It had been a week since Emma and I last spoke, I was doing my best to avoid her and the ship made it that much easier to succeed. The journey was starting out slow and my men seemed to pass the time by making guesses on what type of foes we'd go up against. I stood at the wheel trying to keep my eyes away from Emma's ship but they failed and I felt myself looking over. She was bent over at a table staring down into the map.

Her hair was flying back in golden waves behind her as she started tracing her finger along the map. While I looked at her, I started to remember by how different she looked than when I last saw her. Her eyes that were almost lively were barely hollow now, and her skin that was white as pure snow was now tanned to a gold. It was her eyes that caught me, part of me wanted to try and break her open and fill those emotionless eyes, and then part of me knew that if I looked into the mirror I'd find the same thing.

Smee barking at me pulled me out of my thoughts, I turned seeing his eyes slide from Emma back to me. He gave me a look of disbelief. "What do you want, Smee? Other than to bug me?" I grumbled, trying to not let the look get to me. Smee may not be a father but he was the type of man that was just born with the fatherly looks.

"I thought I'd tell you that there's nothing written on the map for the area we're headed for," he spoke slowly which caused me to jerk my head towards him. "What are you talking about? The map has a title for every damned island we've passed, how does it not have a title for this part of the sea?"

Smee didn't even start to answer because I heard Emma shout from her ship, the color in Smee's reddened face began to drain. My hands slipped from the wheel and I walked to the side of the ship where I was sure my eyes were playing tricks on me. The water beside the ship began to ripple and shake, then slowly I could see part of a ship beginning to rise out of the ocean. I whipped my head back to Emma who was staring at the same thing on her side of the ship.

"I can see why they didn't write the title," Smee whispered as the full ship finally hit the water. It was rusted, covered in barnacle and sea weed. The thing looked like it had been through hell and back, and that's what scared me most. "They never got the chance to finish it," I hissed back starting to see what looked like actual pirates rise from the ship.

"You owe me twenty gold, Jameson."

I heard one of the boys say to another, looks like he had one the bet. One of the most outrageous bets of them all and it turns out he was right. I made a mental note to pay him twenty gold myself if we survived this thing. I saw a door on the ghost ship slam open and from the crew of undead men, the captain came hobbling out. He was a mixture of green skin and bones, his jaw was completely eroded but I could see that parts of a long beard still hung onto the sides of his face.

I unsheathed my sword while some men were already frantically running down to get the cannons ready. My eyes didn't move from the undead captain as he moved through his crew, he only had one eye and the spot where the other should be was just a dark hole. I was almost mesmerized by the undead legion of pirates but that was shattered when the captain let out a blood curling scream and waved his sword to my ship.

The crew members flung themselves onto my ship in a matter of minutes. I had already driven my sword into the throat of the first mate. I knew that the ship that had pulled up beside Emma had already started the siege I knew Emma could handle her own. I ducked when one of the crew swung his sword at me. I swung my sword and cut off his only bone legs letting him crawl around on deck. Smee sliced through two men while I made my way to the captain.

He was fighting against one of my men, he knocked his skull into his face I marched closer seeing the spray of blood and cries rise into the air. I held my ground as the men below shot into the ship next to me. My eyes wouldn't move from the captain as I got closer. He was the first to swing his sword, I caught the swipe with my hook and drove my sword over his arm. Slicing through I heard the limb fall to the floor and he let out a laugh.

He switched the sword into his other hand and lunged again. I matched his move and met it with my sword clanking it with his. Our movements matched each other equally as the fight turned into a battle of wits. For an undead captain he still knew how to fight with ease. I blocked another swipe toward my gut and brought my sword down missing his wrist by mere inches. His eyes burned black through me while his menacing smile made him look almost terrifying.

I wasn't paying enough attention when he kicked me into the gut and I flew right back. I hit the floor feeling my sword knock out of my hand. The captain let out a holler and I felt another wave of cannons fly. I heard my name being shouted in the distance but it was covered over another wave of cannons. I felt for my flintlock that was kept safely in my boot. My eye sight was spinning before me when I got my hand around the base.

The captain held up his sword to finish me off but I had matched his wits this time. I pulled up my flint and pulled the trigger letting the bullet soar into his chest. He stumbled back, dropping his sword in shock. It was as if everything was in slow motion just then. The men next to me slowed down while I picked up the sword, I couldn't hear the next wave of firing shots. All I could hear was my breathing as I swung that sword around and then the sound of two things falling onto the deck.

I sighed in relief and turned around to Smee who just finished off another duo of men. My head went instantly back into the reality of things and my head turned towards Emma's ship. From the distance she was just as breathtaking as the first day I met her. The sound of clanging metal and her long blond hair swung behind her as she twisted her sword through another pirate. Her men were easily outnumbered and I could see she was just beginning to falter in her strides. Sighing, I grasped some hanging rope and backed myself up.

"SMEE," I yelled seeing him pick up another sword about to make his way toward another. "Don't bring my ship down, hmm?" "Where are you going?" he asked shoving his shoulder against another body. I smirked and looked over at Emma that let out a yell as she kicked a pirate off her ship. "Saving my ex-wife," with that I took a running start and leapt off the ship and swung my body over the side of her ship. Emma sliced off another undead comrade when I hit the deck. "Don't you have your own dead men to kill?" She roared driving her sword into the belly of one. I gave a quick look back seeing my men had already begun to raid the ghost ship.

