Chapter 4 - Rum and Threats

Disclaimers: I do not own POTC or any of the characters from the movie. I only own the things that were not in the movie. I am not making any money, so please do not sue me.

Rating: R for sexual content, magic, and slight language.

{ } - indicates mind talking. / /- means personal thoughts.

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It was early morning when Jack awoke. As his senses returned to him, he registered the presence of a warm body next to his.

"What the bloody hell?" He whispered in bewilderment.

"Jack?" Asked a very confused Akiva. When Jack heard her voice, all the memories of last night came flooding back.

When Akiva realized where she was, she bolted out of the bed and ran to the corner. Jack slowly got out of the bed and walked toward her. When he sees her move further into the corner he stops walking and just stands there looking at her.

"Akiva." Jack says.

When she continues looking at the floor and doesn't respond, Jack moves a little closer and kneels in front of her.

"Akiva," he says again, "look at me."

When she still doesn't respond he gently puts a hand under her chin and lifts her head.

She is looking at the floor.

"Look at me luv." She glances at him and when their eyes connect, she can't look away.

What she saw frightened her. It was a look that she had not seen in over four years and hadn't thought she ever would. It was the way her parents had looked at her when she was sick or injured. /"Why is Jack looking at me like that?"/ She thought to her self.

When Jack eyes connected with Akiva's, he thought he was looking into the eyes of a small child. In them he saw fear that was bordering on terror, yet there was something else in them. Something he would almost describe as a sliver of hope. Hope for what, he could not say. As he sat looking at her, a lone, silent tear fell from her eye and moved down her cheek. With out thinking, Jack reached out to wipe it away, but before he could touch her, she turned her face to the side and out of his grasp. He again placed a hand beneath her chin and made her face him.

"What's wrong?" Jack asked in a sad voice. "What did I do?"

When Akiva looked at him, he saw that her eyes where shining with unshed tears.

"Why are you doing this?" She asked Jack.

"Doing what?" He responded, bewildered.

"Being kind to me."

Jack just looked at her astonished. /"How can I not be kind? She is the sweetest thing I have ever met. What am I thinking? I don't care about sweetness. What has this girl done to me?/

"You are part o' me crew and I want to know what is wrong. Now, why are ye 'fraid of me?"

"It's not you I fear."

"Then what do you fear?" Jack asked quiet.

Akiva looked down again and said so quietly that barely heard her.

"Being touched."

Jack looked at her sadly and said, "Akiva, look at me."

She didn't look up.

"Look. At. Me. Now." He said forcefully.

She slowly looks up and stares her captain timidly in the eye.

"Yes sir?" She asked.

"I will never hurt you, Kiva. Don't ye know that?"

As they held each others gaze, Akiva lightly touched his mind, and found nothing but concern and sincerity.

"It's not nice to poke into peoples minds, love." Jack said with amusment.

"You felt that?" She asked shoked.

{"Yes."} He answered her in her mind. "What ever you did last night has had some lingering affects. Earlier when you first woke, I heard you say 'Jack' before you said it out loud." Jack said.

"But, how? I don't get it?" Akiva said, shoked.

"You're the one with the powers, not me. You figure it out."

"Are you mad?"

{"If I were mad, you would know. Now, are you going to be ok?"}Jack asked her in her mind.

{"I think so. Should we go get on deck?"}

"Yeah prob'ly be a good idea. Go change, wash up, what ever it be that ye women do in the mornin' and be in the galley in twenty minutes fer breakfast. Savvy?"

Akiva smiled, "Savvy captain."

Jack reached out his hand, grabbed the one she stretched out and helped her up.

As she was walking to the door, she turned around and looked at Jack.

"Captain?"

"Yeah?"

"Please don't tell anyone."

Jack swayed over to her and placed his hands on her hips.

"I swear on pain of no rum for a day, that I won't tell a soul anythin' ye have told or shone me."

Akiva just rolled her eyes and walked out. Jack watched her as she walked out of his room. The entire time his eyes were glued to her swaying hips.

Later that day, Jack was at the helm, slowly swaying as he moved the wheel back and forth. If someone who didn't know him had seen him, they would have thought he was totally drunk, when in truth, he was painfully sober.

/"I need a drink."/ Jack thought to him self. "Anna-Maria," Jack yelled at the top of his lungs.

Anna came walking towards him, slowly, and asked, "You wanted to see me, Cap'n ?" "Yes, take the wheel; I got some things I gotta do." "Aye, Cap'n." Anna-Maria smirked.

When Jack walked into the galley he was surprised to see Akiva sitting at the table and eating.

"Mic," Jack called to the cook who was in the kitchen, "Bring me some rum. Ya know, I should have ye put in the brig for disobeyin' orders."

Akiva looked a Jack with incomprehension.

"I'm sorry captain, but what do you mean?"

Jack got up and walked over to Akiva. He went behind her and put his hands on her shoulders. He leaned down so that every time he breathed out, his breath tickled her ear and neck.

"I told ye to get dressed and get to the galley. Why weren't ye here when I got here?"

"I, umm, well." Akiva stuttered to get out an answer.

"Spit it out, girl." Jack said.

"I fell asleep." Akiva whispered.

"Sorry, I didn't quite get that."

"I fell asleep, captain." She said louder.

