A sequel! Uh-huh, it's not my birthday but it's cool anyway!
Part II takes place after the movie, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, which means that eventually I will have to put an AU label on this story. Eventually. So, to dispel any doubt, Part I ended right before the movie and Part II is starting almost right after. I hope Jack and the other characters come out IC. Especially Jack. I've written some Jack stories before and it was easy for me to write him, but now in this fic…I dunno.
Another note, the following song lyrics are out of order but I switched it up to fit the story. It's "Delirium Trigger" by Coheed & Cambria. If you haven't heard them, check it out, they were awesome at Warped Tour!
I hope you enjoy, and, as always,
REVIEW!!!
~*~
The Loved and the Lost Part II: The Seven Seas
~*~
Chapter One
Snatch Ireland
~*~
Remember
when we were young…
Sit
up right on the table a photograph of earth feeding me a way back
Frightened
I tear alone or maybe not the only one there
I
don't feel alive when you're cut short of misery
Will you pray it be the end?
Give
a look surprise wide eyed to me
Then you'll know just what I am
The
scare that triggers your fear
Come
know me in a different light
Run sand hourglass in my time will I be worth?
~*~
"A pirates life for me…" whispered Serenity Williams as she curled up in her blanket on the wooden floor of a pirate ship. She was thinking again, something she had been trying to avoid ever since she had been rudely snatched out of her life and brought here, to the middle of the Caribbean. To make things worse, she smelled. Not that that mattered. There were more important things.
Of all the places that she would have expected to end up after her wedding, this was not one of them. A month after the day she married Connor, she had expected herself to be either in Ireland, sailing to Ireland, or laying in a bed next to her husband talking of Ireland. Always Ireland. Ireland seemed like the farthest away place in the world at that moment as a drop of water landed on her forehead from the dripping ceiling above.
It doesn't seem that someone up there likes me very much, she thought, glancing at the ceiling and watching another drop of water fall onto the floor right next to her head. Both the men that I loved are dead, and I am stuck in the middle of the Caribbean Sea with the man that I most despise in the world. Oh, the irony, her mind said sarcastically. What wonderful luck I have!
The month or so- she had lost track of the days a long time ago- that Serenity had spent on this boat had either been spent working up on the deck, sitting on the hard benches eating slimy mush that the pirates called food, or trying to drown out the awful noises of her heart screaming wildly as awful things were done to her in the night…but she didn't want to think about that. Ever. All she wanted was to rest on her flimsy hammock bed and dream, so that her mind could be home in a corpse's arms even when her body was not.
"Why did you have to take him?" a tear slid down her cheek and landed on the floor next to the puddle from the dripping ceiling. She pulled the ratted tatters of a blanket tighter around her shoulders and didn't bother to wipe the tears away. Serenity shivered as she realized that she didn't know what she had meant when she had said 'him.' Did I mean Will or Connor? Connor or Will? Am I going to be playing this awful game of eeny-meeny-miney-moe until I die aboard this blasted ship?
And surely, she would die.
~*~
"Elizabeth," said Will, gathering her in his arms.
"I know I don't want you to go, Will," said Elizabeth, cupping her hand around his cheek. "I shall miss you so terribly."
"Me too," said Will.
"At least let me come with you!"
Something in his heart revolted suddenly at her touch and he pulled away, putting on his hat as a cover and climbing down the first step that led from the governor's mansion. Elizabeth followed, as he knew she would, the train of her dress slipping down the stone and making a slithering, satiny noise. She clasped his hands in hers, and he knew that she would need a reaction, one last source of comfort before he left to once again sail the seven seas with Jack. Ever since he had returned to Port Royale from that last adventure, he knew that he would never be able to stay in Port Royale. The government might as well force him to leave, as they were planning too. He was now a wanted man, but to hell with it! He now knew who he was, and what his father had been. His blood was never more a mystery. "Goodbye, Elizabeth," he said, moving to kiss her on the cheek. Elizabeth turned her head so that their lips met instead.
"I love you," she said.
"I love you too," he said as he walked into the darkness that was a Port Royale street at nighttime. A slight jangle sounded from the pocket of his waistcoat and he slipped his hand inside. The conch shell rested in his palm, providing more warmth in his hands than Elizabeth's own hands had. He remembered the dream that he had had in his delirium while he was recovering from his head wound. This was for you, Serenity! He had yelled to the ocean, to himself, to the conch all at once. The blurred image of the dream threatened to slip from his mind's eye as he passed the graveyard, habitually dragging his left hand along the fence. A clean double-gravestone glowed eerily in the moonlight, and Will squinted to read the engraved epitaph even though he knew what it would say.
Connor and Serenity O'MalleyMay Their Love Protect Them on Their Journey
Will sighed and continued towards the docks, for that was where he was headed. The moon passed behind a cloud as walked towards the ocean, listening to the lapping of the waves cut through the muggy air. He searched the horizon for the outline of a ship, for white sails would not give this ship away. This ship was the Pearl.
However, it was not the silhouette of sails in the night that gave the ship away. It was humming.
"Da na na…and really bad eggs," came an off key rendition of the well known 'Pirate's Song' from somewhere along the beach. "Drink me up hearties, yo ho! Yo ho, yo ho…yo ho…"
Will grinned in spite of himself. "Maybe you should learn the words, Jack," he said, seeing the outline of his captain's rather individual figure against the stars. "Then you won't sound like a fool whenever you want to sing something."
"Who says I sound like a fool, mate?" Jack came closer, and Will could distinguish his eyes from the rest of his shadow as they stood an arms length apart. Jack smiled. "Did you say goodbye to your strumpet, then?"
"I did."
"Ay then." Jack clapped his hands once together, his rings glinting in the pale beams of moonlight. "Yo ho, yo ho," he hummed as he landed a square kick onto the nose of the canoe, causing it to slip out into the water. Will scanned the horizon once more for the ship's outline, but it could not be found.
"Where's the ship, Jack?" asked Will. "You didn't lose it, did you?"
Jack appeared to think for a minute, but then he shook his head. "No, no, I know exactly where it is."
"I'm surprised to see that Anamaria hasn't killed you yet."
"You've only been gone a week, boy."
Will laughed softly, gripping his oar with strong hands and pushing the canoe farther out into the waves. He waded in a few feet and then jumped in. Jack followed suit with much more grace. Once the captain was situated on the wooden bench, he pointed behind his shoulder. "The ships around the bend there, a ways out. Didn't want the Navy trying to take her again." Jack spoke lightly of his ship, the ship that he had fought tooth and nail to recapture. Will decided not to mention upon the captain's more sensitive moments and instead put all his energy into the rowing. Maybe the sea would aright his depressed mood, which Jack seemed to have sensed. The captain was unusually quiet that evening as they road around the bend, black sails appearing on the horizon. Moonlight played upon the deck, as if in a mockery of what once had been. Skeletons danced across Will's mind as if making his memories into a horrible nightmare.
"Drink up, me hearties, yo ho!" said Jack quietly; as if he couldn't resist one more stab at the tune.
~*~
Serenity lay; awake still, rocking slowly in her hammock. The blanket had long since proved itself to be of no use and now lay under her head, her golden-brown tresses spilling across it, the several knots in it hidden in the darkness. She heard footsteps on the deck above- the night crew running about on the deck. Shouted orders and replies floated down to her ears through the porthole that was near her bed.
She still couldn't believe that she was here.
Heavy footsteps sounded on the wooden planks of the floor, close to her and out of place against the still of the night. A black figure grew in the darkness and came to stand next to her bed.
"Hello, Daniel," she whispered.
"'Ello, poppet."
