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“Caleb?”
The sound of his name registered before the familiarity of the voice struck him - a voice he hadn’t heard in eight years. Looking around for the caller, Caleb found him, kneeling on the deck at Annie’s sword-tip wearing a flashy red uniform and a spectacularly dumbfounded expression.
“Well, I’ll be damned.”
He strode over, his captain entirely forgotten, unable to tamp down on a grin that felt more than a little disbelieving.
“Tallboy!”
He pulled the still-stunned Ben Tallmadge to his feet and directly into a tight embrace. Despite his state, Ben didn’t hesitate to return it. His arms around Caleb awakened the memory of a home he hadn't had in a long time.
Underneath the joy of this unexpected reunion Caleb couldn’t help but notice how Ben had filled out. Gone was the lanky kid, already taller than Caleb when they’d said goodbye that handful of years and a lifetime ago; the solidness of the man now pressed against him bespoke the adolescence left behind.
Lord, things really had changed, hadn’t they?
Shifting his grip to Ben’s upper arms Caleb pushed him back in order to get a good look at him, ignoring Anna, Sally and Elijah’s raised eyebrows behind him.
“It is damned good to see you, I’ll tell you that,” he grinned because, well. He hadn’t dared to expect it, truth be told.
Ben finally found his tongue.
“And you,” he replied, somewhat faintly, gripping Caleb’s elbows in return.
“I’m just borrowing your charge for a moment,” Caleb told Anna, who gave him a look that promised she would have the whole story later. Answering it with a wink, he steered an unresisting Ben a ways away with an arm around his shoulders. “Aren’t you supposed to be in London?”
He stopped them at the railing with a squeeze of Ben’s shoulder, the uniform’s coat coarse against the rough palm of his hand.
“I was.”
Ben was still looking at him like he couldn’t quite believe his eyes. Caleb could sympathise.
“Finally got homesick?” Caleb asked, turning to lean back against the railing on his elbows.
Here, Ben did drop his gaze, a shadow clouding his face.
“Something like that.”
Before Caleb could dig deeper, he continued.
“And what about you?” If it was an attempt to divert attention from himself, it faltered quickly. Perhaps in the face of Caleb’s reality. “I thought you were…I didn’t think you’d - well…”
“Rob upstanding merchants for a living?”
Ben stared a bit. Caleb decided to let him off the hook.
“Wasn’t always the plan," he shrugged. "But after my uncle died I couldn’t well stay in Port Royal.”
The dismay washing over Ben’s features was grievous enough to almost make Caleb regret telling him.
“Uncle Lucas is dead?”
“A few years after you left,” Caleb nodded.
“Oh Caleb, I’m so sorry.” Ben made an abortive gesture with his hand before placing it on the rail instead. “What happened?”
His eyes were as expressive as always, brimming now with consternation and grief.
“A tale for another time, yeah?” Caleb deflected. It didn’t feel like a good moment to break it to Ben that it was the governor's men who’d shot him.
Ben’s face shuttered, but just as he opened his mouth to speak, Ryder’s voice interrupted.
“Brewster! Say goodbye to your new chum, we’re leaving!”
Ryder, Caleb saw, was poised to return to the Annabel Lee, and he looked Caleb’s way only for long enough to gesture impatiently with his head before turning to cross the gangplank.
Well, their reunion could never last.
Some part of Caleb had known from a young age that his and Ben’s worlds were too different for them to keep sharing each other’s lives. He had also, however, quite successfully managed not to think about how he'd put the final nail in that coffin by turning to piracy. There was no ignoring it now, with the fact of it staring him in the face in vibrant red. A shared future was no longer a luxury he could afford to dream of.
Best to make it quick, then.
“Well, you heard the captain,” he said, straightening up. “‘Fraid I can’t stay.” He moved past Ben, slapping him on the shoulder as he went.
“Wait!”
When Caleb turned back Ben had taken a step forward, one hand half raised like he'd meant to grab hold of Caleb. Or like he was trying not to spook a skittish animal.
“You’re just going to…?" His harried eyes flitted to the Annabel Lee, and Caleb desperately did not want to leave him.
“It’s generally wise for us not to stick around,” he said, resting his hand on the pommel of his sword. "‘Sides, I’m sure you’re being expected.”
For a moment, Ben looked like he was going to be ill.
“Don’t worry, you’re not getting rid of me that easily.”
Caleb had intended to lighten the mood, but he’d apparently failed spectacularly. A desperate resolve crept over Ben’s face, the kind of look that Caleb associated with blind leaps off unknown heights.
“Caleb!”
Annie this time, drawing Ben’s eyes with her call.
“I’ll see you around, Tallboy,” said Caleb, tipping his hat and turning to go.
“Take me with you.”
Caleb stopped in his tracks, sure he’d misheard. When he turned back, Ben was looking at him like he couldn’t quite believe what’d just come out of his mouth, either.
“Beg your pardon?”
Ben forged ahead with wild-eyed determination, voice low but no less intense for it.
“Let me come with you. Let me join your crew.”
Caleb was unable to hold back a burst of incredulous laughter. Not to doubt Ben’s resolution, but it did beg a question.
“Why?”
In the subsequent pause, Ben’s face showed a violent battle with a storm of emotions. He’d clearly not thought this through. Caleb was about to tell him so - more diplomatically, of course - when Ben preempted him.
“There’s something you need to know.”