Author's note: Yes, I know! I haven't updated for ages. My excuse: I am just too damn lazy for anything good to come out of me (at least, that's what my mother always tells me)! But here it is now!
Chapter seven:
Will:
I saw a tear slip down Elizabeth's cheek when I was rowing us back to the shore. Victoria and Billy were quietly sitting, not daring to speak and she was looking back towards the Pearl.
We left Perla on the Pearl, funny as that sounds. Jack offered all of us to stay there over the night but we declined. We left Perla just because we would not be able to get her to our house unconscious, as she was. Jack promised to take care of her and escort her to our house the other day although I was pretty sure she is perfectly able to escort herself home and probably did just that many times before without us even suspecting.
He did complain about being a babysitter but I think he liked her because she was… well insane as he is. Yes, that is just one of the things they have in common. Apart from their craziness, attitude, looks and liking the same things, their trade mark is also their logic that leads them to pointless fights.
I knew they belong together (not in that way) and I knew Elizabeth knows too. Yes, we knew all about that even before but it was never so painfully clear than when we saw her in that outfit, stumbling drunkenly, fighting about rum.
When we came home Elizabeth strode into our bedroom without a word. I sighed and glanced at the children who were looking at the door their mother disappeared behind, with fear. I calmed them down and sent to play.
I went after Elizabeth. I quietly opened the door and sat down where she was lying on her stomach. I stroke her hair and she was quiet for a long time.
"She's my baby," she finally said.
"I know."
"I don't want to lose her."
"You won't lose her but we have to let her go."
"But I don't want to," she said fiercely and lifted her head.
"Liz, we have to tell her," I tried to reason her. I knew the best way to not lose Perla is to tell her the truth. But she had to hear it from us because I knew Perla for twelve years and was certain she will find out one way or another. She always does. And sometimes it seems she doesn't give a rat's ass abut emotions and all other teary stuff but her temper visibly flares when there is talk about her parents.
"No!"
"Liz…"
"Leave me alone!" I raised my hands and opened the door.
"Fine but you know I'm right." I heard something heavy hit the door after me.
I slept on the couch that night.
Jack:
Why? Oh why did I offer my bed to the lass? To the drunken, unconscious lass that I don't even like and have no intention to sleep with? I have no idea what got into me. It was out of my mouth before I could stop it. And the Turners surprisingly accepted my offer. I was wondering if they are insane or something. I'm a pirate! A PIRATE! They can't leave their daughter or whatever she is to them to a PIRATE!
Oh, well…
After they left, it was apparently up to me to get the girl to my cabin. So, I took her in my arms and tossed her over my shoulder. Her hat fell on the deck and her hair hit my back. I rolled my eyes.
"Andy! Bring the hat to my cabin! Otherwise she will make a big fuss about it!" I yelled. I still remembered her fight with Lizzie.
Sniggers of course followed me all the way to my cabin. I dropped her on my bed and looked at her. She was lying on her stomach with her face in the pillow. Her hair appeared like it didn't saw a comb for years although I knew Lizzie made her comb it just few hours prior. I sighed.
"She's going to suffocate," I thought and rolled her on the back. I couldn't even see her face since her hair was all over it. I pulled her up into a sitting position by her hand and shook her body so that curled mess of hair fell out of her face.
Someone coughed behind me. I turned around and scowled at the young lad with Perla's hat. He was staring at me strangely.
"What?" I barked. "Put the hat on the table!"
"Aye, Captain!" He did as he was told and I looked down again. The girl's face was still dirty.
"Hey, lad! Get this kohl off her face!"
"Me?" He sounded somewhat fearful.
"Do you see any other lad here right now?" I asked irritated.
"No but she can be very vengeful when someone touches her without her knowledge. I still remember what she did with that guy who smacked her arse." It was amusing me to no end that a grown up man was so scared of a little girl.
"So she wouldn't like you to touch her?"
"Not when she's asleep."
"Look, she won't wake up for hours and you're just going to wash her face. Sure a lady like her wouldn't want to be dirty."
"Aye, Captain," he said hesitantly with a painful look on his face. When I was almost at the door I heard him mutter: "Wouldn't want to be dirty my arse."
Yes, so it is that I happen to sit in my chair with my legs on the table and hat over my eyes while a lass with still dirty nose lies in my bed.
Perla:
I opened my eyes and shut them again immediately. A bright sun was glaring at my eyes and my head hurt like hell. I think I overreacted a bit with that rum. Wait a minute! Whose rum did I drink? And how did I come home? I forced my eyes open. I glanced around groaning.
