Bitter Victory

Jack looked up to his left and relief flooded through him as he saw that the French ship had just struck her colours at last. A fierce fight. Long and hard and very bloody, but they had done it at last. He felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Sir?"

It was Mowett, his second lieutenant. The man was clearly very upset and Jack instantly felt his blood run cold. The ecstatic light-headedness of a few moments before melted away, and he suddenly felt as if he stomach were filled with lead.

"Who is it?" he asked hoarsely, his voice cracking.

Mowett shook his head, unable to answer. He simply motioned for Jack to follow him, leading him down to the makeshift sickbay below. Surprisingly few of the crew had been killed or even injured, despite the determined ferocity of the French gunnery, and compared to other times the place seemed almost deserted. Stephen was standing by a table in the middle of the room, his expression very dark. He looked up as Jack approached, and came towards him.

"I'm so sorry, Jack," he said softly, placing his hand on his old friend's arm, neither of them noticing that it was still stained with blood.

"I'm sure you did all you could, Stephen," he said woodenly, before crossing to the table. He looked down at the man lying before him. His face, infinitely familiar to Jack, was spattered with blood, and his long, dark hair was dirty and tangled. The front of his shirt was soaked a rich crimson, contrastingly horribly with his deathly pale skin.

"Tom," he whispered. His normally cheerful face wore an expression of shock and utter despair. "What happened?" he said more loudly.

Stephen stepped forward. "One of the guns exploded. He caught the full blast."

Jack nodded solemnly. He leaned forward and brushed the hair from Tom's face, gently touching his scarred cheek, wiping away the blood, running his fingertips lightly across the blue-tinged eyelids.

Later that day, with the reports finished, the injured men patched up and sent back to their duties, and the repairs well underway, Jack Aubrey sat alone in his cabin and wept.