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Author's Chapter Notes:
Sorry for the waiting. I just had very little time and inspiration. From monday, I'm in Greece and I probably don't have any internet. I will, however, work on the story, so that when I'm back the monday after that you have a major update.

Thanks again for the reviews ^_^
Chapter 7: Explain it to me

No one had truly decided yet, but the future on board the Liberty, Williams’ ship, was looking bright for Buffy. The crew would decide when they had reached Africa, so that if Buffy was repelled, she could go on land there.

They were now sailing on open sea and did some commandeering. Buffy wasn’t really fond of that. Every time they attacked another ship, she was afraid one of the might die. Eventually one of them did. One of the younger boys named Curtis was decapitated. Buffy thought it was horrible. She had known the boy quite a bit and saw him as her little brother. He was only 16.

But life went on and no one mourned long over the dead boy. No one except for Buffy. She was disgusted by the way how every one carried on with their lives. At one point she didn’t even want to talk to anyone anymore.

“What’s wrong B?” Faith asked one night. She had noticed her friends’ strange behavior and she didn’t like it. For once there was another woman on this ship and she refused to talk.

Buffy sighted. “Nothing.” She mumbled, staring at the horizon.
Faith leaned next to her on the railing. “There is something. You just won’t tell me.”
“Exactly,” Buffy replied with a firm voice.
“C’mon B. You’re the only one I can really talk to and now you refuse to open your mouth.” Faith wined.

Buffy turned to the brunette. “You want to know what’s wrong?” Buffy asked angrily, “I’ll tell you what’s wrong! Some one dies and you all go on careless that one of our friends died!”
Faith frowned “You mean Curtis?”
Buffy nodded and turned back to the horizon.

“Buffy, you have to understand something,” Faith started slowly. There was a pause. Buffy looked at her expectantly. Finally Faith carried on, “We’re pirates. What we do is dangerous and Curtis knew that. We all know that. When we attack other ships we all know what kind of risk there is. We all were very fond of him, but we cannot mourn for months over his death. If we mourn extended for every man we lose, we couldn’t do it. And I bet everyone misses Curtis, but we cannot linger. We have to move on. And as pirates, we have to do that quickly.”

Buffy still didn’t agree, but she could make more sense of it now. The two girls stood next to each other for a while.
“Let’s go and play a game of cards with the others?” Faith suggested.
“Yeah, sure.” Buffy agreed.


When William went to look for her, he found Buffy with the others laughing, drinking beer and playing poker. She seemed to have a nice time.

“Buffy, can I talk to you for a moment?” He asked softly, standing behind her.
Buffy looked up and stared straight into two blue eyes.
“Yeah, sure.” She mumbled and she got up.

They walked away from the rest and from the watch. They walked to the quarter deck and stood there for a while.
“So what’s wrong?” Buffy asked, nervously twirling her blonde strands of hair around her finger.

William didn’t answer straight away, but first ran his hand a couple of times through his hair.
“You know we didn’t speak to each other, about what we were going to talk about.”
Buffy nodded slowly, to show she understood the weird formulated sentence.
“That’s true…So you want to tell me now?”

William shrugged. “I was planning to. But if you don’t want to ta-“
"You're going to tell me. I demand an explanation, for you abdoning me.” Buffy interrupted.
He took a deep breath. This was it. She was going to hate him from now on.

“Alright,” He started, “When I first went to sea I had signed up for two years. I have been to America, Jamaica, the whole lot. It wasn’t particularly bad at first. We had decent food and water. The weather was lovely and we made quick progress. We reached our destinations and got rid of our cargo and such.

But after a while we got stuck in this really bad storm. We went from the route and we couldn’t find our way back. The captain didn’t want to stop at any island, because we would lose more time. The food went off, the water contained maggots. Most of the crew was suffering from scurvy. I did too, but I was saved in time. One day, some started talking about mutiny. I was involved as well, but not because they trusted me. The captain found out. He tried to get information out of everyone and all who knew pointed at me.

I didn’t do anything, I just knew about it. They dropped me on a deserted island. I spent there for about a week.
It was horrible. There was almost nothing to eat and hardly anything to drink. There were some puddles of fresh water, but because of the heat they started to evaporate very quickly.

When I was found, I was lying on the beach, dehydrated. I was found by pirates. The captain, Henry Sharpe, took me on board and asked me to sail under his command. I couldn’t refuse. He taught me how to navigate a ship, do bookkeeping and all that stuff. He treated me more like a son than my own father.

These men couldn’t go to England. They all had a price on their heads. I was allowed to go, but then I would leave the ship and I couldn’t do that. They saved me, I couldn’t just desert them! They were like my family. In the beginning I found the attacks on other ships horrible. I didn’t really want to participate, but I had to. As a part of the crew it is your duty. Anyways, as time went by, I grew to find it not so horrendous anymore and at one point almost common. I did terrible things; I killed people in terrible ways. I drove a spike thru some ones’ head, hence my nickname.

When Sharpe grew old, he left the ship to me. He trusted me the most. Almost everyone of the crew agreed and that’s how I took over command. At that time I was pretty notorious in England myself.

I changed, yes. But everyday I longed to see you, tell what happened that day. Even though I knew you wouldn’t like. It kept me going. I wasn’t sure if I was ever going to see you again, but I couldn’t think about that.”

Buffy had been listening intensely. She knew he had blood on his hands, but to hear it from William was still quite shocking. It hadn’t bothered her to know that everyone else on this ship had murdered some one, but she always had seen him as this innocent little boy. Just like 7 years ago. But at least she got her explanation and the chance to understand his choices.

It was quiet for a while. William was waiting for a reaction, but he didn’t get any. He was afraid he’d scared her off.
“Are you okay?” He asked quietly.
Buffy nodded. She shifted and moved closer to him. Slowly she grabbed his hand and squeezed it softly.

William smiled and planted a kiss on her lips. She was surprised. When her brains had registered what happened, she deepened the kiss.

Slowly his arms wrapped around her waist. Buffy let her hands rest on the back of his neck. His tongue begged for entrance. Before she could open her mouth, there was a loud bang, breaking them apart.

Buffy looked at him shyly. She smiled and walked away. William stared at her and smiled as well. He felt wonderful.

TBC





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