Pirates of the Caribbean – The Secret of Hell Water

(A/N: I've started to realize a pattern here, everyone always gets drunk! Well—it IS a story about Pirates after all! =) I want to thank you all SOOO much for your awesome encouragement and reviews. It really helps me writing. I actually laughed out loud at some of them! (This one's for you Emma!) I can finally get into the adventure in the next chapter though- whew! All these introductions and explanations take a while. Don't ask me why I did to Elizabeth what I did.  I never plan for these things to happen, I just get the notion while writing and go with it.  ^^;;;;;   Call it artistic license of you will… I honestly think it's feasible given her personality… okay- enough with the suspense! I'll shut up now.)

Chapter 4- The Pirate Wench

 Elizabeth walked to the table with large, unladylike strides, stopping about a foot away and looking down on the group with a large grin on her face.

"Jack Sparrow! If it isn't you at last!" She said enthusiastically.  " Will and I were beginning to loose hope that we'd ever run into you in this vile rat infestation of a town."

Emma wanted to laugh out loud at the look that was on Jack's face.  He was staring up at her with blatant amazement.  She figured that this new woman who'd just made herself present was quite different from what he remembered.

" Uhh- yes, Elizabeth!"  Jack blinked a few times and gave an involuntary twitch. Then one side of his mouth turned up in a quirky smile.  "I see you've… changed… quite a bit since I last saw you."

"Oh! This?" Elizabeth raised her arms, looking down at her clothes. " Yes, well… it's quite comfortable actually. It's much better than those god-forsaken corsets that seem to be in so much fashion nowadays."
            Will smiled up at his wife.  "She's been utterly taken with Pirates since you left us at Port Royal all those years ago.  It's a little scary, actually… you should see her tattoo…"

One of Jack's eyebrows shot up, then he tore his gaze from Elizabeth and glanced at Emma, "Well! Emma… allow me to introduce Mrs. Elizabeth Turner." He gestured to Elizabeth vaguely  " Elizabeth Turner…This is Emma."

" It's nice to meet you!" Elizabeth smiled and inclined her head towards Emma.  Emma returned the gesture warmly.

The word "Pirate Wench," was the closest word Emma could use to describe Elizabeth's strange choice of attire.  It wouldn't have seemed strange if she'd been a man, Jack had demonstrated well enough with his unique fashion that you could put just about any trinket or piece of torn up fabric on your back and make it look fashionable. But in the time they lived, it was quite uncommon to see a woman dressed so roguishly.  Like Will, Elizabeth wore clothing that was well-tailored, clean, and fine in cut and style. But there was no denying that she was wearing men's clothing.  Her Jacket was a deep, dark blue, buttoning halfway up the front and fit the contours of her figure nicely.  It fit her waist snugly and flared out at the hips, hanging down to her mid-thighs.  The coat had large cuffs, held back with bone cufflinks, and was quite plain in terms of its lack of decoration, with the exception of some simple white embroidery around the rim of the overturned collar.  At the waist, she had a cream colored sash that had seen better days tightly knotted with two tasseled ends.  It hung freely astride one well-rounded hip.  She wore a slightly travel stained white blouse underneath the coat, buttoned low enough to display a small amount of cleavage.  She wore well fitting black breeches, and black boots that went up past her knees.  Her hair was probably the most drastic difference though, because it was her face that Jack's eyes kept straying back to.  The light brown curls were intermixed with small braids that were messily arranged, some of the foremost ones were pulled back into a low ponytail behind her head, and served to keep the rest of her hair out of her eyes.  Like Jack, she sported Trade Jewelry in her hair.  Glass Beads and trinkets and medallions glittered about her head like small ornaments on a Christmas tree. It was a stunning sight to behold.  And, like Jack, Her eyes were darkened with coal at the edges, though not as dark or as pronounced as his.

"Ah-hem!"

All eyes suddenly went to Mr. Gibbs, who had cleared his throat.  His reaction to Elizabeth's drastic change in appearance was similar to Jacks.  His mouth hung open slack jawed, and his eyes were as round as saucers. 

"Mr. Gibbs! You don't have to stare so rudely- it's not good manners!" Elizabeth folded her arms across her chest and shifted her weight to one foot in a scolding manner. The trinkets in her hair clinked gently with the motion. 

Gibbs cleared his throat, making a graceful recovery and flashed her a warm smile. "It's nice to see ye again, Mrs. Turner now, isn't it?"

"Yes." Elizabeth took a seat at the head of the table. "Wow! I'm so pleased to see you again Jack."

By this time, Jack had completely recovered his composure. He scratched his head absentmindedly and gave both her and Will a quizzical look.  " So, do you want to tell me now what you're doing in Tortuga?"

