Salvage

“Yeh told yer brothers, but yeh didn’t see fit to tell us?” Hector’s stare had been that of stone all through dinner, though he held steady, not snapping at anyone or grumbling or giving even the slightest impression that he was near tearing anyone in two; until now. Elizabeth had made him promise to be relaxed and calm tonight, and to focus on the fact that Quinsy was happy, and once more she’d gone over the list of good things about their daughter marrying Jack. It wasn’t that he suddenly didn’t agree, but from the moment the four of them had sat down at this table, and Jack’s arm slipped around Quinsy’s shoulders, this had all started to feel so very final; too final. Quinsy may have been happy, and Jack may have been a logical and secure choice, but why now? Why all of a sudden? Why his daughter? He looked to Jack, eyeing him menacingly. This couldn’t be that final already; it all made uncertainty settle upon Hector like a storm moving in. Was this truly a good thing? How could he be sure? He just had to be sure, now! He couldn’t wait for some appearance by Calypso to make him sure. “And you, whatever happened to asking for a lady’s hand?”

“Hector!” Elizabeth bit out, she’d been feeling this attitude bubbling under the surface of conversation tonight, and had been both disappointed that he wouldn’t relax into this and also impressed that he’d managed to keep it bottled up for so long. “And did you ask for my hand?”

“Not discussing us, Elizabeth.” He said firmly, stare still locked on Jack.

“Hector, that was among my thoughts—“ Jack began to say, but was quickly cut off by Quinsy.

“I think you should know, daddy, that I wanted to elope months ago, but Jack refused to, because he felt he owed it to you to come and do just that!”

Now Hector turned to Quinsy. “Yeh would have eloped?” He asked as if he didn’t believe her.

Quinsy stood her ground. “Don’t make me sorry I didn’t!”

“Quinn,” Jack whispered nervously. “What are you inciting him for? I’ve known him a little longer than you have, seen him eat a shot glass once as part of a bar bet…don’t incite him, it’s not good!”

“Jack,” Quinsy exhaled, brushing his face with her fingertips. “He’s going to be your father-in-law; you’re going to have to get over this.”

Elizabeth nodded, reaching up and turning Hector’s face away from Jack and over towards her. “And he’s going to be your son-in-law, so you’re going to have to get over it as well.”

“Did yeh hear the girl, wife?” Hector asked, as if he’d heard nothing Elizabeth had said. “She would have eloped!”

“Oh!” Elizabeth groaned, and grabbed his arm. “Well I wonder why!”

“Okay, I know how to settle this,” said Jack, then took a long sip from his wine glass, cleared his throat and looked over at Hector. “Captain Barbossa, sir, I’m humbly asking for your fair daughter’s hand in marriage,” he said respectfully. “If you deem me worthy.”

Quinsy shook her head worriedly. “Oh, I wouldn’t have tacked that bit on.” She whispered to Jack.

“Eloped?” Hector repeated, still stuck on the word, until Elizabeth nudged him and he shot her a somewhat annoyed glance, and looked to Jack once more. “Why didn’t yeh come to me asking that before yeh asked me daughter to be yer wife?”

Jack sighed but leaned forward into the conversation. “Didn’t know how to ask you, mate. All the words I could think of just seemed they’d end up destroying you…and then you’d destroy me…”

Hector snarled. “Are yeh saying it’s me own fault yeh didn’t come to me, then, Jack?”

“Yes!” Elizabeth hissed, but Jack immediately jumped and held his hands out in front of him like a shield.

“No!” He flustered. “No, mate! Not at all! Wasn’t thinking that one iota!”

“Then yeh were thinking a stealing me Treasure away, just like yeh did The Pearl before yeh sank her where she lies now?”

At that Jack glared at him. “Me sink her? Was you what blew us out of the water!” Jack heaved an exasperated sigh…Hector…if he couldn’t have The Pearl, then no one would. “She’s my ship!”

“Was yeh that didn’t get her outta the way of me guns!” Hector growled. “And aye, yeh were her captain until I became her captain in a much more genuine sense of the word!”

