Shout out to Canadaorbust, Guest, Kitty of 2 kingdoms, ChaosIceAngel, BakaKurokamiShoujo, Guest, Whiskey Bloodsbane Pincher, and Scroll Pirate!

By the way, thank you to ChaosIceAngel for offering corrections to my mangled Google-Translated German! :)

Whoop-whoop! We're nearing the end of my drawn-out tale, my pretties! Tomorrow shall be my last official update, not including my editing streak.

Enjoy!

6 Months Later

Lovina leaned against the aft rail of the Venice Moon, Roma's prized gold runner. It was, essentially, the ship that ensured the profit made it back to the business's owner. These days, it had very little trouble, even though the small fleet that protected it had been downsized. Retired or no, few were foolish enough to attack a ship captained by one who had earned the title of Pirate Lord. Well, at first a few had. They were currently residence in Davy Jones Locker. Now that Antonio had made his point, they left the Venice Moon alone. Mostly.

"So when do you plan to deal with what's been tailing us since we left port?" Lovina asked, folding her arms.

"Mmm. Soon enough," said Antonio, studying the map laid out before him.

"How soon? They're starting to annoy me. We've made all four stops, we're headed back to Port Diego," she protested. "We're at our slowest and weakest right now."

"I know."

Lovina scowled, but then glanced at the map. "Port Diego is still the closest place to dock. You're not trying to out-run them."

"No."

"I thought you already made your point?"

"It looks like I will have to make it again."

"If I didn't know better I'd say you miss fighting."

Antonio's lips twitched. "No, Lovi. I don't hate it, but I don't miss it either. Not everyone is smart enough to listen quickly."

"You'd think after a year word would get around," she muttered, shaking her head.

It was still something she marveled over, though she'd never admit it. Soon enough it would be exactly one year since she'd taken the name Carriedo. A full year, and she had yet to grow weary of being a wife. Why should she? Whatever fears or concerns she might have had never came to anything. Antonio wasn't the sort to keep his wife hidden away, or insist she keep house. They didn't even have a house, really. They spent most of the year sailing on the Venice Moon. When they did have stents on land they resided on the Vargas estate, per Roma's insistence. Antonio not only allowed her to sail with him, he never left port without her. The few times confrontations occurred, Lovina wasn't locked away. She was out on deck with everyone else, sword in hand. Her lessons had come along quite well, and that wasn't just her opinion. These days it was a struggle to find a suitable sparring partner she wasn't married to.

Antonio, meanwhile, had quickly become one of Roma's favorite captains. He'd warmed up to the Spaniard quite quickly, once resigned to the fact his prickly granddaughter had finally settled on someone. The former pirate was an efficient and capable captain. Between him and his map, profits had made a notable increase on a regular basis. The fact that Lovina found she was genuinely happy, and less grumpy, was a very large bonus. As far as she was concerned, Lovina's only problem with Roma's attitude towards them was his constant inquiries on just when she would provide him with great-grandchildren. It hadn't helped that Feliciana had recently had a child of her own, an adorable baby boy with a tuft of auburn hair and big blue eyes.

Lovina had nothing against her nephew, really. But she also wasn't exactly eager for a child herself. Both she and Antonio had agreed that if she did get pregnant, she'd stop accompanying him on trips. He would take fewer of them himself, but it would be hard for him to stop completely. While she would accept it when the time came, Lovina wasn't eager for this somewhat blissful period to end.

"So, what is it you're planning?" she asked at last. "You keep looking at that damn map."

Antonio hummed thoughtfully. "There's a small island a day's sail from Port Diego. Normally we wouldn't even see it, but if we change course we should reach it by nightfall."

"Why?" asked Lovina, frowning. Honestly she was only half listing to Antonio. She was feeling...odd. Something wasn't right. She almost felt...seasick? No, that wasn't right. She never got seasick. Why would she now?

"I thought we could circle around it, make them think we're hiding. There's this inlet here, on the east side of the island. It's a cliff that reaches out for nearly a mile. If we time it so it's night when they catch up to us, we can get our ships behind it and wait until they're in range. It would be like target practice. Lovi? Are you alright? You don't look very well."

Lovina was about to brush off his concern, but then clamped her mouth shut. She stumbled over to the ship's rail, then doubled over it, heaving. She felt more nauseous than she'd ever been in her life. The ship seemed to be swaying much more than usual under her feet, bucking and pitching wildly as she clung to the rail. Her ears rang, and her stomach protested as it tried to empty itself complexly. Her nose burned and streamed, her eyes watering.

