Author's Note:
Well, fancy that, I've updated early! does bow to clapping reviewers. To all of you who asked, my mum's surgery went excellently...though she is a bit grumpy since she can only move at a snail's pace...although, it does make it very easy to get away from her if we're having an argument...lol. Well, I hope everyone's week is going well, mine is going decently enough...the guy that I was hoping was working last Friday before I updated wasn't...tear... but, allow me to clarify, he's my prom date, I'm not obsessive or anything... :)...well, I think that's about all the things that needed to be said...
Author Thanks:
Jeeves Swineford - Don't die! That would not be good at all! Thanks for the review! Hope you like it!!!
Zubachickqt4u - Thanks for the review! Its funny that you say you're in a big love triangle thing because that's what I was talking about...allow me to clarify- my ex-boyfriend for some reason wanted to ask me to prom but my...I don't know what I call him now, my current prom date asked me first...if that makes any sense whatsoever...its like a big soap opera, really...Anywho, hope you like the chapter!
TriGemini - Thanks for the review! Yeah, it is better that she told him now than when she had a basketball sticking out from under her shirt...and its not like he wouldn't have noticed THAT...lol...hope you like the chappie.
Jinxd n cursed - Thanks for the review! Hope you like the chapter!
S.S.I. - Thanks, mate! I'm working on updating The Aftermath, I should have another chappie up soon. I can't tell you about what happens next, you'll just have to wait and see...grins evilly Hope you like the chapter!
PirateLovinSlayer - Thanks for the review, mate! If you're referring to what I think you were referring to (new people vib), then I think you're right...but I'm not sure if that's what you mean or not...you might have to spell it out a bit more for me...its too early...Hope you like the chapter!
Piper8188 - Thanks for the review (and email)! Hope you like the chapter!
ortain - Thanks! Hope you like the chapter!
Trinity144 - Thanks! I'm working on making it long, but I don't want it to get redundant...Hope you like the chapter!
Anaknusan - Thanks! Luck...I think I might need that...just to get me through prom if nothing else...next Saturday! Yippee! Hope you like the chapter!
Mirja - Thanks for the review! lol, I try to keep you guys sane because if you're sane, or mostly sane, then you all can review and then I stay sane. Mange takk på elefanter! Jeg har ikke en drømmer med elefanter tiligere! Rosa? Jeg likker blå bedre! lol! Hope you like the chapter!
MoonlightSerenade - Thanks mate! Hope you like the chapter!
Depprulz - Thanks! Enjoy!
Last time:
"I love you, Jack," I whispered.
"Love ye too, Christy."
What's In a Name?
Chapter 23: Revisiting the Past
The rest of the day passed fairly easily. With the weight of my secret off my chest, I felt like a new woman. I begged Jack to ask Colin to warm water for a bath and after a little comment about women and pregnancy, he obliged.
The bath was excellent. Sinking lazily into warm water, I was able to rid myself of some of the desolate thoughts that had filled my head since my brief stint in slavery. I knew that I had been lucky. Ana had been enslaved for ten years. Me, it had only been a month...perhaps two. But I also knew that it would take a long time for me to leave those memories behind. I would just have to live one day at a time and see where that got me.
By the time I rose from my bath, the water was cold. I put my clothes back on and went back to Jack's cabin.
Jack wasn't there so I lay down on the bed and fell asleep quickly.
I woke late in the night. Jack was still gone and I could sleep no longer. The only thing that went through my mind was that I was having a baby. I ran one of my hands over my stomach and closed my eyes in blissful happiness. Never before had I realised that it felt this wonderful to have something growing inside of you. I started wondering about my child. Whether it would be a girl or a boy, who it would look like, who it would act like - and as to that I hoped it would act somewhat like me...a little Jack running around would be enough to drive me insane- when it would be born, what its laugh would sound like. 'I was having a baby...' I thought once more. I couldn't help but laugh at the expression some of my friends from school would have on their faces if they found out that I had had a child out of wedlock, with a pirate, none the less. Thinking of their numerous reactions, I drifted back to sleep, my dreams pleasant and untroubled.
It was a week before Jack and I talked about Port Royale again. A very long week. I avoided the topic unless Jack brought it up and when he didn't listen to me, I left. It frustrated me to no end that he would just leave me. I didn't want that. Not for me or for our child.
