For my darling Princesspenelopenerfherder, who requested: waiting impatiently for something, and dear belaythat-belaythat who asked for the whole rest of the list. ;) Ok, just: An abandoned empty place, on the edge of consciousness, a stolen kiss, a tangible greatest fear, waiting impatiently, a fistfight. Hope this covered all the bases sufficiently, ladies! ;) The title is a modified nod to Mr. Depp's (and bybyeblackbird's) tattoos.
Summary: In her exile from law-abiding society Elizabeth joins the crew of the Pearl. A year later, while careening on an uninhabited island, Jack takes Lizzy for a dip in a hot spring. Sparrabeth, of course. ;)
Rating: The gray area between T and M
Words: 3100
Patience x Exile x Cunning
"Are you done yet?"
"Patience, love."
"You're taking forever!"
"Such pleasures shouldn't be rushed." Though she could not see his face, Elizabeth could just hear the gold-glinting smile in his words, and at that moment it made her blood simmer.
"It's my turn!" she insisted hotly.
"You'll have your turn soon enough."
"What ever happened to ladies first?"
"Absolutely. If you see one, let me know," Jack teased, and had he been in range she would have slapped him. Just because she'd been sailing with pirates for nigh over a year did not mean she had lost all her virtues.
"Jack!" she snarled.
The pirate chuckled behind her. "Lizzy me girl, what's got your knickers in such a twist?
"I have been slaving away all day in the sun scraping rubbish off the bottom of your precious boat, Captain Sparrow, and now I am sore and eager for the soak in warm water that I was promised."
Careening a ship as large as the Pearl was no small task, though it was essential to keep up with in the warm waters of the Caribbean, where wood rotted quickly and teredo worms left to their own devices on a hull loved to eat their fill. Jack had found an exhausted [and cross] Lizzy on a break and offered to sweeten her day with the promise of a hot bath, courtesy of the volcanic springs on the island. Elizabeth had known it was probably a bad idea to follow the mischievous pirate captain up the mountain to the springs, but the temptation proved too much.
Of the bath, or the captain himself, she wasn't really sure.
However, after the arduous trek through the jungle to reach the bloody pools, blue-green in color and ever so inviting, Jack immediately began to strip and jumped in, leaving a flummoxed Elizabeth to screech and turn her back as quick as was humanly possible.
She'd adjusted to pirate life rather well, but flagrant nudity still remained an obstacle for her. That, and the fact that her companion that afternoon was Jack. There could never be an innocent baring of skin between them.
She was not that naïve.
Was it somehow worse that she knew he'd lured her here with the hope of seduction, and yet she followed anyway? They'd been circling round each other like sharks on the scent of blood in the water. Sooner or later, someone was bound to take a bite. It had been a year. A whole year since Will…
She would not think on that now. It only led to dark places in her mind.
"Oy! That's no way t'talk about the Pearl."
"I shall speak sweetly if I can have my bath."
Jack laughed with disbelief on that score. "You do know this pool is big enough for the both of us."
"Ha! You would like that, wouldn't you."
"So what if I would?"
"Lecher."
"Harpy."
"Pirate."
"Pot and kettle, love."
She sighed heavily, sitting down on a rock. Out the corner of her eye she spied upon him, only the upper half of his sun-bronzed torso scribed with tattoos and scars visible above the water. Her fingers twitched with the urge to trace them, and she clenched her hand into a fist.
"I know what you're up to."
A long silence passed between them. "I would be willing to make a deal, Lizzy…"
"Always a dubious proposition."
"Not too dubious. What if I promise to close my eyes?"
Quietly, Elizabeth contemplated the idea. Tempting. Oh so tempting.
"And what would you get out of it then?"
Jack just chuckled, a sound that simultaneously raised the hairs on her spine and boiled her blood.
"You have to promise to keep your hands to yourself."
He pouted with disappointment, which only caused her to smile.
Enough time passed that she felt certain he would refuse when finally he answered, "Fine. I promise, if you'll stop grousing. And you can't touch me either then, for information yours." He stuck out his tongue, ever the epitome of gentlemanly grace "Come on, in you go."
