"Emily? You're not on watch tonight." Jesse looks surprised as Emily approaches him.

"I know, but I can't sleep, so I figure I should take over and give someone else a chance to get some." Ok, so it was half a lie, she was only half sure she wouldn't be able to get back to sleep, but she also hadn't wanted to try and then wind up with another nightmare.

He eyes her for a moment before shrugging and walking off, leaving her alone on deck save for the other man on watch at the other end of the ship.

She wants to cry, but refuses to let herself. She can't stop thinking about her dream, but at the same time won't allow her self to keep thinking about it.

If she closes her eyes, even for a moment, she can still see her mother's cold, hard eyes as she loops the rope around her papa's neck. The cruel laughter still rings in her ears, too. Anger begins to override her sadness. How could her mother…

No. It was a dream. Only a dream. She isn't sure how she'd managed to conjure that up on her own, or why, but it couldn't have been real.

Still, the whole scene continues to replay itself over in her mind.

"Are you alright?"

Emily is so deep in thought, and so startled by the voice sounding from just behind her, that she spins around with one hand reaching for the sword she'd left below decks.

"Interesting way to answer to your captain." The older woman says quietly, not really looking at all alarmed by Emily's reaction.

"Beg pardon, Captain." Emily replies. "I was, uhm, just thinking. I didn't notice you."

She is expecting the Captain to scold her in some way, and is surprised when she instead comes up to stand next to Emily, staring out to sea like Emily had been previously.

"It was my fault for sneaking up on you like I did. I didn't mean to startle you."

Emily isn't quite sure how to respond. She wonders why the Captain is not asleep, but doesn't quite have the nerve to ask about it.

"I could not sleep. Strange dreams. Not unusual for me." The Captain says after a moment, as if she can hear Emily's thoughts.

"I couldn't sleep either." Emily finds herself saying. "I dreamt of my…" She trails of before the word 'Papa' makes it past her lips.

The Captain turns to her with a questioning look, but doesn't say anything.

"When I first came on board you said that my papa saved your life." Emily hesitates for a moment before going on. "May I..ask how?"

"I was wondering if you would ask." The Captain sounds just a tad amused. "We were in Tortuga at the time. I had stayed on the ship. Some of the men came back drunk, probably with me in mind, and I was sleeping, I didn't have my pistol or my sword with me. They came in and…" She trails of for a moment. "Well, your father returned just in time. I got the impression he'd followed them back, I can't know for certain. He didn't have to help me, mind you. It was foolish of me to leave myself out in the open like that. But he did. Those three bilge rats were so drunk they didn't stand a chance against your father, not when he was as angry as he seemed to be at the time. I sleep with my pistol close by, now. All he ever asked in return for it was that if I should, by some strange chance, come across you, that I would look after you."

Emily isn't too surprised at the tale of her papa's heroics. As angry as she is with him for leaving, she knows that he is a good man, over all anyways.

"I'm surprised no one has tried that with me."

"They've seen what you can do with a sword. And I'm sure they know they'd have your Alex to get through, first."

"M-my Alex?" Emily blushes lightly. "Me and Alex..we've been friends since we were little. He's hardly 'mine' in any shape or form."

"Well, even if that is true," the Captain sounds a bit patronising, as if she knows something Emily does not, "I've no doubt Alex would protect you at least as fiercely as your father did me. And your father barely knew me at the time."

All is silent for a moment as Emily thinks on this.

"I'm sure he would." She says finally.

"Your dream was of your father, wasn't it?"

Emily only nods.

"What happened in it? You looked upset when I first walked up."

"H-he…" And suddenly Emily finds herself telling it all in perfect detail, the whole frightening scene, her mother's terrifying appearance, the defeated look in her papa's eyes, her mother's cruel laughter as the she-devil had strung her papa up.

It seems even more real, saying it all out loud.

The Captain listens quietly. Emily isn't quite sure why the story is tumbling out of her mouth as easily as it is; she'd been thinking only a few minutes prior that she hadn't wanted to talk to anyone at all, much less about her dream. The Captain's presence has a strangely calming affect on her, though. There's something different about the older woman. Emily feels she can trust her.

