Wilhelmina, with a lot of help from her mother's training in how to be a polite lady, had been quiet for the hour which had passed since Izzy had been – for lack of a better term – reinstated as first mate. She'd needed to digest what had happened just as the man himself had. Of course this had been her perfect, fantasized outcome, but she'd expected it to stay that way; a fantasy. Stede Bonnet could overlook a lot of things but surely an attempted murder wasn't something so easily brushed under the carpet.

Edward and Stede had labelled themselves 'co-captains' of the Revenge which had also given the Prussian girl pause. Two captains? It all seemed so confusing but Willa had to admit the pair did play off of one another surprisingly well. Bizarre as it was Willa would embrace this new form of leadership; not like she really had any other choice regardless. Maybe two captains could work, or maybe it had already been working.

So much had happened in a single twenty-four hour period and Willa suspected she'd cried more tears than there were drops in the ocean. Though, now she'd calmed down and discovered the man she loved wasn't going to be murdered or banished again, she'd found time to actually think and compartmentalize. Looking back the auburn-haired beauty realized she'd said some very rude things to their blond captain. In fact the things she'd said to a lot of people lately had been rude.

Willa had been so lost in her thoughts that she'd swapped perfectly good candles out twice in the Captain's cabin before Stede stepped in to prevent the cycle repeating a third time. He'd closed his book and rested it on the bed where he'd been sat so he could take the candles from her hands. With a soft smile, that comforting one he used often, he set them down on the table.

"My dear, the candles are fine, I assure you."

"Entschuldigung bitte." (I'm sorry) She told him politely as an extra wave of guilt flooded her due to the previous night's insults. "Sorry."

Stede shook his head. "No, no, there isn't any need for that." He told her in an almost fatherly tone. "Are you all right? I mean, I suspect you're not but I'm not quite sure how else to ask."

A twinge of pain made itself evident on his face then and Willa's mind jumped from her own worries to the blond's health.

"You need to sit back down and rest. Izzy could have killed you."

"But he didn't, though I agree I should sit. Come sit with me."

Wordlessly the teenager obeyed. She aided him back down onto his bed then shifted his forgotten tome aside so she could do the same. The silly man was kind enough to even snare an arm around her shoulder; his thumb brushed back and forth on her shoulder comfortingly.

"We talk things through on this ship, I keep saying that." Began the older man. "Izzy has started to learn that, you should as well. I'm your captain, one of them anyway, so you can tell me anything. I'm here for you, Willa. If you need advice, then I shall give you advice. If you just need someone to listen, I'll listen." With the hand not at her shoulder he gestured to the bandages at her chest he could see quite plainly as her stays did little to hide them. "Perhaps we should start there? You didn't have that in the bath. Did our first mate do that?"

"Ja." She nodded after a moment. "I wanted him to though."

Stede raised an eyebrow. "All right, I suspect I man not wish to know any more on that topic." He cleared his throat. "Willa, I know you had no choice about being aboard the Revenge but you're one of us now and I care about you. Hell, the whole crew cares about you. Last night you were broken-hearted and now you're walking around aimlessly. Has anybody actually told you it's okay?" He pointed to his own wound once again. "I'm not that badly injured, Ed is all right and Izzy is firmly back with us. It's okay."

Green eyes peered up at the worst pirate she'd ever met; terrible pirate but pretty good man. He was taller than Izzy – then again everyone was but her – so Willa quickly realized she pretty much looked like a kid next to Stede in his fancy clothes of green. There had been many times when Willa had desired for her own father to be more like this, more comforting and parental, yet now she was glad her father was the monster he'd always been since it meant she'd ended up on the Revenge.

The sixteen-year-old beauty offered him a weak smile as Stede continued.

"I'll admit I thought Izzy Hands to be a disagreeable, awful, pontificator of a man, but now I see he's only two of those things. I now understand he has broken and damaged parts just like the rest of us. That's because of you. It's because you noticed more than his angry nature. You were the only one who took the time to notice and I'm quite ashamed to admit that." He gave her a little squeeze. "There will be no more dueling … I hope."

