“So there was something under the water?” Captain Vex asked. 

“Yeah,” Will nodded, as he bolted down the last of the spotlight-lanterns on the railing next to the ship’s wheel. The other three hadn’t survived the fight on the prow. Captain Vex wasn’t thrilled about that, those lanterns were expensive. 

Will’s hands hurt badly, but he still had a bit more to do before he could let the doctor look him over. Besides, there were a lot of crew worse off than he was. “I started to figure it out when the other ship started moving strangely the first time. Remember?”

“Aye. It seemed like it was pinned in the reef, and we were stuck on the ship, but it jerked back. Ships dinnae do that,” Captain Vex nodded, then tilted her head in thought. “Unless something is pulling on them,” she added a moment later, figuring out where Will’s conclusion had come from.

“Exactly,” Will nodded. 

Understanding slowly dawned on the Captain’s face. “It would have tae be huge.”

“The only time I’ve seen a ship move like that before was a whaling vessel,” Will agreed

“So ye were thinking a whale was using a broken ship as a hand puppet? Why would it do that?” Belita asked, shaking her head.

“Well, something as big as a whale at any rate. I think it uses the broken ship for the same reason the grindylow call for help. To get our attention,” Will shrugged.

“Crafty bunch’a freaky evil bastards.” Belita sounded horrified and impressed. “I’m right proper pissed at what they did tae my ship.” 

“We should be glad we got away,’ Will said. “There’s not much known about Grindylows. I think most people who run into them aren’t as lucky as we were.”

“Guess there is that,” Belita agreed. “Luck was on our side tonight. We’re still floating after a reef, a storm, sea monsters, and bombs.”

“How many did we lose?” Will asked.

“Twelve so far,” Belita said sadly. “Might be another two before the night is through.”

Will felt like the air had been pulled from his lungs. “That many?”

“And another two dozen wounded. Five probably crippled for life. I’ve never lost so many, Will. Those are warship numbers," Belita shook her head, looking stricken. 

Will didn't know what to say. He put his arm around her shoulder and gave her a squeeze for reassurance. She took off her hat and laid her head on his shoulder for a moment. It wasn’t like her to show that kind of vulnerability, but she was tired and raw, and no one else was watching. Will noticed, and wondered why she was willing to let him see her that way, but knew better than to ask questions. It was more important to just be there for her. Instead of talking, he looked through the spyglass again. “Let’s concentrate on finding a spot to make land. That’s the best thing we can do for them right now.”

__________________

There was no one left to stitch. Bella had been pinching a suture needle for so long that her hand didn’t want to open. It spasmed as she spread her fingers and shook it out. Surprisingly, her hands and arms were the only parts of her that weren’t smeared with blood. Doctor Kalfou had been absolutely adamant that she wash her hands between each patient. She’d claimed sharing blood caused sickness. Bella had never heard that before, but she wasn’t a doctor.

The Captain’s cabin was horrific. The bed was a bloody ruin. Wounded sailors leaned against every inch of the wall and were laid out on the entire floor save for a narrow path from the door to the bed. The puncture wounds were the most immediate problem, and she was glad that part was over with, but the doctor still had her hands full with all the broken bones. Besides their awful barbed tongues, the Grindylows’ other favorite way to hurt people was to grab them and squeeze. They were frightfully strong. Half of those who hadn’t made it died because their throats had been crushed. Many others had awful bruises where the grindylow’s tentacles had wound around them and just constricted until bones popped. Doctor Kalfou’s current patient was breathing shallowly and frothing blood on his lips. His ribs had been squeezed until they punctured his lung.

Quinn, Reeve and the Norths had just finished carrying the dead out to the midship and laying them in repose. The Kestrel was solemn. Everyone aboard understood that they hadn’t won. They had survived. 

“Danica, prepare to make landfall,” the Captain’s muffled voice echoed from the deck above them. 

“Alright,” Doctor Kalfou spoke up. “If you can walk under your own power, or with a little help, and aren’t waiting for treatment, I need you to go back to your bunk.”

“It’s flooded,” a crewman said simply. “That’s where the hull cracked.”

Doctor Kalfou’s fatigue and frustration showed on her face, but before she could respond, Mister Reeve’s hulking form darkened the doorway. He’d been leaning against the wall just outside. The cabin’s ceiling was too low for him to be comfortable, and there wasn’t enough room for him anyway. He was covered in drying blood that was beginning to crack on his skin. “You heard the Doc,” he barked. “If you can walk, start walking. Where you go don’t be her problem. Go find the Quartermaster.”

With a chorus of groans and winces, the injured painfully made their way out the door. Those that remained were the ones who couldn’t move on their own: the unconscious, those with severe blood loss or broken legs, and the two amputees. 

“Thank you, Mister Reeve,” Doctor Kalfou said with a tired smile. “Forgot you were waiting out there, I.”

Reeve shrugged. “I can wait. Don’t think I’m dying.”

“In that case, need to get cleaned up, you. The captain’s washroom. Go,” Doctor Kalfou said, gesturing to the door near the bed.

Reeve nodded and hunched his way through the room. He had to turn sideways to fit through the narrow doorway, and even then it was a bit of a tight fit. 

