𝟏𝟕𝟑𝟏, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐛𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐒𝐞𝐚, 𝐬𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐈𝐬𝐥𝐚 𝐃𝐞 𝐌𝐮𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐚 𝐮𝐩𝐨𝐧 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐨𝐫
"Mornin' chaps!" Eve greet as she appeared quite out of nowhere on the dock.
All three, Jack, Will and Gibbs leapt easily a foot in the air, startled by the sudden shout at Jack's shoulder.
"Damn, ye ya no good miscreant!" Jack cursed, yanking back the hood of her cloak to jab a finger at her face. "How many times have I told ya not to do that? Mark my words, next time I'll be shootin'! And it won't be like Italy! I'll get ye down more than one leg!"
Eve let out a bout of roarous laughter, thoroughly entertained by their reactions.
"Some fearless men of action you lot are!"
"I hate it when she does that..." Gibbs muttered to himself, a hand clapped over his no doubt thundering heart.
"What in the blazes are ye even doin' here?" Jack scowled. "Shouldn't ye be in a brothel somewhere with ya stupid curly head between some woman's legs?"
Will's utterly astonished expression at Jack's comment had Eve laughing all over again, the young mans face flushing bright red as she swung an arm over his shoulders.
"May have paid a quick visit on me way through town, I'll admit, but what I'm really lookin' forward to is seein' this fine crew our old friend Joshamee has slated together over the course a single night. Can't be missin' that, now can I?"
"Ah, on that note, sir." Said Gibbs, gesturing futher down the dock to where a small gathering stood below the hot morning sun before hurrying over himself. "Alright ye sea dogs, form a line! Quickly now, ye face inspection from the Capt'm!"
"Impressed already, I am." Eve chuckled.
"Shut up." Jack hissed, marching on towards his soon-to-be crew.
"Why are you here?" Will asked Eve as they followed, unhurried. "I didn't think I'd be seeing you again."
"An' leave ya to Jack's greasy clutches?" Eve replied, voice quiet. "I like ye too much for that, lad."
"Thank you, but...Eve you hardly know me." Will frowned.
"Aye." She agreed. "But I knew ye father."
They reached the end of the dock before Will could reply, their attention stolen by Gibbs clearing his throat.
"Feast ye eyes, Capt'm!" He declared. "All of them faithful hands before the mast. Every man worth his salt...and crazy to boot."
Eve looked over the crew of twelve, bitting back a snicker as she did. It was just about what she had been expecting. Scrappy, dull-eyed and half of them smelling like they'd crawled out from under a bar stool this very same morning- which they probably had. Not an especially inspiring sight but one Eve had rather expected.
"So, this is your able-bodied crew?" Will asked Jack, his question laced with doubt.
Jack didn't reply, instead continuing on down the line, narrowed eyes studying the thoroughly unpromising group.
Eve likely would have thrown in a quip of her own had a sudden, familiar sensation not prickled up her spine. She removed her arm from Will's shoulders, scanning over the crew again, her intuition enticing her to the form of one in particular.
Second last in line, between two blad men, one slim and gangly, the other pot-bellied and wide, stood this particular person. Their hat had been pulled low over their face, trousers lose and well-worn. From their exposed neck and the slight hint of chin peeking out, Eve could see their dark brown skin. And what smooth and pretty skin it was too...Wandering down the line towards them, Eve grew more certain with every step why she'd been hit with that sudden enticement. In her experience, it was an effect only caused by especially risky jobs, very large, well baked pies and exceptionally attractive women within her immediate vicinity.
Seeing as she was currently without a job and there was no pie insight, the conclusion to this was as apparent as it was thrilling.
Just that little bit further back down the dock Eve could hear Jack harshly questioning a man, but her attention was no longer there, now was well and truly captured and secured.
Women pirates weren't entirely unheard of though not entirely common either. Eve had met her fair share and even been very close in the physical sense with more than one of them...but she also knew that Gibbs would have never have assigned one to the crew knowingly, given that he believed in the ridiculous superstition that having a woman aboard would bring about bad luck.