"You're very kind." She said, accent thick as it always was when she'd spent too long in her thoughts. "I think you've shocked Izzy so badly he's lost touch with reality a little. I can't stop worrying about him."

"That's perfectly understandable, my dear, but you don't have to worry quite so wholeheartedly. Everything is okay, It's better than it was last night."

A small quietude lingered between the two for a moment; the sort brought on by two people being comfortable in one another's presence. Yet, as with all things, the silence had to come to an end.

"I'm sorry for all the horrible things I said to you while I was crying."

Stede breathed out a small laugh and squeezed her shoulder once more. "I think I probably would have been more insulted had I known what you were saying. Besides, you were very upset. Distraught really. I'll forgive you. Out of curiosity, what did you say?"

"Probably better you don't know."

"Fair enough." He smiled. "I'm not really sure what else to say to you, Willa. How about a nice hug instead? Would that suffice?"

Oh Wilhelmina loved that Stede was an idiot. The way his thumb had been brushing against her shoulder reminded her of when Friedrich would comfort her. So the girl nodded and happily accepted her hug.

"You know, it's funny. The joke has been that Edward has been more fatherly toward me than my actual father, and now here you are hugging me like I'm a little girl."

"Yes, Ed's mentioned that."

Willa chuckled. "You could be mother."

"I'd rather not, could I be another dad?"

"I don't think that would be an issue." The two smirked at one another through their teasing. "Edward can be Papa and you can be Far."

"Far?" Stede lifted an eyebrow. "That doesn't sound German."

"That's because it isn't. Far is Danish."

"Hmm." Stede made an overly dramatic display of thinking about it just to earn another smile from the young girl. "You learn something new every day."

"Who says piracy isn't good for people."

Stede had been right, things were significantly better than they had been the previous night, and Willa took great comfort in that. She'd also needed the distraction, even just for a few moments of goofing off.

"I'll admit I've been stabbed a lot more frequently since becoming the Gentleman Pirate." He cast her a sweet smile and a twinkle of those bold eyes of his. "Do you feel better now, Willa?"

She nodded softly up at him. "I do, ja."

"Good." He told her softly before he bent a little to kiss the top of her head only to retract when he spotted her smirk.

"Taking the new title of my far seriously are you?"

"But of course. Now, why don't you go get some fresh air, relax a little?"

"Nein, I want to clean the bathroom. It's full of my and Izzy's blood and clothes. No one can use it until it's cleaned. It'll be therapeutic."

The bathroom had basically been abandoned since the duel. They'd just shut the door and forgotten about it. The place couldn't be left in such a state though, and while Willa wasn't exactly experienced with washing stains off of floors, she'd give it a damn good go.

"If that is what you want, all right. Don't work too hard though."

The Prussian noble agreed then slipped from his grasp and left the cabin. Stede watched her go and sighed once he was alone again. Wilhelmina was a sweet girl who'd been forced to grow up much faster than she ever should have. However, he couldn't help but be reminded of his own children. His sweet Alma and Louis who he'd left behind. That had been the hardest part of leaving, but Mary adored their children, wouldn't ever let harm befall them, and ultimately could provide the stability and lives they needed. They'd be happier with Mary, and Stede took solace in that knowledge.

Regretfully Willa's version of Mary would be her brother, and he obviously wasn't there, so Stede would care for her. His only regret of leaving Barbados truly was the hurt he'd caused the children, maybe looking out for Willa could relieve some of that guilt.

~X~

After putting great effort into looking busy enough to escape Izzy's wrath up on deck, the crew – all save for Buttons, Frenchie and the Sweet that was, they'd not been so lucky – tried to mentally digest what had happened. Nobody was overly certain how they'd managed to shuffle themselves into a secluded corner where no one would seem them, but venting had moved itself to the very top of their docket. They'd wanted to see Izzy Hands chucked over the side with an anchor tied to his feet, yet the parasite of a man had escaped his comeuppance again.

"… hell were the Captains thinking? 'We talk things through on this ship' my ass."

"What do you mean, Jim?" Asked their resident lovable giant. "They said Izzy was back. I helped drag him back with that rope."

