AN (2/27)- Tough luck, Johnny! Better luck next time...you did look really sexy with your moustache and goatee for filming next month. And you are afraid of public speaking...so, no worries.
Good job, Jan A.P. Kaczmarek for getting the Oscar for Music score! Your music rocks! I suggest anyone who hasn't seen Finding Neverland should go and see it. Fantastic.
And I really didn't think I'd end up updating today...consider it a present. I'm going to be in St. George Utah from Thursday to Saturday...so this will probably be the only update this week. Unless I'm really in the mood to write tomorrow.
One More Day: Chapter Eight
This was ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. We were sitting in a carriage, actually, making our way to Port Royal, Jamaica. Now, you might wonder why I would ever be in a carriage. The answer is quite simple. I didn't want to get caught by Commodore Norrington with a pregnant woman on board. Why? Well, she'd see me die and would have to dance the hempen jig herself, after she had her baby. Like what happened with Anne Bonney and Mary Reade, not too long ago. The pirating world had lost some bright stars when my old mentor, Calico Jack, decided to come out of retirement. He'd let his crew get completely drunk one night near a port. Only Anne and Mary had been able to see straight...and the redcoats had attacked. Calico Jack had been hung...
I was busy staring out the small window. Well, it wasn't a window like they had in the future. No...there was no glass. It was just a hole in the carriage frame with curtains you could pull across for some measure of privacy. I was glancing out of the small slit between the carriage and the disgusting red drapes. What was I looking at? Well, the foliage of Jamaica. I'd docked the Pearl in Kingston not too long ago so we could travel by land to Port Royal. It was about a day's journey to that sanctuary of all that was proper and prim from Kingston...a day that had gone by too fast and too slow, all at the same time. How did people stand going by carriage anywhere? It was so much faster in a ship.
I sighed as I saw the distinctive layout of Port Royal ahead of us. This would not be fun. Not at all. Not only was I visiting a city I detested above all others (well, actually, it had been quite like Tortuga until Norrington had shown up almost eleven years ago. Now it was avoided by wise criminals like the deceased bodies of those who'd succumbed to the plague were avoided), I was going to be asking some friends for help. I was a fiercely independent man...I hated asking anyone for help. In fact, two weeks ago when I'd smashed my fingers under the longboat, I never did ask anyone for help setting the fingers. Instead, Pork had noticed me favoring that hand the day after and had insisted on setting them. Not only were my fingers broken...no, my wrist was too. Thankfully, it hadn't been a compound fracture. Many pirates (or farmers, for that matter) who ended up getting a compound fracture ended up losing the limb. I couldn't be an infamous pirate without a hand. Of course, I also couldn't be an infamous pirate with only one hand. My right hand was in a sling. It was embarrassing. But that wasn't why we were here.
"Jack," she muttered softly, putting a hand on my knee. "Relax." I turned away from the window and glanced at her. She looked absolutely radiant, sitting next to me on the springboard. Riding in this carriage had to be uncomfortable for her. It really didn't surprise me that she asked to stop to empty her bladder so often...all that jolting...boy, I was glad I wasn't a woman. However, she did look beautiful. Her slightly thin face had filled out quite perfectly, through the course of her pregnancy. I even thought that her large protruding belly was rather beautiful. Everything about her was perfect...well, not really. If everything about her was perfect, we wouldn't be here. She'd been having contractions. Horrible contractions. In fact, the midwife I took her to see four days ago in Tortuga had warned me she might give birth at any moment. Which wasn't good...she was only eight months along. Now, I know that babies born prematurely in the future can survive...but infant mortality for babies born at the right time was so staggering I wanted to take no chances. The midwife had suggested that I find her a relaxing place where she could spend the rest of her pregnancy in bed...and...so...the first thing that had come to my mind was Port Royal. I'm sure she would've been able to stay in bed in my cabin...but I'd go nuts having her there and not making her participate in strenuous activity. At least in Port Royal, I would be uncomfortable in someone else's home and would be less likely to do that sort of thing. Besides...the crew did deserve a bit of a vacation. Gibbs and Anamaria had joint control of the Pearl until I returned after the baby was a month old or so. The sacrifice didn't seem too horrible, at the moment...I was worried about her, actually. No time to think about the Pearl.
I sighed slightly and put my good hand on top of her's. "How can I relax?" I was nearing the lion's den, so to speak. What if Norrington found me? I hadn't had enough time to get into my disguise or whatever because I hadn't liked the way the tavern keeper in Kingston had looked at her advanced state... Well, I can afford to be jealous once in a while, can't I?
"Well, you could stop looking out the window every two minutes, for one." She smiled slightly and I thought my heart would melt. I was doing this all for her, after all. Amazing what sort of odd things love can make you do, isn't it? "Will and Elizabeth will probably not mind at all," she added reassuringly.
