A/N: Warning this chapters a bit angsty, and it does contain a death scene but its not graphic.

Chapter Four

No one saw much of Eleanor in the days leading up to the execution of Captain Lilywhite. Nassau was all a buzz with excitement for the execution, especially since the island was populated with murderers and thieves it was uncommon for anyone to actually be punished for any of these crimes. But the attempted assassination of a Guthrie was a crime that needed punishing. If Eleanor hadn't called for it, then it would have been done anyway.

"Will you go to the fort?" Scott asked softly. It was the day before the execution and Eleanor had spent most of the day trying to drown that fact with a bottle of rum.

"I'll be expected to go." Eleanor said by way of answer.

"You should sleep. You haven't in days." Scott knew how much Eleanor hated him keeping a watch on her nocturnal activities but she could not blame him. He knew when she retired from her office, usually in the early hours of the morning she didn't sleep. Hadn't gotten more than a few hours total and it was starting to show.

"You know whenever my mind was troubled Max would take me up to her room, at first it was torture because she would not let me kiss her until I told her what weighed on my mnid. Then, when opening up to her became easier we would fuck for hours, and then just before I fell asleep I would tell her everything. Nothing seemed too big or too bad when I was with her." Eleanor said knowing Scott was probably sick to death of hearing about Max. He had given her all the advice he had.

"Eleanor…"

"She still hasn't given me an answer. Doesn't she realize what this is doing to me? Not knowing? Seeing her with them every night…"

"This is driving you mad. You must rest."

"It's the middle of the day." Eleanor insisted.

"No one will fault you for it. You are getting no work done anyway." Eleanor looked up from her desk, knowing Scott was right but not wanting to admit it.

"Charles wanted to see me today. He said it was important." Eleanor argued.

"Captain Vane can wait until you have rested."

"What's the point? I'll go up to my room and lay there and think about the man about to be put to death tomorrow. Sick isn't it? Feeling remorse for the man who tried to kill me. Guess I have gone crazy."

"Here. Take this." Scott said handing Eleanor a small vile of clear liquid.

"What is it?"

"It will help you sleep. It's potent; take it once you are in bed." Scott explained.

"Where did you get it?"

"Traded for it."

"Thank you Mr. Scott."

Scott waited until Eleanor had succumbed to the effects of the drug before leaving her. He needed to have a talk with Max. He had tried to stay out of it. But seeing Eleanor begin to crumble, he could no longer keep quiet. Max was not hard to find, she usually stayed with Anne and Rackham. Especially since Noonan had begun talking openly about reclaiming Max so she could work off her debt. Since Vane's crew held no claim to her anymore. Max was sitting at a table with Rackham and Anne, but it was Rackham that noticed him first.

"Ah Mr. Scott, come to issue summons to the Queen's office?" Rackham asked having expected to be present when Vane told Eleanor about what they had discovered about her father.

"May I have a word with you?" Scott asked Max. The dark haired woman was surprised at first but then stood to follow. He took them into Eleanor's now empty office and shut the door.

"Is she alright?" Max knew if Scott wanted to talk to her it was about Eleanor.

"As far from it as I have ever seen. And it is all your doing." Scott said seeing the indignation cross over Max's face.

"Excuse me?" Max demanded.

"Eleanor is trying to keep Nassau afloat, reconcile the execution tomorrow, and still trying to heal. The last thing she needs her head filled up with is you." Scott explained harshly.

"What fills Eleanor's mind is of no concern to Max."

"Tell yourself that all you wish. But you cared about her once and if you care about her at all now, do not continue to do this to her. Reconcile or part ways. I do not care which but make your choice so that she can move on." Max heard the words and wanted to fight Scott on it. How dare he command her to do anything? What right did he have?

"Do you think she is the only one that is suffering?" Max cried. She didn't expect him to care about her. His concern had always been Eleanor. But how could he not see that Max was suffering too.

"No. What happened to you was horrible and you feel that she betrayed you. And maybe she did. But she did not throw you to those men on the beach, she did not force you to make that agreement with Vane and his crew to make up the pearls you lost them. You did that. She tried to make it right with you time and again. I have always tried to teach Eleanor the importance of balancing between work and love; it was what her mother would have wanted her to be taught. But she has always been too head strong for that. I do not relish the idea of coming to you but Eleanor will take any punishment you throw at her because she thinks she deserves it. She knows how she hurt you so she will take it. I am asking you, begging you even, not to endure much more." Scott pleaded seeing Max soften.

"She is suffering that much? It never shows."

"And it likely never will. Until it consumes her."

"So what should I do?"

"Do you love her?"

"Yes." Max confessed looking up at Scott her eyes glistening with tears.

"Can you forgive her?"

"I don't know."

"Then let her go. Let her find peace."

"And what if I cannot?" Scott sighed, he had been afraid this might happen.

"I have known Eleanor her whole life. And she has always been head strong, stubborn and impulsive. She is more likely to throw a punch than sit and talk rationally about a difference of opinion. She leaps based on her gut feelings. Her mother and father tried to rein her in, tried to teach her to be ladylike and demure. All of the things that we both know Eleanor is not. She is a hurricane, a force of nature no one can tame. Except you. You can cut through her rage and calm her like I have never seen before. She looks at you like the sun rises and falls with you. She will hold out hope for your forgiveness until her dying breath. Do you know anyone who will risk losing everything they have to defend your honor? Can you say anyone loves you as much as that? Or ever will?"

