Tilly felt exhausted. She didn't know why, so far it had been a normal enough day, and it wasn't even that late yet. All she'd done that morning was have her sword fighting lesson with Ed and picked at her breakfast. She'd then gone to help Pete swap the deck, but she'd had to stop after just a few minutes and have a sit down. Pete had rushed to get her a glass of water while Roach checked her out, but he'd just said he couldn't see anything wrong with her and told her to take it easy.

Pete hadn't been too pleased about the fact he now had to scrub the deck all by himself but then Lucius had shown up and soon all his annoyance had vanished; as had the two of them, presumably so Lucius could add to his favourite page in his sketch book. Which just left Tilly, sat on the floor at the side of the deck, watching on as the rest of the crew went about their jobs.

"Mind if I join you?"

Tilly looked up to see Stede standing just to the side of her, "Not at all."

Stede nodded in thanks and sat down on the deck next to her, "How are you doing?" He asked.

Tilly laughed weakly, "Not great,"

"Ah yes, Roach said you weren't feeling well. You aren't being sick though so that seems to be an improvement,"

"That's true, I guess. I just feel so tired, just standing up was becoming too much effort."

Stede nodded in understanding, "That's to be expected, I mean your body is growing a whole other person, it's bound to be tiring,"

"So, this is normal then?"

Stede smiled, "I remember when Mary was pregnant, she couldn't stay standing for more than five minutes before she needed to sit down. It was a good excuse to escape boring parties,"

"Did you want to escape parties?" Tilly asked,

"Oh of course; I couldn't stand them. They were just constant reminders of every way I was failing in life. I don't know that Mary hated them like I did but I was always thankful that her pregnancies provided the perfect excuse."

Tilly took in Stede's far way look, "Where are Mary and your children now?" She asked,

"They're in Barbados,"

"Do they not miss you?"

Stede shook his head, "No, they are quite glad to be rid of me, really. None of us were happy before I left. They're much happier now, without me, and I'm happier out here,"

"With Ed?"

Stede smiled, "With Ed," he agreed.

Tilly looked at Stede thoughtfully, "Can I ask you a question?"

"Of course,"

"What are your intentions towards Ed?"

Stede spluttered, "What‽"

Tilly hardened her gaze, "What are your intentions towards my brother?"

"I love him,"

"So? That doesn't mean anything,"

"Doesn't it?"

"Of course not, people do terrible things to the people they profess to love all the time,"

"I suppose they do," Stede conceded, "I want to make him happy. I will do anything for him. I hurt him once and I never intend to do that again."

Tilly studied Stede closely, "Okay," She finally said.

Stede beamed at Tilly, "Thank you," he said, "Your approval means a lot,"

"It does?"

"Of course it does. It's good that Ed has somebody looking out for his best interests."

Tilly smiled, "And you know what that means?"

"No, what does that mean?"

"It means that if you hurt him, I will hunt you down on his behalf; and Edward and Jim have been teaching me, so that's more of a threat than it would have been a few months ago,"

"One that I have every belief that you would carry out," Stede replied.

Tilly smiled, "I'm glad he has you," she said,

"He will always have me."

There came the sound of footsteps making their way across the deck towards Tilly and Stede. The two of them looked up to see Archie making her way over,

"Oi, you two!" Archie called, "We're going to play cards while Roach is making lunch if you want to join,"

"Oh, that sounds fun," Stede proclaimed as he got to his feet. He held out his hand to Tilly, "Are you going to join us too?"

"Can I play sitting down?" Tilly asked,

"Yeah, you don't play cards standing up," Archie replied,

"In that case, I would love to." Tilly accepted Stede's hand and let him help her to her feet.

They made their way over to where the rest of the crew was gathered around Pete, who was shuffling a deck of cards,

"What are we playing?" Stede asked,

"Poker," Izzy replied, "It's the only good game,"

"I don't know how to play poker," Tilly said,

"That's fine," Olu replied, "We'll play in pairs, then somebody can show you what to do."

Lucius groaned dramatically, "Oh, but that means somebody will be stuck with the captain,"

"Hey!" Stede cried indignantly,

"Sorry Captain, but you're terrible at poker. There's a reason when we play normally, Ed is the only person who wants to be your partner," Lucius explained,

"Why can't Ed be his partner this time too?" Wee John asked,

"Well, I was assuming he'd go with Tilly,"

"I'll go with Tilly," Archie said, "Then those two can go together and none of us have to suffer that Captain's poker."

Stede sighed, "Alright, there's no need to keep going on about how bad I am."

Tilly sat down on the deck as the rest of the crew set about organising themselves into pairs. Once they'd figured out all the teams, they joined Tilly on the floor, and they sat down in a circle as Pete dealt out the cards.

The crew hadn't been lying when they'd said Stede was bad at poker; he wore everything on his face meaning everyone could see through every bluff he tried to make. Ed didn't seem to mind though, he just smiled at Stede with soft eyes whenever Stede undid whatever play Ed had been working on.

It quickly became apparent that most of the crew weren't taking the game very seriously. The only two people getting at all competitive were Jim and Pete, but even they were getting reined in by Olu and Lucius.

After Archie had told Tilly the basics of the game, she set about pointing out everyone's tells, "Obviously Stede is easy to read," She whispered, "But that's not that interesting. Izzy's hardest to read, he just looks miserable no matter what hand he's got, but Fang gives him away," Archie nodded at the pair opposite them, "He bites his lip when he's bluffing. And while Frenchie is pretty good at hiding when he has a bad hand, but you can always see his delight when he has a good one, and if that doesn't give him away, Wee John does because he only starts paying attention when they're doing well."

Tilly looked around at all the teams, before her eyes set on Pete and Lucius, "What about them?" She asked,

"Pete always taps Lucius when they have a good hand and Lucius bites his nails when he's lying,"

"And Jim and Olu?"

"Olu is hard to read, mostly because he's just not that bothered by the game and Jim is hard to read because they're Jim. Luckily though, I know them better than anyone else. Olu starts sweating when he's lying, you have to being watching carefully to catch it, but once you see it you can't miss it,"

"And Jim?"

"Jim fiddles with their knife when they're not paying attention, but they stop when they're bluffing as they have to think about it."

Izzy shook his head, "We fold," he said.

Ed hummed in agreement, "So do we,"

"We're in," Archie said,

"So are we," Jim said,

"And us," Frenchie said.

Lucius shook his head, "We're out,"

"Somebody call it," Ed said.

The three remaining teams all flipped their cards over and Archie cheered. She pulled a slightly confused Tilly into a hug, "We won!" She cried,

"We did?"

"We did."

Tilly grinned and returned Archie's hug, while Frenchie dealt more cards.

Before too long Roach brought them out their lunch but that didn't stop the game. They were all so into it that it went on well into the night, until the crew finally admitted they needed to sleep.