'Sup.

So, birthday tomorrow. Aoife and Elisabeth thank you for your comments; they were really, really lovely and made my heart sing. I'm looking forward to cake and presents and maybe getting old, a little. I suppose. Also, I get to go to Day's with some of my favourite people in the world, wear the nicest dress I own and eat ALL THAT I CAN EAT; with restaurants like that I just kind of look around at the buffets like, 'Challenge Accepted'.

Story time, because I promised people (Lauren read them both because the first is not the same as the draft you read):

“I don’t understand it you know,” Benjamin remarked, suddenly beside her. Helena was yet to understand what purpose Benjamin actually served to being on the boat; aside from keeping the Captain company and providing some witty banter for those who would listen when they talked, he didn’t really do much. He could be called ‘first-mate’ but if so, he was the laziest son of a bitch to ever become first-mate; he didn’t give orders and never listened to what the Captain told him to do. So, a lot of the time he just waltzed around bothering people; his favourite target of the moment seemed to be Helena.

“Don’t understand what?” She had given up on telling him to leave her alone.

“The Captain’s deep fondness for you, considering you are so plain by comparison.”

She huffed indignantly. not happy to have been called ‘plain’; she made a living form her looks, thank you very much, and didn’t like to have them bashed, because they were a legion of men who would disagree. “I beg your pardon, in comparison to who?”

“It’s ‘whom’, my dear,” said Benjamin, “and in comparison to the maidens who the Captain took a liking to before yourself.”

“And what is it about them that makes me inferior?”

“Now don’t misinterpret what I say; I’m merely remarking upon the fact that the other girls were more exotic looking than you; however I much prefer you to those snotty, high-maintenance whores who eventually Vincent grew tired of. You seem more tolerable.”

Helena blinked and looked down at the sea curling and liking at the boat, “Well thank you I suppose.”

“You’re quite welcome, but let us move onto another matter: I’ve been bashing my head against walls trying to come up with a nickname for you; I don’t suppose you have one I could use, a name you used to be called by?”

“Not any I would like to repeat?” Disappointment, whore, bitch, useless, thief, waste of space. “But why are you asking?”

“Because,” he said, turning his mischievous blue eyes on her, “I do enjoy playing with the captain’s food.”

She shivered; is this the kind of relationship they had, with an underlying competiveness what inevitably turned into a bond? Were they even that close to begin with, or was Benjamin secretly resentful towards the Captain for being captain and this able to boss him around? Before she could say anything, Benjamin leaned down and kissed her hand, excusing himself.

Cheeks burning, she turned to see the Captain standing on the opposite side of the desk, not looking very pleased at all.

---

“Oi, Captain, let go of me!” yelped Helena, tripping over the roots of trees and such things with how forcefully he was dragging her. His grip didn’t loosen so she raised her other hand and whacked him on the head multiple times. Benjamin stood at the shore, right at the bottom by the row-boat and his head perked up when he saw her. Vincent was silent as he released her and Benjamin stepped forward.

“You’re alright, aren’t you?” His voice was calm but his eyes seemed concerned as he cupped her face and checked for any injuries. “The bastards didn’t hurt you, did they?”

Helena had been captured when they stopped in France for supplies; it had been particularly frustrating because she had convinced the Captain that she was perfectly capable of handling herself and so he had permitted her to go for a walk. It was exciting for her, having only ever lived in London and she supposed she got carried away with how amazing and fascinating it was; that was until two men followed on either side of an alley. She had fought back as best as she could but against two men that were bigger than her and having no fighting skills whatsoever, it took them almost more time at all to knock her out; it was as if they were just humouring her with letting her try to fight.

She awoke up in a little cottage somewhere, tied up and gagged. Wriggling around she found the knots weren’t even that tight; she groaned internally at the fact that she’d been kidnapped by two Frenchmen and two who didn’t have the faintest idea what they were doing. But even so, she was smart enough to know to not try to escape when it was still light out and so tried communicate with them, so she could at least know their motives; if all they wanted was sex, they should have just asked and they wouldn’t have had to go through all this.

“What do want?” she tried gently; perhaps if she played the helpless posh girl, then they pity and go easy on her. It had worked before. “I don’t have any money, if that’s what you want. My father disowned me.”

