Salvage

The fingers on his injured arm flinched and involuntarily balled into a fist, the bandage growing tighter now, but Hector only felt Elizabeth moving above him, her body embracing his, every touch that of heat, passion and love. And they kissed, mouths hardly apart from the others, drawing in the same breath from one another in quick gasps before lips again met and tongues caressed and tasted what each needed from the other. He was hard within her, so rigidly and viciously erect, the type of stiffness a man generally associated with great, impatient need, and yet their pace was slow and savored. It was always like this though whenever an injury or sickness drew them close, some energy that crackled through each of them, something felt beneath the other’s skin with every press of fingers or lips, something that swept them both up and surrounded them, creating no need for thinking or conscious choice of what they did. There was only the feel of one another’s bodies, the instinct it evoked within them, and the love they bore each other, endlessly flowing and releasing over the other, one of them the tide, the other the beach.

It was becoming more and more difficult to lie still now, the rocking of her hips against his sinking his cock deeper and deeper within the silk of her body. He was so hard, she should have felt some sort of discomfort, like she was spiked upon him, but Elizabeth only moved more onto him and against him, her body shuddering with a soft moan each time he met the neck of her womb, and she knew just how to make love to him, using her body like no other woman ever had, drawing herself so tightly around the stalk of his maleness and rising upwards just enough to make Hector feel as though the warmest, most snug and softest of hands stroked him. It was difficult to say from where he felt his essences pooling, but they were, a rush and dredge of tense pleasure stiffening every sinew, clenching his jaw, setting him a quiver below his loving wife, who felt his body tremble and took her lips from his to allow him to gasp as his hips began to move back against her own.

They’d been kissing so much that her lips were a bit swelled, but Elizabeth didn’t care, felt her lover about to cum, felt his good hand clutch her upper thigh and pull her hard against him, and she increased her movements. She could feel him crushing her from within, felt exactly where the hard knot of his cockhead thrummed a few inches below her navel, the protuberant base of his organ stretching her wider where they were joined. Yes, it was working, the injury dissolving into pleasure and so close to being expelled from his body. She just had to bring him the rest of the way, moved faster, bouncing up and down above him now, her own heart pounding as Hector growled and clutched at her hip, cramming himself deeper and deeper. “Cum,” her voice was strained with her desire to feel him doing so, a white gush of heat filling her to her deepest core. “Fill me ‘til it drips down my legs!”

That was how these situations usually were resolved, a powerful orgasm that sometimes lasted well over a minute, Elizabeth’s body not able to contain what exploded within her. Hector grunted sharply and pumped himself in even deeper, it would feel so good to cum, and it would end so much suffering. “Heal me up, Elizabeth,” he gasped and began to match her swift, strong movements.

But the tenderness was not abandoned in this urgency. “I love you,” she whispered against Hector’s parted lips and drank in the heat of his panting breaths, lying upon his chest as she moved on him, one hand supporting her body, the other lovingly caressing his brow and hair again and again. “I love you,” she kissed him softly, on his mouth as he gasped, then down along the line of his beard, on his cheek, over each tightly closed eye with feather lightness.

She loved him, he knew it well, but still the words settled upon his pleasure geared body like the caress of another lover’s hands and lips upon him. “Elizabeth,” her name left his mouth on a heavy and whispered breath as his injured arm began to tremble and spasm, a rush of warmth flooding his numbed fingers, and his heart pounding inside his chest. He felt a tremendously hungry pressure roll forth from his groin, bulging within his surging cock and tightening balls. Still she moved, slowly now, a circular motion, keeping herself so very snug around him, her slippery, warm, satiny smoothness calling forth all that he was in that moment. She loved him, his body burned, his injured arm jolted with little shocks of electricity, his body vibrated deep within hers, and she held him so tightly, gripped him so firmly, made him hers; she loved him. “Goddess!” Not truly a growl, not truly a prayer, but somewhere in between, and Hector made his offering.

