A/N: Good day all! I thought that with all these new fics all around, I might as well just on the band wagon and try my hand on a POTC fic. And, being held true to my pen name, it going to be a romantic- possibly sappy- piece of work. All though, all who know me already knew that that was coming. I'll try to keep the sappiness to a minimum seeing it as being a coupling with Jack, and him not seeming to be such a sappy pirate himself . . . well, it just wouldn't suit his character now would it? Please, if you would be kind, try to get me back on line if I get off character with the dear captain. Constructive criticism is greatly appreciated! Now, on with the fiction! : P
Disclaimer: No own Pirates of Caribbean . . . please no sue. All I own is my character Katerina and her family and friends. Minus the ones from the movie that is.
Piracy, Lust . . . then Love
The house of the rich and very powerful Mr.Benikins sat at the end of a street, a few rows from the road toward the market and ship port of Port Royal. The house stood tall and proud at the end of the street. The iron fences surrounded the property and insured the safety for the family of five inside.
His whole family was held in high regards. He did not hold an important title as a governor or commodore, but he was still well thought of and powerful with politics. His three children were always around him, along with his lovely wife, which he held dear to his heart. His eldest was a young boy that was the spitting image of himself, the light, curly hair surrounding all corners of his head and the dark hazel eyes shining from beneath the mess. His middle child, a daughter looked just like her mother with the ebony, straight hair flowing down to her shoulders and the dark chocolate eyes shining whenever she smiled. Then his youngest son was a combination of both parents, showing the same hazel eyes as he father with the ebony dark hair from his mother.
One day he was sent off to one of his other properties to inspect the land, and his family was left alone in their home, thought to be protected under the great eyes of the near by authorities. The maids and butlers were there to help the wife and children if there were problems. However, what happened next was a horrible shock that no one could have prevented from happening. Both groups couldn't help the way they had thought as the thick flames began to engulf the house . . . with the whole family still inside.
The water came too late, most of the house was gone and the only things that seemed to have survived were the porcelain decor and bathtub in the bathroom. The men walked through the home, hoping to find a clue that would lead them to the cause and a hint that the family had made it out safely. Instead they had found three burnt corpses in the corner of what was once a children's playroom. The men found what remained of a packet of matches and wood next to the bathroom. In side the overturned tub they found something they didn't expect.
In the next few towns over, Mr. Benikins was notified of the great fire and rushed home. He found the many men and women that both were trying to help and wanted to look at the great tragedy. He pushed his way through the crowd that had congregated and went to the closest thing that represented the front door. The men still searching the home looked at him with nothing to say to a man who had just lost everything that he had worked all his life for. All of it was gone because of an innocent mistake and a match being stroke on the side of it's packaging by a five year old hand.
Out of the far corner a younger looking man held something in his arms wrapped delicately in a small blanket. Mr. Benikins ran over to the man to see a smaller version of his wife asleep or passed out in the man's arms, he couldn't quite tell which. He scowled down at the young five-year-old, knowing and understanding what had really happened.
She stirred as the younger man tried to hand the young girl over to her father, "Here you are Mr. Benikins."
"That is not my daughter," he pushed him away, along with the bundle, "She would have known much better."
"She couldn't have known, sir," the man persisted, "She is only five. To her she was only trying to play a game."
"Keep her if you think she is so innocent then," she scoffed at the man.
The young girl opened her eyes and looked up at him and held out her arms, "Daddy."
He just shook his head and walked toward the cart where they were taking away the three dead of his family. The girl looked so confused and looked at the man who was holding her. She looked back at her father who had just acted as if he didn't even know her.
"Daddy?"
~*~ 15 years later ~*~
Katerina rode her horse hard through the dense trees with her black hair flying in her face despite the fact that she had tried to secure it on the top of her head. She looked behind her at her cousin, Harriet on one of the extra horses.
Harriet was way behind her, trying to keep her horse from turning off the path and still be a proper lady by staying on the saddle properly. Once she lost sight of her cousin, Katerina turned back and looked for her. The gray horse sat on the side of the road and a quite looking surprised Harriet in the bushes.
"You know, you could be so nice as to help me, Katerina," Harriet let her slender, lady like hand fly out of the bushes to her now unsaddled cousin.
"Of course I could," Katerina smiled and pulled her cousin from the shrubbery.
"I dare ask, how you can be so reckless on a back of a horse, but still keep your lady-like demeanor in society?" she stumbled from the bushes sweeping off the dress that she had now been able to fit in since her birth of her first child. The brunet head looked at her cousin and made a disapproving look in her direction, "I swear Kat, if the captain saw you riding a horse like that you may never be able to find a married life ahead of you like I."
"Oh," Katerina rolled her chocolate eyes, "Let the captain refuse me." She covered her chest with her hand and let her hand fly back as if she were going to faint and getting the best desperate voice she could think of she continued, "I think that I can manage without him. Besides you are five years older then I and did rush into the marriage as you so often tell me."
"And what will your father, my uncle, think of your response to the captain?"