Lovina could feel Antonio hovering worriedly behind her, one hand rubbing her back. She could hear him calling for the ship's doctor, but waved him off. At least she tried to. Every time she lifted her head and tried to speak she started heaving again.

It took a few minutes, but while the nausea didn't go away her stomach finally stopped rebelling. She slowly sank to the floor, back pressed tightly against the ship's side. She closed her eyes, breathing deeply as she tried to get hold of herself. Antonio pressed a hand to her forehead, face creased with worry. She could hear him talking to her, calling her Lovi over and over and asking what was wrong. Honestly she was afraid to try speaking again, so she just carefully shook her head.

The man who served as the ship's doctor came trotting up to the helm, bag in hand. Both men ignored her efforts to wave them off, which angered her greatly. If she wasn't so aware of the delicate state of her stomach she would have punched the doctor.

Eventually he wrote it off as basic seasickness, which made absolutely no sense to her. He gave her something meant to sooth her stomach, though it took some coaxing from Antonio and several tomatoes before Lovina took it. He brought her down to their cabin as soon as she was able to walk without fear of more heaving, shuffling along tiredly. Antonio offered to carry her, but Lovina refused. She did have a few shreds of remaining pride, after all.

Once in their cabin, Lovina curled up into a ball on her side on their bed, but not before dragging a bucket over to its edge. Antonio hovered worriedly, apparently wanting to do something but clueless as to what he could do. It didn't help that Lovina had managed to put a few pieces together.

"I'm fine," she mumbled tiredly. "Go away, you need to change course if we're going to ambush the bastards."

"No. We're going straight to Port Diego as fast as we can," argued Antonio firmly.

Lovina glared weakly at him. "I told you-

"No, you're not fine. You're sick, Lovi. Roma has doctors, good ones, remember? We have to-

"Give me a few hours and it'll be like nothing ever happened," snapped Lovina.

Antonio blinked. "¿Qué? You mean you've had this before? You know what it is?"

"I hope not," mumbled Lovina, not meeting his eyes.

Kneeling by the bed, Antonio gently stroked her hair, face grim. "Tell me, Lovi. ¿Por favor? What's wrong? What can I do?"

"Nothing. It's just...Feli said she got like this. The midwife said it was normal for the first four months."

Antonio frowned. "This lasts for four months?"

"The first trimester."

"Trimester for what?"

Lovina glowered at him. "The baby, pomodoro bastardo."

Antonio's face went completely blank. For a heartbeat Lovina was afraid he might not take this as well as she'd originally thought. Then one of the biggest, brightest smiles she'd seen on him lit up his face. "Bebé?" he asked, pure wonder and delight in both his face and his tone. "¿Vamos a tener un bebé?"

"We won't know for sure until I'm farther along idiota," mumbled Lovina, suddenly more tired than anything else. "Don't go around telling everybody. If I promise to see the midwife when we get back, will you ambush those bastards?"

Pressing a kiss to her forehead, he said, "No. Sorry, Lovi. I'll kill them later. We're going back to Port Diego as fast as the sea will take us."

Lovina tried to glare at him, really. But it was difficult when he was radiating joy. Not for the first time she kicked herself for marrying a man who's good mood could counter her own temper.

BREAK/BREAK\BREAK

Amelia stood stiffly in the parlor of her family's house, chewing her lip as she waited. Molly, a maid who'd been in the Jones' service since before the twins were born, had run off a minute ago to fetch her parents. As nice as it was to be home again, it didn't seem quite right anymore. Amelia had thought it would be a relief to be in familiar surroundings again. Instead they did little to ease her nerves.

"Would you please sit?" urged Arthur, not for the first time. "If anyone's nervous it should be me, love. Sit down. You're not supposed to be on your feet so much."

"I've been sitting all day," argued Amelia, pacing over to the bookshelves and back again, folding her arms tightly.

"Horseback doesn't count. How you convinced me to allow that I don't know. Amelia, you can't see your own feet and even you admit you're not the most graceful person around."

Amelia glared at him. Arthur wasn't sitting either, choosing instead to stand by one of the armchairs, discreetly hovering. His clothes hadn't changed much since she'd first met him. Though recently his eye had healed enough for him to wear a black eye patch instead of bandages. If anything he looked even more like a pirate now than ever.

