AN: Firstly I must thank my muse, who is soley responsible for this chapter
seeing as of when I sat down at this computer I had no idea what this
chapter would be about. Next I'd like to thank my lovely reviewers, but
primarily this is for the fans! And the producer, he's great, and my agent,
*kisses* and my mo-
Oh, sorry, got a little carried away. Just practicing my Grammy acceptance speech- Who said that? Was that me? No, no, couldn't have been--
*hides under computer*
_______________
Chapter 15: Dusty Roads and Street Urchins
_______________
Anamaria was exhausted. Her captors had eventually tied a longer rope to her bound hands so they could pull her along behind them and as she stumbled over a large rock, Evans gave it a particularly harsh yank. She gritted her teeth and trudged on behind them, imaging exactly how she would go about killing him. She knew it was of no use to her to scream or yell, being seen as a slave again and the papers to prove it and also knowing that if any pirates (or commodores) were coming to her rescue they could not possibly know her location and be in any close proximity. Night was falling and her stomach ached in hunger and her vision was unfocused due to fatigue. Ana had only one saving hope; Evans and his creep could not kill her or wound her seriously until the bounty promised to them was collected for her return unharmed.
She sighed bitterly. She had been trying to figure out exactly why Charles Adler would go through such pains for her return; he must have a multitude of plantation slave women to choose from to be his whores. Hell, he could even afford upstanding whores more well-to-do than Tortuga's ladies. Ana glanced down at herself, her shirt torn and stained with Jack's and her own blood, her britches ripped and hair lying limply down her back; she grinned inwardly. Yes, Anamaria was sure she looked every inch a grand lady.
She blinked as she and her captors broke through the trees of the dense jungle path into a dusty clearing. The sun was setting in the west, streaking the sky in a blood and wine painting behind the faint outline of buildings in the distance. Ana realized they were nearing their destination and felt a rush of panic. By the time that sun set again, it was quite possible that she would not be on this earth to see it. She desperately twisted her hands to her left, feeling in the pouch that she had tied to the waistline of her britches the comforting weight of Jack's gold coin. Ana heaved a sigh. It was possible that he would never know her reasons for bringing the Pearl to rescue him, or staying under his command, or even they way her heart felt when she heard his voice or met his eyes.
She nearly walked straight into Evans as he stopped abruptly. The man grabbed her arm and pointed towards the city with a sinister grin, "Welcome home, my lady," he told her, eyes hardened.
She chose not to reply and he went on, "We'll be meeting your master there to give you a nice reunion I'm sure." Ana attempted to suppress a shudder that ripped through her body. Evans saw it and rubbed her arm roughly with his thumb in a bruising and suggestive way that had Anamaria's blood boiling. "Now if you want a real man-" he began.
Ana lashed out with her knee and caught him in the groin, expression thunderous. He groaned in pain and doubled over. She darted around him and ran down the dusty path towards Wittenburg, Evans' furious yelling carrying after her. Going several hundred feet, she heard footsteps closing in behind her and desperately tried to make her tired muscles faster. Something caught between her feet and she suddenly tripped, sprawling full out onto the ground, her bound hands unable to break her fall. Ana felt herself lose her breath and as she attempted to catch it felt a burning pain against the right side of her jaw and dull aching pain over her shoulders and the front of her body.
Rough hands hauled her to her feet as Ana gasped for air. She found herself face to face, or face to chest, rather, with her small frame and his towering height with Evans' sailor companion, currently looking at her in a leering and peeved way. "Ye sh'know betta', bitch," he told her roughly. He made no effort to drag her back to where Evans was slowly catching up to them.
He was glaring at Ana, eyes hard and expression filled with rage. He strode up to the pair and as Ana met his gaze evenly without fear, he backhanded her across her already raw jawbone. Her head snapped to the side and she would have fallen if it were not for the sailor's bruising grasp on her shoulders. Ana's eyes filled with shock and suppressed rage simmered there as she returned her gaze to stare into his own.
"You won't be so cocky when Adler's through with you, bitch. If I had my way with you--" he broke off, angrily thrusting his fist into his other palm. Ana was still watching his motions through eyes veiled with dark emotions. She shook her head slowly and almost unconsciously, her strong emotion of disapproval made visible.
Evans growled at her, expression livid. His fist shot out of nowhere and she was unprepared, unable to react quickly enough. It caught her in the side of the jaw yet again in the same abused spot and Ana saw darkness.
- _____________________ -
The captain of the Black Pearl awoke from his extended (yet unwilling, of course) nap with Anamaria's name on his lips and payback on his mind. He hauled his protesting body up using the sheets, seeing out the crack between the drapes that the sky was already dark. He cursed his weakness, knowing that he had been asleep at least the whole afternoon. Jack swayed uneasily on his feet, his head spinning.
