Chapter 2: Jack Sparrow
"On your feet!" said Commodore Norrington to a pirate that had saved Elizabeth's life.
"Elizabeth! Are you all right?" asked Governor Swann as he and Dawn walked up to Elizabeth.
"Yes, yes, I'm fine," Elizabeth said to hers and Dawn's father.
Dawn pulled Elizabeth into an embrace. "Are you alright? When father told me you fell. I was scared I might not see you again."
Elizabeth nodded and smiled at her sister as she returned the embrace, "I'm fine, Dawn." She then leaned in to Dawn and whispered, "I was scared too. But luckily for this man… He saved my life."
Dawn nodded and smiled.
As Captain Norrington tightened his grip on the pirate, he noticed a brand on the stranger's inner wrist: the letter P, "Had a brush-up with the East India Trading Company, did you ... pirate?"
Dawn turned and looked at the pirate and frowned. "You better not have laid a hand on my sister, other than to save her life."
Jack looked at Dawn; he could see the fire in her eyes. "On my honor…"
"As if your honor means anything," Norrington scoffed as he looked above the letter P and saw a tattoo of a small bird in flight across water. "Well, well. Jack Sparrow, isn't it?" Norrington's guards drew their pistols.
"Captain Jack Sparrow, if you please," answered Jack.
"I don't see your ship … Captain," Commodore Norrington sneered.
"He said he'd come to commandeer one," said one of the guards.
"I told you he was telling the truth," said another guard, handing over Jack's belt and pistol. "These are his, sir."
Norrington examined the pirate's possessions and snorted. He was unimpressed with Jack's pistol, "Extra powder, but no additional shot," a compass, "it doesn't bear true, and a sword he withdrew from its scabbard, "I half-expected it to be made of wood."
"Taking stock; you've got a pistol with only one shot, a compass that doesn't point north ... and no ship. You are without a doubt the worst pirate I have ever heard of," Commodore Norrington taunted.
"Ah, but you have heard of me," Jack said, smiling.
Commodore Norrington had seen enough of the man by now to know that he would hang him in the morning. "Fetch some irons," he said in a flat tone.
"Commodore, I must protest," Elizabeth said. "Pirate or not, this man saved my life!"
Dawn smiled at her sister who reminded her of both Faith and Buffy in that instance. "Commodore, I must agree with my sister."
But Commodore Norrington wasn't about to let Jack get away. The guards fastened manacles around Jack's wrists.
"Finally …" sighed Jack, and lightning-quick snapped the corset he still held. Its laces caught around the pistol in the guard's hand and sent it sailing into the water. The men were momentarily shocked as Jack wrapped the chain between his manacles tightly around Dawn's neck. The pistol of every sailor on the dock now pointed at Jack, but Commodore Norrington raise his hand to hold his troops back. Jack was using Dawn as a shield.
"Commodore Norrington ... my effects and hat, if you please." Jack ordered as Commodore Norrington hesitated. "Commodore! We don't want the bonny lass to lose her sister now do we?"
"You are despicable!" Dawn said as she struggled. She took the belt and pistol from Norrington, but Jack was quicker than she was as he took the pistol from her.
Jack jerked Dawn around so she was facing him, belly to belly. "Now, if you'll be very kind?" he asked.
Elizabeth frowned at Jack but kept quiet as she watched her sister buckle the belt around Jack's waist and put his hat on his head.
Jack smiled. "I saved your sisters life; now you've saved mine," he said. "We're square." He turned to Norrington, Governor Swann, Elizabeth and the guards. "Gentlemen ... M'ladies ... you will always remember this as the day you almost caught Captain Jack Sparrow." And with that, he shoved Dawn way, grabbed a ship's rope, and swung high and wide. Commodore Norrington carefully aimed his pistol at jack and fired. His bullet hit the rope, and Jack fell from high in the rigging.
"On his heels!" shouted Commodore Norrington. A squad of sailors took off into the streets and alleys of Port Royal. The hunt for Jack Sparrow was on! He turned towards the sisters who were hugging each other. "Elizabeth, Dawn are you both…?"
"Yes, we're all right, we're fine! Go capture him. Right now he deserves whatever he gets for hurting my sister," Elizabeth said as Commodore Norrington's taken aback by her ire, and wisely hurried away.
Now standing alone on the dock with his daughters, Governor Swann placed his coat around Elizabeth's shoulders. "Here, dear ... you should wear this."
The air had suddenly grown cold, and a thick fog from the harbor began to gather at their feet as Elizabeth took her father's coat "Thank you, Father ... and let that be the last of your fashion advice, please."
Governor Swann nodded and hugged his daughters. He took Elizabeth and Dawn back to the carriage and sent them back to the house as he remained behind to talk to Commodore Norrington.
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After Elizabeth and Dawn reached the mansion they made their way up to their room where Elizabeth helped Dawn out of the corset she had been trapped in for most of the day.
Dawn took in a deep breath of air. "That's much better. Why women are expected to wear such torturous clothing I will never understand."
Elizabeth nodded as they both changed in to their nightgowns, "I agree with you. Corsets are a real pain. I would be happy if I never saw another corset in my life."
Dawn nodded as she thought about it; she knew that they would likely wear a corset more than once. The lingerie she had been used to wearing would not exist for another two hundred years.
