Title: Chasing the Storm
Rating: T
Disclaimer: I don't own The Mentalist, honestly.
Summary: AU Pirate. "Watch what you say," Lisbon growled. "Or I'll slit your throat and leave your body for the rats."
I really didn't need another fic, but this idea came to me while I was writing the pirate genre for 15genres1prompt on livejournal. I've honestly tried writing a radical AU before, so this is me stepping outside my comfort zones (and taking plenty of creative leeway) to bring something completely different than my usual fare to the fic table. This fic will be updated once a week, unless some mysterious circumstance prevents me from updating.
I have to thank three people in relation to the writing of this fic: loveconquersallxxx, who has continuously asked me to write a pirate fic. TropicalStormEmily, who looked over the first chapter for any large mistakes, and lastly WeBuiltThePyramids, for doing a final read through before this fic was posted.
I hope you all will enjoy!
1—
"Land Ho!"
It was the single set of words that had almost the entire crew of the Scarlet Oasis set into an excited frenzy. The set of wooden doors to the Captain's Quarters blew open from the force Pirate Captain Patrick Jane had placed on it from the inside. He said nothing as he strolled across the hardwood deck and leaned against the inner railing, a smile pressed across his clean-shaven face.
"Isn't Howl Island a beaut, boys?" The entire crew, sans three, cheered in response at their Captain's enthusiastic question. Captain Jane stared out at the distant island lit by the purple and orange haze of dusk, before he turned around to face his loyal crew and called out, "How goes my favorite first mate and her lackey, this fine evening?" From a spot against the opposite railing of the Scarlet Oasis, first mate Teresa Lisbon fixed him with a firm glare. The slender brunette to the right of her narrowed her own eyes on the fair-haired Captain, who continued to grin.
"My day was going just fine," replied the brunette, with her pink lips pulled into a begrudging smile. "And then you showed up."
"Ah Kris, you never do fail to amuse me." Jane responded, brightly. "Regrettably, you continue to ignore the more important rule on this ship. Do you know what it is?"
"Rule number one: kiss the Captain's ass at all times?" Kris offered and Lisbon's elbow slammed into her ribs. "Captain," she added, rather hastily before Lisbon could even attempt to do it again.
"Excellent work, Lisbon!" Jane complimented. Lisbon grimaced in response. "If you do feel the need to wet your whistle tonight, Lisbon, all your drinks are on me." The men on the crew let out yet another loud cheer, while Lisbon shook her head; the blue bandana perched atop her forehead kept her dark hair pushed behind her ears and away from her face, in the dry heat of the June evening.
"And have you hit on me, sir?" Lisbon gave, dryly. "I think I'll pass on the offer."
"Suit yourself, my first mate." Jane answered with a grin. "You've never seen my legendary status with the Salty Ana's barmaid, Ms. Hightower, though." Lisbon fixed him with another pointed glare, which he ignored in favor of Kris's voice.
"No comment on my asshole hilarity," Kris voiced, lowly. Lisbon didn't elbow the brunette again. "My, how far we've come."
Jane tipped her a grin, before he pushed away from the inner railing and started toward the steps of the helm. "No more of my rum for you." He paused briefly to give Lisbon a stern nod, before he ascended the wooden steps to speak with his sailing master.
Kris turned to Lisbon again, who fixed her surly subordinate with yet another glare. "What did he do to get legendary status?"
"You should show him some respect, Kris." Lisbon chided, while Kris moved to cross her arms against her gray V-necked t-shirt. "I know he's insufferable and intolerable at times, but he is the Captain of our ship." Kris said nothing in response. "I'm heading up toward the helm." Lisbon stepped away from the railing and followed the same path her Captain had taken up the stairs without hesitation. Jane had one hand pressed against the wooden wheel; his mouth moving to the sailing master, Kimball Cho. Cho seemed rather unimpressed by whatever the Pirate Captain had to say.
"I really hope you aren't letting him steer." Lisbon addressed Cho.
Cho glanced up from his array of navigational tools to blink at her, "I'm not."
