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Steph felt the barrel of a pistol biting into her cheek, at first, she didn’t register that it was a pistol, but after the first seconds of sleep left her she heard the man say “get up”
She opened her eyes wider when she saw not the man that Ed was sending for her but Chauncey. He pressed the barrel of the pistol in harder and ushered a ‘shh’. She could sense that he was highly intoxicated, slurring a little, his eyes drowsy.
She slowly pulled the covers from herself and got up. The whole-time Chauncey's pistol was still pressed as much to her cheek as it could be. She hopped down to the floor with a thump. Unfortunately, no one woke up or didn’t care enough to stop what was happening.
“walk” he said simply. She turned, and the pistol was then pressed into the small of her back, guiding her in the direction of the door. Steph raised her hands palms out In front of her as Chauncey pushed her through the door and towards the woods nearby. The whole time he was pushing her forward all she could think of was please Ed come back and see if your man actually woke me up, see him and save me, please.
She didn’t save her of course.
When Chauncey had deemed them far enough away, they had reached a small clearing in the woods. She kept walking a little before she realized he had stopped. The weight of the barrel of the pistol missing. She turned and saw him stood with the pistol raised at her, she kept her hands where they were, in a surrendering manner.
“All I've been doing is thinking” he says, slurring a little.
She couldn’t keep herself from saying something sarcastic, it was her natural state when in distress after all “and drinking. And thinking?”
He grimaces at her “and do you know what conclusion I've come to?” it was an answer to her question, but Steph always hates having a question answered with another question. It just goes round in circles till the point is proven.
“Stephanie bonnet is not human” she cringes. She noticed that he was swaying as he says this, pistol trained on her like a professional, but body still effected by the alcohol He’s obviously consumed. A large amount of it from what she can see. She's got a gun pointed at her and all she can think about is how drunk he is, and how she can placate him. If she wasn’t so afraid, he was going to shoot her she would have laughed at herself. This man is in pain, she caused it. This is all her fault, but not human? That’s a bit far.
“Just breathe” she mutters at him. calm down Chauncey, please.
“ you're a monster” he states. Swaying to the side and starting to walk in a wide circle, she moves with him, trying to keep parallel to him.
“A plague” a small wave of his gun “you defile beautiful things” he stabs the gun out as he says that, with a snarl.
She stays quiet and just listens to what he’s saying, trying not to let the tears welling in her eyes drop onto her cheek. They still walk, or stagger, in the wide circle.
“my dear brother, your own family.” he pauses “you’ve even managed to bring the history’s greatest pirate to ruin.” that one makes Steph's heart drop. She has ruined her . Before she fell into her life Ed would have never even thought of saying act of grace, never mind for someone else she only knew for a matter of weeks. She was the most selfish person in the world, and she had no right to be with ed. But....
She made her happy, she made her feel things she hadn't felt ever. She was going to make sure Ed was happy, and if that made her selfish, so be it. The plan formed quickly in her head, she would take the swaying and obvious anger to her advantage.
“And here you are, unscathed.” he says, she steps closer to him. “God’s perfect little rich cow” he spits. she steps closer again. He hasn’t noticed that she was getting closer and hasn’t stepped back himself. She knows how to get closer, if she could just get close enough to grab the pistol and angle it upwards. Ed may hear the shot and come and help. Please.
She lets the tears that had been welling up in her eyes fall finally on her cheeks, then plays on them into a sob, staggering closer to him. Just a little more. “I think you're right” she covers her face to ‘sob’ some more, to sell the fuckery, if only a small one. “In fact, I... I completely agree” he sways closer to her, one more step and she can grab the pistol.
“You don’t fool me” he spits, she reaches out her hands in a pleading way. “The Stephanie bonnet reign of terror ends toni-” Steph reaches out and grabs the pistol by the barrel and with as much strength as she can muster, which isn't a lot compared to Chauncey's and aims the gun higher. Unfortunately for Steph the shot doesn’t go to the sky, but into her right shoulder. the pain and shock sending her staggering backwards. She doesn’t have much time to consider the pain though, as Chauncey steps closer again but trips. The pistol goes off again and shoots him right in the opposite eye to his twin, he falls to the ground face down in the mud bleeding out. She takes a moment to just stare down at him bleeding out, before her brain kicks back into gear. She looks around to see if anyone is coming, she thought if someone heard two gun shots, they would be some guards to come running. No one came after a few moments, so her brain went back to the sensation of bleeding and pain emanating from her right shoulder. She reaches up and grabs the shoulder a small hiss escaping her mouth before she can think about it.
She turns and runs in the direction she thinks the dock would be. It takes some time and a lot of swearing for her to finally find the dock. When she emerges from the trees, she sees Ed starting to climb into the dingy. “ED” she shouts, she hopes she can hear her. She's now so tired she doesn’t know if she could shout that loud.
Ed’s head whips around, hair slapping her in the face as she does. The dock is still quite a way away, but now that she knows Ed has seen her, she has a boost of energy and starts to run as fast at her body will permit. Ed climbs back out of the dingy and stalks to the middle of the dock. She waits for Steph to get to her, silent and angry she was late. She better have a good excuse.
Steph gets closer and Ed’s eyes start to mellow. She notes the blood dripping down the right side of Steph's body and her body moves on instinct. They crash together “what happened?” Ed gasps. She raises her hand to Steph's, still gripping her shoulder tight.
“Got shot” Steph manages to say, her energy from before finally catching up with her. Ed takes no time wrapping her arms around her left side and lifting her up into her arms. She walks over to the dingy as quickly and carefully as she can. The morning isn't too far away, and they need to be out of sight before the light hits them.
“I can tell you got shot, but what the hell, mate?” she lowers Steph into the dingy and hops in herself grabbing the ores and sitting down. She starts rowing.
Steph sighs and closes her eyes “long story” she whispers. Ed doesn’t push she just keeps rowing as hard as she can. “We have all the time in the world for you to tell me Steph.” Ed says, then adds “just don’t bleed out before roach can patch you up yeah?” Steph gives a weak laugh.
“I love you” she mutters. Ed balks then a soft wide smile spreads over her face.
“I love you too” she says back and nudges her foot with Steph's. They both grin like idiots as Ed rows toward the revenge. Towards forever.