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Stede sat anxiously next to Izzy as Roach examined him, trying not to tap his foot or do anything else distracting, lest he get yelled at again. It wasn’t his fault though! He had legitimate concerns about this pregnancy.
Sure, Izzy Hands was a tough bastard, but he was also 52 and heavily pregnant. Any number of things could go wrong, especially on the high seas.
Stede just didn’t want him to get hurt. He was a very special first mate and an even more special… partner? They hadn’t quite settled on a label but things were very serious. They were having a baby together.
Him, Izzy, and Ed.
Their relationship had started casual- a lot of love-making in the dead of night. It made a lot of sense at the time. Stede and Izzy worked closely as captain and first mate, and often in the captain’s cabin where Ed could be found hanging around. Stede had been worried at the start with those two’s… contentious relationship in the past, but they had become friends, really genuine friends. It was nice having people to talk to at night and share a drink or two after storytime.
Then the sex started, and Stede was in heaven. He got to be between two beautiful, gorgeous men who for some reason liked him back. Truthfully he wanted to make things official and have Izzy be in every part of their relationship.
But before he could broach the subject with Ed, both Ed and Izzy went cold around the same time. Stede was used to a bit of moodiness from either of them but this was different. It went on for longer and was much more intense. Ed didn’t want to talk and Izzy couldn’t stand to be in the same room as him. It scared him.
His fear was that it was all over, that Ed and Izzy had decided they didn’t need him anymore. Why would they want someone as unremarkable as Stede when they had each other? He spent days on edge just waiting for the other shoe to drop, until one evening when Izzy stormed into the captain’s cabin with the entire crew following behind him. That’s when he told Stede and Ed that he was pregnant and that they just had to deal with it.
Stede was surprised of course, but he found himself happier the more he thought about it. Of course, he would never have had a negative reaction to Izzy’s face, even with the crew circling around them, stroking their assorted knives and guns. Truthfully, he was more worried about how Ed would react given his troubled childhood.
His worries for naught because it immediately became clear that Ed was absolutely delighted by the news.
In the following months, a lot changed. For one, Izzy officially moved into the captain’s cabin with them. It was a hard pill for Stede to swallow when he saw that all of Izzy’s belongings fit into one sack with plenty of room to spare. Ed insisted that he needed to sleep in the middle of them as a barrier, because apparently Stede was a sleep kicker and Ed didn’t want him to kick Izzy. It was a tight squeeze, but with a bit of creative positioning they managed to make it work. Stede always kept one arm wrapped around Ed to reach across to Izzy.
Everyone was a little bit more protective of Izzy but no one was doing it quite like Ed. Ed was committed to keeping Izzy safe, even from seemingly nonexistent threats. He went everywhere with Izzy and usually kept at least one hand on him, wrapped around his waist or tangled in his hair. It was as if he thought Izzy would vanish if Ed wasn’t there to keep him here.
Stede wasn’t the only one who noticed Ed’s newfound clinginess, but just like him the crew didn’t quite know what to do. It wasn’t like Izzy seemed to mind.
The hard part was when Ed’s obsession strayed away from simple protectiveness to something more… sensual. Ed had said many a-time to Stede how hot he found Izzy pregnant.
“He’s just perfect now,” Ed had said casually at the market when Stede caught him staring wistfully.
“I don’t know how anyone could resist him,” Ed had said after Stede mentioned the very obvious bite marks on Izzy’s neck.
“Have you seen his tits?” Ed had said, completely unprompted.
It was becoming more and more common for Stede to return to their quarters at the end of the day to find Ed’s hand wrapped firmly around Izzy’s tit or shoved down Izzy’s leather trousers. The two had become inseparable.
In fact, the only reason Ed wasn’t there for Izzy’s checkup was so that he could get him tea. Ed’s new thing was that he made tea for everyone.
Roach listened to Izzy’s breathing and heartbeat, his (Izzy’s) shirt removed. Stede had to admit that although his lust wasn’t as insatiable as Ed’s, he did find Izzy to be absolutely stunning pregnant. His tits had swollen up and his round stomach was tantalizing with the hair spread across it and the stretch marks lining it. He was also absolutely glowing.