Jane took his hand off the wheel and turned to face her. "I leave the navigating to Cho, and he leaves the captaining to me." Lisbon rolled her eyes at the mere suggestion that he was even in charge.
"Captain, we should dock on Howl Island for a few days." Cho suggested and Jane nodded. "We need to replenish all our supplies, considering Mashburn continues to drain them."
"You should just get rid of him," Lisbon commented in irritation. Walter Mashburn was the other perpetual thorn in her side, considering that every time the man saw her, he made a lewd comment about what he thought she should currently be doing instead of manning a crew. "Or, at the very least, could we keep him in the brig until we've made land."
"We'd never be able to sail without him." Cho gave.
"Firstly," Jane cleared his throat. "I'm the Captain. You can't sail without me."
"That's debatable." Lisbon muttered.
"Secondly," Jane continued. "Unless you've got enough monetary substance to sail us across the seven seas and back, we're not getting rid of Walter."
"You enjoy torturing me, don't you?" Lisbon stated.
"Lastly," Jane smirked. "I'm the Captain."
"That's still debatable." Lisbon stressed.
Jane raised his eyebrows toward her. "Is there something you want to tell me, my dear?" Lisbon nodded him over and he slowly approached her. "You're not secretly staging a mutiny, are you?"
"I'm sure that I've got much better things to do than stage a mutiny," Lisbon said and Jane eyed her. "We need to talk."
"I…" Jane looked over Lisbon's shoulder and she just knew he was going to evade her once more. "Oh look! It's Rigsby! He owes me copious amounts of drinking money." Jane quickly stepped past her which only made her sigh in annoyance. The Captain was a good man, she thought bitterly, but he had always been good at evading the more important topics at hand.
Lisbon didn't even care what Rigsby and Jane were discussing, as she turned to Cho with a frown. "How long will it be till we dock?"
Cho shrugged. "Fifteen minutes."
Lisbon groaned, silently before she moved to address him again. "I'm sending you, Rigsby and Kris to shadow Jane tonight. Try and bring him back before his tenth shot?" Lisbon hated sending any of the crew on aimless duties, but she also didn't want a repeat of the last drunkenidiotic stunt that the Captain had almost caused, involving their ship and a waterfall.
"That's fine." Lisbon turned on the heels of her tan boots and descended the staircase onto the main deck only to find Kris and Mashburn, who both appeared to be in the middle of a heated discussion.
"…well, you're just foolish!" Kris insulted. Mashburn overlapped his arms against his rhinestone vested chest. "I don't understand why we keep you around, considering you're a pain in the ass." Lisbon crossed her arms against her navy blue t-shirted chest. Kris had a horrible temper and Mashburn didn't know when to keep his mouth shut, it honestly was a miracle that Kris hadn't killed him yet.
"You shouldn't bully the rich and famous." Mashburn quipped with a wide smile. "It's what we call petty jealousy."
"You wish." Kris sneered.
"What in the hell are you two doing?" Lisbon tapped her foot against the deck floor, which caused both of them to turn and glance at her in complete surprise. "I thought I gave you both work to finish."
Mashburn waved her off, "You're looking awfully gorgeous today, Teresa." He tilted his head to view her left side. "Is that a new sword?" Lisbon narrowed her eyes. "It looks spiffy on you, my dear."
"We're not even ten minutes away from docking and you're hitting on me? Seriously?" Lisbon asked. "Don't you ever give it a rest?"
"Not when I'm trying to win you over." Lisbon blinked. "Besides," Mashburn continued, as he balefully grinned. "It's my money. You all belong to me."
"Then you can go inform the Captain of that remarkable fact, Walter." Lisbon snipped. She turned her eyes on Kris. "And you?"
"I'm here for the moral support." Kris brightly offered. "What do you want of me, Boss Lady?"
"I wish you would stop calling me that, Kris." Lisbon said. "I'm the first mate, not your Captain."
"Never!" Kris exclaimed. "You act more like the Captain than he does…"
"Saffron!" Lisbon gritted Kris's last name between her teeth. Kris lost her smile. "We've had this discussion. You can disrespect him all you want behind my back, but to my face…you will treat him with respect, am I understood?"
