Title: Three's The Right Number
Disclaimers: I don't own any pirate/ship and I don't wish to.
Genre: somewhere between romance, drama and humor I think.
Rating: PG for sexual situations and language.
Summary/Set: Elizabeth married James, set to forget about a world that doomed Will. Unless Jack can change her mind about it.
Pairing: Norribeth, Sparrabeth.
Gibbs watched Jack walk up the gangplank looking like he'd got drunk in record time, it has only been a couple of hours since they dropped anchor in Veracruz. The Pearl's first mate rubbed his hands together. Since their last fiasco losing the ship, he wasn't allowed to set foot on land or drink while Jack was ashore, him being the only one Jack could trust to at least to some extent, but now that Jack was back maybe he could still go out enjoy the night. His smile faltered though and his brow furrowed when he saw that Jack seemed to be maddened.
"Raise anchor! Hoist the sails! Make sure ye tack into the wind out the harbor till I draw a course," he marched towards the stairs below.
"May the pigs be set upon by ravens and mangled, leaving only bespecked bone and curdled fat for the rats upon to feast!" Gibbs cursed the turn of events where he was denied a chance to try the inns in town, then ran after his captain, "but Jack, half the crew's still on shore leave!"
"Round up as many as ye can in the time we get ready, we're leaving forthwith!" He eyed the few men that were staying around just as stricken by not being allowed on land as the first mate was. He walked over to them, then leaned close to Murtogg's ears, "get moving ye all sour faced rabbit suckers!" He barked angrily.
Gibbs waved at the crew to follow orders, while he dared once more to chase the captain, "what by yer Lady L had happened? Where are we going in such haste Jack?"
"England!" Jack banged his cabin door open.
"England!?" Gibbs echoed following him into the captain's quarters. Now it's not just his rum that was at stake here. "Isn't that going to take us some time? Like the rest of the year?? Isn't that a bit, how should I say this, dangerous fe a pirate ship?"
"Ye questioning me orders?" Jack stopped from rummaging in his drawers and flashed dark eyes at his first mate. At this moment they seemed more dangerous to Gibbs than an encounter with a fleet of navy ships by the coast of England.
"No, sir," Gibbs felt necessary to go by titles, "I'll take care we make speed. I'm merely pointing out that this move will not be so popular with a crew yer trying to keep from mutinying against ye again, if without any explanation."
There was an uncomfortable silence with Jack squinting at him, then he pulled a map out Gibbs has not seen for years. "Don't tell me the crew wants shinies, meaning ye as well. Honest pirating, haven't we done enough of that lately?"
"Aye, too much perhaps, crew wants to spend their shares, put it somewhere safe."
"Good then. Anybody who wishes can start a new life wif it. But not here. Cause we're going to England."
"But why, Jack, why? Endanger our lives, the ship being recognized?"
"Ship can be altered. The king has to be stopped!"
Gibbs looked at him suspiciously. Making deals with Davy Jones, well, it did turn out all right in the end, a twelve year old boy tracking down the sword of Cortes, it happens, escaping volcano eruptions, very well, but trying to go up against the king of England in his own back yard? This whole superiority complex had finally made Jack lose his mind. It was bound to happen one day..."Do ye remember the last time ye set foot on the shores of Europe?" He tried to remind Jack it wasn't such a good idea, with impersonating a cleric of the Church of England and all, cause he needed a disguise not to be recognized.
Jack scrunched up his nose and hissed as a way of shaking the question off. "What kind of king'd opt to stay with the enemy? What kind of king ignores everything that mattered to her before and her people? Abandons them and buries herself on land for years!! She married a navy officer, by God's teeth so they told me she did, staying at an estate as the lady of the house, home with children! What kind of pirate king'd engage in that kind of behavior?"
Gibbs sighed in relief. Her. The pirate king. He's going to talk to her and not attack Charles II of England. That's better. A tad. " A king ye elected yerself?" He rolled his eyes, backing out from a room where the occupier was completely engulfed in studying his maps. Gibbs had a harder job, breaking the news to the crew...
tbc