Hi! So this chapter took me a while to write as it's pretty intense so I'd reeaallllyy appreciate any feedback you have for me :) Thank you to everyone who's left reviews already and favorited the story; it really does mean a lot.
Enjoy!
Chapter 19
"Boy, come here," Barbossa snapped, seeing Samuel standing listlessly at the side of the ship.
His son didn't appear to hear him and the captain frowned, making his way over to him. Samuel looked at him when he drew close but didn't say anything, just leaned back against the side and folded his arms.
"Well?" Barbossa said impatiently, "what's gotten into you?"
Over the last day or so the only word to describe his sons behavior would be pining. Now, needless to say, pining was not something that Barbossa had time for and nor would he tolerate it on board his ship. Especially not in his own son.
"Nothing Father," Samuel shrugged moodily, turning away to look back at the sea.
Barbossa growled under his breath and grabbed his shoulder roughly, yanking Samuel back to face him.
"Don't turn yer back on me boy," he snapped, "now out with it. I've not the time nor the patience fer this claptrap."
Angrily Samuel shook his father off and glared at him. "There's nothing wrong!" he shouted, suddenly furious. He didn't look back as he strode away, ignoring the stares of his shipmates.
Samuel paced the deck like a caged lion – there was nowhere to go. She was everywhere, taunting him and reminding him of what he'd done.
Reminding him of the look on her face...
She was trusted now to wander the deck and her door was no longer locked. It was clear that she would not attempt escape.
She was a ghost of the girl she had been.
For hours on end she would drift from place to place, pale and noiseless in her wanderings until even her shadow seemed to be reduced to a faded gray – almost invisible. Her eyes that had been so keen and captivating were sad and fixed on nothing and none of the fiery blush that had enlivened her face and belied her passionate nature bloomed upon her cheeks.
Two days had passed in this manner since the confrontation and Samuel and Lily had not, needless to say, spoken since. Samuel thought about it many times but couldn't quite manage it each time he tried and the last thing Lily wanted to see was him.
...or so she thought.
It was during the night of the second day that they met again.
-000-
Long after everybody else on board had fallen asleep (even the useless lookout, high on his perch) a white-clad figure made its way across the deck, long hair streaming in the heavy wind. The figure reached the side of the ship and seemed to clasp at the wood like a lifeline, bending over it like a sapling.
Lily sobbed. She poured her tears into the sea, her entire body wracked with tremors as she cried. She had not cried since talking to Samuel and she found that once she began she couldn't stop; she didn't even particularly know what she was crying for...the loss of her father? Or perhaps it was the constant dull ache in her heart that was born when she had realized how she felt about him.
Either way it hurt, and Lily had never been good at dealing with pain.
Below deck Samuel jolted awake, his piercing eyes bright in the darkness as he looked around for what had woken him.
Everything was silent and still...or so he thought. Warily he swung his legs out of his hammock and glanced around but the men were all asleep. With a sigh he jumped deftly to the ground and pulled on his trousers, not bothering with a shirt, and trudged up the stairs. He supposed it could only have been old Willam falling from his lookout post again.
However, it was not Willam that he saw. It was a girl, clinging to the rigging and facing away from him towards the ocean. She looked so small and fragile in her thin slip, like a fairy or some other such mythical creature, caught in a spiders web.
It was Lily and as he looked she jumped.
Samuel didn't yell, he didn't weep, he just ran with a look of manic determination on his face until he had reached the side and – without a second thought – hurled himself over it and into the pitching water.
The fall was hell, the icy wind hurtling past and then the chill of the water biting into his skin, the angry waves crashing into his side. None of that mattered though, what mattered was that he couldn't see her.
She had to be okay.
"LILY?" he shouted above the roar of the waves, kicking frantically and squinting through the spray.
Then he saw it – a glimmer of white a little while away, tossed in a wave.
"Damn," he cursed before diving under and swimming with all his might towards her.
Lily couldn't catch her breath to scream, pitched about as she was by the heavy waves. She felt like she could be crushed at any moment – completely at the mercy of the sea.
