Title: Love on the High Seas #1: "Bright Promises of Tomorrow"
Authors: Pirates Sparrow and Turner
E-mail: OrliDepp@...
Rating: NC-17
Feedback: Yes, please!! Seriously, we, like all other fan fic writers, thrive on
feedback. We also tend to only stick to the places where we know we are being
read and enjoyed from the reviews we receive. However, flames absolutely will
not be tolerated.
Archive: Absolutely *ONLY* if you request permission and receive our granting to
do so. It'll probably be a yes, but it depends on the archive and the person
running it.
Warnings: Abuse, Death, Lemon, Nudity, Religious Prejudice, Rape, Sex, Torture,
Violence
Fandoms/Characters/Pairings: (Angel/BtVS) A/C, Fresley, Faith, Lorne, Dawn;
(Charmed) C/Pi, Prue, Phoebe, Paige, Kit; (Dawson's Creek) Dawson; (Disney) Jack
Sparrow/Will Turner; (Elvira) Elvira, Gonk; (Labyrinth) Jareth and company;
(PotC) Jack/Will, Elizabeth; (Sabrina) Salem; (Shrek) Donkey; (Smallville) Clex;
(SU2) Carl; (10K) Wolf; (X-Men) RoLo and Morph; (Xena) Aphrodite, Xena/Gabby,
Joxer, and Autolycus. Sooner or later, there's a pairing for every character,
but if they're not listed it here, the pairing will be with either a character
from a different fandom or an original character.
Summary: Familiar and new faces come together as the Pirates of The Black Pearl
and The Sea Witch in this crossover series including Angel, BtVS, Charmed,
Dawson's Creek, Disney, Elvira, Labyrinth, Pirates of the Caribbean, Sabrina
(Salem only), Shrek, Smallville, Special Unit 2, 10th Kingdom, X-Men, Xena, and
cameos from many others. In the first book, Bright Promises of Tomorrow, the
crews arrive expecting to celebrate Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann's wedding
but discover that Governor Swann has stooped to new lows and will stop at
nothing, not even selling Will into the city's newly-created black market, to
keep his daughter from marrying a Pirate. Governor Swann has not, however, taken
into consideration Jack's love for Will and his unrelenting willingness to do
anything to save his beloved.
Meanwhile, Port Royal's townspeople have risen into an angry, prejudiced mob set
to burn the Witches. Will the Pirates be able to stop the townspeople in time,
or will the Witches, including a family by the last name of Halliwell, Ororo
Munroe, and Scientist Winifred Burkle, meet their deaths? Also, Faith falls,
Angel has his first encounter with Princess Cordelia, Lorne gets bitten in the
rear and may well lose his heart in the process, and snow heralds the arrival of
even more danger!
Disclaimer: All established characters; all TV show, comic, and movie titles;
and the Black Pearl are © & TM their respective owners and are used without
permission. Crystal "Snowflake" Frost, Katrina "Firestar" Lewis, Celina
"Pantheria" Lewis, Tom Ballard, Meesy, Brendan Richards; and all other original
characters are © & TM Pirates Sparrow and Turner, are used with their
permission, and may not be used without permission. The Sea Witch and everything
else are also © & TM the authors. No copyright infringement is intended, and no
monetary profit is made from these tales.

Chapter Seventeen
Jack clung to the rail as though his life depended on it. He couldn't
remember ever feeling this bad. He had thought he was going to throw up, but he
hadn't. Suddenly, he heard a sound erupting from his stomach. Whatever was wrong
with him was now in his stomach, and he felt like the bottom had dropped out. He
dropped the bottle of rum as his hands flew to clutch at his gut, and he doubled
over in pain.

He screamed Brendan's name. Some one had poisoned him! He didn't know
who, but his pain was so great that he thought he was dying. {Not fair!} he
thought. {Not fair! I've got to get the bastard before I die!} Even as he
thought that, he wondered who had sneaked aboard the ship and poisoned him.
"BRENDAN!" he screamed again. He fell to the deck, still clutching at his gut.



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As soon as Jack had disappeared, Xena had called the others to gather
around her. "We need to break off into pairs, go out, and check for survivors.
Save who and what you can, and do it quickly. Autolycus, you're with me," she
called to the man who had just found the strongbox and was dragging it away from
the dead man's hands.

"Yes?" he called back to her. "Are you finally needing my attention?
Look at what I got!" He held the box up.

"We'll start a collection of what we're taking back with us here," she
said as she placed her foot carefully amongst the fallen debris. "We'll start
with your box, Autolycus. Set it down right here."

"No way! It's mine!" he protested.

"No, it's ours," Xena said, "and we're not breaking up the spoils right
now. Put it here." She again tapped the spot with her booted foot, and he set it
reluctantly on the ground. "Now branch out and look for survivors but don't
wander off too far. I don't want to have to rescue you again," she added,
looking at Autolycus again.

Autolycus was about to answer her when he heard Faith mutter, "So that's
how he got out of there."

"Yeah," he shot back at her, "not with any help from you!"

She grinned at him. "Tell ya what. Next time, I'll just let the giant do
with ya what he wants."

Without another word, Autolycus ran out to search for more jewels. He
knew he could never win in a sparring match against Faith. Xena did not break
the others up into groups. She knew they'd form natural pairings any way, and in
fact, Clark and Lex had already gone off together. Xena headed off after
Autolycus, leaving Faith and Dawson alone with Carl still screaming and still
being ignored.



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Brendan had returned to the Captain's cabin to check on Will, but he had
ran from there the instant he had heard Jack screaming his name. Now he leapt to
where his friend lay, concern etched clearly over his face. "Jack, what
happened?!"

"Some one's poisoned me!" Jack gasped out. "Rum! The rum!" He pointed to
where the bottle had fallen. "I think I'm dying!" He closed his eyes against the
pain.

Brendan's heart pounded fearfully as he snatched the bottle, and his
eyes shifted to yellow as he sniffed it. One sniff confirmed that there had been
a herb added to the rum, and the second told him not only what the herb was but
also who had slipped it in there. The first words of explanation he spoke
escaped him in a great rush of relief. "You're not dieing."

Jack opened his eyes in surprise. "Can't be hurting this bad, Brendan,
and not dieing," he almost whispered. "Not fair. I've gotta kill that bastard! I
can't even move! It seems like it's eating a hole in my gut! What is it?"

"Cat's claw," Brendan answered. "You might wish you were dead, my
friend, but it won't kill you."

"Will it pass? Who did it?" He knew Brendan could smell well enough to
know both what it was and who it was. As soon as Jack had recovered from the
pain, he was going to get the culprit. Nothing was going to stand between him
and the Governor! "Can you help me get to the privy?" He felt that he might get
to feeling better if he could just make it there.

Brendan nodded. Reaching a hand down and pulling Jack to his feet, he
told him, "We'd better get you there fast. That's mostly what it's going to do
to you. You'll have to take more of the herb, but it will pass."

They barely made it. Jack breathed a sigh of relief as he shut the door
and his world exploded almost immediately, relief being granted as it did so.
"Thank the Gods!" he breathed. Jack jumped as he heard something hit the door.
"Brendan," he called through the closed door, "are you all right?!"

A low growl answered him at first, and he could easily picture Brendan
shaking his head fiercely as he tried to fight against the stench that was
assailing his nostrils. Finally, Brendan's voice answered him, but even then it
was considerably weakened. "Yes, sir."

"Sorry," Jack called back with a sheepish grin, "but, Brendan, get me
the culprit!"

Brendan shook his head. He didn't want to have to deliver the culprit,
but he knew that he had no other choice. Brendan had a good ideal why the man
had done what he had done, and he knew he had never meant to make Jack think he
was dieing. He sighed but only called back, "Right away, Cap'n." Then sniffing
the air again, he headed reluctantly down to the sleeping quarters.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cole had been searching for the Lewis sisters for a while. He had not
seen any of the cats and figured that they were holed up sleeping somewhere, so
he returned to the sleeping quarters to check there again. They had not been
there the first time and he did not know how he had missed them, but the couples
were now curled up, asleep, together.

The men's arms were wrapped around their wives, and the women were
nestled into their chests. Tom's and Katrina's tails lay entwined around each
other, and Celina's circled one of Morph's legs. They looked like the perfect
picture of matrimonial bliss. Cole hated to wake them, but he knew that Will was
in desperate need of them.

He had just been about to call out to them when he noticed Brendan
heading that way. Why was Brendan here and not up taking care of Will? "Brendan,
why are you here? Is Will okay?"

Brendan nodded, and his haunted eyes turned to look at Cole as he
answered him. "Will's fine, better than I ever could have hoped, actually.
There's another new woman aboard. She used a crystal to heal him." He did not
add that the Captain had then had her put into the room.

"The ship seems to be crawling with new women," Cole said. "I think it's
a good thing," he added, thinking on Piper. "We've been needing more crew
members. Women make great fighters, and the group we've got today all seem to be
gifted." Many Pirates were superstitious of having women on board, but the
additions of Xena, Gabrielle, the Lewis sisters, and Faith had already taught
the men of the Pearl and Sea Witch alike that women actually made wonderful
crewmates.

Brendan raised an eyebrow at his friend. Cole spoke as though there were
at least a dozen new women, but he only knew of three. "You make it sound like
there's a lot more, but I thought we only had three new additions?"

"Three? Where've you been? There's the Halliwells; that's four alone.
There's Ororo; she's a Weather Witch. There's . . . " he thought for a moment,
". . . a woman in a black dress; I'm not sure what her name was. There's a woman
with brown hair and a new kid."

"But that's a male," Brendan interjected. Where had all these other
women come from? "I knew about Cordelia, Elizabeth, and the blonde with the
animals, but those are the only new women I'd heard of."

"And those three you just mentioned," Cole concluded the list of new
arrivals. "The others came from rescue," he continued to explain. "We rescued a
lot of Witches today. The townspeople were trying to kill them. We spent the
bigger part of the day rescuing them, and the others just got back a little
while ago. Part of us are still not here. They were with Jack and have not
returned yet. So, all in all, I think we've got quite an addition."

"Yeah," Brendan said quietly in agreement. His eyes turned back to the
four sleepers as he added underneath his breath, "But we may be about to lose
four of our best."

"What makes you say that?" Cole asked in surprise. "Why do you think
they're going to leave us?" His eyes turned toward the cats again.

"Tom slipped cat's claw into Jack's rum."

"What's that?" Cole asked.

"A herb," Brendan answered. "It won't kill, but you just about wish you
were dead before it gets done with your stomach."

"Why would Tom do something stupid like that?" Cole questioned. "He
adores Jack! Why would he want to make him sick?"

Brendan's gaze turned back to Cole. There was no doubt in his mind to
the answer. "Jack's been laying even more heavily on the rum lately. You know I
had to rescue him in the last storm we went through; he was so drunk that he
didn't even realize the danger! Evidently Tom was the only one of us who cared
enough to dare to do something to make Jack think twice about the rum."

"Makes sense to me. I remember seeing Jack hanging out there, one hand
on the rail and the other hand clutching a bottle of rum, and singing at the top
of his lungs, 'A pirate life for me!', heedless of wind and storm. Didn't you
have to tie him down in the bed to keep him below deck?"

Brendan nodded. "Yup, and I made it to him just before he would have
been struck by lightning." His voice was as deep with sorrow and worry as his
heart.

"So what do we do now? We wake Tom and ask him? I can imagine Jack's
bellowing for the culprit."

"You know he is, and I know it's Tom. There's no mistaking his scent."

"And you don't want to deliver Tom to him? I can't blame you," Cole
admitted. "Let's wake him, get his side of the story, and then we can figure out
what to do."

"Of course I don't," Brendan answered, "but what choice do I have? Like
it or not, Jack's our Captain -- or, at least, he's mine --, and what he says
goes."

"What do you think Jack will do to him?" Cole asked.

Brendan shrugged. "I don't know," he replied honestly, "but he can't
kill him. Even if he were that angry, you know his wife would never allow it."
He didn't even want to think about Katrina when she was the angriest he'd ever
seen her, and he had the feeling that, where her family was concerned,
especially her husband, she could be even fiercer.

Cole reached out, touched Tom, and gently shook him. He was rewarded
when Tom's eyes blinked open rather sleepily. "Come here," Cole told him and
waited for Tom to follow him.

Tom's pupils narrowed as he looked up at Cole. "Why?" he whispered back.

"The Captain's gotten into the rum," Cole said, "and all Hell's about to
break lose."

An alien curse word slipped from Tom's lips, but then he shook his head.
"It was bound to happen sooner or later." His arms were around Katrina, and he
gave his wife a gentle squeeze before slipping out from under her.

He had barely stood and was walking by the cot where Morph and Celina
slept when a hand suddenly grabbed his leg. He recognized the familiar touch
immediately and did not jump but instead looked down into Morph's open eyes.
"What . . . ?" his friend started to ask, but Tom hushed him with a single word.

"Jack."

"I told you it'd happen."

"I knew you were right and that it would," Tom agreed, "but somebody had
to do something and I was the only one with the balls enough to do it."

Morph grinned up at him even as he slipped away from Celina. "The
balls," he asked, "or the stupidity?"

"Both," Tom answered, his grin matching Morph's.

