A Lady Like Escape: There's a First for Everything

[Arabella Porter]

Once they reached outside in the cool autumn air, Ara stopped remembering the look that Tim gave her. She thought for a moment. Am I really a good friend? … NAH. She turned to Brielle,

"Listen, love, I forgot I promised myself I'd do something before I left tonight." She said, "Why don't you wait inside while I..."she took a moment, "do what I have to do," she finished, scurrying back inside. She rushed upstairs," be right back!"

Brielle stood outside in the cool night air, feeling slightly confused and tipsy. She thought perhaps Ara forgot to put on a proper party dress. That must be it! She sat on the front stoop of the Rejected Gear and waited what seemed an inordinate amount of time for a clothing change before Ara reappeared wearing the same exact thing at before but looking decidedly more disheveled. "Ara....where WERE you? I thought you might be changing your clothes....but you have the same ones on?" She blinked ever so innocently, truly having no clue about what Ara had just done. Ara giggled.

          "Sorry, I was just," She's drunk, Ara thought to herself, "stuff." She said plainly, still buttoning her shirt. "Shall we, then?"Brielle giggles. "Did you mean to change your clothes and instead put the same ones back on? I think you've had too much to drink already!!!"

          "You are exactly right," Ara giggled, "I got out of them, hopped around in some other pants, and then decided that I should wear mine instead" She joked. As mean as it was, it was still amusing. She and Brielle then flounced about in the London fog, passing glowing street lamps and darkened flats until they reached near the docks at the Thames, where the S.S Silver Widow was hovering close to the roof of a building. Ara took Brielle's hand and led her into a dark alley way where Ara then knocked thrice on a side door. Muffled German came from behind the door. "Roderick, you drunk, German pussy, Let us in!" Ara yelled and banged on the door louder. Roderick opened it, his usually neat suit disheveled. "I'm not drunk, you blue eyed tart." He said rudely in his thick German accent. Ara shoved her way in. "You remember Brielle." She said. Roderick's eyes widened. "I apologize," he said, "I was unaware that a lady was present." Brielle's eyes go wide at the foul language but as she hears that the Roderick is aware that she is a lady, she sweeps into a tipsy curtsy and giggles. She stands back up, swaying just a tad, and ever so sweetly asks

      "Is this where the party with the dancing is?" Roderick gives Ara a questioning look as he is unaccustomed to seeing Brielle so improperly unpolished. Ara shrugs and guides Brielle further into the building. They moved through a dimly lit hallway and upon reaching a stairwell, they began to climb.

     "Roderick always gets roughed up at the parties so he likes to take guard duty. He'll read a book or something and then doze off until someone else bangs on the door." The building was empty and quiet except for the very faint sound of laughter that grew ever so slightly louder and louder as they kept climbing the steps. "The building’s abandoned so often we use it as extra room if there are a lot of people on board. We like to party. But we limit ourselves to the top two floors in case we need to make a quick getaway. We still use the ship but having the extra space makes it wilder. The more the merrier, you know?" Brielle looks all around, astonished at her surroundings.

      "This is nothing like the parties back home. We would all gather in some stuffy living room and I would be made to play the pianoforte while my sister had to sing and various eligible gentlemen would look us over. If we were lucky we got to go to a ball, which was beautiful, but by that point I was engaged to Phillip....." She trails off and silently follows Ara. They finally arrive to where the party is at, and Brielle is astonished at the sheer number of people and the lively music playing from an undisclosed location. She smiles and begins swaying back and forth "Ara this looks like so much fun!" She giggles and looks around.

        Ara smiles and pushes through the crowd of pirates, whores, and peope of unobvious profession.

         "Hey white girl," an asian man with dark stubble and a black jacket shoved Ara with his shoulder as he passed her. He gave Brielle a blank look with a scoff.

