"Peg?"
Emily starts, turning sharply to face Jo, now standing a few feet from her and looking hesitant. "Oh." Is all she can get out.
The older woman just blinks at her. "You alright? I thought…" She trails off, glancing at the still locked but now empty cell that had contained the old hag and looking confused, quite understandably.
"Alright?" Peg laughs, airy and incredulous as she gets to her feet. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm just fine."
"But where did…" She points at the cell.
"Not our problem now."
"Oh – alright, well what about the rest of them, then? The crew of that slaver?"
Emily doesn't hesitate even a fraction. "Leave them."
"Leave them?" Jo's brows furrow. "Leave them where?"
"The island, of course, where else would we bloody well leave them?" Emily slips past her and out of the brig.
Jo gives her that scowl-grimace, stalking after her. "The one we're now two days out from? That curse up 'round it – no chance anyone'll find them. Leave 'em here, that's a death sentence, plain and simple like."
"I know."
A pause, Jo's obviously thinking. "That's four more days lost in getting home."
"I know."
"Well…" She huffs. "Are you certain? I'd've thought you wanted to question them at least –"
They're up the steps now and heading out across the deck. "Jo, I've already got all the answers I needed and trust when I say I could be far worse to them for the business they're in. I want them off my ship. Easiest way is to leave them."
"But Peg, if you'll just…"
Spinning around, so abrupt Jo near runs into her, Emily lowers her voice in that way Jo at least, by now, should know means 'danger'. "…or I could parade each and every one of them up here on deck and they'll walk the plank right where we are now, and I will happily watch as they all slowly drown."
Jo opens her mouth, but nothing comes out. She brings a hand up to bury it in her raven curls as she blows out a breath.
Emily scowls, waving the older woman away. "Well, go on, bring us about, you know how it goes." And with that, she retreats to her cabin, leaving a very confused Miss Jo Gibbs in her wake.
"We're turning around." Riley comes up to the helm, where Jo has stationed herself. "Why?"
She glances back at him, debating with herself on whether to answer and how. There's a bit of a pause, and he pulls one of her hands free of the wheel, pressing something hard and cool into it. She raises an eyebrow down at the amber-colored bribe, glares a bit up at him, finally decides she'll take it this time. "Apparently we're to leave our new friends to rot back on that island." She takes a swig of the rum.
"That island." He parrots, staring at her. "The one we're already two days out from?"
"Aye."
"There's twenty of them. We're to leave them the one place where there's no hope they'll be found?"
"S'ppose those Navy boys won't be embellishing much to call her a threat anymore." Jo grumbles, more under her breath. She takes another healthy pull from the bottle before handing it back to the boy next to her. "You really want to know what's in her head, you give that to her and try to get enough of it down her to start her talking. Otherwise, we'd best just do as we're told."
He stares down at the bottle, perhaps thinking this over. After a long moment, he sets it down on a crate settled not far from Jo and she watches with a raised brow as he leaves her.
She's leaned over her desk when he enters her cabin, a myriad of books small and large set out before her. He pauses in the doorway, watching her a moment. She looks almost frantic, the way she skims the pages, flips them impatiently, discards one book in favor of another.
"What is it you're looking for?" He asks, alerting her to his presence. She looks up at him sharply, startled. He crosses the room. "Maybe I could help."
She relaxes a fraction as her eyes meet his, and shakes her head. "I'm not sure what I'm looking for. I just know it was here somewhere."
"In a book you've read before?" His brows furrow as he looks around a bit and notes all the books that were on her shelf are now laid out half hazard on her desk or stacked next to her. "Have you read all of these?"
She's gone back to the one before her, but shoves it away in frustration. "Once, at least. But what I'm thinking of… I'm not finding it here."
He comes up next to her, leaning back on her desk. "What are you thinking of?"
"Full of questions today, aren't you?" She snaps in response, distracted as she's already looking through another book. "Maybe it's none of your business."
He studies her a moment, thinking, and shakes his head. "No."
"No…what?"
"No, you don't get to do that anymore."
She scowls as she finally looks over at him again. "I beg your pardon?"
A decision come to, he turns to her with arms crossed. "I watched you die. They threw you overboard and you didn't reappear, not just then, and I thought you were gone and I begged for you to come back because you owe me. I was to be a Navy man, I would've had high standing thanks to Andrews, and now look where I am?"
