A/N: No matter how exciting Hurricane Isabel might be, it is thoroughly annoying me at the moment. Let me tell you, if there is one way to bore my family to death, it is to cut off our electricity. We had to go out to eat at Burger King because we had no electricity. That's a good thing, really, but you get my point. Anyway, thank you to PineAppleLint and Seom; I have already received your reviews. I thank you guys!! Gives both of them 200 dollars Spend money and be merry! As for everyone, pray that I have school off tomorrow!!! If I'm gonna have to survive with no electricity the most this hurricane could do is make certain I don't have to go to school Friday.
Secrets of the CaribbeanWritten By: Riley Barton
[Chapter Thirteen]
"She's what!?"
The sound of a door slamming open sounded in the cool morning air, startling two members of the Black Pearl's crew sitting on the deck. Both of them, Gibbs and a small, short man with a bald head looked up in time to see Scarlett stalk out of the main cabin and to the ladder that led below deck. Both of them looked at each other quizzically, wondering what ever could have gotten her in such a state. A few moments after Scarlett's appearance, Jack walked out with a frown, striding purposefully to the helm of his ship. His typical staggering walk was gone, and the normal goofy glint in his dark eyes was as well. He was muttering angrily to himself about 'incompetent women' and 'no appreciation'. Obviously the crew had missed out on something important.
Below deck in the brig, Anamaria jerked awake with a jolt, slamming her head into one of the metal bars that kept her locked in the small jail cell that had been her home for some time now. She looked above her with a frown, glaring. "Bloody gits," she grumbled in annoyance, letting her head fall weakly back against the cell bars. She closed her eyes and sighed deeply. A bead of sweat rolled down the side of her neck, but she didn't have the strength to wipe it away. She hadn't had water in three days, and the small loaf of bread that had been given to her was long gone. Jack had obviously forgotten she was even alive. "That bastard," she said in anger, and almost jumped out of her skin when she heard someone else say the exact same thing in unison with her. She looked over her shoulder and was startled, not to mention annoyed, to find that the person standing a foot away from her cell was Scarlett Bane. "What d' ye want?" she growled.
Scarlett, who looked as angry as a raging bull, removed a ring of keys from the waistband of her pants and stuck a key into the lock of Anamaria's prison cell. "I'm getting you out," she replied, her eyes looking into the dark skinned girl's own brown ones. "What does it look like?"
Anamaria couldn't help feeling suspicious. Why was Scarlett, the woman she had tried to kill, helping her? Shouldn't she want her to be dead, slowly rotting in this damn brig? "Why are ye helpin' me? I tried t' kill you."
Scarlett tried another key, twisted it, and removed the lock. "You were only defending your honour, your captain, and your ship." Scarlett swung the door open and stepped inside. "No one should be punished for that. Besides," Scarlett paused to smile at the hesitant woman before her, "you weren't completely wrong about me to begin with." Scarlett bent down so she was eye level with Anamaria and removed a canteen of fresh water from somewhere behind her back.
Anamaria eyed the canteen anxiously. Where is she keeping these things? She wondered, but only just before grabbing it from the older woman's hands and guzzling the cold, delicious water all in one drink. It had been so long since she had tasted something so good and refreshing, and after having drank all the water she felt some of her strength returning to her weak limbs. She passed the canteen back to Scarlett and swiped the back of her hand across her mouth. "Did Jack say ye could let me out?"
Scarlett shrugged and stepped out of the cell. "No, but since when have I followed orders?"
Anamaria hesitated, completely caught off-guard by this sudden change in personality. To her Scarlett had always been sarcastic, argumentative, and an overall bitch, to be completely frank. She always seemed to be hiding a deep secret underneath it all, but now, Scarlett was showing a different side of her, a side that forgave others.
"This isn't a trick," Scarlett said, noticing the young woman's uncertainty. "I know you tried to kill me, but if I had been in your shoes I know I would have done the same thing. Not even I would trust me." She shook her head. "So then, how can I hate you and not hate myself?"
Somehow that made sense to Anamaria, and she shakily stood to her feet. Her muscles were so unused to standing and moving that she stumbled forward, grabbing a hold of the cell bars to keep her upright. Scarlett came forward and draped one of Anamaria's arms around her shoulders. Together, the two women walked from the brig and to what had once been Anamaria's cabin.
Anamaria sank onto her bed, sighing at the feeling of soft blankets underneath her sore body. In reality the blankets and mattress were rather uncomfortable, but to Anamaria it felt like Heaven in the middle of the ocean.
Scarlett left the younger woman for a moment as she went to the kitchen to gather what little supply of food they had. All she could manage to steal without the cook finding out (which she was certain he would anyway) was half of a crusty loaf of bread, a small glass of water, and a banana. She brought these three things back to Anamaria's cabin on a dusty tray and set them on the bedside table. Anamaria eyed the food hungrily and launched herself at the bread. Scarlett whisked the tray away, setting it further away from the food-deprived woman. "Slowly, Anamaria," Scarlett warned. "If you scarf it all down it will only make you sick. Eat the food one small bite at a time, and even then only a little." She passed a small chunk of the bread to Anamaria, waited for the woman to eat it in painfully slow bites, and then handed her two small bites worth of the banana. "Now drink some of this and try to get some sleep. You look like you need it."
Anamaria finished the bites of the banana and drank from the water glass. She swallowed and lay back on the pillows, casting a quick glare in Scarlett's direction. "Look, I don't need yer help no more, so ye can stop worryin' 'bout me."
"All right, but I'll still stop by once more to make certain you're doing okay." Scarlett headed for the door, saying over her shoulder, "I'll see you around, Anamaria."
