Woman's Work - Chapter 2
Title: Woman’s Work
Author: gwyllion
Genre: Canon era
Pairing: Blackbeard | Edward Teach/Stede Bonnet
Rating: R
Words: 21,834
Warnings: mpreg, crack, angst with a happy ending, pregnancy issues, missing scene, fix-it
A/N: Thanks to my wonderful beta, Gillian, whose advice always makes me a better writer. Thanks to Ro for audiencing my fic. Your encouragement always makes me want to write more.
Disclaimer: I did not create these characters. No disrespect intended. No profit desired, only muses.
Comments: Comments are welcome anytime. Thanks so much for reading!
Stede closed the door behind him. In the captain’s quarters, he leaned back, letting his head fall onto the smooth wood. He closed his eyes. Panic rose in his throat. His heart pounded out of his chest. He eyed the wash basin across the room, thinking it would be a good place to vomit. Breathing deeply, Stede tried to collect himself. He was grateful that Ed had left earlier that morning for the Queen Anne. It would do neither of them any good to see Stede in a full-fledged panic over Roach’s diagnosis.
With shaking hands, Stede went to the side table and poured himself a glass of brandy before sitting on the settee. He stared into the amber liquid and at once realised the implication of drinking it. He hurled the glass at the fireplace, striking it true and causing a hundred shards of glass to scatter across the planked floor.
Although he had asked Roach a number of times how such a thing could have happened, there was no need.
Stede knew exactly how he became pregnant.
He dropped his head into his hands and began to sob. A different kind of sea creature altogether had been responsible for this pregnancy, he was sure of it.
He had been cursed.
Three days out of Bridgetown, with only his own muscle power, Stede had pulled the oars through the choppy sea. The sun beat down, cracking Stede’s lips and turning his skin rough like leather. His water had run out earlier in the morning.
Despite the successful fuckery and Stede’s heart singing at the recognition that it was love that he felt for Ed, Stede had reached the end of his rope. No vessel appeared on the distant horizon. No matter which direction Stede looked, only the vast nothingness of white-capped waves came into view. He was hopelessly lost at sea. The unfairness of it brought tears to his eyes, but he dared not cry, lest he dehydrate himself further.
Stede’s arms ached from rowing. His palms blistered from the oar handles. Why hadn’t he thought to bring a hat to shield himself from the blazing sun? He unfastened the top two buttons of his shirt and tugged the back of the collar up and over his head to provide some relief.
“Oh, please,” he cried to whatever sea-gods might listen. “This can’t be my end. Not after all this.” He was on the verge of giving up.
The only sound on the vast and desolate ocean was the lapping of the waves on the dinghy’s tiny hull. The spatter of Stede’s tears hit the wooden planks which absorbed them as quickly as they fell.
“Edward, my love,” Stede wept. “Oh, Edward, where the fuck are you?”
The dinghy bobbed up and down, the motion making Stede wish he still had some hardtack aboard to quell the ache in his unsettled stomach.
Stede folded his arms over his knees and rested his head upon them. He tried to get some sleep so he could continue the seemingly endless rowing when he woke. After an indeterminable amount of time, clouds gathered in the sky above him. At first the fluffy white clouds that looked like cotton candy, then more voluminous clouds joined them, turning the sky darker by the minute.
Raising his head from his makeshift pillow, Stede was grateful for the relief from the sun. He squinted and struggled to sight a ship between the gaps in the waves that surrounded him. But it was no use.
No other vessels appeared between the waves. Not even a friendly gull hovered overhead.
He stood to get a better view, but even with many months of practice, Stede’s balance on the sea was never quite as steady as it was on land. He stumbled and lurched forward, trying to grasp the battered rim of the old dinghy. A particularly large wave appeared at once and made Stede’s legs tangle with each other. Before Stede could hunker down into the shelter of the small boat, he stumbled, went airborne, and landed in the waters of the cold dark sea.
Bubbles of air escaped Stede’s mouth as he got the wind knocked out of him. Instinctively, he inhaled a great gulp of seawater. His lungs burned. And just when Stede thought his troubles were too much to bear, things got inexplicably worse. It was the story of his life. He despaired that not one single thing had gone in his favour from the time he was a little boy collecting flowers on his father’s vast estate.
Nothing in Stede’s life had ever gone right… except meeting Ed. But now the love he thought he had found was nowhere in sight and probably fuming mad that Stede did not meet him on the dock at their appointed time. Instead, Stede had fled like a coward. He had to find Edward again. So many things would be left unsaid if he went to his death now.
Flailing beneath the waves, Stede knew he would surely drown. He frantically struggled to move in the water, trying to surface, but he never had been a good swimmer. It was no use. He began to sink into the black abyss. Bubbles of his remaining breath rose like fizz toward the overturned dinghy as Stede sunk deeper and deeper into the chilly depths.
Suddenly, something grabbed at Stede’s neck. He reached for it and felt what seemed to be a fat tentacle. Another wrapped around his ankle. Stede tried to turn his head to see what had stopped his descent, but the suckers of the tentacle kept him held fast. He gulped in another lungful of seawater and counted the moments until his doom. He kicked his legs, but there was no escape.
Everything went black in his field of vision. It could very well have been because his eyes were closed in terror. He panicked as more slippery tentacles dragged him through the sea. He felt like his eardrums would burst from the pressure. After far too long, he was shoved above the water’s surface where he crashed to the ground, landing on his hands and knees.
The tentacles that once held him fast disappeared as quickly as they had appeared.
On all fours, Stede heaved a burst of water from his lungs. He choked and sputtered until he could breathe again. Wrinkling his nose at the dank air that smelled of seaweed and rotting fish guts, Stede rubbed the water out of his eyes and tried to open them. The salt burned, and his knees hurt from the hard landing. When he finally got his bearings, he discovered that he had been deposited inside an underwater cave that provided just enough room for him to get to his feet. The walls of the cave glowed with a bright iridescent blue, the source of which was unknown to Stede.
Seawater dripped from Stede’s tattered garments and ran in tiny rivulets across the cave floor to the pool from which he had emerged. The pool itself was smaller than the sleeping alcove in the captain’s quarters on the Revenge. Any man would be lucky to have found such a small entrance to the cave that had provided escape from a drowning at sea.
