Thanks for the reviews, everybody! I wasn't sure if I'd get any because let's face it, GaMM is kind of an obscure show…or at least, a lesser known show. So I was kind of nervous about it, but it all worked out somehow! Yay!

Now then, this is the final chapter. I also have a one-shot lined up, but that's all I've got for this show so far. I've got an idea, I just don't know if it'll work or not. We'll talk about that in the Author Review. Enjoy the final chapter!

"How sad that you were not born in my time, nor I in yours." – Captain Gregg, GaMM Pilot

Chapter 3: Crimson Blood
Carolyn sat back against one of the posts on the front porch and watched the sea. Captain Gregg had expressed a wish to bid the children good night and Martha was singing badly yet happily to herself while doing the dishes. Carolyn smiled at that; she sounded so happy to have a man to cook for!

"Good evening, Madam," he greeted as he stepped onto the porch.

"Hello, Captain," she smiled, "Did the kids go down easy for you?"

"Oh, they were perfect," he said and sat down across from her, "A finer pair of young ones never walked the earth."

They both sat quietly and watched the ocean for a while, then Carolyn glanced at him.

"What are you thinking about?" she asked.

"Hans Christian Andersen," he answered.

"Oh?"

"Have you ever heard the story of the girl in the red shoes?" he said.

"Yes," she nodded, "She couldn't stop dancing and finally she cut her feet off and turned to her church. She died of a broken heart."

"Aye," he said, "but her heart broke with joy. She achieved that sense of peace we all strive for and her heart was so full that it broke in two. I was thinking…I know how she felt. Even in my first life, seeing the world and all its wonders, courting the sea as a knight a lady, seizing the helm of my ship…I never dreamed I could feel as happy as you and your family make me…and I wonder that my new heart does not break for the joy it feels."

"Well, don't push yourself," she cautioned, "You haven't lived for a hundred years. You'll need to get used to it." She looked away.

"What troubles you, Madam?" he asked, concerned, "You don't seem quite as happy as…as I hoped you would be." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath; she knew by now she couldn't hide her feelings from him.

"Don't get me wrong, Captain," she faced him, "I'm happy that you're alive again. Matter of fact, I can't remember the last thing that made me happier…I just…" She blushed and averted her eyes. "I don't want to get my hopes." He looked confused.

"Do you mean," he asked, "you're afraid I'll go back to being a ghost at any given moment?"

"It's more than that," she sighed wearily and stood up, "You know it is." She held onto the post and stared out on the lawn. The captain shifted and rubbed his forehead, finding himself at a loss for words.

"The last man I fell in love with died," she said with quiet sadness, "That broke my heart." She looked at him again and he saw tears in her eyes. "I don't think I could bear it again."

There was no chivalrous charm in the eyes of the captain this time. He was looking at her with understanding and sympathy and the truest depth of his love for her.

He stood up and stepped closer to her, keeping eye contact. He wanted so much to hold her again, so much he could hardly stand it, but he was afraid she'd shy away. So he did the next best thing he knew.

"Life," he said, "however it comes to us, is always fleeting. We can never tell how long we'll last in this realm of mortality; that is precisely why we must spend these precious moments with those who matter most to us. We have to let them know how we feel rather than torture ourselves with the unforeseeable future. I'd like to start with you."

He laid his hand over his heart.

"This heart of mine stopped beating a hundred years ago," he told her sincerely, "but I never truly lost it until I met you, and it hasn't belonged to me since." He stepped closer and lowered his voice as if the whole world was listening. "I love you, Carolyn. I always have. The more I know you, the more I know I always will. At one time, I could've given you the world; now I have only myself to offer you."

Carolyn placed her trembling hand over his heart and he covered it with his. Tears began to gently fall, but her voice was steady as she replied.

