Her heart skipped a beat when he began to play with her hair. What if he found the dagger? That would ruin the fun before it even started. “I don’t know exactly what caused us to become friends, if I were to guess, I’d say Blayne had something to do with it. I know he was the reason we became close. He’d bully me and you’d beat him up. Finally you taught me how to beat him up, but you still did it anytime you were around. We had a common background, both our fathers were merchants and we both loved the sea. It was like we were meant to be together.” She smiled up at him.

The sound of his heart beating steadily was making her sleepy again. She’d never had this much time to sleep before, she normally worked on a few hours of sleep. Now that she had free time her body was almost forcing her to rest whenever she could. She couldn’t sleep now though and began telling about their adventures they’d had as children. She told about him teaching her to fight, how they’d almost been trapped in a sea cave when the tide was coming in, she told him about everything she could remember.

Listening to Elissa recount the tales was bizarre for Joseph, it had been his life and yet it sounded like somebody else’s story. There was also her fiancé, Blayne, who had played a rather large role in the history it seemed. Joseph would readily admit he wasn’t any example of a gentleman, or a particularly good person, but her fiancé sounded like a real piece of work and apparently this had always been the case. Families were quite often intertwined in their fates and as they grew into adulthood, bad blood generally did not get better, and Elissa was unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end. Joseph found it strange to hear about his father when he could barely recall him, but she had mentioned that she’d thought Joseph had left, and that he’d explained to her that he was leaving, and yet the pirates that had pulled him from the water hadn’t said that he’d come from a shipwreck, but from the top of the cliffs. The thoughts swirled in Joseph’s mind, something for sure didn’t sit right. One of the cabin boys banged on the door which made him jump slightly, this rightly annoyed him as Elissa would have felt his body flex as he was startled, “come back later!” he barked, “aye Captain” the voice sounded nervous from the other side.

The Captain gave a deep sigh, he’d learned from Elissa that like her, his mother was no longer alive. There was some comfort at least in not knowing things for certain, he could have some shred of belief that perhaps he wasn’t truly alone, but it unfortunately seemed to be the case.

It was like we were meant to be together maybe so, they’d shared a lot of struggles together by the sounds of it, but, a lot had changed since then.

“Elissa, did I ever tell you why I was leaving?” maybe she knew, or maybe way back when he’d thought it better not to say.

Elissa didn’t feel him jump when the cabin boy knocked on the door because she had jumped as well. She’d forgotten about the boy bringing food. “As you got older your father took you on business trips all the time, it wasn’t unusual for you to leave with him. You just normally told me so I wouldn’t worry. When you disappeared that last time I thought you’d just left and forgot to say goodbye, but when you never came back I knew something had happened.” She explained. “I feared the worst when father said one of your father’s ships had been found destroyed. Now it seems like someone destroyed it to get rid of you and your father but make it look like an accident.” She sighed. “I’m just glad that you are safe and that I have found you.” Elissa looked up at him with a smile before kissing him. “You sent the cabin boy away. Are you going to search for the dagger now?”

She’d told him nearly everything she could remember about their childhood. There wasn’t much more left to tell unless he wanted details to some of their adventures. “Things got lonely after you left. Almost like my life was over and I was just left to watch the world go on.”

All these years had passed, a decade, and of course for several of those years it had played on his mind exactly what had happened to him. Joseph finally concluded he’d had some kind of accident, perhaps some stunt or dare, something stupid that boys do, fallen from the cliff, struck his head perhaps, or maybe the drowning too had constricted his memory? He didn’t know where he’d come from or where’s he’d go, who he’d be looking for or where home was, or who he was.

Foul play he hadn’t considered.

’one of your father’s ships had been found destroyed. Now it seems like someone destroyed it to get rid of you and your father but make it look like an accident’

Joseph’s heart seemed to miss a beat and a knot formed in his stomach, he felt a little light-headed. Elissa seemed to breeze over the subject, she was glad he was alive, true, but these were quite some revelations to him. She’d kissed him but he felt numb, he was focused in his minds eye but yet could still not recollect the incident, he brought his gaze down to her slowly with a frown quivering across his brow, he cleared his throat, it seemed to feel especially dry, “Elissa… I wasn’t on any ship when they found me, there wasn’t any ship”.

He could feel himself losing control, there was always this part of him that slipped from time to time, and in as much as he tried to be the person he’d became, there was this past that beckoned with unfinished business. He had to walk this off too, before it consumed him, his crew were relying on him to keep it together, Rhea relied on him to keep it together, they had too much work to do tonight. “I’m sorry” he slipped himself away from Elissa, got to his feet and crossed the room, rubbing his face and bringing his hands through his hair, he made his way to the window at the rear of the cabin and leaned with one arm against the frame to peer out at the waves frothing in the wake of the ship, the other hand on his hip.

Elissa sat there for a moment before slowly getting up. She joined him at the window. “Convince Rhea to let me stay and once we have your ship back, we can find out what happened to you and your father. He never came back to Kent. Someone, however, must know what happened. We will find them and we will find out the truth. You deserve to know the truth of your past and once we know who is responsible we will avenge your father and your memory.” She said, resting her hand on his shoulder. “You are still my best friend and I will still do whatever I can to help you. I’m not leaving you, not now. If Rhea can’t be convinced to let me stay she’s going to have to drag me off this ship herself and I won’t go without a fight. Not when you need me.” Elissa followed his gaze out to the ocean. “I promise I won’t leave you. I’ll help however I can.”

She hoped he understood how much she wanted to help him. “I’m sorry if I said anything to upset you. That wasn’t my goal. I was just telling you what I knew, what I’d been told or heard.” She sighed feeling like the apology sounded empty even though she’d meant every word. “Perhaps fate brought us back together not to save me, but to restore what you’ve lost.”

Joseph let out a grumbled sigh as he brought his hand from his hip to massage his forehead with some anguish. Neither of them could say his father was dead, likely, but not for certain. He shook his head lightly to himself, and breathed deeply grounding himself with its release.

Pull it together.

He sniffed and gave Elissa a look, pulling a grin - he’d force this feeling of unease out of him if he had to. “It’s fine, we’ll do that, once we get the ship back” he expressed softly, he looked her up and down for a moment before meeting her eyes, he drew in his lower lip and bit it thoughtfully, “so, that’s right, I still need to search you” he spoke as he turned to her and moved in close, he placed his hands on her waist and spoke quietly in her ear, “where did you want me to start?”.

This he knew, this was him and it was familiar.

He still had to take over from Rhea, soon, but he had time.

Elissa looked up at him with a smile. She slid his hands down to her hips. “Start wherever you like, I’m sure you will search throughly.” She replied, draping her arms over his shoulders and kissing his neck, then his jaw, his cheek and finally his lips. This was what she had been wanting. When he’d pulled away she’d been sure this wasn’t going to happen, but now that he’d turned back to her she wasn’t going to resist and wasn’t going to distract him again with talk of the past. This was new to her, it was an adventure but one she wasn’t afraid of. “Shall I tell you if you are getting warmer or colder?” She asked softly. Elissa kissed him again.