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All things considered, Nick thought as he walked back through the corridor towards the pirate door, he probably shouldn't have brought a vampire with him. In his defense, his intentions had been wholly honorable. He knew Bella was having issues with boredom here - being completely unable to sleep she had a lot of hours to fill.

When he'd found the door that opened into a cabin on a pirate ship, he'd thought she'd have a good time. And they had.

Until two of the lackeys got into over something stupid and they'd both drawn swords. They'd taken their swipes at each other and really, it had all been straightforward enough. They weren't all that skilled at it.

Unfortunately, unskilled equated blood being drawn. Lots of blood being drawn.

Bella had good control, exceptional control, but an alcoholic into a vat of whiskey and bad things will happen.

He'd been able to use his powers to bind her and his strength to carry her back through the door and carry her through the hotel to the door to her forest. He didn't know how she'd fare running through the forest in the pirate wench's outfit he'd found in the cabin for her, but at least she wouldn't have human blood in her system and he wouldn't be disposing of a body. He felt he owed as much to Edward...even if he wasn't here, even if this Bella wasn't the same as the one he knew on the island.

Now that she was off hunting, he was in the mood to get back to some piracy.

Find Nick headed back to the pirate door in full pirate gear, with eyepatch. You can also find Bella coming out of a different door wearing her own pirate gear but probably with a few leaves and twigs in her hair and blood on her clothes.

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Nick stopped and turned. "Anyone ever tell you there's such a thing as overthinking?"

"Yeah," Isaac admits, but there's a half-crazed look in his eye that implies he's not going to change that anytime soon. "And when I stopped overthinking things, I kind of don't like the person I wound up being," he says. "So, now I overthink."

Any comment Nick was going to make flew out the window in the face of that logic. "I can get behind that. But as far as the pirates are concerned, they're mostly harmless unless you're sitting on a ship full of gold and booze that they want for themselves or get in the way of them fighting each other."

"So, don't touch the gold or get in the middle of their fights?" Isaac surmises, giving a nod of his head. True, he's had times in his past where he did stupid things, but he thinks he can sign off to that. "Weird time to ask, but you'd watch my back if something went down, right?"

"Of course," Nick said at once. "I've already had to cart a vampire out of here before she went complete all-you-can-eat-buffet on the crew. Fighting off someone attempting to go after a werewolf just presents a little more symmetry, I think. Don't worry about it, man. I'll watch your back, you have fun with some pirates." He leaned in and leered a little. "Or wenches, if you like."

Isaac feels a bit flushed, trying not to think of Allison in a pirate wench outfit (and trying not to equally put Scott in anything swashbuckling). He swallows, hard, and stares down Nick and hopes there's no telepathy going on here. "I think I kind of want to just see what it looks like, if that's okay," he mumbles.

"You're going to give yourself an ulcer, you keep worrying this much." He clapped a hand onto Issac's back. "Come on. Lets go see some pirates. We'll leave the door open and you can head right back here whenever you want."

He stopped with his hand on the door. "Just out of curiosity, is there a reason you're this paranoid about pirates?"

"I don't think it's paranoia when they have sharp things that could be made of silver," Isaac points out with a dubious look at Nick. "One of those stabs me? I'm pretty much done for."

That stopped Nick cold. "Shit, that works on you? Where I come from it's a myth. Don't worry too much about it, though. Anyone comes near you with anything silver and pointy, I'll take care of it.'

"Yeah, it kind of works on me," Isaac retorts snidely, a bit incredulous that he could be walking into a situation that might kill him at the end of a pirate's sword. This is so not the way he expected it to go. "But okay, you'll take care of it. Not sure whether that should scare me more than the silver swords."

"You got it," Nick nodded and pushed the door open. "And anytime you want to head back to hotel-ville, just come back through. After you," he said with a flourish and half bow, indicating the darkened space beyond the door, muffled voices echoing back to them.