“Genuine? And just what does that mean?”

“That on you, the title ‘captain’ is equal to what it means before the word ‘Crunch!’”

“Take that back, you buggering old goat!”

“That’s it!” Elizabeth huffed, throwing her napkin down on the table in aggravation. “Stop it! Both of you!” she looked from Hector to Jack and back at Hector again. “You promised me you wouldn’t be like this!” She said to her husband, then looked at Jack again. “And you better stop cowering behind arguments so ancient that the two of you haven’t even bothered with them in near a century!” She huffed again, retrieved her napkin once more, only to throw it down again. “Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, for crying in a bucket! And the purpose of this dinner was to smooth over things and welcome this new union of souls. I for one am happy about it, and I won’t sit here and listen to you two butt heads!”

Jack’s face twisted, he glanced at Quinsy, and then at Hector. “Did you hear what she called us, mate?”

“Oh Jack,” Quinsy sighed, her head dropping into her hands as her elbows rested on the table. She should have known this evening would turn into this, and Jack wasn’t helping.

Hector was unfazed and unmoved. “Remember yer first marriage, Jack?”

“Daddy!” Quinsy half shrieked, and in truth, she’d forgotten about that herself, but it was just like her father to bring it up, particularly now. “That was a long time ago; a celebratory and drunken impulse! You know that as well as the rest of us sitting here!”

“No, Quinn,” said Jack, locking eyes with Hector now and patting her hand. “If he wants to start with that, let him. It’s his right.”

The corner of Hector’s mouth turned up into a dangerously amused smile as he held Jack’s stare. He leaned forward, bringing his elbows up onto the table and splicing his finger together. “Yeh do understand why it concerns me, don’t yeh, Jack?”

“Hector, what are you doing?” Elizabeth asked nervously, trying to make him look away from Jack, but the two former pirates continued to gape at one another like they might step outside into the alley. “We discussed this, twice, I thought we were in agreement—“

“Yes, Elizabeth, we discussed it, and yeh told me ‘King’ was now an empty title, so please be quiet and let the gentleman at the table converse, will yeh?” Never once did he take his eyes from Jack’s.

Anger flashed over Elizabeth, had her husband, in so many words, just told her to ‘shut up?’ “How dare you—“

Hector flicked his index finger in her direction with an emphasis that quickly quieted her, still staring Jack down. “Just home from the Pacific, yeh and I, Jack. Our very first night home on American soil. Yeh went out for the evening, stayed out all evening in nightclub after nightclub. In the morning, Lizabeth and meself woke to find yeh in a drunken heap on our couch with some scrawny blond passed out beside yeh, her hair all done up in feathers.”

“Quinn and I aren’t like that, Hector.” Jack took Quinsy’s hand between his, but met Hector’s eyes still. “She’s no tipsy nightclub act, she’s the woman I love, and this marriage will last a hell of a lot longer than three and a half days.”

“The longest three and a half days of yer life, as I recall yeh telling me at the time.” Hector’s smile broadened in a curious manner. “Yeh didn’t even know her name, that blond dish yeh married in1945. Had to wake her up and ask her for her name…Myrna, I believe, wasn’t it?”

“Myrna,” Jack repeated with one eyebrow slightly raised, for he did have a vague memory of coming to on Hector’s couch with a pretty blond sprawled across him, having a rather tense and worrisome conversation with both Hector and Elizabeth about what he’d done, and then poking his new wife in the forehead until she woke enough to tell him what her name was. To this day, Jack didn’t remember proposing, or finding the judge who had performed the wedding, had no memory of saying the words “I do.” But, he had…the divorce process and all its paperwork was proof. “That was then, this is now, and it has no bearing on my love for Quinn!”

“Be yeh sure of that?”

“Yes, I am. Wholeheartedly sure of it!” Jack put his arm around Quinsy again, feeling that he was winning this, that Hector only wished to see if he’d meet his eyes and stare him down. He had, this was over now. Wasn’t it? “I can’t account for your standards, mate, and I understand that she is your daughter, but I promise I’ll do right by you as her husband.”

