Whispers in the Wind

"No, lie still, " James commanded in a hard, demanding tone. Young fought the urge to move, to turn over. The pain alone would have halted his progress, but there was something in the other man's voice that froze him. "You've been badly injured. You've been out for days. If you do so slowly, you can turn over. Just tell me if there's pain. Grip my hand if there is." James took the cold hand into his and helped him turn over. When Young's fingers tightened for a moment, James paused. "I know. Just take it slowly." Young finished the turn. His face had a greenish tint. There was a sheen of perspiration across the forehead. A cool, damp cloth removed that.
"I'm bathing you." He watched Young's hand move downward over his own naked flesh. He watched the red stain touch the pale cheeks, watched him turn white, stiffen. There was a frightened look in the green eyes. Yet...there was a wanting as well. James saw them both. He continued washing. He tried being detached, professional, but that touching soon changed. They both felt it.
"Ray?" he asked huskily, and then bent down, touched cool, shocked lips with his own experienced ones. His hand discarded the cloth. It slipped beneath the blanket, moved downward. Young's lips parted. James's tongue went in. The man beneath him grew rigid for just a second. The sweetness of that meeting melted his fear. He accepted James's caress, accepted the awakening of his organ. He accepted James's mouth covering that swollen, throbbing shaft when the time came. He accepted them in shock and desire and a fighting of memories. The orgasm that struck him when the moment of ejaculation came, threw him back into unconsciousness.
When Young awoke, he was alone in the cabin. Light came through the small portal, early morning light. He lay on his pallet, unsure, insecure. He finally arose, wincing at the soreness, the minor pain that came to him from the wound on his head. He dressed with shaky fingers, walked sluggishly toward the door.
It was locked...from the outside.
Young yanked at the knob. He hit the wood with his fist. Panic battered at his soul as memory returned in full force.
He was once again locked in the attic...waiting for those men to return...to return and hurt him again. He was a boy and naked, bleeding, in agony.
Young fought with the door.
"Mama!" his soundless cry echoed in his brain over and over.
Mama!
Mama!
The door opened. "Hey, what is this?" Hudson asked. Young shrank back in pure white terror. "What is it? Has someone hurt you?" Young pushed past him, ran out, up. James was coming down and met him.
"Ray?" He hurried toward a now retreating Young. "Ray? What is it?"
"I just opened the door to let him out, " Hudson said from behind Young. The frightened man turned and James reached him. Young battled with the captain but James was still stronger. He held him, soothed a path up and down the trembling back. "It's just me, Ray, just me. Calm down...calm down. I only locked the door to keep you safe. Calm down...calm down..." His voice reached into the darkness, pulled Young from it's depths. Young's arms went up and around the other man's neck. He collapsed against the captain's hard, firm body. James led him back to his cabin.
"shall I fetch a cup of your whiskey?" Hudson asked in concern.
"Yes." James closed the door. He took Young to his bunk, sat him down. And then he bent down in front of him, raised the troubled face until the confused eyes could meet his own calm, blue ones. "Are you all right now?" Young nodded, but he still quivered. "let's get you warm then." He settled Young into the bunk, covered him. He sat down next to him. The large, green eyes never left James's face. "Are you well enough to hear the truth?" Young nodded. "The injury you received wasn't an accident. Do you understand?" he asked when he noticed the confusion. "Someone tried to kill you."
Young mouthed, "Why?"
"Obviously your brother was able to reach someone on board my ship. And it was your brother. Even your father was sure of that. That's why I locked the door. I needed to know you were safe while I was topside."
Hudson returned with the whiskey.
Young clearly didn't want it when James held it to his lips so the captain returned the cup to Hudson.
"I need to return to the wheel. Murdock can't stay on duty twenty-four hours. I'll give you the key."
"He can stay in the galley with me, " Hudson suggested. He scowled, "Unless you don't trust me."
"I gave you the key to my cabin, didn't I?" James inquired roughly.
"Aye." Hudson lowered his head, ashamed.
James asked Young. "Would you rather be with him?" Young nodded. "Then you can spend the day with him, like usual." At the door, moments later, James asked softly, "Young?" The smile he received was hesitant, gentle, shy. James's heart sang.

That evening, when James was in his bunk, Young sat up on his pallet. Their gazes locked. Hesitant, slowly, Young removed his clothing. Shivering, He stood up, went to James. The captain adjusted his blankets and Young settled in beside him.
"Are you sure?" 
Young nodded and touched his lips to the more than willing ones of the man beneath him.
He was sure. He was terrified of the unknown, of feeling things he had never experienced before, but he was sure.