Doctor Kalfou began stripping the layers of bloody sailcloth off the bed, looking pained when she saw how much blood had soaked through into the bedsheets. “Might not be any saving the mattress,” she sighed. 

“Vex has running water?” Reeve laughed from the other room. “Well don’t that be just decadent. Gonna be stealing that for my ship.”

Bella moved to help Friday with the sails and the bedding. “I don’t know what we would have done without you,” she said to the Doctor.

“Had a few more casualties, but managed somehow,” Friday said gently. “Did well, you. Thankful for your help, I.”

“I’m not sure I would have gotten through my panic without you and Jack. I would have just hid in a closet,” Bella laughed sadly. 

“There be no shame in fear,” Friday said gently. “It shows us the truth of who we are. If we can accept it, fears can become strength. If we reject it, we reject ourselves. That is the only shame.”

Bella didn’t know what to say so she just shrugged. “I don’t feel very strong right now.”

“Saved lives tonight, you,” Friday said firmly. “If that is not strength, nothing is.”

“There any towels left?” Reeve asked from the other room.

“No, they were used for triage,” Doctor Kalfou answered over her shoulder.

“Well, you ladies are in for a show then.” The big man awkwardly squeezed through the doorway again, concealing his manhood with both hands. Belita opened up her footlocker and pulled out a flowing yellow skirt. She passed it to Reeve with an amused smile. He took it and held it in front of himself, looking a bit less uncomfortable. 

Doctor Kalfou began to look Reeve over. He was wounded in at least a dozen places. There were five puckered, angry-looking punctures, and even more ragged scratches from claws. There were even a few ugly-looking bite wounds. 

Doctor Kalfou’s eyes narrowed. “It seems you heal very quickly, Mister Reeve.” Every one of his wounds looked like it was at least a day old, rather than an hour. The shallow claw marks were barely more than scratches. The swollen and inflamed puncture wounds were the worst of them, but they still looked significantly better than the other sailors who had them.

Reeve nodded and tapped his tattoo-covered chest. “My Animus.” He paused and thought for a moment. “My, ah, guardian spirit? Mine likes blood. Makes me heal faster.”

“Well that is… useful,” Doctor Kalfou said, scanning her eyes over Reeve’s intricate tattoos. The pale patches of vitiligo on Reeve’s face, chest, and stomach made his tattoos very stark in contrast, but honestly Doctor Kalfou thought he looked a little like a patchwork quilt. From a distance he was just an odd collection of strange patterns and two-toned skin. This close to him, she could see how beautiful the ink really was. His body was covered in line after line of careful patterns. Waves. Islands. Shark fins. Overlapping diamonds like scales, or armor. At the center of it all, across his broad chest, was a pattern of triangles that looked very much like a shark’s mouth. 

Beneath it all were many pale scars. She knew from her own tattoos that scars could easily mar the art, but on Reeve every scar was beneath the ink. Including the fresh ones that were still forming. She leaned in and looked closer. It looked like the skin directly beneath the tattoos was actually healing a bit faster than the rest. 

“So there is magic in them?’ Doctor Kalfou asked. 

“In all Akula tattoos. Most are not so strong. Mine is,” Reeve explained. 

“Can see why you did not come see me sooner, I,” Doctor Kalfou said with a half-smile. It was hard not to be impressed. 

“My Animus is strong, but can only do so much. This is as much as I will heal with its help. For the rest, I come to you,” Reeve said with a small shrug.

“Well, might not like it, you. Stitches are best on fresh wounds. These punctures that have already started healing look inflamed. Going to have to flush them, I, which means opening them back up again,” Doctor Kalfou ran her curved stitching needle and a narrow-bladed knife through the flame of the candle on the nightstand. “Sit.”

Reeve looked a little exasperated, but sat on the bed. Bella started dragging the bloody sails and bedding out onto the deck, leaving the doctor to her last patient. 

The storm was still raging. Here, near the island on the inside of the reef, the waters were calm, but the rain and wind had picked up. It was a warm, southerly wind full of fat water drops that slapped the skin and splashed down so hard that the spray gave the deck of the ship a shallow haze. The last time she’d been out on the deck she’d been naked. The water on her skin had felt surprisingly nice. This time, her clothes began to feel heavy and clingy almost instantly. Her fatigue and worn nerves made the annoyance of wet clothes much more aggravating than it should have been. She didn’t really know what to do about the bloody mess she was half-carrying, half-dragging so she just dumped it by the mast. 

She was surprised at how busy the deck of the ship was. Danica North was directing about ten sailors who were dealing with the aftermath of the fight. The corpses of the grindylows were being dumped overboard, buckets of water were being used to rinse any blood away that was stubborn enough that the rain wasn’t taking care of it. 

“Just leave two,” Danica said to the swabs as Bella passed. “The doc wants them.”

“There,” Will said sharply from nearby. Curious, Bella turned around and looked up at the helm, squinting into the falling rain. In the faint light of the mast lantern she could see Will pointing toward the shore.

“I dinnae see anything,” Captain Vex said. Bella walked up the stairs, wondering what they were looking at.