"Fine," Kris stated, with the roll of her eyes. "Whatever you say, Boss Lady." Lisbon gritted her teeth again as Kris plastered another large grin across her face. "If you don't need anything else, I think I'm going to…"
"Oh no, you aren't off the hook yet." Lisbon interrupted. "You're on Jane Duty with Cho and Rigsby tonight." Kris groaned. Lisbon shot her a stern look. "I did it the last time. I stopped him from selling us to China."
"I really don't want to be sold to China…" Kris justified by shuddering. "I'll do it, but only for you."
"Thanks for offering, Kris." Lisbon sarcastically responded. "Now, I know you can follow direct orders. You're moving up on this ship."
"Ha-ha, very funny." Kris turned on the heels of her black boots and went below deck. Lisbon twisted her body around to glance at Mashburn, who had paused to openly leer in her direction.
"What are you looking at?"
Mashburn grinned, "The most beautiful…"
"Go!" Lisbon exclaimed; her hand went straight for her sword. "If you don't get out of my sight right now, I will blind you with the tip of my damn sword." Mashburn hurriedly turned on his own red boots and headed for the mess hall. "I'm surrounded by idiots." She leaned against the inner railing again and turned to stare out into the dark blue almost black ocean. Lisbon tried to blink away the ominous storm that hovered just beyond the horizon, but she found that she couldn't do so.
"Imagining Walter walking the plank, huh?" Lisbon jumped and turned around to glare at the grinning Captain. "I am just admiring the scenery, like every good Captain should." Lisbon rolled her green eyes.
"You and Mashburn never stop, do you?" Lisbon asked in annoyance. "I'd like to be able and enjoy the ocean for once without you breathing down my neck or doing something idiotic."
"What in the world are you going on about, Lisbon?" Jane responded, as he rocked on the ball of feet. "I'm just admiring the lovely sunset, and the total serenity that the water brings me."
Lisbon snorted. "And you chose to interrupt my own personal admiration, because…?"
"I just wanted to ask who my babysitter is for tonight."
"Your babysitters are Rigsby, Cho, and Kris. I'm sure you four will enjoy yourselves and behave." Lisbon answered with a smirk. "You'll also have the proper time to bond with Kris, who is absolutely crazy about you."
"I'm sure she's crazy enough to take a knife to my throat." Jane corrected. "I don't understand your continuous need to pin us together, Lisbon."
"One day," Lisbon explained. "You may need her, so you should play nice."
Jane playfully pouted. "She doesn't play nice with me, and you're always harping about the respect I should have for my crew." Lisbon frowned; it was either he didn't get it or he just didn't want to get it and she had the feeling it was more the latter than anything else. "In response to your horrible planning, I hereby order you to stay with your good buddy, Walter, while we dock on Howl Island."
"I think I'll let you know that I have the lesser of two evils." Lisbon teased. "Mashburn goes away if I threaten him or if I lock the doors to my quarters'. Kris never leaves."
Jane shrugged. "She can't be any worse than you, my dear." Lisbon slammed her hand against his upper arm. "On some crews," he rubbed at his arm. "It's considered mutiny to hit your Captain."
"And in some crews," she retorted. "You'd be the Swabbie."
"Calm down, woman." Jane soothed, he held his hands out in front of himself. "You're still my favorite first mate." He shot her a gentle smile.
"You're still the insufferable Captain."
"Wait, I'm not your favorite insufferable Captain?" Jane feigned hurt. "I'm wounded, Lisbon. Truly wounded." He pressed his hands against his chest. "How could you say such spiteful and hurtful things?"
"Nice try, Jane." Lisbon gave. "But you're still stuck with Kris; she's a valuable member of your crew." Jane crinkled his nose. "Now, don't you have something more important to do besides standing around, bothering me?"
Jane shook his head, his blonde curls bounced everywhere. "No. I'm all yours."
"Really?" Lisbon questioned in disbelief. Jane nodded. "You finally listening to me and my orders are a dream come true."