“Thank yeh, Jack.” Hector smiled smugly. “I do appreciate hearing yeh say so, but ultimately, it’s not me standards yeh’ll have to account for.”

Jack sighed again and switched his stare from Hector to Elizabeth. He should have known. “Elizabeth then, I’ll take good care of your daughter. I know you and I have had our dealings in the past, but I hope you believe me when I say that our past, and you yourself, have taught me how to value and cherish and love Quinsy the way I do now.”

Elizabeth couldn’t control the smile or the softness that broke over her face and voice. “Oh Jack!” She nearly cooed, reaching across the table and taking his hand. Yes, they had their past, and she was fortunate that Jack still spoke to her even. But to know that she’d in some way helped shape who he was now, and in that, had helped shape her daughter’s happiness; it was all too much, her eyes were becoming glassy.

Not so for Hector though. “Awfully touching, Jack, but not the woman I was speaking of, whom yeh’ll be answering to.”

Jack and Quinsy looked to one another shaking their heads a bit, not following what Hector meant. What other women were there? “I’ve already accepted Jack’s proposal, daddy!” Quinn finally said, hoping her father had meant her.

“So yeh have,” Hector muttered with a roll of his eyes. “But I were meaning Calypso herself!” There was a sudden and sad silence on the other side of the table, and though it made Elizabeth scowl at him for seeming so cruel, Hector’s smile became full-bore. No one spoke, so he took that duty upon himself once more. “It were Calypso who married Elizabeth and I, she’ll do the same for yeh and me daughter, Jack. If she approves of the match.”

“I see,” Jack finally said, Quinsy looking as shocked as he still did himself, and holding onto him with her arm now draped over his chest. Once more Jack’s eyes met Hector’s, knowing when and why to concede. “I suppose I can’t argue with that.”

“Good.” Hector raised his wine to his lips and took a satisfied sip.

“One question,” Jack still locked eyes with Hector.

“Aye?”

“How do we find her to ask?”

Hector set his wine down, looking more smug than ever as he turned his head towards his wife. This was it, the moment he’d find out how serious Jack was, how devoted he was to Quinsy, just what his daughter meant to his former rival. “Elizabeth, Turner has regular dealings with our dear goddess, does he not? When next we see the lad, yeh’ll put in a good word for Jack and Quinsy to be relayed to her, won’t you?”

Elizabeth’s eyes went wide. “Hector!”

Jack however was more angry than stunned. “That won’t be for another seven years, mate!”

Hector’s smile returned, but he was also surprised when he felt hope began to flicker to life in his heart. He did want Quinsy to be happy, and Jack had become a close friend…just say the right thing, Jack, he thought. “What’s seven more years in the face of what we’ve lived already…and if you’re truly so in love?”

“Daddy, this is an abominable thing you are asking!”

“Yes, it is, Hector!” Elizabeth joined. “We never agreed to this, you just came up with it!”

Hector glanced coolly over at his wife. “Elizabeth, we agreed upon something, but not something else,” he took another sip of wine. “Yeh fill in the blanks.”

“You truly want to see us denied for that long?” Asked Jack, staring Hector down quickly becoming a natural ability now. “So you can have your proof? You’ve known me how long now? We’ve been through how many victories and catastrophes together? You tell me I’ve got a home wherever you’ve got a home, I left The Pearl, our Pearl, out there in the bloody hurricane to rush you and your fish bitten arm home to The Pride before you bled to death, and still my word’s not good enough for you?”

The wine in his mouth seemed to go bitter, and out of the corner of his eye he saw that Elizabeth was glaring at him, seeming to say, ‘yes, I hope you do feel like a big jerk right now!’ But he had cause to be acting like this and making these requirements, didn’t he? “She’s me daughter, Jack!”