She looks wary now. "You'd've been little more than his henchman, that's hardly a position to garner much respect, and need I remind you…"
"Stow it." He stops her before she can really get going, a little harsh. She raises her eyebrows, apparently quite surprised. "That's enough. Whether you like it or not, you do owe me. And I expect you'll find some proper way to pay up. But in the meantime, here we are, not much to be done about it. So all I ask for now is that you be honest with me."
Her next words sound chosen a little more carefully. "That's asking for quite a bit more than I think you realize, love."
He snorts, mocking. "Oh, I know. It's second nature to you, isn't it? Andrews was very right about that one thing, at the least. If your lips are moving it's a very safe bet you're only telling a half truth, at the most, and that's only if it's of some profit to you."
"Or only because not everyone would want to know all that's really happening." She snaps back. "Ever think of it that way?"
"Either way, I am not 'everyone', and blast it all I've been sharing your bed at night!" His fist slams down on her desk, so hard the 'thump' echoes around the room and a few precariously balanced books tumble to the deck beneath them. She shoots to her feet to face him properly now, but he's not even looking at her anymore. He's staring down at his fist, still clenched, and wondering where that had come from. He's not usually prone to such outbursts.
She covers his still trembling fist with her own small hand, gentle of a sudden. "Riley. You're right. Lying has become second nature, with good reason. But you are very much not just anyone. I'm sorry." She leans in and presses a kiss to his cheek, slow and gentle, and he realizes with a bit of a start that he may have actually just met Emily. He only nods, and the moment passes. It's Peg standing before him again as she turns back to her books, all business. "I wasn't lying when I said I'm not sure what I'm looking for. All I remember is a passage in a book, and I'm only assuming that book was dealing with things of a magical nature. I have books of that nature. None of them seem to contain the passage I was hoping to find."
"Well." He moves a few books out of the way and hops up to sit on the desk. "What was the passage about, then? I'll have a look."
"It was something to do with witches – er, of the decidedly evil sort, that is. If I remember right it was telling of ways to trap them, make them do your bidding, all that fun sort of stuff, and since I think the Admiral may have…"
She's dreaming. She knows she's dreaming because she's reliving that moment. Adrienne's stood in front of Emily with the pistol and she hears nothing except the bang that she doesn't actually remember hearing and she feels nothing except the pain that she doesn't actually remember feeling. And then she's falling, falling, sinking down to the depths…
She gasps awake in her cabin and knows she had been dreaming. It doesn't do much in the way of stopping her heart from attempting to pound its way right out of her chest, at least not immediately. But she breathes a moment and closes her eyes and focuses on the familiar, soothing feel of the ship swaying beneath her and after a moment, she's…
"Serves you right, if you ask me." The voice is too close and unexpected, though it is familiar.
Emily near jumps right out of her skin, her heart pounding anew. Operating entirely on instinct, the pistol hidden beneath her pillow is already in her hands and aimed across the room.
The woman that has made herself quite comfortable in the window seat doesn't flinch, doesn't move an inch. She stays silent, as if just waiting, apparently unconcerned with whether the pistol will be fired.
Emily blows out a breath, running a hand through her hair as she tosses the pistol onto her pillow. "Sweet Calypso. Has anyone ever saw fit to tell you about what lovely timing you have?" Her words heavy with sarcasm. "Honestly, mother."
Her mother lets out a soft chuckle. "Well, it's not as though I intended to frighten you, but as it is I should say it was worth it for the reaction."
Emily just huffs, rolling her eyes. "So what is it that serves me right, then?" This better be good, she thinks, but smartly keeps to herself.
The amusement on her mother's face fades to a scowl. "Letting that devil-child onto your ship. I'd have thought you smarter than that. Have you not listened to a word you were told about her father?"
Emily waves her off. "Papa told me many things about a lot of people. I wasn't half as interested in him as I was – well, anyone else."
"You mean your uncle."
It's Emily's turn to scowl. "Yes, of course uncle. He was far more interesting than anyone else I knew at the time."
"You realize he and your father could be one in the same, save for the fact your father still has scruples enough to be ashamed."
"Still not getting along so well with daddy dearest, then?" Emily changes the topic, uncaring that the subject is not one they have approached yet. "And I thought it was just me. Incidentally, that also implies you still see him, which is, incidentally, also not something I've been informed of."
