"How about this?" Sinbad handed the co-written love-letter over the official committee, consisting of Bryn and Doubar.
Doubar unfolded the letter and he and Bryn stuck their heads close together so they could read at the same time. As they read the letter snorts, chuckles and hums emanated from the pair. Sinbad felt like he was waiting for a jury to sentence him, he was just happy it was all for show. He had already conferred with Maeve on what her reaction was to be.
"Aw, this is cute," Bryn pointed at a passage.
"Yours are better looking," Doubar commented.
Bryn snorted, nudging him affectionately before reading on. Sinbad turned his back for a moment so he could gag unseen.
"So you think she'll stop being mad at me when she reads this?" Sinbad eventually asked.
"I think she'll offer to have your babies when she reads this," Bryn commented.
Doubar and Sinbad looked shocked, off their look she shrugged. "What? The girl's impulsive!"
"If at any time you feel the impulse to have my babies, don't fight it," Doubar winked at her.
"Guys!" Sinbad whined, afraid he was going to have to sit through a full-scale make-out.
"What? Do you know how many times we've had to stand by and look while you did your thing with some random girl?" Bryn protested.
"The letter?" Sinbad asked, knowing if he got into an argument about his make-out habits he would lose by a landslide. "Will you give it to her Bryn?"
"Why don't you give it yourself?" Doubar asked, kind of hoping that Sinbad would leave soon because he was very interested in where alone-time with Bryn would take them.
"Because she's mad at me right now, and I need to know what she looks like when she reads it," Sinbad said. "Please?"
Bryn sighed and plucked the letter out of Doubar's hand. "I'll take it to her right now. Just wait here," Bryn said.
Doubar glowered at his little brother behind Bryn's back. Sinbad pretended not to notice.
"He wrote me a love-letter?" Maeve asked when Bryn shoved the note between Maeve's nose and the book she'd been reading.
Dermott squawked, surprised by this turn of events.
"Never you mind!" Maeve directed her voice towards the bird, keeping her thoughts from him on purpose. "Don't you have some circles to fly over the ship?"
With another affronted squawk the hawk flew out the door.
Bryn waited patiently while Maeve read the letter, keeping her eyes trained on the red-head's expressions. She could only discern a real delight, which confused her a little... Shouldn't the girl be a little more surprised?
"What do I do now?" Maeve asked her friend.
"What do you mean?" Bryn asked.
"Well, you know, he's still a pig, but this is very sweet. I don't know how to respond!" Maeve said.
"You could… send him a letter back?" Bryn suggested.
"Good idea, but how do I act when I see him around the ship?" Maeve asked.
"Friendly?" Bryn said, there was something weird going on- but maybe it was just her guilty conscious playing up. "Or you could just go up and kiss him; that seems to work for him just fine."
"Yeah that might send the wrong message," Maeve commented.
"So what is the message you're trying to get across?" Bryn asked. "What do you want from him?"
Maeve looked down at her hands for a moment, letting the charade drop when she looked up again. "I want to be his one and only. But he's not ready for a commitment like that."
"Maybe he'll surprise you," Bryn said, sitting down next to Maeve and putting an arm around her.
"Sinbad is no Doubar Bryn, he wouldn't even know how to be with one woman," Maeve sighed.
"You just write your letter, leave Sinbad to Doubar and me," Bryn patted her friend's shoulder and went back to the room holding the brothers.
"She liked the letter," she announced, "but if you're serious about her you're going to have to stop paying so much attention to other women."
"Is that what she said?" Sinbad asked, inwardly a little peeved that Maeve would spoil his fun like that.
"No, she said you're not ready for her yet and she isn't going to wait around until you are," Bryn said, embellishing a little.
Sinbad's brow furrowed, he had never thought of it like that.
"It makes sense; she's a great lass, has a lot to offer any man, you can't expect her to wait for something that might never come," Doubar nodded sagely.
"There something very attractive about a man who's not afraid to show how he really feels," Bryn said, ostensibly to Sinbad but obviously her remark was aimed at Doubar.
"I'll think about it alright? Thanks for all the help guys," Sinbad said, finally leaving the love-birds alone.
That night a pair of bare feet sneaked from one cabin to another, slipping inside before anyone could see.
Sinbad gently shook Maeve's shoulder. "Maeve, wake up," he hissed.
"Sinbad? What's wrong?" Maeve asked, sitting up in bed and blearily trying to focus her eyes.
"Can we talk?" Sinbad asked.
