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. This chapter is for Rachel Sparrow who's asked once or twice if Pearl and Jack were somehow going to be tossed back through time.
Chapter Eight: Out of 2004 and into the 1700's.
Jack stared at his first mate in shock, "Mr Gibbs?"
Gibbs nodded, "Aye Jack, it's me. What's happened to ye? And who's the woman?"
He looked down at Pearl and panicked, "She was caught in a land slide back there and needs our help. Her arm is broken and I don't know what else has been done to her."
"Let's get 'er to the Pearl then Capt'n." The first mate shook his head, puzzled as to where the woman could have come from. "Bad luck to bring a woman on board Capt'n but there be nothing else we can do."
Calling for the crew, Gibbs helped Jack get into a boat and started rowing for the Black Pearl. Jack lifted his head for a moment to see his beloved ship waiting in the cove ahead of him. He almost expected to see Pearl's yacht there to but she wasn't. Kissing Pearl's forehead gently, he murmured.
"Pearl me lass, wake up. You were right, they were calling me back and I don't know how it happened but we're home. Home, Pearl, we're home."
Looking at him strangely, Gibbs spoke up quietly, "Jack, I hope ye plan to tell me what's goin' on 'ere and where that there lass came from. She wasn't 'ere when we got 'ere."
"Of course Gibbs, of course. When we get aboard the Pearl, I'll need you and Anamaria to help me set her arm. She broke it when a rocks fell."
They reached the Black Pearl and several of the crew helped Jack lift the unconscious woman aboard. Anamaria stalked over and looked at her strangely before smiling to Jack.
"Capt'n we were beginning to worry about ye."
Nodding, Jack picked up Pearl again and headed for his cabin, "Gibbs, Anamaria."
Exchanging looks, Anamaria and Gibbs followed Jack into his cabin. They stood at the door and observed as he laid her down on the bed gently. When he shot them a look, Gibbs nodded once before going to find something that could be used as a splint and Anamaria followed Jack's instructions and started ripping up a clean shirt to make bandages.
"Who is she?" Anamaria asked while Gibbs was out of the room. "She has an uncanny resemblance to that Turner boy… that is, if her hair wasn't red."
"Her name is Pearl Turner and you are right, she is related to Will Turner but very distantly." He sat beside her on the bed and ripped the left sleeve of her shirt so he could see where the break was clearly.
"Pearl you say?" The woman's eyes grew wide.
"Aye, Pearl. Gibbs is always muttering that it's bad luck to 'ave a woman aboard but this woman is tied to the Black Pearl somehow. It's the only way we could have come back 'ere." Jack's expression was one of intense worry and Anamaria looked at the red-haired woman with respect.
It was obvious that this Pearl meant something to Jack but Anamaria couldn't begin to figure how they met or even how she got here. When Gibbs re-entered, they made sure everything was set before they started about at resetting Pearl's broken arm. They knew it was best to do it while she was unconscious otherwise it would cause too much pain to her. It took them a while to set the arm but once it was done, Jack and Gibbs carefully bandaged the broken section of the arm to the wood splint.
"Jack, do ye want me to take care of her other wounds?" Anamaria asked pointedly.
He shook his head, "No, I can do it. Are there any bits of cloth left that I can use to clean the wounds?"
She pointed to a pile on the end of the bed and shrugged, "I just thought it would be better if a woman took care of a woman."
"Pearl wouldn't care to much about it but I think she'd prefer someone she knows to do it." Jack smiled, brushing a hand over her red hair before going to a cupboard to retrieve a bottle of rum.
Gibbs arched an eyebrow, "Pearl? Ye ain't talking 'bout the ship are ye Jack?"
"No Mr Gibbs, I am not talking about me Black Pearl… rather, I'm talking about me Red Pearl." He remembered the nickname Pearl had told him she had and grinned. It did suit her.
"Ah…." The first mate frowned and shook his head. "Anamaria, we'd best be on deck making sure the crew's not doing anything they shouldn't be doing."
When they left the cabin, Jack got up to shut the doors behind them and he made sure they were locked in case anyone tried to come in. Returning to Pearl, he cautiously removed her pants and shirt so he could see where the cuts and grazes were from the rockslide. Dabbing rum onto a cloth, he carefully cleaned each one while talking to Pearl in a soft voice. Every time she made a noise or even moved slightly, Jack was hopeful that she would wake up. Because of that, he had an extra bottle of rum beside him for her to drink when she woke up in case the pain was bad. He knew that she was stubborn and her unconscious mind was probably laughing at him for worrying so much. As most exactly when he finished treating her other injuries, Jack heard a knock on the doors and Gibbs called through that they were ready to go.
