Flint shouldn't have shot Henry. He shouldn't have shot him. It had been wrong. Entirely uncontrolled. Overreacting. Plain stupid! They would vote Flint off, surely. Why wouldn't they? A captain who shoots a man of his crew, just because he had insulted him? That's not a reason to shoot someone. He could've punched him. Yes. That would have been an appropriate reaction. But no! He had to shoot him point-blank. How on earth was Silver supposed to fix that?

"Did you see what Flint just did?" Billy asked, when he saw Silver approach him. "I can't believe it. That man is insane! How can he shoot a member of his own crew, simply because the man was rude to him? What will happen next? He shoots you because he thinks you looked at him in a funny way?"

Billy ran a hand over his face and noticed that there was blood on it. Henrys blood. He groaned. "You know, I was defending Flint...just seconds before he shot Henry. But why do I even bother?!"

"Yeah, about that...what was it all about? I mean your fight with Henry. The whole crew has been kind of strange this afternoon. What's going on?"

Billy sighed and started to explain. "Well, there is some guy in the tavern. He claims to know Flint, says that they served together in the Navy. He's a talker that one, I tell you that. He readily tells everyone the story about Flint's scandalous past in London and why he was thrown out of the Navy and apparently even out of London. And unfortunately, more than half of the crew believes him. Which is a huge problem. If this continues, and if all of the men decide to believe those stories, Flint won't have a crew anymore...that is, if shooting Henry hasn't done the trick yet."

"And what's the scandalous thing about Flint's past?" Silver asked and was quite surprised about Billy's reaction. All of a sudden he seemed nervous and at a loss for words. "Ah, you know...I haven't heard the whole story yet. Just snippets and...ah...then Henry approached me, and besides...it's all lies anyway."

Silver frowned. What a strange reaction. Of course Billy knew more than just snippets, it was painfully obvious. Still, he knew he wouldn't get anymore out of him, so he decided to drop the subject.

"Well, I think I have to pay that stranger a visit myself. Hear the stories first hand." Silver smiled at Billy, who relaxed visibly, glad that he wouldn't have to tell him the whole story. But then Billy's gaze fell upon the corpse in front of him and he tensed again.

"You have to do something about this, Silver. Flint can't just kill everyone on the crew who insults or verbally confronts him. That's not how it works."

"I know. I'll go and talk to him right away."

Silver sighed inwardly. What was he supposed to say to Flint? 'Don't do this again?' Yeah, right. As if Flint would listen to him.

In moments like this, he hated to be quartermaster.

As Silver started to walk towards the Captain's hut, he had to admit that he felt slightly afraid. Ever since the disaster in Charlestown, Flint had been different, moodier and more violent. He seemed like a ticking time bomb and Silver sure as hell didn't want to be the one to set it off, or even be in the near vicinity when somebody else made that mistake.

There he was, in front of the door and couldn't decide what to do next. Should he knock and ask for permission to enter, or should he rather appear confident and resolute and barge in unannounced?

Suddenly, Silver heard a strange noise from inside the hut and it bewildered him immensely. Well, he had heard it countless times coming from other people, but never from Captain Flint.

Silver quickly pushed the door open and hurried inside. And there, in the middle of the room was Flint on hands and knees, throwing up.

Silver couldn't move, although he knew that he was supposed to do something, anything...get him a bucket, maybe some water, a cloth, say something, turn away to give the man some privacy...but he couldn't. Silver stood there and stared. Flint seemed so weak in this moment, so vulnerable, so...human, so very unlike the cold-hearted, calculating monster that they got to see day in, day out.

The retching stopped and Silver still couldn't move. What was wrong with him?!

With a low groan, Flint sat down and pushed himself backwards to the nearest wall and leaned against it. He wiped his mouth with his sleeve, looked at Silver, moaned and said hoarsely: "Don't you ever knock?"

What a relief! He had expected something like 'what are you doing?', or 'why are you staring at me?', and honestly, he wouldn't have had the faintest idea how to answer those questions.

"Apparently not,...no", Silver said slowly and frowned when he noticed how pale Flint was. Sweat was dripping from his brows and he was shaking as well. "Should I get Howell?"

"Nah, it's nothing. It'll pass."

Silver walked towards the desk. He poured some water into a cup, went over to the captain and handed it to him.