Will handed the Captain the spyglass and reoriented the spotlight-lantern towards a group of trees. “See that stretch of treeline that splits up the beach?  There’s a break in the trees there. Looks mostly like a shadow from this angle, but I think there’s an inlet. Look at the water in front of the trees. There’s not much in the way of waves, but it’s enough to form an eddy at the mouth,” Will explained.

It took Captain Vex a few moments to find what Will was talking about before she answered. “I see it. Barely looks like anything. If that’s an inlet, I’m gonnae have tae swing wide and come at it from dead ahead. If I try tae come about too close, we’ll scrape those trees. I’ll need ye tae reef-spot for me.”

Will nodded and was about to reply when he noticed Bella. She gave them a small, tired wave.

“How are you holding up?” Will asked, looking concerned. 

“Not a scratch on me,” Bella shrugged. She looked down at her bloody clothes. “I’m just tired and need to get cleaned up.”

“I think the whole ship would agree with you,” Will said with a small smile.

“Belita, your bed got used as an operating table. We’re not going to want to sleep in it until it can be replaced or cleaned,” Bella said, cringing a little as she delivered the news. 

The Captain looked pained. “Go ask Mister North tae pull three hammocks and bedrolls for us.”

Bella nodded. “Where should I set them up?”

“Hold off on that. If Will is right, we won’t be sleeping on ship tonight,” Captain Vex said. Then she turned back to spying out at the oncoming eddy Will had found. “Let's thread this needle, Will,” she said, swinging the ship’s wheel and gently maneuvering the Kestrel closer to the inside of the reef.

Will gave Bella a nod and quickly unclamped the spotlight and hefted it over to the starboard outer rail. He bolted it back on again, and then started scanning the waterline below. 

Bella trudged back down the stairs in search of Mister North, and nearly ran into Jack as she and Quinn came out of her room in the lower hall. 

“Oh, hey,” Jack said, looking worried, relieved, and apprehensive. “I’m glad you’re here, I wanted to apologize for-”

“It’s alright, Jack,” Bella said, holding up a hand to cut the other woman off. “I’m not upset. There’s things to talk about, but they can wait.”

Jack looked relieved. “Where are you headed?”

“To find Mister North,” Bella said. “I’m trying to figure out where Will and I are going to sleep tonight.”

“I guess the Captain’s cabin isn’t really habitable right now,” Jack said, realizing the predicament. She threw her thumb over her shoulder. “North’s in the hold. Just follow the sounds of yelling.”

“Where are you headed?” Bella asked.

“The bilge,” Jack said, making a face that said exactly what she thought of her task.

“What’s a bilge?” Bella asked.

“It’s the lowest part of the ship, where all the runoff collects. There’s a pump down there. We’re going to see if we can put a dent in some of this flooding,” Jack explained.

Bella was impressed. “Will it work?”

“It will buy the crew more time,” Jack said.

“Time to what? I thought we weren’t in danger of sinking soon,” Bella asked.

“Salvage,” Jack said.

“What?” Bella was feeling like she was in over her head again. There was so much about ships that she just didn’t know.

“Go find North. It will be self-explanatory," Jack said. She was about to leave, but hesitantly added, “If you and Will need a place to sleep tonight, you can set up in my room. I don’t think the water will reach that far tonight. I left the door unlocked.”

There were a lot of reasons that Bella might have felt apprehensive or conflicted about the idea of sharing a sleeping space with Jack, but tonight she was too tired to care. She nodded. “Thanks.”

Jack gave her a small smile and headed down the hall, followed by the impassive Quinn.

Bella found Mister North in the main hold, shouting.

“I don’t care where you put them!” North bellowed. “Just keep the path to the stairs clear, and move everything to the aft. Priority now is to get everything that isn’t floating clear of the water. I want two pallets under everything. Stack them crates to the ceiling. Nail up some cargo nets and put all the sacks in them!”

The hole in the hull had been steadily letting in water. From what Bella understood it took a long time for a ship to actually sink from damage like that, but it was still a significant problem. The Kestrel was sitting in the water with her nose tilted downward. The forward crew berth was flooded. Water was spreading out the broken door and flooding across the floor of the hold. The whole hold had at least some standing water in it, and toward the prow it was close to knee-deep. Nearly all the crates were soaking up water, and some of them were starting to float.

The group of injured sailors were loitering near the entrance to the short hall where the doors to Jack and Morant’s rooms were. They had nowhere to go. Bella wasn’t about to interrupt Mister North right now. Getting hammocks could wait. She walked over to the injured group and said, “Follow me.”

Then she led them back to Jack’s door and opened it. “You can rest in here until Mister North is able to find you a better place.”

There was a smattering of thanks as they painfully headed into the room, sitting down on beds, footlockers, or just on the floor. The small room didn’t fit all of them. Bella’s brows furrowed in thought for a moment. She looked around the hall at the other three doors. She knew one of them was Morant’s room. The other two were being used by Morant’s group of porters. She knocked on the door across from Jack’s. After a few moments, a thickly built man with short-cropped brown hair answered.

