A/N: I was going to post this as one humongous chap...This and then a scene
in the car...Mind, Gutter, Out. But I lost that disc...Luckily I had my
back up. So Here ya go..
In case anyone's wondering, they still aren't mine.
'If that's Grapple semi-sober,' Jack thought. 'He really is a nasty drunk.' He looked over at Elizabeth; she had a small cut above her eye. The thing he hated about small cuts, especially near the eye, was that they bled way too much. Ana Maria looked like she was having a nervous breakdown. The Harpies weren't going to be too much help either.
"Ana," Lizzie was saying. "It's just a cut, for God's sake. I'm not dying."
"But," Ana objected. "It's really bleeding Lizzie! It might need stitches! Oh, God! Stitches!"
Jack let Ana ramble for about twenty seconds, then said, "No, it won't need stitches. Just needs to be cleaned, maybe a small bandage. She won't die from blood-loss either. I can get that bandaged in about twenty seconds, just need to make a trip home."
Lizzie saw her way to get out of there and was grateful for it. She gave him a brief grin and turned back to Ana, Josie, and Kate. "See," she told them. "I'll be fine. Josie, Kate, I'll see you Monday?" the girls nodded. "Ana, study group tomorrow, 4:00?" Ana also nodded. "Good," She turned back to Jack and mouthed 'Thank you.' He grinned and let her walk past him to the door.
Once outside, Lizzie giggled softly. Jack looked at her quizzically and asked, "What're you laughing about?"
"Ana!" Lizzie giggled again. "She's such a, a mother hen sometimes."
Jack was then greeted with the rather disturbing image of Ana Maria's head on a hen's body, with Lizzie and Will's heads on the bodies of baby chicks. Shaking his head, he walked towards her. "I don't have a car here," he told her, "but home is only a couple blocks away. We can get that cut taken care of, and then Mum can take you home."
When they arrived at the apartment complex, they stopped. Jack entered the key code for the gate and waited for it to open. When it finally did, Jack let Lizzie walk through and then followed her. The apartment was in the second building back, the first apartment on the right. Jack fished the key out of his pocket and opened the door.
"Mum!" he called up the stairs once they were inside. "I'm home!"
"I'll be down in a minute!" his mother called back, she sounded startled.
Jack grinned and yelled, "You can tell Josh he can come down too," he listened and when his mother said nothing, turned and walked into the bathroom that had been hidden by the front door. He opened the cupboard and started to look for something.
Lizzie took a moment to look at the layout of the apartment. When you walked in the front door, immediately to your right was a bathroom and to your left was the kitchen, straight ahead a few paces and to the right were the stairs and farther down was a small living room. At the end of the living room was a sliding glass door that opened onto a small patio. Up the stairs there was apparently at least one bedroom. Lizzie heard someone close a door upstairs and heard footsteps heading for the stairs.
Jack walked out of the bathroom with a bandage, some cotton balls, and what looked to be hydrogen peroxide just as his mother was reaching the end of the stairs, followed by a slightly older man.
"Mum, Josh," he greeted. "This is Lizzie. Lizzie this is Mum and Josh."
"Hello," the women said at the same time, then smiled.
"Hello Miss Swann," Josh said.
Lizzie turned to him, "Mr. Gibbs?"
"I told you the principal was a friend of Mum's," Jack grinned.
Joshamee Gibbs gave Jack a reproachful look that only caused his grin to widen. Michelle Sparrow looked between the two and smiled, then she looked at Lizzie again and the smile faded. "Oh," she sighed. "What happened?"
"Someone started some trouble," Jack said flatly.
"You tend to that," Michelle told her son. "I'll make tea." With that she disappeared into the kitchen. Mr. Gibbs soon followed.
"Tea's Mum's cure-all," Jack explained. "C'mon into the living room. We'll get you patched up, then you and Mum can have a 'girl talk'."
"I can clean it myself," Lizzie said. "Thank you very much."
"It's a physical impossibility for someone to clean a cut above their own eye," Jack retorted. "Besides, I know what I'm doing," with that he walked off into the living room.
"Men," Lizzie muttered, following him anyway.