Cole had not known that the Captain had a drinking problem so badly that
he needed attention, but he made a mental note that he'd keep check on him. {The
rum should disappear. If we get to sea and there's no rum, Jack can't drink it.
He'll never know what happened to it!} He'd like to see who'd get the blame
then. Jack was too fine of a man and a great Captain to be so besotted with rum.
{Besides,} he thought, {Will's aboard now. He shouldn't need it. I'll take care
of it, and he'll never know it was me.} He followed behind the others as they
made their way slowly back to where Brendan had left Jack.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jack felt as though it would never stop coming. He knew it would last
forever if he had eaten in the last three days, but he had only sampled a bit of
food and had not been able to keep much of what he had eaten down because of the
cook. Joxer couldn't cook any better than he could fight. Jack vowed that he
would find a cook that could feed his men better.

He pondered on what to do to the culprit. Which one of his men would
want to hurt him? He thought he had their loyalty. Had one of them been
harboring a grudge and only now decided to pay him back? He couldn't think of
any one. Maybe he was a fool because he trusted all of them? He felt as though
they were a family. Who was the traitor? Who didn't want to be part of the
family?

He wondered why Brendan didn't tell him who the culprit was. Surely it
wasn't Brendan? He trusted Brendan with the very life he breathed! His heart
refused to accept the thought that Brendan might be the traitor, but who, his
brain argued, would know what drug to use that would not kill him but only make
him terribly sick besides a doctor?

{No, I won't go there! Brendan and I have been too close and into too
much stuff together! He'd never do that just because I almost strangled him! It
was an accident! He wouldn't have done that!} Jack kept denying to himself. It
couldn't be Brendan, but the annoying thought kept coming back. Brendan had not
spoken one word about who the culprit was, and he seemed to be forever in coming
back.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Faith jumped off of the auction block. She glanced at her shoulder as
she started to walk off toward the east. It hurt like Hell, but though she
ignored the pain, she knew she could not ignore the blood. Without a second
thought, she pulled off her shirt and wrapped the black leather around the
wound. The wind played across her hardened breasts, but she did not even bother
to glance down as a snowflake fell onto one of her nipples. Instead, she
continued to walk, picking her way over the dead bodies and debris that littered
the ground.

Dawson ripped off his shirt and handed it to Faith. "Please put this on.
We don't need the guys falling out looking at you." He didn't say that he
couldn't stand for the guys to even be looking at her when she had her clothes
on but most especially now that she was half-naked. He wanted to stare at her.
His mouth ached desperately to taste the sweet nectar of her breasts again, but
he didn't dare to stick a hand out at them for fear that she'd slice it off and
hand it back to him.

She quirked an eyebrow at him. "Why should that bother you? You already
rode."

He remembered Brendan's words: she never gave second rides. He'd hoped
he was wrong but could see that he hadn't been. "Please?" he asked, still
holding it out to her.

She hesitated but finally subjected. "Well, I suppose it won't leave too
much skin open in a fight. All right, choir boy; I'll put it on." She reached
for his shirt.

"My name's Dawson, Faith. It wouldn't kill you to call me that. I'm not
a choir boy. I didn't even go to church."

Taking the shirt from him, she began to shrug into it. Pain shot through
her shoulder again, and she grimaced even as she looked away from him. She
continued ahead as she pulled his shirt the rest of the way on and began to
button it. "Whatever you say," she called back to him, an impish grin flickering
across her face at the reaction he knew he would have, "Lawson."

He shook his head disappointedly but followed quickly behind her.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Finally, Jack felt as though he could go back out of the privy safely.
He walked out only to see four men standing there, each with the same dreaded
expression etched on his face. Jack looked at each of them in turn as he paced
in front of them. Finally he stepped back away from them. "Well," he asked,
looking at Brendan, "I hate to think it, but you're the only one here with the
knowledge of which herb to use. How could you?"

Surprise flickered in Brendan's eyes. How could Jack think it was him?
He felt as if his heart had been cut out at the mere thought that his dearest
friend would think he could ever betray him. He started to glance toward Tom but
stopped himself, realizing the chance he had been given. Despite the pain in his
heart, he would not simply abandon Tom when he had been granted the opportunity
to protect him that he had secretly prayed for.

Brendan squared his shoulders but did not look Jack in the eye as he
stepped forward. "Some one had to do something, Jack," he spoke quietly. "Your
drinking's gotten out of control. It almost killed you in the last storm we went
through," his eyes finally lifted, meeting those of his dearest friend, a man
whose friendship he'd never deserved, "and you don't even remember it. What kind
of a friend would I be if I let you continue to drink yourself to such a
manner?"

No, it couldn't be! Jack's heart cried out. Even though he knew Brendan
would take the weight of the world on himself, he just couldn't believe that
Brendan would do it to him. He began to pace again, stopping in front of Cole
who had stepped out and in front of him. "No, Captain Jack. I did it! Brendan's
right! Somebody had to stop you from doing yourself in, but Brendan didn't do
it. I did it!"

Jack wondered why suddenly every one was trying to protect somebody
else. Every instinct told him that it had to be one of these four. After all,
they were all present and accounted for, and they were all eagerly accepting the
blame. Who was guilty? He looked at Morph as he said, "And supposedly you did it
too?"

"Not too," Morph said with the most solemn expression Jack had ever seen
on his face. He took one step forward to place himself in front of Tom and then
another, walking between Jack and Brendan and Cole. "They're protecting me."

He smiled a bitter smile as he looked at the three of them. "I suppose
the question should be why you think you have the right," his voice increased in
volume as he talked, "to judge that I had too much to drink and think you could
control my drinking?!" He was almost shouting now. "I'LL DRINK JUST AS MUCH DAMN
RUM I WANT WHEN I WANT IT! WHO'S THE CAPTAIN HERE?! YOU?!" he asked as he turned
on Tom, who had already been moving forward.

"No." Tom's voice was even, and his green eyes met Jack's calmly.
"You're the Captain, but Brendan's right. We've all seen it. Your drinking
almost got you killed. What kind of crew would we be if we let our Captain kill
himself? What kind of friends would we be if we didn't do whatever we could to
stop you? I couldn't let it go on," he admitted. "We all wanted to do something
about it, but I'm the one who did it. I put the cat's claw in your rum, Jack,
and by Bast, if I had it to do again and you were in the same manner, I'd do it
again! You mean too much to all of us for us to just watch you drink your life
away!"

Tom was hardly ever serious except when it came to his feelings for
Katrina, and Jack had never seen him more solemn or heard him speak more
eloquently than he did now. His declaration took the wind out of Jack's sails.
He had not realized that the rum had gotten to him the way it had. He had
grasped it for a lifeline, because when he drank it, it helped him to keep his
memories at bay. It helped him to forget that he could not have what he wanted.
Maybe he had been foolhardy? He didn't even remember the last storm that they
were so concerned about. He just remembered waking up, chained in his bed, with
a dry mouth and a Hell of a headache.

He looked around at the four men, knowing that he could not condemn any
of them, but it did not make it set any easier with him. He couldn't thank them
because he wasn't happy about it, but he didn't want to hurt any of them for he
cared about each of them deeply. He continued to silently pace up and down,
pondering what to do. Finally, he came to a decision. "Temporarily," he said,
"you, Tom, and Katrina will be reassigned to the Sea Witch. I can't live
expecting my rum to be poisoned at any moment. Therefore I will put you where
you'll be safe. I don't want to lose your friendship, but I can't condone what
you did. Report to Gabrielle."

He turned his back toward them. "And, Brendan, I'm sorry for accusing
you. I didn't want to think it was you, but you're smarter than any one else on
this ship. I'm lucky you're my friend," he said, still looking out to sea.
"Forgive me?"

Cole, Tom, and Morph had slipped out without a single word, leaving
Brendan to face the Captain alone. Brendan had watched them go but had not moved
one step from the place he stood. When Jack expected him to speak, he spoke but
only one word. "Always."

"So what's next?" Jack asked. "I need more of the herb, or will it just
pass? It can't interfere with tonight. I've got to get him, Brendan!" Jack said,
turning to look at his friend.

"More will help it to pass more quickly and assuredly. I know you have
to do what you must, my friend, but you can not wait until tonight. We have to
find a way for you to move more quickly. I've heard whispers about this storm,"
he explained, looking up at the snow that still continued to fall, covering all
of Port Royal in a thick, white blanket. "I'm not sure of all the details, but
something's coming with it and we must be out of here before it hits fully."

Jack looked at his hand that still clutched the rum bottle and
straightened himself to his full height. He held the bottle out to Brendan. "Get
rid of it, and get me more of the herb. We've got to get this ship under sail."

Surprise flickered in Brendan's eyes as Jack told him to get rid of the
rum. Had it actually done any good to talk to him? No, he realized as Jack
continued, it hadn't. He only wanted this bottle gone because of the herb. "Yes,
sir." He nodded and turned to walk away.

Jack gave the order to prepare to sail.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As various crew members scattered to prepare the ship for sailing, a
voice rang out above the din. Gabrielle stood above Jack's cabin as she called
out, "IF YOU'RE NEW TO THE SHIPS, COME HERE!"

The newcomers within earshot looked up to see who was calling them. Upon
seeing a blonde that some knew but a few did not, they hastened to obey and
gathered in front of the Captain's cabin.

Prue Halliwell made sure that all of her sisters were there, lining them
up in a neat row in front of the Captain's quarters. She figured the time that
they would be placed upon one of the two ships had come, and she prayed that
they would be kept together as she was now in her mother's role and absolutely
had to keep an eye on her younger sisters.

Paige and Phoebe kept punching each other, trying to get next to Prue.
They ended up standing between Piper and Prue with Prue's disapproving eye cast
upon both of them. Piper shrugged as she looked at her older sister. "Kids," she
said, knowing that her comment would gripe both of her younger sisters. "What
can you do?"

Prue nodded in agreement and looked around for Ororo even as she heard
Phoebe give Piper a raspberry. "Stop that and pay attention," she said as she
popped Phoebe on the arm.

"But she said I was a kid!" Phoebe protested.

"Well, then, stop acting like one!" Paige told her.

"She said you were too!"

"You're both kids," Prue said. "Now be quiet and listen! We might get
split up, especially if you two don't behave!" That thought had not occurred to
Phoebe or Paige, and both switched instantly to their best behavior.

Knowing that their minds had gone to the thought that they had already
lost their mother and grandmother and did not want to lose their sisters, as
well, Piper stepped closer to them and silently wrapped her arms around their
shoulders in a reassuring embrace. They stood like that, with Prue's eyes on
Gabrielle, as they waited fearfully for the announcement.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fred hastened to get in the line. She didn't know which ship she'd be
assigned to, but she prayed it was the one with Wesley on it. She kept glancing
around for him but had not spied him yet. When she finally did, he was sweaty
and looked good enough to eat. She was surprised at herself for thinking that
and even more surprised when her tongue thirsted to lick the sweat off of him. A
light blush shaded her cheeks as she tore her attention away from him. She
squinched up her eyes and focused her attention instead on the woman she knew to
be Gabrielle.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I know we've got two others at least," Gabrielle told the gathered
group before her. "Where's Ororo, and have Elvira and Wolf made it back yet?"
Looking around, she finally spotted Ororo with Wolverine and called to them.
"Wolverine, you can come with your woman," she called to him, "but she's got to
be here!"

Wolverine looked at Gabrielle, wondering just what the heck she thought
she was doing. He walked over to stand under her and looked questioningly up at
her. "What are ya doin' up there?" he asked.

"What the Captain told me to," Gabrielle retorted. A delicious thrill
rushed through her at the realization that she was actually looking down upon
the man that had been chosen as Xena's second-in-command. He'd never had any
right to her position, but he'd ended up there any way. "Why?" she demanded
icily. "Got a problem with that?"

"What did the Captain tell ya to do?"

"Sit down, hush, and you'll find out soon enough."

"Don't talk to me like that, little girl!" he called up to her. "I'm
here now. I can do whatever job the Captain needs doing."

"Like Hades you can! Jack told me to handle it, and if you don't chill
your heels until the rest of the group gets here, I'll be more than happy to
tell him that you're interfering with the following of his orders!" Her green
eyes flashed down at him.

He looked angrily back up at her and then looked around for Jack.
"CAPTAIN," he yelled in protest, "GABRIELLE'S TRYING TO DO MY JOB!"

Jack looked at him. "No, she's trying to do the job I told her to do.
You got a problem with that, Wolverine?"

Wolverine mumbled something under his breath that Jack couldn't hear but
did not make a comment out loud. "I didn't think so," Jack said and returned to
looking in cabinets in search of his rum. Where had it all suddenly gone to? He
knew he had more. He didn't pay any more attention to the group.

Gabrielle grinned down at Wolverine as though she were a cat and he but
a mouse. "Anything else to say?" she asked him.

"Not at this time," Wolverine responded. He settled back to watch
Gabrielle make an ass of herself.

It was at that time that a masculine voice quietly spoke up from behind
Prue. "Excuse me, madam, but I need to have a brief talk with Gabrielle."

At the sound of such a masculine voice, Prue wanted to turn around and
look. It just melted her right to her bones, and she wanted to see what he
looked like. She tried glancing to the side, but he was standing directly behind
her and she couldn't see him. She moved slightly to where he could come up to
Gabrielle and was rewarded with a sight that made her mouth water.