He didn’t say anything. He just looked at her, glancing at her bloody clothes for a moment, and waited.

“We need to use your room as an infirmary for the injured for a little while,” she said. 

“We got our own injured,” the man said. 

“Did you go see Doctor Kalfou?” Bella asked. 

“There was a line. Mister Lynch took care of us,” the man said. 

“I’m  not going to disparage Mister Lynch’s medical skills, but your injured really should check in with Doctor Kalfou,” Bella said. 

The man nodded grimly. “You’re probably right. Still can’t let you in though. Lord Morant’s orders.”

Bella rolled her eyes in complete exasperation. Normally being non-confrontational was a carefully practiced survival skill. Between her fatigue and the aftermath of the stress she’d forced herself to endure, she no longer had any amount of patience. “Which door is his?” she said, over pronouncing every word to punctuate her annoyance. The man pointed across the hall at the door next to Jack’s, then shut his door. Bella looked pained. 

One of the injured sailors, a man with a broken leg she remembered dancing with on the deck a week and an eternity ago, gave her a thankful smile.  “Don’t go botherin’ a noble on account’a us, Miss Bella. You done more than enough for us tonight already.” 

Bella shook her head firmly. “You saved that noble’s life tonight. The least he could do is give you a place to sit down,” She moved to Morant’s door and hesitated only a moment before knocking firmly. 

Mister Lynch cracked the door a few moments later and peered implacably into the dim hall. “Yes?” 

“We need a place for the wounded to convalesce. Your porters won’t let them in,” Bella said firmly. 

“Ah. One moment,” Lynch said, then shut the door. It opened again a short while later. “Lord Morant’s answer is no. You will need to find another place for them.” The door shut again before Bella could reply. 

The witch’s eyes narrowed as she glared at the closed door. She turned back to the group of wounded sailors. “Wait here.” Then she headed back upstairs into the rain. On the deck, the large hatch doors were open and Danica was directing sailors and riggers in hauling crates out of the hold below with ropes and pulleys. Bella found the Captain still at the helm. She’d just finished steering the Kestrel in a wide arc and was straightening the ship out again. The ship was now pointed straight at the island. It was little more than a dark outline against the stormy sky.

“Clear over here. Looks like we avoided the reef,” Will said, quickly unclamping the spotlight lantern from the rail. “I’m going to the prow to light your way.” He hefted the lantern and ran down the steps without waiting for a reply

Captain Vex gave Bella a glance. The witch’s expression was very clear. “What’s got ye all mad?” the Captain asked. 

“Morant won’t let the wounded into any of his cabins,” Bella said.

Captain Vex looked frustrated and focused on the shoreline again. They were approaching the island fast, with no light yet. She could see the bobbing beam erratically lighting the deck as Will rushed to the prow. “I’m a little busy,” 

“You and everyone else!” Bella snapped. “The hold is flooded, there’s nowhere for them to go, most of them are barely conscious, and nobody is helping them!” 

Captain Vex’s eyes flicked to Bella, then back to the shore. Will was getting the lantern clamped but she still didn’t have a good view. “If’n I manage not tae crash the ship, they’ll have places tae sit down soon. Until then, put them back in my cabin.”

“You’re just going to let Morant do this?” Bella asked, surprised and upset.

“Aye, for now. Later there will be a reckoning, but first I have tae get the Kestrel safe tae ground,” Captain Vex said, never taking her eyes off the shore. Will’s lantern swept up and focused ahead, finally showing Captain Vex what she needed to see. Her aim was pretty good, but the waves had pushed the Kestrel off line. She turned to correct the course and hoped they had enough time to straighten out again. “Tell Mister Reeve to take over for Mister North, and tell Mister North I need him prepping us to sleep on shore.” 

Bella was frustrated, but nodded and headed back downstairs. As she reached the deck she heard the sounds of wood scraping on wood. They’d reached the inlet and suddenly trees loomed around them. A low branch dragged slowly down the railing, catching on every post before thumping to the next one. She ducked back down into the hold hall and gestured to the wounded. “We’re going back to the Captain’s cabin.” The wounded men looked at each other, then painfully followed her back upstairs again. 

She opened the Captain’s cabin door and ducked inside. Reeve was pulling on his pants while Doctor Kalfou poured a bucket of water on the floor to rinse away some of the blood. Reeve was bandaged in three places on his torso, and another two on his right arm.

“Mister Reeve, the Captain wants you to take over for Mister North,” Bella said.

Reeve grunted an acknowledgement. “She say anything about what we’re doing now?”

“Just that Mister North needs to prepare for the crew to sleep on shore,” Bella answered. 

“Good,” Reeve nodded. He picked up his hook and headed for the door. “Thanks again, Doc.”

As the big Bosun left, the wounded filed back in. Doctor Kalfou had managed to clear away most of the piles of cut-away clothing, amputated limbs, pools of blood, and other grim clutter. Bella sat down on the bed. She was used to staying awake through long rituals. Bonding her familiar had taken her nearly two full days. She’d always prided herself on her ability to keep focused. Tonight was testing her limits. It was the fear, and feeling like she was constantly in the way. Something had gone wrong at the end of her ritual, she had no idea if it had actually worked, and she still hadn’t had time to try to figure it out. It had been nothing but one crisis after another. Even now, with nothing left that she felt like she could help with, she still couldn’t let go of the knot of anxiety she’d been holding ever since she’d been recruited to help Doctor Kalfou with the wounded. 

