Author Notes: Well, I am actually updating on time, so I suppose that
means that any angry mobs that are waiting to come after me can disperse
until I miss my next self imposed deadline...
Author Thanks:
movielvr - Thanks for the review! Hope you like the chapter!
Depprulz - Thanks! I am really glad that you like my story and I hope that you continue to enjoy it!
ortain - Thanks for the review! I hope you like the next chapter!
TriGemini - Thanks, mate! Things will get better, now, I promise! Hope you like the chapter!
Blackcat69 - Thanks for the review! I'm glad that I've got another person hooked, lol. Hope you like the chappie!
Zubachickqt4u - Thanks! The reason that Jack didn't notice her belly was because he was a bit distracted by the fact that the was just there and also by the bruises. It had taken Christy quite a while to realize that she was even pregnant and she's not too far along, so it would be hard for someone else to notice it right away...especially if they'd been separated for months...Hope you like the chapter!
Trinity144 - Thanks! Jack doesn't know yet, but it is his child...because it hadn't been long enough that Christy was around Bano to be any one elses...Hope you like the chapter!
Jeeves Swineford - Thanks for the review! (And you're welcome, btw, lol) Hope you like the next chapter and haven't died in anticipation.
Piratey Elf - Thanks for the review! Another addicted person! Yay for me, lol...I've had way too much sugar today...Anyway, enjoy the chapter!
PirateLovinSlayer - Thanks! *blushes from complement* The certain people we discussed are coming in, just give me time, mate. Hope the wait didn't kill you...My last paycheck wasn't enough to pay for a lawyer in a murder case, lol. Enjoy!
Mirja - Thanks for the review! Don't worry. You didn't miss how Bano died. I didn't put in how Bano died because Christy was unconscious and most of the story is told from her point of view...but use your imagination as to how a man like Jack would react to seeing someone he cared deeply about being beaten by another man. :) My grandma's family was from Stavager mostly although, I have some cousins in Nessa and Myrdål. Hope you like the chapter!
S.S.I. - Well you caught me right as I was getting online to post again. Talk about ironic! Thanks for the review and I hope you enjoy the chapter!
What's In a Name?
Last time:
Tears broke through my eyes. I nodded as a flood of tears came crashing down upon me. I sunk down to the floor and waited for Jack to come over to me before I whispered what happened to me during my time in captivity. His strong arms encircled me as I spilled out my story. We sat for a long time until I fell asleep against his shoulder...feeling...finally....safe.
What's In a Name?
Chapter 22: Truth Telling
~*~
I woke much later in a bed. A real bed! Not a pile of cloth and rags in a closet, but a real, honest to goodness BED! I put my head into my pillow and smiled at the feeling of being warm. Snuggling in once more, I drifted back asleep, elation soaring inside my stomach.
~*~
When I finally woke for good, I leaned my head up and saw Jack, sitting at his desk, feet kicked up onto the top, gazing at me.
I pushed myself up slowly and stretched silently.
Jack still watched me.
I smiled faintly at him. "I dreamed of you."
Jack didn't comment, he just smiled and kept watching me.
Finally, he decided to speak. "I'm going to take you to Port Royale. Leave you there, you'll be safer," he said, sounding as though every word was costing him difficulty.
I didn't answer immediately. It took me a few moments for that statement to sink in. "No! You're not! You can't just drop me off and forget about me!" I said angrily. "You can't just leave me. Everyone else leaves. You can't! Who will I have if you leave? No one! Don't leave me somewhere Jack!"
Jack refused to meet my eyes. "You're safer in Port Royale."
"I don't want to be safe!" I cried. "I want to be with you. I want to be near you! I don't care about being safe. You're what I care about. You're what I have left, Jack. I love you! I don't want to be away from you!"
Jack didn't answer for a while. He held my gaze, his eyes burning into my own. I could see his love for me reflected back at me through his startlingly black eyes but I could also see stubbornness. "You're better off in Port Royale."
