Adrift

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The three boats looked to belong to some manner of official, Hector thought. Not that it was an unusual an occurrence on Wisteria. Theirs was a favourite destination for law enforcement, but rare was the visitor of this kind what went away satisfied. The Black Hearts were very careful; they’d had many a year to hone their profession.

Hector pulled his shirt back on and as he rolled it down, he felt the tender spots on his chest that marked Elizabeth’s ardent attentions. A smile tugged at one side of this face. Always knew how to vex him, she did – that hadn’t changed. Knew, too, just what to say to get her way and in this instance, he’d let her have the control she’d craved. Next time he’d not be so lenient.

But passion be passion and business be business, and he had to leave all thoughts of pleasurable company behind for now and deal with the half dozen armour-clad men who had just come ashore.

He finally disembarked from Elizabeth’s cruiser and stalked over to where his crew had formed a cordon around the newcomers. The interlopers hadn’t yet drawn their guns, but they were badly outnumbered by men whose codes for combat weren’t quite so regulated as their own, and he knew it’d take naught but a single error for the situation to go all pear-shaped.

The Black Hearts parted around Hector as he approached and he smiled his most disarming smile at the man in charge. Taller than Hector, he was, and rigid in such a way so as to mark him as a military man. There was an underlying current, though, that signalled that the formal demeanour was not as easily maintained as the gent might like to pretend.

“Gents,” Hector said, greeting them jovially and with hands clearly empty of weapons. “Welcome to Wisteria Island. What can we do fer ye this fine day?”

“I’m Deputy United States Marshal Norrington, Special Operations Unit,” snapped the tall one, flashing a badge and speaking in a voice meant to address the entire group. “We have reason to believe that there is a woman being held against her will on this island and we have taken temporary jurisdiction in order to make a search.”

“That right?” Hector answered cautiously. “And ye believe that, why?” Norrington’s appearance marked another interesting development. ‘Though he’d not had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of a certain Commodore James Norrington some centuries back, could it be that this man was one and the same, come back as had Elizabeth? And if so, what was his tie to the girl now?

“Well, for starters,” said Deputy Norrington, a snide smirk on his face, “her ship appears to be docked right there.” He pointed at the Morgan LeFay and raised his eyebrow, waiting for Hector to dig himself deeper yet.

“And this woman…what’d ye say be her name?”

“Well, before I share that information with you, suppose you tell me to whom I am speaking, sir?” Norrington was looking cross now, his hands flexing against where his gun lay.

“Ah, ye must fergive me bad manners. Hector Barbossa, sir. Pleased to make yer acquaintance,” he said, bowing his head slightly while keeping his eyes upon those of the marshal. Deferential seemed to work best with these types, so long as Norrington didn’t mistake it for weakness.

“Quite. Well, Mr. Barbossa…”

“Captain, actually,” interrupted Hector, hating at that moment how much he sounded like Jack Sparrow, curse his tattooed hide.

“Captain, is it? Of what, may I ask?” Norrington looked amused at the thought.

“Of yonder dinghy, fer starters,” answered Barbossa, “the one at the end of the long pier.”

Even Norrington couldn’t fail to be impressed at the Corazón Perdido, the 100 foot sailing ketch dwarfing everything else docked nearby, her black sails furled for the time being. Just weren’t a ship worth her weight as didn’t have black sails, so far as Hector was concerned.

“Fair enough, Captain Barbossa,” Norrington turned away from the ship and immediately raised the gun so that it was aimed at Hector’s face. “Now, you will tell me the whereabouts of Ms. Elizabeth Swann and you will do so immediately.”

Hector held his hand up and gave a backward glare, silently indicating to his crew to hold steady and keep their weapons concealed for now. He gave Norrington another ingratiating smile, ‘though he knew the man was close to the edge already.

“Before I do so, can ye tell me why ye believe that Ms. Swann’s presence here signals something sinister? Perhaps she be here of her own accord.”

Norrington’s knuckles were whitening on the trigger. “She’s not returned any calls from her employees…or…any others. She can’t be raised on her cell phone or her on-board satellite communications system, she’s not answered any email and she hasn’t been at work for three days. Do you feel that might be sufficient cause for concern, Captain?”

Inclining his head, Barbossa acknowledged that might be so. “Fine, Deputy United States Marshal Norrington. I’ll take ye to ‘er, but it must be ye alone. She’s not up to a grand gathering such as that ye’ve brought along.”

“Lead the way, then.” Norrington motioned Hector forward with his gun, and the crew parted to allow them through, although not without sending dark and threatening glances after them.