“How is the baby?” Stede asked, before adding, “Or… babies?”
Roach raised an eyebrow.
“Babies?”
Izzy huffed. “He’s convinced it’s fucking twins because of how big I’ve gotten.”
“It’s just that when Mary was pregnant-”
“Don’t you fucking dare compare me to your wife-”
“Ex-wife-”
“Oh like that makes it any fucking better-”
“Okay,” Roach said loudly, shutting down the argument. “As of now, nothing I’ve seen indicates that you’re having twins. Every pregnancy is a little different, so don’t be surprised if Izzy isn’t like… others.”
“There,” Izzy said smugly.
“If you say so,” Stede said. He wasn’t convinced but he knew better than to argue with the ship’s only doctor and only chef.
The door swung open and Ed walked in with a tray of teas in hand. His hair was pulled back in the same twist he seemed to prefer these days, and he wore a flowy purple top tucked into soft pants. Ed had retired his leathers for the most part, except for the jacket that he wore on special occasions.
“Here you are, Iz,” Ed said, passing him one of the cups and kissing his forehead.
“Finally,” Izzy grumbled, but there was a thick blush spreading across his face.
Roach packed up his medical supplies and threw it over his shoulder.
“Whelp, I’m out,” he said, kicking the door shut behind him.
“What’s his problem?” Ed asked.
Stede hummed thoughtfully. “I think he just doesn’t want a repeat of the… storytime incident.”
Ed scoffed. “Oh my gosh, it was not that big of a deal. Everyone is blowing that way out of proportion.”
He shrugged, but truthfully it was at least a little bit of a big deal. Last week Ed and Izzy had declined to join him and the crew out on deck for storytime. Stede hadn’t thought much of it and went out on his own, excited to read his original story about a prickly gray seahorse making friends with a colorful school of fish.
He was only part way through the first chapter when the moaning started. The ship was sound-proof enough, but not enough when one was yelling.
~ “And so Little Seahorsezy swam to the coral to meet the Gentleman Fish-”
“Edward, Edward, Edward,” Izzy moaned, the name coming out like a prayer.
“Iz, oh fuck, Iz.”
The crew collectively groaned.
“I- er- Octobeard was so impressed by the story Seahorsezy told him that he wanted to meet the fish himself. And so Little Seahorsezy swam-”
“You already read that part,” Wee John said, his voice dripping with annoyance.
“O-oh… erm… The Gentleman Fish stood tall in the face of-“
“Well now that’s too far,” Pete yelled.
Stede gaped at his crew that was now growing increasingly restless. That wouldn’t do.
“Captain,” Oluwande said gently. “Maybe you want to call it a night here?”
“What? But we’re barely partway through the first chapter!”
Oluwande smiled at Stede but it felt like a grimace.
“I just think we should stop here and you can get some rest,” he said.
“Why would we stop-“
“Olu’s being nice,” Lucius interrupted. “We can see your dick.”
The deck went silent as Stede slowly looked down at his pants. Sure enough, his erection was straining against the fabric and leaving very little to the imagination.
“I- I- I think we should call it here for the night,” Stede stammered, using the book to cover himself.
He hurried off to the captain’s cabin in shame, barely even registering the voices chattering behind him. The next day was horribly awkward as Stede tried to captain. As much as he wanted that to be a nightmare, it was clear that it had happened and everyone had remembered it.
Stede had told Ed and Izzy about that… once they were no longer indisposed, but neither had seemed too concerned. Ed even found it funny. Neither seemed to feel the same embarrassment that Stede did.
“How was the checkup? Izzy and little Jack okay?” Ed asked in the present.
Stede and Izzy both glared at him.
“Everything’s fine,” Izzy said coldly. “Except there’s no little Jack.”
“Oh come on. It’s a good name! And if the baby is a girl, we’ll name her Jackie!”
“I don’t want to name the baby after anyone that hates me,” Stede said, the image of a baby trying to cut off his nose flashing through his mind.
“I don’t want to name the baby after anyone,” Izzy muttered under his breath.
