The song belongs to Thursday and it's called Signals Over The Air. Thanks to everyone who is reading! I love you all. Muah. And I'm sorry the formatting was so messed up on the last chapter, and I have no idea how this one is going to turn out, so if anyone knows how I can fix it drop a line and let me know. Thanks!

~*~

Chapter Fourteen

Small Ocean 

~*~
Is this how it feels,
When you don't even fit into your own skin?
And it's getting tighter
 Everyday I'm getting smaller
If I keep holding my breath
I'm going to disappear
When you say my name
I want to split it from your lips
And hide like whispers in the rain
~*~
 
                   "Women," muttered Mr. Gibbs. "They're bad luck, I tell ye."
 
                   Will shushed him from the other side of the room, where he sat with a dazed look on his face, one arm around Serenity, who was wearing the same expression. She was clutching the folds of his shirt between her fingers as if it would hold her down to this earth, to keep her floating up to the heavens above. The only thing that was stopping the tears from falling were the half-closed lids of her eyes, blinking repeatedly as she fought both weeping and sleeping. Waves of exhaustion were passing over her body, which seemed terribly frail to Will. His hand went to her hair and he stroked it absentmindedly as he half-listened to Jack, Ana, Mr. Gibbs and the rest of the crew go over the day's loot. Jack was gleeful; having found a generous cache of rum on board the Vengeance before the whole bloody thing had sank. They had lit its flag afire and tossed it out to the ocean before sailing away from the wreckage. 
 
                   Time passed slowly but Will didn't care. He listened to Jack ramble on, to Anamaria voicing her opinions in a loud but somewhat subdued voice, to Mr. Gibbs warning repeatedly of the jinx of having a woman- nonetheless two women- on board.
 
                   Will craned his neck down to check on Serenity. Her eyes were closed and her breathing had slowed, but as he moved her lids fluttered open. "Are you asleep?" Will asked rather stupidly.
 
                   "I'm asleep," she answered, and in a moment her statement was true as she again returned to slumber cradled against Will's body. He allowed himself a small grin and gently maneuvered his arm under her legs so he could carry her to a bed where she could get some real rest. The dark passages of the Pearl had never seemed so homey before, and Will felt at peace as he carefully walked down to the bunks, making sure Serenity's head didn't knock against the wooden walls as they went. He laid her carefully on a vacant bunk and tucked the thin threadbare blankets around her small rounded shoulders. 
 
                   He sat watching her for a few minutes, crouched next to her bed. Exhaustion came over him too, stronger than he had ever felt, but he felt at peace. Will sat next to her bed and let his head rest on the wooden bed frame, and there he dropped off into a deep and probably uncomfortable sleep. 
 
~*~
 
                   They had taken prisoners, thrown them in the brig, and told them not to go anywhere. Later that night Jack wandered down to see if any of them could be of any use to him at all. If they weren't willing to cooperate then he could always sell them in Tortuga. Funny place. You could sell anything there for money. 
 
                   "Alrighty then," said Jack, announcing his presence. They were a miserable bunch of prisoners, they were, a point tactfully pointed out by Anamaria in less polite words.
 
                   "They look like crud scraped off a donkey's ass," she said. 
 
                   Jack walked up to the wall of the cell and addressed the sailor nearest to him. "What's your name?" he demanded. 
 
                   "Daniel," said the sailor.
 
                   It's a small ocean after all.
 
~*~
 
                   Serenity awoke to golden light spilling through the porthole and into the bunkroom. She smiled, stretched luxuriously, and swung her feet over the edge of the bed. Her bare toes brushed against her shoes, which someone had removed, and then touched skin. 
 
                   "Will!" she said happily, finding him slumped against her bed. He opened his eyes slowly, the light hurting his eyes. 
 
                   "Morning," he said. 
 
                   Serenity perched on the edge of her bed, smiling like an idiot, unable to keep her happiness inside. She felt like she was going to burst and dance around screaming that she was finally safe and h- well, almost home. This was good enough for now, too good. She hugged Will's shoulders tightly and sighed happily into his shirt. "I'm so happy that you're here," she said. 
 
                   "I'm happy that you're alive," he said. "I was sure they would have killed you, or worse…" 
 
                   "They did do worse," she said, the smile fading a bit but still lingering. "But I'm still here, aren't I?" 
 
                   Gently Will pushed her off him and held her at arms length, his hands cupping her shoulders easily. They did do worse. Suddenly he knew that she had been raped and hurt, some intuition told him so. He took a moment to take in her appearance and try to measure how much damage they had done. Bastards. She was wearing an overlarge white shirt, standard for sailors, but the neck was too big and one side had slipped over her shoulder while she was sleeping. Her hair was tied back in a piece of twine, but grimy pieces had fallen out around her face. Her trousers were overlong, and the ends of them were pooled around her feet and caked with dirt. The boots were at least three sizes too big for her and they were laced as tight as they could go. But, her eyes were bright and happy and her smile was wider than he had ever seen, and he drew her to him again and cradled her against him like he had in the doctor's house on the day of the hurricane so long ago when they were back in Port Royale. 
 
                   "We're going to be okay, Serenity," he said.
                   
                   "We're already okay," she replied.
 
~*~
 
                   Jack had decided that he had no further use for the prisoners, and as their captain was dead he decided to turn his ship around and return to Tortuga, and set them loose there. "Maybe I can get some rum for 'em, eh?" he said happily as he stood in front of the enormous crates he had lifted off the Vengeance. "Ye can ne'er have too much rum."
 
                   "Never!" said Mr. Gibbs happily. 
 
                   Serenity decided that she wanted to help and began cooking in the kitchen, providing a welcome break for Mr. Gibbs and edible food for the rest of the crew. She didn't know much about cooking but it didn't take much to beat the rum-and-gruel diet that they had lived on while Gibbs was master chef. However, it was of Jack's opinion that the rum-and-gruel was just fine for the prisoners to live on. Minus the rum part, of course.
 
                   So it was in that fashion that Serenity found herself face to face with Daniel yet again. But she wasn't afraid. All that was standing between her and Will was a few flimsy wooden boards, and this made her feel safe. She didn't speak to Daniel, and even if she had something to say to him she would not have let herself do it. He wasn't worth her time and he never had been. 
 
                   Upon her return to the deck she sought out the object of her strength and approached him quietly from behind. She rested her chin on his shoulder. "Daniel's one of the prisoners," she said. 
 
                   "Then you shouldn't go down there anymore," he replied, concerned. "Get Ana to bring to food, or me. I'll do it." 
 
                   "No, I'm fine," Serenity insisted. "It's just so strange to have all three of us on this boat…together, again…almost like back home."
 
                   Will was silent for a moment. "This whole thing must have been so terrible for you," he said, not knowing any other way to put it.
 
                   Serenity let out a laugh- but it wasn't a happy one. "I know," she said. "I'm a widow…how strange is that?" Tears welled up in her eyes and she didn't try to stop them from falling. Connor would never return to her, and his death was one that she would grieve the rest of her life.
 
                   "We could never replace him," Will said, trying to comfort her.
 
                   "I know…" Serenity said. She pulled her head away and looked up at Will.  "He would want us to be happy," she said. An undertone in her voice said that she was completely certain of this fact. She knew that Connor had loved her. She had loved him as well, with all her heart, and a part of her had been broken when he had died. But, she lived on, and the brokenness was beginning to mend, and she felt she had Connor's approval. Serenity could feel him smiling down at her at that moment.
 
                   "He would want us to be happy," Will agreed, but a small voice spoke up in the back of his head.
 
                   Connor would want them to be happy. Elizabeth, however, was another story.
                   
                   Another story entirely.