Title: Dragonfly
Author: Muse a.k.a. Viorith
Rating: R for sexual content and violence.
Pairing: Will/OFC, Jack/Anna Maria
Feedback: Hell to the yeah!
Archive: Ask first please!
Disclaimer: I own nothing associated with PoTC, I'm just playing with them. I do own Sabine. So please ask if you want to play with her.
Summary: Sabine has loved Will since she was 16, but since his eyes were for Elizabeth only, she settled for his friendship. A year after the curse is lifted, Sabine now needs him to teach her the way of the blade so she can avenge her father's death on a man that once called himself his friend.
Note: "Words in italics inside quotations are spoken in Spanish."
Chapter 5
Will sighed internally, shifting in the chair next to the bed where Sabine laid motionless. The bowl of stew on the table had long since stopped steaming, and was now little more than lukewarm. For the past five days it looked to the blacksmith that his friend had not moved. Every since coming back from the funeral for her father she climbed into his bed, rolled onto her side, and stared at the wall.
She didn't acknowledge him; she didn't acknowledge anyone. Had it not been for an occasional blink and the steady rise and fall of her side with her intake of breath, she could have passed for dead. Her vibrant coloring was ashen like a flower in the darkness; eyes that used to glimmer with life now looked sullen and dull. He turned his attention momentarily to the window on the opposite wall. The sunbeam had traveled from the seal to the floor signally it was time for him to be off.
"Sabine," he called softly shifting from the chair to the bed. He reached out and brought the bowl with him. "Will you still not eat anything?"
As before she offered no answer for his question, or even an acknowledgment that she had heard it. Will placed the bowl in the chair he had occupied and shifted to the floor. He knelt so he was in her line of vision, but it was obvious she wasn't focused on him. He swayed back and forth slightly, but her eyes didn't track his movements, she didn't even blink.
"Darling please look at me," he begged stroking her face with the back of his fingers before smoothing the same hand over her hair. He lifted her hand from where it rested near her face and brought the back of it to his lips for a tender kiss, before his fingers stroked over the skin. "I have to go to work," he informed softly, "But I'll be back as soon as I can. Maybe you'll feel like sitting out in the garden when I return."
He leaned forward until his lips contacted her forehead for an affectionate kiss, then stood, taking the bowl with him as he made his way down the hall to the kitchen. Finding it empty, he sat the bowl on the floor for the cats, grabbed his vest off the back of a chair, and exited the back door. Gezana stood with her back to him, pinning up the laundry she had just finished.
"She didn't eat," Will announced. He slipped the vest on and began buttoning it.
"She will eat when she's ready," Gezana stated nonchalantly.
"I think she's trying to starve herself to death."
"She will have a long rode ahead of her if that were the case." Gezana watched the young blacksmith nervously pace about; he passed his hand over his hair and end with the other one on his hips. He turned to stare up at the window that belonged to the room Sabine occupied.
"Maybe we should call the doctor?" he suggested.
"And what will he do? We cannot force her to eat. She lost her father Will," Gezana stated patiently, "She feels like she is alone in the world."
"She's not alone, she has me," he stated proudly, "I promised I would look after her, and I mean to hold to those words."
Gezana smiled and patted his cheek before turning him around and tapping his backside. "Go," she instructed, "Off to work with you. She will come around in her own time, not ours."
"I think I should stay," he insisted, "She may need me."
"And who will open the shoppe and take the orders?" she turned back to her task shaking her head. "You go now, Sabine will be here when you return this evening."
The blacksmith hesitated further, cast another glance to the window, but eventually headed down the path to the town. He knew Gezana was right. He had already been away from the shoppe for five days and Brown hadn't even begun to fill the orders that had come in. Still he was reluctant to leave her, even if he couldn't do anything. It just felt wrong to continue life as normal.
"I'll try to come back for lunch," he called.
Gezana, her back still to him, simply raised a hand, waving him off.
~~~
Sabine slowly rolled onto her back, tears welling in her eyes to spill from the corners, and left a wet trail to her temples. It hurt too much to form words, let alone speak. She felt hollow, empty, and like she was completely alone. In the back of her mind she knew Will and Gezana would always be there for her, but it wasn't the same. There was so much she had wanted to do with her father, so much she had wanted to share with him. It felt like a piece of her had been cut off, and like so many amputees that underwent the operation, she wasn't sure if his loss was one she would be able to survive.
Rolling back onto her side, she squeezed her eyes against the sting of the tears. When she opened them, movement in the corner of the room caught her attention. A tiny spider, no bigger than her thumb climbed from a hole in the floorboards. She tracked the movement of the creature, pondering what life must be like for it. True, it's life span was dramatically shorter, but did it feel the pain of loss. How much easier it would be, to be a spider.