"I've been not so sneakily sneaking visits. It seems our goddess' mercy knows no bounds when it comes to some, as you well know." A bit of a pause. "Actually, that's why I'm here. Your father is worried, you know."
"Oh, yes, I'm sure he is. So terribly worried, and yet he's not here." It slips out of her mouth without her meaning it to, without her even realizing this had been bothering her. So much had gone on, she'd had no conscious room to think on it until now.
Anger flashes behind her mother's eyes in a way that startles Emily. It's too reminiscent of a look one would receive from the monster she had been. "With good reason, he's not here, and I'll leave that for him to explain as I fully expect you'll be going to sit and talk with him upon your return. Did he really teach you no respect?"
"He taught me swords. And how to fight for what I need, but that was only by default seeing as I didn't always get what I needed from him. The rest I learned from Ana and uncle, and they taught me respect is to be earned if given at all."
"And your Papa's worked harder than you think to earn a bit from you. This attitude of yours is going to get you into real trouble, you know."
"Probably. Another one of those 'someday' sort of things." Emily waves it off, airy. "That day hasn't come yet, so I figure I'm good for now."
Her mother shakes her head. "It'll come sooner than you think if you keep pushing your father so hard." An odd pause, and there's real worry behind her eyes. "He's – not quite the man he was, anymore. It's taken long enough, but he's grown some too."
"Anymore." Emily finds herself confused by the way her mother is wording things. "It hasn't been that long since last I saw him, you know."
Her mother bites her lip, looking sheepish in a way Emily has never seen before. "Oh. Forgive me, dear. I'm afraid I quite forgot there were likely things you didn't know about the island."
"Things I didn't…what things?" This is worrying enough to have Emily feeling anxious now. "Mother what don't I know?"
"You noticed, on the island, the sun seemed to take far longer to set."
"Well – yes, come to think of it. It felt like hours we were making our way through the jungle, but night had yet to fall even by the time we left."
"Time runs a bit strange on the island, the idea being anyone without a map who managed to find it would wander about looking for those caves and not even realize they'd spent an eternity there."
Emily takes a moment to think this through. "Alright. We weren't there that long, but…how long has it been?"
"Altogether since you first sort of fell off the map? Eight months."
"Eight – oh." Emily can't quite think past this one. "Well – in that case. Please be very sure to tell Papa that I am, that we're all, fine. Relatively."
"I will. Oh. When you're finished with that lot down in the hold, wait for me just outside the boundaries surrounding the island. Our goddess gave me a sort of cheat for getting you back. She says you've other things to be busy with."
"Oh, I'm sure she's got plenty she wants for me to be busy with." Emily sighs. "Alright, then."
She blinks, and her mother is gone, and she's left wondering. Mainly, about her father. Eight months is quite a bit longer than she thought it had been. So, the question is, what has he been up to in all that time?
Eight Months Ago – Shipwreck Cove
.
It's funny to Will, these days, how life has a tendency to blow his expectations of it out of the water in one way or another.
It feels wrong, not to be on the Queen, off to see that his girl is alright. He wants to protest when Mrs. White tells him Captain Teague wishes for Will to stay in Shipwreck. He does, in fact, very firmly, but she is even more insistent. The thing is, Teague had left Shipwreck on his own ship not more than a month before.
'He so rarely gets out like this anymore.' She explains, ringing her hands and looking old and tired and fretful. "He's not a young man, anymore, see, and he's all that I've got, and I worry, so he stays. He does have a heart, you know. But he's coming back so soon after leaving this time, and his letter..he seemed urgent, so please, sir. Stay."
She's such a sweet little woman. Will deliberates for as long as he can, but ultimately comes to the conclusion that Emily's letter was proof she's alright. She's tough and clever and no longer a child, and doesn't always take too kindly to what he has to say when trying to be her father and…well, maybe it wouldn't hurt to give her space. Besides, it's doubtless she'll come running straight back to Shipwreck after the hard time of it she'd had (she hadn't given many details, but some things a father just knows.)
And he likes Captain Teague. They've talked before by now, many times, especially over the weeks where Emily was learning about her magic. He knows the man just well enough he thinks they might be friends.
So, he stays.
And that's how he ends up being ushered into a small parlor room that smells of brandy and pipe tobacco, facing down a man he might once have thought rather frightening. The old Captain doesn't look it so much now, though. He's sat in a large arm chair over by the fire place and looking – a little frail, worryingly so.