      "Go back to Vietnam or shut up Minhtu," Ara yelled back at him, “Welcome to England, home of the white girls." She called, turning around and walking backwards. Ara looked at Brielle, "if other pirate ships are nearby, they stop by and bring their asshole first mates with them." a scrungy looking pirate scanned Brielle as they kept walking through to where people were dancing. Ara grabbed a chair, clopped it in the middle of the floor, and stepped up. "Everybody listen up!" she called over the music which died down for a moment, "Whoever touches this girl right in front of me, is going to get shoe polish on their genitals! They'll also be at Captain Bennett’s mercy!" she yelled. She then looked at Brielle and smiled. "Welcome to the mad house." a cloud of snickers pervaded the room when she said this.

          Brielle realizes that the fancy dress she chose to wear is horribly out of place and makes her stand out like a sore thumb. As grateful as she was for Ara's defense, she had a sinking feeling that perhaps this would make her stand out even worse. As Ara stepped down from the chair, Brielle gave her a weak smile. She leaned in close and whispered,

       "Do you think this will be ok? These people know I'm different, I'm not so sure this is going to end well...." Ara grabbed her hand and pulled her into the middle of the crush and Brielle decided to just go with it as she was already here and had too much wine to think clearly. She giggled and followed along with Ara into the center of the crush, where she saw dancing as she had never seen dancing before.

         Ara twirled her.

          "You're appearance is actually more intimidating than you think. none of these jerks will bother you if they don't have a chance of getting in your skirts by the end of the night and the ones who want to try won't because as calm as my captain usually is, everyone's heard tales of her wrath and no one wants to find out if they’re true." Ara swayed back and forth. And then spotted Mercurian in the corner of the wide room, letting smoke fly out of his mouth after a drag of hookah. She waved him over. "Have your legs finished decaying already or can you stay standing?" she asked the old santa-like quarter master. "make sure you don't stay up past your bedtime." He came back as he pushed over to them. The man bowed to Brielle. "I trust you're having a good time?" He asked. "Fear not. With the widows and widowers here, you won't get any trouble in this crowd."  Brielle smiles and curtsies at the man, much to the confusion of the rough crowd around her.

 "I'm having a lovely time! This is just what I needed to be distracted!" She pauses a moment "Ara, is there any wine around here? It sounds lovely about now."

             Mercurian Maxwell stared Arabella down.

             "You'll not get this girl drunk." He said sternly. Ara shook her head.

                "It's not up to me." she led Brielle through the crowd. "Who am I to deny a parched lady of her drink?" She laughed as they reached a cask. "You see," she said, "we only have these parties after we've raided the wine and beer ships or any ship carrying imports of alcohol." Ara grabbed two wooden cups and filled them halfway. She handed Brielle a cup and raised hers in the air. "To nights of freedom. Down with pianofortes and evil ex fiancées. May Phillip burn forever in hell!” Brielle raises her glass and giggles.

               "Did you know Felix KILLED Phillip, Ara? Phillip is dead, dead, dead....and maybe in hell!!” She takes a large swig from the cup and grabs Ara's hands and starts to dance.  Ara's eyes widen with a smile.

                "All the more reason to celebrate!" she sang. Ara twirled Brielle again as the music became faster. A violin and a drum, and for some reason, bagpipes, gave a little hop to Ara's step and they danced around the floor with the crowd. Crews like the restless bitches and the Cameroonians mingled together with the Widow and the P.A.S Su Chin. It would be no exaggeration to say that there were quite a few drunken brawls going on as well. The night was going surprisingly well until suddenly, German shouting came from across the room and the music stopped abruptly.

            "POLIZEI!" Roderick yelled at the top on his lungs in German. Shots came from down the stairwell and Roderick collapsed in the doorway, holding his arm. Ara yelled,

           "EVERYBODY RUN!" She grabbed Brielle's hand and tried to move towards the stairs that led to the second uppermost floor. But for some reason, Brielle was barely moving. She looked back to see Roderick in handcuffs and Dominique pistol-whipping a copper. It was absolute chaos.  