About a minute and a half later Elizabeth had a bandage and a glare and Jack was grinning again. "Told ya," he said.
"Fine," she grimaced. "You were right, I was wrong. Happy now?"
"Not really," was the answer. "But it'll do."
Lizzie heard a light laugh and turned around. Michelle Sparrow had just entered the room, and apparently Josh Gibbs was in lost puppy mode. He was following her everywhere.
"Water's heating," she explained. "Should be ready in a couple of minutes, until then," she gave a pointed look to her son, "why don't we talk for a while?" Jack gave a sheepish smile and gestured for his mother to begin. "Apparently you know each other from school," she looked to her son who nodded, "he's not causing trouble, is he?"
Lizzie supposed that the question wasn't supposed to be funny, but she couldn't help but laugh, "No," she said finally. "Actually, he's livened up the English classes."
"So," Michelle seemed relieved. "What's this," she gestured at...something, "all about?"
Jack gave his mother a questioning look, and she clarified, "The cut. What happened?"
"Oh," Lizzie said. "Club, semi-sober football player."
"Uh-huh," the older woman sounded somewhat skeptical.
"Your son's a good guitarist by the way," Lizzie hoped that would change the subject.
"He is isn't he," apparently Lizzie's grasp in the dark worked. "He taught himself, you know."
"Really?"
"Really," Michelle nodded. "He asked for a guitar one day," here Jack opened his mouth slightly, as if to speak, sighed, and rolled his eyes, "we told him if we bought it, he'd have to learn to play it, so he did."
"I couldn't teach myself an instrument if I tried," Lizzie said.
"Surely you can do somethin'?" Jack broke in.
"Well," Lizzie started. "No...Nothing I'm good at anyways."
"Ah," Jack grinned. "One of 'those' people."
"One of what people?" She placed an emphasis on the word 'what' that made Jack smile.
"The 'too modest for their own good' people," he said grinning broadly at her.
Lizzie opened her mouth to say something but before the words came out, Jack gave a high pitched "Well I never!" with an appalled look on his face and a hand splayed on his chest.
The effect of this little performance was to set both of the women to fits of giggles and Josh to an obviously fake coughing fit. Jack dropped the act, suddenly looking cross and sullen.
"'S not funny," he insisted, pouting. This only caused the girls to giggle harder. Josh glanced at Jack and noticed the smile trying to break through.
The teakettle whistled and Michelle got up, still chuckling, to make the tea. Lost Puppy Mode enabled, Josh followed her.
Elizabeth stifled her giggles, somewhat successfully, and turned to look at Jack. He was looking towards the door to the kitchen with a wistful expression, a soft smile on his face.
"She's doing a lot better now," he said softly. "Used to take hours just to make her smile."
"Why is that?" Lizzie asked quietly. She regretted it almost immediately. The smile vanished from his face, leaving no emotion in its wake.
"Because some men were never meant to marry," he said coldly. They sat in silence for about a minute and a half before Michelle and Josh emerged from the kitchen carrying a teapot and four mugs.
Michelle set out the mugs and poured the tea, asking, "So, I hear you have study group tomorrow. Any particular reason?"
"The Lit teacher assigned a three page essay," Lizzie said, grimacing.
"On what?" Michelle was curious by nature.
"Analyzing 'Picture of Dorian Gray' as a conflict of good and evil," Jack said helpfully. He turned to Josh, "Thanks for the heads up by the way."
"Gave you time to look it up on SparkNotes did it?" Josh said nodding sagely.
"Who me?" Jack tried his best to look innocent. It didn't work.
Lizzie gave a half snort. Josh turned to her. "Miss Swann," he began.
"Elizabeth, or Lizzie, please," she interrupted. "Miss Swann is too formal."
"Elizabeth," he amended. "This make-up. It's not going to carry over to school, right?"
Lizzie laughed and said, "No, Josie and Kate did it, and, believe me, after tonight, it's gone."
"I dunno," Jack mused. "I think it suits you."
Lizzie glared at him. Jack quickly made a cross with two fingers and mimicked a cat's hiss, grinning the whole time.