“Besides,” Stede continued, “I think you should pick names that aren’t so similar in the event that-”
“It’s not twins!”
“I think it would be neat if it was triplets,” Ed said, rubbing Izzy’s bump reverently. “That way we’d each get one to hold.”
Stede did get a good chuckle out of Izzy’s horrified expression.
Later Stede was captaining up a storm, directing the crew and making sure things were getting done. He had a leadership meeting with Frenchie, the interim first mate, and Oluwande, the part-time quartermaster. They’d settled on a port to head to and what route to take. Stede was excited to go tell Izzy about what a good job he’d done.
But the route he’d taken led him past the galley where Fang and Ivan were. In a split second he heard more than he was ever meant to.
“Did Blackbeard say that?” Ivan asked, his voice low and hushed.
“Well no, but he said a bunch of weird things one night,” Fang said hurriedly. “He was on deck, staring out at the sea, so I went and asked him if he was okay.”
“And?”
“He started going on and on about how he had to do what needed to be done and that he wasn’t going to let everything fall apart. Then he looked at me, and his eyes were just terrible. They were blank and empty like they were when he was… you know…”
Ivan gasped. “What? Why didn’t you tell anyone? He could have killed you!”
Stede frowned, instantly defensive over Ed. He knew he didn’t get to do that after what Ed had done to them but it was instinctive. He saw the best in Ed even when no one else did, even when Ed didn’t see it.
Of course, he now knew that Izzy saw the same things he did in Ed as well. That was just love.
“I did tell someone! I went straight to Boss and told him Blackbeard was acting funny!”
“Did he do anything?”
“Yeah,” Fang said, taking a drink of whatever was in his cup. “He grabbed his sword and his gun and went out there to talk to him. Izzy told me to wait inside but I watched them from behind a pillar.”
“What happened? They’re both still kicking so it couldn’t have been too bad.”
“That’s just it: nothing happened. Izzy went to talk to him and suddenly Blackbeard was perfectly fine.”
“And Izzy just bought that?” Ivan asked skeptically.
“Boss told me that Blackbeard was fine and just needed a minute to clear his head. And then he was; that look on his face was gone. The next thing I knew Izzy was pregnant.”
“Blackbeard really did that to him… honestly I’m not surprised.”
Stede frowned again. What did Ed do? And to whom?
“He’s done a lot worse…” Fang said, but he had stopped listening.
Stede ran away to whatever cupboard he could find that was empty and quiet. It took all his energy not to cry but somehow he managed. Ed had been keeping something from him.
They were supposed to tell each other everything.
He just couldn’t figure out what it was though. The crew was all accounted for and none of them had raised any complaints. Izzy hadn’t mentioned any of that interaction, so either he was intentionally keeping it from Stede or he hadn’t thought it noteworthy. And now that he was pregnant, Stede couldn’t risk asking anything that might be strenuous.
So that left asking Ed. It wasn’t something Stede wanted to do but he knew he had to do it. If he didn’t, it would haunt him forever knowing that Ed might have broken his promise not to murder or maim.
Stede caught up to him in the dead of night once Izzy was soundly asleep, curled up in a cozy nest of blankets. No use troubling him and the baby(ies). He found Ed out by where the figurehead had once reigned magnificently, back when Stede was just a fool playing pirate and fantasizing about the legendary Blackbeard. Things were different now: Stede had grown, he had someone better than Blackbeard at his side, and The Revenge had a new unicorn.
“It’s a beautiful night,” Stede said gently, leaning against the railing to Ed’s left.
Ed exhaled and smiled softly, his eyes crinkling at the corners.
“It really is… You know, there’s times where I hate living at sea, but right now? Right now it’s all worth it.”
He looked at Stede and added, “You’re worth it. You and Iz and the baby.”
Stede’s smile dropped. Right. He was there on a mission.
“Ed… I need to talk to you about something.”
“You sound serious.”
“I- I am serious. Look, Ed, is there something you’re not telling me?”
Ed’s face froze before slowly melting into something horrified.
