Adrift

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Okay, I've kept you waiting long enough. :) Here is the next chapter. Thank you Elena and Faeritales for your reviews...they really do keep me going! I've only just begun Chapter 16, so it might be a week before you see another. In the meantime, submitted for what I hope will be your enjoyment and to indulge my own fantasy life.

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“Damn to the deepest, darkest abyss them as built the Panama Canal,” Hector muttered furiously beneath his breath. “Knew from the beginnin’ that one continent b’tween us weren’t near enough.”

Even limping, his anger fuelled him along fast enough that Beth nearly had to run in order to keep up as he stormed down the pier. They were returning from Hector’s scathing castigation of his crew and she could almost see thunderclouds following them as he strode indomitably back to his ship.

That the Blackhearts on watch had not spotted an intruder in the face of constant threat to her and the rest of them, Hector had deemed indefensible. That the interloper was named Jack Sparrow – and that some among the crew had looked cheered at the fact that he’d joined them on Wisteria – ensured that the rebuke was peppered with deafening threats of the harshest and most painful of consequences. Even Beth, who’d not been on the receiving end, felt her face go ashen at the invective Hector had unleashed upon his men.

She would have preferred to avoid the scene altogether, but Hector had been more than adamant that she not remain alone on the Corazón so long as Jack was in residence. Given the dramatic downward spiral of his mood, Beth had known better than to put forth much of an argument.

As they boarded, Hector stopped short and she ran into him from behind. She looked questioningly up at him and saw that his face was creased with disgust as he glared down the deck. She followed his gaze and saw their new arrival stretched out on a lounge chair, his shirt off and his legs stretched out wide as he dozed in the sun. A half empty bottle of wine was resting close to where one arm hung down, and his boots were dangling from where they’d been tied together and tossed over the boom.

Even with his cupids-bow mouth slack with sleep, Beth had to admit that Jack was attractive, possessed of an almost feminine beauty that contrasted starkly with Hector’s more rugged looks. Jack’s chest was well defined and smooth, and his skin marked here and there with bluish tattoos. Firm, corded muscles were visible on his arms, and his legs looked to be long and lithe beneath his tight jeans. Combined with the bright smile and suave British accent he’d displayed earlier, she was sure that he was a man who didn’t lack for female attention.

For a while, Beth wondered if she hadn’t already met Jack Sparrow somewhere. The way he carried himself, the flamboyant gestures he used when he spoke...it all seemed somewhat familiar. She couldn’t pin down a specific instance where she might have had occasion to come face to face with such a man – maybe he’d been one of Will’s witnesses or defendants in court. He had a very unmistakable presence, though, and she was convinced that she definitely would have remembered him.

Perhaps it was just the type of man she recognized more than the person himself...the handsome and smooth-talking Lothario who did well with the ladies and seemed to rub other men the wrong way.

As nice as he was to look at, his presence had created all kinds of havoc. Far from appearing concerned over it, though, Jack seemed to enjoy the reactions he elicited. Being unwelcome clearly hadn’t kept him from making himself comfortable; in fact, she would have bet that his manifestation on deck was carefully staged to push Hector’s buttons.

The guy was ballsy; she had to give him that. She was glad that she had convinced Hector to return his vintage cutlass to its storage place before they’d left, otherwise the irrepressible Mr. Sparrow might have found himself carved into little tiny pieces and tossed over the side as chum.

Beth gently took Hector’s forearm, feeling his muscles tighten with tension as he flexed his hands into fists. The day had not been a good one for him and the steam he’d let off on his men didn’t seem to have relieved any of the pressure. A pleasant diversion might get him back on a more even keel, at least enough that they could deal more effectively with the new situation in which they found themselves.

“Come with me,” she said quietly, determined not to attract Jack’s attention and risk another needling confrontation. Hector’s scowl deepened as he continued to glower at the snoozing man. She was sure there was a story to go along with Jack’s dramatic effect on Hector but she didn’t think the time was right to ask for details. She pulled on him and he finally submitted, silently following her down below decks and to the rooms she’d been using since he’d been hurt.

