I do not own any Pirates of the Caribbean characters. They all belong to Disney. The intro to part one is taken from a song called Into the Night which I fully credit to Santana.
I have not abandoned the A Pirate's Heart for Me trillogy, just needed a break for inspiration. More to come in Padlock of a Soul soon.
To those who have no idea what I was just taking about, if you enjoy this, check it out.
I hope you all enjoy!!!
Part 1/4
Pour Sand in the Wound...
Like a gift from the heavens
it was easy to tell
It was love from above
that could save me from Hell…
The tavern nestled deep in the heart of Shipwreck cove was bustling with activity. This particular tavern was composed of three ship hulls, a close quartered place for the type of crowd it now housed. The normally busy bar was now overflowing with pirates, anxious to fill their tankards to the brim in celebration of their victory against Davey Jones and the East India Trading Company, however short that triumph may last. Currently, drinking festivities and celebrations had lasted the entire month. Such an achievement was not to be lessened. Smoke mingled up in the ship hull rafters, the majority of the substance wafting up from Teague's pipe. The old keeper of the code sat hunched over his guitar in the shadows, observing all of the hubbub around him without really looking up.
Every pirate lord was there and on a bench in the shadows sat their illustrious pirate king, Elizabeth Turner. Her sun kissed hair seemed to glow in the flickering torchlight and her downcast eyes reflected remorse, sadness and uncertainty. None of this went unnoticed by Teague. A quick flick of his eyes over her form and a weak smile increased the weathered lines of age on his face. He knew her struggle all too well. The source, he had more than a guess at. He paused in his strumming as he felt the eyes of his son, strong on him.
Jack Sparrow walked through the doors of that dark, warm cavern and his mere presence demanded any and all attentions. Angry eyes shifted over him in calculated glares. Harlots' eyes were drawn to him, eyes a glitter with hope of a night cloaked tumble. Admiration sparkled in the eyes of some of the crew of fellow lords while unease was present on many of their captains.
Jack Sparrow, regardless of feelings toward him or emotions evoked, drew attention.
Teague smiled another private, small smile and continued his strumming. Elizabeth, who sat across from him, seemed to be the only body unaware of his son's presence. She remained lost in her own sorrow and sense of loss. It had been that way since she had trudged into the shipwreck city, for the month she had taken up rule. Her heart was troubled; it seemed that recent choices, recent commitments, had left her unsatisfied. Although she had done exceedingly well in her position as king, that look never left her eye.
Jack sauntered into the heat of the room, the sweet smell of rum and sweat and sawdust luring him in like a siren's song. His siren currently sat obstructed by shadow; the prospect that her presence had been the real pull that had drawn him here was a frightening one that he chose not to dwell on. He knew she hadn't seen him yet but he couldn't deny that he hadn't taken his eyes off her since he walked in. Those damning brown eyes of hers were shadowed and troubled and he could feel her sadness clear across the room.
He saw the three wenches out of his peripheral, weaving their way towards him through the din. This routine was an old and tired one for him; his dealing with it this time around would be new. The slaps of Giselle and Scarlet still burned on his face, proof of their parting. He knew the result of this refusal to very well bare the same fruit.
"Well Jack Sparrow! What a pleasure that you choose to grace us with your company this night," purred the blonde woman in front of him. The three women had effectively surrounded him on all sides, latching onto his arms and neck, their cheap perfume assaulting his nose. He offered them a smile of gold and ivory, felt them tremble with the expression. He knew how to make this company bend.
"Ladies!" he offered, each of their names escaping him. All three of them being blonde didn't help. He had only had one encounter with them, brief and a release of his withheld "tension" just before they set sail for battle against the EITC. He needed it. Such long periods of time and in such close quarters with Miss Elizabeth Swann did unfair things to him and his anatomy that demanded attentions.
He glanced at Elizabeth over blonde number one's shoulder. She still hadn't seen him.
It's not Miss Swann anymore yet tales spoken in the alleys and docks call you such, Jack mused to himself. It would be Mrs. Turner now. Why does no one call you that I wonder? What would keep you from taking that name?
The whining voices of the women who clung to him broke through his thoughts and he turned his attention back to them. He snaked an arm around blondes two and three on either side of him and they giggled, hold on his biceps tightening. Blonde number one cupped the back of his neck, toying with the hair at the nape of his neck.
