High Flier

Chapter 2 - Alex the Pirate

~Pirate Rhi

Hello again, mates. I want to thank everyone who reviewed. It meant a great deal to me.

Lykosdracos - Loved your review. Longest one I've ever got, I think. Seriously, I think I still have a huge smile plastered across my face from all the nice things you said.

Fadingimage - I'd say somewhere around the Caribbean or somewhere close by. I made up Port Collins, because I didn't want to have to use a real place. Useless fact: I got the name Collins off my atlas when I was trying to find a suitable place to start the story in.

I've got myself a livejournal. It's pretty random stuff, but this is the link: www . livejournal . com / users / pirate_rhi / if you want to see it. Obviously delete the spaces.

Well, without further ado, onto the story…

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Alexandra followed Jack down the pier to where Jack's ship was docked. Repairmen were busy working on the ship, plugging holes in the sides and doing general maintenance.

She followed Jack onto the Pearl, looking about the ship in awe. She had never been on a ship before in her life, although she'd always wanted to. She felt strangely excited about this new experience, despite the circumstances. There were two people, a man and a woman, standing at the bow of the ship. They looked over at Jack and Alex curiously as Jack led the girl onto the ship.

"Welcome to the Black Pearl, luv." Jack said, gesturing to his beloved ship. "Now if you'll be so kind as to follow me, I'll show you to yer quarters. You didn't bring anythin' with you, did ya?"

Alex suddenly realised that she had indeed left behind her possessions. In the rush to get away, it never crossed her mind that she wouldn't be coming back. She wasn't very eager to go back to her caravan though, there was nothing important in there that couldn't be replaced. She felt around her neck to make sure that she still had her necklace on. It was a plain chain with her mother's wedding ring on it. It was the last thing she had left of her family and she would be devastated if she ever lost it.

She was still wearing her clothes from her practise earlier that day. Pants and a skintight shirt, to allow her unrestricted movement on the trapeze and for gymnastics routines. They were the clothes she felt most comfortable in.

"No." she said in a small voice, shaking her head.

"I'm sure I'll be able to find you some extra clothes somewhere. Did you leave anythin' important behind?"

Alex shook her head again. "No."

"In that case." Jack said, pushing open a door to a small cabin. "This'll be yer sleeping quarters. You'll have the room to yerself for the moment, as one of me crew jumped ship at the last port."

Alex walked over to the hammock strung up from wall to wall in the corner of the room. She sat on it, testing the feel of it.

"Thank you Jack." She said, just as Jack had turned to leave.

"Yer welcome, luv. And it's Captain Jack, if you please." He grinned and winked at Alex, before exiting the room.

Alex lay back on the hammock, hands behind her head as a cushion. She was feeling incredibly sleepy now that this whole ordeal was over, but she did not regret her decision one bit. In fact, the only thing she would miss was Heidi the elephant. And performing. She loved the feeling of exhilaration she got when she performed in front of an audience.

Her eyes started to droop as the adrenaline she was running on slowly stopped and the tiredness began to set in. That was when she heard the knock at her door. She sat up with a start, wondering who it was.

"Uh, come in." she said hesitantly.

The door opened, revealing a young woman. She looked to be about the same age as Alex, and she had long curly dark blonde hair, which was pulled back into a ponytail. She entered the room, closing the door softly behind her. She crossed the room, and sat on the other hammock across from Alex.

"Hi. Jack said you might like some female company. I'm Elizabeth, but just call me Liz. And the other man that I was with back up on the deck is my husband, Will." She held out her hand, which Alex hesitantly shook, as she also introduced herself.

"Want to talk about it?" Elizabeth said gently, after a moment of silence.

Alex curled up again, tucking her knees in under her chin. She'd never told anyone anything about herself before. The only one who knew her life story was Heidi the elephant. But there was something about this woman in front of her that instilled trust. Elizabeth smiled gently at Alex, silently letting her know that for once in her life she could trust someone with some information about herself that wouldn't be used against her.

Alex took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I was a performer at Basil's Travelling Circus. To cut a long story short, there was this guy called Dickon who tried to rape me, so I ran away." Alex said monotonously, trying not to relive the horror permanently implanted in her head.

* * * * * *

Elizabeth watched the girl curl up protectively and instantly felt sorry for her. She could tell that this girl had been thorough a lot just by the dull, tired look in her blue eyes. She'd only said a couple of sentences about what had happened, but Elizabeth could sense the underlying pain to the story. And it was more than likely that there many more stories with just as much pain. This girl had built up so many walls to protect herself. She'd been through so much that this was the final straw.

Elizabeth moved closer to Alex and put a protective arm around her shoulders. "Don't worry now. You're safe here. Jack won't let anything happen to you, and we'll all take good care of you."

* * * * * *

When Alex awoke the next day, she momentarily wondered where she was, before remembering what had happened the day before. That man…Jack…had taken her aboard his ship…away from the circus.

It was then that she noticed that the floor was not as stable as the night before. She took a look out the small porthole, and noticed the land shrinking into the distance, Port Collins and Basil's Travelling Circus along with it.

Noticing that her left hand was quite sore, she lifted it up to her face and inspected it. The knuckles were bruised and she couldn't open her hand fully. She wondered how Dickon's nose and nuts were. She smirked and hoped that she had caused him as much pain as he had caused her.

She stood at the porthole for a while longer, lost in thought. Then, deciding that she should probably be doing some work to earn her way on the ship, Alex made her way topside to find Jack.

Alex emerged into the bright sunlight, briefly wondering how long she had slept. She blinked a few times, letting her eyes adjust to the sunlight, before spotting Jack over at the wheel, steering the ship. She started to cross the deck, noticing that it was rather difficult to walk on the ship. She found herself swaying from side to side as she tried to get used the to the strange new feeling. Fortunately, her sense of balance was a lot better than her average person, due to all her tightrope walking, and she adjusted to the ship's erratic swaying quickly.

