A/N Man, I am on a roll with this thing… but I'm warning you, writers block coming soon. Enjoy this while you can.
I only got one review for my last chapter! Thanks Orca girl, you have been consistent in reviewing my story, much appreciated… J But for the rest of you… I am so disappointed, I thought my last chapter was good…L I seriously need reviews, people, because I think this is my best story yet and I want to finish it, since I have new ideas.
I don't own anything.
I'm in a better mood, so this chapter might not be as good. J And I get to go shopping today! But nobody cares about me anyway; you just want me to finish the story… L
So here it is, the new update;
***~***
Anne locked herself in her room and refused to come out. Jack was unsure what to do… both Anamaria and Anne, the people he trusted to keep him in control, were not talking to him, and he was a little bit desperate.
"Anne, please come out." Jack was standing at the door to his cabin, talking to the door.
Silence.
"Anne… no more rum, I swear."
"Oh, come on, that was two nights ago, everyone is sober now, Anne!"
Silence.
"I can't captain the ship without you!"
"You did it before." Anne said finally. Jack was almost relieved.
"But I can't do it now… I have no idea where we're going!"
"I want you to lock up all your rum."
Now it was Jack's turn to be silent. "Love-Anne, I can't do that. The crew will mutiny. This is me down on my hands and knees, begging you to forget about all this and come out."
"This is me not giving a damn." Anne said. "Lock up your rum, or toss it over the side, your choice."
Jack sighed. "Honestly, love, what do you want me to do? The only thing we have to drink on this ship is rum… water is hard to come by."
Anne opened the door, disbelief written all over her face. "How could you be so stupid?" She sputtered.
"It's hard to steal water!" Jack argued. "And the crew won't drink anything but water and rum… and alcoholic drinks, but you know, all the other alcoholic stuff is expensive, not to mention nowhere near as strong."
Anne looked pretty mad now. "We're stopping at the next port for food and water. You do not take good care of your crew."
"They have food!" Jack pointed out angrily.
"You call that lumpy gray mess Gibbs was touching food? No way… they need better food than that… you want them to get scurvy? There are some things around here that need to change."
It was only then that Jack saw that hungry look in her eyes and remembered that she hadn't eaten in days. Week's maybe, if she hadn't been fed well while they were in the brig. She wasn't looking too well, and still she was able to retain total control over the way things were done. Jack already knew that he had no choice over whether or not they stop at the next port.
"Come eat something and then we'll talk." Jack tried to persuade her. "I swear… I'll dig out a carrot or something, and maybe we could make some soup… please Anne, you look so hungry…"
Anne hung her head. She looked tempted.
"We can make arrangements for stops over some lunch, and talk about the treasure…" Jack began, hoping that she would accept the offer.
She slammed the door in his face. "I'll come out as soon as we dock." She said sweetly, and refused to answer any of Jacks attempts for conversation.
"Anamaria, honestly, no hard feelings! Anne was totally fine, nobody blames you for anything, and Anne forgives you totally! Not even mad! She's not coming out of her room until we dock again, but I'm sure if you just apologized…"
"I'm not apologizing." Anamaria said coldly, cutting Jack off.
"But love…"
"I shouldn't have shot her, but I'm not going to take it back, and I refuse to apologize to that stupid hussy."
"Well, you don't have to apologize, you can just come back out, and everything will be fine."
"No."
"Anamaria! I'll… buy you a new sword!"
Silence.
"Really?" Anamaria said, sounding intrigued.
"Yes! A really nice one! Perfectly balanced, folded steel, gold filigree, the whole works."
"Who's going to pay for all this?" Anamaria asked suspiciously, opening the door slightly.
"Pay?" Jack asked stupidly. Anamaria looked mad again.
"No, no, you don't understand, it's really hard to steal good swords from the port we're going to!" Jack said trying to make it sound like he really was desperate for her forgiveness.
She slammed the door shut. "I'll come out when you have the sword at my door, ready for wearing."