"We are soooovery glad you are here Captain," blonde two whispered into his ear.
Blonde three took up the task. "We've missed ye; terrible man to make us wait this long time."
Jack saw his opening and took it, their attempts to lure him becoming more suffocating than alluring. "A bit longer than you might have anticipated loves."
The two women at his sides didn't register what he meant but the one in front of him straightened. "And what could you mean by that Jackie?"
Jack stiffened as he saw a man approach Elizabeth. He recognized him as one of Captain Villanueva's crew members. Everything about the crewman screamed that his intentions for Elizabeth reflected those of the women currently draped about Jack.
It was all he could do not to just bolt from the harlots and drop the man flat.
But, pirate though he was, Jack did have quite a gentlemanly nature and soft heart so he attempted to dissuade the yellow haired annoyances gently. "It means that I am currently abolishing any and all ties to you three lovelies or any other women of the like… employment with which I had had any affiliation."
He smirked again and shrugged, grabbing a mug of rum as it passed on a tray. "Sorry darli'ns."
The next part of the routine was all too familiar to him as well as three well aimed slaps landed on his face. Some rum ran down his wrist after spilling from the impact of the slaps that had jarred his whole body. He licked it clean.
"Have you lost yer mind? What, exactly, Sparrow, would cause such an change?"
"Tryi'n to figure that bloody one out as we speak dearie."
He nodded his head to them as they huffed away, tipping the rum to his lips. The taste and burn he welcomed as it slid down his throat. He knew he would need it; he was about to approach his doom, his kiss of death, his torture. She had killed him, an act he vowed left no room for forgiveness yet here he was. The way they had parted had been less than satisfying and, much as he told himself it was best that way, his blasted compass would point nowhere but her.
The crewman was cozying up to Elizabeth and he gritted his teeth as he noticed his father doing nothing to stop it.
"Useless old man," Jack grumbled as he stalked forward.
His mission: to lie to rest whatever relentless part of him lay within Elizabeth's hold so he could get a compass heading that lead back to his Pearl, gain immortality. That was his one and only mission.
He froze mid step when Elizabeth looked up. Her breath caught and her eyes grew wide in surprise. Jack offered a wide smile, arms out to the side in an act of self display. "Your pirate lord and humble ally Captain Jack Sparrow at your service my liege."
Suddenly she was in his opened arms, an exclamation of "Jack, his only warning before she flew to him. She buried her face in his neck and he was startled to feel her tremble. Again, he found himself momentary paralyzed. She held on to him tightly and his father's eyes met his. He pulled his eyes away from the depths of Teague's own eyes and glanced over at Villanueva's crew member. He was seething with frustration and Jack finally found feeling in his arms again, wrapping them possessively around the king mumbling against his neck. He held the crewman's gaze until the man was forced to walk away with a snort.
He smirked and pushed Elizabeth away at arm's length. "Well Lizzie, what a greeting! Had I known you to miss me so I would have returned posthaste." He chose to leave out the fact that he had, indeed, left to find her the day after he had left her on Shipwreck Island, the morning he had had his final "get together" with Giselle and Scarlett and found his Pearl gone.
She regained composure quickly and efficiently, a pink blush on her cheeks the only indication of her embarrassment in her display. The dim lighting of the tavern almost hid it completely. "Jack Sparrow, how long has it been? Every pirate lord has been drinking deep and celebrating our victory over Beckett but you." Her eyes roamed over his face, happiness a gleam in her eye.
He took another drink of rum, blocking that joy filled face with the dark, amber liquid in his cup. When he lowered the mug from his lips, the look was still on her face and the resulting effect on him remained. "Had business in Tortuga, love."
"Business more important than visiting this cove, visiting me?" She batted her eyelashes at him and he knew she was playing at their old game. He both welcomed and feared the return of it.
"Nothing is more important than the pirate king, cept for me, I suppose."
"A month is a long, lonely time," she said, sobering.
Jack felt a pang but chose to ignore it. "Aye. Cruel to have but a night romp with your new husband before he is whisked off to immortality."
"I can never thank you enough for saving Will's life Jack." She placed a hand lightly on his arm and Jack tried not to flinch, images assaulting his mind of Will and Elizabeth together before they parted ways.