Of course, this seemed even more unreasonable once reminded that all ships were considered 'she' nor did it explain Mistress Ching, Captain of the most feared crew in the Pacific Ocean or Anne Bonny of their very own Caribbean- whom Eve had known very well on more than one occasion- who had single handedly escaped the Port Royal authorities herself only a few short years ago and was now in hidding. These were both successfully notorious pirates despite Gibbs nonsensical 'superstitions'. But that was far from important here. A woman with very pretty skin was standing here in line and thus Eve considered this to be shaping up into a decent sort of day.
Now, finally standing before the woman, Eve grinned and stuck out a gloved hand.
"Name's Eve. Ye might have heard of me 'bout town. Good things even. Perhaps even very good things from a few kind ladies in particular."
The woman's hand darted up, shook Eve's briskly and then dropped to her side again, face still obscured by the brim of her hat.
"Not been 'round for a while myself but I know for a fact that I ain't seen you. Would of remembered a fine lookin' chin like that if I ha-"
"MR GIBBS!" Jack's voice cut through Eve's abruptly. "What, praytell, is a woman doin' amongst me crew?"
"Woman?" Gibbs stared at him. "There ain't no woman here, Capt'm. I signed them all on me'self as you know."
"Then why, Mr Gibbs, is Evie over there ready to drop to one knee at the merest hint of a suggestion? Exactly what kind of man do ye think she'd be pantin' over like that if not someone who happens to not be a man at all!"
"I wasn't pantin'." Eve objected as he strode up dock towards them. "Not yet, at least. An' I'll have ye know me stamima is unmatched."
"Oh, keep ya pants on, ye bloomin' harlot." Jack huffed, shoving past Eve and leaning down to peer under the woman's hat.
An anxious grimace formed on his face and he gingerly removed the hat, dark waves tumbling down over the thus far silent woman's shoulders, framing her delicate and vididly infuriated face.
Eve's grin widened. Her intuition had been stunningly correct. She was bloody beautiful. And even better yet, she seemed to not like Jack much at all.
"Anamaria." Jack greeted with a strained smile and-
WHACK.
The woman struck fast and steady and Jack's head spun back around as if not even attached. This was how he came to be facing Eve and Will, the later of which was now at her side.
Jack's smile had been thoroughly smacked off his face and was all agrimance once more, shame painted across his tanned features for all to see.
"I suppose you didn't derserve that one either?" Will arched a brow, not a shred of sympathy for the pirate in sight.
"No..." Jack swallowed. "That one I deserved."
"You stole my boat!" Anamaria spat as Jack made the mistake of looking her way again, the firmness in her voice doing nothing to halt Eve's immediate interest in her.
"Actually-" WHACK.
The sound seemed to make everyone stand taller, even the rest of the crew. (While for Eve, said impact only made her more eager to know this Anamaria that Jack had been so rudely hiding from her.)
"Borrowed." Jack forced out, certainly feeling the sting- Eve was personally impressed that his jaw was still in place. Oh, the fun she could have with a woman so heavy-handed...Though that wasn't overly important to Jack who was feebly pleading his case. "I borrowed without permission. But with every intention of bringing it back to you!"
"But. You. Didn't!"
"You'll get another one!"
Anamaria stuck an intensely threatening finger in Jack's face, her own set in unwavering, marvellously intimidating determination.
"I will."
Eve wasn't sure how she was still even standing. Surely her knees should have also been recognising the majesty before her? It was utterly shameful of them not to. Shameful!
"A better one." Will chimed in beside Jack, now seemingly afraid for the life of his guide to Elizabeth Swann's whereabouts.
"A better one!" Jack agreed.
"That one." Will pointed over to the Intercepter mored just off shore.
"What one?" Jack squeaked, following Will's gesture. "That one!"
