Yay! This is one of my favourite parts of the entire story! *dances* It's also kind of long. Sorry about the past chapter, but my life was in a bit of disarray the last two days, me finding out I'm anaemic and everything. I replied to my reviewers! (At the end of the chapter- you know the drill by now!)
Oh, a side note for those of you who have not read The Diary Of Morgan Land:
Jack originally met Morgan when he attacked her ship and took her (and her crew, captain, etc.) captive. They were beached (not shipwrecked) on an island (remember that part) and the Black Pearl was burned by some of Morgan's crew as a smoke signal (sound familiar?)
So keep that in mind.
Okay, here goes nothing:
***
Jack sat with his back to Morgan as the blazing noon sun beat down on them mercilessly. He was decidedly depressed- not only had his ship sunk the night before, but now he was stuck in a boat with Morgan (and only Morgan) for God only knew how many days. As much as he loved Morgan, the awkward tension that floated between them was so thick it could be cut with a knife.
But at least, he thought, I can still try to enjoy myself. He shifted over and leaned his back against hers.
"Sod off." Morgan grunted, shoving him away.
Jack sighed. "Is there a problem, luv?"
She turned to face him, frustration hanging like a grey rain cloud in her brown eyes. "You expect us to talk when you haven't said two words to me in weeks!"
"Actually," Jack pointed out, "I had a little something other than talking in mind."
"You haven't paid the slightest bit of attention to me!" She accused.
"Oh c'mon, luv," Jack said, his hands pawing at her shoulder affectionately. "You know how busy I am."
"Not too busy for Meryl!" She snapped, turning to face the water again.
He climbed over and plunked himself down beside her, clinging to the edges of the rower to keep from accidentally hurling himself out of the tiny vessel. His arms slid around her waist. "I love you, Meryl. You know I love you."
Morgan turned her head very slowly to face him, a quiet, icy glare reflecting in her eyes. "What did you just call me?"
"Morgan." Jack said hollowly, scooting as far away from her as he could get in the cramped rower.
"What?"
Jack inched down fearfully, his usually transfixing dark eyes now timid and downcast. "I think I should shut me mouth now."
Morgan glared at him, her nails digging into the sea-weathered sides of the boat. She gritted her teeth and breathed in deep, slow breaths, trying to calm her racing heart. Slowly, as if in a trance, she climbed over to where he had slunk away, grasping his hands in hers, smiling sweetly.
"What did you call me?" She asked again, her voice coated in honey and sugar.
Jack gave a sigh of relief. She wasn't going to kill him. He smiled innocently. "Morgan."
In one quick movement, she thrust her arms away from her body, her hands releasing Jack's as he tumbled back into the water. She stood up, carrying in her stance all the dignity that an aristocratic upbringing had taught her. "Like hell you didn't!"
Her hands found the oars and she attempted to row away, only succeeding in making very small circles as her path.
"Not fair!" Jack called from the water, swimming in smooth, easy strokes alongside the boat. "Not fair, that's cheating! You've got to relinquish one of those oars, darling."
Morgan grabbed her right oar with both hands and sent it flying at him violently. It hit his head with a painful-sounding crack. "I'm not your whore, Jack, whatever Meryl might be. I'm not affiliating myself with you anymore. You can bloody shut up because I'm going home!"
"Good luck getting anywhere in a rower with only one paddle." He rubbed his throbbing skull and waited as his distorted vision came back into focus, then grabbed the rower with one hand. Realizing his previous remark had done nothing to help the situation, he tried again. "Morgan? I love you, Morgan... Morgan... Morgan... Please listen to me luv- er, Morgan. Please?"
"There's only so many times you can say my name in one sentence and still sound believable, Jack." She glowered, a little of her previous anger having warn off after hurting Jack as she had. More, now, she felt bitter, her voice throbbing with sarcasm. "Why don't you go call Meryl's name? I'm sure she'd be happy to come pick you up. Just like she was oh-so happy to be your pretty little whore!" Her tone changed to cold and mocking. "Oh, that's right, the whole crew can know, but don't worry, Morgan's too thick. She wont notice a thing." She bit her lip to keep from crying. "Go on, then," She croaked. "go find her! Then you two can 'swordfight' all you want, but you know what? Next time you decide to be a cheating bastard, leave me out of it!"
