Title: A Night In Tortuga

Author: Starzangel

Disclaimer: Unfortunately for me, none of Pirates of the Caribbean is mine. I only borrowed the concept and characters to have fun (but gain no profit) writing this story, which is mine.

Archive: If you're not FanFiction.Net, then please ask first via submitting a review (leave your email address & I'll get back to you – and most probably say "Aye!").

Acknowledgements: This story probably wouldn't have ever managed to set sail if it hadn't been for my friend The Prima Donna's urging. Thanks also go to her for beta-reading, and everyone on 'The First Floor Landing' for help with deciding on names.

Author's Note: This story is set post-'Marooned' (my other story). Though that doesn't really make much difference, other than there are occasional references to Jack having been recently stranded on a certain island for the third time.

~*~

Pirates of the Caribbean

A Night In Tortuga

By

Starzangel

Part One: Isla de Tortuga

Behind Captain Jack Sparrow the golden sun was giving a spectacular farewell display; pinks, oranges and purples highlighted the darkening sky and caught the dancing tops of the waves leading up to the horizon.

The pirate captain was stood on the deck of the Black Pearl overseeing the uploading of the last of the supplies onto his ship. Wood, cloth, rope, tar, oil, food, water, rum…Jack had been busy spending the riches he'd acquired from Isla de Muerte. Gone was the decade of the ship's ghostly and cursed appearance; now that her rightful owner had regained control, the Pearl was foreboding and intimidating in her glory.

Once he'd reclaimed his ship two months ago, Captain Sparrow had headed straight back to Isla de Muerte where Barbossa had dumped all of the ship's swag in the cave. He had quickly taken as much of the island's treasure as possible (avoiding a certain stone chest of cursed Aztec gold), knowing that he'd very soon have Commodore Norrington and half the Fleet on his tail if he didn't manage to vanish in time.

After a quick stop to pick up essential supplies, the Black Pearl hadn't dropped anchor until she'd arrived at Tortuga at dawn this morning. Captain Jack Sparrow and his small but able crew, with a hold full of gold, had been content to horizon-chase. Hence, the fastest ship in the Caribbean had managed to completely elude the British Navy. Their only mishap had been a run-in with an exceptionally bad storm, which had left Jack marooned on an all-too-familiar deserted island for the night.

Captain Jack Sparrow had finally brought his ship into Isla de Tortuga to replenish stores and for some shore leave. His crew needed no urging to make haste with the stowing away of the purchased goods, as daylight faded. All of them were looking forward to a night of drinking, gambling and women.

All that is except one.

"Anamaria, are you sure you don't want to come?"

"Aye, Cap'n."

"Absolutely positive?"

"Aye. I was glad t' get off that rock."

"If you'd mentioned it earlier, we could've gone somewhere else."

"It ain't a problem, Cap'n. And who would you get to watch the ship anyways?"

Jack sighed, resignedly. "Well help yourself to all the rum you want," he said, gesturing towards the barrel she'd just brought aboard.

"Aye. Thanks, Captain."

Jack turned and walked away to check everything was now aboard.

Anamaria smiled as she called after him, "Enjoy yerself, Jack."

"Oh, I will. I will," Jack assured, grinning. A tune began to play along his lips with the odd remembered phrase, often about bad eggs, voiced.

The night sky was a black silk canvas painted with silver stars, casting moonlight over the dark sea, when Captain Jack Sparrow and his crew rowed away from the Black Pearl in boats.

There were excited murmurs from the men over the sound of soft splashes from the oars and the waves hitting the small wooden hulls. However, at the bow of the leading boat, Jack sat silently looking ahead at the nearing gold lights of the town, lost in thought.

They reached the shore and clambered out of the boats.

"Ah, Tortuga!" Captain Jack Sparrow spread his arms wide and drew in a deep breath of salty, smoky air, heavy with the scent of alcohol. He grinned, flashing his gold-capped teeth, and turned to his crew assembled behind him on the pier. "Drink up me hearties, yo ho!" he cried, and elaborately waved his men towards the town.

They rushed past him, their pockets jangling with gold and jewels from Isla de Muerte.

At a much slower pace, Captain Jack Sparrow followed them, taking in his surroundings.