“What?” He asked. “Why would you ask that? Why would you even fucking say something like that?”
Stede narrowed his eyes. “Is that a no…?”
“I- no! It’s a no! I’m not keeping some big fucking secret from you about something I’ve done!”
“Okay,” Stede said. “If you can promise me that there’s nothing, I’ll drop it.”
Ed looked like a rabbit with its foot caught in a snare. It took everything in Stede not to crumble under the weight of those big, watery brown eyes.
“Please, I had to. You have to know I had to.”
“Had to what? Know what?”
“Izzy,” Ed said tearily. “He was going to leave. I heard him. I heard him talking to the Spriggs boy about leaving and starting a new adventure in life. He was going to leave us! Leave me! That’s why I had to do it!”
Stede blinked. “You had to do… what exactly?” He asked, not understanding at all.
Izzy wanted to leave? That didn’t make any sense; Izzy was happy aboard the Revenge. He had a job he loved and was surrounded by people who loved him. Why would he want to leave?
“The baby… I knew if Izzy was pregnant he wouldn’t leave. He wouldn’t leave the crew and he wouldn’t leave you and me. If I got him pregnant he would stay with us forever.”
Stede gasped, his eyes widening as the realization hit him. Ed was saying… Suddenly everything made sense.
“Are you saying you impregnated Izzy on purpose? But that’s not possible, is it?”
Ed shrugged. “At first I wasn’t sure. I mean, Izzy’s never been regular and I thought that if he was going to get pregnant he would’ve done it years ago. But I had something special that would help.”
“Something special?”
“Yeah, a long time ago I knew this guy. He and his wife couldn’t have a kid so he went to this witch, and she gave him this powder. He was supposed to mix it up in his wife’s drink and then boom- pregnant! So I did that to Izzy’s drink, fucked him for like a week straight, and now he’s pregnant!”
“Ed!” Stede cried. “You can’t just get people pregnant!”
Ed rolled his eyes. “I’m not getting ‘people’ pregnant, Stede. I got Izzy pregnant. Once.”
“Once is too many! He’s old, Ed!”
“He’s not that old!”
“And you gave him this mystery powder,” Stede said. “What if it was poison?”
“But it wasn’t. It wasn’t poison and he’s fine, just very pregnant,” Ed said firmly. “And you’re forgetting why I had to do it.”
“That’s not a good reason to impregnate someone!”
Ed recoiled like he’d been slapped. Even angry he was the most beautiful person to walk the Earth.
“Izzy was going to leave us!” He yelled. “You don’t even care that he was going to leave forever?”
“Of course I care! It kills me that he wants to leave but I’m not going to go impregnate him about it!”
“Oh okay Mr. Perfect-”
“That’s not being perfect, it’s being considerate! Besides, what were you going to do if Izzy didn’t keep the baby?”
Ed paused for a second, his eyes widening a millimeter.
“Okay so I didn’t think that far ahead! I’m trying to be Ed, not Blackbeard, and Ed follows his heart!”
Stede crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. “And your heart told you to get Izzy pregnant?”
“Yes! That’s what I’ve been saying!”
“I can’t-”
A creak from somewhere in the ship cut Stede off. Their eyes met for a moment before he continued, this time in a hushed whisper.
“We can’t keep this from Izzy,” Stede said. “You can’t have huge secrets like this in a relationship; it won’t survive like that!”
“We can’t tell him, Stede! He’s pregnant! He doesn’t need all that extra stress!”
“So I just have to lie to him?”
“It’s not lying if it never comes up!”
“What are you two doing out here?” Izzy asked, his raspy voice a bucket of cold water over them.
Stede and Ed jumped back and turned to him as though they hadn’t been arguing just mere seconds ago. Izzy stood on the deck with nothing on but his underwear and the long black robe they had gotten for him. He had always run hot even before getting pregnant but it was simply too cold outside, especially since his panties covered very little. Why, with his bump, it barely looked like Izzy wasn’t naked.
That was a visual Stede needed to quickly shake from his mind, lest he make an ass of himself. Again.