"Ohh, and why did you do that?"

"Umm, because I was tired." Akiva was starting to get worried. She was afraid that Jack was going to hurt her, like Barbossa did.

"Why didn't you tell me this morning that you were tired?"

"I don't know."

They both were quite for several moments. As she was sitting there with Jack's hands on her shoulders, she realized that she was not afraid. A man was actually touching her and she knew he really wouldn't hurt her.

{"Jack?"} She said in her mind.

{"Yes love?"}

{"How well can you hear me?"}

{"Clear as last night. I can actually hear you better then earlier this morning."}

{"You think our connection is getting stronger?"}

{"Maybe, I don't know.} Jack sat thinking for a moment when he realized something. He still had no rum.

"Mic, where be me rum?" Jack yelled to the chef.

Mic came walking out of the kitchen with a large glass bottle in his hand.

"Sorry 'bout the delay captain, I just thought you and the lady would like some privacy whiles you were talkin'." The cook said to Jack.

"Why thanks for yer consideration mate. Don't so it again." Answered Jack with a slight scowl.

When Jack turned back to Akiva, her face was red and she was trying desperately not to laugh.

"And what might you be laughin' at, little missy?" questioned Jack.

"Nothin' captain." She answered with a huge grin plastered on her face.

Jack just stared at her for a minute, rolled his eyes and muttered something about women. He then picked up his rum, which he had set down on the table and started walking toward the door. He grabbed Akiva's arm and pulled her after him, heading toward the wheel.

When they got to the front of the ship, Jack took the wheel back from Anna- Maria.

{"Akiva, how are you feeling, love? After last night, I mean."} Jack asked her in her mind.

Before she answered him, Akiva leaned against the railing of the ship and looked out at the sea.

{"Ok, Connecting with you took a lot of energy. I am sorry I broke down like that."}

"Ye did nothing wrong. After what you went through, you have the right to cry. You can cry a bloody river if you want."} Jack answered.

{"Jack, how much did you feel?"}

For a moment Jack blocked her out of his mind and thought about what he was going to say and then decided that he might as well tell her the truth.

{"I was seeing, hearing, and feeling through your body lass, I felt everything. I never know it could it so painful for the woman. Does it always hurt that much?"} Jack said quietly.

{"I really wouldn't know. When you're not being raped, I suppose it wouldn't, but I have no clue."} She said softly.

{"What happened after he left?"} Jack askes.

{"Well, for a bit, I just lay there. After a while, Bo' sum came down to give me my meal. When he saw that I was lying in a pool of blood, he went and got Barbossa. Barbossa came down and by that time I had passed out. When I came to, I was in one of the crew cabins. Strom, the doctor, had just finished cleaning my back and had already finished stitching me up."}

After Akiva finished talking, Jack just stood for a minute in contemplative silence.

Suddenly he spoke up.

{"Why were you bleeding so much? Was all the blood from your back?"} He asked quietly.

{"No, some of it was from my back, and the rest."} Akiva paused, unsure of how to tell him the other reason she was bleeding.

["What about the rest, love?"} Jack prompted her gently.

{"The rest was from where he tore me."} She answered with a sigh.

{"Where he tore."} For a moment Jack staring her, not quite getting what she meant. Quietly, he asked, {"Was Javier your first?"}

After a minute of silence, Akiva answered. "Yes." She said and started to slowly walk a way from the rail

"Shit." Jack muttered, {"If I EVER see him again, I am going to kill him."}

Akiva turned around and looked Jack dead in the eye. What he saw in her eyes scared him to death. Where a minute ago there had been a sad and quiet young girl, there was now a very pissed off woman. Her eyes were no longer green they were closer to black. In them Jack say pure hatred. He had never seen such undiluted rage before and it chilled him to his bones.

Akiva slowly walked back toward Jack and stepped right up to him. For a minute she just looked at him. Finally she spoke.

"If anyone is going to kill him, it will be me. Do you understand? I will make him feel every ounce of the pain he inflicted on my. I will make him beg for death. No one is going to touch he. Savvy?"

Jack just stared at her open mouthed.

Akiva turned and walked back to her room.

"Shit," Jack muttered, "Glad I ain't him." and went back to steering.

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Ok so what did you think? I am sooooo SORRY! It has taken me forever to update. It won't happen again. See what happened is that my parents, who are VERY over baring, decided to go through all my personal files and found my story. Lets just say that they didn't like it. Luckily for me, and anyone reading this, I have learned how to cover my tracks better. Again sorry for the delay.

REVIEW RESPONSE

To my lovely anonymous review on January 8, 2004, that said: "Um...gypsies arn't really all wonderful fighters. That's a myth. Sorry." Well, gee thanks for stating the obvious. I don't recall EVER saying that Gypsies are all wonderful fighters. I believe my exact words concerning Akiva were that, "She had the agility, balance, and grace of a cat and moved faster then any normal human should." Plus she has powers, thus she is special.

Now that that has been dealt with, I would like to say that no, I am not always going to be so harsh, it just really gets me mad when people make comments when they have no clue what they are talking about.

Also, I would like to say thanks to born-diva and QHgurl for reviewing. Qhgurl, I swear it was not my intention to take so long. I will try to get updates out faster and make the chapters longer.

Rose