(A/N: This is just a sort of filler chapter, to kind of transition from Pirates 1 to Pirates 2. It's just Jack and Elizabeth sort of thinking about each other at the beginning of Dead Man's Chest - not when they're together, though. I felt like it was necessary for a segue between the two movies, and this was a particularly good scene for that. A few changes in it now!)
Finding Jack
From Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, when Elizabeth is stuck in prison, and Jack is almost 'freed from his human form' by the Pelagostos cannibal tribe.
Elizabeth leaned her forehead on the bars imprisoning her as the sound of her fiancé's footsteps died away in the distance. She wished with all her might she could go with him as well, but Lord Cutler Beckett had stuck her behind bars, for helping a good man escape hanging.
She knew that lawfully, her actions were wrong, but morally, they couldn't be more right. Despite all his faults (and Jack had plenty), he was a good man. Elizabeth inherently believed that. And she could no longer imagine a world where he did not exist. Therefore, it had seemed the most natural thing in the world to aid Will in freeing Jack.
The prisoner in the next cell stretched out his hand in her direction. "'Ello, sweetheart," he grinned toothily at her. She stared at him in disgust and scooted away as far as she could.
That was one thing to be said for Jack Sparrow. He didn't try to take advantage of women – or at least, she had never seen him do so, despite all Will's tales about women slapping him every time he met them. Well, she supposed she could believe some of the tales - Jack was by no means a saint. But she had long ago decided that most of him - maybe fifty-five, sixty percent of him - was good.
She had once told him that she wasn't sure she trusted him, and he had replied that they were peas in a pod. She hadn't fully understood his meaning at the time. In fact, she still didn't fully understand it. But she felt that it had something to do with the times she did something that her father wouldn't approve of, something perhaps even Will might not like, but Jack would encourage her doing. It was those times, that she felt more alike to him than to anyone else in the world, more alike than the closest pair of twins - not that she'd ever tell anybody.
But she knew for certain that he was a good man, underneath all the piracy. Wasn't she proof of that? She would be dead twice over - once from nearly drowning, once from nearly being shot - had it not been for Jack. Wait, make that thrice over - there was also the time during the fight when he had prevented that man from bonking her on the head. And, though he had had plenty of opportunities to do so, he had never taken advantage of her. Even when she had only been wearing a flimsy underdress. And she supposed she could see how some women might be attracted to him - all he needed was a good bath, and he might actually look quite decent, Elizabeth mused.
All of a sudden, an image of Jack Sparrow, tidied up, wearing a crisp white shirt and a blue jacket, his black hair neatly tied back, boots shined and glossy, floated in front of Elizabeth's eyes. It looked good, Elizabeth had to admit, but something was not right with the picture. This was a gentleman who just happened to look like Jack Sparrow, not the real pirate himself.
The picture shifted - it was still Jack, but in his usual pirate garb, rattling with his 'effects', as his worn but sturdy black boots stood planted firmly on the mast of a ship with sails as black as Jack's braids flying out in the wind as he looked out toward some unknown destination. Something about it made Elizabeth's breath catch for a moment, before she came to her senses and blinked the image away.
It didn't matter how Jack looked, Elizabeth reasoned, just so long as Will found him as soon as possible. Elizabeth knew what a hard task Will had before him. Last they'd heard, he had fallen off a wall - ironically, the same wall Elizabeth had fallen off of and had needed Jack to rescue her - and headed off somewhere. For a pirate, the whole world was a playground. Jack could be anywhere, from England to India – perhaps even China, for all they knew.
Looking wistfully out the bars on the jail cell, Elizabeth wished with all her heart that she could sail away like that someday. Just to be free, not cooped up here like some sort of sick pigeon. She once again sent up a desperate plea for Will and Jack to come back now.
But Elizabeth knew they'd come through, sooner or later. Both Will and Jack. She'd told Will that, and she fiercely believed it to be true. Jack would help Will save her from the gallows. What she didn't believe, although she longed to believe it, was that Jack would simply hand over the compass to Will. If it was so important that it always hung somewhere on his person, there was going to be a catch. She hoped that, whatever it was, it wouldn't take too long.
