DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN OR ITS CHARACTERS. IF I DID I WOULDN'T BE WRITING FANFICTIONS FOR IT.
Hoist the Colors:
Chapter 5: Fortune-Tellers and Jail Cells
"Mrs. McGrath," the captain said
"Would you make a pirate of your son Ted?
With a scarlet coat and a fine cloth hat
Mrs. McGrath, wouldn't you like that?"
Sing Too rye ae, foll diddle-ee ae
Too rye ooh rye ooh rye ae
A Too rye ae, foll diddle-ee ae
Too rye ooh rye ooh rye ae
Now Mrs. McGrath lived on the shore
And after seven years or more
She spied a ship coming in the bay
"That's my son Ted, will you clear the way?"
"Now Captain, dear, where have you been?
Have you sailed the Mediterranean?
And have you news of my son Ted?
Is he living or is he dead?"
Sing Too rye ae, foll diddle-ee ae
Too rye ooh rye ooh rye ae
A Too rye ae, foll diddle-ee ae
Too rye ooh rye ooh rye ae
Then up steps Ted without any legs
And in their place two wooden pegs
She kissed him a dozen times or two
Said "Ted, me boy, is it really you?"
"Now was you drunk or was you blind
When you left your two fine legs behind?
Or was it walking upon the sea
That tore your legs from the knees away?"
Sing Too rye ae, foll diddle-ee ae
Too rye ooh rye ooh rye ae
A Too rye ae, foll diddle-ee ae
Too rye ooh rye ooh rye ae
"Well I wasn't drunk and I wasn't blind
When I left my two fine legs behind
A cannonball on the fifth of May
Tore my legs from the knees away"
"Ted, me boy," the widow cried
"Your two fine legs were your mama's pride
The stumps of a tree won't do at all
Why didn't you run from the cannonball?"
Sing Too rye ae, foll diddle-ee ae
Too rye ooh rye ooh rye ae
A Too rye ae, foll diddle-ee ae
Too rye ooh rye ooh rye ae
Colleen sang quietly to herself in a small voice as she wandered the narrow pathways, and crooked walkways of Shipwreck City. She was absently picking at a piece of fruit, while she walked, its sweet flesh left sticky juice on her fingers. She had pulled her newly-washed hair into a tight braid at the nape of her neck.
It was night, and the stars and crescent moon hung overhead as Colleen dodged being hit by a man thrown from a tavern door, and stepped over the men and women in booze induced comas that lay haphazardly along the pathways. To most of these she didn't grant a second glance.
Since her landing on Shipwreck Island little progress had been made, the members of the Brethren Court were still arriving. Sri Sumbaji had just arrived that day, on his magnificent ship and decked in all his glorious wonder. Colleen figured that he didn't speak English for she never saw him speak to anyone without an interpreter. The interpreter must have been with him for a very long time, for the interpreter knew exactly what Sri Sumbaji wanted to say, without Sri Sumbaji needing to give so much as a word, a mere tilt of the head, or wave of the hand gave the interpreter enough information for him to give a full out monologue of Sri Sumbaji's opinion. It was down-right scary at times.
Of the Brethren Court six had gathered, Mistress Cheng being one, Gentleman Jocard another, Armand the Corsair the third, Sri Sumbaji, Villanueva, and Chavelle the Penniless Frenchman. The latter two were the main cause of most of the fighting between the Court and other pirates on the island. It just so happened that Chavelle and Villanueva still had enough patriotism in their heritage to start a brawl in the ancient tradition of Spain and France. Two of the members still missing, were said to be engaged in the rescue mission of Jack Sparrow, the final member of the Court.
Other local pirate captains and ships had begun to flock to Shipwreck Island day by day. All demanding some sort of decision about the East India Trading Company, especially in regards to the Flying Dutchman, now that she had sided with the Company and the Pearl had been taken to the Locker, no one felt safe. Every one of the ships that made it to the island wished for rest from the horrible destruction and terror Davy Jones wrought upon the seas.
For Colleen, her main concern and reason for being at Shipwreck Island was going to be resolved the next morning. For with Sri Sumbaji's arrival came the seventh Piece of Eight, and the ability for the Brethren Court to hold a trial. In the morning, Captain Kidd and his crew were to be put before the Court to plead their case, and to receive their punishment.
