YAAAAY! I'm just going to really really fast say thanks to Cj-cj, Mem, and Miss Sofie for reviewing, especially you, Cj, cuz you've reviewed like everything I've written. I really appreciate it. So yeah, now I'm just going to super fast go ahead and skip to the story, I have to start writing chapter 4 of "Curse of the Happy Pills". It was demanded. Hehe.
Chapter 7
Surprised, Shocked, Hurt, Confused
The hot Caribbean sun beat down with a fiery passion so intense that Nova could scarcely breathe as a rope ladder was thrown down to them. "Oye, Cap'n!" came the voice of one particularly scruffy man. "Oye, Gibbs!!" Jack called back, shielding his eyes from the sun as he looked up towards the man who tossed over two more ropes.
Nova stood up as slowly as she could possibly manage, the boat rocking beneath them, and she bit her bottom lip in order to keep the contents of her stomach where they belonged - in her stomach. After he and Will rigged the boat up to the other ropes thrown down, Jack begin climbing the makeshift rope ladder with ease, not looking back down to Nova and Will until he was halfway up.
"Aren't ye comin', luv?"
She looked up at him, afraid that if she moved, the boat would capsize. "I'm... I'm afraid... she said, keeping her voice as low as she could so that the other - she assumed correctly that they were pirates - would not hear her.
Jack rolled his eyes. "Come on, we didn' drag ye here, ye asked t' come along, now do so, an' without delay, if at all possible!" he snapped down at her, climbing up the rest of the ladder to the ship deck.
Nova turned to look at Will, who was going behind her in case she fell. Sighing, with his last bit of patience, he looked down to her. "Just grab the ladder, Miss...", and she did so, her trembling, blistered hands screaming with pain. She let out a small whimper, which Will ignored, and his voice grew a bit firmer as he continued to instruct her. "Now, stop on the bottom rung." She looked to him once more, fear in her eyes, and he made no move to encourage her any further. 'You can do this...' he thought, and watched her nod slowly, turning back to the rope as she placed on foot, then the other. With a small smile, she realized she was completely on the rope - and then she froze, instantly filled with fear.
"Miss Jennings, I'm right behind you... please, go a bit faster..." Will told her impatiently. But still she could not move, with him behind her or not, and she burst into a sweat, shaking frightfully as she put her feet back in the boat. "I can't, I can't do it, and you cannot make me, take me home this inst-"
Nova's sentance was cut short as Will grabbed her firmly about the waist and draped her over his shoulder as he climbed the rope ladder single-handedly.
A few cheers and some mild applause started when Will climbed on deck, setting Nova down on her feet as she shrieked, swinging her fists wildly at Will. "How DARE you, you ruddy bastard!" She shouted, knowing her fair share of curses from spending the day at the dock with her father when she was younger. She tried not cry, thoroughly embarrassed with herself and what he had done, and continued to beat against his chest, screaming at him.
But Will was quick to stop it, snatching her tiny wrists from the air and squeezing them tightly, and the explosion of laighter that had come from the crew quickly died down. His nose mere centimeters from hers, Will sneered down at her, his voice no more than an enraged whisper. "Do not, Nova, for one moment, fool yourself into thinking you are anything special... you'd do well to remember who your friends are on this ship, and who are not, because there may come a time when you'll need my help, and I'll be too busy reflecting on you, and the lousy thanks you gave me the last time I helped you." Her eyes stung with tears as he glared at her, and she felt no more than three inches tall as everyone watched on.
"Will... let th' girl go... now."
Both Will and Nova turned quickly to face Jack, who glared at the young pirate as he released Nova's wrist. She rubbed them, stepping backwards as quickly as she could to get away from him, blinking away the tears so Jack would not see.
"Jack... th' boys go' a poin' in no' likin' th' girl, look a' her! Do we really need another woman o' her... class... on board?" Gibbs, having had his fair share of rum already, was a tad mouthier than normal, but Jack disregarded it. A murmer of agreement passed through the crew, and their stares made Nova incredibly nervous.
"I mean, c;mon, Jack! She's practically th' spit an' image o' tha' Miss Swann, an' I know ye remember th' trouble she caused us!"
At this, Nova gasped, louder than she had intended to, and the crew turned around to look at her. "What... what about Miss Swann?" she questioned, her voice a bit bolder than she had intended it to be. Gibbs snorted. "She was a righ' lot o' trouble las' year, an' I erally don' care ter think abou' the lengths we wen' through ter keep th' lass ou' o' harms way, only ter no' be appreciated righ'ly afterwards."
Will looked down at the wooden deck, his fists clenched tightly behind his back, and Nova shook her head slowly. "You must be talkning about someone else, you'd have to be... Lizzie wouldn't ever do something like that..." She spoke with quiet disbelief.
Not quietly enough.
Will's head snapped upwards, his eyes on fire with new anger and hatred - even deeper with hurt and self-loathing. "What do you know about Elizabeth?!" he said to her, trying to contain his raw determination to tear her to pieces, and doing as good a job as anyone feeling as lousy as he was could do. Jack sighed, knowing that Elizabeth had indeed left him a broken man.
"I know enough..." Nova said, truly terrified Will would strangle her at any moment. Will took a few steps forward, towering over her in height, and in anger. "That doesn't answer my question, Miss Jennings."
