*happy rum dance*
Wow. I mean, really. Wow. I was gonna ask you all for this chapter to help me get to 100 reviews, but that's pretty darn close. Mostly that's Christé's fault. *thwaps Christé with a nerf sword* So yes, that was amazing. (And Christé is excused, but only because she's really Christine, and she technically is the one I wrote the story for!)
So here is the new goal, ladies and gentlemen:
125!!!
The review button is your friend! Clicky clicky....give me some of those yummy reviews!
Okay, then! I have about a billion people to thank, so all of you....I LOVE YOU!!
Christé: I will save myself the agony of attempting to answer every bloody one of those reviews you wrote....gah! Girl, if I didn't know any better, I'd think you liked my story or something! *huggles* I'm glad you're happy, anyway!
Brem Nakada: Mwa ha! Am a madwoman!
Alicia: I even rock?! Wow! *huggles*
COTG: Working on it...
Aiyh-Sa: Mwa ha...had to help my few female side-kicks, right? And why wouldn't I want to sleep in the same bed as Jack? Well, I admit, it'd be really tempting....but hey, she just met him. I certainly wouldn't be sleeping with someone I knew only from watching them on the silver screen!
Bright Eyes: Aww..thanks!
Tazzy: Thanks! And yeah, there is gonna be some romance going on. Mwa ha! However, why Heather snaps at Jack is explained in this chapter. I'm not just pulling this out of thing air - there is a method to my madness!
Elderberry: I dunno. I don't think I'd sleep all that well with people watching me!
Andi Horton: As always, I loved your new chapter! And yes. I have no life. I figure that the time all my fellow freshmen spend on TV and bar-hopping, I spend writing!
Oil Pastel: Hey! I'm glad you like it that much! Yeah, I'll be writing it and suddenly start laughing - my roomie always looks at me very oddly.
Lady Riddle: Yay! Someone who doesn't hate the way I've been writing the Jack/Heather relationship! Thanks soo much!
Tabby Kitten: *huggles some more* Aww....thanks so much! Over 75! *happy rum dance*
eva: More bloody sexy Jack? Coming right up!
Quicksilvermad: Yeah, I mean, there has to be more to the story than just the scenes - what about nighttime? And BTW - that sounds like a nice twilight zone to be in!
Spontaneousxhumanxcombustion: Someone else that loves Heather! *huggles* And Will! And Jack! Yeah, I can sympathize with school.....:P
Monitor: Thanks! That was what I was most proud of - integrating new scenes!
I realize that I am now using scenes that are not in the movie. No, I am not just randomly creating these for the heck of it - there is a method to my madness.
And speaking of madness....if you think I own this....you've got it. (Madness, that is. I don't actually own Pirates of the Caribbean.)
Well, enjoy. And review! Arrgh!
***********
I awoke the next morning in a hammock. I had quite forgotten that I was on a ship, and so waking up stretched out in a hammock, was slightly startling. To my right was the emptiness of the doorway to the top decks, and to my left was the soft breathing of Will. When I realized where I was, I sighed, letting my head flop back onto the netting of my bed, and stared up at the rough wooden timbers above me.
The Interceptor was a sturdy ship, I decided, swaying a little in my hammock with the ebb of the ocean's tides. The storm must have died out sometime during the night, as the violent swaying that I'd felt the night before were gone.
Sighing, I rolled out of the hammock, which turned out to be easier said than done, as I discovered, several moments later, I found myself sitting on the floor with a rather sore rear end.
Wincing, I stood, and limped topside. The sun hadn't quite risen yet, though the eastern edge of the dark sky was tinged with red. There were only a few sailors working on deck, it being the night still, and Jack stood, as always, at the wheel, compass in hand. He didn't appear to have noticed that I was there, and at the moment, I wanted it to stay that way.
Instead of heading up to the quarter-deck to sit beside Jack and the wheel as I had all the time this trip, I turned in the other direction. Clambering up into the prow of the ship, I slipped into the cubby-hole directly behind the figure-head. Tucking my knees under my chin and wrapping my arms around my knees, I set down to do some serious thinking.