Colleen was winding through the narrow and rickety streets trying to find exactly which tavern her family had disappeared to, almost every establishment on Shipwreck Island was a tavern, or inn, or bar. There were a few blacksmiths, and other such repair-businesses, but otherwise most of the stores were for liquor, food, or pleasurable company. None of these things appealed to Colleen at the moment, she still had that nagging urge to talk with Gabriel and find out why he and his crew had betrayed their friends so easily.
Colleen walked down to the docks, her feet looking for the calming presence of the Pendennis, home. But Colleen had to stop herself before she went any farther, knowing that the only thing she would discover was the pain of not seeing her beloved ship there.
Looking up she noticed a long wood and rope bridge barely hanging onto the cliff-face and the nest of broken ships that made up the Court's tiny island. Colleen could see the flickering lights of a small town on the other side of the bridge, and decided to brave the crossing to explore the town.
She regretted the decision once half-way across the bridge. It would sway dangerously in the smallest gust of wind leaving her clinging for dear life to the flimsy rope hand-rail. She sat curled in the fetal position for several minutes as one particularly bad gust of wind rocked the bridge, but she opened her eyes slightly when she heard a steady clip-clop of something like hoof steps. There passing by her was a bundled up old man and a withered old donkey. The donkey tossed his head and let out a loud noise that sounded vaguely like laughter to Colleen as he passed by the girl. Colleen scowled at the donkey but continued to cling to the bridge until the wind died down. Then she stood slowly, and sprinted to the far side of the bridge.
Sinking to the ground with a shaky sigh of relief she thought, 'I'm going to have to come back this way aren't I?' Then with a groan she stood and made her way into the town. 'We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.'
Colleen wandered through the cobble stone paved streets and peered into the dark windows of the shops. Each one was locked up tight against the pirates of the nearby city. The locks were well made, and held solid, Colleen knew, she tried them all.
After a little while she decided to go back and turned suddenly on her heel, and nearly crashed into an old peddler woman. Colleen cried out in surprise taking a few steps back and drawing her sword. The woman did not seem fazed by this at all.
"Please," she said, her voice sounded as worn and leathery as her face looked. "I am hungry, give me some food! Help a poor old woman!"
Colleen stared at the woman and thought for a moment, then relented sheathing her sword, this poor lady seemed harmless enough. "Here, I have a few biscuits." She said pulling some old dry cakes wrapped in a cloth from her vest pocket. "They're not much, but filling at the very least…"
"Bless you good child! Bless you!" The woman took the biscuits happily. Colleen again turned to go but was caught at the wrist by the old woman. Colleen was startled by the strength of the woman's grip, her fingers dug into Colleen's flesh with bruising force and she felt a twist of fear curl through her belly.
"Let me go, ma'am. I've given you all I have!" Colleen said, twisting her hand in the woman's grasp while the left hand writhed for a good angle to draw her blade.
"Come with me girl, I will read your fortune to pay you back." The woman stared at her with an intimidating intensity.
"…No, no. That's quite alright; I'm not interested in my future." Colleen hesitated still struggling to get away, but this damned woman wouldn't let her go.
"Colleen Elizabeth Killigrew! Come with me!" the woman said sternly. Colleen's heart stopped dead.
"How do you know me?" she said, her eyes wide with fear.
The woman's eyes flashed for a moment of something like hellfire. "Let me read your fortune, in payment for your food." Colleen felt a shiver travel down her back as she agreed, not really seeing a choice in the matter.
The old peddler woman led her through the streets, and out of the town. They traveled across the island for a while until they came to the mouth of a cave. The woman began to pull Colleen down into the cave but Colleen held her ground.
"What is it child?" the woman questioned.
"Where are you taking me?" Colleen hissed, she was still being held onto by the woman and she was preparing to fight if the woman didn't tell her.
"Have some faith, child; I'm not going to hurt you!" the woman tutted, finally releasing Colleen's wrist. "Go if you want to, but I just want to repay you."
Colleen stared at the woman for a few moments before she sighed. "Lead me on."
