Author note: Okay, again with the I'm sorry, I'm running behind on
everything, might not update till Saturday after this, the next bit will
require some work. I know, this updates crappy, my writing's off at the
moment, stupid computer.
Elizabeth Swann/Turner: I realise I forgot to reply to you and also was slightly afraid, see I'm a good girl, I didn't kill orlando bloom. ;) I know, I think Ana and Jack might have to battle it out, they've had it coming for awhile. Still, if you can feel so much for someone, its hard to work out if its love or hate, hopefully Ana will realise BEFORE she tries to kill Jack, again, lol. What is that, the third time?
Mal: Bennigans? That sounds very familiar? Melbourne maybe? Hmmm, anyway, you don't understand, cheesecake is like. oh, its so good, its nearly as good as like, oh, I can't even vocalise it, but it's a very high tribute. Lol, hope your liking where I'm taking this, its not cheesecake land, but maybe I'll get there by the end.
Rat: I read your Red Sky in the Morning, but I'm afraid to read any further, that was just so perfect but unbelievably sad. I will have to think about it for a bit before I read anymore (am reading everything in snatches at the moment, so you'll have to excuse my slowness). I know I should, because it leads in to Jackfan2's fic, but, I don't want to see Jack tortured, I'm too afraid.
Jackfan2: Damn, you noticed my from hellness rip off, damn, I was hoping I was being all subtle, but really, I just watched the movie and liked the whole opium den thingy, lol, it had Johnny depp in it, I couldn't not watch it. I know, things are starting to pick up for Jack, and with Will here, things should pick up speed. Um, about Elizabeth, huh, um, yeah, I'm not sure where she is at the moment, I kind of misplaced her, ah, I know, I should have planned things better, she's kinda caused a halt in my thought processes, but I know where she is basically. What do you mean I lost her? I didn't lose her. I know where she is.*big fake grin* And Ana-Maria, she can deal with a little prison time, she deserves it, I mean, she did take Jack's hat, and that's just unacceptable.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"Jack! Wake up! It's time to wake." Jack Sparrow dreamt of Ana-Maria behind bars, and shivered. He tried to hate her, he wanted to.
But she haunted his dreams, and he hoped he haunted hers with such vengeance. For she came to him, and he never knew if she would twist a knife in his unsuspecting body or kiss him and caress him with her ghostly hands until he woke. He hoped she was alone and miserable, and that she would never find comfort in anyone else's arms. That whomever she lay with, their eyes would reflect the emptiness inside her.
And from the past her voice filtered the early morning.
'Kiss me and make me feel alive like only you can do. You know it's never as good with anyone else, no body can do you like I can'.
"Bloody right no one can." Jack muttered, pulling on his shirt. He looked up at the waiting Will and shrugged. Will shook his head, and looked away from the old pirates scared chest.
"You say her name when you sleep Jack." Will said, gazing out the window at the early morning. He rested his hands on the cheap windowpane, and his dark eyes were thoughtful.
"Aye. Better then me saying Elizabeth's eh?" Jack murmured, inspecting himself in the mirror. He licked the end of his kohl stick and stuck out his tongue as he skilfully reapplied the makeup.
"How can you?" Will asked, spinning around. "After all she's done?" Jack put the kohl stick back down on the dresser and turned to Will.
"See what you don't understand mate is doesn't change a bloody thing what's happened." He glowered at Will. "It doesn't change how I feel. She's still mine." Jack said with venom in his voice. He leant forward, and lowered his voice. "Do you think I'm the only man who's ever had Ana-Maria Will?"
For that's what this was really all about. Jack knew that. Will saw the world in black and white, and he saw forever printed on a gold ring and a blessing from an old man in a church. He didn't know what forever really meant.
Jack did. He'd waited ten years, and he knew.
He knew forever was with Ana-Maria and nothing could change that.
Will looked away in disgust. By the time he had turned back, Jack was rearranging his collar.