The two men walked back down the pier, Hector a few feet ahead. “She’s been well cared fer here. She just wasn’t fit enough to leave, not until today at least.”

Norrington snorted. “She’d have to be sick if she purposefully chose to remain in the company of a bunch of degenerates.”

Hector let it pass. The remark wasn’t worth starting anything over, at least not yet.

Once they reached the Morgan LeFay, Norrington waved him away and boarded first. Hector gave him a few moments before following himself; he’d not leave her alone with anyone. A badge was no sure sign of good will or pure motives.

“Beth! Beth, are you here? It’s Jim!”

Hector hoisted himself up on deck. Jim, was it? Didn’t sound like much of an official visit after all. This one had his own reasons for being here that had nothing to do with the office he served.

“Jim? Oh my God, what are you doing here?” Elizabeth answered finally, emerging from the pilot house. She still looked a bit ruffled and as if realizing it, tried to straighten her hair somewhat as the marshal approached.

"Beth, we’ve been looking for you!” Norrington had grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her into an embrace, clinging to her despite not receiving much of a response. “We tracked the transponder in your ship. I couldn’t believe it when we finally figured out where you’d been taken.”

“Jim, I’m fine, it’s okay…ow!” she gasped, wincing in obvious discomfort from the pressure the hold was putting on her still-healing body. “I knew you’d called, but I didn’t have an opportunity to get back to you…”

“Yer causin’ her pain, boy. Ye need to let ‘er be. I’ll not tell ye twice,” Barbossa warned, stepping towards where the two stood on deck.

Ignoring him entirely, Norrington stepped back to take a better look at her. He finally noticed the bruises and cuts, now nearly healed but still looking ugly. Rage filled his face. “What have they done to you? I swear to God…” He turned, and as he caught Barbossa in his sights, he again drew his gun.

“Damned fool! Yer the one as is hurtin’ the girl,” Hector growled. He kicked Norrington’s leg out from under him and grabbed the man’s hand as he fell, twisting until the gun dropped to the deck. The marshal wrested himself free and leapt up, taking a swing at Hector and almost connecting with his jaw before Elizabeth stepped in between them. She fought to keep them apart, a hand on each man’s chest.

“Stop! That’s enough! Just reel them back in, both of you!” she barked at them. “You,” she demanded of Hector, “back against the gunwale.” He complied reluctantly, ready to jump back into the fray if the situation so required.

“And you,” she scolded Norrington, keeping herself well out of his reach, “He’s done nothing wrong…none of them have! I had a terrible…accident during that freak storm; if it wasn’t for Hector and his men finding me and bringing me back here, I’d probably be dead!”

“Of course, Beth…I’m sorry, I didn’t know,” the deputy said, trying to grasp her again and getting straight-armed by Elizabeth for his efforts. Hector shot him a threatening glare just for attempting it. “But I’m here now, I can get you back home and we can get you looked at properly. It’s inconceivable that you’ve had to tolerate these conditions for as long as you have.”

“Jim…I appreciate that you came looking for me; I really do,” she reassured, continuing to keep him literally at arm’s length. “But as you can see, I’m in no danger and not terribly worse for wear.” Elizabeth looked back at Hector, an enigmatic smile on her lips. Truth was she didn’t need any help handling this whelp, he grudgingly had to admit.

Norrington didn’t miss it the shared glance and shock flared on his face. “Beth…” He took her arm, leading here away from where Barbossa stood. In a lower voice he said, “You can’t be serious about staying here with these…people. For God’s sake, Barbossa and his men are bikers! What would your father say?”

Hector could see from Elizabeth’s stormy expression that young Norrington had made a serious tactical error and he almost felt bad for him. The poor fool was infatuated with the girl; that much had been clear since the moment he’d come aboard her ship. It seemed likely that the feeling would remain unrequited, though, and doubly so as long as he was prone to daft comments.

She was winding herself into a rage. “He would say that he’d raised a daughter fully capable of looking after her own best interests, one who was of sufficient intelligence to make decisions without the benefit of an over-protective, condescending, self-appointed babysitter!”

Norrington’s expression fell. “I didn’t mean it like that. I’m sorry…it’s just…we’ve all been sick with worry. Okay, I’ve been sick with worry. Just humour me, will you? Let me take you away from this place and back home to where I know you’ll be safe.”

Elizabeth put her hands on her hips…another danger sign, Hector thought to himself, glad not to be in the marshal’s place. There wasn’t a badge been made as could save him now.

