Summary: Louis and Clementine get into a fight regarding Louis' injury and his inherent willingness to trust the newcomer Sophie.
Clementine paced outside the door as Ruby patched Louis up inside. She’d wanted to be in there with him, but Ruby had shooed her outside, saying she didn’t need her help on this one and certainly didn’t want the pressure of her watching. Now Clementine was left alone to reprimand herself for how things had gone down. How could she have let Louis leave the boat with a complete stranger? She knew he trusted them thanks to her history with the street rats, but Minnie had that exact same history and the last time they’d seen her she had maimed two of the members on this ship. Her peg leg tapped against the wood floor as she paced, a constant reminder of the dangers this new member brought their way.
Ruby exited the room quietly, meeting Clem’s gaze as she ran over to her. In her hands lay Louis’ bloody shirt, in need of a wash and repair. “He’s stable now. Should be waking up soon. You can go in if you like,”
Clementine clasped Ruby’s hands in her own as a silent gesture of thanks before hurrying into the room.
Louis lay still on top of the bed, a new shirt over the bandages that covered his injury. Sunset was approaching and the light from the porthole cast a warm glow on his somewhat pale face. How much blood had he lost before being brought back to the ship? A pint? Two? There had been a puddle of blood in the bottom of the rowboat when Sophie got back.
Clementine circled the bed, crawling up to lay beside him, absent-mindedly brushing a dreadlock back from his forehead. It had been over two years since she woke up from certain death to find this boy smiling as he crouched over her and A.J., his crew huddled around him with wide eyes. Now she was waiting for him to open his eyes, praying that he wouldn’t make her wait a moment longer. Her fingers brushed against his brow: warm, but not sweaty. Her mind told her he was safe, but she wouldn’t be able to believe that until he opened his eyes.
The minutes dragged by as she watched him, trying to read meaning into every tick and twitch of his face. She took his hand in her own, their promise bands reflecting the waning light as they nestled together. She needed him to be OK. She had anchored her heart to him irrevocably. She couldn’t lose him.
Louis’ face twisted in a grimace as he woke with a groan. “I’m home? Sophie… is she OK? She must have dragged me back,”
“She’s on deck. Ruby went to look at her wound after she finished with yours,”
Louis’ face fell. “She got hurt? I must not have blocked the attack fast enough. Damn it,” He tried to sit up, but quickly collapsed back on his bed, letting out a sharp hiss of pain. “Another shot to the ribs, huh?”
“You were bleeding heavily,”
Louis lifted up the corner of his shirt, examining the bandages. “Should make a pretty sick scar,”
“Don’t joke about that,”
His eyes went up to hers. Tears were forming in her eyes.
“Clem,” he whispered, extending an arm. She pulled back.
“No, don’t try to brush this off. What were you thinking, jumping in front of a blade like that?”
Louis shrugged. “I was aiming to block the attack, but couldn’t get my weapon up in time. It happens,”
“You could have been killed! And for what?”
“For a friend,”
“For a stranger you only just met! Louis…” Clementine rose from the bed, pacing the floor in anger. “You can’t keep doing this! You can’t adopt every stranger we come across with open arms!”
“Well, that doesn’t seem fair coming from you, now does it? That’s how we got you and A.J. Prisha too. Besides, Sophie isn’t just anybody. She’s Tenn’s sister,”
“Minerva was Tenn’s sister too,” Clementine’s voice was grim. “She isn’t anymore,”
“Sophie isn’t Minnie,” Louis shook his head. “She’s different. You can see it in her eyes,”
Clementine scoffed. “Is that so? Tell me, Louis, how close were you when you saw Minerva’s eyes? Because I sure got a close look at them when she cut through my leg,”
They were both silent.
Louis sighed. “What do you want me to say, Clem? That I’m sorry I defended her? ‘Cause I’m not. I would do it again,”
“I want you to think about yourself for once instead of jumping into danger at every turn! I want to know that when I take my eyes off of you, I can trust you to have the sense to stay safe, not get yourself dragged back bleeding and unconscious!” Clementine’s chest was heaving with emotion now, her heart racing as her anger swelled. “You shouldn’t have gone on that mission alone with Sophie! What if what you ‘saw in her eyes’ was wrong? What if she turned on you? What then? You would be dead!”
“That’s not what happened!”
“You can’t go putting your life in the hands of strangers you’ve just met!”
“Strangers? Clem, she’s family!”
“Not your family!” Clementine’s voice cracked with emotion. “Not everybody can be your family. A.J. and I, we’re your family, Louis. You made a promise to me that you’d stay by my side, forever. So don’t hold your own life so lightly,”
“Clem…”
“I-I need space, Louis,” She quickly exited the room.
“Clem, please!”
She ran up the stairs blindly. She had to be alone right now. She couldn’t contain all that she was feeling.
It had been a few hours now. Clementine stood in the crow’s nest, the wind blowing through her hair as she watched the empty sea. She shouldn’t be up here. She should be with Louis. But she couldn’t get herself to go back down. Part of her wanted to punish him, but for what? Being a good person? Having a sacrificial heart? Those were the same qualities that had endeared him to her so quickly. Yet they were the same traits that were driving her mad.
