Chapter Text
Stede smells blood as soon as Ed hits the water.
It takes him mere seconds to reach the place where Ed is floating between the two ships, but Stede’s heart is in his throat because Ed is completely still, not swimming to get out of danger.
The fight is going on above, and Stede doesn’t even fully surface to get Ed. Instead, he clamps a hand over Ed’s mouth and nose to close them off to water, and then he drags Ed below.
Seconds later, Stede surfaces on the other side of Ed’s ship, where they’re protected and hidden.
“Ed?” He cries over the sounds of the fighting. “Ed?!”
Ed doesn’t respond and Stede maneuvers Ed so they’re chest to chest. He holds Ed to him with one arm, while his other hand tips Ed’s head back so Stede can see his face.
A small amount of water comes out of Ed’s mouth, and Stede nearly cries with relief when Ed starts breathing again. But his eyes aren’t open and he’s completely limp in Stede’s grasp.
“Ed! Ed, please wake up!” Stede holds Ed’s head with his hand, gently slapping his cheek, his panic increasing every moment that Ed doesn’t respond. “Ed, Ed, please, darling. Ed!”
Ed never moves.
Stede desperately looks to their ship above, but he sees no one.
“Help!” he shouts. “Somebody, please! Help! He needs help!”
A moment later, Jim’s head appears at the rail. Their eyes widen at the sight of Ed, and a curse that Stede can’t hear passes their lips.
“Jim!” Stede calls wildly. “He’s bleeding and he won’t wake up!”
Jim gives one glance over their shoulder before they simply jump overboard.
They land with a splash and quickly surface, pushing their short hair back from their forehead.
“Do you know what happened?” Jim asks.
“No, do you?”
“I didn’t see it. Ivan yelled that Blackbeard was down and then everything went nuts. Where’s he hurt?”
“I don’t know,” Stede cries, feeling terrible that he was so focused on getting Ed above water that he didn’t even notice where he was injured before they surfaced. “I can’t look and keep him held up.”
“Turn him around, let me see.”
Stede does so, Ed’s head lolling back on Stede’s shoulder. Jim checks his breathing, opens his eyes to look at them, and then goes underwater.
When Jim comes back up, they say, “He’s bleeding from the shoulder. That’s all I can see.”
Stede presses his head against Ed’s. “Then why won’t he wake up?”
“I don’t know. But we’re gonna figure it out, okay? We need to get him to the ship so we can see what’s going on and patch him up.”
Stede nods miserably.
There’s shouting then, between Jim and whoever they hail up top. Stede both hears it and doesn’t hear it. All of his attention is focused on Ed’s comfortable weight in his arms, on Ed’s warm breath against his cheek. He’s held Ed like this countless times when they floated, and he never imagined it could feel so horrible.
Stede keeps talking to Ed throughout, alternately begging him to wake up, promising him that he’s going be fine, and telling him he loves him.
He hears cannons go off, close enough they should be startling, but even they don’t cut through the thoughts spinning in Stede’s mind.
Jim snaps their fingers in front Stede’s face. “Hey!”
Stede looks at them. Jim has the bosun’s seat in the water, with Wee John and Oluwande on deck holding the rope on the other end.
“We need to get him on this,” Jim says.
“He can hardly hold on to it!”
“Just get him sitting. Leave the rest to me.”
Between the two of them, they manage to get Ed upright and resting in the seat. Jim takes off their belt and hooks it between the ropes so Ed can’t fall backward. Then Jim straddles Ed, locks their legs around his waist, puts their arms under his, and holds tight to the ropes.
Stede is still behind Ed, his hands on Ed’s shoulders. He doesn’t want to let him go.
“You have to let go,” Jim says, brusquely but not unkindly, and Stede realizes he spoke aloud. “We need to help him.”
Stede nods and moves back.
Jim yells, and then they and Ed are being pulled out of the water.
At the same moment, the ship’s sails drop and it lurches forward, away from the other ship, which Stede realizes is sinking.
Stede watches as Jim and Ed get pulled over the edge of ship, as Fang catches Ed and lowers him to the deck. When Ed disappears from Stede’s view, Stede feels like his entire heart has wrenched itself out of his chest.
He’s swimming with the ship now, and he can see the other ship behind them, both sinking and on fire.
On deck above, Lucius comes to the rail.
“Lucius! What’s happening?”
“I don’t know! I was below decks!”
“I mean with Ed!”
