Hardest has a minion!

Rose the Green Lovebird

Jason rolled over in his sleep before waking up slowly as he heard shouting. He really did need to stop sleeping in so late because he almost always ended up waking up to a fight between his first mate and one of the crew members who was insistent that the other man was an idiot - which was most probably true.

He sat up and ran a hand through his hair to try to tame it somewhat before quickly getting dressed and heading up onto the deck of his ship: ready to shout at whoever had woken him up this time. As he became aware that the sound was coming from the next ship, he turned his attention to it - leaning against the side of his ship while he watched the pair, the captain of the ship and a woman who looked severely out of place, and tried to work out what was happening.

�I'm not gonna be lettin' a damned woman ont' me ship. That'd be beggin' fer it t'be struck down 'n' fer us all t' lose our lives at sea. A no is always a no, lassie. Yer not t' be on me ship when we're leavin' port.�

He closed his eyes and sighed as he realised what the argument was about.

"Yer wastin' yer time tryin' t' ger ont' that ship," he commented, looking to the woman now, "He's one o' t'e most superstitious pirates I've ever had t'e misfortune o' meetin'. Ye could always come on 'ere though. As long as ye work, thar is."

"Of course I would bloody work for you. I don't plan to go on a ship just to lie around on deck, doing nothing."

He raised an eyebrow at her reply but nodded; pleased.

"Then ger off 'is ship an' come over 'ere," he replied.

Why people thought women were bad luck on a ship, he would never know, but he could already hear the protests coming from his crew members as he spoke. That was one advantage of being the captain: he was able to do whatever he wanted even if people protested about it because no one had the right to tell him he was wrong. He listened to his crew, yes, but there were times when he was glad that he had the option to ignore them if he wanted.

It had always amused Jason when he heard pirates arguing about letting women onto their ships: he didn't think that they were aware that cruise ships had been allowing women on for a few years now and the vast majority of them had completed their journeys without a hitch.

He vaguely listened to the woman, Rose it seemed, talking while he thought.

How should he introduce himself? He usually just told people to call him Captain but he'd recently taken to introducing himself by his first name and he was aware, though they tried to hide it, that his crew preferred to tell all newcomers about his nickname: Hardest.

His crew was considered to be impossible - or very hard at least - to beat and he was meant to be the hardest captain to get close to (and the easiest to annoy) both of which had led to the, rather annoying, nickname and a rumour that he was heartless though that was far from the truth: you just needed to be in his crew to see him in his true light.

"Bored?" Jason asked, heading over to Rose: the only member of his crew still on-board the ship while it was docked. He couldn't understand why she seemed so against going to the tavern still but at least it meant that he had someone to watch his ship while the rest of the crew were relaxing.

He liked Rose, a lot more than he wanted to admit, but he doubted that much would happen between them. They flirted and spent a lot of time joking around when neither of them were busy with other jobs but it would be hard for them to become any closer than that.

She had told him about her relationship before he had met her and her reason for boarding his ship to begin with.

Though she had left Gideon, he had a feeling that she still loved him, or missed him at least, and would feel bad about being in another relationship - which was annoying from his point of view, to say the least.

"I have been for the last few hours, Captain. Not all of us wish to go get drunk off their asses."

"There's no one aroun' an' we both know y'prefer t' call me Jase," he commented.

Smiling slightly, he leant against the side of the ship and looked out to sea - trying to work out whether they could set sail in the morning.

"Seems to me like you want to be called Jase instead of Captain now. It's a calm sea tonight. So how come you're not drinking?"

"I didn't want t' 'ave a hangover if we set sail tomorro'," he replied, "An' we probably will. Anyway, I prefer Cap'in but yer the one who made t'e nickname so ye may as well use it."

Jason struggled against the ship's wheel in an attempt to control the vessel. He knew he should have left it a few days before he set off: some sort of sixth sense from being at sea for most of his life had been telling him that a storm was coming.

He glanced to Rose: deciding he couldn't let her die because of him. Most of his crew were clambering onto the two large rowing boats he kept on-board in case something like this happened.

"Rose, go. Now! I'm not lettin' ye die because of a' idiotic decision I made," he yelled, finding it hard to speak over the sound of the waves battering against the side of the ship in the storm.

"I'm not leaving you Jase! You're an idiot to think that I would ever leave your side; I will stay at your side even if it means I shall die."

He scowled at her reply and yelled at one of his crew members to get her onto the rowing boat even if they needed to carry her on, kicking and screaming.

"I love ye, Rose!" he shouted over the ever-increasing noise caused by the storm battering the ship, "Don't forget that. Ger a new boat; this crew will accept ye as their cap'in."

He leant over to Rose and kissed her quickly. He didn't want to die without showing her how much she meant to him.

Nodding in approval as his first mate moved to her and dragged her off, he continued to fight against the storm until the rowing boats were close enough to shore for him to be able to relax.

Eventually, he closed his eyes and let go of the wheel: allowing the waves to knock the ship onto its side.