Jack took a deep breath, looked away from Hector and over at Quinsy, whose eyes held his with so much sadness it made Jack heave a sigh as a lump formed in his throat. She clearly wanted him to tell Hector off, take her out of here right now, throw her on the back of his motorcycle and marry her that night, but Jack knew he couldn’t; he did understand why Hector, his friend, was so apprehensive; he loved Quinsy. “I love her as much as do you, mate, just in a different way.” Jack said, looking into Quinn’s eyes and stroking her cheek, just as a tear escaped her eye and ran down to his fingers; his own eyes began to well. She cocked her head in his hand, imploring him to defy her father, but that wasn’t the answer, as much as Jack wished it were. He looked back at Hector. “But it seems you hold all the cards, Captain, so we’ve no choice but to accept your terms.”

“Jack, no!” Quinsy gasped and wrapped her hand around the one Jack cupped her face with. “I love you, and you love me, and if daddy can’t understand that, then it’s his loss, it shouldn’t be ours.” More tears were spilling from her eyes now. “We’ve been waiting so long, Jack! For years we’ve both known what was there between us, but you wouldn’t ever act on it because you said it wouldn’t be right, and that you owed it to my father not to give into any such temptations…and even now, we’re engaged, and still, you won’t even touch me until we’re married, out of respect for him!” Quinsy quirked her head towards her father as much as she could, the tears pouring now. “I love you! I always have! I want us to be what other couples are, in all their bonds!” She paused, shuddered and sniffled. “I want to get married, Jack!”

Jack opened his mouth, but no words would come, blocked and choked off by the emotions that coursed through him and made his body shake. All he could do was reach out and put both arms around Quinsy and hold her to him and let her cry against his chest as he buried his face in her dark blond hair and tried to keep himself from doing the same. He’d been fearful about seeking it, but he wanted Hector’s approval so very much; but was Quinsy being so upset worth the cost? In part, Jack himself had set her up to be so forlorn, and that must have been obvious to Hector. “Quinn,” Jack finally managed. “Your father loves you, if he thinks I’m not good enough, maybe I’m not. You deserve the best, Quinn, and I won’t stand in your way of having it, even if it means giving up someone I love more than I’ve ever loved any—“

“Oh hells bells!” The outburst startled everyone, including Hector himself, who hadn’t realized he’d said it, was too alarmed that he was the only one at the table not sobbing, and even he was fighting back tears in his eyes. He’d wanted to be sure that Jack was serious, wanted to know that this was the right thing, that Jack loved Quinsy, was ready to sacrifice all for her, and to his astonishment and admiration, Jack clearly was all those things…in the most heartbreaking of ways, too. He looked to Quinsy and felt his throat clench tightly, his daughter, in tears, was leaning on Jack for support, but nothing seemed to comfort her completely, but Jack did his best, though it was clear he was just as deeply wounded.

How had this inquisition and putting forth of demands gone so very cockeyed? What had he done? He’d never met Elizabeth’s father, but if he and Weatherby Swann ever did square off as he and Jack had just done, Hector began to hope he’d give the answers that Jack had just given him. He sighed. Fine, this was the right thing for Quinsy, for Jack; they loved each other, truly. Now to fix this and dry up some eyes…and to make Elizabeth release his arm, he hadn’t noticed until now that in her apparent grief, his wife had dug her fingernails into his jacket, shirt and through to his skin, Ouch! “Fine,” Hector said, having to clear his throat first and then force a relaxed and nonchalant tone of voice. He reached for his wine again, needing it so very much at the moment. “Marry her, whenever yeh like, just tell me when and where to show up, because no one utters an ‘I do’ without me being present at the wedding!”

Around him, all those that had been sobbing were now heaving surprised gasps, smiles beginning to come back to life on their faces, some happy wind sweeping over them all and transforming the mood at the table. Hector pretended not to notice, preferred to forget the whole altercation had ever taken place. When would he learn to just listen to Elizabeth whenever she set a course on such troublesome seas? He emptied his glass, then reached for the bottle and filled it up again, raising it to his lips once more and draining it in one gulp, then looking over at Jack and Quinsy who were brushing away one another’s tears and slowly relaxing now. “Incase yeh’re still wondering, yeh’ve me blessing. But don’t expect me to give it twice!”