The streets of Tortuga were dark with night and alight with laughter, crashes and smashes from all directions. Women painted with too much make-up and men soaked with too much alcohol filled the roads, taverns and whorehouses, making the three places merge into one. Doors and windows were wide open, inviting anyone and everyone in. Torches and lamps burned, flickering amber light over the chaos that reigned in its most drunken and unbecoming form.

A content smile lay upon Jack's lips as he wove through the ruckus, with his left hand never far from the hilt of the sword strapped to his side.

Coming to the entrance of The Drunken Tortoise, the pirate captain manoeuvred his way past the entwined couple in the doorway and headed for the bar. After carefully avoiding broken chairs, overturned tables, excitable women twice his size, fists flying in every direction and the odd glass bottle turned missile, Captain Jack Sparrow leant against the wooden bar and ordered some rum. A tankard was thumped down in front of him and he tossed a couple of coins down in return, then turned so that his back was pressed against the bar.

Jack lifted the tin mug to his lips, his eyes watching the wild scene before him. The rum burned down his throat and caressed his mind, assuring him that the tiredness he felt would soon be long forgotten and he would have fun tonight.

Lowering his drink, the pirate smiled, amused by how a liquid could quite easily turn him into one of the mindless brawling persons he was surrounded by. It had before and probably would again. Not that he really had more than fractured images (that mainly consisted of close-ups of fists and floorboards) of what occurred during those nights. Concussion could do that to a person's memory.

More often than not, though, Jack avoided the main throng and found himself a nice corner with a girl or two or three. Unless he was seeking information, in which case the girls had to wait until after business had been sorted. Tonight, there was no knowledge he sought and he was out purely for play.

A red-haired girl slid up to his left side and turned her white-pasted face up to look into his, while her right hand snaked up to his shoulder.

"Lookin' fer some fun?" she purred, coyly lowering her thick eyelashes.

Jack shifted around to face her, tilting his head to one side as his looked down at her and smiled, revealing his gold-edged teeth. His hand was reaching for her arm when it suddenly froze, his eyes caught by movement over her shoulder.

He brushed past the girl, muttering a vaguely audible, "Maybe later, love."

Her initial open-mouthed surprise and disappointment turned to a fiery glare, as she turned to watch him head towards a shrieking brown-haired girl at the back of the room, trying to fend off three drunken thugs. She could have done 'damsel in distress' if he wanted, he'd only of had to ask. Yet, the night was still young and so her frown melted as she turned away to find someone else, someone more worthy of her talents than the good-looking pirate.

Captain Jack Sparrow hastily made his way to the struggling girl, pushing and shoving to clear a path for himself. Grabbing a bottle off a table, he came up behind one of the attackers and brought it down onto the man's head, showering him with glass fragments. The hilt of his sword took out another, which then just left one more…where was the brute?

A rough rope cutting off Jack's air supply informed him of the third attacker's whereabouts. With his hands clutching at the strangling cord, Jack kicked back sharply. He caught the man in the kneecap and managed to twist free, wrenching the rope from his neck. A sharp jab with his elbow to the thug's nose sent the attacker crashing to the floor.

Gasping for breath, the pirate captain sheathed his sword and turned to look for the girl. He found her not far away, downing the remains of a bottle of red wine.

"Are you alright?" Jack inquired, as she lowered the bottle and wiped her brightly painted mouth with the back of her hand.

"Aye, thanks to you," she said, smiling slightly. "I think I'll call it a night though."

The girl moved past the pirate and disappeared from his sight. Jack was left standing alone, idly rubbing at his neck, slightly bewildered until his attention was drawn by Gibbs beckoning him over to a table.

Jack made his way over to where his friend was sat with three other men. The tabletop was scattered with worn playing cards. A winning hand was spread out in front of a tall thin man with sharp features and a shark tooth hung around his neck.

"So ye be Jack Sparrow then?" the thin man asked, leaning his chair back onto two legs and fixing Jack with a narrow-eyed stare.

"Captain Jack Sparrow," Jack corrected, holding up a forefinger, as he fluidly slid into the empty chair opposite.

"Aye…yer crewman 'ere was jus' tellin' me how ye've commandeered the Black Pearl."

"I didn't commandeer her." The pirate captain held the man's hard stare with one of this own. "She was rightfully mine."

"Hmm, I recall somethin' 'bout a mutiny…fifteen years ago?"

"Ten."

"Ah…" The man brought his chair back down onto four legs and learnt forward, his cold grey eyes never leaving Jack's. "I 'member now…yer old crew was cursed by some gold coins. Changed into skeletons in moonlight. Ye've taken the ship, why not the gold?"