The door creaked open and Gibbs shuffled inside holding a tray and Jack's nostril's twitched at the appetizing smell. Gibbs frowned disapprovingly at his captain being out of bed and set down the tray on the desk. Jack took a step towards it, but Gibbs shook his head. Jack looked at him with a confused expression and rolled his eyes with an exasperated groan when his quartermaster lifted his eyebrows expectantly and pointed back towards the bed.
"Gibbs, why must ye torture me with all this babysittin'?" Jack told him, leaning unsteadily against the chair that Will had occupied earlier that day.
"Someone's gotta take care of ye when Ms. Ana isn't here to pester ye, ye mangy seadog," Gibbs growled.
"As touching as that is-" Jack began to reply, stepping again towards the food that's aroma was calling out to him.
He was cut off by his quartermaster, who raised his finger warningly. "Don't make me call in the boys on ye again, Capt'n." Jack groaned in annoyance, and reluctantly climbed back into bed, watching with unconcealed amusement as Gibbs propped the pillows up behind his back and brought the tray over to the pirate captain and set it in his lap. "'Asides," Gibbs told him, handing him a spoon, "They're goin ashore in a few hours to look for Ms. Ana and me figures yeh'd be meanin' to go with 'em."
Jack perked up at this, staring innocently from the spoon in his hand to the grubby pirate in front of him. "Why aren't ye gonna feed me too, Gibbs?" he quipped, his spirits somewhat restored.
The other pirate growled menacingly at him, and raised his fist.
Jack continued on, turning the spoon over in his fingers with keen observation, expression perfectly serious and plaintive. "'Tis a difficult task, and there are some things I can't manage all by me onesies just yet, mate, injured as I am."
He was cut off by the slamming of a chair back into the desk and stomping footsteps towards the door. Jack looked up at his quartermaster innocently. Gibbs glared at him, and only after the door was slammed shut did the captain permit himself to chuckle.
- _____________________ -
The dark tower loomed over her, as foreboding and ominous in its appearance as its significance. There was a single lamp lit near the top floor in the right window and as Anamaria gazed at it, it was suddenly smothered, as if the drapes had been let down across the window. The town of Wittenburg was quiet and had been since generally so, with its residents skittish and wary- looking in appearance, since Ana awoke a little time ago.
*Flashback*
Something cold was poured over her head and Anamaria snapped her head up, eyes wide and searching. She was staring into a boy's unfamiliar face, his green eyes startled, and she saw by his position that he must have jumped sprang away from her when she awoke. Ana shifted uncomfortably, feeling the cold water drip down her back and she began to shiver in the dark of past twilight. "What ye do that for, boy?" she asked him sharply, feeling the restraints still binding her wrists.
"Ah, beggin' yer pardon miss, but the men inside told me I'd best wake yeh." The boy replied, nervously glancing over his shoulder.
"Do ye have a dagger?" Ana demanded softly, twisting to show him her bound hands. He hesitated, reaching into his back pocket with an expression that some could consider pity.
"He might, but he won't be using it on you, whore. Thank ye boy, for yer assistance. Now leave," Evans' cold voice rang out from the shadows behind her, and she felt the painful jab of a pistol in her side.
Ana watched in growing shock as the boy drew back several steps, fingered something circular and shiny in his hand and held it up to the dim light. Jack's coin! Ana wrenched herself forward, screaming something unintelligible at the street rat through her rage. The boy drew back into the shadows, his expression pitiful and greedy in the same.
Evans took a chunk of her hair and yanked her along beside him, growling into her ear, "Shut up. We'd not want to--lose you, not when we're so close." Ana writhed under his forceful grip and made a sound of pure frustration and fighting surrender. Somewhere in her mind she registered that his thug-like companion was not with him. She felt the familiar wrenching of the rope pulling her raw and bloody wrists, and was forced to follow along after the bounty hunter into the shadows, fighting the entire time and mourning the loss of the comforting presence of Jack's coin.
*End Flashback*
Ana shook her head in defeat and was shoved forward into the building. There was the hiss of fire as Evans lit a torch and the narrow stone stairwell was bathed in a harsh dim light. He motioned her towards the stairs, his pistol in one hand and torch in the other, and reluctantly she obeyed, seeing no alternative. When she reached the top of the stairs, she saw a tall barred wooden door. Evans knocked at it and after a moment, the top window slid open to reveal the through the dim yellow light a man's eyes inspecting him.
The window slid closed again, and with the sounds of latches and locks being undone, the door swung inward. Evans shoved her inside, and Ana found herself face to foul face with the father of her son.