Lucius glances over his shoulder. “Roach is trying to stop the bleeding.” He looks slightly green. “There’s a lot of blood.” Then he checks himself and quickly adds, “But it could be a normal a lot of blood. I mean, I’m not a doctor, what do I know? Just ignore me.”
But Stede can’t ignore his own fears, can’t ignore the dread that’s been building in him since Ed hit the water.
Stede imagines Ed not waking up, imagines never seeing Ed again, imagines someone sorrowfully leaning over the side to tell him Ed has di—
“Lucius! I want to come up on the ship!”
“What, really?”
“I have to be with him! I need to!”
“Okay… but how?”
“There’s a chair thing Ed made for me! I only used it once, but he’s used it lots. It’s somewhere in his cabin!”
“Okay!” Lucius sputters. “I’ll go look!”
Minutes slide by while Lucius is gone, and every one of them feels like eternity. Finally, Lucius’ head pops back into view.
“We found it, but Fang says the ropes aren’t long enough to use it from the yard. We’d have to re-rig it.”
“How long will that take?”
“Half an hour? I don’t know!”
Stede feels his panic rising at not being able to get to Ed now. He also feels a sharp jolt of frustration, but it only makes him more determined.
“Then send down the thing you pulled Ed up on!”
Lucius frowns. “Are you even going to be able to sit on that?”
“I don’t know!” Stede cries. “I’ll figure it out!”
“But—”
“Lucius!”
“Okay, okay, I’ll get it!”
Lucius disappears from view, and a minute later, the bosun’s seat comes down.
Stede doesn’t know if he actually can sit on such a narrow board and stay on it, since he’s used to having something solid underneath the length of his tail when he sits. So he simply folds himself in half over the swing and holds on. The board digs painfully into his gut as he’s heaved out of the water but he only has to tolerate it long enough to get to Ed.
Stede feels like he’s dangling precariously in the air as he’s lifted, and the sensation of not having anything really supporting him is beyond unnerving. But Wee John and Ivan are pulling the rope, and soon enough Stede is positioned over the deck. Lucius hovers uncertainly, stepping from side to side as Stede is lowered.
“Should I, um, grab your tail?” Lucius asks. “So you don’t fall on your tail?”
“Yes, fine,” Stede grumbles, seeing an uncomfortable landing otherwise.
Lucius wraps his arms around Stede’s tail about halfway down, lifting as Stede is lowered, so that all of Stede lands on the deck more or less at the same time.
Once he’s down, Stede pushes the swing away and rolls over, sitting up. He’s on a ship for the second time in his life, and it’s just as horrible as the first time.
There’s the innate sense of wrongness in being so far out of the water, and the feeling of helplessness in not being able to move as he likes. There’s a crowd of people around him and even though they’re his friends, he doesn’t like being at everyone’s feet.
But the worst reason this is horrible is Ed, lying less than a dozen feet away, still not waking up, his head rolled to the side, his chest bare and bloody.
-----
Lucius isn’t sure, but he thinks he’s the only one besides Blackbeard who knows exactly what sort of shape Stede was in when Blackbeard met him. Blackbeard was there, of course, and Lucius doesn’t doubt that Stede filled him in on the whole ordeal, beginning to end. Stede told Lucius about most of it when they were stuck together after Stede saved him from the shipwreck. And while the crew knows from the Jack incident that Stede was caught before, Lucius is pretty sure none of them know the details of how horrible being on a ship was for Stede.
Lucius gently pulls Pete back a little. “Give him some room.” Then raising his voice, he says, “Give them some room. Let Roach work.”
The crew disperses a bit, and Lucius squats down next to Stede. “How are we doing?”
“He looks so bad,” Stede says sadly, his eyes glued on Blackbeard.
Pete clears his throat. “Wouldn’t it be easier to work on him on a table or something?”
Roach shakes his head without looking up. “Light’s better out here. Good news, though, the ball went straight through his shoulder. In and out, easy peasy.”
“Then why won’t he wake up?” Stede asks.
“There’s a lump on the back of his head,” Roach says. “Knocked him out. No blood, but he must have hit it hard.”
“Did anyone see what happened?” Lucius asks. He wasn’t part of the raid himself, since he’s a lover not a fighter. Not that anyone expected a real fight, since no one stands up to Blackbeard these days. It was a surprise when the whole raid went sideways.
Oluwande speaks. “Looks like they were smugglers flying the colors of merchants. They weren’t going to surrender their loot. We all started fighting. I think Captain was the only one who got hurt, though.”
