Pearl

Chapter 4

Disclaimer: They aren't mine. If Disney has nothing better to do than hunt me down and sue me things are in worse shape than I thought.

Author's note: Welcome back brave travelers. I'm glad to see Pearl's temper hasn't scared you all off yet.

That night Will stood on the starboard rail, watching the water pass beneath him. He and Elizabeth had withdrawn to their rooms after the fight but Will had been unable to sleep. He would never tell Elizabeth, but the truth was that he was simply too wound up. Something about being on the sea thrilled him, and that frightened him.

Suddenly Pearl was beside him. He jumped but she didn't move, simply leaning against the rail and staring out to the moonlit sea. To the west dark clouds were gathering, lightning lancing through it. Her hat was gone, rising wind blowing her short, unevenly chopped hair around her face. High cheek bones and slim, almost aristicratic feature remained still. She could be a bust, he mused, a Greek Goddess from one of Elizabeth's father's books.

"I owe you an apology." She spoke so suddenly he doubted that she had spoken at all for a moment. "Actually, I owe your father an apology, but since he isn't exactly available I'll have to make due with you." She glanced up at him, moonlight reflecting in her dark eyes. "You look enough like him that it isn't so hard."

"Did you know my father?"

"Oh, yes. Well, even. Loved that man. He doted on me so. Worse than Jack, he was. Said I reminded him of his own wee one." She smiled brilliantly into the night. "He brought me a doll once. All the way from China. Porcelain. And then next time he came it was dresses for it, from France. All silk and lace. I still have them, in Tortuga. It's unfair, a man like that dead so soon. A pity he couldn't see you. He'd be so proud. His son, an honest man married to a Governor's daughter." She shook her head. "Apologizing. I was apologizing, not reminiscing. I shouldn't have said what I did. About Bill and your mother. I'd wager she knew exactly what he was. He always spoke of getting into the merchant side of things. Philosophically, at least, the idea of being a pirate galled. He just knew what it was to be hungry and how to make due. That's what being a pirate was for him, making due. The sea was in his blood to be sure, but I'm not certain pirate was. And Elizabeth loves you. It was cruel of me to say that as well. If I could take it back I would. Seeing as I can't all I can say is that I know better."

"Thank you," Will said as the first roll of thunder reached them.

Pearl looked back at the approaching storm, then up at Anamaria at the helm. "Ana, the storm's coming up fast. Maybe you'd best go wake Jack and let me mind the helm."

"Jack put me to this job. Mayhaps you should go wake him," Anamaria suggested.

Pearl shook her head. "You saw us this afternoon. He wouldn't take too kindly to that. He won't mind, I promise."

Anamaria eyed her but surrendered the helm. Pearl took her place. In minutes Jack stepped out on deck with her behind him. "Has it gotten worse than you thought?" he asked his daughter, his voice only slightly stiffer than usual.

"No, just faster," she answered.

"How long're we going to have to fight it?"

"Hour maybe," she answered with a shrug.

"Go wake four or five," Jack ordered of Anamaria as he moved to stand beside Pearl. "Is it tuggin' at the rudder yet?"

"Not bad," she answered with a shrug. "Feel," she added, shifting to give him the wheel.

He nodded, caressing the worn wood. "Good, good."

"If anything happens Tortuga ain't far," she put in.

"Not anxious for home already?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Never," she answered with a grin. "Just saying is all."

Anamaria returned, leading several of the crew including Gibbs. "Why'd you ask for me specifically?" Gibbs asked.

Jack gave him a confused look until he saw Anamaria smirk. Gibbs followed his look and growled, "Stupid wench."

"Maybe you'll think better of throwing things into my cooking next time," she told him with a toss of her long, dark mane.

"A woman scorned," Jack remarked as Gibbs turned red.

"You'd know all about that, Captain Sparrow," Pearl remarked, teasing leaking through her voice.

"The spice of life," Jack returned. "Gibbs, see to the main lines. Cotton, into the billows. Anamaria, check for ships one last time. The rest of you can buckle down."

They all moved to obey. "Norrington really does have you twisted up, doesn't he?" Pearl asked as she watched Anamaria climb. "I don't think I've ever seen you try this hard to avoid a fight."

"The man's smart, and I'd wager he's holding a grudge."

"Ah, something else you know all about," Pearl remarked.

"Not as much as you, luv. As I said, a woman scorned."

"And don't you forget it," she shot at him as she climbed down to assist the crew.

"As if I could," he called after her.

"Come on, Will, help my out with this," she ordered, helping Gibbs tighten the ropes where it was needed. "You staying up here with us?"

"Where else would I be?" he demanded, feeling slightly insulted.

"You ain't a sailor, Will. I'd wallop anyone as dared call you a coward for heading below to your wife's arms if you want," she told him earnestly.

"I've been through a storm on the Pearl before. I'm not scared," he told her.

She nodded. "You're more your father's son than I thought," she remarked. "Man loved storms."

"What about you?" Will asked. "Are you going below?"

"No. Never me." Strangely enough she didn't sound insulted. Instead her eyes slid to the fast-approaching clouds. "I love storms too. Makes me feel alive. I could never be afraid. That's my brother out there, calling me as certainly as the sea does."

"Let's hope it's a protective, kind older brother," Gibbs remarked.

Pearl chuckled and shook her head. Turning toward her father she called out, "A pirate's life for me!"

"Drink up me 'earties, yo ho!" Jack called in answer.

"Okay, Will, you need to go below and let Mrs. Turner know that you're staying up here," Pearl told him.

"I'd prefer it if she just slept though the whole thing," Will remarked.

