DISCLAIMER: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by Disney. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. Hopefully, Disney's many experienced lawyers will not decide to come after me for this, as I posses only a Gateway computer, some black eyeliner, and a stack of library books by Patrick O'Brien.
Posted by: Elspeth (AKA Elspethdixon).
Author's Notes: To my eternal shame, I have only seen this movie once, so if you find any mistakes, inconsistencies, or inaccuracies in characterization, please tell me. Also, as per Teleute's suggestion, nautical terms and the like will now be glossed at the end of each chapter.
Ships: Will/Elizabeth, Jack/Elizabeth, eventual Jack/Will, eventual Norrington/OC
Warning: This story contains killing, stealing, lots of angst, an OC, and a non-evil Norrington. It also contains drinking, swearing, a male/male relationship, and an eventual threesome. Sadly, it probably will not contain any hot, steamy sex scenes.
Chapter Two: In Which Elizabeth Obtains a New Pair of Earrings.
Well met, well met, my own true love,
well met, well met cried he.
I've just returned from the salt, salt sea
all for the love of thee.
The sun had nearly set, and the sky inland was a wash of rose and pale lavender, like the inside of a seashell. Elizabeth Turner, however, was not looking at the remnants of the splendid Caribbean sunset--she was staring in the opposite direction, away from the gentle curve of Kingston harbor, and out to the open sea. Twilight was darkening the horizon there to a velvety blue, and a rising moon was beginning to shine faintly, creating a pale silver trail across the water. The sandy expanse of the Palisadoes Split stretched off to her left, pale in the evening light, but she was careful not to look in that direction. That way lay Gallows Point, and its rather gruesome first hand demonstrations of justice, and Elizabeth had seen just about all the pirate skeletons she ever wanted to, thank you very much, though at least these simply hung quietly in their chains instead of walking around.
The sea stretched away before her, wide and empty save for that single moonlit path. As the sky darkened, and the moon began to shine more brightly, the path became more solid-looking, until it appeared a silver road stretching away to the horizon. A magical road to lead her away from Port Royal and out into the open sea, or into some fairy kingdom that could only be reached by moonlight.
Presumably, young women in fairy kingdoms did not have to wear corsets and fancifully upswept hairstyles, and listen politely at dinner to red-faced older men who went on and on about the proper management of cane plantations.
Will, displaying a devious turn of mind that probably would have made his pirate father proud, had claimed a (non-existent) pressing engagement and begged off. Elizabeth, sadly, did not have that luxury--the governor's daughter was expected to participate in the social life of upper-class Jamaica, regardless of whether or not her husband fulfilled his own social duties.
Still, she had managed to convince her father's coachmen that really, she could walk the short distance back from the Jacobsons' manor to the governor's house, neglecting to mention her planned little detour. After that endless dinner, she had desperately needed the fresh air.
Sand was doing its best to sift inside her embroidered slippers, the soft breeze blowing out to sea had disarrayed her carefully arranged hair, and Will was almost certainly waiting for her back home, but Elizabeth stayed and watched the water.
There had been a school of dolphins fishing offshore when she had first arrived, jumping playfully in and out of the waves. They were gone now, and the strand was empty but for herself and her imagination.
The whistling was so faint that for a moment she thought she had imagined it, drifting to her on the warm land breeze like a song whistled by a ghost. It sounded familiar. Oddly familiar…
We're rascals, scoundrels, villains, and knaves, her brain supplied automatically. We're devils and black sheep and really bad eggs. Drink up, me hearties, yo ho.
"Yo ho, yo ho," she sang aloud, voice soft, but strong enough to carry to where ever the whistler was, "a pirate's life for me."
"Good song, isn't it?"
The voice spoke directly into her ear, causing her to spin around wildly, yanking the little dagger Will had made her from its hiding place in the front of her bodice and brandishing it in front of her.
"Oooh, do that again." Dark eyes smiled charmingly at her, flicking from her bodice to the dagger in her hand and back again. They were not a pair of eyes she had expected to see again. Hoped to see again, certainly, but not expected.
"Sneaky freebooter," she accused, sliding the dagger back into place. "Don't creep up on me like that. I might have stabbed you."
Jack grinned and spread his arms wide, as if inviting her to do her worst. "Such a welcome for an old friend. I'll make a pirate out of you yet." He looked much the same as he had the last time she'd seen him--same faded blue waistcoat, same red scarf around his head, same magpie-like assortment of beads and gee-gaws tied and braided into his hair. The same dark lines drawn around his eyes in kohl, more make-up than most women would dare wear. She might have thought that the thick, dark outlines made his eyes look like the eyes of a skull in the dim moonlight, had she not previously seen what his eyes really looked like set into a skull. His feet were bare, the better to sneak up on unsuspecting young women.
