Author's Note: Sorry for the delay on the last few chapters! We went on vacation and when I got back, I watched the Loki series and became quickly obsessed. Of course, that led to another fanfic. LOL. I know, I have a problem. But Second Star has one more chapter after this, Almost there!

Thank you as always for your patience and encouragement 😊


Harry's steps slowed as he neared the gangplank crossing over to the Jolly Roger. Melody dropped back, letting him be the first to board his ship. Even the undead crew had all stood back to allow Harry space, sensing that their new captain needed a moment.

Melody hooked an arm through Uma and Gil's and walked with them behind Harry, watching his wide eyes sweep over every inch of his ship.

He reached his hand out to trail fingers across the ornate details of the carved balustrade before crossing the deck toward the helm.

She and Uma leaned closer to each other, smiling, knowing just how much this moment meant to Harry and she felt her heart would burst with it. Judging from Uma and Gil's expressions, they felt the same way.

Harry stood to face the helm and straightened his hat, then he slowly brought both hands to rest on the polished wood handles jutting out from the wheel. She watched his shoulders rise and fall with a breath and he closed his eyes. The wind picked up, fluttering the tails of his velvet jacket, bringing a light spray of saltwater across the deck. He turned his head to face that breeze and she knew he couldn't wait to have his ship out on that open sea.

Gil's wide brown eyes blinked several times as he studied the pristine lines of the Jolly Roger and it seemed he couldn't resist exploring, because he skipped off down the deck, running his hands over the rigging, and following the railing before ducking down below deck.

"I knew you'd decide to come." Uma said, pulling her into an embrace. "Granted, I thought it would be at sunrise on Saturday to board the Lost Revenge and we'd all go together, but I guess this ended up working out."

"I was going to forgive him," Melody admitted. "Before Sparrow came, I was thinking about everything and I would have come anyway."

"I know," Uma said. "Wesley told me."

She narrowed her eyes. "Wesley is way too intuitive for his own good."

Uma laughed. "That he is."

"Anyway, how could I let you pirates get all the glory for saving the seas?" Melody teased.

Uma's eyes reflected the golden afternoon sun as her gaze turned to Harry. And she could see the love she had there for him, it might be different, like the love between siblings, but it ran deep. And Melody was so glad for it. Because without Uma and Gil, what family would Harry have had? What chance would Harry have had to learn how to love or be loved without this crew?

Melody's gaze lifted to the helm again, to find Harry had moved on. She trailed her eyes across the deck, but he was nowhere to be found. Maybe he'd gone down to explore below with Gil?

"You guys are never allowed to fight again, by the way," Uma said. "He was an absolute nightmare to deal with those last few days."

"It wasn't really a fight. He – "

"I know, Mel," she said. "He's lucky you are so forgiving. He's really just lucky to have you, period."

"We've both got things to work on," she said.

Melody scanned the deck again, this time higher, searching the masts, the rigging, lifting her gaze up…

To meet his.

He stood at the top of the crow's nest in his full formal pirate regalia. The afternoon sun set his burgundy jacket on fire, lining his striking profile with fiery light as his coattails flapped in the breeze. From under his tricorn hat that penetrating siren's gaze was trained on her, with eyes that could pin her down no matter how far away he was.

Uma nudged her with an elbow and gave her a 'get up there' side-eyed look.

Melody had her happy thought, but her boots refused to lift from the deck. Looking down at her shoulders, she could no longer see that sprinkling of golden glowing powder. And since she didn't really want to waste another pinch of it, that meant she'd have to climb.

Crossing to the main mast, she wrapped her fingers around the coarse ropes and started up the netting at the base of the mast. This was where she'd seen the crew climb up before on her father's ships, only she was much slower than they were.

She ascended, one hand over the other until she reached the platform about halfway up and looked down.

That was a mistake.

Uma stood on deck, surveying her from below, and from this distance, her expression was already difficult to read. Her friends on the neighboring deck of the Black Pearl were small and very far away. The wooden planks were a dizzyingly long way down.

"Dinnae look down." Harry was peering over the edge of the tallest platform that still seemed so ridiculously far away. "That's the surest way to fall if there is one. Just keep climbin' up."

"Very reassuring, Harry," she said, practically yelling so her voice would carry up to him.

"Do yeh want me to come down and get yeh?"

She was close enough now to make out those smile lines carved out by his ecstatic grin.

"No, I can make it."