Down they traveled, remarkably on flights of stairs chiseled into the rock. At the bottom, Colleen and the old woman stepped into a small grotto. It was almost pitch black until the old woman struck a match and lit a few kerosene lamps.
The room was a large cavern, and spires of minerals clung to the roof of the cavern, and jutted up from the floor like a dragon's teeth. Colleen really started to wonder what she'd gotten herself into. There were all sorts of charms and knickknacks scattered about the room placed on top of old worn furniture, no doubt made from the planks and boards of old wrecks.
"Come here Colleen." The old woman said, reaching out a hand to her. She was already seated in a worn rocking chair behind an intricately carved table that probably had once called the captain's quarters of a naval vessel its home.
Colleen walked over and sat across from the woman on an old crate that had a cushion placed on top of it. There was no crystal ball, and no deck of tarot cards as per usual of the fortune tellers in Tortuga and Shipwreck City. Instead there was a small polished bronze bowl set in the center of an intricate chalk drawing. The white lines connected to circles in which sat large candles that were already had their wicks flickering merrily. Also placed at certain parts of the chalk symbol were various items, a pile of bones with runes carved into them, a gold hair-comb inlaid with jewels, a chicken's foot, and a collection of multicolored crystals. Colleen peered at the items while the old woman added liquids from vials and powders from bags to the little bowl until the liquid inside seemed very murky.
"I need a lock of your hair." The woman said, Colleen started at the sudden noise after it being quiet for so long. But she leaned forward and pulled her braid over her shoulder so the woman could reach it. The woman took about an inch off the bottom and tossed that into the bowl as well. Then she lay her hands on either side of the bowl, palms facing up, and closed her eyes and fell into what Colleen suspected was a deep trance. Colleen watched as suddenly a chill draft blew up and the wicks to all of the candles fluttered dangerously, but didn't go out. As the wind grew louder and stronger Colleen noticed the bowl had begun to form a whirlpool in the center, it spiraled down and down seemingly through the bottom of the bowl. It was then that Colleen noticed the humming coming from the woman's throat.
The wind whipped about Colleen's thin form catching the stray locks of hair and blowing them in her eyes.
"Ask a question of the oracle, child." The woman said.
Colleen's eyes snapped back to the woman and saw that she was out of her trance yet the wind did not die down.
"What kind of question?" she whispered.
"Any kind." The woman replied, seemingly unaffected by the driving wind.
"Alright," Colleen said, then she thought. After a moment she said, "Will the East India Trading Company find the island?"
The woman fell back into her trance and began to chant again. This time it was louder and Colleen could make out the words, but she didn't know their meaning.
"Soon," The old woman began. "They will come soon."
Colleen's heart skipped a beat. "How soon?"
"A day or two, not more than a week."
Colleen's mind raced, "But we sank all of their ships, how do they know where to find us?"
"There was a traitor among those who returned from the Locker."
Colleen sighed. "How will the battle end?" she asked.
The old woman paused trying to speak, but then said. "Ask a different question."
"Alright… will my family survive the battle?"
Again the woman paused. "Ask a different question."
Colleen sighed again. "What does the future hold for me?"
The old woman again paused, but before Colleen could change her question, the old woman began to speak.
"I see many paths… many opportunities. Whether or not you take them, is unclear… it depends on the decisions you make before those, and how you grow from those experiences. But I do see two lovers, both fighting for your attention, one condemned by man, the other condemned by fate. Which you choose is up to you. I see your fate pull away from that of your family's, and intertwine with that of a new family. The outcome is unclear. Many battles will be fought, both for you, and by you. Many friends may be lost. Many new ones may be made. You have a role to play in what is to come."
"Do you mean the battle against the Trading Company?"
"I cannot say."
Colleen paused for a moment. "What of Gabriel?"
"His fate is still undecided. His life hangs largely in your hands."
Colleen stood suddenly. "My hands? He's in the custody of the pirate court. I can do nothing about his fate." Colleen snapped she didn't like the idea of having the choice to save the person who had betrayed her.
Suddenly the wind stopped dead, and the candles finally blew out. Colleen stood in the darkness waiting for the old woman to answer.
Suddenly a match had been struck and was lighting one of the kerosene lamps over head.
"Well?" Colleen pressed.