"What are you doing here?" she demanded. The words came out sounding almost accusing, so she quickly added an explanatory, "If you get caught…"
He grinned, and she caught the quick glint of gold teeth. "Nobody catches Captain Jack Sparrow."
"Which, of course, is why I've seen you in chains more often than any other man of my acquaintance."
"You've led a very sheltered life, haven't you?"
She folded her arms and attempted to glare sternly at him. She had a feeling she wasn't too successful at it. It is difficult to glare at a man you haven't seen in seven months or heard from in seven months, particularly one whose life you saved the last time you saw him. Seven months. Seven months without the slightest missal to let her and Will know that he was alive, that he hadn't gone down in one of the winter hurricanes or even drowned in the sea after falling off that rampart. Suddenly, it was much easier to glare.
"But I always get away, don't I?" A wider grin, and a dramatic flourish of ringed fingers.
"Yes." She felt herself smiling slightly, unwillingly. "You do, don't you? Even if you have to bribe rumrunners with God knows what to do it."
"Better than burnin' perfectly good rum. You're just lucky that ship showed up, or we'd have died of thirst. No water, and you had to go and burn all the rum."
Elizabeth decided to ignore this comment. Responding to it would only encourage him. "So, again, what are you doing here?"
With a graceful but slightly unsteady bow and a wave of his arm, Jack produced a small object wrapped in a scrap of water stained silk and held it out to her. ""Your weddin' present, my lady. Unless the lad hasn't married you yet, in which case he really is a eunuch."
There were some things, Elizabeth decided, that she didn't really need to inquire about. That comment was one of them. Gingerly, she took the little scrap of silk, cautiously unfolding it and holding it up to the light. The unmistakable gleam of gold shone forth from her palm, and she gasped in delight as she saw the two small eardrops nestled there, white pearls shining opalescently in the moonlight and delicately filigreed gold settings glittering.
"Oh, Jack, they're beautiful." Her eyes narrowed in sudden suspicion. "Where did you get them? Never mind," she added, cutting him off before he could reply, "I don't want to know. I'd only feel guilty if I did."
"You prob'ly don't want to know," he agreed. "I'll just put them in for you, then?"
And before Elizabeth could protest, the earrings were out of her palm and back in Jack's hands.
He grasped her chin in one hand and turned her head gently to one side, then released her and reached up to carefully thread the wire loop of the earring through her earlobe. His face was inches away from hers as he squinted at her ear, and she could feel the warmth of his breath against her neck. The last time they'd been so close together, they'd been sitting before a fire with a bottle of rum, discussing freedom. The last time before that, he'd had a cutlass at her throat.
The earing slid easily into her ear, with none of the painful pokes that usually occurred when someone else tried to put earrings in for her.
Jack leaned around to her other side to work on the second ear, fingers trailing across her throat. He had callused hands, like Will, and the rough skin brushing against hers tickled slightly.
The second ear was done as easily as the first, and Jack stepped back to look at her, somehow managing to avoid catching any of his rings in her hair as he pulled his hands away.
"Beautiful," he said, looking at her with those startlingly out-lined eyes, and for a moment she was unsure whether he was referring to the jewelry or her. "They suit you, even if they are the wrong color."
Of course he had meant the earrings, she chided herself. They were made of gold. Jack was very fond of gold. "Black pearls are much more difficult to find," she answered, guessing what he meant.
The opportunity for a terrible pun or self-aggrandizing comment was there, but he let it lie.
"What are you really doing here?" Elizabeth asked again. There had to be more reason for his daring the town's garrison than a simple pair of earrings, no matter how lovely they were. Earrings could be sent in a parcel.
"Mrs. Turner, you wound me." Jack clutched a hand to his heart, staggering back a step as if dealt a mortal blow.
"No, but I could if you'd like." She gestured toward the hidden dagger, feeling herself grin.
"And if I'd like-"
"Stop it," she interrupted, seeing where his eyes were aimed and trying not to giggle. "I'm married!"
"Well yes, there's that. Normally, you understand, it wouldn't be a problem, but as your husband's a pirate also…"
"He's a blacksmith," she corrected automatically.
"Yes. Pr'cisely. Which means he can fix cannons, right?"
"Will can fix anything," Elizabeth replied staunchly. She blinked. Somehow the topic of conversation had shifted from earrings, to her virtue, to cannons, all in the space of about sixty seconds. She had forgotten how irritating talking to Jack could be. His conversation was really much easier to follow when you were drunk.
