AN: Enjoy!

Vision's blood boiled. He almost screamed, wanted to scream for Wanda as she had almost screamed for him when she believed him dead. And, though he could almost hear Wanda's voice in his head telling him to stop, this was a bad idea, he was being stupid, he marched over to confront the Captain as soon as he stepped back onto the ship.

"Where's Wanda? What happened to her?!"

"It's obvious, isn't it? She fell behind" Rumlow raised an eyebrow and smirked, surprised, but unthreatened by Vision's outburst. "Didn't Maximoff tell you the rules, Cabin Bastard? If you fall behind, you stay behind."

"Well.." Vision frowned. Wanda had in fact told him this, but it didn't make him feel any better at all.

"It's probably for the best" Rumlow shrugged, his smirk twisting into a wide, unpleasant grin. "I could never really trust her, she was much too close to the previous Captain.. I had to kill her brother."

"Did you?" Vision replied through gritted teeth. He knew that Rumlow was only telling him about all this to taunt him, believing that he couldn't do anything about it. Vision's fingers itched for his sword, hidden below deck.

"Yeah.. Wanda toed the line, but she was always a little too quiet.. I worried she was plotting something. The best thing she did was convince me to spare you, to do all our grunt work." Rumlow's grin widened further. "Now that she's not around to be responsible for you anymore, you and I are going to be working a lot more closely, Cabin Bastard."

"Of course, Sir." Vision tried to stay calm, to seem compliant. Biding his time, although he didn't have much.

The sentence for piracy was hanging, and from Vision's experience, most towns had the sentences carried out within a few days. Somehow, he had to save Wanda, before it was too late.

Vision waited, until the crew of the Hydra were asleep or pass*ed out, the victims of their own 'successful raid' celebrations. Then, he gathered his things, and Wanda's. Food, water, a single change of clothes each, the medical supplies she had brought him, the money they had saved. Bundled it all up in one of the thin blankets they slept under, a blanket that still smelled faintly of Wanda. The ship had left port, limited time already creeping away from him.

Vision crept back up to the deck, over to the lifeboats that he had recently cleaned. Lowered one into the water as quietly as he could, tossed in a pair of oars, He and Wanda's bundled belongings. He was about to jump overboard himself when he heard a familiar voice sneering behind him.

"You really thought I didn't know you'd try something stupid, Cabin Bastard?"

Without missing a beat, Vision spun around, aiming his sword at Rumlow's throat.

"Actually, I was counting on this exact scenario."

Rumlow clearly wasn't expecting Vision to be armed. He yelped and fumbled his own sword, so Vision took the chance to aim a kick at the Captain's hand, sending the weapon skittering away across the deck. With adrenaline coursing through him, Vision didn't find Rumlow nearly as scary. What was scary, Vision thought, casting a nervous glance over the side of the ship, was that his escape boat was starting to drift. Rumlow snickered Vision turned back still holding the sword to his throat. Despite the snicker, The Captain seemed clearly unsettled at the loss of his sword.

"You're not a real pirate" Rumlow told him, although it seemed like he may have been trying to convince himself as much as Vision. "You won't kill me."

Vision knew that he really should just jump now, swim to his lifeboat and leave Rumlow to explain to his crew why he, the supposed Captain of the ship, had failed to stop a simple Cabin Boy from escaping. But then Vision thought of Wanda being left behind to face certain death. Thought of Pietro, of the handsome, laughing face of a boy he'd never seen, and never would.

"You're right that I'm not a pirate" said Vision, "But I was trained by one, and I wouldn't be killing you for me, I'd be killing you for her."

"Is that right?" At that moment, Rumlow seemed to remember his whip, and slowly reached for it.

Thankfully, Vision spotted him, striking at the Captain's hand with his sword, before, finally, sliding the blade into Rumlow's gut. Rumlow stumbled backwards, collapsing onto the deck, and while it wouldn't have taken much more to finish the job, Vision had no more time to waste. He pulled his sword free, ran, and dived over the side of The Hydra, swam to his life boat, which had drifted a short distance away, climbed in, and grabbed the oars, starting to row.

Wanda needed him.

It took him until mid-morning to reach port, and from there, it would be a full day and night's walk to reach the Town where the raid had taken place, and Wanda had most likely been captured.

So, Vision walked, the makeshift sack of their belongings slung over his shoulder, Wanda's lingering scent reminding him why he had to go on. He didn't stop for anything. He ate as he walked, drank as he walked. He didn't even stop to sleep. He was exhausted when he reached the town, and became sick when the gallows were one of the first things he saw upon entering. Thankfully, though, there were no bodies dangling from them.

Now he was here, Vision was suddenly a little lost, unsure of what his first move should be. This wasn't a type of situation that he had ever expected to become involved in.

Eventually, Vision decided to head for the local Tavern in search of information, and maybe a room, depending on how long he had to stay. He ordered a drink, and tried not to be too obvious as he asked the bartender:

"So, I'm uh, new in town. How's the crime rate around here? Any hangings lately?"

"Well" the Bartender began, before a cranky looking old man with a moustache interrupted from the end of the bar.

"There was supposed to be one yesterday.. a pirate girl, arrested her myself" The man, who Vision soon learned was named Thaddeus Ross, scowled. "But then she was sick on the way to the gallows, and so the Doctor checked her out and next thing we knew, they were letting her 'plead her belly' to stay the execution."

Vision's heart sank into his gut.

"P-Plead her belly?" He stammered, and another short-haired man in a corner booth of the Tavern looked up, taking note of his reaction.

"Mistake if you ask me" Ross sniffed. "All it does is breed the next generation of.. Hey, where'd he go?"

Vision bolted from the Tavern, falling to his knees. He couldn't breathe, he felt sick. He was almost too late. As he had been making his long trek to her rescue her, Wanda had almost been hanged. She was literally steps away from the Gallows. All that had saved her was pleading her belly.

Wanda was pregnant with his child.