The Call of the sea.
By Latanya
Disclaimer: I don't own anything to do with the Pirates of the Caribbean or NUMA but I do own Pearl, her yacht "The Black Pearl II" and anything else that I made up.
Chapter Six: Learning to walk in a straight line… is like standing on one foot on a balancing beam.
Andrew supported Pearl carefully as she stood up for the first time in she couldn't remember how long. Still recovering from the infection, she had to be careful because her head wasn't quite right yet. The slightest thing could make her want to faint in dizziness and it was that which worried the doctor most. He'd decided to run a few more blood tests to see if there was anything else there but he'd found nothing.
"Jack, come here luv. I need a crutch to help me walk." She smiled at her assistant – pirate – person.
He smiled at her cheekily, "You need a crutch eh lass? The least you could do is wait until we're back on the Pearl II. As for walking, I'll be your support since the good doctor has to go and stare at that computer screen some more."
When her eyes met Andrew's to confirm this, the doctor noticed how pale she was and how white her eyes seemed around the green. Laughing in joy, he asked her, "Are you anemic? Or have you had it anemia before?"
"I have… why do you ask? My doctor at home always told me it was because I forgot to eat so often." Pearl blushed, looking away.
"Did you have anorexia at some point in your life Ms Turner? It's alright to admit it, I won't make any judgments about it."
"Yes, I had anorexia and my doctor tells me that I often still slip back into that state of mind… especially when I am away from home on a dig. I just forget to eat and don't even realize. Once I went for five days without eating and I didn't notice until a friend of mine who had been watching me carefully pointed it out to me. Wasn't like I meant not to eat, I just forget sometimes."
Leaving it at that, the doctor left Pearl in Jack's capable hands while he went to his desk to see what he could do about her anemia. It was the least he could do if it was what was causing the dizzy spells and the tiredness. Watching Jack holding her carefully while she walked, Andrew couldn't help but smile. The two of them were so incredibly right for each other and he couldn't help but wonder why they could not see it themselves. Glancing around, he was glad that the Admiral wasn't there to see it because Greg had been coming to see Pearl whenever Jack wasn't there. Admittedly, Jack not being beside Pearl was a rare thing to see but it did happen.
Laughing, she collapsed against Jack's chest and shook her head, "You made jokes about learning to talk! Well now I'm learning to walk and I think it would be easier for me to stand on one foot on a balancing beam!"
"Or climb the rigging on a ship me Pearly lass." He wrapped his arms around her, holding her tight while she tried to regain her breath from laughing to hard. "How much longer do you have to stay here? The good doctor did say."
"I think he said another week or two should see me well enough to go off on my own again. Why, is the infamous Jack getting restless again?" Pearl lifted her head and frowned at him.
"Not I. See lass, I have good reasons to stay put right about now." He grinned at her and she blushed prettily.
She looked at the ground and muttered, "That was uncalled for Mr Sparrow. Totally uncalled for."
"I beg you to accept my apology then Miss Swann."
Pearl started and her head whipped around to glare at him darkly, "It is Miss Turner, not Swann. Elizabeth may have been a Swann before she married Will but I am, as were my ancestors, a Turner. Please do me the honor of remembering that."
Raising an eyebrow, the Doctor wondered what they were talking about. He had, at first, thought that perhaps they called each other nicknames but Pearl's reaction to her assistant called her Miss Swann had puzzled him. And when she spoke of her ancestors, he became curious about the reaction.
"Miss Turner, why did you call Mr Smith by the name Mr Sparrow?" Andrew called over to her, frowning.
"It's a name I call him in humor because when I met him, he had a cage full of sparrows." Pearl lied quickly, cursing herself for calling Jack by his true name.
"And who was Elizabeth Swann?"
Taking a deep breath, Pearl replied, "Elizabeth Swann was the daughter of the governor of Port Royal several hundred years ago. She married her love, William Turner who was a blacksmith. They were my ancestors and my family is very proud to be able to trace our line back that far. The reason Mr Smith called me Miss Swann was because when I told him the story, he thought that calling me Miss Swann would be a good way of getting back at me for calling him Mr Sparrow."
"Ah…. Port Royal you say? That's nothing more than a little fishing town now because a quake or something like that hit it. Pity, they say that Port Royal was the home of the British navy and the scourge of pirates in the Caribbean." Andrew shook his head sadly, ignorant of the expression on Jack's face.
Jack shrugged, "Have you had enough yet Pearl? Want to sit down?"
