Author's Note: Only two reviews? Hmm… Must do something exciting…
The Most Beautiful Sight
"So you mean to tell me that my husband has… run off to be a pirate?"
Elizabeth and Will looked at each other nervously. The anger contained in the small plump woman before them was likely to explode any minute, given any excuse. "Well… it seems likely, Essie," Elizabeth said apologetically. "Jack's lifestyle would seem attractive to a sailor like your husband. And why else would he go to free Jack before Will got there?"
"Ridiculous." Esther dismissed the idea immediately. "Peter would not leave me like that. Damnit," she cried, her frustration and fear finally breaking loose, "I need him!"
"He must not have been thinking," Will told her kindly. "I'm sure he'll come back when he comes to his senses—"
"Will, don't be foolish! You know perfectly well if he wanted to return he'd have to do it in a rowboat! Jack may be a decent sort, as pirates go, but he is not a romantic who would throw aside a profitable journey just because one sailor is feeling heartsick! I'm sorry, Essie, but it's true," she added more gently. "I'm not going to lie to you to give you false hope." She glared at her husband. He sighed.
"Well, then, if you think it impossible that he might come back on his own, I shall have to retrieve him. Good day." Esther nodded sharply to the Turners and left the house.
They looked at each other in concern, hoping that the blind woman would not do anything rash.
***
"Begin preparations to sail!" Jack yelled as he and Peter stepped into the Black Pearl's deck.
"Cap'n!" A portly sailor with a short beard approached them as the crew scrambled about, eager to be on their way again. The sailor looked a little flabbergasted. "Some of the crew got into the bloody rum again, and it's been mayhem since Anamaria got back aboard—she's managed to teach them some god-awful song, and—" He frowned as he noticed Peter. "What's he doin' here?"
"Mr. Gibbs, meet Peter Jacobs. Petey, Mr. Gibbs," Jack said brusquely as he made for the helm to carefully peel a drunken woman's fingers away from it. "Pete will be joining us for a bit."
"Hnh? Whassat? Go 'way." The woman, probably the Anamaria person Gibbs had spoken about, grumbled testily as she was gently pushed away from the rudder.
"No drunkards allowed to touch me tiller except me," Jack informed her. He glanced at Peter. "Take her below, would you? She's a disgrace." He sighed. "You'd think she'd be a bit more fun when she's drunk, but I tell you she only gets worse." His mournful look made Peter bite back a laugh as he half carried, half dragged the now unconscious woman away.
"So why'd ye bother pickin' up an invalid in a respectable town like this, Cap'n?" Gibbs demanded. "He'll have some trouble, I can assure ye, if not from the voyage, then from the crew."
"Then the crew can bloody hang," Jack answered testily. "I have my reasons."
***
"Commodore Norrington!" The Commodore finished yelling an order to the men aboard the almost completed Gallant and turned to see who had called out. He frowned curiously at the sight of Esther Jacobs moving towards him, slowly and with one hand out to intercept obstacles, but purposefully nonetheless. "Commodore," she said politely when she reached him. "I require your help."
"My help? Why?" Norrington frowned. "Has something happened?"
"That bloody pirate has kidnapped my husband, that's what bloody happened!" Esther screeched, attracting stares from the people milling about the docks around the Gallant. Norrington quickly hushed her and led her to a small corner that was less crowded.
"Now, what's going on?" he asked her.
"My husband has taken it into his fool head that since he can't be in the navy, he must run off and leave me to be a bloody thief," she hissed, seething. "When the Black Pearl left, my husband was on it. I require your help in retrieving him. I will beat sense into him, if I must." Norrington believed it.
"How can I help? None of the ships docked here are fast enough to catch the Pearl, not when she has a head start." He folded his arms. "And especially not with Jack Sparrow captaining her."
She looked puzzled. "You don't seem surprised that Sparrow escaped from his cell so easily."
"And nor should I be, not when Will Turner knows those cells like the back of his hand, and has money for bribes as well as a certain interest in the affairs of Jack Sparrow," Norrington said with a chuckle. "Had I truly wanted our sea-going friend dead, I'd have sent him straight to the noose. Tossing him in a cell might quell his antics, but only for a few hours."
"Then why bother at all?" Esther's anger was starting to cool down, due to a lack of a physical target to unleash it on. "Why not just let him loose?"
"Appearances' sake," he told her, leaning back against the wall. "People might talk if I didn't do my job. Now, what is it you thought I could do to help you bring back your husband?"
"The Gallant will be complete within a few days. I want you to take it after the Pearl, and I want you to take me with you." Her jaw was set stubbornly. "I will bring back my husband, if I have to take a leaky rowboat by myself to do it."
"I told you, the Black Pearl is too fast, especially with a few days' head start. We'd never catch her, and Sparrow would have good laugh at us while we tried."
"But it's your duty to try," she pointed out. "The infamous Jack Sparrow is a very real pirate threat in the Caribbean, friend to you he may be." As he considered that, she added, "And you don't have to chase him with the intent of catching him. Run up the white flag, ask them to return Peter, and let Sparrow continue on his way."
"And if your husband doesn't wish to return?"
"Oh, he will. Trust me." The anger was beginning to return to her face. "He'd better."
After a moment's thought, Norrington nodded. "Very well. We sail in four days."
***
Peter leaned against the mainmast, contemplating the darkness around him. It felt wonderful to be on a ship again. He did feel guilty about leaving Esther, but surely she would understand how ever fiber of his being pulled him towards the sea?
"Can't sleep?" Peter jumped as Anamaria appeared out of nowhere next to him. She grinned, the glaze of drink no longer clouding her eyes. "Not very good nerves, for a boy who wants to live the life we do." He shrugged noncommittally and walked across the empty deck, illuminated by moonlight, to lean against the rail.
"She's beautiful, isn't she?" He looked over at Anamaria. "The sea."
"Aye." She joined him at the rail. "Why'd you run away?"
He bristled. "Who said I was running away from anything?"
"I'm not that dense." She snorted. "So. Answer the question." He sighed.
"I used to be a sailor in the navy." He withdrew his stump from his jacket and let the moonlight fall upon it in all its grisly glory. "Honorably discharged, you know? But without a deck under my feet, I'm lost."
"All right then. What about loved ones? A family? Handsome lad like you has to have a girl somewhere." She could see him flush in the darkness.
"I left a wife," he said sheepishly. "She'll be so angry. But I had to leave. I couldn't stand being so close to the sea and so far from it." He turned his head towards her. "Am I making sense?"
"Perfectly," she told him. "Although most professional pirates don't often spill their guts the way you just did. Lucky I'm not judgmental." She grinned sarcastically. "A body can either love the sea or hate it. She doesn't accept maybes or perhapses."
"What about you? A lot of people think women are bad luck on board a ship. Why are you here?"
Her grin widened. "Sparrow's afraid of me. Can't dump me in Tortuga, cause then he knows he wouldn't be able to come there for the remainder of his life for fear I'll be waiting in a dark corner for him." Peter laughed quietly.
"A woman and a cripple sailing under the colors of a drunken madman. What must the rest of the pirate world think of the Pearl?"
"They're all afraid of me, too," Anamaria informed him.
***
Author's Note: well, not much exciting stuff happened here, unless you're an Ana fan. In later chapters there will be Peter/Ana. ^_^ I just love breaking up happy marriages—don't you think it's fun? Anyway, I'm pretty glad I finally got the fourth chappie done. Review if you liked it, flame if you hate it, and go read my drabble about Norrington, "A Great Fool". ^_^