Even after she’d locked the door behind them and pulled the curtains, Hector stood stiffly in the middle of the room, his thoughts elsewhere. She had to stand before him for a fair chunk of time before he seemed to realize that she was waiting for him to notice.

“Promise me that ye’ll not listen to whate’er spews from the lips of that greasy fop,” Hector growled. “Ye might think him pretty, but he’s not to be trusted.”

“I promise,” Beth replied solemnly, smoothing her hands over his shoulders and arms before taking his hands in hers and squeezing reassuringly. His eyes were like two chips of cold ice and she was determined to see a thaw before she was done.

He became lost in his thoughts again, his stormy thousand mile stare looking straight through her and to some infuriating past. “Had I seen him on his way o’er, I’d have blown his raft from the water and let the gulls have at his weasely carcass. Thinks he can come in ‘ere and lay claim to that which he don’t deserve...”

She walked around behind him and pulled out the band that held his hair in a loose ponytail. “I understand,” she murmured as she combed her hands through the long, soft strands, letting them slip through her fingers and down over his shoulders. So few men had such beautifully long hair – she wasn’t sure she’d ever get tired of the novelty of it. Beth had always loved having her hair touched and brushed, and she wondered fleetingly if Hector enjoyed it as well. Well enough, perhaps, as he wasn’t batting her hands away.

“Figures he need do nothin’ more than flash them pearly whites and he’s won the day,” Hector went on, though with slightly less malice than that with which he’d begun his tirade. Beth let her hands roam over his back and settle at his waist as she strolled slowly around to face him once more.

“All style and no substance?” she asked distractedly as she pulled his t-shirt from beneath the waistband of his jeans and slid her hands under so she could caress the solid muscles beneath. It had been only three days but it felt like much longer – it was so good to feel his skin again. His heart drummed its beat where her fingers rested and she wanted to be able to kiss his firm, warm flesh. All of it.

“Aye! That be it exactly!” he exclaimed, looking at her as if finally understanding that she was there, too.

Her words seemed to have satisfied him and she realized that he’d been worried that their guest had already turned her head...and perhaps her affections. It was reasonable to assume that there must be old and unfinished business between the two of them, something that had roused Hector’s suspicion and jealousy. She was determined to make sure he knew he had nothing to worry about with her.

“He likes to get you worked up, though...” she said offhandedly and his mouth tightened again. He didn’t even notice that her hands had dropped or that she’d tugged open his heavy belt and had started to undo the buttons on his fly. It was all she could do to contain her devious smile.

“He’s always had a knack fer such, that be true,” he acknowledged grimly, backing up as Beth placed both hands against his chest and walked him in reverse towards the bed. When his calves hit the edge of the mattress, he sat without truly realizing what he was doing and she knelt in front of him.

“You’d be better off ignoring him, don’t you think?” she queried, unbuckling his heavy boots and pulling them off. “He only challenges you because he’s threatened by you. Don’t respond and his game is undone.”

“Like tryin’ to ignore flies buzzin’ round yer head,” he grunted. “Unrelentin’, whinin’, scrawny, back-bitin’ blackflies.” Hector reclined back onto the blankets as she pushed down on his shoulders. Gently she climbed onto his lap to straddle him, careful not to jar his injured thigh as she did so.

Beth leaned over top of him, her hair falling in curtains around his face. He narrowed his eyes at her, but did not resist as she bent lower and kissed him softly. Tracing a leisurely path over his lips with her tongue brought forth a longing noise from deep in his throat that matched one of her own.

“What are ye doin’?” he grumbled, reaching up to take her face in his hands and caress her cheeks with the pads of his thumbs. He tried to look stern, but the glacial glare had begun to melt under her warm gaze.