"Until we dock, of course." Jane explained. "I wouldn't want to make all your dreams come true," he paused to slyly smile in her direction. "Especially, the ones involving Walter Mashburn." Lisbon hit him again. "You enjoy hitting me, don't you?"
"Those aren't dreams," Lisbon ignored his question. "Those are nightmares; unspeakable ones." Jane turned to glance back at the ocean, as did she.
"It's going to storm soon." Jane addressed. "You should make sure we're not taking on any water, while we're docked."
"While I also stay here with Mashburn?" Lisbon responded. Jane nodded again. "What is he going to do? Use his rhinestones to plug up any holes?" Jane grinned. "Why don't you just let me use his mouth?" Lisbon paused. "Forget his mouth, how about we use yours? You both are filled with enough hot air to plug several ships."
Jane fixed her with another grin. "I've rocked more than a few ships in my day."
"Okay." Lisbon halted him. "Enough of that, we both have work to do. Go away."
"But, Lisbon!" Jane whined. "I…"
"Go or I'll shoot you in the foot." He took the moment to glance her up and down, which served to both amuse and irritate her to no end.
"Where's your gun?" Jane slyly asked.
"It's none of your damned business, Jane." Lisbon cursed. "Go, before I hide my weapon in you!"
"Well, Lisbon." Jane continued, he ignored her orders as usual. "I'd like to have a part of…"
"Jane!" Lisbon exclaimed, angrily. "Enough! Go captain your ship!"
He merely smiled and hurried away, as they made dock on Howl Island.
Orders or not, Lisbon thought as she headed toward the mess hall, I'm not going to stay with Mashburn the entire time.
Forty minutes later, Lisbon lingered outside the dirty high window of the Salty Ana; she could see inside past the slightly cracked window and without much contempt, she watched her fellow crewmates consume whatever specialty the barkeep had concocted for the evening. Cho, Rigsby, and Kris sat at a small square wooden table behind the Captain, who remained seated across from the barkeep with his arms occupied by two different women.
"He looks happy, doesn't he?"
Lisbon spun on the heel of her boots to find Craig O'Laughlin, dressed in a loose black buttoned-up shirt and tan tights, propped up against the adjacent alley wall. Rage bubbled up inside of her at the cold smirk plastered across his scruffy and dirt encrusted face, and almost immediately, she had the edge of her sword pressed up against his jugular in the flickering candlelight provided by the residents of the island.
"I must say," O'Laughlin continued, as if he didn't have her sword pressed against his neck. "He looks far better than the last time we crossed paths," O'Laughlin glanced at her right shoulder with a smirk. "As do you, Teresa." Lisbon applied more pressure on her sword and O'Laughlin winced. "Your Captain gave you direct orders to kill me on sight, eh?" Lisbon said nothing. "But you won't do it, because you can't do it."
"You want to bet, Craig?" Lisbon threw, angrily. O'Laughlin chuckled. "You shot me. You betrayed the Captain! Your penalty, decided on by Captain Jane and myself, is a one way trip to Davy Jones' locker courtesy of my sword."
O'Laughlin waved her off. "Is your Captain still searching the seven seas, high and low, for Red John?" Lisbon stilled at his mention of Red John. The dark-haired pirate gave her an all-knowing look. "I thought so. He should really stop searching or he'll end up like all the others." O'Laughlin paused to smirk. "And I don't think we need to discuss what that means for you both, considering the close relationship that you and he seem to share." He cocked his eyebrows in suggestion.
"Watch what you say," Lisbon growled. "Or I'll slit your throat and leave your body for the rats."
"Are you sure you want me to be quiet?" O'Laughlin inquired with a suspicious smile. "I could have invaluable insights on something you have been chasing for years. Killing me would be an absolute waste."
"Alright then," Lisbon snarled, though she didn't pull back her gleaming sword. "Tell me first, and then I will kill you." O'Laughlin tittered.
"How am I supposed to tell you anything with your sword pressed against my throat?" O'Laughlin gave. "I thought you had some intelligence, Teresa."
Lisbon slowly pulled back her sword with a stunned expression across her face; in the eight years that she had been sailing with Jane, nobody had once questioned her intelligence and O'Laughlin doing so, filled her with an impeding sense of dread.
