A/N I do not own anything.
***~***
Jack was ecstatic to wake up in his own bed for once. Comfortable, and familiar, but it smelled slightly different… more feminine, which was strange, because he hadn't been with a girl in awhile.
But then he remembered who had been sleeping in his bed recently, and he climbed out of his bed and pulled on his clothes, tossing on his hat before stepping out onto the deck.
The crew would start arriving soon… but until then, the Pearl was pretty creepy, since it seemed so abandoned. It was foggy and the light mist filled the cave so that Jack couldn't see three feet in front of him. He could already tell that he was the only one up yet… so where was Anne? He climbed the rigging until he was up in the crows nest, and then he stood up there, just staring at the mist in front of him.
"G-morning Jack." A voice said from right next to him. He jumped and looked down at his feet, surprised to see Anne there.
"Have you been here all night?" He asked, concerned.
"Yes." She answered, looking away from his gaze, and then he realized she had been drinking. It was shocking to him, but he decided she desperately needed help, so he slid down next to her and wrapped his arm around her, and she leaned against him slightly, until both of them fell asleep.
When Anne woke up, she realized she was leaning against someone, and without even looking, she knew it was Jack. It didn't bother her, but she didn't want to be awake and next to him when he woke up again, so she moved as slowly as she could, careful not to disturb him. She climbed silently down the rigging, but about halfway down, she remembered why she had stayed up in the crow's nest all night. She closed her eyes and leaned against the lines, the visions of Calico and Mary haunting her memory. Why was it that when she needed to be strong the most she was having trouble even clearing her mind?
She climbed the rest of the way down the rigging and peered through the fog; she could hear voices. It was the crew, coming back just in time.
She went to greet the few crewmembers already arriving at the cave.
Jack woke up about an hour later, and was surprised to find Anne had all the crewmembers up to their elbows in work, preparing to leave the cave.
"So soon?" He mumbled, climbing down the rigging carefully.
"Aye. I want to get out of here as soon as possible. Unfortunately, Danielle isn't here yet, so we may have to wait a while longer yet." Jack turned at the sound of Anne's voice. She grinned at him and winked. "Good morning."
"Feeling better?" He asked her, raising his eyebrows.
"Yes," She said firmly. "Thank you for being a shoulder to lean on. Have you figured out how much all that treasure is worth, Jack?" She looked at him and waited for him to answer, but when he didn't she broke away her gaze and Jack could see her blushing.
"Jack!" She said quickly. "How much, Jack?"
"Um… about 200,000£." He said, wanting her to look at him again. But she turned away.
"That's too much for us to just be sailing around. Make sure it's locked good and tight until we can get to a trading place and exchange it for money." Jack nodded and immediately turned to Gibbs to relay the order.
"Just do it yourself, Jack, he's busy!" Anne said exasperatingly before turning and looking around. "Where's Danielle? Anamaria? Have you seen Danielle?"
"Ah… she went off into that cave about half an hour ago, she said to go look for a place to relieve herself… don't blame her, the men have been making the head sticky with piss."
"Half an hour ago?" Anne said, looking quite worried.
"Ah, well, I can see you're busy, but really Anne, I need you to tell me…" Jack started to say.
"Not now, Jack! Ana are you sure it was half an hour
ago? Where could she be? Could you do me a tiny favor and go look for
her, Ana, please?
I have a million other things to do… oh; damn… did somebody check the
sails? Are they all secured and
flawless? Never mind, I'll do it… Jack,
why are you just standing here?"
Jack backed away and watched from a distance as Anne climbed the rigging and tugged on the lines securing the sails. She inspected the canvas carefully before climbing back down.
"Oright, Gibbs, find somebody to sew up that patch on the sails, it's coming loose again, but wait just a moment, I have to see…" She turned the wheel and when the sail swung around as well, she grinned.
"Oright, now get somebody up there." She turned around and noticed Jack again. "Jack! Didn't I tell you to get moving like, an hour ago? Will you stop staring at me? Jack…" She looked around for just a second. "Where did Anamaria go?"
"I believe you sent her to look for Danielle." Jack pointed out.
"But… that was twenty minutes ago! They should be back by now…" Anne looked very worried.
"No problem, love, I'll go look for them." Jack volunteered. Anne sighed.
"I'll go too. Just in case… I really can't lose all three of you, not now!"
Jack shook his head. "You've got too much to do, and besides, if something happens to me, then the crew needs a captain! Please, just stay here." He said, trying to make her think. But instead she looked mad.