“Iz,” Ed said, and it was like a switch had been flipped. His eyes lit up and his voice was warm and inviting. “Baby, you shouldn’t be out here.”
“I woke up to an empty bed,” Izzy said, easily falling into Ed’s embrace.
“Sorry about that. I was just out here watching the waves and chatting with Stede.”
Izzy raised an eyebrow at the both of them, analyzing their faces.
“Is something wrong?”
“No!” Stede cried. He winced at how he sounded but Ed swooped in.
“Except that you’re not in bed. You know what Roach said-”
“I’m only up because you two weren’t in bed,” Izzy argued, baring his teeth slightly.
“And we’ll come back with you,” Ed said. “Right, love?”
They both turned to look at Stede, eyes expectant. There was a gleaming of want in Izzy’s that was just impossible to ignore. No one ever said that Stede Bonnet was a strong man.
“Absolutely. Let’s get you warm and cozy, shall we?”
He followed them back to the captain’s cabin and watched as Ed helped Izzy with removing his horsey leg. Ed was so gentle with it, touching the end of the leg with a sort of reverence, although that was nothing new. Even before the pregnancy, Ed had been careful to give Izzy lots of love and attention on something Stede knew he was insecure about deep down. Something else that wasn’t new was the adoring look Izzy had as he watched Ed work below him. If there was one fact of the universe that was undeniably true, it was that Izzy Hands loved Edward Teach.
Stede watched as Ed looked up at Izzy. A lesser-known fact of the universe that was no less true was that Edward Teach loved Izzy Hands just as much in return.
Maybe Stede shouldn’t say anything. It was a massive secret to keep but why should he blow up their lives? To maintain some semblance of virtue? They were all happy together.
So he would keep quiet, he promised to himself as he slipped under the covers next to Ed. Still, even as his companions succumbed to slumber, Stede lay awake. He stared up at the ceiling and tried not to overthink.
Stede would choose the happiness of his lovers over his own piece of mind.
A Few Weeks Later…
Stede winced as Izzy growled, squeezing his hand even harder. He had given Izzy his hand not thinking much of it, but now he was certain it was about to fall off. Still, he knew it couldn’t be anywhere near as painful as what Izzy was going through.
Roach leaned back from where he was examining Izzy’s… Izzy bits.
“Whelp, the good news is that you’re not in labor!”
“That’s good news?” Ed asked.
“Oh so I’m just fucking dying then?” Izzy yelled, his fingers digging into Stede’s hand in the most painful way possible.
“What?” Stede asked, jumping slightly. “Dying?”
Roach shook his head. “No one’s dying. You’re experiencing false labor; I call them Roach contractions, which you can do too.”
“So what? I have to go through hell and I don’t even get a baby out of it?”
“Don’t worry,” Roach said, although it wasn’t very reassuring. “These will pass. If it was labor, it would get way worse!”
That was even less reassuring.
Ed slapped his leg. “That’s great, Iz! You hear that? It’s going to pass!”
“Oh fuck off!”
Stede frowned and leaned over to Roach as much as he could. “Are you sure he is going to be okay?”
“Definitely.”
“It’s just that with Mary-”
“Don’t fucking mention her!” Izzy yelled. Once again another painful squeeze.
“Right,” Stede squeaked out. “It’s just that he seems to be in a lot of pain. And inflicting a lot of pain as well.”
Roach pulled out a cigarette but, when Ed shot him a murderous glare, put it back in his apron pocket.
“I know it hurts but I think it’s really more the surprise that’s getting to him.”
“I’m not fucking surprised,” Izzy hissed. “I’m in fucking agony!”
Stede whimpered looking down at Izzy’s sweaty face contorted in pain. He couldn’t recall anything like this with Mary, although he hadn’t seen much of her in the later half of her pregnancy. She had just been so moody and snappish that Stede had taken to avoiding her by any means necessary. But Stede couldn’t avoid Izzy even if he wanted to (which he didn’t).
“Oh, Izzy…” Stede whispered. “How could we do this to you?”
Maybe it was just the throbbing pain in his hand, but Stede broke.
“How could you do this to him?” He demanded.
From Ed.