"I guess the race for Class Clown is going to be close this year," Josh teased.
"No," Lizzie joined in the teasing. "Jack actually made Will grin."
Jack looked between the two of them and then said, "He's a bit of a stick if you ask me."
"'Course Will only smiled because he ran into a door," Lizzie grinned wickedly.
"It came out of nowhere," Jack defended himself. "Honestly, I was walking down the hall when the door jumped out in front of me."
Michelle smiled knowingly, but there was a glint in her eye, "We know, sweetie. Just like the tree jumped out at you when you were seven."
"That's not fair," Jack said amidst the smirks and restrained laughter. "I swear that thing was like the Tree of the Dead."
Lizzie suddenly had the visual of a three foot tall Jack Sparrow running through the Western Woods set on Sleepy Hollow. She couldn't help it and laughed out loud.
Michelle looked at him and said, "It wasn't that big."
"Well, it was to me."
Lizzie calmed down slightly while Michelle and her son glared playfully at each other.
For a while, the group drank the tea in relative silence. Then Michelle looked at the clock, "Oh," she seemed surprised. "I think we ought to get you home."
Lizzie checked the clock. Ten-thirty. "Yes," she said, setting her mug down on a nearby table. "Dad will probably be worried."
"Jack," Michelle said, startling the person in question. "Would you drive her home?"
"What?" he looked clueless for a moment before realization dawned. "Oh, uh, sure. I'll just, uh, go get the car started." He almost leapt from the seat and ran out the door.
At a more sedate pace, Michelle, Josh and Lizzie followed. When they reached the door, they stopped.
"It was nice meeting you, Lizzie," Michelle said, smiling genuinely.
"It was nice meeting you, too, Mrs. Sparrow," Lizzie told her, also smiling.
"You can call me Michelle, or Mitch, if you prefer."
"I like Michelle better."
"Good," the smile widened. "So do I."
"Miss- er- Elizabeth," Josh started. "I'll see you on Monday?"
"See you on Monday," she answered.
The car pulled up outside the door and Lizzie walked out to it.
A/N 2: Eh....I'll work on that second part. Jack and Liz aren't going to leave me alone til it's finished.
In case anyone's wondering, they still aren't mine.
'If that's Grapple semi-sober,' Jack thought. 'He really is a nasty drunk.' He looked over at Elizabeth; she had a small cut above her eye. The thing he hated about small cuts, especially near the eye, was that they bled way too much. Ana Maria looked like she was having a nervous breakdown. The Harpies weren't going to be too much help either.
"Ana," Lizzie was saying. "It's just a cut, for God's sake. I'm not dying."
"But," Ana objected. "It's really bleeding Lizzie! It might need stitches! Oh, God! Stitches!"
Jack let Ana ramble for about twenty seconds, then said, "No, it won't need stitches. Just needs to be cleaned, maybe a small bandage. She won't die from blood-loss either. I can get that bandaged in about twenty seconds, just need to make a trip home."
Lizzie saw her way to get out of there and was grateful for it. She gave him a brief grin and turned back to Ana, Josie, and Kate. "See," she told them. "I'll be fine. Josie, Kate, I'll see you Monday?" the girls nodded. "Ana, study group tomorrow, 4:00?" Ana also nodded. "Good," She turned back to Jack and mouthed 'Thank you.' He grinned and let her walk past him to the door.
Once outside, Lizzie giggled softly. Jack looked at her quizzically and asked, "What're you laughing about?"
"Ana!" Lizzie giggled again. "She's such a, a mother hen sometimes."
Jack was then greeted with the rather disturbing image of Ana Maria's head on a hen's body, with Lizzie and Will's heads on the bodies of baby chicks. Shaking his head, he walked towards her. "I don't have a car here," he told her, "but home is only a couple blocks away. We can get that cut taken care of, and then Mum can take you home."
When they arrived at the apartment complex, they stopped. Jack entered the key code for the gate and waited for it to open. When it finally did, Jack let Lizzie walk through and then followed her. The apartment was in the second building back, the first apartment on the right. Jack fished the key out of his pocket and opened the door.