“I’m doing this,” she said, bending to bestow delicate, lingering kisses on the fine lines beside each of his eyes and then those at the corners of his mouth. She smoothed the hair away from his temples and kissed him there too, so lightly that it tickled her lips but put a hitch in his breath.

“And this,” Beth went on, snuggling her face into the crook of his neck and kissing him there, his skin warm on her lips as her hand trailed down to slide beneath the band of his underwear. She drew a strangled gasp from him as she fondled the hot and growing stiffness between his legs, and smiled to herself.

She yearned to give him what he needed and although it was sure to relieve some of the stress that had been mounting, Beth wanted it to be about more than that. He had to understand how much she wanted him…how she craved the intimacy it would create between them.

He writhed in her grasp, twitching up against her. “God, girl, but I’ve missed yer touch.”

Hector clasped his hand hard over top of hers and she could feel the pulse in his cock as it throbbed against her palm, a sensation that sent a shivery tremor of arousal through her body.

“And I’ve missed touching you. But right now I want to see you…taste you,” she murmured, pushing up his t-shirt so she could lay open mouth kisses and tender nips across the broad expanse of his chest. He responded with a low groan and curled his thumbs beneath the waistbands of his jeans and underwear both, shoving them down past his hips.

She ran her palm slowly up the underside of his erection and he flexed his hips upwards to meet her firm caress, a sharp exhalation of pleasure escaping his lips. Beth stared down into his eyes, watching his face contort in ecstasy as she stroked the velvety head of his cock. The sight of him laid bare before her, rigid and heavy, took her breath away.

“I love having you this way,” she whispered huskily, sliding her hand back down the long curve of his shaft. “So ready, so hard…you’re beautiful like this.” Beth moved further back and bent to kiss the smooth, broad tip of his member, licking away the silvery drop that had welled up there. His cock dipped towards his midriff as she did so and she took him more firmly into her hand, tracing a slow path around the flared ridge before sliding her lips over top of the dusky-hued head to envelop it completely.

He sucked in air through clenched teeth and rolled his hips, his legs trembling with restraint as she savoured the taste of his need. Beth tenderly explored the hot, swollen flesh with her tongue, lapping and swirling as he raked his fingers through her hair and bunched it tightly into his fist. She opened her lips wide and took him in as deeply as she dared, wishing she could give him more but knowing he was simply too big for either of them to find gratification in that way.

Instead, she sheathed him with her hands as well, working them down and then back up over his foreskin, revelling in the feel of his throbbing firmness beneath her fingers and on her tongue. His breath echoed harshly through the cabin as she stroked him more quickly and as he began to thrust instinctively upwards, she felt a surge of excitement at having brought him so swiftly to bliss.

At the very moment she was sure he wouldn’t be able to hold back any longer, he let go of her hair and instead grabbed her by the shoulders, pushing her back with unsteady hands and forcing her to unwillingly abandon her labour of lust. She stared down at him, panting and bewildered. “What’s wrong?”

“Ye must stop,” Hector gasped hoarsely, his eyes dark and clouded with rapture. “If’n ye don’t, I’ll not be able to stem the tide and ye’ll be left wantin’.”

Her face flushed hot and she was moved that in the midst of the act, he’d want to share the pleasure with her. It was tempting, but not this time. “No,” Beth said, leaning over to kiss him deeply while dropping her hand to again take hold of as much of his exquisitely engorged manhood as she could, “this is what I want. Let me do this, please.”

He let out a shuddering breath and squeezed his eyes closed as he released his grasp on her. Beth chose to take that as his acceptance and after licking her lips in carnal hunger, she captured his cockhead in her mouth again and skimmed her tongue lightly across the weeping slit as she stroked him fervently. Hector cried out and grabbed the crumpled bedding on either side of him, digging in and pulling so hard that he tore holes in the sheets. His responsiveness fed her hunger further and she whimpered as a rush of arousal washed through her, making her hot and slick.