* * * * * * *

“You damn near had a drink tossed in your face back there, I hope you know!” Elizabeth scolded, though she smiled now and laughed as they danced together. The dance floor was moderately crowded, most diners still eating their meals, but she and Hector, and Quinsy and Jack, had felt a sudden need to get up from the table and move around and release all the emotions that had bombarded them earlier.

Hector looked over Elizabeth’s head at his daughter, deftly held in Jack’s embrace. “I think I damn near almost had two of them tossed in me face,” he sighed, then looked back at his wife. “Would have well deserved it, too.”

“Yes, you would have!” Elizabeth quickly agreed as they swayed, but lay her head on his shoulder and smiled, it was so good to have all that over with now, and finally it was alright to be happy about their daughter getting married.

“Elizabeth,” Hector still shuddered a bit, wondered as to his wife’s mood and if she were only putting on a happy face in the restaurant. What kind of berating awaited him at home? He did feel rather foolish still. “Are yeh angry with me?”

She raised her head again. “At first I was beyond that, Hector, I was absolutely furious with you!”

He nodded slowly, but what did he truly expect? “So fury has cooled down now to anger?”

Elizabeth sighed and stared up at him with a closed smile. “No.”

“No?” She was still furious then? “May I finish the book before yeh kill me, at least?”

She laughed and snuggled closer to him for a moment. He could be such a little boy at times, despite how old he was. And, he was obviously sorry, for making Quinsy cry, for hurting Jack, for upsetting them all. But she did understand where it had come from, so how could she blame him? “I’m not angry, Hector,” she said softly, reaching up and straightening a few hairs in his beard. “I can’t be; it’s hypocritical to be, really.”

“Is it?”

“Yes, because in all honesty, despite how happy I said I was about Quinsy and Jack, and it isn’t that I’m not, but I came here tonight with the same doubts and fears rumbling deep inside, just like you did.”

“Thought yeh quieted down a bit too quickly when I asked yeh to.” He smirked, and earned himself a light smack on the shoulder, but he and Elizabeth laughed.

“Well, I had to see where you were going with all your fuss.” Elizabeth admitted. “And even though I don’t like to remember how it made me feel, and how it made Quinsy and Jack feel, I am glad you can be the emotional mess you can sometimes be, because now I truly do feel lucky to be getting Jack as a son-in-law!” She smiled, stood up on her toes and pressed a quick kiss to his lips. “I should learn to trust your bargaining skills, they’ve never steered us wrong.”

Once more Hector drew a smug expression and pulled his wife closer. “Well, I am brilliant.”

Elizabeth laughed and shook her head. “At the table I was thinking you were something that started with the letter ‘B,’ but ‘brilliant’ was not the word which immediately jumped to mind.”

Hector chuckled and spun them both around. “And just what do yeh mean by ‘emotional mess,’ wife?”

“You have to ask?” Elizabeth grinned widely, laughing again. “You? Who changes the station every time ‘Faithfully’ by Foreigner comes on the radio?”

“It’s by Journey, not Foreigner, yeh’ve always gotten them confused.”

“So I have, but the fact that you don’t is both surprising and rather amusing.” She snickered.

“Stop it!” He couldn’t help but smile sheepishly down at her. “And yeh do not know why I turn off the song.”

“Hmm…let’s see…” Elizabeth smiled, then walked her fingers up his chest and softly began to sing. “Oh girl, you stand by me, I’m forever yours, faithfully.”

Hector did his best not hear the lyrics, not to feel the words, but he did anyway, and next he knew he flinched sharply in Elizabeth’s embrace and was too choked up to speak, and could only stand there timidly pretending to clear his throat.

“Yes,” Elizabeth smiled, laying her head back down on his chest again and snuggling against her man tightly. Her man; forever hers, faithfully. Oh but she was lucky! “I thought so.”

