I do believe, ladies and gentlemen, yes, wait, Yes!!!
WE HAVE REACHED 150 REVIEWS!!!!!
*happy rum dances around the room*
You, all of you, each and every one of you, are my heroes! *huggles everyone, then proceeds to throw gold coins around the crowd*
*cries* I love you ALL! And you know what this means......the new goal is 175!!! Mwa ha!
Okay - you need to go to this picture. Now. It's the title page for this story! angelfire . com / theforce / isbored / potc / caribbean _ secrets _ title . jpg If that doesn't work.....I'll leave it in a review, or something. Remember to take out spaces!
Huntress16: Y'know, you're right! They wouldn't be so bad with him around!
Firedragonfly: Why, thank you! I also like Jack and this story, though I don't know about rum....it is fermented molasses, after all!
Ecila: Thank you! I'm glad you like it!
Ellina: Wagh! I am being tackle-glomped again! I'm glad you think it's cute, though.
Mark's Girl: Of course I had too much fun with this chapter! I always do! *huggles* I hope this chapter makes you feel all better!
Oil Pastel: No! I am still cursed?! *groans* Guess you leave me no choice then, do you? *mutters* Darn curses....At least it was funny, though!
...: Well, whoever you are, I agree with you. A Norrington romance must be done. And you know what? There's one floating around in my head right now. It's a pseudo-sequel to this story, so depending on how things work out, after this story, I may just write that one.
Sugaricing: *jumps away from sparking keyboard* Gah! Gotta stop drooling on that thing! I'm very glad to get your vote of confidence - that makes me feel muchos better!
I88er-az: Why, thank you! I'm glad you think Heather is a cool character, you make me feel special! And yeah, I wish I was in the story too! *grr* I'm jealous of my own self.....
Brem Nakada: Well, thanks! I'm glad my reviewers can actually depend on me to update! And I certainly hope you don't have a breakdown when it's done! I'll cry then! But don't worry, there should be a sequel of some kind....and I'll keep writing something, even if it's not this! *huggles*
eva: Well, I'm flattered! I can write rocking chapters! Yay!
Spontaneousxhumanxcombustion: Finally! Redundant love abounds! Thank you forever!
*Tear* Aww...you are all so good to me!
Disney, however, is not good to me. They still won't give me Pirates, no matter how many nice reviews I get!
***********
"But we've got to save Will!" Elizabeth protested, glaring furiously at her father and the man who wanted very desperately to marry her.
"No. You're safe now." Governor Swann forced a smile, trying to placate his daughter. "We will return to Port Royal immediately, not go gallivanting after pirates!"
"They're going to kill him." I said sharply, having gotten over my hangover sufficiently to be a functioning member of the conversation, though I noticed the scandalized looks the Governor kept shooting me, as I kept my arm looped through Jack's. I was trying to keep mybalance, for pete's sake - I still hadn't recovered well enough to maintain my sea-legs. "You're condemning him to death."
"The boy's fate is regrettable," the Governor admitted, "but then, so is his decision to engage in piracy!"
Jack rolled his eyes, as Elizabeth protested, "To rescue me, to prevent anything from happening to me!"
"If I may be so bold as to interject my professional opinion?" Jack stepped forward, and I quickly released his arm, barely managing to grab the arm of a nearby soldier before falling over. I gave him a sheepish grin, but he only smiled broadly, and carefully set me properly on my feet. "The Pearl was listing near to scuppers after the battle. It's very unlikely she'll be able to make good time. Think about it, the Black Pearl, the last real pirate threat in the Caribbean, mate. How can you pass that up?"
"By remembering that I serve others, Mr. Sparrow, not only myself." Norrington said coldly.
"Captain," I muttered.
"Commodore, I beg you. Please do this. For me..." Elizabeth hesitated. "As a wedding gift."
"Elizabeth." The Governor's face was wreathed with a grin as hope sparked in the Commodore's eyes. "Are you accepting the Commodore's proposal?"
Elizabeth drew herself up, steeling herself. "I am."
"Well, Christine will be impressed, anyway," I murmured to myself. "Means Will's free for the taking. She always wanted a Orlando Bloom for herself."
"A wedding! I love weddings! Drinks all around!" Jack beamed, until he noticed the rather stern expression Norrington was fixing on him. Sighing, he held his hands forward. "I know...clap him in irons, right?"
"Mr. Sparrow." Norrington gestured to two of his red-coats. "You will accompany these fine men to the helm, and provide us with the bearing to Isla de Muerta . You will then spend the rest of the voyage contemplating all possible meanings of the phrase 'silent as the grave'. Do I make myself clear?"
Jack grinned, but not with his eyes. "Inescapably."
