"CAPTAIN!" HANK STRAIGHTENED from pulling a barrel up onto the beach. "We thought the sea had taken you!"
"Where's Silver?" Hawk demanded, grabbing the front of his shirt. "God help me if you idiots left him to drown - "
"He's fine! Jesus, Captain! He's up the beach, in the water. Helping with the recovery." Hank pulled his shirt free of Hawk's grasp, scowling. "Damn kid swims better than a dolphin, even one legged."
Silver was alive. Hawk’s lungs finally filled with breath. He hurried down the beach, eyes searching the surf.
"Hey, Captain!"
He turned at Hank's call. "What?"
"He went in after you, you know. When you got swept overboard. Thought you should know." There was a strange expression on Hank's face. Perhaps somewhere between envy and admiration, Hawk thought, before pushing the silly idea aside.
"Thank you," he called back, hurrying on his way.
Others called out to him, but he ignored them. He could deal with that later. He needed to see Silver with his own two eyes, to reassure himself of his existence.
"Captain!" The call was faint, but sweeter than birdsong. Hawk raised a hand to shade his eyes, following the sound of Silver's voice. He finally found him out closer to the wreck of theOrca, perched on a rock, waving what looked like his fake leg in the air.
Jesus. Hawk made his way into the surf, kicking through the water. It didn't take long to reach the rocks where Silver sat.
"You idiot!" he roared, hauling himself up the rocks. Silver opened his mouth to splutter a reply, but before he could speak Hawk had claimed his lips, tangling his fingers in the wet curls of his lover's hair as he kissed him again and again, careless of any audience that they had doubtlessly attracted. Silver relaxed under his kisses, arching into him, breathless and dazed when Hawk finally released him.
"I can be an idiot," he agreed amicably.
"You went overboard after me," Hawk growled. "Do you have any idea how stupid that was?"
"I’m a good swimmer!" Silver tried to protest.
"You could have gotten yourself killed! Then where would I be?"
"I..." Silver stopped, then flushed, protest draining away. "You do care."
Hawk coughed to try and cover the sudden surge of affection. "You're part of my crew. Of course I care."
"Then, I'm sorry I worried you," Silver replied, looking almost giddy with joy.
"Yes, well." Hawk coughed again, voice gruff. "Let's get you back to shore."
"Oh - I can't go yet. Actually, I need you to bring me something that can float. It turns out that land crabs don't like to swim."
What was the silly man on about now? "What?"
"Millie," Silver replied, motioning with his hand. Further up the rocks, their ship’s cat hissed at him as if Hawk was personally responsible for the fact that she was drenched and shivering. "She found my leg!"
Hawk wasn't sure he wanted to get anywhere near the hissing bundle of clawed fury, but he certainly needed any bonus points he could earn with the crew at this point. He sighed. "Fine, we'll get the cat to shore."
With Silver accounted for, Hawk could take stock of what remained of his crew. He thanked every god he could think of that Ruiz was among the survivors.
"I haven't survived this long to go down in a little storm," he told Hawk with a wink when they reunited. "Only a dozen souls in our crew unaccounted for. Can't say the same for theTempest, I'm afraid. No sign of Captain Pane."
“Damn it.” Elizabeth was going to kill him if he'd gotten her favorite boy-toy killed. And then probably cut his balls off out of sheer spite. That is, if they ever got back to Port Royal at all. "And theEstrela?”
“Funny story, that,” Ruiz replied scratching the back of his head. “Hank took two men up the coast, to do some reconnoitering?”
“And?” Hawk’s entire body language said that he very much doubted the story was as funny as Ruiz had professed.
“TheEstrela, Captain, she’s sitting on the other side of this beach, just over this hill. With no armed convoy, and all the gold that the Portuguese have dragged onto the shore. Perfectly ripe for the pickin’.”
