In the dark recesses of a wooden cabin, a man crouched over a table laden with maps, navigation tools such as composes and rulers as candles were dripping low in their holders giving him less and less light to work with. The sun had set hours ago, and the violet clouds of twilight covered the glow of the moon with their shadows. Portholes in the walls were open, letting in the scent of the sea and the subtle breeze that came with the warm air of the Caribbean. He could hear his crew just outside of his recluse, talking and carrying on like they always did after a long days work, probably pulling out the kegs of rum and fiddles by now. And like every night for the past three days he wouldn't be joining in on the fun, being too busy establishing the most likely route his insane sibling would take. So far not one sailor they had come across at port had even heard of a Daniel Sparrow, much less seen his ship, Demon, prowling around the local waters. He was beginning to think the rumors were just that, tall tales.
The lack of sleep was starting to get to him, his eyes could barely stay open now. The fatigue was wearing him down so that it was getting hard to stand on his own two feet so that the chair he leant on was the only thing keeping him from falling face first on the floor. Tracking down his brother was not exactly what he had planned to be doing right about now, not at all. A grunt of exasperation was the signal that he was finally through with tonight's work.
"Finished?" a feminine voice called from the doorway. Against the light of lanterns and the pale glow of the full moon a silhouette could be seen standing in the portal. "I thought you'd go on past midnight this time."
"So did I, luv, but there're more important things on me mind then this," he shoved the maps into a chest at the end of the table. Then the tools into a bag that went in the case as well before he threw the whole thing into an even larger chest at the end of the bed.
"And what would that be?" The figure moved further into the room, leaving the door open a jar to sit on the edge of the table.
"Gimme a moment an' I might think of it." From the candlelight the planes of her face were lit in oranges and shadows, giving the illusion that she was part of the fire itself.
"Now Jack," she warned playfully.
"No, an' that's it. But what if I said I got a present for ye?" She perked up and sat straight as he disappeared into the room that held his private stash of treasure. "Close yer eyes." With a slight look of apprehension she did as she asked and waited until she felt something small, cold and metallic being put into her hand. "Now open 'em."
She did and her eyes widened as she saw her gift, a gold ring lay there, it's brilliant sapphires twinkling like stars.
"It's beautiful," she breathed and held it up to the nearest candle to see the delicate diamonds flanking the blue stones shimmer under her dazzled gaze.
"Ye like it then?"
"Like it? I love it! Thank you," she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him soundly on the lips. "You spoil me, Jack."
"Only the best for ye, luv," he let his hand smooth down the extra hair escaping the thick ponytail at the nape of her neck. "I want ye to wear that 'till we get married, I'll 'ave an even better one for ye then."
"An engagement ring you mean?"
"Whatever it's called, but yes, that's what I mean." For a moment he waited for another 'thank you' kiss, but when it didn't come he looked up at her. "I'm waitin' for a reward, Lucy." But she was instead looking at something behind him with a mischievous look on her face. Turning around he saw what she stared at so evilly, the tub. Well this brought back some interesting memories…
"It's been five days since I last asked you to bathe, and you haven't listened to me," she slipped the ring onto the fourth finger on her right hand and tested it for a fit, which of course was perfect.
"No chance, darlin', I thought I made that clear, and we just 'ad a moment too. Why'd ye 'ave to go an' bring up the damn bath again?" Bathing seemed to have turned into an obsession of hers, now it seemed more like a curse though. If he had to take one more bath during the remainder of his life then it would be too soon.
"Who said you were going to bathe?"
That got his attention.
"Then who is?" he asked slyly. One of his hands started crawling over her skirt to sneak itself under the fabric to run his palm along the length of her leg.
"Can't you guess?" she slid off the perch and pulled the tin bathtub stopping it when it was in the center of the room. "I've been working hard all day too you know," she pulled a bag out from where she brought the tub and from it she brought out a bar of lye soap, a bottle of scented water and a brush.
"'Ave ye now?"
"Yes I have," she opened the door all the way and called for one of the crew to bring in the hot water she'd ordered earlier.
"Do tell me, what 'ave you been doin' all day while I've been in 'ere?" She looked at him out of the corner of her eye as she untied the laces to her bodice and the side of her skirt. The flowy red garmet around her waist fell to the ground revealing the white fabric of the shift underneath, as did the maroon vest-like top. All day long she'd been scheming on how to 'torture' him when she ended the day's work, something he hated could easily be turned into something he'd look foreword to with relish if he was given the proper initiative. .