"Anything including cannons?"
"Yes, anything including cannons. Why?"
"Because two of the Pearl's guns have got rather mangled." He shrugged. "I did have another reason for coming, like you so sagaciously said. I was hoping Will could fix them for us."
"He might. You would have to ask him. Wait, you'd better not. I can't bring you back to my father's house, and if I bring Will out here, people are going to wonder why we're going trooping out to the beach in the dark."
"They'll prob'ly just think that you're havin' a romantic moment out here together."
"Will and I do not have 'romantic moments' out of doors in the sand."
"Why not?" Jack looked genuinely puzzled.
"Because someone might come along and see us," she said, shuddering slightly at the very idea. Port Royal was a small place, and someone might even turn out to be her father. Or Commander Norrington. And then she would die of mortification. And this was really none of Jack's business anyway.
"Tell him to meet us down at the south end of the docks at midnight, if he's comin'," Jack said. "We've got a boat moored there, with the customs officials bribed to look the other way."
Elizabeth nodded. "And if he does go?" she asked.
"Then we row back to the Pearl, sail to Tortuga, and he fixes the guns there," Jack explained. "And we sail back to drop him off here within the month."
A month. Elizabeth would have loved to go to sea for a month. Just a simple, quiet sea voyage, minus the mélees and curses and walking skeletons. A chance to get away from Port Royal for a bit and have some fun. She couldn't, of course. Not by herself, on a pirate ship. The Governor's daughter traveled on secure Royal Navy vessels, suitably escorted, and anyway, she and Will couldn't both disappear at the same time. He had gone away to neighboring settlements to do an odd job or two several times before, but a sudden and unexplained absence on her part would cause comment. Comment by Commander Norrington, for one, who had kept a sharp eye on herself and Will in the wake of their last minute rescue of Jack from the hangman's noose.
"I'll tell him for you," she said. She turned to go, then hesitated. "Thank you for the earrings. They really are lovely, wherever you got them." She reached up to finger one. "They're a shallow bribe to get me to give up my husband to you for a month without complaint, aren't they?"
Jack laughed. "Maybe. That and you're the only woman I can safely give gifts to without gettin' me face slapped."
"Undeservedly, I'm sure." Elizabeth smiled to modify the light sarcasm in her tone. "Will will either be at the harbor, or he'll not be. It's up to him. Either way, please don't take seven months to turn up again next time." She shifted her feet slightly. "I have to get back before he and my father really start to worry. Good bye."
"Good bye, love."
That might have been the first time the two of them had bid an official farewell to each other, Elizabeth reflected as she walked away. She glanced back over her shoulder once, but Jack disappeared into some hiding place as if he'd never been there at all, leaving only the jewels in her ears and the prints of bare feet in the sand to mark his presence.
When she arrived at home, Will and her father both rushed to the door to meet her.
"Elizabeth," Will said gladly, reaching out to take her hand, "where have you been? The Governor's been back for ages."
"Walking by the water," she told him, giving his fingers a silent squeeze. Will nodded slightly, understanding. He spent a lot of time down by the water himself, since their seagoing adventure. A taste for the sea seemed to be like a taste for strong rum; once it got its hooks into you, it hung on like a demon and never let go.
"Really, Lizzie," her father scolded. "Walking about alone in the dark. You could have been set upon by ruffians or pirates."
With an effort, Elizabeth managed to keep a straight face. "I know," she apologized. "I'm sorry for making you worry." She feigned a yawn. "All this walking must have made me more tired than I realized," she continued. "I believe I shall retire."
Her father sighed, then smiled. "Of course, my dear."
Will, who was not fooled by the bit of subterfuge, looked her questioningly. She inclined her head slightly toward the stairs.
"Good evening, Governor Swann," Will said politely, with a slight bow. He then pulled Elizabeth gently in the direction of the stairs, their hands still joined.
"What is it?" he whispered, as soon as they were out of immediate earshot. Elizabeth closed the door to their rooms before responding. As she did so, she felt his eyes on her neck.
"You weren't wearing those earbobs when you left, were you?" he asked. "I don't think I've seen them before."
"A little bird gave them to me."
He blinked, looking puzzled for a moment, and then light dawned. "So that's why you twitched when your father mentioned pirates. What the devil is Jack doing here?" Will had begun to grin faintly, even as he made the demand.
"He needs someone to fix two of the Black Pearl's guns, and came in search of a blacksmith."
"Just like that? After seven months?" Will sounded aggrieved. "Hello, Will and Elizabeth, how are you doing? Sorry I haven't written. Could you come and do a favor for me?"