“What do you want from me?” Stede cried out in frustration, lifting his hand to his neck where the tentacles had left their swollen marks. He looked around the shallow cave and determined that it was empty, but this did not stop his anguished tirade. “Haven’t I suffered enough?”
If only Edward could help him now. Edward was Blackbeard, the greatest pirate who ever lived. Surely he would be able to sense Stede’s despair and come to his aid. As Stede sobbed, the waves settled in the pool. The surface became as smooth as glass, which glowed in an iridescent blue.
Ducking his head occasionally to avoid smacking it on the roof of the cave, Stede paced back and forth on the muddy floor. Tears sprung to his eyes as he muttered to himself about the futility of trying to escape from the cave to resume his search for Edward. In his sorrow, he collapsed onto the floor where he wrapped his hands around his knees to ward off the growing chill.
Not much time had passed, not nearly enough for Stede to shed all the tears he had stowed away, when suddenly, a churning of water echoed off the smooth walls of the cave. A splash, accompanied by some guttural profanities, joined Stede’s sobbing.
“Quit your bloody nattering. You’re giving me a headache.”
Stede stooped down to the water where a creature’s head surged up from the pool. Dripping wet hair, as vibrant as a blood orange, covered the creature’s face.
“Oh, God!” Stede shrieked, retreating to the back of the cave. He spread his arms wide to show that he had no weapon, as if that would have made any difference.
The creature slapped one large tentacle onto the floor of the cave. A splatter of mud and water droplets flew into the air.
“Don’t kill me!” Stede screamed. He could hardly believe that this was the end. Bad enough, he would never find Edward again, but now he was about to be torn to bits by a sea creature of undetermined origin and an entirely unknown disposition.
“Shut up and help me up,” the creature demanded, tossing her head so the hair flew back from her face.
At first, he thought he was mistaken. Could the creature be speaking to him? And even in his own language? In his time with a library aboard the Revenge, Stede had read enough books about sea creatures that he might identify this beast as some sort of siren. “Um, excuse me, miss? Did you say something?” Stede asked, wide-eyed.
“I said, give me a hand, fool!” The siren, who was decidedly the most unfeminine creature Stede had ever laid eyes on, slapped her tentacled arm on the floor of the cave, launching a burst of muck.
Stede felt like he would regret helping the creature, but what choice did he have? “I’m sorry,” Stede said, remembering his gentlemanly manners. “I didn’t catch your name, but if you’re not going to kill me, I’d like you to help me get back to the sea.”
“Yeah, yeah, that’s all you humans ever want from me.” The creature hoisted herself up onto the cave floor without any help from Stede. “Only thinking about yourself.”
“If only I could get back to my dinghy….” Stede fretted as he paced back and forth. Deep down, he knew it was hopeless. His dinghy probably sat on the bottom of the ocean by now. He flapped his hands in frustration. He had so many things to do. He needed to find his dinghy. He needed to find Edward. He needed to hope that Edward would accept his apology for failing to meet him on the dock. He needed to confess his love to Edward and hope that he still made Ed happy like he once made Stede happy, but now he was trapped underwater with this… this… harpy of the sea.
“Your dinghy is gone,” the creature said, having gathered her tentacles about her as she rested on the cave floor. She flicked a thin tentacle at her head to shove a strand of hair out of her face, or what Stede assumed was her face. Three green eyes were dotted across her forehead. She had no nose to speak of, only a dozen gill-like slits which cut into each side of her tiny circular mouth.
“Please,” Stede started as he squatted beside the creature, “you must help me, miss.”
“You’re a real aristocratic type, aren’t you? They call me Kaleisha, as if you give a shit.”
“Well, of course, Kaleisha,” Stede said. “A creature as lovely as you will certainly want to assist a fellow ocean-traveller. I’m Stede.” He hesitated before deciding against offering his handshake.
Kaleisha grumbled in discomfort.
Stede watched as she fought to control all her tentacles. Each squirming appendage dripped seawater onto the cave floor from their many saucer-shaped suckers. The surface of her skin glowed brightly in the half-light. Kaleisha’s belly was the most pronounced feature that Stede observed in considering her appearance. The swollen mass of what was presumably her abdomen gleamed in the blue light of the cave. He knew it was impolite to intrude, but he gathered his wits and asked, “Pardon me, Kaleisha, but are you with child?”
The creature snorted. A splatter of snot shot from her nostrils. “What do you think?” Kaleisha snarked. “Do you always run into sea creatures carrying this type of load. She slapped a tentacled arm against her belly. The yellow skin rippled from the smack.
Stede gasped. The closer he looked at Kaleisha, the more obvious it became to him that she was pregnant with not one or two creatures like herself, but perhaps several.
“Hang on, dammit,” she shouted. With a sweep of her tentacled tail, she cast it on a broad arc, pulling a good-sized fish out of the water. She tossed it through the air.
The fish landed with a splat at Stede’s feet. It gasped for breath, its gills beating in time with the struggle.
“What?” Stede cried, mistaking the fish for an offering. “You can’t mean for me to eat that.”
“Who says it’s for you?” Kaleisha asked. “I’m eating for a dozen or more. I need to keep my energy up.”
Stede grimaced. “Um, of course,” he muttered. His day had been such a trial, he didn’t think he could manage to eat anything anyway. Still desperate to get back on track with his plan to reunite with Edward, he had lost his appetite.
Kaleisha reached a slithering tentacle over to where the fish had landed and took it in her coiled grasp.
Stede tried to recall whether Mary’s appetite grew in the days when she was pregnant with both Alma and Louis. The whole period of his life during those years were recalled vaguely, at best. He knew little of Mary’s discomfort or suffering. Stede just remembered trying to stay as far out of Mary’s way as he could. One day, Mary called for a doctor. The next thing he knew, a healthy baby was thrust into Stede’s arms.
He watched in horror as Kaleisha brought the fish to her mouth. The circular opening grew wide, exposing ridges of sharp pointy teeth. Listening to the gnawing sounds, Stede turned away as the still living fish met its end.
“What’s the matter?” Kaleisha asked. “You look like you never saw anyone eat a fish before.”
“Well you do have an interesting way of eating,” Stede said. He cringed to think that this was the same attitude that Sigfried had given to Edward when he struggled with the cutlery on the French ship. It was the night that he complimented Edward, telling him that he wore fine things well as they leaned close beneath a moonlit sky. If only he could go back to that point in time when Edward’s affection was within reach. He would stop at nothing to return to Edward. If Kaleisha wasn’t going to kill him, at least he had to try to enlist her help.