Finally after a week of sleeping alone in the galley, Jack had ceased giving up his bed for me. I felt rather like myself and missed having that extra warmth beside me, so I assumed that it would not be a problem to share the bed with Jack once more. I was wrong. The first night that Jack had come back to sleep in his own cabin started off well but that had changed rather quickly. I believe it was because that night he had woken up cold and on the floor. I had had an awful nightmare, started sleepwalking and ended up pushing Jack out of his bed before I had crawled into it myself. I still had frequent nightmares about my time in captivity and one of my habits for nightmares was to lash out physically in my sleep. So, with a bruised leg and a sore bum, Jack did a conciliatory retreat and slept in the crew's cabin, giving me another week to myself to heal. But I was thankful. The time alone gave me a way to start closing the bleeding wounds that were my heart. In that time alone, I came to realise that this was NOT my fault and that I had no blame in the matter. I knew that Kao would have gotten to me one way or another and had Bano not bought me, I could be dead by now. And I knew that in spite of what had happened, I was still alive and I was now free. I may be heading somewhere where I didn't want to go, but that was because someone loved me and wanted to protect me...I just wasn't very happy about it. My physical bruises had faded and disappeared in the two weeks alone in Jack's cabin, even if some of my mental ones had not. But I knew that would take time. Time and a lot of patience from Jack's part. But what could be done about that? I could not change the past, as much as I might have liked to, and I could not predict the future. I just could live as best I could and try to get over what had happened.
It was on my final night alone that I was restless, sleep was simply something that was not coming. I read absently for a time but that did nothing to lull me into the warmth of sleep.
Sighing in frustration, I stood up from my...Jack's bed and dressed quickly. I needed to clear my head somehow and I had an idea of how to do it, but wandering around the deck of a pirate vessel with only a sleeping shirt on was not a wise thing to do...I knew that.
So, after donning a pair of trousers and a shirt, I ventured out of the cabin and into the crisp coolness of the night. I knew without seeing that Jack was steering the Pearl tonight but I didn't go to him. Instead, I made my way to the prow and lay down on my back, staring up at the stars.
When I was at boarding school, I would do this when I was feeling homesick...only we lay on the grass, rather than the deck of a ship.
The stars always held a certain appeal to me, although I never understood it. But there was something about those little lights in the sky that never failed to amaze me.
As wide-eyed, hopeful seven-year-olds, Victoria and I had watched the stars, hoping to see something that made sense. We both were homesick, longing for the care and love that one can only receive from parents, and to comfort each other and ourselves, we told stories about what the stars meant and what they symbolised.
As slightly sardonic thirteen-year-olds, we attempted to tell our fortunes by what we saw in the skies above us. We would sit and watch them celestial lights and try to connect the orbs to spell the names of our future husbands.
And as hopeful, sheltered, but saddened eighteen year olds, we sat and told each other about our worries about the outside world and the ever fogged future. It was under the night sky that we shared countless secrets, hopes, dreams, fears, and unrealistic wishes. But as eighteen-year-olds, we came to accept the reality behind the world. I told her of my mother...whom I had just found out was sick and she told me about her father, how he would drink often and abused both her and her mother. It was in each other that we found solace and comfort and in essence, Victoria was my family when I was at school. She and I were, in every way possible, the best of friends.
I gazed up at the stars again. I saw the North Star, a gleaming beacon for all that knew how to read the secrets hidden up in the black canopy above us. It was the only star I could identify easily, but my father had taught me about it, about how sailors used it to find direction...The North Star, a sailor's friend.
The last I had heard from Victoria was that she had married naval officer, Lieutenant George Evans and they were moving to British colony in the Caribbean...I didn't remember which one.
But then it hit me like a lightning bolt. Jack was taking me to a British colony! I could inquire about Victoria at the fort, maybe someone would know something about her! I smiled broadly up at the stars, thinking that maybe there was reason behind the infinite madness of the world.
I must have fallen asleep on the deck because I woke sometime later...although not on the deck. I could feel the softness of the pillow and the bed below me and a warm arm draped across my waist, keeping me protectively close to Jack. I nuzzled my face into the pillow and smiled broadly into it for no reason other than that I was happy to be here, to be alive, to be safe.
I drifted back asleep sometime later, it was so comforting to be near Jack that I didn't want to move, I imagine. When finally sleep decided that it had done its duty, I found myself alone in the bed. It didn't surprise me that Jack was sitting at his desk, legs kicked up leisurely, nursing a bottle of rum. I pushed myself up in the bed, raised an eyebrow and asked, "Rum, already?"