“One of them cut my leg,” Pete offers. “But it’s just a flesh wound.”
“I saw Blackbeard get shot,” Ivan says. “He had just crossed to the other ship. It hit him and he tipped right over.”
Lucius looks at Stede. “If he was close to the edge, maybe he fell into the ship on the way down, hit his head against it before he fell in the ocean.”
Stede gives a nod, still looking wretched. “He wasn’t moving when he hit the water.”
“Once we knew you had him,” Oluwande says, “we got off the other ship fast and sank it.”
Ivan nods in agreement. “No one fucks up Blackbeard and lives to tell about it.”
“And we wanted to get him away from them,” Fang says. He adds very softly, to himself, “Poor Ed.”
“I set it on fire, too,” Wee John says, “for what they did to Cap’n.”
“Nice touch,” Lucius says, since it’s clear that Stede isn’t going to.
The whole crew abandoning the ship they were raiding, sinking the loot, and setting sail to get their injured captain away is actually rather sweet, though Lucius wouldn’t really expect anything less these days.
The conversation drifts a bit then, and the crew drifts, too. Lucius remains sitting beside Stede, who stares steadfastly at Blackbeard. When Roach is done stitching Blackbeard up and wrapping his wound, he asks where they’re putting him.
“Shouldn’t we put him in his cabin?” Oluwande says.
Stede speaks up. “I want to stay with him.”
“We’re going to have to keep Stede wet,” Lucius says. “That’s easier out here.”
Roach shrugs. “The man can rest on a mattress on deck as well as he can on a mattress in a bunk. Boards are boards.”
Lucius pats Stede on the shoulder and stands up. “I’m going to go help arrange things. Be back in a tick.”
-----
It’s decided that Ed’s mattress will be brought out on deck and placed near the door to his cabin, with another one next to it for Stede to lie on.
Stede watches as four crew members carefully lift Ed and move him across the deck to the mattress. The rest of his wet clothes have been taken off, and the blood washed away. He’s wrapped in blankets as they settle him into place.
Jim comes over to Stede and crouches down. “Hey, have you ever heard of the wheelbarrow game?”
“No,” Stede says with a frown.
“Yeah, I didn’t figure. Here, I’ll show you.”
With that, Jim puts their hands on the deck and kicks their legs into the air, where they’re caught by Oluwande. With Oluwande holding their legs, Jim walks on their hands a few steps.
“See?” Jim asks. “Easy.”
“Mm,” Stede says, beginning to understand where this is going.
Lucius walks over from where he’s been standing near Ed. He crouches next to Stede. “I figure you’ve got three options to get across deck. One, we put you in a hammock and carry you. Two, Oluwande and I do the wheelbarrow thing with you. Three, you drag yourself across the deck. I don’t recommend option three, as butt splinters are not a good time, but it’s up to you.”
Stede considers. None of them sound particularly appealing. But option two sounds like it will be the fastest.
“We can do the wheel-thingy,” he says. He turns over onto his stomach. “Let’s go.”
Lucius and Oluwande carefully lift his tail, and Stede pushes himself up onto his hands. It’s surprisingly easy to move forward like this, and Oluwande and Lucius walk with him as he sets the pace. He’s still being carried, which he doesn’t like, having only been carried one other time in his life, down into the hold of a ship while he struggled. The circumstances now are completely different, but the sensation is the same, and he can’t help but be reminded of other things.
But he pushes it down, concentrating on getting to Ed.
Once at Ed’s side, Stede is lowered to the mattress, which is so much more comfortable than the hard boards of the deck. Lucius explains that it’s an old mattress, right before he carefully pours a bucket of seawater over Stede’s tail, wetting him and soaking the mattress through.
Then he and Ed are left alone.
Stede is on his stomach, and he props himself up on his elbows to study Ed’s face. He looks peaceful and asleep, but it still makes tears well up in Stede’s eyes.
Roach didn’t seem worried about the head wound at all, said they just needed to give it time, but Stede isn’t going to be easy until he sees Ed’s eyes again, sees Ed’s smile again. He can’t stop the what ifs in his head, can’t stop imagining the worst.
“Please, Ed, wake up,” Stede says again, blinking through tears. “Come back to me. I love you so much.”
Ed of course doesn’t stir, and after a moment, Stede carefully wraps an arm around his waist, pressing his face into Ed’s uninjured side and holding him close.