The delicious groans breaking from his lips grew louder and as Beth’s own need intensified, she couldn’t help but reach between her legs to touch herself through her shorts. Her purrs of pleasure came out muffled and in giving voice to her longing, the vibrations from her throat spurred him on anew. He twisted beneath her on the bed, his back arching and the muscles of his thighs shaking as she passionately strove to drive all thoughts from his troubled mind.

His foreskin was contracting beneath her tongue, signalling his impending climax. Beth drew back and licked languid circles around his pulsing, glistening tip, teasing and tantalizing him even further. “Don’t hold back,” she moaned deeply between long, wet strokes. “Give yourself to me…”

With a savage roar he thrust his hands into her hair again and jolted up roughly, bucking once and then once more. She gripped him in her hand as tightly as she dared and closed her lips snugly around him, milking him with her tongue as he poured forth his essence into her warm and welcoming mouth.

As he collapsed back against the mattress and tried to catch his breath, Beth drew back and kissed his gradually abating erection, feeling the last spasms of his orgasm quivering against her lips. She slid off of his lap and curled up at his side, resting her head against his chest as he cradled her against him. A pulsing ache at the crux of her thighs spoke of her own unfulfilled physical desire, but she decided that it was a fair exchange for leaving Hector so relaxed and sated.

His heart beat strongly where her cheek pressed to his ribs and she buried her face in the rumpled t-shirt that was still hitched up under his arms, revelling in the smell and the warmth of the man. What had she been thinking, not sharing a bed with him for three days? Being so close to him now made her feel that absence even more keenly.

“Put a new shine on the day, ye have,” he sighed contentedly, hugging her more tightly to his side as he finally found breath enough to speak. “But that t’was yer intent, be I right?”

“I’m sure I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she protested indignantly, although she was sure he could hear the smile in her voice. Beth let her hand trail over the tiny line of southbound hairs on his abdomen. “Perhaps there was some small benefit for you, but all I did was realise my own selfish fantasy.”

A chuckle resonated deeply in his chest. “And pleased I be to indulge ye in such pursuits. Ain’t nothin’ if not accommodatin’.”

Beth snorted in exasperation but giggled nonetheless. “Always so considerate.”

“Aye,” he said boastfully. “‘Tis a lucky woman as takes such a man to be her lover.”

Hector turned his head to soundly kiss her forehead and disentangled himself from her embrace. Beth rolled onto her side and tucked her hand beneath her head as she watched him get to his feet. She sighed appreciatively at she caught a brief flash of his wonderfully tight behind before he yanked his pants back up once more, and he turned to look back over his shoulder at her, his eyebrow arched.

“Not to question yer sincerity, lass, but be ye sure yer not in need of...servicin’? Leavin’ a lady unsatisfied, t’would hardly be the gentlemanly thin’ to do.”

She gave him a sultry smile. “I was just enjoying the view, my Captain. But I’ll take you up on that offer a bit later, be sure of that. Besides, we don’t want to stay below board for too long; we have company and it wouldn’t do to be rude. Jack...”

He frowned as he pulled his t-shirt down. “Bad enough that he’s on me ship. I’ll not hear his name spoken in the sanctity of me cabin.” He turned away from her, falling silent. Beth was afraid that he’d withdrawn into himself when he spoke again, his voice subdued.

“He’s come here lookin’ fer somethin’, ‘Lizabeth. And now that he’s seen ye...there’s no doubtin’ that he’s already got designs on ye, flirtin’ with ye and flauntin’ hisself as he has. If he figures out what ye mean to me, he’ll not leave off ‘til he’s either torn ye from me or taken ye for hisself.”

Beth scooted to the edge of the bed and stood, wrapping her arms around Hector from behind and laying her head against his back. “Even if what you say about his motives are true, do you really think I’d let that happen? I’m where I want to be... I’m with the man who holds my heart. Nothing he says or does can change that, I promise.”

He covered her hands with his, squeezing gently. “And what if he tells ye tales that convince ye I’m not the man ye thought?”

