Alex tried very hard to ignore Vane now that he seemed to be recovering. He still had a limp, three days after the fight in that dirty little alley. Not that Alex noticed or something, not that she was creepily stalking him from afar. She just happened to look at him a lot.

But, in her defence, the man was being suspicious as fuck. Not only he did a fair amount of staring of his own, he kept coming close like he was going to talk to her, but ended walking pass her all the times he did that, scaring the ever-loving piss out of her family, to the point where Sam asked her if Vane had threatened her life again, and if she wanted him to talk to miss Eleanor for protection. After what Vane said to the hallucination of Eleanor Guthrie in his tent, Alex would rather eat her boots.

Vane would appear from out of the blue when she was done working at the docks, watching over her family and their playful banter. Alex would blink and he would be gone, but he always came back. Then, whenever her family couldn't walk her home from the tavern, Vane mysteriously appeared like magic after she left town, and walked at least a hundred paces behind her all the way till she got home.

Alex wanted to even things out, and it just made them even worse.

It was her desire of fixing things up, or at least make them slightly better for the sake of her family's sanity, that made her be standing awkwardly in front of the brothel that was now owned by Vane, Rackham and Bonny. Everyone was talking about how Mister Noonan had sold the thing to them to settle the whore problem they had, but Alex knew the truth, hidden in a dirty alley and showered in blood. In the end her plan of waiting patiently in the shadows for Vane went out of the window as the Madame, that horrible old woman covered in makeup and full of self-importance saw what she thought was a young man trying very hard not to be notice at the door, and dragged her inside with a dashing smile and promises of pleasure beyond her imagination.

So now Alex was trying very hard not to faint or throw up while surrounded by half naked women and a Madame that offered girl after girl no matter how much Alex said she wasn't interested. The moment Alex saw Vane on top of the stairs, it wasn't only the man she had been waiting for, for half her morning, but it was a life line to escape from the whores downstairs. Vane was looking at her as one girl tried to shove her face down to her uncovered bosom. Alex practically ran upstairs, and Vane moved to greet her. She was panting. "Hi" she said, somehow, shyer than she expected. Vane, to her surprise, averted his eyes, and honest to god blushed. "Hi there, eehr, Bunny" Alex took a deep breath and offered him a kind smile " I kind of wanted to talk to you" his eyes darted to her face for a second before they found the wall behind her incredibly interesting "Sure, sure thing, ah, Here?" He was nervous. He was nervous! Even more than she was!

Alex couldn't believe it. "If you want?" she said. Vane then took her hand and dragged her away. Alex stumbled behind him, and he seemed to realize what he was doing, and abruptly let her go. "Sorry Bunny, forgot you don't like people touching you" Alex was staring to get nervous. Charles Vane been self-conscious, god grief it was the apocalypse. On the other hand, she saw the man throwing his guts out and crying like a babe because of Eleanor Guthrie, so, there was that. "Follow me" Vane said, and entered a room at their right. For good or bad, Alex went in right after him.

Inside the room, Vane took seat in one couch that faced a balcony from which the bay looked lovelier than ever, sparkling blue water and golden sand under the sun. It even looked respectable, if one pretended the ships floating in the sea were merchants instead of pirates. "So" Vane said, looking quite uncomfortable "What did you wanted to talk about?" Alex felt her heart pounding in her chest like a wild thing. "I just… wanted to know if you were okay?" Vane's eyes focused on hers for a moment, and she saw raw desperation in there "Did Eleanor sent you?"

Alex felt bad, she even thought of lying to him, but that would have been cruel and he didn't deserve it. "No" He looked away at the bay. Alex felt pretty uncomfortable, the silence stretched to the point she felt the urge to fill it somehow. "I was worried" she admitted. Vane nearly broke his neck from turning around so hard. "You? Why?" Alex felt herself blush, the level of awkwardness was pretty high. "I have been asking myself that for a couple of weeks now" she sighed "I don't really know, I just feel like you are worth more than dying in the middle of your own filth because of Eleanor Guthrie" she flinched after saying that last part, sure she had messed up big time. It was just common sense not to badmouth Eleanor Guthrie or even speak of her with the tone Alex used, not in front of Charles Vane.