I squeezed my eyes shut and started to leave the cabin. Jack grabbed at my arm but I wrenched it away and stormed out of the room, slamming the door loudly behind me. I made my way angrily to the prow and glared fiercely out at the ocean. 'Why?' I thought to myself. 'Why when I get him back do I have to loose him again? What did I do to deserve this?' But a voice in the back of my head interrupted, 'He's doing this because he loves you, because he wants to protect you and let you have a good life.' I slammed my fist down on the rail in frustration...I didn't want to be left behind. I didn't want to loose him again after all that's happened.
When the ocean failed to yield the answers I wanted, I wondered what to do now. I didn't want to apolgise...he should be apologising to me, not the other way around. But I didn't know what to do now...and I needed to tell someone my good news...
Colin!
The idea hit me like a bolt of lightning.
Why had I forgotten that every other time when I needed advice, Colin had always been a voice of reason...especially since I was ignoring my own voice of reason.
~*~
I went immediately down to the galley and once there, I saw Colin busy with what I imagined was dinner for the evening. I stood silently in the doorway for a while, just watching my "big brother" doing his job.
"Colin, do you have a moment?" I asked from the doorway.
Colin turned, looking surprised. "Aye, Christy, what do ye need?"
I sighed and picked up a rag to dry some of the dishes. "To be perfectly honest, I need a person to listen to me..."
"Ye can talk to me, Christy, don't worry nuffin bout that."
I wrung my hands nervously. "Thanks...alright, here goes nothing...Colin...I'm pregnant."
Colin's eyes popped and he dropped the metal pan that was in his hand. It clattered noisily to the floor but was left unnoticed. "Yer what?!"
I bit my lip. "I'm pregnant."
Colin just stared openmouthed at me.
"That's what I thought. And my even bigger problem is that it's Jack's and now he wants to take me ashore in Port Royale and leave me there. And...I don't want to be left alone...I really don't any more," my voice cracked, betraying my desperation.
Colin collected himself and patted me on the arm. "Well, miss, cap'n wants to keep ye safe. 'E never would have forgiven hisself is summat had happened to you and he didn't get ye back. Nearly tore 'im up...you going missing, did. 'E was more desperate than the crew knew...than anyone knew."
It was at that moment that I realised just how clever Colin was. I knew that he was different, but he really paid attention to things that most people cast aside like leftover crumbs. "How did you know, then, Colin?"
"I notice things, miss. I sees things in people that others don'. Always been that way... 'spect I always will. 'Sides, cap'n ne'er spent much time down 'ere afore ye went and after, well, we became pretty good mates, so to speak. Common thing we both missed....ye."
"But, Colin, now what do I do? I don't want to leave. And I don't think that...I don't think that I should have to," I whined.
Colin watched me pleading and thought for a while. "What do ye think yer mother would have ye do, Christy? Do ye think that she would 'ave ye on a boat all yer life?"
I bit my lip in frustration, pondering the answer. My first impulse was absolutely no...but I didn't want to give in. "Yes."
Colin gazed at me impassively.
"Maybe."
His gaze didn't waver.
"Alright! NO! She would have said to get off the bloody boat and to live an easy life with a husband who cherishes me like the sunset and to forget about the pirate nonsense," I conceded.
"Do ye think that she would want ye to give up on having respectable friends and a husband?"
I sighed. "No...but I don't have any friends to give up on and I don't know about a husband...if I have a child fathered by a pirate, who would want me? Apart from Jack."
Colin set down what he was doing and came over to grasp my shoulders. I gazed up at him, hoping for good advice. "Well, Christy, think about that babe ye be carryin'. Do ye want it ta grow up on a pirate ship? Or do ye want ta give it a shot at society first?"
Closing my eyes, I pictured a child running up the street, smiling with glee and then I pictured the same child sitting on a ship, screaming as the ship dropped and rain pelted its tiny body angrily. I shook my head slightly.
Colin nodded. "I thought so."
I ran my hand through my hair distractedly. "What do I tell Jack?"
"The truth, preferably, miss."
I hit Colin lightly on the arm. "I knew that...but how do I tell him? I can't just come out and say it...I have to do this the right way..." I trailed off, thinking of the best way of announcing that Jack was going to be a father.
"Lass, jes tell him. That's the best way."
"Colin, you should know that I can't just come right out to tell him...I'd conveniently forget to tell him..."
"I'll help ye, Christy."
