still waiting at the door.
He didn`t seem to need any more invitation and quickly walked towards her to pull her at his chest for a kiss. They only stopped when it was getting hard to breath and Belle already felt the familiar aching in her stomach.
“I thought you could… check on the scar. You know, to see if everything is healing correctly”, Belle whispered and Jack laughed.
“Really? Up here? Wouldn`t this have been much easier downstairs?”
“No, I don`t think so. I prefer some… privacy.”
Slowly Jack nodded before letting go of her.
“Well, I should clean my hands first then”, he said and went towards a bowl with soap and water, “maybe you could already start with opening your dress.”
Belle smiled and did as he asked without looking away from him while he shoved his sleeves up his muscular arms before washing them. When he was done she had already taken off the outer layer of her dress and she could hear him taking a deep breath before quickly walking towards her, moving her towards his bed in the process.
With his help her dress was gone quickly and after a short hesitation his clothes followed. Belle slowly lay back and watched him kneeling in front of her. Other than the first time in her bed she already knew what was going to happen so she tried taking some initiative and took him in her hand, carefully caressing him. She smiled when he groaned and bucked his hips against her before bowing down and kissing the top of her breasts before slowly moving towards her nipples and then further down.
Finally both of them lay breathless next to each other. Her head rested on his chest while he held her in his arms. Content she inhaled his scent and whished they could stay like this forever.
“Considering your scar, I have to admit that everything heals perfectly. It probably will always stay visible.”
“I know. That doesn`t bother me. I will always have a reminder that you saved my life. I think I might even like it.”
He gave her a kiss on the top of her head and sighed.
“I don`t want to let you go”, he said and felt her nod against his chest.
“Me neither. But Fanny will probably kill me if I don`t meet her downstairs soon.”
“We can`t let this happen.”
“I can come back soon”, Belle whispered, “I wanted to return to the hospital since I was brought home and since my chest is healed, I was thinking about returning to surgery. I miss it. A lot, to be honest.”
“I knew you would”, he answered laughing, “and I miss you as well.”
They were quiet for a few minutes, before Belle asked: “We can make this work, right? We can find a way to continue what we had before and what we have now? I… Jack, for the first time I feel really happy. I don`t want to lose this.”
“Then we will make it work somehow.”
She turned her head to look at him and kissed him. Carefully she turned around to get better access to him and nearly fell out of the bed. Jack held her back and laughed.
“I`m sorry, this bed is… not what you`re used to. I know.”
“I like it. It`s yours.”
For a moment they were quiet again, with both of them loft in their own thoughts. Then Jack cleared his throat and brought the subject to something that had been on his mind for some time.
“Belle, if we want to… continue this, we need to be careful. Not only that nobody can see us. We already survived this once even though I really don`t want to go through that talk with your mother ever again. But… we need to make sure you don`t get pregnant.”
It took Belle a moment until she answered.
“I know”, she finally said, “and since I know how a pregnancy works, I know there still is a risk. I… tried to read about it, but everything I found in books seems to b rather… weird.”
“I know. There isn`t really a complete safe way. We can try to get a condom. I haven`t seen them around here, but I heard about them from america. Until then we should just… make sure nothing gets inside of you.”
Belle giggled at his words making him laugh as well.
“I know it`s a serious topic, but…”
“I know”, he added, “to be honest, I never spent much time on this. But… our situation is already complicated enough, even without a child.”
“Wait, so it is possible you already have a child somewhere?”
Her question surprised her as he never really thought about it. There have been women before Belle. Several actually, but it had been when he was a sailor and never stayed in one town very long so he never heard about someone he might have gotten pregnant.
“I… don`t know”, he admitted, “it`s nothing that is discussed very openly. And I never met someone I wanted to be with before you, so it never came to my mind to start a family with someone.”
“But… Jack, you told me yourself, that you have been with other women. So if you didn`t… actively do anything to prevent them from getting pregnant, it might have happened.”
Jack could hear in her voice that she didn`t like the thought of that and he had to admit that he did neither.
“I`m sorry, Belle”, he said simply and wished he could do anything else but there was nothing. He could only promise her to take better care with her, “I just want you to know, that whatever happens between us, I will be there for you.”
Belle didn`t say anything about this anymore but he could feel that she was still thinking about this topic.