"I'm sorry child," the old woman said, "I couldn't control the oracle any longer. Now then, I suggest you go back to Shipwreck City, you have someone who is missing you dearly, and another who wishes to speak to you."
"What?" Colleen said, still cross.
"That Diggles boy… he's been looking all over the town above and the city below for you." The woman smiled. "He's very fond of you."
Colleen blanched a little. "What?"
The woman sighed and rolled her eyes. "Didn't you know? Colleen you really aren't that bright are you?"
Colleen's mouth opened and closed several times to try and defend herself, but no words would come out.
"Off you go then." The woman said pushing her towards a dark passage way. "Go out this way, you won't have to cross that damnable bridge again."
Colleen stuttered. "How did you--?"
"And on your way to meet Thomas, go and see Gabriel… he really does wish to speak with you." The old woman cut her off still pushing her out through the passage.
"Wait, how did you know all that!?" Colleen said finally pulling her wits together.
The old woman suddenly fumbled along the wall of the dark corridor and pulled open a latch. A door before Colleen swung open, letting in the dying light of the sun as it slipped below the horizon. Colleen stood in awe as she looked across at the tower of ships. The old woman pushed her out onto the path that seemed to lead right to a lower, sturdier looking bridge onto the island.
"Off you go." She said, turning to go back inside.
"Wait!" Colleen cried. The woman paused and looked at her. "Really, how did you know all that about me, like my name, and about Thomas and Gabriel?"
The woman folded her arms and smiled, "Do you really think that conjuring an oracle is my only power? Now go! Hurry, I wouldn't want to be walking down this path in the dark!"
Colleen turned and ran off at a cautious trot down the path, careful not to trip over the small loose rocks.
The old woman watched her go with a smile on her face. Her hand reached up to absent mindedly clasp one of the pendants around her neck. "I think I've finally found someone to break your curse Roger… it won't be long now." She whispered before dissolving into the shadows of the corridor.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Colleen did manage to get into town before night had completely fallen and she began to wander the busy streets looking for a familiar face. However, after a while she recalled the peddler woman's advice and began to make her way to the wreck that was used to house prisoners.
It was at the very top of the sturdy pile, but not guarded at all. This was only because the only ways to escape were through the city filled with pirates that would recognize the prisoners in an instant, making an escape attempt a suicide mission. The only way to avoid the pirates was to simply hurl oneself from the pillar of ships itself, again a suicide mission.
Colleen entered the jail and bribed her way into where they were keeping Gabriel and the rest of the crew that had survived.
Even as she approached his cell, she still didn't know what she was going to say, or entirely why she was doing this. But this was something which she felt had to be done, if only because the mysterious fortune teller had told her to.
She bent down to look at the broken boy peering up at her almost fearfully through the steel bars. Behind his eyes, she saw no soul, none of the spirit she remembered from the time when they were children. For a moment she pondered what could have made him this way, but then cast the thought away as insignificant.
The other men of his crew stared at her as well, with a bit more malice than Gabriel did trying to unsettle her. She gave them a glance that was laced with a hardness that told them to give them privacy.
Colleen was the first to speak. "They whipped you?" She could see strips of blood on the back of his white shirt.
"Aye, all of us. Trying to get us to reveal what we know of the Company's plans." He said, still staring at her like she was going to strike him.
"Why did you stop?"
"Stop what?"
"Writing."
Gabriel sighed. "You won't believe me."
She shifted and said, "Tell me."
Gabriel sighed. 'What have I got to lose?' he thought. "I stopped writing to you, because you're parents told me to stop."
"Excuse me?!" The rage was apparent on her face. "Just how stupid do you think I am? My parents adored you!"
"I told you, you wouldn't believe me." He said.
Colleen frowned. "Alright then, prove it."
Gabriel sighed, then reached into the pocket of his jacket which lay over his knees. He pulled out a packet of letters that were tied together with string. He undid the string and sifted through them until he found the one he was looking for. He passed it through the bars and Colleen took it hesitantly.
"That, is the letter I received from your mother… directly after I had sent you my last letter. I had to write another one to her, stating my intentions of not offending her, and ceasing to write you."