"What the hell…?" I had no idea where I am. I lifted myself on my elbows. "Looks like a ship to me." When I saw empty rum bottles on the floor everything came back to me. "The Black Pearl! I'm on the Black Pearl," I realized.
I'll never drink that much rum again, I promised to myself. Never did I have such a strong hangover before.
"I need rum." Rum always helps my hangovers. I stood up forcefully. I still was in my, actually in Jack's clothes and my hat was on the table. I put it on the head so it shielded my eyes from the sun.
I slowly reached the drawers where I remembered the rum was stored. That was the last thing I remembered. I had no idea what I was doing after I went out of the cabin the previous day and no intentions to find out.
I opened the firs drawer but it was empty. Weird. I groaned and opened the next one. Empty. I was panicking now. I forcefully opened all the other drawers but they were all empty. Apparently someone replaced the rum.
"Bloody pirate!"
I stumbled out on the deck. My eyes were squinted. I was griping the railing and blindly looking for some rum. Of course I missed a step and fell on my face. God, it hurt! Why do I always fell? I shadow came upon me.
I opened my eyes and looked in a grinning face of Jack Sparrow. Is it necessary to grin so widely?
"Good morning, Sunshine!" he sang happily. "Feeling well?"
"I need rum!" I choked out.
"Don't you think you drank more than enough rum yesterday?" He didn't sound pleased. Actually, he sounded like a pissed off Elizabeth Turner. Is he actually scolding me? He's a pirate for heaven's sake! What's wrong with him?
"Rum. My head." I was staring pleadingly at him. He rolled his eyes.
"Alright, alright." He bent down and pulled me up by my arms. I leaned against his chest for a moment. An elder man was watching us curiously. I was trying to remember his name.
"Mr. Gibbs?" I asked. He nodded.
"Aye! That would be me, lass." I put on my best innocent face.
"Could you bring me some rum?" He looked at Jack who was still holding my arms.
"Aye, Gibbs! Bring her the bloody rum." I grinned weakly and pushed myself away from Jack. I leaned against the railing for support.
"So where did you learn to drink like that? You drank half of my stash. Most people wouldn't be walking after the first bottle." I think I heard a hint of admiration in his voice. And just to let you know; I didn't really drink half of his stash. I shrugged.
"You learn eventually. After throwing up enormous amounts of food and painful hangovers." He didn't really have to know about my sneaking out. He was friends with Willy and Lizzie after all. "That reminds me. Did I throw up last night?"
"You blacked out first," he told me with a smirk.
"Oh, good."
"Here you go, lassie," Mr. Gibbs announced and passed me my rum. I felt better right away and wanted more but Jack didn't want to hear anything about it so I went to bother the crew who eventually gave up and handed me the rum just to shut my mouth.
Jack wanted to take me back to the shore but I convinced him to let me spend the day on the ship. My eyes have this magic power on certain people.
Jack:
The lass is killing me. Her big eyes and cute little pout and I let her drink my rum, and let her stay on my loving Pearl and I didn't just say cute.
"Come on, Jack! Just a bit of rum. It won't kill me. Jack, please. Let me stay on the ship! I will be a good girl! You won't even notice me! Please!" I will be hearing these words in my head for the rest of my life. Like I don't have enough of my own jumbled thoughts. And she doesn't call me Captain!
Through the day she was stumbling more and more although I prohibited her to even smell my rum. But I couldn't accuse her of anything since I didn't actually catch her with a bottle. Plus, I was stumbling, too.
I got worried when I didn't see her on the deck for quite some time, so I went to find her. I found her in the galley sitting at the table and excitedly telling a story to the gathered crew who was listening intensely, their eyes following her wild hand gestures. In one hand she was holding a mug and the rum was spilling all over. I grinned. Now I have her!
"Ahem!" I announced my presence. All the heads turned towards me and she, instead of being embarrassed and trying to cover up, grinned and waved at me.
"Jack!" she exclaimed.
"Luv," I started, sounding like an old granny. "Are you drinking my rum, again?" She considerately looked from rum to me and to rum again and then her smile grew even wider.
"Yes, I am. Care to join us Jack?" she slurred.
"It's Captain!" I corrected her annoyed.
"I'll call you Captain when you call me Perla!" she stated boldly. I smirked.
"Alright, Perlita." Her eyes immediately became darker and downright scary.
