"Anne, what should I do?"
Sitting on the corner of Jack's desk at about midnight, Anne poured rum into a glass and sipped it as if it were fine wine.
"You should stop pacing and get some sleep."
He sighed and managed to sit down, pulling a die from his pocket and turning it round and round, biting the nails on his free hand.
"You realize, don't you Jack, that you are completely incapable of sitting still? What is it you think you should do?"
"I don't know! I TOLD her not to get pregnant. I don't care that they were married. I wasn't concerned with legitimacy. I was concerned with keeping the ship childfree, and with keeping the crew unaware of Read's gender. Now what am I to do? Put her off, pregnant with no means of surviving? Keep her on and have the crew riot at the presence of two women? Ugh, I'm getting old."
Anne laughed mildly and sprawled out on his large bed. He moved to lie beside her. There was an odd, casual sense of friendliness in the position, despite its intimacy. Even despite the passionate moment on the deck earlier. They were focused, for the moment, on the problem at hand, not on each other.
"It's not as if you must decide right now what to do about her. It will be a few months still before it is obvious. You can think of a plan during that time. The main problem now is to get her calmed. She keeps crying. Nobody's really noticed yet, and she's trying to duck into the necessary when she starts sobbing, but she needs to be more careful."
"Alright. I'll talk to her."
"Good. But be gentle, Jack. Think how you would have felt if the woman you loved had died in a violent and unnecessary way. Alright?"
"Fine. You act like my mother."
She smiled, and he found himself once again drawn in by her beauty; pearly white teeth, soft red lips, flashing green eyes. Suddenly he was all too well aware of the situation; they were alone, on his bed, and the entire crew believed them to be lovers. He didn't think, couldn't think. He brushed his fingers over her soft cheeks, down her white neck, forcing himself to stop at her collar as he watched long lashed eyes flutter shut, full lips part. He wanted her so much it he doubted whether or not he could actually stop himself. So he was never certain whether or not he was grateful to Gibbs for knocking on the door just as he was about to the close the tiny distance between them.
"Captain! There's a sail on the horizon! It's a little sloop, looks to be coming from Nassau. Seems to be…following us, Captain."
Brushing his thumb regretfully over Anne's lips, Jack looked into her eyes and was surprised to find fear there.
"It's James, Jack. He won't give me up. He likes to hurt me. The whores…he gets sick of them because even if they don't like him, they've trained to seem willing. He wants to hurt things…to do things I don't want…"
"Hey…don't look so scared…I know I couldn't protect you against that copper, but on the sea, between pirates…You're safe with me."
She tried to hide her trembling.
"I hope so."