           Brielle froze in place as Ara attempted to drag her along. "Brielle....come...on" Ara was yanking her hand. "We...need to get...out of here before they catch us!" Brielle was rather unresponsive and white as a sheet of paper.

            "We got to get out of here, mate," Ara yelled as people shoved past her. She then felt the cold end of a gun against her head.

            "Why is it that when I'm taking down a party, you're always here?" He asked. Arabella turned around to land a punch right in Thomas's face. But he caught it and wrapped her arm around to her back, holding it firmly. "Why are you even working with the yard again? What was the point of faking your death only to do that same shit that caused you to fake it in the first place?" She ranted. Thomas shook his head as Lawrence Harrison clasped handcuffs around Brielle's wrists.

              "Officer, Larry." Ara greeted him mockingly. Brielle looked down at her wrists.

             "No, no there is a mistake! This is a party! What could be wrong with a party??? Besides, I'm a LADY. I can't get arrested!" She looks to Ara nervously. "They can't arrest me for going to a party, can they?" She bites her lip and tugs on her wrists. "This cant' seriously be happening...." 

 Thomas looked at Ara.

             "Are you taking lessons?" he asked her. She rolled her eyes and as the two officers led the women down the stairs, Ara attempted to calm Brielle down.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought you. This isn't our property." She said. "I'll get you out though, I promise. I'll get you out before Felix can even think about worrying. You'll be fine." She looked at Thomas for help. "Please, let her go. Seriously, this is my fault." Thomas cleared his throat. "Thomas!" She pleaded.

“Lawrence, be gentle with this one." Thomas said finally as they approached the carriage, mechanically enhanced horses clicked their steel hooves on the cobblestone as steam shot out of their nostrils. After Thomas shoved Ara into the back of the carriage, she kicked him in the gut. He cursed, hunching over and coughed a bit, but regained himself. Lawrence pulled out his club and raised it in warning before holding out his hand to help Brielle into the carriage.              

"Forgive us, Madame." he told her. "We're just following orders." As Brielle realized that this was in fact happening, she began to cry hysterically. This was both a reaction and an often employed trick that had gotten her out of trouble many times before. She looked up at Thomas through her tear-wet lashes and fluttered them a time or two.

 "Please sir....you cannot seriously think I would be here, doing something illegal, if I had any knowledge of such?" He repeated his nonsense about following orders. Brielle huffed, miffed that her oldest trick in the book had failed. "Ara, you best find a way out of this....Felix will be FURIOUS with me! He will look at it as me running away, again, which is something he explicitly told me not to do! Rather, it is at least similar enough that he will view it in the same vein of rebellion against keeping me safe.....I don't even want to know what he will do when he finds out!" She starts sobbing in earnest, making a pitiful picture in the back of the carriage

Thomas looked between Arabella and Brielle as the lady began to weep pitifully.

"Is this your cousin or is she some actress you hired to get you out of sticky situations? Or maybe you're trying to guilt trip me?"

“Thomas, shut the door and bugger off,” she snapped. He closed the door to the cart and knocked two times on the carriage before turning to his men.

"Good work today, gents. We've caught a notorious pirate that's on England most wanted list along with quite a few pirates who will earn her majesty quite the award from Singapore and Thailand. “He said to them and they dispersed. Leaving him to watch as the Silver Widow drifted into the night.

As the carriage bumped through the streets of London, Ara stared at Brielle.

"He's a jerk." she told her, "you'll be fine. I promise. I won't let them treat you badly and this won't go on your record...." Ara thought for a moment, "I mean, you won't have a record." she shrugged. "You can handle this. If you can spend an entire three hours with your ex fiancée without having thoughts of suicide, you can handle this," she was trying to lighten the mood but her gut told her that it might do otherwise. Brielle smirks.