Two things had Amelia's nerves riled up. One was the fact that her parents made a point to stay informed, so they would know just who it was she'd brought home as a husband. Considering Amelia had gotten her temper from her father, she wasn't expecting them to take this sitting down. The other fact was that she was now very visibly pregnant. Her mother might be able to handle a pirate, but reappearing when a baby was roughly a month away who was fathered by said pirate might be a bit harder to swallow. It was the one detail Amelia hadn't thought through, having to explain both things to her parents while dealing with a set of feet kicking her stomach.

"Would you drop it?" she demanded angrily. "I'm not sitting down!"

"Amelia!"

She swung around, her mother's voice yanking her from the argument. It looked like Mrs. Jones had been rushing to embrace her, only to stop in her tracks at the sight of her daughter's swollen belly. Lavender eyes widened, a dainty jaw dropping.

"You...when...Amelia, my baby, we were so worried!"

Amelia didn't protest as her mother discarded her shock, continuing forward to embrace her. Amelia felt her eyes burn as she hugged her back tightly. It was a little awkward, but she didn't care.

"Hey, mom," she said quietly, voice cracking.

As Mrs. Jones pulled away, holding her at arm's length, Amelia turned her eyes to her father. The look of utter relief on his face had turned to narrowed eyed anger as he noticed Arthur, standing quietly to the side.

"Is this the pirate who attacked you and your sister?" he asked, the brewing fury obvious.

"No! Well, sort of. It was kind of an accident, then things happened, and, well...I married him."

As both her parents looked at her with varying degrees of disbelief and anger, it occurred to Amelia that she didn't feel the need to leave the room with their approval. Yes she loved and respected them dearly, but she'd also made her own choices. They might not be considered the most respectable, but she could honestly say she was happy. Arthur had made arrangements to become a trader/smuggler along the east coast, which would be made easier since he himself was originally British. Once Amelia had the baby and it was old enough they would join him. Technically he had enough money to retire in comfort, even after the bribe for his freedom. But they had also agreed to try and save as much as they could for however many children they ended up having. Initially the idea of being a mother had terrified Amelia, but it was less scary knowing she wouldn't be alone, that Arthur had no intentions of leaving it all to her.

Amelia drew herself up to her full height, which put her several inches above her mother and almost eye level with her father. "Mom, dad, I'm happy. I'm really happy." Marching over to Arthur with as much dignity as one could with an oversized belly, she hooked an arm through his and said, "This is Arthur Kirkland. He's not a pirate anymore. He's an honest trader for those of us in the Americas. He's my husband. He's lawfully your son-in-law. In about a month he'll be the father to your grandchild. If you don't like it, we can leave."

Mr. Jones looked prepared to tell them to do just that. He was opening his mouth to do so, but his wife beat him to the punch. "You're most certainly not leaving young lady. Whatever we think of your choices you're still pregnant. Now for goodness sakes sit down before you fall down."

Amelia's butt was hitting the chair before she really realized she was obeying. She fell into the chair more than sat in it, but the effect was the same. Arthur kept hold of her until he was sure she wasn't going to land on the floor, then released her.

"You'll argue with me until you're blue in the face but the moment-

"I'm her mother. Now, explain all this."

"Amanda, you can't just-

"I can, and I am. She's still our daughter, Edward. That hasn't changed, not matter how much she has. We owe it to her to hear her out, if nothing else," his wife informed him crisply. She sat across from Amelia, arranging her skirts. "You're lucky, you know. Normally I'd agree with your father, but I never thought I'd have a grandchild from you and I'm not about to let that chance slip away from me."

Amelia shifted in her chair, fussing with her skirts. It wasn't just for show, it really was hard for her to get comfortable. It didn't help that she'd been forced back into dresses a few months ago, the corsets not exactly a style you wanted to wear over a baby bulge, loose or no.

"Well, um..." she looked helplessly over at Arthur.

Both her husband and her father still stood stiffly, each with one eye on the other. Arthur noticed the look and cleared his throat. "I'm sorry to say the bit about how we met is accurate. However I was unaware my crew taken passengers aboard until later. I haven't harmed Amelia or her sister."

"Am I to understand Madeline is still in the Caribbean?" asked Mr. Jones, tone icy.

"Yeah, why? Has she been sending you letters?" asked Amelia, perking up. It was the longest she'd ever gone without her sister, and she missed the other woman quite dearly. She'd already convinced Arthur to take her to visit Madeline after she'd had the baby.