-----
Author: -- laughs wickedly. No worries, I think I've got a plan for this one.
--
Oh, sorry, got a little carried away. Just practicing my Grammy acceptance speech- Who said that? Was that me? No, no, couldn't have been--
*hides under computer*
_______________
Chapter 15: Dusty Roads and Street Urchins
_______________
Anamaria was exhausted. Her captors had eventually tied a longer rope to her bound hands so they could pull her along behind them and as she stumbled over a large rock, Evans gave it a particularly harsh yank. She gritted her teeth and trudged on behind them, imaging exactly how she would go about killing him. She knew it was of no use to her to scream or yell, being seen as a slave again and the papers to prove it and also knowing that if any pirates (or commodores) were coming to her rescue they could not possibly know her location and be in any close proximity. Night was falling and her stomach ached in hunger and her vision was unfocused due to fatigue. Ana had only one saving hope; Evans and his creep could not kill her or wound her seriously until the bounty promised to them was collected for her return unharmed.
She sighed bitterly. She had been trying to figure out exactly why Charles Adler would go through such pains for her return; he must have a multitude of plantation slave women to choose from to be his whores. Hell, he could even afford upstanding whores more well-to-do than Tortuga's ladies. Ana glanced down at herself, her shirt torn and stained with Jack's and her own blood, her britches ripped and hair lying limply down her back; she grinned inwardly. Yes, Anamaria was sure she looked every inch a grand lady.
She blinked as she and her captors broke through the trees of the dense jungle path into a dusty clearing. The sun was setting in the west, streaking the sky in a blood and wine painting behind the faint outline of buildings in the distance. Ana realized they were nearing their destination and felt a rush of panic. By the time that sun set again, it was quite possible that she would not be on this earth to see it. She desperately twisted her hands to her left, feeling in the pouch that she had tied to the waistline of her britches the comforting weight of Jack's gold coin. Ana heaved a sigh. It was possible that he would never know her reasons for bringing the Pearl to rescue him, or staying under his command, or even they way her heart felt when she heard his voice or met his eyes.
She nearly walked straight into Evans as he stopped abruptly. The man grabbed her arm and pointed towards the city with a sinister grin, "Welcome home, my lady," he told her, eyes hardened.
She chose not to reply and he went on, "We'll be meeting your master there to give you a nice reunion I'm sure." Ana attempted to suppress a shudder that ripped through her body. Evans saw it and rubbed her arm roughly with his thumb in a bruising and suggestive way that had Anamaria's blood boiling. "Now if you want a real man-" he began.
Ana lashed out with her knee and caught him in the groin, expression thunderous. He groaned in pain and doubled over. She darted around him and ran down the dusty path towards Wittenburg, Evans' furious yelling carrying after her. Going several hundred feet, she heard footsteps closing in behind her and desperately tried to make her tired muscles faster. Something caught between her feet and she suddenly tripped, sprawling full out onto the ground, her bound hands unable to break her fall. Ana felt herself lose her breath and as she attempted to catch it felt a burning pain against the right side of her jaw and dull aching pain over her shoulders and the front of her body.
Rough hands hauled her to her feet as Ana gasped for air. She found herself face to face, or face to chest, rather, with her small frame and his towering height with Evans' sailor companion, currently looking at her in a leering and peeved way. "Ye sh'know betta', bitch," he told her roughly. He made no effort to drag her back to where Evans was slowly catching up to them.
He was glaring at Ana, eyes hard and expression filled with rage. He strode up to the pair and as Ana met his gaze evenly without fear, he backhanded her across her already raw jawbone. Her head snapped to the side and she would have fallen if it were not for the sailor's bruising grasp on her shoulders. Ana's eyes filled with shock and suppressed rage simmered there as she returned her gaze to stare into his own.
"You won't be so cocky when Adler's through with you, bitch. If I had my way with you--" he broke off, angrily thrusting his fist into his other palm. Ana was still watching his motions through eyes veiled with dark emotions. She shook her head slowly and almost unconsciously, her strong emotion of disapproval made visible.
Evans growled at her, expression livid. His fist shot out of nowhere and she was unprepared, unable to react quickly enough. It caught her in the side of the jaw yet again in the same abused spot and Ana saw darkness.
- _____________________ -
The captain of the Black Pearl awoke from his extended (yet unwilling, of course) nap with Anamaria's name on his lips and payback on his mind. He hauled his protesting body up using the sheets, seeing out the crack between the drapes that the sky was already dark. He cursed his weakness, knowing that he had been asleep at least the whole afternoon. Jack swayed uneasily on his feet, his head spinning.
