Somewhere Weaknesses Are Strength

Hayley almost sighed at the timid tone with which Sebastian answered. The princess would be afraid of her for awhile, she was sure of that, but she didn't want her to be. Hayley had made a mistake, just as Sebastian had when trying to escape. Both mistakes had significant consequences. If Sebastian had left, they both would have been put to death. Hayley had beaten Sebastian. Now, Sebastian was scared of her. She would have to live with the consequence of hurting her princess till Sebastian became comfortable again.

"Lay on your stomach," Hayley said, grabbing a bottle of massage oil from her side table, "But don't hurt yourself."

She didn't want Sebastian to pop the blister. There was still a chance of it healing without a scar. Not to mention the excess pain popping a blister that had a bloody wound out it would cause.

Hayley made a mental note to contact Taylor as soon as possible. He needed to examine Sebastian to be sure Hayley didn't cause extreme damage.

Sebastian carefully turned onto her stomach. Regardless of her cautious movements, pain shot through her system. Every piece of her tingled with the intense feeling. With a shuddered breath, Sebastian wrapped her arms around one of the pillows decorating the headboard and rested her cheek against it. The cushioning of the mattress seemed to take away the pain that had encircled her. She could have fallen asleep in that moment.

She would have drifted to a dream world where pain didn't exist but she was still afraid. Hayley couldn't possibly be planning on giving her a proper massage. It wasn't possible.

Hayley gently straddled Sebastian's behind, keeping her body weight from crushing the girl into the bed and causing more complications on her body. She poured a small amount of the oil into her palm of her hand and placed it back on the bedside table where it belonged. In small circles, she applied the oil to Sebastian's back, working it in the way she had learned to do. She remained cautious of the fresh scabs on the princess' back.

Sebastian took a deep breath, body relaxing with each movement. The warnings that had been coursing through her mind became less dominant. The silly notion that Hayley would hurt her was disappearing.

"You understand why I did what I did to you, right?" Hayley asked.

Whether or not the princess was aware of the exact reason behind the beating and almost murder, she wasn't sure. No, she wouldn't try defending her actions. She was wrong. She knew she was. Hayley had absolutely no right to treat Sebastian as she did. Not without explanation.

"I disobeyed," Sebastian's voice was muffled by the pillow, "I deserved it."

"You didn't deserve it," Hayley countered.

"I did."

"No one deserves what I did to you."

"But I did."

"Damn it, Sebastian," Hayley groaned, pulling her hands away from the princess' back, "This isn't just about whether or not you disobeyed some stupid rule."

"What is it about?"

"I wasn't supposed to like you. You were supposed to be a toy for me to play while I got over my bitch of an ex-girlfriend. But I like you. You're so cute, how could I not like you? It's my fault that you didn't know. I never told you. I only kept you thinking you were a sex object so you would follow my rules. That obviously backfired. The rules I made for you were to protect you from getting caught by King Ferdinand. I didn't want you to get hurt by him. He'd put you to death in the most embarrassing way he could conjure. I'm trying to keep you safe."

"Then why did you," Sebastian hesitated.

"Why did I what?"

"Why did you hurt me?"

Hayley sighed, returning her hands to Sebastian's skin. This would be more difficult for Sebastian to understand. She knew it would. Even she found it hard to believe that she threatened the princess' life to keep her safe. It was sick. Only an abusive human being would do something ridiculous like that.

And Hayley was not enjoying analyzing her own actions.

"You tried to escape," Hayley started, "If you had succeeded, you would have put yourself in great danger. You trying to escape told me that I couldn't trust you to avoid risking your life. I believed that you were better off dead than in danger. I shouldn't have tortured you the way I did, but I snapped. You had no reason to want to escape. I've been nothing but kind to you, far kinder than I've been to any other captive."

Sebastian listened intently as the captain disclosed information to her. The explanation wasn't what she was expecting. Hayley's motives were clear, and Sebastian actually understood. It surprised her she could find any sense in the captain's logic. But Hayley was a pirate with reasoning and training far different from Sebastian's. Hayley's training made her react a certain way.

However, knowledge did not settle Sebastian's fear of the captain.

"I feel terrible for what I did to you," Hayley continued, "I've never felt bad about hurting a captive in my life, and I've done worse things to people. I couldn't hurt you anymore though. I couldn't kill you despite the threats I made," Hayley leaned down, mouth near Sebastian's ear, "I can promise that I will never intentionally hurt you again."

