A/N: Sorry about neglecting this story L I had writer's block for a while. And I still do, but I'll give it a go about writing this, savvy?
The next day, Victoria awoke in the barn, still clutching the parchment in her hands. She could feel the dust rising around her, tickling her dirty skin and filling her nostrils. Slowly, she wrenched her tired eyes open. They didn't seem to want to let the light permeate her skin. Vision blurry, she blinked a few times to register her sight. A face loomed over her.
"Good morning, love! I hope you're feelin' better today…we've got a few errands ta run." Not even attempting to guess what he could possibly be talking about, Victoria slowly got up to face him.
"What kind of errands?" she said, narrowing her eyes. He opened his mouth to speak, when suddenly, she flung the paper with her picture at him. "You mean this kind? Are you going to just hand me over to that…that…sorry excuse for a man, so you can just collect your reward money and be on your way? Is that it?" Jack grinned, cocking his head to the side.
"No, I wasn't plannin' on doin' that. Thanks for the idea, though, love." He winked at Victoria, who scowled back at him. An awkward moment of silence followed.
"You're not…really going to do that, are you?" she said softly, looking down.
"Now, how daft do ye think I am, exactly, eh? If I return you, they're not going to give me no money, savvy?" Jack said, sauntering around the room. "Besides, as much as they adore ye, you're in the hands of Captain Jack Sparrow. I don't surrender that easily," he added quickly. "Now, let's go, we got some business to take care of."
*^*^*^*
"Are you insane?" Victoria shouted hoarsely. They were safely concealed beneath the dock of Tortuga, with about a foot of air to breathe in.
"Yes, I'm insane, Vicky sweet, I thought you already knew that," Jack said calmly. Victoria sighed heavily, kneading her forehead with her knuckles.
"Just…explain it to me one more time."
"But of course, love." She noticed that Jack had a rather fixed smile on his face. He grabbed her shoulders and made him stare her in the eye. "Listen to me this time."
"I'm listening!"
And as he explained his plan to her again, Victoria found herself staring at him. Not looking like she already was, but more like watching his every movement. She knew that she had stopped listening ages ago, but she didn't care at the moment, and she didn't know why, either. He was so-
"…savvy?" Oh how she adored that word. It tickled her funny bone. She loved it, probably for the man who said it.
"Are you listening?" Jack said, his voice breaking through her concentration.
"Sorry. Again."
"You know what? Forget it. I'll commandeer the bloody ship by myself."
"And how exactly are you going to do that?" Victoria said, feeling bad that she had been ignoring him. But she couldn't help it. Despite his arrogance, he was quite a good-looking fellow.
*^*^*^*
"Okay, just distract him. That's all you need to do, love." The sunlight was blinding. Victoria squinted, her eyes navigating around the docks. Jack pointed into the distance, where a lone man was standing beside a gangplank. A ship was anchored nearby.
"How do I distract him?" Jack said nothing, until Victoria turned to look at him. She realized that he was grinning widely at her. To be more specific, he was grinning widely at her chest.
"Oh, Jack, please don't make me do that," she moaned, turning around. "Please?" Jack shrugged.
"Guess I'll never get my Pearl back again, will I? And it's all because you are…" Jack muttered something under his breath.
"Excuse me? Could you repeat that?" Victoria said, leaning closer to him.
"You're p-"
"A bit louder please?"
"You're bloody prude, love!" Victoria emitted a gasp.
"I am not!"
"You are!"
"Am not!"
"Are so!"
"I'm not even going to bother arguing with you, Jack Sparrow, because I know the truth!"
"So do I! You are prude!"
"No I'm not!"
"Prove it then!" Jack bellowed. Pursing her lips, Victoria made her way across the dock to the man. Turning her head to make sure Jack was still there, Victoria undid her dress. The man watched, confused. Then she dropped it to the ground. For a whole minute he stared before she realized that Jack had run off.
"Jack, I'm going to kill you!" she shrieked, gathering her dress from around her ankles.
"Great performance, love, I couldn't have done any better!" a voice yelled from above. Looking up, she noticed a figure on the ship.
"You ass!" Laughing, she shoved the man to the side and galloped up the gangplank onto the ship. "Where is everyone?" she inquired, looking around. Jack smiled again.
"I took care of them, don't worry." As he untied a rope, he whipped around and stuck out his hand.
"Congratulations, Victoria, love, you have commandeered your first ship."
And so she had.
A/N: Teehee, how exciting! Ahem…I like this, despite the fact that I had writer's block as I was writing it. Next chapter, you're going to help me write!