She knew where it came from. She just didn’t want to think about it. Focusing on tasks, trying to help the wounded, it had been a good way of not thinking, but now there was nothing left but waiting, and trying not to think about it became thinking about it. She tried to breathe slowly and evenly, closing her eyes and focusing on calming herself. It didn’t help. If anything, it was making her feel worse. The room still smelled like blood and sweat. The walls felt like they were closing in. She abruptly got up and went back out into the rain. 

Her first thought was to head toward the prow where Will was, but as she got closer she could hear him calling directions back to the Captain, helping her correct the ship’s course as it moved down the narrow inlet. Now would be a very bad time to distract him. Besides, after she’d made such a big deal out of not worrying him so he could stay focused, going to him for support seemed like a poor choice. 

“Where’s the bilge?” she asked the nearest sailor, focusing hard on keeping her composure. 

He looked over his shoulder for a moment, seeming surprised at the question. He continued hauling on the rope in his hands, helping heft a cargo net full of supplies up from below, and gestured with his head. “In the hold. Just past the cabins, to the right. There’s a hatch in the floor.”

She thanked him and headed back below decks. She felt like she was going in circles. A small, mirthless laugh escaped her lips. It was an apt metaphor. Back and forth, round and round the ship, feeling like she was going nowhere, just like what she was feeling in her head. She found herself staring at the hatch in the floor without really remembering walking down the stairs or the hall. She wondered how long she’d been standing there. Recognition of what she was looking at finally dawned on her. Hanging from a hook above the hatch was Jack’s equipment harness, her hat, and her tri-barreled firearm. Quinn’s swords hung next to them. 

“You’re losing it, girl,” Bella muttered to herself.

She hauled on the hatch, opening it up. The smell that hit her was terrible. She made a face, and took a small breath with her head turned away, then called down. “Jack?” 

A few moments later she got an answer. “Yes?” Jack’s voice sounded strained. 

Bella wrinkled her nose and started climbing. “I’m coming down.”

“What? Why?” Jack called up to her. 

“I want to help,” Bella called back. 

“That’s a bad idea, Bella,” Jack replied.

“Why?” Bella stopped near the bottom of the latter. She couldn’t see the floor. She was climbing down into disgusting, brackish water. The smell was nauseating. The only light was from a lantern hanging from a hook on the wall. The room looked something like being inside a ribcage. Curving beams narrowed downward and disappeared into the water. In the direction of the prow, the blige extended past the lantern light, a narrow hallway full of water vanishing into the darkness. The waterline was angled. The further into the dark the hallway went, the higher the water was. By the time the light ran out it was nearly to the ceiling. Toward the stern she could see Jack and Quinn up to their ribs in the disgusting brine, doing something to a set of pipes that were mounted to the back wall.

“I just… need something to do.” Bella didn’t know what else to say. 

Jack looked back at her, concern on her face. “Are you wounded? Hurt in any way?” 

“No, I don’t think so, why?” Bella asked. Jack had a way of asking completely unexpected questions. It gave Bella’s mind something to do besides spin, and in that moment she found that she was already starting to feel a little better.

“This water is just waiting to cause an infection. Do you have another set of clothes?” Jack continued. 

“One more, yes,” Bella said.

“Alright. Come on down,” Jack shrugged, still sounding dubious. “Step careful. It’s deeper than you think. You won’t be able to touch bottom in the middle. You’ll need to walk on the curve of the walls, or tread water.”

Bella made a face and lowered her foot into the cold, slimy water. “Why is the room shaped like this?”

“Because this is what ships are shaped like under the waterline,” Jack said. “The keel is right beneath us, and the hull curves out from it.”

Bella looked at the room again. Now the strange shape of it made sense. It hadn’t even occurred to her that they were underwater. “So what are we doing?”

“Trying to fix the bilge pump,” Jack answered, turning back to her work. “The water rose too high, now it’s flooded.” 

“How can I help?’ Bella asked. Her skirts lifted in the water and billowed around her as she sunk deeper into the murk. She found the curve of the walls and awkwardly made her way towards Jack, using the rib-like beams as hand-holds. With how much the room was angled, it was almost like climbing.

“We’re trying to extend the intake pipe with some spare sections. You can help hold tools we aren’t using at the moment,” Jack explained. 

Bella trudged through the water. “Alright.”

All she could see of what they were working on was part of a handle sticking out of the water. “That looks like the bathtub pump in the Captain’s washroom,” Bella said. 

Jack nodded. “They’re all the same system. The bathtub pipe pumps seawater in. These other pipes pump bilgewater out.” She was crouched a bit, submerged to the neck and working blindly below the surface of the water. Quinn stood next to her with a large wrench in one hand, three lengths of pipe cradled in the other, and a satchel hanging from his shoulder.

“What are you doing?” Bella asked.