***
Christine shivered, wrapping the ragged thin blanket around her shoulders. She was surprised that Barbossa had let her out of the cabin, but it was as he had laughingly pointed out - there wasn't anywhere for her to go.
Now he knew she for sure wasn't a Turner, and from an accidental comment aboutElizabeth Swann from Gibbs, he knew she wasn't a Swann either. At first, she was worried that it might just mean overboard for her, or maybe the brig with everyone else, but instead, she remained as before, eating with the captain in his large quarters, sleeping in the tiny cabin beside it, accessible only through Barbossa's cabin. It was not a comforting thought at night, to realize just how close the pirate captain was, so finally, as they neared the island of Isla de Meurta for the second time, Christine had worked up the nerve to ask if she could go out.
Her goal was simple - avoid as many of Barbossa's crew as possible. The easiest way to do that was just to stay in her tiny cabin, but then it was hard to avoid Barbossa himself, so she sacrificed the simplicity.
Her feet found the stairs to below decks, and she began carefully descending, headed to where she figured the brig might be. She understood that Jack had been marooned on that island that Elizabeth, Jack and I had been deposited on before, but that he had also escaped before. She wanted to ask Gibbs how he'd done that - and if there was any chance that he could do it again. She wasn't completely without hope - after all, they'd never just leave the hero of a movie there, would they - but with a sinking stomach, she was remembering what I'd said about us changing things in the movie. She didn't think she'd like the idea of being stranded here on Barbossa's ship forever - or until he finally got bored.
When she finally reached the lowest level, she was surprised to see Pintel and Ragetti mopping the floor between the cells, and crept forward. "Excuse me," she said softly, making Ragetti jump. When he stopped mopping - more out of amazement for the use of manners than out of courtesy - she nimbly stepped around him and his mop, settling herself onto a barrel beside Will's single cell. "How are you holding up?" She asked him softly.
Will turned from leaning his forehead against the bars to regard her carefully. "As well as a man can, headed towards his death at the hands of pirates, his love marooned on a god-forsaken island."
Christine ducked her head, playing with the edge of the blanket. "Sorry," she murmured, then looked up to point out, "But at least Elizabeth's not headed to her certain death at the hands of pirates. Jack escaped that island once before, didn't he?"
"Aye," Will whispered, returning to leaning against the bars. "He did." There wasn't much faith in his voice.
Pintel and Ragetti continued to swab the decks, when the parrot on the shoulder of the mute pirate, Cotton, squawked, "Awwk, shiver me timbers!"
"Cotton 'ere says you missed a bit," Cotton taunted, til Pintel shoved his dirty mop at the man's face.
Will suddenly spoke up, directly his question at the balding pirate. "You knew William Turner?"
Pintel paused, leaning on his mop. "Ol' Bootstrap Bill …we knew him. Never sat well with Bootstrap, what we did to Jack Sparrow, the mutiny and all. He said it wasn't right with the code, that's why he sent off a piece of the treasure to you, as it were." He grimaced. "He said we deserved to be cursed… and remain cursed."
"Stupid blighter," Ragetti muttered.
"Good man," Gibbs snapped back, fiercly.
"But," Pintel continued. "As you can imagine, that didn't sit well with the Captain."
"That didn't sit well with the Captain, at all!" Ragetti laughed, urging his friend on. "Tell him what Barbossa did!"
"I'm telling the story!" Pintel snapped irritably. "So, what the Captain did, he strapped a cannon to Bootstrap's bootstraps!"
"Bootstrap's bootstraps!" Ragetti giggled, and Christine gave a horrified gasp - precisely the reaction the pirates were hoping for.
"The last we saw of ol' Bill Turner, he was sinking to the crushing black oblivion of Davy Jone's locker." Pintel's grin faded into a thoughtful frown. "'Course, it was only after that we learned that we needed his blood to lift the curse."
"That's what you call ironic." Ragetti intoned solemnly.
There was a sudden thundering on the stairs, and before the two bumbling pirates could pretend to actually be working hard, Barbossa stepped off the stairs. He threw the key to Pintel, snapping, "Bring him."
Christine tried to shrink back into the wall, but it did her no good - as usual - as Barbossa's lips spread in a grin, and he silently beckoned with one finger. Cringing, she slid off the barrel, and walked as slowly as she dared towards the Captain. As soon as she was in arm's reach, her arm was grabbed again, and Christine stumbled up the stairs after the captain, hating the man ever more by the second.
***
I glared out over the water, fingers curled around the railing in a grip so tight that my knuckles were white. Norrington, Jack, and a few of his soldiers were sitting in a small boat only about 20 yards away, but it might as well have been miles. There was no way they were going to let me join in the battle, and there was no bloody way I wasn't going to.
