Wow! I've been frantically searching for a copy of this chapter as a 'you' forever, I have so many disks with my fics on them that I can't keep a hold of them in any order. I happened to have completely lost my 'two loves' disk, but have found a copy of 'A Map in The Captains Cabin' that I printed off, and have found copies of chapters three through nineteen!!! I will devote all of my spare time and energy to re-writing and improving them, hoping to have them all to you guys by the end of next week, so please be kind and review…
Chapter Two: A Map in the Captain's Cabin
Will was pacing the floor of the blacksmith's shop, stirring up rather large clouds of dust as he did. Deep in thought, there was only one thing on his mind, and that was Morgan (BTW: I changed her name, and no, my name is not Morgan so it is not purposeful). He stopped and ran his fingers roughly through his sweat filled hair, beads of sweat running down his forehead. As his hand fell back and rested upon the back of his neck, a lock of hair fell back into his face.
He stood there with his left hand strategically placed upon his hip, supporting his upper body, anxiety crippling his every muscle, because he'd used up all his energy pacing as he though about what worried him. He looked out the small window of the shop, the only window. It was growing dark outside and the sky was glowing deep amber red, he'd been pacing all afternoon trying to figure out how he was to go about the situation he found himself now in with Morgan.
Was he going to deny himself the love he finally figured out he had and obey her wishes, leaving her be and not ever telling her the way he truly felt for her. OR, was he going to go after Morgan and confess his undying love for her right to her face, suffering whatever consequences would befall him if he did, hoping that left him with forgiveness for his indiscretions and that she could allow herself to love him the way she once had and he hoped she still did.
Will definitely knew what he wanted to do, but an overwhelming fear crept over him, the thought that Morgan would be incredibly angry with him for not listening to the one thing she requested him ate at his mind. He dreaded it ending with her hating him forever and denying him and friendship at all, whether just that or more than so.
A sudden noise from the watch-donkey in the corner knocked him consequently from those thoughts, though not for long. He turned around and walked over to the mule, running his hand the length of it's neck and back twice and then looking into it's eyes, which were blacker than black in the dim light. His own eyes filled with despair Will sighed and continued to stroke the creature's roughneck.
"What am I going to do?" he whispered solemnly to it. "I love her, but if I go after her, the consequences could be worse than not, she could end up making her mo9re upset and that's not what I want." He hung his head in shame. A loud knock was heard upon the door and just as Will looked up, a figure appeared in the opening as the creaking of said door continued as it opened and Jack slipped inside. More Creaking came as he closed it, but Will didn't even have the energy to mentally note oiling the hinges. Jack began to bear a smirk upon his lips, pointedly at the young blacksmith.
"Talking' to a ass now, isn't Miss Elizabeth good enough of a conversationalist for ye?" he asked, hoping for the laugh that was quite unexposed, even trough the small grin that protruded Will's lips for but a second.
"Jack… I wasn't expecting you," he said softly, standing up and dusting himself off as if his newfound company desired his utmost respect, even though Jack had no such care. "I was…"he trailed off, his eyes glinting up at jack as he flickered his eyes up and then back down to the dirt floor beneath his feet.
"C'mon whelp spit it out, I aint got all day, can' stay long, got places ta be ye know." Jack had stopped in Port Royale for more reasons than Will would ever know. That famous smirk crossed jack's lips again. "Women problems? Jack asked with a hint of arrogance and all knowing in his voice.
Will ran his hands through his hair yet again, nodding simply as he walked over and sat down on a bench strategically placed in front of a wall which Will leaned his head against, sounding with a small 'thud' as he did so. Jack came over and sat beside him with a feeling that Will was deeply depressed, he sat quiet for a moment watching the younger man before him before speaking up himself.
"Whas tha problem mate?" he paused, debating on whether or not to go so far as to say what he was about to, "ol' lizzie not satisfyin' yer needs?" Will suddenly sat up properly and stared at Jack with an upraised eyebrow. Jack barely dared to look will in the face, but when he did, the look upon it told him he'd said something wrong and the grin Will hadn't seen slipped away quickly. Will's own grin became more evident and Jack's nerves calmed, he'd always been able to make will smile with his un-called-for jokes, even if it was a crude comment about Will's ladylove.
"Jack, Elizabeth and I are just friends, we've both decided we weren't meant to be together and are just going to be friends." Jack began to wonder whether this was true or not, not to mention the fact that he had other such questions on his mind he would eventually speak like the outspoken man he was "we've both found someone else our feelings belong to." Will was trying to sound as calm as he could when he just wanted to blurt the entire thing in Jack's face and ask for his help. It seemed Will's mind had made up itself; all he wanted was to find Morgan as soon as possible so he could have her for his own. Jack decided it was time he piped up with his-forbidden- thoughts.