“Trying to find the right pipe,” Jack said. “I think I have it. Can you take that stuff from Quinn?”

“You’re adding more pipes?” Bella asked. Quinn passed her the three pipes and the satchel. They were all surprisingly heavy.

“Do you know how a water pump works?” Jack asked.

“No. Well, sort of. Will has one in the lighthouse. It draws water up from barrels at the bottom,” Bella replied. 

“Exactly,” Jack nodded. “Right now we’re inside the barrel. It works by drawing in air and using it to push the water through the pipe. The problem is that the air intake is submerged.” She took Quinn’s hand and guided it below the surface, letting him feel whatever it was that he’d found.

“Oh,” Bella said. She didn’t really understand how it all worked, but she could see how pulling water in and pushing it back out wouldn’t really do anything if the goal was to get rid of the water.

Quinn and Jack switched places. Quinn’s wrench disappeared below the surface. He fiddled with it underwater, and a moment later he started pulling on it. 

“So why is the air thing so low?” Bella asked. 

“It isn’t. It’s about five feet off the floor. Usually that’s plenty, and still keeps the intake at a reasonable level for repairs. The bilge isn’t supposed to get anywhere near this full,” Jack explained. 

Quinn reached out of the water towards Bella. She stared at his hand for a moment before figuring out what he wanted, then handed him a length of pipe. It disappeared below the water.

After a few moments Quinn shook his head. “This is not going to work, Mistress.”

“Why not?” Jack asked.

“The intake faces out. We need it to face up,” Quinn said. 

Jack’s eyes narrowed in thought. “Find the elbow pipe. Turn it.”

“I did, Mistress,” Quinn said. “It is also connected to this one.” He reached out of the water and tapped one of the pipes mounted to the walls.

Jack looked pained. “They ran the captain’s washroom to the same intake.”

Bella was not following the conversation at all so she just stood there holding the extra pipes. Quinn waited patiently while Jack thought. A moment later Jack’s face lit up. “Wait, this is good! Let me in.” She crouched next to Quinn and her hands disappeared below the water again. “We can remove this pipe here, and run the intake pipe straight to it.”

Quinn followed Jack’s hands and looked up at a pipe disappearing into the ceiling. “I think I see.” He handed the length of pipe back to Bella and started to work beneath the water again. For a while they were all silent. The hollow ping of the wrench occasionally knocking against the pipes beneath the water echoed against the rounded walls. Then Quinn handed Bella another length of pipe. This one had a three-way connection attached to it, and another short length with an odd-shaped bulb on the end. He traded that one for the one he’d handed back to her previously. 

Bella looked at the odd section of pipe she’d just been handed. “Is that the… intake?”

“Yes,” Jack said, holding her hand beneath the water to help Quinn fit the other pipe into whatever they were working on.

“It’s going to be too short now,” Quinn said.

“I know,” Jack nodded. “We’ll bring the next section above down to it. Then the gap will be out of the water.”

“It will still be too short,” Quinn pointed out.

“I know,” Jack said. “You’ll see.”

Bella felt like she was listening to a secret code. She understood each word, but the meaning was completely lost on her. Quinn nodded and kept working. A short while later he finished and looked up. “How do you want to disconnect the upper section?”

“Lift me?” Jack asked. Quinn nodded and handed Jack the wrench, then picked her up by the waist like she weighed nothing. He lifted her above his head and settled her onto his shoulders. Bella’s brows rose at the show of strength, but Jack rode it out like it was normal. Once she was settled she reached up a bit and clamped the wrench onto the pipe where the two sections joined just above her head. It took quite a bit of straining and leaning back to put her weight behind her efforts, but eventually the pipe turned. After that, the work was short. Jack disconnected the upper section and handed it down to Quinn, then slid off his shoulders and down his back. He lowered the section of pipe about six inches into the water and started connecting it. Bella tilted her head, starting to understand. 

“So, that pipe is now attached to where the air intake was?” she asked.

“Yes,” Jack nodded, catching her breath from the work she’d done disconnecting the pipe. 

“So that’s it. Now the pump can get air into the pipes?” Bella asked.

“Well, no,” Jack said. “We had to disconnect the pump handle when we pulled out the intake. So right now air can get into the pipe, but there’s no way to push it along.”

“So you have to reconnect the handle?” Bella asked, feeling lost again.

“Sort of. I don’t think we’d be able to reconnect the pump handle with the parts we have. It’s in the wrong place to do what we need it to do,” Jack said. “But there’s another pump handle upstairs, so we’re connecting to that.”

“The washroom,” Bella smiled, finally feeling like she understood what they were doing.

“Exactly. We are turning the captain’s bathtub into the outflow for the bilge.”

Bella giggled. “She is going to hate that.”

“Well, she might be able to salvage her ship if this works,” Jack shrugged. 

Quinn finished connecting the pipe. Now there was a six-inch gap between the one he’d just reconnected, and the one above it running into the ceiling. 

“That doesn’t look good,” Bella said. “Wait, why is there a gap now?”

“There was a gap below, you just couldn’t see it under the water. That was where we removed the intake. So we moved the pipe section down to get the gap up there instead,” Jack explained. 

