Tainted Tides

Chapter 33

*Dec's POV *

The upper deck swarmed with crew as everyone prepared for their day while shovelling food into their mouths. I sat on the forecastle deck, nibbling on a softening apple while Stephen a d Robbie stood beside me, looking out at the horizon. Soon, Ant joined us and turned to the lower deck, watching his crew scramble after finally resuming his captaincy of the ship. As he stood in silence, the busied movies below slowly began to still and watch, waiting for Ant to speak as he seemed to be planning. As the deck stilled completely, Ant finally spoke a few simple words, "it's good to be back."

The crew burst into a short cheer before they were once again silenced by Ants raised palm, "for those of you still here, thank you for your loyalty and support through my recovery. Moreover, thank you for making Robbie's life easier while I was ill- lord knows you lot can be a handful," Ant chuckled earning a small laugh from the crew, "now, we will be arriving at the sirenic isles either this evening or early tomorrow morning. We will try to make sure we don't arrive in the dead of night. Carry on with regular duties until I tell you otherwise."

Ant turned away and came to sit beside me, draping his healthy arm over my shoulder and earning a small gag from Stevie beside us.

"I will cut you, Stevie." Ant grumbled from my side.

"Aim for my eyes so I don't have to see this shit," Stevie replied.

Ant turned to look at Stevie with a shocked and annoyed expression, "really? On my first day back?"

"Whaaatt?" Stephen asked dumbly.

With a sigh and a shake of his head, Ant grumbled out, "nothing. Carry on." I giggled softly and turned my head to bury my nose in Ants neck- only partially out of spite of Stevie- until it was time to return to my regular duties.

I walked through the dark corridors, subconsciously navigating my way to the workshop. At this point, I could navigate my way by the smell of sawdust alone. As I entered the warmly lit, dusty room I spared Phil a glance and a short nod, "g'morning Phil."

"Good morning, Declan..." He paused to examine me through his lashes before returning to his work, "and Mozzletov... Seems like you've lost your 'innocence', as you like to put it."

My face flushed bright red and I looked at Phil like I was staring at a stampeding herd of bulls. I had no idea how he knew but the confusion had knocked me breathless. The all-knowing Philip Schofield put me out of my misery and spoke with a sly smile, "you've been parading around with a love bite on your neck all morning- ought to cover that up with some grease and sawdust, eh?" My hand instantly flew to my neck, clasping around the side before Phil spoke once again through his poorly masked laugh, "Other side, Declan." I bowed my head in defeat and that had apparently been the last straw for Phil as he finally let out a deep laugh. I couldn't help but smile along while covering the love bite with some grease and sawdust in a discrete manner.

With silence restored, Phil and I got busy. I found that since we left Charles behind, Phil had been giving me increasing responsibility. As if he wanted to remind me that I was capable of handling anything that could be thrown at me - As if he was proving to me I could handle it on my own if I needed to. As my hands busied with the tools, my mind wandered to everything Phil had done for me. Trained me, believed in me, treated me like a son, even saved my life. I smiled to myself in silence, knowing that my luck had finally turned around and that I had finally gotten the father figure I needed.

Time flew by as it usually did with my hands on autopilot and my mind wandering through thoughts of my loved ones. Soon enough, lunch time rolled around and I walked out of the workshop, headed deeper below deck. As much as I loved eating my lunch in the fresh air, there was something I needed to do first.