DISCAIMERS: See part one.
Jack stared outwards at the dusky sea, gripping the rail until his knuckles were white. The deck was silent, even the midshipmen looked forlornly despondent, clustered in a miserable little gathering at one side of the quarterdeck. Mowett stood his watch wordlessly behind Jack, telescope under his arm. Killick was offering his captain some coffee, but he couldn't drink it. He would have to perform the service due to a fallen officer, he knew he would have to, but it just didn't seem…
"Sir, might we send out a search party?" asked Mowett.
"Sir, our orders are to hasten to the Brest blockade. The storm has lost us days already," said Allen, the sailing master. Jack glared stonily at him from across the deck.
"Jack, the water is bitter cold, and as you are well aware the currents are deadly strong. The chances that he has survived until now are virtually nil," said Stephen.
Jack's severe glare shifted onto Stephen.
"I will not lose men so easily," Jack couldn't bear the thought of Tom as he fought to stay alive in the icy water, unnoticed. How many lives had he saved? How many times had Tom fished one of the crew from the sea, and emerged, laughing, on the deck? Jack would have willingly jumped into the water himself to rescue Tom, if only he had known. He had seen Tom be swept away past him, but he had been too stupid to realise that his lieutenant might have been thrown into the raging ocean. Too stupid to notice sooner that he was missing. Too intent on sleeping. Sleeping while Tom was drowning. He remembered when he had first met Tom, as a lieutenant he had seen the nervous midshipman aboard his ship and had watched him quickly find his leadership. Then on his first independent command, the Sophie, he had inherited Pullings from the Sophie's previous captain. He had been a master's mate, passed for lieutenant but still not promoted. When Jack had been made Post-Captain, he had promoted Tom to lieutenant and taken him with him. He visualized the radiant joy on the young lieutenant's face as he got the news, his face grinning good-naturedly at Jack…
"Call out the boats. He may yet be alive."