Young was sewing a button back onto one of James's shirt. He was sitting in the cabin. the portal was opened but the air within the tiny room seemed airless. It wasn't real, he knew, for there was a breeze coming into the tiny area. Fingering the tiny, gold cross James had given him just that morning, he stared at the blue and white sky. He was feeling trapped. He thought about opening the door, decided against it. He thought about going up on deck and made an instant decision. He would go up, sit in the sunlight and feel the salty air on his face. Surely James wouldn't mind that. After all, he'd be in the open view of the whole ship. He rose swiftly, hurried to the door, opened it.
Jim stood there. Young caught his breath in shock. "I didn't mean to scare you. The captain said you weren't feeling well enough to come up. I figured you'd be lonely stuck in here all alone, so I decided to come down. I thought you'd like to share coffee with me." He lifted two cups. "What do you think?" Smiling hugely, Young agreed. "Hudson's coffee doesn't taste like yours. His is more like a witch's brew. I added sugar. I hope you don't mind?" Young shook his head. "Good." They sat. Young tasted the coffee, made a face. Jim laughed. "I told you, it's not like yours!" The other man shook his head in agreement. 
Jim told stories of his shore leaves and Young laughed with them. "Drink up! I suppose we could chunk this into the slop jar, but it's seems like a waste of good sugar." Young nodded and drained his cup, grimacing as he did so. Moments later, Jim held his stomach and complained, "I don't feel so well."
Young's stomach began to cramp. Pain hit him hard and he doubled over. He could hear Jim groan, felt the table shudder. He heard a body fall and then he was retching. Agony exploded in his stomach and he too fell, hitting the floor hard.
"What in God's name...?" someone exclaimed. 
Lights danced behind his eye lids. Torture filled his abdomen.
Young could hear someone calling for James.
Within moments hands were on him, lifting him, carrying him. "Get Hudson, " he heard James command. Young tried opening his eyes but found he couldn't. The bed touched his backside. He could feel saliva running down his cheeks. Blankets covered him. Hands soothed a path up and down his chest. "What about Jim?" James inquired.
"He's alive. He doesn't look as bad as Young."
"what is it?" Hudson inquired.
"See to them." James's tone was cold, hard as a rock.
Young felt hands on him. They opened his eyes, his mouth, examined his fingernails. He cried out soundlessly when those fingers probed his stomach.
"Charcoal and water. Go get it!" Hudson shouted, "NOW!" He turned Young over onto his side.
"What is it?" James asked, troubled, scared. Hudson hesitated and James repeated his question in a more demanding manner.
"They've been poisoned, " came the reluctant reply.
"Poisoned? But how?" James saw the guilt on the old man's face. "What have you done, you silly, old fool?"
"It was the rats! I hated the rats! Those traps wasn't killing them fast enough."
"So you brought poison on board on my ship! After I told you not to, you did it anyway." He clutched the edge of the table to avoid clutching at that man's neck. "I want you off my ship. The moment another comes close, I'm getting you off my vessel."
"I had it hidden!" Hudson protested.
"Not well enough, it seems. I swear, if he dies..." James couldn't finish.
Young felt a cup touching his lips. He tried moving his head away to avoid it, but James's hand were too unrelenting. Disgusting liquid poured down his stomach. Young gagged, began retching in earnest. Stomach contents spewed forth.
"Keep it going down, " Hudson ordered. "Get it all out of his system." He did the same for Jim.
"What am I going to do?" James asked softly. "I can't be with you every moment, and you're not safe on board my ship." He caressed the mussed curls, the white, perspiring face. He watched Young try to turn his head closer to the hand and something swelled within him. he thought in anguish.
He forced another mouthful of the darkened water down Young's throat. 

The idea came then. Let Young go with Hudson.

James shook his head mentally.
No...
He wasn't sure why he trusted the old man but he did. Even after this, he trusted him. If he told no one, not even Murdock...
 
He did. He wasn't sure why, but he did.
He looked down at the waxen face.
"George?"
Shock sent coldness through Hudson. James never used his first name. "Sir?" he asked in a subdued voice.
"Is Jim well enough to put in his own bunk?"
"Yes."
James had another man take Jim to the crew's quarters..
"Shall I go too?" Hudson asked.
"No." James picked up Young's cold hand, caressed it. When the room was empty, he told Hudson, "Let's go to the galley. Ray, I'm going to lock the door. I don't want you to be frightened." Young tried to open his eyes but couldn't. "Is it safe for him to sleep?"
"Yes."
"Then let's go. Ray, I'll be right back."
In the galley, moments later, James asked, "Jim could have known about the poison, couldn't he?"
"He did."
"Then it wasn't an accident?"
"Jim wouldn't..." Hudson stopped, unsure.
"But it's possible?"
"Yes, it's possible." He shook his head. "He wouldn't, Captain. I just know he wouldn't. He liked Young too much."
"All right." James's features grew hard, cold.
"I swear I kept the poison away from the food. I kept it down below there so it wouldn't be seen and taken for sugar. Honestly, Captain, I..." James's hand on his shoulder stopped his words.
"I need your help."
"Anything."
"Young isn't safe on board my ship." He went on to explain why Ray Young was on board his vessel in the first place, why he believed he was no longer safe. "There's only one person I trust with him and that's you."
"Even after..." He couldn't continue. He was too choked up.
"Even after that." Once more, he settled his hand on the other man's shoulder. "I need you to watch over him while I'm up on top. He can lie on a pallet over there in a corner until he's well enough and then he can help you again. Don't leave him alone. If you need anything from storage or me, yell. I'll tell the crew to listen for you."
"They'll wonder why Young means so much to you."
James turned his back, clutched the top of a stool. "He's a human being and deserves a chance to live."
Hudson sighed silently. "Aye, that he does. I'll watch over him."
"Thank you."
"Captain? About leaving the ship?"
"Don't worry about it." he thought, hurting at the coming separation,
"Yes, sir. Sir?" James turned back to gaze without emotion at him. "Thank you."
"I'm still angry at your breaking the rules. You'll have to be punished, you know that, don't you?" Hudson blanched. "I can't let you get away with defying me. Discipline... I'm sorry. The whipping will be at two this afternoon." Hudson, still pure white, only stared at the man beside him in horror. "I'll keep it as light as I can." Hudson began to tremble. James reached out then dropped his hand as the cook shied backwards. "George, I'm sorry. If you had listened to me..." Hudson whirled away. James left quietly.