"That man is nothing of a father to me, you know that," Katerina turned serious and quite angry, "You know of how many times he has tried to get rid of me. I think that this is his last resort. Pushing me onto the captain like that."
"Well, all I am stating Kat is that you must find someone soon. You have told me yourself that you wish to get away from him, and the only way I see that in my eyes is to find a husband and marry. You have just celebrated your twentieth birthday for goodness sakes, I think it is time anyway."
"Oh, there is no rush," Katerina looked up from the horses and toward the estate that was only a few hundred yards away, "Even though I do want to get away from here, there is something that is telling me to stay. To think that I, above all people, would hope that everything would go back to normal."
"Well, maybe some things will, Kat. I mean, just imagine what would happen if you were taken or abused by a pirate or something?"
"Now who is being ridiculous?" she let down her ebony black hair from the failed style on her head. She looked back at the estate again to find her father climbing down the marble steps.
As he reached the two women a young, two-year-old girl stepped from behind him and ran over to Katerina, "Kat! Kitty Kat!"
Katerina picked up her cousin's daughter up in her arms. She smiled down at the little girl and swung her around in her arms, "Olivia! Now what are you doing out here?"
"Ships! Me wan' go!" she pouted and turned to her mother, "Olivia wan' go!"
Katerina turned to her father and looked confused, "Ships?"
Katerina's father stood above her by at least one head. His eyes had faded from the brilliant hazel that they were once were to a color that was unrecognizable to Katerina. She remembered when her father still had the same hazel eyes that were commonly related to happiness . . . the day he left. After the day he came back he never was the same, the happiness that was once in his eyes faded with the forever mourning that he felt from the accident.
He cleared his throat and looked over Katerina not approvingly. The outfit that she used wasn't looked highly upon, "Dena is up in your room, ready with a new dress for you to wear. I need to go to Port Royal to discuss with some associates."
"And why do I need to accompany you?" she said handing the small child to Harriet.
"So I can keep an eye on you, that is why," he said sternly and started to walk back toward the house, "I will send out some one for the horses. Now, come inside to change."
Katerina slit her eyes about to say something to her father. Before she could say much she had remembered that now matter how good the argument, Katerina would never win against her father. She looked at her cousin, but then dropped the reigns and walked toward the house.
After the quick change of clothing and not so quick cleaning of her face and hair, Katerina was pushed out the door and to the carriage waiting out side. She thanked Dena, her maid, on her way out for not capturing her in one of the newest styles. A tight corset being tied around her waist was not the best thing to think of to Katerina. Although she never really needed to use it, for her natural curves were the envy of her younger friends, her father nearly impressed her use of it.
Katerina sat in the carriage across from her father trying to keep the white lace gown from filling up her whole side of the carriage and didn't look at him once during the long ride to Port Royal. She heard him shift his body on the leather seats and let out a few coughs. He too tried to make no movement toward any conversation with his daughter.
After they had just reached the borderline of Port Royal Katerina couldn't keep her mouth shut tight any longer, "Why must I come with you everywhere? I am twenty years of age! I can take care of myself."
"You didn't prove that long ago. Since then my trust in you has greatly dropped."
"Yes, it has; along with your love for me," she said barely below a whisper, "Can you ever forget and let us try to patch this separation between us?"
"I will never forget!" he turned to her with a fast turn of the head, "And neither should you . . . or have you already forgotten that it was your hand that started the fatal blaze?"
Katerina took a short intake of air and looked at her father terrified. She could have sworn that he would think better to hang her then ever to love her again. She shut her eyes and looked out the window toward the streets of Port Royal. She couldn't take anymore of her father and didn't want to go to the idiotic meeting with his colleagues. She hit the side of the carriage alerting the driver to stop. The carriage jerked to a stop and she stepped out of the carriage with the white trail of lace following her.
"Where are you going, may I ask?"
"I'm going . . . for a walk. And I wouldn't think that you would care anyway!" she yelled in his face and started to stomp down the street, letting her white boots clap along the cobblestone road, hoping that it would lead to the ocean. Sometimes the only thing that could ever help her calm down was the cool water rushing over her feet and the cool, fresh ocean air.
Her father watched after her with indifference written on his face and tapped on the carriage door. The door closed and he was off to start the meeting with the rest of his associates.
As she walked down the rough road, still steaming from her encounter with her father, she didn't notice the roads begin to wear away to muddy tracks and the establishments around her started to wither away in appearance. She never saw the decrease of civilized looking establishments around her as her eyes were filled with anger and resentment towards her father. She folded her arms in front of her chest and made large breaths of frustration release whenever she thought it necessary.
"I cannot believe him!" she stopped in the road and looked around, finally noticing the conditions for the first time and began to think that she better head back, but then thought again especially when she caught the edge of the shore and docks, "He wouldn't care if I was in the rough and tumble part of the port anyway. I bet that even if was raped and missing for days on end, he would never call the authorities!"
She thought about whom else may actually want to call for her rescue and thought of one person other then her cousin who probably wouldn't know until much later. That some one was one whom she had wished had might as well forget her. Captain Timothy Belstrude, awful name Katerina always thought.