"I never said I didn't have thoughts of suicide when spending time with Phillip. I just was smart enough to not act out on them!" She pauses, frowning.” Anyways Ara....how are we getting out of this? Felix isn't home...and even if he was I refuse to get him involved! I would be in worse trouble from him than the police! We need to get out ourselves!"

"Well," she said feeling a bit chipper. Luckily for us, Thomas doesn't learn from his mistakes so I should be able to get us out quite easily but not from the carriage." she said pointing to the advanced security system on the door of the carriage. "Well, ok. Maybe he learns sometimes."  Brielle eyes up the locks and starts weeping again

 "Oh this is hopeless!!! What if he learned to lock up the jail as well??? Do you think perhaps there will be a security guard I can cry at?" She trails off, pondering the situation as the carriage arrives to the jail.

Ara, having had her usual plan all mapped out already, looked up as if Brielle had said something completely genius. and she had. Brielle had actually created a whole new plan. Ara pondered silently. "yes, of course," she said aloud. She didn't have to go through with the normal plan. the one weakness that Thomas had; ladies. Not women, but ladies. Thomas could never actually arrest a girl of high class. Mary Kelly had taught Ara that. Even though Mary was a whore, she was very lady-like in nature at least when she was sober and she only drank off the job. Thomas could never keep her cuffed for some reason or even keep her in a cell. This was perfect.

"Brielle," she said, "do ladies cry in public?" she asked. Brielle looks up from her personal pity party.

"Indeed. Some of it is real, some of it is using the one thing we have that can gain us power...while I was fully expected to remain chaste and pure, there are plenty of innocent ways to get a man to do what you want, and the most effective is usually crying!"  Ara leaned forward in her seat.

"Listen," she said, "we need you to be a lady. In fact, you need to be the sweetest thing since candy floss if you want this to work. when we get in there, you have to do exactly what you just did, but say that the floor of the cell is too cold. Ask for a blanket. ask for anything that can't be handed to you through the bars. When Thomas opens, I shoot, we fly. Got it? Brielle solemnly nods.

"I can do that. I still remember how to use all the old tricks....”she lets out a tiny giggle then holds her hand over her mouth to avoid anyone being suspicious over why she could be happy. She whispers "I will be the most pitiful ladylike lady one could ever find. Sugar sweet and prone to fainting spells and freezing in the cold. You ready for this? It’s going to be unbearably irritating!"

‎Ara scrunched her brow and nodded as the carriage pulled up in front of Scotland Yard. she looked out the tiny window of above her bench and saw two officers walking around the carriage. She sat quickly and gave Brielle a stern look. The doors flung open. "Let's go! Always good to see you Porter." A large officer with a grey mustache pulled her down and pushed her towards the building.

"Always a goddamn pleasure, Gerald." she glared and stood her ground to see Brielle.

Perfectly, innocent Brielle was trying to step down from the carriage, crying hysterically. The young man that was supposed to escort her had his arms up and had stepped back. Officer Gerald shot the young man a confused look.

 "All I did was touch, her." Ara smirked but was forced to turn around as she was led into the building. Gerald pushed Ara past Thomas's office where he looked up to shoot her a triumphant grin.

"I know your tricks" he mouthed to her before she was kicked away from the doorway and into the back where an open cell awaited her.  Upon being placed into the cell beside Ara, Brielle's crying took to new extremes.

 She sat down on the cold bench and suddenly got very quiet. Gerald and Dunning peaked in, as the lack of crying was suspicious. As if on cue, Brielle started shivering violently, teeth delicately chattering for maximum effect.

"Gentlemen....I don't suppose it would be too much trouble for you to get me a blanket? As you can see from my attire....I am not at all used to such surroundings." She gave them a heartbreaking pout while continuing to shiver, dramatically letting a single tear fall down her cheek. "It would be ever so helpful, and I would be forever grateful to you handsome gentlemen." She gave them a simpering smile, while praying that this would work. Gerald cleared his throat.

"I guess I'll go take down the bounty for Porter here." he said.

