Thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I love the reviews, and do know that constructive criticism is more than welcome. Criticize my work without giving me some pointer and I won't be too pleased. wink Screamin-psiren, thank you for the helpful hint. Jack is a rather hard character to portray, so I am trying, I promise! I'll make an extra effort in this next chapter!
Secrets of the Caribbean
Written By: Riley Barton
[Chapter Four]
Scarlett drummed her long fingernails on the wooden tabletop in the mess, staring at Elizabeth with a bored expression on her face. She had been forced to sit in that exact chair for the past hour and a half listening to Elizabeth relate a boring conversation she had had with Commodore Norrington the day before. Will seemed to be enthralled, though Scarlett highly doubted it was the conversation that he found so interesting to watch. Jack, on the other hand, who was sitting across from her, was too drunk to care. After being stuck in a prison cell for an entire week without rum was, to him, enough reason to guzzle four entire bottles of rum, following up by another glass ten minutes later. He now sat slumped in his seat, leaning back casually with his feet kicked up onto the table. The chair was wobbling dangerously on its two legs, and Scarlett was waiting for it to collapse underneath its drunken occupant.
"The Commodore will be so surprised to find that Jack escaped again."
Scarlett came to, pasting an expression of interest on her face moments before Elizabeth looked in her direction. She smiled at the younger woman. "Are you very good friends with the Commodore?"
Elizabeth shrugged. "He and my father are old friends, so we pretty much know each other that way."
"I see."
Suddenly the sound of a chair breaking and a body toppling to the floor echoed in the room; Scarlett jumped, her head swiveling in Jack's direction. Where he had been sitting a minute ago was now clear of anyone. Holding back the laughter that was bubbling up inside her, Scarlett stood from her chair and leaned across the table so she could see Jack sprawled on the floor on the other side. Somehow he had gotten his legs tangled in the chair as he fell, and the empty bottle of rum he had been holding had broken, sending small shards of glass everywhere. Scarlett couldn't help herself: she burst out laughing.
"Jack, are you all right?" Elizabeth gasped, jumping to her feet and hurrying around the table from her position next to Scarlett to help the pirate out of his current predicament. She cast Scarlett a disapproving look as she bent down and tried to disentangle the chair from Jack's legs.
Scarlett collapsed on the table, her joyous laughter seeming to be unstoppable. Somehow she managed to control herself, though, and said, "Oh, he's fine. He's done worse to himself."
Will went to help Elizabeth pull their friend to his feet. Once it seemed Jack could stand on his own they let go of him, Elizabeth excusing herself to fetch a broom.
"Are you okay?" Will asked, frowning.
Jack moved from side to side drunkenly, looking at Will with a confused look on his face. "'Course, mate, why wouldn't'a I be?" he slurred. He patted Will's shoulder before stumbling to the right. Scarlett saw it coming before it happened, but she didn't say a word. Instead, she watched in silent pleasure as Captain Jack Sparrow, the drunken bastard that he was, slipped on the glass shards that littered the floor and fell heavily on his rump. She snorted, holding a hand to her mouth in an effort to stifle another round of laughter.
"What happened?" Elizabeth exclaimed, running back into the mess with a broom in hand.
Scarlett looked at her with a merry gleam in her green eyes. "Nothing really," she said. "Jack just slipped and fell again. Like I said, nothing serious."
"Will, I told you not to let him drink so much of that wretched rum," Elizabeth said, hurrying forward to sweep away the glass into a neat pile.
"It isn't exactly easy to convince Jack of that," he replied, making an extra effort to lug Jack to his feet. When he realized it was hopeless to pull up a drunken man by himself, he looked to Scarlett. "Mind giving me a hand here?" he asked in exasperation.
Scarlett looked at him in surprise. "What? Oh, yeah, sure." She pushed away from the table and went around to where Will and Jack were. "Stand aside, Will," she said, bending down so she was eye-level with Jack. "I know how to deal with this." Will gave her a questioning look, but stepped aside nonetheless. "Watch and learn, little boy," Scarlett muttered, but just loud enough for Will to hear.
He scowled. "I'm not that much younger than you," he said.
Scarlett paused and looked up at Will with a smile. "How old are you, Will?"
He hesitated, not certain if this was a trick. "Twenty."
"There ya go, then," Scarlett replied, turning her attention back to Jack.
"How old are you?" Will asked pointedly, folding his arms across his chest.
Scarlett glanced at him. "A woman does not reveal her age, Will. You should have learned that long ago. It's suffice to say that I am beyond thirty-five. Now, are you going to let me get this pathetic drunk off the floor or not?"
Will grunted, leaning against the wall.
"Thank you. Now, what to do with Jack…"
Scarlett, as swift as an eagle dropping down to earth to catch a mouse, snatched Jack's hat from his head and hurriedly placed it on the floor behind her, out of Jack's view. Jack's eyes snapped open, narrowing to slits as he stared at Scarlett, who was a mere few inches from him. "What did yer do wit' me hat?" he asked groggily.