Jack gazed up at me lazily. "Love, when will ye learn, rum is an all occasions drink."
I laughed, got out of the bed, walked over and leaned down to kiss him. It had been too long. "I missed you," I murmured in his ear when we pulled apart.
Jack kissed me hungrily, as a man would who had been deprived of all the good in the world. I knew in that instant that he had missed me too. Jack pulled me into his lap and drew soothing circles on my back as we sat. I studied the map on the desk and saw an island with a dot labeled Port Royale. "How long will it take to reach Port Royale?"
"A month...perhaps longer."
I bit my tongue, to keep back the rebellious words that were itching to come out.
Jack tapped the underside of my chin playfully and said, "Where's the fight in ye, little one?"
I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye. "Jack...I really don't want you to leave me. Please. Don't make me stay there by myself."
"Oh, is that what's worrying ye?" Jack asked. "I'm not leaving you by yer lonesome, love. You'll be staying with friends of mine. William and Elizabeth Turner."
I raised an eyebrow. "Who are they?" I asked, my anger forgotten pushed aside for my curiosity at this new revelation.
"Friends."
I rolled my eyes. "Yes, you said that. But who exactly are they? Are they kind? Do they even know that you're leaving me with them?" I persisted.
"Will is a blacksmith, one of the best in the Caribbean. Elizabeth is the governor's daughter. Honestly, love, I told you about them before. They were with me when I killed Barbossa and they helped in my escape from the gallows of Port Royale. And, yes, they are exceptionally kind...but they don't exactly know that ye are coming...But that's only details. Have a bit o' faith, Christy."
I nodded, frowning slightly. I thought for a bit before posing the question that had been on my mind for a quite while. "Jack? What took you so long to find me? It felt like an eternity."
Jack sighed. "My friend in Hawaii wasn't as good of a friend as I would have hoped. He wanted to protect his people so he sent me in the wrong direction so that I could not find Kao...I imagine that Kao's been lining his pockets for a while. But nonetheless, I got sent to Singapore...only to find there where you might be. And with the repairs on the Pearl unfinished, we made decent time but nothing as to what she could usually do. So, it took longer than I had expected," he said wearily.
"Oh," I said quietly. "I started to believe what Inai and Bano kept telling me. That you didn't care, that you would just find another whore to warm your bed and that I would die there," I added, my voice cracking slightly. "I thought that you already forgotten me and moved on."
Jack grabbed my chin gently and turned my head so I could stare into his dark eyes. "Listen, Christy. I wouldn't have let you die there. I would have found you. One way or another," he said seriously before pulling me in for a kiss. I melted into his arms, sinking into a pit of bliss. "Besides, that bloody lemur o' yers would have likely taken o'er command o' the Pearl if she thought that we weren't going to find ye."
I laughed. "Where is Chaton? I haven't seen her yet."
"I had Colin take care of the bloody beast. She nearly destroyed me cabin...I actually cleaned it after that. Colin offered to keep her in yer stead...she's in his cabin. I asked him to keep her until you were feeling back to yerself. But I think that he's become a bit attached to the little she-devil and ye might have to fight him for her!"
I bit my lip. I would be an idiot to not realise how much he cared for me. He could have easily gotten rid of Chaton if he thought that I wasn't coming back...that he wouldn't find me, but instead, he had taken care of my pet for me. I leaned in and kissed him lightly in gratitude.
We broke apart when there was a knock on the door. Colin was here, with breakfast as usual. I hurried over to open the door for him and let him in. It smelled wonderful...as usual. Colin was doing excellently at tolerating my odd food cravings and he was very...protective of me, always making sure that I ate the right food and kept my strength up. Under his care, my stomach had rounded out further, making room for the babe that was growing inside me.
"Thank you, Colin," I said as Colin turned to leave. I moved over to the table and grabbed a piece of bread for myself and some for Jack as well.
Jack smiled wryly and took a piece of bread, nodding his thanks.
I grinned wildly. "You know what?" I asked.
"What?" Jack asked.
"My mum use to tell me that food makes everything seem better. I didn't believe her for the longest time. I would just dismiss it, thinking that she was only saying it to make me eat more...she was always making me eat more, my mother...but now I think she was right," I said merrily.
