A/N: Here's chapter four, in which Jack really pushes his luck.
This one is just for fun, folks. It doesn't really advance the plot much, but it's all Jack and Liz interaction and was therefore a blast to write.
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
"So, you're the Captain Jack Sparrow?"
Elizabeth fought the urge to roll her eyes. It was the crew's first evening aboard the Enduring Dawn and all had gathered below deck for supper. As she'd hoped, the crew accepted her disguise as a young man without question. As far as they knew, she was Eddie Turner, a sixteen-year-old boy new to life at sea. "Eddie" was currently wedged on a hard wooden bench between Jack and the pirate who asked the previous question.
"In the flesh!" Jack replied with a self-satisfied grin. "…Trevor is it?"
Trevor nodded. He had the leathery, wind-beaten face of a man twice his age, but his youthful excitement shone through his eyes, which were currently wide and fixed on Jack.
"The same Jack Sparrow who defeated an army of cursed pirates?" Trevor asked in awe, leaning in front of Elizabeth to get a better look at Jack.
"The one an' only," Jack replied.
Elizabeth saw several heads turn in Jack's direction and she braced herself for the inevitable.
"Will you tell us about it, Captain? We've asked Anamaria to tell the tale before, but she's less than eager to talk about… well, you," Trevor finished, glancing nervously at his captain.
There it was. Elizabeth had known it was coming. Jack absolutely lived for any opportunity to inflate the legend behind his name. So of course he made no effort to hide his delight at Trevor's request. Abandoning his meal, Jack leaned back from the table to address the room at large.
"So you'd like to hear the daring tale of how Captain Jack Sparrow lost the Black Pearl to the unscrupulous Hector Barbossa, only to meet with his mutinous and accursed crew ten years later and win back his ship?" Jack asked, savoring each word as it left his lips.
As a chorus of "Aye!"s rang out, Anamaria noisily pushed back her chair.
"If you'll excuse me, I've just lost me appetite," she declared.
"Didn' realize you 'ad such a delicate disposition, Captain," Jack commented innocently.
"Aye. It usually rears its ugly 'ead when somebody tries to force feed me a load of—"
"Ana!" Jack interrupted. "There are young ears present!"
To emphasize his point, Jack pressed his hands over Elizabeth's ears and shook his had chidingly at the ship's captain. The men laughed heartily. Anamaria responded by cuffing Jack on the back of the head as she passed him on her way out of the room. Jack barely flinched. Casually removing his hands from Elizabeth's ears, he went on with his act.
"I assume you all know how the story begins," Jack said, surveying his eager audience. "The Pearl was on her way to recover the legendary Aztec treasure of Isla de Muerta—"
"The Island of Death," the pirate with the black face tattoos whispered.
"Aye, excellent translating skills, mate!" Jack commended him. "As you know, I'm sure, I was approached by my treacherous first mate, who asked me to share the bearings to the island with me crew. Well of course, bein' a fair and proper captain, I agreed."
Trevor nodded enthusiastically along with a few other men in company.
"You know, then, that I soon found meself sittin' on the shore of a deserted island with naught but a pistol and a single shot, watching the slimy rat sail away with my ship."
Elizabeth saw Jack's eyes change for a moment. Normally glinting with mirth or mischief, they suddenly grew cold. It was as if he was somehow seeing the Pearl sail away all over again.
"How did you get off the island?" Trevor asked, breaking Jack out of his trance.
Just like that, the sparkle was back in his eyes. Elizabeth listened with amused exasperation as he told a tale with more fantastical embellishments than the version she'd heard from Will years ago. It involved not only sea turtles, but also a friendly dolphin and an enchanted mermaid.
"And so I made me way safely back to civilization," Jack concluded. "But the same could not be said for Barbossa and his gang of traitorous swine. For while they had their treasure, they had no idea that the gold they spent with such reckless abandon was costing them more than they could ever gain."
"The curse," Trevor said breathlessly.
He had style; Elizabeth had to give him that much. She couldn't help but smile at the entranced expressions of the men surrounding them. Jack looked past Elizabeth and caught Trevor's eye. With a solemn nod, he continued.