O'Laughlin used her moment of surprise to step past her. "You're not so defensive now, are you? What I said got to you, Teresa. Otherwise," he paused to glance at her. "You would have drawn back your sword from my neck." Lisbon said nothing, as he glanced away from her and into the dirty window of the Salty Ana. "I mean, look at those women. They make him happy, Teresa; in ways that you never could. He only views you as a tool in his game and once he gets what he wants from you, he will leave you," Lisbon readied herself to backhand him. "For yet another collection of questionable women." She reared back her arm and let loose toward his face, but before she could smack the smirk off his face, he grabbed her wrist and stared her down with his grey eyes. "You'll never be good enough for him. You never were good enough for me, either." Lisbon had no time to blink, let alone think, before he backhanded her across the face, at full force, with his own free hand and shoved her backwards.
Her head hit the brick wall of the Salty Ana with enough force that she slumped to the ground unconscious within the narrow alleyway. O'Laughlin towered over her and ripped the blue bandana off her head.
"That's what you get for speaking to me like that, you filthy whore." His dark shadow, displayed in the flickering candlelight from a window alcove nearby, distorted her facial features from view, as her chest rose and fell with every shallow breath she took.
"No." Cho stated his voice loud enough to carry over above the loud, drunken chaos of the Salty Ana. Kris, Cho and Rigsby remained seated at a table directly behind Jane, who continued to toss down shots of tequila at the bar. None of the other pirates (or women) paid much attention to them, which meant that some small conversation was permitted.
"Come on, Cho." Rigsby pleased, as he drank from his own beer glass. "Why not? It would be fun."
Cho blinked. "The last time we did that, we almost killed three people and you injured Hightower."
Uninterested in the conversation that the boys were having, Kris stared intensely at the Captain as he plowed through his thirteenth shot glass with two giggling women attached to his arm and thought, he's going to feel that in the morning.
One of those two giggling women, Kris noticed, was more moderately dressed; she wore black high heels, a white t-shirt, and a jet-black skirt. She, physically, had a slender build with long legs, though the long legs could have been due to the heels she wore. Much like her own self, the woman was a brunette with significantly shorter hair.
The other woman, was taller, almost Jane's full standing height with a slender build and lengthier legs; she wore a pair of black cheap flats, a pale green belly shirt, and an extremely short pair of white shorts, which hugged her ass. Her darker shade of brown hair was cropped into, what the female pirate only assumed, was a manlike haircut. Kris rolled her eyes, she also had a feeling that the taller female was prostitute and the other, was probably a local woman cheating on her rich husband.
Those kinds of women always cheat on their husbands, she thought darkly, even though they have it better than anyone else on this forsaken island.
"Selfish whores," Kris muttered under her breath, while she tightly clutched her half-empty beer glass between her callused hands. She absolutely hated Captain Duty, because it was nothing more than a waste of her—and everyone else's—time. Kris removed one of her hands from around her beer glass and refocused her attention on Rigsby and Cho's now-hushed conversation. "What did you do to injure Hightower, Rigsby? Throw a pillow?"
Rigsby glanced at her. "No."
"Then what did you do, tough guy?" Kris inquired. "Kill someone, behead a chicken, fathered a child…?" Rigsby sputtered in surprise, though she took absolutely no pride in making him do so, Rigsby had always been rather easy to windup.
"We played drunken darts." Cho explained. Kris quickly glanced around the small yet packed bar for any sight of a dart board, but she couldn't find one. "We used people as targets." She eyed Rigsby in veiled contempt. "The barkeep, Madeleine Hightower, unwillingly became a target after too many drinks."
"Twenty-five points for right between the eyes." Rigsby answered, lowly. "Fifteen if you hit a leg, ten if you hit a hand, and five if you manage to hit their back." Kris blanched; the very idea that any of them—drunk or sober—could find that sport fun, disgusted her. Pirate or not, she still had morals. "It was much more fun than it sounds."