"Small chance of that, lad," she said, clapping the man who was at least two years her elder on the shoulder. She had, however, been raised in taverns and on a pirate's ship. In all respects beyond pure age she was far older than him. And he respected that enough to listen. "Things are going to get rough and if she wakes up alone she'll try to find you. Tell her I said to stay below, that I'll keep an eye on you."

He gave her a look at the last part but went down to the room he shared with his wife as the waves began to pick up and thunder crashed loud around him.

"Okay, Will?"

Will nodded, although he hardly felt it. Rain fell around them in sheets, running down his face and over his eyes so the form of Pearl was nearly lost in the watery sheet. Lightning lanced around them, giving everything an eerie blue glow. They had no way of knowing how close the strikes were through the driving rain but the deafening thunder didn't seem to bode well. Despite all this Will wasn't afraid. Just the opposite, he thrilled to the sickening roll of the sea, the roar of thunder in his ear, the burst of adrenaline every time the lightning flash. And that terrified him.

He was a pirate, or at least half. The traitorous blood lay deep in him, and he imagined he could feel it surging through him, claiming him. Loving every moment of danger he would never feel in his blacksmith shop or safe in the small mansion Elizabeth's father was building them. The sailors all spoke of the sea claiming them. What if it was too late for him?

Pearl's grip on his shoulder was as giving as the hard wood of the Black Pearl's mast as she pushed close. She lay her forehead against his, her nose tip to tip with his. For one shocked moment he thought she was going to kiss him. But when the next flash of lighting came he found her eyes searching his as she pressed close. She was just trying to see, he realized, sheltering their faces so she could make out the emotions in his eyes. When the next flash came that cocky smile, so like Jack's, bloomed on her face. "Having fun Mr. Turner?" she asked.

He never had the chance to reply. The next flash of lightning was far too close. His hair stood on end and his eyes were seared by the white light, his ears deafened by the boom.

Pearl moved so quickly he didn't have time to think. She pulled him close, tucking his head safely into the crook of her shoulder as she buried hers in his. She sank like a bag of sand, pulling him down with her and tucking them both neatly under the rail as much as she could, her arms pulled protectively around him. Something whispered that this wasn't right. Shouldn't he be saving her?

Then a wave of something he couldn't identify passed over them. Sparks flew from the metal fittings over his head and the bindings around a barrel nearby as his hair stood on end again.

And then the moment had passed and Pearl was pulling away from him to straighten into the driving rain. "What happened?" Will leaned close to scream.

"Lightning hit the mast," she pulled him close to scream back. Retaining hold of his shoulder she led him over to the mast, where most of the crew was gathering.

"Are the sails going to catch fire?" Will called.

"In this rain? Never."

Jack motioned them over. "Will, make sure everyone's accounted for. Below deck too. And tell Elisabeth you're safe," he ordered.

Will tuned to go, but not before he saw Pearl finger the mast. He just barely caught her yell over the rolling wind, "It split the mast?!"

Below deck everyone was demanding to know what had happened. Will told them, leaving out the last part. Whatever had just happened they would find out later. Cotton's parrot had received a shock, but everyone was otherwise fine.

He found Elizabeth pale and shaking on their bed. She hugged him close when she saw him, demanding information of her own. He soothed her as best he could, suggesting she go wait out the storm with what remained of the crew below before returning to the deck.

It was as if the bolt had been the storm's final shot at them. The wind was already hardly more than a stiff breeze, the rain thinning as red early morning light began to show on the horizon. The crew was still gathered around the main mast and he went to join them. In the ever increasing light he could see a large black crack running down the thick bowl, waning to a thin runner at eye level.

"Is everyone accounted for?" Jack asked.

Will nodded. "The parrot's taken a shock. Keeps saying something about 'Fire in the hole.' They think it'll be fine."

"How's Elizabeth?" Pearl asked. Water dripped from her short hair and prominent nose. Once she must have had a beautiful nose, he mused, but at some point it had been broken and badly healed, leaving a defiant hook to it. Her deep eyes were concerned but steely with a forced calm.

"Shaken up," he admitted. "Otherwise fine. Will we have to put into port?"

"Afraid so," Jack admitted with a sigh. "We'll just have it filled. Should last through another few months, at least. You and Elizabeth have any pressing plans back home?"

"Nothing that can't wait if it means the Pearl's safety," Will answered.

"Well said," Pearl remarked with a grin.

"You know, things are much simpler when you aren't on board," Gibbs said, laughter in his voice.

"Ah, but my presence is well worth any confusion and you know it," she answered. "We make for Tortuga then?"

Jack nodded. "If I overpay Marcus we should be out about morning tomorrow."

Pearl nodded her agreement. "Okay lads, let's get those layabouts out of bed so they can send us a'port and the rest of us can get some much-deserved rest."

The crew cheered as they made for the crew's quarters. Only Will, Jack, and Pearl remained above. Smiling sweetly Pearl turned to her father. "That includes you, you know."

"'Fraid not, lass. I'm steering her into port myself."

"No. Gibbs or Ana can do that. Or they can wake you when they get to port. You need to sleep."

"Look who's talking," he returned. "Did you get any sleep last night?"

"Not a wink. And I won't until you lay down."

Jack sighed, throwing up his arms. "Someday, Will, you're going to learn about a little thing called choosing your battles."

"I'm way ahead of you on that count," Will remarked with a grin. "Maybe you'll understand some day if you ever grow up and get married."

"Small chance of that," Pearl said with a shake of her head.

Author's note: There you are lads and lasses. Next up: Tortuga, and a good piece of Pearl's past. Be prepared for flying bottles!