What a hunk! He was taller than she and had a muscular build. His hair
was dark brown and hung slightly past his shoulders. His hands were large but
looked like they could caress gently, and she longed to reach out and touch him,
to taste him. She could tell her hormones were wild and raging for they usually
didn't react around any guy like they were to this stranger. He was different.
She didn't know what it was about him, but she planned to corner him later and
find out. She stepped back into her place in the line only to bump into some one
who was following close behind the man. As she moved to let her pass, the man's
delightful scent wafted back to tease her nostrils.

Cordelia's hazel eyes watched as Prue moved again, but she shook her
head. "That's all right," she told her. "I'm new too. I simply had not heard the
message when Brendan told me on his way here."

"That's okay," Prue answered. "Sorry for almost stepping on you. Who is
he?" she whispered.

"He's quite a gentleman," Cordelia admitted in a returned whisper though
she was careful not to add that he was not the best gentleman there by far. Even
then, part of her mind stayed on Angel, and her lips still burned from the
memory of their kiss. "His name's Brendan. Richards, I think. He's the ship's
doctor."

"Oh!" Prue breathed, lost in a daydream of where she needed the doctor's
care immediately. After all, just the mere sight of him had put her into the
greatest danger of burning completely up! "Oh Gods, what a man!" she breathed
only to receive a strange look from all three of her sisters.

"Prue!" Piper chided in a hushed whisper. "Phoebe and Paige do not need
to hear such!" Although she scolded her sister, Prue's comment reminded her of
Cole, and she wondered where that magnificent man had gotten to.

Prue just smiled at her sisters and waited to hear what Gabrielle was
going to tell them.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile, Brendan had reached the front of the group. "Gabrielle," he
called, "I know you haven't met them, but there are four others you need to be
aware of. One's the Pr -- the lady at the back of the group; her name's
Cordelia. Then there's Elizabeth, a new boy by the name of Dawson, and a new
blonde woman with a group of animals." Gabrielle nodded slowly, taking the
information in. "And don't forget Will," Brendan added. "None of those can make
it here, but you can still figure out where they're going."

Gabrielle nodded again. "Thank you, Brendan." With a curt nod, he
continued on his way, leaving her to return her attention to the group. "Okay.
Evidently Wolf and Elvira haven't made it back yet, so we'll get started without
them." She turned her attention first to Prue and the three who stood with her.
"You're all sisters, right?"

"Yes, ma'am, we are," Prue said with hope shining in her eyes, "and we'd
like to stay together if possible, please?"

"Of course." Gabrielle would not have even thought of splitting up what
remained of their family for she knew they would need each other desperately.
"You four will go on the Sea Witch. That's the other ship, by the way. You're on
the Black Pearl right now."

"Thank you," she said. "I hope we won't disappoint you." She hugged her
sisters to her.

Gabrielle nodded. "I'm sure you'll be just fine. The important thing is
that you made it out of there alive." She smiled at them before returning her
attention to the rest of the group.

"Will and Elizabeth will stay on the Pearl. Elvira can go there too, and
. . ." Her eyes fell upon Ororo, and she heard a low growl even as she said,
"Ororo."

Wolverine was biding his time, waiting to see where Gabrielle was going
to put 'Ro. If she tried splitting them up, he was going to give her Hell about
it! He had to admit, though, that the girl was handling the situation really
well. As Gabrielle stopped talking, giving the group time to let that bit of
information sink in, what she had said finally hit Logan. "Ain't no way!" he
yelled back up at her. "She goes on my ship!"

"Very well then, Wolverine," Gabrielle told him calmly. "You can go to
the Pearl, too."

"YOU CAN'T DO THAT!" he yelled. "I'M THE QUARTERMASTER! The Captain
didn't tell you to reassign the crewmates! He said the newcomers!"

"That he did," Gabrielle admitted with a nod, "and I say Ororo goes to
the Pearl."

"I say she goes to the Witch!" he said with a leap and bound, jumping up
onto the cabin with her and never realizing that Ororo had reached out a hand in
a failed attempt to calm him.

As he moved toward her, Gabrielle slipped her sais out should she be
forced to need them. She met him with a calm look. "We don't have to fight about
this, Wolverine. You want to go with her, you go to the Pearl."

All the disturbance had caused Jack to look up from his fruitless search
for rum. "Y'all makin' enough noise to wake the dead!" he yelled. He had heard
what the confrontation was about. "Wolverine, get over here! Bring 'Ro with ya!
It's nothing to fight about! One ship's no better than the other ship! NOW!" He
stood alert with both hands on his hips. He didn't want to stomp over there and
kick his little butt, but he would if he had to. "Gabrielle's in charge of this
assignment, and you'll do what she tells you to do or, matey," he said, "you'll
walk the plank."

No way did Logan want to walk the plank! He never even unsheathed his
claws. He just jumped back down and stomped back by 'Ro's side. "Xena won't like
this!" he growled back up at Gabrielle. "Soon as she returns, you'll catch it!
She won't want me gone!"

"She never wanted you there in the first place! Jack's the one who
assigned the positions!"

"You're wrong, Gabrielle. Xena handpicked me out of all the rest. She's
going to be p.o.ed when she gets back."

"If you think I believe she'd pick your short butt over me when I'm the
love of her life, you'd better think again!"

Jack looked over at Gabrielle. "Unfortunately, Gabrielle, that's exactly
what she did do. I never assigned the positions on your ship. I simply gave it
to Xena and made her the Captain, and I've never tried to interfere until now.
Maybe I should have done it a long time ago, but you'll have to take it up with
her."

As Jack's voice sank in, Gabrielle's heart sank far below the dreaded
locker of Davy Jones. Her skin paled. Her hands, which still clutched her sais,
trembled, and tears welled in her green eyes. "You're kidding, right, Jack?" she
asked, her voice barely audible.

"I'm sorry, Gabrielle, but I'm not. She gave me her reasons, but I'm not
at liberty to tell them. Like I said, you've got to talk to her about it. I
thought she was wrong. I told her that, but like I told you, I don't make it a
policy to interfere with another Captain's decisions." He didn't know what else
to say. He felt for the girl. To lighten the mood, he asked, "Has any one seen
my rum? It seems to have grown little feet and run away." He laughed.

Laughter answered Jack's joke, and it burned Gabrielle's ears. She could
feel eyes upon her, and her heart felt as if it had broken into a million
pieces. Xena hadn't wanted her as her second-in-command? Why? Why if she'd truly
loved her, if she did love her? She could feel the tears coming and knew she was
moments from breaking down, but she had to finish her task. She had to show the
others that she was capable of handling situations, even if Xena, blast her
hide, didn't think so.

Tears still shimmered in her eyes as she turned back to the group before
her. Her mind whirled as she tried to think of who she had already placed: the
Halliwells, Ororo, Will, Elizabeth, Elvira. "Fred, you're to the Witch.
Cordelia, Pearl. That new blonde can go to the Pearl, too, whatever her name is,
and the kid's to the Witch." Her words came out in a rush so fast that they were
barely able to be made out, and then in a flash, she turned and ran. Gabrielle
was gone before any one even knew what had happened.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jack watched her go. He knew there'd be Hell to pay, and he had no way
of telling Xena what she'd be walking into when she returned. He looked down at
Logan and the others. "Welcome to your new homes. I will get an escort for those
of you going to the Witch. Do not think less of Gabrielle; I'd be emotional were
I in her boots, as well." He looked around and was just in time to see
Cole shimmer in. "Cole, escort these lovely ladies to your ship and then return.
I want you to go and see what's keeping Xena so long, and I have a message for
you to give her."

Cole, who had thought he had just been caught after having returned from
disposing of all of Jack's rum, smiled at the Captain. "Sure thing. If you
ladies would come this way," he called to them and walked off, heading toward
the Witch.

Wolverine looked at Jack; Jack looked at Wolverine. "Knew it had to come
out sooner or later. I just wish it had come out in a better way." Jack then
turned his attention to the regal lady who stood beside Wolverine. "Welcome
aboard, Ororo. It seems that today we have lost our resident Sorceresses to the
Witch and have a position for you as our chief Sorceress if you're willing to
take it." He smiled at her.

Wolverine was extremely surprised at this turn of events. "What about
the Lewises?" he asked.

"We had a bit of a misunderstanding," Jack said, making a motion with
his hand. "It's better for all of them to be over there." He would not tell any
one of Tom's treachery.

Wolverine knew better than to ask any questions. They both looked at
Ororo to see what her answer would be.

"I do wish to stay with the ships as long as the Halliwells are here,
but I also do not wish to step on any one's toes," she answered hesitantly.

"So does that mean you'll take the job?" Jack asked hopefully. "There's
no way they're coming back, so the position is definitely open."

"Very well then," Ororo accepted with a brief nod and a gentle smile.
"It would be an honor."

"It will be an honor to have you serving with us, madam," Jack replied
with a slight bow. "Wolverine, if you'll show her to the quarters, you can pick
out your beds. If there's luggage or anything scattered about the bed, you can
pretty well tell that it belongs to somebody. A lot of our crew are messy."

Ororo's face had paled slightly. This was not the first ship she had
been on, and she remembered the sleeping quarters of the one that had taken her
from Africa. "Hum," she spoke hesitantly. "These quarters, Captain. Are they . .
. hum . . . beneath the deck?" She fought to keep a straight face.

"Just one floor down. Right under where we're standing now. Is there a
problem?" he asked with concern on his face.

She thought quickly, not wanting to reveal her true problem. "Well, if
it is not too much of a hindrance, I believe I would prefer to sleep on deck. I
am a Weather Witch, and as such, I prefer to sleep as close to nature as
possible." It was not a lie for she did prefer to sleep as close to nature as
possible and was indeed a Weather Witch. It simply was nowhere near the truth of
her real problem.

"That's no problem," Jack assured her. "Have Wolverine bring you up a
cot. Find you an area out of the way of the crew, and you can set up your own
little place."

Ororo breathed a silent sigh of relief, but her lips quivered even as
she smiled at Jack. "Thank you, sir."

Wolverine simply told Jack, "Thank you." Neither of them mentioned
Gabrielle.

"If you need anything, just let me know." He slipped away from them and
continued his search for his elusive rum. He had not been gone from them long
when he heard Cole returning. "Cole, you need to shimmer to where Xena is and
find out what's taking them so long, and you need to tell Xena that Gabrielle
knows that she picked out Wolverine for her second-in-command. Tell her
Gabrielle took it as hard as she thought she would. Can't have her walking in
here blind."

Cole kept his mouth shut. He figured this day would come, and it wasn't
going to be a happy time for any concerned. He knew why Xena had appointed
Wolverine and not Gabrielle, but knowing Gabrielle, he knew she would never sit
still for it. He only hoped Gabrielle would forgive Xena. He cared deeply for
both of them, and he did not want to lose them or them lose each other. "Aye
aye, Captain; I will," he answered and shimmered out before Jack could ask him
about the rum.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Logan looked at 'Ro. "I know the perfect place, little darlin'. Come
with me, an' I'll show ya." He led the way to a small alcove that was near the
wheel. It was protected from the weather and just big enough for two cots. "It's
small but should be good for both of us. Do ya like it?"

Not yet trusting her voice after the spook that the Captain had
unintentionally given her, Ororo nodded. Although it had shelter to keep the
rain off, it was open on the side and she knew it would be just fine. She did
not speak nor even look at Logan.

"Then I'll just go get the cots," he said. He headed off to get them,
noticing that she was following behind him at a distance. He didn't force her to
come any faster or to even enter the sleeping quarters. He just gathered two of
the cots and headed back. He didn't know why she was spooked, but he knew she
was. As he came back to the door, he noticed 'Ro standing there, looking into
the sleeping quarters as though she was staring into the gaping mouth of Hell.
"What's wrong, little darlin'?" he asked, deep concern in his face.

"I . . . I do not get along well with small, enclosed areas," she
admitted slowly, biting back a shudder at the memories that were flashing
through her mind. Her hands trembled slightly even as her fingers curled as if
to scratch at something.

He walked through the entranceway, carrying both cots, and headed back
to their new little hidey-hole. "That's no problem, 'Ro. If you get scared, just
let me know, an' I'll try my best to do something about it. In the meanwhile,
yer open to the elements." Setting the cots down, he turned to lift her chin and
gaze into her eyes where he could see a haunted fear. He ached to protect her
and, before he had time to think about what he was doing, had pressed his lips
gently to hers.

She had not heard him and had almost become completely lost in her
memories when she found his lips pressed against hers. Tingles shot through her
at his touch, coiling and spreading through her body like golden rays of the
morning sun chasing away the darkness of night. She slowly raised a hand up and
gently cupped his face but did not pull back from his kiss. She knew they should
not be doing this so soon after meeting for the first time that day, but she was
already drawn to him more than she'd ever been to any man before. Instead of
pulling away as she knew she should, she found herself deepening the kiss that
he had began.

He felt himself melt into her, and he lost all track of time. She was
his only world, and he wanted no other but her.


Chapter Eighteen
Cole shimmered in just as the group at the auction had walked off. He
reached up and plucked Carl off of the tent. "Hell of a mess here, isn't it? How
did you manage to survive?" he asked Carl.

"Luck?" Carl returned with a grin. "But thanks, man! I swear, I think
you must be the only one of this bunch who gives a damn about Gnomes! None of
the rest of them would even look at me when I was asking to be let down!" He
then let out a low whistle. "But, man, did I have a view of it when Faith ripped
off her shirt!"

"I wouldn't advise you touching them, my friend. I know several men who
she's cut the hands off of for just attempting. Suppose we walk around and see
what we can find? I need to find Xena first."