Thinking for a moment, Jack tried to work out when exactly they were in his life. He figured it must be their first trip to the Isla de Muerta after defeating Barbossa because Anamaria was still with them and he could clearly remember buying her a ship when they reached a port that wasn't Tortuga. Leaving Pearl there, he went outside and shut the doors behind him quietly, not wanting to wake her up while he wasn't there.
"Well Capt'n? How is she?" Gibbs asked when Jack joined him at the helm.
"She's still unconscious but I left a bottle of rum beside her for if she wakes up while I'm not there and I'm sure she knows that it will help the pain. And don't ye dare start the whole 'woman on board is bad luck' thing ye have going Gibbs or I'll kill ye." Jack grinned at his first mate and took his place behind the wheel.
Laughing, Gibbs shouted out orders and the crew of the Black Pearl hoisted the sails. "I be awfully glad that we're leaving this accursed island behind now Jack. Where will we be heading to now? Back to Tortuga or have ye somewhere else in mind?"
"Tortuga first and then we'll show the Caribbean who's in charge."
"Aye!" He shouted. "That we shall Jack me boy, that we shall."
Jack remembered something Elizabeth had said to him once, "Yes Miss Swann, I shall be the positively most fearsome pirate to sail the seas and your descendant will be by my side."
The pirate who was closest to him gave Jack a strange look before returning to what he was meant to be doing. Smiling, Jack kept his mind on what he was doing and tried to fight back worried thoughts concerning Pearl.
She could feel a piercing pain in her arm, her body felt stiff and sore and her head was pounding with one of the worse headaches she'd ever had. Sniffing, Pearl was sure she could smell rum mingled with the smell of the sea. Opening her eyes, she looked around where she could and realized she was neither dead nor anywhere she had ever been before.
"Jack?" Pearl asked the room around her fearfully. "Jack please be here."
Struggling to sit up, she noticed that her arm had been set and was bound to a splint so that she couldn't move it. Pearl arched an eyebrow when she realized that she was naked but for her bra and underpants – she hoped that it had been Jack and no one else who stripped her. Looking around again, Pearl knew that she was in a cabin on a ship and she remembered the voices she'd heard calling Jack after he rescued her from the water. Holding her good hand to her head, she winced in pain as she recalled the rockslide and how she had been caught in it.
"Now what's this?" She saw the bottle of rum beside her and uncorked it. "Eh! Rum." The cork was soon returned.
'But rum would help get rid of the pain Pearl.' Her mind told her as she sat there with the bottle of rum in her hand and stared at the door.
Shouting out Jack's name, Pearl wondered if she could stand up without falling over. Slipping her legs out from under the covers and putting them on the floor, Pearl tried to stand up and wavered for a moment before sitting back down.
"Godamnit!" She cursed, looking at the bottle of rum again with interest.
Gibbs had heard her shout and told Jack that she was either awake or in the middle of a really bad dream. Nodding, Jack entered his cabin and smiled when he saw her taking a swig of the rum.
"I thought ye didn't drink Pearl me lass?" He chuckled, walking over to her and sitting down on the bed beside her.
She shrugged, "Sometimes the pain of a broken limb makes one do things one wouldn't normally do…. What happened to your hair? I thought I cut it neatly but it's back to how it was when I found you."
Jack frowned, remembering what she spoke of, "Well that's the funny thing Pearl, we 'ave somehow traveled back in time to when I was the captain of the Black Pearl. From what I can remember and all that, we're at the point where I lead the Black Pearl and her crew back to the Isla de Muerta after leaving Port Royal."
"You mean we've been chucked back in time to when you have become the captain of the Black Pearl again? Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann aren't married yet?" Her eyes were wide with surprise. "I'd love to know how this has happened."
Looking her over, he grinned, "Now luv, I hope ye weren't planning to get out of bed 'cause I wouldn't recommend it for a few days."
She growled at him, "Jack Sparrow, this is not something to joke about. I've got a broken arm and who knows how many other injuries and I'm stuck in a time where decent doctors are few and far between."