Max felt the warmth of tears falling down her cheeks, these were words she did not want to hear but maybe she needed to. She needed to know the stakes with which she was playing. Max had once been a romantic, before reality had forced her to become a pragmatist. When she was a little girl she had wished for a love that Scott was describing. But she had never thought that it would be so hard, that the love that she longed for as a child would come shrouded in so much pain.

"As I said, I hope that your choice is to find it within your heart to forgive her. But whatever you chose, do it quickly." Scott said leaving Max in the office.

Eleanor woke with a start, sitting up faster than she probably should have and the room around her spun. Searching the room for whatever it was that had woken her Eleanor saw Vane sitting at the edge of the bed. Glaring at him, Eleanor relaxed slightly because she knew that he wouldn't harm her, the agitation she felt did not lessen though.

"What are you doing here?" Eleanor demanded rubbing the sleep from her eyes. It was dark out; she had slept well into the night.

"We had an appointment." Vane said.

"I was occupied." Eleanor explained though that fact was obvious enough.

"I know. Scott told me. But it couldn't wait. Though I didn't have the heart to wake you when I got up here." Vane said his voice sounding almost affectionate. She hadn't heard him talk like that since they were still together.

"How long have you been watching me sleep?"

"A few hours. I used to watch you sleep remember?" Vane asked.

"It was significantly more appropriate when we were fucking. What is it you needed to discuss with me?" Eleanor asked wanting to change the subject to a more comfortable one.

"We were great together once." Vane said not allowing Eleanor to change to subject. It wasn't what he had been there for but he couldn't bring himself to tell Eleanor what he really came there for. Not until he knew for certain that Richard had been the one that put Lilywhite up to attempting to kill Eleanor. Hearing that her father was behind the plot would destroy Eleanor.

"Charles…" Eleanor said tiredly.

"We could be again." Eleanor could see the restraint in him, for all his reputation as being one of the cruelest pirates ever to sail the seas Eleanor knew his heart. They were both frighteningly similar. It was part of the reason the two of them were doomed to fail from the beginning.

"I'm sorry Charles. I can't." Eleanor said.

"Because of her?" Vane asked bitterly.

"We were done before Max came along." Eleanor insisted. Eleanor knew that Vane blamed Max for the reason their relationship ended. But they had been slowly spiraling downward for a while.

"I suppose you're right. I suppose I'm just being nostalgic."

"Good night Charles." Eleanor said softly, watching him as he stood and walked towards the door leaving Eleanor to sleep.

Waiting for Vane outside of the bedroom Rackham leaned against the wall.

"What did she say?" Rackham asked curiously matching step with Vane as they walked.

"I didn't tell her."

"You didn't tell her?"

"We need proof before we go throwing accusations about Richard Guthrie."

"How do you intend to find this proof?"

"I'll figure it out. Until then, I want her watched; no one comes near her with intention to harm her." Vane commanded. Rackham sighed; he was going to have a problem selling this to the crew. They were pirates not bodyguards.

"You must not look away. It will be perceived as weakness." Hornigold counseled as they walked through the fort towards the jail. It hadn't been used since the British were still in residence.

"I have every desire to see this man dead Captain. I will not look away." Eleanor stated. Vane watched from a discrete distance of the change in Eleanor from the woman he had seen the night before she was hardened now.

"Keep that hate Miss Guthrie. You'll need it."

All of Nassau had turned out for the hanging, never had Eleanor seen so many people crowding in the square. Never had Eleanor seen so many people crowding in the square. Pirates and barmaids, crews that had every reason to want to start a fight because of the sheer hatred between them, it was a gathering of people who should never be together. Lilywhite stood on the gallows, his hands chained in front of him. Eleanor sat on a platform that had been originally used by the Governor to watch executions.

"Any last words? Surely someone such as yourself will not let the opportunity to be heard pass by." Eleanor watched the old captain shake his head, trembling as he did so. The hangman, one of Hornigold's men looked up at her. His hand on the lever that would drop Lilywhite to his death. She nodded and with the quick release of the wooden joint and the sharp snapping of rope it was done.

Eleanor watched him twitch, watched as the life drained from him until he went still. Down amongst the crowd Max's gaze was on Eleanor, not the dead man whom she had had half a mind to kill herself for what he'd done. Max saw Eleanor's face as collected as a statue; it was the way Eleanor responded when she didn't want anyone to know that something was troubling her deeply. Eleanor was excellent at convincing people she didn't care about the lives of the pirates that surrounded her, and by rights she should actually be pleased what her would be assassin was dead. But Eleanor also had a kind heart.

But the cheers started and soon Max was forced to move out of the way to accommodate the more boisterous of the people who thought that someone's death was worth celebrating. Eleanor didn't have the stomach to stay. Her thoughts running faster than she could make sense of them. Finding her way down to the rocks, hearing the wave's crash against them soothed her some. She stood there looking out at the crystal clear water, the white sand that made this island a paradise. It was her empire.