Louis wasn’t built to be a pirate. He had slipped into the role accidentally, and he’d never truly fit the mold. The Ericson Pirates code, their constant willingness to take in whatever lost waif their boat came across, these weren’t the traits of a true pirate. Clementine was sure the moment she met Louis that if he were met with the murderous faces of those she’d been forced to walk amongst, he wouldn’t stand a chance. Yet instead of being disgusted by his apparent weakness, she’d sworn to protect him. Not just as her captain, nor simply as her friend. After she had sworn to herself that she had closed her life off from all purposes other than keeping A.J. safe, Louis broke through her walls with a warmly extended hand.
He’d proven himself far stronger than she’d given him credit for. His body was littered with countless wounds, the worst of them received in the defense of others, just like this latest one. He seemed to shake them off, not holding any sort of malice toward those in whose stead he had been injured. Unlike most captains, he didn’t gain his crew’s obedience through a firm hand or a merciless demeanor. He held their respect because they knew how deeply he valued each and every one of their lives. He would die before he let any of them fall.
She would kill before she lost him. Their code allowed for life to be taken if absolutely necessary. Louis hadn’t found that line yet. Clementine had crossed it several times before meeting him. She knew where the line of taking a life lay for her and that it was far closer than Louis’s would ever be. He must know this to be true. They had never spoken of it though. Were they simply tricking themselves by letting that conversation go unspoken, pretending that this difference would not test them to the point that it may someday tear them apart? Was she willing in loving Louis to take the risk each time he jumped into battle that she may lose a part of herself she could never fully regain?
Clementine looked down to the deck below. Sophie was sitting beside Tenn, drawing again. She knew this went far beyond Sophie. Yet Sophie was exactly the sort of enigma that proved how different she and Louis truly were. Louis couldn’t help but trust her. Clementine could never lower her guard. Time would tell which one of them was right. She hoped it would be Louis. She prayed it wasn’t her, that is, the part of her that looked in Sophie’s eyes and saw the murderous rage in Minerva’s eyes as she landed that blow, the one that took her leg. They had tried to reason with Minerva, to trust that she could change. Now Violet would never fully see again. Louis’ way didn’t always work, no matter how much they wanted it to.
Eventually, she couldn’t stand it anymore. The pain of being away from Louis - of leaving things like that – was worse than whatever gain could be made in trying to prove her point. Perhaps believing that abandoning him proved any sort of point was a mistake in itself. Clementine descended from the crow’s nest, avoiding the eyes of her crew members. She wasn’t sure what she would see within them. Her mind was muddled enough as it was.
When she opened the door to the captain’s quarters, she was surprised to find that Louis wasn’t alone. A.J. lay curled up beside him, his head resting on Louis’ shoulder as he softly snored. Louis raised a finger to his lips as she closed the door behind her. Clementine took a seat on the edge of the bed, careful not to shift her weight in a way that might cause the mattress to pull against his wound. They were silent as they looked at each other, trying to read each other’s hearts from what laid upon their faces.
Clementine spoke first. “I’m sorry I left like that,”
“I’m glad you came back,”
“Has A.J. been here long?”
“A few hours. He fell asleep in the middle of my story about the Dread Pirate Ericson. I was very insulted,”
Clementine chuckled. “You do realize the point of a bedtime story is to put a child to sleep?”
“I wasn’t aware it was a bedtime story till it did just that!”
A.J. shifted against Louis, mumbling something incoherent. The two of them stilled, waiting for him to settle down. After a minute, Louis continued. “Violet came by too. She mentioned that from the sounds of things Sophie would have just gotten nicked by that bandit’s blade if I hadn’t jumped in front. Guess I fucked things up,”
“I’m sure she’s grateful for what you did,”
“Still, you were right. I should be more careful before jumping into things,”
“Louis,” Clementine took his hand in her own. “What I said back there, I was scared. I wasn’t choosing my words wisely,”
“I’m the reason you were scared. Anything that was said, I deserved,”
“No, Louis, no,” Clementine raised his hand to her face, cupping it against her cheek. “I’m sorry I ran off. That only made things worse. I should have been brave enough to face what I was feeling and to acknowledge that the reason I was so angry is because I was so afraid of losing you. I love you, Louis,”
“I love you too,” Louis murmured, running his thumb along her jaw.
“The truth is we won’t know what sort of person Sophie is until some time has passed and we’ve fought beside her. I want your trust to be the right call. I want her to be good,”
“But until she’d proved that to us, I should probably take some others along with us on any adventures,”
“Please. That would help,” Clementine looked over at A.J. “For the longest time, I had just one thing driving me, just one person who owned my heart. Now that number has grown, and I still don’t know how to handle that at times, how to live with the fear of losing all that I’ve gained,” She looked back at Louis. “But the answer isn’t to shut everyone else out. I know that much,”
Louis smiled at her weakly. “It’s getting late. There should be room beside A.J. if you want to squeeze in,”
Clementine nodded, coming around to the other side and taking a spot beside A.J. She heard Louis stifle a groan as he turned to wrap an arm across her and A.J. He smiled at her concerned expression. “Don’t worry. Ruby’d give me hell if I pulled out my stitches. I’m being careful,” The moon cast a faint light across his face, illuminating his eyes. “I promise you this Clem: from now on I’ll be more careful, for you and A.J.,”
“For yourself too,”
“Alright, for me too,”
Clem crossed her arm over A.J., resting it tenderly on Louis’ side. “Thank you, for loving me,”
Louis’ nose wrinkled in confusion. “How could I not? I adore you, Clem. Nothing will ever change that,”
Clementine raised her hand, letting her ring catch the glow of the moonlight. “Forever,”
Louis’ hand joined hers. “Forever,”
An eternal promise. An unbreakable bond.