What was wrong with me?! Hello, Heather, you're in your favorite movie ever, your favorite hot star is there...and what do you do? You lash out at him! I groaned, resting my forehead on my knees. What was wrong with me?!
"You alright?"
The voice made me jump, and I looked up to see the darkly tanned, black eyed pirate woman half-smiling down at me. "AnaMaria!"
"Aye. You alright?" she repeated.
"Of course," I said quickly, forcing a half-hearted smile.
AnaMaria smirked. "You're a lousy liar." Settling herself down on the deck beside me, she nodded once. "What's the problem?"
I wrapped my arms tighter around my knees. "Nothing."
AnaMaria shook her head. "Like I said, yer a lousy liar." She looked at me for a long moment, until I was about ready to bolt, when she said, "It's Jack, isn't it." It wasn't a question.
"Jack? Why would I be thinking about Jack?" I asked quickly - too quickly - but my face (bright red by now, as usual) betrayed me.
AnaMaria patted my shoulder, awkwardly. "He ain't gonna bite ya." She paused. "Unless you ask him to. Yet you keep pushing him away."
"Yeah," I sighed, frowning. "I don't even know why I do it."
The other woman leaned forward, watching me closely. "You're afraid, aren't you?"
I looked up sharply, eyes wide. "Afraid? Of Jack?!"
She shook her head. "Not afraid of Jack. Afraid of losing him."
I stared at her, wide-eyed, and in a rush, I realized the truth.
AnaMaria had just hit the proverbial nail on its head. Wasn't that was I was afraid of? That this, being only a movie, would be over soon, and then what would happen? I'd likely wake up in the theater, say 'Oh, what an odd dream,' and go on with my life. But I was scared that if I let myself get to close to anything - or anybody - then I wouldn't be able to just 'go on with my life'. I kept pushing Jack away - because I was scared of what would happen if I let him get too close, and then I lost him.
I swallowed, trying to find the right words, but AnaMaria shook her head. "I figured, that's all. Lucky guess."
"What do I do?" I asked, biting my lip, and hoping desperately that this older woman knew how to solve my problem.
"Well, now, that's up to you, isn't it?" She leaned back against the railing, one leg stuck out ahead of her, the other crossed over it, lazily. "You could be a right good pirate lass, and live for the moment. Of course, then you could be the proper lady and try to reform him into a good gentleman. Or you could just do what you've been doing - push him away. It's up to you."
"That doesn't help me at all," I glowered, but the gears were turning.
AnaMaria shrugged, and pointed towards the horizon, where the sun was about to erupt out into the morning sky. "Red sky at morning."
"Sailors take warning," I whispered the rest of the old proverb. A glance towards the rear of the ship showed Jack, eyes distracted for a moment from his compass, staring out at the blood red stain across the sky. "Y'know," I murmured, "I like pirates."
***
The door swung open with a crash, and both Christine and Elizabeth leapt from their seats at the scarred table. Pintel stood in the doorway, grinning. "Time to go, Poppets."
He led them out - not particularily gently - towards Barbossa. The pirate captain reached around Elizabeth's neck to fasten the chain with the medallion on it on her, the girl barely keeping from shuddering. Christine swallowed, and shot a nervous glance at Pintel, who was watching his captain eagerly, but whose hand was still gripping her arm.
Barbossa pushed Elizabeth forward, and the pirates around her reached to push and pull her into the lifeboat, then Barbossa's eyes turned back to Christine. He looked at her for a long moment, then grinned. "Come here, child."
Pintel shoved her forward, and she stumbled for a step or two before she managed to catch her footing. Then, carefully, slowly, she stepped forward, keeping very wary eyes on the captain. He reached up to hold her chin in his hand, then nodded once. "Why don't you come along, child? Pirates aren't really all that bad once you get to know them."