Desperation dripped off of Hayley's words. She was truly emotionally distraught over hurting Sebastian and the princess was finding it hard to believe. Sebastian was no different than a normal captive. She didn’t deserve special treatment. Not to mention Hayley was a trained killer whose reasoning skills told her to hurt Sebastian. Though they made sense, Sebastian didn't think she could trust Hayley. She wanted to. But fear was far harder to conquer than that.

Hayley was so emotional about it though. She had to be telling the truth. Sebastian didn’t know whether to trust her or not. The whole situation was harder for Sebastian than convincing her father she didn't need to train on a ship to be a good ruler.

Instead of replying, Sebastian stayed silent. She didn't know what to say. But to Hayley, that silence spoke volumes. This was going to be harder than she thought. She pulled away from Sebastian's ear and continued rubbing her hands over Sebastian's back, slowly making her way to the girl's shoulders. Out of subconscious nature, her eyes grazed over Sebastian's form, taking in its hour glass shape from the back. She couldn't help it. Her attraction to Sebastian was strong. Even her guilt ridden mind could appreciate Sebastian's body.

If she could, she would stay home and nurse Sebastian back to health and try to get her back to a normal comfort level. But she had to oversee her business. She wanted to take care of her though, more than she had ever wanted to any other person. Aside from her sisters, no one claimed her heart so completely. Hayley wasn't used to it. She spent so much time on girls that made her want to bash her skull against a wall. Now, she had a princess that she truly wanted to treat like a princess. She didn't know how to go about doing it.

"Would you like a bath later?" Hayley asked.

Sebastian liked bathes. Giving her things she liked would surely put Hayley back in good graces.

She was hoping so.

"If I'm allowed one, yes, please," Sebastian mumbled.

"Of course you're allowed one. What would make you think otherwise?" Hayley asked.

Sebastian shrugged, a surge of pain following the action. She was afraid, but she didn't want to tell Hayley. She knew something would change now that she tried to escape. She assumed another punishment could be part of the changes.

But Hayley promised not to hurt her.

"I'm not taking away your bathing privileges. I think I've done enough damage to you," Hayley stated.

"Are you taking away any privileges?" Sebastian asked, twisting her neck despite the pain to look over her shoulder.

Hayley's eyes immediately locked on the princess' lips. An urge to kiss her overcame Hayley. She looked so damn adorable with her hair an absolute mess, a red tint to her nose. Tear stains still stained her cheeks, her eyes glassy from crying and lack of sleep. And her lips, those plump lips that Hayley loved kissing, slightly open, corners tugged down, looked so inviting.

Before Hayley could stop herself, she leaned down and captured the princess' lips with hers. Sebastian groaned on impact and moved her lips against Hayley's. She missed this. It seemed like it had been ages since she and Hayley shared a proper kiss. Sebastian needed the comfort of Hayley's lips.

Mind chiding her for not being sensitive to the princess' pain-ridden state, Hayley pulled away but kept her face close to Sebastian's.

"I'm not changing much. You won't be uncomfortable here for the rest of your life, I promise," Hayley said.

She was making an awful lot of promises, but she would keep them.

"Are you going to tell me? Or do I need to guess?" Sebastian asked.

She wasn’t too concerned with getting beat over the question. Not in that moment. She was far too focused on Hayley's lips to care about getting beat for asking a question.

Hayley sat up, "I should probably run through those before I leave."

Finally, Sebastian partially loosened up. Enough to ask a question without sounding meek. The massage was supposed to take care of that, as was the promise of not getting beaten again. Sebastian did have a habit of responding to her differently.

Not that Hayley minded kissing Sebastian. She adored pressing her lips to the princess'. The feelings she had were overpowering. But Sebastian was likely to revert back to being scared when the impact of the kiss wore off. That's not what Hayley wanted.

"You won't have a room to yourself," Hayley stated, "You are to stay with me in my room from now on. Someone will always be attending you to keep an eye on you. Holly and I are the two most likely to constantly be around you. You are not to go anywhere in the house or out of the house alone. If I'm gone till late hours, I expect you to be in bed when I get back. Holly won't leave her post till I return. I'm hoping you don’t try to escape again because I'm not sure what I'll do. Those should be the only changes. The rest still stands."

It was necessary to increase security over the princess. She needed to be safe and she wasn't safe out of the mansion or alone.

"That's it?" Sebastian asked, searching for confirmation in Hayley's eyes.

Where was the death threat?

"That's it," Hayley nodded.