“What?” Ed asked with a nervous laugh. “I don’t-”
“You did this to him! And now he’s dying!”
Suddenly everyone was talking over each other.
“Woah, he’s not dying! You’re not dying-”
“I swear, I have no idea what he’s talking about-”
“What the fuck, Bonnet?”
Of course, all the shouting just made Stede even more stressed out and significantly less rational.
“Ed did this to you! I didn’t know until it was too late! It was all him!”
Izzy panted heavily, staring at Stede with wide eyes. Slowly the grip he had on Stede’s hand weakened and started to slip away.
“No!” Stede yelled, grabbing Izzy’s hand with both of his. “Don’t leave! Stay with-”
“I’m not fucking dying, Bonnet, it’s just stopped hurting as much,” Izzy said.
“Oh.”
The silence that followed was agonizing. Izzy looked between him and Ed, and Ed between him and Izzy. Roach stared at all three of them with something that looked a lot like judgement.
“Well,” Roach said slowly. “Like I said, Roach contractions. Izzy’s going to be fine… physically.”
“Thank you, Roach,” Stede said quietly. “We’ll let you get back to your day now.”
“Uh-huh… Yeah I guess…”
Even as he walked out Roach was still looking over his shoulder with a quizzical expression. It was only after the door was firmly shut and Roach’s footsteps had disappeared that Izzy opened his mouth.
“What were you talking about?” He asked, his voice disturbingly level.
“I- I-” Stede gaped. “It was nothing, I just panick-”
“Oh fuck off. What did you mean by ‘Ed did this to me’?”
Stede looked at Ed and Ed looked away.
“Edward, what the fuck is he talking about?”
A whimper escaped Ed’s throat. Just barely in the light, Stede could see a tear trailing down his cheek.
“I didn’t know what else to do,” he said quietly.
“What did you do, Eddie?” Izzy asked gently.
“I had to,” Ed said frantically, his eyes wide with terror. “Iz, you have to believe me. I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t have to.”
“What-”
“I heard you, okay? I heard you talking to Spriggs about how you were going to leave and maybe even stopping being a pirate and I couldn’t let that happen. You’ve always been mine and if you left then you wouldn’t be mine anymore, so I had to make you stay. And I knew you would stay here, with your family, if you were pregnant.
So I got something to help you- or help me- get pregnant. I mixed some powder I got from a witch into your drinks to make you, you know, fertile, and then I made sure you’d actually get pregnant. And you did! But you have to know that I love you, Iz, you have to know. I love you so so much and I couldn’t lose you.”
Ed was struggling to catch his breath by the end of it, his ragged pants filling the room. Tears were fully streaming down his face along with snot. Stede looked away from him and the raw emotion he was emanating to look at Izzy. With horror, he saw that Izzy’s eyes were glassy with tears that were just on the brink of spilling. Stede had ruined everything.
“Izzy-”
“You did this on purpose?” Izzy asked, staring directly at Ed.
Ed swallowed and bit his lip. “Yeah.”
Izzy gasped, the tears slipping out.
“You did all this… for me?”
Stede raised an eyebrow. Ed nodded eagerly and leaned forward, his hand barely brushing Izzy’s before pulling back.
“I did, Iz. I did it because I love you.”
Izzy gasped again shakily. Then something even stranger happened: he began to smile.
“You love me?” He asked, his voice so small and tentative. “Really?”
“Yeah, baby, I love you so much. So much, okay?”
“Eddie…”
Ed leaned in to kiss Izzy, gentle and chaste. Both of them were crying and slimy but neither seemed to mind. Instead they clung to each other like their lives depended on it, melding into one.
Then the kisses became less chaste and Ed’s hand slipped somewhere below the bump, eliciting a breathy moan from Izzy.
“O-oh,” Stede said, taking a seat in the chair next to the bed.
Stede laid in bed on one side of Izzy with Ed on the other, listening to them breathe but not sleeping himself. The day had been complicated and confusing and yet somehow ended with a bang. He knew he needed to go talk to Roach and do some damage control after his… outburst. That would have to wait till tomorrow though when Stede was cool, calm, and collected.