"Yes. It seems she intends to stay at this Isle Zucker. I have heard of the Belishmet family, they're very respectable. I just wish she'd chosen someone besides the elder son."

Amelia sighed wearily. "Hey, when we left you would have been happy if we chose anyone. I thought you were past being picky, dad."

Mr. Jones regarded her sternly. "A man can never be too picky, as you put it, when it comes to his daughters. Now, Mr. Kirkland, explain to me why I should allow you to remain with my daughter."

BREAK/BREAK\BREAK

Madeline leaned forward a bit farther, tightening her grip on the reins wrapped around her hands. Squinting into the wind, she made sure the way was clear before twisting to look back. Their initial lead had been quickly eaten away. The other rider was gaining fast. They weren't going to make it.

Mere yards from the cluster of yellow bell bushes, Gilbert managed to pull passed her. Madeline carefully drew back on the reins, returning to an upright position on the saddle. "Whoa, easy girl," she urged, gradually bringing her mare to a walk.

Gilbert swung his mount around, trotting it back towards them, a wide grin on his face. On one side of the swath of rough grass lay the dense section of forest, part of the section of island that hadn't been cleared. On the other lay the beach, the waves lapping lazily at the sand.

"Not bad, Birdie!" he said, laughing. "You almost beat the Awesome me!"

Madeline, not bothering to roll her eyes, just shook her head. It was good to see Gilbert fully rejuvenated again. Today was his first day out of his rooms, and he was taking full advantage of it.

"Come on, let's at least start back that way. I'm getting hungry."

"How can you be hungry? The sun is bright, the sky is clear, the air is perfect, und the Awesome me is free!"

That time Madeline did roll her eyes. "It was a year, not a decade, Gil. Yes I'm happy you're out, but you did promise Germania you would check the east fields today."

Gilbert sighed. "Work on my first day out. Not awesome."

"It's part of your deal," Madeline reminded him patiently. "You do want to come with me, right?"

"Ja, ja, natürlich," he said, waving her off. "It's not awesome to forget a deal."

The arrangement with Germania had been for Gilbert to regain a grasp of how things were run before going with Madeline for a visit to Virginia. After that, Ludwig would move to Port Diego with Feliciana and baby Alfonse. Technically speaking, as the older twin Lovina's husband should inherit the business. But not only was Ludwig more qualified, Antonio had made it clear he was quite happy to leave it to someone else. The Spaniard was content to captain ships and had no ambition past that. It made things easier on everyone, except Gilbert if you asked the man. Grumbling aside, Madeline would have spoken up if she'd thought he wouldn't be any good at running the business. Before handing his fleet over to his right hand man, a loyal lieutenant he referred to as Old Fritz, Gilbert had been in command of more ships than any of the other Pirate Lords.

"You missed this place," mused Madeline as they made their way back down the beach.

Gilbert glanced at her. "My Vaters house?"

"No, this island. It's part of why you hated being locked up." She reached up as they passed a large bush, letting long leaves and pink flowers brush over her hand. "I can see why. It's beautiful here."

"Kann sein," admitted Gilbert.

"Es ist," argued Madeline lightly. "I think it is, anyway. Even if it is on the edge of pirate territory."

"And you're not worried because the Awesome me will protect you," declared Gilbert.

"Exactly," said Madeline, chuckling at his rekindled enthusiasm. "It seems to be working for Lovina, anyway. Word has gotten around that touching a Vargas ship isn't very smart."

"Toni is very good at what he does," said Gilbert simply. "He might not be as awesome as me, but he is on a very short list of people that come close."

"I rank higher than him on that list, right?"

Gilbert looked scandalized. "Of course! I wouldn't marry someone who wasn't as awesome as myself."

"How can you marry me if you haven't asked me yet?" quipped Madeline.

"The Awesome me was getting to that," protested Gilbert. "The Awesome me needs to uphold my reputation of awesomeness. I was going to ask when that stupid sun got low enough."

Madeline smiled wryly. Egotistical and blunt he might be, Gilbert was also something of a romantic. She found it very sweet. "I guess I can wait a little longer. I've waited a year, haven't I?"

¿Vamos a tener un bebé?- we're having a baby?

Ja, ja, natürlich- yes, yes, of course

Kann sein - maybe

Es ist - it is

[]

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