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Stede sat in a mix of misery and companionship. Around him, patrons of Jackiez drank and made merry, members of his crew cashing in on his newfound infamy. To which, of course, Stede was glad. Someone should get to benefit from him being branded as a real pirate.
He thought, once, that that was what he would need for Ed to want him. The memory of him taking off with Calico Jack was still knife sharp, even with his latest wound so freshly given.
Which had him asking himself what was worse: being left when they were still just friends for an uncouth, foul sort of man, or being left after a night in which love was freely given between them, only to be rejected for a fish?
The latter, definitely. Though the former wasn’t easy, either.
He really was never going to be enough, was he? Not for Ed, not for anyone. Mary had thrived without him. Even if he went back to Bridgetown, posed as a cousin, and maintained his desire not to take a single cent from the estate, Stede just being there would cast a shadow over her new life. They might have parted friends, but he was sure she would rather them be that in name only, not the sort he actually spends time with.
The crew, arguably, would have died without him, but only because they had been stranded. Though he was a far better Captain than he started out as, and he had their respect, someone else could lead them, and they would probably be alright.
Well, maybe not. Ed had sort of taken the culture of abuse and dialed it way up. And if the other Captains on the seas were anything like Ned Low, his crew probably wouldn’t be doing as well as they were now.
A hand landed on his thigh, and Stede turned to his right, noting Izzy still at his side, though he was scanning the room.
“Let’s get you back on the ship. You need it,” He said to Stede. “Besides, you stay here much longer, you’d gonna end up on the wrong end of a sword.”
“You’re probably right,” Stede agreed, looking around the room as well.
The crowd was getting rather rowdier now that most of the patrons were deep in their cups. Lucius was starting to look overly skittish, and there were a couple of folks who were looking a bit too menacingly at Frenchie and Wee John.
“We should get the crew back, too,” Stede insisted, tilting his head toward the lot of them.
“Aye,” Izzy agreed emphatically. “Steak Knife, help me round up Stede’s lot, will ya?”
Izzy got to his foot, the horse leg hitting the ground with a thunk that had heads momentarily turning their way. Stede watched him and Steak Knife start rounding up the crew for a moment, then drained his drink
“You heading out?” Bill asked as Stede set down his tankard.
“I am,” Stede replied, looking at the empty drink. Izzy was probably more or less worried about needing to take care of a drunk Captain. There was a somewhat pleasant buzz beginning to cloud his judgment, and the way Stede was feeling, he’d probably look for a fight just to feel something that wasn’t emptiness or despair.
He put on his practiced smile and turned to face Bill.
“I’ll be sure to find you next time we make port,” He said, offering his hand to his new friend.
Bill took it and shook it gladly, beaming back and almost not letting go of Stede’s hand.
By the time Stede was able to extricate himself and make it to the door, Izzy and Steak Knife had rounded everyone up.
“I’ll see you when we make our way back here, Steaky. Remember, I still wanna hear that story about the bunny.”
Stede clapped the large man on the arm, giving it a little squeeze with a smile.
“Absolutely, Captain Bonnet,” Steak Knife gushed, and maybe Stede was a little tipsy, because he thought he saw the man’s ears go red.
“’Mon,” Izzy said sharply in contrast to the gentle hand guiding Stede out the door.
As they made their way through town back to the ship, there was quiet bickering behind them. Olu, Jim, and Archie, if Stede was not mistaken. Some of it was in rapid-fire Spanish, which he had not a single hope of even attempting to understand, so Stede let it be for now. He could ask them to properly talk it through when they were back on the ship.
“Um, sorry, we seem to be missing someone,” Lucius said as he came up on Stede’s left. He gestured behind them and rolled his eyes as he said, “Not that I’m really complaining. But, um, should we be leaving Blackbeard behind?”
“He’s not coming,” Izzy answered for Stede, tone sharp, and for anyone else, it would have killed the conversation then and there.
“What do you mean, ‘he’s not coming?’ Like, are we just gonna sail off without him? Like, literally leave the Republic to the whims of whatever tantrum he will throw once he realizes we’ve all gone?”
“I mean, he’s left,” Izzy snapped back.
“I don’t understand-“
“Oi! Fang! Roach!” Izzy shouted, startling Stede.
He didn’t need to look to see that the pair were probably nearby, so he kept his eyes on the boat. He kept putting one foot in front of the other and refused to allow himself to look around to see if Ed was maybe on the dock somewhere further down.
He climbed the gangplank, headed up to the quarter deck, and peered out at the ships in the harbor.
Even through the haze of alcohol, Stede recognized the silhouettes of the ships heading toward the Republic.