Colleen opened the letter and read, in what appeared to be her mother's own hand:
To Mr. Gabriel Loffe, from Mrs. Ellis Killigrew,
It has come to my attention, Mr. Loffe, of your correspondence with my daughter. I hope this does not come as a shock to you but from a very young age she has always been expected to enter into marriage with someone of equal station to herself. As it is you are already threatening that expectancy, and are newly threatening the betrothal process of her and a gentleman of her station, one Edward Townsend.
Therefore let it be known that if you should continue writing to her, in the manner of which you do. (Really Mr. Loffe you don't think I wouldn't read my own daughter's correspondence with someone I know her to have some romantic interest in?)
Let it be known that if you continue this correspondence, you may drive away Mr. Townsend, and should that happen she will be sent to a convent, and live out the rest of her life in the service of God.
You see, her little antics, and her family's "traditions," have made her rather unwanted by eligible men. It seems that you have contributed to that feeling among gentlemen by encouraging her heinous behavior.
Mr. Loffe I'm sure you are aware that her family has recently asked her come under contract of the Killigrew family name, and to participate in the "family business." Of which I am sure Colleen has made it known to you to be piracy. She has not accepted the offer as of yet. I pray to God that she will have some common sense and not go gallivanting across the ocean like a ruffian and ruin her chances with any decent men.
This is unacceptable as it is, so you see in the fear of driving the already distressed Mr. Townsend away, I must humbly ask that you cease correspondence with my daughter. If only for the fact that she will be on a ship and she will not be able to receive these letters until she gets back. Mr. Loffe, she will not receive these letters should they come, I will personally burn them in the fireplace of her own room if a single letter enters this house. She will be formally betrothed to this man on the eve of her eighteenth birthday. Wherever she is in the world, she will be asked to return and live out her life the way she was meant to live it.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Ellis Killigrew
Colleen couldn't believe her eyes. "You're lying! My mother would never do anything like this!" She was frantic, mainly because her eighteenth birthday was only three days away.
"Colleen. I'm not lying. Your mother sent me this… What's the alternative, that I forged this to convince you of something? Why would I do that? I stand trial tomorrow morning, and will likely hang the following day. What do I have to gain from tricking you? Even if this was to trick you, I know you well enough to you you'd be too stubborn to believe it."
Colleen bit her lip and looked down at the letter, then back up at Gabriel. His eyes were sincere; she knew he had a point, but her pride got the better of her and clouded her reason. "Hear me now, Gabriel Loffe, if you ever even once loved me, tell me the truth. Why did you stop writing? And how could you dare betray me so? First, burning my ship, you do realize that was the ship that was handed down for generations in my family? And now, you try to convince me that my own mother blackmailed you into forgetting me? Do you really expect me to believe that?"
"Honestly," Gabriel started. "No, but it's the truth all the same." Colleen looked like she was about to blow up again, but Gabriel interrupted her.
"As for the burning of your ship…" Gabriel was silent, staring intently at a piece of straw on the ground. "The East India Trade Company holds our contracts. Might as well be our souls… They have things of great importance to the crew, tremendous importance, and they threatened to destroy those things, unless we helped them stop the pirate lords from convening and amassing strength against them. Our end of the deal was to kill Cheng I Sao, or to slow down the reconnaissance mission by burning the ships. We failed in both, save for the Pendennis."
Colleen stared at him for a long time; Gabriel couldn't make out what she was thinking. Suddenly she spoke, "What are those things?—that the Company holds hostage from you… What are they that they are so important that you almost killed, the girl who loved you, more than anything, and almost destroyed all that she holds dear. What is worth that?"
Gabriel's eyes fell back to the piece of straw. "I'm sorry Colleen." He said "But I can't tell you that."
Colleen stood, "Why not?!" she screamed.
Gabriel stood to face her; it was then that Colleen noticed how much he had grown since the day he left. No longer was he the gangly boy she remembered, the one who didn't quite fit into his own body yet. Now, he hadn't quite reached manhood but he was close, very close. He was much taller than Colleen now, at least a head taller. She suddenly wondered just how she'd managed to reach his jaw with her punch, let alone knock him completely over. His chin had become lined with stubble, and for the moment, his eyes blazed to life, looking more like an actual human being than he had her entire visit.
"Do you really want to know?" He shouted back at her.