"Why don't you stay? You expect me to do all this work, but it's your job too! Just take responsibility for once… do I have to do everything? I'm going, and that's all there is to it!" Jack backed up a step or two from this sudden outburst and grinned.
"Alright, love, but all I'm saying is… you're welcome to my rum stash, as long as you don't drink as much as you did last night."
Anne grinned also. "Kiss my arse." She said, lowering the ramp and walking down onto the cave floor.
"Is that an invitation?" Jack wondered out loud.
"Don't take me up on it." Anne warned, and Jack walked down the ramp also.
"Wouldn't dream of it." He said.
"Gibbs!" She called behind her. "Keep all the crewmembers from coming after us if we don't return. If we're not back in two days, leave without us… I trust you can captain this ship well enough to get us to port?"
"Aye." Gibbs called to her retreating back.
"And one more thing…" She said, turning to face him. She grinned. "Change the sheets on Jack's bed, would you? It's grossing me out."
Jack looked insulted, but she just shook her head at him.
"It smells like rum, sweat, and sex." She started to walk off into the cave, Jack following her closely.
"So where do you think they'll be, love?" Jack asked her, trying to make conversation.
"Shut up." She said lightly, peering around a corner. She fingered her pistol delicately. "Stay here… I'll be right back… something's amiss…" She said, creeping slowly and cautiously forward.
Jack waited for a moment until she disappeared around a corner and then followed her. There was no way he was going to miss out on an opportunity like this. He didn't bother keeping silent… he strongly doubted that there would be anything in these caves worth hiding from. Danielle and Anamaria had probably just stumbled and fell into a hold or something. Or sprained an ankle. Everything was fine. Anne was paranoid.
Jack walked further and further into the cave, looking for some sign of where everyone might be, and after about ten minutes, he was getting slightly nervous… did he go the right way? Was everyone actually alright?
And then a thought came to him… what if they were betraying him again? It would make sense… where was Anne? He started running forward, determined to find some sort of note or something before she had the chance to leave.
After about two minutes of running, he realized he wasn't getting anywhere, until he heard a voice. It was feminine, but not Anne's voice.
"Take him and lock him up. Bring him to my room."
Then everything became dark, and Jack lost consciousness.
When Jack awoke, he was in a room which he did not recognize. Where was he? The room was nicely furnished, and a light was lit, setting a soft glow about the place. Jack could see it was meant to be quite comfortable. But he had the sense that he was still in the cave… there was a certain dampness around the room. And it was rather cold. He was alone in the room, and wondered where he was.
A door on the far side of the room opened, and a woman came in. She was draped in beautiful shimmering cloths. To his relief, it was not Anne. But this woman was quite beautiful, he couldn't help but notice. She smiled at him, and he could sense that she was quite powerful in her way. He waited until she spoke.
"Well, it seems my playmate had finally awoken…" She said, coming and sitting next to him on the bed which he had woken upon.
"Where are the women?" Jack asked suspiciously. The woman seemed surprised. "Are they your lovers? You have strange taste… a dark skinned savage and a girl that's barely a woman." She sighed. "Well, I suppose if you are on the wild side, you'll be quite suitable for me."
Jack was about to ask about Anne but then thought better of it. If they hadn't captured her yet, then perhaps she could help them all get out of this place.
"Where are you keeping them? In a room like this one?" He asked. The woman laughed.
"Of course not. They are locked up, in a different place, hardly as comfortable as this room, my room. You are here because I need to have some fun. And because I believe that you have something that belongs to me."
Jack tried to think if he had ever seen this woman before. Perhaps a strumpet, on a drunken night in Tortuga, whom he owed a coin for her services? But he did not recognize her at all.
"I'm sorry, and you are…?" He asked her, raising his eyebrow. She smiled and shook her head.
"You still don't know who I am? Well, let me hand you a name… Elizabeth Shirland."
Jack thought about that name. He knew now that he had heard it before. In fact, he was quite sure of it. Who was this woman, and why was she significant? Anne would know… he thought. Of course she would… Anne knew everything, for some weird reason. But he shouldn't worry about her now… well, maybe he should, but what he really had to focus on was this conversation.
He thought back to his conversations with Anne, all the times she had spoken with him. But for some reason, he could not recall the name Elizabeth Shirland coming up at any point. Suddenly, he remembered who this woman was. But it wasn't from a conversation he had had. He sighed.
"Alright." He said to her. She smiled.
A/N Ok! Can anybody guess who it is? Anybody? I think it's slightly obvious, but a bottle of rum to anybody who get's it right!
Review please!