It’s all he can do.
-----
Ed wakes up slowly, and he wakes up disoriented.
His head is killing him. He registers without thinking that he’s on a ship, the rocking motion of it as familiar and comforting as ever. But he can’t remember what happened and he can’t place where he is. He’s not in his cabin, but he’s in the shade somewhere on deck. There’s also the warmth of a body at his side, which is something he hasn’t woken up to in years, maybe even a decade.
Ed shifts slightly, and the body next to him springs up.
It’s Stede.
Ed is shocked.
“Ed! Oh, Ed!” The expression on Stede’s face is ecstatic, yet sad, like he’s about to cry.
“This is a dream,” Ed mumbles.
“It’s not a dream! Why would it be a dream?”
“I woke up next to you,” Ed says, trying to focus on Stede’s face. “You’re on the ship. You’d hate being on the ship.” Has he mentioned his head is killing him? “Why are you on the ship?”
“I thought you were going to die when you were in the water!” Stede cries, and now he’s actually crying. “Even afterward, I thought I might lose you! Not being with you would have been so much worse than being on the ship.”
“Hey, whoa, no, no one’s dying,” Ed says, trying to comfort him. He reaches for Stede but jerks back at the new pain that shoots through his body. His shoulder is also apparently killing him. “Fuck me, what happened?”
“You got shot on a raid and hit your head.”
“Hey, that’s no big deal. I’ve been shot before, and been stabbed dozens of times. You know that, you’ve seen the scars.”
“But I wasn’t there for any of those,” Stede says, his lip quivering. “I didn’t see you get so hurt all those times, didn’t wonder if you were going to die. You wouldn’t wake up and I was so worried, Ed.”
“Hey,” Ed says again, “I’m not going anywhere. Promise. How long was I out?”
Stede shrugs helplessly.
“Four or five hours, Captain,” Fang says, appearing in Ed’s line of sight. “It’s late afternoon now. Good to see you back.”
“You’re not gonna get rid of me that easy,” Ed says with a grin.
“Feeling up to something to eat?”
“That’d be great, man.”
Fang disappears, and a few of the other crew drift over with casual well wishes. It’s actually incredibly nice, and he’ll have to get the whole story of the raid later, because he can’t remember a damn thing, and Stede is obviously very upset over it. Of course, if Stede was shot and hurt, Ed would be upset too.
Ed’s gaze finds Stede’s again, and he tries to lighten the mood. “So now that you’re up here, is this going to be a regular thing?” he teases, already suspecting he knows the answer.
“I love you, but absolutely not.”
Ed smiles a little. “Don’t wanna start hanging out on the ship, then?”
“It’s too uncomfortable,” Stede says, shaking his head, “being out of the water like this.”
“But you and me in a little fishing boat someday, yeah?”
Stede smiles at that. “That sounds perfect.”
“Do you think,” Ed says after a moment, “that being on a little boat would bother you like this does?”
Stede looks thoughtful. “I don’t think it would. I think it would feel more like the raft—close to the water, easy to get on and off, not nearly as… daunting.”
“Good, ’cause I’m looking forward to it.” Ed can feel that someday creeping closer all the time. He’s not sure when Blackbeard will be done, but it’s been in the back of his mind more and more.
Fang returns with bread, an orange, and a canteen of water so Ed can drink without sitting up. Stede fusses over Ed and insists on feeding Ed the bread and the orange. Ed’s sore enough that he doesn’t protest and Stede clearly wants to do something for him.
After the meal, Lucius comes by and pours water over Stede’s tail. Even though Stede’s chest is right next to his, Ed can see that the mattress Stede is on is angled slightly away from his own at the bottom so the water that soaks Stede’s doesn’t seep into his.
“Everyone has been very helpful,” Stede says, as Lucius leaves. “Someone brings water for me every half hour or so.”
“How long are you staying?”
“I don’t know. Not all night,” Stede says, lying back down next to him and resting his head on Ed’s good shoulder. “But I’m not ready to let you go just yet.”
“Fine by me. Fucking great, actually,” Ed says as Stede settles in.
Ed’s head is throbbing and his shoulder is throbbing, and he knows he’s going to be even sorer tomorrow. But he also knows he’ll heal, and it’s nothing he hasn’t done before.
This, though, Stede lying next to him on the ship, he’s never done before, and even though he’s shot and banged up and starting to feel like shit, he’s going to enjoy every fucking minute of this.