"What, you had a bad dream? Because I think that excuse is taken," Maeve said, wrapping her blanket a little tighter around her shoulders as he sat down on the bed where her legs had just been.
"No, it's not that I just…" Sinbad started.
"You couldn't wait to offer your advice on the letter I'm supposed to send you?" Maeve interrupted.
"Would you keep quiet for just a moment? I'm trying to ask you something here!" Sinbad blurted out, rather annoyed with her.
"Well get on with it then!" Maeve argued right back, reminded for a moment on their first meeting and his inability to speak up then too.
"What you said to Bryn today, did you mean it?" Sinbad asked, hating this vulnerable feeling of laying his cards on the table.
Maeve eyed him suspiciously, feeling like he was baiting a trap for her to walk into. "What did Bryn say I said to her?"
"That you think I'm not ready for you yet and that you won't wait around," Sinbad said.
"Oh… well… I didn't say that exactly," Maeve answered. "But yes, I guess I do think that." She looked at him expectantly, wondering what was going on inside his head.
"It's just fun you know? All the other girls. I get all this attention heaped on me and I won't deny that it feels good. But it's not to them I look to," Sinbad said.
"What are you looking to me for?" Maeve asked, her voice quiet and her expression as non-threatening as she could make it.
Sinbad thought about it for a moment. "To call me out when I have a big mouth," he started, because that was the easiest. "To talk to, when I get stuck in my own head. You know, lots of things." He chickened out at the last moment.
"I'm already your friend Sinbad, you don't have to worry about that," Maeve said, taking his hand in hers because she sensed his need for comfort.
"I want more than your friendship," Sinbad rushed the words past his lips, strengthened by his hand in hers, he finally took the plunge.
"Do you want it more than the fun and the attention?" Maeve asked, carefully keeping her heart in check.
Though Maeve meant it as an honest question, Sinbad heard an accusation in her words and withdrew his hand from hers.
"I'm not saying I'm perfect alright? I'm not asking you to marry me, so don't hold your breath!" Sinbad argued.
Maeve had to do some quick thinking when she heard the anger in his voice, it took her completely aback. She had to fight her own first impulse to retaliate with as much anger.
"Sinbad, look at me," she said, knowing she had to get the next point across before everything fell apart like a house of cards. She waited a full five heartbeats but then he turned his face to her. "I don't need you to be perfect and I don't know where you got the idea of marriage from but I can't get married until I fulfil my quest. What I need to know from you is if you're ready to turn away from things you're used to and enjoy… No that's not what I mean… I want us to be a team, I want you to consider my feelings when you act, like I will consider yours and that we connect and share and… well you know, all that."
"I have no idea how to do all that," Sinbad answered, but the anger was gone so that was progress.
"Me neither," Maeve confessed. "But this is a good start, right?"
"What about the fun stuff, is that anywhere on that wish-list of yours?" Sinbad asked.
"Oh it definitely is," Maeve said, leaning a little closer to him. "As you'll find out…" she leaned closer still, their lips almost touching. "At some later date." She moved back again.
"Cruel woman!" Sinbad complained.
"Yeah, yeah," she waved his complaint away. "You realize the whole scheme just got even more complicated: unless you want to tell Bryn and Doubar we've worked it all out on our own, we now have to keep that a secret while secretly enlisting their help to get us together to keep them together and keeping that secret from them as well as the fact they tried to set us up in the first place."
"What?" Sinbad asked, not following her at all.
"Exactly. Complicated," she answered.
"We could just come clean about it all…" Sinbad suggested, though obviously his heart wasn't in it.
"I don't know, I sort of like all the scheming," Maeve said, picking up on his reluctance and agreeing.
"That's because you're a devious woman," Sinbad pointed out.
"Yes, very. Now get out, I'm tired," she said sternly.
"Not even a little kiss to celebrate our understanding?" Sinbad asked, though, now he thought about it, he didn't quite know what that understanding was exactly.
"No," Maeve said, steadfast.
"Or I could hold you all night and keep the nightmares away. I hear that works a charm," Sinbad grinned.
"Sinbad, look over there," Maeve pointed to a corner of her room.
Dermott was glaring daggers at the captain.
"Hi Dermott, hadn't noticed you over there…" Sinbad muttered.
"Goodnight Sinbad," Maeve smiled, waving her hand at him.
"Night Maeve, Goodnight Dermott," Sinbad said, reluctantly rising from the bed.
He made his way back to his own bed unseen- as far as he knew anyway.