"Aye, the curse. Imagine, if you will, bein' on the very brink of thirst and starvation but neither food nor drink can end your sufferin'. Imagine bein' consumed by lust but unable to find release. Imagine, friends, that whenever the moon's silvery beams land on your face, your flesh rots away, leavin' behind only the skeletal remains of the man you once were."
A low murmur of apprehension went through the crowd. Jack waited until it died down into an eerie silence. Even Elizabeth found herself silently reliving the terror she felt the first time she watched Barbossa's outstretched fingertips glide forward into the moonlight.
"Doesn't sound very nice at all, does it?" Jack asked cheekily, breaking the mood.
A couple of the men let out shaky laughs, trying to leave behind the unease that had momentarily overcome them.
"Sounds terrible," the man with the face tattoos agreed. "How did you defeat them and win back the Pearl?"
Jack held up a hand in admonishment.
"Let's not skip ahead," he gently rebuked the eager pirate. "The second part of our story, which begins ten years after my unwarranted and malicious marooning, all starts because of a girl."
Elizabeth felt her heart speed up. She had failed until now to appreciate just how prominent a role she would play in Jack's retelling.
"The governor's daughter! That was the lady, wasn't it, Captain?" Trevor asked.
Elizabeth bitterly wondered why Trevor needed to hear Jack's story if he seemed to know it so well.
"The governor's daughter she was," Jack said with a sly smile. "But I can assure you all that she was no lady."
Raucous laughter filled the air, and Elizabeth whipped her head to the side to fix Jack with a venomous glare.
"Confused, Eddie?" Jack asked her sweetly. "Don't worry. A few more months of pillaging and you'll have met your share of questionable women." He jerked his thumb at her and spoke to the rest of the crew as if she wasn't there. "Such an innocent young scamp. He'll learn soon enough, right gents?"
Another roar of laughter filled Elizabeth's ears, and she felt her face grow hot, not with embarrassment but with fury. So this was how Jack was going to portray her? Without fully realizing what she was doing, her hand slipped beneath the table and found Jack's thigh.
His laughter immediately ceased and he looked down at her in shock, although he was clearly amused. Elizabeth had not meant it to be an intimate gesture, but rather a warning. In an effort to wipe the smile from his lips, she dug her nails through the cotton of Jack's trousers until they found flesh.
Jack yelped, although the sound was covered by the crew's laughter. He seemed to get the hint, since he cleared his throat and continued his story without further calling her virtue into question.
She listened as he led the crew through his story. Their story, she supposed, although he was unable to elaborate much on anything that happened to her when he wasn't present. He left out, for example, her entire experience being kidnapped from Port Royal and brought to Isla de Muerta. Additionally, in his version of events Will was portrayed as impetuous and naïve, foiling Jack's brilliant plans time and time again. He had just finished telling the crew about another one of Will's blunders: his hasty deal with Barbossa to let Elizabeth go free.
"Of course, the shortsighted whelp failed to stipulate when or where his dearest love should be released," Jack explained to the crew.
The men groaned, and Elizabeth felt her ire rise in defense of her husband.
"So out goes the plank, and off goes said damsel and yours truly. An' the only spot of land to swim to was none other than the very same island on which I'd been marooned a decade before."
Some of the crew swore under their breath. Others shook their heads in commiseration. Jack gave them time to register their sympathy before he went on.
"So there we were; the roguish pirate captain and the fiery young maid wearing naught but a thin shift, alone on the same deserted island."
Elizabeth froze as the implications of his phrasing hit her. It hit the crew at the same moment, but they were not quiet in their realization.
"Bet she wasn't a maid for long!" the man with the long scar shouted with an ugly and devilish grin.
As the resulting roar of whistles and laughter escaped the crew's lips, Elizabeth snapped out of her shock. She reached out for Jack's leg once more, but he was ready for her this time. His own hand intercepted hers under the table, snatching it before she could cause him further injury with her nails. He laced his fingers through hers and squeezed tight enough that she could not remove her hand from his grip.
Unable to rely on discreet violence to silence him, Elizabeth spoke up for the first time since Jack began his tale.
