XVII.
To Go Gently

Mid-November 1718

She arrived in the Great Inagua and was at once disgusted with it. There were drunk me and women about everywhere. Most weren't on their feet and there were one or two lying in piles of their only bile. She gently stepped over a woman lying on the docks. She was laying on her stomach, groaning. She didn't appear to have a shirt on. She pointed to her and told her crew to pick her up, get her someplace safe and let her rest it off. What the hell happened here?

As she walked through town, it just got more and more disgusting to her. What had happened to Edward? For fuck's sake what kind of life did that man plan on leading with a shitehole place this to call base? It could be a good base but he seemed to turn everything good in his life into rubble. He had such potential! Such promise! And he pissed it all away! You didn't have unlimited shots in life and he was just shooting blanks at this point. She was surprised he hadn't been caught and hung by now. Perhaps he would get that blade in his belly yet. Perhaps she was wrong to protect him from the Assassins. Perhaps she was just wrong about him – Sense or not, Edward was a good for nothing child. Despite his age, charm and talents, he was going nowhere and that was a damn shame.

The more she looked, the more she saw the beginnings of another Nassau. Nassau had started as a good looking place, filled with the hopes and dreams of those who called it their home. Mary had seen a good few men within it, working towards making Nassau into something great give up and sail for home. There no one had wanted to work, no one had wanted to learn. It had become filled with whores and fools who did nothing all day. They allowed everyone to do as they liked. This place was much the same. It had a good makings of a town and the manor at the top was a good place for a base. Yet, Edward used it as a place to hold parties full of drunken fights, sex and it was just sickening. It sickened Mary to be in the place. How many puddles of vomit and piss had she already stepped over? How many men were rolling on the ground in their own fluids, laughing as if they were having a good time?

No men here helped the other, they all just rolled and laughed and looked for another woman. The women weren't much better. They were half-naked, stumbling drunk and bleary-eyed. They didn't seem to see a damn thing wrong with the world around them. They were happy because they had drink and "freedom" and unlimited women to warm their beds. It pissed Mary off, made her blood boil. She wanted to just smash her fist into the nearest man's head, but she controlled her temper because she hadn't even seen Edward yet. Perhaps he was cleaned up and doing something worthwhile for once. She highly doubted that though. Not with the state of this place. No, Edward was probably the most worthless of all these louts.

She was at her wit's end when she made her way up the manor he claimed for his own. She saw Ade standing at the bottom of the stairs, looking annoyed. He was a reasonable man. Too reasonable for this life. He saw her and he motioned with his head up towards the stairs. She glanced up and though she couldn't see Edward yet, she had to guess he was sleeping up there.

"Why do you run with him?" She asked him softly. Ade just shook his head and motioned for her to go up the stairs. She walked up and he didn't follow, not at first. He was probably just as disgusted as she was. He didn't have a reply for her anyway.

There Edward was, lying there on a table. His robes were undone, his bare chest showing, his pants partially undone. A woman was lying next to him only covered by a blanket. She had one leg cast over him. Mary wrinkled her nose and shook her head, angry and disgusted. She grabbed a chair, sitting astride it and smacked Edward's arm. He awoke with a grunt and gave her a hungover look. There was more in that look, a look of happiness to see her, as if he had never expected to see her again. She suppose that was to be expected since last time she had seen him, she had been storming away from his bed in a fury. He smiled a little. She just gave him a look of disappointment. She had always wanted to think better of him, but there just seemed to be no winning with him.

"Ahoy, Kidd." He greeted, still slurring a little. "You missed quite a time"

"Aye. Pity about Nassau." She frowned, tilting her head to the side slightly. She probably wouldn't go back to Nassau again if she didn't have to. "And Blackbeard flying the coop"

Edward threw the woman's leg off of him and began to sit up, rubbing at his head. He fixed his pants and his shirt as he spoke. "Oh, we'll see about Thatch. Vane's off to see him now, and I'm following soon after" He finally swung his legs off the table and reached for a bottle only to find it empty. He cast it aside and it broke against the stone with a loud smash. A man strolled over to the corner of the balcony and leaned there for a moment, looking like he was about to be violently ill.

"This is what's left of your experiment in democracy?" She asked a sneer in her voice, her disgust shinning through. She gave Edward a look but he ignored it as he was focusing on fixing his pants.

"Aye, we do as we please here. And we take our time doing it" He finished fixing his robes and looked up at her. Then that man in the corner dropped his trousers and began to piss, right there in front of them all, whistling all the while, not a care in the world.

Mary stood, shoving the chair away, feeling that annoyance bubble up inside of her once more and the anger and just the disgust of the filth of this place. "For Christ's sake, Edward! Don't anything but the stink of riches wrinkle your nose?"

Edward stood, "What's got into you, man?" He asked. He seemed surprised that'd she be disgusted by what she found. She was a pirate like him, she should have been used to the rougher life. She was, but this was a step over the line. She began to walk away but stopped, giving him a serious look.

"Reality, mate. Reality" She tried to make that simple word as forceful as she could. Wake him up; make him see his wrongs, make him do right. She should have known though, Edward would not see anything wrong with what he had done with his life so far until he had a dose of reality himself. What would that be? Would he wake up right before the floor dropped beneath him and he was hung? She turned to Ade as she walked down the stairs. "See that you ain't pulled into the drink by this drowning rat!" She motioned to Edward and then hurried away. How could she think that coming here would make anything any better?