Her eyes returned to the hole. She had been in her father's room hundreds of times when she was a little girl and the storms would drive her to share his bed, but she never noticed the hole before. Her gaze traveled to the dresser and she realized the reason for that had been the position of the furniture. Until Jacinto destroyed the room in a search for the map, the dresser had sat over the hole in the floor.
Frowning, Sabine pushed herself into a seated position. For the first time in days her thoughts left the loss of her father to remember the words he uttered before he died in her arms. They had made absolutely no sense at the time, how could they, but now…
Climbing from bed, the young woman knelt in front of the hole and peered into the darkness. Not able to see anything, she tried to lift the boards, but found them securely nailed in place. She clenched her fists tight, then slowly inserted her index finger, wincing slightly at the expectation of a rat, or something worse taking a gnaw. Nothing ever did. What she felt though wasn't dirt, or insulation, or anything else that should have been in the floorboards of a house. It felt rough against her finger, like the covers of her music books.
Sabine stood and entered her father's study, going through the closet there for his hammer and returning to kneel before the opening again. Fitting the tool into the opening, she began prying the wood up. It took a while, the wood was a good quality and Sabine didn't have much energy to put forward, but the hole eventually became large enough to pull out one of five old journals.
Dust coated the outside of the book, leaving her fingers almost black from touching it. She took a breath and blew it across the front, immediately sneezing as the airborne particles tickled her nose. She returned to the bed, using the handkerchief to wipe off the rest before settling herself against the pillow. A map fell onto her lap as she opened the cover of the first.
It was old, with writing and drawing on both sides. On one was part of South America and a tiny island off the east coast circled in red. On the other side was what looked like a larger version of the island. It was decorated in more detail with mountains, hills, trees and sand, and something else. On one side near the western coast was a red 'x'.
Curiosity completely consumed Sabine, as she laid the map aside and turned to the first page of the journal and read the first entry:
October 2, 1678
As Jacinto predicted, the mutiny went off without a hitch. Captain Playa is dead. I wanted to maroon him, but Jacinto said it would be better if we didn't have to spend the rest of our lives looking over our shoulders for the Spanish Armada. I brought to his attention that we were pirates, and therefore would always look over our shoulder. This did not seem to matter to him. I feel guilty, but the marks on my back from Playa's unfair punishments help to elevate this feeling. We are to make sail for the East Indies trading lanes upon the morrow. Tonight, we celebrate our liberation.
"Oh my God," she whispered cupping a hand to her mouth. Her eyes went back to the book and began to read the next passage.
~~~
The constant sound of the hammer clanging against the anvil and the heated metal echoed throughout the shoppe. A brown leather apron replaced his vest, sweat beaded his brow and the pits of his arm from the heat of his trade and the exertion of his work. In the corner, Betsy the mule, had slowed her circular pacing and now stood, chewing upon hay. The chair normally occupied by Jonathan Brown was empty, his master never having made it to work.
Will speculated, he was either passed out at home, or passed out in a tavern, but either would be a result from the drink. It was just as well as far as the young blacksmith was concerned. When Brown did manage to drag his carcass in, he spent more time belly aching and emptying the contents of his gut than actually working. Had Will the money, he would have bought the Smithing Shoppe from the simpleton years ago. He already occupied the apartment above. It wasn't much, but next to Sabine's place, it was the only home he knew.
His intentions had been to take his lunch break and return to Sabine's house, especially since this was the first time he had been away since Diego's death. But it was apparent that Brown had missed more than just this day of work. Orders were already behind, and Will couldn't afford the time it would take to go home and eat. Still, that didn't stave his mind from thinking of her.
Guilt gnawed at the pit of his stomach as it had since he returned to find Sabine beaten. He knew in his heart there was nothing he could have done to change the path for her father, but that didn't ease his suffering. Nor did it do anything to slate the quiet rage building for Jacinto.
He'd heard of the pirate before, heard Jack speak of him. According to Jack, Dante Jacinto was a man of honor– at least as much as a pirate could be– but there was no honor to gain in killing a man before his child. He wanted to hurt him, to cause him as much pain as he had caused Sabine. It helped to spur him to work harder, with each slam of the mallet he envisioned Jacinto, and what he would do if their paths ever crossed again.