Jack laughed jovially. "Me mum said the same thing!"
I smiled broadly. "Our mum's must have been friends or something!" I said cheerily. "What was your mum like, Jack? Or your childhood for that matter?"
Jack considered the question for a while. "Well, my father was never around, he was always at sea. So it was just me, me mum and me two older sisters. We lived outside of Liverpool but it wasn't always a life of luxury. Wif me dad gone, mum had to work as a laundress for as long as I could remember. So, when I was a young lad, I had a friend who taught me the fine art of pick-pocketing and we would pick-pocket sailors or anyone, really, who wasn't payin' attention to two little brats running around their waists. I'd give me money to my mum. She did nae approve o' it but her eyes sparkled with every pence I brought home. One of my sisters got married real young and had three babies and died in child birth before I was thirteen and the other married a gentleman...she told me mum not to contact her...don' know what happened to her. Last I heard, she was living somewhere in Barbados...but who knows. My mum died when I was around fifteen and I got sent to live with an aunt in London. She hated having me with her, I was a right hell-raiser, I was. I left home when I found out about me dad's death and took over control of the Black Pearl...I was probably nineteen...don' really remember it too well. And 'ere I am."
I looked at Jack questioningly for a while. "You lived London?" I asked.
"Yeah, and pick-pocketed me way through the richest people's pockets!" Jack said merrily.
I studied Jack for a long time, trying to see if he jogged some sort of memory.
"Don' look at me like that, love. Ye would 'ave been a baby."
"No, I wouldn't have been. If it was twelve years ago when you left London, I would have been nine...so, last time I checked, that's not a baby."
"Point is, love, that you would have been five when I arrived. And unless you have an excellent memory for people that you met on the street more than a decade ago, I doubt that you'll remember me."
I smiled. "Did I ever show you that painting that I found when I fell down that trap? I think I must have forgotten. But...I put it...." I broke off as I went over to the bedside table. I pulled the pieces of parchment out from the crack between the table and the wall and went back to Jack. "I put them over there, I must have forgotten. I can't believe that..."
I handed the pages to Jack, who looked at them. "Ye look like yer mum," he said simply.
"I know. I never realized it until I saw that. My brother was a little mirror image of my father...although he had my mum's eyes. It was always funny because people would call him "Little James." He hated that. He made this face at people when they did that...he scrunched up his nose and throw a fit. My father would just laugh and say, "Timmy, you're far better looking than me." That would always get him to stop. He would puff out his little chest and try to make himself into the big man. It was hilarious..." I said trailing off.
"What was yer brother like?"
"Oh, he was...he was a really cute little boy. Definitely the easier child for my parents...I suppose that it made it easier for my mother, that way. I would get into trouble and Timmy was always quiet, always the good boy. I would joke around with him about it, call him 'Mother's little pet' or something similar. He was very smart but he got sick sometimes. He just didn't have the strength that some of the boys from his school did when he was younger. He told me that once. He said that they would tease him for being weaker...but it was mainly because he didn't like running and such, he preferred to sit and read or write adventure stories. As he got older, though, he got stronger and handsome, I think that if he had lived to be an adult, he would have all the girls swooning over him. It was odd, I went away one fall, leaving behind an awkward twelve-year-old and I came back to a mature, slightly handsome thirteen-year-old. I dunno...he was a great little brother...I miss him."
Jack didn't comment for a while, instead he reached across the table and held my hand, running his thumb on it soothingly. "Sometimes, love, things happen for no reason that we can see but they happen nonetheless. All you have to do is figure out what to do with what's given to you and make life as good as you can with that. It's the only way to go about it."
I smiled. "Oh, I know. And its not like we'll never see each other again. I just wish he had the chance to give my mum a run for her money by chasing after all the girls! Let him be the one she was so exasperated with!"
Author's Notes-
Well, I hope that you all enjoyed the chapter! Look for another one probably Thursday or Friday. Next weekend is going to be interesting for me...I'm going to prom! Yay! I'm excited...and nervous...lol. I still have to order the boustiere...whatever that is, yes, I do actually know what it is... I'm just procrasinating because I don't do the whole flowery stuff...We were joking at work that maybe James would be better off wearing the dress...but I don't think so...I imagine I can stand being in a dress for 6 hours...I don't think it will kill me...lets hope not...
So, review!
Review!
Review!
And check out the Quidditch Gals, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Aftermath...we want reviews! And it was updated today!