Jack frowned slightly. "It's cursed. You just said so yourself."

"Aye, but be it not tha' ye can't be killed when covered by this curse?"

"I assure you it isn't pretty." Jack shifted uncomfortably as he remembered the worst of the curse: the loss of proper sensation, the nothingness, being caught betwixt life and death. "Barbossa strove to lift the curse."

"An' ye helped 'im."

"So I could kill him and get my ship back." Jack rested his elbows on the table and leant forward, tilting his head slightly. "Why are you so interested?"

"No reason." The thin man shrugged, then turned to Gibbs, "So are ye goin' t' let me take yer money again?"

"Oh, I'll beat you fer sure this time, Le Fey," Gibbs said, smiling as he gathered up the cards.

"Wha' 'bout ye, Nedd? You in?"

"Aye." The man opposite Gibbs tossed some coins into the centre of the table.

Jack paid the man proper attention for the first time. He was wiry and had long straggly dark blond hair that was balding on top, with a thin white scar encompassing his neck.

"Captain Sparrow?"

Jack looked back at Le Fey and nodded, straightening up and adding some coins of his own to the pile.

The cards were dealt.

A grunt from Gibbs made it clear to everyone that he'd been given a bad hand, but Jack's fortune was good and he was almost certain to win. Thus, when Le Fey won for what Jack was then informed was the ninth time in a row, the pirate captain was sure the other man was cheating.

When the next game began, Jack decided to use some tricks of his own. His proved to be more effective than Le Fey's.

"Seems your luck's run out, mate," Captain Jack Sparrow said, managing to keep the glee out of his voice.

The thin man's grey cheeks burned with an angry red as he looked down at the pirate captain's winning cards. Nedd stared at Jack in surprise and awe, while a knowing smile hovered on Gibbs's face.

As Jack scraped the coins towards him with both hands, he saw that Le Fey's right hand was twitching in the direction of the pistol holstered at his waist. The thin man was clearly struggling to force himself to remain seated and not yell out accusations.

Pocketing the money, Captain Jack Sparrow rose to his feet. His adversary's dare to make as to leave almost tipped Le Fey over the edge. However, Jack raised animated hands and smiled good-naturedly down at all three men.

"Drinks all round," he promised, and disappeared into the free-for-all that took up most of the room.

Captain Jack Sparrow returned moments later with four bottles of rum and a dark-haired girl on his arm. He set the bottles down onto the table and slid back into his seat. Turning to the girl, he patted his knee and she sat on his lap. The young beauty wrapped an arm around the pirate captain's shoulders and signalled to her friends with the other.

Soon the small table was overcrowded with the four men and numerous women. Bottles were constantly being accidentally knocked to the floor and more ordered. The playing cards became soaked with rum and long forgotten. Jack led the group through a poorly remembered version of 'Yo ho! (A Pirate's Life For Me)', while the dark-haired girl kissed his neck and her hands wandered over his chest and back.

Despite the fact the rum awakened a part of Jack's mind that remembered a couple of lines he couldn't recall when sober, they all soon tired of repeatedly having to "da-da da" the unknown portions of the song and belt out the same lines.

Captain Jack Sparrow looked down at the girl buried in his neck. "Blanche."

She leaned back against the table, her hands lost somewhere in his long black hair. "Yes?"

"Have you ever wanted to be a pirate?" he asked, his hands resting comfortably on her hips.

"I can't swim," she said, picking up one of his hands and lifting it to her lips.

"Nor can half the Royal Navy."

She smiled slightly at this, but shrugged non-committally. "I'm happy here."

Blanche dropped Jack's hand and leant forward to brush her lips against his. Her mouth then hovered teasingly over his lips. He pulled her closer to him and kissed her deeply.

Suddenly, six men who had been throwing knives at the dartboard started to brawl and crashed into the table.

The group was split as they pulled themselves up from the floor and dodged the thickset bodies that scrambled in the place that had once belonged to the table before it had collapsed. Jack saw Nedd dive into the fight along with some of the burlier girls.

However, the pirate captain wisely chose this as the opportune moment to move on to another tavern. He briefly looked around for Blanche and Gibbs, but failed to locate either of them. Not bothered, Captain Jack Sparrow took the nearest girl by the arm and she happily accompanied him to the door.

TBC…