"Oh, the usual, fixing the rigging in the hot, boiling sun," she paused as some men poured buckets of water into the tub. She shooed them hastily off the second they were finished. "Mending the sails, you should think about getting new ones by the way. And cooking and slaving over that stove for the entire crew." The tie that held her hair back was placed by a ringed hand onto the table, letting the thick fall of dark brown hair waft across her back and skim her hips. "I sweated so much I could fill a barrel."
"Poor thing," he said with a voice full of mock pity.
"Very funny," and the chemise was gone and she was in the water so fast he was lucky to make out a peach and brown blur as she moved.
"Now that's not fair."
"Tough luck."
And that was the basic routine as it had been since they had settled back into their lives without Ragan always in their thoughts. Jack would work at his desk plotting for his brother while Lucy would take over up on deck with Anna-Maria, Jack's first mate, or at least one of two. But once the day was done they would spend the night in their cabin, locked away from the rest of the world where there were no other pirates to chase, no adventures, only them. They would plan where they wanted their wedding, not a tremendously hard task, they just had to find a place where some passer by wouldn't recognize them, mostly Jack, as pirates and turn them into the redcoats where they would be sure to be facing the noose and certain death again. Although she was the one who was doing most of the actual planning as in the where and how, he was more interested in how much rum they would be needing and fulfilling his privileges/rights as a husband, which consequently he was already well versed in. He would show her all the expensive dresses in his stash that were about the correct size for her, telling her any one of them could be used as her bridal gown. She would bring out her sketchbook to show him what had happened throughout the day in the quick charcoal drawings she would make, the latest being Will before he left for Port Royal.
"Well then what am I s'possed to do?"
"You could either join me or go to bed, I know that you need sleep."
Every night was spent hardly at sleep, neither was able it seems to start dozing off without the other there with them. After all that had happened the impression it had made was that the need to be with one another only grow stronger, as long as one didn't steal all the covers from the other all the time.
Jack was making plans to set her up in his mother's mansion house on the island his grandparents, Morgan and William had taken as their own years ago. He knew that with all the 'nighttime activities' going on sooner or later it was going to do exactly what it was designed for, and he wasn't willing to put his future bride or their future children at the stakes pirating usually put forth. Or at least until said children were old enough, say around six, to begin the family trade.
Lucy had been thinking along the same lines as well. The thought of having a child with Jack always brought a warm feeling to her whenever it came to mind, and like him, the thought came frequently. But she knew that if she were to get with child while staying at sea was not the best of ideas. She knew that children were born an onboard ships, that was never doubted, but she'd never taken care of an infant, her only experience being her younger sisters. If a baby were to come of this…well then there would need to be some rearrangements.
"I think I may need to rinse off a wee bit."
"Some how I knew you were gonna say that."
And so her plan had come together beautifully.
Later that night Jack lay awake in bed, his young bride-to-be snuggled at his side, and stared at the inky black night through the window. That infinite blackness seemed to resemble the future so similarly that it even got him a little nervous about it, not that he would let anyone know that. Word that Daniel had come out of hiding and was hoping to cheat him out of his inheritance was bad enough. The family treasure was safely hidden away, no one knew where it was except him and his father, and Papa Sparrow wasn't likely to give up the coordinates to a son he had disowned ten years ago. Then he wanted the Pearl as well, that Jack would give up if, and only if, he tied it up with a pink bow, loaded the hull with every piece of booty he had ever stolen, sunk it to the bottom of the Atlantic then tell Danny it was his birthday present. There was a better chance of him entering a convent and changing his name to Sister Mary Prudence.
Lucy stirred beside him, mumbling in her dreams about stopping Emma from eating preserves from the jar with her fingers. He grinned and pulled her closer to him. That was another thing that had him wondering; her sisters were really the handful. Nice girls, he liked them, but lord almighty could they get under foot! Amanda, he breathed deeply, had to be near tied down or else Alex wouldn't get more then a toe on deck before noticing that she existed. And Emma…..he wasn't going to get into Emma, not at this time of night.
"What are you thinking about?"
He cast a glance down at his chest, two green eyes looked sleepily back up at him.
"Nothin' much," he whispered.
"Liar." She knew him too well, sometimes he wondered if it was just the fact that they lived on the same ship or if she had some strange powers. Her youngest sibling did play with voodoo dolls, maybe some of it rubbed off on her.
"Go back to sleep, darlin'," she tugged on his beard. "Ye've been abusing me all day, leave the hair alone it ain't done anything to ye." Again she mumbled and pulled the cover up to her chin. "What was that?"
"Love you," and then she promptly fell asleep.
The Following Morning
"Cap'n!" a loud banging came from the locked door. "Jack get up!" From the bed two very tired pirates put pillows over their heads trying, and failing, to ignore the ongoing attempt to wake half of them up.
