Jax could have melted at Nicki’s question, would he come back to her? He didn't want to leave. He was here now and wanted to go nowhere else. But any small bit of ground he had managed to cultivate with this amazing woman would dry up quickly with the ties of the boy. With the eyes of the boy, right here, right now. Now, Jax liked Luc but he traveled light, remember? He had little things and even fewer connections. Now all of the sudden he did? Jax had never known any joys of a father or brother and he didn’t feel particularly slighted in either regard. He had no desire to assume either role himself. It was Nicki he came for. 

He moved toward her, the First Mate, the Doctor, Nicki, and put his hands on hers as she held the boots. “Hold them for me longer, please?” He smiled to her and sort of gently lead her down to sit on the edge of her bed, while he held her hands, her arms, that held his boots. “I will take Luc back if you promise me you will stay here, cover up, keep my boots and wait for me.” He let go with one hand and pulled back her top cover. 

Slowly he knelt by her on her cabin floor and lifted one of her feet pulling on one boot to take it off. He watched as he tugged one and then the other. She still held his boots as he put hers on the floor beside the bed. He reached again for his own and placed them right beside. 

He stood again looking down at her. He would have smiled that Jax grin to her but it just didn’t really come. Instead his face could not hide his concern and longing. If he had been in his old mood his old self before he had ever kissed Nicki he might have teased that he could fix her the same way she did the Captain and straddle her pressing against her. He wanted to. But that was before. Before the Night Blooms, before the readings in her cabin, before she took his boots. Now he was more worried about her. Worried she was hurt much worse than she would admit. Worried that he would not take the care of her she needed. 

To chase all his doubts away, they did not feel comfortable on Jax, he took a breath and did smile, a more sincere caring one, “I will come back. Hundreds of times I’ll come back to you.” He let his eyes tell her it was true.

Jax spun around to find Luc. The boy was curled inside the blanket with his teeth chattering and his eyes wide open. Was it fear Jax saw? He was afraid to ask. And he didn't want Nicki to see the young lad’s need. No she had enough, had done enough. He put his arm quickly around the child and escaped with him out the door.

“Are you going to leave me alone?” There was the edge of a cry in the small thin voice. Jax let his arm hang over the boy as they made their way from her cabin across the deck. 

“You are never alone on a ship, Luc.” He patted the boy’s arm. “But you need to be somewhere else. You want your bunk or that safe spot that cabin boys know?” 

“My bunk will be beside empty hammocks of dead man, or crying ones. The safe spot is not safe from the dreams of the things I saw.”

Jax stopped. He pulled his arm off. “Well unfortunate for you, the warm soft Mama’s bed you threw aside is not available here.” He put both his hands on Luc’s shoulders, and spun him to face Jax. “You are on a pirate ship, Lad. There are nightmares for all of us. Each has to find his way through them. Right now I am helping the First Mate. Not you.” He lowered his eyes realizing the truth of that. Jax put his arm back around the boy and offered much gentler. “I could take you back where you should have stayed, the Captain's cabin.”

Luc nodded as Jax put his hand on the top of his head. “And you can finally look through that old secret chest.” 

“I’m not going to do that!”

“I know,” Jax laughed. “But I’ll tell you I might have at your age. I might now, except you would tell and my boots are waiting.”