Mange klemmar,
CrazyCanoeingGIT
Well, fancy that, I've updated early! does bow to clapping reviewers. To all of you who asked, my mum's surgery went excellently...though she is a bit grumpy since she can only move at a snail's pace...although, it does make it very easy to get away from her if we're having an argument...lol. Well, I hope everyone's week is going well, mine is going decently enough...the guy that I was hoping was working last Friday before I updated wasn't...tear... but, allow me to clarify, he's my prom date, I'm not obsessive or anything... :)...well, I think that's about all the things that needed to be said...
Author Thanks:
Jeeves Swineford - Don't die! That would not be good at all! Thanks for the review! Hope you like it!!!
Zubachickqt4u - Thanks for the review! Its funny that you say you're in a big love triangle thing because that's what I was talking about...allow me to clarify- my ex-boyfriend for some reason wanted to ask me to prom but my...I don't know what I call him now, my current prom date asked me first...if that makes any sense whatsoever...its like a big soap opera, really...Anywho, hope you like the chapter!
TriGemini - Thanks for the review! Yeah, it is better that she told him now than when she had a basketball sticking out from under her shirt...and its not like he wouldn't have noticed THAT...lol...hope you like the chappie.
Jinxd n cursed - Thanks for the review! Hope you like the chapter!
S.S.I. - Thanks, mate! I'm working on updating The Aftermath, I should have another chappie up soon. I can't tell you about what happens next, you'll just have to wait and see...grins evilly Hope you like the chapter!
PirateLovinSlayer - Thanks for the review, mate! If you're referring to what I think you were referring to (new people vib), then I think you're right...but I'm not sure if that's what you mean or not...you might have to spell it out a bit more for me...its too early...Hope you like the chapter!
Piper8188 - Thanks for the review (and email)! Hope you like the chapter!
ortain - Thanks! Hope you like the chapter!
Trinity144 - Thanks! I'm working on making it long, but I don't want it to get redundant...Hope you like the chapter!
Anaknusan - Thanks! Luck...I think I might need that...just to get me through prom if nothing else...next Saturday! Yippee! Hope you like the chapter!
Mirja - Thanks for the review! lol, I try to keep you guys sane because if you're sane, or mostly sane, then you all can review and then I stay sane. Mange takk på elefanter! Jeg har ikke en drømmer med elefanter tiligere! Rosa? Jeg likker blå bedre! lol! Hope you like the chapter!
MoonlightSerenade - Thanks mate! Hope you like the chapter!
Depprulz - Thanks! Enjoy!
Last time:
"I love you, Jack," I whispered.
"Love ye too, Christy."
What's In a Name?
Chapter 23: Revisiting the Past
The rest of the day passed fairly easily. With the weight of my secret off my chest, I felt like a new woman. I begged Jack to ask Colin to warm water for a bath and after a little comment about women and pregnancy, he obliged.
The bath was excellent. Sinking lazily into warm water, I was able to rid myself of some of the desolate thoughts that had filled my head since my brief stint in slavery. I knew that I had been lucky. Ana had been enslaved for ten years. Me, it had only been a month...perhaps two. But I also knew that it would take a long time for me to leave those memories behind. I would just have to live one day at a time and see where that got me.
By the time I rose from my bath, the water was cold. I put my clothes back on and went back to Jack's cabin.
Jack wasn't there so I lay down on the bed and fell asleep quickly.
I woke late in the night. Jack was still gone and I could sleep no longer. The only thing that went through my mind was that I was having a baby. I ran one of my hands over my stomach and closed my eyes in blissful happiness. Never before had I realised that it felt this wonderful to have something growing inside of you. I started wondering about my child. Whether it would be a girl or a boy, who it would look like, who it would act like - and as to that I hoped it would act somewhat like me...a little Jack running around would be enough to drive me insane- when it would be born, what its laugh would sound like. 'I was having a baby...' I thought once more. I couldn't help but laugh at the expression some of my friends from school would have on their faces if they found out that I had had a child out of wedlock, with a pirate, none the less. Thinking of their numerous reactions, I drifted back to sleep, my dreams pleasant and untroubled.
It was a week before Jack and I talked about Port Royale again. A very long week. I avoided the topic unless Jack brought it up and when he didn't listen to me, I left. It frustrated me to no end that he would just leave me. I didn't want that. Not for me or for our child.
