Ch 2

Jack stood below the deck, the wood beams creaking and groaning as they sailed along. It was a cold escape down below away from the sun's reaching rays, cold and wet. Barrels of provisions lay scattered about and all around animals were heard bleating or clucking to themselves. It was the provisions that had brought Jack here.

He stopped at each barrel in turn, peeking into its depths to see on the condition of the food and water they contained. He shook his head when he reached a barrel of water, mold and mildew clinging to the sides of it. "Can't drink this much longer," he mumbled to himself. Quite a number of the barrels of fruit were going moldy as well. The crew hadn't had time to restock on their last stop at land, nor the one before. Tortuga had been the last time they had filled up and that was near a month ago. Now the barrels of food that remained were spoiled or nearly bare and they were down to the last water source.

The crew had been drinking and dancing on the beach, celebrating the once again free sea and Jack's release from the fear of Davey Jones's debt. That night, Elizabeth had seemed troubled and so Jack had tried to cheer her up, getting her to run along the beach after him and later letting her pour her heart out about her fears.

Jack smiled at the memory. She had looked enchanting in the pale moonlight even as tears had run down her face and mixed into the sand between them. He wanted to take her then and there as they lay beneath the stars together. He knew he wanted her with him, aboard his ship, by his side. Unfortunately, Bloody Shane had shown up and attacked by surprise taking both Elizabeth and Jack aboard his ship.

"He ruined a perfectly good night," Jack growled as he retrieved his lantern from the nearby hook on the wall. It puzzled him how his idea of a perfect night, especially with the female kind, could have changed so drastically since he had spent time with Elizabeth.

"Captain?" A crew member that had come along to help, Kole, raised an eyebrow at Jack, confused by his mumbling.

Jack seemed to just notice the young man there. "We need to stop for more provisions soon is all." The boy continued to stare wide eyed. Jack waved his hands behind the boy at the stairs. "Stop looking at me like I asked you to walk the plank. Go up and tell Gibbs." He waved his hands again for good measure.

The boy nodded and rushed above to carry out his Captain's request. Kole was no more than 15. Jack had found him added to the crew by Gibbs when Elizabeth and Jack had made it back to Tortuga with a ship. He had been in desperate need of men, especially since some had left aboard his Pearl with Barbossa. Kole was one of Gibbs's choices. The boy was shy but had a good sense of humor and worked hard.

A shelf containing rum farther back in the dimly illuminated room did not go unnoticed. Jack grabbed two bottles in his free hand and headed back to the stairs. Yes, Bloody Shane had ruined a rather promising night. Now he had all the time in the world to explore his feelings for Elizabeth, feelings that were previously not present, illusionary, and impossible. At least that was what he had told himself.

So now that Will had given her to him, entrusted her to him, why now did he feel hesitant. Perhaps it was because he was a pirate and being given a treasure was much less fun than just stealing it. Perhaps it was because, this being the more likely of the reasons, there was uncertainty. He had a bad feeling deep inside him and he couldn't shake it. Everything had been too easy lately; Bloody Shane's death, kissing Elizabeth twice while she was a married woman without consequence and then gaining her from the man who obsessed over her, her husband. All of it had been wrong somehow, too easily done.

He found himself stomping up the stairs as if a child in the midst of a temper tantrum. This is not bloody fair, he scolded himself. I know what I bloody want and now that I bloody have it I can't bloody pursue the woman even though I have permission from her bloody ex husband?! He stepped out onto the quickly fading light of the deck and spun on his heel, making a last minute decision to go to his cabin and look over the chart and maps. Gibbs sent him a puzzled expression but didn't call out.

Jack slammed the door behind him and slumped down in the chair at his desk. He reached up to take off his hat but only felt his hair. "Oh. Speaking of wants and all things beautiful and maddeningly lovely, I left my hat with her!" he growled.

He yanked the cork from the rum bottle angrily and flicked it across the room with one hand, tipping the bottle to his lips with the other. She drove him mad. If the locker hadn't been enough, she would do his mind in for surely what he was feeling; the slow, creeping emotion was madness. Nothing else had ever so thoroughly occupied his mind for so long.

He saw her when he closed his eyes to sleep at night, keeping him awake. When he finally did find sleep, she appeared still. His long amounts of time away at sea were no more for he found himself earth bound more in the past couple of years, years since he had met her, than he had in his entire pirate lifetime. She made his heart beat faster and he could literally feel his blood heat in his veins when she was around him.

He snorted at himself and took another large swig of rum as if to swallow down the feeling he was getting just thinking about her. He knew the feeling couldn't be madness deep down. He had experienced madness before. It was a creeping, torturous feeling of hopelessness that caged one in from all sides, taunting. The feeling he was getting, while many times torturous and even hopeless seeming was one he enjoyed. He found himself walking up to her more and more, addicted to the sight of her, the smell of her, the torturous feeling. He liked this feeling in all its torment and even when he tried to stay away from it he wanted it all the more.