"I've stolen Ana's boat before, and now she's stolen mine. We're square in my mind. Well, okay, not exactly not holding grudges about it. I'm still mad, but we're square. However," Jack said raising his hand. "As I've always said, there are things a man can do and things a man can't do. I can be angry at Ana forever and leave her to her miserable existence. But I can't live without her. So I guess, mate, I'll have to go save her." He finished, and shrugged. Will looked at him with almost admiration.
Even though these words were very different from Jack's complete defeatist and drunken attitude last night, neither of them brought this up.
"And I?"
"You will find our dear lass Elizabeth and look into her beautiful eyes and make your decision." Jack spat on his hand and ran in through his beard. "Cause you heroes and heroines put a lot of emphasis of dearies eyes. Me, I know what's in here," He thumped his chest. "I don't need no ones eyes to tell me that."
"And her?" Will said. "Ana-Maria?" Jack paused. Her name was spoken so rarely these days that it caused him to halt whatever he was doing whenever it was mentioned. "Is she." He wanted to hear the pirate say those words, to truly admit he'd succumbed to a woman and that her betrayal had stung deep.
"She's a woman like no other." Jack said thoughtfully. "And she's mine. No one takes from me what's mine."
* * * * * * * * * * * *
It was easier then Will had ever thought it would be for Jack Sparrow to slip back into his old circles, re-establish connections. There seemed to be a million pirates who knew him, who had shared an adventure or were willing to share an adventure with the great Jack Sparrow who had disposed of the immortal Barbossa (or so it was now told).
And it was strange, but people were willing to help Jack, though he had naught but a grin and a name to swing his reputation on. Jack could sweet-talk the pants of just about any person on the planet, man or woman.
Will watched Jack playing cards, his feet planted on the table, his new hat dipped in such a way that his face was in shadow. The circle of pirates were interesting at any rate, though not the type Will was used to being associated with. There were pirates and then there were pirates.
Not all of them were as friendly as Jack.
Scars riddled their bodies, eyes and limbs were missing, and each had a calculating look in his eye. But then, that could be said about many of the customers at card game tables in any country in any era.
But while they played, they talked. Talked of old times, of slitting throats of youths, raping of young girls and nuns, all the depravity and sins that Will had tried to plead ignorance off. And all the while, Jack inspected his cards with un-shocked scrutiny.
Visitors came to see Jack, people who would not reveal their faces, who stood in thick cloaks and smelt of expensive perfumes of Arabia. Urchins would pluck at his shirt as he walked past, and Jack would bend to hear their whispers.
But they all whispered the same thing, and Will could hear it from the people on the streets, from the men in the taverns, from the posters on the wall.
The Black whore had been caught stealing jewels, which now could not be found, and she was to be hanged in the coming week.
Yet Jack did not make his move. He continued playing cards, idling his days, while Will grew more and more restless. It was not until the captain of the Left Hand sat down at Jack's card table did Will see the fruits of Jack's actions.
Her blonde hair tucked behind a thick, light blue cloak, her light brown eyes glinting from the darkness of her oval face, she could have almost been Elizabeth. Will drew his breath, watching the way this woman moved. The sway of a stray lock of hair beneath her breath, the way her long fingers stroked her glass full of red wine and rum. Underneath her clock, her arms would ripple with the soft feminine muscles that a female pirate was bestowed, her stomach smooth and yet hard like expensive leather, and her skin like salt and luxurious soap.
She was what Elizabeth could have been, if she had become a pirate.
And Will desired her. But not because of who she was, but because of the promise she held, the memory of a brave little girl who would cling to his arms and fight pirates with him.
He missed Elizabeth so.
Jack whispered in the blonde pirates ear, his face animated and his words never stopped flowing. Finally, Eve threw back her head and laughed, her pearly white teeth glinting like some foreign jewels. She tugged at the necklace around her neck.
