"Make ready to cast off." As Nicolette stepped on to the ship the first thing she noticed, and heard, was the boy running his mouth. She let it go at first, but the moment he started marching up and down the ship bellowing orders and overseeing the men as they worked, she started to become irritated.
"Mr Turner!" The boy stopped mid step and turned his head to see Nicolette standing by the mainsail mast, leaning against it casually as her eyes narrowed on him. Once he turned towards her fully, she smiled and walked towards him, dropping down the step with a thump to meet him eye to eye. She ran her eyes over his face, straight and stern, and then ran them down the length of his body before clearing her throat. "Do you need to be reminded who is Captain of this ship?"
For a moment she narrowed her eyes into thin slits as he actually looked like he was getting ready to challenge her. Was he, Will Turner, really going to question her? For the way his hand balled into a fist, it sure seemed like it. But then his entire body relaxed and he looked away from her, shaking his head.
"No, Captain Barker." His voice held heat and she wasn't very sure why. She wasn't the one who wronged him by betraying his trust, breaking his heart and kissing a smelly old pirate, however he seemed to be taking it out on her.
As she watched him with a raised brow, the boy started to take a step back but she wasn't done with him just yet.
"Ah ah ah…" Nic uttered and extended her arm out. "I'll be taking those charts now." She waggled her slender fingers, her multiple rings sparkling in the moonlight and after a few moments Will reluctantly passed the rolled bamboo into her awaiting palm. Nic nodded in thanks and brought the charts into her chest and then eyed him fully up and down once more. "Get back to work."
Once he was moving and Nicolette was sure he was no longer walking about like he owned the place, Nicolette turned and headed towards the tiller.
"Here, Master Navigator." She said, roughly pushing the charts into Barbossa's chest. He stood near the rail of the Hai Peng, which was honestly nothing more than a junk ship, as Gibbs was at the tiller. He rolled his eyes at the little pet name she had dubbed him with over the past few months but took the charts regardless while continuing to stare out at the small town of Singapore which was slowly starting to float further and further away. "That could have gone worse."
"Worse." Hector scoffed. "The boy wasn't meant to get caught."
"But we got the charts." She tried to reason but she couldn't help but feel the little worm at the back of her mind wriggle. "Do you think he has crossed us?" She looked up at Hector curiously as he finally looked down at her with a sigh.
"The lad has no reason to. What good would he get out of making a deal with Sao Feng?" She didn't know, honestly, but nothing would surprise her if the boy had been tempted by something. Especially something stupid.
"Do you think Sao Feng will honour the call?" Nic then asked. "It would be an awful waste of our time to get Jack back and have half of the pirates not show up."
"They'll show up." Barbossa nodded, sure of himself. "They'll honour the call."
Nicolette shifted, turning to rest her back against the railing, her head leaning back so she was able to stare up at the midnight sky.
"How long should I expect to be overseeing these…miscreants?" Nic snarled, grinning when she heard Hector's low chuckle.
"Can't say, I'm afraid." He sneered down at her. "But at least you have female company aboard." He nodded his head to the side and she turned just enough to spy Elizabeth and Tia stood together by the side of the ship, staring out at the open waves which waited to greet them. Her snarl created a low purr and Barbossa found himself staring down at the woman longer than he would care for her to notice.
"I think I prefer the men." With her eyes closed, she stretched and then stood upright. "Do you remember on the Pearl, when I was made to sleep on the floor of the crews quarters next to the leak and un-"
"Under Twiggs bunk." He began to laugh, evilly if you asked her. It was not an amusing memory. "Lad was taken with the idea, thought he would be able to swing you for himself."
"Twigg!" Nicolette exclaimed before laughing loudly, her voice being carried across the deck. "I thought the man hated my guts."
"Oh he did." Barbossa smiled and Nic's grin faltered. "But only after you didn't pay him the attention he wanted."
"Well…you didn't really leave much room for him." She smirked and with her eyes closed, she missed the way Hector looked at her with longing in his eyes.
No, he had not left room for any of the men even before the night Jack was mutinied upon. Between himself and Bootstrap Bill, he made sure the girl was never left alone and vulnerable with any of the men for longer than needed. She had been such an innocent addition at the beginning what with her barmaid skirts and ribbons and he had been against Jack's decision to invite her aboard. Then the ribbons had soon been replaced with beads and braids and the skirts with breeches and coined scarfs but her innocence remained - until the curse set it. A part of him believed if was after they were married that she started to grow colder, harsher, but he would never allow himself to believe that - it would always be the curse.
He remembered watching the stars with her, teaching her about each and everyone as she smiled and asked questions. She was more curious than any woman he had ever met. From the first night he sat with her, talked to her and gave her a chance to present herself as anything more than Jack's whore, he had been taken with her. Hector had saw in an instant what his Captain had seen in her and he decided, then, that she would be his.
