AN: I'm back . I rewrote this one a few times too and got it where I wanted it last night but had not net to post it. Just got home from an 8 hour drive and wanted to get it up asap. Stay beautiful!
Sasha's whole body felt as if it were still weightless under the waves. Her mind was still hazy but she went over Jack's plan to defeat Barbossa, save the young lad's lass, and break her unfortunate immortality. It was a lot to process and she hated to admit she missed the mindless bliss of isolation. Jack had dozed off and she gently slid off the bed to let him get the rest she was sure he had been denying himself. Sasha walked to the window and opened it, allowing the last light of the setting moon wash over her arm. As expected, the flesh seemed to melt away and leave only pale bone.
"Seems I'll have to continue avoiding moonlight strolls." She rasped quietly to herself.
Sasha watched the moon slowly slip beneath the horizon and as her skin returned to its natural place. She shut the window and walked back to the cabin door, letting herself onto the deck now that she was safe from transforming. The young man Jack had mentioned seemed lost in thought, leaning on the starboard railing. He looked so out of place from the other crewmen who milled about doing their duties.
"Can't sleep?" She spoke as softly as she could but still managed to startle him from thought.
"Hard to find peace of mind." He turned to look at her, the first time he had seen her since she was pulled from the ocean. She looked tired but exhaustion didn't steal the beauty from her features. Her long auburn hair danced in the pre-dawn breeze, her blue eyes bright. He found it astounding that she had spent the better half of a decade drowned. "Name's Will Turner."
"Oh I know who you are." Sasha chuckled, voice rough. "Jack told me about you and your woman. Don't worry too much, we'll have you reunited before too long."
"I have no such claim to Elizabeth. She's already promised to another." The female pirate leaned beside him and shrugged.
"But you are the one doing what you can to find her. You gave up your life in Port Royal to join a man you don't know to find a woman you can't have."
"What is your point?" Will seemed a bit defensive.
"My point is that love makes us do things we never thought possible of ourselves." He looked at her in surprise, unable to read her face as she watched the sunrise. The silence between them grew too much for Will as his curiosity got the better of him.
"You've known Jack for a long time I take it?"
"Aye, I wouldn't be who I am today if it weren't for him." She laughed to herself as if reacting to a joke only she knew.
"Did you sail with him on the Pearl? Did you know my father?" Sasha turned her head and looked him in the eye. He seemed so conflicted, wanting to save his love but ashamed to have to consort with pirates. She offered him a warm smile, almost motherly.
"I did not, I had my own ship and crew to handle. I did help him find his crew though. Sat there with him in Tortuga as man after man pledged their services to him. It was so long ago and being on the brink of insanity has rather hindered my memory unfortunately." She shut her eyes and searched her brain for any hint of his father. "If I recall correctly, your father was one of the first we talked with that night. He was very polite compared to the other patrons." Will scoffed at that.
"A polite pirate, how ironic."
"Am I not polite?" She raised a brow at him. "Don't believe everything you hear about us from His Majesty's minions. Your father was a kind man and he said he was trying to do right by that little boy he had to leave behind." Will's neck reddened in embarrassment.
"I didn't mean to offend you." He apologized.
"Something you need to understand if you wish to continue down the path of saving Miss Elizabeth: know who the real enemy is." She turned back to the sunrise with a hardened look. "I learned a long time ago that our greatest threats are those we trusted the most. Don't let preconceived notions of right and wrong cloud your judgment. There are many lives able to reclaim some sense of normalcy thanks to me and Jack, lives the higher powers in Europe deemed less than human." Will was taken back by the fire alight in her eyes.
"Gibbs told me a bit about you on our way to finding you."
"Then he would have mentioned how I slaughtered the man I loved most. As I said, love does funny things to us."
"Like saving a cursed woman?" Sasha sent Will a halfhearted glare, letting his remark slide.
"What do you think of him?" Will noticed the more they talked, the stronger her voice grew, finally able to dust off the cobwebs of years of misuse.
"He's quite mad." He was surprised by her laughter.
"He seems that way, doesn't he?"
"Was he not always so…" Will pantomimed how Jack staggered and Sasha laughed more, a lovely sound.
"No, my guess is that is a recent development. He was always so surefooted and confident. Now he's quite wobbly and still just as arrogant." The light in her eyes softened with an emotion he dare not name lest she throw him overboard. "You seem like a lad who enjoys stories, William. Might you like to hear one or two over breakfast? You should eat to keep your strength."
"And I feel I'd learn a lot from them." He nodded, following her below deck to the food storage. She declined his offered bowl and sat at the table across from him.
"In exchange for my time, I'd like to hear more about this lass we're going after." Will smiled to himself, thinking about her. "And some sound advice as I fear they've already tried to give you their own, don't listen to Jack or Gibbs when it comes to the fairer sex."
"I learned that quickly upon arrival in Tortuga." Will chuckled at the slight hint of jealousy in Sasha's 'hm'.
"Now I'll start at the beginning as I doubt Gibbs offered more than a brief retelling he heard in some dingy barroom and I so missed hearing the sound of my own voice." Will nodded in understanding, very intrigued to hear this woman's tales.