When there was a soft knocking on the door he was so lost in thought his response was automatic and flat. "Come in," he mumbled around the bottle he had just lifted to his lips yet again.

So deep in contemplating thought was he that he didn't notice who it was who walked through his doorway. Her soft voice, hardly audible was, oddly enough, what finally caught his attention. "I wanted to return this to you." He snapped his head up to see Elizabeth, his hat clutched in her hands. "Not many know the great Captain without his hat. I got many a strange stare with it on." She smiled softly and went to hang it on a nearby hook.

"It's me favorite hat. The crew knows the importance of it. You looked good in it you know Lizzie." He sent her his cockeyed grin. He was pleased to see she blushed in the lantern light.

"I also wanted to thank you… for everything." She wrung her hands nervously and Jack found himself nervous too. She always seemed so headstrong, so proud and confident and he wanted that fire back.

Jack waved her thanks away, motioning with the other hand at the open chair opposite of him. He waited until she sat down before speaking, aware that his comment may have made her leave had she been standing. "Now what bee flew up your bonnet missy?"

"Pardon me?" Elizabeth asked, genuinely confused.

He rolled his eyes and leaned forward, sliding his rum bottle over to her. "You've lost that fiery, irritating, confident, conflicting attitude of yours. You know, head up, death glare." He shot her an imitation of the fore mentioned glare. "You know the one. You won't make a very good pirate on my crew with the look you are parading now, love."

Elizabeth's face reddened again but from anger and embarrassment. "I don't know what you are talking about."

Jack chuckled as she took a fast, rather deep gulp of rum, wincing as it went down her throat. "Good thing that I do then."

She stared at him. "Then please share Captain Sparrow because frankly, I am not even sure what you are talking about."

"You are worried about the whelp and cannot rightly think of anything else."

Elizabeth's eyes locked with his. It was a moment before she spoke and he could tell she was trying to put together the words before she spoke them. "I believe the problem is that… I can. I can think of things other than Will."

Jack's eyes widened in surprise as Elizabeth's eyes darted down to the table. "Interesting. What other kind of things have been occupying your mind dearie?"

Her eyes jumped back up to his and he knew it before she spoke it. "You. Jack, I have been thinking about you and… and us."

He knew this position too well yet his heart thrummed in his chest so loud he was sure that she could hear it. Many women had come to him, brazenly pronouncing their unbreakable and undeniable love for him. Now Elizabeth hints to something in that general but still very far from spoken vicinity and he felt as he never had before. It was so strange, an elated feeling. He leaned in closer to her, the rum bottle she had set on the edge of the table beside his elbow forgotten. "What about us love," he practically whispered.

Elizabeth squirmed a bit in her seat but her eyes never left his and he could see the blush back in full force. "I- I feel absolutely terrible but I cannot stop thinking about past… events that took place in the-in the company of one another," she stuttered. She leaned in to meet him in the center of the table and Jack could see her hand trembling as she put it up to the side of his face. "Will has left me and yet your still here. You're always here Jack."

Jack watched as she closed the gap between them, bringing their lips together. He grabbed the table with one hand, digging his nails into it hard enough to leave prints. As much as he wanted this he knew it wasn't right. He pulled away. He found he did that a lot with her and, although his mind screamed and cursed at him for it, his heart made him do it anyway. Since when did he care about his aggressor's feelings? Since when did he care about anything other than the fact he was lip to lip with her?

"Lizzie," he whispered, holding her hurt eyes with his and grabbing her hand with his own. "I won't let you do this in a moment of weakness. I won't be your hideaway." He scoffed at himself as he spoke. He didn't even recognize his own words.

Elizabeth yanked her hand free, landing back in her chair. Anger flared in her eyes and they cut Jack to the core. "How dare you accuse me of hiding? Am I so undesirable to you now that you won't kiss me?" She stood. "Was I just another wench to you as Barbossa accused me of?"

Jack sat back watching her closely. This wasn't the Lizzie he knew and… had those annoying feelings for. She turned away from him and headed to the door. "Are you going to just walk out too? I was a fool to have stayed on board."

Jack stood up so fast the chair tipped over behind him. The noise made Elizabeth turn and she found Jack standing right before her. He was breathing a bit heavier than normal, as if he had run a long distance to reach her side. "Undesirable?" Jack reached a hand to cup her face. "A wench?" His voice was pained. He grabbed the bead in her hair that he had given her and spun in between his fingers. His voice dropped down low. "What actions have I carried out with you in the past that have even hinted that those things are true?"