Vane let out a sad laugh. Self-depreciating, if a laugh could be like that "Bunny, you are a funny one" Alex rubbed his left arm with her right hand "Listen, erh, Captain Vane? Listen, just, What I saw on that tent? You are pretty decent, I mean, for a pirate, you see? So, It would be a damn shame you kicked the bucket like that"

"In my own filth?" he chuckled. Alex nodded. Vane got up like someone had lighted the cushion on fire. He knelt in front of a drawer and brought to Alex something hidden away in his closed fist. One of his hand was hiding behind his back. "Look Bunny, I kind of remember stuff that I'm pretty sure It wasn't real, and I kind of remember stuff that I'm pretty sure it's more possible it really happened" He took another step forward towards Alex, and she had trouble breathing properly. He extended the closed fist towards her "Thanks Bunny, but keep it, you might need it, if you get in more fights" it was the ointment can. Vane looked so uncomfortable that Alex lost no time in retrieving the small can and shoving it back in her pocket. She wouldn't admit it, but she had missed toying with it when she was thinking in this and that. "How did you know it was me?" Vane shook his head "Look Bunny, it was pretty clear it was you, I made that thing, it's impossible someone else has one with that smell" Alex just muttered a soft "Oh, okay" and averted her eyes, looking anywhere but Vane. She felt a little bit ashamed for making the question. Of course he would have known it was hers. He gave it to her.

Wait. He made that himself? Alex's heart fluttered. Oh, oh. That was… He had thought he had hurt a boy, and the man before her took the time to make him some ointment, put it on a can, track the boy down and gave it to him. That was… a sweeter gesture than she had thought. Vane, for all his roughness, was surprisingly soft in the inside.

Vane then brought forward the hand he had kept hidden behind his back. Her blue scarf, clean once again, not a trace of dirt or body fluids. Alex gasped. Vane smiled at her reaction. "I wanted to give it back, but it got dirty again. Sorry, tried to clean it the best I could" Alex took it, and their hands briefly touched, and a spark of something went thought Alex's arm and straight to her belly. She bit back a whimper and took the scarf to put it around her neck. It even smelled nice. Alex wondered if Vane had someone wash it or if he had washed it himself. Probably, he had, like he had made the ointment himself. Alex resisted the impulse of snuggling in her scarf. That man was going to give her cavities. She wanted to smile as wide as she could, but she resisted.

"Come, Bunny" Vane said, and guided her to another chair so she could sit down. For the first time she notice the food on the small table between the chairs. Vane sat, and cut a piece of bread and some cheese and gave it to her, gesturing towards the other chair "Here, you need to eat or you'll be a runt forever" Alex huffed and puffed, but sat and ate the food she was given. "I ain't no runt, and my name, is Alex, not Bunny" Vane laughed. "Well, you look like one. A rabid bunny. Cute and small and fierce" She blushed and resorted to eat a big bite, so she wouldn't have to answer that.

"Answer me this, Alex boy, How come I never saw you at Guthrie's after she fucked me up? Not that I was allowed in, you see, but I went by to get some rum and you weren't there" Alex averted her eyes, uncomfortable. If he asked the right questions, she would spill. She knew it. It wasn't in her nature to lie. But she had to. She had been lying most of her life. She could look at Charles Vane's trusting eyes and lie at his face "I caught a cold" she said "just that" Alex hoped he would be satisfied with that. "A cold that lasted two weeks?" Alex sighed "Close to three. Miss Guthrie was very nice to let me keep my job after being absent so long. I'll not bathe in cold water in a very, very long time, you can be sure of it" When he just nodded and grabbed an apple to munch on, she barely could held the sigh of relief. Vane just watched her eat as he finished his apple "Bunny? How is your chest?" he said. Alex flinched. "It's fine. I mean, not great, because I did my best to cough myself to death, but it's fine" "You don't have to tell me if you feel uncomfortable" "Why would I feel uncomfortable?" she asked. Alex was confused. Vane shrugged. "I was pretty self-conscious about the beatings at your age. Didn't like other to see that I could be beat like that. Made me look weak. You want to look strong so they don't kick your ass" Alex laughed "nah, you got me good, but believe me, not many can do that, we all take care of each other, Guthrie's men, you see?" Tom and the other wouldn't have let her get hurt.

