RETURN OF LOVE

Chapter 2 – Pain and fear

"Hey, Max!!! Are you going yet?!? We're late!!!" Phoebe yelled at her partner. She was standing on a watchtower of her ship, "The power". The weather was foggy, and Maxim kept begging her to sail tomorrow, but Phoebe didn't want it.

"I'm going, alright!" Maxim yelled back "But we still need one more person to sail with us!!!"

"Whaaaat?!? Why do we need one more person?!?" Phoebe came down the watchtower and was on the main deck.

"Well, the governor told me that we have to choose one more person to sail with us."

"But, no one has the ship except of us around here. And where are we going to find a person to sail with us now?!?"

"The person will be on my ship, unless you want him to be with you..." Maxim said slowly

"And just who do you have in mind?" Phoebe carefully looked at her partner

"Um... I know you're not gonna like it, but... Well, Cole Turner, your ex boyfriend." Maxim looked in the ground when Phoebe yelled

"FORGET IT, MAX! YOU'RE CRAZY!!! Do you really think I would sail with Cole?!? Especially after what he did to me a few days ago!"

"I thought you forgave me." Phoebe heard a deep male voice behind her. She turned around and saw Cole. He hugged her and kissed her cheek. She stepped back and said "Maybe I forgave you, but you're kidding if you think I'll sail with you!"

"You won't... Maxim will" Cole looked at her with his crystal blue eyes "What do you have against me, Phoebe? If you're pissed off because we broke up, that means that you still love me."

"Don't piss me off, Cole. I warn you! I felt pain when we broke up, but remember – time heals every wound! You hurt me bad in the past, and you know that I don't forgive things like that easy."

"Okay, I get it. I know you, Phoebe and I know how proud you are, but you can at least try to forgive me."

"Forget it! And forget about the sail!" She said to Cole and than she turned around to Maxim "Max, you'll have to choose – me or Cole, because if he sails – I don't!"

"Phoebe, forget about the past and let him to sail with us! I know that Cole hurt you and everything, but it's the past! You got to learn how to forgive people!" Maxim tried to taught Phoebe out of idea of kicking Cole off the sail

"Oh, okay. But when we get to "La rancune" ("The heart"), you better stay away from me" Phoebe pointed at Cole

"Deal!" Cole said loudly "Our relationship is restricting business from now on."

"Huh... Love couples..." Maxim just said and went to his ship

"Hey!!! We're not a love couple!" Cole and Phoebe yelled in the same time and than they laughed

"You see? We can get along just fine when you want it." Cole said to Phoebe, but as he touched her hand, she stepped back and went to her ship.

A trip to La Rancune was supposed to last for a month, but at half of the road, something unexpected happened...

Phoebe lay on the bed of her cabin. It was night and the moonlight was shining through the window. Everything was very quiet and shimmering of the water was the only thing that Phoebe heard. But at once, she heard knocking on the door.

"Who is it?" Phoebe asked, but she didn't have to wait for the answer. The door opened and Cole came in.

"I know that you're gonna yell like what am I doing here and how did I get on your ship, so I better close my ears, right?" Cole said as he closed the door

"No, I won't because I'm tired of yelling. But you do have to tell me what are you doing here?" Phoebe replied with normal tone of voice

"I'm here to see you and to ask you how much more we are going to travel like this."

"It's been only 15 days and you're expecting us to be there? Tell me, Cole, how many times have you sailed away from England?"

"Many. And I'm only here to see you, but I had to think of something else, didn't I?" Cole smiled. Phoebe stood up, slowly walked to him and than kissed him. He hugged her as they kissed, and didn't let her go even when they stopped kissing. "Now I'm confused" he mumbled, but Phoebe had no time to answer, because one of her crew members ran into her cabin and said:

"I'm sorry if I'm interrupting something, but this is important! We got French ships right ahead and they're not letting us to pass!"

"Oh, those bastards..." Phoebe said and left the cabin, but Cole held her back with a hug

"No, Phoebe!" he said to her "Let the others handle it. I know you're strong, but you can't handle this one. You know Frenchman, they're very stubborn."

But, Phoebe just turned around and said "I know how stubborn they are, but you know how stubborn I am, right?"

Cole looked at her hopeless and let her go, but he grabbed her hand and walked with her to the main deck.

"Okay, what are you stupid Frenchmen up to now?" Phoebe yelled and everyone immediately looked at her.

"Phoebe, please, don't call them that way. You now that they're dangerous and I don't wanna loose you." Cole whispered in her ear.

Phoebe's heart jumped on "I don't wanna loose you" words, so she remained silent and told to her crew to fix everything with Frenchman. She grabbed Cole's hands and they went back to her cabin. She sat on her bed and he sat next to her.

"Thanks for opening my eyes, Cole. I... I admit that I'm stubborn sometimes, but... But I'm glad that you know how to calm me down."

"It's okay. But, that's not the thing I want to discuss right now. Um... Before that man came into your cabin, we..." Cole tried to say 'we kissed' but Phoebe did that before him
"We kissed. Yes, well, that would be the second time since we met. We better be careful, that may become a habit to us." Phoebe laughed. She tried to hide all the fear she felt while they were talking about their kiss, so she laughed all the time. He hugged her, but he said that that's only a friend hug. Phoebe's door opened for the second time and a nasty looking guy came in. He had a brown hair that reached his shoulders and wild brown eyes. His eyes froze when he saw Phoebe and Cole hugging.

