Things are a bit nuts: Spring Break, Graduation, Work...you know how that goes. Thanks for being so patient and so loyal. I hope you guys like this new little installment. Its basically just another foundation to build on, and i hope the jumping around doesnt confuse any of you. It all flowed in my mind...but hey! I'm crazy so i wouldn't rely on my 'good' judgment. Again, if you have ANY suggestions or anything you'd like to see added to the story then don't hesitate to tell me!

thanks so much for your all you guys support! you're the best!!!

Enjoy. -Innersmile

Back in Port Royal she used to swim on chilly spring days, and afterward lie on the rocks beside the pond to soak up the heat of the sun. If the sunlight vanished suddenly behind a cloud, as if often did, the cold air seemed to close about her skin like a sheet of metal. The moment Elizabeth saw her husband leave, standing there in the middle of the road, she had that same feeling. It was as though the sun had vanished, possibly for good, and her heart was condemned to stand wet and naked in the icy air.

These thoughts swam around her head as she sat at the kitchen table, slumped in her chair, her eyes closed and her lip bit in frustration. It was nearly two o'clock in the afternoon and that meant that she had been in this state for almost four hours, after she had made a snake for Katie and sent her outside to play. Now her little girl was taking a nap in the living room, curled up on the couch, feeling the effects of her early morning rouse.

Lucy took a deep breath as she stepped up to the door. She poised herself and held her hand up to knock….then stopped and looked down at her son.

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"Go on Mum! What's so hard about knocking?" Tristan asked

Lucy exhaled and hushed her voice in a mumbled tone. "I don't know!...but what am I suppose to say? I haven't seen her for months."

"Say hello." The nine year old pointed out matter of factly. "It's usually what people say when they greet each other." Then he smiled, that smile that his mother couldn't resist and it made her a bit easier.

"Just say hello…" She told herself. "That's all… 'Hello Elizabeth..' …no no…'Good Afternoon!' ….oh that won't do."

Tristan rolled his eyes, away from his mothers view and scratched his head. How hard was it? He thought. They're good friends…granted their families hadn't spoken in almost six months. But that would soon be better once his mother mended things. Girls always made things more complicated, he told himself.

Lucy finally raised her fist and knocked on the door. Still quietly telling herself that her old friend would be pleased to see her and not to worry.

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Elizabeth heard the knock and jumped to her feet. Could it be Will? Did he turn back? No, why would he knock? He would certainly let himself in…

She went to the door and opened it with a hurried swipe of her arm. Standing there was Lucy with a bright eyed Tristan at her side. Elizabeth's face slightly dropped, she could feel it, only because it wasn't her husband in front of her…

Lucy saw her disappointed expression and felt her heart jump to her throat.

"Oh…uh…Elizabeth…I…" she stammered

Tristan put himself on his tip toes and leaned into her. "Hello" He whispered

"Ah yes! Hello." Lucy recovered.

"Oh…Lucy! I'm sorry I was just – expecting someone else, you know –"

"Will?" The redhead asked, flicking her eyes up at her friend cautiously.

Elizabeth was a little surprised. "Yes Will. He left this morning."

Lucy nodded and fidgeted with her hands. "I know…I saw him go."

They all three stood in the doorway like that for a moment while the slightly awkward silence began to set in. Elizabeth glanced at Tristan who looked back at her and to his mother once more before the two women met each other's eyes again, then Liz finally spoke. "I'm sorry! Come in, wont you? Both of you."

She stepped off to the side for them to enter. Lucy and the boy went to the foyer to see Katie standing there, slightly groggy but openly happy and ready to greet her neighbors. Her hair was in disarray on one side where she had laid while her big brown eyes blinked a few times over, attempting to focus. "Lucy!" She squealed as she ran to the young woman.

Lucy bent down and hugged the little girl that she hadn't spoken to in a few months, kind of surprised that she remembered enough to still be fond of her. "How are you little one?"

Katie put her hands on her hip, looking as much like a grown up as she could. "Little? I'm not little Lucy. I'm almost five!" She said as she pushed five fingers in front of her.

