Stede was quite surprised when Captain Bonny invited him into her cabin for dinner. He didn't expect to get any more respect or treatment from her and the crew than anyone else who came, hat-in-hand to ask for a favour.
Apparently, he had underestimated the accord that pirate captains could have for one another - whether they currently had a ship or not.
Stede stepped up to the door just as it opened. He nearly walked right into Lucius.
Lucius curled up his lip at Stede and justled the man's shoulder as he strode past.
"Lucius..." began Stede.
"Shut it, you. I'm on my way to forgiving you because you rescued Pete. And the others, I suppose." Lucius canted his hip and rested the leger on it, a sour look leveled on his former captain. "But I'm not there yet. All right?"
"Fair enough," said Stede with a hangdog expression.
Lucius sighed dramatically and flicked his wrist. "Go on in. She's ready for you. Like an inexplicable number of people, she seems to like you." Something about that statement suggested that he himself was among that inexplicable number.
"Ah, thank you," Stede murmured. "Lucius, I really am sorry. For everything."
"I know," said Lucius. "Idiot," he mumbled, with some affection as he minced off.
Bonny's cabin, Stede noted, was more like his own than other captain's cabins he'd seen. It was not as elaborately finished, but nor was it pragmatic and threadbare. There was a small gallery of paintings in various styles on one wall, few crates that likely had nowhere else to be stored.
Bonny herself had shed her well-tailored jacket and was in shirtsleeves and trousers. She was seated, going over nautical charts while a young man set the table for dinner.
"Captain Bonny?" Stede said awkwardly.
"Captain Bonnet," she replied. "Welcome."
Stede opened his mouth to correct her on his title, but thought the better of it. "Thank you for the invitation. It's very kind of you."
Bonny was writing something. That surprised Stede. He hadn't met too many people on the seas who were literate, which is why someone like Lucius was so valuable. "I thought we should discuss strategy."
The young man acting as steward eyed Stede, finished setting the table and then took that as his cue to depart.
"Ah, yes. I do admit I'm a little...concerned we might be at cross-purposes. I want to find Ed, not hurt him." He'd already done that.
"I don't want to hurt him, either," said Bonny as she finished writing and pushed the papers aside. She motioned for him to take the seat across from her.
Stede opened his mouth, closed it, opened again, and then finally admitted, "I have...as much to do with Jack's death as Ed. Maybe more."
Bonny picked up a cup of tea and then said, "I know. Lucius told me alllll about it."
Stede's cheeks pinkened. "And yet you still want to help?"
"This isn't a revenge mission, Bonnet. I know Ed. And while I'm pissed as hell that he and Jack ran off together, I'm not tracking him down to kill him."
Stede exhaled a held breath in relief. "That's good to hear. Em...I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but having met Jack, and having seen how you run your ship, I have a bit of a hard time imagining you two together."
Bonny smiled and chuckled. "Mhmm, that's because it was a marriage of convenience. Well, it didn't start out that way. Jack and I met while I was in disguise as a man, and he actually kinda fell for me thinking I was one. He stayed with me even when he found out. But I was always the exception, not the rule. Turns out..." she shrugged, "...it was the same for me."
It was at that moment that Stede realized there was a closet sitting partially ajar nearby containing clothing, including a few dresses, that would be far too large for the petite Bonny. There was however, a very tall woman who helped load supplies on deck who would fit the things perfectly.
"I see," said Stede.
"The crew we had at first were a bunch of assholes. Imagine a ship full of Izzys, but with even more overloaded machismo. They didn't respect me at all. Despite the fact I was first mate, Jack had to repeat every one of my orders. I foolishly thought getting married would give things a bit more weight. It didn't."
Stede listened intently and reached for the cup of tea. He sipped it and relaxed as the familiar taste released some of the knots of stress in his stomach.
"Then we ran into Ed one day in port. You've seen how they are together. They bring out the worst in one another." Bonny paused, "...brought. But it was obvious they still had a thing for one another. He didn't even say goodbye, just left me with a ship full of assholes who wouldn't follow my orders."