Pulling away from him, Pearl walked a couple of steps on her own before she had to stop because of the dizziness. "No, I want to keep going until I feel that I should stop. The sooner I'm better the sooner we can go back to work and let this lovely ship get back to what she's meant to be doing."
"Patrolling the seas is a long and often boring job Miss Turner. Admiral James and the crew of the HMS Greyhound welcomed the excitement you caused. And yes, we know how much you appreciate what we have done for you."
Laughing, Jack followed her around as she moved step by step. "You could always tell the good doctor what the site is that we're investigating Pearl, seeing how part of it was a member of the Royal navy."
"Ah yes! Of course but Doctor Peters, you cannot tell anyone of this site because I want to do as much work on it before relic hunters come." She looked at him pointedly. "Those people do so much damage to the ships and I detest them."
Andrew nodded, "You have my word on it Miss Turner. I won't tell anyone about your work on this site… wherever it may be."
"Well, I received information on the resting place of a famous pirate ship and when we got there, we discovered the wrecks of two ships next to each other rather then just one. From what I can tell from the dive I did, the second ship is the-"
Jack interrupted, "Is the HMS Dauntless. By the looks of the wrecks though, we think that the HMS Dauntless was sunk by the pirate ship."
The doctor stared at them in shock, "The HMS Dauntless! Why that was the flagship of Commodore Norrington, lifelong enemy of the Caribbean pirates. He was the man who helped tame Port Royal. Do you know what it would mean to the council of maritime history… especially the section that deals with the navy; if the HMS Dauntless was discovered and in good enough condition to be recovered?"
"She's quite aware of that doctor." The pirate murmured, "She's very aware of that but it's the pirate ship that's got all her attention."
"Really? Have you any idea what the pirate ship was called Miss Turner? Mr Smith?"
Pearl nodded, her eyes glittering with passion, "Aye doctor, I do. In fact, it's the pirate ship that has haunted my family history because Elizabeth Swann and Will Turner were great friends with her captain. She's the ship for which I was named and for which I named my yacht. The pirate ship we're investigating is the Black Pearl."
Frowning, the doctor shook his head, "It is not a ship I am familiar with. But she must have been infamous at that point in time if Commodore Norrington followed her so far away from Port Royal. I think the council of maritime history would like to have both ships so they could make a display with them. Have you any idea what the size of this Black Pearl?"
"Ah well now you see, the Black Pearl was the fastest ship in the Caribbean during that time in history and she's a little smaller than the Dauntless. You know, from what I've read of her captain, it was said that he was a dashing rouge who had a fine sense of honor and stuck to the Pirates Code." Pearl shot a meaningful glance at Jack when she said this.
Grinning, Jack bowed his head to her, "I bet he was Pearl but you mustn't put to much stock in stories. He was a pirate captain as you said and no doubt he was a drunkard who liked spending his time pillaging and burning down things or playing with the whores of Tortuga."
The doctor chuckled, "Most pirate captains were like that but I have read of many who were considered to be honorable men and I don't doubt that there were women pirates who were just the same. Now, I have to go and place an order in with the chefs for you Pearl Turner because it's important you eat well while you're recovering. Not only to gain strength but to help get rid of your anemia."
He stood up and walked out of the sickbay, leaving Pearl to deal with Jack or Jack to deal with Pearl… give or take a few sharp words about this or that. Once he was gone and they could no longer hear his footsteps, Pearl's eyes narrowed and she growled at Jack.
"Never demean yourself in my presence Jack Sparrow because for all of my life, I have dreamt about the famous Captain Jack Sparrow of the Black Pearl. The Captain Sparrow of the stories passed down in our family and the descriptions of him in both Will and Elizabeth's diaries describe him as being a great man with a fine sense of honor… though he could be a bit of a scallywag."
Jack crossed his arms, watching her lean against a cabinet for support, "Now listen to me lassie, that Jack Sparrow is long gone now and he's got to deal with this strange world that you brought him into. Unless you can find a way to send him back to his time, he's going to have to make the best of what he can and change to suit the times. Jack Sparrow is a pirate no longer; he's your so-called assistant. Deal with it."
She shook her head, "It's going to have to take me as long as it is going to take you to adapt to this change. Forgive the foolish and romantic girl who hides herself away in me for wanting to have a pirate captain for herself but it's hard to make things change when they are ingrained in the very fiber of your soul."
They stared at each other in silence and Pearl could see the meaning of her words sinking into Jack's mind. When it finally reached home, he blinked twice before approaching her slowly.