Carl nodded. "She went that way," he said, pointing in the direction he
had watched Autolycus and Xena go off in, "and don't worry. I'm a Gnome, not an
idiot. Believe me, I want to keep both of my hands. That kid's sure gonna be in
trouble, though."

"That kid's already in trouble," Cole said, knowing who Carl was talking
about. "He's always been in trouble. Faith is just a new kind of trouble. We
better keep an eye on him."

Carl nodded. "Yup. I didn't think it was only my sniffer telling me that
he draws trouble like dogs draw fleas."

"Afraid so, my friend," Cole replied. "We've got a lot of people like
that. We just have to keep our eyes open so that we can help them if they need
us." He could see Xena just ahead of them, and he yelled at her. "XENA, HOLD UP!
WE GOTTA TALK!"

Xena turned around and watched as Cole caught up with her. She looked
down at Carl. "Go catch up with Autolycus and help him."

Carl wanted to ask if he had to, but for some reason, he had a strong
feeling that he did not want to be anywhere near Xena when Cole told her
whatever news he had returned with. Instead, he rushed after Autolycus.

When Carl was gone, Cole looked intently into Xena's eyes and spoke in a
still, quiet voice. "She knows. She took it pretty damn hard. She ran off,
probably to your cabin. I told you, Xena! You should have told her a long time
ago, but no, you had to protect her! Well, the crap just hit the fan! You want
me to take you to her?"

"Not till we get through here," Xena said. The news had stung her. "Who
was the bloody bastard that told her?"

"It was not intentional," Cole said, "but Jack delegated her the job of
putting the new people on the ship. Wolverine and she got into it. One thing led
to another, and the truth came out as truth always does."

Not knowing where else to look, Xena looked down at her feet. "She'll
hate me now. I did it out of love, but she'll hate me for it. Gods, Cole, I was
so scared of losing her! I did my best to protect her! Only she won't see it
that way. That's why I never told her. We've got to get through here and get
back to the ship. I won't leave before we're finished. Gabrielle won't run away,
not until we have a fight, and then I pray she won't leave me. Even if she hates
me, it's better than not having her around."

Cole reached out a hand and gripped his Captain's shoulder. "It'll take
a while, Xena, but I think things'll come right. Have patience, and have it out
with her once and for all. Let her know how you truly feel. Show her the part of
you that you keep hidden even from her. If you need a shoulder, I'll be there
for you."

Xena's hand reached out and gripped Cole's shoulder. She returned the
gentle squeeze. "Thanks, Cole. Let's get this over with." Together they turned
back around and headed out for some of the tents to check for survivors.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There were dead bodies all around, and they thought they would never
find any one alive. They glanced over at Carl and Autolycus a few times,
noticing that they were busily covering the ground in search of survivors but
were also collecting anything of value. It was then that they heard a weak cry
for help, and Cole lifted the remaining parts of the tent. Trapped underneath
were three half-naked women, chained and cowering together in a tight, shivering
huddle. By some miracle, they were not burned.

Xena reached out a hand and helped one to her feet. She was about to
reach for another when she felt a hand slide under hers and grasp the woman's,
pulling her upward. She glanced up to see that Autolycus had arrived to lend a
hand. Fire shot from her eyes as she warned him, "Do not even think of going
there."

Autolycus had no intentions of moving on the women, but he only looked
at Xena, letting her think what she would. Xena reached down and helped the
other one up. There were no other bodies in the hole where the women had been
kept, and as soon as the group was out of the way, Cole let the tent drop back.

Autolycus and Carl helped the women to get back to the designated area.
The women appeared to be so exhausted that they feared they'd fall out at any
moment. When they reached the spot, Autolycus said, "Sit here; rest." He looked
around to see if he could find any water for them to drink but did not see any.
The women had yet to speak a single word and only continued to stare at them
with big, wild eyes that shone with fear and tears. "Carl, you stay with the
women, and I'll get back to seeing what I can find."

Carl nodded. "Won't let anything get to them." He sat down on the ground
beside them.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lex had been talking to Clark the entire time they had been walking. He
did not feel safe in pulling the shirt off and was relieved but not surprised
that Clark had not asked him to. They came to a tent that looked like it had
fallen but not burned, and Lex described to Clark what he was doing even as he
let go of Clark's hand and lifted the tent. "There's something under here,
Clark."

Lex had barely managed to raise the tent when they were attacked.
Something little barreled right into Clark's chest. The surprise of the impact
knocked him to the ground. "Lex?" Clark called out in a worried voice as tiny
fists futilely pounded his muscular chest. They stopped as soon as they had
stopped, however, and Clark knew that Lex had pulled his would-be attacker off.

Lex's hands were indeed full of a furious little package. He wasn't sure
if it was a girl or a boy as he was too busy trying to keep it from biting him.
He finally threw the kid away from him and yelled, "DOWN! STOP IT!"

Despite the impact of the fall, the kid had been about to launch another
attack when Lex yelled at him. The kid stopped for a moment and looked at him.
"I won't let you have her!"

"Have who?" Clark asked, drawing the kid's attention back to him.

"What happened to you, mister?" the kid asked, his voice revealing that
he was a boy.

"An accident. I can't see."

The boy's gaze traveled between the two men as he considered them for a
long moment before asking cautiously, "You're not with them, are you?"

"No," Clark said. "We're here to save you."

The kid reached out and touched him. "You already did save my sister."

"How?" Lex asked.

"They were taking her. They wanted her badly. I was fighting them, but
they were grown-ups. We're just kids. That didn't stop them. They had thrown her
on the ground and were about to take her when fire came out of nowhere and
burned them all up. Thank the Gods for the fire! I think she's okay."

He reached around under a rug and pulled out a child smaller than he
was. An ache filled Lex's heart to see the small child. He could not believe
that some one was trying to mount her! Why, she was nothing but a baby! "We're
not going to hurt your sister, son," he reassured the boy. "We're going to take
you somewhere safe."

"There's more of us, mister." Both Lex's and Clark's hearts almost
stopped beating in shock as the boy added, "They're in a cage over there." They
could not imagine who would cage children, let alone rape them.

Lex braced himself and looked. He had expected to see children, but his
eyes found a cage brimming over with cats instead. There were so many cats in
the cage that he could not see how they could even move. "Clark, there is a cage
over running with cats."

Clark was relieved that it was not children, but his sorrow for the
prisoners and anger at those who had imprisoned them did not lessen. "Well, Lex,
you know we have to take them with us."

"What are we going to do with all those cats?" Lex mumbled.

"We can't leave them here," Clark told him. "You know what's going to
happen."

"Mister," the boy said, "I can be his eyes. He saved my sister. I don't
know how he made the fire, but I know it was him. I saw it coming from him."

"That was the accident that happened to his eyes," Lex told the boy.

"My name is Julian, mister."

Although Clark could not see his love, he knew that Lex was choking on
the boy's name for it was the name of the brother he had lost before ever
getting to know him. He ached to be able to see him so that he might reach out
and reassure him but knew he could not.

"My name is Lex," he told Julian when he had finally recovered enough to
speak, "and this is Clark."

Clark reached out a hand to gently touch Julian. "We'll take care of
you, Julian," he promised. "You want to be my eyes?"

"Yes, sir. I'll do my best. Sarah, come here," he said. "This is Clark
and Lex. They will take care of us."

Clark didn't need his eyes to see that Sarah was terrified for she did
not say a word but only clung to him like a small monkey. "You be our eyes,
Julian, and I'll carry Sarah."

Julian was happy to get such an important job. He glanced over to see
Lex struggling to pick up the cage, but even with his great strength, he could
not lift it. Lex fell back in surprise when a voice came from the cage.

"Hey! Let us out of here!"

"You can talk?!" Lex finally found his voice.

"Can't you?" a black cat retorted in a smooth but annoyed voice.

"Well, yes, but I'm human!"

"Yeah, well, so was I once upon a time!"

"But you're a cat now?" He sat on the ground and stared back at the cat
in shocked disbelief. "Can you get the other cats to come?" he asked hesitantly.
"We have to get out of here as quickly as we can. The whole town is going down
tonight."

"It's about damn time! This town needs to be burnt, and those blasted
bitches should be right in the middle of it!" he spat furiously.

"Bitches?" Lex asked.

"The Spellman bitches. That stupid Council sent me to live with them,
but I couldn't stay there! I took everything I could stand off of them, but
trying to sell me for stud service to humans was the last straw! They deserve to
go down!"

"They what?! What kind of humans go with cats?!"

The black cat shook his head as his green eyes stared at Lex as though
he were not even worthy of cleaning his paws. "You really are quite slow, aren't
you?" he asked.

"Slow? No, I'm not! I just can't see -- ! You're just so small! How
could any one want something that little?"

"It's not the size but how you use it that matters. You should know
that."

"Yes," Lex admitted, still too shocked to realize the verbal blow that
the cat had dealt him, "but you're a cat! Humans are bigger than you are!
Wouldn't you just fall through?!" He was trying to choose his words carefully so
that the children would not know what was going on.

Clark could not help but to overhear. What would turn up next? Children
so tiny they could almost be called babies and now cats?! Gods, these people
were sick! He no longer had any doubts about the town being destroyed. It was a
modern day Helltown and deserved to perish. He only wished it had been at
somebody else's hands.

The cat shook his head. "Look," he spat out. "I couldn't understand it
either, but they did what they did and I'm tired of staying in here! Let us out
before more of us die!" he demanded.

It was only then that Lex's attention was drawn to the dead cats that
the others were having to stand on top of. He hurriedly broke the lock off with
a rock he found nearby. "You'll be safe if you come with us," he told the black
cat, "but even if you choose not to come, you can't stay here."

"We'll come with you," he answered. "I only hope you have suitable
accommodations," he added with a disdainful sniff.

"Well, we're Pirates, and we live on a ship. There's plenty of room."

"Sounds good to me," the cat answered. "I always wanted to be a Pirate
Captain."

"Well, we already have a good one of those," Lex said, "but I'll let him
know that you're willing to help him with his job. Now we'd best move."

He started to walk out when the cat's voice stopped him. "There's more."

"Where?" Lex asked. The cat gestured with his head to deeper within
another tent, and Lex realized that the tent that had fallen had only been the
last in a row that had made up this dreadful place. Picking up his rock, he
followed the cat. The rest of the cats walked, hobbled, and crawled as they
attempted to make it outside to Clark and the children.

A thought occurred to Lex as he followed the cat. Since it talked, it
might very well have a name. "By the way," he asked, "do you have a name?"

"Salem," the cat called back to him. "Salem Saberhagan."

Lex looked at the cat in surprise but did not speak again. As he
continued to follow him, however, he could not help wondering why that name
seemed so familiar.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dawson had followed Faith, and they had entered the front of what looked
to be the one remaining shop. It was hard to tell, because all the buildings
were in tents. There seemed to be statues everywhere in cat and dog form, but it
was the cats that drew his attention the most. They were darling, and he picked
up several of them and offered one to Faith.

Faith had been working her way deeper into the tent and had not paid
attention to what Dawson was doing. Feeling his eyes on her, however, she turned
to see him holding out one of the statues to her. Her eyes flashed at the sight,
and her stomach churned as she realized that he unwittingly held several more of
them. "You don't want those," she told him, slapping his hands with such force
that the statues were thrown from his grasp. They landed on the floor, and she
actually cringed as the breaking sounds made her think of the crunching and
shattering of animal bones and the memory of a kitten's pain-filled cry echoed
in her mind.

"Why not? They're beautiful!" Dawson asked, angry that she had slapped
his hands. "Just because you don't want something doesn't mean I don't want it!"

"Look, kid," Faith sneered, closing the distance between them in one
long, purposeful stride. "If I do something, I've got a reason for it! Those
statues you think are so beautiful? They're made from real cats! Cat bones, cat
fur! Some probably even have real kitten eyes!"

He shook his head in denial even as his stomach wretched. "Who would do
such a thing -- kill a live animal to make a statue?" He couldn't understand
why. "Why?" he asked her.

"People don't care. Some might act like they do about this or that or
another thing, but none of them really care about anything other than their own
hides! Whoever made these didn't think twice about killing the animals, because
they didn't care! They didn't care that they were killing a live being, because
they knew they were making something pretty," she snarled out the word, "that
would bring them a huge profit!"

It was at that moment that Dawson heard a sound of something moving
behind Faith. "Look out, Faith! Behind you!" He reached out, grabbing her and
trying to move her out of the way of whatever was coming.

Even as Dawson whirled her around, she snatched her knife out. She felt
the whistle of wind as a blade passed just over her head and snaked her knife
out blindly. It met its mark as it sliced through the merchant's stomach. Blood
spurted out, and she knew she had hit something vital as the evil man grabbed
his gut, fell to the floor, and did not move again.

It had all happened in a second, and she now found herself in front of
Dawson, blood from the man having splattered his bare chest. Without thinking,
she reached up a hand and rubbed at it, trying to remove the stain from his
white skin. Dawson glanced down at himself even as he reached out toward Faith
and pressed his own lips to hers in a heated kiss. He had fully expected her to
toss him away when she deepened the kiss and he felt her hands running down his
chest.

Dawson had surprised her when he had kissed her, and before she even
knew what was happening, Faith had returned his kiss, her tongue sliding past
his lips and deepening their kiss. The knife dropped, forgotten, from her hand
as her hands ran down his chest. She continued to kiss him and even stepped on
her own blade as she pushed him against the canvas of the tent. Her hands
slipped further down and then began unbuttoning his pants.