"My men have already breached the other ship, what can you say about yours?" I said firing my gun into an incoming pirate.

Like clockwork Emma held up her hand and flung it down. The cannons fired sending in a stream of cannons into the ship, it hit all the weak spots and better yet they had torn right through something flammable. The ship was in fire in seconds, she smirked at me before lunging over my shoulder and fighting against another dead ally while I stood in shock. "Catch up, Killian," she whispered and launched herself into the middle of the fight.

It had been sunset when the last of the pirates were finally kicked off the ships. We had just gotten to an island that was close enough to start burials for some of the fallen comrades. We were all drenched in blood and our bodies ached. It had been one hell of a fight and worth winning but then again it wasn't worth losing four men. Nothing was.

The men sat at the island drinking heavily trying to get the images of the burning dead pirates and their own crew mates dying out of their minds. I didn't want to tell them that they'd drink themselves to death before they would get those images out of their heads. I looked for Emma as the doctor took care of the minimal wounds on the men. Funerals were never her strong suit. Blame that for having to bury her only living family member when she was only a child.

The sun was dipping into the sea when I spotted her out by herself. She stood out in the water her body was shaking and looking around frantically. I sighed, removing my boots and began to waft out to her. When I reached her, my heart nearly tore open seeing her fear stricken eyes. She had come all this way so her crew wouldn't see the own fear in her eyes.

She was covered head to toe in blood, it matted her hair and was beginning to dye it into a muddy brown color. She shook furiously and cringed away from me as I let my hand touch hers gently. She held a cloth that was still unused in her hand. In her other she held her flintlock, ready at any moment's notice. She let her eyes slide to mine but they didn't last long enough for me to look her in the eyes.

"E-e-everywhere I see blood," she whispered in a broken tone, and then her eyes met back to me with a chilling fear. "I see blood, everywhere." She cried out, dropping everything in her hands and beginning to claw at her arms, her hands, her face, her hair. It only smeared the fresh blood and the more she saw it the more terrified she got. I grasped her hands in attempt to soothe her but she fought back and screamed out.

"I can't get it off of me! Everywhere, it's bloody everywhere!" She screamed tears streaming her face. "Let me help you, and I'll get it off of you." She looked up at me, her eyes searched mine whether I was lying or not. From the sincerity in my tone I nodded in agreement grasping the rag that was starting to sink into the water. As I rang the rag out Emma gave me a small nod of approval, her eyes never blinking as I slowly began to undress her. I stripped her down bare letting her clothes soak under her flintlock nearby.

I gently began to wipe away the blood from her back and arms. Gently scrubbing away the dried blood, I felt like I was almost scrubbing her clean of the memories that haunted her. Seeing her in this fragile state made me wish I was washing away the nightmares. When I circled around to get her chest and neck, she leaned into me. Placing her forehead on my chest as I gently scrubbed everywhere.

My hands were beginning to shake, I never thought I would be in this situation again. To be wiping off blood off her while she stood numb, unsure what to do with herself. This was one of the weakest points that I could ever see her or she'll ever let me. She was that broken girl I had met years ago all over again. Her eyes barricaded while I cleaned her off.

One memory was ripping through me while the water around us was starting to be red. I cleaned off her face and finally I dipped her back, keeping her head in my lap while I washed out all the blood from her hair. She stayed curled into my chest as I took every strand and cleaned it out properly. By the time her hair was golden and her body was clean, the moon was high above and the fire close by was dying down. I wrapped Emma in my coat and carried her quietly back to the ship.

She laid in my red shirt, her eyes focused on her clean hands while I hung up my coat and vest. I was beginning to dim the lamp when Emma grasped my hand. I looked over at her, she tugged gently leading me into the bed. I hesitated for a moment, should I be slipping back into bed with one of my competitors? One of the people that would love to see me fail? Should I be slipping back into bed with my ex-wife? A woman who broke me and shattered me into a million pieces?

At that moment, I realized that it wasn't just about us being enemeies or past lovers anymore. I knew when Emma needed help and when she needed me. So, for tonight I slid in next to her cold body and her arms encircled around my chest while her leg draped between mine. She wasn't my enemy tonight, tonight she was the woman I married such a long time ago.

I made an agreement to myself that when she had finally fallen asleep, I'd sneak back out and check on the men and try to drink away my own frantic haunted memories. I was sober, my hand was beginning to shake while my haunted memories were threatening to sink back.

I laid there with her in my arms staring up at the flickering ceiling, waiting until she fell asleep. After her breathing was finally steady I began to move when she grasped onto me tightly. In a straight voice, she murmured. "Please, don't leave me." Her voice cracked which brought me crashing back down to Earth. In seconds, I was turned over on my side with her against my chest and my hand stroking her hair while she gripped onto me.

And then without rum as my sleep aid, I finally began to fall asleep feeling a heart beat against my chest and a sense of safety wash over me.

[A/N] I suck at action scenes, I'm so sorry! I hope you enjoyed it though!