Finally after a week of sleeping alone in the galley, Jack had ceased giving up his bed for me. I felt rather like myself and missed having that extra warmth beside me, so I assumed that it would not be a problem to share the bed with Jack once more. I was wrong. The first night that Jack had come back to sleep in his own cabin started off well but that had changed rather quickly. I believe it was because that night he had woken up cold and on the floor. I had had an awful nightmare, started sleepwalking and ended up pushing Jack out of his bed before I had crawled into it myself. I still had frequent nightmares about my time in captivity and one of my habits for nightmares was to lash out physically in my sleep. So, with a bruised leg and a sore bum, Jack did a conciliatory retreat and slept in the crew's cabin, giving me another week to myself to heal. But I was thankful. The time alone gave me a way to start closing the bleeding wounds that were my heart. In that time alone, I came to realise that this was NOT my fault and that I had no blame in the matter. I knew that Kao would have gotten to me one way or another and had Bano not bought me, I could be dead by now. And I knew that in spite of what had happened, I was still alive and I was now free. I may be heading somewhere where I didn't want to go, but that was because someone loved me and wanted to protect me...I just wasn't very happy about it. My physical bruises had faded and disappeared in the two weeks alone in Jack's cabin, even if some of my mental ones had not. But I knew that would take time. Time and a lot of patience from Jack's part. But what could be done about that? I could not change the past, as much as I might have liked to, and I could not predict the future. I just could live as best I could and try to get over what had happened.
It was on my final night alone that I was restless, sleep was simply something that was not coming. I read absently for a time but that did nothing to lull me into the warmth of sleep.
Sighing in frustration, I stood up from my...Jack's bed and dressed quickly. I needed to clear my head somehow and I had an idea of how to do it, but wandering around the deck of a pirate vessel with only a sleeping shirt on was not a wise thing to do...I knew that.
So, after donning a pair of trousers and a shirt, I ventured out of the cabin and into the crisp coolness of the night. I knew without seeing that Jack was steering the Pearl tonight but I didn't go to him. Instead, I made my way to the prow and lay down on my back, staring up at the stars.
When I was at boarding school, I would do this when I was feeling homesick...only we lay on the grass, rather than the deck of a ship.
The stars always held a certain appeal to me, although I never understood it. But there was something about those little lights in the sky that never failed to amaze me.
As wide-eyed, hopeful seven-year-olds, Victoria and I had watched the stars, hoping to see something that made sense. We both were homesick, longing for the care and love that one can only receive from parents, and to comfort each other and ourselves, we told stories about what the stars meant and what they symbolised.
As slightly sardonic thirteen-year-olds, we attempted to tell our fortunes by what we saw in the skies above us. We would sit and watch them celestial lights and try to connect the orbs to spell the names of our future husbands.
And as hopeful, sheltered, but saddened eighteen year olds, we sat and told each other about our worries about the outside world and the ever fogged future. It was under the night sky that we shared countless secrets, hopes, dreams, fears, and unrealistic wishes. But as eighteen-year-olds, we came to accept the reality behind the world. I told her of my mother...whom I had just found out was sick and she told me about her father, how he would drink often and abused both her and her mother. It was in each other that we found solace and comfort and in essence, Victoria was my family when I was at school. She and I were, in every way possible, the best of friends.
I gazed up at the stars again. I saw the North Star, a gleaming beacon for all that knew how to read the secrets hidden up in the black canopy above us. It was the only star I could identify easily, but my father had taught me about it, about how sailors used it to find direction...The North Star, a sailor's friend.
The last I had heard from Victoria was that she had married naval officer, Lieutenant George Evans and they were moving to British colony in the Caribbean...I didn't remember which one.
But then it hit me like a lightning bolt. Jack was taking me to a British colony! I could inquire about Victoria at the fort, maybe someone would know something about her! I smiled broadly up at the stars, thinking that maybe there was reason behind the infinite madness of the world.
I must have fallen asleep on the deck because I woke sometime later...although not on the deck. I could feel the softness of the pillow and the bed below me and a warm arm draped across my waist, keeping me protectively close to Jack. I nuzzled my face into the pillow and smiled broadly into it for no reason other than that I was happy to be here, to be alive, to be safe.
