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Chapter Twelve:

Genuine Things

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The fog prompted a strong sense of déjà vu for Sarah, along with a new kind of dread. Her last trip through the graveyard of ships had been one into the unknown. Now she knew exactly what she was dealing with, and it frightened her even more.

There was also the chilling thought that perhaps they were too late to save Will. Despite Jack's assurances that the Pearl was far too damaged to achieve her regular eerie speed, they hadn't even glimpsed something that resembled a ship. The journey was uneventful and, after the sun had set, disquieting.

"You've been standing there quite a while, love."

Sarah gasped loudly at the unexpected sound of Jack's voice to her right. After enduring hours of her companion's pacing and worrying, Sarah had convinced Elizabeth to go lay down for a while and 'recuperate'. She had actually just wanted some time to think, alone, and consider the full consequences of what she had revealed to the girl. She stood at the railing until the white light of the moon floated down through the fog.

She saw no reason to explain herself to her new company—just yet. "You didn't tell them about the curse," she said instead, knowing Jack would be unable to resist defending himself.

"I noticed neither did you," he replied coolly, hands behind his back. He was several feet away but Sarah thought she could almost feel his breath on her cheek. "For the same reason, I imagine."

"They wouldn't have believed it." Sarah's eyes fell. She was thinking more of her own situation than the one Jack was referring to.

"Could've taken a few pointers from Elizabeth; gotten 'em drunk." She raised her eyebrows at him and he smiled.

"I think what she did was heroic."

"Don't get me wrong, love. I admire a person who's willing to do whatever is necessary." He moved a step closer, staring at her. "But you're risking your life for a lad you've known for less than a week."

"So are you," Sarah pointed out, hating the feeling of Jack's eyes boring into her.

"We both know I'm in it for more than Mr. Turner, Sarah."

"Well, where else would I be?" She demanded irritably. "It's not like I can just say, 'oh, I'd rather not run after undead pirates to save my friend, could you just drop me off on the way?'"

"But where would you be, if you weren't here?"

Sarah finally turned to look at him, giving him a caustic smile. "You can stop trying to pry into my personal life now, because I won't tell you anything."

At her words he came closer until the gap between them was filled, and the breath she imagined she felt was warm and real. The profound darkness of his eyes and the secretive sheen that coated it suddenly reminded her of what Elizabeth had said on the island.

He won't give a damn about you.

In an unusually timid tone, she murmured, "You're a smart man, Jack, but I don't entirely trust you."

With his index finger he gestured to them both. "Peas in a pod, darling," he told her quietly, grinning. Then, with the same finger, he smoothly tilted her chin up and planted a resolved kiss on her bottom lip.

Reflexively, Sarah started to lean in. Then she remembered the conversation they had just been having and pulled away immediately. Jack gave her a genuinely startled look, which pleased her to no end.

"I'm not going to do this when you won't give a damn about me after you get your ship back," she said hurriedly, directly quoting Elizabeth for fear she wouldn't be able to get her own words straight.

"I'm being hanged when we return to Port Royal," he said carefully, very obviously lying—or at least hoping he was lying.

"Don't be ridiculous," Sarah retorted. "I know, and Elizabeth knows, and pretty much everyone else expects that you're going escape." Then her eyes narrowed and she said, "If you thought you were going to be hanged, you would just have a merry fling with me and then just let me wallow in misery after you died?"

His mouth split into a grin. "You would wallow in misery if I died, love?"

"You know that's not what I meant," Sarah groaned in frustration. "You're supposed to be defending yourself." She cut herself off as she was about to continue and sighed. "This will go on forever if I argue with you. Listen," she began seriously, "I am in no position to start a relationship right now, with anyone, at all—especially not a pirate who probably has slept with half the female population of the Caribbean and has several unpleasant diseases."

"I don't have any diseases," Jack said indignantly.

"That didn't come out exactly the way I planned it to," Sarah admitted. "What I meant to say is, this is so bloody senseless that I am not going to participate in it."

They stared at each other, Jack blankly and Sarah nervously, her fingers tapping sporadically against the wood of the railing.

"What if I said," Jack finally murmured, after several moments of silence, "That I would take you with me, on my ship, when I left here."

"Then you would be lying," Sarah replied shakily, turning away and starting towards the Captain's Cabin where Elizabeth was resting.

"No, no, no, no, no," Jack said quickly, stepping around and blocking her way. "What if I wasn't lying?" He asked, smiling as charmingly as he could manage. "Which I'm not," he added.

"Wh—why would you do that?"

"For one, to be nice. Secondly, I would probably be saving you from either jail or a hanging."

"Elizabeth convinced them that I was innocent, remember?" She waved her unshackled hands in his face.

"Just because you aren't in irons doesn't mean they won't arrest you later," he said wisely, waving his own unbound hands back.

"So you would take me on your ship to be nice."

"Well," he hesitated, "And because—well—I like you." He said the last part rather quickly and breathlessly.