And then the music suddenly changed, an abrupt switch to an old big band tune that both of them knew so well, a melody that had been ingrained inside their heads and hearts ever since Hector walked back through the front door from the second world war; Moonlight Serenade. They each looked up at the other with eyes alight, happy memories filling their hearts until they felt as though they floated there on the dance floor. The love they felt for each other bloomed anew, as if they’d suddenly laid eyes upon one another for the first time in years, just as they had back in1945, and each took a better hold of the other, looking over towards the band just in time to see Jack pressing a folded bill into the conductor’s hand and giving him a nod and smile as he walked away.

“You know,” Elizabeth smiled, as they swayed to this new melody, their old song. “I think he may be trying to get on your good side.”

“Yeh know,” Hector smiled back. “It may be working.”

Elizabeth squealed with a little laugh, the song and the memories making her so very happy. Along with other things; she watched as Jack took Quinsy in his arms again and the two began to dance once more. “So you feel good about this now? Quinsy and Jack?”

Hector sighed. “Going to be awhile before this ‘old goat’ feels good about his daughter marrying anyone,” he admitted. “But, I’ve squared me main yards, I’ll be fine, Lizabeth.”

“Good,” Elizabeth kissed him again. “We both will,” she said, and cast an affectionate glance towards the betrothed couple on the floor. “And so will they.”

Hector nodded. “This may even get to be their song, too.”

Elizabeth smiled but shook her head. “Oh no, I’m not giving up my song!”

It was by pure happenstance that this had even gotten to be their song. When Hector and Jack came home, it was a day earlier than anyone had expected, thanks to ocean currents and the war department. Quinsy and Elizabeth had just been setting the table for dinner, when there came a knock on the door, but before Elizabeth could get from the dining room to the foyer, the door swung open, and in walked Hector, still in his Navy uniform, Jack right behind him, both of them having chosen to arrive home in their most formal of officer’s attire, shoes and brass shined, freshly shaved except for mustaches, medals pinned to their chests regally. The sight of her husband, and how handsome he was, startled Elizabeth so much that she’d dropped the china dish she had been about to set on the table, and as it shattered to bits, she ran to Hector, jumping into his arms and holding him so tightly, and he did the same to her. The world seemed to stop then and there, nothing else in it but the two of them, and she might as well have been hugging and kissing him for the very first time. And finally after what seemed an eternity, Hector spoke, looking from the dining room to his wife with a confused expression.

“Yeh didn’t tell me we’d hired a maid.”

Elizabeth’s brow furrowed amidst her happy tears, what had he meant? She looked towards the dining room where Hector’s eyes had been, and suddenly it became clear. She burst out laughing, but before she could explain, the maid rushed over to them and threw her arms around Hector.

“Daddy!”

“Quinsy?” Jack gasped, watching as the girl’s arms wrapped around Hector’s neck and the two hugged one another. “When we left you were only…” he held his hand out in front of him at about chest high.

Hector stepped back to take a better look at his daughter with surprised, pondering and somewhat sad eyes. “What in blazes happened to yeh, me Treasure?”

The tears in Quinsy’s eyes were rolling down her face, and for a moment she looked over her father’s shoulder at her Uncle Jack, and the oddest sensation came over her, a bit of color bursting forth in her cheeks. “It had to happen sooner or later, didn’t it daddy?” She smiled. “Do you approve?”

Hector wiped at her tears and in general studied her face, ran his hands along her shoulders, noted how he didn’t have to look as far down to her eyes as he did when he’d left for war. His daughter was no longer a little girl, she was a young woman; a beautiful young woman. He swallowed hard, but smiled, “Yeh look so like yer mother!”

“And like you.” She smiled, running her finger along her red streak of hair and blinking her blue eyes. “I’m so glad you’re home! We’ve missed you so much!” She hugged her father once more, but this time looked up at Jack, slipping from her father’s arms, and moving onto Jack next, her mother quickly occupying the space she’d vacated. “Uncle Jack!” She cried happily, and melted into him in a way that never used to happen as his arms came around her. “We’ve missed you too!”