And she wasn't sure why she was telling him the exact opposite of what her gut was telling her at that moment. Which was: Get back down on solid ground you idiot.

There was no way she was going to make it. She was absurdly far from the deck now and the world was starting to spin. How was this so much scarier than flying with pixie dust?

Probably because when flying with the pixie dust there was no way to fall so long as you held your happy thought. She closed her eyes and clung with one hand around the mast and the other on the rope ladder. No happy thought could save her if she fell now. And, oh seas, she was so high she could feel the sway of the mast as the ship rocked gently with the tide.

"I know yeh can make it. But how 'bout a hand anyway?" And that lilting drawl was in her ear as his arm slipped around her waist. "Come on, love. The view's worth the climb."

He showed her where to put her hands, pointing out the places where the rope holds were close enough to work herself up slowly. And with the distraction of Harry's touch on her waist, the brush of his practiced hands across hers, and the tension of so many unsaid words still pulling between them, she forgot all about being afraid.

He scurried the last few steps first, then stooped low to pull her the rest of the way onto the platform.

She straightened, standing with him side by side atop the crow's nest as they looked out beyond Mermaid Lagoon, to the endless stretch of sea wrapping around Neverland.

The sun had now dipped so low on the horizon, it was burning orange in the darkening sky. Wave caps glittered like precious gems, beckoning in the distance as the salty breeze kissed her cheeks and pulled at her jacket and hair.

The ship wasn't even sailing yet, but Melody knew she was right where she belonged.

She watched Harry, still looking out over the sea. The love for that wide open space was clear in his eyes, in the way their color had somehow brightened beyond their already unnatural blue as they reflected the sun.

Their first loves would always be the sea.

And being up here with him was…

"I hope yeh know how much I missed yeh. How amazed I am by yeh. That yeh'd risk yerself to come after us like that. Yer more precious to me than all the treasure in the sea." His voice was probing, tentative as he waited for her reply.

"All in a day's work, Captain," she said, reaching up to trace her fingers lightly over the side of his face that wasn't bruised.

He beamed, his expression completely dominated by that overpowering smile of his.

"Now that I'm captain, I'm gonna need to find me a first mate, yeh know." He grabbed for her hands to pull her closer. "Someone brave and honest, who loves the sea, someone who'll put up with me many faults. And someone who can kick me arse if they choose to."

"I don't know anyone in their right mind who would put up with you like that," she teased.

"Good thing the woman I love isnae in her right mind, eh?"

"That explains everything," she admitted.

Harry pulled away briefly, unhooking something very familiar from his belt loop and holding it in his hand between them.

"And this?" he said, raising his eyes to her. "I havenae any words for this."

"You like it?" she asked.

His fingers reached to touch the cool metal blade, trailing down to the handguard, to the golden scaled hilt, tracing the tiny details circling the pommel.

The hooked blade flashed in the sun, highlighting the wicked curve of the weapon as he twisted and turned it in his grip. The weapon that had looked so lonely in its box, that she'd stared at for hours over the last few days, now seemed completely at home in Harry's grip. Like it had always belonged there.

And she could see him working out something to say, lips parting to begin, before his jaw went back to work again tensing, chewing the inside of his cheek.

"I dinnae know what to say," he finally admitted. "I've never received such a fine gift. Me heart's all flichterin' in me chest like a flock o' gulls crammed in a cage."

"Harry Hook, speechless?" she said, raising an eyebrow. "This may be a first."

But his little proclamation had pretty much melted her insides with the sweetness of it. Just one more quality about Harry to marvel about. He was so honest with some things and he'd been so secretive with others. Still, such a contrast.

She laid her hand on his arm, as he stood staring at the weapon in his hand.

"Thank yeh, love," He winced at his own words. "Och, 'thank yeh' sounds so triflin' next to what yeh've given me. It's a bloody miracle of craftmanship and a perfect fit for me hand."

"A Diablo specialty."

His eyes seem to expand to an almost unnatural size. "Diablo." The name was a whisper on his lips. "Melody, I really cannae accept this. It's too much."

She crossed her arms over her chest. "No returns. And do you really see me carrying that thing around?"

He chuckled at that. "I 'spose not, but…"

He sucked in a breath, as though he'd remembered something and he hooked the weapon on his belt loop again to free up a hand.

Then he looked down at his hand and twisted his mother's ring from his pinky.

He gave Melody a stern look from under lowered brows. "Now, I'm gonna give this to yeh again, but yeh cannae go and throw it back at me every time I do summat stupid."