"First, it's Captain Jack Sparrow luv and secondly, I know exactly how many injuries ye 'ave since I was the one who treated them. Thirdly, ye're in the right time for ye." His voice was husky and Pearl turned her green eyes to study him.
"Forgive me Captain Sparrow but I'm still trying to comprehend what has happened here. Strange things have occurred ever since I received that chest of French gold that you gave to the Turner family to pass down. Too much has happened since I opened that chest and read your diary and then decided to come after the wreck of the Black Pearl." She shook her head and took another swig of rum. "This had better help the accursed pain I feel. My whole body aches."
Jack kissed her gently, tasting the rum on her lips, "Oh trust me luv, the rum with definitely help ye. Now, remember that deal we had? The one where ye would teach me to be a 'modern' man and I would teach ye to be a pirate? Well, ye taught me what ye could and now it's my turn to teach ye to be a pirate."
"Great." Her eyes were glazed over with pain. "Jack, my head really hurts."
He held her head carefully and ran his fingers over her scalp searching for any bumps or bruises. When she winced, he pulled his fingers away and they were covered in blood. "Wonderful, I missed one."
Finding a cloth, he tipped some rum onto it and had a closer look at the cut on Pearl's head. He mustn't have noticed it because of her hair. It didn't appear to be too bad but it was bleeding and that was what worried Jack. Applying the cloth to the cut, Jack chuckled softly, making Pearl growl at him that it wasn't funny.
"No, I was just laughing at how often ye manage to get yerself in a position where ye need help from a doctor. Is it just me or do ye have very little luck in these matters?"
She winced, "It's since I met you that I've been finding myself in these situations Jack so I might say it is just you. Before you, I never had these problems and the way I figure it, it's you're fault."
"My fault?" He snorted, tipping some more rum onto the cloth before wiping the hair around the cut with it. "It's not my fault Pearl lass that ye couldn't help ye self and had to come and find me."
"Of course it's your fault! It you weren't such a dashing rouge, if you weren't such a charming pirate captain, I would never have fallen in love with the stories about you and therefore would never have come to the Isla de Muerta looking for the remains of the Black Pearl." Pearl hissed, wincing in pain again.
Handing her the bottle of rum, Jack laughed as she sculled down half of it. "Whoa Pearl, slow down or ye'll make ye self sick."
Rolling her eyes, Pearl pushed herself off the bed and stood up, swaying as she did so. "I think I need to walk around and try to get rid of some of the stiffness in my body."
"No Pearl, I think ye need to lay back down and let yer body recover. Just think, what would doctor Peters want ye to be doin' right now?"
She walked a few unsteady steps and chuckled, "I think you're right Captain Sparrow."
Watching her stagger back over to the bed and sit down, Jack grinned, "I can however think of other things ye can do that'll get rid of the stiffness."
"No Jack, not now. Let me at least heal some before you start pressing that on me again." Pearl lay back on her side and sighed.
The rum's pain numbing effects were setting in and Pearl noticed that the throbbing of her broken arm was less and her head didn't hurt as much. Lying down beside her, Jack ran his hands gently and soothingly along her side before kissing her lips. A smile appeared on her lips and she giggled softly.
"Jack, I warned you, not now." She looked at him darkly.
He sat up and continued to run his hands over her before managing to turn her over on her stomach. When Pearl realized what he was doing, she moaned in delight. Laughing, Jack leant down and kissed the back of her neck.
"I know ye warned me luv but ye warned me 'bout the wrong thing. Bet ye didn't realize I can massage."
Each time his hands found a sore spot on her body, Pearl moaned as he gently massaged away the stiffness. Her eyes were closed and Jack smiled, undoing the clip so he could remove her bra. When she opened her eyes again in shock, he leant down and told her that the bra was in the way and he didn't want to hurt her. Nodding, Pearl closed her eyes again and relaxed, sighing.
"Pearl?" Jack murmured, not sure if she was still awake.
There wasn't a reply and he smiled, lying down again and cradled her body gently against his own. Pulling the covers back over them, Jack planted a kiss on her skin before letting sleep overtake him as well.
"Jack?" She whispered in her sleep. "I love you Jack."
He smiled and held her against him tightly, making sure that her broken arm wasn't in a position where it would be hurt any more. "I love ye to Pearl Turner."