So into the rhythm of the work, was the young blacksmith, he didn't hear the door open, or realize he was no longer alone in the Shoppe until he heard his name called in between the clangs. He looked up, speechless as his eyes came to rest on Elizabeth. As usually, she was dressed as nothing less than a lady with a pale blue dress and hat to match. She smiled softly at him and approached, but she paused, as if she thought it best to keep distance between them.
"Elizabeth?" Seeing the woman he loved in his shoppe, made the blacksmith realize in the past several days he had not given a single thought to her, or them. "What are you doing here?"
He hadn't meant for the words to come out as bluntly as they did, causing the smile on the young woman's face to falter slightly.
She hesitated, wanting to tell Will the conclusion she came to the night of her engagement party. It seemed such a simple request then and on the way over, however, with his dark eyes now on her, the courage she summoned to even walk unescorted to the shoppe was quickly fading. He looked so angry, and even though she knew it couldn't possibly be directed at her, it didn't soften the look to any degree.
"I– I was worried about Sabine," she covered, and the lie had an inkling of truth, for she did wonder on her friend's condition. "I thought I would stop in and see how she was getting on."
Her words brought a deep frown to the young man's brow. "You were worried about Sabine, so you thought you would stop here to see how she was getting on?" he repeated. "Why would you come here and not to her house?"
"I..." her courage further faltered under his unwavering stare. "I thought she might not feel like receiving any visitors. I know you have been staying there–"
"How do you know this?" he questioned quickly.
"The whole of the island knows," she answered. "It has been speculated that you will become the master of Senor Arroyo's hacienda."
"It already has a mistress," he pointed out. "Once Sabine comes around she will be able to sort things out... what?" he questioned reading the doubtful expression on Elizabeth's face.
"Nothing," she stated quickly, then added slower, "It's just that Sabine is a woman, a colored woman.
"What has that to do with anything?" he demanded.
He would have preferred to continue working and leave the shoppe early, but he knew Elizabeth well, and he knew there was something on her mind. He just hoped it wouldn't take her long to get to the point.
"It is against the law for her to own property."
"She is not a slave," he barked.
"But her mother was," she stated softly. "I think it no more fair than you. She's already suffered so much loss, but it is the law," she examined the chair Brown normally occupied, but thought better. When she turned around, the dark look in Will's eyes almost melted her on the spot. His eyes touched her exposed bosom the way she longed for his hands to. Even though her mouth went suddenly dry, she found the voice to speak, "There are many that think it a smart match, and there are worse reasons to marry."
Will studied Elizabeth closely. For the first time his loyalty to his friend, and his remaining love for this woman were not in sync. For the first time as far back as the blacksmith could remember, his judgement was not clouded by his all-consuming desire for the governor's daughter.
"Is that why you have come?" he questioned bitterly. He used the long heavy tongues and clamped down on the blade he was constructing to test its strength. "Did your father and your fiancé ask you to determine Sabine's intentions before they send in the marines to throw her out?"
"It's not like that," she insisted.
"Then what is it like?"
She took a deep breath and approached him, finally closing the distance that separated them since she walked in. Will's brain told him to take a step back, but the scent of her perfume intoxicated and over road his rational side. He took the final step that put his chest against her breasts. His hands encompassed either side of her face, his lips came down one hers in a crushing kiss.
Elizabeth pressed her body into his, all the emotions and desires rushed to the surface. Her arms came up to wrap around his shoulders as his tongue pushed into her mouth. She moaned softly, her body coming alive in his arms, at his touch. The months they spent apart seemed to bleed away... and then it ended all too soon.
Will ripped his lips away from hers and removed the warmth of his body as he crossed to the other side of the room. "We cannot do this."
"Why?" she moved to him, but this time– for the first time– Will retreated from her. "Every since you came into my room the other night I have been able to think of nothing and no one else but you," she touched his face, caressing it with her gloved hand. "I go to sleep with the memory of your face," she leaned forward, her lips brushing his. "When I kiss Edward, it is your lips I yearn for."
She tried to turn the kiss into more than the press of lips, but again, Will pulled away from her.
"I cannot," he answered simply to her questioning look and gave a shake of his head. "You are to marry another man, Elizabeth."
"But it is you that I love," she pleaded.
"It doesn't matter," he snapped, "You still belong to another man."
She parted her lips to speak, but the chance escaped her.
"Will," Sabine called her friend's name as she burst through the door and paused.
She hadn't expected to see Elizabeth there, and she could feel the tension in the room hanging thick in the air. She stopped at the doorway, her eyes went from Will, who looked agitated and torn, to Elizabeth, who looked down right distraught. The look of hidden anger on the blacksmith's face, quickly gave way when his eyes fell on the friend, that had just that morning, been a step from catatonic. His mood instantly lightened, the dark features of his face lightened... it seemed his entire body grew lighter when Sabine entered. It was a change that went unnoticed by both Sabine and Will, but not Elizabeth.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt," Sabine stated.