For the half-hour, Colin and I rehearsed what I would say to Jack. It was easier to do it this way, but I knew that I would have to tell it to the REAL Captain Jack Sparrow soon enough.
Almost as if he were cued by my thoughts, Jack appeared in the galley.
"So this is where ye ran off to," Jack said chidingly.
I turned blushing slightly to see Jack leaning in the doorway nonchalantly.
Colin, thankfully, stepped in and took the reins on the conversation. "Cap'n, Christy has summat she wants to tell ye."
"I do?" I asked timidly. Just as I had predicted, being faced with the real Jack was a lot harder than Colin-Jack. My hands started to tremble and if I had been holding anything, I would have dropped it.
"Aye," Colin pushed me forward slightly and stood back.
Jack raised a careful eyebrow as he saw my shaking hands.
"Jack...You know that I tried to escape when I was at Bano's right?"
"Aye, love, I saw you running if you remember."
I breathed deeply, preparing to take the plunge. I wrung my hands slightly in anticipation and finally said in an enormous rush, "Well, that's becuase I'm pregnant and you're the father and I don't want you to leave me because I love you and we're having a baby and I don't think that I can raise it by myself and I need you because you make me happy and sane and you gave me a reason to live and the reason I ran was because I didn't want your baby to be born into that and I was afraid that they'd kill it if I had it or they'd give me something to miscarry and I didn't want that because...because, I love you." Going over what I said in my head, I realised that it did sound a bit melodramatic but...I did say it...That was one step more than I thought that I could manage. I turned my head and looked up at Colin. "Well, I said it."
Jack, on the other hand, had frozen. His eyes were the only thing moving. I could feel them raking my body, taking into account all of the slight changes in my form. The heat of his gaze penetrated everything...I could practically feel it pricking my skin. It was an act of sheer will to avoid fidgeting.
Colin, who had backed away to the other door, said quietly, "I'll leave the two o' ye alone," and then he was gone.
Jack continued to study me.
Was he mad?
Furious?
Happy?
Disappointed?
Would he reject me for sure for this?
These thoughts flew through my head at lightning speed, putting doubts as to his feelings for me into my stressed mind. My stomach was churning and I felt like any more and I would loose whatever food I had left in my stomach and cast my lot to the sea.
"Love?"
Jack's voice interrupted my frantic thoughts.
I looked up expectantly and saw him take a step towards me.
Step.
Step.
Step.
Step.
Jack was right in front of me.
I bit my lip hard and looked up at him.
Jack raised my chin slightly, cupping it gently with his graceful ringed hand. "Yer sure of this?"
I nodded silently.
"Yer sure it's mine?"
I nodded once more.
"Because if its not...if ye think it's that brute's, we can take care of it before ye get any bigger. Yer sure its mine?"
I nodded again.
In a flash, his demeanor changed from a surprisingly serious oen to one of joy. Before I realised it, I was up in the air and being swung around the galley. Jack's deep, amused laugh was joined by mine and when he let me down, we embraced in a warm hug and stood for a long time. Jack kissed me on my forehead, my nose, my cheek and finally my lips.
We broke apart and I laughed merrily, all my previous worry abandoning me and floating away like leaves in the wind. It had been easier than I had expected. I underestimated him yet again.
"I love you, Jack," I whispered.
"Love ye too, Christy."
~*~
Author's Note:
Oooh...okay, so, I hope that that was satisfactory. If not...well, bloody hell, I don't know what else I can do to please you people *grins wildly* sorry, should have warned you all, I've had a fair amount of Mountain Dew today...gotta love that drink...and am very jazzed...plus I go to work in a couple hours and I'm excited about that...for...certain reasons...and certain people that might be working tonight...Anyways, look for another chapter around next weekend. My mum is having knee surgery this week and I have about a million things going on for school so the chances of an update before Friday or Saturday is unlikely...Its not a major surgery, just enough to complicate the way things are running around here...but that's enough babble for now.
Check out Pirates of the Caribbean: The Aftermath by The Quidditch Gals, well, two of us. Me and my best mate (who's in Australia right now, lucky lucky girl) WeasleyGIrl....are the authors and our story could use some love!
I think that's about all... oh yeah, REVIEW!!!!