Vane nodded taking another bite of the apple and staring at the distance. "Sometimes there are things a guy doesn't want to tell others, not especially those he works with" He said and pinned Alex down with his stare. " Sometimes admitting you are getting beat without being able to make it stop is hard" Alex was feeling weird. And she had no idea what he was talking about.

"What?" she croaked. Vane gave her more food. "If someone doing that to you?" he gestured towards her chest. Alex looked down to the bandages hidden under her clothes. Was he insinuating what she thought he was insinuating? She swallowed the mouthful of fruit she was chewing on. "Wait. Wait, wait, wait. Wait. Are you asking me if I'm being bullied?" She couldn't believe it. She may not be the biggest, strongest fighter around. Or the most skilled, or the bravest. But god damn it, she was able to hold her own on a fight. At least until one of the other men came to help, or her brothers could lend her a hand. And who in hell, or Nassau, in this case, was so crazy as to try and bully someone working for Eleanor Guthrie? Vane shrugged. "I don't know Bunny, Are you?" "No, no no no. Even if I was, that wouldn't last long. Eleanor Guthrie is my employer. She may not give a shit about me personally, but I'm one of her men. An aggression towards me is a sign of disrespect for her. And she doesn't take that kindly. She would rip the bully a new one. And my family may not be big, or scary or really skilled when it comes to fighting. But they would rip apart whoever dares to hurt me. We are tight"

"I noticed. Your brothers give me the stink eye every time we met, brave lads, don't like they little brother keeping bad company like myself. Stupid, but brave. Your mama must be proud" Alex winced. "She would be" Vane stopped on his way to take another apple from the table. "You don't know?" Alex shook her head "She died when I was six. I still remember her, You know? This gentle soothing voice, and the shinning wavy hair. She liked to sing" Vane looked at the bay, and Alex looked at her hands. There was a moment of silence. "I lost my mother as a kid too. I don't know if she's still alive. They took me from her arms, and beat her down when she scream at them to give me back to her" Alex couldn't help herself. "What happened to you?" Vane turned to look at her. Defiant. "They sold me" He said. And shove aside his shirt to show her the mark burnt into his flesh. "I escaped, joined a crew. Made a life for myself. I never looked back"

Alex shuddered. Her brothers talked to her about slavery to scare her when she was a child. What an awful thing. In Nassau, Slaves where common in the plantations of the inside of the island, the oh so called civilized part. But as you got closed to the one controlled by the Pirates, Slavery was something no one liked to flaunt around, since a big part of the crews were made from runaways and freed slaves, and they didn't look kindly to slave masters. She still remembered the dark tales they told her, of what happened to slaves, of how she should always be with her family so their horrible slave hunters won't catch her.

"That… That's awful" Alex said. She felt she had to say something, and it was the truth. Vane chuckled "Yeah, but you don't know about awful Aye? You live a good life, a nice life, with your family" He said. He sounded mocking and envious. Alex smiled. She couldn't deny it. Bitterly, she replied "Aye, if you don't count the part where my Ma was killed when I was six, while my brothers and I tried not to breathe to loud so we wouldn't get caught, but yeah" Alex didn't know why she had told Vane. She never talked about her mother's death. No one mentioned it. Ever. Her father couldn't even say her name out loud. Vane gave her a strange look, Alex blurted out "At least none of our mothers left us behind because they wanted to. Though, well, at least I wasn't a slave" Vane's eyes went wide as saucers and then laughed himself silly. "Bunny… Alex? You are weird" "I refuse to be called weird by someone like you" that only made him laugh harder.

