Salvage

“Lizabeth, I told yeh, I’m not in need of one!” Hector protested as he looked down at the gift he’d opened, a brand new laptop in his hands. He was seated on the couch by the tree, the children and Jack all busily handing out gifts if not engaged in tearing them open themselves. Elizabeth sat by his feet, watching and laughing, a stack of presents beside her untouched, for each year she preferred to sit and watch her family, taking all her satisfaction in the joy in their faces.

“Hector,” she smiled up at him, rising to her knees and reaching for the wrapping paper he’d pulled off the laptop and handing it back to him. “You didn’t bother with reading the tag, did you?”

“Well it were yeh who handed it to me,” he grumbled, taking the paper from her and opening the gift tag, squinting at the handwriting. “From Elizabeth…To Elizabeth?” He looked at her with a set jaw and furrowed brow. “What in blazes does that mean?”

She laughed, then snatched the box from him and hugged it to herself. “It means this new one is mine,” she said. “And you may have my old one!”

Hector couldn’t help but smile at her. “Being beautiful’s never been enough for yeh, has it?” He asked, drawing her close and kissing her. “Yeh had to be clever, too!”

“Well, I am brilliant!” Elizabeth smiled back and leaned in and kissed Hector again, about to propose something to him, but Caspian’s groan soon distracted her.

“Mom!” He rolled his eyes as he pulled a large orange object from a mass of tissue paper. “Honestly, a life jacket?”

“It’s for your Nile River trip!” She turned towards her oldest son. “That’s a very long river, Cass, and a kayak is very small boat!”

“So you got me the world’s biggest life jacket?” He complained, holding the item up, a big, thick, inflexible, bright orange piece of foam in the shape of a square missing a side, and two long white strips with adjustable buckles that fastened it over the chest.

“You mean the world’s dorkiest life jacket!” Brendan laughed. “You look like Sponge Head Caspian Pants!”

“Shut up, Brendan!” Caspian barked, taking a swing at him with the enormous life jacket.

“Cass! Enough!” Growled Hector, and that he’d said anything in some sort of defense of Brendan made everyone take notice, all eyes turning his way, except for Elizabeth, whom Hector leaned over to. “Seriously though, Lizabeth, what were yeh thinking giving him that?”

Elizabeth’s hands went to her hips. “I was thinking that I’m his mother, and I will not be made to apologize for worrying about him!” She said firmly, her eyes traveling from Hector over to Caspian. “Do you know what kinds of things are in and along that river? Eighteen foot crocodiles, aggressive hippos, even bull sharks in certain places, a host of hostile locals along its banks, and venomous snakes and scorpions! And, there has never been a successful expedition down the Nile, not ever!”

“And so yeh give him a day glow orange life vest, so he can either bob there on the surface like a piece of bait for the crocodiles, hippos and sharks, or be easily spotted from the shore by the hostile locals?” Asked Hector and Caspian quickly nodded his head in perplexed agreement. “Cass doesn’t need that bloody damned thing anymore than Brendan needs it on The Bering Sea. They’re both courageous and adept men, Elizabeth. Wouldn’t have rafted the Amazon with Cass, or be heading out to the crab grounds with Brendan if they weren’t!”

Brendan smiled, felt a warmth and pride expand in his heart that he realized he’d always wanted to feel there, but he knew better than to ruin the moment with any sort of “thanks, dad.” He just smiled, and enjoyed the sensation.

Elizabeth sighed, balling up her fists. “I just wanted to make sure…” she looked over to Caspian but then thought saying anymore could embarrass him. “Just be careful, Cass! Please!”

“Mom,” Cass whined a bit. “I will be; you know I will be! I always am, haven’t not come home, yet, have I?”

“I know,” she huffed and shook her head. “It’s just not easy telling myself you’re going to be okay.” She looked now to all of her family and Jack, “I worry about all of you, because I love you!”

For a brief moment the timing of her words and the sentiment behind them melted over the family on Christmas morning, until they began to cause a few warped smiles, Brendan finally summing it all up for everyone. “And God bless us, every one!” Hector laughed first, and then so did everyone else, except for Elizabeth who narrowed her eyes and sighed again…smart ass husband and children…but a few seconds later was laughing herself.

“Oh Jack!” Quinsy suddenly exclaimed, her voice high and a bit breathy.

“Great, now what are you doing…or not doing?” Groaned Brendan, smirking at his sister and her fiancé and earning a roll of eyes from both of them.

“See?” Jack smiled at Quinn. “I told you to keep opening them!” He laughed, having given her a large box to open a good ten minutes ago, for within that box was another smaller box, and within that box another smaller box…and so on and so on until Quinn threatened to get back to it later.

“What is it, Quinn?” Elizabeth asked, up on her knees again and trying to see what her daughter held.

Quinsy raised a small black velvet box, tilting it forward enough for all to see the white gold ring, with a single black pearl in the center and two smaller diamonds on either side. “My engagement ring!” She sniffled, then threw her arms around Jack and kissed him.