I drifted back asleep sometime later, it was so comforting to be near Jack that I didn't want to move, I imagine. When finally sleep decided that it had done its duty, I found myself alone in the bed. It didn't surprise me that Jack was sitting at his desk, legs kicked up leisurely, nursing a bottle of rum. I pushed myself up in the bed, raised an eyebrow and asked, "Rum, already?"
Jack gazed up at me lazily. "Love, when will ye learn, rum is an all occasions drink."
I laughed, got out of the bed, walked over and leaned down to kiss him. It had been too long. "I missed you," I murmured in his ear when we pulled apart.
Jack kissed me hungrily, as a man would who had been deprived of all the good in the world. I knew in that instant that he had missed me too. Jack pulled me into his lap and drew soothing circles on my back as we sat. I studied the map on the desk and saw an island with a dot labeled Port Royale. "How long will it take to reach Port Royale?"
"A month...perhaps longer."
I bit my tongue, to keep back the rebellious words that were itching to come out.
Jack tapped the underside of my chin playfully and said, "Where's the fight in ye, little one?"
I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye. "Jack...I really don't want you to leave me. Please. Don't make me stay there by myself."
"Oh, is that what's worrying ye?" Jack asked. "I'm not leaving you by yer lonesome, love. You'll be staying with friends of mine. William and Elizabeth Turner."
I raised an eyebrow. "Who are they?" I asked, my anger forgotten pushed aside for my curiosity at this new revelation.
"Friends."
I rolled my eyes. "Yes, you said that. But who exactly are they? Are they kind? Do they even know that you're leaving me with them?" I persisted.
"Will is a blacksmith, one of the best in the Caribbean. Elizabeth is the governor's daughter. Honestly, love, I told you about them before. They were with me when I killed Barbossa and they helped in my escape from the gallows of Port Royale. And, yes, they are exceptionally kind...but they don't exactly know that ye are coming...But that's only details. Have a bit o' faith, Christy."
I nodded, frowning slightly. I thought for a bit before posing the question that had been on my mind for a quite while. "Jack? What took you so long to find me? It felt like an eternity."
Jack sighed. "My friend in Hawaii wasn't as good of a friend as I would have hoped. He wanted to protect his people so he sent me in the wrong direction so that I could not find Kao...I imagine that Kao's been lining his pockets for a while. But nonetheless, I got sent to Singapore...only to find there where you might be. And with the repairs on the Pearl unfinished, we made decent time but nothing as to what she could usually do. So, it took longer than I had expected," he said wearily.
"Oh," I said quietly. "I started to believe what Inai and Bano kept telling me. That you didn't care, that you would just find another whore to warm your bed and that I would die there," I added, my voice cracking slightly. "I thought that you already forgotten me and moved on."
Jack grabbed my chin gently and turned my head so I could stare into his dark eyes. "Listen, Christy. I wouldn't have let you die there. I would have found you. One way or another," he said seriously before pulling me in for a kiss. I melted into his arms, sinking into a pit of bliss. "Besides, that bloody lemur o' yers would have likely taken o'er command o' the Pearl if she thought that we weren't going to find ye."
I laughed. "Where is Chaton? I haven't seen her yet."
"I had Colin take care of the bloody beast. She nearly destroyed me cabin...I actually cleaned it after that. Colin offered to keep her in yer stead...she's in his cabin. I asked him to keep her until you were feeling back to yerself. But I think that he's become a bit attached to the little she-devil and ye might have to fight him for her!"
I bit my lip. I would be an idiot to not realise how much he cared for me. He could have easily gotten rid of Chaton if he thought that I wasn't coming back...that he wouldn't find me, but instead, he had taken care of my pet for me. I leaned in and kissed him lightly in gratitude.
We broke apart when there was a knock on the door. Colin was here, with breakfast as usual. I hurried over to open the door for him and let him in. It smelled wonderful...as usual. Colin was doing excellently at tolerating my odd food cravings and he was very...protective of me, always making sure that I ate the right food and kept my strength up. Under his care, my stomach had rounded out further, making room for the babe that was growing inside me.
"Thank you, Colin," I said as Colin turned to leave. I moved over to the table and grabbed a piece of bread for myself and some for Jack as well.
Jack smiled wryly and took a piece of bread, nodding his thanks.
I grinned wildly. "You know what?" I asked.
"What?" Jack asked.
"My mum use to tell me that food makes everything seem better. I didn't believe her for the longest time. I would just dismiss it, thinking that she was only saying it to make me eat more...she was always making me eat more, my mother...but now I think she was right," I said merrily.