"Is that the first time you've ever said that to a girl?" She asked mockingly.

Abruptly, his hands seized her shoulders and pulled her towards him so she had to look him straight in the eye unless she wanted to very insultingly turn away.

"Love, I'm trying to help you," he said gravely, almost angrily. "I do genuinely like you, as hard as that may be to believe for someone of your obvious stature. I don't seem the type to genuinely like a woman, granted, but most women don't argue with me constantly or turn me down when I'm perfectly prepared to sleep with them or know how to sail a ship—except for AnaMaria, of course, but I don't like her for reasons I'd rather not explain." He paused to take a deep breath. Sarah was too astonished to put a sentence together. "Just, for once, don't think I'm planning something underhanded for my sole benefit. Come on my ship, and if you don't like it I'll drop you off at Tortuga just like you wanted before."

Sarah could think of a hundred biting things to say in response, but she didn't use them. Not even the sarcasm littered here and there could detract from the full affect his little speech had on her. Realizing she hadn't responded for an awkwardly long time, she nodded dumbly.

"Sparrow!" A hand appeared on Jack's chest and pushed him away from her. Commodore Norrington stood between them, his stare cold as ice. "Unless you have a premature death wish, I suggest you refrain from manhandling any woman on my ship," he told him forbiddingly. Tossing the pirate his compass, he turned to Sarah. "Are you alright, Miss Burke?"

"He wasn't manhandling me," she stammered, gradually recovering from her stunned silence. "Really."

The Commodore gave her a hard look and then turned back to Jack. "With me, Sparrow," he ordered, and turned back towards the quarterdeck.

Sarah felt expected to do something—anything—as Jack began to turn away, but every gesture she thought of seemed far too cliché for the pirate captain. At the last moment she simply grabbed his hand and squeezed it reassuringly.

Jack gave her a surprised look, as though the unadorned practice of holding hands had never occurred to him. Slowly, he freed himself from her loose grip and moved discreetly closer, his fingers skipping deftly over her wrist and then sliding up her arm. His lips turned up in a subtle yet suggestive smirk. "You can't resist me, love."

"And you can't resist me, Mr. Sparrow," Norrington interrupted in his drawling English tones, smiling mordantly. "Or do I have to reappoint my men at your sides?"

Jack abruptly dropped Sarah's arm and stepped briskly after the Commodore. "Captain Sparrow, actually," she heard him say before they disappeared behind the main mast and onto the mist-shrouded quarterdeck.

۞

"Elizabeth!"

The governor's daughter raised her head from the cushion it had been resting on, eyes wide in surprise as Sarah burst into the room with flushed cheeks and a ridiculous smile. "How are you feeling?" She asked breathlessly, sitting down at Elizabeth's side with a thump.

"Fine," Elizabeth replied slowly. "Is it the fact that we're about to confront undead pirates that's so thoroughly cheered you up, or the lovely weather we're having?"

Sarah's flame of merriment was promptly doused at this reminder. "Sorry," she said quickly. "Just, er, pre-battle nerves."

"Are we near there?" Elizabeth asked, straightening up.

"The fog's getting thicker, we must be close."

Elizabeth's eyes glazed over, giving Sarah the feeling she was looking right through her. "There's still time," Elizabeth murmured. "I can feel it."

The sound of the door opening seemed loud as thunder. Both girls leapt to their feet in surprise to find Captain Gillette eyeing them crossly.

"Here they are," he said, heaving a sigh of irritation. Two men in uniform appeared beside him. Sarah swallowed audibly.

"The Commodore's preparing an attack, and Mr. Sparrow's requested that you join them in the boats," Gillette announced with exaggerated pomp, obviously considering the task of 'summoning the women' beneath him. Under his breath, he added, "I don't see why we're taking orders from a pirate, but duty is duty."

Both Sarah and Elizabeth strode forward expectantly, but when they got to the door Gillette put out a hand to stop the latter. "Only Miss Burke, I'm afraid. The Commodore has given specific orders that you are to stay onboard." He smiled acidly. "In here."

"What?" Elizabeth whispered disbelievingly. Sarah had stopped in her tracks, but the two soldiers were pulling her along by the elbows.

"What do you mean, she has to stay here?" She asked frantically, dragging her heels.

"What?" Elizabeth exclaimed. "Let me out!" She tried to shove past Gillette but he seized her by the shoulders and pushed her back inside.

"The Commodore's orders, Miss—"

"I don't care what the Commodore ordered, I must see him! They can't attack! The pirates are cursed!"

Gillette grunted with effort to hold her back and close the doors at the same time, while Sarah struggled with her own captors to return to her friend. "She has to come with me," she insisted desperately, writhing in the guards' grip.

"They'll kill all the men, they're cursed—don't you understand what I'm saying?" Elizabeth screamed. "They're cursed! They can't be killed!"

