Prison of the Mind

Fracture

The pirate city was lit with dancing flames and laughter that carried through the darkness, strung along by smoky gusts of wind, as the Voyager came to a slow stop next to the dock. The ripples in the water fractured and bent with orange and yellow streaks of light, illuminating the depths of the bay like a teasing wink, over and over.

He had always liked this city. The chaos made a sort of calm wash over him, something he had never felt during his stay in the Royal Navy. There were no rules here, no orders, no structure, so he could make his own rules as he saw fit.

The gangway had just been lowered, and the Navy tars, disguised as pirates, poured off of the ship no doubt eager for their first taste of freedom. He still stood at the helm with his back leaning against it, contemplating...things.

Things like the current whereabouts of Elizabeth, even though he was not watching to see where she fled off to, nor was he concerned with whether she was coming back or not.

At least, that is what he tried to tell himself. Currently, his inner argument was leaning towards searching for her, but to what end he couldn't pin down. There was no trying to reason with her at the moment, not with Lucifer's poison in her mind. She would most likely flee from him the moment she became aware of his presence anyway.

It was a bit frightening the way he appeared to have no control over how he felt about her, and it was even more frightening that he felt what he did towards her at that moment. An alarming urge to comfort her, to let her in, to stop being angry with her. But, he had already started doing that, against his better judgment, he thought. When she had broken into his cabin, two weeks ago he might have...done things he would have regretted, but instead, he just snickered at her.

Then, when she accused him of...that, he would have normally told her to go back to Will, or find someone else more worthy of her time, or some other snide comment, but instead, he acted as neutrally as he possibly could, just telling her to leave, not for his own good, but for hers. There was no use for her to be around him if just his presence made her feel uncomfortable.

She was getting under his skin, breaking through the walls that he had put up to...he couldn't decide if it made him feel relieved or uneasy.

The way that Lucifer had treated her, the way that he had planted ideas about him in her head, how he would be careless with her were he to take her virginity, how he would dump her at some port or other after he got tired of her, still made his skin crawl, not quite voluntarily. The way that she looked at him like he was dangerous, made him..he wasn't sure what it made him.

"Cap'n?"

He turned to look at the man that he had taken over the captaincy from. As it turned out, Groves wasn't terrible company, warming to the ways aboard a pirate ship with astonishing speed, even embracing them. Perhaps the man had been considering turning pirate even before being forced.

"Aye?"

"How long d'you suppose we are going to be in Tortuga for?"

The question wasn't how long they would be in Tortuga, it was how long he would be in Tortuga.

"Well, Theodore, how well can you keep a secret?"

His face twisted in confusion. "Reasonably well, why?"

"You lot can stay here as long as you like, doesn't matter to me. I won't be around to care. I'm leaving, for Port Royal, as soon as I am able," he explained, pushing off of the helm to face him.

"For Port Royal?" You have business there?"

"Aye...business, if you would like to call it that."