The young woman repressed a giggle and nodded conceding. "Oh yes, you're quite right. Well…Miss Katherine Turner, would you do your mother and I a favor and go play outside for a time? Tristan will join you." She said, turning to Tristan with a sideways glance and a stern look on her face. The boys shoulders dropped, not really wanting to go 'play' with his little four year old neighbor in her light pink dress. "Won't you Tristan?"

He exhaled and nodded warily.

"And…" Lucy began, and then turned to look at Elizabeth who was looking upon the two of them fondly. "If that's alright with your mother, of course."

"Oh, fine with me." Liz agreed. "But please stay around the house, dearest."

Katie nodded, very excited as Tristan took her by the hand, obviously vexed because of his responsibility, and lead her back out the door. The two women were now left there together. Lucy stood and turned to her friend. Elizabeth gestured for them to go to the living room to sit; she was also delaying the rest of their conversation. She wasn't quite sure she'd be prepared for what Lucy had to say. With all her heart she hoped it was to come and rekindle their friendship…then again she had also seen her husband leave this morning wearing the British military and a red coat on his back. There was no telling what was going to be said.

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Will sat stiffly on the horse, bouncing unrelentlessly as the animal trotted behind his companions. The November chill ripped through his hole filled jacket and caused the young man to shiver unwillingly. From his view on in the middle of the pack, he had had a full view of the lifeless body on the back of one of the soldier's horses. He swallowed hard each time the group came to a ditch or hill and the mass would shift or jolt inside its stained blanket. It was a horrible thought to think – to know that the young soldier had traveled the same road he was now, only this time in his make-shift body bag. He knew he could smell blood, but Will wasn't sure if it was his used and soiled jacket or only the paranoid thought of the rotting corpse ahead of him. They had been riding for almost four hours but it still wasn't quite setting into his head that he was leaving his family, with a group of strangers all for a cause he wasn't so sure he agreed with in the first place. More than anything he wanted to twist this horse around and take off as fast as he could through the forest, across the grassy hills and back to his modest home, into the arms of his wife. But he could also see the glint of the rifle in the holster of the saddle of each man just in front of him; this is what held him where he was.

"Turner!" He heard ahead of him. He saw the General turned around in his seat, motioning him forward.

Will road up next to him, a stoic expression on his face.

"Take the lead. You'll be taking us ahead from here on into Wilmington."

He simply nodded and went in front of the soldiers. Already knowing his way – having traveled this direction at least half a dozen times before, this one seemed so different on so many levels. It felt foreign, like a new land, almost alien. The grass didn't move the same, the birds didn't sound the same, even the horses hooves on the damp ground still didn't seem right. Will's senses were heightened and he couldn't help but to have the strange feeling that he was in impending danger….it was almost like he was on the Pearl again.

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"Elizabeth…let me just start I –"

"No, Lucy really, I feel like I have so much to tell y-"

"Please, let me I just want to say how sorry I am."

Elizabeth stopped for a moment and looked at her friend softly. "You're sorry? But there's so much more for me to regret, I never made an attempt to talk to you after we exchanged words. Once I went to your door but didn't have the heart to stay there on your step."

Lucy let out a little laugh. "You didn't have the heart? Tristan was the only reason I had enough gall to even knock on the door!" Lucy gave her another smile then turned her face to a picture of sincerity. "Elizabeth, I can't tell you how truly sorry I am to have almost lost our friendship. It was so foolish of Nathan and I to take you for granted like that. I think after he left I realized how trivial our little dispute really was. I never took into account your feelings….I'm just, so, so sorry."

Elizabeth got up and sat on the sofa next to her friend. She laid her arm around her shoulders and gave her a tender hug. "I don't ever want us to act that childish towards one another again. With our husbands gone, we need each other more than ever…"

"I agree!" Lucy said with a grin, but a still a hint of sadness in her voice.

The two hugged again and remained that way for a few more moments, relishing each other's presence and rekindled friendship. Then Lucy cleared her throat, separating herself and looking into her companions face with a slight twinkle in her eye... "Speaking of childish… you're pregnant and you didn't tell me!"