“We kinda skipped that step,” Jack smiled, but didn’t pull too far away from Quinsy, leaning in and kissing her again.

Elizabeth sat back again smiling at the couple, placing her hand on her husband’s and sharing a warm smile with him, then moved by the moment, leaning in for a kiss themselves. “Hmm,” she smiled up at Hector. “We skipped that step too!” She laughed and drummed the fingers of her left hand on the arm of the couch.

Hector cast her a sideways glance and shook his head, quickly looking over to his daughter and future son-in-law instead. “So are yeh going to put it on her finger, or not?”

Jack glanced over at Hector and smiled, more than happy to do just that, and happier still that Hector had requested he do so. He took the ring from the case, then took Quinsy’s left hand, “I asked you this once and you said yes, so I hope you say so again, particularly with everyone watching this time.”

“Knee, Jack!” Reminded Hector, watching intently, but smiling, though he tried not to make it obvious.

“Oh, skipped that step last time too!” Realized Jack as he positioned himself appropriately and took Quinsy’s trembling hand. “So, for the second time, in front of our whole family, will you have me forever? Will you marry me?” He asked as he slid the ring onto her finger, not quite getting it all the way on before Quinsy sank against him and threw her arms around him, a smiling, giggling, tearful mess.

“Yes, Jack! I will! Forever!” She swore, and held him as tightly as she could.

Hector and Elizabeth, and even Brendan sighed, but Caspian sat with his ridiculous life jacket shaking his head. “Better you than me.” He sighed. “But, congratulations, Quinn and Jack!”

“Yeah,” said Brendan, his hand suddenly reaching for the cell phone in his pocket, ready to dial Lonna’s number, but no, now wasn’t the time…they weren’t THERE yet…right? “Congratulations!”

“We didn’t skip that step!” Hector pointed to Jack who was still down on one knee, but then kissed Elizabeth again; she only laughed. “So, let’s see it, Quinn! Come over here!”

Jack smiled at Quinn and nodded for her to get to her feet and go to her father, who had unfolded his glasses and put them on. She smiled back and Jack and made her way through crumpled wrapping paper and boxes on wobbly legs, finally stopping in front of both her parents, holding her left hand out, fingers splayed, proudly showing off her ring. Elizabeth gazed at the jewels and gasped, thinking how made for such a ring her daughter’s fingers were, but Hector took hold of Quinsy’s hand and pulled it closer, scrutinizing the pearl and two diamonds. “Very nice,” he finally said after a few seconds of intense attention, giving Jack a nod. He let her hand go and Quinn smiled at him, now joined by Jack who came up behind her and put his arms around her, kissing her again. “Quinn,” Hector purposefully interrupted, removing his glasses and lightly biting the earpiece. “Yeh’ll keep all yer names, though.”

“Daddy!” She laughed. “You’d have me write my name Quinsy Elizabeth Swann Treasure Barbossa-Sparrow?”

“Aye, I would,” he said seriously, but then smirked at her. “If that be too long, leave off ‘Sparrow.’”

Jack smiled, and Quinsy did as well, sinking down to her knees in front of her father now. “You’re a cantankerous old beast, you know that?” She smiled at him, feeling a sudden catch in her voice as her eyes met her father’s. “But, you’ll always be the first man I ever loved, and I always will!” She threw her arms around him and hugged him, feeling tears in her eyes.

“Aye, girl,” Hector moaned, hugging her back and his eyes closing. “I know.”

Elizabeth watched the two of them wiping at tears before they spilled from here own eyes, so happy that Hector had been able to accept this and be happy about it himself. And what was that trailing down from the corner of his eye? A tear? Oh, her poor man, but wonderful man! He’d been through so much this Christmas, shark attack, surprise hurricane at The Pearl’s wrecksite, Quinsy’s engagement to Jack and finding an end to the feud between himself and his second born. No wonder there was that little tear sliding down from his eye to his beard. Oh, but he would just hate for anyone to see that, would be aghast should someone see it! She should create a distraction, something to give him the chance to remove that little tear and all evidence of it. And she’d meant to bring this up before, anyway!

“So, I was thinking that next Christmas maybe we could gather at Cape Cod?” Elizabeth looked at her sons when she said so, but soon had everyone’s attention, Quinsy having eased out of her father’s embrace, and Hector as she knew he would, deftly erased the tear under the pretext of having a sudden itch. Elizabeth smiled.

“Cape Cod?” Repeated Brendan, the idea having so much appeal, for Cape Cod was much closer to New York than was Nassau! Maybe Lonna could join the family next year? “Yeah, let’s do it!”

“Cape Cod?” Questioned Hector, thankful for a less emotional subject.

“Hey, we could go skiing!” Said Caspian excitedly.

“Hmmm,” Brendan tapped his finger to his bearded chin. “Dad on skis?” He suppressed the laugh. “Would be nice to see some snow at Christmas, though!” And some of Lonna too!

“My thoughts exactly!” Smiled Elizabeth, looking to Hector.

“Skiing?” Hector repeated with a wrinkled nose. “Ridiculous past time.”