The story was a long one, and was filled with a mixture of emotions.  Will and Elizabeth had spared no time in getting married.  After their adventure, they didn't want to take any chances that some new trial might arise that would prevent them.  They soon moved to the living space on the second story of the Port Royal Smithy.  Will worked his usual hours, pounding tempered steel into blades, and Elizabeth busied herself with projects like furnishing and beautifying their new home, mending and sewing and knitting… and basically waiting for the day she could bring the happy news to Will that he would be a father.

"But…the day didn't want to come." She said softly, casting a melancholy gaze down into her lap.

Will put a firm hand on hers and smiled at her warmly, then returned his gaze to the rest of the table.  Mr. Gibbs shook his head, Emma gazed sympathetically at Elizabeth, and Jack looked bored, he was leaning against the table with his cheek resting on his right hand.  He gestured to a barmaid for more ale with his left nonchalantly, and Will continued the story.

" About a year passed, and still no children.  Elizabeth began to get restless." He glanced at her for reassurance and she nodded in confirmation.

" I hated it!" She said vehemently.  " Just sitting around all day like a pining widow. I found myself thinking about the adventures I'd had the summer before.  How scared I'd been, but also how alive I'd felt!  I longed for that feeling again."

" She started taking trips out to the docks," Will added.  " I purchased a small boat and we'd go out and take trips up the coast.  It was some of the best times we shared those years.  Elizabeth changed her appearance around that time.  I guess you could call it filling the void she'd created in herself.  She wanted the life of a Buccaneer." Will grinned.  " And to be honest, so did I.  I had my work, but I do admit, when Elizabeth began showing interest in the sea again, it wasn't difficult to put down my hammer and join her.  About a year ago, I closed up shop and we left Port Royal to sail up and down the coast, not really knowing what to do with ourselves, but enjoying the freedom of it all.  Then we ran into some pirates."

Jacks eyebrows shot up at this new development in the story.  Emma sat watching their faces go from blissful to somber.

" Have you heard of Captain Morgan?" Will turned to gaze at Jack.

" Aye… a good man, Captain Morgan. I've gotten drunk with him many a time." (A/N: sorry--- I couldn't resist! :D)

"Yes, well… we had docked at a small trading port, and were at a tavern the night they came aboard.  They came in stealth, but they did not attack the port, it was probably too well guarded and they just wanted a place to get supplies to repair their ship, which had gotten the bad side of a storm.  Anyways, we made the acquaintance of the Captain."

" He was fascinating." Elizabeth said.  " Such a Scallywag!"

"That night, a storm hit, and smashed up our boat pretty badly." Will shrugged.  "  We bartered passage here with Captain Morgan in exchange for helping with the repairs."

" I don't want to return to Port Royal." Elizabeth said with conviction.  " It's too stifling, and I would always be faced with the rolling eyes and the averted glances of the people there. Even my own father!"

" He didn't much care for her newfound interest in piracy." Will grinned.  " And I won't even get into Commodore Norrington's view on the matter!"  He laughed.  Emma smiled, not knowing the people mentioned, but could well enough imagine. She took a sip of her drink and noticed that the ale didn't burn quite as much as it had before, and downed the rest of the mug.  Mr. Gibbs nodded with understanding towards Elizabeth before tipping his own glass.  Jack sat trying to clean the grime out from under his fingernails while looking mildly interested.

 "Anyways, so here we are!" Will sat back and opened his arms for emphasis.  "For lack of a better excuse, I'm running out of money and we could use some excitement.  You're timing is impeccable."

" Will you take us on your ship, Jack?" Elizabeth asked fervently.

Jack continued inspecting his fingernails for a few more seconds, then set his hands on the table and cocked his head to the side with his gaze shifting to Emma. "Those words sound eerily familiar…"

" Well, you were a difficult egg to crack!" Emma said loudly, gesturing at him with one hand and the other pounded the mug on the table. " I couldn't very well let you and that ship get away! After searching for—" Then she noticed the looks being directed at her, and swallowed the next word she was going to say.  She blushed and sunk lower in her seat, peering over the rim of her mug.

" I am so drunk…" she thought to herself. " Smart move, Emma…"

There was a silence and everyone was staring at her with different expressions alighting their faces ranging from amusement to pity.

"Well!" Jack straightened, breaking the silence.  He leaned back quickly and forgot at that moment that his chair had no back, thus he staggered, almost falling off the back of the bench. He caught himself just in time, righted his balance and shrugged the scene off with a vague sweep of his hands along the tabletop.  "It just so happens that we have two open spaces aboard my ship that need filling."

Elizabeth and Will both uttered exclamations of excitement, but were quickly stifled as Jack lifted a finger in warning.

" Hold on a moment, mates… you'll want to hear where we're going before you jump aboard." He lowered his voice and everyone leaned in to listen.  Gibbs shot suspicious glances to the side tables, but they happened to be alone in that corner of the tavern.  " We're going after a notorious treasure, but it's in perhaps THE most dangerous locale in the entire Caribbean, savvy?"