Jack hoisted himself up over the side of the rower and into the boat. He lay on the floor at Morgan's feet, soaked, timid, looking rather pathetic.
Morgan sighed and sat down across from him. He grasped her hands and folded them in his own. "Something's wrong, luv."
She avoided his eyes. "You just called me Meryl, of course something is wrong."
"Before that." His thumb and forefinger guided her chin up so that she was facing him. "What's been troubling you, Morgan darling?" His lips were mesmorizingly close to hers, and she felt suddenly dizzy. It was a battle to keep her anger for him burning, his scent going to her brain like whisky, numbing her mind, dulling her senses.
"You know what's been troubling me." She managed to say. And when he didn't appear to understand, "Don't think that because I didn't see anything I cant figure this out. You. You and Meryl."
"What about us?"
"You've been... you've been..." She blushed.
"Been what, darling?"
"Stop playing the innocent with me, Jack, you know good and well what I mean!" She snapped, pulling her face away from his to keep herself from delving at his lips hungrily and begging him to touch her. "You and Meryl were making love!"
Jack's eyebrows shot up. "Now where did you get an idea like that, luv?"
"I notice things." She muttered.
"Like..."
"Like you not trying to bed me in two weeks, like how much you seem to adore those fencing sessions... oh trust me, Jack, I know you've been unsheathing more than just your sword!"
"That's not true, luv." He toyed with her hair. "I love you, Morgan. Your hair, your eyes, the way you're always speaking in that outlandish accent..."
"Irish." She mumbled.
"...you're my lifeblood, my soul, the very breath in me lungs... I need you."
Morgan stared at him blankly. "How many women have you made that speech to, Jack?" She gave a little sardonic smile. "You're much too practiced in your words to be saying that for the first time."
"Morgan, please-" Something on the horizon caught his eye. "Sweet Jesus, luv, look at that!"
She turned around. There it was- an island. Land. Shade. A freshwater source, perhaps. She smiled. "Thank God."
"We must have drifted a fair bit." Jack commented, scooping up the oar that Morgan had thrown at him. She sighed, relieved that she wouldn't have to spend much longer trapped in a boat with him.
Half an hour later, Morgan and Jack hauled the rower up onto the beach. She looked around sceptically and sighed. "Not much here."
"On the contrary," Jack picked up a piece of parchment that had lain half-buried in the sand and studied it a moment. "There seems to be more here than one would think."
Morgan frowned. "What is that?"
Jack looked up at her and smirked. "You never told me you kept a diary."
"What?"
He read aloud from the page. "'...Anamaria. She is the whore of our jailer, Mr. Captain Jack Sparrow.' Now that's not very nice, darling." Morgan snatched at the page, but he held it tauntingly out of reach, reading it all the while. "Morgan, luv, I never knew. I mean, I may be the most dashing pirate on the ocean, darling, but am I really that distracting?"
Morgan blushed furiously. "Jack, please!" What had she written on that particular page? "Give it here!" She jumped up and grabbed it from his grasp. He thrust his arms around her waist and tackled her. They fell to the sandy ground underneath. Morgan's dark mood seemed to lift, and she began to laugh. "Get off of me, Jack!"
He rolled her over so that she was directly underneath him. "Now you cant tell me you don't like this." She shifted uncomfortable in the sand underneath him, crumpling the paper discretely in her hand. "This gives me ideas. New ideas..."
"Don't even think about it."
He stood up, and then pulled her to her feet alongside him. "We must have stumbled upon our old island, aye?" He said, musing at the way fate had brought them, in their most trying time, back to the place where they had first met. Stranded, shipwrecked on an island with an uncountable amount of rum and a beautiful woman- how could he forget? "Brings back memories..."