"Yes, Gabriel. Enlighten me." She taunted through the iron bars shaking herself from her thoughts, while daring him to make a pass at her.
He stepped towards her dangerously, gripping the bars and pressing his face as far through the gap as he could.
"What was worth burning your ship is the same reason you loved it so much."
By this time the others of the crew had stepped forward and had pried Gabriel away from the bars.
"Gabriel no!" the one named Barleycorn shouted. "You know what will happen to them if you tell."
"Yeah, like they'd find out!" he snapped. "What do we have to gain keeping our secrets now? For all we know they're dead already, and the Company is just keeping a hollow promise!"
"You don't know that!" Mr. Lamley chided him. Gabriel had wrenched himself free from the group of men and was standing in the center of them looking ready for a fight. Colleen had backed up slowly until her back was pressed to the wall across from their cell. She watched Gabriel, how had his old personality flared back to life in an instant?
"Aye, I don't. But we are dead!" Gabriel turned in circles appealing to all of the men. "Look at us! We're in a cage waiting to hear our death sentence. Perhaps the best way to protect them now is to let others know they're in danger! Please, let me tell her. I've finally gathered up enough courage to speak with her, please, let me say what I need to say."
"Why do you have the right Gabriel?" Moore asked.
"Because, Mr. Moore, she's the one person they didn't take, simply because, she wasn't there. I've wronged her in ways that no amount of praying or begging can ever forgive. So she deserves the truth. And also because… I love her." Colleen felt the ground come out from beneath her and gripped the stones of the wall more tightly, in an attempt to prove that this was actually happening.
"So I owe it to her, it's the least I can do." He continued.
Gabriel stared at Colleen for a few moments before he turned to the Captain. Captain Kidd had been merely sitting in the corner, watching the events unfold before him, watching Gabriel, the youngest member of his crew, the person he had called 'boy,' finally become a man.
"Captain, please. I promise you, no harm will come to her with my telling... if anything, it might save her." Gabriel implored, there was such deep emotion behind his previously dead eyes, that, the Captain could think of no words right for the moment, so he simply nodded his consent.
Gabriel turned quickly and strode easily over to the bars where he and Colleen had been talking before. The other men simply stood watching him with their brains churning furiously, contemplating what he had said.
"Colleen, please. Come here." He begged her, reaching his whole arm as far as he could to try and reach her. Colleen shook her head no, fiercely. She wasn't sure what to think anymore. All of her courage had left her.
"Colleen, please." He begged. "You can leave; you can do whatever you want after I tell you. Just please, come back for a moment."
Colleen slowly walked back to him, once she was within reach, Gabriel's hand clutched her shoulder and the other arm pushed through the bars to grip her other one. Colleen flinched at the touch, but said nothing.
"I won't hurt you." He said, seeing her flinch. "Colleen, the East India Trading Company is an evil organization. They will stop at nothing to further their greed, and tyranny."
Colleen was beginning to find her voice again and made a confirming sound that seemed to mean, "Tell me something I don't know."
"They are. Colleen, they kidnapped my family." Colleen's face blanched, as their faces flashed before her eyes. They had been at the dock to see her off when she'd started her service on the Pendennis all those years ago.
"My two sisters and my baby brother." Gabriel stopped for a minute his voice catching in his throat. "I don't know if they're dead or alive. But I had to hold onto the hope that they are." Gabriel looked around at the cell full of his fellow crew mates, and then continued.
"They've got all of our families. Barleycorn's sisters and Van der Huel's wife. Starkey's wife and children. They've got Moore's whole damn family, right down to his cousins. Mr. Lamley's sweetheart was taken also. They took the Captain's wife and her handmaiden from right under his nose. On his ship! That's when we made the bargain, if they don't kill our families, and if they promise to let them go when our services were no longer needed, we would do whatever they wanted…We know they took them because we saw them, all of them caged up on one of their ships, like animals. Our Families... Family, Colleen. That's what was so important. That is why we burned your ship, because they've got what's most precious to us."
"Why are you telling me this?" she asked, there were so many other questions she had but this was the one that slipped out before she knew she was speaking.
"Well, because you asked." He said, looking a little concerned for her mental well being. "Colleen, I know this is a lot to swallow, but you have to believe me. Do you really think I'd be capable of hurting you so for any other reason?"