The door creaked open and Gibbs shuffled inside holding a tray and Jack's nostril's twitched at the appetizing smell. Gibbs frowned disapprovingly at his captain being out of bed and set down the tray on the desk. Jack took a step towards it, but Gibbs shook his head. Jack looked at him with a confused expression and rolled his eyes with an exasperated groan when his quartermaster lifted his eyebrows expectantly and pointed back towards the bed.
"Gibbs, why must ye torture me with all this babysittin'?" Jack told him, leaning unsteadily against the chair that Will had occupied earlier that day.
"Someone's gotta take care of ye when Ms. Ana isn't here to pester ye, ye mangy seadog," Gibbs growled.
"As touching as that is-" Jack began to reply, stepping again towards the food that's aroma was calling out to him.
He was cut off by his quartermaster, who raised his finger warningly. "Don't make me call in the boys on ye again, Capt'n." Jack groaned in annoyance, and reluctantly climbed back into bed, watching with unconcealed amusement as Gibbs propped the pillows up behind his back and brought the tray over to the pirate captain and set it in his lap. "'Asides," Gibbs told him, handing him a spoon, "They're goin ashore in a few hours to look for Ms. Ana and me figures yeh'd be meanin' to go with 'em."
Jack perked up at this, staring innocently from the spoon in his hand to the grubby pirate in front of him. "Why aren't ye gonna feed me too, Gibbs?" he quipped, his spirits somewhat restored.
The other pirate growled menacingly at him, and raised his fist.
Jack continued on, turning the spoon over in his fingers with keen observation, expression perfectly serious and plaintive. "'Tis a difficult task, and there are some things I can't manage all by me onesies just yet, mate, injured as I am."
He was cut off by the slamming of a chair back into the desk and stomping footsteps towards the door. Jack looked up at his quartermaster innocently. Gibbs glared at him, and only after the door was slammed shut did the captain permit himself to chuckle.
- _____________________ -
The dark tower loomed over her, as foreboding and ominous in its appearance as its significance. There was a single lamp lit near the top floor in the right window and as Anamaria gazed at it, it was suddenly smothered, as if the drapes had been let down across the window. The town of Wittenburg was quiet and had been since generally so, with its residents skittish and wary- looking in appearance, since Ana awoke a little time ago.
*Flashback*
Something cold was poured over her head and Anamaria snapped her head up, eyes wide and searching. She was staring into a boy's unfamiliar face, his green eyes startled, and she saw by his position that he must have jumped sprang away from her when she awoke. Ana shifted uncomfortably, feeling the cold water drip down her back and she began to shiver in the dark of past twilight. "What ye do that for, boy?" she asked him sharply, feeling the restraints still binding her wrists.
"Ah, beggin' yer pardon miss, but the men inside told me I'd best wake yeh." The boy replied, nervously glancing over his shoulder.
"Do ye have a dagger?" Ana demanded softly, twisting to show him her bound hands. He hesitated, reaching into his back pocket with an expression that some could consider pity.
"He might, but he won't be using it on you, whore. Thank ye boy, for yer assistance. Now leave," Evans' cold voice rang out from the shadows behind her, and she felt the painful jab of a pistol in her side.
Ana watched in growing shock as the boy drew back several steps, fingered something circular and shiny in his hand and held it up to the dim light. Jack's coin! Ana wrenched herself forward, screaming something unintelligible at the street rat through her rage. The boy drew back into the shadows, his expression pitiful and greedy in the same.
Evans took a chunk of her hair and yanked her along beside him, growling into her ear, "Shut up. We'd not want to--lose you, not when we're so close." Ana writhed under his forceful grip and made a sound of pure frustration and fighting surrender. Somewhere in her mind she registered that his thug-like companion was not with him. She felt the familiar wrenching of the rope pulling her raw and bloody wrists, and was forced to follow along after the bounty hunter into the shadows, fighting the entire time and mourning the loss of the comforting presence of Jack's coin.
*End Flashback*
Ana shook her head in defeat and was shoved forward into the building. There was the hiss of fire as Evans lit a torch and the narrow stone stairwell was bathed in a harsh dim light. He motioned her towards the stairs, his pistol in one hand and torch in the other, and reluctantly she obeyed, seeing no alternative. When she reached the top of the stairs, she saw a tall barred wooden door. Evans knocked at it and after a moment, the top window slid open to reveal the through the dim yellow light a man's eyes inspecting him.
The window slid closed again, and with the sounds of latches and locks being undone, the door swung inward. Evans shoved her inside, and Ana found herself face to foul face with the father of her son.
-----
Author: -- laughs wickedly. No worries, I think I've got a plan for this one.
--