"Did you hit it and then quit it?" Kris innocently asked, while she lifted her glass to her lips. Cho snorted into his beer and Rigsby, who had just taken a gulp of his own beer, spewed it all over the almost-certain prostitute in the green. Kris bit back her bubbling laugh, as he glanced up almost apologetically. Jane didn't even seem to notice his irate female "friend" slapping Rigsby hard across the face, before she stormed out of the bar in complete anger with the brunette on her heels, as he was too busy downing his fourteenth shot. "I would say I'm sorry, but I'm not." Rigsby said nothing in response and she briefly wondered if she had stepped past some unspoken boundary.
"Cho?" Rigsby questioned, hastily—the rarely used serious tone in his hushed voice made Kris lean in closer in apprehension. "Does that look like O'Laughlin to you?" Cho glanced up from his drink to stare in the direction of wherever Rigsby indicated with the bare tilt of his head. She discreetly glanced over in confusion to catch sight of a black-shirted and short dark-haired pirate, who left the bar via the side door leading out into the left alleyway.
"No." Cho answered. Rigsby furrowed his dark brows and gingerly moved to touch his face, where he had been slapped and winced.
"Damn women." Rigsby muttered, darkly.
Kris chuckled. "Stronger than she looks?" Rigsby said nothing and she glanced back at him, his pale cheek still blotched scarlet. "Who's O'L…?"
"Nobody." Rigsby hurried to interrupt. Kris raised her own eyebrows; the man was obviously angry with her, but it didn't mean he had to be blatantly rude.
"He or she didn't seem like nobody." Kris snidely commented. "If he was nobody, you would have reacted to being…"
Rigsby took another sip of his beer. "He was somebody who betrayed the Captain, okay?" Rigsby paused in exasperation. "We don't talk about him around the Captain, drunk or sober."
"You just did." Kris pointed out.
"Maybe I just thought I saw him?" Rigsby muttered. "O'Laughlin wouldn't be idiotic enough to come here."
"Maybe." Cho answered.
Kris knew she wasn't going to any more out of the boys, so she glanced back up to eye the Captain. "He's going to get slapped across the face." Kris lowly stated; Jane had engaged the barkeep in a conversation, and the female barkeep was looking less and less amused every time he opened his mouth. Sure enough, no more than five minutes later, the barkeep had slapped Jane across the face and stomped off in the direction of a less drunk patron. "I wish I had made a bet on that."
"Nobody would win." Cho replied. "Hightower always slaps Jane."
"That's Hightower?" Kris whistled in surprise. "I'm surprised she still serves our crew, considering you idiots hit on her, both literally and figuratively."
Rigsby made a face at her glare. "I apologized."
"She made him clean the kitchen." Cho maintained. Kris laughed, before she eyed the Captain again; he had somehow managed to stumble backwards off his barstool and he was staring straight at them. His mouth was fixed into a stupid little smile as he closed the distance between himself and the table they had claimed as their own for the evening. She crinkled her nose and waited for him to say something to any of them, the man—even from a foot away—smelled like the combination of cheap rum, flowery perfume, sweat and tequila.
Dressed in his usual attire of a white, buttoned-up loose shirt, black tights and a pair of black pirate boots, he bent down and steadied his arms across the wooden surface of their table until he was eye-level with her.
"Hey sweetheart," Jane breathed. Kris almost gagged; she had never been able to tolerate the smell of alcohol on somebody's breath. "What's a pretty little thing like you doing with a stiff thing like him?" Jane jerked his thumb in Rigsby's direction. She tilted her head to the left, glad to be free from his rancid breath and chuckled at the alcohol-induced memory loss.
"I had no idea you were a stiff, Rigsby." Kris addressed in a whisper. Rigsby gave her a strained smile; he had never been amused by the Captain's drunken escapades and he was never usually assigned to the horrific babysitting duty. Cho said nothing, which didn't surprise Kris at all.
The Captain grew impatient, and banged his fist on the table. "Want me to rock your world tonight, baby?" Kris widened her eyes; she wasn't shocked by his offer, because Jane hit on everything with legsafter twelve shots of tequila, though she had honestly never heard such a horrible pick-up line in all of her twenty-two years.