Elizabeth gasped as Jack's lips met her jaw line, tracing torturously light kisses up to her ear. "I just want to have fun with Lizzie, not this stranger." The way he said fun, his breath hot in her ear, made her shiver. Her head tilted to the side as his mouth worked its magic on her ear, kissing a sensitive spot behind it. Her breath tumbled out of her when his teeth clamped around her earlobe and tugged gently.

She pulled away from him and Jack felt her gaze probing his mind as she looked into his eyes. He met her gaze confidently, patiently. "You're a smart man Jack," she whispered. Shaking her head she took a step back. "Sometimes I think you know me better than I know myself."

Jack smiled. "Captain Jack knows everything, love."

She laughed at him. "Or so he thinks."

"Or so he knows," he shot back.

She glared at him with that fire in her eyes. Jack gave himself mental praise for the accomplishment. "Well, I am sure the all knowing Jack can tell me a little bit of information that I want to know."

Jack's eyebrows came together in a quizzical scowl, waiting for her to continue. "I want to know more about this Fountain of Youth that we are sailing to. Bloody Shane spoke of nothing but it when he had me in captivity."

Jack cast a weary glance at the charts on the table. He had come into his cabin with every intention of looking them over some more but once again Elizabeth had prohibited him from thinking of anything but her. He nodded at the table. "Fine. I suppose I could relinquish some bit o' information over to you."

Elizabeth nodded and walked over to the table again. Jack stood beside her and pulled out the chart. He let her look it over for herself, turning the inner circles around until they lined up and formed pictures. "The Fountain of Youth is the producer of water that gives one immortality." Elizabeth looked up at his, disbelief in her eyes as he continued on. "I am in search of it. Using this chart and having the fastest ship in the Caribbean should make the task nothing more than a soft breeze."

Elizabeth scowled and looked down at the chart again. She started to turn the inner circles around as she spoke. "Well I can see why Barbossa would be after it." The circles spun. "But why would someone want immortality? To see others progress and age while you stood still…"

Jack saw the look in her eyes that spoke opposite of the words that came out of her mouth. It was the very reason he had not told her about the Fountain sooner. "I think you would know love."

She didn't look up and for that Jack was grateful. He was afraid of what she may have seen in his eyes. After a moment of silence he began to wonder if she had even heard him. "Lizzie?"

Her hands had stopped moving the wheels and she was frozen, face close to the chart. "Jack, could you bring a lantern closer over here please?"

"Women are so frustrating, what with their mood swings and all. You think you know what they want and when you try and give it to 'em…" he trailed off. Regardless, he did what she asked. He approached the table and set the lantern down with a clank. Elizabeth's face was still pressed close to the chart, her eyes squinted tight. "There milady. If there is anything else…"

Suddenly she turned on him. He leaned back a bit but kept his footing. She didn't speak right away. Her eyes just did more of their searching. "Yes? May I help you?" Jack asked.

"You didn't know about this?" she asked, something close to fear in her voice.

"Know about what Lizzie?"

"The people's faces depicted on the charts." Her voice was full of doubt, as if whatever she was talking about was his doing and he was just playing at not knowing. But her eyes were full of fear, as if she had seen the truth in his eyes; absolute confusion and innocence in the matter.

He pushed past her to look closely at the chart. "Faces? Lizzie, I have looked at this chart…"

"The outermost ring Jack." She came around next to him, her body leaning into him. He suppressed a groan at the contact. She pointed at the faces with a finger that trembled ever so slightly. "Do they look familiar?"

He squinted and leaned in close. Suddenly he straightened up, eyes wide and full of disbelief. Elizabeth was watching him closely but he was putting on no act. He leaned in close one more time, making sure his eyes were not fooling him. The faces staring up at him were none other than himself and Elizabeth.

I wanted to clear some things up about the end of this chapter. Some people may wonder where I got the idea of Jack and Elizabeth's faces on the chart. The truth is their faces really are on the chart! I saw this video on Youtube back before AWE came out and it had a special with the props guy from Pirates showing the interviewer kid different objects. One of the things was the chart. The man asked the interviewer who he saw and pointed at a segment of the chart. The boy was like "Uhh… that looks like Jack," or something like that. Then the man pointed to the other scribble.

"Yes, Jack Sparrow. And that?"

The boy was like, "Elizabeth."

I have a little duplicate chart that my friend gave to me when she bought a kids costume pack to dress up for the AWE premiere and it has the picture of them on it too! I have to wait until the DVD comes out to freeze frame and see it but it's there I am sure. The prop guy showed it to us! That is one of the main reasons AWE got me down because I knew the chart was important and I thought that those two being the only faces on it was a destiny/ love kinda thing. Well, it is here in my story.

I just wanted to let people know where I got it from. Check it out if you want to. By the way, there is also a picture of a Chinese tiger chasing a Mickey Mouse. Haha