"Eyes closed," she insisted again.
He scrunched his eyes closed comically, and she waved in front of his face to see if he was watching somehow. No reaction. Next she pulled back a fist as though to hit him, and still he remained still. Quickly she undressed, and slipped into the water on the opposite side of the pool.
God, the water was heavenly. The perfect temperature, and immediately she felt her muscles begin to uncoil their knots. Elizabeth lay back and watched the canopy up above, the emerald green canopy and all the life therein. A pair of monkeys groomed each other in one towering tree. Birds flitted two and fro. A huge brilliant blue butterfly fluttered above them, flying in a circle around the pool before going on its way.
This place was magic.
There was a larger pool down below, cooler in temperature than this one. She looked forward to swimming in that one next.
Lizzy closed her eyes and relaxed, feeling herself teeter on the edge of consciousness. She was so tired. She must have made a sound of satisfaction, for Jack's lips quirked up slightly. "That's a sound I like to hear…"
"Stow it."
"Now, now. Didn't say I couldn't talk. Just can't look."
"Or touch," she reminded him, then sighed. "Perhaps I am only flattering myself. I know very well what the men call me behind my back."
"What's that?"
"Bones."
His smile widened. "That's a perfect pirate name. You should be flattered."
"Short for Skin an' Bones Lizzy."
Jack's forehead creased in a little frown, which was somewhat comical as he so painstakingly kept his eyes shut.
Immediately Elizabeth regretted opening her mouth. She had wanted to become a pirate so that she could be free to be valued for more than just her looks, and yet for some reason the nickname still stung. It was rubbish, she knew, but no less real.
"Don't take it personal, love," Jack finally spoke. "They don't know what to make of you, is all. Women are wives, mothers, or whores to most of them. But I know different."
Elizabeth pressed her lips, intrigued, and trying not to let her insides melt that Jack would try to comfort her on this ridiculous matter. "You've known many female pirates?"
"A few. Me own mum, fer one."
Elizabeth could not help but grin. "Your mother? Really?"
"Really."
"Why did she become a pirate?"
"Same reason as you, darlin'."
Elizabeth thinks of the circumstances that truly brought her to become a pirate. Beckett. The EITC. A false charge. "What's that?"
"Freedom."
"I thought you might say your father."
Jack laughed. "Nay. She was the fiercest she-devil on the Mediterranean long before she met my father. I'm sure she taught him a thing or two."
The past tense of Jack's words caused Elizabeth to ask, "What happened to her?"
Immediately she regretted asking, waiting for Jack to clam. He did not make a habit of speaking of his personal life, usually sidestepping questions with a joke or a tall tale. "Just ran out of luck, dearie. We all will, someday. Best enjoy it while we can, hmm?"
She could hear the sadness in his voice, and without thinking she reached out to take his hand. He jumped a little at the contact, but soon laced his long fingers with hers, squeezing lightly.
"I'm sorry, Jack."
"Don't be."
A familiar smile curled those full lips, the smile that meant someone had just played right into his trickster's hands. With horror, Elizabeth suddenly realized she broke the deal.
She tried to flee but Jack was too fast, his sailor's grip tightening upon her hand. With strength that surprised Elizabeth he hauled her in close, winning a shriek that only widened his smile.
When his mouth touched hers she paused in her struggles, her protests momentarily evaporating at the feeling of his full soft lips finally pressed to hers. His kiss was soft and inviting, everything a pirate's kiss was not supposed to be. He'd tricked her, but maybe she didn't really mind…
Infuriating man.
Furious that he would take advantage of her good will, she broke away, and tried to hit him. "Oi!" he protested, catching her other fist. "That ain't nice!"
She struggled, but he was simply too strong. It should have made her angrier, but instead an inexplicable warmth spread through her insides. Why did she find it attractive that he could outwit her and overpower her? Some crossed wire in her brain left her incapable of respecting a man who couldn't, even if he infuriated her to no end.