"Dear," she pulled his face to hers with an ungentle tug on his upper left shoulder. Jane puckered his lips and Kris leaned closer until her lips met his left ear. "Most men don't make it till morning with me," she paused to lick at her dry lips. "Something about ending up with more than they can actually handle, I believe."
With that, she shoved the Captain backwards, where he stumbled into a random bar patron. Kris hopped up from her seat and patted Rigsby on the shoulder. "Let's go. He's hitting on me, and he reeks of cheap women." Rigsby groaned, though he and Cho stood and moved from behind the table to seize their Captain by his arms.
"Come on, Captain." Rigsby grunted. "It's time to leave, before the first mate comes after you." Both men, plus Jane, made their way from the bar through the double doors and into the darkness punctuated by candlelight. Kris followed closely behind them, with her hand pressed against the hilt of her sword as her sight settled on the back of Jane's bent legs. Rigsby was so preoccupied with redistributing Jane's dead weight between himself and Cho that he didn't notice Kris, swiftly lift one of her own leather high heeled boots to kick at the back of Jane's knees.
Cho glanced at her over his left shoulder. "Hope Lisbon doesn't find out."
Kris scowled in return. "He deserves much more than a gentle tap to the back legs."
"If he has a bruise, you know who will be after you?" Cho questioned. Kris shrugged her shoulders; his information wasn't anything new. Lisbon seemed completely bent on her getting along with Jane, though it would never happen. "The first mate."
"Let her come after me," Kris allowed, jokingly. "It's been such a long time since I've had a decent sparing match." Cho shook his head before he turned to face forward. "It's not like he's going to feel it or anything come morning."
"Not the point." Cho granted, as Jane glanced over one of his shoulders and opened his mouth.
"We extort, we pilfer, we filch and sack…" Jane sang in a slur. Everybody ignored him.
"I didn't kick very hard." Kris commented. "I didn't even kick hard enough and you're complaining? It's not like I took my sword to his legs." Kris rolled her eyes at Jane's drunken singing. "I think she'd understand, considering you two didn't stop him from drinking enough to put down a horse."
"Maraud and embezzle and even high-jack…" Jane continued to sing.
On the torch lit docks, Kris continued to speak over the singing Jane, as they approached the Scarlet Oasis, docked at the very end of a long line of stagnant ships. "Besides, he hit on me and I felt threatened." Neither Rigsby nor Cho responded.
"Yo Ho, Yo Ho, a pirate's life for me…!" Jane pitched at the top of his lungs, while the men dragged him onto the ramp of the ship and past a few lingering crewmates, who didn't bother refraining from snickering at their inebriated Captain.
"Kris, go find Lisbon." Cho ordered. Kris nodded and the two men dragged Jane toward his quarters, where she hoped he would stay out of their hair for the rest of the night, before she went on her search for Lisbon.
Ten minutes later, Kris found the incredibly outlandish Mashburn in the small mess hall with a late night snack of apple slices before him, after she had searched the entire ship for the first mate. She didn't wait for an invitation to join him as she plopped down on the bench across from him and stole half of his snack.
Mashburn glanced up at her. "I can't eat anything around here without you stealing it." Kris popped an apple slice into her mouth, grinning all the while. "Anyway, are you here for me and my midnight special?" Mashburn wiggled his eyebrows.
Kris blanched, her nose crinkled and her stomach churned. "Ew, I wouldn't touch you with a ten-foot pole."
"Does my eleven-foot pole work for you?" Mashburn offered, suggestively.
"I came to ask you if you had seen Lisbon since, you know, this evening." Mashburn gave her a nonchalant shrug in response and Kris sighed. "If you give me an answer, I won't tell Lisbon that you raided her panty drawer last week." Mashburn's eyes grew wide. "I'm also quite positive that Jane is privy to this information also and right now—he's a deck above us, screaming at the top of his lungs for something—you never know what me might let slip…"
"She left," Mashburn threw, quickly. "The Captain ordered her to stay behind with me, and she said she couldn't take any more of my dapper charm and heightened personality."