He and Will shared a terse and unspoken exchange in which Jack said 'What the hell are you doing?' and Will replied 'Trying to prevent her from gutting you right here and now'...Unfortunately for himself, Jack was compelled into solemn agreement.
"Aye..." He turned back to Anamaria reluctantly. "That one. What say you?"
The woman gave it only the barest moment of thought, seeing, even at a distance, that it was a much finer ship than anything else docked in the vicinity and likely much finer than whatever boat Jack had 'borrowed' from her.
"Aye!" She then snatched back her hat from him with a vicious glare and stomped off towards the stacks of supplies sitting on the dock not yet loaded. Eve followed without hesitation.
"No, no, no." The panic in Gibbs voice was loud and gratting. "It's frightful bad luck to be bringin' a woman aboard, sir!"
"It'll be far worse not to have her..." Jack sighed, eyeing the sky distrustfully, one arm reaching out behind him to grab the tail end of Eve's cloak as he did so. "And where do ya think ye goin', lass? Ain't no crew in the whole seven seas that needs hands badly enough to let ye shifty behind onboard."
"I'm goin' wherever she is obviously." Said Eve, practically glowing even as she tried to yank her cloak out of Jack's grasp.
"We're currently in Tortuga, if ye have somehow managed to forget." He said, wearily. "Ye got an endless supply of ladies just awaitin' for ya to do whatever it is ye do with. So just...run along and play, would ya?"
"Oh, Jack." She place a gloved hand to his fraustrated face, petting his cheek lightly. "Do you really think I'm going to put any wish of yours above a woman like that? And here I thought you knew me so well. Now, get ye hands off me and let me do what I was made to do."
"Make a complete, droolin' fool of yeself?"
"If that's what it takes."
* * * 𝔼𝕧𝕖 𝕠𝕗 𝕒 𝕋𝕙𝕚𝕖𝕗 * * *
Jack had been correct in his assertion that it would have been much worse not to have Anamaria aboard, as within an hour of setting sail a true bastard of a storm descended upon them in full force.
Torrential rain and wind thrashed the ship and its crew mercilessly, the hectic ocean beneath only serving to make matters all the more troublesome as the waves crashed against either side, washing across the deck and causing the ship to constantly list back and forth.
All the while, the ship's newly formed crew scurried here and there, frantically tying down lines and securing anything on deck not yet so. This was a feat much easier done without the elements impeding their efforts at every rain-soaked turn.There wasn't a woman or man aboard who hadn't found their feet swept out from under them at least once.
But all this, of course, did nothing to hinder the sheer eagerness that Eve displayed upon Anamaria's company. Hazardous weather event or not, it couldn't be said she was not thoroughly committed to her objective.
"...Never saw it comin', he did! Me hand was in his pocket and his coin was gone before he could even blink!" Eve laughed over the clap of lightning as she and Anamaria tied down a line ripped loose by the storm. "People will tell ya that the noble types are somehow different from the average Martha or Michael-"
Eve's boast was interrupted by a surge water out rushing over the deck and them as well. Both she and Anamaria grabbed for the ships railing, holding tight as they waited for the wave to pass. It receeded almost as quickly as it came and then they were fighting to stand once more on the ever tiliting ship.
And thus, Eve continued where she had left off, unperturbed by the water in her boots or the hair plastered across her face.
"-and the noble types would certainly like us to believe that! But trust me when I say it ain't so. The moment they lose that coin they ain't no different than any smithy or fair lady of the night!"
Anamaria, who in no dryer state than anyone else, was momentarily mesmerising Eve as she tried to blink dropplets off her dark lashes. Eve was but a fraction of a second away from waxing poetic about said lashes while Anamaria stared at her like the utter anomaly she was.
"Is this really the time for a discussion?"
"Just tryin' to create a friendly rapport!" Eve replied brightly, shifting out of the way of a stumbling crewman who reached for her shoulder to steady himself and instead ended up face down on the deck.