"Ah, Jack. Your proposal is an interesting one, and certainly comes at a, well, an interesting time." She paused, and glancing at Will, dropped her voice so that he could no longer hear.
That night, the three of them left the card room, Jack much more drunk then he had been when he entered it, and made there way for the Left Hand. Will looked warily around the foreign ship, which was made of such light, almost caramel coloured timbre that so strongly contrasted with the Black Pearl.
The sails flapped lazily in the wind, and Will had the ludicrous temptation to make the sign of the cross. From the helm, a dark Spanish girl watched the three of them come aboard with strong dislike in her eyes.
"Isabel? Bella?" Eve called, her voice automatically snapping back into her Spanish accent. The Spanish girl ignored this call. Eve gave Jack a pleading look. "Jack, come." Eve said. Jack nodded. He placed his hands on Wills chest and gave him a long hard look.
"Boy, are you ready for what's to come? This isn't going to be easy." Jack said, squinting at Will. Will raised his chin obstinately.
"I would give up anything to right the wrongs I've made." Will swore. Jack tilted his head, his dark eyes taking in Will as they had one other day, beneath a bridge in Port Royal.
"Would you still die for her?" He asked echoingly. So many years, and yet this, this had to be the same.
"Yes, of course I would." Jack snapped out of it, and patted Will's chest condescendingly.
"Just knowing where we stand." He said, turning on his heel. Eve watched this proceeding with an amused eye.
"And you Jack? Would you die for the illustrious Ana-Maria?" She asked laughingly, her eyes wide with excitement. Jack pursed his lips, opened his mouth a couple of times, and then coughed. He looked from side to side, and then nodded sheepishly.
"Aye." Then he looked guilty. "But don't go telling her that, savvy?" He said quickly. Eve laughed. Isabel, from her position by the helm, watched the three of them talking sulkily. Eve glanced back at her, and she sobered. She looked at Jack one more time, as though he were a complex riddle yet to be figured out. She reached out, and touched the silken traces of his beard with her fingers. She then rubbed her fingertips together as though to see if he had rubbed off somehow.
Above them, Isabel fumed.
"Maybe I should have asked the more relevant question," She said softly. "Would you die by her hand?" Jack took her hand from his face and held it over his chest. She looked down at her hand with surprise.
"What do you think lass?" Jack replied. "Of course I bloody would, if it comes to that." Will shivered.
Would he be prepared to go that far, to allow Elizabeth to kill him without a moment's regret, as though he were nothing? Could his love survive that indifference? He hoped he was never put to such a terrible test.
He hoped that beyond hope that when he did find Elizabeth, she would take him back.
So court up in his own musings, Will didn't notice the tension between the two girls and Jack. He didn't understand the words spoken between them. He didn't speak Spanish. If he had, he would have been surprised at what Jack had used as a levying power to get aboard this ship.
He would have understood Isabel when she said.
"We don't need a child, and certainly not his child," But he could not understand Spanish, and he did not understand why Eve took her lover's head in her arms and whispered in her fluent Spanish tongue,
"But I want one, I want to give life rather then take it for once. Soon, it will be too late for me. You're young, and full of passion, but I am old and full of weariness. Jack is a worthy man, and good man, and this is what I want."
And Will would have understood the sad look Eve gave the Spanish girl before she flounced away.
"Give her time love, she doesn't see why you need this." Jack said softly. Eve nodded. She looked out to the pink streaked harbour, the calm of the day, listening to the screeching gulls above. This was the hardest decision she'd ever made, to give up her ship for a year while she bore a babe. Isabel couldn't understand why she wanted this, why she felt the need to have a child, a family, when treasure and trinkets was enough for her.
But for Eve, it was no longer enough, and she wondered if it ever would be again.
"Do you see why Jack, do you see why now? Why Ana-Maria turned from you?"