Dawson breathed deeply of Faith. Finally, he was going to get a second
ride, and he could hardly wait! Brendan was wrong! His tongue continued to duel
with hers as his hands began to run up and down her body, pulling her even
closer to him even as her heat threatened to melt him.

She had only unbuttoned a few of his buttons when her fingers slipped
into his pants. Her fingertips had barely began to rub his eager sword when her
ears caught an unusual sound. She tried to ignore it at first, but as the cats'
mewing and dogs' barking became even louder, she slowly returned to herself. Her
eyes grew wide as she realized what she was doing. Placing a hand on Dawson's
chest, she quickly pushed herself away from him.

"What -- ?" The confused word stumbled out of his mouth. "Faith!" His
body longed for her touch, and his sword ached for the race that was not coming.
"Damn!" he muttered. Almost was not good enough! "What's the matter?"

Then he, too, heard the animals coming. That was when he realized that
she was right about what she had told him, and he feared it was the ghosts of
the animals coming after him. He waited with fear in his eyes to see the
monsters appear. Several seconds later, he heard Lex talking, but still no
animals had appeared.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Keep going; we're almost there," Lex said, hoping that it was true and
they would soon be out but instead they came to another open area where dead
animals were hung and suspended in the air. He heard more mews and turned to see
yet another cage. He knew that one would have been next. He broke the lock on
that one, as well, releasing the animals. He glanced around at the torture
chamber and wondered where its owner was, knowing that he would like to use the
implements he saw hanging around on that owner.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Faith shook herself. "Sorry, kid," she told Dawson with a shrug of her
shoulders that she instantly regretted from the pain that shot through her, "but
I don't give second rides." Without another word to him, she turned and slipped
through a flap in the tent that opened to another. She ducked just in time to
avoid being hit in the head with a dog's swinging carcass. "Watch your head and
your gut coming in here, boy!" she called back.

Dawson entered, not knowing what to expect. The blood and the cloying
scent of death lingered in the air to the point that he didn't know if he could
keep the bile down or not. What kind of monster ran this place? He knew it had
to be a monster even though they had just killed what apparently was the owner.
"Do you think we got the owner? What kind of monster could he have been to cause
this?" Dead animals hung suspended in the air for as far as he could see. Blood
dripped from some of their jugular veins, and Dawson's stomach churned even more
as he saw the blood being caught in jars. His skin crawled with the intensity of
the scene that was all around him.

"The worst kind," Faith called back to Dawson. "Human!" she spat the
word. Her mouth was still open to say more when a weak meow met her ears. Faith
looked up at the sound, and her eyes grew as round as saucers as she looked at
the cat who still breathed shallowly. She had heard about the ones who were hung
while still alive and left to die on the ropes, but she had never before
encountered one.

To see the cat clinging to life in its last few seconds as it swung
before her was bad enough, but as its faint blue eyes looked into her own eyes,
she remembered another cat. Her skin paled, horror and fear filling her face,
and she looked as if she was about to cry as a memory of the only being who had
ever truly gotten close to her flashed through her mind. "Oh Gods!" she
breathed. She did not want to have to kill the cat, but for the moment, the
Lewis sisters did not even register and she feared she would have no other
choice but to put it out of its misery.

Dawson reached out gently and held the rope even as his right hand cut
the rope with the knife that Brendan had given him. "Catch her, Faith!" he
called to her. Faith reached out instinctively at his voice and caught the
falling cat just in time. Together they lowered the kitty to the floor. Once
they had her on the floor, Dawson looked at Faith. "What can we do to save her?"

Faith was already shaking her head at his question. One hand lingered on
the cat, but her other pulled out the knife that she had picked back up and slid
back into its hiding place in her boot before leaving the first tent. She
gripped the knife even as she looked up at Dawson, tears stinging her eyes. "We
can't . . . " she whispered to him, her voice trembling even as she cussed
herself for her weakness. "There's only one thing we can do, and that's end her
suffering . . . "

Dawson shook his head in disbelief. "There's got to be more. We've got
to do something, not just . . . " His voice trailed off. If it had to be done,
he'd do it and not make Faith do it. He was just about to reach out and take the
cat when a male voice split the air.

"Hold off, Dawson. The Lewis sisters can help the cat." Lex was about to
ask Faith why she didn't think about the Lewis sisters when he saw the look on
her face and did not even speak a word to her. He had never seen her so
distraught. He hadn't even thought it was possible.

Tearing his eyes from Faith, he returned his attention to Dawson as he
instructed, "Look for others. I'll take this one outside. Cole should be back by
now. He can shimmer her to the ship."

Lex very gently picked the cat up and was about to take her away when he
heard Faith. "Luthor, if you tell anybody about this," she knew she did not need
to indicate what it was and that he would know she meant her foolish, weak
emotions that she hated herself for, "I'll gut you."

"Don't worry, Faith. I'll do what I can, but I won't tell anybody." The
cat seemed like a very fragile shell in his hands, and he toted her outside,
blinking for a moment when the sun hit him full in the face. He glanced around
hopefully and finally spotted Cole.

Cole, knowing that he was needed, rushed forward and took the kitty who
seemed as though she was about to wilt and completely die but still managed a
weak meow. Lex told him, "Get her help and return. There may be more." Cole
nodded and shimmered.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Arriving at the Witch, Cole laid the fragile life at Celina's feet.
"There may be more," he said as he shimmered out.

"Goddess!" Celina breathed even as she dropped to her knees before the
cat. She chanted in an alien language and held her hands out to the cat. The
warmth passed through her and into the cat, slowly reviving the small feline. As
she became healed, Celina turned her head to look for her husband. "Morph, you
heard him. Go get Katrina! We may need her depending on how many he brings!"

"Tom," Morph said, looking at his friend who Celina had not even
noticed, "you'd best tell Katrina and get moved over here to the Witch. I'll
help you."

Tom nodded, and the two raced from one ship to the other. As they headed
down into the sleeping quarters, Morph held back as Tom went to wake his wife.
He shook her gently while calling her name. "Katrina?"

Katrina opened her eyes and gazed into the face of the man she loved.
"What's wrong, Tom?" she asked.

"Well," he spoke slowly, forcing a grin onto his lips, "I've got good
news and bad. The good news is that we finally did it, love of my life," he
threw the phrase in in hope that she would go lightly on him.

"Did what, Tom?" she asked.

"We get to move over to the Witch. You can finally be with your sister
all the time again!"

"But why, Tom?" Katrina asked. "What did you do to Jack?" She knew
instantly that it had be something with the Captain, because he had been so
adamant about keeping them there in case of attack.

"There's a new healer," Tom tried at first, "so he doesn't have to have
us over here any more."

"And he just let us go to the Witch out of the goodness of his heart?
Yeah, right!" she said, sitting upright. "What did you do?"

Tom hung his head, not wanting to see the anger that would come into her
eyes. He had never been afraid of Jack, but he did fear upsetting his beloved.
"I put cat's claw in his rum."

"TOM! You didn't!" she said distressfully. "You could have made him
impotent!"

"I only used a little bit, just enough to make him sick from the rum,
but not any long-term effects. Besides, Katrina, you said it yourself! Somebody
had to do something," Tom defended himself, "and nobody else would!"

"Did it work?" she asked hopefully.

He sighed, still not raising his eyes to hers. "I don't really know, but
I doubt it. I had to try, though."

"It's all right, husband dearest," she said as she touched her nose to
his. "I wanted to be with Celina, but I didn't want to leave Jack high and dry.
He's been such a help to us. I just wish we could help him."

"We could try more cat's claw," Morph suggested from the steps.

"No more cats' claw!" Katrina commanded. Returning her attention to Tom,
she asked, "Did you apologize?"

"No," Tom admitted, "and I'm not going to. I did it to help him. I'm
sorry if it upsets you, sweetheart, but I absolutely refuse to apologize for
attempting to help a friend who's too foolish to help himself!"

"Not foolish, my dear," she reminded. "Just heart-broken. His nightmares
are so awful, and the pain in his heart is so great! I wish there was something
that we could do to help him, but we can only watch and wait. There will come a
time."

Tom looked up at her, questions shining in his green eyes. Nightmares?
Pain in his heart? What did Katrina know that he didn't? He wanted to ask, but
remembering Celina reminded him that they might well not have the time. Lifting
one of her hands, he kissed it gently. "Katrina, love, I know you're tired, but
we've got to get over there to the Witch for more than just that. You're
probably going to be needed. It looks like the group that went to help Jack with
Will found even more than they suspected. It looks like they found a . . . " His
voice trailed off. Just what could he call such a place?

"A murder shop from Hell," Morph supplied.

Katrina nodded, gathered her stuff quickly, and handed several gunny
sacks of things to Morph and Tom. "Then let us be over quickly. There's no
telling what has already occurred." She led the way to the Witch.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dawson was trying hard not to let Faith know that he was very upset with
her for the way that she had treated him but not for the way that she had almost
come unglued with the cat. He was now making his way slowly around the tent,
checking the hanged bodies, cutting them down, and laying them to one side.
Their blood ran down, mixing and mingling with the blood that was already on his
body. He did not even know how much was his own blood.

He had not been surprised to see Lex, but he had been surprised at the
entourage that came with him. Able-bodied cats were following in his wake along
with Clark and two kids. The cats had spread out, sniffing for other survivors,
when suddenly one of them opened their mouth. "There's one right here!" a black
cat called.

Dawson was frozen to the spot and his eyes glued to the cat. The cat was
talking! He raced over to the cat, looking at it in stunned awe. "You can talk?"
he asked.

The cat shook his head in disgust. "Why does every one find that such a
marvel? Of course I can talk! Now get that cat down before I put a claw in your
rear, son!"

"Yes, sir," Dawson said, "but cats usually don't talk." He cut the cat
down, easing it to the floor and calling for Cole. Cole gathered this one up and
shimmered it to the Witch, leaving it laying at Katrina's feet and returning
instantly to the shop.

Katrina knelt down and ran her hands just above the kitty, praying to
Bast and chanting. The cat grew well, got up, and scampered off to join the
other rescued animals that Cole had already been shimmering in.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It did not take them long to canvas the room, rescuing those they could,
cutting the other dead ones down, and laying them side by side. All in all, they
rescued six cats and one little dog from the hanging bodies. Cole shimmered each
of the tiny bodies to the Lewis sisters and returned to the shop. The Lewis
sisters healed each as they were delivered to them.

Dawson, meanwhile, got to wondering where Faith had gotten off to. He
went in search of her only to find her sitting between two piles of dead animals
and holding one of the dead kittens, rocking back and forth and talking to it
even as her hand lovingly stroked its bloodied fur. {Damn!} Dawson thought to
himself. {I've got to get her out of here! She needs to breathe fresh air and
see the ones that were saved.}

"Faith?" he called to her as he walked up to stand beside her. "Let me
have this one. We have saved a few, and we are ready to go." He reached down and
gently took the animal from her. Only then did he see her tears. "Faith?" He
stroked her hair with a bloodied hand. "Sorry for all the blood." She still had
not responded to him, and he reached down, taking her hand and pulling her to
her feet. "It's time to go home, Faith," he said gently.

"No," she whispered in a small voice, trying to pull her hand out of
his. "I can't. I don't have a home."

"Yes, you do. The ship. She's waiting for you. I'll take you home."

"Ship?" she asked, confusion crossing her face. She blinked, trying to
see past the tears, and as she made out his face, the sight of Dawson brought
her slowly back to herself. "Damn!" she muttered, realizing what she had so
foolishly allowed to happen.

He was glad to see her returning to her normal self; he didn't know what
to do with a weak, docile Faith. "Ready to go?" he asked.

She scrubbed at her eyes, furious at herself for crying. Her fingers
left blood behind in their wake, but she did not even notice it. She nodded
instead but added, "But don't you dare tell any one about this."

"Why would I?" Dawson asked. "It's nothing to be ashamed of."

"The Hell it isn't! I wish I could rip out these damn eyes!"

"Stop talking like that, Faith." He wanted to add 'You're scaring me',
but he didn't. "The little ones will need you. Let's go." He had not released
her hand and began to pull her back to where the other people were when she
suddenly dug in her heels.

When she snatched away from him, Dawson was stunned. She ran from him,
and he followed until they reached the body of the dead shopkeeper. She still
did not speak as she picked the corpse up, turned, and started to drag it back
the way they had come. Dawson picked up the feet without a word. He didn't know
where they were going, but whatever Faith wanted or needed to do, he'd help her.
Together, they strung the man up, still not speaking. When Dawson turned,
however, she was gone again.

"Watch out!" she called to him. He moved out of the way, not knowing
what to expect, and almost screeched when a hook came flying out of nowhere,
landing in the gut of the guy they had just strung up. She filled the corpse
with hooks that she kept throwing at him as though he was a target. Dawson got
out of the way and went back to where the other people were, sick to his
stomach.

"Thought you were bringing Faith back?" Carl piped up questioningly.

"Don't ask!" Dawson said and ran outside the tent where he threw up.
"She'll be here in a minute," he said when he finally returned to the group.

Lex was glad that Clark could not see what had happened, but he was
sorry that the children saw it. "Time to go," he called out, trying to force
cheer into his voice and almost succeeding. He'd tell Clark most of it later but
not where the kids could hear. Clark followed Julian outside where Cole waited.