Irrational and overly possessive he know that to be. If he had known then what he knew now…what would happen to them, to her, to him… If he knew what a phenomenal woman she would become, he would have gone about things very differently.
Hector wanted to reach out and touch her skin, the soft velvet feel of her cheek. He still hadn't felt her warmth, barely the brush of her hand as she passed him by too close, since they were both dead and walking. He just wanted to remember, to be reminded of that warmth. Just one touch, one day.
When her eyes suddenly flicked open as the breeze began to run through her hair, Hector looked away and listened to her humming softly under her breath as she looked over her shoulder at the dissolving city lights.
"I'm going to rest. Look over those charts." She spoke so casually as if it were any other day, any other voyage. "Call on me only should you need me and eh…watch the boy." Nicolette whispered that last part and then slipped away to go below leaving Hector staring after her.
"Funny." Gibbs started once she was out of sight and for a moment Hector had forgotten he was even there. "How that lass comes to grow on you."
"Aye…" Barbossa mused before continuing under his breath. "Aye it is a curse."
Cold. No one bloody mentioned cold. She didn't even know cold like this existed. Nicolette couldn't recall the last time she awoke being able to feel her limbs and didn't have raw cheeks and snowflakes stuck to her hair, stands of her braids frozen together into icicles. She had only seen snow a couple of times before while she lived in England as a girl but back then there was a large house and her room in the cellar had a fire place she could ball up next too. There was no such luxury here at sea. You wrapped up and kept moving or suffered from frostbite and froze to death. Sometimes, just sometimes, it became very easy to miss that little attic room in Tortuga.
They must have been going strong from Singapore for a month now, maybe more…maybe a lot more. The days were all sewn together with misery and anxiousness, but the more time that passed the more each of the men started to think they were just being led around in circles on a wild goose chase for a non existent place. And Nicolette was starting to feel that way too. If it weren't for Barbossa being upfront and brutally honest with her these days, she would have feared she was following a mad man to his suicide.
Jack's compass was doing her no favours. It led them quite easily to Singapore and Sao Feng, but the moment they left the docks of Singapore it was like the voyage was even confusion the magic. It sometimes chose a point but by the time she even thought of telling Hector it would change and then spin without reason for hours. Most recently she only held it open and watched the spinning arrow to feel somewhat close to Jack.
"Captain Barker!"
"Hmm." Nicolette broke out of the daze she had been in since she had first awoke and looked up from the twirling compass, gazing around lazily until she saw Will approaching with Tai Huang not far behind. She inwardly groaned but stood from the crate she had been curled up on at the stern of the ship. "William, to what do I owe the pleasure?" She managed to force a smile as she stumbled towards him only to be met with a straight face and the charts extended towards her, rolled open.
"Over the edge and over again." That was all the boy said as she took the open scroll in her hands and raised it so she could read over the words he had just spoken as they were written on the charts, skewed and barely aligned.
"Sunrise sets flash of green..." Nicolette read the next line of script where it had been lined up but it did very little to provide her with any clarity regarding their voyage. She lowered the map and stared at Will for a short minute before speaking over her shoulder. "Do you care to interpret, chart man?"
She was smirking now, not that Hector could see, and with a roll of his eyes he smiled up at his Captain with unusually bright eyes considering the weather.
"Ever gazed upon the green flash, Master Gibbs?"
"I reckon I seen my fair share." The First Mate turned around with a bright smile, he too was too chipper, all things considering. "It happens on rare occasion. At the last glimpse of sunset, a green flash of light shoots up into the sky. Some go their whole lives without seeing it, some claim to have seen it that ain't. Some say..."
"It signals when a soul comes back to this world, from the dead!" All eyes turned to Pintel as he was suddenly the one to finish Gibbs's story, having crept up to the upper deck to listen with his crony, and Gibbs didn't hold back on sending him a hard deathly glare. "Sorry."
Barbossa, echoing Nicolette's groan of despair, turned back to Will who had the same mundane expression on his pretty young face.
"Trust me, young Master Turner, it's not gettin' to the land of the dead that's the problem." He smiled. "It's gettin' back."
The boy looked taken aback and continued to watch Barbossa as the words sunk in. Then, when she became sick of his loitering, Nicolette narrowed her eyes and shifted.
"You're excused Mr Turner." She stared, voice monotone, and Will looked to her and nodded once before turning on his heel with Huang following. Once gone and out of sight, therefor out of her mind, Nicolette turned and once again became fully aware of how cold she was and how much she was shivering.
