A/N hope you like it.
Hope crossed her arms over her chest and gave Jack a skeptical look. The two of them were standing in the bar that Jack had left her in previously, and Jack was staring at the floor sheepishly while Hope tried to wiggle an explanation out of him.
"So you're telling me that you were chased down the street by a load of men with sharp swords threatening to kill you unless you paid them back for…"
"For all the rum I've drunken in their bars that went unpaid." Jack cut in.
"Right, and then you finally called a truce and gave them all the money in your pouch." Hope said.
"Yes."
"And the money in your pouch happened to be exactly the right amount that you needed?"
Jack hesitated. "Yes…" he said finally.
"And they took your pouch too?" Hope said, still staring at him skeptically.
Jack sighed. "Look, I'm telling the truth!"
She put a hand on her forehead. "I never said that you weren't telling the truth, Jack. But this turn of events doesn't make anything any easier."
Jack thought about this for a moment. "Why do we need that money? You weren't thinking of paying Luna to get your ship back? With my money?"
"Of course not, Jack."
"Right, so I don't see how this matters."
Hope looked at him for another moment, and then shook her head. "Let's go, I don't want to stay here any longer. Is your ship ready to leave?"
"Yes, but where are we going?"
Hope was already halfway to the door, and she glanced back at him momentarily, gesturing for him to follow her down to the docks.
"I know what Luna wants. She needs me because I am the only one that knows where it is."
"But that doesn't change the fact that we have no idea where she is. And where is the profit in this for me?"
Hope searched his face for a moment. "I promise you there will be a reward, if all goes well."
They had come to the Pearl. Jack climbed aboard first, with Hope following.
"Well, welcome to the Pearl, Captain Hope. Obviously you know more than you let on about Luna, so I suppose you will do all of the navigation and planning… does that mean that my only part in this plan is for the transportation? I take you where you need to go, and then get my reward?"
"Unfortunately yes." Hope said, looking around, her gaze falling on the helm and then quickly shifting to the cabins when she noticed Jack watching her with interest. "Um… where shall I be staying?"
Jack thought about this for a moment. "You could share the captain's quarters with me, or…" He noticed the look she was giving him when he said this, and quickly changed this sentence. "Or, you could have the captain's quarters and I will take the spare cabin." Hope looked slightly amused, but she wasn't smiling.
"I'll be in the captain's quarters, then, while I get settled. Leave this port and I'll be up there soon to tell you where to go."
Jack shrugged. "Okay. Just… um, stay out of my desk. And my rum." Hope nodded and headed downstairs.
She hesitated before opening the door to his quarters…the last time she had been in someone else's captain's quarters, it had been her brothers. That had not gone well.
She was startled when she heard the faintest noise from behind the door. Was there someone else in there? Who was it? She opened the door quietly and slowly, trying not to make any noise, but when she got in, she was relieved, and breathed a sigh of relief. There was nobody in this room. She stepped forward and took off her boots quickly, lying back on the bed and closing her eyes for a moment. She breathed in the scent of this room, and first caught the scent of the salty air coming in through the open window, and then another, fouler smell, which she didn't want to know where it was from. But she was curious, and on second sniff, she knew what it was.
A sweaty, humid smell, that had come to her only once before. This smell brought painful memories to the surface, and she desperately shoved them down.
It was the bed. Now that she knew what the smell was, she was quite disgusted. How many women had Jack had his way with on this bed? She sprang off the bed and stared at it for a moment, before reaching down and ripping the sheets off of it. All of them, even the pillowcase on the pillow, until nothing was left but the bare mattress and pillow.
The sheets were black. Of course, she thought to herself. The Black Pearl… how typical. There was nothing truly wrong with them, but that smell was invading her mind, driving her crazy. She stared at the sheets for a moment, just wadded up there on the floor, and then decided she would ask Jack about different sheets.
And if they didn't have any, she would sleep without sheets. She wouldn't sleep on those sheets… She couldn't.
A coughing noise from behind her made her turn around suddenly. She looked around to see where it was coming from… but there was nothing behind her but the bed.
She dropped down to the floor and looked under the large bed, peering into the darkness.
And she could swear she saw eyes.
She was startled by the fierce green eyes staring back at her, and she leapt up from the floor and looked back at the bed for another moment before turning around to get Jack.
But he was already there, standing right behind her.
"How long have you been there?" She asked him carefully.
"I just came in a few seconds ago. You look like you've seen a ghost. What's wrong? And why are my sheets on the floor?"
"I don't like them." Hope said firmly. "They… I don't like them. And…" She leaned closer to Jack. "You have some something under your bed. A pet of some sort, or is it a stowaway?"
Jack was frowning. He took a few silent steps toward the bed, and then very suddenly and quietly dropped down beside it and looked under.
"Come out of there right now." He said quietly to whatever was under the bed.
Both Hope and Jack gaped at the person who slid out from under the bed. It was a woman with dark brown curls and green eyes, and only lightly tanned skin. She jingled heavily when she moved, and Jack grabbed her arm and dragged her off the floor quickly when he saw her.
Her eyes grew large when she set her eyes on him, and for a moment the three people in the room were all wide eyed and staring at each other, until Jack broke the silence.
"I'll be having my money back now."