"I think I'm beginning too." Jack Sparrow said softly, and turned his eyes to the setting sun. The heat curled around the two of them, binding them together, and time slipped away from them, forever slipping away.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Elizabeth Swann/Turner: I realise I forgot to reply to you and also was slightly afraid, see I'm a good girl, I didn't kill orlando bloom. ;) I know, I think Ana and Jack might have to battle it out, they've had it coming for awhile. Still, if you can feel so much for someone, its hard to work out if its love or hate, hopefully Ana will realise BEFORE she tries to kill Jack, again, lol. What is that, the third time?
Mal: Bennigans? That sounds very familiar? Melbourne maybe? Hmmm, anyway, you don't understand, cheesecake is like. oh, its so good, its nearly as good as like, oh, I can't even vocalise it, but it's a very high tribute. Lol, hope your liking where I'm taking this, its not cheesecake land, but maybe I'll get there by the end.
Rat: I read your Red Sky in the Morning, but I'm afraid to read any further, that was just so perfect but unbelievably sad. I will have to think about it for a bit before I read anymore (am reading everything in snatches at the moment, so you'll have to excuse my slowness). I know I should, because it leads in to Jackfan2's fic, but, I don't want to see Jack tortured, I'm too afraid.
Jackfan2: Damn, you noticed my from hellness rip off, damn, I was hoping I was being all subtle, but really, I just watched the movie and liked the whole opium den thingy, lol, it had Johnny depp in it, I couldn't not watch it. I know, things are starting to pick up for Jack, and with Will here, things should pick up speed. Um, about Elizabeth, huh, um, yeah, I'm not sure where she is at the moment, I kind of misplaced her, ah, I know, I should have planned things better, she's kinda caused a halt in my thought processes, but I know where she is basically. What do you mean I lost her? I didn't lose her. I know where she is.*big fake grin* And Ana-Maria, she can deal with a little prison time, she deserves it, I mean, she did take Jack's hat, and that's just unacceptable.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"Jack! Wake up! It's time to wake." Jack Sparrow dreamt of Ana-Maria behind bars, and shivered. He tried to hate her, he wanted to.
But she haunted his dreams, and he hoped he haunted hers with such vengeance. For she came to him, and he never knew if she would twist a knife in his unsuspecting body or kiss him and caress him with her ghostly hands until he woke. He hoped she was alone and miserable, and that she would never find comfort in anyone else's arms. That whomever she lay with, their eyes would reflect the emptiness inside her.
And from the past her voice filtered the early morning.
'Kiss me and make me feel alive like only you can do. You know it's never as good with anyone else, no body can do you like I can'.
"Bloody right no one can." Jack muttered, pulling on his shirt. He looked up at the waiting Will and shrugged. Will shook his head, and looked away from the old pirates scared chest.
"You say her name when you sleep Jack." Will said, gazing out the window at the early morning. He rested his hands on the cheap windowpane, and his dark eyes were thoughtful.
"Aye. Better then me saying Elizabeth's eh?" Jack murmured, inspecting himself in the mirror. He licked the end of his kohl stick and stuck out his tongue as he skilfully reapplied the makeup.
"How can you?" Will asked, spinning around. "After all she's done?" Jack put the kohl stick back down on the dresser and turned to Will.
"See what you don't understand mate is doesn't change a bloody thing what's happened." He glowered at Will. "It doesn't change how I feel. She's still mine." Jack said with venom in his voice. He leant forward, and lowered his voice. "Do you think I'm the only man who's ever had Ana-Maria Will?"
For that's what this was really all about. Jack knew that. Will saw the world in black and white, and he saw forever printed on a gold ring and a blessing from an old man in a church. He didn't know what forever really meant.
Jack did. He'd waited ten years, and he knew.
He knew forever was with Ana-Maria and nothing could change that.
Will looked away in disgust. By the time he had turned back, Jack was rearranging his collar.