Cole looked around, waiting for all the others to get back to the
designated area where he began to shimmer them, one at a time, back to the
Pearl. When he returned the last time, Faith was waiting. She was covered in
blood that he didn't dare even ask about. "Ready?" he asked, and at her nod, he
shimmered her home to the Witch.

He appeared before the Lewis sisters, leaving Faith and telling them
that she was the last one. He walked away without looking back, allowing Faith a
chance to get some healing if she wanted it. The Lewises looked at Faith, and
Faith looked at them, neither of them wanting to make the first move. Finally,
Katrina asked, "Will you let us help you?"

Faith shook her head. She wanted to be flippant with them, but as she
could see that they had healed the animals, she knew she could not be . . . not
quite yet, any way. "I don't need anybody's help," she retorted instead and
turned away, heading down into the sleeping quarters instead.

Katrina watched her as she left, wishing that there was some way that
they could breech her defenses and that, by some miracle, the girl would let
them help her but knowing that it was likely never to happen. Celina, looking up
at her sister, shook her head. "It's no use even thinking it, Katrina. I'm only
surprised she didn't cuss you out like she always does me."

Katrina nodded. "I think she was glad we helped the animals, but I wish
she'd let us help her."

"I'm surprised she even cared," Celina admitted, "but she did . . . a
lot."



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Xena arrived outside her cabin door and was not surprised to find all of
her stuff thrown outside. She tried the handle, but it was locked. She knocked
on the door, calling to Gabrielle, but no answer came. She rushed the door with
her shoulder only to find that not only was it locked but barricaded as well.
"GABRIELLE," she yelled, "LET ME IN!" She hollered and called her name until she
became hoarse, realizing that Gabrielle could hear her but that she wasn't going
to let her in.

Inside the cabin, Gabrielle continued to scribble furiously on a scroll.
Tears ran down her face and dropped onto the paper, smearing her ink, but still
she continued to write. It seemed that Xena would simply not get the message and
go away, and finally in sheer desperation, Gabrielle called back to her, "WHY
DON'T YOU GO GET WOLVERINE?! IT'S HIM YOU WANT, ANY WAY!"

Xena motioned to Cole. "Get me in there!" Cole shimmered her in quickly
and then just as quickly shimmered back out.

Xena glanced around the empty room. "Gabrielle?" she called to the air.
She saw the scroll, walked over, looked down at it, and read. Stains from both
blood and tears smeared the ink, and Xena's fear grew as she saw the blood. Her
lover's words chilled her heart far more, however, as they were full of longing
to die because she had lost Xena's love and had no other reason to live.


I've been almost hung.
I've been burned.
I've been left for dead,
Hurt and bleeding.
I've lost others I've loved.
But nothing's ever felt like this before.
No one ever meant to me
What you'll always mean to me.
No one ever touched me
The way you have.
No one ever brought out
So much in me before.
No one ever meant to me
What you'll always mean to me,
But no one could have ever hurt me
As much as you have.

No betrayal could have stung as much.
No loss of love,
If ever you did indeed love me,
Could have hurt so much,
Could have left me with
This red-hot pain,
This empty, burning ache inside.
Nothing could ever be worse than
This pain of losing you,
Of never really having had you.

I would rather have been burned alive,
My skin flayed from my body,
My bones crushed while I still breathed.
I would rather have died a million deaths
Than ever lose you, ever lose our love,
But it never existed.

That pain hurts most of all,
The pain of knowing
That you never loved me,
That it was all a lie,
That every time you kissed me,
Every time you caressed me,
Every time we made love,
You were just acting, just lying,
Just using me for Gods only know what purpose.

There's not a lot of things
That we can choose in this life.
We can't choose who we fall in love with
Or make them love us in return.
We can't choose rather or not to feel,
To be loved or to be hurt,
But we can choose
To end that pain.

And nothing could be worse
Than this pain of losing
The love I only imagined,
The love you only pretended to give to me.
I'll never know why,
But at least,
this pain will sto

Tears so filled Xena's eyes that she could not even tell that Gabrielle
had not completed her final word. Hearing the whistling of the wind, she looked
up at the open window her beloved had escaped through even as she bit back the
sob that rose in her throat. She had to get to her! She had to stop her, some
way, some how, for she knew that if she did not do so soon, the love of her
life, the one woman who meant more to her than anything else ever had or even
could and who she would have given her very soul to protect, would take her own
life. "Gabrielle . . ." The miserable whisper of her beloved's name echoed in
the cabin.


Chapter Nineteen
"DAMN IT!" Xena yelled. "COLE, GET ME OUT OF HERE AND TO GABRIELLE!"

Cole shimmered in, grabbing Xena. Sniffing the air, he carried her
straight to Gabrielle who stood on top of the ship's railing, her back to them.
The sun glinted on something silver, and they realized that she had her sai
pressed to her bosom.

"Gabrielle?" Xena called in a quiet voice. "What are you doing? You want
to kill both of us? If you do that, you kill both of us. Maybe I don't deserve
to live, but you do. You're the best part of both of us. I love you! Please
don't do this!" She wanted to rush forward and grab Gabrielle but knew that
Gabrielle would be quicker than she.

"Xena," Gabrielle's voice trembled, "stop lying. There's no more point
in it. I know what you did. I know who you chose. I just don't know why you
bothered to lie about it. Why toy with me? Why lie to me? Why make me think you
loved me when it was him all along?"

Xena's voice came steady and true. "I've never loved any one like I love
you, Gabrielle! That's why I lied -- to protect you! I didn't want you
endangered. If you were killed in battle, it would have killed me too. I would
die a thousand deaths if it would spare you one instant of pain! That's why I
lied! That's why Wolverine became my second-in-command, because after the
Captain, they go for the second! If I had known for one minute you would have
hated me for it and would have misconstrued and thought I wanted Wolverine . .
." she said, her voice turning to one of disgust as she spat his name. "For
Gods' sakes, baby, I never wanted any one but you! But I wanted you to be safe!
Can't you please forgive me?" She was down on her knees, oblivious to any one
and anything except Gabrielle.

Cole wondered for a minute if he could shimmer and stop Gabrielle in
time. It hurt him just to be close to these two. Their pain was so intense yet
their love was even greater. "Gabrielle?" Xena called to her, waiting for her to
forgive her or condemn her for all eternity. Cole closed his eyes; he knew he
could not interfere. He shimmered away from them.

Slowly, Gabrielle turned to face Xena, hoping and praying to see the
same truth in her face that she heard in her voice, but as she turned on the
railing that they had both walked on countless times before, her booted feet
suddenly slipped. She threw the sai to one side even as she fell forward,
bracing herself to hit the deck only to collide with a softer body.

In one breath-taking move, Xena had flown from her knees to catch
Gabrielle in mid-air. She slid her slowly down her body even as her lips sought
hers, her heart beating a hundred miles a minute. It had scared the heck out of
her, but she had seen Gabrielle throw the sai away. Did that mean she was
forgiven? She prayed that it was so even as Gabrielle returned her heated
kisses.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cole shimmered directly in the path in front of Piper Halliwell. He
surprised her so much that she dropped the load of dishes that she was carrying,
and he barely caught them. "Sorry about that, Miss Piper. Can I carry these for
you somewhere?"

Piper's bosom heaved as she tried to calm herself. "Cole!" she
exclaimed. "How -- ?!" She shook her head in amazement.

"I'm a Demon, and that's how I get around. I had to get away from Xena
and Gabrielle. They were having a very strong exchange and needed to be alone. I
mean you no harm."

"Well, I know that," Piper assured him with a smile, "but you're a
Demon?"

"Well, half any way. I didn't mean to scare you." He smiled at her,
thinking she was more beautiful every time he saw her.

Her smile grew with his explanation and smile. "That explains it; you're
too handsome to be a full-blooded Demon." She blushed a deep red as she realized
the words that had slipped out of her mouth. "I mean -- well, hum -- I know that
sounds prejudiced, but I never met any Demons before today and I thought they
were all kind of like Lorne. Not that he's ugly, because he's not. Just . . .
just different . . . "

He could not believe she thought him handsome! His smile grew even
brighter as his heart sang out, {She likes ya, boy! Move on it!}, but his mind
refused to move any faster for fear of the knowledge that he could scare her to
the point that she would never want to see him again. "Huh, Miss Piper, the
dishes?" he asked, glad that he had something that he could talk about.

"The dishes?" she asked in confusion. "What about them?"

"Where can I put them?"

"Oh. In the kitchen, of course. Do you guys even call it a kitchen?" she
asked, that thought having just occurred to her.

"It's called a galley, ma'am." He headed straight for it with the dishes
and set them down on the table. "Are you finding everything okay? Do you need
help of any kind?" He was having trouble coming up with a mundane topic, because
all his mind wanted and kept telling him was, {Kiss her, you fool, before
somebody else does!} He desperately wanted to but was afraid of her reaction.

"If it's not too much trouble," she asked hesitantly, "I could use some
help getting the supplies moved in here and set up. Lorne was going to help, but
I understand there was some kind of problem with a wolf not liking his pants or
something . . . "

Cole laughed, and Piper's heart warmed at the deep, throaty sound. "You
could say that. He should be over in a minute, but I'll help you until he comes.
He had to change his clothes. He's all right now, but I wouldn't ask him about
it." He walked back out, picked up another load, and brought it in. "Where do
you want this put?"

"I'm not sure," she admitted. "Where do you think the ship's chef would
want them?"

"Oh, you're the ship's chef now, ma'am. We really didn't have one, just
somebody filling in. Captain Jack's been off his diet for a while, and I don't
think Captain Xena's eaten much either. Can't blame either of them. Autolycus
and Joxer are awful cooks. I don't know where they're at or why they aren't here
yet. I had brought them in a little while ago. They've had time to get here to
help. They're supposed to be your kitchen helpers."

She looked at him curiously. "Did one of the Captains tell you that? I
haven't had a chance to ask, what with everything else that's been going on."

"I'm third-in-command over here. They don't care who's in charge of the
cooking as long as something get's cooked that's edible. I haven't had a real
chance to talk to either of them yet, but I know they'll both clear it. We've
been without good food for so long that it's ridiculous, and it's not because
Captain Jack doesn't buy the best supplies either. He does. It's just what those
two goonies do with the food. It should be a crime!"

He then began to show her around the galley and introduce her to the
equipment she'd be using. "This is the oven, but I don't know how to use it. I
can light it for you if you want. This is our cooler, but it doesn't really keep
things cool." He opened the door to reveal a small, dark chamber. "It'd work
better if we had some ice, but it melts about as fast as we get some, so we
don't get much of milk and eggs," he said longingly. Cole simply adored good
food, and he hadn't had any in a long time. "We can put any kind of food you
want in these cabinets," he said as he opened the doors. "Just make it the way
you want it to be."

Piper was grinning from ear to ear. She loved her mother and grandmother
but had always wanted her own kitchen. Now, it seemed that one had practically
been dropped into her lap! "Well, it sounds to me like you are all in desperate
need of a good meal."

"That we are, ma'am; that we are. Can't remember when the last time was
that we had one. Maybe when we were at Derek & Hansel's. They both cook good.
They're in Tortuga."

Piper smiled at him even as she reassured him, "Well, you won't have to
wait for Tortuga to get good food any longer. Just as soon as we can get things
set up, I'll get to work, and I promise you a good meal."

They heard voices and looked up only to see Lorne finally arriving.
"Sorry, Miss Piper, but I had to hunt for a pair of pants. I don't have much
clothes. Somebody had my pants, and a wolf ruined the pair I had on." He was
eagerly anticipating learning to cook.

"If you still have the cloth or something else I can use to patch them,
I could fix them for you," she offered, not daring to ask about the wolf. Who
would have such a beast, any way?

"Why, thank you, ma'am. I'll bring them the next time I come, and the
wolf gave me back the cloth."

Piper's mouth fell open at that. "The wolf gave you back the cloth?" she
repeated in disbelief.

"Yes, ma'am. She's a very smart wolf, and she was only protecting her
mistress. She didn't mean me any harm personally, but she sure took a bite out
of my butt! Then her mistress even healed it!"

Piper looked at Lorne as if he had two heads. A wolf being apologetic
for biting a Demon, even a kind and gentle one like Lorne, and then her mistress
healing said bite was just too much for her to take in. Piper nodded slowly,
reminding herself to shut her mouth so that the men would not think she was a
complete idiot, but did not know what to say.

Cole looked at Lorne. "Give me a hand out here with the supplies, and it
won't take us long."

"Sure," Lorne said. Between the two of them, it didn't take long.

Once the supplies were put away, Cole lit the oven, showing Lorne and
Piper how it was done. "You put the firewood down here," he said to both of them
as he opened the lower door, "and the firewood's just outside the door. It'll
take a while to heat up, so you'll have plenty of time to prepare. I've got to
go hunt for Jack; I've got to tell him something." He was going to tell him all
about Xena and Gabrielle making up; he knew he'd want to know. "If you need me,
call me," he said and shimmered out.

Piper stared at the place where Cole had just stood. "Do you ever get
used to that?" she asked Lorne.

"Not really. That's not one of the powers I have," Lorne said. "In fact,
I don't really have any powers as such. I'm an empath. I listen to people sing,
and I can see their future sometimes. Not really powerful powers,
unfortunately." He smiled at her. "I'm sure looking forward to this; I always
wanted to learn to cook!"