"Yeah, but not once did they say Dizzy Izzy of 206 Prick Street would just be put back to work like fuck all had happened." Lucius complained only for Roach, who sat beside him, to let out a deep sigh.

"It's because of Willa."

"That's true." Ivan nodded from his place leaning in the doorway. Several sets of eyes flicked to the dark-skinned man. "You saw her when Izzy rowed off. She was cryin' her eyes out and everythin'. I, em, I went below deck, couldn't take listenin' to Roach moanin' about Bonnet bein' stuck to the mast, and I could hear her cryin' in the bathroom." Ivan took a breath. "It was … broken. I knocked on the door and asked if she was okay but she just screamed at me to fuck off."

Black Pete donned a surprised expression. "Why didn't you come tell us? We could have helped her."

"How? Babe, seriously, how?"

Ivan shrugged. "I thought maybe she just needed to be alone. I would have."

"Still should have told us." Roach murmured under his breath but no one really caught it since Jim spoke over him.

"So she cries and the captain caves, convinces Ed to bring the dickhead back. That I get, but shouldn't he be – I don't fucking know, be locked in a cabin or something, not just carrying on as first mate?"

Fang mulled the whole thing over inside his mind before words actually left his lips, but when they did they were calm and logical.

"Okay, I get you hate him and believe me I understand why. I'm not his friend or anything, but he is a great first mate." The others didn't look overly convinced. "He keeps the ship in perfect working order, he made sure any tiny thing was repaired right away before it could turn into a problem, insisted everything was neat and tidy. Half the time he was the only one navigating. That's why Blackbeard has so much faith in him, Izzy's an amazing first mate." Everyone simply blinked over at him while Lucius mentally pondered which illness Fang had contracted. Fang sighed. "Look, what I'm saying is that if I had a choice between a ship with him as first mate and one without, I'd probably choose the ship with him."

"Well, that's sweet and all but-" Just then the Swede entered cutting Wee John off mid sentence.

Suddenly they all got a waft of déjà vu, like the Swede had hunted them down before. Yes, Frenchie had though they were all being picked off one by one or something equally ridiculous.

"Hey guys," the blond greeted. "Could you maybe come up on deck? Mister Hands is getting angry."

Lucius snorted. "That little man is always angry."

"Frenchie is talking about witches again too."

Oh they all agreed that needed calming down though, looked like they'd gotten themselves a new task.

Meanwhile, Willa had managed to get herself out of her mind after her conversation with Stede in his cabin. Talking things through actually did help. She'd headed back up to the main deck only to slip on the soaking wet floor and almost comically tip backward flat on her ass. The deck had been half swabbed it would seem. Frenchie launched over to the discombobulated teenager with a look of total panic.

"Oh shit!"

Next thing Willa heard was Izzy's heavy boots as he stomped toward her.

"You fucking twat!" He hissed so viciously that Frenchie physically jumped away just in case the first mate took a swing at him.

Carefully the Prussian tried to push herself up but before she could Izzy and lifted her up in a princess hold. Frenchie yanked the bucket away from the whole situation before that to was knocked over.

"I'm sorry, Willa." The curly-haired cabin boy muttered in a clearly concerned tone.

"It's okay." She assured him from Izzy's surprisingly strong arms. "My own fault for not being more careful." She peered up at Izzy without revealing how much she enjoyed this odd protective boyfriend mode he'd slipped into. "Izzy, I can stand."

The older man seemed to realize he'd actually lifted her then and slowly set her down on her feet.

"I really am sorry." Frenchie continued only for Willa to wave him off.

"Honestly, it's okay. No harm done."

Willa might not have been overly bothered, despite the shooting pain in her ass, but Izzy bit out words like the rabid dog he portrayed so well.

"Hurry the fuck up and get this finished! You fucking morons have been at this way too long."

With that Frenchie slipped away wanting to avoid any further tongue-lashings.

Izzy glanced over at Willa with concern though his hard expression soon softened as it almost always did when it came to her. He asked if she was all right and Willa was delighted to hear the genuine care in his deep baritone.

"I am, I promise. Now, I'm going to tidy the bathroom. I only came up here to tell you that's where I was going to be."