"'Oy! I've lived longer than most men who trod this path!" He called after her. She stopped, looked at him and she shook her head. His face was livid and filled with insult, and her's was angry and sad and just…full of pity. She hurried away. She couldn't stand to be near him anymore. She wasn't sure if she wanted to slap him, kill him or kiss him. She was disgusted with herself for missing him, even after seeing all of this.

Yes, he had lived longer than most men who trod this path, but that didn't say much for him. What did it say about her? She had been a pirate for years now. Did it make her someone special just because she had managed to survive the odds and avoid being hung all this time? No, not really. Maybe it just meant she was overly cautious.

She found her crew waiting for her. They all looked at her face, as if wondering what she was doing back so soon. They had probably figured she would take a holiday here, perhaps pair up with Kenway once more. Not with the way he was acting.

"Let's get the hell out of here. This place is filled with a bitter illness that I can stomach no longer."

She saw Edward on the docks as her ship pulled away. She looked back at him, her arms crossed against her chest, a frown sharp on his face. His face was full of anger for her and he turned away, stalking towards his own ship, very clearly furious. So he was angry with her was he? He didn't like that she was trying give him a wakeup call? She didn't care. Didn't he see that she was trying to help him because, devil curse her, she cared about that fool! He clearly wasn't going to help himself so she had to help him – or try. There really was no helping that thrice blasted fool.

Once they hit open water, she had them head towards the nearest town with an Assassin's Pigeon coop. It wasn't really a town, but more of a shanty town. It was mainly wooden planks built but a cliff with various houses and businesses on the planks and cliffs. The people there were mostly fishers and a few hunters. It was an interesting place at least. The pigeon coop was near the top, out of the way of most.

If Ah Tabai was trying to contact her, he would send a message all over. She found an Assassin tending the pigeons, though the man just looked like your normal sailor. She knew his face though. She nodded at him and him at her and he handed her a letter.

"This just came in" He said. "It's for anyone who wants it"

"Is there anything else? For James Kidd?" She asked. He looked through the letters. There were only six or seven of them. The last one he hesitated on. He seemed unsure if he should hand it over. It must have been from Ah Tabai himself then. She wondered what he wanted.

"Ah, yes. This one's for you, Master Kidd"

It was a short letter, not a contract, but telling her that a letter came from England for her the other day. A letter from her mum. She had written her mother not long before, a little after her drunken night with Edward in fact. Ah Tabai probably sent one of these to every Pigeon Coop in the West Indies in hope to get ahold of her. She turned the paper over, scribbled her location on the back so he could send her the letter by pigeon and then handed it back to the lad.

She thought on the letter she had sent to her mum. Mostly lies. She told her mum that she was still going by her original name, was a privateer yet, was doing good honest work yet. It hurt to lie to her in such a way. She wondered what her mother would think of her if she knew the truth? She doubted that she'd think much less of her daughter who pretended yet to be a man. She was proud of her daughter's ability to lie, so it probably wouldn't be a surprise if she found out that Mary had been lying the past few years. Still, she needed to remember to write her more often. She worried so.

"I'll be waiting for him to send something back alright?" She said simply and then she walked away to do the contract that he had handed before. It was a simple one. A man was poaching and while not a Templar, he had Templar contacts. His poaching probably led to some plot of theirs. So she would kill him and then that would put a stopper in whatever those Templars had planned.

Dearest Mark,

It does an old woman well to hear that her son is doing well in times such as these. I still live in the old house, yes and once a day I make sure the other home is tended to. I miss you very much and I always ache to hear news of you yet no one seems to know a thing about a Mark Read who does his work for the Navy. I know I've asked you before, but have you taken another name? Please be honest with me, Mark. I don't hear from you as often as I would wish, I only want to make sure you are safe and alive. I miss you most terribly. This home is too empty without your company. I know you're not a child anymore, but a mother can miss her only son can't she?

Other than my sentiments, I must tell you that your grandmother has passed. She passed peacefully in her sleep and I oversaw the funeral personally. She is buried next to her husband in their family cemetery. I plan to plant flowers on her grave whenever I go to visit your father. When you return home, please make sure you pay your respects, to both of them as well as to your sister.

Please take care, Mark. I couldn't stand if anything happened to you. Please write me again as soon as you find time.

Mother

Mary crumpled up the letter and stuffed it in her coat. Of course, she'd write her mother again sometime. She just couldn't stand the thought right now after the news the letter had delivered. She was alone in her navigation room and she pulled her charm out of her shirt and stared at the thing. She wrapped her fingers around it and squeezed, feeling the edges dig into her skin. It helped her think a little.

She had spent so much time here in the West Indies; she almost forgot what it was like back in England. She hadn't been there since she boarded a ship for the warmer waters. She had planned to go back in a few years but she had found her way into piracy instead and well…she had never looked back.

That wasn't completely true. She was constantly glancing over her shoulder, wondering if what she had left behind was better than what lie ahead. There was no way to know that though and all she could do is keep looking forward, keep moving forward and keep doing what she could to make herself happy. She tucked her charm away, laying her head on the table. It had been weeks now since she had yelled at Edward. She wondered how he was doing, if he had found Thatch yet, if he was convincing him to come back right now…

It was no use thinking of that scoundrel though. No, she had to keep moving forward and try to move past Edward too. She didn't want to make the same foolish mistake again.

A/N: Am I spoiling you guys or what? I guess its a sort of make up for not being able to post throughout the week. Besides that, these chapters are shorter so its not hard to get you a few chapters written up in a week. Anyway, hope you've enjoyed what you read once again.