"Go away! Bloody hell can't a man get any sleep on his own bloody ship!" Jack bellowed. But another set of fists began banging now, it sounded like a stampede he had narrowly escaped when he was in Madagascar once.
"Jack get off yer lazy arse and get out 'ere right now!" Anna Maria shouted as Mr. Gibbs continued his assault on the door. Their brave leader rolled out of the soft, warm and female occupied bed, his feet missing the floor and landing on something that felt very much like on of his pistols.
"What do ye want?" he looked at the clock mounted on the wall, 5 o'clock in the morning. He had a grand total of five and a half hours of sleep from the past two days under his belt.
"It's Daniel, Cap'n, he's gaining on us from the starboard side!" Gibbs said through the wood.
Lucy sat up straight as a plank, Jack pulled himself to his feet by one of the new draperies hanging on the side of the bed, both had very dazed and surprised expressions on their faces.
"Why didn't ye/you say that in the first place!" they shouted in unison.
"We did!" was the stereo reply. A series of scrambling and tripping ensued after that, mostly it was Jack trying to step around all the junk that accumulated in the time Lucy put off cleaning.
Soon enough they were out on the main deck, fully dressed, and running to the railing of the Black Pearl. There- out in the open sea-was a large galleon heading toward them at top speed. Jack pulled his spyglass from his belt and held it up to his eye. The image was magnified, he could just make out the figure of a slender man standing on the bow of the ship, his hair dark and flowing behind him longer than most women's.
That was Daniel all right, Jack always thought he looked like a girl
"How soon?" Lucy asked him.
"Matter of minutes," he shut the glass with a sharp snap. "Battle stations mates," he shouted orders to the crew. "Danny's on out tail, I want the long nines out an' ready! Anna, hard to port, don't give 'im a chance to blast us in our arse."
The men scrambled to follow his directions, they scuttled up the rigging and began loading the cannons. More prepared muskets and pistols while others handed out cutlasses and various other sharp, pointy objects. One could see the exactly same thing happening on the Black Diamond, Alexander and Zackariah had noticed their brother as well and were just as ready to do battle.
Lucy cocked her pistols, stuffed them in her sash then slung a strap over her shoulders that dangled a sword at her hip. Jack opened his lips to reprimand her.
"Don't say a word-I'm doing this," she cut him off.
"I hate when ye know what I'm gonna say 'fore I say it," he grumbled. Lucy rolled her eyes and scanned the deck with a newly trained eye, the men were nearly done their preparations, and they were fast.
Soon enough the ship Demon was a long side them, it's crew flailing their fists and jeering curses that would have made most sailors blush. And that was her first look at Jack's rogue sibling, and he held her gaze, a mix of curiosity and contempt.
Daniel Sparrow watched as his men fired several rounds of canons at the Pearl and threw over grappling hooks and boarded her sister at his bellowed command. He looked at the woman making quick work of his Cajun man Jacques, she was quite good and quite pretty now that he had a clear view of her. But what was interesting him most was the fact that she was on his dear brother's ship in the first place. Then he noticed two other women, these on the opposite vessel, both attractive like the first one but they weren't fighting. They were making their way to the main cabin, lead by little Zackey. They would make excellent hostages, even better since they obviously couldn't wield a sword or gun.
"Brandy!" he shouted over the battle. A slight young man hurried over to him, his face smudged with soot, his lank clothes hanging on him like those of a scarecrow.
"Aye sir?"
"Get those women," he pointed to the ones shutting the door of the captain's cabin, "and bring them back to me."
"'Course sir," and he hurried to fulfill his task.
An odd order but Brandy didn't refuse. Boarding the ship was easy as banana pie and soon enough the cabin door was inches from the filthy first mate. It was already a slip open, the idiot Sparrow who put them in there was obviously not the smartest of the brood.
And obviously neither was the girl staring back through the crack.
"'Ello girlie, time tae go bye bye."
"Jack!" he felt some one tugging on his shirtsleeve. Lucy was staring at the Diamond with a horrified expression on her face. He followed her gaze, three enemy pirates were dragging her sisters, kicking and screaming, to their ship. "I'm going, they need me."
"No ye ain't," he held her back and dodged a cutlass and plunged his own into the burly man who tried to run her through.
"Yes I am," she jerked free, made a running leap at some loose rigging and swung herself to the ally ship as it came precariously close to their own. Her baby sister was fighting against a gangly boy, the other had already freed herself from another man's grip but couldn't get to Emma as her time was taken up by facing off with a very tall bald pirate attempting to hoist her over his massive shoulder. Lucy could only get to one girl, but which one?
