Hell Hath No Fury - Book One

Reunited

Cooker's boots echoed on the stone path she walked on. It was a walk she had made many times in the past suns, a short one that she knew well. The path from the tavern to the docks. The night air was thick with humidity and the pesky bugs had come alive with the absence of the sun. The occasional buzz filled her ears and she would swat away any flying creature trying to get near. The noise from the bugs and her boots were drowned out as she got closer to the docks, the noise of singing was clear in the otherwise quiet night.

"Tell your ma and your pa of your waterborne love, and that I'll steal you away from farming those spuds," Theo rasped out the lyrics to a song that had been sung amongst pirates for generations.

Cooker saw her silhouette several dozen yards ahead of her, sitting on the edge of the dock; another figure looked to be laying on her lap. Cooker walked towards the pair.

"And we row- Ho! With lust in the winds, longing for those girls we'll see again. Been 35 cycles since you've been with me, but darling when I'm done I'll show you the sea."

Theo's singing voice was usually sweet, soft, calming but this was a song sung out of pain. The crack to her voice was clear and the weight behind the lyrics hit harder given the context. As Cooker got closer, she could make out that the figure whose head was in Theo's lap was Tuni. Her form was unmoving aside from the rise and fall of her chest, Theo's hands were running through her hair.

"One more night and the job will be done, docking for good by the rise of the sun," Theo sang and Cooker finally managed to arrive behind the sitting figures, "And we row-Ho! With lust in the winds, longing for those girls we'll see again."

"Been 35 cycles since you've been with me, and darling if you'd asked, I'd leave the sea," Cooker finished in a half-song. Theo's head tilted backward, her head hanging as she looked at the upside-down figure behind her.

"Cook," Theo acknowledged and then righted herself and grabbed a bottle that was next to her, "to what do I owe this pleasure?"

Cooker watched as Theo took a swig of the bottle of liquor and wiped her mouth with her wrist.

"You need to go to sleep, T," Cooker said and walked to Theo's side before squatting down, "it's been three suns since the last time your head touched a pillow. This is not good for you."

"You know what's not good for me? Half my crew being dead," Theo deadpanned and took another sip from the bottle before getting it wrenched away from her grip by Cooker.

"They aren't dead," Cooker said but she wasn't even sure if she believed it at that point.

"Eleven suns, Cooker," Theo looked over and met Cooker's worried stare, the bags under her eyes were large and still growing, her face was a bit sunken in, "eleven suns late."

"And tomorrow will be the twelfth, that won't change," Cooker replied, "you staying awake and shutting your body down won't make them arrive any faster. I need you to rest."

"I need to be here if they come," Theo looked away and back towards the water.

"You aren't just hurting yourself," Cooker hooked her finger under Theo's chin and pulled it her way, "Fortune won't go to the tavern to sleep unless you go too. You are setting a precedent that this is okay. Go to sleep, for her."

Cooker watched as Theo looked down at the sleeping girl on her lap. It had been many nights since Theo last officially slept and even then, the times she had managed to get some rest in were short and far apart. Cooker knew appealing to Theo's need to keep Tuni safe and healthy was manipulative but there would be no other way to get Theo to pay attention. She was drunk, sleep-deprived, and vulnerable. Not to mention, fearing the loss of half their crew meant she would be extra protective of the ones she did have.