Isaac stares at the door with another flare of doubt rushing through him, but hey, he's done stupider things in his life (like transfer his pack allegiance to Scott without even realizing it) and so that's the culminating thought before he twists the door handle and dives right into a pirate's life.

"I feel like I'm not dressed for the occasion," he says wryly, upon entering a whole other universe on the seas.

"The room we're going into has a closet full of this stuff," Nick said with a sweep of his hand down the outfit he's got on. "Or I can just change what you're wearing into pirate gear. Up to you."

Normally he'd have just changed the kid's clothes, but he was looking skittish enough. Weres, he'd found, were not the sort of people you poked when they were already walking around with their ears pricked back.

"Weird," is all Isaac has to say about that, bracing himself as he took a first step into everything, casting a glance at Nick to make sure he isn't stepping into a trap. "Have you killed anyone in here?" he asks, suddenly, curious as to what happens if you do.

"Ah, yeah, that'd be a no," Nick said with a little wrinkle in his forehead. "No one's tried to kill me so I didn't feel the need to go in guns blazing, so to speak. For the most part, they're happy to do their thing and I'm just there for the experience of it."

For a second, Nick felt a twinge in his chest - one that hadn't bothered him in a long time. He felt himself missing Mel, missing her sister, the alien that travelled through the known universe just experiencing planets and their inhabitants.

"Just out of curiosity, why do you ask? In the mood for a little carnage?" The kid was a wolf. Anything was possible.

"Not today," he deadpans, meaning it to be a joke, but Isaac feels like maybe some of it got lost in translation. "Actually, no, it's not..." He glances around them, making sure that no one's about to attack while Isaac talks about his pet theory. "I'm kind of curious about what happens in these doors. I mean, which is reality? And how do you test reality? I mean, the best and worst way I can think of is dying," he says with a fluid shrug -- practiced and perfected by teenage boys everywhere. "If you die here, do you die at home? Will you never go back?"

The quip died on Nick's lips - it was a serious question and clearly was weighing heavy on the kid's mind. He just wished he had any kind of answer. "I honestly don't know, I wish I did. I was a law student before my life went to shit, philosophy wasn't anything but an elective I took as an undergrad and all it gave me was a raging headache. I'd like to think that whatever force brought us here wouldn't allow for that kind of mortal peril, but that might be assuming more benevolence that it deserves."

He wants to know because he nearly dies so much in Beacon Hills that he wants to know if he's going to die if he continues to attract that kind of trouble throughout a number of universes, but here, there are pirates afoot. And honestly, Isaac really does want to let loose and explore, but that fear is hard to wash away. "So it's like a video game, you think?" he jokes. "When you die, you cash in another life?"

"I don't know, not for sure, and death isn't something I'd fuck around with. It's also kind of a personal thing. I've died twice, all it's done for me is to further fuck up my existence. My mother was murdered, but she never came back."

The last was something that fueled his rage for years but time, both linear as well as away from his demon side, had given him the perspective to finally admit that Acheron was right in his decisions. No matter how painful they were.

"Did you love your mother?" It's weird for Isaac to ask, but the truth is that he never knows anymore. After all, he kind of loved his father, but there had been soothing relief when he'd been murdered. Now that they're getting into the depths of the ship, he quiets down, crouched over as he tries to stay out of sight.

"I did. I still do," Nick said, only a trace of the rage he used to feel over her memory evident in his voice. "She gave up everything for me, and I mean everything. And in the end, I failed her."

And he continued to fail her...for years. It was only now that he could see what Ash had been trying to tell him. He only hoped that some day he'd be able to tell him.

Isaac nods, taking a step forward on a creaky plank. He stares at it for a second before giving a surprised laugh. "I'm standing on a pirate ship with a...what are you again?" he asks. "Seriously, I can't keep track anymore."

"You're not the only one. Dark Hunter? Half-demon? Malachai? "Freakishly tall moody piece of shit? Does it really matter what I am?"

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