“Daddy, you only say so because you don’t know how to do it!” Laughed Quinsy, leaning back into Jack’s embrace again.

“Neither does yer mother.” He replied, somewhat amused as he looked over at Elizabeth.

“I’m willing to learn though!” She smiled at him. “What have you against Cape Cod?”

“Quinn and I went skiing once…” Said Jack, holding her to him but his face wasn’t quite content as he recalled his experience. “Fell down a lot for no reason…would just be standing there, and all of a sudden, bang, on the ground…”

Quinsy laughed. “And you skied down the slope backwards most of the time!”

“Didn’t know I was going to when that would happen…was a surprise,” said Jack.

“It was a surprise to that snowboarder and the Brownie troop you took out as well.” Quinsy laughed, kissing him again as she snickered.

“There, you see?” Elizabeth laughed to Hector. “You’d enjoy watching Jack on skis! Come on, Cape Cod next year?”

“Elizabeth,” Hector sighed, still not liking the idea of skis, but there was something else on his mind he liked even less than skiing. “If we go to Cape Cod in December, it will be cold, and if it’s cold, yeh’ll refuse to take yer clothes off!”

“Well, I may not be gardening outside naked, Hector, but I certainly won’t cut you off just because it’s a bit nippy!”

“Oh?” He replied cocking his head. “Do yeh recall last year when we raised that old whaler off the coast of Greenland for the Halifax Maritime Museum?”

Elizabeth shook her head. “Hector! You had me welding in the twenty-six degree ocean for nearly six hours a day, and my dry suit was two sizes too big to keep me as warm as it should have, that’s hardly fair to bring up!”

“The rig we slept on was sixty-eight degrees at night, sleeping bags rated to minus thirty, I’m ninety-eight point six, how much bloody warmer did yeh want it to be?” Hector bellowed, but when he finished, looked up to see the somewhat ashen faces and discomfited stares of his children fixed on him and his wife. “Don’t look at me like that! How the bloody hell do yeh think yeh all got here?”

“Not how I got here,” remarked Jack, looking at Quinn, Caspian and Brendan. “At least, not by the embarrassing interactions of those two.”

“Hector,” Elizabeth took him by the beard and turned his face towards hers, smirking a bit at how silent the children were and why. “If I promise to take my clothes off, then Cape Cod next year?”

Hector rolled his eyes but his only response was a groan.

“Fine, we’ll vote on it!” Said Caspian, “And I vote for Cape Cod!”

“Me too!” Followed Brendan. “And maybe we’ll need an extra pair of skis…”

Quinsy and Jack grinned, looking over at Brendan. “Something we should know, Bren?” His sister winked.

“Oh, don’t even…” sighed Brendan, but before he could say anything further, his mother spoke.

“Hold on! Everyone quiet a moment!” Interjected Elizabeth. “Voting is nice and all that, but what is the first rule in this family?”

All her children and Jack sighed in unison. “Mom is king.”

“That’s correct, yes!” Elizabeth smiled, “And as king, I decree we’re spending Christmas in Cape Cod next year!” There was a chorus of favorable and excited shouts, but she ignored them, leaning close to Hector who still looked skeptically at her. “And next Christmas, you may just find yourself living up to the opinions of those who assume that to keep me satisfied, you take a little blue pill!” She purred, threading her arms around his neck and then kissing him, knowing that she finally had his vote when his tongue met hers and he pulled her into his lap, a bit too tightly as was appropriate for the family to be around.

“Whoa!” Brendan suddenly held up his cell phone, had been about to send Lonna a text message about next Christmas when the weather alert symbol drew his attention. “Dad! The hurricane, it actually fell apart over the water, no winds, no waves!” He smiled. “The Pearl, dad! She’s fine!”

Hector and Elizabeth pulled apart quickly, hopeful, but stunned. “Let me see that, Bren!” Hector held out his hand for Brendan to toss him the phone, Jack coming around to Hector’s side to also take a look.

“If that’s so, we really dodged a bullet!” Said Caspian, tense with optimism as Brendan threw his phone into his father’s waiting hand.

Hector caught the still open cell phone and peered down at the tiny screen, Elizabeth and Jack crowding in, but all of them reading the same words: “HURRICANE LOSES STRENGTH. DOWNGRADED TO MINOR TROPICAL DEPRESSION. ALL WARNINGS CANCELLED.”

Jack gasped but beamed. “Talk about Christmas presents!”

Hector still held the phone, reading the words one more time. “By the powers!”

Elizabeth smiled, brushing her fingers through her husband’s beard, then looking up at her family, at Caspian, who was everything his father had always wanted in a son, to Quinsy and Jack, who were both as happy and meant for one another as any parents could hope their daughter and her fiancé to be, and finally at Brendan, the son that Hector had finally found peace with. Finally, she felt like all was right, that the goddess was pleased. Again she looked down at Hector and sighed happily as he still stared at the words on the phone. “Yes,” she said warmly, stroking her fingers over his hair. “And I think we know which ones!”