- Ella's POV -

The boat's motor died into silence against the waves as the boat drifted towards us. A man with long dreads and a little boy maybe no older than eight looked at us. The young boy was behind the man, peaking around.

"What y'all done doin' out here?" The man started, his Creolean accent thick.

"We were on a plane and it crashed on one of the islands. We've been stranded." Derick said slowly. Even with being rescued, we didn't know who this man was. I watched as the little boy behind the man peaked out again, and then quickly behind the man again.

"Ah! I got a small boat, but I can help all-a-ya get back to da island. Wez gon help y'alls out." He said, with a big smile on his face. I had only seen Derick's face for what seemed like forever, a new person, with a different voice felt foreign.

Our tiny raft brushed up the side of the boat. It was a small fishing boat, nets hanging loosely along the edges of the boat, and the name of the boat was faded, with some letters missing. algae clung to the sides as well, and the boat had small barnacles where the water rested along it.

The man reached his hand out in my direction first, but Derick extended his hand further. I held on as Derick grabbed with his free hand on the edge of the boat, pulling him up. The raft wobbled with the loss of weight from him, and I held on tighter to keep from falling off.

I slipped my hand into Derick's extended one as he reached down to pull me up. I slid my leg over the ledge into the boat, as the raft we had built slowly started to drift away.

"I's Ramon, dis my son Andres, say ello." Ramon reached behind him and pushed the young boy forward even though he looked back at his father.

"Ello." Andres whispered meekly before sliding behind his father again.

"He's shy, we's doin' some fishing to bring him outta his shell," Ramon smiled, nudging Andres. He looked up at his father and smiled as bright as the sun that was casting a warm glow. " Y'all want water? I ain't got nothin' else."

"Yes please!" I answered, and Ramon passed us two waters from the inside of a cooler in the corner of the boat. I graciously took it and twisted the cap. I downed the water, relishing in the refreshing taste; stifling a cough.

"I'm Derick, and this is Ella." Derick introduced us, still holding the bottle in his hand. I smiled with a small wave, and Andres gave a small wave back.

"Ah! Bein stranded lovebirds, dis a movie!" Ramon laughed, wiping his forehead.

I blushed, flashing a glance at Derick before we both stumbled over our words of refusal.

"No we're not toget-"

"We're just-"

"I's got it I's got it. Love is a complicated thing ye? We gonna get y'alls back to where y'alls belong. You's from the states?"

Derick and I looked at each other. I didn't have a lot to say. From leaving the island we had been stuck on, to trying to leave the island and being lost at sea, to now being on a fishing boat in the span of nearly a day in the middle of the night... it was so much to process.

"We work in New York, but we were here for a business trip before our plane crashed. We've been drifting east for about a day now, do you know where we are?" Derick asked.

"You's is far from home! No need! I know da way around da waters. I has a map, take a look." Ramon lifted one of the benches and passed it over to us. Derick opened it up, and I peaked around his arm to see it. Ramon was on his left, and pointed a finger. "Dis is where we is. How long was yas drifting?"

"We were at sea for between fifteen to twenty hours roughly. The island we were on was arbitrarily small, and we could see another island in the distance not far from where we were."

"You's musta drifted around dis area." He showed us with his fingers the wide area we could have drifted from, and there were tiny islands all along the Bahamas, any of them we could have come from.

"Jesus." Derick muttered, and I had no words. Just how far had we gone? And how had we got here when we were suppose to-

"How could we have gotten all the way here if we were supposed to be near Andros?" Derick said, perplexed.

"Andros? You's was never on course to end up down here my friends." Ramon frowned, moving his hands from the Andros Islands to where we should be, to where we ended up.

"How is that even possible?" I asked more of myself, but I couldn't keep it in.

No one answered... all three of us were confused. How could we have crashed so far south, when we were never meant to be here?

Ramon and Derick were discussing the map, but I needed to sit down, and take all of this in. Movement in the corner of my eye caught my attention, and it was on Andres who had a book and crayons. I moved past Derick, brushing his arm as the boat rocked along the waters waves. He glanced at me, and I sighed. I made a motion at Andres to sit next to him, and he nodded his head, still looking down at his drawing.

I watched as he drew. He wasn't drawing typical children's artwork, but he was coloring the sunrise in the moment.

"You's a pretty woman." He whispered, and I barely picked it up. Looking at myself; dirty legs, torn skirt, filthy shirt that I've worn for the last week, rat-nested hair... and a little kid called me pretty?

"Oh! I... thank you." I thanked with nearly the same quietness, and he nodded at me again. Derick walked past me, and crouched down.