"Surely she remained true to the blacksmith," Elizabeth said over the catcalls of the crew. "She was raised in proper society, after all."
The crew made their displeasure at this objection known with a chorus of boos. Elizabeth ignored them and pinned Jack with a firm but entreating gaze. It was time for him to defend her honor. Surely he had enough decency not to lie outright about this with her sitting right next to him.
"Sweet, naïve Eddie. So young. So inexperienced," Jack said patronizingly. The crew chuckled. "It doesn't matter how well the girl was raised. I'm Captain Jack Sparrow, mate! She didn't stand a chance."
The crew cheered loudly and Elizabeth tried to wrench her hand from Jack's grasp. His hold was firm, however, and she succeeded only in banging their clasped hands against the underside of the table. Luckily, the motion went unnoticed by the crew, who might have found it a bit suspicious that Jack Sparrow was secretly holding hands with a young boy under their dinner table.
"On our first night alone, I started a roaring fire on the beach. But its warmth wasn't enough for this insatiable lass, was it?" Jack asked.
A chorus of "No!"s erupted from the crowd. Jack grinned, ignoring (or perhaps enjoying) the way that Elizabeth was still struggling to free herself from his grasp.
"Dear Miss Swann sidles up to Ol' Jack like…"
Jack paused for a moment, trying to find the proper words to describe what Elizabeth had supposedly done. After a moment, he turned to Elizabeth as if she'd just presented him with a fascinating idea.
"Eddie, surely you wouldn't mind playing the role of the passionate damsel for my demonstration, would you lad?" he asked pleasantly.
A few men, Trevor included, snickered good-naturedly at the thought of this prepubescent teenager playing a lady.
"I don't think—" Elizabeth began to grit out, but before she could finish Jack had slipped his hand out of hers and wrapped his arm around her shoulders.
"I'm not pickin' on you for bein'… underdeveloped, I assure you, boy. You'll soon be able to grow whiskers with the best of us," he pretended to reassure her, stroking his own beard with his free hand. "You just happen to be the closest body."
Realizing that fighting Jack would only unnecessarily raise suspicions, Elizabeth permitted him to tug her close until her head fell against his chest. She pursed her lips and looked up to the ceiling, silently praying to some unseen power to give her the strength to make it through this without killing the man beside her.
"Much obliged," Jack whispered in her ear. She let out an involuntary huff, but restrained herself from doing anything further. With her body nestled into the space between his arm and his chest and her head resting beneath his collarbone, she was unable to see his face, but she knew that he was smirking.
"As I was sayin'," Jack continued loudly enough for the crew to hear. "She rests her head on me chest and looks up at me with tha' innocent longin' in her eyes."
He tilted his head down and addressed her again.
"Now lad, if you'll play the role properly. The girl was gazin' up at me," he said expectantly.
He paused and waited for her to comply. Stiffly, Elizabeth tilted her chin up until her eyes met his. As she'd expected, they were positively sparkling with amusement. She made her displeasure known with a firmly furrowed brow.
"So overcome with lust was she that I thought she might faint straight away," Jack continued.
He was speaking to the crew, but his eyes were still fixed on her. Taunting her. Daring her to contradict him. Elizabeth couldn't help herself any longer.
"It's a wonder that your breath didn't accomplish that first," she hissed.
The crew chuckled, but to her dismay Jack did the same. Her head bounced on his chest a bit as he laughed.
"Ah, Eddie, I wouldn't expect a strapping young lad such as yourself to understand the effect that Captain Jack Sparrow can have on the ladies. But I can assure you, the beautiful Miss Swann had no qualms tha' night."
The man with the face tattoo let out an appreciative whistle, and Jack chuckled again before continuing his tale.
"So then Miss Swann turns to me and she says …"
Jack paused for a moment.
"Well, Eddie, if you wouldn't mind deliverin' the dialogue so long as you're playin' the part so well already," he said, his smile promising trouble.
Jack leaned in close, and Elizabeth felt the hair of his beard against her cheek. When he whispered the words that she was to repeat, all thoughts of maintaining the illusion of her disguise flew from her mind.
"I will not!" she exclaimed.
She attempted to pull away, but Jack gripped her tighter.
