Lanie stepped onto the main deck. The crew immediately stopped what they were doing and stared at her."Wow." John said, breaking the thin silence. "Lanie, you look amazing."

"She's missing one thing." a pirate next to him reminded.

"Oh, yes, a sword." the pirate handed his captain a pearl and diamond covered cutlass in a similar sheath. "Here. I made this, for you." John draped the belt around the young woman's waist. They locked eyes and for a moment they just stood there, the young man's arm's around the woman's waist.

"Well." the pirate who had handed John Lanie's cutlass cleared his throat. Instantly, faster than the couple could imagine, the moment shattered like Lanie's shoulder as they quickly pulled away.

"Right." John said. "This is Jack, he is my first mate. Jack will show you around the ship. All the others will introduce themselves to you eventually."

The crew murmured their agreement. Jack began showing Lanie which mast was which. In time, she would learn to climb all of them in the fiercest storm.

"You'll have to be content to stay on the deck until your shoulder fully heals."

"Will I?" she asked coyly. The gentle breeze whisked her blonde curls behind her back. Her shoulder was still wrapped in bandages, but she managed to climb the rope. Her boot heels caught on the rope, her hair blew into her face, but she had never felt so alive. Her shoulder felt like it was cracking a thousand times over, but the pain only served to heighten her senses.

"Get down from the mizzenmast!" Jack yelled somewhere below her.

Finally she painfully reached the crow's nest.

"Make me!" she cried, triumphantly. To John, she had never been more beautiful. To her nurse, she had never been more reckless. The wind whistled soothingly in her ears. Suddenly she noticed another body behind her.

"That was a stupid thing you did, coming up here." Jack said

"I like it up here." she stuck out her chin defiantly.

"Suit yourself." he pulled out a spyglass and scanned the horizon.

"So, what is the captain like?"

"What do you know of him?"

"He's sweet and kind and trustworthy." Lanie trailed

"Woah there, Princess. He's a pirate."

"As trustworthy as a pirate can be." she corrected. "He's handsome, but he seems to act weird around me." she frowned.

"You're observant. But, yes, he does seem a little tongue tied around you. Strange, he never has done that before."

"You think..." the girl blushed.

"We can't be sure but the only other person I've seen do that was a man before he proposed to his girlfriend."

"Oh."

"I'm curious, though, what would you say?"

"I don't know. I've only known him for a day. Wait, is marriage against pirate code?" she paled.

"The code is more of a list of guidelines so we don't all kill each other."

"But still..."

"I don't think so. I'll talk to the captain about it."