There was so much of him, he always felt as though there were at moments like this one, like he was twice the length and width he usually was, but Elizabeth had come to understand it wasn’t actually her husband’s body she felt, but more his need and his love for her, as erect emotionally as he was physically, so much of him that she could close her eyes and be lost in him, and so she did. She felt him flowing into her, heard him saying her name again and again as his lips and beard tickled her ear, “my sea,” the whisper was soft but heavy, “love yeh…my sea and my stars…Elizabeth…” When her eyes opened again Hector had her on her back, still thrusting deeply even as Elizabeth could feel his erection beginning to subside, and the copiousness of his seed overflowing her and rolling out onto her thighs and his groin, but still Hector moved, still he groaned and still his body flinched as if orgasm were upon him. Elizabeth wrapped her legs and arms around his jerking body and let him finish, and enjoying the length of time this pleasant struggle took for him, just as it always did whenever the injury to be healed was his. “I love you,” she whispered again as Hector fought to catch his breath above her, and then she felt his hands slide beneath her back and lift her closer to him with his arms, hugging her…with both his arms! Elizabeth smiled; it had worked!

He felt himself still, his head dropping between her breasts as sensation gradually returned to normalcy upon him, and Hector felt Elizabeth’s arms closing around him and holding him to her as his breathing slowed. The bandage, it was so tight now, had his arm throbbing and his fingers, once more full of feeling, were quickly being made numb again, he wanted it off. But his body was so pleasantly melded with his wife’s, he hated to move off of her, refused to break this contact they shared. Hector raised his head, his eyes locking with Elizabeth’s, and the passionate binding that hadn’t quite cooled between them drawing them into a long slow kiss, tongues lazily trading places within each other’s mouths as they held one another. “Hold on,” he whispered, his forehead to hers, and then got his knees under him and sat up, taking Elizabeth into his lap, keeping his body joined with hers as much as he could, wanting to remain inside her, even though his organ was spent. She was beautiful against him, his wife, his lover, his goddess; he kissed her again and held her tightly within all his strength.

“How’s your arm?” She whispered through her smile as he kissed down her neck.

Hector gave a slight grunting laugh as he held it up, showing her where the tape and the gauze no longer fit around his arm and was pulling away from his skin. “Care to do the honors, ma’am?”

Elizabeth had no trepidation now as she set about unwrapping the bandage she’d so diligently secured hours ago, though the sight of Hector’s wound before had pained and panicked her so. It had been such an awful bloody mess, a large portion of his body torn away, but now as she unwound the gauze and removed the cotton packing, there was only the flex of muscles, the tan of his skin and the lines of tattoos beneath them. She’d expected as much, but still, the sight welled a feeling of such joy within her that she laughed out loud and Hector with her. “I wonder,” she mused, looking up at him somewhat impishly as she ran her fingers over the area that once had been missing. “Did it regenerate on its own, or is that Whitetip out there swimming around with a suddenly empty belly?”

“Matters not,” Hector stroked her hair and kissed her again, feeling a renewed strength come over him that was no surprise to him, for being healed brewed an invigoration like none other, and once again, he wanted his wife with a fury, for they’d come so close to being lost to one another. He laid her down again, feeling himself becoming erect within her body, his cock twitching and Elizabeth closing her eyes and moaning in response as he positioned himself to now pleasure her until he had no recourse but to collapse above her. “Yeh always bring me back to be with yeh, Elizabeth, whether by a candle being lit or by loving me more than I’m worth, so let me be with yeh, and settle me debt, pay yeh homage,” his hand slid between their bodies and began to gently rub circles over her still firm clitoris. He leaned down and kissed her slowly as she moaned and arched her body into his. “Never have minded being in service to yeh.”

Elizabeth smiled and couldn’t help how her hips rose up against his body and his massaging fingers; oh but he was within her and touching her, the sensation so very fulfilling, the most yearning places of her body so very desired by his. “And how steadfast you have always been in my service,” she purred, her body hugging his, her legs wrapping around him as well as her arms. His weight settling above her was such erotic comfort, so to his beard on her neck, his chest hair on her breasts and nipples, and the sudden sharp thrust as he shoved his hard, heaving cock deeply inside her again and reclaimed that part of her as his, making her moan his name and shudder. She’d only ever been with one man, and she’d been with him for longer than anyone could have imagined, but time had not lessened her desire for him, no his for her. She wanted him now as much as she’d wanted him the first time he’d touched her, and when Hector decided his goddess was due “homage,” Elizabeth knew there was no part of pleasure he’d spare her from. She smiled as he kissed her neck, oh that mouth, to think it would soon be kissing other lips; Elizabeth was ready, ready to be utterly, passionately worn out. “Hector,” she whispered with the devil in her smile, spreading her legs wide and running her hands up the increase of muscles along his back. “Let’s see how hard you’ve been working out on that Bowflex!”