"Then it's time we got started," Piper told him with a grin. "I suggest
a simple recipe first, something we can make as a sort of appetizer for the
crews until we can get the whole meal done."

He rolled up his sleeves and looked at her eagerly, waiting to be told
what was to be done.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wolf and Elvira had finally reached her house only to see that it was on
fire. Wolf's hackles began to rise. "Don't tell me we've gotta go in there!" he
said in a high-pitched voice. "Wolves and fires just don't mix!"

She knew he was terrified, and her heart felt for him. However, she also
knew that she didn't have much of a choice. Turning away from her house and to
him, she told him, "I have to go in there, but I won't ask you to."

"You know I'm not letting you go in there by yourself! Just make it
quick! Don't slow down anywhere! I can almost feel the fire smoking my bones!"
His voice came out nearly in a howl.

She placed a gentle hand on the side of his face and reassuringly
stroked his cheek. "I understand," she told him, "and honestly, Wolf, you don't
have to come. But I have to at least get that Book. That damn thing won't burn.
Believe me. I know, because I've tried to burn it in the past."

"I'm coming, dear heart. I'd never allow you to go in there by
yourself." He nuzzled her. "Whither you go, I go."

Delicious chills shot through her, and she leaned into his nuzzling. "We
could just wait for it to burn down and stay out here," she said, barely able to
think for the emotions he inflicted in her. Her black fingernails gently kneaded
his chest even as she added, "But then if something happens to my dress, I'll
have to run around naked until I can get some more from Delvira."

He looked carefully at the house. "I think if we go in this part and
run, we can beat the fire. I don't want you running around naked for others to
see, only me," he nipped her on the neck, bringing a squeal of pleasure from her
black lips.

"Wolf," she purred to him, "if we keep this up, we're never going to
make it in there."

"Go, and I will follow you," he said, releasing her.

Elvira nodded, but although he released her, she still had to force her
body to pull away from his for every part of her screamed desperately to be one
with every part of him. She yanked at the hem of her skirt, and it pulled away
to reveal a bodysuit. Folding the cloth in her hands to beat against the fire
should they need to, she ran into the house.

The minute she had slipped out of her skirts, revealing her long, lithe
legs, Wolf had howled. She burned him worse than the flames were threatening to!
He had to have her soon! His tail was jerking and would not stay in his pants.
"Soon," he promised. "Soon." He dived into the burning house behind her.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Elvira's long, pale legs streaked out in front of her as she ran for her
bedroom. Once there, she grabbed the Book from her dresser before running over
to her closet. She threw the door open to reveal a row of dresses exactly like
the one she had on. She snatched a few of them and grabbed her cape before
turning back. She frowned. "I'm missing something."

"Yeah, me," Wolf said with a snarl as he moved up to her, wanting those
long legs wrapped around him. It was driving him almost mad with desire. "I . .
. want . . . " He was breathing heavily. " . . . you!" he concluded as his lips
fell upon hers.

As his lips touched hers at long last, she found that she could
withstand the burning inferno he had built inside of her no longer. Her Book and
clothes fell to the floor as her hands grabbed him, fondling every part of him
that they could reach. As she deepened their kiss, her tongue quarreling with
his, her arms wrapped around his body, bringing him even closer. Her hands
dropped in search of his rear but instead found his tail; without hesitation,
she stroked it with the fur.

He howled even as her hands stroked him. "I'm going to die if I don't
have you soon!" he roared. "The big, bad wolf has got to eat, and the little
wolf is hungry too!"

"Then eat me now!" She tore her lips from his to sink her fangs into his
neck.

Wolf almost came on the spot before his mind cleared at the snapping,
crackling fire that was getting ever closer to them. Holding her close, he
whispered, "We've gotta get out of here. The fire's getting closer." He
reluctantly let her go.

Though he released her, she did not release him. "Do we have to?" she
mumbled from around his neck even as she slid one leg up and cradled the bulge
in his pants.

The back part of the house fell in at that moment. "Soon, my darling!"
he promised. "We have to get out of here!" He scooped up the Book, the dresses,
and the cape from the floor only to realize, as he stood back up, that she
wasn't there. "ELVIRA?!" he screamed. The smoke-filled room kept him from seeing
her.

"I'm just grabbing my tassels!"

"Tassels?" he asked even as she rejoined him, dangling something in her
hand.

"Yeah," she grinned up at him. "They're something you can play with
later."

"Promises, promises, baby, but I want to play with you the most." He
didn't even know what tassels were.

"You can play with them while they're on me," she purred lustfully to
him.

Holding the Book and clothes in one hand, he grabbed her with the other
one and almost flew out of the house just as it finally crumbled to the ground,
burning. He found an alley just behind the house, and he released her long
enough to drop the stuff to the ground. He moved in to nuzzle her neck. His heat
rose in his loins, and he felt his member stiffen even more. He had to have her
and soon!

"Wolf," she gasped out between the nibbles and licks she rained over his
neck and the sighs that he brought forth from his nuzzling on her own, "do we
have to go to the ship now?"

"No," he said even as he grasped at her clothes, trying to strip her
naked. When the clothes finally fell away to reveal her glistening body, his
mouth moved immediately to her breast where he nibbled and sucked her. His hands
roamed over her body, finding her secret place and touching her there.

She arched in his hand, and her gasp of thrilled delight echoed in the
alley. Her hands moved to his chest, and her fingers tore blindly at his shirt,
her nails bursting his buttons as she fought to get the annoying cloth off of
him. He stepped away from her a moment, pulling his clothes off swiftly and
revealing himself in all of his full glory. He was afraid Little Wolf would
scare her as it stood swiftly and boldly, welcoming her and quivering for her
attention. He knew he was bigger than normal males; most wolves were. He would
be gentle if she needed gentle, but his body was crying out for wild. He started
to move back toward her.

Her black eyes glistened with excitement and longing even as they
feasted upon his mighty sword. Her body tingled as it ached so desperately for
his that she could stand it no longer. Without warning, she ran at him and leapt
into the air. Her arms and legs reached out for him, her arms wrapping around
his strong shoulders and her legs entwining around his body even as she lowered
herself upon his steed.

Little Wolf shot home immediately as though he had at long last found
the perfect anchor. He howled even as he filled her completely. He thought the
excitement would make him come immediately, and he fought to keep it down,
wanting to make it good for her. He bore her to the earth, never losing contact,
and began to pump madly into her as though Little Wolf had a mind all his own.
He hoped he was not hurting her, but the screams that came from her mouth were
of pure delight.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

They were wild together! Wolf had never known such pleasure. Somehow,
each time he almost came, something stopped him. He wasn't sure what it was, but
it built the excitement even more. His tail twitched madly, but he ignored it as
his mouth once again found her creamy breast and he gave it the long-needed
attention it so desperately craved.

Her fangs nibbled his neck as hungrily as though she had never drank;
indeed, he was the best she had ever experienced in all ways. Her legs were
still wrapped around him, and she tightened and squeezed around him as he pumped
into her.

When her fangs sank into his neck, he felt himself cumming, and it felt
as though it would never stop. He howled again and again, her screams matching
his howls. Her nails raked his back before grabbing his tail once again.

It was the most wonderful experience Wolf had ever had! He hated to
think it might never happen again, especially as he wanted her again just as
badly as he had just had her. He just couldn't get enough of her! He lay on top
of her, Little Wolf still embedded in her silky sheath. Her fangs had came out
of his neck, but suddenly she began to nibble and lick him again, growling
lustfully in his ear. He felt Little Wolf jerk and begin to grow. He had never
thought he could get it up again this fast, but he just could not get enough of
her!

Her fangs dipped back into his neck, taking a sip here and a sip there,
as she marked him again and again as hers. Her hands had never left his tail,
and she began to stroke him once more. Her strokes always stayed with the fur.

He felt himself grow bigger and bigger, and he was afraid he would split
her in two as Little Wolf again worked with a mind all his own. His mouth moved
to her throat, and his fangs bit into her neck. He felt her jerk and held
himself still as he was afraid he had hurt her.

Elvira had done a lot of biting, but never once had she been bitten
herself. It was the most pleasurable sensation she had ever felt, and her gasp
of pleasure caressed his ears like a butterfly's gossamer wings. "Are you okay,
beautiful?" he whispered against her skin even then as he licked her skin and
blood before nipping her again.

Her breath trembled in delight as she sighed again. "Okay? Wolf, I'm so
good I don't even know the word for it!"

With relief, he let Little Wolf have his way again, moving slowly in and
out and then faster. He did not think he could go any deeper, but he wanted to.
He wanted to be part of her. He raised her up slightly and then pushed in just a
little deeper. He was surprised when he went a lot deeper. She was built like no
other woman he had ever had, because she was able to take all of him! The
sensation that he felt threatened to explode him, but he held on, wanting to
increase her pleasure.

When he felt the volcano building to a peak, he sank his fangs into her
neck once more. The explosions hit him so hard that he fell over the edge and
into the stars, carrying her with him. This time, he was not even aware of her
fingernails clawing his back although they drew blood. They remained fully one,
his sword filling her sheath completely and their fangs embedded in each other's
necks, as they rode the waves together before finally crashing back down into
the Heaven they had discovered in each other.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cole had arrived just in time to see Jack starting to rummage again for
his rum. He did not make a comment on it as he did not want Jack to know what
had become of the rum. Jack looked up at him with questions in his eyes. "Xena
and Gabrielle have made up; I heard them before I left the Witch. They may be
partying by now."

"Good," Jack said with a grin.

"Piper is getting set up in the kitchen."

"Can she cook?" Jack asked.

"Well, she says she can. It's got to be better than what those two goons
were putting out. Lorne's helping her."

"Good thing," Jack said. "Make sure she's got everything she needs."

"I hate to tell you, but the time is growing short. Evil approaches. We
have several saying this, including Doctor Doom and his new woman."

"New woman?" Jack asked.

"Yes, sir. She's a scientist," he said as though that explained
everything.

"Well, they should be happy together."

Cole was used to reporting to Jack everything that was going on on the
Witch, because even though he was on the Witch and Xena was technically his
Captain, Jack was his Captain of choice. He was Jack's inside man, and only he
and Jack knew that. "I've got to locate Wolf and Elvira. They have not returned
to the ship, and they could be in danger. If you can get a woman to go with you
as a decoy, when I return, I'll shimmer you to the Governor's room. It'll be
quicker and faster, but I don't want to know what you're doing in there, sir."

"I don't want to know what I'm doing in there until after it's over
with," Jack said. "I wanted some rum to handle it with, but there's not any on
the whole damn ship! So I'm going to have to go it without it. I'll pick some up
while we're out. Report to me as soon as you know about Wolf."

"Yes, sir," Cole said and shimmered out.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile, Prue, after being escorted to the Witch, had gotten settled
in and decided to go in search of a little adventure. She had been totally
smitten by the man called Brendan Richards. She knew Piper had already marked
her a man, though she hadn't even admitted it to herself yet, and Prue was
determined not to be outdone. After all, she was the oldest.

She carefully concealed herself in the shadows and began to search out
her prey. She watched him walking around, checking on things and talking to
other crewmates to be sure that everything was set for sailing. She gave him
enough distance that he wouldn't know that he was being followed.

Brendan began to check to be sure that all the ropes were secured.
Nothing could go wrong. They had to get out of the harbor. He had not been
paying particular attention to any of the people passing around him. All of the
newcomers' scents had crossed his nose at different times, and he had not paid
attention to them. He was checking on one of the ropes in the northeastern
corner, however, when he heard approaching footsteps accompanied by the sweetest
scent he had ever smelled. It was vaguely familiar, but he could not place it.

She was determined to get something from him, even if only a kiss. She
had managed to sneak up on him when he suddenly turned and sniffed the air. She
froze, hoping he wouldn't see her, but as his head turned again, his yellow eyes
looked directly at her. She grew bold at his appraisal and moved to stand right
in front of him. Quickly, before she could change her mind and run, she threw
her arms around his neck and pulled his head toward hers. Their lips met,
sending thrills racing down her body that she'd never felt before.

Brendan had been about to ask Prue if he could help her when she had
suddenly stolen a kiss. He tried to push her away, but she refused to release
him, clinging to him instead. Her kiss was burning him! He longed to be able to
enjoy the sensations that swept through him, arousing his manhood, at the first
kiss he had ever had, but he could feel the beast within already reacting. His
mind was frantic, and his eyes were already on yellow as fur began to grow.

In sheer desperation, he shoved her away, hating to use force but
knowing that there was no other way. "You -- You shouldn't have -- " he gasped,
trying desperately to rein in the wolf but failing completely as a howl broke
forth from his lips and he fell to his knees. "You . . . shouldn't . . . have .
. . " he tried again. His nose and mouth enlarged and grew together to become a
snout, and his words ended in a howl that echoed out over the dock and across
the water.

Prue, who had fallen on her rear, had never seen such before! "What are
you?" she asked and watched in amazement as he continued transforming. She was
roughly grabbed. She realized that the man called Captain Jack Sparrow had
arrived as he told to get out of there quickly and placed himself between her
and the monster that had been Brendan. Cole, too, had heard the activity and
arrived just in time to knock Brendan on his butt and prevent him from attacking
Jack.