"Forget it, Jack." Morgan warned. "History wont be repeating itself this time." Her determination that he would not succeed in removing her undergarments this time almost made Jack want her more.
"I would only dream of it, luv. Well, dream and remember..."
"Oh shut up!" Despite her icy tone, there was some definite playfulness in the way she snapped at him. She brushed past him, making her way towards the shade of the palm trees. "I wonder how far it is to the waterfall- I'm thirsty, are you?" She glanced around for a landmark of sorts. "Do you remember the way?"
"Of course I do." He smiled. "I followed you for half an hour through the blasted palm-tree brush- you think I'd forget?"
She giggled. "Why?"
"Wouldn't you like to know."
"As a matter of fact, yes, I would." Morgan bent down and brushed the sand off her dress, unintentionally giving Jack a view of her backside. He stared, smiling. "Doesn't a captain have better things to do than follow me to that stupid bathing pool..." She suddenly realized that she had just answered her own question. A look of disgust spread across her face. "Ugh! You're filthy, Jack, you really are. What were you planning on doing exactly- no wait, don't answer that! Ugh! Thank God I kept my clothes on."
"You didn't manage that for long." Jack muttered.
They walked in silence through the palm trees until they reached the waterfall. It wasn't really much of a waterfall, just the product of two streams that converged in the jungle and flowed out over a small rocky escarpment into a cool, clean pool of freshwater. Morgan glanced at the sparkling waters, suddenly aware that she was sticking to her dress with sweat.
"Jack?" He was standing in front of her, staring at the water with equal relish.
"Aye?"
She lunged forward and hurled herself into the pool, dragging him with her. They hit the water with a tremendous splash.
"Dirty trick." He muttered as they surfaced together.
Morgan laughed. "What does this remind you of?"
"Well, as I recall..." His eyes shone. "Last time I didn't cop much off of you, so-" Suddenly his mouth was on hers, his tongue delving in without warning and without permission.
A soft moan escaped Morgan's lips. She could feel Jack smile against her. He broke the kiss and stared intently into her eyes. Morgan pushed him away and waded over to the rocky edge of the water, half-wishing she hadn't let him know how much she had enjoyed it. She sat down, her black hair falling in a pile of ebony silk around her. Jack stared for a moment, drinking in her beauty, her pale skin, voluptuous curves, bewitching eyes, before wading over to join her.
The rest will be left up to the reader's imagination, though it should be known that Morgan did, indeed, manage to keep her clothes on.
***
Review Replies:
kristhegreat-
Soap operas rule! Hehe. *giggles*
bob-the-bear-
I know, poor Meryl.
Elise-
Read on, that all changes.
divinething-
I was thinking of a Meryl sequel next in line. Let me know if there's any one character in particular who you'd like to read more of.
Luinecu-
Oh, not knowing who you're rooting for would stink. Poor you. Poor Meryl.
et-spiritus-sancti-
You remind me of my friend (goes by Lizard on this site.) Glad you like it, glad you're caught up.
Elentari II-
Ironic is right! Oh, and keep hydrated, and eat lots of iron, because otherwise you'll end up anaemic like me. *scowls* Don't cry! Yes, Jack will find out about Temaeno soon. Be patient.
FancingBabe7-
Temaeno is there to serve a single purpose, I'm not trying to develop his character too much. He's really just dispensable. And Morgan is not going to get all swoony over him- she's just in that 'vengeance for the hurt' state. I think the difference between the way you write and the way I do is that you interpret Jack on the grounds that love is universal (or something like that), whereas I think that not everyone is capable of love, some people have hardened themselves beyond that state.
And Bart's death was for Meryl, not for Meryl and Jack. I'm not writing for the generic romance market here. Have a little faith in me.
justjess22-
Temaeno (pronounced Tah-mee-no) is mostly just there to serve a purpose. I hate homework.
Erin Richards-
I think I'll be fine. after I started taking iron, I feel much better. Yeah, low iron, which means low haemoglobin, which means less oxygen flow to the body. I like your story. I'm going to read chapter five right now. Thanks for reviewing, and I love your fic as always.