* * * * * * * *

It was barely light out when Elizabeth woke, tucked against Hector’s chest as he slept soundly. She smiled, not surprised he was as deeply asleep as he was. He’d always been quite a lover, and whenever he turned his attentions completely upon her, he left nothing an afterthought and held nothing back from her. And his body…that had always appeared younger than his weathered features, and had performed so as well, and lately, a bit stronger than she’d recalled; Bowflex indeed! She stroked his now healed arm and softly kissed his cheek without waking him, noting how her body still seemed to bear the shape of him within her, she’d likely feel that when she stood up, and as she slipped out of his arms and got to her feet, she was indeed greeted with the most pleasant of pain between her legs. Pain? No, that wasn’t pain; it certainly didn’t hurt. It was the feeling of what Hector gave her, a physical exposition of how vigorously and entirely he loved her. She loved him the same way; his arm was proof of that, as were the many other things that should have killed him, or her, over the years. And now she’d let him have the bed to himself to sleep, he both needed it and earned it. Besides, it was time to get a quick shower, put some clothes on, and since they were home from The Pearl’s wreck site early, perhaps ask Cass, Quinsy and Jack if they’d like to go get a tree…and she should call Brendan.

Brendan…she should call Brendan, before Hector asked again if he’d been heard from yet. Just how long was codfish season in The Bering Sea? Brendan didn’t usually fish cod, just King and Snow Crabs, but it was no surprise that he’d suddenly decided to stay in Alaska for cod season too. She knew it annoyed Hector that Brendan generally showed up to family gatherings late, but she also knew that Hector worried about Brendan, and liked to have his family together, as much as possible, particularly with Quinsy in college now and Caspian, who’s permanent residence was aboard The Pride with them, but he was so often traveling and having his own adventures all over the world climbing Everest, or rafting down the Nile River, or playing quarterback in the NFL. Not to mention Caspian’s penchant for charming women and collecting girlfriends, something else he’d no doubt inherited from his father.

But Brendan, he was the most independent…well, maybe she embellished a bit, for Elizabeth had often felt that their middle son would spend more time with the family if he and his father saw eye to eye more so than they did. The shouting matches between the two of them had finally died down decades ago, for Brendan had at some point learned not to let what his father said, or picked at, bother him too much anymore. He’d been able to laugh, make a joke when his father piped up, which of course only infuriated Hector more. But largely, the technique for getting along with his father that Brendan most employed was separation from him. But it was Christmas, and they were about to raise The Pearl, where all the children had been conceived, born and for a time, raised! Elizabeth wanted all her children home, and so did Hector. Hopefully when Brendan completed the Barbossa clan, it would be a quiet and peaceful Christmas. Yes, call Brendan.

Quietly Elizabeth pushed the door to their quarters open, a soft whine and the thump of a happy tail on the other side at the sound of her movements, and before she could stop him, Jack bounded into the room, bypassing her completely to leap into bed beside Hector and quickly curl up in the warm spot her body had recently occupied, managing to tuck his pointedly broad little snout beneath Hector’s hand. Hector didn’t wake, and so Elizabeth just shook her head and sighed through a smile. “The other Jack was like that too,” she mutely told the bull terrier mix, then left Hector and his dog alone.

She’d forgotten how many decades it had been since they’d lost the other Jack, the little monkey one day being freed of his undead curse, and buried at sea, Hector more torn up about the loss than Elizabeth would ever have imagined, but it was so very sweet she couldn’t help but cry and grieve with him, though she and Jack had never gotten on well. And then, just a year ago, what Elizabeth had at first sight described as “the ugliest puppy” was advertised as up for adoption in the local paper. It was an ugly puppy, big, boxy body on short squatty legs, beady little eyes, pointed ears and a muzzle that looked as though it was meant to be broad and flat but had been stretched out unnaturally. A day later, the ugly puppy was Hector’s dog, Jack…though Jack, the former pirate, was quite put out that a dog was now to share his name, and given how Hector loved to annoy his now friend and business partner, Elizabeth was certain the name was no coincidence.