"Aha!" he said aloud, waggling his eyebrows in implication. " I knew she loved me…but I've told 'er once an' I'll say it again, we simply aren' meant ta be." He puffed his chest out proudly. "We're from diff'rent worlds." Will found this amusing to no end and dreaded bringing Jack down from his pedestal, even though Jack already knew it wasn't he Elizabeth had found herself.
"She loves the commodore." Will supplied through a laugh, jack's smile died to a grin and he sat back calmly in his chair. "They're engaged now, since I told her I was in love with someone else…that's when she told me she was in love with him…" Jack, as daft as he was, thought it odd, her telling him like that, only after he'd told her he loved someone else. "It definitely made my conscience not feel so bad." Will added, looking over at Jack, who had a dazed and disgusted expression on his face, seeming a million miles away. "Jack?" Will questioned, waving a hand in front of his face. Jack shook his head and snapped back into reality.
"Sorry Mate, I 'eard ye, she's gonna marry Norrington and ye love someone else… it's jus…tragic news tha' the girl, even though I never liked 'er much anyways, is gonna marry tha' scoundrel, I'm appalled!" Will grinned, looking a bit confused at the same time. Utter disbelief flooded will's mind and expression, mostly at Jack's choice of words.
"It was mutual…" Will said slowly, still recuperating from Jack's outburst. "But when I went to tell this person-" Will was cut off by a frantic Pirate, Namely Jack Sparrow.
"Whoa, Whoa, Whoa," Jack said, moving forward in his seat and holding both hands in front of Will's face and moving them excessively. He opened his eyes and stopped, staring at Will oddly. "Hold on there a secon' whelp, someone else? Person? Ye tryin' ta tell me yer Gay?" He stared at /Will with an oddly shocked face and then went to go on. "Not that there's any-" will this time, cut Jack off as quickly as possible.
"No!" Will cried loudly, though not a scream, standing up in front of Jack. "Of course not Jack, course it's a woman, I've known her since I came to live in Porte Royale, she is…or was, hopefully still is…" he caught his own rambling. "My best friend." Jack was relieved, but showed an expression that he was distraught.
"Then how come ye never introduced us?" Jack asked as if he was disappointed in Will, grinning wryly.
"Jack."Will said with a smile pulling at the corners of his own lips, looking down upon his friend. "When you're constantly getting Chased By Norrington, or you've got a noose around your neck… they aren't the greatest times to be introducing you to my lady friends, especially one, I, myself, am in love with." Will had a hint of sarcasm hiding itself in his tone of voice, and didn't care.
"Well…" Jack began to say with an extremely sly look on his face. "How 'bout now I 'aint got no noose 'round me neck an' ol' Norris's nowhere to be found." He said, looking up at Will implyingly, that wry grin more than evident now. Will shook his head and avoided the eyes of his companion.
"I Can't" Will muttered almost incoherently, playing with his hands, rubbing off the dirt that was as existent as his smile, it wasn't.
"An' why the bloody 'ell not?" Jack asked aggravated, standing from his seat and staring will down. "Yer supposed to be me friend." Jack accused, more as a joke and to get what he wanted than to upset will anymore.
"Because she's gone!" will blurted inJack's face, he payused and let out a deep sigh. Will decided to put it in the short version as to not bore the easily-bored-by-stories-but-not-easily-bored-by-telling-stories pirate captain that stood before him. "When I found her, she was getting on a ship, because she thought Elizabeth and I were still together." He emphasized the word together. "I tried to tell her differently, that I loved her…but she just wouldn't listen…then she left and there was nothing I could do to stop her." He groaned as if he remembered every detail and was trying to find the one flaw he could've fixed. "Her mind was set on getting on that ship." His pacing started up again, as he rubbed his forehead, thinking once more.
"O" Jack muttered. "Good reason," He looked over at his troubled friend and questions bubbled on his simple mind. "So, What're ye gonna do 'bout it?" he asked without hesitation.
"She told me to let her be." Wills aid, stopping and shaking his head lightly." But I have to go after her, I have to tell her." He looked at Jack with eyes that showed nothing but the utmost seriousness. "Or I could lose her forever." Jack nodded and stretched his arms out to the sides, yawning as if bored.
"Well there ye go mate, but I meself must go, me crew'll be waitin' fer me." Jack finished and headed slowly to the door with a slight swagger to his walk, not as much as before, which made Will wonder if Jack hadn't had his quota of rum for the day yet.
