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Disclaimer: Jack and Lizzie are owned by Disney. I am NOT Disney.

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La Mer Appelle, Chapter 4: See Past the Blood on My Hands

Elizabeth placed her hat on her head after picking it up off of the deck of the Black Pearl. A slight breeze whispered against her skin as she stepped across the wood floors of Jack's beloved ship. Pirates, familiar and strange, all stared at her as she made her way for Jack's cabin. She'd already prepared herself for this visit. The words she'd speak and the actions she'd make were all planned. This was as prepared as she was going to get. She reached hesitantly for the doorknob, taking a breath before she entered.

Once she was inside the cabin and found her way to Jack's sleeping quarters, all of Elizabeth's plans disappeared into oblivion, all forgotten. For when she saw him laying shirtless on his bed as if he'd simply collapsed onto it, every wall she'd built as barriers for both him and herself crumbled. A slight smile was curved onto his handsome face, causing her to wonder what he was dreaming about. A bottle of rum lay beside him, opened and half full.

As Elizabeth approached his bed, her eyes lingered on the smooth tanned skin of Jack's perfectly sculpted chest. Some sort of words were tattooed on one of his biceps and continued onto his back. If her memory served her correctly, the words were the Desiderata poem. Long ago, she'd read about it after she found out he had it tattooed on himself.

Walking cautiously, Elizabeth tried to make as little noise as possible, so as not to wake Jack, but her efforts were proven useless when she tripped over his boots on the floor and came crashing down, letting out a girlish shriek. "The rum!" Jack exclaimed, suddenly clutching the neck of his bottle. Using the bed as a crutch, Elizabeth pushed herself up.

"What in bloody hell?" the captain of the Black Pearl cursed. Once the Pirate King was standing up again, she straightened her hat and smoothed out the wrinkles of her blouse. "Where do you come off, sneaking up on me like that?" Jack demanded to know. "I wasn't sneaking," Elizabeth argued, desperately trying to keep her eyes on his face, rather than other exposed parts of his body she'd never seen so much of.
"Well, if you weren't sneaking, please tell me what you'd call quietly entering a captain's sleeping quarters whilst he is sleeping, clearly not intending to wake him."
"I just wanted to speak with you briefly, alone."
He slid out of his bed, finishing the remaining rum in his bottle. "And this couldn't wait until I was decent, much less awake?"
"I had no way of knowing if you were decent or awake."

Elizabeth realized then that Jack was scolding her for something she'd scolded Pai Huang about repeatedly. Not only that, but she was making the same excuses he'd used on her before. Jack stood before her, half-naked with an empty bottle of rum in his hand. This was the least dress she'd ever seen him. However, he was much more dressed than she'd been the night before. She blushed at the reminder.

"You know, love," Jack pointed out, "you could've waited until I was out and about on deck." "I can't seem to decipher, Jack," Elizabeth admitted, "whether you're more upset about my waking you or my seeing you while you are indecent."
"Your waking me was most unpleasant. As for my being indecent, I know that if the scared little governor's daughter I once knew was standing before me and I was dressed like this, she'd be shouting at me for being despicable, wiv her hands over her eyes."
"That scared little girl is gone now. I doubt anything you could say or do would surprise me."
"Such a shame, cause that governor's daughter was quite a lot of fun to bother." He chuckled.
"I'm sorry to disappoint you."
"Darling, I must confess that it's most difficult to talk to someone who's not looking at your face as they're conversing wiv you."

Elizabeth's gaze shot up from Jack's chest to his eyes in an instant. She'd hadn't even realized she'd been staring. She felt her cheeks grow hot. 'Oh, hell!' she swore inside, 'that's embarrassing!' Her heart beat rapidly. The smirk on Jack's face made her subconsciously bat her eyelashes. "Well, excuse me," she stifled, "but it is quite hard to concentrate on the face of the person speaking when that person is flaunting other distracting parts of himself."
"You're accusing me of flaunting, dear Lizzie? I do believe the pot is calling the kettle black, as of now. Do you recall what you were wearing in front of me last night?"
'Damn!' "I-"
"Probably not," he interrupted, "because there's not much to remember since you was wearing hardly anything."
"That shirt is what I use for my nightclothes."
"And these are mine." He tugged on his breeches.
"I was supposed to be sleeping-"
"So was I."
"You are so bloody difficult!"
"No, I'm simply right, which frustrates you."
"I'm not going to argue with you about this any longer-"
"Once again, you're not looking at me."

Her eyes met his once more. Jack's intense gaze bore inside of her. Elizabeth almost cringed beneath his stare. 'I can't believe I did that again!' Out of the frustration he'd spoken of earlier, she shouted, "For God's sake, put a shirt on!" "That depends," Jack countered, "would it be for His sake or yours?"
"Just clothe yourself, please!"
"I don't think I will. I'm enjoying this."
"You enjoy it when I'm upset?" she almost growled.
"No, I enjoy it when you're annoyed. You lock your jaw and your nostrils flare. It's shockingly attractive."
"You-"
"And your left eyebrow always goes higher than the other." He pointed to said eyebrow.
"I'm glad someone gets entertainment out of my being distressed."
"Yes, you are a humorous woman, Lizzie Turner."
"Oh, so now I am Elizabeth Turner? Because I seem to remember you bringing to my attention last night that I am, in fact, not."

This had hurt her deeply inside. After Jack had left her, she'd spent hours crying until she'd fallen asleep from her exhaustion. When she'd awakened, her sadness turned to anger towards Jack for telling her such awful things. The anger is what possessed her to come aboard the Pearl and confront him.