"If I have your heart, Captain Gregg," she smiled, "then I already have the world. What you've done for me…for my family…is more than anything I could ever ask for. I never thought I could love anyone the way I loved my husband. In a way, that's true…" She looked him in the eyes. "But that's true for you too, Captain. You're the finest man I've ever known and I…I love you."

She trembled a bit again when she said it and he understood why: It had been many years since she'd said those words to a man. He only knew one way to fix that; he took her in one arm, her face in the other hand, and finally kissed her tenderly yet passionately and then held her closely and silently.

"Shakespeare was right." The third voice surprised them from behind the captain; he turned to the lion opposite the one they stood by. A young man with shaggy hair a mix of light brown and grayish-white was sitting on it with his bare foot propped up on his knee; he was wearing brown pants that looked like bell bottoms, a white Sunday shirt and a brown vest.

"Silence is the perfectest herald of joy," he quoted. He slipped off the lion and disappeared. He popped up again on the railing at the end of the porch, behind Carolyn.

"If my lady had said such lovely things to me," he smiled sadly, "I wouldn't be here…but then, neither would you."

"It appears," said the captain, "that we've traded one ghost for another."

"Looks like it," said Carolyn, "Who are you, young man?" He gave another sad smile.

"A fool," he said softly, "and an orphan…one who reached beyond his sphere…and paid the price for his foolishness."

He held his hands out to them; there was one big slash mark on each of his wrists. They were the color of silver.

"You killed yourself?" Carolyn exclaimed, "How could you do such a thing? You're too young to just throw your life away like that!" He smiled at her.

"I told you I was a fool," he said, "I fell in love with a beautiful girl who lived in a beautiful world."

"I see," Carolyn sighed sympathetically, "She rejected you?" He nodded.

"I should've known I had no place in her world," he said, "or her heart."

"Well, I am sorry for you," she said, "but I still think it was rash of you to do what you did. You could've found another girl! They make up half the world's population, you know!"

"Oh, come now, my dear," said the captain, "You're talking to someone who is young and green and irrational—all heart but no head."

"Yes," said the young ghost, "If only I'd seen you first, perhaps I wouldn't be rotting in your grave."

"My grave?" said Daniel, "What the devil do you mean, lad?"

"I didn't even know where I was," explained the ghost, "I was just running along the outskirts of your town when I tripped and found myself in a cemetery. It seemed fitting, a graveyard under the full moon. I decided to use it as the stage of my suicide. I didn't even see the name on the stone until after I cut myself. I sent up a prayer, watched my blood saturate the soil and gave up the ghost."

"You killed yourself on Captain Gregg's grave?" Carolyn was incensed. "I don't care how young you are! You ought to have some respect for the dead!"

"May I point something out, Mrs. Muir?" said Captain Gregg.

"You were dead when he came along," she jumped ahead of him.

"And now I am dead," said the ghost, "and he is alive." He showed him his right wrist. "With my blood and my sorrow, I offered a trade: My life in place of his. I always believed in ghosts; I thought perhaps one of them would benefit from it and have better luck in this life than I ever had."

"Why did you choose Captain Gregg?" Carolyn asked, discreetly taking the man's hand.

"His name was on the stone," he shrugged, "I didn't even name him, exactly. It was for him or any other ghost wandering the earth for want of love, as I had."

"How did you know to find me here?" the captain asked.

"Public records," the young ghost smiled, "I looked up your name and found your information, including the local lore about you haunting your own house. I got the address and decided to pay you a visit, though I apologize for my bad timing."

"Well, I," Carolyn said awkwardly, "I suppose we should thank you, but…but it's so horrible! You had your whole life ahead of you and you wasted it over some horrible girl!"

The young lover looked like Jonathan did whenever she scolded him. She sighed.

"I'm sorry," she said, "I just think it's sad."

"As do I," said Captain Gregg, "As happy as I am to be alive again, I hate to think it was at the expense of someone else."

"Then don't," the ghost replied, "I made the choice myself. You had no way of knowing and I daresay you'd have tried to stop me if you had."