"Mum!" he called up the stairs once they were inside. "I'm home!"
"I'll be down in a minute!" his mother called back, she sounded startled.
Jack grinned and yelled, "You can tell Josh he can come down too," he listened and when his mother said nothing, turned and walked into the bathroom that had been hidden by the front door. He opened the cupboard and started to look for something.
Lizzie took a moment to look at the layout of the apartment. When you walked in the front door, immediately to your right was a bathroom and to your left was the kitchen, straight ahead a few paces and to the right were the stairs and farther down was a small living room. At the end of the living room was a sliding glass door that opened onto a small patio. Up the stairs there was apparently at least one bedroom. Lizzie heard someone close a door upstairs and heard footsteps heading for the stairs.
Jack walked out of the bathroom with a bandage, some cotton balls, and what looked to be hydrogen peroxide just as his mother was reaching the end of the stairs, followed by a slightly older man.
"Mum, Josh," he greeted. "This is Lizzie. Lizzie this is Mum and Josh."
"Hello," the women said at the same time, then smiled.
"Hello Miss Swann," Josh said.
Lizzie turned to him, "Mr. Gibbs?"
"I told you the principal was a friend of Mum's," Jack grinned.
Joshamee Gibbs gave Jack a reproachful look that only caused his grin to widen. Michelle Sparrow looked between the two and smiled, then she looked at Lizzie again and the smile faded. "Oh," she sighed. "What happened?"
"Someone started some trouble," Jack said flatly.
"You tend to that," Michelle told her son. "I'll make tea." With that she disappeared into the kitchen. Mr. Gibbs soon followed.
"Tea's Mum's cure-all," Jack explained. "C'mon into the living room. We'll get you patched up, then you and Mum can have a 'girl talk'."
"I can clean it myself," Lizzie said. "Thank you very much."
"It's a physical impossibility for someone to clean a cut above their own eye," Jack retorted. "Besides, I know what I'm doing," with that he walked off into the living room.
"Men," Lizzie muttered, following him anyway.
About a minute and a half later Elizabeth had a bandage and a glare and Jack was grinning again. "Told ya," he said.
"Fine," she grimaced. "You were right, I was wrong. Happy now?"
"Not really," was the answer. "But it'll do."
Lizzie heard a light laugh and turned around. Michelle Sparrow had just entered the room, and apparently Josh Gibbs was in lost puppy mode. He was following her everywhere.
"Water's heating," she explained. "Should be ready in a couple of minutes, until then," she gave a pointed look to her son, "why don't we talk for a while?" Jack gave a sheepish smile and gestured for his mother to begin. "Apparently you know each other from school," she looked to her son who nodded, "he's not causing trouble, is he?"
Lizzie supposed that the question wasn't supposed to be funny, but she couldn't help but laugh, "No," she said finally. "Actually, he's livened up the English classes."
"So," Michelle seemed relieved. "What's this," she gestured at...something, "all about?"
Jack gave his mother a questioning look, and she clarified, "The cut. What happened?"
"Oh," Lizzie said. "Club, semi-sober football player."
"Uh-huh," the older woman sounded somewhat skeptical.
"Your son's a good guitarist by the way," Lizzie hoped that would change the subject.
"He is isn't he," apparently Lizzie's grasp in the dark worked. "He taught himself, you know."
"Really?"
"Really," Michelle nodded. "He asked for a guitar one day," here Jack opened his mouth slightly, as if to speak, sighed, and rolled his eyes, "we told him if we bought it, he'd have to learn to play it, so he did."
"I couldn't teach myself an instrument if I tried," Lizzie said.
"Surely you can do somethin'?" Jack broke in.
"Well," Lizzie started. "No...Nothing I'm good at anyways."
"Ah," Jack grinned. "One of 'those' people."
"One of what people?" She placed an emphasis on the word 'what' that made Jack smile.
"The 'too modest for their own good' people," he said grinning broadly at her.
Lizzie opened her mouth to say something but before the words came out, Jack gave a high pitched "Well I never!" with an appalled look on his face and a hand splayed on his chest.