"Come now, boy. It's all in fun," Jack announced.
Some of the crew laughed and offered 'Eddie' words of encouragement and promises that the display would not be held against him.
"Wouldn't want to cause a fuss, darlin'," Jack whispered.
Elizabeth clenched her fists so tightly that she nearly drew blood from her palms. Then, looking at him with a glare that promised retribution, she determinedly kept her voice in a disinterested monotone as she recited her line.
"Captain Sparrow, it's so dreadfully lonely on this isle. Can you offer me no comfort on this frightful night?"
The crowd exploded in approval.
"I won't make you demonstrate what happened next, Eddie," Jack said suggestively.
Perhaps Jack had realized that he'd pushed his luck about as far as it would take him tonight, for he loosened his hold on Elizabeth and allowed her to pull away. She did so with a violent jerk, and continued to glower at him as he addressed the crew once more.
"As I'm sure you can imagine, mates, I couldn't very well refuse such a desperate plea from so lovely a girl."
Elizabeth could not hear the delight of Jack's audience over the deep roar of blood pounding in her ears.
"I'll leave the gory details to your imaginations," Jack continued, much to the dismay of the crew. "Skippin' along, the next morning…"
Elizabeth barely listened to the rest of the tale. Her thoughts were centered only on what retribution would suit Jack's transgression. She invented a hundred possibilities, imagining each in great detail.
She considered simply slapping him, but he would expect that, of course. She deliberated coming up with some way of embarrassing him in front of the crew, but he was infuriatingly difficult to embarrass. She could deliver some sort of scathing diatribe against him, but he would probably just twist it around into a warped compliment.
It seemed to Elizabeth that Jack would be expecting a heated and hysterical response. Indeed, the sight of her confronting him, flustered and enraged, would most likely bring him delight rather than regret. No, the best response would be strong, composed, and to the point.
Apparently she had spent more time ruminating on her reprisal than she realized, because the next thing Elizabeth knew, the entire crew was applauding.
"So I escaped the hangman's noose, and swam to the Pearl, where I was pulled on deck by me newly faithful crew. And I sailed off into the horizon."
Jack finished on a wistful note, staring off into the darkened corners of the Enduring Dawn to relive the moment.
"And what of Davy Jones?" Trevor asked. "Folks are saying that you defeated him."
Jack surveyed his audience carefully, giving everyone a cunning smile that told them all that not only was this rumor true, but that there was an equally fantastic story behind it.
"Aye, that I did," he admitted. "But I think I've talked enough for one evening. Tha' tale is a long one, and it's best saved for another night."
Trevor's smile faded, but only for a moment. Soon everyone was talking at once, some leaving the table to discuss at length the story they had just heard, others staying back to finish the food on their plates as they chatted.
Elizabeth slowly turned to face Jack, her expression void of the anger she was sure he'd been expecting. Jack smiled and tilted his head to the side.
"Now then, that was fun, wasn't it? You didn't take any of it too personally, I hope," he said quietly enough that only she could hear him.
"Quite the contrary, Jack," Elizabeth said with all the confidence she could muster. "I found it to be such a fanciful work of fiction that I could scarcely recognize myself in it."
Jack seemed a bit taken aback by her dismissive response.
"Aye, well… Glad to hear it," he said cautiously.
Elizabeth stood, carefully extricating herself form the table.
"I'm off to see if there's anything Anamaria needs before I turn in," she said casually.
Before leaving, however, she brought her lips down so that they hovered an inch from Jack's ear.
"Oh, and Jack?" she whispered. "If your next storytelling venture is as creative with the character of Miss Swann as this one was, the fingernails that were digging into your thigh will find their target a few inches below your belt. And instead of fingernails, it'll be my knife."
She pulled away to see him frown in a manner that communicated either confusion or alarm. Either way, she was satisfied.
"Savvy?" she added in a louder tone of voice.
Jack turned and met her gaze with a smile. If she didn't know better, she'd say he looked almost proud.
"Entirely," he replied.
And with that, she left.
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
End Notes: Nine out of ten doctors recommend reviewing my fic! And that statistic was not at all invented in my head… Click that little button!