"You bitch!!! You are supposed to be mine!!! You're cheating on me!!! Bitch!!!" he yelled. Phoebe just looked at him confused, but Cole didn't. He stood up and punched him over the face. The guy hit the wall, but then he stood up again.

"I don't know who you are or what you think you are, but if you ever insult Phoebe again, you'll regret it!!!" Cole yelled.

"No, Cole! Don't get into troubles because of me. The guy obviously drank too much, so he thinks I'm he's girlfriend..." Phoebe looked at Cole

"No! I'm not drunk! I know what I heard! Your father promised me that you'll marry me! I believed him! So, now you're mine!!!" The man yelled

"Look, moron, we don't even know your name. Besides that, I don't believe that Phoebe's father promised you anything. Now get out!" Cole yelled. He was so pissed off and he was jealous on every single word that guy said.

"My name is Ben and Victor Halliwell promised me that Phoebe will marry me!!! Happy now! So, if her father promised me something, there's nothing you can do about it!" The guy was yelling loudly "I can see that you're jealous, but Phoebe is mine!!!"

'Jealous'... The word that Ben said went through Phoebe's head a thousand times. She looked at Cole, and he looked at her back. She could swear that she saw something strange in his eyes, but she didn't know what.

"I don't care what you think; I won't let you to lie like that." Cole still yelled

"The problem is... he's probably not lying at all. My dad promised to one man that I'll marry him, but I never met him, because I fought with him on that day and I left the house." Phoebe said with the voice just a little bit louder than a whisper. She sat down on her bed. Cole sat next to her. He hugged her. Phoebe just looked at him, and then they heard a shoot. Ben was holding the gun in his hands and Cole just fell down on Phoebe's bed. Ben shot him directly in the stomach.

"N...Nooooo!!! No, Cole!!!" Phoebe cried and yelled when she realized what happened. "Cole, no... Cole, please, don't die!!! Don't die!!! Cole, honey!!! No, Cole!!!" she looked at him with her eyes full of tears. Before she knew what she was doing, she pulled her pistol out and shot Ben, but she only hit his leg. She pulled Cole out of her cabin and yelled "HELP!!! Please!!! Somebody help!!! A man has been shot!!!" She yelled. She was still crying and was very afraid for Cole. Her crew heard that, so they quickly came.

"Where's the doctor on this damn ship!?!" Phoebe screamed

"Here I come!" one man ran to Cole and unpacked his briefcase.

"Please, doctor, help him! Please!!!" Phoebe was kneeling next to Cole and crying. At once, she felt hands around her. Maxim pulled her aside.

"Phoebe, please tell me what happened." Maxim asked her quickly

"W...We were sitting in our room whe... when some crazy looking man came in and yelled that my father promised that I'll marry him. C... Cole tried to defend me and the guy shot him!!!" Phoebe cried "I...If he dies, Max, I... I swear that I'll die, too!!!"

"So, now you admit that you love him, ha?" Maxim asked her.

She looked at him and then she looked down. The tears fell on her hands. "Yes, I do! And if Cole wakes up, I'll... I'll tell him everything!!!"

"Phoebe, I should listen to you, but no..." Maxim covered his face with his hands "We should never let Cole to sail with us. I mean, I should never let Cole to sail with us. I knew how crazy he is about you and I also knew that he would do something stupid, but I didn't realize it on time."

"Y...You think that Cole is... is crazy about me?" Phoebe looked at him hopefully

"Well, daaa! I'm not saying that he loves you, but after this... Everyone will say that he loves you. C'mon, let's get that bastard who did that" Maxim grabbed Phoebe's hand and pulled her up.

"N...No. You go and... Kill him, I... I have to be with... Cole." Phoebe said and ran to Cole around whom was entire crew of her ship.

"Cole... Please don't die!!!" Phoebe looked at him and tears fell on the floor. She turned around and saw a few women from her crew who were crying, too.

"I'll do the best as I can to help him, Mrs. Halliwell" the doctor said

"What happened down there?" one of her crew members asked and everyone else said something like "Yeah, what happened?"

"Let's just say that... Cole sacrificed for me." Phoebe said quietly, but everybody heard her. They asked her more questions, but she just said "Please, not now", so they stopped.

"I think that we should get him to a free room, and I'll try to 'bring him back to life' there" a doctor said, and Phoebe yelled

"He's not... dead, right?!?"

"Well, he's somewhere between life and death." doctor looked at her and said "This is a very brave man if he sacrificed his life for you, Mrs. Halliwell"

"He... He is too brave. If he dies, I... I'll die, too, doctor!" Phoebe screamed painfully

The night passed by and the day came along, but Phoebe still sat in one room next to Cole and cried quietly. The doctor left because he said that there's nothing more he can do. Cole was between life and death and they just had to wait and see what will happen. But that waiting was killing Phoebe. She was disturbed by the fact that Cole gave up his life for her and there's nothing she can do for him now. But the thing that hurt her the most was the possibility that she may not see him smiling again and that she may not see his beautiful eyes again. She kept remembering of the moment he got shot and she wondered why it couldn't be her, not him. Why Ben didn't shot her? But, there was no one to answer her questions. Phoebe ordered for the ship to go back to England, because she had to talk to a lot of persons that were responsible for this, too...

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So, what do you think about this chapter? I don't know what to write next, but I'll get an idea... But just, R&R, please!!!