Something hard hit the middle of her back, the butt end of a sword by the feel of it, the trickle of blood seeped down her waist and into the fabric of her breeches. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the skinny youth holding a bloody cutlass in one hand, a squirming blond in the other. He sneered down at her as she glared and tried to reach her pistol only to have the insolent boy kick it out her hand, nearly breaking her fingers in the process. Emma screamed as he drug her away.
Meanwhile Jack was having trouble of his own…Daniel had decided to pay him a visit, an unwelcome one of course.
"Brother," the disowned man greeted him.
"Ye ain't my brother," he spat as he drew his sword. "Why come for me now, Danny? What do ye want this time?" Daniel gave him a look that, in better words, 'how could you not have known that you stupid bastard?'
"Why Father's gold of course. Really Jack, even some one as daft as ye could've figured that one out."
"Quite actin' like some fop an' fight me like a man," he challenged.
"En guard!"
Anna Maria rolled her eyes at the pitiful attempt to be a gentleman pirate, some people should never go into family businesses and Daniel Sparrow seemed to be one of them. She pushed a random enemy over board and found Gibbs rushing at her, "what is it?" she called over the musket fire. The older man shouted back that the look out in the crows nest had spotted a collective of storm clouds heading straight for them. Considering that having a battle in the middle of a thunder storm wasn't the best of ideas, even the captain wouldn't want to sail in that, she made a dash for the helms man.
"Tom," she took hold from the startled man. "We've got a problem."
Unfortunately the quick change in direction startled more than the one sailor, the boy Brandy, was as well, so much so that he lost his grip on his hostage. In her hurry to get as far away as possible from her would be captor by means of a gangplank connecting the Diamond and Pearl, she fell. The movement of the latter turning made the plank shift and fall into the newly churning sea, taking the frightened girl with it. And both her siblings saw it.
"Emma!" Lucy dropped her weapons and ran to the rail, her fear filled eyes searching for her sister among the stirring waves and debris. A blond head surfaced, she struggled for air and something to garb hold of.
"What do we do?" asked a near hysterical Amanda as she almost fell over the rail herself trying to spot Emma. Neither knew exactly what they could do; if they jumped ship and tried to swim to her then there was more chance of them having all three drowning girls instead of one….but if they did nothing then there would still be a body floating in the water face down.
But what could she do?
Present DayA pair of eyes, magnified by a huge glass with an equally large light, gazed down at an artifact on a gleaming silver tray. The sea green orbs blinked, their owner lifting a hand to wipe off their thickly framed glasses and push the magnifying glass to the side and turned off the glaring bulb. Monica O' Neil picked up a brush and pick then took them to the object, a rather old gold locket that was recently discovered in a wreck off the coast of Jamaica.
The young woman was an archeologist, as was her twin (and younger by 2 and a half minutes) brother Dominic. At the moment they were only in training as they were still in college, but this time they had a chance to go out in the field, and in one that they actually wanted to be in. Usually they just had to do some menial excavating where some company wanted to build their condos and didn't want to get sued for destroying some broken pottery from a long forgotten town by the local historical society. But this time, they were given a choice in the matter, and this one was in the Caribbean.
"Found anythin' interesting?" her twin asked.
"Some jewelry in the trunk we brought up from the merchant ship," she answered as she removed a bit of sticky silt from the chain of the locket.
"Date it yet?" Dominic was always full of questions, like a newborn kitten…only much louder and more hairy. His head was always in the clouds, dreaming of making the find one day and getting famous then celebrating by going spelunking in South America.
"Early 18th century."
"Should have known that," he moved from his stool where he was looking over an old rusted pistol also from the wreck. "Lemme see it." She carefully picked up the fragile piece and gently laid it in her sibling's glove covered hands. His mischievous, twinkling blue eyes turned it over and around in his large palms until his normally care- free face became serious. "Have you looked at the back yet?" he asked in a low tone.
"Not yet, I still haven't cleaned off all the front," she tried to peek over his fingers. He laid it back down on the tray and brought the glass back over it, resized the distance from it to the locket and flipped on the light.
"Check it out," with a confused look she did as he said, her brother may be odd but he had the eyes of an eagle. Sometimes she thought he couldn't be her full brother, one of her parents must have grown him in a lab and spliced him with a bird. But then she saw the back of the locket and did a double take.
On it, deeply engraved in the metal in amazing detail, was a tiny map.
Disclaimer: Well, sequel time Take 2, a bit shorter then my normal but I thought the end of that scene would be a better choice (evil grin). The last go at this was such a piece of crap I couldn't stand to look at it anymore, so I deleted it from not only the site but also the floppy I had it saved on too. I think this go round is a lot better….the other one just made me want to break something. But please don't kill me if updates are a little far apart I'm tryin' I'm starting senior year and I can already tell it's gonna be pretty nasty.
Pirate-Girl1017