"We're in the middle of a hurricane if you haven't noticed!" Anamaria shook her head in disbelief before hurrying off under stairs the leading up to the quarter-deck.
Eve pursued without a second thought, propelled halfway there by the tilting of the ship where she proceeded to latch on to the main mast for but a moment, waiting for the ship to right itself once more before moving on.
Anamaria was catching her breath under the stairs when Eve slid in beside her, intinally distracted by thoughts of how soft those lashes must feel resting against skin before Anamaria's arched brow pulled her focus.
"So, where were we?" She flashed the woman a grin and begun shouting over the storm again. "Ah! Right. I was robbin' the Duke of Greenwich ever so successfully. Ye wouldn't have liked him. Much too self-important for a man with lips that thin! But that's enough 'bout me for now. Got any siblings?"
Anamaria opened her mouth to answer but the ship listed right and she was temporarily distracted by keeping a fast hold on the stairs above her. That didn't prove enough however when more of that damned sea water came pouring over the deck and one foot was swept out from under her.
Eve moved swiftly, grabbing for another stair and throwing an arm under one of Anamaria's. She wrapped it around her back firmly and pulled her close. Eve might have savored the warmth if there had been any, but the weather had them both utterly chilled to the bone.
The two clung to one another as they were forced to wait again. And though Eve, always pleased to be situated so near to a member of the same sex, had no complaints about this, Anamaria stepped away the very second she was able.
"Ye right, love?" Asked Eve. "That was a bit of a close one!"
"You've been in my ear since before we even boarded!" Anamaria huffed. "Don't you ever stop?"
"I can if ye want." Eve replied, not at all offended by the other woman's curt tone. "I've been told I'm a great listener!"
"Did your mother, by chance, drop you on your head as a child?"
"Not the first time I've been asked that!" Eve cackled. "But never before by someone with lashes so lovely!"
That caught Anamaria quite off gaurd. She gaped at the redhead, unsure of how to respond. Not that she had time to do so when another wave threatened to wash them away and Eve pulled her close once more.
"What the hell was that idiot Sparrow thinking!" Anamaria growled. "Sailing us right into this madness!"
"Oh, we'll be right!" Eve assured her, shouting over the crash of the sea. "Idiot though he may be, he could get us through this with his eyes closed!"
Anamaria, who was likely concerned for the state of what was eventually supposed to be her ship, arched a dubious brow at her in the dark.
"You seem to know the idiot well! Which must make you an idiot as well if you actually trust him!"
Eve just laughed again.
"Trustin' the man's abilities ain't the same as trustin' the man himself! Would I trust him with me treasured belongin's? Never! Me supper? Of course not! In general? Out of the bloody question! But aboard ship in a storm like this? When not only he's got a devil of a goal in mind but I've got it on good authority that he was born during a storm far worse than this? Aye! Then I'd trust him!"
Anamaria took half a step back from Eve so they'd no longer be shouting in each others faces.
"If you know all that do you know where he got himself the bearings of Isla de Muerta? Has he ever shown you?"
"Well, ye know what they say, don't ye? It can only be found by those who already know where it is. And seeing as I don't know as such-"
"He hasn't told you the bearings or where he got them." Anamaria frowned.
"Aye. What I can tell ya is that he already had his hands on them before we met!"
"And when was that?" Asked Anamaria, causing another grin to spread across Eve's face and her gaze to narrow ever so slightly.
"Ye sure got a lot of questions for someone non to pleased with hearin' me talk. Not thinkin' of snatchin' up the bearings for yourself, are ye? Or attempting a mutiny on the Idiot Sparrow perhaps?"
The ship listed left and Anamaria let herself fall back into Eve's side, leaning near to speak directly into her ear.
"All I want is my ship to stay in one piece. But I don't think you'd stop me. You might even help judging by how you've been looking at me since that first moment on the dock."