She made a frustrated sound and grabbed his arm, making him turn around to face her. “I might not know everything about you, Hector but I’m pretty sure I know exactly what kind of man you are. And if I made you doubt my feelings for you over the last three days...well, shame on me for being so self-involved that I couldn’t see that. You don’t have to trust him but I am asking you to trust me.”

He folded her into his arms and held her tightly. “Ye’ve me trust and more, lass. Fergive the disjointed ramblins’ of a fool.”

She pulled back and smiled up at him, reaching up to cradle his cheek in her hand. “Ah, but you’re my fool.” She grew serious again. “Remember what I’ve told you and be patient. I’ve dealt with opportunists before. We’ll figure out his game and make sure he gets nothing except that which we’re willing to give him.”

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When Hector and Beth came up the stairs, they emerged to see Jack barefoot, jumping up and down on the deck, his hand buried in the front pocket of his very tight jeans.

“What the hell is he doing?” Beth whispered.

Hector rolled his eyes. “With Sparrow, there’s just no tellin’. Perhaps ‘tis an attempt to relieve himself of some manner of Cupid’s itch.”

They watched him dance around a few seconds longer as though his pants were on fire, wiggling his hips and fishing around in his pocket with long, thin fingers. It wasn’t until she heard a very faint, tinny song floating through the air that Beth realized what he was up to. “His cell phone is ringing but it’s stuck,” she murmured, her hand coming up to conceal her grin.

Finally Jack managed to pry it loose, a triumphant smile on his lips as he flicked it open and answered, “Sparrow.”

She was going to take a step out onto the deck but Hector grabbed her by her arm, shaking his head and placing a finger over his lips. Beth moved back beside him, looking towards Jack to make sure he was still unaware of their arrival.

“Jus’ got here, didn’t I?” Jack said. “Haven’t exactly found an opportunity to sit down and chat. You need to practice a bit of patience, mate. All that stress, s’not good fer yer digestion.”

Hector’s lips thinned in anger and Beth took his hand, squeezing to remind him to hold his temper. Clearly Jack hadn’t just dropped by for old time’s sake, but there was no use letting him know that they were privy to his conversation.

“That’s Captain Sparrow, actually…” Jack responded peevishly to the person on the other end. “And you’d best remember that you’ve no hope of retrievin’ yer precious portal without me. It’s you as needs said object, not I. I for one am perfectly content to continue on in the here and now, savvy?”

Even from a distance, Beth could hear the explosive rampage on the other end and Jack held the phone away from his ear, wincing at whatever nastiness was being directed at him.

“Sorry, mate...you’re breaking up. Bad signal and all that...”

Jack snapped the cover of the phone shut and had started to jam it back into his pocket when he seemed to think better of it and dropped it into one of his boots instead. He slumped back on the deck chair, grabbed up the bottle once more and slugged back another mouthful of stolen wine.

Hector bent to mutter in her ear. “Lizabeth, ye must follow me lead here. Yer not to say anythin’ about the call, understand? He’s playin’ each side against the other and until we know who it was as called him just now, we need to keep things close to the vest.”

Beth nodded. It was obvious that Jack was tied to whatever was going on, but what he meant when he talked about a portal just puzzled her. Unless he meant that finding the wreck site was a portal to some kind of undiscovered treasure? Perhaps they needed to take a closer look at the area surrounding the old ship.

“Jaaaaack,” Hector’s voice rumbled as he swaggered across the deck slowly towards the other man. “Good to see ye’ve made yerself at home. Be there anythin’ else we can do fer ye? A light repast, perhaps? A pillow fer yer delicate head? Or maybe ye’d like to take a bit of a swim with one of me anchors tied to yer leg?”

“Hector! Elizabeth!” Jack greeted them with a wide grin, holding up the bottle in salute. “Damned gracious of you, really, but I’d hate to be a burden. Tell you what...hand over ownership of this very pretty boat of yours and I’ll be on my way.”