Will steps further into the room, looking around a bit. It doesn't look like any kind of place owned by a pirate, but then, none of the rooms that Teague owns look like he should own them. There's a fine painting hung above the fire place, the furniture is old but kept well. Will hesitates as his eyes land on Teague again. "Captain?" He murmurs, uncertain.
Teague doesn't look at him. He's staring into the fire place, expression unreadable. "Jackie should've been the one to be here for this. I sent him off a letter. I don't know as he'll be too eager to answer it. Can't say I'll blame him, if he doesn't."
Will pauses a moment to think on this, brows furrowing a bit. "Been here for what, sir?"
Teague glances up at Will, and nods to the armchair situated just across from him. Will obeys the silent command, sitting across from the old Captain. "Should've listened to Bess." Mrs. White, he means. Her name is Elizabeth, Will had learned somewhere along the line, but she never went by that. "I'm too old to be out on a ship anymore, I know. But I had to…just the last time."
"No sailor worth his salt would blame you." Will replies, knowing.
The corners of Teague's lips turn up in the barest hint of a smile as he nods, then sighs. "Now I've got to hurry it all up, though. S'what I get for being selfish. Shipwreck's not just a haven for pirates, y'see, we've got women here too, and little ones. Some ones got to be around to make sure it all gets run right."
Will nods, understanding now, he thinks. "And you were going to pass it to Jack."
"I thought to. Even brought the idea up to him, once, some long years ago now. But he didn't want anything to do with it or me then, and not much has changed since."
"No, running any sort of town doesn't much sound like Jack." Will's just confused now. "But I'm not sure I understand, sir. What does that have to do with me?"
Teague turns to him now, eyes somehow both hard and a little pleading. "Some ones got to run this place. Some ones got to be in charge, and I'm too weak to keep doing it any longer. If I'm going to pass the job on to someone myself, I've got to do it now."
It takes Will a moment, because it's just that far from what he'd been expecting here, but then his eyes widen. "Me. You're intending for me to replace you."
Teague nods. "Aye."
"But I'm not… I don't even have a ship."
"But I think you could run one, given the chance. I intend to."
Nervous energy sends Will jolting to his feet now. He runs a hand through his hair as he leans over the fire place. "I'm a blacksmith. I'm a drunkand a blacksmith who couldn't even keep track of his own daughter."
A bit of a pause; Teague's voice is quiet. "Having some experience with children so free of spirit, I don't believe you did so bad a job. Though, from your perspective, I know you won't believe that."
Will turns back to him. "You talk as if…you've made up your mind. It's not a question."
"Oh, you could refuse." The older man replies, almost airy. "But I suspect you won't."
"You should put the idea to Jack again. He was born into all of this where I wasn't. There are – things I don't know, I'm sure, and…"
"I don't have the time." Teague insists, firmer, louder, sitting forward – and then collapsing back again as he begins coughing. "I don't have the time." He repeats when he can, sounding a touch defeated.
Will studies him a moment, turns to pace the room, rakes a hand through his hair again. And he starts to think it through. It wouldn't be the strangest thing to come about for him, certainly. Not considering who he's married to. (Is Elizabeth his wife again? That hasn't occurred to him yet. He tucks it away to think on it later.) And he's seen what all actually goes on in Shipwreck, and Teague's right. There are pirates who have families, strange as it may sound, and the women and their children here…they depend on the protection Teague provides. But if Teague's dying…
Could Will do this?
Emily. What would Emily think? She'd be angry. She always seems to find reasons to be upset with him, and this would be a good one. He spends so much time worrying over her, so much time wishing she could've ended up as anything but what she is and is still growing to be, so much time impulsively scolding her for having fun when it's the kind of things that make his stomach turn…
Teague has many jobs here, it seems, being Keeper of the Code is just the tip of the iceberg. If Will takes that job, becomes mayor of a den of thieves on top of it all… a hypocrite. That's what he already is, and will be even more so if he does this, and Emily will hate him for it.
But Teague is dying, and obviously out of options, and there are women and children… and it's a chance for Will to be something more, a chance he never though he'd get and almost certainly won't be presented with again. And he's a pirate, though he sometimes loathes himself for it, and he hears Jack in his head. Take what you can, give nothing back.
Will turns back to Teague, and makes a decision. "I suppose you've found a replacement."