"Temptin'." Eve admitted, one arm snaking it's way around Anamaria's waist. "Very, temptin'. But unfortunately for that little scheme I've got a goal of me own aboard this vessel of yours. Though if ye come up with any other ways for me to help ye out...don't hesitate to let me know."
Anamaria seemed to ponder something for a moment before one of her own arms curled around Eve's side.
"You say we'll get through this storm unscathed?"
"Aye."
"Then...I'd like to see the Captain's quarters."
"That so?" Eve did her very best not to jump for unimaginable joy.
"Aye. It is practically already my ship, after all."
Eve couldn't recall scrambling across the slick deck or half crawling up the stairs to the helm but she must have given that she was suddenly there, grabbing hold of Jack's coat to steady herself- free hand slipping into the nearest pocket out of pure habit though she found it empty.
Before he could so much as consider telling her to get off him, she was already informing him of the situation.
"Have fun bunkin' with the crew tonight, Jackie boy!"
Jack squinted at her through the rain in their faces.
"What are you talk-?" And then he fully made out Eve's hysterically giddy expression in a well-timed strike of lightning and the answer dawned upon him. "No. No! Genevieve Annabelle Dawson, you not are bedding Anamaria in the Captain's quarters- MY QUARTERS! In fact, I'd prefer it if you'd stop bedding women who'd gladly see me dead altogether!"
"But then I'd have no women left to bed, wouldn't I!"
"I swear, I'm gonna-" Jack let go of the helm with one hand- most likely to strangle her with it- and found instant regret when his remaining hand at the wheel struggled to hold the ship's position by its lonesome.
Eve laughed at the irritation evident on his face and scurried off once more, ignoring his shouts of fury that were quickly swallowed by the wind.
It was just as well that the rest of the crew appeared to be handling things on deck suitably enough, because Eve didn't much feel like considering such details as she plucked up Anamaria's hand and led her into the Captain's quarters.
Had it been necessary to go and tell Jack of any of this? Not technically. But his anger was a titillating appetiser for what was to come. Well. At least for what Eve had assumed was to come.
After entering, Anamaria shut the door behind them firmly and turned towards the hungrily advancing Eve with one hand held up in the universally recognised sign for 'stop right there, you over eager beast'.
"To make this clear; What you're likely hoping to happen, is not going to happen." She said bluntly. "I just thought this would be the easiest way to get the cabin tonight."
"Oh." Eve paused. "So...The trousers stay on then?"
"Aye. The trousers stay on."
"And the shirts?"
"Them too."
"...And here I thought I was bein' so charmin'..." Eve's shoulders slumped, the excitement within her immediately dying a rather pained and sworrowful death.
"You were charming enough, I suppose." Anamaria shrugged. "But I don't...like women...the way I assume you do. I don't really like much of anyone for that matter."
"Aye." Eve sighed fornlornly. "Even if ya did like women the way I do, don't think there's anyone out there who enjoys 'em quite with the same fervour as me'self."
"Uh-huh..." Anamaria watched Eve sit down on the floor with another sigh. "You're not going to sulk now, are you?"
"Just a little." Eve pouted, letting the ship's sudden tilt to the left toss her onto one side with a loud thud. "I've been known to recover quickly from rejection despite how rarely it happens to me. Once I regain my spirits I'll help ya search for the hidden whiskey these navy types are always stashin' away on their supposedly 'dry' ships."
"You're planning on staying after I turned you down cold?" Anamaria seemed legitimately surprised by this.
"Don't worry, love." Eve assured her in all seriousness. "I ain't got no interest in doin' things you ain't got no interest in doin' ye'self."
Anamaria scoffed, smirking slightly.
"For someone who fervently likes women you could never be a man. Not with that attitude."
"Then it's a good thing I ain't tryin' to be one 'em. I like pleasin' the ladies far too much for that." Eve used the ship's now right side list to sit up once more. "Speaking of pleasin'...Ya want to hear 'bout the time Jack masqueraded as a nun to sneak into a convent an' got himself in far more trouble than he bargained for?"