"WOMEN!" Jack said, shaking his head. He knew fully well that Brendan
had never made the move on Prue but that Prue Halliwell had just made a move on
Brendan. Even then, the Werewolf was scrambling to get to his feet. Hating to do
it but knowing he must, Jack raised the silver walking stick that he had brought
with him and brought it straight down on Brendan's head, knocking his friend out
cold. "Damn!" he muttered.

"I'm gone to get Wolf, Captain," Cole said and shimmered out. Jack sat
down on the floor beside Brendan with his back against the ship's side. He
breathed a sigh of relief as werewolf transformed back to man, but still he
waited for his friend to wake up.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Prue ran as though the Demons of Hell were behind her and did not stop
until she reached Piper in the galley. Holding onto the table so that she would
not fall, she looked into her sister's face. "He -- He's a wolf!" she finally
gasped out.

Piper looked at Prue in concern but did not know what to make of her
sister's exclamation. "Who's a wolf?" she asked. "The wolf that bit poor Lorne
in the rear?"

"No, I don't think so," Prue said as she pulled a chair out and sat down
in it. "He's -- Brendan Richards," she said in a voice of disbelief. "We kissed
. . . "

"You didn't!" Lorne interjected. "No wonder he changed! True he's a
Werewolf and he can't control it, but he stays away from women so that he
doesn't hurt anybody. How'd you manage to kiss?" He could not believe that she
had actually managed to steal a kiss from him. He knew Brendan would never have
kissed Prue.

"I wanted him!" Prue said. "There was just something about him that
seemed to call to me!"

"Hold it right there," Lorne said. "This is women's talk. I'll see you
in a little while, Piper; I'd best go check on him."

Piper nodded and took out the seat in front of Prue's. She sat down in
it, the food completely forgotten as she turned her full attention to her
distraught sister. "Prue, what did you do?" she asked her. "You know better than
to kiss a stranger!"

"But I wanted him, Piper!" she protested in a small, quiet voice. "I'm
so drawn to him! I've never felt anything like this before! I followed him and
surprised him. I kissed him! Then the most awful thing happened! He began to
change and howled! Then the Captain was there, and he beat him!" She had heard
the whack when Jack had hit Brendan. Tears were running down her face. "I still
want him! I don't care if he is a wolf!"

"Prue, you don't know what you're talking about," Piper gently told her
sister even as she gathered her into a hug, softly stroking her hair as their
mother had always done whenever one of them was upset. "You just met the man. I
know he's burning you and I know it's hard to control yourself -- I almost
slipped up already with Cole --, but he's a wolf. You need to give it time. Talk
to him; figure out if you can do anything. You don't want this happening again."

Prue hugged her sister to her as though she was a lifeline, burying her
face into her sister's shoulder. "I want him, Piper! I want him desperately!"

"I know, Prue. You might not believe me, but I know better than you
think I do. There's one on here who sets my very blood on fire, too, but we
don't know what we're getting into. We have to take it slowly, and you're going
to have to talk to Brendan eventually, before you make another move on him. You
don't want him to change again on you like that."

Prue looked up at Piper in wonderment. "You found some one?" It finally
dawned on her what Piper had been telling her. "So why didn't you go after him?"
she asked her sister.

"Because I just met him today, Prue. You have to give things like this
time. I know it's hard, but it takes it to make sure."

"Too much time, Piper, and somebody else will grab him! That's why I
didn't wait! I know I want him, and if I wait for him to come to me, he won't do
it."

"Then don't wait for him but don't move on him either. Talk to him. What
would you do if you made another move toward him and he changed again, Prue?"

"I promise. I'll talk to him tomorrow if I can catch him." He had been
very hard to catch that day, and she knew he'd be more wary and even harder to
catch the next.

"I'll tell you what, Prue," Piper said, lifting her sister's chin and
gently wiping away her tears. "If you promise me you won't move on him again
until you've talked to him and are sure he's not just going to wolf out again
right away, I'll even help you catch him."

"You will?" Prue asked with a smile. "Then I promise I'll talk to him
and not move on him again until I'm sure it's safe."

Piper nodded. "I will," she promised, "tomorrow."

"So which one is it, Piper?" Prue asked with an impish grin. "Mister
Green or Mister Tall, Dark, and Handsome?"

Piper had to laugh at her sister's question. "Cole," she admitted, then
dared to blushingly make another admission. "I actually told him I thought he
was handsome!"

"You did?" Prue asked in amazement. She had never known Piper to move on
any one. "And he didn't pick up on it?"

Piper shrugged. "I don't know. He didn't call me on it, at least. But,
Prue," she added with a frown, "I think we might both be in trouble. Brendan's a
Werewolf, and Cole's a Demon, half any way!"

"We might be, Piper, but I'm willing to face it just to have a chance at
getting closer to him. Are you?" She smiled when her sister nodded. "Then we'll
work on them together!"

She raised her pinky finger, and Piper hooked hers with it. "Pinky
swear," they said together. "They'll never know what hit 'em!"


Chapter Twenty
Cole shimmered into the alley behind a burning house that had completely
fallen in on itself. He had smelled Wolf and had tracked him there. He appeared
and saw Wolf and Elvira falling together again! Closing his eyes, he called out
to him. "Wolf, you're late for the ship. We were worried."

"Cripes!" Wolf murmured. "It'll have to wait, sweetheart."

"Put some clothes on!" Cole pleaded. "I have to take both of you back.
Let me know when you're dressed." He kept his eyes closed.

Elvira winked playfully at Wolf. "Maybe we don't want to get dressed
just yet?"

"Look, Elvira! It's not safe out here, and I can tell you two have been
at it like rabbits already! Save it for later! Honestly, how some of you wolves
can continually get down amazes me!"

Elvira sighed. "Yeah," she agreed in a throaty voice, "isn't it
wonderful?!"

"I wouldn't know," Cole said. "I've never done it with a wolf, and I'm
not about to start now."

"I'm dressing," Wolf said, "but I want you to know that I am objecting
strenuously!"

"You can play later, Wolf, after we leave port. The Captain has a little
unfinished business, and then this town's going down. He wants you back aboard
the ship immediately."

"I swear, Wolf," Elvira commented as she slipped into her bodysuit but
did not bother to put any further clothes on, "I think you must be the only one
on your entire ship that isn't a party pooper!"

"I might be a party pooper," Cole said, "but I keep my mind on the
business at hand." He never saw the raspberry that Elvira shot at his back. "You
two can party later." He opened his eyes, relieved to see that they were dressed
or, at least, what evidently passed for being dressed in Elvira's case. He
reached out, touched both of them on the hand, and shimmered them to the Pearl.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dawson went in search of Faith and finally found her in the sleeping
quarters. She was sitting on her cot with her naked back turned toward the door.
He slipped quietly inside. "Faith?" he asked. "Can I help you? Will you let me
help you?" He knew she was hurt and only wanted to make her better.

Faith dropped her shirt, which was darkened beyond black with all the
blood from her shoulder. She had been trying to use pressure to stop it for a
while but had had little luck. A part of her knew she needed help, but she had
never accepted help before. "Why?" she asked him quietly.

"Because I want to. I care about you. I want to make you feel better,"
he said even as he drew closer to her.

"You don't know what you're talking about. You don't have the first idea
what you're getting into here, ki -- " She started to call him "kid" yet again,
but for some reason -- she told herself that it was only the pain --, the word
wouldn't come out.

"I'm not a doctor, but I'll do what I can. Let me get a pan of water and
some cloths. Stay here; I'll be back." He made his way to the galley and saw two
of the Halliwells sitting there. "Can I have a pan of hot water," he asked, "and
some cloths?"

Piper turned to look at Dawson. She opened her mouth to ask him why he
needed it but changed her mind at the look in his eyes. He was deeply concerned
about some one, but she could somehow sense instinctively that he wouldn't give
up the person's identity. Nodding instead, she rose and retrieved the pot of
water she had had boiling on the stove. "I'll make another one," she told him,
"and you can have this one." Opening a cabinet, she retrieved a cloth and
wrapped it around the handle of the pot before he could touch it.

"Thank you," he said. "I'll bring the pot back later."

Piper nodded and started to reach for more cloths. "How many do you
think you'll need?"

"Maybe a couple more," he said and gratefully accepted them. Making his
way slowly back, he managed to get back to Faith's side without spilling much of
the water. Dawson noticed that her back was scarred but did not say anything. He
wondered who had beat the Hell out of her so long ago that the scars were
completely healed. He began to bath her wound gently with the water that was now
warm. "Would you let one of the Lewis sisters heal you? I don't know how to
stitch up wounds, but they could heal you completely. Please, Faith; let one of
them look at you."

"Damn it!" Faith growled out. "I knew I should have told you to get
fucked!" She jerked away from him, stood, and walked away from the cot. "You're
the only one I've ever even considered letting help me, and I was an idiot for
doing that much!"

Dawson recoiled from her and was about to say something when he heard a
meow. Changing his mind, he said, "There's some one to see you, Faith. A furry
some one," he said quickly before she would have a chance to throw something.

"Kid, what the Hell are you -- ?" she started to demand as she turned
around to face him. Her angry eyes fell on the cat.

"Meow?" said the cat even as she walked closer to Faith, her green eyes
peering into Faith's angry ones. "Meow?"

Emotions flickered in Faith's eyes as they changed from being full of
anger to being haunted by sadness. She stepped back from the cat. "You don't
want me," she told it, shaking her head. "I'm a bitch; I already got one
killed." She nodded toward Dawson instead. "You want him."

"MEOW!" the cat insisted, gazing intently up into Faith's eyes, her
black fur shining as smooth as silk. She stood up on her hind legs and brushed
at the girl's hand with her head as though to let her know that she was indeed
the one she wanted to be petted by.

Despite herself, Faith had to smile. Slowly, she stroked the cat's head,
and when the feline did not recoil, her smile turned to a grin. "Hell, looks
like you're as crazy as me."

"Meow meow!" the cat said as though it was agreeing with Faith. Standing
on its hind legs, she bumped her hand again.

Faith had to laugh. The laughter that came from her was a sound unlike
any one on either of the ships had ever heard come out of her for it was truly
of happiness. She had not had a cat come to her like this one had since she had
been a child, barely old enough to remember the events that had been the first
to scar her for life. Slowly, she slid down so that she sat on the floor beside
the cat, her hand running from its head down to its back.

Unbeknownst to Faith, while she patted the cat, the cat was working a
spell on her that would heal the girl's arm completely. As soon as it was done,
she looked up into Faith's eyes again. "Meow meow meow!" It was as though she
was saying, "See you soon; gotta go," as the cat then strode majestically out of
the room with a backward glance at Faith. "Meow!"

Faith cocked her head slightly to one side. Why, she wondered, did she
have the strangest feeling that she had been had? Dawson looked at Faith's arm
in wonderment. It was healed. He did not mention it but could not help a smile
that she caught as her eyes turned upwards. "What?" she asked.

"You like cats, huh? It appears they like you too."



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Outside, Katrina changed back to her catwoman form. It had worked, and
she could not wait to tell her sister! She did not know what she would tell
Faith when Faith finally decided to come looking for the black cat, but she
would not willingly tell the girl that it had been her. She thanked Bast for the
healing and smiled as she caught Celina's arm. "It worked! She's healed!"

"What," Celina asked in wonderment, her blue eyes full of questions,
"did you do?"

"Nothing that a little, black cat couldn't handle," Katrina said with a
grin. "I hope something works out between the two of them. I like both of them."

"Leave it to you!" Though she was beaming, Celina had to shake her head
from side to side in amazement. "Only you would finally figure out how to get a
hold of that girl!"

Katrina beamed back at her sister. "A pure stroke of genius!" she had to
admit. "I did it! She might not like it, but not even she could find fault with
a good healing."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Celina warned her, "but I'm
certainly glad you did it!" She hugged her sister tightly, pride swelling in her
heart.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Yeah, I like cats," Faith admitted, "but they're better off without . .
. " She had been standing while speaking, and as she stood, no pain registered.
Surprise flickered over her face as she realized that, and she looked down at
her injured shoulder only to find that it was completely healed. Not a single
drop of blood remained. "Black cat," she muttered under her breath. "Green eyes.
Suddenly healed. KATRINA!!!!!!!!" she roared angrily.

Just as Faith headed for the door, Dawson tackled her. "For once, Faith,
give in and be thankful that somebody cared about you enough to help you!" He
held her down, laying on top of her, his eyes gazing down into hers. "You know
you're lucky. You've got people on these ships that care about you. I've never
had any one who cared about me," he said sadly.

As she looked up into his eyes, she found the most absurd notion taking
a hold of her. She wanted to kiss him again. She wanted to roll with him again.
{You know better than that, Faith. Get a hold of yourself and stop being so damn
stupid!} "That's a bunch of bullshit, Dawson," she growled out at him, not
realizing that she had used his name. "Nobody cares about me; nobody's that much
of an idiot." She then rolled out from under him.

He let her go, knowing how wrong she was but knowing that only time
would prove to her that she was wrong. "I think you're wrong, Faith. You've got
a family here, and they care about you a great deal."

"You know, after all you've been through, I'd think you'd know better
than that by now. Families don't exist, not in any way other than blood, and
that gets you in more trouble than anything else." She had walked over to her
cot and was putting on a new shirt even as she remembered his. She picked it up
and tossed it to him.

He grabbed it and then looked at it. "Might as well throw this away.
Totally ruined."

"I'll steal ya another one when we hit Tortuga. Just don't go anywhere
till

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