Reclining on the cave floor, Kaleisha made short work of the fish. She let out a loud belch before spitting out the long strings of intestines and bloody veins. A tentacle wrapped around a fish bone that she used to pick her many teeth clean.
“If I may impose upon you,” Stede began, then recognising that Kaleisha might not be finished with her meal, “when you’re done eating, of course… could I trouble you for some assistance in returning to the sea? Maybe you could drop me off on an island? I promise I’ll be no trouble at all.”
“No trouble?” Kaleisha seethed. “You’ve been nothing but trouble. Do you think you’re the only one who ventures out on the sea. For days now I’ve been listening to you gripe. Blackbeard this, Blackbeard that. Edward this, Edward that. Every sea creature from here to Mindelo has heard your whinging.”
Stede wrinkled his nose and felt the rush of heat to his cheeks.
Kaleisha went on, “Oh, wherefore art though, my darling Edward? It’s giving me a headache.”
What Kaleisha said was true. Stede was desperate to be reunited with his Blackbeard, his Edward. He had made no secret of it, even when he was merely talking to himself in a half-assed attempt at self-encouragement to keep rowing.
Kaleisha flopped onto her side. Long tentacles made a pass to stretch over her swollen belly before slithering behind her bulk to prod at her back.
“I can pay you if you’ll help me get back to him,” Stede blurted, although he remembered with a bit of regret that he had left his fortune with Mary and the children.
Kaleisha raised one of her eyebrows at Stede. “And what could you possibly have that I could want?”
Stede looked at his feet. Mud stained the frayed hem of his breeches. He had little to offer, but he took his shot. “I could get you some clothing,” Stede said with a smile. “Some fabulous brocades and velvets. You’d be the envy of all the other sea creatures.”
Kaleisha drummed her tentacled fingers on her hip. “You have got to be fucking kidding me. Of what use are those things to me? In case you haven’t noticed, I have no need for clothing or any of the accoutrements of an aristocratic man.”
The attempt was the best Stede could do under the circumstances. He realized all too late that the creature had no use for clothing-not when her flowing hair covered most of her body modestly anyway. “No, I suppose I have nothing that you could possibly use,” Stede said.
Kaleisha prodded a half-dozen tentacles at her own back. She writhed and floundered on the cave floor, trying to seek a comfortable position. Her swollen belly seemed to prevent her from reclining fully and catching her breath. She chortled over her shoulder at Stede, “If you really wanted to be of some use, you could give me a backrub.”
“Uh, I don’t know about that,” Stede said with a wince. He recalled one time when Mary was in great discomfort over the way Louis pressed upon her insides in the days before he was born, although she seemed to get some relief when she dug her fingers into her hips. Stede had hesitated to touch her in their marriage and never did he want to touch her during her brief confinement. He shuddered at the thought of touching Kaleisha.
“You’re a monster,” Kaleisha shouted as she flopped around on the cave floor.
The slap of tentacles striking the muddied ground echoed off the cave walls.
“A monster,” Stede breathed, his nostrils flaring. It was what Chauncey had called him before he fell onto his discharged weapon. And now Kaleisha concurred. He tried not to let it hurt his feelings. If only Edward were there to soothe him, to hold him and tell him that he thought Stede was marvellous in every way. Stede remembered their kiss. The silky feel of Ed’s lips had burned into his memory. He imagined the press of Ed’s hands as they moved over his body. Stede would give anything to get back to the way they were before he ran off and fucked everything up. Perhaps there was still a chance to go to China together.
They’d bring the whole crew. It would be wonderful.
Kaleisha was unimpressed with Stede’s inaction. “I can’t believe you’ll not lift a finger to help me,” she wailed.
“It’s really not my position,” Stede offered as a weak apology.
“I can’t believe I thought you’d be of assistance.”
“Me? Offer you assistance? I’m the one in need of assistance! I need to get back to searching for Blackbeard!”
“Very well, you ignorant oaf,” Kaleisha cried. “Here’s your assistance.”
Stede flew into a panic when Kaleisha lunged at him. “Leave me be!” he yelled as he tried to push her away. If only he had his sword, or his true love, to defend him from the creature’s advances.
Kaleisha’s body rose completely out of the water, her tentacles growing larger and more menacing. “Have your way, Gentleman Pirate. But I’m throwing in a little something extra. There’ll be a price to pay for your arrogance.”
“Wait-” Stede shouted, but he’d barely spoken when he found himself wrapped in Kaleisha’s tentacled grasp. His next breath consisted of nothing but dank sea water as she plunged back into the pool where Stede had emerged. The rush of water streamed past Stede’s limbs as he felt himself soaring through the sea. He couldn’t extricate himself from Kaleisha’s grasp, nor could he get a breath of air. This was his second near-drowning of the day, and he was sure he couldn’t survive a second time with lungs full of briny water.
He squirmed and fidgeted until finally he freed one of his hands from Kaleisha’s tentacled grasp. Suddenly he surged into the air, each of Kaleisha’s tentacles releasing him at the same moment. He landed back in the sea with a splash. As he kicked his feet, fighting to regain the water’s surface, his hand struck an object as solid as a piece of wood.
“What?” Stede sputtered, choking up the sea water from his lungs.
His hand rested on the dinghy that he had fallen from hours earlier. Or had it been days ago? It seemed like a lifetime. If he could climb back into the dinghy, he could resume his search for Edward. At least Kaleisha was good for something.
A flock of seagulls hovered overhead, giving Stede hope that land was not too far away.
Stede waited for a smooth wave. When one came, he gripped the edge of the dinghy and hoisted himself aboard, landing with a splat of wet clothing and water-logged limbs onto the dinghy floor. He caught his breath, grateful that he had been saved. A pair of oars floated nearby and with a bit of luck, Stede was able to reach them. Edward would be so proud of how Stede escaped the unpredictable sea witch. He’d be sure to tell Edward all about it when they reunited. If the hovering gulls were any indication that he was close to land, he would just have to row for a short while longer. He took an oar in each hand and remembered well his mission. He’d find Edward and confess his love to him if it was the last thing he ever did.