I spun away from the rail, and crossed my arms over the red coat they'd given me to cover my underdress. Figuring that I was in for an inch as much as for a mile, I'd flatly refused to wear it unless someone gave me a pair of pants and some boots as well - and so I wore an oversized pair of meant-to-be fitted men's pants and a pair of boots that were only a little bit too big. The occasion was calling for creativity again, and heaven help me, I wasn't going to give up on my winning streak now.
Within a few minutes, Elizabeth was going to be dragged, and locked into, the Captain's quarters. Knowing the bloody brilliant Commodore and his seeming need to protect anything female, I was going to be joining her. Time was short, but fortunately, at the moment, no one was paying much attention to me. Well, except that soldier that had helped me stand earlier, but I thought maybe that there was something wrong with him, because he'd been watching me like a lost puppy, and I'd distinctly heard him talking to the Commodore about me that afternoon.
Making sure that my 'stalker' wasn't near, I sidled to the opposite edge of the deck - port - and examined the ropes that secured the lifeboat swinging over its side. It wouldn't be thatdifficult, really, all things considered.
Checking once more to make sure that no one was watching, I pulled the small dagger I'd snuck from the armoury out of my waistband, and sawed through the knot of the ropes. As it was cut through, the little boat swayed dangerously for a moment, until I began feeding the rope through its pulley. Then, slowly, the boat lowered itself further down off the side of theDauntless, and after a moment of breathlessly waiting for someone to catch me, the craft settled into the water beside the much larger ship.
Wrapping the spare end of the rope around one of the railings - just tight enough that it wouldn't float away, not tight enough to prevent later escape - I casually stepped away, carefully sliding the knife back into my waistband - just as someone called my name.
I froze, then turned to see that same soldier hurrying towards me, beaming. "Miss Heather!" He called again, and I winced.
"Yes?" I asked, trying to sound polite and interested, all the while trying to figure out if he knew what I'd done.
He drew short just in front of me, smiling. "You never did tell me your family name, Miss Heather," he said, persisting on a topic he'd introduced that morning.
"And what does it matter?" I asked again, trying to act coy.
"Because," he reached forward, catching my hands. That startled me more than anything - although he'd sat beside me on the deck and talked to me almost constantly for the last two days we'd been following the Pearl, he'd never touched me save that time he steadied me on my feet, and accidental brushes. "I want to know what I'll be changing your name from."
"Excuse me?" I blinked, absolutely certain that I had no idea what he was talking about.
"The Governor told me about your Grandfather," he said softly, holding my hands tightly in his, pressing them against his chest. "He told me how he's taken you in, now that you have no family left. And I've spoken to the Commodore about it. They've both given their blessing."
I looked up at him, perplexed. "For what?"
"When all this is over, and we get back to Port Royal," he pulled me a little closer. "I would be honoured if you'd be my wife."
I didn't say anything. I couldn't say anything. Excuse me? I meet a soldier, who steadies me when I'm about to fall over from the side-effects of a hangover, spend two days with him in what I had assumed had been his duty from the Commodore, can't even remember his name - was it Francis? - and he's asking me to marry him?!
"You don't have to answer right away," he added hurriedly, perhaps interpreting my stunned silence correctly. "Just - just think about it, alright? I'd be honoured," he stressed, then leaned forward to land a rather awkward kiss on the top on my head, in my hair. "Keep safe," he whispered, then released my hands, took a step back, and headed towards the other soldiers were massing.
I blinked. I could think of no other possible reaction. What the hell.....?
Officer Gillette coughed politely beside me, and I turned in a daze. "Yes?"
"Miss, you need to head into the cabin. It's for your own safety."
I blinked again. "Right."
I followed him then, my brain still frozen, ignoring as Elizabeth had to be pulled into the cabin, wailing, "I don't care what the Commodore ordered, I must tell him! The pirates....the cannot be killed!"
Gillette laughed. "Don't worry, miss, he's already informed of that. A little mermaid flopped up on the deck and told him the whole story." He laughed, and shut the doors, but not before I caught a glimpse of my soldier waving at me energetically.
My brain had melted and kicked into high gear by the time Elizabeth started pounding on the glass, screaming, "This is Jack Sparrow's doing!"
"Darn right, it is." I snarled, making her jump. "Now, you've got a man to rescue, I've got a bloody marriage to get out of, and my pirate is out there risking his neck. There is no bloodyway I'm going to get screwed over like this!"
Elizabeth gaped at me as I marched to the bed, throwing of the covers, and pulling my knife back out to make short work of the sheets. "Now, give me a hand. We're getting the heck out of here."
***********
Well! How's that for a plot twist?!
Remember.... angelfire . com / theforce / isbored / potc / caribbean _ secrets _ title . jpg
Review on the picture too, while you're at it - I'm as insecure as an artist as I am as a writer!
175 is the goal, ladies and gentlemen, clickity click!