Mange Klemmar
~CrazyCanoeingGIT
Author Thanks:
movielvr - Thanks for the review! Hope you like the chapter!
Depprulz - Thanks! I am really glad that you like my story and I hope that you continue to enjoy it!
ortain - Thanks for the review! I hope you like the next chapter!
TriGemini - Thanks, mate! Things will get better, now, I promise! Hope you like the chapter!
Blackcat69 - Thanks for the review! I'm glad that I've got another person hooked, lol. Hope you like the chappie!
Zubachickqt4u - Thanks! The reason that Jack didn't notice her belly was because he was a bit distracted by the fact that the was just there and also by the bruises. It had taken Christy quite a while to realize that she was even pregnant and she's not too far along, so it would be hard for someone else to notice it right away...especially if they'd been separated for months...Hope you like the chapter!
Trinity144 - Thanks! Jack doesn't know yet, but it is his child...because it hadn't been long enough that Christy was around Bano to be any one elses...Hope you like the chapter!
Jeeves Swineford - Thanks for the review! (And you're welcome, btw, lol) Hope you like the next chapter and haven't died in anticipation.
Piratey Elf - Thanks for the review! Another addicted person! Yay for me, lol...I've had way too much sugar today...Anyway, enjoy the chapter!
PirateLovinSlayer - Thanks! *blushes from complement* The certain people we discussed are coming in, just give me time, mate. Hope the wait didn't kill you...My last paycheck wasn't enough to pay for a lawyer in a murder case, lol. Enjoy!
Mirja - Thanks for the review! Don't worry. You didn't miss how Bano died. I didn't put in how Bano died because Christy was unconscious and most of the story is told from her point of view...but use your imagination as to how a man like Jack would react to seeing someone he cared deeply about being beaten by another man. :) My grandma's family was from Stavager mostly although, I have some cousins in Nessa and Myrdål. Hope you like the chapter!
S.S.I. - Well you caught me right as I was getting online to post again. Talk about ironic! Thanks for the review and I hope you enjoy the chapter!
What's In a Name?
Last time:
Tears broke through my eyes. I nodded as a flood of tears came crashing down upon me. I sunk down to the floor and waited for Jack to come over to me before I whispered what happened to me during my time in captivity. His strong arms encircled me as I spilled out my story. We sat for a long time until I fell asleep against his shoulder...feeling...finally....safe.
What's In a Name?
Chapter 22: Truth Telling
~*~
I woke much later in a bed. A real bed! Not a pile of cloth and rags in a closet, but a real, honest to goodness BED! I put my head into my pillow and smiled at the feeling of being warm. Snuggling in once more, I drifted back asleep, elation soaring inside my stomach.
~*~
When I finally woke for good, I leaned my head up and saw Jack, sitting at his desk, feet kicked up onto the top, gazing at me.
I pushed myself up slowly and stretched silently.
Jack still watched me.
I smiled faintly at him. "I dreamed of you."
Jack didn't comment, he just smiled and kept watching me.
Finally, he decided to speak. "I'm going to take you to Port Royale. Leave you there, you'll be safer," he said, sounding as though every word was costing him difficulty.
I didn't answer immediately. It took me a few moments for that statement to sink in. "No! You're not! You can't just drop me off and forget about me!" I said angrily. "You can't just leave me. Everyone else leaves. You can't! Who will I have if you leave? No one! Don't leave me somewhere Jack!"
Jack refused to meet my eyes. "You're safer in Port Royale."
"I don't want to be safe!" I cried. "I want to be with you. I want to be near you! I don't care about being safe. You're what I care about. You're what I have left, Jack. I love you! I don't want to be away from you!"
Jack didn't answer for a while. He held my gaze, his eyes burning into my own. I could see his love for me reflected back at me through his startlingly black eyes but I could also see stubbornness. "You're better off in Port Royale."
I squeezed my eyes shut and started to leave the cabin. Jack grabbed at my arm but I wrenched it away and stormed out of the room, slamming the door loudly behind me. I made my way angrily to the prow and glared fiercely out at the ocean. 'Why?' I thought to myself. 'Why when I get him back do I have to loose him again? What did I do to deserve this?' But a voice in the back of my head interrupted, 'He's doing this because he loves you, because he wants to protect you and let you have a good life.' I slammed my fist down on the rail in frustration...I didn't want to be left behind. I didn't want to loose him again after all that's happened.