Reaching the helm, Alex looked up at Jack, who had been watching her progress across the deck with a slight smile on his face.

"Mornin', luv." Jack greeted. He briefly flicked his eyes to the sky, noting the position of the sun. "Or should I say afternoon?"

Alex raised an apologetic eyebrow. "I slept that long? Sorry…I didn't mean to."

"Nah, don't worry, luv. By the looks of ye last night, you really needed it."

"Well…I'm ready to work now. What do you want me to do?"

Jack looked around the deck of the ship, then spotted what he was looking for. "Anamaria!" he shouted, beckoning the dark-haired woman over to the helm.

"What, Cap'n?"

"This here's Alex. Show her the ropes. And take care o' her."

Anamaria looked Alex over with a critical eye before deciding that this girl was okay in her book. She started with a quick tour of the ship, naming the sections, explaining what everything did, and teaching her some basic knots.

"So, did you get all that?" Anamaria asked, as they finished up on the deck.

Alex nodded, slightly dazed. It was information overload, but she was pretty sure that she'd gotten most of it, without taking out a pen and paper and writing it all down.

"Don't worry if you can't remember it all. Mostly it's on the job learnin' anyways." She pulled put a length of rope and handed it to "Alex. "Here, practise the knots I taught ye until you can do then in yer sleep. They're very important to the running of the ship."

Alex made her way to the bow of the ship and sat on the railing with her legs dangling over the side, the piece of rope in her hands. She did one of the knots Anamaria had shown her, muttering the steps to herself as she knotted it. "Over…under…around…through."

She held up the knot to inspect it, but it fell apart. Tying knots was not her forte, she decided. She started tying it again, becoming too involved in her task to hear the footsteps coming up behind her.

"It should be looped here before you put it over." Jack said, pointing at the rope Alex was holding.

"Dammit Jack, don't sneak up on me like that!" Alex said, resting her hand over her heart, which was beating quickly with the surprise. She did as he said with the piece of rope and it formed a properly functional knot. A little messy, but it'd still work.

"Are you better today?" Jack asked. "Elizabeth told me what you told her. I'll tell you now that there'll be nothin' like that happenin' on the Pearl, savvy?"

"I've been better…but I've also been worse." Alex explained, looking down, deliberately avoiding Jack's gaze. "But thanks for the passage on your ship."

"Anyways, what I came to tell ye is that dinner's ready if yer hungry. Come on, I'll show you where it is."

Alex slipped off the railing and followed Jack down to the galley where the crew were gathered, chatting noisily as they collected their meal from the various pots and sat down at the long table.

Alex joined the end of the line, picking up a plate and a fork from the pile at the end of the table. Noticing a couple of dirty smudges on the plate, she wiped it clean with a corner of her shirt before putting food on it. Bypassing the first pot, as the contents didn't look too fresh, she scooped a couple of chunks of potato out of the second pot and some meaty stew out of the third one. She made her way to the table and squeezed in at the very end, seating herself on the long bench, trying to take up as little space as possible.

She picked up her fork and hesitantly tasted the food. It didn't taste so bad, and she'd definitely had a lot worse. Realising how hungry she actually was, having not eaten since lunchtime the day before, she finished her plate of food quickly, and joined the line for seconds.

* * * * * *

Later that evening, when it was dark, the crew were given their free time. A lot of them gathered on deck, playing drinking games and card games. Alex sat on the railing on the side of the ship and watched the men playing drinking games, filling the small glasses with an amber liquid before swallowing it. The other men watching would let out a loud cheer when the alcohol was swallowed. Finally, one of the men slumped to one side and the crew let out a loud cheer, holding the other man's arm up as a sign of victory, before he too, collapsed on the deck, snoring loudly.

"Barbaric, isn't it?"

Alex turned and saw Elizabeth standing next to her. "Yes. There doesn't look to be much point to the game except to drink yourselves silly."

"Very true. And waste of rum too."

Alex turned and saw Jack standing casually on her other side, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword, the other hand holding a bottle of the same amber liquid the other crew members were drinking. He offered the bottle to Alex.

"Wanna try some?"

Alex hesitantly took the bottle from Jack. She'd never had any good experience with drinking and drunken people. Especially drunken men. They were usually rather violent and caused a lot of trouble. She usually stayed away from alcohol, but she felt safe enough on the ship, so one sip shouldn't hurt. She lifted the bottle to her mouth, and glanced up at Jack, who was grinning at her uncertainty. She tipped the bottle back and poured a small amount of the liquid into her mouth and swallowed it. She pulled a face as it burned its way down her stomach, making her feel all hot inside and leaving a strange taste in her mouth. Coughing a couple of times, she handed the bottle back to Jack, who was grinning at her first encounter with rum.

"Thanks." She croaked out.

"Tastes better second time." He said, not taking the bottle back.

"Jack, you better not be trying to get her drunk." Elizabeth warned, waving her finger accusingly in Jack's face.

Jack put on his innocent face. "Now why would I wanna be doin' that?"

"I'm all right. I can handle my alcohol." Alex said, taking another sip of the rum. It didn't burn so much this time and just left her with a pleasant warm feeling inside. She handed the bottle back to Jack, who took it back this time and took a sip of his own.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to bed." Alex said, making her way down to her quarters.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I actually went and tasted rum so I could write this bit…lol.

I'm going on a school camp for the next 5 days, so I'll update when I get back. I'm looking forward to seeing what you guys think of this chapter.

Anyways, do what you would normally do here.

~Rhi