34. Treasure

It took them two days to reach the Island of Grose, and fortunately it seemed they had beaten Barbossa there. It wasn't a particularly exciting island, just a few trees and a long expanse of sandy beach, with a small clear lake in the middle. Jack chose the group of men who would join him on the island in their search for the treasure.

In the end, there were five of them in the longboat going to the island. Jack, Marty and Elizabeth would search for the treasure using Jack's compass, while Thomas and a man known simply as Twitch, though Jack had no idea why, would stay in the longboat. Jack had left Gibbs in charge of the rest of the crew back on the Pearl.

Jack marched around the island with his compass, Marty and Elizabeth in tow, until he was confident he'd found the right place that the treasure was buried. Together, they dug through the soft sand until they found a small wooden chest.

Upon opening it, they found it was full of gold coins and a few jewels. There were two matching ruby rings, and Jack slipped them into his pocket while Elizabeth and Marty weren't looking. He decided to keep them for another purpose. The rest of the treasure was tipped into a small sack. There hadn't been anything special in there, but Jack's main reason for finding it was to annoy Barbossa.

Jack pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and put it into the empty chest.

'What's that?' asked Elizabeth, curiously.

'Read it,' he grinned.

She bent down and picked it up, unfolding it to find the note that Jack had scrawled on it before leaving the Pearl earlier.

'Hector,' read Elizabeth, a small smile playing across her lips. 'Regards to your crew. If they hadn't drunkenly boasted about their prospective voyage in search of the treasure that used to live in this chest, I would never have known about it and never have found it. I've left a small sum as a token of my appreciation for those crew members. Sorry for any inconveniences I might have caused by looting this treasure before you, but I think it's fair to say that the best man won. Yours, Captain Jack Sparrow.' She looked up at Jack and frowned. 'Are you trying to wind him up as much as possible?'

'That was the general idea. Have your read the back?'

She turned over the paper. 'P.S. I've heard there's a nice little stash of treasure on the Isla de Muerta. If you're short of funds, can I suggest you try there?' She shook her head. 'Do you have a death wish Jack?'

He laughed.

'What do you mean by 'I've left a small sum as a token of my appreciation'?' she asked.

'Oh,' he said, fishing around in the sack of treasure and pulling a small gold coin out of it. He tossed it into the now empty chest and grinned slyly at Elizabeth. 'Put the letter in there and then bury it exactly where we found it.'

They reburied the chest and rowed back to the Pearl, locking away the treasure deep down in the ship, though Jack wasn't too bothered if any of the crew did decide to steal it. He'd had a lot of experience with gold and jewels throughout his life, and he knew that the only things of significant value in that chest were the two rings that sat in the pocket of his breeches. Not that he intended to sell them, for Jack had a much better idea for them.

He'd realized that things had changed between him and Elizabeth since Tortuga. He'd had a kind of insight during the journey to the island. Having saved Elizabeth from the thugs in the alley, he'd realized that he wouldn't be able to live with himself if anything happened to her. He couldn't imagine a life without her. It had confused Jack, for he'd never felt this way about a woman before. It worried and scared him too.

But the real epiphany had come when he worked out that he'd gone a whole week without rum. No cravings, no desperate need to drink. He'd managed it without even a struggle. Ever since he'd first stolen a bottle of rum on his father's ship at the age of eight, he couldn't remember not wanting to drink more, and the only days he hadn't drunk rum since the age of sixteen were those when he'd been locked up in jail. But right now, while he wouldn't say no if someone offered him some rum, he didn't particularly want to drink any, and it was all because of Elizabeth.

Jack had concluded many times in the past that rum was the best thing in his life. So why now was he perfectly happy to live without it. Jack had come to one conclusion, a conclusion that scared him even more than jumping straight into the Kraken's mouth. He, Captain Jack Sparrow, captain of the Black Pearl and Pirate Lord of the Caribbean, had fallen hopelessly in love.

Ah, it's getting exciting now! :) I can promise that the next few chapters are my absolute favourites so far, so keep those reviews coming in and I'll try and put them up quickly. Once again, thank you to every single one of you who has reviewed in the past, I appreciate it a lot. If you haven't reviewed before, please let me know what you think. Anonymous reviews are enabled, so you don't have to tell me who you are. :)