And then he'd grinned, and pirates had reached out from all around her to grab her, pulling her towards the edge of the ship, and then, before she could struggle out the curse that was clawing it's way out of her throat, she was dropped into the lifeboat, and beside Elizabeth. Shivering, she sat close to the other girl, who squeezed her hand sympathetically.
Barbossa was laughing when he climbed into the lifeboat, but he soon grew serious as they began to row away from his ship, heading towards the empty and black mouth of the cave.
***
"Dead man tell no tales,"
The squawking of Mr. Cotton's parrot sent shivers down my spine as I stood, again on the quarter-deck, looking down into the water. There were so many ships down there, some rotten and ancient, some half-submerged and looking like they hadn't been there longer than a year. It was an eery sight, like walking through a graveyard at night.
"Puts a chill in the bones, how many honest sailors have been claimed by this passage," Gibbs lamented, his words really not helping the mood at all.
Jack's full and undivided attention was focused on his compass. In all the time I had been here, he'd never been that serious, and in fact, I couldn't even remember him looking that serious when I'd watched the movie. Not wanting to distract him, I stepped down, headed instinctively towards Will.
I sat beside Will, who smiled at me briefly, then looked back up at Jack. His dark eyes had been distracted by Mr. Cotton, who was staring at him and his compass curiously, and snapped the compass shut. "Where'd he get that compass, anyway?" I asked, though I knew that Gibbs didn't really know.
"Not a lot known about Jack Sparrow before he showed up in Tortuga with a mind to go after the treasure of the Isla de Muerta . That was before I met him. Back when he was Captain of the Black Pearl."
Will looked up, frowning. "What? He failed to mention that."
"Well, he plays things close to the vest now. And a hard learned lesson it was." Gibbs leaned forward, seeing that he had an eager audience in Will and I. "See, three days out on the venture, the first mate comes to him and says everything's an equal share, as should be the location of the treasure, too. So, Jack gives up the bearings. That night there was a mutiny. They marooned Jack on an island and left him to die, but not before he'd gone mad with the heat."
"Ah. So that's the reason for the..." Will mimed Jack's rolling movement on ship, and I had to laugh, imitating Will imitating Jack.
"Reason's got nothing to do with it. Now Will, Heather, when a man is marooned he is a given a pistol with a single shot. Well, it won't do much good hunting, or to be rescued. But after three weeks of starvin' belly and thirst, that pistol starts to look real friendly. But Jack made it off the island and he still has that one shot. Oh, but he won't use it though, save for one man. His mutinous first mate."
"Barbossa." I whispered.
"Aye," Gibbs nodded.
"How did Jack get off the island?" Will asked, leaning forward again.
"Well, I'll tell you. He waded out into the shallows and there he waited three days and three nights, till all manner of sea creature came and acclimatised to his presence. And on the fourth morning, he roped himself a couple of sea turtles, harnessed them together, and made a raft." Gibbs leaned back, grinning a wise grin.
"He roped a couple sea turtles?" Will asked, eyebrows raised.
"Aye. Sea turtles."
A mischievous grin spreading across my face, I asked, "And what did he use for rope?"
That stumped Mr. Gibbs. He frowned, opened his mouth, and then another voice, behind us, answered.
"Human hair." We turned to see Jack, hands on his hips. When he saw he had our full attention, he finished. "From my own back." When we still stared at him (though I was biting my tongue to keep from giggling) he ordered, "Let go of the anchor."
The crew bellowed back, "Let go of the anchor, sir!"
Turning back to Mr. Gibbs, Jack said calmly, "Young Mr. Turner, Miss Heather and I are to go ashore."
"Captain!" Gibbs looked around nervously. "What if the worst should happen?"
Even as Will and I headed towards the lifeboats, I swallowed at the tone in Jack's voice. "Keep to the code."
"Aye, the code." Gibbs muttered.
I felt very cold as I climbed into the boat.
Mwa ha! You want more?! Review! Review, and your little monkeys, too!