"I'm going to go with Ramon inside the navigation room. Are you okay out here? We're going to start heading to his island."

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm okay with Andres watching him draw." I answered. Derick cupped his hand over my shoulder, and brushed his thumb over it as he got up. I looked his way as he went into the room.

I continued to watch as he walked off, the buzzing of his touch still running down my arm. The boat had begun to start moving, and the wind was picking up in my hair. The wide was quiet other than the boats motor, and it distracted me from the thousands of thoughts my brain tried to conjure.

"He likes ya."

"Oh! No, it's nothing like that. He's my boss. We work together. We're just good... friends." I summed it up. This was the second time the little boy had spoken, and he wasn't even looking at me, just what he was drawing. Derick and I had gotten closer to each other while dealing with everything we had to endure. It was that kind of closeness we had to become, for survival. We made sure each other was fine, mentally and physically. We cared for each other in the ways that we needed to be. That didn't mean that he liked me in that way.

"He's be lookin' at yous the way my pops looks at my mama. Maybe even love."

I laughed at that. "I can assure you that we are just friends. None other than platonic love there."

"Platonic? what's that mean?" Andres asked, finally taking a break from his drawing to look at me.

"It's a relationship between friends that doesn't become anymore than that, like Derick and I."

"Ah... das not yous though. He likes ya."

With everything we've gone through and the time we spent together, him being attracted to me, and... me to him wouldn't be unlikely, but I knew this would end, and these feelings I believed we felt for each other would end, because they needed to, for my sake and his.

The two of us went back to silence as I continued to watch him draw. He reminded me of myself when I was younger: quiet, and artistic. The innocence of a child was so pure, and angelic. It always brought me back to my own childhood, and given the chance, I would never destroy the lives of my children if I was given the chance to have them. I would never get so caught up in my own selfish desires to put my children in a strangers home to cope with an addiction... like my mother had done with me.

That's another story for a different day.

I talked with Andres about a multitude of things about his life as we were passing the time, and soon enough, he interrupted the conversation.

"Das mah home!"

"I turned to look in the direction he was looking in. Gorgeous greenery with striking colorful houses bloomed in between the lush trees. Seagulls squawked above us. I turned back around as I heard the horn of the ship, and I saw Derick and Ramon laughing inside, Derick's hand on the horns rope. As we got closer, I could see a flock of people at the dock, and a part of me became nervous.

"Pops was on da radio, we's gonna help ya." Andres smiled up at me. He reached out his hand, and I held his with a closed lip smile.

"I want's you to have this."

He handed me the drawing he had been working on, but it was much better than anything I could have ever imagined crayons being able to do. The sunrise had been so beautiful this morning, and he captured that. He drew the boat, and the raft we were floating on. But in his drawing, it was me and Derick on the boat, and Andres next to his father, but he had drawn Derick and I's hands grasping each other, with a heart between us.

I stared at the artwork, feeling my heart swell.

"Thank you very much for this Andres. Please keep drawing, never stop." I encouraged him, and he gave me a small giggle. Derick and Ramon came out from the inside, and I stood up, folding up the artwork gently.

"This isn't Nassau where you's need to be, but it's the best we gots." Ramon joked, grabbing ropes out of the storage underneath the ship's seats. Andres put down his crayons, and ran over to his father, helping him with securing the boat to the dock. People were bustling near the docks. Small stands sat out, with people calling out for their products and laughter could be heard from where we were. Despite the chill that crept through me on the water, the island was vibrant, warm and beautiful. I still couldn't believe after everything, this was our reality.

"No fish to catch aye?" A burly man on the dock laughed out, holding a crate.

"No, somethin better: castaway lovers." Ramon answered. Andres hopped onto the dock and gave the man a hug.

Ramon ushered us forward, and Derick stepped off first. He held out his hand, and I put my foot on the ledge and stepped off, but as I was doing that, the boat rocked, sending me into Derick's chest. He caught me, and lowered me until my feet touched the ground, his arms still wrapped around my lower back, his fingertips grazing my hips so close I could feel the warmth of his touch through my skirt. Mesmerized as I always felt around him, trapped in his embrace.

A throat cleared behind us released Derick's hold on me, and it was Ramon with a smile that held that all too familiar look of knowing.

"I talked to Derick; we ain't got a lot around 'ere, but the police will help ya's back home." Ramon said, and nodded behind me. Surely enough, there were men in uniform that were walking towards us. I grasped Andres's drawing firmly in my hand, and looked up to Derick, who was already looking down at me. This was our next step, and exactly what we had been wanting from the start.

I hoped these feelings I had for Derick would fade for the better.