Elizabeth couldn't help but laugh. "Oh but we weren't speaking remember?"

Lucy gave a dramatic wave of her hand. "What, that old squabble? Now, you know better than to keep something like this from me. How far along are you?"

"Just over seven months I think." She said with a grin. "I was so happy Lucy; I can't tell you how glad to know I was having another baby… of course with them being here I was rather scared at first."

"Yes!" Her friend broke in at once. "What were they like? Crude, rude……they didn't touch you did they?" She asked, her eyes wide with curiosity and fear.

Liz shook her head. "No, they weren't really anything like that. At first I was skeptical of them, as any woman would be –even me who was raised around the military. But they proved many of my notions wrong. Only when they were called away was my faith in them shattered, when they took Will with them."

Lucy could tell her friend was very troubled know, her sad eyes dropping to the floor. She pulled her into another hug and let her lean there on her shoulder for as long as her broken heart needed to.

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"Just stop trying Katie. You're too small!"

"I'm not too small! I can do anything you can do Tristan!" The little girl hiked up her dress again and attempted to reach her left foot into the crack of the tree…she kept coming up another foot short of her destination.

Tristan sat on a nearby branch swinging his legs, slightly taunting the girl. He then nimbly moved to the branch above him, standing on his broad base. "You know you're mother will be very mad at me when she sees your dress has a tear. You'd better stop before you make a mess of yourself."

Katie huffed and pouted her rosy lips. Her cheeks were slightly reddened by the failure to prove her friend wrong, and to not to what the other, older, boy was doing. Climbing a tree – her tree! "This is not fair! You knew I couldn't climb and you still went up. Why did you do that?"

Her question was simple. Not a very complex question for a four year old to ask an nine year old, but Tristan had a hard time finding an equally simple answer. "I don't know…." He stammered. "Because I'm bigger…that's why!"

"That's not an answer!" she retorted childishly.

"You're just jealous."

"Am not!" She said as her little foot stopped the ground below her. "Why would I be jealous of a dumb…dumb boy!" She said before turning and running towards her door.

Tristan immediately began his descent down the tree and hit the ground running to catch up with her. He grabbed her by her shoulder to make her stop. "No stop, you can't go in yet! They're still in there talking."

"I want my Mama…" She said sheepishly in front of him.

Tristan sighed and folded his arms uncomfortably. "I'm sorry, alright?"

The little girl stayed quiet. Tristan knelt down and took her by the shoulders, making her look at him. "I'm sorry. Stay outside with me?"

Katie looked at him, thought about it for a moment then nodded and gave him a smile. The two of them went back under the tree that was the source of such delimma earlier. Katie stayed standing, picking at the bark. While Tristan sat down, leaning his head against the steady oak.

"Tristan?" She asked, a little timid.

"Hmm?"

"Are our mothers friends now?"

Tristan sighed and closed his eyes as he lay there letting the afternoon sun filter through the leaves. "I suppose so. They're better friends now."

Katie nodded, and stayed silent, content with his answer. A moment later she piped up again: "Tristan, why did our fathers leave?"

He opened his eyes but didn't move. He wasn't sure what to say. At first his mind went to Nathan who left only a couple of weeks ago, then his thoughts went to his real father, Sebastian, the one who he could barely remember, the one he could only see in his dreams. His head dropped and he pulled at his shaggy hair, a nervous habit he had always had. "I don't know…" He said quietly.

"But why did they both leave? Why did both of them have to go? They will be back won't they? Mama says that Papa will be back soon." Katie spoke and her voice grew higher, more urgent - seeking even more earnestly for Tristan's honest answer.

"I don't know Katie!" He shot back at her. He saw her recoil and decided not to upset her again and have a repeat of the same episode they had a few moments ago. "I really don't…It's just something they had to do."

Again, trusting the older, smarter boy for his wisdom she nodded and continued to scratch at the bark in front of her while her friend sat below, his head hung low, and his eyes closed, saddened that he couldn't even hear that other man's voice anymore.

'Pére?'