She looked up at him, eyes wide. "She's... tall..." she squeaked, not really knowing what else to say. Will sighed, getting frustrated. "She's tall, that's all you have to say?! Is she alive?! Is she happy?! How do you know her?" Will exploded, and Nova took another step back, almost trying to hide behind Jack. "S-she's my cousin..." He looked at her, frozen. "Is she alright...?" He asked, his voice lowered drastically. She nodded. "I suppose so... she's with child... due any day..." She finally added, and gathered the wits to look up at Will... immediately wishing she had not.
Personally, Jack had been intimidated by the look on his face when Elizabeth had come into the conversation. But the unbridled hatred in Wills glare was enough to frighten Satan himself back into the deepest recesses of Hell.
Nova sidestepped behind Jack, for good this time, poking her head around his arm as she watched Will storm off, slamming the door to the crews quarters so hard, an overly audible crack was heard.
With a smug look on his face, Gibbs took a swig from his canteen. "See?" Look a' th' trouble she's caused already!" Jack, infuriated, jerked his head up at Gibbs. "Enough!!! Back t' work, all of ye!!!" The crew quickly scurried off to raise the small rowboat Will, Jack and Nova had come out on, and finish any odd jobs they had left undone. Jack headed off for his cabin, leaving Nova alone.
After a moment, she looked around, scared. "Captain, wait!" She called after him, and he turned around slowly, looking positively exhausted. "Wot is it, girl?" He inquired, his voice heavy with stress and boredom. "What am I to do...?" she asked softly, not believing herself as she stared into his beautiful onyx eyes.
He stared at her thoughtfully. "I'd put ye t' work, but I'd rather have a talk with Gibbs and the rest of the crew before I do tha'... He was quiet another moment, and Nova wished desperately for a fan, or a bonnet, or anything to ease the suns rays. As her stomach tossed and turned inside of her, Jack watched her, his face unchanging, and she would've blushed, but she didn't have a chance to notice - she was wiping her face with her now filthy handkerchief.
"Ye can take a nap or somethin', if ye choose... rather not have ye out here an' all. I can't watch over ye..." Turning her head to look up at him, and even though she forced her muscles to move, it was truly sincere. He watched her curiously for a moment. "Yes, it'd be wise for ye t' try an' get a nap in... we'll be arrivin' in Tortuga shortly, an' I've no intentions of leavin' ye on board alone..." He pointed her in the direction of Anamaria's cabin, which held an empty bunk within, and took his leave after tipping his hat to her.
Sighing softly, she made her way to the tiny cabin, curled up in a little ball upon her bunk and closed her eyes. As she did so, she saw Jack's, vibrant and sparkling. A girlish blush rose to her cheeks - though it was hardly noticable through her sunburn - and felt herself fall into a deep, oblivious sleep, her thoughts on the pirate captain the whole time.
A loud banging at the door awoke her an hour or so after.
"Get up! The quatermaster is demandin' a word with ye!" Anamaria's shrill, edgy voice didn't make waking up any better, and Nova slowly pushed herself up, rubbing her eyes. "Are ye up!?" Anamaria shouted, pounding again. "Yes! Coming!!" she grumbled. 'Quartermaster...?' Puzzled, she jumped up, heading out on deck. "Who's looking for me...?" She asked Anamaria, covering her eyes until they could adjust to the light, but when she looked around for the female pirate, she had already gone.
Mumbling something under her breath about how it was rude to leave without specifying who this Quatermaster was, she set off to find Anamaria. She kept her eyes down, avoiding the dirty stares of the crew, and was about to turn back to the cabin when she felt a firm hand grasp her shoulder and spin her around.
Gasping as she did so, she looked up at Will, shrinking back quickly. "What are you doing?" he spat angrily at her, and she immediately remembered she was terrified of him. "I was looking for Anamaria, she woke me up saying something about a Quartermaster, but I wasn't sure who that was, and when I went to ask, she was already gone..." she explained quickly, her explination more of a strain of incoherent nonsense than something credible, but it was enough, and the anger in his eyes surprisingly subsided. "Come along... we landed in Tortuga half an hour ago, Jack asked me to bring you once you'd had a chance to rest." He smirked at this, and Nova couldn't believe her ears - he hadn't immediately woken her? 'Why would he do that for me...?' she mused, and for a brief moment in time found herself entertaining thoughts of a romantic sort. A deep blush rose to her cheeks when she thought of the pirate captains rougish demeanor, but her daydream was interrupted by Will clearing his throat. "We should really head off now, if we intend to find him before another one of his friends get their hands on him..." He trailed off as he offered his arm to her rather stiffly, and she took it politely, trying to touch him as little as possible.
He lead her through the rowdy streets, people laughing, people fighting, and she stepped a bit closer to Will in fear. Turning sharply to his right, he unhooked his arm from hers, and took each of her shoulders in his hands, pushing her in front of him through the crowded pub he had lead her to.
"Will... are you sure Jack is here...?!" She yelled over the noise and her shoulder to him, and in a rare display, Will threw his head back and laughed. "Am I sure? Jack?" Anywhere else? To think of anything else is a cardinal sin." He continued to chuckle, and after collecting a few tankards of rum from the bar, he lead her back where Jack was.
Hardly containing her excitement over it, Nova saw that he was alone, and sat down quickly beside him before anyone else could. She was disappointd he was more excited about the rum than her, but figured that it was a momentary lapse of reason.
From the way Will and Jack went at their rum, she could tell it would be a long evening.
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY! I DID IT! OKIES I HAVE TO GO BUT REVIEW, I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!!!!
Always-
Heaven Marquin, The Bonnie Pirate Lass