Colleen shook her head. "No." she whispered. "I'm so confused." She said closing her eyes and shaking her head.
Gabriel nodded, "Go then. Go and sleep, you look like you need rest."
Colleen began to pull from his grasp but not before he managed to catch her hand and bring it close enough to the bars for him to place a soft kiss on her knuckles. Colleen turned back to him surprised.
"Please," he whispered. "Please, our sentence will no doubt be to hang. We committed mutiny; under the best circumstances we will be marooned. Either way I won't see you again in this world. Please, search your heart and if you can find the goodness to forgive me, even a little, I would be forever in your debt and humble services. Forgive me Colleen, I'm begging you… Forgive us for our trespasses against yourself and your family." Gabriel's eyes rose to meet hers and Colleen looked away, unable to meet the feeling of martyrdom in his gaze.
She simply nodded and said, "I will try."
Gabriel smiled and again pressed his lips to her hand. "Thank you, thank you!"
He let her go then, and Colleen ran. She ran so hard that she didn't stop until she had tripped over a pile of broken lobster traps and fallen. Panting, only then did she realize how far she had run, and how fast she had pushed herself, and how much she hurt because of it. It wasn't nearly as painful though, as the wound that she now carried in her chest, a wound that she could feel bleeding out her life, yet that would never kill her. So she cried, the lay there and cried, curled up into the fetal position and cried until she grew too tired, and too weak to cry, so she fell into a dark and dreamless, yet welcome sleep.
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Gabriel sighed after watching her leave. She'd disappeared so quickly he began to wonder if she'd even come in the first place, or if it had just been a cruel trick of his mind.
He turned slowly and let himself slide into a sitting position his back pressed against the bars.
"Gabriel?" Captain Kidd called.
"Yes, sir?" Gabriel's head shot up and looked the Captain in the eye.
The Captain smiled. "Where the hell did that come from?"
They both started laughing and soon the rest of the crew was laughing too, congratulating him on conquering his "inner demons", or his "head-strong sweetheart." Then as the laughter died down, the Captain spoke again.
"I'm proud of you Gabriel." He said.
"Sir?"
"That was a brave thing. 'Hell hath no fury as a woman scorned.' You just stood up to something more dangerous than Hell my boy. I'd say under any other circumstances that would earn you a drink. You've become a man."
Gabriel's brow furrowed. "I wasn't a man before?"
A chorus of "no's" sounded from the crew, earning a few chuckles as well.
Gabriel was taken slightly aback, then he thought. "Well, at least I can die saying I've got a pair." He said cheerily, grinning at the men.
They all laughed before going onto other topics of discussion long into the night.
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Colleen woke with a hangover, which was odd, since she didn't remember having anything to drink the night before. Then it all came back to her.
She stood slowly clutching her head and shooing away a stray dog that had come up to her, checking if she was dead yet. She stood slowly and made her way through the city looking for her family. They found her first.
"Colleen!" Bea yelled from behind her. She and Gert rushed up and gripped her tightly by an arm.
"You damnable little whelp!" Gert yelled, in a way that told her she was really worried. "Where the hell have you been?!"
"We've been looking for you all yesterday and all last night!" Bea chided, and then yelled. "Captain! We found her!"
Captain Elizabeth Killigrew's flaming red hair appeared through the sea of people.
"God, Colleen where have you been?" she said. "Well, that's not important… Colleen we need to speak with you… in private."
"What's happened?" she asked concerned.
The Captain's face looked dead serious, as did Gert and Bea.
"Guys… you're scaring me, what is it?" Colleen asked frantically.
"A letter's come for you…" Captain Killigrew said, "From your mother."
A/N: Aaaaannnnnnnd scene! Hope you enjoyed this chapter, I'm rather proud of it, I think it came out very well. I finally managed to get Gabriel out of his emo-mode it's like a breath of fresh air. Don't get me wrong I don't not like emos, Gabriel's was just a rather pitiful emo… Next chapter should be out soon, I'm really getting into the exciting parts. Trial coming up soon, and finally the arrival of the Black Pearl, plus conversations between Colleen and a certain two vexing lovers.