Stede had only paddled for a short while on the calm sea when a tiny island appeared on the horizon. Thinking it might offer him a dry place to gather his thoughts and formulate a plan for seeking Edward, he set off in its direction. With any luck, he might be able to shake a coconut or two from the island’s lone tree.
He rowed closer, but his mouth fell open when he realized that the island was inhabited by most, but not all, of his crew from the Revenge. He stood in the dinghy and raised an arm, hoping to attract their attention. He had no idea how long they had been on the island and he only hoped they had not resorted to cannibalism. Not yet, at least.
“Damn,” he muttered when he recognized Buttons as part of the stranded group. Perhaps cannibalism couldn’t be avoided entirely. He hoped he wasn’t too late.
In no time, Oluwande spied him with the scope and the crew members scrambled to their feet.
Stede managed to row closer to the island where his crew pulled the dinghy ashore. Stepping into the surf, Stede delighted that he had been reunited with his crew, or most of them. For the rest of the day and into the night, he listened in horror as they described Edward’s erratic behaviour. Tale after tale of Edward’s plunge into despair and escalation into violence made Stede both angry for the way the crew had been treated and sorry that he wasn’t able to comfort Edward in his time of need. In the morning, he vowed to reunite the crew with their missing companions, happy that he could provide his abandoned crew with some leadership. After loading everyone into the dinghy, Stede set off to find the Revenge and his beloved Edward. Kaleisha had been completely forgotten.
~
The silent room seemed empty without Edward aboard the Revenge. No scent of leather and pipe-smoke wafted from their sitting area. No heap of black clothing sat in the corner, waiting to be laundered. Even the side table where Ed always set his knee brace before they retired to bed for the evening looked barren without its cast-off assembly of straps and metal.
At the bookcase that Stede and Edward had been dutifully filling with tomes from raided ships, Stede selected a book of Italian poetry. He set it on the side table to take up some space, but it did not satisfy the way Edward’s brace could. Nothing mattered now.
The pair had spent the past months rebuilding their relationship, openly falling in love again with the reunited crew to bear witness. Stede let his fingers slide across the solid table that they refinished after it had been damaged during Ed’s time of despair. Taking turns each morning, rubbing linseed oil into the surface, had become a ritual they shared after they returned from breakfast with the crew. It was all for nought now. Stede needed to leave Ed, to stay out of his sight until the babe was born and he could leave it somewhere safe from the terror of Blackbeard’s ways.
There was a knock on the door of the captain’s quarters.
Stede exhaled a shaky breath and tried to let the rise and fall of the Revenge steady him. “Come in,” he called.
Lucius entered the room, his ever-present sketchbook in his arms. “I was wondering if you wanted me to-” he began, but he baulked when he noticed the state Stede was in.
Stede sniffed and let his hands fall to his sides.
“Um,” Lucius said, as the shards of glass crunched under the soles of his shoes. “Oh, sweetheart, it can’t be all that bad.” Lucius tossed the sketchbook onto the table and reached for Stede’s arm. “You miss your man, don’t you? He’s only been gone a few hours.”
“It’s not that,” Stede said after clearing his throat.
“No?” Lucius asked, leading Stede to the settee. “What’s got you in such a sorry state, then?”
Stede let Lucius lead him. He collapsed onto the settee with his head low and shoulders turned in on himself.
“Is it something Blackbeard did?” Lucius asked. “You can tell me. You know how good I am at resolving relationship issues.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Stede said. “Pretty soon, there will be no relationship to have an issue to resolve.”
“No?” Lucius said, his voice rising to a prying tone. “What have you done?”
“I can’t tell a soul,” Stede said, hesitating greatly about telling Lucius about his apparent pregnancy.
“But you confided in Roach, of all people?” Lucius said with exasperation.
Stede raised an eyebrow. “What?”
Lucius easily gave in, “Roach told me about the baby.”
“He did?” Stede shouted. “Is there anyone on this ship who will keep information in confidence?”
“To be fair, Roach as concerned about you,” Lucius said, adding a whispered, “and the baby.”
“That’s it!” Stede cried. He made for the auxiliary wardrobe. There was only one thing to do. Ed couldn’t find out about the baby. Of course he had misgivings about leaving Ed again, but after learning what Ed thought about having a baby on board, he had no choice.
“What are you doing?” Lucius asked.
“I’ll go back to Barbados,” Stede said, gathering an armful of clothes from the auxiliary wardrobe and tossing them onto the sofa. “Maybe Mary will know what to do. And I’ll be able to visit my children again- I’ve never been the best father to them.” This threat of having a baby made Stede reminiscent about Louis and Alma. He hoped they had adjusted to his absence again. Mary and Doug would see to it that they had everything they needed to grow up happy and healthy without the threat of violence from a ruthless pirate.
“But what will Blackbeard think?” Lucius asked, saving a velvet vest from falling onto the floor.
“He kills children!” Stede shouted. “Pete told me all about it a long time ago.”
Lucius sighed. “What would Pete know about Blackbeard killing children?”
“It was when he worked on his crew. He told me so himself. If a child behaved badly in Ed’s presence-off with his head.”
“I seriously doubt Blackbeard would kill a child,” Lucius said, toying with his wooden finger. “I mean, I’m the last person who should be defending him against the act of murder, but…” He sat on the settee and patted a spot next to him on the seat.
Stede reluctantly joined Lucius. It felt good to get a load of weight off his feet. He shoved his hands behind his back and began to massage his lower spine with his thumbs.
“Uncomfortable?” Lucius asked.
“Of course it’s uncomfortable,” Stede said. The spawn of Blackbeard is about to issue from my loins.”
“How exactly do you think that’s going to work?” Lucius asked. “I mean, will you kind of poo it out, or grow another opening for it-”
“Lucius, that’s enough. I’m sick to death of thinking about it,” Stede said. He glanced around the room, noting the door to the auxiliary closet that he had left open. There was no sense in packing most of his favourite outfits. Nothing would fit him if he grew any larger.
Damn that vindictive siren.
It was a pity for Stede to have come all this way. To have earned Edward’s trust again, only to risk losing Edward again, just when he had welcomed him back into his heart. Tears welled in Stede’s eyes. No matter that he had promised Edward that he would never leave him again. Now, he had no choice. He needed to leave and get this matter resolved before Edward learned about this baby.