And it hurt. Her lungs ached with straining for elusive breath and her head was stabbed with lack of air. Frantically she fought and desperately she lost.
She could feel herself sinking.
Drowning.
Then, just as her vision clouded she felt herself break the surface of the water again, supported by something. Dully she wondered what it was but her numbed senses couldn't make sense of anything.
She vaguely heard a voice telling her to "hold on" and did as she was told, clinging with what little strength she had left. The somebody bore her across the water as she melted into unconsciousness.
-000-
"Lily wake up," Samuel was very close to pleading as he knelt beside her, his hands shaking her none too gently by the shoulders.
Nothing.
"Damn it Lily wake up!" In desperation he slapped her across the cheek with enough force to sting but not enough to hurt.
Her eyelashes fluttered.
Then nothing.
Samuel let his hands fall limply to his sides and sat back on his heels, staring at her with fervid, intense longing. He felt an inexplicable need for her to be okay again.
Over and over again he heard her tearful, angry voice in his head:
"How dare you make me care for you..."
"I wasn't pretending, alright?" he said, fixing his eyes on her still face. "I kissed you because I wanted to – I didn't know anything about fathers stupid plan. I wouldn't have done that."
Then, in a quieter voice: "I care for you. In fact..."
His voice was caught by the wind as it tailed away and his words were tossed like a sail because at that moment Lily began to stir. Her lips parted and her eyes squeezed shut before violent coughs began to wrack her. Her eyes flew open and she twisted to one side, coughing and coughing until all the water had left her system and she was gasping for the air that she so needed. However she was extremely weak and soon found that she was unable to support her own weight.
In an instant Samuel had picked her up and lain her gently across his lap, one hand brushing her sodden hair out of her face and the other holding her close to him.
Lily blinked in surprise as she slowly registered that it was he who had saved her and she tried to form words but nothing came out.
She stopped trying.
Her eyes searched his and were confused by what they found there: genuine worry and relief.
"What are you – doing?" she asked finally with a momentous effort.
"What does it look like?" he replied typically but his relieved smile gave him away as he drew her in closer. "And I think I should be asking you that question – what were you doing?"
Lily frowned, her mind reeling. "I – I just..."
She stopped, unable to think straight with him so close to her.
"You just what?" Samuel prompted, some of his relief being replaced with anger as he ran through what he had seen. "You just...fancied a swim? In freezing cold water in the dead of night? Were you trying to kill yourself?"
She flinched and his eyes darkened, his grip began to hurt.
"Tell me you didn't Lily," he said slowly, "tell me that wasn't it. You didn't try to -"
She said nothing, wishing she had the strength to pull away from him but at the same time wanting him to pull her closer. She didn't know why she'd done it. She just had.
"Lily," he barked hoarsely. He felt like his throat was closing off, again he shook her. "Tell me I'm wrong."
"I -" she whispered, trying feebly to sit up but he didn't let her.
"How – how could you -?" Samuel seethed, images and fears flashing through his head like lightning. "Lily what the hell?"
"Stop it," she snapped, regaining some of her old flame.
"Why did you want that?"
He had let go of her and was subconsciously backing away as she sat up and raised a shaking hand to push her hair out of her face.
"Stop it," she pleaded, "forget this ever happened, please."
"I can't," he said, disbelief showing plainly in his expression as he moved towards her and placed a gentle hand on her cheek. "I don't know why but I can't just stop thinking about you. Believe me I've tried." He was looking at her like she'd risen from the dead – a wondering, slightly frightened look. "And if I knew that that was what you wanted..."
He paused and took in all of her from her wide eyes to her tiny feet as if committing her to memory.
"You have so much life in you Lily, don't waste it."
"Is this another game?" Lily whispered, unable to process what was happening, what he was saying. Surely he couldn't actually...surely he couldn't feel – after all this – the same?
For a second hurt flashed across Samuels features and then he moved back, getting to his feet.
"It never has been," he said gruffly over his shoulder as he walked away.
"Samuel!" Lily called, a sob in her voice.
But he was gone.