"Jack!" she protested, her voice a medley of fury and something else. Something softer, warmer. Something…too dangerous to name.
Her eyes strayed down to his bare chest. There was a tattoo upon his left pectoral of a heart pierced by a dagger, the name Meera printed on a banner below it. His mother? She may never know, now.
"Jack, this isn't fair!" she exclaimed, trying to squirm loose. "I was being sympathetic!"
"And clearly I am in need of comfort!"
He was in need of something, she could tell. It was brushing against her hip, and the thought of what exactly that was made her a little dizzy.
"Scoundrel!" she snarled.
"Now, now, love. Don't be nasty."
Her insults shed like water from a duck, and his now open eyes positively glittered with dark mischief. "Seems we're in need of a new deal," he teased.
"For what?" she grumbled.
"The terms of your release."
He smiled wickedly, a thing of which caused her heart to pound mercilessly in her chest.
"I hate you."
"No you don't. If you hated me you would not have followed me up here, to this lovely and secluded setting, all alone. If you hated me, you would not be in this marvelous pool of which I too am occupying, naked as the day you were born. If you hated me you would not have sought me out on Tortuga, and asked to come aboard my ship, indefinitely."
"Is this you finally demanding payment for your protection?" she asked, unable to meet his eyes. She supposed she should have expected this sooner or later. She'd come to Jack a hunted woman, her father arrested, her fiancé shot down by Beckett's men. He'd given her a safe harbor in the storm, a place on his crew, and she'd pulled her own weight best she could. But of course he wanted more. Any man in his position would. At least it was Jack, she reasoned. Anyone else would have been utterly unbearable…
Frowning, Jack released her hands, placing his outstretched arms on either side of the edge of the rock pool. He seemed genuinely offended by her question.
"Surely you know me better than that by now?"
Elizabeth sighed, looking down, crossing her arms over her breasts. She was sitting with her bare bottom upon Jack's knees, and even though he'd now let her go, she found she didn't really want to move just yet. Embarrassment over her nudity would only give him power over her, and she was not so willing to relinquish it now.
"I suppose I do."
"It's been a year, you know." He said it softly, knowing it was a nerve that would never callous over completely for Lizzy.
A year.
The proper period of mourning for a lady, after which she could get on with her life.
She wasn't sure she'd ever properly mourned Will's death. She'd hit the ground running, escaping Beckett's men by the skin of her teeth, stowing away on a merchant vessel. She'd never really stopped running. Not in her head, at least. To think of him hurt, and so she pushed his memory down, down down as she always did when it surfaced.
Not to mention survivor's guilt, and the fact that now she was actually…happy. Elizabeth was happier on the Pearl than she'd ever been anywhere else. She liked the hard work, and falling into her hammock exhausted but accomplished. She liked the freedom of the wind in their sails, and the great blue sea stretching on all around them. She liked the adventure that came inherent with crewing the Black Pearl. Lately they had been embroiled in a search for a mythological chest, though Jack had yet to divest many details on the specifics such as why or what.
She even liked…Jack. Having him never far away, always teasing her or making her laugh or telling an outlandish story, brightened her life in ways she was almost afraid to name.
"I know," she sighed, looking down at the water.
"And…I assume there is some reason why you came to me..."
In her time of need went unsaid, and she sighed again.
That may have been a little bit true. Well…more than a little.
"Perhaps."
He was the only outlaw she knew, after all.
Jack's lips twisted in a smirk. She would not make it easy, would his Lizzy.
His Lizzy.
Since when had she become his?
The moment she called your name on the quay in Tortuga, that little voice in the back of his mind whispered. It had been the moment when all his idle fantasies (powerful enough to render his compass utterly useless) began to solidify into real possibility.
"I might also add that it's not wrong to want a man, love. It's perfectly natural. I know it takes a while to regain sanity from the rules society drilled in ye since you were a tot, but do you think you need to guard your virtue tooth and nail forever? Plan on being a nun and a pirate, hmm?"
Elizabeth felt her face turn scarlet for Jack's brazen words.
"I'm afraid," she admitted.