“Back to your home, you mean. We’re standing on mine, in case you hadn’t noticed.” She stepped up so she was right in front of him and poked him in the well-armoured chest with her finger. “I’m not yours to protect. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that I need you and your gun-toting posse to save me.”

His face darkened with disbelief and fury. “You don’t need me, but you do need him, is that it? You think I missed that simpering, cow-eyed gaze you two shared? I can’t believe you’d stoop that low. You have never been one for slumming it. Honestly, I’d have thought you’d have more self-respect that to spread your legs for someone like…”

The slap across young Norrington’s face was hard enough that Hector couldn’t help flinching himself. He’d seen fury like that before but it had been on the face of the sea goddess. Come to think of it, he wasn’t sure which one he’d rather be going up against.

“You will get off of my ship, you will leave this island and you will not harass these men in any way! You invoked my father, let me do the same…if you so much as stop one of them for a boating violation, I will make some phone calls to a few of Father’s old friends and I’ll have you pulling assignments in some one-horse town in the mid-west for the remainder of your career. Do I make myself clear, Deputy Norrington!?” She stepped back to where Hector stood, her stone cold glare never leaving the lad’s face.

The marshal seemed to diminish before Hector’s eyes, looking reproachful and rubbing his cheek where a hot-looking red welt had risen. “I’m sorry. I always thought that someday…what I mean is, all I’ve ever wanted is the best for you.”

Elizabeth sighed in exasperation but her anger had gone. “I tried to tell you…I do appreciate that you care. But you can’t put a leash on me and have me take the path that you’d dictate. That was William’s mistake, too. You have to let me find my own way and trust in me enough to believe that I know what I’m doing.”

Norrington composed himself once more, shrugging off his wounded pride as he straightened his shoulders. “It’s your bed to make. Someday I hope you’ll realize your mistake.”

“Perhaps I will,” she answered. “But that will be my problem, not yours.”

“Indeed. Goodbye, Beth.”

Norrington snatched up his weapon and re-holstered it as he left the ship, Hector trailing him to the ladder to make sure he was gone for good. He needn’t have worried; as Norrington ordered his men back to their boats, he didn’t so much as look back. The roar of the engines drowned out every other sound for a few moments, and then the marshals were on their way back to the mainland. Barbossa watched as the crew dispersed and resumed their everyday tasks, glad that the tense situation had resolved itself.

When he looked back around, Elizabeth was gone.

He contemplated following her but in the end decided it was best to leave her to her own thoughts for a while. It had been a day of high emotions; better that she come to accept the change in tide on her own terms.


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The sun had nearly disappeared beneath the horizon before Elizabeth again made an appearance. She’d tracked him down to his ship and crossed over the gangway to board. He watched her from the corner of his eye, her arms crossed against the cooler evening air. She made her way to where he stood drinking red wine and watching the night creep across the water.

“Good evenin’, Miss Swann,” he greeted her as she came and took a spot at his side. “Can I be offerin’ ye a drink? Ye can join me in a toast to the sunset.”

“No, thank you, Captain Barbossa,” she answered, returning his formality. “I’m still on some pain medication and I don’t want to take a chance on mixing the two.”

“A wise choice,” Hector agreed. “Marilyn would have me head on a pike if ye took a turn for the worse.”

They stood together in silence for a while, listening as the waves crested against the hull and the gulls called an end to the day. He glanced over at her, struck at once by the beauty of her face in the fading golden dusk. She turned her deep brown eyes on him, a warm smile on her face. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Ye know better than to ask that,” he said, reaching out to caress her cheek with his finger. “I’ve travelled more places than ye could e’er dream of and I’ve yet to see another so fair in face and so fiery in spirit as yerself.”

His words startled her and he saw something suspiciously like tears form in her eyes before she could turn away. “I’ve never met anyone like you, Hector. You are truly an enigma.”

“Nay, nothing so mysterious. Just a man.”

She turned back to him, her eyes still glistening. “No, you’re not ‘just’ anything.”

He understood that she meant it kindly, but if she knew anything approaching the truth about who he really was – or worse, what he once had been – she’d likely have a much less flattering opinion.

When he didn’t respond, she cleared her throat and said in a falsely brighter voice, “Thank you for sending my cell phone back, by the way. I got in touch with my deck boss this afternoon and he said the removal of the silt layer is going well. My timing is good; they expect to start laying out the reference grid and excavating artifacts from the wreck tomorrow.”

Now there was a prospect as gave him mixed feelings. No question which ship she’d found, not with his ring in her possession. How would it be to see bits of his life dredged from the ocean’s bottom? “Ye must be pleased with that,” he answered weakly.

“Of course! It’s a chance for a glimpse into another world, isn’t it?”