“How’s that help? There’s still a gap,” Bella asked

Quinn gave her a small nod and a look that might have been appreciation for vindicating what he’d tried to point out earlier.

“Because now I can see it,” Jack smiled. “Watch. Quinn, I need to stand on your shoulders.”

Quinn made a stirrup with his hands and Jack stepped into them. Then she put her foot on his shoulder as he lifted. A few moments later she was standing on his shoulders, roughly face-level with the gap between the pipes, leaning on the wall for balance. Quinn held Jack’s ankles and stoically ignored the disgusting water dripping onto his head from her clothes. 

“Bella, in that satchel there’s a roll of oily cloth, and a couple of pipe clamps. Hand them here,” Jack said, reaching down towards her.

Bella scrounged through the bag until she found what Jack was looking for and passed them to Quinn who carefully handed them up to Jack. Bella watched in amazement while Jack balanced like an acrobat and wound the oily cloth around the gap in the pipe, over and over, layering it tightly, creating a makeshift tube from it. Then she used the pipe clamps to seal the cloth to the pipes. It only took a few minutes to finish, then Jack stepped down into Quinn’s waiting hands and lowered herself back down into the water. 

Jack was grinning with satisfaction. “There. It’s going to leak a bit, but it should work well enough. Let's go try it out,” 

“Did you just make a pipe out of a rag and some weird metal bits?” Bella asked, not really sure what she’d just watched.

Jack laughed, “Well, I wouldn’t describe it quite like that, but yes.”

Jack’s pride and happiness made Bella’s heart ache. The night had been so challenging that it felt like forever since she’d felt anything good, and now there she was face to face with that self-satisfied grin that always used to drive her crazy. It was so familiar, but so far away, and yet right in front of her. Something inside her felt like a dam breaking. She didn’t even notice as the pipes she was holding tumbled out of her hands into the water. She threw her arms around Jack and buried her face against her neck, sobbing. Jack stiffened for a moment, then returned the embrace. 

“You alright?” Jack asked.

“No. I’m really not,” Bella choked.

Jack just held her quietly while she cried it all out. The fear, the confusion, the bitter ache she’d been carrying since Jack had first showed up back in Bastard’s Bay, the resentment she still couldn’t let go of, the helplessness and panic that she’d bottled up in order to help the wounded, and the relief from coming so close to death tonight. All of it poured out onto Jack’s dirty, wet shirt. 

Eventually she ran out of tears. All she could do was gently shake her head against Jack’s neck.

“It’s going to be fine. We survived,” Jack said, gently stroking Bella’s wet hair. 

Bella tilted her head up, brought her hands to Jack’s face and pulled their lips together. Jack tensed again, but relaxed and gently kissed her back. When they stopped, Jack leaned back to look at Bella. There were tears in Jack’s eyes too, but her happy smile was even wider. Bella watched as worry crept in. “You sure you’re not going to regret that later?” Jack asked.

“We almost died,” Bella said. “That puts a lot of things into perspective.” 

“It always does,” Jack nodded. 

“I’m never going to get what I want if I can’t let go of the past,” Bella said, full of self-admonishment and determination. 

“What is it that you want?” Jack asked.

Bella blinked back more tears and paused, trying to find the right words. After a moment she smiled sadly. “A family.”

Jack’s brows rose. Then she looked down at herself. “Well, I can’t really help with... that. Wrong plumbing.”

Bella’s eyes went wide. “What? No, that’s not-” She rolled her eyes in exasperation. “Just… shut up.” Bella kissed her again, feeling Jack’s laughter against her lips. The dam that had broken inside Bella had left her feeling drained. This kiss began to fill her up again, this time with something good. The emptiness she’d been carrying around for years felt gone. She didn’t know if it would be back, but it didn’t matter. A powerful joy bubbled up inside her and escaped as laughter, mirroring Jack's. Suddenly the two women found themselves giggling into each other’s lips. When it had finally run its course, they rested their foreheads against each other. 

“In all the ways I dreamed of this moment happening, I never imagined it inside a stinking bilge,” Jack grinned.

Bella wrinkled her nose and laughed. “I don’t care.”

“Me either,” Jack shrugged and kissed her again. “We still have work to do, though.”

Bella sighed and let Jack go. She did a double-take as she saw Quinn and remembered he was there. He’d watched the entire scene. She wasn’t even sure he’d moved. His eyes were the same inscrutable darkness they always were. “Sorry for all that,” she said with a shrug. 

Quinn raised a single eyebrow. “I do not understand your apology.”

“I felt like I should apologize for…” Bella trailed off, not able to find the words. “It’s just a little strange being watched like that.”

“Then the apology should be mine. Would you like me to turn away in the future?” Quinn asked. 

“Well, no. I suppose not. I’m just… I forgot you were there watching and got embarrassed,” Bella admitted.

“I did not anticipate your discomfort at being watched,” Quinn said.

Bella glanced at Jack, questioningly, not sure what to say. Jack laughed and shrugged. “You did just do a naked ritual in front of the whole ship.”

“That’s different!” Bella insisted.