"I've stolen Ana's boat before, and now she's stolen mine. We're square in my mind. Well, okay, not exactly not holding grudges about it. I'm still mad, but we're square. However," Jack said raising his hand. "As I've always said, there are things a man can do and things a man can't do. I can be angry at Ana forever and leave her to her miserable existence. But I can't live without her. So I guess, mate, I'll have to go save her." He finished, and shrugged. Will looked at him with almost admiration.
Even though these words were very different from Jack's complete defeatist and drunken attitude last night, neither of them brought this up.
"And I?"
"You will find our dear lass Elizabeth and look into her beautiful eyes and make your decision." Jack spat on his hand and ran in through his beard. "Cause you heroes and heroines put a lot of emphasis of dearies eyes. Me, I know what's in here," He thumped his chest. "I don't need no ones eyes to tell me that."
"And her?" Will said. "Ana-Maria?" Jack paused. Her name was spoken so rarely these days that it caused him to halt whatever he was doing whenever it was mentioned. "Is she." He wanted to hear the pirate say those words, to truly admit he'd succumbed to a woman and that her betrayal had stung deep.
"She's a woman like no other." Jack said thoughtfully. "And she's mine. No one takes from me what's mine."
* * * * * * * * * * * *
It was easier then Will had ever thought it would be for Jack Sparrow to slip back into his old circles, re-establish connections. There seemed to be a million pirates who knew him, who had shared an adventure or were willing to share an adventure with the great Jack Sparrow who had disposed of the immortal Barbossa (or so it was now told).
And it was strange, but people were willing to help Jack, though he had naught but a grin and a name to swing his reputation on. Jack could sweet-talk the pants of just about any person on the planet, man or woman.
Will watched Jack playing cards, his feet planted on the table, his new hat dipped in such a way that his face was in shadow. The circle of pirates were interesting at any rate, though not the type Will was used to being associated with. There were pirates and then there were pirates.
Not all of them were as friendly as Jack.
Scars riddled their bodies, eyes and limbs were missing, and each had a calculating look in his eye. But then, that could be said about many of the customers at card game tables in any country in any era.
But while they played, they talked. Talked of old times, of slitting throats of youths, raping of young girls and nuns, all the depravity and sins that Will had tried to plead ignorance off. And all the while, Jack inspected his cards with un-shocked scrutiny.
Visitors came to see Jack, people who would not reveal their faces, who stood in thick cloaks and smelt of expensive perfumes of Arabia. Urchins would pluck at his shirt as he walked past, and Jack would bend to hear their whispers.
But they all whispered the same thing, and Will could hear it from the people on the streets, from the men in the taverns, from the posters on the wall.
The Black whore had been caught stealing jewels, which now could not be found, and she was to be hanged in the coming week.
Yet Jack did not make his move. He continued playing cards, idling his days, while Will grew more and more restless. It was not until the captain of the Left Hand sat down at Jack's card table did Will see the fruits of Jack's actions.
Her blonde hair tucked behind a thick, light blue cloak, her light brown eyes glinting from the darkness of her oval face, she could have almost been Elizabeth. Will drew his breath, watching the way this woman moved. The sway of a stray lock of hair beneath her breath, the way her long fingers stroked her glass full of red wine and rum. Underneath her clock, her arms would ripple with the soft feminine muscles that a female pirate was bestowed, her stomach smooth and yet hard like expensive leather, and her skin like salt and luxurious soap.
She was what Elizabeth could have been, if she had become a pirate.
And Will desired her. But not because of who she was, but because of the promise she held, the memory of a brave little girl who would cling to his arms and fight pirates with him.
He missed Elizabeth so.
Jack whispered in the blonde pirates ear, his face animated and his words never stopped flowing. Finally, Eve threw back her head and laughed, her pearly white teeth glinting like some foreign jewels. She tugged at the necklace around her neck.
"Ah, Jack. Your proposal is an interesting one, and certainly comes at a, well, an interesting time." She paused, and glancing at Will, dropped her voice so that he could no longer hear.