"Oh dear. I can...see that." Stede prickled a little with posthumous jealousy. He didn't think it was possible to hate Calico Jack more than he already did. "But you've got a good crew now?"
"Yeah. Because I took what crew I knew would follow me, and left the other pricks stranded in the middle of the night. Slowly, I recruited a new crew. I tried to find the people who were overlooked, underestimated. Kinda weird. The ones who don't really fit in."
Bonny leaned forward and looked Stede in the eye. "Just like you did. Lucius told me how you did everything differently from the start. And I knew then why Ed likes you so much. He loves it when people do something new."
Stede flashed back to their first meeting, where Ed complimented the bizarre way he'd done things and appreciated the ridiculous setup of the ship. At the time, he didn't know what to make of the fearsome pirate who had boarded his ship.
"That's why I'm helping you, Stede," said Bonny. "Because even though Ed stole my husband, he was a friend. And I know how dangerous he is when he's got the wrong people around him. For his own good, and the good of us all, we have to make sure he doesn't lapse back into the way he was. Because if we do that, none of us are going to be safe."
"I know I've never seen him when he was like that. But the Ed I know...I have a hard time imagining him as a monster."
"That's because when he's around you, you bring out the best in him. I saw that sometimes, even with Jack. He is the way he is because the world forced him. He doesn't want to be that, but it's kept him safe. I think there's still time, but the longer he's forced to play the part, the harder it will be to get him out of it."
Stede sipped the tea again, but this time it didn't help with the knots. "What do we do?"
"I have a line on where they might be. I have a friend on a mail ship who said they saw the Revenge pull into Tortuga to recruit crew. My guess is, they're going to try and hit the merchant ships returning from England with cargo full of trade goods."
"Which means we need to stop them," said Stede.
Bonny nodded. "Because if Izzy pushes Ed to feed his dark side, he's going to do something he can't come back from."
Stede stiffed and got very close to dissociating as images of violence flashed through his eyes. He sucked it back and fought through it, fought through the urge to curl up into a ball or to run away. "I think I have an idea."
—
"Hi all!" singsonged Stede as he stood on the deck of the William. Most of his crew was closer to him, while Bonny's stood more warily back. They had been sailing for a few days, on an intercept course with where they believed the Revenge was headed. They knew the route of the merchant ship, and given the tradewinds from Tortuga, Bonny's excellent navigator, Pinecone, had plotted them a likely course.
"I do appreciate your hospitality and the hospitality of your captain," Stede was wearing one of Bonny's coats. It was a bit snug and a bit nipped in, but it had sufficient detail and frippery that he felt like he had his armor again. "We are going to pull off a Fuckery. The details of which I will explain soon enough. But to start. Mr. Buttons?"
Buttons strode up to Stede, faced the assembled crews, then stuck his elbow in the air.
There was a long silence. People started looking around in confusion.
"Wait for it," said Stede as he rocked on his heels.
Eventually, there was a flutter of wings and a warble of a seagull. The gull landed on Buttons' elbow, then clambered up to perch on his head.
"Excellent. Hello...Livy, is it?"
Buttons nodded definitively. The seagull flapped her wings.
Stede pulled out a rolled up bit of parchment, then very carefully approached the seagull. It snapped at him two or three times, but Livy calmed as Buttons let out a very strange tone.
After a few bites and a few slaps in the face with a wing, Stede managed to secure the note to the bird's leg.
"Right, that should do it," Stede announced.
"Get ye home, lassie. Fly!" commanded Buttons. Livy flicked her leg a few times, had a false takeoff, then took to the skies and started out across the ocean.
There was a smattering of applause across the deck.
"There! Now our friends on the Revenge will know what to do. Livy should look for a familiar face." Stede straightened and rolled his shoulders. Something in the jacket ripped, but he ignored it.
"Hold on..." started Lucius as he stepped forward. "Did you put a note on that bird's leg?"
"Yes! Yes indeed," said Stede proudly.
"Stede Bonnet, you absolute doorknob. No one on that bloody ship can read."