So here's the thing, I posted this chapter, even though I don't really like it as much as the first three…I just wasn't really happy with the way it turned out…but maybe that's just me…I dunno. But if anybody has any suggestions on how to improve the chapter, please let me know. If you don't want to post them as a review, then feel free to email me with them! :D
On with the show, I guess! :D
"Here they come," Will informed Jack and Ryleigh. The Interceptor had started toward the trio aboard the Dauntless and was quickly gaining on them.
Jack grinned back at the Interceptor - his plan was coming together - while Ryleigh grinned at Jack. In Ryleigh's opinion, Jack always had the best plans, the ones that were the most fun - escaping Port Royal under a row boat, for example.
The Interceptor quickly approached the Dauntless and Jack ordered Ryleigh and Will to get out of sight. He followed Ryleigh behind a stack of crates on the deck, and Will, after finding no other hiding place, followed, ducking behind the crates just in time.
"Let's go," Jack whispered as the Royal Navy began to pour onto the ship. He lead the way toward a trio of ropes on the Dauntless that they could use to swing onto the Interceptor. Commodore Norrington's men swarmed the ship searching for Jack, Ryleigh and Will, as the Commodore himself shouted out orders.
"Now!" Jack whispered sharply as the last of the Royal Navy men boarded the Dauntless. The three grabbed the ropes and swung onto the Interceptor, then cut the ropes connecting the two ships and pushed the planks overboard.
Ryleigh chuckled as she heard Norrington order his men back to the Interceptor. I guess he knows what we're up to now! she thought to herself. She had a hard time containing her laughter when she saw a man try to swing back to the Interceptor, only to fall into the ocean.
"Thank you, Commodore, for getting us ready to make way. We'd have a hard time of it by ourselves," Jack shouted back to Norrington.
"Oh Jack!" Ryleigh exclaimed between the fits of laughter she was now allowing to break through. "Let's do that again! The look on Norrington's face was priceless!"
"Liked that one, did ya love?" he asked with a smirk.
"Aye," she chuckled. Her laughter was dying down now, and after it had ceased completely, Ryleigh asked, "we headed for Tortuga?"
"Aye."
Ryleigh arched an eyebrow and smirked at Jack. "Wonder how long it'll take 'em to realize we've disabled the rudder chain?"
"They must've figured it out by now, love," he snickered.
Silence reigned between the two for what seemed like forever until Ryleigh decided to break it. "Jack?" she called softly as she placed her hand on one of the pegs extending from the wheel.
Without turning his head to face her, he subconsciously moved his hand over a peg to rest on Ryleigh's. "Aye, love?"
"I really have missed you - missed sailing with you!" she exclaimed quietly, gesturing to encompass the ship.
"Me too, love," he confessed just as quietly, turning to stare into her eyes. "Me too."
"Jack I - ," Ryleigh began to whisper.
"When I was a lad living in England," Will began as he came up the steps, interrupting their reverie, "my mother raised me by herself. After she died, I came out here, looking for my father."
Ryleigh and Jack groaned simultaneously, and Ryleigh moved away from Jack to help crew the ship. "Is that so?" Jack asked, clearly not happy.
That kid has lousy timing, Ryleigh thought to herself, shaking her head as she descended the steps. She decided to busy herself close enough to Jack and Will that she could hear what was being said.
"My father, Will Turner," Will started. "At the jail, it was only after you learned my name that you agreed to help. Since that's what I wanted, I didn't press the matter." Will paused for a moment - probably for effect, Ryleigh thought with a smirk - then continued, "I'm not a simpleton, Jack. You knew my father."
"Aye, I knew him. Probably one the few who knew him as William Turner. Everyone else just called him Bootstrap or Bootstrap Bill," Jack replied, his manner now completely serious as he talked to the boy about his father.
Jack must have been good friends with this 'Bootstrap Bill,' Ryleigh thought. She continued to fiddle with some ropes and listen to what was being said.
"Bootstrap?" Will echoed.
"Good man. Good pirate," Jack informed him. "I swear you look just like him." From Jack's point of view, he was complimenting the boy and honouring the memory of his father.
Will, however, didn't see it that way. He didn't even seem to hear Jack say he looked like his father. "It's not true! My father was a sailor on a merchant ship, a good, respectable man who obeyed the law!" He didn't seem to happy about his father being a pirate, in fact, he was denying it completely.
"He was a bloody pirate! A scallywag!" Jack exclaimed, trying to get it through to the kid.
"My father was not a pirate!" Will said menacingly as he pulled his sword on Jack.
"Put it away, son," Jack told him, a complete lack of concern in his voice and manner. In fact, Jack wasn't even facing him, he was just staring off into the horizon. "It's not worth you getting beat again."
"You didn't beat me, you ignored the rules of engagement," Will replied. "In a fair fight, I'd kill you." There was no fear in his demeanor, Will truly believed that he could beat Jack in a 'fair fight.'
"Then that's no incentive for me to fight fair, is it?" Jack asked, stating the obvious as he turned to face him. Then, without warning, Jack sharply turned the wheel his hands and the sail flew toward Will, knocking him over the edge of the ship. Will hung over the water, stubbornly trying to pull himself onto the sail. "Now, as long as you're just hanging there pay attention. The only rules that really matter are these: what a man can do and what a man can't do. For instance, you can accept that your father was a pirate and a good man, or you can't. But pirate is in your blood, boy, so you'll have to square with that someday." He paused a moment to let that sink in. "And me, for example, I can let you drown, but I can't bring this ship into Tortuga all by me onesies, savvy?"
"Hey!" Ryleigh exclaimed, finally deciding to throw her two cents in. "In case you've forgotten, Jack, I've made quite the name for myself as a sailor!"
"So sorry, love," he apologized. "We can't bring this ship into Tortuga," he amended. Upon seeing Ryleigh's satisfied smirk, he continued, "so," the sail swung back over the ship and Will dropped onto the deck, "can you sail under the command of a pirate or can you not?" He offered Will a sword, which Will took hesitantly.
"Tortuga?" Will asked.
"Tortuga," Jack confirmed with a wide grin.
Ryleigh smiled fondly at the mention of Tortuga, thinking of the first time she had met Jack all those years ago. "Tortuga," she whispered.