As she made her way down the corridor Elizabeth could hear both the television in the family room and some odd banging and stomping around above deck. Christmas lights! Caspian and Jack had said they’d get to rigging The Pride up in colored lights as soon as they got back to her again, and then The Pascack, docked behind The Pride, would be next on their holiday to-do list. The Pascack Elizabeth looked forward to seeing once Caspian and Jack were done with her; her spars and yards all lined with lights! Hector had captained the frigate for the Union Navy during the Civil War, Jack her Ensign, the vessel ever since then memorialized and cherished by both Hector and Jack. They’d purchased her in 1903, money had long since ceased to be a problem or issue for the Barbossa family, and it had been no financial trouble to restore her to the most authentic quality; and now she was a floating museum, docked behind the battleship Hector had captained from 1942 to 1945, Jack a lieutenant aboard The Pride then. Like The Pascack, Hector and Jack had purchased The Pride after the war; they’d saved her. She’d have been turned into scrap otherwise, and they each held the ship they’d fought Hirohito and Hitler aboard in too much esteem to let her decay and crumble into scale.

But The Pride was not a museum. In fact, her interior no longer resembled a battleship at all. Shortly after Hector and Jack had purchased her, they’d set about fabricating her into a lavish floating penthouse type of apartment, two of them in fact, one where Hector and his family moved into, and another at the other end of the 717 foot vessel which became Jack’s residence. Rich, warm wood tones now covered her once gray metal walls, and thick, intricate rugs and carpets blanketed her inner decks. She had an indoor pool, a sauna, a hot tub, a two lane bowling alley, a full size movie screen in a family sized theater, elevators, gourmet kitchen, 12 bedroom suites, not counting the lavishness that was Hector and Elizabeth’s room; there was little to want for aboard The Pride now. She was a battleship on the outside, and a super luxury yacht within. And on the stern end of her upper deck, where her two enormous stacked gun barrels were, was now a bar that Hector and Jack had affectionately named “Tia’s.” They’d started the bar more out of the want to own a bar, never figuring it would take off, but it had, and Tia’s was popular with tourists, the Spring Break crowd, and Nassau locals alike. Two years ago they’d even refurbished one of the giant gun turrets into a stage, and live music was the norm, Hector’s guitar talents frequently on display.

“How’s daddy?” Quinsy eagerly asked, looking away from the TV.

“He’s fine,” Elizabeth smiled, felt a blush burn across her skin as she sank onto the lush damask couch beside her. “He’s resting right now.”

“That’s good to know!” Quinsy sighed, closing her eyes briefly and tilting her head upwards as if giving thanks to someone above. Good, her father was once more in perfect health, tonight was the perfect time to share her news…well, almost. She looked back to the Weather Channel. “That storm they’ve been watching has become a hurricane and it is getting closer, not to Nassau, but to the wreck site, it looks like we may not be able to get back out there until after Christmas.”

Elizabeth frowned. Not only would the salvage efforts be delayed but if the current were churned strong enough by the storm, it could change the position of The Pearl, and they’d have to start over again with digging her from the mud and hooking her to the crane; or, a big enough storm could destroy the crane, capsize the work barge and splinter The Pearl into bits. “That won’t make your father happy.” But, it would be good to have a reason to take a break, particularly at Christmas! Elizabeth smiled. Hector was fine; she felt like celebrating. Yes, they should get a tree…the biggest one in Nassau! Money was no object after all! Yes, she and her family, they should all go out and pick out a tree, maybe have it decorated to surprise Hector with by the time he awoke? Unless of course her family had other plans. “Why aren’t you at Swing Night at Tia’s?”

“Meeting Jack up there later this evening, he’s really looking forward to it, once the lights are done.” Jack, he was likely getting cold chills at the moment but had no idea why; Quinn had planned on telling both her parents together, but why not test the waters a bit? Besides, it would all go easier if she could establish this bit of knowledge first. “Mom, when did you know daddy was the one?”