His eyes probed her reaction to his humor, making sure she wasn't going to change her mind after all.

"No promises, you know how my temper is," she said.

His lip quirked up at that. "And yeh know what an eejit I can be, so looks like we may have a real problem."

He held the ring out to her, but instead of grabbing for it, this time Melody held out her right hand for him. He cradled it gently and slipped his mother's ring onto her finger.

She looked down to gaze at the sea blue gem at the ring's center, the one that always looked like undulating waves, and her breath caught.

Harry saw it, too and lifted her hand up higher, leaning closer as they studied the shape that had appeared on the waves inside the gem.

"A ship," Harry breathed.

"It's not just any ship," Melody said, studying the lines of the hull, the shape of the sails. "It's the Jolly Roger."

And she noticed something else about the ship. When Melody turned her finger, the Jolly Roger seemed to shift, almost like a compass. As though the ring was pointing the way toward the helm.

"With the Jolly Roger sunk, there wasn't any way to see the magic of the ring," Melody said, eyes wide in amazement. "It was hidden under the ocean."

But Harry was incapable of speech in that moment. His mouth had dropped open now as he stared back and forth between her and the ring.

"Your mother," Melody began, softly, as though she wasn't sure she could speak the words without spooking Harry. "Did she use this to keep track of your father?"

Harry's eyes closed, like a weight had settled onto him then that he couldn't quite carry unless he focused all of his energy on it.

"Smee was right," Harry said. And when he opened his eyes again to gaze at the ring, she found them filled with tears. An expression borne of both wonder and immense sadness. "She did love him."

"She would be proud of you," Melody said, lifting her hand to squeeze his arm. "You are every good quality she probably saw in your father. Industrious and stupidly brave, witty and unfairly charming."

And Harry's lip had begun to wobble, the way it did when he wasn't bothering to guard his emotions anymore.

"But you've grown beyond your father already," she said. "Because you care for your friends with a love and a loyalty I can't even understand. That's something he never learned. And if your mother were here, I know she'd tell you the same."

With those words, she could swear Harry was actually glowing. Without pixie dust and no need for a siren song, Harry's face lit up like the golden sun shining behind them.

His smile crinkled the corners of his eyes as he took her hand and looked down at his mother's ring again, this time with an entirely new understanding. "What can I do to make sure yeh keep it there this time, on yer finger where it belongs?"

"I think being honest with each other would be a good start," she answered.

"I cross me heart," he said, and it made her giddy to see him pull the new dagger from his belt loop, using it to symbolize his promise by drawing a cross over his chest.

"Can I be honest with yeh again right now?" he asked.

"Of course."

She watched his smile slowly transform from wide and joyful, to angular and mischievous before he leaned closer to whisper his secret against her cheek. "I want to kiss yeh until yer breathless and gaspin' for air."

She felt a surge of tingling heat in her chest as her heart flipped over.

He took a step forward, reaching gentle fingers to tuck away a lock of hair that had fallen across her face. This time when he whispered, he let his lips graze the rim of her ear. "And I want to do it up here where everyone can see."

That drew a shiver from someplace deep down. It climbed slowly up and down her arms before disappearing in a wave of goosebumps.

When Harry pulled back to gaze at her, his smile was gone, replaced with that blustery intensity, that erratic unpredictability that flashed across his eyes.

"Harry…" Her whispered voice was carried off quickly by the sea breeze. She wasn't even sure what she was going to tell him, the thought was gone now, lost as she stared into those twin pools of clear blue.

He took another step forward.

Melody's fingers brushed the lapel of his jacket, velvety soft underneath her touch. The press of his leg as he stepped close against her was the initial spark of heat that she sensed would soon catch into a blaze. She fisted her hands in his jacket dragging him down to her as her chest burned with a constricting blend of longing and warmth.

With the dagger still in his hand, he dragged the back of his fingers against her cheek and down across one half of her smile, his touch leaving a tingling trail down to her bottom lip.

"How is it, that after only a few days, I've missed yeh so much?"

He didn't wait for her response before slanting his head and leaning down to her, grazing a feather-light touch against her lips. His breath heated her skin, magnifying the sensation of that light stroke of his mouth and he stayed there. His nose softly brushing her cheek, their breath mingling between them.

A light humming sigh escaped her lips before she could bite it back.

"Mmm hmmm," he agreed, sweeping another gentle touch across her eager lips.

