The Captain

seventeen

We climbed back on board the ship. Charlie and Dalt had clearly been successful in their quest for alcohol, as it was the first scent I noticed. 

"Florence! Bonnie! I'm so glad you're back!" Charlie slurred, grinning at us. 

"Oh god. You got your hands on some rum, didn't you?" Bonnie asked. 

Charlie just giggled and danced away. 

She sighed, smiling after him.

"These idiots are gonna get us arrested. We need to leave before whoever probably alerted the navy that we're here."

She took two strong strides.

"Dalt. Dalton. Look at me."

His eyes were nearly crossed. 

"Wassup?"

"Where are Maverick and Ernie?"

He shrugged and pulled away from her. Someone was playing the fiddle above us. Turning to look, I saw Tim's tiny hands flying over the strings as he sang along drunkenly. 

"Ladies! Join the party!" Charlie was back, swinging Bonnie around. 

Bonnie actually blushed for a second before detaching his grasp from her arm. 

"You're drunk, Charlie."

"You're preeettyyyyy," he drawled, stumbling a little. 

She looked down.  

"You're only saying that because you're wasted, Charlie. Move please."

She sat him down gently. 

Suddenly, Maverick burst through the door to the lower deck, singing along with whatever Tim was singing. 

"Oh god, they got the captain drunk," she muttered. 

I glanced at him, marvelling at how free he looked, all the weight gone from his shoulders and light in his eyes.

"Oh god. Okay, I'm gonna go get Ernie, we're gonna get out of here. Untie us from the dock, okay?"

"On it," I said quickly, swinging myself over the side and making quick work of the knots keeping the Revenge tethered to the dock.

Once the rope was free, I tossed it onto the deck and hauled myself up, pushing off the rotting wood and onto the deck. 

"We're clear, Bonnie!" I called. 

She had, mercifully, found Ernie, Nell and Bastien. I joined the group, dodging a very drunk Dalt.

"Why would they not wait until we were away from the port?" I asked.

Bastien rolled his eyes. 

"Because they've never had terribly good impulse control and we've been out of rum for a few weeks. Maverick doesn't usually drink this much, I don't know what he's doing."

Nell looked at the chaos, wooden spoon in hand. 

"We'll get this up and running in no time."

Bonnie nodded. 

"Okay, let's move people. Florence, you aren't experienced with raising the mainsail yet, so I'm gonna have you up in crows making sure there's no one following us."

"On it," I said, beginning to scale the side. 

Bastien, Ernie and Bonnie got started on the sails, while Nell, the legend, went around smacking everyone with her spoon.