However the scenery made it all worth it…almost. Right now for example they were about to sail right between two giant walls of ice. She couldn't even see the top of the frozen cliffs, it was like something from another world. It was a cave of ice and they were heading straight into its darkness to find its hidden secrets. It was beautiful. It was the epitome of why she had always wanted to sail the seas…to explore. Who would sit behind a bar in Tortuga serving rum and pulled rump when they could choose to be here, even if there was a high risk of loosing a toe?
The rattling of Mr Gibbs's chattering teeth was what brought her out of her daze sometime later.
The sun could not be seen and she could barely make anything out in the darkness but that didn't mean it was night, amongst the never ending caves she could have stayed awake though the night or it could have only been noon. It was as if time didn't exist anymore and come to think of it, Nicolette had felt that way since Jack had passed. The sun never set or rose in her world anymore, never mind with a flash of green. Everything was bleak now as if it were cast over with grey, life seemed to be a little less worth living, a little less bright.
"Master Gibbs." She meant to call though it came from her lips as a whisper. Never the less the man looked to her. "Please, go below. Eat. Get warm." Nicolette smiled as she wiggled her fingers under the shield of her coat, trying to feel them, and as she saw the man snarl and go to protest she called out again. "Ah- That's an order."
He hesitated but then, finally, Gibbs smiled the smallest of smiles.
"Aye, Captain." And he headed below, to what little there was below but it was still warmer. After the space taken up by the galley, the captains quarters and the hold for their supplies, there was very little space for the crew they had. At least it made it easier for to cuddle together like a litter of kittens though.
From the corner of her eye, Nicolette saw Hector shift from where he sat at the tiller and she turned her head a little amount just so that she could watch his back. Their relationship had become an odd one since his return probably due to the endless months they had needed to spend at sea together finally searching for the same thing for the same reason. It wasn't heated or awkward like she thought it would be at first, at least not anymore, and they were able to taunt each other and remedy the incessant boredom that comes with long voyages through dark and cold waters.
There were moments where Hector seemed to believe they were still married, as if nothing had changed between them, and she had to step away from the conversation before she said something which would make things awkward. But they were rare and Nicolette was simply glad to have someone other than the boy, a priestess or Miss Swann to talk to.
"Where are we?" She called to him after she turned back out to the ocean's they were leaving behind.
Hector perked his ears but kept his eyes forward before answering. "Can't say." Vague…course he was vague he didn't have a bloody clue where they were going. She had to admit she was baffled and overwhelmed when he had indulged her in the full plans now, back on the Pearl he had only told her what she absolutely needed to know. However, when he had told her that they needed to become lost in order to find the locker…she questioned whether she would have rather remained ignorant and in the dark.
"Well wherever we are it is lovely…" Nicolette hummed and then was reminded of the climate as a sharp shooting pain ran through her otherwise numb fingers. "Apart from the cold."
"You should go below too." Hector still didn't look at her but spoke over his shoulder as Nic looked over at him, one brow raised.
"Sick of my company?" Her smirk was short as her frozen lips cracked and tore with the movement, however it was still followed with a chuckle. "I must say, I thought that would come much sooner than this. You're tolerance of me has improved."
"I was always tolerant." Hector replied, the amusement clear in his voice. "It's you who is less testing these days."
"Testing." She scoffed as she forced herself to stand before her limbs truly did cease up from the cold, and as her feet hit the deck and her back cracked, Nicolette gave a long groan. "If I am
testing then you are…" Her eyes rolled up in thought as she dropped down to sit on the step of the deck next to Hector and he looked at her finally, awaiting her to finish her sentence.
"Yes?" He urged lowly.
"…more testing." She smiled and ignored his tut as she pulled the coat tighter around herself. "I should be awarded with something for putting up with you, not to mention that crew."
"Yes, well, very little could be done to rectify that at the time." Nic pondered this for a second and decided to give him that win since they had been tied together with a curse…it was like being related by blood, sometimes you just had to deal with the bad ones. "It would be wrong for me to say I didn't enjoy those years, what little there were to enjoy." The casualness with what Barbossa spoke with made her not realise what he was saying for a second, but when she did, Nic softened her eyes and pouted her lips in thought.
"Oh?" She muttered quietly. "In that case, thank you." Having turned away, Hector spied her out the corner of his eye twitchingly. "I'd have hated to have made things worse."
"Aye, I had pictured things to end differently to what they did. Not to die was the first thing I would change. But we were always meant to be different."
"Different?" She didn't understand, all she had ever assumed was that he had wished to live. That he wished to rule the Caribbean seas with the Pearl, creating all the fear they had while cursed but being able to enjoy the sweetness of the wine and the coolness of the breeze. She knew he wished to have her remain by his side as his wife, his pin cushion, his trophy. But that was all, what could have been different.