The question struck Elizabeth as a bit odd, but she didn’t shy from it. “I don’t know that I can truly point to one exact moment, Quinn.” And yet in her mind Elizabeth tried to. The way his hands felt on her was nothing less than gentle, the way he would pull her close to him when Will and the others weren’t watching, the way he made love to her by light of one flickering candle lamp, muffling her passionate cries with his kisses and never once bragging about their nocturnal activities to anyone. And after she’d made him perform that mockery of a marriage ceremony between she and Will, after she’d gone to that island with Will, on the pretext of a wedding night, still, the next morning, there were black sails on the horizon, and Hector coming for her. “Why do you ask?”

“Well,” Quinsy ignored the inquiry. “When did you first notice that you two could take care of each other the way you do? Wouldn’t saving one another from certain death be something you’d consider to be the exact moment?”

“I suppose you could consider it so,” Said Elizabeth, “but we didn’t recognize that moment the first time it occurred, Quinn. I got sick, should have caught my death of cold on the way to the Locker to get Jack, but your father kept me wrapped in blankets and bundled in his arms, and the next day, I was better. We had thought it was just a false illness, or maybe something I’d eaten or just being overworked.”

“So what was the second time then? When did you discover there was this thing between you?”

Elizabeth sighed, she’d often thought how it was her fault this memory was so painful to recall, and Quinsy did know most of it, and how could she deny her child the story of her parents? “That was during the battle against Cutler Beckett, Will Turner and I fighting side by side, but your father and I fighting back to back, covering one another as was natural to us by then. An enemy nearly had my arm, but your father turned, cut the creature down—“

“Right when Will Turner proposed to you?”

“Yes, right then.” Elizabeth said sadly. “And then I was so horrific to your father, asked him to perform the ceremony, it staggered him something awful, he froze, only for a second, but it was long enough for a blade to punch through his heart,” Elizabeth paused and picked nervously at the fringe on a pillow. “I of course thought he was dead, cried out to him, and he,” Elizabeth paused and sighed again, “he turned to me with the worst look I’ve ever seen in his eyes, pulled the sword from the wound, waited to drop to the deck, but it didn’t happen.”

Her mother looked so forlorn and ashamed now that Quinsy wished she hadn’t asked, but still, she had her answer, that did seem to be the defining moment of finding the one she was meant to be with, at least, in her family anyway. Oh she wanted to smile and shout at the top of her lungs that she had indeed found the one she was to share her life with, forever! She was brimming with her happiness and excitement now, wished her father were awake; could have sung to both of them her news without any fear! It would be so difficult to contain now until her father awoke. “Mom,” she reached out and rubbed her mother’s shoulder. “It’s who you’re with now that matters, isn’t it?”

At that Elizabeth smiled; that was something Hector would have said, in fact, Hector had said it, the very first time she lay in his arms as the woman he was officially joined to by Calypso herself. “Yes, it is.” She leaned forward and hugged her daughter, thinking once again how happy she was with her family, with Hector. But still…”Why do you ask?”

Quinsy tried not to smile, a smile would only make her mother more suspicious, but no matter what she tried to think of to discourage her grin, it didn’t work. Oh but her happiness was winning, and she was bursting now to share it. She sighed though, thought of Jack and the punishment that may befall him for not sharing this knowledge with her parents himself, and silently offered him an apology that she knew he couldn’t hear. She had promised him she’d give him a heads up before divulging this to her parents, but she just couldn’t wait any longer to do it. “Mom,” she was so excited she felt herself tremble and her voice was hoarse within her tight throat. Now some fear crept inside her, what if her mother took this as badly as she imagined her father would? No, her mother wouldn’t, she’d be shocked yes, but ultimately…well, ultimately, the whole story should wait for when her father was present too. “Mom, promise me you won’t say anything to daddy about what I’m going to tell you, let me be the one to do that, okay?”

“About what?” She’d never seen Quinsy acting so funny before, not even when she’d gone out alone for the first time in her little Sunfish sailboat, and accidentally taken out part of the pier with it upon docking. “What’s happened? Are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” Quinsy laughed, then giggled, growing more and more nervous, but more and more happily giddy. “Mom,” she tried to settle herself to say the next part, tried to inhale deeply, but before she could, “I’m getting married!” leapt from her mouth.

