Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
Finish one fic, start a new one.
It was late that night when they arrived at dry land. Their Captain was tired from an afternoon of both running her ship and taking care of her 3 year old son. She wanted nothing more than to find a soft bed for the night and maybe some warm food in her stomach. Taking the young boy's hand she led him to one of the nicer pubs in town. They sat at a table near the door and ordered a little something that both of them could nibble on before bed. Before Elizabeth knew it, her little Will was falling asleep at the table so she quickly brought him to bed upstairs before coming back down to finish her dessert.
The door to the pub suddenly opened and a man walked in. He wasn't ugly in appearance and didn't seem like the type to even like alcohol as his clothes were entirely too neat and everything about him a little too perfect. His hair was long and brown and from a distance he almost resembled Will. Almost but not quite.
His eyes seemed to find Elizabeth immediately as he made his way towards her. "Mind if I sit here?" he asked.
"Not at all," she said after a few moments.
The man motioned for the barkeep to send rum to the table as he turned back to her. "I'm Evan," he said extending his hand to her over her cup of milk that was to go with her pie.
She took it and shook it. "Elizabeth."
"Pretty name for a pretty woman."
Elizabeth blushed at his comment but refrained from saying anything.
"So, tell me a little about yourself Elizabeth," he said picking up his bottle.
Elizabeth didn't really want to tell this man anything but deciding to be polite she drank from her glass of milk and told him whatever small bits from her life that she always told strangers. She made sure not to mention the important things such as the fact that her husband was Captain of a ship that ferries the dead to the afterlife or that she was Pirate King.
The more she spoke though, the more she noticed she was beginning to get a headache.
"Are you alright?" Evan asked when she suddenly lurched forward into unconsciousness.
The next morning she found herself waking up in a strange bed alone. She wasn't in her room and she realized she was naked under the sheets."Oh no. Oh God no," she whispered to herself as she picked up her clothes which had been thrown carelessly next to the bed where someone else had been.
Walking as though she were a zombie, Elizabeth exited the room and walked into the one she knew to be her own. Her son was still asleep and she had no desire to wake him as she went to the corner of the room and slowly slid down it crying and wondering just what had happened after everything went black.
Nine Months Later -"Keep pushing Madam; keep pushing."
Elizabeth pushed harder and she heard crying.
"Congratulations Miss. It's a healthy girl," the midwife said placing a blanket with a child in her arms.
Her son was under the care of Tai Huang today. Her crew knew what had happened and never spoke of it in front of the boy.
The child in her arms, the one with the tuft of brown hair atop her head who cooed to herself, knew not that she was not a product of love but of pain.
But she was Elizabeth's child.
A child who had those same eyes of the man she met in the pub months earlier.
Elizabeth wanted nothing more than to give this child a nurturing home but she knew that every time she looked into her eyes, she'd see him.
When Elizabeth first discovered her pregnancy, all she could think of were two things: Will and the child. Elizabeth both wanted the child and did not want it as horrible as that sounded.
She could have gotten rid of it but the thought of it made her very, very sick.
So she went through with the pregnancy and had the baby. The girl who now sat in her arms. There was only one thing she could do now with this beautiful girl, she thought to herself before getting out of bed. She placed her into a crib that still sat beside her bed from when William was born and went over to her desk to write out the letter.
The next evening she stood outside of the house with little Eve in her arms. This was the hardest thing in the world for Elizabeth but it needed to be done."Perhaps you'll find a family to love you in a way that I cannot at the moment. I am so sorry Eve," she said, her eyes tearing up.
Elizabeth laid one final kiss on the girl's forehead and reached into her pocket to retrieve the letter she'd written. She knocked on the door and vanished behind a tree. She watched as the door opened and a man with a lit candle and his wife who was over his shoulder looked all around before looking down to find the small baby. The woman picked the child up and they disappeared inside. Elizabeth couldn't take it anymore as she ran to her home.
The Empress was docked and she boarded to find Tai waiting for her.
"Everything is prepared Captain."
Elizabeth nodded to him and went into her cabin to be alone.
Elizabeth awoke and looked around. She was at her home and Will laid beside her. It was seven years ago today that she gave up her only daughter.
A child born of rape.
She had not been back to that island since then. Was little Eve still there today? Elizabeth had not told Will of what had happened and she was unsure as to why? Was it because she was embarrassed? Was it because she was unsure if Will would believe her? He had returned to her when she was worried he would not. What she had done with that man had not been consensual and as such she still held her faith to Will. No Elizabeth decided.
Tomorrow she would tell him of what happened. Then perhaps they would try to find Eve. Elizabeth wanted to know about the little baby who was one day old when she lost her and she was sure Will would as well. Hopefully.