This time, she had a harder time holding back. Now completely wrapped in his intoxicating closeness, she draped her arms around his neck and captured his mouth fully.

The rake of his fingers from her waist up her back was the ignition of that fiery inferno that had been threatening earlier. And with the answering press of his lips hard against hers, she was fully engulfed.

As always, Harry Hook spoke to her through that kiss. She could taste his need, feel the soft caress of his yearning, and she opened herself to his searching mouth as he asked a silent question of her.

She answered the only way she knew how, meeting him with her entire heart and losing herself in the soft, insistence of his touch. His lips were immersive but gentle, his hands, strong but impossibly tender with her, reminding Melody of everything she could have lost if she hadn't been able to forgive him. Harry had always been a picture in contrast – born a villain but somehow able to grow beyond that when given a chance.

And the way he was kissing her now was proof enough of his intentions. The touch was worshipful. He was savoring her, giving more of himself than he took, and she never wanted it to stop.

But Melody's stupid, stupid human lungs had to find air, and she was forced to tear away from Harry to catch her breath.

"Woooo hooo!"

"Alright Harry!"

"Get a room!"

Cat calls and whistles and the assorted voices of her friends all called up from on deck at once.

"You knew they were all watching, didn't you," Melody accused, her voice definitely gasping and breathless, just as he'd predicted.

"Maybe," he said, shrugging. "But yeh really cannae blame me. I've got a flair for the dramatic, remember?"

He pulled her close, wrapping his arms around her in a protective embrace and she leaned her head against his chest. Seas. She'd be fine with staying up here for the rest of the night.

"Besides, I think they're just as happy as I am yeh forgave me," he said, his voice rumbling through his chest and into her ear still pressed close against him. "I was dead useless tryin' to prepare for the voyage here. The crew probably just wishes things were back to normal so I could get off me arse and help out a wee bit."

She laughed at that, pulling back to look up at him. "So, you've been a sulky brat, huh?"

"That pretty much sums it up." His kiss-swollen lips curved into a smile making her want to kiss them all over again.

And she didn't hide that fact from him. She reached up to run a finger over his bottom lip. "You look so adorable after we've kissed. Makes me want to keep going and never stop."

That got him practically purring, his high-pitched squeal going positively feral. And with no warning, he lifted her up, draping her legs around his waist. And even though they were almost a hundred feet up, she hooked her feet around him, not caring who was watching or whether it was lady-like to do this in a skirt.

And this kiss was fun, teasing, adventurous and she wondered how each touch of his lips could promise her something different. Prospects of a future for them seemed endless and she found herself heating up again as he buried his lips against her neck, sucking and biting each of those promises against her skin.

"Melody!"

She thought someone had called her name, but she was sure it could wait as Harry's hands were now massaging circles along the undersides of her thighs and holy mother of the sea, she had missed those hands.

He turned to press her back against the mast, probably to help keep his balance, and that extra pressure had suddenly put him right where she could feel him between her legs.

She whined into his ear. "Harry," she panted. "Seas, I missed you…"

"Harry!" It sounded like Uma's voice now, but even a captain's voice couldn't pull Harry away from her. Harry grunted against her neck, the only indication he'd even heard his name. And his hot mouth was drawing all manner of sounds from her as that consuming ache for him burned hotter.

But when a chorus of voices shouted all at once, they could no longer ignore it.

"You guys! Look!"

Harry growled, removing his lips from her neck as though it was painful for him.

As soon as he looked over her shoulder, his eyes widened and he was unwrapping her legs from his waist.

"Uh… love, yeh might want to see this," he drawled thickly.

She breathed a protesting moan.

He looked down at her with a warning glare. "Trust me."

Melody finally unlocked her legs from around his waist and stood on her own two feet before turning to look in the direction he was facing.

Another ship had entered the lagoon, its sails billowing bright, even in the waning twilight. This was a ship that was very familiar to her, waving the blue flag bearing the golden seal of Atlantica.

And out on deck she saw two figures she also knew very well. One with short dark hair and a spyglass plastered to his eye, another with long red hair, with hands on her hips. There was no mistaking her posture, she'd seen that stance a hundred times.

And their chins were both raised, looking up at the crow's nest of the Jolly Roger.

"Sea spit," Melody cursed, then she turned to Harry. "Well Captain, it's time to meet the parents. And you might want to keep that siren song on standby in case this goes south, my mom does not look happy."

Harry paled. "I'd almost rather face another horde of undead pirates."

"Me, too."