"I'm absolutely famished!" Elma cried, collapsing on the fur couch in the living quarters. Like the rest of the ship, it was a huge area, and there were at least four dozen people lazing around the room, eating or sleeping. The fur couches lined the walls, just under the rectangular windows that lit up the place. Around the floor, there were wooden barrels acting as small tables, each with three good-sized chairs around them.

Eddie sat down next to Elma and noticed that she had tightly buttoned up the blue jacket that Borris had given her. The two guys were almost disappointed, that is, before she unbuttoned the jacket and tugged the banana plant leaves she had wrapped around her chest off. Although they never did get to see the full view thanks to that damned jacket, seeing her tits bounce when she tugged off the leaves was still erotic as hell.

"Damn, those leaves were uncomfortable as hell to wear. Borris sure knows a nice jacket when he sees one." Jackie and Eddie were astounded to see Elma actually blush a little as she said his name.

How unlike Elma! Jackie thought, but decided against teasing her about this.

"Did I mention that I'm really fucking hungry?" She growled, starting to get pissed off now. Rosa shuffled over to Eddie. "I think we better get Elma some food before any of us."

He agreed, and quickly headed out of the room to the galley.

Jackie stretched his legs and grinned at Rosa reassuringly. "See? We got ourselves out of that one just fine." Elma tried to kick him, and he just narrowly dodged out of the way.

"Hell if we got ourselves out of anything! Your bullshit almost got us killed!" She scolded. Rosa had to agree. They had lost pretty much their entire crew to Blackbeard and the storm. She started tearing up.

"Oi, don't cry Rosa. Pirates don't cry, you know that?" Jackie patted her head gently, and Elma held her in her arms. She was the baby of the crew, but for her to go through something like this...

I can't forgive myself for any of this. Jackie thought, feeling the full weight of what he had done come crashing down on him. Mikel. Harvey. Zoff. Helen. Morgan. Alysha. Everyone were killed...because of my stupidity.

Rosa hid her face in Elma's jacket, and continued sobbing. Momentarily, at least, Elma had forgotten about her hunger to care for Rosa.

Thank God. When that girl starts eating, it takes five men to pull her away from her food. Just as he thought this, Eddie stumbled into the quarters with a big silver platter, piled high with cooked meat and fresh fruit from the island they shipwrecked on.

The other men and women in the room looked at him and his oversized platter in awe. Ignoring them entirely, Eddie hauled it onto the barrel in front of them. Elma almost tossed Rosa aside to get to the platter. She grabbed the steak nearest to her and chomped on it hungrily.

"One platter, is that clear? The next one is for the rest of us!" Jackie said, even though she probably couldn't hear him at the moment. He waved Eddie toward the galley.

Eddie stared at his lazy scumbag of a captain with a look of utter disgust in his eyes. Jackie stared back, with a smug look on his face. Eddie flipped the finger at him, and stomped back toward the galley for a second platter.

Jackie turned to watch him leave, and took an elbow to his head as he turned. "YEOW! ELMA!" She ignored his scream, and continued devouring the meat.

Meat? Huh? Where'd the meat go? Jackie realised she was even hungrier than they had actually thought. Three whole days without any real meat...holy hell. This ship might actually be fucked.

She was almost done with the fruits. The moment she finished, Eddie stumbled into the room with the second platter.

Shit.

She looked up from the empty platter, and set her eyes on the food in Eddie's hands. "Hey, Eddie. How 'bout some food?" She sounded almost drunken. Her brown eyes were glazed, and her face was covered with food.

"Eddie, you know where our rooms are?!" Jackie yelled, immediately grabbing her arms from behind. Eddie nodded, and took off across the living quarters, throwing himself through the door towards the rooms. Rosa managed to grab Elma's knees as well. Not that it would help much, especially when she was starving.

"HEY...HE'S TAKING MY FOOD!" She yelled, and started struggling. Jackie held onto her slim arms as tightly as he could. "Sheesh, bitch, how the hell are you this thin?!" He shrieked at her. She let out an inhuman growl, and elbowed him in the gut. His grip loosened as he cried out in pain, and he immediately knew he'd screwed up.

"MY FOOD!" Jackie was in no way a weak man, but all he could do was watch as Elma flew across the room and out the door. He turned, and saw Rosa sprawled across the floor, almost in shock. He briefly remembered seeing her kneed in the face as Elma ran off, and tugged her up. "Come on. I can't do what I need to do until we can get to our rooms."

The dozen or so people in the room stared in shock as the two newbies rushed outside.

Elsewhere in the ship, Eddie was having a hell of a time trying to find some rope. He'd already kept the food in Elma's room, which had been offered by Whitebeard while they stayed on the ship. He finally found some under a barrel on the upper deck, and ran back down to the room.

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Somehow, he managed to arrive before Elma and slammed the door shut.

"My...food..." He heard a voice from the other side of the door, hoarse with hunger.

There was a sudden crash, and the door flew open. The second Elma flew in, Eddie threw himself on her with the rope in his hands.

She wriggled and twisted her hands, and even landed a good punch on his face. Even so, Eddie somehow managed to tie her up tightly, hands, legs and all.

He heard footsteps from the hallway, and turned around to find Jackie and Rosa come running in. They were both exhausted, and Jackie was limping on his bad leg. "Did you get her?" Rosa gasped, rubbing her bruised forehead.

Jackie closed the door and stumbled towards them. Elma had been tied up well, and would've looked damn sexy had she not been barking and yelling nonsense.

"That's my fucking food! You'll all regret this, hear me?" She screeched.

