Disclaimer – As Chapter One. Nothing except Ben! (Sob).
Petal Of A Rose
Chapter Two – Much Confusion
Elizabeth felt awful. The sun was high overhead and her head was cracking into a thousand pieces. Her tongue felt thick and heavy in her mouth and every time she moved her head, she felt her stomach lurch.
For the past hour the crew had been making ready to leave port. The Captain, for some reason, had decided to cut short their stay in the pirate town and head back out to sea.
She was busily strapping down some overspill supplies, on the deck, sweat dripping into her eyes and running in rivulets down her face, when a shadow was cast over her.
"Miss Swann! Me cabin, if ye please. I have to speak with ye regardin' an important matter!"
Elizabeth looked up, her eyes squinting into the glare from the sun. Her head pounded and she winced from the numbing pain.
"Immediately!" said Jack, trying desperately to keep his voice level.
"Capt'n." She answered, getting to her feet, resisting the urge to hold her protesting head.
She entered Jack's cabin, relieved to enter the cool, dark interior, the pounding in her head diminishing. Jack followed her in and shut the door behind him.
She turned to face him, looking for the entire world how she felt…awful!
Jack eyed her the way a man might a favoured pet that might just bite.
"What's the deal, Lizzie?"
Her brow puckered with confusion. Had she missed something? She hadn't a clue what he was going on about. Maybe he was dis-pleased that she had consumed a little too much rum last night?
"I'm sorry, Jack. I didn't mean to get carried away last night. It just happened. I'll certainly be more careful in future. It won't affect my work – I suppose I didn't realise what a big change in my life I was making, coming here."
"Well, yeah?" Somewhat confused, Jack sat at his desk, wondering what the hell had happened last night. Just what had this witch got up to?
"I can see that…but you've got t' be careful! The consequences don't take in-experience into account."
"Consequences?" Puzzled, she tried in vain to work out what he was saying. "Oh…I suppose you could have me thrown off the ship…but that's a little excessive for one spat, isn't it?"
"Spat?" Now it was his turn to be puzzled. "Ye had a fight with Ben?"
"Ben…?" Elizabeth had lost this completely. What on earth was he going on about? "Oh…Ben! No…why would I?"
"Ye just said…what the hell are ye talkin' 'bout?"
"Last night. Ben and I went for a drink and I had a spat with a sailor who was making comments about me. I tipped a pitcher of ale over his head, and we left! I'm surprised you even heard about it!"
"I didn't!" He smirked, thinking of an outraged 'Lizzie upending a pitcher of ale over the head of a very outraged sailor.
"Then what the hell are you talking about?"
"I'm talkin' 'bout ye, disappearing, by y'self with some stranger. That's what I'm talkin' 'bout! Are ye crazy or just stupid?"
"Excuse me? Are you talking about my going into town with a friend of mine for a drink and to shop?"
"Shopping? Hell!" Jack spat, as he prepared to lecture her, "Ye didn't get back til' after one!"
Her hands were on her hips now, her fingers clenched tight. "And how would you know what time I got back?"
"I jus' happened to be about." He said, loftily. "Saw ye arrive on deck, as it were. One fifteen!" The memory of standing in the shadows, watching her sway onto the ship, giggling with Ben in the middle of the night, soured his mood again. "Are ye goin' to try an tell me ye were shoppin' at that time?"
He reached for some rum just as Elizabeth brought her hand across his face.
"Hey!"
"Spying on me! You've got a lot of nerve, Jack Sparrow!"
"Capt'n! And I wasn't spyin' on ye!" Jack said ruefully, rubbing his cheek, "I was lookin' out for ye, since ye don't have the sense to be lookin' out for y'self!"
With self conditioned reflexes, he ducked the second swipe and pushed back from the table. His body moved on automatic, tensed for a fight.
"Stop tryin to hit me face!"
"I will not…and to think I felt guilty last night, imagining you here by yourself while we all had a good time!"
"Ye should've felt guilty…an' ye should've known better than to go off with some man you know nothin' about!"
"He's one of your crew!" she began, fury making her voice low and icy. "I'm not going to justify my social life to you!"
'That's what she thinks', thought Jack silently. There was no way in hell he was going to allow her to go off with any pirate that happened along, and he needed to make that clear!
"Yer goin' to have to justify it to someone, an' I'm the only one here! Where the hell did ye go?"
"You want to know exactly where we went? Fine! We left here and raced over to the Tavern, hired a room where we spent the next several hours engaged in wild, violent sex – several acts of which are, I believe, illegal in most states!"
His eyes went hard enough to glitter. It wasn't just her words, it wasn't just her attitude. It was worse! Because he could imagine – with no trouble at all – a scenario just like the one she had just described…only it wasn't Ben she was breaking the law with…it was Captain Jack Sparrow!
Now…please…go review! I'm so nervous about putting this, my first story up, I need reviews to keep uploading!
Next chapter has some smut…please don't read if you are easily offended. I'll try to upload more tomorrow!