.xiv.

Isabela owes Hawke, big time.

She's never much enjoyed being indebted to anyone, sometimes when people have done for you, they expect your undying loyalty for the rest of forever. Fortunately, Hawke isn't one of those people, praise Andraste's buoyant, beautiful breasts. It seemed like the Champion, a woman she had never really expected to become friends with, believed that she owed everyone everything she could give. Foolish, Isabela had thought at first, until that ridiculous selflessness had played no small part in saving her from Hayder's dirty tricks, the Arishok's wrath, and finally Castillon. And even after all of this, Hawke had appeared one morning in the Hanged Man over her, smiling and far too upbeat (for that hour of the morning) and had dropped a pouch of sovereigns on the bar with a grin.

Let's go get your ship.

"What are you thinking about?" Merrill asks, as they walk the streets of Lowtown. They've just passed another one of Hawke's acquaintances, Lady Elegant, who they've informed of Hawke's disappearance and who has in turn told them she will keep an ear out for any news.

"Oh, nothing much, Kitten. What are you thinking about?"

"Hawke," the pretty elf answers, long eyelashes fluttering. "I'm starting to get really worried. I'd expected that we would have found her by now."

"She's tough. Wherever she is, we'll find her and she'll be fine."

"Do you ever wonder if maybe too many people expect her to be tough?"

As usual, Merrill's comments give her pause.

"I don't know. Probably. All of Kirkwall running to her every time they screw up, plus us with our stupid little problems..." she sees her friend droop a little out of the corner of her eye.

"Oh, no, Kitten, that's not what I meant. You can't keep blaming yourself for what happened with that damn demon."

"I'm the reason it happened," she answers meekly, staring at her feet, one in front of the other.

"It's done. All you can do now is move on. Do you think your Keeper Marethari would want you to keep revisiting your mistakes until you drown in your own guilt?"

"No... No I suppose not. I just wish I hadn't let it happen."

"I know. We muck up from time to time. Learn from it and move on." She smiles comfortingly. Merrill returns the gesture, a little bit of her chipper demeanor slipping back into place.

"Thank you, Isabela."

"Once we find Hawke, I'm taking you, her, her blasted brooding boyfriend, and myself, and we'll sail off into the sunset and leave this blighted city to it's own for a while. And if it implodes in the mean time, too bad. I'll hear no arguments from you about it either," she grins.

"A vacation would be nice," Merrill assents with a conspiratorial grin. "I suppose a little one couldn't hurt."

"Too much, anyway," the captain mumbles, tightening her kerchief. "I'm glad I've gotten you to see things my way. Now, I think we've thoroughly scoured this part of the city. Let's go meet the others and see if they've had a better time of it than we have."

Merrill frowns. "I hope so."

Author's Note: Another short one, I hope you guys don't mind!

It occurs to me that I might have done better writing this fic with a more ambiguous Hawke. A lot of the key points of the one I'm using now play into the story, but tell me what do you guys prefer: Hawkes with strong, defined personalities, or more leave-it-up-to-the-imagination Champions? Let me know! This certainly isn't the last DA fic I'll be writing;)

Shoutout to MC: I'm always so excited to see your reviews!

Next time: The merry band receives Hawke's letter! I'm probably spending too much time on exposition! But we're getting to the good stuff, so sit tight!