"How can you be so certain it was just a dream?" The Captain asks when Emily falls silent after finishing her story.

"Because if it isn't, then my papa is dead, and my mother is… might as well be dead too. That creature was not my mother."

There is another moment of silence before the Captain speaks again in a quiet voice.

"Visions as clear as that one are not given for no reason."

"Visions?" Emily's brows furrow a bit.

"Aye, visions, from a goddess." The Captain pauses when Emily gives her a blank look. "You mean you don't know... I noticed it the moment you came on board. It's such a rare thing, to find another who's been touched by a goddess. I almost could not believe it."

"Oh. Oh, no. Not that again." Emily backs away a bit now, not sure she wants to hear this from someone else. Once was quite enough.

"Again?"

"That lady, Cathleen, at the tavern…"

"Tavern? What are you talking about, girl?"

"It's just there was this woman, when we were in England, weeks ago. She told me I'd been touched by a goddess."

"And you did not believe her."

"I'm starting to wonder if I should have."

"Is the vision the only strange thing that's happened?"

Emily only shakes her head.

"Well, what else then?"

"Can I use your knife?" Emily asks, and the Captain gives her a strange look, but bends down to take out a knife that had been hidden in her boot.

Emily takes it and brings it to the palm of her hand, making a small but deep cut, wincing as the pain shoots up her arm.

The Captain's eyes widen a bit when the cut heals itself almost instantly.

"Calypso." The Captain murmurs. "You should feel honored, Emily. It is not often our goddess chooses to protect one so young as you."

'Our goddess'. The words echo in Emily's mind.

"If the goddess is so intent on taking care of me, why is my father dead? Why has my mother gone mad?"

"Our goddess. I don't know anymore than you do. It seems to me that it is not as simple as you are trying to make it. Your mother and father got where they are because of their own actions. The goddess cannot help those who are not willing to be helped."

Emily doesn't respond, just turns to stare out to sea again, thinking.

The Captain looks up at the stars above them.

"Beautiful. I never tire of seeing the stars at night."

Emily joins her in looking up.

"My papa tried to teach me about the stars once, about how you could sort of read them. It was just before he left. He told me they could give you directions. I wish I'd listened."

There is yet another moment of silence.

"He was right, you know." The Captain says, in a much lighter tone than she has been using. She points up at the sky. "Brightest star in the sky, Polaris. That's north even in the China sea…"

Emily listens as the Captain goes on and it is here that a somewhat unlikely friendship is born.

"What are ye not tellin me?" Alex looks angry, an emotion she's not used to seeing on him.

It's been two weeks since Emily's first 'vision', and her dreams have been no less strange since. It is getting harder for her to sleep, and Alex seems to have noticed.

"What are you talking about?"

"About yer dreams, Love. There's somethin yer not tellin me about yer dreams."

"Maybe that's because it's not your business."

"But yer not sleepin."

"You're worrying over me again. I told you not to do that." Emily gives him an annoyed glare.

"I always worry about ye, though, Emily." He says, looking into her dark eyes with his chocolate brown ones. This gives her pause. He doesn't often call her by her name, not unless he is really serious.

She is reminded of the Captain, how she always refers to Alex as somehow belonging to Emily. She allows a small smile to make its way onto her face as she steps closer to him.

"I know. Thank you, Alex." She places a kiss on his tanned cheek, backing away immediately afterwards, and her smile widens when he blushes a bit.

"Miss Turner! Captain wants you in her cabin!" Jimmy calls out to her. Emily is not surprised by this; the Captain has been trying to teach Emily some things she thought would be useful, how to chart a course on a map, for one thing.

"I'll explain about my dreams. Later. I promise." She smiles at Alex before turning to saunter off towards the Captain's cabin.

Sorry this one has taken longer. Last week of school, things have been crazy.

Review's keep me extra motivated, though. :)