“What’s wrong?” Izzy asked in a whisper.
“What? Me? Noth-”
“Don’t say nothing’s fucking wrong when something obviously is. Just talk to me.”
Stede sighed. “I just… you’re okay? With what happened?”
“You mean with Edward intentionally getting me pregnant?”
“I… yeah. That.”
Izzy shrugged slightly. “He did it because he loves me and he wants me here. What more could I want?”
“You’re really not upset?”
“No. I know Eddie has his issues with being fucking left behind. It scares him. I wasn’t really going to leave, y’know?”
Stede frowned. “But he said-”
“I know what he said and I know what he heard. I thought about leaving, I really did. I talked to some of them about what to do, and they all said to go after what I wanted. That’s when I knew I couldn’t go. People like that? The world isn’t exactly overflowing with twats like them.”
“Is that a good thing?”
“It is,” Izzy nodded. “This is the first time I’ve had a real family since I was a child, and that one didn’t end well.”
“If you don’t mind me asking,” Stede said cautiously, “why did you want to leave? You clearly love the crew and they love you.”
Izzy sighed.
“Do you want the truth?”
Stede nodded before realizing that Izzy might not be able to see him.
“I do.”
“I wanted to leave because of him.”
He gestured to Ed where he was sleeping, tucked gently against Izzy’s warm and inviting tit.
“What? But- but I thought you loved Ed?”
“I do,” Izzy agreed. “I just wasn’t sure that the feeling was mutual.”
“Seriously Izzy, you have to know that Ed loves you! He loves you so much!”
“Back before all of this I didn’t. I thought… I thought the only fucking reason he was doing… this with me was to fucking make you happy.”
Stede’s eyes widened. This was the first that he was hearing any of this.
“And I know what you’re going to say,” Izzy continued. “That’s not true and he would never do that, or you would never do that. I’m starting to think that maybe that’s true, but it doesn’t fucking feel true. I still feel like it can’t be real. That he can’t possibly love me at all.”
“Izzy…”
“I know it sounds stupid and fucking sad, but that’s been my fucking life for years. Edward didn’t even look at me until he was throwing me away for you. And I know I should have let him go, but he was all I had. The only person I’d cared about for years had just slipped away from me.”
He turned to face Stede, a hauntingly resolute look on his face.
“You’ve never had to feel his hatred, Bonnet. He’s been angry with you, sure, but he’s never wanted you dead.”
Stede opened his mouth but nothing came out. Instead tears fell down his cheeks as he took in what Izzy had just said. He hadn’t realized the weight on Izzy’s shoulders from what had happened. Stede had been more excited to have Ed back.
“But now?” Izzy asked. “That Edward would do this to keep me here with him? That’s how I know he loves me, and that he wants me here with him.”
“I’ll admit,” Stede said. “I thought you’d be… more upset about what Ed did.”
“Oh it was incredibly fucking idiotic, but that’s Edward for you. Instead of talking, he does something big and flashy to express himself.”
“Like getting you pregnant.”
“Or letting you stab him.”
Stede smiled and brought up a hand to cup Izzy’s cheek, stroking it affectionately. He was so terribly in love.
“I’m sorry,” Izzy whispered. “I know this wasn’t what you pictured for yourself.”
“Don’t apologize. I’m happy here with you and Ed and the crew. And maybe this isn’t what I imagined when you sliced open my shirt, but I think that maybe I like this more.”
Izzy smiled at him, soft and sleepy. He had a beautiful smile that Stede could have lost. At least he knew now to hold on to it.
Stede brought his hand down to gently cradle Izzy’s bump. It was warm and covered with a coat of soft hair. It felt like home.
Suddenly, he felt a little kick, and then another one.
“Izzy! I felt a punch!”
Izzy huffed. “The baby’s not punching you. It’s just saying hello.”
“An aggressive hello! Oh, you’re a proper little pirate, aren’t you darling?”
Stede smiled up at Izzy and Izzy smiled back. Next to them, Ed snored softly as he nuzzled into Izzy’s chest. Things were good.