"Don't worry, Miss, he's already been informed of that," Gillette told her, lifting her off her feet and placing her inside the room. "A little mermaid flopped up on deck and told him the whole story." He slammed the door and locked it.

۞

"Jack, what's going on?" Sarah asked angrily, pulling away from her guards and advancing towards him.

"Whoa, love." He agilely took hold of her arms and twisted her around so she was in the nook of his shoulder. They stood at the railing of the ship, a rowboat ready to be lowered into the water just beside them, and around them soldiers filing into boats of their own.

The Commodore watched the progress with grim determination. "Mr. Sparrow, you realize if any part of your plan goes wrong, my men will not hesitate to shoot you on sight."

"I'll remember that," Jack said, with a laboured grin. He turned and guided Sarah into the boat, only the stoniness of his grip and the gritty sheen to his eyes stopping her from running the other way.

"What the hell is going on?" She demanded quietly as the boat was lowered into the water.

"Have I ever given you reason not to trust me?" Jack snapped in the same hoarse whisper.

"Yes!"

"Well, then—take a bloody leap of faith." He sat back and took hold of the oars as they landed with a soft splash in the water. The fathomless depths of the island's caverns loomed up ahead of them with sinister familiarity. This was not an ideal island to visit at night—or visited at all, for that matter.

Sarah, seated opposite from Jack, watched him carefully as he kept his eyes downcast, a subdued grin tugging at his lips.

"You just impress yourself all the time, don't you," Sarah observed sulkily, after a silence.

"That's what I do, love," came the easy reply. "I'm Captain Jack Sparrow."

Sarah rolled her eyes. "And I'm going to throw your stupid pistol to the sharks if you don't tell me what's going on."

"You have a lovely middle name."

"Shut up."

"Are you going to tell me what's going on?"

Jack sighed. "You said to shut up."

"Jesus Christ," Sarah groaned.

"Alright, alright, don't get your knickers in a twist," Jack conceded. "I convinced Norrington to let you come along with me, because you're the only one I trust enough to—" He paused as the shadow of the cave's entrance passed over them, and then they were cloaked in darkness. The moon's reflection off the water was the only light they had, and it was waning as they rowed further. "Enough to help me if Will's already been offed," Jack finished in a whisper.

Sarah paled. "You don't think—"

"I try not to," Jack replied seriously.

"What do you want me to do?" Sarah asked, trying to keep the anxiety out of her voice.

"Nothing," he answered sharply. "Unless I say otherwise."

"But—"

"Wait until we've got there," he told her, and she was silent.

The voluminous shadows mingled with the watery light dancing off the walls that echoed back every breath Sarah exhaled. In the dead quiet every inconspicuous sound became conspicuous. The rhythmic swish of the paddles passing through the water, the rustling of fabric as Jack rowed and Sarah shifted nervously in her seat. Suddenly she was very much aware that they were utterly alone—

Then they turned a bend and the light of the torches seemed as bright as the sun. Somewhere in the distance, Sarah could hear Barbossa talking to his men.

The boat thudded against the sand bank and Jack hopped out, surprising Sarah by offering her a hand as she stepped after him. As soon as her feet touched the ground he practically crushed her in a kiss that would have curled any weaker person's toes. "For good luck," he told her as he pulled away.

"Do we need that much?" She asked weakly. He chuckled.

"Come with me."

He pulled her along down a lit passage, seeming to follow the sound of Barbossa's voice through the twists and forks. When it was almost clear enough to make out the words, Jack stopped and turned to face her.

"In here." He gestured to a damp-looking hollow in the rock's surface that curled around and created a hidden slot behind the wall. Sarah abruptly realized it was meant for her.

When she just stared at him, he groaned in exasperation. "Listen, if anyone catches you, they'll kill you. Hide here until you hear all the men leave. Don't come out for any other reason, unless someone you can trust tells you to. Do you understand?"

He started to gently push her in, but she grabbed his hand. "Can I trust you?" She asked steadily.

"Sarah," he hissed. "There's not—"

"Can I trust you?"

Jack closed his eyes tightly, then opened them and looked her squarely in the eye. "Yes, love. You can trust me."

She smiled and raised her lips to his, allowing herself to completely enjoy and draw out the kiss as she pleased. Jack seemed to be enjoying himself as well until he suddenly shoved her back. "Good god, woman," he rasped, whirling her around and bundling her into the little hollow.

Sarah laughed to herself for a solid five minutes, before realizing he had managed to pat her on the bum as he left.

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Author's Note: Gah, a long wait. But I am sure you all had lovely presents to keep you entertained while I was away. Hope you enjoyed the chapter, I'm thinking the next one will be the last. Also, I've been seriously considering whether or not I will actually continue this as a trilogy like the movies. Throughout the story I've been wanting to write something with a woman actually from Jack's time, and the unavoidable reality verses fantasy dilemma has been irritating me to no end. Unless I find a way to stop that from eating away at my brain, I'm thinking I won't continue Sarah's story after One Wish.