"Uh," Kris scratched her head in hesitation. "I'm not entirely too sure that charm is the word I'd use. Annoying, maybe? Charming? Over my dead body."
Mashburn chuckled. "You always have intrigued me, my dear." Kris pulled another face in response. "Teresa said she needed some fresh air a while ago. Has she not come back yet?" He seemed almost concerned, which made Kris frown with worry. She had been on the ship for almost eight months and never once had she seen Mashburn show any expression other than a dead stare of boredom or that half-smile he used to try and seduce either herself or Lisbon into his sheets.
Kris stood. "Thanks, Mashburn." She hurriedly left the mess hall before he could aimlessly hit on her again and she made her way back upon the main deck in the pitch blackness. Cho met her by the steps to the lower decks.
"Did you find her?" Cho asked.
"Mashburn said she left hours ago." Kris shook her head. Rigsby joined them a few moments later. "How's Jane?"
"The Captain is completely out of it." Rigsby replied. "He even tried to hit on me."
"I'm sorry?" Kris offered. "But we have much bigger problems at the moment."
Rigsby tilted his head. "Like?"
"Don't worry about it." Cho responded. "Lisbon can take care of herself."
"The boss isn't here?" Rigsby questioned and Kris shook her head again.
"Mashburn said he hasn't seen her since this evening."
"Mashburn said." Cho repeated. "He's an unreliable source."
"He's constantly following her." Kris explained her arms crossed against her chest. "If anybody knows where she is, who isn't drunk at the moment, it's Mashburn."
"She has a valid point." Rigsby answered.
Cho stared at them both. "Lisbon isn't irresponsible. She doesn't ignore orders from the Captain."
"Well," Kris began, still cross. "Don't make me say 'I told you so' when she's not back tomorrow morning and Jane is after both of your necks."
"My neck?" Rigsby parroted. "Why my neck?"
"You are the one who thought you saw that guy at the bar." Kris continued. "And how much do you want to bet that he is behind her disappearance, because there are no such things as coincidences." Rigsby frowned. "I'm sure Jane wouldn't be too happy if he found out you didn't kill the bastard on the spot, given your history with him."
"O'Laughlin wouldn't do anything to Lisbon, would he?" Rigsby consulted with Cho. "It's not in his nature."
"Why not?" Kris argued. "You told me he betrayed the crew."
"It just isn't." Rigsby answered. "Craig O'Laughlin can be considered various things; a womanizer, a traitor and a liar…but he's not stupid enough to put his hands on the first mate." Kris eyed him.
"Can you tell me where she is then?" Neither said anything. "See? You can't."
"Maybe we should gather the crew and search the island….just to be safe?" Rigsby suggested. "It couldn't hurt."
"Fine." Cho nodded. "We'll search the entire island." Kris, Cho and Rigsby hurried off the ship and back to the still open Salty Ana, before anybody spoke again.
"We'll search the alleyways next to here." Cho conceded. "Rigsby, Kris—take the left alleyway, I'll take the right." Kris almost groaned, but she knew finding Lisbon was more important than any annoyances caused by her personal feelings toward the partnership. Cho had ordered the rest of the crew (sans Jane) to search the outer lying parts of the inhabited island while they had agreed to search the areas around the bar.
Kris stepped into the alleyway behind Rigsby, before she glanced at him and he glanced at her.
"I'll search way down there." Rigsby pointed toward the exit door and high glass window of the Salty Ana. Kris shrugged.
"Whatever." Kris glanced down at the narrow dirt path and back up at the brick walls; she could only imagine the number of scandalous things that had occurred in the alleyway outside the bar, when Rigsby dashed past her without an apology. She huffed in pure annoyance. "We're pirates not cannibals." Kris hurried after him and caught up to Rigsby and Cho, as Cho quickly explained he hadn't found Lisbon or anything related to her behind the right side of the building. Kris opened her mouth to respond when Rigsby opened his own fisted hand and in the very center of his palm, remained a wrinkled and dirty blue bandana; the same one Lisbon had worn the very last time they had each seen her.
And in the distance, a storm continued to approach.
