The seas were abnormally choppy that fateful day. The ship rocked with the rough winds and the young man in the crows nest looked on to the horizon with growing worry. The skies were darkening and an ominous cloud was coming their way. A sudden crack of thunder sent the young man scrambling down to the deck to alert the captain of their upcoming predicament. He dashes past the large man working on the ship, apologizing profusely as he bumps many of them in his haste. He tries to run into the captains quarters, but is stopped by her most trusted men, Puck and her first mate Sam.

"Whoa, Rory, what's up? What's all the running for?" Sam asks.

Rory has to stop and catch his breath before he is able to speak, but even when he does regain his speech, it is between pants, "I…..need to….speak with…the captain…..it's urgent….." he manages in his heavy accent.

"She's kind of, ahem, busy right now, can it wait?" Puck says, smirking as they all lapse into an awkward silence and hear a faint moan from their captain's rooms.

Rory shifts uncomfortably and then remembers the urgency of the situation, he looks back up intensely and tries again, "We are in grave danger if we continue this course, I need to inform the captain so we can change course."

Sam sees the urgency in Rory's eyes and nods once before turning and banging on the captain's door. They hear a dull thump and then muffled cursing along with the sounds of hurried dressing and steps towards the door. The door swings open to reveal a very hastily dressed and angry Captain Quinn Fabray.

"What do you want?" she growls.

The men slightly cower under her icy glare and look to Rory to say is piece.

Rory has to try and swallow back his fear before he is able to speak, "Uh, I'm sorry Captain, but it's urgent. We have to shift course. If we continue as we are, we'll be heading straight into a pretty fierce looking storm, and I don't think we want to be…"

Quinn's look of irritation shifts to a steely mask and she curses under her breath and fixes the buckle of her pants, which have an embarrassingly noticeable bulge which was slowly lessening. She reaches over for her overcoat and then grabs her pistol and saber before equipping herself with them. As she is about to leave her chambers to command her ship, a woman, who looks decidedly disheveled, calls out for her, "Where are you going? We weren't finished."

"Well, now we are, I'll return later, I have things to attend to," she says over her shoulder as she walks out and closes the door.

As she walks up the stairs to the deck she looks quicly to Puck and issues a sharp order, "I left a girl in my quarters, get a trustworthy man to guard the door and keep her safe. Mike or Matt would be fine, I want no harm to come to her, we will be dropping her off at next port and I do not want her to be left traumatized."

Puck nods once in understanding before rushing off to do as he is told. She then turns to Sam, tell all the men to be prepared to buckle down just in case we can't avoid the storm, if the storm is inevitable, I want to casualties." Sam also nods before going to spread word.

Quinn walks up onto the deck and ascends the steps to get to the helm and greet their navigator.

"Finn! Why are we on the course to go right into a storm?" she questions harshly.

Finn flinches and tries to move away from her with out letting go of the wheel, "Well, uh, last time I changed course without your okay, you got really mad and made me sleep in the kitchen, so I didn't change course…."

Quinn slaps her palm to her face and shakes her head in wonder, "You really are one of the dumbest people I have ever met. If you saw that there was a storm in front of us, and I was busy, I would think that you'd have the common sense to turn the ship!"

Finn shies away and then smiles a little at Quinn, "You just told me the other day that I had no sense and that I shouldn't even breathe with out someone's guidance."

Quinn chuckles a little at this but then becomes serious once again, noticing that he had yet to turn the boat, "Well? Turn the flippin' boat!"

Finn jumps at her loud command but complies and tries to completely shift their course from the storm ahead. But alas, the winds are against them and even though the ship starts to turn, the sails are pushed towards the storm that is slowly growing and sucking them in. Quinn notices their predicament and curses under her breath. She slaps Finn sharply on the back of the head before hurrying down the steps to find Sam waiting for his orders.

"Tell the men to buckle down, I want everything secure and I want all the men in their designated positions. We can't avoid the storm and we'll have to go through it and I want no screw ups, I want this to go as smoothly as going through a tempest can possible be, understand?"

Sam nods, "Yes, ma'am," before he runs off again.

As Sam spreads the order, the burly men on the ship spring into action, securing the canons with weights and ropes, bringing crates and barrels from the deck down into the brig, and securing the ones thatr couldn't be brought down. As they worked, it started to rain heavily and the waters went from choppy to the waves beating against the sides of the ship, some even going high enough to splash over the side of the ship and drench the hull and the busy sailors. As this went on, Quinn went over to the tip of the boat, right above the masthead of a swooning woman, and looks through the sheets of rain to the waves that they were headed straight towards. She was never the type to worry, for she has great faith in her ship, but looking at the immense waves that were coming, she began to feel nervous. She was innocently casting her gaze around at their upcoming battle with the waves when something shimmering caught her eye. She looked down into the water, catching a glimpse of sparkling gold scales and strangely enough, dark brown hair. She tried to shake it off as just the storm messing with her mind, but then she saw a woman come up from the water and look directly at her.

Quinn starts when she sees her and almost falls back, but her grip on the railing saves her. The mermaid looks at her with amused eyes before she turns serious again and points to her left. Quinn tilts her head in confusion and it must have been obvious because the sea woman smiles slightly and mouths 'land' before ducking under the water again.

Quinn is stunned, but when the mermaid is gone she snaps out of her stupor and rushes back over to Finn who is struggling with the wheel as he tries to maintain a steady enough course. Quinn runs up to him and has to shout into his ear to be heard.

"We have to turn port, there's land!" she shouts.

Finn looks at her, more than a little confused, "How do you know that?"

"I just do! So turn the damn boat!"

Finn looks apologetic for a second before he asks her sheepishly, "Which way is port again?"

Quinn smacks her hand to her forehead again and groans, why couldn't she have an at least slightly competent crew? "The left, you idiot!"

Finn flinches, apologizing profusely as he turns the boat as best he can. And before they know it, they are able to see the obvious shape of land in the distance as the rain starts to let up and the waves calm slightly.

Finn turns to her, wonder in his eyes, "How did you know where the land was?"

Quinn studies him seriously, contemplating whether to tell him the truth or not, "Can you keep a secret?"

Finn nods silently, eager to hear her answer.

Quinn sighs, "You won't think I'm crazy?"

"That depends on what you tell me…"

Quinn thinks over his answer and decides to just go for it, "It was a mermaid," she says quietly, waiting for his answer.

Finn is silent for a few moments, just watching the land get closer until, "You're right, I do think you're crazy," he says before chuckling.

"It's not funny," she says indignantly before slapping him upside the head and stopping his laughter, "I really saw a mermaid and she's the one who told me there was land."

"Yeah, right. And the other day the loch ness monster was in my bed and told me the secrets of the world," he said before laughing again.

Quinn huffed angrily before hitting him again, "hey, remember who is captain here, I could have your ass walking the plank in two shakes of a rat's ass, so I advise you stop laughing at me. And I'm going to prove it to you. I'm going to capture that mermaid."