"Was it hard? As a slave?" Vane shrugged "Couldn't tell. They made us work, they beat us up, they fed us enough. Can't compare to what a kid is supposed to do. And you? Was it hard, without mother?" It was Alex's turn to shrug "I was six… I just… Sometimes is sad. When one of us wakes up screaming. That of all the good things she gave us we will always remember first her death" Vane looked at her for a second, took a deep breath and look to the horizon. "They used to whip us. Night and day. Sometimes to work faster, sometimes for the hell of it. I was glad when I grew up. Kids get the worst jobs. Cleaning the chimneys or the letrine were the easy ones. Sometimes they made us bring water to the labourers and the guards. One may think is an easy task, but, the slaves know they can hurt you, and they are the only ones they can hurt. The guards beat you up if they think you are too slow. You have to run back and forth through the fields with all that water at your back, without a rest, or a sip" He felt silent, and Alex took it as a sign to talk.

" We would wake up screaming. Sam, Joe and I shared a bed until I was fifteen. To keep the nightmares away. Anyway, our house is not that big. The screaming wakes us all up. It's just… pirates came further inland. A raid. And there was this little place my parents put important stuff in… It could fit us three, but not my mom. She just closed the lid, put the table back in place over the hole, and… stood there. Sam told me to close my eyes, and covered my ears. But I could hear the screaming. And their laughter. It went on, and on, and on… until it stopped. We stayed down there until father came back from work and let us out. He had put her in their bed. He covered her up and wouldn't let us see her. She died a couple of days later. We moved closer to Nassau and father started working for the Guthries. For protection. And I… well. Life was messed up. Is messed up. But well, that's life".

Vane was looking at her with a thunderous expression. Alex was asking herself what did she do wrong when she felt the tears running down her cheeks. Vane moved forward and kneeled before her. "Hey there Bunny" he said softly. He cradled her face between his big callused hands. He was frowning. A worried expression in his face. He shushed her as he wiped the tears that flowed freely from her eyes. "Hey, hey shhhh, it's fine, it's fine, let it out" She sobbed "I'm not the only one who has had a shitty life" Vane grimaced "That doesn't mean your shitty life is less painful, or that you shouldn't cry" she tried to free herself from the tightness in her throat, but kept sobbing. She stared at Vane's eyes and lost herself on their blue depths. "We can't even say her name, father hasn't called her by her name in years" Vane looked at her face for a moment, and then, barely a whisper, he asked "What was your mother's name?" Alex could feel the full blown tearfest coming. She tried to stay calm. "Elisabeth". Vane closed his eyes, breathed in. The hands around her face moved, one around her neck and another around her back. He yanked and she fell into his chest. "It's a pretty name, bet she was a pretty woman" he muttered into her hair as they embraced.

Alex cried and cried for what it felt like hours, sobbing her sadness and babbling about her mother. All the things she couldn't ask her family. All the whys and whats and whos she never was able to voice. She would have liked to tell him right there and then about the decision her father had made for her, the decision she had kept on her own free will once she grew up. She was dying to tell someone. Anyone.

In the end she managed to somehow stop crying. At some point Charles grew tired of being on his knees and had maneuverer them into a better position. He was on the floor, legs spread, back against the couch he had been sitting on, and Alex was lying in the space between his legs, curled with her hands around his neck, sobbing in his shoulder. Even when she stopped crying, Charles kept holding her. She turned her head so her nose was touching the skin of his neck. And if she sniffed him a little, well, no one had to know.

"Do you cry about the shit in your life too?" she asked. About being a slave? About… about Eleanor? Vane tensed. He pet her hair. "Sometimes Bunny, even a pirate has to cry" Alex fised her eyes on what she could see of him. His hair and his ear, the line of his jaw. The stubble. " Why does this keep happening?" Charles laughed, and it shook them both. "I don't know Bunny, Who knows why does those bad things happen again and again? Life sucks." Alex turned her head and closed her eyes. "Not that. We keep meeting, we keep… talking" Charles shrugged and the movement shook her head from his shoulder. She moved, and he relaxed his embrace so she could look at him in the eye.