"Aye…" As he started to speak, Hector sounded sadder. His shoulders slumped and his eyes turned a paler shade of blue. "I always believed we would have a fleet you and I." Nicolette's eyes widened as she listened, not daring to speak. "You could've been a Captain, alongside me with your own ship and your own crew. We would have been rich…"
As he trailed off, Nicolette found herself frowning sadly towards her former husband. She watched his face closely as he vacantly stared out ahead of him, his eyes full of longing and loss. He spoke as if he were still dead, as if he were the one trapped in the locker with no future, as if he had not been given a second chance. It was confusing because if it were she in that position, she wouldn't have been using words like 'would' and 'could have'. She would have been saying will and can…it sounded as though without her he felt none of that was possible…which is exactly how he felt.
"I am sorry." Nicolette whispered although she wasn't exactly sure why she was apologising. "I…" Hector shifted in his seat and she narrowed her eyes, shaking her head slowly. "You should still want that, you have been given a second chance. We can be sure not many are blessed with that gift."
"We both were given second chances." His voice fell into a whisper. "You got everything you needed back the moment I left."
"That's not true." Nicolette shook her head and unexpectedly, her eyes fluttered closed. "You go on like I didn't miss you, as if I through my hands up and rejoiced the moment your body fell to the floor. But I didn't." She couldn't bare to look at him then. "I couldn't stay on the Pearl for long. It was...I felt like a ghost haunting and old home. And...I missed you..."
"What would you have done if I had lived?" That question, how often did it plague his brain? She often wondered how long he spent creating little scenarios in his head, twisting fiction into fact. She just told him something she thought he would be relieved to hear, but he was to much already consumed by jealousy.
"It's pointless to ask questions like that." She tutted with a roll of her eyes. "Because I don't know. And I'm starting to learn that if I regret one thing, I end up regretting them all including all the good which came from them. The adventures and all..." Nicolette's gaze fell down to the frozen deck as her knees knocked together silently. "And I don't regret any of those, not at all. We wouldn't be here otherwise. Jack would have no hope..."
"...Aye..." Hector sighed forcefully.
"I..." She started but then chuckled anxiously causing Hector to look her way. He had never seen her like this, at least not for many years, not since she was still a young girl hiding her fright when the seas got rough. She looked innocent sat there with her teeth chattering away, shaking under her blanket, thinking...she was always thinking. "I want him back. All I can think about is getting him back and with each day that passes...I feel like he's a little more out of reach."
Jack.
She was always thinking about Jack. At least in Barbossa's head she was.
But recently, no matter how hard she tried to keep it together, the growing threat of Beckett along with Jack not being there to tell her how to fight him. The threat of a war, Barbossa returning, the looming tankard of bile which was the boy... it was all too much. Being asked to evaluate her past just tipped the barrel and left no more room for thinking.
How did she normally clear her mind at times like these, as rare as they had been?
When Jack had been taken away from her, she had recklessly submitted to Barbossa. When the curse had been put upon them she had found comfort in him. When her attempts at finding that one last coin of Aztec gold had driven her to the borderline of insanity, what had she done?
Silently, Nicolette turned her head and looked at Hector with the softest expression he had saw her face hold in a long time. The scars unfaltering her beauty were relaxed and pale from the cold, her eyelids appeared heavy as they rested half shut and her lips were just parted in a gentle pout.
He had been there, he had helped. It hadn't always just been Jack. There had been others. Matthew had been the first to make her feel like she could conquer anything, Jack had showed her what there was to conquer and then Hector...he had carried her on their way to doing so. They had been the most feared, he had built her reputation.
Would she have done different? She had sunken back into Jack so quickly, so easily, but had Hector lived...
Slowly, she was starting to make herself believe that Jack was never going to come back. Just...just because Hector had did not mean everyone did. The more the map confused her, the longer they sailed, the harder it became to accept it was possible.
"Pass on the helm..." She muttered lowly before pushing herself into a standing position, wobbling slightly. She was numb and all she wanted was to feel. "Come get a drink to warm you up, then you should rest." Nicolette set off for her cabin before Hector could come up with a reply. But after a long moment, once she had left his side, he called for one of the crew and did as his Captain requested.
The wine was already poured when cabin door closed behind him with a gentle snap. The candles already lit, flames dancing in the freezing draft. Her coat shed and the laces to her corset pulled half way loose.
Hector hesitated, allowing the coat to slide from his shoulders one inch at a time. He was afraid he was reading her wrong, afraid he was about to make himself look a fool, but then Nicolette glimpsed over her freshly bare shoulder and smiled at him. It didn't reach her eyes but it filled it's purpose, slowing his racing heart and confirming his suspicions.
"This won't change anything." Nicolette whispered, looking away and bringing the cup of wine to thawing lips.
Everything outside of the cabin had been paused, her life outside of tonight forgotten along with their task and her feelings. In a blind moment of desperation this was her choice, this is what she believed would help.