Suddenly Izzy realized they'd left half their clothes in there, well, Willa had, Izzy's glove and neckerchief were all he'd forgotten; and his knife of course. He'd been about to ask Willa to bring him his things but too late, she'd already wandered off back below deck.

Fortunately for Willa the bathroom wasn't exactly a high traffic area, so when she arrived and pushed the door open it was almost like a time capsule of previous days. Quickly she set her bucket of water down, lit the candles so there was some light for her to clean by and set about picking up her and Izzy's discarded clothing. Having her leather pants back was an absolute godsend which she hurriedly changed into. Once back in them and her stays rather than stays and her slip she felt much better, more like herself again. Blood covered most things to the point the room looked like the site of a mini massacre. Rich crimson had dried brown and adhered itself to the tub and floorboards but Willa didn't let that deter her. She cleaned quickly, using the new elbow grease she'd gained from being aboard a pirate ship and found the stains on the tub were easily removed. The floors took some more convincing to part with their grime but Willa's charming conversation skills and several choice words of German had the blood coming free.

When she felt her stamina start to flag she sat back on her haunches for a little breather only to spot something glinting in the corner underneath the chair. Pale fingers reached underneath to grab the shiny object. Izzy's neckerchief ring. She'd never really taken all that much notice of it, just assumed it to be any old neckerchief ring, but there in the candlelight she could see it was an actually a piece of jewellery rather than a simple slide. Golden with a small emerald in it. A man's most likely judging by it's size. Before too many more thoughts or questions could fill her mind about her discovery, Willa slipped the ring into her stays where it would be safe in her cleavage for a while; she'd return it soon enough.

There wasn't too much more for her to clean now the floors had given up most of the blood. Her wound stung from her furious scrubbing, but Willa thought the pain well worth it for a hard few hours of work.

Later, when she'd finished and returned her cleaning things to their rightful place, Willa went in search of Izzy who'd been taking navigational measurements up on the quarterdeck. She'd always liked watching him navigate, it made him look almost regal in a strange sort of way.

The auburn-haired beauty stopped right in front of him and pulled the skin-heated ring from her cleavage, that had Izzy raise an eyebrow, and offered both it and his neckerchief to him.

"Found something of yours." Izzy snatched them away quickly and returned them to their rightful place. "I thought it was just a neckerchief slide but that is an actual ring, and it's real gold."

"How do you know that? Could be brass."

Willa smirked at him, neither of them were dumb enough to believe that.

"It's stamped and I can tell the difference between gold and brass. I don't mean to be rude but, you said you grew up poor. It's clearly very important to you judging by the way you yanked it out of my hand. Where did you get it?"

"Shut up!"

"You don't have to snap at me."

Irritated she made to leave. The girl didn't sulk exactly but she certainly wasn't pleased. Seemed even Izzy himself thought he'd been a little too hostile because he quickly caught her by the wrist to pull her back. Not a harsh pull but certainly a powerful one.

"Wait." His voice was softer than she'd heard in a while so she turned to face him. "Thank you for returning it." He sighed and for a few seconds Willa didn't think he'd say more. "You're right about it being important."

The Prussian smiled softly; this was Izzy attempting to be kinder and more forthcoming with her and she appreciated it. Willa rocked up onto her toes to kiss him lightly knowing he'd not stand for some big public display of affection.

"I love you."

"You can do better than a pirate almost four times your age."

Willa's head tilted to one side ever so slightly. "We've been through the fact I like you're older. Anyway, maybe I don't want to do better than a pirate almost four times my age."

Then, with another of her sweet smirks she wandered off having done her good deed for the day by returning his ring. Didn't take the man with salt and pepper hair more than five seconds to guess she'd head down to see if Roach needed help with cooking. He remained rooted to the spot a moment while he gazed out at the horizon far in the distance. Izzy tried not to reach for the ring at his neck for comfort as he often did when no one was watching. Instead he swallowed and let his eyes slip shut to banish memories he'd rather have not remembered.

"Henrietta." He whispered quietly before his eyes snapped open and he returned to work.