When the ocean failed to yield the answers I wanted, I wondered what to do now. I didn't want to apolgise...he should be apologising to me, not the other way around. But I didn't know what to do now...and I needed to tell someone my good news...
Colin!
The idea hit me like a bolt of lightning.
Why had I forgotten that every other time when I needed advice, Colin had always been a voice of reason...especially since I was ignoring my own voice of reason.
~*~
I went immediately down to the galley and once there, I saw Colin busy with what I imagined was dinner for the evening. I stood silently in the doorway for a while, just watching my "big brother" doing his job.
"Colin, do you have a moment?" I asked from the doorway.
Colin turned, looking surprised. "Aye, Christy, what do ye need?"
I sighed and picked up a rag to dry some of the dishes. "To be perfectly honest, I need a person to listen to me..."
"Ye can talk to me, Christy, don't worry nuffin bout that."
I wrung my hands nervously. "Thanks...alright, here goes nothing...Colin...I'm pregnant."
Colin's eyes popped and he dropped the metal pan that was in his hand. It clattered noisily to the floor but was left unnoticed. "Yer what?!"
I bit my lip. "I'm pregnant."
Colin just stared openmouthed at me.
"That's what I thought. And my even bigger problem is that it's Jack's and now he wants to take me ashore in Port Royale and leave me there. And...I don't want to be left alone...I really don't any more," my voice cracked, betraying my desperation.
Colin collected himself and patted me on the arm. "Well, miss, cap'n wants to keep ye safe. 'E never would have forgiven hisself is summat had happened to you and he didn't get ye back. Nearly tore 'im up...you going missing, did. 'E was more desperate than the crew knew...than anyone knew."
It was at that moment that I realised just how clever Colin was. I knew that he was different, but he really paid attention to things that most people cast aside like leftover crumbs. "How did you know, then, Colin?"
"I notice things, miss. I sees things in people that others don'. Always been that way... 'spect I always will. 'Sides, cap'n ne'er spent much time down 'ere afore ye went and after, well, we became pretty good mates, so to speak. Common thing we both missed....ye."
"But, Colin, now what do I do? I don't want to leave. And I don't think that...I don't think that I should have to," I whined.
Colin watched me pleading and thought for a while. "What do ye think yer mother would have ye do, Christy? Do ye think that she would 'ave ye on a boat all yer life?"
I bit my lip in frustration, pondering the answer. My first impulse was absolutely no...but I didn't want to give in. "Yes."
Colin gazed at me impassively.
"Maybe."
His gaze didn't waver.
"Alright! NO! She would have said to get off the bloody boat and to live an easy life with a husband who cherishes me like the sunset and to forget about the pirate nonsense," I conceded.
"Do ye think that she would want ye to give up on having respectable friends and a husband?"
I sighed. "No...but I don't have any friends to give up on and I don't know about a husband...if I have a child fathered by a pirate, who would want me? Apart from Jack."
Colin set down what he was doing and came over to grasp my shoulders. I gazed up at him, hoping for good advice. "Well, Christy, think about that babe ye be carryin'. Do ye want it ta grow up on a pirate ship? Or do ye want ta give it a shot at society first?"
Closing my eyes, I pictured a child running up the street, smiling with glee and then I pictured the same child sitting on a ship, screaming as the ship dropped and rain pelted its tiny body angrily. I shook my head slightly.
Colin nodded. "I thought so."
I ran my hand through my hair distractedly. "What do I tell Jack?"
"The truth, preferably, miss."
I hit Colin lightly on the arm. "I knew that...but how do I tell him? I can't just come out and say it...I have to do this the right way..." I trailed off, thinking of the best way of announcing that Jack was going to be a father.
"Lass, jes tell him. That's the best way."
"Colin, you should know that I can't just come right out to tell him...I'd conveniently forget to tell him..."
"I'll help ye, Christy."
For the half-hour, Colin and I rehearsed what I would say to Jack. It was easier to do it this way, but I knew that I would have to tell it to the REAL Captain Jack Sparrow soon enough.