Hector sneered. “And what, pray tell, became of the last ship I bestowed upon ye? When I laid eyes on ye them twelve glorious, all-too-short years ago, ye had just set sail fer California in a perfectly fine schooner. Where be that ship, Jack? Hmmm?”

“That weren’t much more than a toy, really,” Jack scoffed. “Man could hardly call himself ‘Captain’ bobbing about in such a craft. Might as well have come with short pants and a little sailor’s cap. Truly, it was more of an insult than a gift if you think about it.”

Beth couldn’t help a small smile as the image Jack described materialized in mind’s eye but she quickly subdued herself with a sharp glance from Hector, who’d crossed his arms over his chest in annoyance. “Must have missed yer response, there,” Hector continued, squinting suspiciously at him. “Where be the schooner?”

Jack smiled sheepishly up at them. “Well, it would seem that there were certain parties in the Golden State under the distinct impression that I owed them money and it was their feeling that I might be more inclined to repay that debt if they set fire to my boat. With me in it.”

Hector sighed heavily. “Strange, ain’t it, how often folks seem to have that reaction once they’ve had occasion to become better acquainted with ye? Not the first time as someone’s attempted to barbeque ye.”

Jack sniffed. “That’s a moot point and balderdash besides. All that matters is that we have a standing arrangement that sees you keeping me afloat, and in a ship as meets my very high standards. Are you going to honour that accord or do we have to bring in our intermediary? I’m guessing she would be less than pleased at being summoned for such a trifling matter, don’t you?”

Hector took a threatening step towards him. “Assumin’, ye are, that she’d be bothered to answer ye at all. She ain't so inclined to be puttin’ in an appearance nowadays, and would be even less so if she knew that ye continue to prove yerself a buffoon. As I hear tell, I ain’t the first to inform ye that ‘tis a poor captain as cannot keep hold of his own ship.”

“She?” Beth asked. “Who are you talking about?”

Neither of them gave any sign of having heard her question and Jack had risen to his feet, thrusting out his chest huffily and pointing a wavering finger towards Hector’s face. “Well, then that must make you an equally poor captain, seeing as how you purloined the Pearl only to scuttle her in the Gulf!”

“And fer how long, boy, did I sail her and sail her well?” Hector bellowed, his eyes getting wider with anger. “Can count on one hand – and still not use all me fingers – the number of years ye stood at the helm and called yerself ‘Captain’ of the Pearl. Ne’er did ye deserve to command a ship so fine, and certainly wasn’t ye as made her the power she was in the Caribbean!”

Jack sputtered, turning away for a moment before he whipped off his sunglasses and rounded again, his eyes so dark and filled with rage they looked almost black. “You still owe me a ship an’ this is the one I want!”

“Ye’ll take her o’er me dead body, ye fawnin’, pestilent goat seducer!”

Jack gave a cruel smile and jabbed Hector in the centre of his chest. “Wouldn’t be the first time I’ve stepped over your stinking corpse to take what I wanted, Barbossa. You weren’t ever a match for me, dead or alive. Or in between, as the case may be.”

“Stop it!” Beth screamed, and the two of them looked at her as if they’d forgotten her very presence. She could have sworn she saw a spark of fear in Hector’s eyes as he turned to her, but Jack’s expression was one of malevolent glee. “You’re acting like asses, both of you,” she went on. “I don’t know what it is between you...”

Jack laughed and his gold teeth glinted in the late afternoon rays. “Ah. Elizabeth…and yet not quite Elizabeth, are you? Not as I knew her, anyway. You don’t remember any of it, do you, my charming murderess?” He sauntered towards her, his hips swaying and his hands waving loosely.

“Shut yer yap, Sparrow!” growled Hector, grabbing Beth by the wrist and pulling her until she was slightly behind him and well out of Jack’s reach.

“Murderess?” she gasped, trying to get out from behind Hector’s back so she could confront her accuser. “Where do you get off saying something like that? I’ve never hurt anyone in my life!”