~
Author: gwyllion
Genre: Canon era
Pairing: Blackbeard | Edward Teach/Stede Bonnet
Rating: R
Words: 21,834
Warnings: mpreg, crack, angst with a happy ending, pregnancy issues, missing scene, fix-it
A/N: Thanks to my wonderful beta, Gillian, whose advice always makes me a better writer. Thanks to Ro for audiencing my fic. Your encouragement always makes me want to write more.
Disclaimer: I did not create these characters. No disrespect intended. No profit desired, only muses.
Comments: Comments are welcome anytime. Thanks so much for reading!
Stede closed the door behind him. In the captain’s quarters, he leaned back, letting his head fall onto the smooth wood. He closed his eyes. Panic rose in his throat. His heart pounded out of his chest. He eyed the wash basin across the room, thinking it would be a good place to vomit. Breathing deeply, Stede tried to collect himself. He was grateful that Ed had left earlier that morning for the Queen Anne. It would do neither of them any good to see Stede in a full-fledged panic over Roach’s diagnosis.
With shaking hands, Stede went to the side table and poured himself a glass of brandy before sitting on the settee. He stared into the amber liquid and at once realised the implication of drinking it. He hurled the glass at the fireplace, striking it true and causing a hundred shards of glass to scatter across the planked floor.
Although he had asked Roach a number of times how such a thing could have happened, there was no need.
Stede knew exactly how he became pregnant.
He dropped his head into his hands and began to sob. A different kind of sea creature altogether had been responsible for this pregnancy, he was sure of it.
He had been cursed.
Three days out of Bridgetown, with only his own muscle power, Stede had pulled the oars through the choppy sea. The sun beat down, cracking Stede’s lips and turning his skin rough like leather. His water had run out earlier in the morning.
Despite the successful fuckery and Stede’s heart singing at the recognition that it was love that he felt for Ed, Stede had reached the end of his rope. No vessel appeared on the distant horizon. No matter which direction Stede looked, only the vast nothingness of white-capped waves came into view. He was hopelessly lost at sea. The unfairness of it brought tears to his eyes, but he dared not cry, lest he dehydrate himself further.
Stede’s arms ached from rowing. His palms blistered from the oar handles. Why hadn’t he thought to bring a hat to shield himself from the blazing sun? He unfastened the top two buttons of his shirt and tugged the back of the collar up and over his head to provide some relief.
“Oh, please,” he cried to whatever sea-gods might listen. “This can’t be my end. Not after all this.” He was on the verge of giving up.
The only sound on the vast and desolate ocean was the lapping of the waves on the dinghy’s tiny hull. The spatter of Stede’s tears hit the wooden planks which absorbed them as quickly as they fell.
“Edward, my love,” Stede wept. “Oh, Edward, where the fuck are you?”
The dinghy bobbed up and down, the motion making Stede wish he still had some hardtack aboard to quell the ache in his unsettled stomach.
Stede folded his arms over his knees and rested his head upon them. He tried to get some sleep so he could continue the seemingly endless rowing when he woke. After an indeterminable amount of time, clouds gathered in the sky above him. At first the fluffy white clouds that looked like cotton candy, then more voluminous clouds joined them, turning the sky darker by the minute.
Raising his head from his makeshift pillow, Stede was grateful for the relief from the sun. He squinted and struggled to sight a ship between the gaps in the waves that surrounded him. But it was no use.
No other vessels appeared between the waves. Not even a friendly gull hovered overhead.
He stood to get a better view, but even with many months of practice, Stede’s balance on the sea was never quite as steady as it was on land. He stumbled and lurched forward, trying to grasp the battered rim of the old dinghy. A particularly large wave appeared at once and made Stede’s legs tangle with each other. Before Stede could hunker down into the shelter of the small boat, he stumbled, went airborne, and landed in the waters of the cold dark sea.
Bubbles of air escaped Stede’s mouth as he got the wind knocked out of him. Instinctively, he inhaled a great gulp of seawater. His lungs burned. And just when Stede thought his troubles were too much to bear, things got inexplicably worse. It was the story of his life. He despaired that not one single thing had gone in his favour from the time he was a little boy collecting flowers on his father’s vast estate.
Nothing in Stede’s life had ever gone right… except meeting Ed. But now the love he thought he had found was nowhere in sight and probably fuming mad that Stede did not meet him on the dock at their appointed time. Instead, Stede had fled like a coward. He had to find Edward again. So many things would be left unsaid if he went to his death now.
Flailing beneath the waves, Stede knew he would surely drown. He frantically struggled to move in the water, trying to surface, but he never had been a good swimmer. It was no use. He began to sink into the black abyss. Bubbles of his remaining breath rose like fizz toward the overturned dinghy as Stede sunk deeper and deeper into the chilly depths.
Suddenly, something grabbed at Stede’s neck. He reached for it and felt what seemed to be a fat tentacle. Another wrapped around his ankle. Stede tried to turn his head to see what had stopped his descent, but the suckers of the tentacle kept him held fast. He gulped in another lungful of seawater and counted the moments until his doom. He kicked his legs, but there was no escape.
Everything went black in his field of vision. It could very well have been because his eyes were closed in terror. He panicked as more slippery tentacles dragged him through the sea. He felt like his eardrums would burst from the pressure. After far too long, he was shoved above the water’s surface where he crashed to the ground, landing on his hands and knees.
The tentacles that once held him fast disappeared as quickly as they had appeared.
On all fours, Stede heaved a burst of water from his lungs. He choked and sputtered until he could breathe again. Wrinkling his nose at the dank air that smelled of seaweed and rotting fish guts, Stede rubbed the water out of his eyes and tried to open them. The salt burned, and his knees hurt from the hard landing. When he finally got his bearings, he discovered that he had been deposited inside an underwater cave that provided just enough room for him to get to his feet. The walls of the cave glowed with a bright iridescent blue, the source of which was unknown to Stede.
Seawater dripped from Stede’s tattered garments and ran in tiny rivulets across the cave floor to the pool from which he had emerged. The pool itself was smaller than the sleeping alcove in the captain’s quarters on the Revenge. Any man would be lucky to have found such a small entrance to the cave that had provided escape from a drowning at sea.