Flint took it with a slight nod. His hands were shaking so much that water spilled onto his shirt as he raised the cup to his lips. He drank up and tried to put the empty cup next to him on the floor but it toppled over because his hands were still shaking violently.

"Yeah, that doesn't look like nothing. Sure I shouldn't get Howell?" Silver tried again.

"I said it'll pass", came the growled reply, accompanied by a look that made Silver feel the need to flee from this place immediately. Why did that look still work on him? And besides, he was standing, while the captain was sitting on the floor, shaking and miserable, and yet...Flint managed to stare him down. This was...

"What are you doing here?"

The question interrupted Silver's train of thought and he wasn't quite sure how to answer it. He had a hard time recalling why he came here in the first place. What was he doing here, indeed?

"Uhm.." Oh, yes. He remembered. He was here because of what the captain had done to Henry. Silver took a deep breath. Was he afraid? Maybe. To some extent. A little bit...

"I'm here to tell you that you did a very stupid thing."

Flint frowned but said nothing, so Silver continued. "And that thing will cost you your captaincy, because frankly, I have no clue how to turn this around. You shot Henry, point blank, in front of the whole crew and simply because he insulted you. That is no reason to shoot someone. You could have punched him instead. Anything would have been better than killing him. I mean come on. What will be next? You kill someone just because that person looked at you in a weird way? You can understand, that the crew will not feel safe after witnessing this. They are probably voting for a new captain as we speak."

"Why was he so angry?"

"Beg your pardon?"

Flint rolled his eyes and explained impatiently: "Henry. He was arguing with Billy. What was it about?"

"Well, that was actually the second thing I wanted to talk to you about, but...aren't you concerned that you'll probably lose your crew?"

Flint took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Through gritted teeth he said slowly: "Just tell me."

All of a sudden Silver began to sweat a bit more but he told himself that it was simply getting hotter inside the hut. He wasn't nervous. No way.

"Alright. There is a stranger in the tavern, telling stories about you. He claims to know you. Apparently you have served together in the Navy. However, the stories he tells are upsetting the men. Their behaviour was pretty weird this afternoon. No one wants to talk to me about the content of those stories, not even Billy. Anyway, the fight between Henry and Billy was about that. Henry feared that what the stranger in the tavern told him was true and Billy told him that it wasn't. That's all I know."

Flint's reaction to his explanation confused him. Silver didn't know that it was possible for Flint to look even more miserable than he had after throwing up. But here he was, white as a sheet, slumped shoulders and an expression on his face that could only be described as desperation.

What the fuck was going on?

There was no response, no instruction, not even a nod. Flint turned his head a bit so that he wasn't looking at Silver anymore and continued staring at the wall instead. That was all that happened.

"Uhm...well...My plan is to visit the tavern, in order to find out who this stranger is and to hear what he has to say about you. But whatever it was that he has told your crew, it had a huge impact on them. And together with your rash act minutes ago, I suspect your days as captain are numbered. However, I'll try my best to fix it. You should stay here until I return from the tavern. I can't tell what the men would do to you if they saw you on the street."

There was no reaction at all, so Silver said a bit louder: "Captain?!"

Flint turned his head slowly towards him and stared at him with a glazy look. Silver couldn't tell if the captain was actually focusing on him or if he was still lost in his own thoughts.

"Did you hear what I said to you?" Nothing happened. And that alien stare started to make Silver even more nervous. So he reached out with one hand and slightly squeezed Flint's shoulder. "Flint?"

Finally this had an effect. The captain closed his eyes, lowered his head and then he noticed Silver's hand on his shoulder. "What are you doing?" He growled. And even though Silver feared for the safety of his hand, he was glad that Flint seemed to be back. He let go of the captain's shoulder and said: "Sorry, but you weren't responsive. What's going on with you? And don't say 'nothing', because I have never seen you like this."

Flint didn't answer the question. Instead he got up and glared at him defiantly. "I'm fine. Now go and find out who that fucking storyteller is."

It was probably unwise to point out to the captain, that he was still shaking all over. And having to lean heavily against the wall for support was another sign of not being fine. But what the heck, if Flint wanted to act like a stubborn idiot...Silver shrugged his shoulders and sighed. "All right."