"I told you the truth," Jack stated, "Whether you choose to accept it or not is your business." Elizabeth clenched her fists and spoke with rage, "You had no right to tell me I wasn't married. It was unnecessary. I was living perfectly fine until you told me that."
"I suppose this is what I get for being honest."
"You weren't being honest to do the right thing. You were being honest to justify your kissing me."
"You're the one who spoke of your supposed marr-i-age as if it were holding you back from reacting normally to my kissing you."
"And what would a natural reaction be to you kissing me?"
"Well, the only way to find that out would be for me to kiss you again and see what happens, now that you know you're unmarried." He leaned towards her.

Elizabeth put a hand on his chest, keeping him away. Jack's face stopped less than an inch from hers. Elizabeth felt her hand shake on his skin, which was warm and slightly damp. The surface was rough and dirty, a little coarse, almost. Jack's eyes averted down to Elizabeth's brave hand. "Although Will and I aren't legally married," she explained to him, "he still believes we are, which makes this wrong." Jack let out a sigh and said, "Even if poor Will is in a world beyond this one, he still manages to ruin my life somehow."
"I just couldn't do that to him." She spotted his shirt on his dresser and draped it on his shoulder.
"Betray him, you mean."
"Yes."
"I suppose then that you only betray certain people."
"Why do I get the feeling that this conversation has taken a dangerous turn?" She looked at him skeptically.
"You're not willing to betray Will, but betraying me is nothing important. Is that correct?"
"I thought that was behind us."
"You thought wrong."

Jack pulled his shirt off of his shoulder and put it on. Elizabeth felt her heart ache a little. He tossed the empty bottle of rum back onto his bed and walked passed her to his pile of effects on the floor. He began buckling his belts and tying his sashes around his waist.

"You never forgave me, then?" Elizabeth asked, Jack replied bitterly, "You never apologized." He fastened his last belt and found his boots, putting them on.
"I thought my risking my life to bring you back from the dead was my apology."
"Again, you thought wrong."
"Very well... I'm sorry, Jack."
He said nothing for a moment, then at last spoke, "That's it?"
"What else do you want from me?"
"You kiss me, trick me, betray me, murder me, and damn me to Davy Jone's Locker... and all you can offer me is a mere 'I'm sorry'?" He exited the sleeping quarters as if he expected nothing more from her.
She followed. "I rescued you from the Locker!"
"You put me there!"
"And I fixed it! Now, forgive me and forget it!"
"Is that an order, Your Majesty?" he spat.

Elizabeth stood with her mouth gaped open, waiting for a clever remark to come to her, but in vain. She couldn't believe it, but at that moment she wanted Jack to kiss her so badly. Something about he was speaking and acting triggered her feelings for him. "I don't suppose that even if I did order you to do anything, you'd follow through," she said. "Probably not," he agreed, removing his coat from his coat rack and putting it on.
"I'll bet I can think of a few orders you'd gladly do."
"Unlikely." He placed his hat snugly on his head after taking it off of his desk.
"You want a wager?"
"Certainly. If you win, I will gladly carry out whatever order it is. If I win, you have to carry out whatever order I give you."
"Very well." She held out her hand.
He shook it. "Well?"
"I order you to kiss me."
"N-" he started, then ceased.

Hand still in hers, Jack frowned at Elizabeth, pursing his lips. 'Bad idea,' Elizabeth scorned herself, 'you're so stupid, Elizabeth! After your big speech about Will, you do this? You're no better than any of the wenches in Tortuga!' Jack stood in front of her, now smiling. He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her close. Then, in one breath, he stifled, "Gladly."

When his lips came down onto hers, Elizabeth forgot all about Will, whoever he was. She threw her arms around Jack's neck and plastered her body to his. He moved his fingers up her back and buried his hand in her hair, tangling his fingers into it. She did the same to his, playing with the trinkets in his dreadlocks. When he thrust his tongue into her mouth, she didn't refuse, but explored his mouth with her own.

Elizabeth felt Jack push her until she hit the west wall of the cabin, right by the door into the sleeping quarters. They stopped for a breath, but not for long. Jack flipped her hair off of her neck and nipped at her skin. Elizabeth whimpered quietly, then took hold of his face and brought his lips back to hers.

Jack surprised her when he moved his hands down her thigh and hitched her leg upon his hip. Elizabeth felt something rush through her and she started kissing him more urgently. She placed her hand on the opening of his shirt and caressed his skin. Her hat fell to the ground, unnoticed to Jack. Elizabeth didn't know why, but she really wanted to pick it back up.

Ignoring this silly urge, she continued to kiss this pirate who had done so many horrible things to her, not that she was any better. Jack let go of her leg and moved his fingers up to the buttons on her blouse. She knew she should be stopping him, but she couldn't. She wasn't even aware of what was going to happen. Each moment passed, one at a time.

"Cap'n!" Gibbs called, opening the door, most likely not at all expecting what he was about to see. Elizabeth pried her lips from Jack's mouth and turned her head to find his startled first mate standing in the doorway, face as red as a tomato. She practically jumped off of Jack, who leaned against the wall now with a giddy smile on his face. Elizabeth buttoned up her blouse and fetched her hat, returning it to her head.

Gibbs stood in silence, mouth hanging open, eyes blinking in astonishment. "I-I," he stuttered, "j-just wanted to report that..." He took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, Cap'n," he apologized, "but I seem to have forgotten." Elizabeth noticed then that she was holding her breath. She let out air and moved her eyes to Jack, who stood there with the same smile on his face. His first mate wriggled nervously in place and suggested, "I think I'll go now." "Please," Jack encouraged him. Gibbs turned and left.

Elizabeth ran to the door, but Jack blocked the exit with his body. "Where the hell are you going?" he asked. She replied, out of breath, "Away. You've got two days now. You still have to leave. This doesn't change anything." Even as she pushed him out of the way and finally left the cabin, she knew in her heart that that was a lie. This changed everything.