Jack laughed jovially. "Me mum said the same thing!"
I smiled broadly. "Our mum's must have been friends or something!" I said cheerily. "What was your mum like, Jack? Or your childhood for that matter?"
Jack considered the question for a while. "Well, my father was never around, he was always at sea. So it was just me, me mum and me two older sisters. We lived outside of Liverpool but it wasn't always a life of luxury. Wif me dad gone, mum had to work as a laundress for as long as I could remember. So, when I was a young lad, I had a friend who taught me the fine art of pick-pocketing and we would pick-pocket sailors or anyone, really, who wasn't payin' attention to two little brats running around their waists. I'd give me money to my mum. She did nae approve o' it but her eyes sparkled with every pence I brought home. One of my sisters got married real young and had three babies and died in child birth before I was thirteen and the other married a gentleman...she told me mum not to contact her...don' know what happened to her. Last I heard, she was living somewhere in Barbados...but who knows. My mum died when I was around fifteen and I got sent to live with an aunt in London. She hated having me with her, I was a right hell-raiser, I was. I left home when I found out about me dad's death and took over control of the Black Pearl...I was probably nineteen...don' really remember it too well. And 'ere I am."
I looked at Jack questioningly for a while. "You lived London?" I asked.
"Yeah, and pick-pocketed me way through the richest people's pockets!" Jack said merrily.
I studied Jack for a long time, trying to see if he jogged some sort of memory.
"Don' look at me like that, love. Ye would 'ave been a baby."
"No, I wouldn't have been. If it was twelve years ago when you left London, I would have been nine...so, last time I checked, that's not a baby."
"Point is, love, that you would have been five when I arrived. And unless you have an excellent memory for people that you met on the street more than a decade ago, I doubt that you'll remember me."
I smiled. "Did I ever show you that painting that I found when I fell down that trap? I think I must have forgotten. But...I put it...." I broke off as I went over to the bedside table. I pulled the pieces of parchment out from the crack between the table and the wall and went back to Jack. "I put them over there, I must have forgotten. I can't believe that..."
I handed the pages to Jack, who looked at them. "Ye look like yer mum," he said simply.
"I know. I never realized it until I saw that. My brother was a little mirror image of my father...although he had my mum's eyes. It was always funny because people would call him "Little James." He hated that. He made this face at people when they did that...he scrunched up his nose and throw a fit. My father would just laugh and say, "Timmy, you're far better looking than me." That would always get him to stop. He would puff out his little chest and try to make himself into the big man. It was hilarious..." I said trailing off.
"What was yer brother like?"
"Oh, he was...he was a really cute little boy. Definitely the easier child for my parents...I suppose that it made it easier for my mother, that way. I would get into trouble and Timmy was always quiet, always the good boy. I would joke around with him about it, call him 'Mother's little pet' or something similar. He was very smart but he got sick sometimes. He just didn't have the strength that some of the boys from his school did when he was younger. He told me that once. He said that they would tease him for being weaker...but it was mainly because he didn't like running and such, he preferred to sit and read or write adventure stories. As he got older, though, he got stronger and handsome, I think that if he had lived to be an adult, he would have all the girls swooning over him. It was odd, I went away one fall, leaving behind an awkward twelve-year-old and I came back to a mature, slightly handsome thirteen-year-old. I dunno...he was a great little brother...I miss him."
Jack didn't comment for a while, instead he reached across the table and held my hand, running his thumb on it soothingly. "Sometimes, love, things happen for no reason that we can see but they happen nonetheless. All you have to do is figure out what to do with what's given to you and make life as good as you can with that. It's the only way to go about it."
I smiled. "Oh, I know. And its not like we'll never see each other again. I just wish he had the chance to give my mum a run for her money by chasing after all the girls! Let him be the one she was so exasperated with!"
Author's Notes-
Well, I hope that you all enjoyed the chapter! Look for another one probably Thursday or Friday. Next weekend is going to be interesting for me...I'm going to prom! Yay! I'm excited...and nervous...lol. I still have to order the boustiere...whatever that is, yes, I do actually know what it is... I'm just procrasinating because I don't do the whole flowery stuff...We were joking at work that maybe James would be better off wearing the dress...but I don't think so...I imagine I can stand being in a dress for 6 hours...I don't think it will kill me...lets hope not...
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