"Tried nothing," the captain said gruffly, "I'd have snatched the dagger out of your hands and flung it into the sea. Then I'd have tossed you in the brig for a day and put you to work swabbing the deck. I'd have kept you too busy to even think about suicide were you aboard my vessel!"

The ghost looked weirdly at Carolyn.

"He was a sea captain," she smiled, "You get used to it after a while."

"Oh," he said, "At any rate, it's done now. And I have to say I rather like the afterlife. I have so much access and freedom! I feel lighter, like a weight's been lifted! This may make you sad, but I've never been happier."

"If you need any advice on being a ghost, feel free to pop over anytime," said the captain.

"Aye-aye, Captain," he saluted, "Thank you."

"What's your name?" Carolyn asked.

"Oh, pardon me," he said, "My name is Elliott Jeffries."

"I'm Carolyn Muir," she nodded.

"Pleased to meet you," he nodded back, "And don't worry: After I died and invoked the…spell, I guess you could call it…my body entered the grave in place of yours, Captain Gregg, so there'll be no investigation. I was an orphan too, so no one will come looking for me."

"So you'll just float around Schooner Bay, wandering aimlessly with nothing to do?" said Carolyn.

"At first," he shrugged again, "just until I get used to the town. I'm sure there's an empty beach house somewhere around here that could shelter a new ghost."

"I have just the man for you, my lad," the captain smiled with mischievous glee.

"Oh, Captain, not tonight," Carolyn objected, "Let's break him into it gently; after all, it's not often a man changes ghosts." Captain Gregg and wrapped an arm around her.

"Very well, my dear," he said, "Let that codfish have one night of undisturbed slumber." For the first time, Elliott laughed happily and heartily.

"I don't know who you're talking about," he chimed, "but I love the way you're talking about him! Boy, am I glad I chose you, Captain Gregg. I think I'm going to like this town! Good night!"

He was gone in a blink. Daniel and Carolyn looked out on the lawn.

"Nice young man," she mused, "I think he'll fit in nicely, for a ghost." She cast him a sideways glance and started to walk to the door. "And you'll fit in nicely, too…" She turned her head back to him with that cheeky look in her captivating eyes. "For a man."

Captain Daniel Gregg straightened up indignantly and strode up to the door saying, "Blasted woman!" He paused and smiled to himself.

"How I love you."

The ghost of Elliott Jeffries watched him walk inside and smiled affectionately to himself. No one had ever fussed over him the way that lady had; he certainly hadn't expected anyone to mourn his death. He felt something for her that he supposed must be the way a son feels toward his mother. And that captain to whom he had traded his mortality had such a commanding presence. These were people worth knowing, he knew. They were finer than anyone he'd known in life. If only he could've been born into a family of theirs.

'Oh, well,' he thought, 'I'm here now.'

And he was here and she was here and they were together. From the way those two were, he figured that was as it should be. As far as Elliott could tell, he'd done a good deed.

He reappeared on the beach and looked up at the moon.

"Let's go," he jerked his head and walked along the beach with the waves dancing in the moonlight. On his hip swung the dagger he'd done himself in with; now it would be a weapon of defense.

"I apologize," he said to the moon, "I guess silver's not so bad after all."

THE END

Author's Review:
Somebody hand me a Dr. Pepper so I can get the taste of cheese out of my mouth! LOL I know that was really cheesy, but then I guess half the stuff they did on the show was the same way (like the seal episode; I think that was a stupid episode).

Anyway, I hope you guys like Elliott, because I'm hoping to use him in another story that may or may not get uploaded, depending on how my inner muse feels about it (y'all know what that's like, right?). Except in the next story I'll have to completely redo his suicide scene so that it'll all work the way I want it to.

I've also got a one-shot coming up soon, so I'm not totally off the GaMM kick yet! Hope you enjoyed this and hope you enjoy more!

Sincerely Yours,
-samuraistar =^.^=