“What do you want from me?” Stede cried out in frustration, lifting his hand to his neck where the tentacles had left their swollen marks. He looked around the shallow cave and determined that it was empty, but this did not stop his anguished tirade. “Haven’t I suffered enough?”
If only Edward could help him now. Edward was Blackbeard, the greatest pirate who ever lived. Surely he would be able to sense Stede’s despair and come to his aid. As Stede sobbed, the waves settled in the pool. The surface became as smooth as glass, which glowed in an iridescent blue.
Ducking his head occasionally to avoid smacking it on the roof of the cave, Stede paced back and forth on the muddy floor. Tears sprung to his eyes as he muttered to himself about the futility of trying to escape from the cave to resume his search for Edward. In his sorrow, he collapsed onto the floor where he wrapped his hands around his knees to ward off the growing chill.
Not much time had passed, not nearly enough for Stede to shed all the tears he had stowed away, when suddenly, a churning of water echoed off the smooth walls of the cave. A splash, accompanied by some guttural profanities, joined Stede’s sobbing.
“Quit your bloody nattering. You’re giving me a headache.”
Stede stooped down to the water where a creature’s head surged up from the pool. Dripping wet hair, as vibrant as a blood orange, covered the creature’s face.
“Oh, God!” Stede shrieked, retreating to the back of the cave. He spread his arms wide to show that he had no weapon, as if that would have made any difference.
The creature slapped one large tentacle onto the floor of the cave. A splatter of mud and water droplets flew into the air.
“Don’t kill me!” Stede screamed. He could hardly believe that this was the end. Bad enough, he would never find Edward again, but now he was about to be torn to bits by a sea creature of undetermined origin and an entirely unknown disposition.
“Shut up and help me up,” the creature demanded, tossing her head so the hair flew back from her face.
At first, he thought he was mistaken. Could the creature be speaking to him? And even in his own language? In his time with a library aboard the Revenge, Stede had read enough books about sea creatures that he might identify this beast as some sort of siren. “Um, excuse me, miss? Did you say something?” Stede asked, wide-eyed.
“I said, give me a hand, fool!” The siren, who was decidedly the most unfeminine creature Stede had ever laid eyes on, slapped her tentacled arm on the floor of the cave, launching a burst of muck.
Stede felt like he would regret helping the creature, but what choice did he have? “I’m sorry,” Stede said, remembering his gentlemanly manners. “I didn’t catch your name, but if you’re not going to kill me, I’d like you to help me get back to the sea.”
“Yeah, yeah, that’s all you humans ever want from me.” The creature hoisted herself up onto the cave floor without any help from Stede. “Only thinking about yourself.”
“If only I could get back to my dinghy….” Stede fretted as he paced back and forth. Deep down, he knew it was hopeless. His dinghy probably sat on the bottom of the ocean by now. He flapped his hands in frustration. He had so many things to do. He needed to find his dinghy. He needed to find Edward. He needed to hope that Edward would accept his apology for failing to meet him on the dock. He needed to confess his love to Edward and hope that he still made Ed happy like he once made Stede happy, but now he was trapped underwater with this… this… harpy of the sea.
“Your dinghy is gone,” the creature said, having gathered her tentacles about her as she rested on the cave floor. She flicked a thin tentacle at her head to shove a strand of hair out of her face, or what Stede assumed was her face. Three green eyes were dotted across her forehead. She had no nose to speak of, only a dozen gill-like slits which cut into each side of her tiny circular mouth.
“Please,” Stede started as he squatted beside the creature, “you must help me, miss.”
“You’re a real aristocratic type, aren’t you? They call me Kaleisha, as if you give a shit.”
“Well, of course, Kaleisha,” Stede said. “A creature as lovely as you will certainly want to assist a fellow ocean-traveller. I’m Stede.” He hesitated before deciding against offering his handshake.
Kaleisha grumbled in discomfort.
Stede watched as she fought to control all her tentacles. Each squirming appendage dripped seawater onto the cave floor from their many saucer-shaped suckers. The surface of her skin glowed brightly in the half-light. Kaleisha’s belly was the most pronounced feature that Stede observed in considering her appearance. The swollen mass of what was presumably her abdomen gleamed in the blue light of the cave. He knew it was impolite to intrude, but he gathered his wits and asked, “Pardon me, Kaleisha, but are you with child?”
The creature snorted. A splatter of snot shot from her nostrils. “What do you think?” Kaleisha snarked. “Do you always run into sea creatures carrying this type of load. She slapped a tentacled arm against her belly. The yellow skin rippled from the smack.
Stede gasped. The closer he looked at Kaleisha, the more obvious it became to him that she was pregnant with not one or two creatures like herself, but perhaps several.
“Hang on, dammit,” she shouted. With a sweep of her tentacled tail, she cast it on a broad arc, pulling a good-sized fish out of the water. She tossed it through the air.
The fish landed with a splat at Stede’s feet. It gasped for breath, its gills beating in time with the struggle.
“What?” Stede cried, mistaking the fish for an offering. “You can’t mean for me to eat that.”
“Who says it’s for you?” Kaleisha asked. “I’m eating for a dozen or more. I need to keep my energy up.”
Stede grimaced. “Um, of course,” he muttered. His day had been such a trial, he didn’t think he could manage to eat anything anyway. Still desperate to get back on track with his plan to reunite with Edward, he had lost his appetite.
Kaleisha reached a slithering tentacle over to where the fish had landed and took it in her coiled grasp.
Stede tried to recall whether Mary’s appetite grew in the days when she was pregnant with both Alma and Louis. The whole period of his life during those years were recalled vaguely, at best. He knew little of Mary’s discomfort or suffering. Stede just remembered trying to stay as far out of Mary’s way as he could. One day, Mary called for a doctor. The next thing he knew, a healthy baby was thrust into Stede’s arms.
He watched in horror as Kaleisha brought the fish to her mouth. The circular opening grew wide, exposing ridges of sharp pointy teeth. Listening to the gnawing sounds, Stede turned away as the still living fish met its end.
“What’s the matter?” Kaleisha asked. “You look like you never saw anyone eat a fish before.”
“Well you do have an interesting way of eating,” Stede said. He cringed to think that this was the same attitude that Sigfried had given to Edward when he struggled with the cutlery on the French ship. It was the night that he complimented Edward, telling him that he wore fine things well as they leaned close beneath a moonlit sky. If only he could go back to that point in time when Edward’s affection was within reach. He would stop at nothing to return to Edward. If Kaleisha wasn’t going to kill him, at least he had to try to enlist her help.