Izzy wasn’t stealthy coming up the stairs, so Stede wasn’t at all startled by his abrupt, “trouble.”
“Seems so,” Stede agreed. “But the Navy wouldn’t be foolish enough to bomb the Republic.”
“No, they wouldn’t. Tried it once or twice. It did not end well for them,” Izzy agreed. “It’s why that twat Badminton was able to come and go when he and I….”
Stede looked to Izzy as Izzy looked up at him, allowing him to see the moment the words refused to make it to the shorter man’s lips. “Well,” Izzy said before clearing his throat. “Looks like we got our heading.”
“Looks like. Get us ready to weigh anchor, Mr. Hands. I’d rather not stick around, if it’s all the same to you.”
“Aye, Captain,” Izzy replied, another grounding touch to Stede’s back before he turned and started giving orders. Archie started to protest, but was quickly hushed, and soon enough, Stede could feel the ship begin to move.
“Where’s Blackbeard?” Fang asked as he took the helm.
“He’s a fisherman now,” Stede replied, turning to the crew with as much of a grin as he could muster, tears stinging his eyes.
There was disbelief, but more so confusion from the crew, especially from Fang and Archie, who were the two who would have really known him at his worst. Them, Izzy, as well as Frenchie and Jim, of course.
Stede couldn’t find Jim, but that wasn’t unusual.
“Yes, earlier today, Ed made the difficult and… brave decision to make a career change,” Stede said as diplomatically as possible. “So, he’s left me - us, he’s left us to pursue his dream to be a simple fisherman.”
Silence and confusion followed, the crew exchanging dubious glances and uncertainty.
“Man tossed his leathers overboard this morning,” Izzy added with a shrug. “He was done. Fishing was his way of doing something familiar while no longer being a pirate.”
“Right,” Lucius said suspiciously, tapping his wooden finger against his thumb. “And we believe this to be a permanent career change, then?”
“Listen, all I know is-“
BANG!
Stede whirled around, eyes going wide as one by one the ships he knew to be Zheng’s fleet started going up in a wall of flame. The naval ships were closing in, and the sound of cannon fire cut through the lulls of explosion and flames licking up from the ships.
“Shit,” Izzy cursed. “Fucking, fuck.”
“The Republic,” Fang said mournfully.
“Swede!” Wee John, noted with panic.
“Jackie,” Frenchie added.
“Jim.”
Stede turned around, spotting Oluwande looking crestfallen at the ships.
“They were gonna talk to Zheng. We had a plan to meet up.”
“They were defecting?” Izzy asked incredulously.
“Zheng offered for me to join her. I didn’t know how to ask. Thought maybe I could slip off, let Jim and Archie stick with you lot, meet up again later. Jim offered. Thought they could do a better job convincing her to take us all.”
The tears that threatened to spill earlier came back, and Stede couldn’t keep them in this time.
Oluwande wanting to leave hurt. That he’d do it for Zheng was a harder blow, especially when she had been so willing to kill Jim and Archie before. But Stede also understood that the heart wanted what it wanted, and he supposed Oluwande coming back for at least a short time would have been better than leaving the same night Ed did.
Now, instead, they lost Jim.
Jim, their friends at the Republic, the Republic itself. The flames from the island were rising, and if anyone did make it out of there, they were bound to be prisoners of the Navy.
And if they didn’t move soon, they would be, too.
Shoulders back, head high, Stede turned back to the crew and stepped into place at the helm.
“Get the rest of the sails open, so whatever we can to get us speed! They’re busy now, but the Navy will come for us next. Better give them something to chase.”
“You heard your Captain!” Izzy shouted, though the crew was already springing into action.
Getting caught by the Navy and living, shame on the Navy. Getting caught a second time, they were all dead.
As Stede held the ship and his mental state steady, Izzy joined him, eyes scanning the crew to make sure everyone was where they should be and nothing was going awry.
“He’s not part of all that,” Izzy reminded and reassured. “Wherever Ed is, he’s not gonna be mixed up in all that. We can be thankful for that.”
“We can,” Stede agreed.
“And Jim’s scrappy, they’ll get away,” Izzy added.
“I know,” Stede said, though he wasn’t sure he had that much faith.
That hand came back, right between Stede’s shoulder blades. Maybe it was the drink, adrenaline, or the loneliness talking, but he wanted to believe it was more than just a touch. That maybe it was an olive branch, or perhaps a promise that Izzy was going to stick with him.
Ed had brought them together, regardless of how inadvertently. Their love for him bonded them in a strange way. And now that Ed had left them both, perhaps Izzy was saying that they at least still had each other.
The hand stayed until they were well away from the Republic of Pirates, and Fang came to take over the helm once more.