Scarlett smirked. "Now that I've got your attention," she said, getting to her feet, "we can get you off this floor and onto your own two feet." She picked his hat up from the floor and placed it on her head. She reached down, grabbed Jack by the arm, and gently tugged on it. "Come on, you big lug, move that bony butt of yours. I know you aren't as pathetic as this," she said. Jack looked up at her with an expression of indignation. She raised her eyebrows in reply. "And here I thought the captain of the Black Pearl was the best, but, as it is, I can see how sadly mistaken I was."
Angrily, Jack lurched to his feet, free of any help, and stumbled forward two steps. He would have fallen for a third time if Scarlett hadn't rushed forward to hold him up. She had been prepared for that, and had been ready to rush forward at a moment's notice. "I can stand by meself, lass," Jack said groggily, the after effects of so much drinking still present. He tried to step out of her tight hold, but she held him in place.
"Unless you want to fall again, I suggest you stop resisting," she said through gritted teeth. Looking to Will, she motioned for him to take a hold of Jack. "Take him to his cabin and put him to bed. He'll have one helluva hangover in the morning, but that's his own doing."
"I'll help," Will said, stepping forward, "but you seem to be better acquainted with this type of behaviour, so I would prefer if you stick around."
Scarlett rolled her eyes. "It isn't a skill I boast about, I assure you."
"Will you be okay back here?" Will asked Elizabeth, looking back at her over his shoulder.
Elizabeth nodded. "Yeah, you two take care of Jack. He needs it more than I do."
"We'll be right back," Will added as he and Scarlett helped Jack out of the mess.
Outside, Mr. Gibbs, who was on the night watch, noticed the trio stumbling out. He shook his head, smiling, and went to hold open the main cabin's door for them. "Jack drink too much rum?" he asked with a slight chuckle.
"Yeah," Scarlett replied, grunting as she and Will set Jack onto his bed. "He's too drunk to even walk a step without falling."
"I resent that," Jack grumbled from his sprawled position on the bed. "I can too walk, you curs just won't give me th' chance."
Will glanced at Jack doubtfully, but was then distracted by Scarlett, who was bustling about the cabin like she owned the place. He couldn't help thinking that she knew her way around a bit too well. She was removing a wool blanket from a cupboard across the room when he came up behind her. "You know your way around well," he said absently, though the unasked question lingered in the air between them.
Scarlett didn't pause for a single moment. She just closed the cupboard door and returned to Jack's bed. She unfolded the blanket slowly, glancing at Jack's sleeping form; how he managed to fall asleep so quickly was beyond her. "As I've already told you," she said, setting the blanket on the edge of the bed for the moment, "I once lived on this ship, and Jack's cabin was where I spent most of my time. Jack and I would sit at his desk for hours on end, pouring over maps of any kind, planning out voyages and the like." She paused as she yanked off one of Jack's clunky boots and set it on the floor beside the bed. "I guess you could say I was kind of like a co-captain. Jack referred to me on most of his decisions, getting my opinions basically." She removed the other boot and dropped it beside the other.
"Jack Sparrow?" Gibbs asked in disbelief. "He would never share the Black Pearl with anyone, let alone a woman."
This brought Scarlett to a stop, the wool blanket in her hands. "I can't say your wrong and I can't say you're right," she said quietly. She sighed, a certain vulnerability appearing in her that neither Will nor Gibbs ever thought they would be alive to witness in such a strong-willed woman. "During the last few months before Jack and I… went our separate ways, I guess you could say, he started to change. He became more treasure-hungry and self-confidant. I wasn't informed of certain decisions any more, and it eventually got to the point where I was just like any other crew member on his ship." She spread the blanket out across Jack and tucked him like a mother would her own child.
"You know, you would make a great mother," Will said abruptly, the suspicion gone from his voice, being replaced instead by a kind of compassion. "My own mother used to tuck me into bed like that."
"What happened to her?" Scarlett asked, folding her arms across her chest.
"She died some years ago," he replied.
Scarlett slowly nodded. "I had forgotten that Bootstrap had a wife and son." She smiled.
"Where you a good friend of his?" Will asked. Neither he nor Scarlett noticed when Gibbs, with a smile on his lips, slipped out of the main cabin.
"Yeah, I'd like to think that we were good friends near the end, after Jack kind of deserted me, anyway. We talked a lot long into the night about anything that came to mind. He spoke of you and his wife often, though I didn't remember that until a few moments ago. He loved the two of you a lot."
Will didn't say anything for a short while; he just stared at her. "Thanks. I needed to hear that." He paused as a yawn overtook him. "Guess I better get back to Elizabeth. She'll be wondering what's taking so long."
Scarlett nodded. "See you in the morning, then." She waited until the door closed behind Will Turner before closing her eyes and taking a deep, claming breath. Never had she felt so vulnerable and yet, at the same time, content in all her life. Sighing and shaking her head, she turned off the lantern resting on Jack's bedside table, not once looking in Jack's direction. But if she had, she would have noticed that, in fact, Jack was not asleep, and that he was watching her as she left the cabin.
A/N: Okay, I'm going to stop it there. I know you guys probably didn't enjoy this chapter too much, since I revealed a part of Scarlett I don't think anyone expected to see. But you have to realize that even the most stubborn and self-confidant person is vulnerable, it just isn't revealed very often. –Don't forget to review and tell me what you think!