Blurred Horizons

And so they were off again. Normally Scarlett wouldn't have liked how much time Ben was spending away from her, but under these circumstances, she made an exception so he could be with his father. If her mother had turned out to be alive all those years, she'd be the same way. She kept an eye on Gigi, taking care of her at all times. It truly was a full time job. Including the latest hours of the night. Scarlett and Ben had just fallen into a deep sleep when Gigi began to squirm and cry in her crib, waking them both up.

"It's your turn," Scarlett yawned.

"Yours," Ben mumbled. "I changed her before bed."

Scarlett sighed and sat up, throwing a pillow at Ben before sliding out of bed and going to Gigi, muttering to her as she picked her up and started to rock her gently.

"Hush now, you little monster," she said softly, slowly walking around the room to calm her down. "There, you're alright. Nothing to-"

Scarlett froze suddenly when she felt something tug at her, instinctively turning to look at the amulet. It was glowing a bit brighter again. She slowly approached it, sitting down across from it and staring. Gigi had gone silent too, sleeping peacefully in Scarlett's arms as her attention was drawn to the amulet. She knew she had a connection with it, but she could have sworn it was speaking to her in her head.

She blinked a few times before gently putting Gigi back in her crib, climbing into bed and shaking Ben to wake him up. He groaned softly, but grabbed Scarlett's wrists so she'd stop shaking him and sat up to look at her tiredly.

"What?" he sighed.

"We need to take it back," she whispered.

"Take what back?"

"The amulet," she said. "The island is the amulet's resting place. That's where it wants to sleep. That's where we need to go. It told me. It spoke to me."

"You know where I want to sleep?" Ben said. "In my bed. Preferably through the night, though I know that's too much to ask with an infant child. Go to sleep. We'll discuss it in the morning."

Scarlett found it difficult to sleep again, the morning not coming fast enough. She'd just dozed off when Gigi began to fuss again, waking her up. She yawned and went to pick Gigi up, knowing she wanted to be fed. When she picked her up, however, something seemed different. Gigi grew up in Scarlett's eyes every day, but this time, she really seemed to have grown. Her eyes were a lighter blue now, rather than the blue all babies were born with, and matched Scarlett's eyes exactly.

"Ben?"

"Hm?"

"Does she look older to you?" Scarlett asked as Ben climbed out of bed, putting an arm around her.

"Well they say children always grow up too fast."

Scarlett frowned as he kissed the top of her head and went off to get dressed and check on how the crew was faring while Gigi was fed and changed. Later, Scarlett convinced Ben to gather all the original crew, the few left with the power of the amulet, and his father below deck to talk about what she had heard.

"It needs to go back to the island," she told them. "It won't sleep any other way."

"It told you this?" Stephen asked skeptically. "With words?"

"No, not like you're talking to me," Scarlett told him, annoyed. "It's complicated. You wouldn't understand the connection between me and the amulet."

"I believe her," Thomas spoke up. "It only makes sense that it's resting place is the island that protected it."

"Yeah?" Irving tilted his head, looking at Thomas. "And what do you know? You weren't there with us. You don't know how terrible that place is."

"I've studied everything there is to know about the island," he said firmly, standing tall to hold his ground. "I know what I'm talking about. Don't you test me, boy. I'm old enough to be your father."

Irving shrunk back a bit, looking away in defeat. Eric stepped forward and spoke next.

"Say we do go back," he suggested. "First of all, who's to say we'll even get there? We lost loads of men to the obstacles leading to the island, not to mention with the island itself. With all due respect, Captain- erm- Captains, a majority of this crew doesn't know about any of this. How can you expect them to go through with it if they don't even know what's going on?"

"And how do you expect to wake your baby up when we're passing through that awful part where we're faced with our biggest fears?" Stephen added.

Scarlett looked to Ben for help, but it seemed that he was waiting on her answer with slight concern. Stephen had a point. The baby would be completely helpless to those obstacles. Scarlett shook her head, firmly holding her ground.

"Last time, those obstacles were meant to keep us away," she told them. "This time, it wants to go back. It'll protect us. I don't know about the island itself. That's its own entity, but the amulet would protect us from everything else."

"And the amulet told you this?" Stephen questioned.

"Captain, you might just be tired," Irving added. "With the baby and all."

"I'm not tired!" she argued. "It did speak to me!"

"I won't tolerate that sort of attitude towards our captain," Ben snapped suddenly. "If she says we're going to the island, that's where we're going. If anyone objects, they can fling themselves off the end of the ship and hope for the best."

Scarlett smiled at Ben for jumping to her defense, and he gave her a quick wink back as the rest of the crew shrunk back a bit.

"To the island, then," Eric muttered. "Good luck explaining this to the rest of the crew."