"Do you mean to tell me that you've always wanted me as your own?" He whispered the question as he stood close to her.
Her green eyes were clear, glittering with a thoughtful light and Pearl nodded, "When a child such as I was falls in love with certain ideas, she holds onto them all her life until they become her very reason for breathing. The Black Pearl was and still is my reason for living… as are you. I cannot remember how many times you have said to me now that I do not belong in this time and now I finally tell you that you are right; I do not belong here… I never did."
Lowering his lips to hers, Jack murmured, "We'll just have to invent a time machine that will take us back to when I was a pirate captain and the Black Pearl was the last great pirate threat in the Caribbean."
"You obviously haven't read Michael Crickton's 'Timeline' Jack. Oh what am I talking about! Of course you haven't read it." She smiled at him.
Kissing her lovingly, Jack held her in his arms gently, "How are you feeling now Pearly lass? Your head isn't giving you any trouble is it? You're not feeling dizzy or nauseous?"
"Please don't mention it Jack otherwise I'll starting thinking about how I feel and then I shall end up feeling dizzy… and you wouldn't want that would you now?" Her response seemed almost reasonable and Pearl focused her mind on the mischievous glint in his eyes. "Jack, you had better not be thinking what I think you are."
"How do you know I'm thinking what you think I'm thinking? Might I be thinking something entirely different then what you think I am thinking?" He tried to confuse her but to no avail.
Slapping his arm playfully, Pearl rolled her arms, "Because I know that look in your eyes Mr Sparrow and I'm no silly girl to miss it."
"It's Captain, Captain Jack Sparrow."
"Yes, Captain… of a ship underwater. You forget Mr Captain, that so long as I'm alive, the Black Pearl II is my ship and I'm the Captain of her. I would give you the same respect as I expect from you if we were aboard your Black Pearl." There was a smile on her face and Jack knew she was just joking around with him.
Growling, he pressed her back against the cabinet with his hands placed firming on her hips, "Don't presume to order me around ever Miss Turner… unless the order comes with a nice, polite 'please' attached to the end of it. You may be of this time and know more about your yacht but I'm still a pirate deep down inside and I wouldn't hesitate to ravish you."
"Really?" Pearl asked thoughtfully.
"Really."
She tilted her head back against the metal of the cabinet and smiled at him. Jack was slightly taller then her and Pearl noticed the guarded look in his eyes. Her red curls were pulled back into a loose ponytail and he reached around to pull the hair band out so that they framed her pale face before lowering his lips to her throat.
"Jack…." She whispered.
"Hmmm?"
"I don't think we should be doing this. I mean, what if the good doctor Peters walks in on us… or the Admiral James… or one of the crewmen? We should wait until we're back on the Black Pearl II and have privacy to ourselves."
He frowned, pulling away to look around suspiciously, "Yes, you are right. Wouldn't like to share you with that nasty Admiral who looks eerily like old Norrington… shit." Jack clapped a hand to his mouth and cringed.
Pearl looked startled, "Jack, did you just say that the Admiral looks like Commodore Norrington? My god, is that the real reason why you don't like him?"
"Ah well, you see… I uh… okay I give in. Yes, it is the real reason why I don't like him much. You've got to understand me though Pearl, the Commodore tried to kill me numerous times." He gave her a puppy dog look, his dark brown eyes meeting her own green ones.
Holding out her hand to him, Pearl shrugged, "It doesn't bother me what you think about the Admiral Jack but you have to admit that if it wasn't for him answering my call for help, I might be dead. Now, I think I need to sit down in bed because I feel awfully tired."
Helping her back over to the bed, Jack sat down on the edge beside her and held one of her hands in both of his, "I hope you can forgive me for anything I might have said or done wrong just now Pearl."
"I don't think there is anything to forgive Jack… at least, nothing that I remember. Now, let us say nothing more of the Pearl or her dashing pirate captain within the hearing of anyone from the HMS Greyhound. I think I'm going to have enough problems stopping the British from waltzing in to take my site from under me so it's important that nothing at all is said about the site. Imagine what would happen if anyone got their hands on that stone chest of Aztec gold." She rested against him, her head on his shoulder.
Running a hand through her hair, Jack nodded, "You have my word on that Miss Turner. My word as a pirate."
"Great. I have to trust the word of a pirate." Pearl laughed, just as the doctor walked in followed by one of the crewmen carrying a tray.
"Miss Turner, your dinner is served." Andrew smiled, ignoring the expression on both of their faces.