The bright, fiery red ruby glittered in the sunlight as it was held tightly in Scarlett's hand. She stared down at it inquiringly, as if the gem would answer her many questions. Why hadn't Jack sold it? Why did he look at it so often? Why did he hide it in a drawer?
She sighed, knowing the only way she would get the answers to these questions would be to ask Captain Jack Sparrow himself, and that was something she did not plan on doing in the near future.
"What's that ye've got thar, lassie?"
Scarlett spun around, nimbly hiding the ruby in a sack tied around her waist. "What's that, Mr. Gibbs?" she asked with an innocent look in her eyes. She purposefully folded her arms across her chest, showing him that she held nothing.
Gibbs hesitated, his brow furrowing as he noticed this. He slowly shook his head. "Er, nothing. I just thought that…" He shrugged. "Well, don't bother about me, lass. Me mind's goin' tis all."
Scarlett managed to hide a grin. This really was a nice, caring man, though she knew he could be a true pirate when the time came. He looked to be one of those men you would find sitting in a chair by the fire with three small children on his knee. The only thing that shattered that mental image was the many scars he bore and his roguish speech. "You aren't that old, Mr. Gibbs," Scarlett replied, smiling reassuringly. "You're still just as active as any younger man."
Gibbs laughed aloud, his guffaw ringing out across the deck of the Black Pearl. "Ye sure are good for me ego, Miss Scarlett," he said through his merry laughter. "Ye just may be th' one to change me mind 'bout havin' women aboard a ship."
"That would be a mighty act, indeed," said Captain Jack Sparrow, swaggering over to his first mate and childhood friend. "Gibbs don't like th' idea of women aboard any ship. Brings bad luck, or so he says."
Scarlett raised an eyebrow at Gibbs. "Is that so? Got another superstitious crew member, eh?" Her smiled broadened when the man shrugged his shoulders haphazardly. She laughed. "Then let me tell you, mate," she said, "and, I don't mean to brag, but I was the one to bring in the most and the best loot. No one could charm the socks off a man like I could."
Another loud guffaw erupted from Gibbs. "I can see that happenin', lass. That I can."
Jack rolled his eyes, waving a hand in the air as if brushing away a fly. "So vain, aren't ye, love?"
"Not half as much as you are, Captain," she retorted with a mischievous sparkle in her eyes.
"Can't let people ferget me many accomplishes, now can I?"
Scarlett shook her head. "You've never changed. Even as a six year-old kid you bragged about everything. 'Scarlett, look at the toy boat father bought me'," she said, mimicking a young boy's childish voice. "'Hey Scarlett, check out my new whistle'."
Jack glared at her coldly. "Keep in mind, lass, that I'm yer Captain, and I can have ye tossed overboard within minutes."
Scarlett's laugher continued to ring out like a chime. "Oh please," she said through her laughter. "You and I both know that if you even tried to do such a thing I would survive, find you, and wreak havoc on the remainder of your pathetic life." Her laughter abruptly stopped and the smile disappeared. Wasn't what she just said what she was supposed to be doing? Jack had left her behind and now this was supposed to be when she made the rest of his life Hell. But now everything had been turned around. She seemed to have forgotten that fact and had fallen into the old routine of living on the Black Pearl. What had happened?
You realized just how much you missed living on a ship, a voice piped up from the back of her mind.
Scarlett shook her head. No. "I'll see the two of you later. I need to check on Anamaria and see how she's faring," she said abruptly. She walked briskly across the deck and then below, but instead of going to Anamaria's cabin like she had said, she went to her own, closing the door with a firm shove. Seeing no lock on the door, she grabbed a wooden chair and stuck it up underneath the doorknob, preventing anyone of pushing the door open from the other side.
Scarlett flopped onto the rickety wooden bed and stared straight ahead blankly, her mind racing. What was she doing? She was supposed to be screwing things up, turning Jack's crew against him, purposefully destroying needed supplies… anything that would ruin Jack's life. And yet, here she was actually enjoying herself! She had grown rather fond of the Pearl's new crew, and she somewhat liked being around Will and Elizabeth. She knew that if she stuck around long enough the three could become good friends.
Then there was Jack. He was still almost the same as when she had left him: a treasure-hogging, boasting womanizer that thought he could get his way about anything, and most of the time he did! The only person he hadn't been able to get was Scarlett herself, but even she had tripped and fallen after holding out for a quite a few years.
She sighed and massaged her forehead, gently kneading it as a headache began to form. She didn't know what she was going to do. She liked the Pearl's crew too much to tear their lives apart, and from what she could see there was no force on Earth that could break the loyalty bond Jack had somehow managed to create within his crew. It was a feat not many pirates, if any, could boast about. Taking the Black Pearl away from Jack Sparrow was out of the question.
She absently removed the gem from her pouch and began twisting it around in her hand, examining it from each angle. It was a beautiful stone and was worth millions if sold to the right buyer. That one reason alone, the money, was why they had stolen it in the first place. And now, Scarlett thought grumpily, the man who stole it from is after us. Again!
Scarlett set the gem beside her on the mattress and curled up on her side like she had done when she was a young child trying to sleep despite the loud shouts and curses coming from the living room. She closed her eyes, one last thought flickering through her mind before falling asleep: This would be her last voyage, and at the very next port they came to she would leave the lives of these good people. Forever.
Author's Note: Yay, another chapter! I know there's no action and it's getting dull, but I swear there will be in the next chapter.. maybe a surprise visit by a certain pirate perhaps.. hm.. That sentence could be taken two different ways. Well, do what you guys love to do and leave a review for me! I love getting them and the rate at which they come in has grown slower… sigh But that's okay. I know you guys are reading it, so that's what matters!!! smiles