Frank wanted to die.

He'd never driven a car. He'd never seen a moving picture. He had never been to London. There was so much of my world I wanted to share with him. So much of his world I wanted to know about.

I had to at least try to change his mind... right?

I started towards his side of the boat to talk to him and that's when I saw all the ancient structures appearing at the water receded. All around us I saw what must have been used by the guardians of the tree once. So, this is what the inscription on the arrowhead had meant when it said, "Turn water to stone…"

I turned to just slowly take it all in. The wonder of this place. It was so beautiful there weren't even words for all the things I felt in that moment, looking at the sight around me. This place was real. I had always believed but to finally see the proof with my own eyes. To know that it was just a myth. I mean sure there were the conquistadors after us and Frank but...

"After 400 years…" Right. Frank was still here. "I found it. We found it." I smiled. This would mean so much to us both. My arms swung open and the next thing I knew we were hugging but I didn't care. I was too happy to be mad at him anymore. 'We'd found the tree!'

Gosh, what did this mean for Frank? If the legend was true, and so far, it had proven to be, then the petal could heal any curse. One petal and he could be free to leave the river and go where he wanted. His life could be so much more than it had been.

I pulled back from the hug but before I got a chance to say anything Frank said, "Now you can be the Darwin of flowers."

"And the petal's right there, you can be free." He smiled at that. I began to think that maybe he was starting to see the appeal of living one more life.

"You can… I mean, it's not like the river's not beautiful, but you can go anywhere and you can see the world." I wasn't going to stop now. He was listening and this may be my one chance to convince him to make the right choice. I had to take it.

'He should come back to London with me'

"You can come to London." How perfect would it be if he used his newfound freedom to come back to London? I thought of all the things we could do, all the places we could go together. I could show him everything new. I could show him my home and everything there that I loved. There was so much we could share.

"I'm from London. I could show it to you. I even have a motor car. I could be like your skipper, Skippy…" The whole time I'd been talking I hadn't had the nerve to look at his face. My eyes had shifted to my hands then back to the ground but finally, I looked in his face.

The smile that had started to appear there had vanished. Still, he had a soft look on his face. 'Maybe he didn't want to go to London just yet.' If that was the case then it didn't matter where he wanted to go. Just that he wanted to live. "If you want."

'Just live, please. I don't want to say goodbye yet.'

"Lily, I would love to do all that with you." I couldn't stop the smile that came to my face at those words until I realized he wasn't done. Suddenly I just felt awkward.

"But I've made up my mind." 'But I can change it. I'm sure I can. Please just give me a little more time to try to change your mind.'

"There is no London for me after this. There's no motor car." I didn't know until that moment that it was possible for someone to actually feel their heart breaking. He just wanted to give up? Not even try?

"I'm ready." Didn't he understand what he'd started to mean to me?

I shook my head as a soft 'no' escaped my lips. (more) He still kept talking.

"It's my time. It was my time long ago."

I suddenly found it harder to breathe evenly, the lump rising in my throat preventing me from properly inhaling.

I looked into his face, met his eyes straight on. His jaw was set, his brow relaxed, his every muscle indicating he was determined to follow through and at peace with his decision. But his eyes. His soft brown eyes. Perhaps it was my imagination but there was a question there. I didn't know what he was asking but I had only one answer.

"No." 'No, I will not let you just give up. No, I will not accept you dying. No, it is not the right thing for you. No, it is not now nor ever will be something I will accept. No, I don't want to lose you.'

"No, I don't accept it. You could have one more life."

How could he make this kind of a decision, knowing all the things he could do and see? Was he even trying to see my side of the argument? Gosh, he was so stubborn and infuriating. It wasn't right that he got to make me feel like this. that he got to do this to me and then just leave. How could he?

I know we'd only known each other a few days. But... didn't I mean anything to him? Couldn't he at least try to listen to me? 'Maybe what I wanted was selfish but I wanted it for him as much as myself.' I knew I was right about this. Frank not being in the world was not a world that made sense. If he wasn't going to listen to reason I wasn't even going to try to argue anymore.

Not right now. Not when it hurts this much. I turned for the bridge of the boat if only to get away from him at the moment.

"Luckily for me, it's my choice." His choice. 'Oh! Well then, by all means, go marching to your death as though nothing matters.' Anger was getting the better of me. If he wasn't going to accept my point of view, I'd rather he just let it go. He may not have to agree but he didn't have to keep trying to convince me that his terrible idea was a good one.

"Well, it shouldn't be, because you have very poor judgment." in hindsight, perhaps not the best argument I've ever made.

"But you have your world to go back to. It's your world."

The anger was draining out of me fast as it came. How could I be mad at him when he kept looking at me like that? 'How did you manage to strip every defense I have?' The only thing I had left was the truth I wasn't even ready to admit to myself, let alone to him.

I found the words rushing out of my mouth before I could call them back. "But it could be yours, too."

I felt exposed. Here was this man, this four-hundred-year-old conquistador, this cartographer, this artist, this riverboat captain. He came along and tricked me and told bad jokes and kept me safe even when I wouldn't listen and made me feel and soon, he'd be gone.

I'd lost before; my mother, my father. It had hurt but in time the pain had passed. With him, I felt like it wouldn't be crippling. He was so determined to go. I couldn't let him die without knowing that I'd started to have feelings for him. This truth was all I had left.

Saying it out loud, letting him have this part of me without knowing how he felt... It wasn't as though he had the best track record for being honest, but I had to. I thought of his words that first night. How if he was lucky enough to have one person in this life to care about that was world enough for him.

"It could be that one person's world enough."

I don't know how I found the strength to lift my eyes from the floor to look at him. I could barely breathe when I did. I felt like I'd given him something. Something I couldn't take back now and all I could do was wait as his eyes shifted around the bridge as if arguing with himself.

'Did he finally understand?'

Slowly, he nodded his head as he locked eyes with me again. "Could be..." I waited for him to clarify and continue or anything but he just looked at me.

'Was he going to say anything else? Would I even want to hear anymore after I'd told him that I-'

I left the bridge and headed for the front of the boat. I wanted my pants back on and my shirt on straight. I wanted layers. He'd stripped them away. I needed a few back.

'I can't believe he had nothing to say after-' I bit my thumb, unsure if I wanted him to follow or not right now. I hadn't any idea what I would do if I did, though it felt like a tie between wanting to hit him and wanting to cry.

"Lily." There was an urgency in his voice. Whatever it was he wanted me to see, it wasn't about our argument. It was about something dangerous.

I turned back around the boat and there rising out of the water was the submarine belonging to a certain German prince. The hatch flew open and the next thing I saw was my brother with a gun to his head.

"Hello. Small chance I told a madman with a cannon where to find you."

'MacGregor!'

Thank you for reading my story. If you enjoy my writing you can find more... my more... mature works on AO3