High Flier

Chapter 10 - Revelations

~Pirate Rhi

Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. I've finally finished writing this story and I'm very sad to say that the next chapter will be the last. I may do an epilogue if I feel like it and I may do a sequel if I get a good plotline, but that won't be until I've finished writing the sequel to Caribbean Crusades.

Anyway, more on this next chapter, seeing as it is the last chapter, and for now you can enjoy this chapter.

Queen of the Caribbean - Well, as you'll see in this chapter, your begging worked in sort of a roundabout way…don't worry, everything works out all right in the end =)

Padfoots-Pirate - Yeah, I heard it as a pirate joke as well, but I forgot about that until you mentioned it. I have another one for you: How much does a pirate pay to get his ears pierced? A buccaneer… heh heh, I laughed for ages at that one.

Cayenne Pepper Powder & Clueless-Patty - Thankies, mates.

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The Black Pearl pulled into the harbour of Tortuga after a painstaking journey chasing the ship that kidnapped their captain. The night watchman had awoken soon after the other ship had kidnapped Jack and not realising that Jack had been kidnapped, climbed down from the crows nest intending to wake the captain and inform him of the strange ship. Finding the captain missing and after searching the whole of the Pearl, the night watchman awoke the entire crew who, under the instruction of Gibbs, the first mate, gave the orders to chase the ship to wherever it went, to get their captain back.

Due to the Black Pearl having the title of the Fastest Ship in the Caribbean, they made good time in catching up with the intruder ship and as soon as they reached Tortuga harbour, the whole crew went ashore to try and find out what happened to their captain.

* * * * * *

It seemed to take ages to get to their destination, following a winding, precarious road sloping upwards.

Jack felt very vulnerable, being blindfolded. He wasn't used to this feeling. He was used to being in control, knowing exactly what was going to happen next and predicting what would happen in the near future.

The road leveled out and soon they reached their destination.

"Wait there." Jack was instructed.

Jack waited. This was not the opportune moment to escape, so he gathered information about his surroundings instead. He could faintly hear the ocean crashing against rocks, but it sounded quite far away, and below him, so he gathered that they were on or near a cliff. The wind was quite strong, and he could hear it rushing through the trees. In front of him, Jack heard a door creaking open, and he was pulled roughly inside.

Inside, the house smelled musty, like it hadn't been lived in for a long time. It suddenly seemed quiet, as if the thick wood blocked out all outside noise.

Jack was guided somewhere in the house and guessed that he'd been put into a room, when his guide left him and a door shut behind him and he heard a lock click into place.

"Stay here. I will be back in the morning. If you do not stay, you will regret it for the rest of your life." The figure said in a low voice through the locked door.

The person then left the house and shut the front door. They paused on the front step and removed the hood of the cloak, revealing a mass of dark brown locks.

"This had better work." The person muttered, the voice now distinctly female. "Don't screw it up this time, Jack Sparrow."

* * * * * *

Alex awoke early the next morning from the bright rays of sun shining through the small dirty window in her room. Moaning, she turned over and tried to go back to sleep, but sleep evaded her. Blearily sitting up and rubbing her eyes, she stumbled across the room to where the jug of water was. She poured a small amount in the brown bowl and cupped her hands in the water, splashing it on her face in an effort to wake herself up.

She always found it much harder to wake up when she was not at sea, and it wasn't just the fact that she worked late. The crisp fresh sea air had always helped her sleep deeper and wake up more refreshed in the morning.

After the water treatment, Alex felt a bit more awake, at least awake enough to be able to put her clothes on the right way round.

After dressing, Alex made her way downstairs to where Mara was cooking some breakfast. The smell of cooking bacon and eggs had wafted up the stairs to Alex, causing her stomach to growl noisily as she entered the room.

Mara obviously heard Alex's stomach, because she laughed as she served up Alex's portion. "Here you go. You sound very hungry."

"Thanks." Alex said sheepishly, accepting the plate gratefully.

Mara served her own and sat down at the table opposite Alex. "If you don't have any plans for today, there's somethin' I'd like to show you." She said.

"What kind of something?" Alex asked.

Mara grinned. "A surprise somethin'. You interested?"

Alex shrugged. "Yeah, why not. When do we go?"

"As soon as you're finished here if you want."

* * * * * *

It had been a while since Mara and Alex had set off from the tavern. After walking through the town, Mara had started leading Alex up a steep winding road through the native bush. Numerous times Alex repeated her earlier question on where they were going, and each time Mara replied with a rather vague answer.

The road leveled off and the bush on Alex's left side gave way to the majestic view of the sea far below her. The sound of the water faintly reached her ears and she smiled at the remembrance of the quiet lapping of water against the hull of the Pearl.

While she was caught up in memory, she failed to notice a small wooden hut across the other side of the clearing. It looked very weather-beaten, and like it would fall down at any second now, but nevertheless, Mara had started heading across the clearing towards it. Shrugging, Alex followed her, there was something about the cabin that had her curious.

Mara held a finger up to her lips after she opened the door and entered the small, dark house. Alex became suddenly wary of the situation, and with her warning senses on high alert, she followed Mara tentatively into the dark oblivion of the house.

* * * * * *

Jack awoke from a light slumber to the sound of wood creaking. Not knowing whether it was a false alarm like there had been so many times tonight already, or his captor coming back for him. Whatever it was, he immediately put all his senses on high alert and fixed his eyes on the door of the small room, which was devoid of all furniture.

He'd managed to work himself out of his bonds and blindfold in the first few minutes of being in the room, and had searched every square inch of the room for a way to get out, but to no avail. The words of his captor had intrigued him, why would he regret it if he escaped? He wasn't sure, but he figured that he would find out now, because his ears picked up the sound of not one, but two sets of footprints.