"Are you alright?" Max asked.

"Fine." Eleanor answered sharply not turning at the voice she'd so craved hearing.

"You cannot lie to Max. Even now." Max said a small smile on her face. Eleanor had never been able to tell Max a convincing lie, there were times when Max decided it was not worth probing for the truth but she always knew.

"Then why ask questions you already know the answer to?" Eleanor asked turning finally to look at Max. Her gaze hard and her bottom lip trembling though Max could not tell if it was rage or sorrow that caused it. Eleanor was on the brink of losing what little bit of composure she had left but she was fighting with every ounce of willpower she had to keep herself collected. Looking at Max, into her eyes and seeing the way that Max could not quite meet her gaze Eleanor knew Max's answer. Not to the question she had just asked but to the question that had been robbing Eleanor of all peace. The pain was crushing and for a moment Eleanor thought her legs might give way.

Max knew that Eleanor had read the sorrow in her look, the guilt of not being able to forgive her even though she desperately wanted to. The two stood in heartbreaking silence for what felt like an eternity. Eleanor didn't know what to think, she had never felt the world fall out from under her because. When she was so close to getting everything that she wanted everything else was so fucked up.

"Goodbye Max." Eleanor said finally, turning and walking towards the beach.

"Eleanor wait!" Max called, seeing the blonde woman stop but not turn. So Max walked towards Eleanor until she was standing only inches from Eleanor's back. Reaching out to touch Eleanor's shoulder Max felt Eleanor tense, but upon prompting Eleanor turned so they faced each other.

"I made you a promise, I'll keep it. You'll never need speak to me again." Eleanor found the steadiness of her voice alarming.

"That is not what I want. The thought of never speaking to you again breaks my heart." Max answered honestly. Eleanor knew better than to dare hope that this meant that Max was forgiving her. Eleanor was beginning to realize that things with Max would never be as they were. Those times, as happy as they had made her, were over.

"So that is what you need from me then? Pretend I don't love you, pretend seeing you touch someone else doesn't make me ill? Go back to how things were before we ever shared a bed, when we were friends? That is what you want?" Eleanor asked finding the prospect of it like submitting herself to be tortured. Could she do that?

She'd done it before, back at the beginning of their friendship when she realized she wanted more from Max than simple friendship. When her gazes had turned more longing, when she used to become jealous of the men Max serviced.

"Yes. That is what I want." Max answered seeing Eleanor take a deep breath and look out to the ocean her blue eyes stormy. Max gasped in surprise as Eleanor turned suddenly, grasping Max by the face and bringing their lips together in a fierce kiss. Max was powerless but to respond, returning the kiss with everything that she had. And then, as quickly as it had begun it was over and Eleanor rested her forehead against Max's keeping their lips close.

"If that is the only way that I can have you, then so be it." Eleanor said before releasing Max and returning to her walk. Eleanor was determined to walk all the way back to Nassau, even though there were horses waiting to take her. It took her the better part of three hours because she saw no reason to rush. Her thoughts silenced only by the aching that filled her entire body. Friends. They were to return to just being friends.

Some weeks later

They had done it.

Profit had nearly tripled with the new ships, Captains were returning with bigger prizes now that their vigor was renewed once they began to see more reward. Eleanor was the toast of Nassau again, each crew singing her praise as the rum flowed more freely from the tavern. Her warehouse was full of the most exotic of spoils. Anyone that didn't know her would think that she was enjoying her new found success.

Max had returned to working for Noonan to pay off the debt she still owed him. And while Eleanor had agreed to Max's request that they be friends, attempt to rebuild the foundation of what they had once had they spent very little time together. Eleanor staying clear of Max when she knew that Max was working and the chances of seeing Max hanging all over some pirate was high she stayed in her office. But as far as everyone else was concerned everything was as it had been before.

"We have a problem." Hornigold said one night while they convened in Eleanor's office. He had taken a great interest in the business and provided invaluable advice to Eleanor.

"What?" Eleanor asked sounding almost disinterested.

"Our growing operation has drawn attention from other free trading ports in Tortuga and Port Royal. We're stealing their business."

"That does not sound much like a problem. You sound so dire Mr. Hornigold. Success breeds envy, its natural." Eleanor said pouring him a drink.

"Success also draws attention from the British and the Spanish." Hornigold said accepting the drink.

"What do you suggest?" Eleanor did not want to have warships belonging to either empire spooking any of her ships.

"If we had strength in the water, a ship that could dissuade any man of war or frigate from coming towards our shores it would give us an advantage." Hornigold suggested. Eleanor knew exactly what he was searching for. And with a wave of her hand all but she had Hornigold fled the room.

"I will not call for him." Eleanor said firmly.

"You have the ships but they are merchant ships that would not be able to stand against the British or Spanish navies. You must make any naval captain afraid to challenge one of your ships. Only one man and one ship can do that." Eleanor knew he was right.

"Alright, signal for him."

Up next we find out who "him" is, and Vane confronts Richard about his part in Eleanor's shooting. As always, let me know what you guys think :-)