chocolate chip mint and flavour of the day with hot fudge and fresh pineapple
Story: Timeless { backstory | index }
Title: A Coiled Spring
Rating: G/PG
Challenge: Chocolate Chip Mint #4: hollow, FOTD: katzenjammer
Toppings/Extras: hot fudge, fresh pineapple
Wordcount: 966
Summary: Things are becoming complicated on board the Kraken.
Notes: Fresh pineapple, “Hurts So Good” by John Mellencamp. Sometimes love don’t feel like it should/ You make it hurt so good. Katzenjammer; uneasiness, anguish, distress. The prompts are against Adele today.
“Cheer the bloody ‘ell up, darlin’,” one of the scoundrel pirates said to her with a smirk as he ambled past her. Adele Merritt didn’t even glance up from where her eyes were fixed-the taut line of the horizon, above it cloudless and the water beneath it sliced with the trail the good ship Kraken left behind. She was stood at the very stern of the ship, watching over the ocean they had just sailed over.
She didn’t feel seasick any more-it was about time she’d started getting used to it-but her stomach continued to churn. Why couldn’t life just stay still for a little bit? But that was how it worked: one minute everything was just grand and swell, and then an instant later everything was crappy and headache-inducing and merde.
It was probably the suddenness of her plunge into solitude that was the worst part. Up until a couple of days ago, she had spent all day every day with him. The two of them had been a single force of control upon the ship; the two of them against the rabble of pirates, keeping them in line, perfectly in control. Now he just spent all of his time with the pirates-all of them knowing each other, being from the past-and she had nobody.
God, it was like being back at school.
It was annoying because it had never, ever bothered her to be alone before. And then who had to come along and screw everything up?
“Oi,” said a voice from behind her, and-scowl at the ready-Adele spun around. Seeing a grinning Captain Jacob Graham stood behind her did not help her mood in the least. Folding her arms, she waited for him to say more. He did. “Yer got the orders from Newson yet?”
He sounded too innocent. Anyway, since when had Graham given a shit what Newson had to say? Adele frowned, but answered anyway.
“The same as it’s been for the last two days. Keep on the tail of the Bridgwater and don’t lose it again.”
The orders were vague and loose and Adele didn’t like them any more than Graham did. Nobody was sure what was happening on the mainland-according to Newson during their most recent phone call, Ashdown had gone “fucking mental” but she couldn’t say she was convinced. When she’d told Isaac about it, he’d seemed more concerned than anything else.
Oh shit, she’d just thought about-
“We aren’t going to lose it,” Graham said. “But when we get to have at ‘e?”
Captain Graham was about the only person in the world whose biggest problem with his current situation was boredom. He had been kidnapped over a thousand years into the future, was trapped on a pirate-hunting ship and seemed to be able to magic alcohol out of thin air. Yet here he was, a coiled spring, restless for action.
“When we’re told to,” Adele snapped. “Just because you have the attention span of a gnat doesn’t mean you have to rush in to every attack.”
It was easy to forget how dangerous pirates could be. Graham treated her to a smile full of wickedness and leaned on the railing next to her, perhaps too close for comfort. Coldly, Adele tried to glare him out.
“Just because,” he said quietly, taunting gleam in his eyes, “yer too busy cryin’ into yer clipboards about Prowse doesn’t mean yer have to take it out on me.”
“What are you talking about?” she demanded, feeling as though her body temperature had just plunged on the inside-but she knew her face was growing hotter at the same time. Ripping her gaze from him, she continued to stare out at the silky grey waves of the sea.
The captain actually laughed.
“Yer many things, Merritt,” he said, raising his eyebrows. “Discreet isn’t one of ‘em.”
“I don’t know what you-…”
“It’s bad news,” Graham twirled around so that his back was jammed up against the rail, leaning backwards a little to catch the expression on her face. “It’s very bad news when you an’ Prowse are meant to be controllin’ the lot of us, and we pirates look to find that yer slackin’ off on the job. See, we’re not a whole lot fond o’ Newson. Or Ashdown…”
“What’s your point?” Adele growled. “I hope you’re not suggesting some sort of ridiculous uprising, because I will not hesitate to-…”
“To what?” Graham asked lightly. “Yer got no power out here, miss, you see what I’m sayin’? Prowse is the one sent out here to kick our arses into place, but now he’s in as much of a state as you are. Oh deary me. Yer like two teenagers, bless the ‘airs of yer ‘ead…”
Adele scowled at him for a moment and then swiped a dangling strand of hair from her eyes. She couldn’t help but wonder what he meant when he spoke of Isaac being in a state-
“Listen, Captain,” she snarled at him, not daring to meet his gaze. “The sea is crawling with Newson’s warships. You must be an utter fool if you really believe that-…”
“O’ course,” Graham replied, cutting her off yet again. Adele was starting to get really irritated. He cracked another golden grin at her. “We’re workin’ on that.”
Adele wrapped her hands around the metal bar that separated her from the rollicking ocean and didn’t say anything, waiting until she heard the swaggering captain clump away in his huge boots. That conversation had been full of bad signals. Things were about to go badly wrong. She should probably talk to Prowse about it…
Probably.
What a useless fucking word that is, Adele thought, crossing her arms and bad-naturedly digging her nails into her arms.