"One can get immortality more ways than eternal servitude. Not my style. I accept your thanks and throw it away. I don't need it."
Elizabeth's face brightened. "So is the Pearl anchored down at the docks? Where is the rest of the crew?"
This time Jack did flinch, a grimace distorting his handsome face. "Me crew is in Tortuga, taking full advantage of the time allowed to them for celebration."
Elizabeth waited, looking at him expectantly to continue. She knew there must be more to it. But Jack just stood before her, rocking back and forth from heel to toe. The only thing more he offered her was a sniff. Suddenly, she knew.
"You lost the Pearl again, didn't you?"
"I did not."
"You did too Jack! So how? How did you get here and who took your beloved ship this time?"
"Did not, on the Pearl and no one."
"Jack," Elizabeth warned, eyebrows coming together.
He sighed and eyed his father again. The older man was looking at the two with a guarded expression. Elizabeth followed his gaze, looking over her shoulder and at Teague. Realization dawned. "I assume you would like council with your father. It has been a long time and I am sure your last meeting with him was cut short by the event of war."
Jack's eyebrow rose in question. "My father? Keeper of the Code? Teague?" He made a show of laughing. "What would give you the bloody idea that he is my father?"
"Oh I don't know Jack. Perhaps the facts that he told me you are his son? Teague has been very good to me since I have taken up my position as Pirate King here."
Jack squinted his eyes suspiciously at her, then at his father. "Just how good to you has he been exactly?"
Elizabeth's mouth gaped. "Wha… how… no. No Jack. He has been nothing but kind and decent and helpful to me."
Jack smiled sourly. "That wasn't the question now, was it?"
Elizabeth leaned into him, lowering her voice, the tone chilly and a warning. "We never slept together, if that's what you mean." Jack didn't seem convinced. "How could you think of your father that way, of me that way?"
Jack waved a ring clad hand through the air. "You don't know that man like I do love." He looked her up and down. "And you're unpredictable. Ten years is a long time to be without the pleasurable company of your husband."
The pink had long since been replaced by a red flush of anger and embarrassment. She cast Teague another look over her shoulder, praying he couldn't hear. The man seemed not to, strumming away on his guitar once again. Elizabeth knew better.
She grabbed Jack's arm, pulling him forward and towards the door and a promise of privacy and cooler breezes. "Oh, Lizzie, didn't know you were that deprived!"
She rolled her eyes, the blush increasing and she was glad Jack could not see it. She ached for the cool whisper of breeze across her face. "While I may be loath to decline, it seems that a mere kiss from your pretty lips has brought death to two people. I can't imagine what sort of fate awaits those who partake in even more… intimate activities with you."
Elizabeth felt a wave of sadness. Three people; her kisses had killed three men she cared about: William, Jack and James. She had never told him about James. "I am a married woman Jack Sparrow. You'd do well to remember that," she tossed in retort over her shoulder.
Jack's hand twitched in her own as she yanked open the door and pulled him out into the night. "I thought it best that if your behavior was going to remain uncivilized and rude as was just the display before your father, we could talk out here."She released his hand, allowing him to fall into rapid step beside her.
"You wanted to be somewhere more private?" He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.
She stopped and stared at him, dumbfounded by his persistence in the matter. She ignored the part of her that relished it. "To talk, yes."
Jack scowled. "Talking is overrated love."
She allowed herself a laugh this time, leading him down through the many ship skeleton remains that made up the city to the beach. While she had been living amongst and in these ships for a month or so now, she still found herself lost many a time. The beach was one of the few places she could travel to and from without an escort. She found herself there amongst the sand many a lonely night.
Tonight, as they cleared the wooden structures of the city, numerous fires littered the sandy stretch of beach. All of Shipwreck Cove celebrated the night away since the demise of Beckett and Davey Jones. These celebratory drinking, dancing and roughhousing parties happened every night. Sometimes Elizabeth wondered how the many lords could dawdle so long without making sail. But she always welcomed the sight as it offered some manner of relief from her sorrow in new love so quickly taken away, only to be had once every ten years, relief from the loss of her father and the haunting image of seeing him in the Locker, within a lines cast but untouchable. It offered her relief from the loss of James whom she did love and relief from the regret in things that could have been and hurried partings.