"It's Perla." If she wouldn't be drunk, I would be intimidated by her voice. I saw some of the crew shifted nervously.
"Just like I said. Perlita!" She stood up and swayed slightly. "It seems to me, someone can't hold their drink."
"Are you saying you can hold your drink better than I do?" she asked, completely forgetting about our previous fight.
"Aye! That's what I'm saying."
"Fine! Bring it on!"
Yes, I was challenged into a drinking competition by a 16 year old girl and stupid as I am, I accepted.
Gibbs:
Our captain, stupid as he is, just got into a drinking competition with his only (as far as I know) daughter who is a minor and already drunk. Not to mention, he is too.
Of course she passed out first. She is still a girl and very young at that although she can hold her drink pretty well. If I just think of all the rum she drank today. What else could you expect from Jack's daughter?
Anyway, Jack did his victory dance; fell on his face and than decided he has to take the lass to his cabin. I would rather not go into the details about how he got her there! Let's just say both of them are going to have some painful bumps on their heads. I don't think either will remember who won the competition, tomorrow.
They really have the strangest father-daughter relationship. I still don't get it how they don't realize, they are father and daughter. I mean, even we, dirty, and stupid, drunk scoundrels know that. Are they really so blind? Or they just don't want to see it and especially don't want to deal with it?
Well, since our captain was out, his daughter too, we all went on the deck to drink ourselves senseless.
Will:
I hate to say it but my wife was a pain in the ass the whole day. She was worrying, pacing in circles and nagging me to go get Perla. Not to mention she was refusing to tell Perla who her father is. So, I was refusing to get her until she threatened me to sleep on the couch for eternity.
So, eventually I went to the Pearl. The crew was on the deck singing and drinking but Jack and Perla were nowhere in sight.
"Will?! Is that you?" Gibbs yelled.
"Aye, Mr. Gibbs. That would be me!"
"What a great surprise, young Mr. Turner. Come and have a drink," he invited me.
"No, no. I just came to get Perla. Elizabeth is going insane with worry," I told him. "And getting me along," I murmured. "So, where is she?" Gibbs shifted nervously.
"Ehem… Well, you see, lad… em…," he was stuttering. That was a bad sign.
"Oh, no! What happened? Is she still not sober from last time?" Gibbs was muttering something under his breath. "Come on, mate! Spill it," I encouraged him.
"Well, you see, she had sobered but she isn't sober anymore. And neither is Jack." I rolled my eyes.
"Bloody pirate. Liz is going to eat me alive." Gibbs laughed.
"Poor lad. But you shouldn't blame Jack, you know? He was trying to get her home and prevent her to drink but the lass has him wrapped around her little finger." I knew what he's talking about. "And then she challenged him to a drinking competition and he simply couldn't refuse."
"What?" I yelled. "He got into a drinking competition with his own daug…" I clapped my hand over my mouth. Big, bad mouth. Gibbs just patted my shoulder.
"Don't worry, Will. We all know she is his daughter. Except for them of course which is unbelievable. But they are a different species." I was shocked by this revelation but I guess it's pretty obvious.
"So, you all know she's his daughter?" I asked with a sigh.
"Will, it's practically impossible not to notice. Yesterday, when she came from Jack's cabin and fell on her nose, I even thought it's him." He was of course right.
"Can I at least see her to make sure she's still breathing?"
"Sure thing, lad. Come with me." I followed him to the Captain's quarters which were quiet and dark. There was just one weak light on the table. I squinted my eyes. The sight I saw was hilarious. Perla was lying diagonally on the bed in some weird position, only she can manage. She was on her stomach but her legs were somewhat twisted around and her arms were stretched, one hanging over the edge.
Jack was also on the bed or more precisely, his upper body was. His legs were on the floor. His face was next to Perla's feet, resting on one of her boots. It seemed to me he just pulled her boot off and then fell asleep.
"Well, it seems Perla will be fine but Jack might suffocate on her boot," I stated with a grin upon my face. Gibbs chuckled.
"Aye. Just wait till they wake up. There will be hell to pay."
"I won't be here to be a random target, though." Yes, I was extremely glad, I don't live on that ship at that moment because Jack won't be nice with a major hangover and my adoptive daughter will be even more not nice.
Gibbs eventually managed to convince me to share a drink with them and I found I way home with great difficulty.
When I stumbled through the door, I was once more a target of Liz's wrath. I think is no necessity to mention I slept on the couch for the second night in a row.