Jack leaned towards her and winked. “Perhaps not in this one, luv...perhaps not yet. I’ll not be giving you another opportunity, if that’s what you’re thinking. Kill me once, shame on you. Kill me twice...well, I’d be a fool to let you close enough to try again, wouldn’t I?”

“Enough!” barked Hector, and he advanced on Jack with his fists clenched. Jack’s eyes widened in alarm and he scrambled in a circle until he was on the other side of the heavy chair.

“That’s close as you need get, Hector,” he warned, dodging back and forth to keep a safe distance between them. “Perhaps you an’ I need have a private an’ more in-depth discussion about what you do and what you don’t owe me. Either that or Lizzie ‘n I can find a nice quiet corner and have ourselves a chat instead. I’ve loads to tell her, savvy?”

Beth watched as Hector’s grip on the chair tightened to the point that his knuckles were pale. “Fine,” he rasped between gritted teeth, his shoulders slumping in surrender.

“No! Not fine!” Beth cried out, grabbing hold of his arm. “Hector, you said you trust me...whatever he’s holding over your head, you’re the one giving him that power. I already told you that there’s nothing he could say that would change my feelings. Let me hear what he thinks he knows and then he won’t be able to lord it over us.”

Hector looked at her and the pain on his face took her aback. “Can’t let that happen, girl. This business be between me ‘n Jack. Ye’ve no part in it.”

She let her hand drop and took a step back from him, something inside her constricting with hurt. “Excuse me?”

“There be matters we need to discuss that I can’t be sharin’ with ye…not yet.”

Beth felt a slow boil starting in her gut. “You’d shut me out now, after everything we’ve gone through? You’ve asked me to take a hell of a lot on faith and I have tried to do exactly that, but you won’t show any faith in me? Well, that certainly speaks with a volume all its own, wouldn’t you say?”

Hector sighed sadly. “Ye don’t understand, my love...”

“Oh no! Don’t you dare!” she growled, her hands fisted at her side. “Don’t you dare call me that, and then think you can go and push me aside anyway!”

He reached out towards her but she angrily shoved his hand away. “Ye must listen to me, ‘Lizabeth,” Hector said, a hint of desperation in his rough voice. “There’d be no understandin’ fer ye, not even if I was willin’ to let ye hear...”

She felt suddenly cold and empty. “Well, how very fortunate I am to have you to shield me from all that confusion,” she said, refusing to let even a single tear slide despite the lump that had grown in her throat. “By all means, you two boys have your little conference. Don’t let me stop you. Perhaps I’ll go below and darn some socks, do some tatting...you know, things expected of women. Oh wait...maybe that was two or three hundred years ago. Am I getting my centuries confused again? Silly me.”

“Yer bein’ ridiculous,” Hector snapped, his patience worn thin. “There be no need to lose yer temper o’er this...”

“Then I’m ridiculous,” she hollered back, her eyes burning, “but I deserve to know what’s being said! And if you’re not willing to tell me, then we don’t have anything left to discuss, do we?”

Her heart was pounding hard in her chest and she felt sick to her stomach as she turned away, again shrugging off Hector’s attempt to stop her. She stalked towards the door, finally letting fall a tear or two of frustration.

How dense could she be? Maybe the concussion had permanently destroyed the brain cells she had once used for good judgement. Trust...it had been nothing more than a word, borne on the release of sexual tension. It would be funny if it wasn’t so pathetic.

Her problem was that she had wanted to believe in Hector...wanted it so badly, in fact, that she was willing to let a ridiculous number of questions go unanswered. He had made her feel again – really feel, in the most intense sense of the word – and she’d let that blind her to the fact that all along, she was being kept in the dark about everything else going on.

She was done thinking with her hormones instead of her brain. Danger or not, it was time for Beth Swann to go back to acting like herself once more - independent, strong and above all, responsible. And one way or another, she’d find the truth about what was happening to her life and do what she had to do in order to put things right.

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Angst...it's what's for breakfast! :D