But the taller of the two ordered the other to slap her; dazed, she never spoke up again. They may have been stupid, but they meant business. There was a window to the right and in her periphery she could see the green leaves clumped together.

Her heat sank; maybe it wasn’t going to be so easy to escape after all. Even so, she expected they must have seen she had no money and had still decided to keep her; and if they wanted sex they were taking their bloody time about it. Perhaps it was something to do with the captain? Maybe after seeing the luxurious ship and his arm go so protectively around her waist when they stepped onto the port. Of course; it all made sense now: they were holding her for ransom. Oh, she winced; the captain is going to be furious. He was going to kill them and then he was going to kill her.

The two men were conversing rapidly and quietly, as if she would be able to understand anyway; it was almost soothing and her head hurt so badly and how much could it hurt for her to go back to sleep? It felt like a split second after her eyelids drooped, the door was flung open violently and the captain stood in the doorway fuming; or at least, as much as he could. The captain was never angry, not really; his eyes could be angry or his jaw would be tight and he wouldn’t talk or both of the above, but so far, after weeks with him, Helena had never seen him ever lose his temper or raise his voice. Wordlessly, he took out his pistol and shot the shorter man in the foot while the other, realising that now he was alone, felt himself up for a weapon; when he found he had none, he held up both hands again began to talk slowly, his tone cautious, his smile apologetic.

If he hadn’t slapped her across the face, Helena would have felt sorry for him. She watched as, infuriated further, the captain’s eyes flickered between his left and right hand before settling on his right, pulling the trigger. He walked over to her and she opened her mouth to thank him when he removed the cloth that was gagging her but he placed his hand over it.

“Don’t.” His tone was final and commanding and his eyes avoided her; she had guessed correctly: she was in trouble. She was undecided on being annoyed or scared. As the taller Frenchman, wailing as he clutched his hand, attempted to charge at him; without looking, the Captain shot the shoulder of the hand which he had hit previously. He made sure he reached into the pockets of both of them, removing the little money they had, because dragging Helena out of the crumbling establishment.

“I’m fine,” she told Benjamin as his thumb brushed over the cheek where the man had slapped. “He hit me once because I talked,” she explained but his brow only furrowed deeper, “but I’m fine, honestly.”

She heard the Captain scoff beside her as Benjamin helped her into the row boat and she demanded, “What?”

“Nothing,” he said, sitting opposite her. Benjamin took the oars and began to row as Helena asked the Captain again.

“It’s just you were much more of fool than I imagined you would be.” At this, she let out an offended cry. “What were you thinking, wandering off in the first place and then you get captured and try to converse with them?” Helena didn’t appreciate his tone in the slightest.

“What actually happened?” asked Benjamin kindly and she smiled shyly at him, grateful; she’d gotten rather close to Benjamin after walking in on him and one of the younger crew mean passionately kissing. They hadn’t noticed her and he didn’t know that she knew but either way, it made her feel more comfortable around him to know he didn’t feel for her in that way; it was refreshing to have a man in her life for more than thirty-five minutes, let alone one that was only her friend. After the way she had suddenly warmed to him, he called her ‘Sunshine’; as you can imagine, this caused a look of distaste to fall upon the Captain’s face.

She told him about how she was admiring the architecture and smelling fresh bread and found this odd little alley and she decided to go down it – the captain let out a snort in disbelief but they both ignored him – and realised when it was too late that they were two men following her; after that all she remembered was waking up in a cottage, being hit in the face and slowly falling asleep. But then the Captain burst in.

The Captain still looked incredulous; Helena exhaled in frustration and asked him once again what his problem was.

“What are you still so calm about his?”

“I knew you would save me,” she shrieked. The Captain’s eyes widened and she looked down at her knees. “I was planning on escaping at night, but if that failed, I knew you would come for me.”

There was a silence and you could feel Benjamin’s gaze fall upon her and the Captain before he let out a hearty laugh, “Oh dear; Sunshine, you have no idea how much he wants to kiss you right now.”

Turning his head to the side, the Captain said nothing to combat Benjamin’s words. Instead he said, “Next time please don’t have so much faith in me. And you’re never leaving my sight when we make land ever again; and that's final.”

---

Love, as always, Mel.