Fearing the worst, but hoping for the best, Jack braced himself for whatever was to come next.

* * * * * *

Mara crossed the room with light footsteps, heading towards a closed door across the other side of the room. She paused in front of the door with her hand on the door handle.

"Do you think you're ready for this?" she asked in a low voice.

Alex nodded, all kinds of thoughts running through her head, mainly wondering what in the hell Mara was going on about.

Mara inserted a key into the door and turned it, causing the lock to click back. She then turned the handle and pushed the door open.

The room was a lot darker than the rest of the house and it took Alex's eyes a couple of seconds to adjust to the change, and even then she thought that they still weren't working. She tried blinking a couple of times, and still she saw the same thing. But it couldn't be…could it?

Inside the small, dark room was Jack.

Obviously he couldn't believe it either, and his gaze flicked from Alex to Mara and back to Alex again.

"Alex…what…and Mara…" Jack said, trying to make sense of the situation. He suddenly laughed. "And here's me thinking I got meself some new enemies!"

Alex, though, was still rather confused. "Could somebody tell me what's going on?" she asked.

"And I wanna know why ye kidnapped me!" Jack demanded, but there was no angry tone to his voice.

"Well, I knew you'd never come back, and when Alexandra here told me her story and mentioned you, well, I thought I should intervene." Mara explained, answering Jack's question.

"For your information, I was coming back." Jack said, looking rather smug.

Mara looked surprised. "I underestimated you then, my apologies."

"Wait a minute, none of this is making any sense." Alex butted in.

"Well, it's rather ironic, really. Unknowingly running to the sister of the man you're running away from." Mara filled in.

Alex stood there for a moment, stunned at the information, and then she burst out in laughter. "Yes." She said, wiping tears of laughter away from her eyes. "That is ironic. And just like me to do something like that."

Jack watched Alex laugh, and revelled in the moment. He'd never thought that he'd see her laugh, she always seemed so sad about things, but here she was, the happiest he'd ever seen her. He smiled, glad that he was finally back with her.

Mara looked from Alex to Jack and smiled, knowing that her work was done here for the moment. She slipped away from the two and dropped a note on the table before exiting through the front door.

It was a little while before Alex realised that Mara had left them alone in the cabin. She'd been too preoccupied with Jack and being happy just being with him again that she didn't notice Mara's quiet exit. Her attention was brought to a small white square of paper lying on the table. She reached over and read the note, which brought a smile to her face.

"What is it, luv?" Jack asked.

Alex read the note out loud to Jack. "'I've done my bit, now it's your turn to do yours." She handed the note to Jack, who read it and placed it back on the table.

"Jack, I want to tell you something." Alex said, pulling Jack towards the table, where she sat down on a chair, indicating for him to sit on the other one opposite her. "I…I want to tell you why I did this."

"You don't have to." Jack cut in.

"I know." Alex said, smiling at Jack. "But I want to. I've had a lot of time to think about this, and I think you should know." Alex took a deep breath, and prepared to tell her story for the first time ever.

"I lived with my mother, father and older brother in a small house on a farm when I was young. My parents were really good to us, making sure we had the best of everything. They would spend all their savings making sure we had a good upbringing. This was until I was about 14. There was a fire, and both my parents died in it. I blamed myself for it for a long time. I had convinced myself that it was my fault, but now I realise it wasn't. It was an accident. Me and Lucas, my brother, were left on our own. We didn't have anyone else to take care of us, so we lived on the streets for about 3 years or so, scavenging food, begging, and pick pocketing. Then the circus came to town. Lucas and I were fascinated by it, and we begged the ringmaster to let us work for him. He gave us jobs cleaning up after each performance. A year or so later when he discovered me mucking around of the practise trapezes, he decided that he'd train me for the flying trapeze. Lucas would spend all of his spare time helping me train, we were very close. When I turned 18, the ringmaster decided that I would make a good wife for him. He forced me to have sex with him whenever he felt like it. I didn't know any different, but Lucas found out and he tried to stand up for me. They just killed him. That was when I vowed never to trust another man ever." Alex paused and looked up at Jack and smiled at him. "But now I know that not all men are like that. And I thank you for that, Jack."

"Yer welcome, luv." Jack said, grinning at Alex.

"And Jack…I think I love you." Alex said, giving Jack a shy smile.

"Well, I would say that's a very good thing then, because I love you too." Jack replied. "What do you say we go back to the Pearl then?"

"Actually, I can think of something better we can do, right here." Alex said, motioning towards the bedroom.

Jack raised a questioning eyebrow (I almost wrote elbow for some strange reason. I don't know why, my fingers just typed it. Try to imagine raising a questioning elbow without laughing. I can't do it.) at Alex. "Are you sure, luv?" he asked. "Don't think that I'm forcing you into anything here."

"No, Jack. You're not forcing me to do anything. This is what I want. You're what I want." Alex said, stepping towards Jack so that her body was flush with his, eliminating all the spaces in between their bodies. She gazed into his eyes, which had softened, causing their dark brown depths to look like molten chocolate. She licked her lips before closing the final distance between them and capturing his lips in a tender kiss. She felt Jack respond and he took over the kiss, causing a bolt of heat to slash through her abdomen and head south.

"I think we should continue this in the bedroom." Jack mumbled through multiple kisses.

Alex didn't bother responding with words, instead she replied with a muffled "Mm-hm" and they made their way into the bedroom and collapsed on the bed in a fit of passion.

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I hope you enjoyed this chapter and you can look forward to the lemon being in the next chapter. I'll clearly label which chapter is which so there is no confusion and yelling at the author.

~Rhi