Eddie stuffed a roll of clean bandages from his jacket into her mouth. "Be quiet, Elma. A few minutes and you'll be back to your usual self."

Jackie stepped over her prone, helpless body. "Well I'm indeed into bondage, but...you're kind of a bitch. I think I'll pass." He laughed heartily, and grabbed a piece of grilled fish from the nearby platter Eddie had brought.

For the first time, they could fully observe Elma and Rosa's room. Jackie assumed they all looked the same for everyone, except for Whitebeard, of course.

The square-shaped room wasn't too big, but it was fairly large enough to accommodate two very well crafted wooden beds, each with mattresses so soft you may as well as have been floating on clouds. This particular room happened to have a lovely view of the sparkling blue ocean from a reinforced circular window.

Jackie took the platter and walked out. "Where do you think you're going?" Eddie asked, standing up to follow him. "Well, I think it would be way too mean for us to eat in front of Elma."

He waved over at Rosa. "Rosa? Come on. When food arrives, eat. Or else she will." He pointed at Elma.

Aren't you being an awful bit rude already? They both thought, staring at Jackie with displeased expressions on their faces. And of course, the apathetic captain ignored them entirely, chewing away at the blueberries piled up high on the platter. "Cwom ovn! Vets eat!" He managed to get the words out through his full mouth, and hobbled towards the living quarters, treading lightly on his bad leg.

"Christ, did he run all the way here?" Eddie muttered, and Rosa nodded. He shook his head. If there was anything Eddie hated, it was a jackass for a patient. Usually, that was almost always his captain.

They climbed up the stairs and walked out on the top deck. All around them, people were busy at work. Some were hammering away at a large plank of wood, others were sweeping the deck or sharpening their cutlasses. Jackie glanced at his own cutlass as he ate. The sword was a gift from his father, before he left. The handle was made with real gold, and had a red jewel embedded into the end. The C-shaped guard that protected the handle was also beautifully crafted from gold. The blade itself was incredibly sharp, and never seemed to chip or be damaged no matter what he struck with it.

He went on ahead and sat down on the wooden railing. Rosa and Eddie sat down next to him, and he shared the food with the two of them.

They ate in silence, marred only by the occasional yelling of the other pirates and soft waves from the sea. The wind was strong, and whipped through their hair. Eddie noticed the glum-looking vice-captain, Leonardo, approaching them.

"Sorry to interrupt while you're all eating, but I need to know your roles in your crew. Whitebeard wants to know a bit more about you." Eddie and Rosa looked at Jackie questioningly.

"Huh? Oh, sure. I'm the captain, and the navigator." Leonardo looked surprised. "You're the navigator? Really?" Jackie stared at him curiously, still chewing on a fish bone. "Why? Anything wrong?"

Leonardo shook his head. It wasn't uncommon for captains to be the navigators for their ships, but Jackie just didn't exactly strike him as someone who liked to map out charts and make intelligent calculations of where a ship needed to turn.

Eddie snapped his fingers. "I'm the doctor of the ship. I'd be overjoyed to introduce my nurses, but sadly, our crew never had any." He looked rather sad as he said this. Leonardo patted his shoulder. "Well, we do have nurses. Two of them, and a doctor as well."

Suddenly, Eddie's eyes lit up. "Nurses, you say? Two of them, you say? I'll inspect their skills at once!" He cried, and ran off towards the staircase. His blonde hair flashed past the doorway, and he disappeared.

Jackie sighed. I better not have to drag him back again. That damn womanizer. What's he gonna do if one of those girls gets pregnant?

Rosa pressed her fingers together nervously. "Um...I'm the cook and waitress of the Jackie Pirates!" Leonardo looked at Jackie disapprovingly. "You had her doing two jobs?"

Jackie simply laughed. "She had a partner or two, you know. Like hell I'd give her too much work to do by herself." Despite the grin on his face, his heart ached as he remembered the faces of Alysha, the head cook, and Helen, the waitress.

Leonardo sighed. "Alright, fine. What about that other girl? She's your vice-captain, isn't she?" He remembered Jackie himself saying this to Whitebeard in the office. Jackie nodded, and Leonardo walked off. He didn't bother mentioning that, among many things, Elma was an extremely skilled tailor and craftswoman.

Without warning, Rosa smacked his cheek, though he didn't feel any pain. He looked down, and saw her staring up at him with tears in her eyes.

Ah. Maybe I was too mean.

He hugged her, and she buried her face in his chest. "You didn't even mention Alysha and Helen." She sniffled. Jackie put a hand on her head gently. "There's nothing we can do, Rosa. They don't mean anything to them. We're the only ones who know who they were. What they meant to us."

He wanted to cry too. That was the truth. But how could a captain despair? He wouldn't. Not with his crew in this state. I'll rebuild everything. The Jackie Pirates ain't going down as long as I live. He thought, steeling his determination.

And I'll find that damned island.

"Did you make her cry, you piece of shit?" He heard a voice behind him, and saw Elma lurking behind him.

"So...how'd you get out?" He asked meekly. "I snapped through that damn rope. Where the hell did Eddie go? He's the asshole who should've untied me, dammit!" He wasn't surprised she broke out. Out of all of them, she was the most skilled at combat.

Jackie stared at her with a weary expression on his face. "He ran after some nurses to the recovery wing. Pull him out for me, why don't you?" He let Rosa go, and stumbled into the lower decks.

Rosa and Elma watched him go. He puts too much pressure on himself. He wants to do everything. Help everyone. Elma thought.

Jackie... just how broken are you right now?