She looked at the profile of Jack beside her as he took in the enormous bonfire they had stopped in front of. His smile was toothy and truly happy, his eyes glowing and dancing in the firelight. The warm orange light splayed across his face cast shadows under his high, aristocratic cheekbones.
This night, she thought, I need no relief from at least one of my grievances and for that I am thankful.
He turned to her then, eyes alight with the mischief that she hadn't allowed herself to miss. She felt the relief in his presence with sharp clarity now. Unexpected tears sprang to her eyes and she hoped the play of firelight would pass them as a mere twinkle. With the knowledge she had missed Jack came the fact that the happiness in his presence would not last. She knew he needed to find the Pearl. He was a pirate and the sea called him. She knew. She felt it every day.
"So, what brings you to the Cove Jack?" Elizabeth asked, chasing away the start of tears and plopping down on an uninhabited patch of sand. "It obviously wasn't to reunite with your father."
He sat beside her with a sigh. "Aye, you're right there Lizzie. Not here for my father."
"So what does bring you here, and without your crew?"
Jack wouldn't meet her eyes. He grasped a fistful of sand and watched it slip past his fingers, cool and fine. He decided not to offer up the truth just yet. "I happen to be a pirate lord as well. This is the cove where pirate lords convene is it not?" When she just stared at him he sighed again, the sound laced with over exaggerated frustration. "Alright oh so wise Lizzie, I lost me ship again to bloody Barbossa and a few of the weak, bilge rat, mutinous crew that we used to sail with. Faithful group, the lot of 'em."
He looked up and could tell Elizabeth fought not to laugh. "Aw, Jack. I truly am sorry."
"No you're not."
Her mouth fell open. "Yes I am!"
He pointed to her mouth. "Then why are you about to bust a gut, huh?"
The smile escaped this time, along with a laugh that warmed his heart despite the subject of her humor. "Well Jack, you have to admit, it is rather… droll."
"I know what that means missy. I am not as empty headed as old Hector. Droll: funny, humorous, amusing and witty. I do not appreciate your enthusiasm in my loss."
"How did you get here?" she asked, trying and failing to somber.
"I don't think I want to tell you the grander of the vessel I rode in on. Might make your tiny fleets look rather embarrassing." He tipped his head back, finishing the last of his rum. He occupied himself with trying to figure out what to do with the empty mug, avoiding Elizabeth's curious gaze.
"Being the pirate king, I think it reasonable to expect some form of answers from you. If it's a ship you need…"
Jack brushed off her comment, feigning intensive interest in the song that the young boy began playing on his violin. "Lizzie, drop your kingly attitude, will you? I am the one who made you king, thus being the least likely to forget your position. Now come, listen to the music."
"It's been so long. How can you not want to talk? Why don't you want to tell me of what you have been up to this past month?" Anger bubbled forth. "And before you talk to me about leaving certain attitudes behind, why not attend to your own. Can you never be real with me?"
"There was a time, dearest, when I had. It was a night much like this one, a night filled with opportunity and a fire, an unmarried, dress cloaked temptation fully available for my plunder." He turned his dark eyes on her, his own anger simmering in the brown depths. "Take the opportunity I didn't, just another good deed ignored, another mark against my title as a pirate. And I learned not to trust. I did and look where it got me; very dead."
Elizabeth held his gaze, her own hard to match his. She laughed mirthlessly. "Do not give yourself so much credit. I had you intoxicated; can't account for ones actions when in that state."
A cold smile split Jack's face to match Elizabeth cold laugh. "The trust came in the act of getting in such a state. Trusted you not to kill me while out cold, loosed my lips to ye."
Elizabeth seemed momentarily taken back by this but covered it with a quick turn away from him. Her voice was a mere whisper when she spoke again. "I may have killed you once Jack and it's something I will always regret. But I went to the end of the world to rescue you; I would think that would mean something." She faced him, voice just as soft. "It has been a long time. Do we have to argue?"
Jack snorted, shifting uncomfortably on the sand. He didn't care for the situation. He shouldn't care for her yet his blasted compass kept sending him back to her shore.
"As I said, listen to the music love. It will calm you." This time, his voice held no menacing tone, no anger; only gentleness.