Elizabeth felt as though she’d just driven her Eclipse into a brick wall. “You’re what?” She was only able to murmur, shaking off how stunned she was. “Quinn, what about…I mean, you’re not like other girls, our family has been around for a long long time, you can’t possibly expect that an outsider is going to understand—“

“Mom,” Quinsy gasped, feeling her pulse thundering in her ears, her voice high pitched with her anxiety and joy. “That doesn’t matter, I mean, it’s not an issue, I love him, and he loves me! You know that moment we talked about? We’ve had it he and I, and he’s the one! We’re like you and daddy now!”

“Oh,” Elizabeth was back to murmuring. She’d often times felt sad that her children would likely never marry, for as she’d said, they weren’t like other people, and it was the only time that this great love that had sustained them all made her feel disappointed. But, was it possible that Quinsy had met a man, fallen in love, and the blessing extended itself to encompass him as well? “How do you know?”

“He was walking me from class one night to my car, and this man came up to us and asked if either of us had a cigarette—“

“Quinsy…” Elizabeth was so awed and shocked that she should have been speechless, and yet she was talking again without even letting Quinsy finish her story. She began to clamor. “To whom? Who are you marrying? Who is this boy?”

“Mom…” this was unraveling, Quinsy could tell. “It all happened at school—“

“A school boy?” A million feelings whipped wildly inside Elizabeth, part of her so wanted to be happy for her daughter, but was this all indeed true? Did Quinsy and her alleged beloved share the gift that her parents did? Was it possible? Oh what a wonderful, beautiful thing if it were! Not just for Quinsy, but also because there was hope for the boys too! Oh, please be true, Elizabeth thought, but still, she couldn’t make herself desist with being so very worried that it was not so, and as a parent, she was unsure, scared, doubtful and even sad. Quinsy had been born during a storm at sea, and she’d been a bigger babe than her brothers, outweighing them each by two pounds. Hector had to man the helm of course, all hands not useful above deck were below, and so Elizabeth faced labor and delivery alone in the cabin, the boys safely sheltered away in the small space of a galley cabinet. Elizabeth had never before been in so much pain than during Quinsy’s birth, had prayed to Calypso and all deities she could think to name to have this child born, every part of her struggling to have her pushed out; and now, as she heard this news from Quinsy, every part of her struggled to hold her back in.

What if Quinsy was wrong about the gift being shared between her and this boy she spoke of? The instinct of a protective mother immediately kicked in and took over. What was this girl thinking, getting married? Yes, time had passed, her children hadn’t been children for near a century, and it was long ago that she and Hector had realized that Elizabeth’s frozen youth in no way made it believable that she was the mother of three such aged children, and so for longer than Elizabeth cared to remember, she’d been introduced as Hector’s second wife, and the step mother of his three children, but she was Quinsy’s mother, and never more so than now!.

Yes, time had certainly passed, her children were adults; fine, to any outsider who might come to know her real age, the girl was a relic, but she looked only eighteen or nineteen, and to Elizabeth, her daughter was still young, so very young. How could she be getting married? Quinsy? With her secrets? And because she fancied that she and some boy had the sacred bond? She was a child, what did she know of such things? No, this just couldn’t be! Perhaps some day, years and years and years from now, after Elizabeth would have plenty of time to prepare Quinsy for this…and herself too...and also Hector. “Quinsy Elizabeth Swann Treasure Barbossa, I cannot understand what you mean in telling me this!”

Oh no, not that voice, and not that look from her mother! “Mom! Please, before you start telling me it’s impossible, would you just listen?”

“I’ve heard everything, Quinsy, and I’m afraid there is still a lot you haven’t yet learned to understand about these things. You don’t know yet what it is to love someone, really and truly love them. I know you’re going to tell me I’m wrong, and that you’re the one feeling it and I’m not, so how could I possibly know, but I’m telling you that I know!” She hadn’t meant to sound so forcefully emphatic, going as far as to now be poking her own index finger into her chest with each word. “I ran from what I felt for your father and made myself believe I had feelings for Will Turner, and look at the mess it’s made of Will! Only able to set foot on land every ten years, no family, no friends! And all because I made him believe we were something we weren’t, otherwise, he never would have been near enough to me to get caught up my chaos. Do you wish to be the bane of someone’s existence like that?”