Reclining on the cave floor, Kaleisha made short work of the fish. She let out a loud belch before spitting out the long strings of intestines and bloody veins. A tentacle wrapped around a fish bone that she used to pick her many teeth clean.
“If I may impose upon you,” Stede began, then recognising that Kaleisha might not be finished with her meal, “when you’re done eating, of course… could I trouble you for some assistance in returning to the sea? Maybe you could drop me off on an island? I promise I’ll be no trouble at all.”
“No trouble?” Kaleisha seethed. “You’ve been nothing but trouble. Do you think you’re the only one who ventures out on the sea. For days now I’ve been listening to you gripe. Blackbeard this, Blackbeard that. Edward this, Edward that. Every sea creature from here to Mindelo has heard your whinging.”
Stede wrinkled his nose and felt the rush of heat to his cheeks.
Kaleisha went on, “Oh, wherefore art though, my darling Edward? It’s giving me a headache.”
What Kaleisha said was true. Stede was desperate to be reunited with his Blackbeard, his Edward. He had made no secret of it, even when he was merely talking to himself in a half-assed attempt at self-encouragement to keep rowing.
Kaleisha flopped onto her side. Long tentacles made a pass to stretch over her swollen belly before slithering behind her bulk to prod at her back.
“I can pay you if you’ll help me get back to him,” Stede blurted, although he remembered with a bit of regret that he had left his fortune with Mary and the children.
Kaleisha raised one of her eyebrows at Stede. “And what could you possibly have that I could want?”
Stede looked at his feet. Mud stained the frayed hem of his breeches. He had little to offer, but he took his shot. “I could get you some clothing,” Stede said with a smile. “Some fabulous brocades and velvets. You’d be the envy of all the other sea creatures.”
Kaleisha drummed her tentacled fingers on her hip. “You have got to be fucking kidding me. Of what use are those things to me? In case you haven’t noticed, I have no need for clothing or any of the accoutrements of an aristocratic man.”
The attempt was the best Stede could do under the circumstances. He realized all too late that the creature had no use for clothing-not when her flowing hair covered most of her body modestly anyway. “No, I suppose I have nothing that you could possibly use,” Stede said.
Kaleisha prodded a half-dozen tentacles at her own back. She writhed and floundered on the cave floor, trying to seek a comfortable position. Her swollen belly seemed to prevent her from reclining fully and catching her breath. She chortled over her shoulder at Stede, “If you really wanted to be of some use, you could give me a backrub.”
“Uh, I don’t know about that,” Stede said with a wince. He recalled one time when Mary was in great discomfort over the way Louis pressed upon her insides in the days before he was born, although she seemed to get some relief when she dug her fingers into her hips. Stede had hesitated to touch her in their marriage and never did he want to touch her during her brief confinement. He shuddered at the thought of touching Kaleisha.
“You’re a monster,” Kaleisha shouted as she flopped around on the cave floor.
The slap of tentacles striking the muddied ground echoed off the cave walls.
“A monster,” Stede breathed, his nostrils flaring. It was what Chauncey had called him before he fell onto his discharged weapon. And now Kaleisha concurred. He tried not to let it hurt his feelings. If only Edward were there to soothe him, to hold him and tell him that he thought Stede was marvellous in every way. Stede remembered their kiss. The silky feel of Ed’s lips had burned into his memory. He imagined the press of Ed’s hands as they moved over his body. Stede would give anything to get back to the way they were before he ran off and fucked everything up. Perhaps there was still a chance to go to China together.
They’d bring the whole crew. It would be wonderful.
Kaleisha was unimpressed with Stede’s inaction. “I can’t believe you’ll not lift a finger to help me,” she wailed.
“It’s really not my position,” Stede offered as a weak apology.
“I can’t believe I thought you’d be of assistance.”
“Me? Offer you assistance? I’m the one in need of assistance! I need to get back to searching for Blackbeard!”
“Very well, you ignorant oaf,” Kaleisha cried. “Here’s your assistance.”
Stede flew into a panic when Kaleisha lunged at him. “Leave me be!” he yelled as he tried to push her away. If only he had his sword, or his true love, to defend him from the creature’s advances.
Kaleisha’s body rose completely out of the water, her tentacles growing larger and more menacing. “Have your way, Gentleman Pirate. But I’m throwing in a little something extra. There’ll be a price to pay for your arrogance.”
“Wait-” Stede shouted, but he’d barely spoken when he found himself wrapped in Kaleisha’s tentacled grasp. His next breath consisted of nothing but dank sea water as she plunged back into the pool where Stede had emerged. The rush of water streamed past Stede’s limbs as he felt himself soaring through the sea. He couldn’t extricate himself from Kaleisha’s grasp, nor could he get a breath of air. This was his second near-drowning of the day, and he was sure he couldn’t survive a second time with lungs full of briny water.
He squirmed and fidgeted until finally he freed one of his hands from Kaleisha’s tentacled grasp. Suddenly he surged into the air, each of Kaleisha’s tentacles releasing him at the same moment. He landed back in the sea with a splash. As he kicked his feet, fighting to regain the water’s surface, his hand struck an object as solid as a piece of wood.
“What?” Stede sputtered, choking up the sea water from his lungs.
His hand rested on the dinghy that he had fallen from hours earlier. Or had it been days ago? It seemed like a lifetime. If he could climb back into the dinghy, he could resume his search for Edward. At least Kaleisha was good for something.
A flock of seagulls hovered overhead, giving Stede hope that land was not too far away.
Stede waited for a smooth wave. When one came, he gripped the edge of the dinghy and hoisted himself aboard, landing with a splat of wet clothing and water-logged limbs onto the dinghy floor. He caught his breath, grateful that he had been saved. A pair of oars floated nearby and with a bit of luck, Stede was able to reach them. Edward would be so proud of how Stede escaped the unpredictable sea witch. He’d be sure to tell Edward all about it when they reunited. If the hovering gulls were any indication that he was close to land, he would just have to row for a short while longer. He took an oar in each hand and remembered well his mission. He’d find Edward and confess his love to him if it was the last thing he ever did.