A few hours later found Hector alone with his wife on the terrace overlooking the sea, the radio playing softly in the background. Jack had gone out to check on his favorite nightspots, Quinsy still had her duties at the USO, and Caspian had decided to remain in Manhattan where The USS Pride had docked for a day or two, to look up the girl he’d left behind…or more accurately, girls.

“So what’s with the tree and the wreaths and the like? It’s September.” Hector sat back in the wrought iron chair, enjoying the glass of brandy and the cigar that Elizabeth had provided for him, anxious to pull her into his lap, but she was too busy rushing in and out of the house to get whatever it was he might so desire. Her, he desired her. If she’d only be still a moment.

“I put it all up early, as soon as I heard that you and Cass and Jack were coming home, and Brendan will be home in two more days himself. After all the Christmas’s this family has recently spent apart, I just couldn’t wait to get this one going!” She smiled, and set a tray of coffee and saucers, cups and sugar down on the table in front of her husband, then sat down across from him.

Hector looked at all she’d set in front of him in her many trips into and out of the kitchen; apple pie, apple brandy, apple slices with cheese wedges, more cigars, and now coffee. He shook his head but smiled. “Yeh didn’t have to go through all this trouble, yeh know. What I want most is rather simple.”

Elizabeth smiled. It had been so long since they’d touched one another, since she’d lain back with him above her, his strong body orchestrating the ultimate joys that being as close as a husband and wife could be would bring. Oh she’d missed her Captain! “You want it out here? On the terrace?” She half giggled.

Hector puffed on his cigar then removed it from his mouth and shot her a serenely pious look. “Well I see yeh’ve become as tawdry as yer pin-up pictures.” He sighed. “I’m a United States Naval Officer, Madame; I’ll have yeh know we’re a morally straight and narrow lot of heroes, and that I was referring to wanting a dance with yeh.” He put the cigar back to his mouth and winked at his wife, who burst out laughing.

“Oh fine, then, Captain!” Elizabeth got to her feet and walked over to him. “If you’ll just give me a moment to slip into my nun’s habit, I’ll be right with you!”

Hector quickly got to his feet and pulled her to him. “Oh no need,” he said, setting his cigar into the ash tray. “Yeh’ll only get me too excited.” He smirked, and again Elizabeth burst out laughing. The radio however began to cooperate beautifully, for just then, the rousing jive song ended and the soft, swaying notes of “Moonlight Serenade” by Glenn Miller and his Orchestra wove their way from the living room out to the terrace, and around the couple upon it. Both smiled, leaning into one another. “Madame?” Hector asked, his voice almost a whisper as he held his hands out to her.

“Yes,” she smiled, and placed her hand in his, letting him wrap the other arm around her waist as her free hand went to his shoulder. “I love this song!” He still wore his officer’s dress uniform, minus the navy blue coat, but oh, it felt so wonderful to be held in his arms, against him again, they might as well have worn nothing. She laid her head on his chest and closed her eyes, only too happy to follow along as Hector lead their dance. “There were times it felt like we’d never be this close again, Hector!” She sighed.

“Elizabeth,” he scoffed. “Yeh had to know I’d be coming back to yeh.”

“I know, and I did, but…” she looked up at him, and it was just so very good to have him home again, she shivered in the delight. “You probably are ashamed of me for saying so, but you don’t know how many nights I lay in bed, just crying my eyes out for want to be with you, to have you near me.” Her lower lip trembled even now recalling that loneliness. “I missed you so much! So much more than I could ever describe!”

Hector’s heart suddenly felt so heavy. “No, I’m not ashamed of yeh, Elizabeth.” He said, stroking her hair as he hugged her to him. “I’m ashamed of meself, for leaving yeh and putting yeh through all that.” It hadn’t been fair to her, leaving her with Quinsy, to worry for him and miss him. He’d missed her too of course, but he’d also had Caspian, and Jack from home to keep him from becoming too melancholy, not to mention he’d had a ship to command, and a war to win. His wife, his beautiful Elizabeth, whose picture had graced many the footlockers and sea chests of many a soldier and sailor, had been so very alone herself. How could he have put her through that? “Lizabeth,” he said, and stopped their dance for a moment.