Scarlett frowned as they walked away, leaving her alone with Ben and Thomas. She sighed and sat down, closing her eyes for the moment. Ben stepped towards her and brushed her hair back, giving her a reassuring smile. Still, she could see a bit of concern in his eyes. Even he wasn't completely confident that they'd be safe from those obstacles, and there was no way Scarlett could prove it. She was just grateful he was going to take the risk for her.

"I'll tell the crew," he said. "You go back to Gigi. The less time she spends in Doc's care, the better."

Scarlett rolled her eyes but did as he said, going back to Doc's cabin to find him cleaning up with one hand and holding Gigi with the other. He handed her right over when Scarlett appeared, out of fear of her husband. She smirked and took the baby from him, holding her to her chest.

"You're good with babies," she said. "She's not even fussing. Have you worked with a lot of babies?"

"I have one."

Scarlett was a bit taken aback by it, unsure of whether or not he was serious. It was hard to tell with Doc, though she found that he rarely made those kinds of jokes. He had more snarky humor that tended to make others feel stupid.

"You have a baby?" she asked.

"Well, he's not a baby anymore," he shrugged. "He'll be five this August, if I remember correctly."

"Are you married?"

"No," he said, wrinkling his nose a bit before explaining further. "I've done a lot of things in my life that I shouldn't have. Some more permanent then others. Some hurting everyone else more than hurting me. A girl I hadn't talked to in a very long time showed up one day with a baby and told me he was mine. So I took care of him with her for about a month before she sent me away and told me I wasn't allowed to see him. Took the house, the money... everything. That woman was nothing but a leech."

"Was this before or after you-"

"I'm not talking about it anymore."

Scarlett couldn't argue with him. She just turned on her heel and walked out with her baby, eyeing Ben up on deck as he gave the orders to turn the ship back towards the island and head in that direction, with no further explanation as to why. He later joined her in the room, looking a little bit irritated over whatever reaction he'd gotten from them.

"On the bright side, I'm ready to fall in love with you all over again," Scarlett told him in an attempt to lighten the mood.

He cracked a smile and leaned in to give her a deep kiss, which was broken when some shouting startled them and they sprang apart. At first, Scarlett thought it was coming from outside, but it didn't take long to realize that it was none other than Edmund Triggs, trying to get her attention from where the little disc was crammed in a drawer. And he didn't sound pleased.

"Madeline Pearl Triggs, I know you can hear me," he yelled. "Or perhaps you only answer to Mrs. Griffith now?"

Scarlett's blood turned to ice as she looked at Ben, panicked. He just seemed confused.

"Did you tell him?" she whispered.

"Tell him what?" he whispered back. "I haven't talked to him, but I tell my mother everything."

"You little mama's boy," Scarlett grumbled, punching his arm and making him wince softly.

"What do you expect?" he whispered sharply. "I pretended I was dead, and you saw what she did. I have to tell her everything or-"

"You step forward RIGHT NOW, Madeline."

After a bit more of whisper-fighting with each other, Ben finally picked up Gigi and moved out of sight of the disc as Scarlett quickly fixed herself up and looked into it, seeing her father's stern face staring back at her.

"Hello, daddy," she said softly, keeping her tone sweet.

"You went off and got married," he said. "And then you had a baby? When did you intend to tell me this? I can't believe I had to hear it from Mary Griffith before I heard it from my own daughter."

"I'm sorry," she pouted. "It was all just so sudden, and I didn't want to upset you because you wouldn't be here for it. It was a quiet wedding. We only had two witnesses, no guests. We didn't want anything huge."

"And you decided not to tell me this? You think I wouldn't have understood?"

"I didn't-"

"And now you have a baby?" he said, exasperated. "I'm a grandfather and I didn't even know."

This time, Scarlett didn't know what to say. "I'm sorry. We're bringing her back to London after we... Take care of some things. I was going to explain everything in person."

Edmund sighed, shaking his head lightly. For a few moments, he went completely silent. Then he lifted his head with a calmer expression, lowering his voice a bit.

"Well? Where is it, then?" he asked.

Scarlett turned and waved Ben forward, who passed Gigi into Scarlett's arms. The baby looked at Edmund with wide eyes, and he stared right back at her. They stayed quiet for a few moments, until Gigi gave him a sort of lopsided, toothless smile. Edmund couldn't handle staying angry after seeing that. He smiled back and chuckled, melting at the sight of the child in her arms, even through that tiny disc.

"Her name is Gemma. We call her Gigi," Scarlett said.

"Little Gigi," Edmund grinned. "I was under the impression she was only a few weeks old, though."

"She is."

"Madeline, don't you lie to me again," he said sternly. "I'm not a fool. I can see that this child is at least two months old."

Scarlett resisted the urge to frown and protest. Gigi was only a few weeks old. However, she couldn't argue with her father. Not after he seemed like he'd forgiven her. They talked a little while longer about the wedding and how they planned to raise the baby before Edmund was finally at ease, letting Scarlett go at last. She tucked the disc back in the drawer, glancing over at Ben, who'd been listening to the conversation.

"I told you she looked older."