"Wait!" will called after him with a confused expression. "Aren't you going to help me, like you did last time?" Jack turned and eyed Will, who smiled. That infamous grin floated across Jack's face.
"Whelp, ye know last time I helped ye out yer lass fell fer me, and…"he voiced louder, waggling a finger in the air as if hinting towards something. "I got me Pearl back, what would be in it for me this time?" Will shook his head.
"My eternal gratitude." Was his simple answer, hoping that wouldeb enoughand expecting Jack to just give in and help.
"Sorry mate…"Jack said solumnley. " I have supplies to get and places to be, yer on yer own this time lad." Jack finished his sentence and watched Will closely, Will had no response. With that Jack was out the door without another word.
"Goodbye Jack." Will yelled after him, Jack's head popped back inside the door.
"That's CAPTAIN." He voiced before disappearing altogether. Disappointment crossedWill's face and he walked to his room, pulling out a couple of bags and filling them.
8The ship Morgan was on was Called the 'blue horizon', a cheerful name that didn't quite suit the journey She had to endure, most of it was a rocky, and very slow process, storms engulfed the ship on the way, delaying her arrival.
The whole way, Morgan was confined to the Captain's quarters, yet never seeing the captain himself, whih left a few questions for the young girl. Morgan found herself occupying a chair at the large dining table in the center of the large room.
Morgan studeid the Map that lay in her lap in complete awe, how many times she'd seen maps, but none as skillfully drawn and detailed as this one. She'd never taken so much interest in a map before, and she'd never really understood them in the first place. When she was little, Morgan would venture into her father's office and see several of them; all different in aspects, some similar in others, they'd always littered his desk carelessly.
Morgan loved to read, but trying to read a map, to her, was like trying to read ancient runes from a culture she'd never even heard of. This map, however, was written beautifully and had a certain quality about it which she couldn't quite put her finger on. The map pulled at her like a magnet; there was some attatchment she didn't know how it got there. It was a little tattered ant torn and looked like somneone had tried to burn it at one point, but it was stil clearly readable. The details of the map were incredible; the artistry was amazing and somewhat familiar, like she'd seenit once before, she couldn't take her eyes off of it. There were three small letters in handwriting in the bottom righ hand corner, the only thing barely readable, but they seemed to read N.A. And R. the letters too seemed vaguely familiar, but she'd seen so many maps in her lifetime that she'd likeley had seen this one before. There was a faint knock and she quickly folded the map andpushed it farther into her lap, still holding firmly onto it, out of eyes reach.
"Come in."Morgan voiced to the figure behind the door, givign permission for the short bald navy man to step inside. How she wished he knew that he'd saved her from a painful goodbye so that she could thank him.
"Miss, We'll be dropping anchor in an hour." He tyurned to leave so quickly, but Morgan's mind made her question.
"Wait!"He stopped and turned to her. "May I ask where we are anchoring?"
"Tortuga Milady." He replied matter-of-factly and then was out of the door quickly. Tortuga. Morgan thought the name seemed familiar as well and the entirety of familiar things got to her, it seemed a little strange that so many things she'd come in contact with on this trip were so frequent. Will's voice protruded into her head as she began to vividly remember the stories he'd told her of his 'pirate' adventure, or so Morgan called it. He'd gone to Tortuga to help the mysterious pirate captain recruit a new crew for a new. Morgan quickly dropped the thought, not wanting to think of will, that was the reason she'd left in the first place, to find a way to stop thinking about him.
Morgan stood and went over to the bookshelf to replace the map to where she'd found it nearer to the beginning of her trip, but she suddenly stopped herself. She re-opened it and looked at it for several minutes before deciding upon something she wouldn't have expected herself to do.
Morgan walked over and slid the map into one of her bags, then began collecting all of her things and replacing them in her bags as well. When the hour was up, another knock sounded upon the door, but this time the man didn't bother to wait for her approval to enter.
"Miss." Came a soft, reluctant call, from the short bald man once more. "We've stopped and the captain has asked me to help you to the rowboats." He walked over and grabbed some of her bags and lifted them into his arms, leading her towards the edge of the ship, where several others were collected, some had already climbed down into the boats.
"Thank you." Morgan said to him as he lowered her bags down into the awaiting boats and then made to help her down into one as well. Before she stepped over the edge, Morgan looked out into the distance, small lights flickered a couple of hundred feet away, the town of Tortuga likely. Suddenly, awakening Morgan from her thoughts, a voice she recognized floated into her ears.
"Miss Reiley."
I Will Write To My Reviewers Next Time...MorganS.