That night, the three of them left the card room, Jack much more drunk then he had been when he entered it, and made there way for the Left Hand. Will looked warily around the foreign ship, which was made of such light, almost caramel coloured timbre that so strongly contrasted with the Black Pearl.
The sails flapped lazily in the wind, and Will had the ludicrous temptation to make the sign of the cross. From the helm, a dark Spanish girl watched the three of them come aboard with strong dislike in her eyes.
"Isabel? Bella?" Eve called, her voice automatically snapping back into her Spanish accent. The Spanish girl ignored this call. Eve gave Jack a pleading look. "Jack, come." Eve said. Jack nodded. He placed his hands on Wills chest and gave him a long hard look.
"Boy, are you ready for what's to come? This isn't going to be easy." Jack said, squinting at Will. Will raised his chin obstinately.
"I would give up anything to right the wrongs I've made." Will swore. Jack tilted his head, his dark eyes taking in Will as they had one other day, beneath a bridge in Port Royal.
"Would you still die for her?" He asked echoingly. So many years, and yet this, this had to be the same.
"Yes, of course I would." Jack snapped out of it, and patted Will's chest condescendingly.
"Just knowing where we stand." He said, turning on his heel. Eve watched this proceeding with an amused eye.
"And you Jack? Would you die for the illustrious Ana-Maria?" She asked laughingly, her eyes wide with excitement. Jack pursed his lips, opened his mouth a couple of times, and then coughed. He looked from side to side, and then nodded sheepishly.
"Aye." Then he looked guilty. "But don't go telling her that, savvy?" He said quickly. Eve laughed. Isabel, from her position by the helm, watched the three of them talking sulkily. Eve glanced back at her, and she sobered. She looked at Jack one more time, as though he were a complex riddle yet to be figured out. She reached out, and touched the silken traces of his beard with her fingers. She then rubbed her fingertips together as though to see if he had rubbed off somehow.
Above them, Isabel fumed.
"Maybe I should have asked the more relevant question," She said softly. "Would you die by her hand?" Jack took her hand from his face and held it over his chest. She looked down at her hand with surprise.
"What do you think lass?" Jack replied. "Of course I bloody would, if it comes to that." Will shivered.
Would he be prepared to go that far, to allow Elizabeth to kill him without a moment's regret, as though he were nothing? Could his love survive that indifference? He hoped he was never put to such a terrible test.
He hoped that beyond hope that when he did find Elizabeth, she would take him back.
So court up in his own musings, Will didn't notice the tension between the two girls and Jack. He didn't understand the words spoken between them. He didn't speak Spanish. If he had, he would have been surprised at what Jack had used as a levying power to get aboard this ship.
He would have understood Isabel when she said.
"We don't need a child, and certainly not his child," But he could not understand Spanish, and he did not understand why Eve took her lover's head in her arms and whispered in her fluent Spanish tongue,
"But I want one, I want to give life rather then take it for once. Soon, it will be too late for me. You're young, and full of passion, but I am old and full of weariness. Jack is a worthy man, and good man, and this is what I want."
And Will would have understood the sad look Eve gave the Spanish girl before she flounced away.
"Give her time love, she doesn't see why you need this." Jack said softly. Eve nodded. She looked out to the pink streaked harbour, the calm of the day, listening to the screeching gulls above. This was the hardest decision she'd ever made, to give up her ship for a year while she bore a babe. Isabel couldn't understand why she wanted this, why she felt the need to have a child, a family, when treasure and trinkets was enough for her.
But for Eve, it was no longer enough, and she wondered if it ever would be again.
"Do you see why Jack, do you see why now? Why Ana-Maria turned from you?"
"I think I'm beginning too." Jack Sparrow said softly, and turned his eyes to the setting sun. The heat curled around the two of them, binding them together, and time slipped away from them, forever slipping away.
* * * * * * * * * * * *