"Of me?" he guffawed, seeming truly disbelieving of the fact.
"I'm afraid if I finally do give in you won't see me as an equal anymore. I'll just be…a plaything. And if I wanted to become someone's tart I could have stayed on Tortuga, and done a whole lot less work for it too."
Jack could not suppress a smirk. "Now, now, don't impugn the hard working ladies of the profession, it ain't an easy earning your crust on your back."
She lifted one of her hands, the other arm still protectively covering herself. "Do their hands look like this?" she sighed.
Jack regarded the extended mitt, no longer a lily soft lady's hand, but covered in callouses and scars from the hard work aboard a ship. He moved slowly, as if afraid he would spook her, and took her hand in his. Slowly he carried it to his mouth, placing a kiss upon her palm. "Not near as enticing. Nor as terrifying, truth be told, Miss Bones." He grinned at the use of her new nickname, and she knew he meant it as an endearment and compliment.
"Ha."
He pressed his cheek into her hand, daring to close his eyes for just a moment. For the umpteenth time she sighed. "What do you want from me, Jack?"
"Nothing you aren't willing to give."
She smiled, in spite of herself. He had a way of sidestepping her questions even while answering. And just what would she be willing to give Jack Sparrow? Too much, probably, and the way his onyx eyes pulled at her only seemed to emphasize the truth in her thought.
His clever mouth split in a smile that glinted gold. "Though if you're looking for specifics, I wouldn't mind starting with a kiss."
"Once wasn't enough?" she teased.
"Not hardly," he answered, an undercurrent of heat entering his voice. "Maybe we could try a version where you don't try to hit me afterwards?"
"Hmm. I wouldn't count on it," she mused, finding her body leaning towards him of its own volition. She steadied herself with a hand over his heart, and could feel his pulse hammering beneath her palm.
"I think I will risk it," he decided, smiling just above her mouth. His lips brushed hers, and Elizabeth felt her insides melt once more. She may have made a sound, and it may have been small and kittenish—hardly befitting of a pirate lass dubbed Bones but she didn't have to be that woman all the time, did she? Because, she was safe with Jack. That was something she'd known all along, deep down.
Long fingers slid into her hair at the base of her skull, sending gooseflesh marching across her skin. Lizzy forgot about her utter lack of clothing, reaching for him, pulling him closer. More chanted that insistent little voice inside. More more more. Jack was ridiculously gentle with her, and she realized he was letting her lead this first dance. How commendable, she mused. He was always a better man than he had to be. And yet she wanted that forbidden knowledge he possessed of men and women and kissing and…everything else. She was no better than Eve reaching for the apple, speaking sweetly to the snake as she did so.
She deepened their kiss, stroking his tongue with her own, ravenous for the taste of him. Jack growled low in his throat, his hand dragging down the curve of her spine to grip her hip. His control stretched like a wind-whipped line in a storm, and he knew if this went on much longer it would snap.
"Lizzy…" he rasped against the skin of her throat, kissing the bend of her neck. "We—"
"Wahoooooo! Last one in's a rotten egg!"
A shout from the woods interrupted Jack's words, and with a gasp Elizabeth ducked to her chin in the water as a herd of at least ten crew members sprinted past, stripping as they ran. The sound of them jumping into the larger pool below met their ears, and Elizabeth could not suppress the giggle of a naughty child caught amidst some great mischief.
Gibbs huffed and puffed behind the crowd, smiling at the thought of a cool dip after the hard day's work of careening the Pearl. He paused momentarily at the sight of Jack and Lizzy immersed in the hot pool, gave a sheepish if not apologetic smile, and went in after the others.
"So much for privacy," grumbled Jack, shooting a murderous glare in the direction of his crew in the pool below.
Elizabeth's lips twisted in an amused smile. "We could go down to the beach," she offered. "We might get a little lost on the way…"
Catching her drift, Jack offered a lascivious smile, dark eyes smoldering as he looked upon her. "Aye, we just might at that…Lead the way, Bones."
Elizabeth's smile widened to a grin. She was beginning to like her new nickname after all.