"Although, he would convince father to a least have someone looking for me," her face wrinkled again in disapproval thinking out loud to herself, "Better off dead, I say! I want nothing to do with either of them! My father only wanting part of the captain's fleet for himself and the captain wanting my hand in marriage in return. I am not an object to be passed around, and I will refused to be treated as one!"
Her new boots had just been trapped in the mud as she stomped her foot to the ground trying to make a point to herself. She made a groan of frustration and lifted her skirts to pull out the boot from the muddy bank. She tugged on it for what seemed like an eternity until it finally pulled loose and she was backwards into a pile of mud. She got up quickly pulling some of the flaps of the skirt forward to check the damage.
"Oh . . . Dena's going to be sore with me. She has spent countless hours just pressing this dress," she tried to wipe off the dirt and muck only to make the situation even more worse.
She threw the skirt to the side and started to walk on, hoping that the bay cut back around toward the main street and town. She did not want to go back the way she came because she saw shadows beginning to form under the archway from the corner of her eye.
She rounded one of the corners she was face to face with two older looking men. One seemed much older then the other looking around his mid forties while his younger companion looked around his late twenties. Both were in torn clothes and had very bad hygiene as Katerina noticed their bad and awful looking teeth and body odor. The younger one had an earring in his left ear and it shifted from and bounced on the side of his face as he turned his head. They stopped and looked over her, from top to bottom, looked at one another and smiled.
The elder one the men looked at her square in the face, "Lost ye way, kitten?"
"N-not at all," Katerina tried to sound stronger and more confident then she really was at the time, "Now if you will step aside, gentlemen, I will be on my way."
The two men looked at one another with eyes open and started to laugh. The younger looking of the two spoke out of the laughter first, "'Magine that! She called us gentlemen!"
The other man stopped laughing and leaned toward her, "What 'appens to be ye name, puppet?"
Katerina was starting to get a little frightened and it started to show. From the looks of the two men standing before her and the countless boats coming into harbor, she had a good guess on their occupation and did not want to tally too long with the likes of pirates any longer. Her breath started to quicken and she couldn't seem to catch it any more. She struggled to breath and give her reply as the two pirates just stared at her.
"I- I don't think it is c-common or d-decent to give my name to st-strangers that I have just met on the st-streets," she said in the only voice she could muster, which wasn't at all confident any longer.
"Well, ye gives us ye name and we won'ts be strangers any longer, now will we?" the older one grabbed for her arm, but she stepped back before he could get a hold of her. She looked at both of them and began backing up further.
"Now, now . . . ye aren't thinkin' of runnin' off now, are ya?" the youngest one started the chase after her, giving her the cue to run and run as fast as the weighted skirt would allow her.
She heard her own muffled cries from her throat and looked behind her trying to be sure that she put plenty of distance between the two pirates and herself. They were gaining on her and she needed to get more speed, and she knew that wasn't possible in the dress she was wearing. She cursed her father for putting her in the dress before they left. She would have loved to go about in her riding clothes that she had on before she came with her father to market. Even though she is to be a lady the only clothes that she wore when riding was a good pair of men riding pants and a silk shirt. That would have been the greatest thing to move in at that moment.
Katerina turned another corner to find a steep drop and nowhere else to run. She saw the huge ships in front of her, most were as she guessed, pirate ships. She heard the men behind her and turned around to see them come around the bend. She looked for an escape . . . a ladder, a tree, anything would be of use at that point.
"No where to go now, puppet," the elder one said.
They began to push forward and she stepped back to the edge of the cement platform. The heel of her boot dangled over the edge as she let out a small whimper from her mouth. Both men's faces grew with a smile, showing their gruesome teeth and crude hygiene once again. As one stepped forward he reached for Katerina's wrist, and she retracted again, as she did before and was thrown off balance.
She began to fall back and looked down at what would be her resting place for sure. All that she saw below were boxes, crates in rope nets. Beneath that was the ocean. Deep and blue, the only way they would find her if she fell in was in Davey Jones's Locker. The pirate that went for her wrist caught her skirt fabric instead and tore at least half of the flowing skirt off the dress. He turned back to the other pirate looking at the fabric in his hand and just stood dumbfounded.
The two pirates looked over the side and didn't see one trace of her in the water nor in the rope bindings closest to them. The skies were turning dark and could be blamed for the horrible view of the nets below. They looked at one another and the one still holding the material shrugged his shoulders. The other rolled his eyes and began to hit and yell at the other for losing the girl over the side. They soon started to walk off thinking and laughing to themselves that she could have been pretty fun. All the young women who end up on the wrong side of the port one day or another are.
Unknown to the two pirates walking away, Katerina was stuck in the nets knocked out from hitting a piece of metal on her fall down. She landed in a net filled with softer booty and a few crates. She was hidden well away between two of the boxes and couldn't be seen by the crew of the ship that the net was unloaded on. The crew was too lazy to look through the booty and just let it drop into the cargo portion of their ship. After a few hours and their fill of women and rum, they headed back for the ship and set off for the next port.