Almost as if he were cued by my thoughts, Jack appeared in the galley.
"So this is where ye ran off to," Jack said chidingly.
I turned blushing slightly to see Jack leaning in the doorway nonchalantly.
Colin, thankfully, stepped in and took the reins on the conversation. "Cap'n, Christy has summat she wants to tell ye."
"I do?" I asked timidly. Just as I had predicted, being faced with the real Jack was a lot harder than Colin-Jack. My hands started to tremble and if I had been holding anything, I would have dropped it.
"Aye," Colin pushed me forward slightly and stood back.
Jack raised a careful eyebrow as he saw my shaking hands.
"Jack...You know that I tried to escape when I was at Bano's right?"
"Aye, love, I saw you running if you remember."
I breathed deeply, preparing to take the plunge. I wrung my hands slightly in anticipation and finally said in an enormous rush, "Well, that's becuase I'm pregnant and you're the father and I don't want you to leave me because I love you and we're having a baby and I don't think that I can raise it by myself and I need you because you make me happy and sane and you gave me a reason to live and the reason I ran was because I didn't want your baby to be born into that and I was afraid that they'd kill it if I had it or they'd give me something to miscarry and I didn't want that because...because, I love you." Going over what I said in my head, I realised that it did sound a bit melodramatic but...I did say it...That was one step more than I thought that I could manage. I turned my head and looked up at Colin. "Well, I said it."
Jack, on the other hand, had frozen. His eyes were the only thing moving. I could feel them raking my body, taking into account all of the slight changes in my form. The heat of his gaze penetrated everything...I could practically feel it pricking my skin. It was an act of sheer will to avoid fidgeting.
Colin, who had backed away to the other door, said quietly, "I'll leave the two o' ye alone," and then he was gone.
Jack continued to study me.
Was he mad?
Furious?
Happy?
Disappointed?
Would he reject me for sure for this?
These thoughts flew through my head at lightning speed, putting doubts as to his feelings for me into my stressed mind. My stomach was churning and I felt like any more and I would loose whatever food I had left in my stomach and cast my lot to the sea.
"Love?"
Jack's voice interrupted my frantic thoughts.
I looked up expectantly and saw him take a step towards me.
Step.
Step.
Step.
Step.
Jack was right in front of me.
I bit my lip hard and looked up at him.
Jack raised my chin slightly, cupping it gently with his graceful ringed hand. "Yer sure of this?"
I nodded silently.
"Yer sure it's mine?"
I nodded once more.
"Because if its not...if ye think it's that brute's, we can take care of it before ye get any bigger. Yer sure its mine?"
I nodded again.
In a flash, his demeanor changed from a surprisingly serious oen to one of joy. Before I realised it, I was up in the air and being swung around the galley. Jack's deep, amused laugh was joined by mine and when he let me down, we embraced in a warm hug and stood for a long time. Jack kissed me on my forehead, my nose, my cheek and finally my lips.
We broke apart and I laughed merrily, all my previous worry abandoning me and floating away like leaves in the wind. It had been easier than I had expected. I underestimated him yet again.
"I love you, Jack," I whispered.
"Love ye too, Christy."
~*~
Author's Note:
Oooh...okay, so, I hope that that was satisfactory. If not...well, bloody hell, I don't know what else I can do to please you people *grins wildly* sorry, should have warned you all, I've had a fair amount of Mountain Dew today...gotta love that drink...and am very jazzed...plus I go to work in a couple hours and I'm excited about that...for...certain reasons...and certain people that might be working tonight...Anyways, look for another chapter around next weekend. My mum is having knee surgery this week and I have about a million things going on for school so the chances of an update before Friday or Saturday is unlikely...Its not a major surgery, just enough to complicate the way things are running around here...but that's enough babble for now.
Check out Pirates of the Caribbean: The Aftermath by The Quidditch Gals, well, two of us. Me and my best mate (who's in Australia right now, lucky lucky girl) WeasleyGIrl....are the authors and our story could use some love!
I think that's about all... oh yeah, REVIEW!!!!
Mange Klemmar
~CrazyCanoeingGIT