Quinsy sighed loudly, letting out the breath between clenched teeth as she grabbed her mother’s hand. “Mom, will you stop with the poking before your finger’s half way into your chest and we have to wake daddy to restart your heart?”

“Quinn…” this was so unfair! She’d just gotten over the drama and trauma of Hector’s injury, she had been so happy when she first came out here into the living room, and to round up her family to go out and get a tree and get Christmas going in full swing! How quickly things had changed again. “You may hate me for saying this, but I’m not afraid to; I’m your mother, and I realized long ago that means my job is to keep you protected, whether you like me for it or not. And so I’m telling you, I’m happy that you’ve met someone you seem to like so very much, but you are not ready for this and you don’t truly understand it; don’t do it!”

Well, it certainly couldn’t have gotten any worse now; her mother had just forbid her to get married. But little did she know…”that night I started to tell you about, when my fiancé walked me to my car and that man approached us? That man pulled a gun, grabbed me around the neck from behind and demanded my keys. I couldn’t do anything to break his hold, and I was so scared, but then, just like daddy did for you in that battle, my future husband swung at my attacker and got him off of me, but then the gun went off. This guy shot ‘this boy,’ as you call him, right in the chest, mother! Point blank range, a .38 caliber round! I screamed and I cried, because just like you thought with daddy in your moment, I thought that the man I loved was dead. He should have been; there was a frighteningly big hole in his chest! But he wasn’t, and he grabbed the gun away from our attacker, turned it on him and the guy ran off. We drove to the emergency room, but by the time we got there, all the doctors found were a large tattered bullet hole in the shirt and a lot of blood all over, but no wound, not a mark on his skin.” Quinsy paused, “We didn’t know what to think at first, we didn’t even know we loved each other until that happened, but we do, and we want to get married.” There were tears in her eyes but she fought them back, hoping her mother believed her. “He’s the one, mom! Just like daddy is for you!”

Elizabeth heard and felt herself gasp, and now she was truly speechless…this time because there was no more argument to be had. The words “are you sure” threatened to slip forth, but she knew Quinsy was, had seen it in her eyes. “Well,” she had to say something, “you do understand my reaction, though, don’t you Quinn?”

Quinsy smiled. “I do if you can now tell me you believe me.”

“I do.” And Elizabeth did, had felt the very same fear she’d felt well up inside her when she’d been so certain that Hector was dead as soon as Quinsy told her what had happened. Elizabeth sighed, and then smiled, exuberant; it was true! Her daughter would not suffer loneliness for the rest of her life! She’d get married and have a family of her own! Oh but this was a miracle! Two of them in one day! But, beneath this glee was also some heartache. Her daughter, her last baby, was getting married. Tears rolled down from Elizabeth’s eyes. “Oh Quinn,” she threw her arms around her and hugged her tightly. What a clash of feelings, pulling her in so many directions; happiness, excitement, shock and sorrow. Quinsy had found someone, someone she was meant to be with, and Elizabeth no longer had to worry that her daughter might go on existing forever, alone. “It’s just…”

“What?” Quinsy hoped she wouldn’t regret asking, but this was going so much better now.

Elizabeth let her go and they faced one another again as she brushed at her tears. “It’s just that I’m not ready for this!”

Suddenly her mother’s earlier vehemence made sense. Funny, Quinsy had expected such a reaction from her father, but not her mother too. She knew she was ‘daddy’s girl,’ and her father had always encouraged her not to be afraid to try or do something just because she was a girl, but at the same time, he’d been so very protective of her too. But her mother, she’d always been the voice of reason, the one who didn’t let emotions cloud and cover up the logic of a situation…until now. Wow, this must have truly shaken her up, her mother wasn’t ready to lose her to marriage. Quinsy had never before felt so loved, so very well loved; and now tears began to line her face. “I’m sorry, mom.”

Elizabeth hugged her again, holding her even tighter than the first time, rubbing her back with one hand and kissed her cheek. “No, don’t you be sorry,” she told her with a sniffle, but did her very best to get herself together. “I want to meet him! Soon!” Elizabeth managed a smile, this was happy news, unexpected, but happy. But, how would Hector take it? “And, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have—“

“I understand, mom.” Quinsy smiled. “And I love you, too.”