 "Don't bother." Ara smirked. The old officer glared at Ara and then looked to Thomas before walking away. Thomas sighed.

"I'll be right back." He said. He went to turn but ended up making full circle when he had an idea. "Bella, come to the end of the cell for a moment." He said. "

What?"

"Just do as I say." Ara did as requested very cautiously before Thomas grabbed her arms and cuffed them around the bars.

"What the hell are you on about?" she asked angrily. Thomas looked to Brielle.

 "I'll get your blanket right away miss. I apologize for the conditions." As he left Ara yelled.

 "Oh come on, Dunning!" she frowned. She looked to Brielle and back to Thomas only a few paces down the hallway. He pulled out a thin red blanket and a grey pillow before shutting the closet door. Upon returning he put the items on the floor so he could open the door. It swung open. Brielle looked from Ara to Dunning. She then got a brilliant idea.

 She stepped forward to Thomas and with a curtsy and smiled at him sweetly.

"Thank you so very much, that is so sweet of you!" She stepped forward as he stepped back unconsciously, step by step, backed up until she was out of the cell. Brielle spotted the key around his chest and cringed at what she was about to do. "My goodness, as a Lady, I never got up close and personal with a Cop before!" She giggled sweetly and put her hand on his chest as Thomas blushed and muttered something about Ladies. "I daresay, they are more handsome than most men." She grabbed the key and dropped her hand to her side, before winking at Thomas and swaying back to the cell with Ara.

Ara squinted curiously, as Brielle stepped back into the cell.

"What are you doing! Go! Get out! I can handle it here!" She hissed. Thomas grinned,

"jealous?" he asked. She shook her head

"no, grateful that I'm blessed with taste." she rolled her eyes.

"You know Bella,

(author's note: you really could have avoided this if you didn't play so much mine craft)

Not only do some women appreciate me, but some women also have the smarts," he winked at Brielle. "This is what a lady looks like." he lectured, "She knows when she should face the consequences and takes them like an adult." Ara jutted her jaw forward in irritation.

 "and gentlemen, I hear know how to control a good piece of ass. I guess that makes her the gentleman in this situation since you’re the one being handled." She smiled with a hint of sass in her eyes. He scoffed.

"I'll be back. Try not to hug the bars too much. A man peed on them yesterday and god knows what else." As the cell door closed and locked, Ara looked agitated at Brielle.

"what the hell was that rubbish?" she whispered angrily. "You could have left. Felix is going to burn me alive or worse."

 Brielle simply smirked and opened her hand in front of Ara's face.

"Silly schmuck. Thinks I appreciate him. I mean, I appreciate how easy it was to get this key from him...." She giggles and unlocks Ara's arms as she continues chattering, "And Felix isn't going to burn either of us alive, because he is never going to find out about this little adventure!" Ara rubbed the circulation back into her arms and smiled as Brielle fit the key into the cell door.

 “I didn't know you had it in you to do that! For a moment I actually thought you were flirting with him..."

‎ "God no! Not with someone so easily influenced by those silly tricks....I've had men who fell for that my whole life! One of the best and worst things about Felix is that that sort of rubbish doesn't work on him." The door swings open and the two women sneak out of the jail and back to the Rejected Gear giggling and flouncing all the way home.

‎_________________meanwhile, back at the ranch_____________________

"Bella, I know you're probably not amused with me right now but I actually need your opinion on this...." Thomas stopped in his tracks. "Crime scene" he sighed. yeah, real lady, he thought before violently kicking over a chair in a gust of frustration. "And to think that I wouldn't have to put up with this if I hadn't shown my face in London again." He stepped into the cell where a red blanket lay on the floor. Thomas kicked it before hearing a creak and lock behind him.

               There,

              Sitting,

              Almost still if it weren't for his fluffy and fluttery ears,

               Sat Jabber who blinked once.

            This is why we suck, Thomas thought. Because no around here can notice when a goddamn koala waddles through the door.

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