Elizabeth nodded, setting her hair trinkets swinging wildly.

"Tell us about it." Will said.

The next hour or so was spent in deep conversation about the Jack's fathers' treasure cache, Hell Water, its perils, and its rewards if they were delivered safely too and from the place. The last tidbit of information was the map Emma had provided Jack, which explained to both Will and Elizabeth her presence aboard The Black Pearl.

" But, if you've been there before…" Will began.  " Doesn't that mean that you could navigate without the map?"

Jack shook his head. " The last time I was there, I was probably no older than ten years.  I was cabin boy aboard Donalda. And my father certainly didn't take the time or spend the energy to teach me much of anything with the exception of learning to fear the back of his hand if I misbehaved." He straightened and threw his head back loosely, looking at each of the listeners down the bridge of his nose.  " I don't remember much else about him other than I was terrified of the man."

" What happened to him?" Asked Elizabeth, hesitantly. "I have only heard of 'Black Jack' in stories."

" I don't really know. I don't remember." Jack shrugged off her question with an air of finality that silently said 'this conversation is over.'

There was an uncomfortable silence. The Gibbs cleared his throat and squinted with one eye at Will and Elizabeth. " Well? What do ye say? Are ye in? If not, I'm afeared of the consequences, seein' as we just told you a great deal of mighty valuable information." He eyed Jack, who grimaced.

" I think we can trust them, Gibbs." Jack said with a curt nod.

" You don't have to worry, Mr. Gibbs." Elizabeth interjected.  " We'll go with you!"

" We will?" Will shot her a look of amazement.  " Elizabeth, you did hear the man, didn't you? Whirlpools and sharks and perilous reefs?"

" And unpredictable weather conditions and sand bars…" Jack added innocently.

" That too!" Will exclaimed. "Do you realize how dangerous that is?"

" I do." Elizabeth said with soft assurance.  She was gazing at Jack, weighing his story and balancing all the possible outcomes in her mind.  " And I think if any seafaring, villainous scum can make it to Hell Water, retrieve such a fortune, and return in one piece, it's Captain Jack Sparrow."

Jack bowed his head to her jerkily with hands pressed together in thanks.

" Well, I suppose that settles it." Will grinned.  "I did say we were looking for excitement."

" Be careful what you wish for." Jack said gruffly, he took a long swig of ale, and slammed the empty mug on the table.  "You might just get more than you were expecting." His glance was obviously directed at Emma, and his eyes were alight with what looked to her like… amusement? She stiffened visibly.

"Well!" she stood very quickly, then swayed dangerously.  All the alcohol she'd consumed in the course of the evening hit her in that one swift motion. Her head felt like it was stuffed with cotton. " I'm tired, I think I will go to bed." She heard herself say groggily as she turned to gaze down at Jack, who was regarding her with a crooked smirk.  "See you at the ship."

Then she passed out right there on her feet, falling forward into Jack.  He was taken by surprise, but managed to catch her before her head hit the edge of the table.

" See what I mean?" He said mumbling more to himself than to the others watching.  Elizabeth looked at Emma with a mixture of pity and embarrassment. Will's eyebrows furrowed in worry.

"Do you need any help with her?" He asked.

" No…no…" Jack shrugged his question off as he stood up, holding her in both arms easily.  "She's light as a feather…probably accounts for her little-to-no-tolerance." He cracked a roguish smile at them.

Will shook his head disparagingly. " You're such a pirate."

"Thank you."

" Well, this way she at least will know not to drink so much next time." Elizabeth said, giving Jack a dirty look. "You let her drink herself silly, didn't you?"

" Aye! Your point?"

Will and Elizabeth just shook their heads and rose from their seats.  They agreed to meet Jack tomorrow at the ship and discuss what they could do in terms of preparations for the voyage and then retired for the night to their lodging, which was at the edge of town.  At some point in recent events, before Emma took an unintentional nosedive into Jack's arms, Mr. Gibbs had passed out and was snoring loudly with his head resting on the rough tabletop. Jack decided to leave him there, Gibbs was perfectly capable of taking care of himself.

And so Captain Jack Sparrow swaggered down the street with an unconscious girl snoring softly in his arms.  He looked distractedly from one side of the street to the other with a face full of regret.  He passed by busy taverns with their windows that glowed from bright candlelight displaying the various activities going on inside. Some of the men were his shipmates, others acquaintances and a few were new faces.  His ears picked up shouts of encouragement from passersby, but they did not faze him.   Despite his desire to join the festivities, he kept a steadfast course towards the docks with his fair-haired burden, and couldn't help but smile.  His step quickened to a saunter, and he sang softly to himself and the night.

We're rascals, scoundrels, villains and knaves,

Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho.

We're devils and black sheep, really bad eggs,

Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho!