Lil Will/Lizzie stuff so you know where they are but no mush yet (soon). And for all you Jack fans, we come close to mush in this one, but no cigar (again, soon).
Thanks to the repliers. Oh, and the question about how the Pearl could stay in the harbor without attacking (or maybe is it was the one attacking, can't 'member) It wasn't the one attacking (Jack just noticed it sailing in, thought he'd help out Will and Lizzie-be a nice guy when the occasion calls for it, like he said), but since the whole Naval Fleet was, I'm sure, busy with the other attack, they weren't watching the docks too closely. Hope that helps.
Chapter 6
"Where are we going?" Elizabeth demanded, peering over Will's shoulder, toward the bow of the ship.
"I don't know," he told her honestly without facing her. "I'm just…going."
"Well the further you 'go', the further you take us from Gin," she said. Exasperated, she plopped down right on the deck beside his feet. He finally kneeled beside her.
"We didn't have time to stay and find her," he explained, though he knew it was futile. He had been telling Elizabeth this ever since they had set out the night before.
"They'd be gone by now," she reminded him stubbornly.
"Not for certain. They can stay for days gathering everything they need."
"So where are we going that's so much safer?" She turned to him, raising her chin.
He sighed, resting his elbows on his knees and drooping his head in frustration. "I told you, I don't know."
She shook her head, almost as if in disbelief that she had left with him. "I knew we shouldn't have taken this god-forsaken hunk of wood." She slapped a palm down on the hard planks on the deck of the stolen Avenger.
"It was the only way to get away from Port Royal." Will rose to his feet and took hold of the wheel again.
"Maybe," Elizabeth conceded. "But we shouldn't have left her."
"I didn't have a choice. It was get us out of there or die looking for her. Or worse." He sent a pointed glance her way, indicating the dozen of things a pirate could force her to endure.
She knew he was right. But it wasn't the point. Gin was back in Port Royal somewhere, all alone. And the things Will had implied had probably already happened to her. She could be lying dead somewhere and here was Elizabeth, out in the middle of the vast ocean with a 'captain' who had no idea where he was going.
* * * * *
"Let me see if I understand this," Gin began, eyeing the masses of dirty, food-encrusted dishes surrounding her. "You want me," She pointed to herself, "to wash those?" She pointed at the plates surrounding her and the captain.
"You asked what you were s'posed to do for three days," Jack reminded her. His eyes twinkled in fiendish delight and Gin wondered if he was a sadist of some kind.
"I'm not washing dishes."
"Well, you don't have to," he agreed, turning in a great flourish toward the open door of the galley, which led back to the deck. "There's plenty of other things need to be done 'round 'ere." He glanced back at her. "Take yer pick."
"Don't you have anything to do besides work?"
"Look," He stepped back over to her. "A big ship such as the one you have the pleasure of being aboard right now takes a lot 'o work to keep up. 'Less of course, ye want us to sink into the sea without a trace."
She arched an eyebrow at him, emphatically.
"Alright, lemme rephrase that," he said, taking her hint. "Unless you want us all, including you, to sink into the sea without a trace."
"And washing dishes keeps this old board afloat?"
"First of all," he started, his tone turning slightly angered, "never, ever, insult my ship. Second, washing dishes keeps them clean. Clean dishes keeps the crew happy. And when the crew's happy, they don't bitch as much when I give 'em orders. So by association, happy crew equals happy captain."
"So, I'm washing dishes…to make you happy?"
"No," He shook his head, as if the answer should have been obvious. "You're washing dishes because the happy captain equation keeps the captain from wanting to throw you down into the brig." He grinned at her. "Savvy?"
She sighed and examined the galley, walls to floor. "When we get to where ever it is we're going…" she looked disgustedly at the sink full of dishes, "what do you mean to do with me?"
"Hand you over to our dear friend Will."
"And if he's not there?" she countered. "You said it yourself, you're not certain."
"He'll be there," he assured her, growing tired of this same argument.
"Why would he even leave Port Royal? He doesn't know you have me." She glanced around again. "And quite frankly, I'm wishing you didn't."
"You would rather I'd left you alone with those men?" She didn't reply to this. "Look, I just know. Besides, he'll have been in a hurry to get his strumpet off the island."
Gin felt a twinge of guilt at the mention of Elizabeth. She must be so worried about her right now. Probably under the impression that she was lying in a ditch dead somewhere back in Port Royal.
Jack, seeming to sense the change in her mood, immediately changed the subject. "Finish up here," He gestured daintily toward the full sink. "I'll be up on deck." With that, he turned and swaggered out the door and Gin turned back to the daunting chore before her.
* * * * *
"I'm finished!" Gin called, walking out onto the lower deck, quite pleased with herself. "And I'm talking to myself," she observed, glancing around her to find that the crew was nowhere in sight. They obviously didn't work much at night. With a captain like Sparrow, she was willing to wager good money that any time beyond nine o' clock was spent downing several barrels of rum below deck.
Sighing, she raised her eyes to the stars and breathed in the salty air. It was so much clearer out here than it was back in London. Not that she was ever allowed outdoors after dark at home anyway. She would almost trade daily dish duty in exchange for a little freedom.
Gin lowered her gaze. Not that that would ever happen. Jack would return her to Will, Will would return her to Elizabeth, and Elizabeth, or her father assuming he was still alive, would return her to her own father.
Her eyes fell on a lone figure standing near the bow of the ship, leaning over the railing and she stared. She could hear the crew, some of the most polite of them included, down below, laughing it up, drinking, enjoying themselves. And yet here stood their swashbuckling captain, alone up on deck, gazing silently, rather pensively out at the calm ocean.
She approached him slowly, careful that the wooden planks didn't creak under her weight. If he noticed her there, he gave no sign of it, neither speaking nor turning to face her. Though when she herself spoke, the noise didn't seem to startle him.
"What are you doing out here?" she asked, glancing from him to the ocean, as if trying to find an object that might have caught his interest.
He still didn't move for several seconds, silent so long that for a moment, Gin thought maybe he hadn't heard her. She opened her mouth to speak again.
"I'm out 'ere most nights," he explained before she could get another word in. "Only time I can get a damn minute's peace." He turned around and leaned his back against the railing, staring at her. "If the Pearl didn't require a full time crew, I'd 'ave kicked 'em all off by now."
She continued to stare back at him, careful not to gawk, though she wanted to. It appeared that there was more to this infamous pirate than she had initially thought.
He gazed steadily at her, studying her with those dark, almost black eyes. Surprisingly enough, he didn't seem to be waiting for any kind of reaction from her, as if what he had said was not at all out of character for him, and she realized that for the first time since she had met this man, there was no mirth in that stare. It just simply…was. And she began to wonder just how many people saw this side of him, which seemed to be somewhat more honest.
Finding his eyes on her rather unnerving, she cleared her throat and shifted her own gaze to her feet. "Where are we going?"
Sighing, he turned back to face the sea again. "No place that you need to set foot in," he told her. "I'll go down, find Will, and bring him to you, while the crew picks up some supplies." He took a sip from a small flask that she hadn't noticed earlier.
"Um…Jack," She took a slow step forward that didn't go unnoticed. He glanced over at her, waiting for her to go on. "I…I just wanted to say, um…thank you." She finally managed to look up at him. "For saving me back in Port Royal. And taking me to wherever Will is."
He nodded respectfully at her. "You're welcome."
"And…I'm sorry I didn't say it sooner."
"Listen, love," He spun around again, "I've saved many a damsel in distress. You're the first to actually say thank you. Grated your also the only one that actually stuck around more'n five minutes, but you see my point."
Gin raised a skeptical eyebrow. "'Many a damsel in distress'?" she quoted.
"I told you, I can be quite nice if the occasion calls for it." He stepped forward and she instinctively took a step back. He almost laughed at this, but kept it reduced to a simple grin. Glaring at him, she stood her ground as he continued to walk closer. He stopped directly in front of her, to where he towered a good half foot above her.
"Jack," she whispered, raising her eyes to his.
"Cap'n!"
Gin pulled back, startled, and Jack glanced over her shoulder to find Gibbs staring curiously at them.
"Miss Harold." He nodded at her and she offered him a quick half smile. "Cap'n," he repeated, looking back at Jack. "We be comin' up on another ship."
"Another ship?" Jack echoed, reaching around Gin and snatching his spy glass from its perch on a pile of rope. He brought it up to his right eye. "We're not even movin'!"
"Well then it be comin' up on us," Gibbs observed, stepping up next to him. "Maybe Gullahs?" he suggested. "They sail at night."
"No, it's too big to-" Jack stopped, brought the telescope away from his eye, then back again. Gin heard him swear softly under his breath, then lower the spy glass completely and turn to Gibbs. "Get the crew up on deck, hoist the sails, and raise the anchor," he ordered. "Full speed toward Tortuga."
"Yes sir." Gibbs gave an acquiescent nod and, without any questions, turned and headed below deck to retrieve the crew. Jack turned back to the fast-approaching ship.
"What's going on?" Gin demanded as Jack squinted into the darkness.
"Damn naval officers," he said, stooping down to tighten a knot near the mast. "It's one of our friend Norrington's fleet. You know, I don't even know why he's followin' us." He stepped around her toward another rope. "I haven't done anything…lately."
"You failed to mention that the entire British Royal Navy was after you!"
"They usually are," he told her, frustrated. "If I had considered it a new and exciting piece of information, I'd have mentioned it!"
"Jack!" Anamaria's voice broke into their argument. The young woman approached them both. "What's happening?"
"Naval ship," he said, gesturing toward the dark outline of the vessel in the water. Anamaria immediately began shouting orders at the rest of the crew and for the first time, Gin concluded that she must be first mate.
Anamaria turned back to Jack. "It's her they want!" She indicated Gin.
"Even if that's true, it's beside the point," he told her calmly. "They catch us and I'm willin' to bet good money I'll be swingin' from the gallows in a matter 'o days, and all of ya along with me. Now like I told Gibbs, head for Tortuga. No way they'll follow us there. Then we give Ginny here to Turner and the good Commodore becomes his problem."
* * * * *