Jack smiled. “You two are really going to have to get to know each other better.”

“I don’t usually feel self-conscious,” Bella sighed. “It always catches me by surprise, which, of course, makes it worse. I got so lost in the moment, I forgot that it wasn’t private. That’s embarrassing. Also, I know you two are… together. Most people don’t like when their partners kiss other people. I’ve had enough jealousy aimed at me over the years to feel nervous at the possibility of it.”

“Quinn, what do you think of what just happened?” Jack asked, looking pointedly at Bella as she spoke. 

“I am glad for your happiness, Mistress. This reconciliation has been something you have desired the entire time I have known you,” Quinn said. 

“You aren’t jealous?” Jack asked.

“Of course not,” Quinn said, sounding a bit offended. 

“Why not?” Jack continued.

“Jealousy is selfishness. Love should be selfless,” Quinn answered firmly. 

Jack raised a knowing eyebrow toward Bella. “See?”

Bella laughed and rolled her eyes. “Alright, you’ve made your point.” She smiled at the green warrior. “You are different than I thought you were, Mister Quinn.”

“Thank you,” Quinn said with a nod.

“Well, I’m going to go see if the pump works. You two can stay down here in the stink and awkwardly dance around your questions and answers for as long as you want,” Jack snarked. 

“How about we put that off for later?’ Bella asked Quinn. The big man nodded again, faint amusement showing on his stoic face. 

The three of them trudged back towards the ladder.

______________________________

The Kestrel sat in a lagoon surrounded by drooping, wide-leafed trees. She was roped to a thick trunk near her bow with her keel resting comfortably on the shallow, sandy bottom. The storm was waning. The rain still fell, but was less fierce. Her crew was just finishing getting the crates up on deck and lowering the gangplank down to the shore. 

Captain Vex was lying on the back bench of the aftcastle with her tricorn hat covering her face. She listened to the raindrops hit it and shivered slightly in the cold. She was tired. There was a lot to deal with still, but she knew she needed to sleep. The trouble was, she didn’t know if she could. So many of her crew had died, and she could not stop thinking about it.

“We’re ready to go ashore, Captain,” Danica’s voice said. 

Belita pushed her hat back and peered out from beneath it, then nodded. “Go ahead. Get th’ crew situated. I’ll follow.” Danica nodded and vanished from Belita’s periphery. She put her hat over her face again and lay there, trying to muster the will to move.

Eventually it was the cold that did it. Without the struggle for survival to focus on and keep the body warm, the chill set in. It was a summer storm, so it wasn’t all that cold, but the wind at night on wet clothes eventually became impossible to ignore. She’d started to shiver so she sat up with a small groan. Her body was tired from the long, stressful night She fixed her hat, took a breath, and forced herself to walk tall and proud before she came into the view of any of her crew. Sometimes the show was all she had left.

The moment she was through the door of her cabin, the performance dropped. Her shoulders sagged and her mouth opened. Her room was a wreck. The floor was wet. Her rug was sopping and bloodstained. Smears of red arced across every wall where wounded sailors had leaned or slumped. Her bed was stripped to the mattress, which was also decorated with splatters where the layers of sailcloth had soaked through. Her navigation desk was dismantled and tossed haphazardly in a corner. A pile of wet laundry sat unceremoniously in a corner. The whole room stank like the bilge.

All she could manage to say was “Wha?” 

Bella’s face leaned out from the washroom door frame. “Belita!” The witch’s eyes tracked the Captain’s expression, and followed her gaze around the room. “Things got messy,” Bella said apologetically.

“Aye, that was expected, but why does it smell so bad?” Belita asked.

“Well, the… intake? Was underwater,” Bella tried to remember the right way to describe what Jack had done. “So Jack and Quinn disconnected it. They tried to attach other pipes to get it above the water, but that didn’t work. So she connected it to your bathtub.”

One of Belita’s eyes narrowed as she ran through her own knowledge of how the bilge pump worked. She knew how to use it, but she didn’t know how to fix it. She paid other people for that. Still, she understood enough to follow what Bella was saying. “So my bathtub is now pumping up bilgewater?”

Bella nodded, looking apologetic. “I’ve been in here pumping it since Jack got it working.”

“Well ye have my thanks, but ye can stop now, we’re beached so we’ll nay be sinking. We can take our time pumping out the rest,” Belita said.

Bella walked out into the bedroom. She was naked. “So what now?”

Captain Vex considered asking the witch why she wasn’t wearing any clothes, but decided against it when she remembered who she was talking to. She shrugged. “We go ashore and get some rest.”

“Oh thank the stars.” Bella breathed a sigh of relief. 

Captain Vex eyed her footlocker. Normally that would have been taken ashore by her crew. Mister North must have forgotten to give the order, or hadn’t gotten to it yet. After the night they’d all had, Belita wasn’t going to bring it up. “Ye might want tae get dressed before we go ashore.”

Bella shook her head. “I want to wash off first. I only have one set of dry clothes left and I’m covered in bilgewater.”

“Fair enough,” Captain Vex said with a small, amused smile. “Put your locker on top of mine. We’ll carry them out together.”