Teague nods, as though he really did know this is just how it would all turn out. "Good. Now that's out of the way, I've got a library full of books, and I'm not dead yet. What you don't know, you'll learn. In the meantime, Captain," a spark of something different lights up the old captain's eyes as he begins struggling to his feet, reaching for a cane which Will hurries to grab and hand him, "what say we go see your ship?"
"Why do I feel as though this is cheating?" There's a smirk just tugging at the corner of Will's mouth. He's seated in the same parlor room in which he'd had the talk with Captain Teague earlier, situated next to the fire place with a glass of the brandy the room smells of.
"Mmm, I suppose it probably is, but I couldn't resist."
"What if it hadn't worked?"
A thoughtful pause. "You know, I'm not sure. I haven't actually been brave enough to see what would happen were I to break that rule."
"Knowing what happens when you break the rest, perhaps that's for the best."
Any amount of playfulness dissipates at this. Will grimaces at the atmosphere he'd unintentionally made somber, and downs what's left in the glass. For her part, his unexpected visitor strolls over and takes the glass away. Setting it aside, Elizabeth sits herself in Will's lap and curls into him, laying her head on his chest. He wraps his arms around her, pressing a kiss into her hair, and for a moment they just enjoy each other's presence.
"I didn't see the Sea's Queen at the docks." She says at length, a question behind the statement.
"Somethings come up…I won't be calling the Queen home anymore."
She shifts around a bit to look at him, brows furrowed a bit. "What's come up? I rather liked the idea of someone being around to keep an eye on Emily."
"Keeping an eye on her is easy enough. Trying to keep her any kind of reigned in is the impossibility." Will snorts. "I daresay she won't notice my absence much."
"Well, that doesn't answer the question. What's come up?"
A pause as he thinks about the things he's still trying to wrap his own mind around. "You've met Jack's father. Right?"
She nods. "Once, at least sort of. Things were rather – hectic, at the time. I just remember…Keeper of the Code, though I was never very sure what that meant."
"Give me a few weeks and I expect I'll be able to tell you, in detail. He's dying."
Elizabeth nods slowly, apparently not surprised. "He wasn't young when I met him and that was – by my sweet goddess. It's been at least twenty years now. What does that have to do with you, though?"
"He left for the first time in a while, as captain of his ship. I think he knew it would be the last time. But he fell ill along the way, more so than I suspect he already was. He needs someone to replace him. Someone to run Shipwreck and do it with the thought in mind that there are women and children housed here, too."
Realization dawns on Elizabeth's face. "And he's asked you."
Will nods. "Aye, just tonight. He had it planned out already. He's giving me his ship. I'm to stay here for a short while so he can begin explaining some things, and then I can take the ship out as her captain, and by the time I come back it will all be final."
Elizabeth cups his cheek, and gives him a soft smile. "I can't begin to imagine how you came to the point he would give you all of that, but it certainly sounds like something over which I should be happy for you."
He takes her hand gently and turns to plant a kiss on her palm. "I could tell you about it all. If you can stay."
She leans in a bit, glancing down at his lips. "If I could stay, I should think we could find something a bit more interesting to do with our time than simply talk."
Amusement flashes in Will's eyes, but he hesitates. "Elizabeth."
Her brows furrow just a bit. "Yes?"
"What is this? That we have now? I'm afraid to put a name to it any longer for fear I'm just being wishful."
She casts her eyes downward, for a moment looking young and almost innocent in a way that makes his heart ache. "As am I. I lov…" She trips over the word. She always trips over the word now, her eyes flashing, giving him an abrupt and frightening glimpse of that monster still pacing the depths of her mind. "But there's too many…there's just too much. There's no label for this."
He cups her cheek, lifting her face up a bit so she's looking right at him. "But you love me?"
There's a pause, and she nods slow.
"And I love you."
"Is that not enough now? Just to know that?"
A pause, a smile tugs at his lips. "How long can you stay?"
She smiles a little now, playing at the collar of his shirt. "Oh, long enough, I should think."
He lifts her slender frame easily, cradling her to him as he stands and carries her off to his room.
So, in the time that's passed since I last updated, my old computer died quite thoroughly, I found and bought a new one, realized I'd have to pay a ton extra for any kind of Word program, discovered my new computer has some kind of very basic one already equipped...and finally managed to get this chapter done.
So, I hope you enjoy. :)