"Ah, yes. That was pretty much how it went." She smiled. Will looked cute when he was aggravated. That little line would appear between his eyebrows, and his chin would set determinedly, as it was doing now.
"I suppose he wants me to do it for free, as well?"
"He probably does, yes."
"Well I won't." Will folded his arms across his chest, and added, "I expect to be well paid in ill-gotten Spanish coin for my labors." Then he seemed to realize that he had essentially just agreed to fix the two guns. The two of them had assumed that his going was a foregone conclusion immediately, Elizabeth realized. She had assumed that he would agree to go the moment Jack had asked her, and Jack himself had seemed pretty certain of it as well. The three of them knew each other too well, especially considering that Jack and Will had spent little more than a week in each other's company.
"I'd probably have to go out to the Black Pearl to do it," Will ventured. "She'd have to put into harbor somewhere, and she can't do that here."
"Jack said he'd meet you down at the docks at midnight, and you would sneak off to the Black Pearl in a boat and sail for Tortuga." Elizabeth felt slightly envious at the idea of Will's once again visiting Tortuga, which she had never seen. "He said it would take about a month in all." She reached up to place a hand along side Will's face. "I shall miss you, until you return."
"You really wouldn't mind my going?" Will asked uncertainly, reaching up to capture her hand. "It just, it doesn't seem fair to you, Elizabeth, leaving you here all by yourself while I go off and have fun."
"I only wish I could go too," she told him. "And not just because I'll miss you." She sighed. "I spent the whole of dinner commiserating with Mr. Morrison about the difficulty of holding on to good slaves in this climate. Apparently, his keep dying off of something or running away, which I personally don't blame them for. And tomorrow I am engaged to meet with Mrs. Morrison and Mrs. Jacobson and her daughter over tea and embroidery, which wouldn't be so bad, save that Julia Jacobson has set her cap for Commander Norrington, and glares daggers at me over the cream pitcher."
"Poor Elizabeth," Will teased. He turned her hand over and planted a kiss on her palm, right over the faint, pink line of the scar Barbossa's knife had left. "Forced to suffer indigestion and curdled cream."
"That and she resents that I'm an unladylike hoyden who married beneath her, but yet can still sew smaller stitches than she can," Elizabeth continued. Will's mustache tickled the skin of her palm unmercifully, and her fingers twitched. "Stop it. That tickles."
Will looked back up at her face earnestly, not relinquishing her hand. He absently drew a callused thumb across the raised surface of the scar, which still tickled, but not as much. "I don't know what I managed to do to deserve you. Every morning, I wake up and I'm surprised all over again to find you next to me."
"You saved my life like a hero from a story, of course," Elizabeth said. "I only fall in love with men who rescue me. That's where Norrington went wrong."
"His loss is my gain." Will pulled her closer to him, and reached up to catch one of the little pearl earrings, inspecting it. "These are surprisingly tasteful for Jack. I thought his taste in jewelry ran more toward 'giant and shiny.'" He smiled teasingly. "But you can't go to sleep in them, pretty as they are."
Elizabeth smiled back, turning her head to one side slightly to present him with a better angle. "Perhaps you could take them off for me?"
Will didn't answer. Instead, he reached up to take hold of the delicate little gold wire with his surprisingly clever blacksmith's fingers. It took two tries, but after a moment he was able to get it free. He leaned in closer, blowing softly on her now naked ear and giving her earlobe a little nip with his teeth. Elizabeth shivered.
Will moved lower, kissing the curve of her neck, then came about behind her to reach her other ear, trailing his fingers across her throat just as Jack had earlier. He leaned in so close to her that the ends of his hair tickled her cheek and neck, and began to work on the second earring. This one came out more quickly, and was followed by another nip and kiss. Will was even better at taking out earring than Jack was at putting them in.
"Jack will be waiting for you down at the docks," Elizabeth reminded him, thought at the moment she was interested neither in the docks nor Jack.
"Let him wait a bit longer," Will breathed against her shoulder. "I'm not leaving you alone for a month without saying a proper good-bye first."
^_~
Palisadoes Split: a long stretch of joined cays and sandbars connecting Port Royal to mainland Jamaica.
Gallows Point: site near Port Royal where pirates were traditionally hanged. After being hanged, they were frequently displayed hanging in chains until they rotted as a warning to other would be pirates.
Next up, chapter three: In Which Mary Rose Relates her Tragic Story, and Norrington is Greatly Moved.
There will be tears, noble vows of vengeance, and a memorial service for poor dead Robert-Swann-the-plot-device.