“Yes?” Was something wrong? He’d gotten so very serious.

“This is me last war,” Hector stroked her cheek again. “I won’t go off and leave yeh ever again, I’ll stay at yer side, and love yeh, the way I was intended to do.”

The song went on, winding around Elizabeth and seeming to draw them closer together than they already were. She smiled and tangled her hands in the collar of his crisp, khaki shirt and Captain’s bars. “Do you mean that, Hector?”

“Aye,” he smiled, and kissed her. “And yeh’ll hold me to it, I surmise.”

She nodded eagerly. “So, this is the last uniform you’ll ever wear?”

Hector kissed her again, this one lasting until the song finally ended, and by the time they pulled apart, both were burning for more. “Care to help me take it off?”

She smiled, cupped his smooth cheek then smirked. “I don’t know that it will be same for me without the beard.”

Hector scooped her up into his arms and carried her from the terrace into the house. “I’ll just have to try harder to see to it that yeh’re satisfied then.”

Such a promise made Elizabeth’s body flush hot, and she just had to have some taste of him again, cupping his cheek once more and pulling him down to her for another kiss, tongues fervently tangling together as their hearts pounded away within their chests. She felt so very heady, kissing this man whom she’d been kissing for centuries, but her body and soul were anything but bored, desire pouring forth within her like a wildfire over sun-baked prairies. “Hector,” she moaned as he began to kiss her neck, walking towards their bedroom. “It’s not the beard I’ve truly been missing.”

Hector felt her hand sliding down his chest, over his abdomen, as far as his belt buckle, he felt himself tremble as his body woke to her touch in full now, arching up to meet her hand…and the front door swung open.

“Mom! I’m home!” Brendan called, standing in the foyer, loaded down with two duffle bags, wearing his bomber jacket covered in patches and drawings of the nose art from his B-17. “I hopped a military flight at the air field and got in earl—“ His parents…what were they about to do?

Elizabeth laughed now on the dance floor as Hector exhaled sharply and shook his head, she didn’t need to guess what memory he was recalling as the song came to an end. “You got yours that homecoming,” she simpered at him as they walked back to their table. “Don’t look like that.”

“But haven’t yeh noticed how it’s always Brendan that ruins what might be a wonderful moment?” Hector sighed, pulling out Elizabeth’s chair for her.

“Well,” but for all that she might have liked to, Elizabeth couldn’t deny that. “He doesn’t mean to.”

“It’s like he knows…” Hector went on, taking his seat beside his wife. “Like some part of him is inherently aware that I’m about to be very pleased, and he must arrive just in time to prevent it!”

Elizabeth picked up her wine and took a sip. “You’re becoming delusional.” But since he’d brought Brendan up… “Now that we’ve got this business with Quinsy and Jack settled, what happened to that promise you made me about putting forth an effort with Brendan?”

Hector harrumphed. “That shouldn’t count,” he said. “Drambuie.”

“Well I am counting it.” Elizabeth took another sip of wine, and when Hector made a face, she poured another glass for him as well. But now was time to weave her web, she fought off the smile. Hector wasn’t the only one who was brilliant. “I had a chat with Brendan this morning in the galley, about this discontent between the two of you, because quite frankly, Hector, I can’t take it anymore!”

“You can’t take it anymore?” He rolled his eyes.

“No, I can’t.” She replied levelly. “Do you know how much it pains me to know that my husband and my son, two people I love most in the world, can hardly stand to be in the same room with one another? I keep working on Brendan to be the one who is going to work on trying to mend this thing and give a little bit, but he’s not going to be, Hector.” She paused, took another sip of wine and studied her husband, glad to see he was listening rather than rolling his eyes and crossing his arms over his chest. “But you, you’re a man of the world, a speaker of languages, a scholar of texts, a leader of men and a god at sea! You’ve got what it takes to make this stand, and change how things are between you and your son, if you wish to. So, you lead, and your son will follow.”