“Oh, aye,” Hector said distractedly, wondering if he could remember exactly what they’d had to leave aboard the Pearl as she sank out of sight.

“I’m glad we’ll have you along to help. Or…the offer still stands, doesn’t it? Hello?”

It took him a heartbeat to realize that she had posed a question. “Apologies. My mind be navigatin’ deep waters this evenin’. What was it ye were askin’?”

“I was wondering…were you and your men still willing to come and help out at the site? We’re desperate for extra hands.”

He grunted. “Wouldn’t be lettin’ ye go there on yer own. Ye’d not be safe.”

Elizabeth gazed at him, indecision on her face. “Hector…I have something to ask you, and I don’t want you to get mad at me…whatever the truth is, I’ll accept it.”

“Ask away,” he replied guardedly. It had been his experience that conversations starting in that dubious manner rarely ended well.

She took to examining her fingernails, afraid to look at him. “Why did you really show up at the Key West pier that night? And don’t tell me it was to ask about work – it’s perfectly clear that you don’t need the money. Please, I need to know.”

Hector sighed, putting down his wine glass and taking her hands in his so he could turn her to face him. “I canna tell ye everythin’ girl, but this much I’ll share. We’d been told ye might be in danger and we were charged with protectin’ ye. Almost failed in our duty, too…had we been but a few minutes later…”

Elizabeth shook her head. “I don’t understand. Who would have told you that? Why wouldn’t that person have contacted me directly or even have called the police? Why you?”

“I can speak to neither her intent nor her deeds, ‘Lizabeth. It’s enough fer now to understand that she knew she could rely upon me and me crew to do what needed doin’.”

“She?” Elizabeth asked, baffled.

“That’s all I can give ye. I’d say to ye, though…look to yer heart and ye’ll know ye can trust me.” He laid a gentle hand over the spot on her chest from whence her lifeblood sprang, her skin cool to his warm touch.

She stared up at him, searching his eyes for the answers he been forbidden from providing. Finally she nodded, looking suddenly weary. “I do know that. I just wish I had a handle on what was happening.”

“I know, lass. And I’m wishin’ I could tell ye, but ‘tis not fer me to do so.”

“I believe you,” she assured him, and he could read the truth of her words on her face. “I think I’m going to return to Morgan now. The day has caught up with me and I’m utterly exhausted.” She laid her hand atop of his, absently caressing his fingers.

Hector leaned down and brushed her lips with his. “Ye could stay here aboard the Corazón Perdido tonight. Stay with me…”

He felt her smile. “I’m thinking that sleep would be the last thing I could expect on this vessel, Captain.”

“Aye,” he murmured, sliding his hand down so he could lightly skim the side of her breast through her blouse. “And if ye give me but half a chance, it would be the last thing on yer mind, too.”

Elizabeth closed her eyes, her lips parting in a silent gasp. He took advantage and kissed her then, wrapping an arm around her back and drawing her close so he could delve deeper. She opened her lips wide, but it took him a moment to understand that it was out of fatigue rather than passion.

She pulled away and quickly covered her mouth, trying to stifle the yawn. “Oh Hector…I’m so sorry.” Patches of crimson coloured her cheeks and she looked appalled.

He tried to sound hurt. “Must be losin’ me touch. Never yet had a woman succumb to sleep before she could succumb to me charms.”

“And I don’t intend to be the first. When I do take advantage of your considerable… charms,” she said softly, tracing a twirling pattern on the crescent of bare skin above his collar with one delicate finger, “I want to be able to give you everything I’ve got.”

Hector cleared his throat, the mere thought of it nearly overcoming his best of intentions. “Well, when ye put it that way, I suppose I’d best let ye enjoy the comfort of yer own bunk tonight. But be warned…if’n ye tarry, I won’t be held responsible for me actions.”

Elizabeth grinned slyly and stepped back, holding his hand for as long as her arm could reach before she turned to leave. He very nearly didn’t let her go. Having her here, having her touch him so…it would test the fortitude of any man. Hector finally relented, though, and let her slender fingers slip through his. It had been hundreds of years of waitin’ already; no sense rushing her now.

Before she crossed back over the gangway, though, she paused and called back to him. “Hector…you say you came to look out for me and not because you were seeking work. Was what you told me about the ring made up? Does that mean you don’t know anything about eighteenth century relics after all?”

Barbossa laughed heartily. “The story of the ring be true, missy. And I can promise ye that there won’t be anyone else on yer expedition as knows more about what yer retrievin’ from that ship than I – ye’ve me word on that.”

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