Looking up, Elizabeth saw the convict on her other side leering at her, and she quickly moved to the center of her cell, curling her hands around her knees, which were shivering from the cold.
Oh, yes. Jack Sparrow had better come soon. If she died from the very gallows they had saved him from, she would make sure her troubled spirit plagued him forevermore.
...
Jack heard the drums getting louder. The hunting party was approaching – with the rum he had ordered them to bring, he hoped. He opened his eyes to see the cannibals bring him – a man hanging from a pole? No, wait. A eunuch hanging from a pole.
Said eunuch groggily opened his eyes, and peered at Jack for a moment. Quite slow, the boy was, Jack though. But he finally recognized Jack, and immediately cried out, "Jack? Jack Sparrow! I can honestly say I'm glad to see you!"
Now what did that mean? Jack wondered, feeling a little miffed. As though anyone wouldn't be glad to see Jack!
Jack got up from his throne, and slowly walked up to Will Turner, and poked his shoulder experimentally. He had to put on an act for the cannibals, who considered him a god trapped in human form, but he also wanted to see whether the whelp was really there, and not some strange hallucination caused by rum deprivation. Last he'd heard, he and that girl of his were planning to get married.
As he walked towards the chief of the cannibals, he heard the boy yell behind him, "Jack! It's me! Will Turner!" as though Jack had ever forgotten a name or a face in his life.
He asked the chief where they had found him, quite thankful they thought his atrocious accent was just another part of his godly powers. The chief replied that they had caught the boy in the forest, with no idea how he'd gotten to the island. It was their gift to him, his last human feast before they returned him to his godly form.
"Tell them to let me down!" Will hollered in the background, being of absolutely no use, as usual.
Jack pretended to be disgusted with the gift, saying it looked undernourished and frankly, too tough to digest. He went over to Will, pretending to look closer, and added truthfully that he looked too much like a eunuch for his liking, making snipping motions with his hand to illustrate his point.
To give credit where credit was due, the Pelagostos cannibal tribe was quite understanding of everything Jack said, and tried to do whatever he asked. Too bad they wouldn't offer the same courtesy if he explained he was mortal.
"Jack! The compass!" Will cried suddenly. "That's all I need, Elizabeth is in danger!" Jack pricked up his ears at Elizabeth's name. Why did the whelp always come to him for help in rescuing his own damsel in distress? Especially when said damsel rarely ever seemed to need help, if Jack remembered rightly.
"We were arrested for trying to help you, she faces the gallows!" Will continued. Oh, so they were trying to palm this one off on him, were they? Well, he hadn't forced them to help him escape! Although to be fair, the alternative seemed quite bleak in retrospect.
Well, all right, maybe he did owe them. And the gallows did seem quite harsh a punishment for so little a crime. And maybe he could help Will with his mission – but he would have to see about giving the boy his compass, unhelpful though it may be at present. The compass was important to Jack, and quite frankly, he did not trust the whelp with it.
Still, if anyone was to help anyone, they first needed to get off this island. He turned back to the chief, and told him to put the boy with the other crewmembers. The boy was sharp when he wasn't being bothered by things like honor and decency, Jack had to admit, and with his brain and the crew's willing hands, they should be able to find a way to escape. And when they do, Will, if not Gibbs, would see to it that the first thing they do is rescue Jack.
"Save me!" he quickly whispered at the confused Will, as the villagers hauled him off, protesting.
Jack sat back on his throne and wished for some rum. Somehow, rum always seemed to straighten things out. In the case of Captain Jack Sparrow, and yes, sometimes even in the case of Miss Elizabeth Swann, rum always helped.
(A/N: I know, the ending's kinda abrupt, and this chapter doesn't have that much Sparrabeth in it. But I kinda figured it would be kinda choppy if I just jump to the Tortuga scene without some kind of transition...the scene in Tortuga where Elizabeth and Jack meet is coming up next, hopefully. Leave me a review if there's anything special you want me to include! - or even better, just leave me a review!)
