It was worse than she thought. Not open-mouthed and slack-jawed, no Jax stood with a light in his eyes. Hunger for the singers radiating off of him in a way that made Nicki’s jaw tightened and her fists clench even as her eyes filled with hot angry tears. No, she thought, not him. He was too clever, too slippery for that. But then the Captain was caught too, so why not Jax who had always been so happy and eager to have fun? She made herself look away from him and the heartbreak he represented upon hearing the sound of shouts and slapping flesh. The sounds were clear over the agony that still thrummed in her head and demanded attention. She watched as Antonia charged towards her, her eyes ablaze with pain and fury that matched Nicki’s own and seeing it there gave Nicki further strength. They would no fall here, The Skate would sale past this trouble. 

She watched the men battered by the lookout looking for evidence of success. She watched with growing hope as sense snapped back into their eyes. She watched them shake their heads as if shrugging off a fly. Most of them moved to what task they had been at before being caught in the song. All of them to a one paused just a moment later, their heads turning towards the strange light, ensnared again in seconds. 

“Fuck!” Nicki shouted over the tumult. “It isn’t working!” she shouted to Antonia, her honeyed voice sharpened with fury. She knew they could not man the ship, not just the two of them. In an emergency it could be done by very few but not two. They needed more people. She looked again to Jax where he stood with his hands on the wheel, his love in his hands and his eyes off towards the Siren’s who called them to their deaths. She needed him. No, they needed him. 

“I am going to try something else.” She shouted to Antonia. “Get something to stop their ears, caulk or wax!” She pointed to a barrel which held the un-tarred caulking material kept on deck for repairs. 

She strode towards Jax where he stood by the wheel. She stood before him, hesitating. Pain was not effective, she reminded herself. It did not stick and it was that not a reluctance to hurt him that stayed her hand. She was first mate, she would do what was best for the ship, by whatever means necessary. 

Whatever means.

Still she looked over her shoulders, eyes frantic to see if anyone looked her way, if any eyes would see what she was about to do. She saw only crewmen standing in place, staring towards the source of the Siren’s song. They were running out of time, she needed to act. 

This was necessary, she told herself as she turned back to Jax, looking at his distant stare and hating it. He was always so present, so vital, to see him so absent was downright painful. 

For the good of the ship.

She lifted her hands, framed his face with them, feeling the scruff on his cheeks scrape across her palms. She felt the coarse fall of his hair over her fingers as she stopped his ears with her palms. Then, upon seeing no change in his eyes even with the muffling of the song she leaned forward and, for the good of the ship, pressed her lips to his. 
 
She did not keep it a simple press of flesh to flesh, that kiss. She needed something to call him back, something to distract him from whatever false promises were woven into that song. She needed something earthy and immediate to bring him back to her, to bring him back to the moment. So Nicki kissed Jax with all the promise of her honeyed tongue and as one would expect of such a mouth it was sweet and heady. She spared nothing, she kissed him with everything her own promises worked into each sweep of tongue each caressing movement of her lips.

For the good of the ship after all.