The effect of this little performance was to set both of the women to fits of giggles and Josh to an obviously fake coughing fit. Jack dropped the act, suddenly looking cross and sullen.
"'S not funny," he insisted, pouting. This only caused the girls to giggle harder. Josh glanced at Jack and noticed the smile trying to break through.
The teakettle whistled and Michelle got up, still chuckling, to make the tea. Lost Puppy Mode enabled, Josh followed her.
Elizabeth stifled her giggles, somewhat successfully, and turned to look at Jack. He was looking towards the door to the kitchen with a wistful expression, a soft smile on his face.
"She's doing a lot better now," he said softly. "Used to take hours just to make her smile."
"Why is that?" Lizzie asked quietly. She regretted it almost immediately. The smile vanished from his face, leaving no emotion in its wake.
"Because some men were never meant to marry," he said coldly. They sat in silence for about a minute and a half before Michelle and Josh emerged from the kitchen carrying a teapot and four mugs.
Michelle set out the mugs and poured the tea, asking, "So, I hear you have study group tomorrow. Any particular reason?"
"The Lit teacher assigned a three page essay," Lizzie said, grimacing.
"On what?" Michelle was curious by nature.
"Analyzing 'Picture of Dorian Gray' as a conflict of good and evil," Jack said helpfully. He turned to Josh, "Thanks for the heads up by the way."
"Gave you time to look it up on SparkNotes did it?" Josh said nodding sagely.
"Who me?" Jack tried his best to look innocent. It didn't work.
Lizzie gave a half snort. Josh turned to her. "Miss Swann," he began.
"Elizabeth, or Lizzie, please," she interrupted. "Miss Swann is too formal."
"Elizabeth," he amended. "This make-up. It's not going to carry over to school, right?"
Lizzie laughed and said, "No, Josie and Kate did it, and, believe me, after tonight, it's gone."
"I dunno," Jack mused. "I think it suits you."
Lizzie glared at him. Jack quickly made a cross with two fingers and mimicked a cat's hiss, grinning the whole time.
"I guess the race for Class Clown is going to be close this year," Josh teased.
"No," Lizzie joined in the teasing. "Jack actually made Will grin."
Jack looked between the two of them and then said, "He's a bit of a stick if you ask me."
"'Course Will only smiled because he ran into a door," Lizzie grinned wickedly.
"It came out of nowhere," Jack defended himself. "Honestly, I was walking down the hall when the door jumped out in front of me."
Michelle smiled knowingly, but there was a glint in her eye, "We know, sweetie. Just like the tree jumped out at you when you were seven."
"That's not fair," Jack said amidst the smirks and restrained laughter. "I swear that thing was like the Tree of the Dead."
Lizzie suddenly had the visual of a three foot tall Jack Sparrow running through the Western Woods set on Sleepy Hollow. She couldn't help it and laughed out loud.
Michelle looked at him and said, "It wasn't that big."
"Well, it was to me."
Lizzie calmed down slightly while Michelle and her son glared playfully at each other.
For a while, the group drank the tea in relative silence. Then Michelle looked at the clock, "Oh," she seemed surprised. "I think we ought to get you home."
Lizzie checked the clock. Ten-thirty. "Yes," she said, setting her mug down on a nearby table. "Dad will probably be worried."
"Jack," Michelle said, startling the person in question. "Would you drive her home?"
"What?" he looked clueless for a moment before realization dawned. "Oh, uh, sure. I'll just, uh, go get the car started." He almost leapt from the seat and ran out the door.
At a more sedate pace, Michelle, Josh and Lizzie followed. When they reached the door, they stopped.
"It was nice meeting you, Lizzie," Michelle said, smiling genuinely.
"It was nice meeting you, too, Mrs. Sparrow," Lizzie told her, also smiling.
"You can call me Michelle, or Mitch, if you prefer."
"I like Michelle better."
"Good," the smile widened. "So do I."
"Miss- er- Elizabeth," Josh started. "I'll see you on Monday?"
"See you on Monday," she answered.
The car pulled up outside the door and Lizzie walked out to it.
A/N 2: Eh....I'll work on that second part. Jack and Liz aren't going to leave me alone til it's finished.