Disclaimer: PotC is not mine

Thanks: To Maeve who beta-read this story in Finnish and to Rita who translated this for me. Love you both.

Hot winds of the Caribbean 10

(The Storm)

I bang the bottle of rum on the table with bad-temper. The stress and all new experiences lately had made me overburden. I knew my rage actually was unjustified, but I couldn't help it.

I lifted the bottle on my lips again although I was quite drunk. While the brow liquid was sliding down my throath I felt finally calming down. Why should I care what everyone else was thinking about me? Just let them think I was their captain's private whore, I wouldn't care about it.

I heard the cabin's door were opened and I put down the bottle immediately on the table. Jack walked in a bit swaying like always. He glanced under his eye-brows first the bottle and then me. A strange light came into his eyes.

"Ye've started to like the rum, eh?" he asked.

"Felt like drinking", I noted and shrugged my shoulders.

Jack came nearer me and looked straight into my eyes. It annoyed me enormously, when he did so. Not like I wouldn't have liked it, but his look made my heart race like a wildhorse.

"John really made ye mad... What exactly he did?" Jack asked smirking. Laughter was in his eyes.

I turned my look away from Jack's eyes. How could I tell him what John had said?

"Nooothing special", I said at last.

"Really? Ye just decided to wash 'im, eh?" Jack stated laughing. I knew he didn't believe me. However, I wasn't going to tell him the truth.

Suddenly I felt the ship turning roughly. I lost my balance and fell straight onto Jack's lap. He grabbed me and lift me back on my feet. Now he was dangerously close at me. I was about to back away from him, but the ship swayed again and I almost fell on my back. However, Jack caught me again.

"What the hell!" I swore.

"I think storm's coming", Jack stated while holding me up. "I think I better take the helm. Ye stay here!"

Jack let me go and sat me on the chair. Then he dashed out of the cabin. I saw the wind grabbing the door. For a while I sat there not knowing what to do, but then I rose and walked slowly to the door. Rough swaying of the ship made walking difficult and my state of drunkennes made it even harder.

From the door I saw how huge black clouds were rolling over the sky and rain washed over deck making it slippery. The wind had turned really harsh and waves were rising terrifying high.

"Reef the sails!" someone shouted over the wind.

I just couldn't watch from the side. I ran to deck to help others. Reefing of the sails was surprisingly difficult in a hard wind and rain, which were beating my face and covering the visibility. Raindrops felt like pricks of a needle on my skin and the wind almost ripped my hair off.

I grabbed the loose rope and tried to pull it back. I felt someone coming to help me. I recognized dimly that it was John. Togerther we were able to pull the rope back on its place and tied it up. Right then a huge wave dashed over the deck and took us both with it.

I desperately clinged onto the rope I had just tied. Water was dragging me over the side, but somehow I managed to keep my grip. However, John wasn't that lucky. I saw him falling straight into the sea.

The rope was chafing my hands and I was afraid I couldn't hold on anymore, when I felt someone caughting me and hauling up. Anamaria grinned at me after getting me back on deck.

"John!" I shouted. "John fell over the side!"

Next moments were like in a slow film. I saw Anamaria tying the rope around her waist and giving the other end to me.

"Wrap it around the mast and hold it tight!" she yelled at me. I did what I was told and saw her jumping into the sea.

"Man overboard! Man overboard!" I yelled as loudly as I could.

The rope tightened in my hands and I knew I couldn't hold it for long. I desperately kept yelling and finally Gibbs and Cotton came to help me.

"I've already told that it's bad luck to have a woman on board... And we already have two of them!" Gibbs yelled at Cotton's ear.

While the men were hauling I ran to the railing and saw there were truly two shapes hanging at the end of the rope. Anamaria had managed to save John.

"Pull! You will get them over the side!" I shouted in the wind and reached out my hands towards Anamaria.

When they were up enough I grabbed John from underarms. He was awfully heavy, but somehow I was able to get him on deck. I turned him on his back and I saw his lips turning blue. I pressed my ear on his mouth. John did not breathe!

"Is he dead?" Anamaria shouted next to my ear, when I tried to feel the boy's pulse. It was really weak.

"No!" I shouted back. "And I'm damn right not letting him die before I have apologized to him!"

I raised John's chin and opened his mouth. I stuck my fingers there groping. There didn't feel any obstacles. I put my both hands on his chest and pressed strongly five times. Then I blew into his mouth. I saw his chest rising, but he did not start to breathe. I kept resuscitating.

"One, two, three, four, five, blow", I repeated in my mind and prayed John wouldn't die. I didn't realize the raging storm around me at all. My only goal was to get Jonh breathe again.

"What're ye doing?" Anamaria yelled. "Kissing isn't bringing 'im back!"

"I am not kissing him! I am trying to get him breathe again!" I yelled back pressing John's chest.

I pressed my lips again on boy's. I blew strongly and at the same I felt John to jerk. I raised my head and saw him coughing. Quickly I turned him on his side. The boy coughed water from his lungs and gasped air. He wasn't dead! He was alive!

Anamaria stared in amazement. Of course she had never heard of artificial respiration, because it had not invented yet in the 17th century.

"John must take below!" I shouted and tried to pull him up. Anamaria helped me to lift John and together we dragged him in the hold. Then she headed back to deck. She was needed there.

"Thank God you're alive! I wouldn't have ever forgive myself if you had died!" I cried out after getting John to lie down on the bunk.

"I don't know what ye did, but ye saved me life. I owe ye one", John whispered hoarsely and coughed.

"You need to rest now", I said and tried to tuck the boy in. However, he grabbed my wrist.

"I'm sorry that I hurt ye", he whispered.

"It's alright! But don't scare me like that ever again", I answered and really meant it. I couldn't have lived with myself, if John had drowned. "Sleep now. You are no use on the deck in that condition."

John nodded lightly and closed his eyes. I stayed for a moment to sit by his side making sure he was still breathing. Then I sighed deeply and went back to deck of wildly swaying ship.

o

The storm continued until morning and then it stopped as quickly as it had begun. Exhausted I slipped down to sit on deck. I was soaking wet. I just wanted to get rid of my wet clothes and sleep all day.

We had arrived nearby of a small island. Pearl was anchored there and most of the crew went below. Some of them stayed to check the condition of sails and ropes.

I decided to head back to captain's cabin. I tried to stand up, but pain was burning in my thighs. I fell back on my knees and suddenly felt enormous woozyness. I stayed there for a moment and tried to get back up again, this time slower.

Somehow I managed to get myself in Jack's cabin. Our captain was nowhere around, but I was too tired to even care about it. I kicked my boots off and took my wet clothes off. I was only wearing my underwear, when the door opened.

"Here ye are", Jack noted sounding like he had looked for me everywhere around the ship. "I heard from Anamaria that somehow ye had got John to breathe by kissing 'im..."

"I just gave him artificial respiration, I did not kiss him", I snorted, when Jack closed the door. "It is completely different thing... I breathed kind of behalf of him, until he started to breathe himself."

Jack looked at me a bit doubtful, but dropped it. He let his look wander around my almost naked body. His face told that he liked what he saw. Quickly I grabbed my underskirt from the chair and put it on. Jack's face turned a bit disappointed.

"I'm going to take a little nap, if you don't mind", I said and went to bed. I definitely was more tired than ever. I just closed my eyes and was in a sleep. Through it I heard Jack's voice dimly.

"We're gonna row to shore in a couple of hours. If ye wanna come, get up before that."