Stede had only paddled for a short while on the calm sea when a tiny island appeared on the horizon. Thinking it might offer him a dry place to gather his thoughts and formulate a plan for seeking Edward, he set off in its direction. With any luck, he might be able to shake a coconut or two from the island’s lone tree.
He rowed closer, but his mouth fell open when he realized that the island was inhabited by most, but not all, of his crew from the Revenge. He stood in the dinghy and raised an arm, hoping to attract their attention. He had no idea how long they had been on the island and he only hoped they had not resorted to cannibalism. Not yet, at least.
“Damn,” he muttered when he recognized Buttons as part of the stranded group. Perhaps cannibalism couldn’t be avoided entirely. He hoped he wasn’t too late.
In no time, Oluwande spied him with the scope and the crew members scrambled to their feet.
Stede managed to row closer to the island where his crew pulled the dinghy ashore. Stepping into the surf, Stede delighted that he had been reunited with his crew, or most of them. For the rest of the day and into the night, he listened in horror as they described Edward’s erratic behaviour. Tale after tale of Edward’s plunge into despair and escalation into violence made Stede both angry for the way the crew had been treated and sorry that he wasn’t able to comfort Edward in his time of need. In the morning, he vowed to reunite the crew with their missing companions, happy that he could provide his abandoned crew with some leadership. After loading everyone into the dinghy, Stede set off to find the Revenge and his beloved Edward. Kaleisha had been completely forgotten.
~
The silent room seemed empty without Edward aboard the Revenge. No scent of leather and pipe-smoke wafted from their sitting area. No heap of black clothing sat in the corner, waiting to be laundered. Even the side table where Ed always set his knee brace before they retired to bed for the evening looked barren without its cast-off assembly of straps and metal.
At the bookcase that Stede and Edward had been dutifully filling with tomes from raided ships, Stede selected a book of Italian poetry. He set it on the side table to take up some space, but it did not satisfy the way Edward’s brace could. Nothing mattered now.
The pair had spent the past months rebuilding their relationship, openly falling in love again with the reunited crew to bear witness. Stede let his fingers slide across the solid table that they refinished after it had been damaged during Ed’s time of despair. Taking turns each morning, rubbing linseed oil into the surface, had become a ritual they shared after they returned from breakfast with the crew. It was all for nought now. Stede needed to leave Ed, to stay out of his sight until the babe was born and he could leave it somewhere safe from the terror of Blackbeard’s ways.
There was a knock on the door of the captain’s quarters.
Stede exhaled a shaky breath and tried to let the rise and fall of the Revenge steady him. “Come in,” he called.
Lucius entered the room, his ever-present sketchbook in his arms. “I was wondering if you wanted me to-” he began, but he baulked when he noticed the state Stede was in.
Stede sniffed and let his hands fall to his sides.
“Um,” Lucius said, as the shards of glass crunched under the soles of his shoes. “Oh, sweetheart, it can’t be all that bad.” Lucius tossed the sketchbook onto the table and reached for Stede’s arm. “You miss your man, don’t you? He’s only been gone a few hours.”
“It’s not that,” Stede said after clearing his throat.
“No?” Lucius asked, leading Stede to the settee. “What’s got you in such a sorry state, then?”
Stede let Lucius lead him. He collapsed onto the settee with his head low and shoulders turned in on himself.
“Is it something Blackbeard did?” Lucius asked. “You can tell me. You know how good I am at resolving relationship issues.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Stede said. “Pretty soon, there will be no relationship to have an issue to resolve.”
“No?” Lucius said, his voice rising to a prying tone. “What have you done?”
“I can’t tell a soul,” Stede said, hesitating greatly about telling Lucius about his apparent pregnancy.
“But you confided in Roach, of all people?” Lucius said with exasperation.
Stede raised an eyebrow. “What?”
Lucius easily gave in, “Roach told me about the baby.”
“He did?” Stede shouted. “Is there anyone on this ship who will keep information in confidence?”
“To be fair, Roach as concerned about you,” Lucius said, adding a whispered, “and the baby.”
“That’s it!” Stede cried. He made for the auxiliary wardrobe. There was only one thing to do. Ed couldn’t find out about the baby. Of course he had misgivings about leaving Ed again, but after learning what Ed thought about having a baby on board, he had no choice.
“What are you doing?” Lucius asked.
“I’ll go back to Barbados,” Stede said, gathering an armful of clothes from the auxiliary wardrobe and tossing them onto the sofa. “Maybe Mary will know what to do. And I’ll be able to visit my children again- I’ve never been the best father to them.” This threat of having a baby made Stede reminiscent about Louis and Alma. He hoped they had adjusted to his absence again. Mary and Doug would see to it that they had everything they needed to grow up happy and healthy without the threat of violence from a ruthless pirate.
“But what will Blackbeard think?” Lucius asked, saving a velvet vest from falling onto the floor.
“He kills children!” Stede shouted. “Pete told me all about it a long time ago.”
Lucius sighed. “What would Pete know about Blackbeard killing children?”
“It was when he worked on his crew. He told me so himself. If a child behaved badly in Ed’s presence-off with his head.”
“I seriously doubt Blackbeard would kill a child,” Lucius said, toying with his wooden finger. “I mean, I’m the last person who should be defending him against the act of murder, but…” He sat on the settee and patted a spot next to him on the seat.
Stede reluctantly joined Lucius. It felt good to get a load of weight off his feet. He shoved his hands behind his back and began to massage his lower spine with his thumbs.
“Uncomfortable?” Lucius asked.
“Of course it’s uncomfortable,” Stede said. The spawn of Blackbeard is about to issue from my loins.”
“How exactly do you think that’s going to work?” Lucius asked. “I mean, will you kind of poo it out, or grow another opening for it-”
“Lucius, that’s enough. I’m sick to death of thinking about it,” Stede said. He glanced around the room, noting the door to the auxiliary closet that he had left open. There was no sense in packing most of his favourite outfits. Nothing would fit him if he grew any larger.
Damn that vindictive siren.
It was a pity for Stede to have come all this way. To have earned Edward’s trust again, only to risk losing Edward again, just when he had welcomed him back into his heart. Tears welled in Stede’s eyes. No matter that he had promised Edward that he would never leave him again. Now, he had no choice. He needed to leave and get this matter resolved before Edward learned about this baby.
~