She made ready to leave but a quick, "Sabine wait," from Will halted her retreat.
The hint of a smile quirked the right corner of his mouth. His intentions weren't to stare at her, but that was what happened. His eyes drank the sight of her in, like a cooling salve on a sunburn. The quirk of the corner of his mouth quickly escalating to the ghost of a smile, and Elizabeth took note of it all. She watched the silent looks pass between her would be lover and her friend and could feel Will slipping from her.
She had known for a long time– before he spoke his feelings– that Will fancied her. The way he stared at Sabine reminded her of the way he used to stare at her– a gentle growing admiration.
"I– I was just leaving," Elizabeth stated softly, her eyes going from Will to Sabine. She moved to the door, pausing when she reached Sabine who was still standing near it. Her eyes met her friend's and she hesitated only for a moment. "It's good to see you out," she encouraged, then gave a nod to Will and departed.
The blacksmith's smile grew as he approached the artist and engulfed her in a warming embrace. His arms held her close to his body, one hand pressing her face against his chest, his lips lighting against her hair.
"What are you doing here?" he questioned after letting her go.
He guided her over to the chair that Brown normally occupied. Removing his leather apron, and wiping his sweating brow with the sleeve of his shirt he took a seat on the table next to it. The soft smile still firmly on his lips, he reached out and brushed a stray piece of ash from her cheek.
"I was worried about you," he began squeezing her hands between his, "I thought..." he ended the sentence with a shrug not wanting to give voice to the thoughts in his head. "How are you?" he regretted the question as soon as it left his mouth.
He knew it was stupid, but could think of nothing else to say. Sabine shrugged and pulled her hands away. She began working the latch on the brown satchel that hug by her side.
"There is something I want to show you," she stated pulling out the journals her father created and handed them to Will. "I found these in Papa's room."
He leafed through the first one before going back to the beginning and reading the first passage. His head immediately coming up, eyes focused on Sabine. "Are these–"
"They're his log books," she informed, "All of them, from his days of when he was a pirate. I also found this," she handed him the map that had fallen out of the first journal.
Will opened the map up carefully examining both sides before again looking to Sabine. He frowned slightly, a questioning look in his eyes. "What is this a map of?"
"According to Papa's journals, it is the correct map to La Samara."
"And the one you gave to Jacinto?"
"Was a fake," she finished.
The grin that was growing on Will's face abruptly left when the ramifications of what Jacinto would do came rushing to the surface.
"He'll kill you," he stated. "When he finds out the map isn't real he'll come back looking for you."
"I know," she informed. "I have thought about that all the way here." She stood, walking to Betsy and stroking the donkey's head and neck. "And I can think of only one way to finish this. I want you to teach me to fight."
Will, still sitting on the edge of the workbench, frowned slightly. "I don't understand."
"He killed my father," she stated, anger and venom coloring her words. "He must answer for that with his own life."
"Jacinto is a deadly man," Will informed, "He's been marauding and murdering for years. He killed your father in the blink of an eye, he wouldn't think twice about you."
"Not if you teach me how to fight," she added. "You're the best swordsman in Port Royale Will, everyone knows that," she moved back to him taking the seat once again. "I need you to teach me all you know. I need you to teach me to be a pirate."
Will frowned, then stood. He moved to the center of the room, his hands running through his hair. "Do you realize what you're asking?"
She nodded, "I'm asking you to help me avenge my father."
"You're asking me to help you kill a man," he added, then shook his head. "It's not like the books you read. Taking a man's life..." he shook his head. "It changes you."
"Having your father murdered before your eyes changes you as well," she pointed out. Standing, Sabine moved to him. "Will please," she begged. "I can't sit around here and wait for him to come back and find me. Nor can I just pick up and run from him for the rest of my life. He took away the only man that ever truly cared about me, I can't just let that go."
He touched her face, cupping it with his hands as his eyes searched hers. He wanted to tell her no, but he knew he wouldn't be able to. She'd never asked him for much during their friendship, and the simple fact of the matter was he wanted to see Jacinto as dead as she did. He also knew there was no way she could stay there. Even if Jacinto wouldn't return looking for more revenge, her father's death had changed her life more than she probably realized just now.
"I can't do it on my own," he informed, "I don't know much about Jacinto beyond the rumors, but there is someone who might be able to help... for the right price," he kissed her forehead. "Don't worry, I'll take care of everything," he assured.