Nicki’s voice rose for certain, it rose high and danced with the laughter that even then curled about in the wind. But she didn’t sing and she didn’t laugh, she screamed. Honey ripped from her throat. For such sweetness to convey such wrongness was a terrible thing and her screams seemed to still even the storm for a moment. In that pocket of silence her cry rang out. Just for a moment before Mr. Davenport threw the two of them over the side into the churning waves where her screams were cut off.

Nicki had failed again. Again and again she let herself down. She knew what she should have done. For certain she had fought and kicked the siren maddened sailor but it wasn’t enough. She had failed. She had failed before when her captain had ordered her fellow sailors to pull her down and humble her. She had failed when faced with him again at that ball, running screaming into the night. And she had failed this time. Her fight had been weak, decimated by fever and exhaustion. Aching from a nearly debilitating wound her struggles had been far from effective. So he’d carried her, nearly unhindered to the edge of the ship and dove in. 

The shock of the cold water stole her breath before it swallowed up her head so she was able to take in one last gasp before she was pulled under by a strong arm tight around her waist. She felt the sting of salt in her wound and the pain of it, so deep, so strangely intimate woke something in her. She thrashed anew, choking on the water but determined not to be swallowed up so completely by the dark. She fought and kicked and twisted, using the pain of her wound to fuel her. She broke free and kicked towards the surface with its laughing storm, with the ship, with Jax. 

Her head burst out of the water, surging up through the surface, her scream bubbling before her.

“Help!” she screamed just before a hand clamped on her ankle and pulled her down. She coughed and kicked and felt herself weakening but managed to slip free once again. 
 
“Jax!” she screamed, fear changing the flavor of her honey as it struggled filled the night even as she struggled with Mr. Davenport.

“Help me, Jax! Please!” 

And then she was under again and she knew as an iron strong hand wrapped around her waist and pulled her down like and anchor that she wasn’t going to get to the surface on her own again.