Jack started to walk away form her door when he remembered that he couldn't remember what he had done wrong to make her want this sword from him.
To his surprise, on the way from talking to Anamaria, he ran into Anne, who was looking very pale.
"Jack, which island are we going to?" She said, looking very nervous. Jack thought for a moment.
"We might be able to acquire water in Nassau port, if you don't mind. It's pretty friendly toward pirates compared to the rest of the world."
Anne would not look at him. "You're right. Nassau would be the smartest place to go, especially since we're pretty close to the treasure."
But Jack could tell something was bothering her.
"What'cha thinking, Annie dear?"
Anne just sighed. "Nothing, just… I haven't been to Nassau in a while… bad memories, y'know? Got people looking for me."
Jack was curious. "Who? You can… defend yourself, right? What kind of weapons do you have on you?"
Anne grinned. "I'm pretty well loaded." She took off her belt, and hanging off it was a cutlass in a scabbard, a dagger, and a flintlock pistol, and dangling from it was also a small bag which jingled. Anne shot Jack a look when he tried to reach for it. She continued; taking a dirk out of her left boot and then took off her hat, revealing to Jack a strap inside of it which kept in place a tiny little pocket pistol. Jack chuckled lightly at how armed she was.
"Can you use them?" Jack said. Anne grinned. "I'm pretty good with the knives and the pistols, but I've never actually been good with a cutlass… Calico tried to teach me, but I'm still not as good as I should be… I did manage to fight off a stupid group of British suckers, but it doesn't actually require much skill." Anne admitted.
"Not good?" Jack asked her curiously. "Alright then, maybe we'll have to test that out, shall we?" He drew his cutlass. Anne sighed. "Will you give me a minute to put all this stuff back on? I'd like to be fully armed if you are…"
Jack waited impatiently as she loaded herself back up with weapons. "I don't know why you want to wear all your weapons… it's just extra weight. I'll make this a cutlass only fight, if you want. Less weight is an advantage."
Anne shook her head. "In a normal fight, I'll be wearing all of this; don't you want to see how good I actually am?"
Jack frowned. "Are you sure we should do this now? You should eat something first… I don't want you fainting on me."
"I've never fainted before, and I don't intend to. And, I'm not hungry." But her eyes betrayed her; she was starving, but Jack knew she wouldn't let herself eat until they got to Nassau.
Anne pulled her belt tight with a final tug and quickly shifted into a defensive position, picking up her cutlass swiftly. "Ready?" Jack quipped, slipping into the same position. Anne replied by striking with her sword; Jack blocked it easily.
"Ah! You're fast!" She said, smiling a bit.
"Don't go easy on me." Jack warned. He whipped his sword around and Anne barely caught it on the edge of her blade. When the blade's slid off each other, the was a light shower of sparks. Jack lunged and began a series of thrusts and lunges, with Anne in turn blocking every one, but slowly backing up. When she was nearly against the wall, she took a few steps to the right, barely blocking a blow that Jack gave her when he discovered where she was moving to. She whipped around in front of him to face him. It was worth it to her; she now had Jack up against the wall. She raised her word to neck level and Jack easily pushed it away, lunging almost immediately toward her stomach. She jumped a few feet back, raising her sword too slowly to block anything. Jack tried to go into his thrusting pattern again, but Anne cut him off; she was in no mood to be pinned against a wall again.
But Jack blocked her and again pushed backwards. She focused mostly on blocking; recognizing his skill was greater than hers, and hoped she would get lucky. But no; she tripped over the coaming surrounding one of the hatch openings, and fell to the ground, only to find herself staring down the tip of a sword. The sword was replaced by a hand, and she took it as Jack helped her up.
"I'm glad your not mad anymore, Anne. You know, the crew really needs that treasure; we haven't found a suitable rich place to raid in awhile, and they're thirsting for adventure; maybe that treasure can buy us some."
Anne looked at him warily. "I'm afraid the treasure isn't going to be easy to get, Jack. You're in the midst of an adventure already."