He moved his hand to put an errant strand of hair behind her ear "I don't know Bunny. You are a half-pint lad with not even a hair on your face that managed to put me to sleep. I was drunk, but you managed. I respect that. You care for your family and work hard. You are a good lad. Good things don't happen often to good lads. Especially not here. Hell not anywhere. I don't want you to get hurt" Alex felt herself blush.

"Anyway, I clearly remember you chasing after me like a baby duckling" Alex's eyes went big as saucers. "I… just… I didn't know you were nice! It was a surprise! For a pirate, you have a surprisingly gentlemanny moral code. And, well, for a single fearsome pirate I know that's actual pretty decent… I didn't want you to get hurt either" She forced herself not to look away from Charles. Mainly because she tended to look down and right below was his crotch. Not really a good place to stare at the moment. "I remember you, in the tent" Alex blushed bright red "Don't do that ever again Charles Vane, or I will personally beat you to death. You are strong. You only need to find a way to show it to everyone. That she didn't break you. That she may be the queen of this island, but you pirates are allies, not subjects to toy around with" She was getting more and more winded up with every word "You deserve better. She may have the rest of us by the balls. But you? You have a chance to be more than a pawn. Use it" she was close to panting, the bandages tight against her flesh with every breath. "And you should forget her. She's mean. Really mean. That's not a heart that she has in her chest. That's a rock. I bet she doesn't even float. She… she can't love. Love is not using people and stepping on their heads, and discarding them" Vane let out a sarcastic laugh. "you know much about love?" "No. Nothing. At least not about that kind of love. But I know about other kind of love. But all have something in common. You don't harm those you love. Not even those you no longer love" "Bunny…" Vane hugged her tightly and then they stared at each other.

They were having a beautiful moment staring into each other's eyes, when the tolling of a bell interrupted them. Alex flinched. That was Miss Eleanor's call for her men. All her men. She carefully rose. "I have to go, she's calling all her men in" Vane arched an eyebrow "And you are one of her men?" he said, emphasising the word men. He was lying there, looking up at her with surprise on his face. Alex shrugged "It's honest work, and she pays me handsomely for doing it" She turned to go, when Vane found is voice again "Be careful Bunny! Those men out there will not care that you are a half pint" She nodded and left, hearing him getting up. Alex exited the whorehouse with big strides towards the Bar.

The entrance was packed. Every Guthrie man was trying to navigate the sea of bodies, to reach their posts, while the pirates hollered for Eleanor Guthrie's blood. Alex tried to sneak in, as Captain Lillywhite screamed nonsense to all who would listen. She finally got in and Tom directed her towards the balcony, where other two were ready with guns in their hands. She grimaced. "I'm not a good shot" she told Tom "Alex, lad, if they get inside, it will be five to one, and you are not that good with a blade" she growled. She could shot, but she was way better with a sword in her hand. Tom was right, she wasn't skilled enough that she would fare better five to one with a sword. She sighed. Alex took a gun and got ready to shoot if needed. She knew who she was going to shoot first. Lillywhite.

A move in front of her. She looked up and saw Charles Vane looking from the brothel, cigarette in hand, casually resting his arms on the rails. Oh god, he looked so handsome. No. no. Bad brain. Bad heart. Important stuff was going on. Vane crossed looks with her, and he inclined his head at her, and winked. Alex smiled. If what he had said earlier was true, Vane had her back. Not that he could do much against a mob, but it made her feel better, knowing that he at least would try.

They heard a small commotion down stairs and Eleanor Guthrie came into the street to announce screaming that the crew of the Ranger was free of her ban and that Captain Vane was allowed to hunt again. Alex smiled was brighter than the sun, and she searched for Vane. But he was nowhere in sight.

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