"I don't like it." Did it really matter what I thought? No. This was for her. I just had to keep reminding myself that. Going to Will and Elizabeth Turner's home...well...for help? It was disgusting. I was disgusted that my mind had turned to them first. They were my closest friends, though, that didn't swear or cheat or lie or try to stab you in the back (as far as I knew) that had a house. They'd been married for nearly two years now. I'd really thought they'd never be married. It had been a very nice wedding with lots of champagne. I got the impression that Governor Swann felt like he was settling for his daughter...but the couple had obviously been in love. Norrington...well, that man had been the most disappointed and jealous man I've probably ever had the pleasure of seeing. Of course, no one realized I'd been there. I was rather good at disguising myself, if I had to. And, in that case, I'd had to. Norrington's reward on my head was now up to the staggering sum of 394 doubloons. I don't know why he chose such a random number...but it went up after the wedding. Norrington seemed to be throwing himself into his work, even though he was married as well. To my niece, actually, but that's a story I'd rather not go into.
"Don't like what?" she asked, clearly curious. I said a lot of ambiguous things, remember? " Begging for help?" My silence was enough of an answer, I guess, because then she added, "Jack, you know and I know that I can't handle it anymore."
Well, at least we were touching on the important issues, eh? "Tha's what I don't like. How can such a small thing be so much trouble?" Obviously I was referring to the baby. What else could it be that was being so inconvenient? If the child weren't as stubborn as I was, we wouldn't be in this predicament. Couldn't I have a normal child?
"Babies have a way of trying to annoy people," she replied with a tired sigh, her free hand resting lightly on her rather large belly. She had been miserable for the past few months and then the early contractions had started...I'll never forget how afraid she'd been when she'd woken me up five nights ago. Poor lass really needed a mother figure or something. I obviously couldn't tell her what to expect during the birth of our child. I'd never gone through it. I'd never even seen a woman give birth. I'd heard about it, yes, but I'd never seen it. I felt so...inadequate. She'd had swollen ankles for the past two months. It was hard for her to walk around and she had to use the bathroom all the time. Obviously miserable. And I couldn't do anything to help her other than compliment her and offer her encouragement and foot massages.
I was silent for a while. What was I supposed to say to that? If I agreed, she might start crying or something. Her emotions were frazzled. Was it like this with every baby? If so...well, I was fairly tempted to try some contraceptive techniques after she recovered from the birth of our child. You only need one kid, right? More than that gets to be a bit annoying and difficult.
Frowning, I looked out the window again. My doom was drawing ever nearer as the horses slowly plodded their way to the city. Why had we been running so far behind schedule? I'd only had enough time to slowly weave the trinkets in my hair out of my hair. They were resting in a small valise under the chair of this rather expensive carriage. How could they pay so much for such shoddy transportation? Of course, I was terrified of horses. Why? Well, once, when I'd been about five or six, I'd jumped out of our family carriage on the way to church and had nearly been trampled to death by a horse about ten times larger than I was. I'd escaped the mess with major bruising and a broken rib and now I was paranoid they were all trying to walk all over me. Silly fear, I know, but I hadn't tried doing anything to get rid of the fear once I'd run to sea. It'd been scary, getting into this small confined space with horses drawing it. Besides, the interior of the carriage was decorated with that horrible red color the curtains were. It was like being inside someone's body or something. I almost pictured blood dribbling down the crimson cloth covering most of the wooden carriage. It was a closed carriage, actually, because of my fear that I'd be recognized. And, as previously mentioned, it was expensive. I could buy enough food to comfortably live on for a week with how much the rental of this thing was. "This is ridiculous."
"So you've said." She seemed to be getting a bit mad with me. Well, I couldn't blame her. Sometimes I brought up topics that really bothered me five or six times in one conversation until I got it resolved in the maze that is my mind. She sighed slightly and started drumming her fingers on my knee. Maybe it was supposed to be a distraction. Or maybe she didn't realize she was doing it. It felt funny, either way, because the dancing fingers were hitting both my good hand and my knee.
I felt like I had to validate myself a bit as I turned my head away from the window and glanced at her again. She was beautiful, even with a tired expression pulling at the corner of her mouth. She was probably also in a lot of pain because every once in a while she'd grab my knee for a moment and grimace. "Well, it is. I'm not even sure if they've started livin' t'gether yet. The boy moves like a slug around women, honest 'e does."
"I know." Her hand grabbed onto my knee as the cabin jolted. Apparently we'd gone over quite a large tree root. Bloody tree...it made her face all pale. I hated seeing people I loved in pain...this was torture.
She wasn't supposed to agree with me, though. Obviously the two had consummated their marriage...right? I didn't really think Will was that slow. I just liked insulting him because he was such an easy target and wasn't very good at throwing insults back. "You'll be bored," I pointed out. I was grasping at straws...anything to keep me from knocking on their door. Captain Jack Sparrow, coming to get help from a respectable blacksmith with his own shop? That was ridiculous. Even more so because of the nature of this visit. How would they react when they saw me help out a pregnant woman half my age? I could almost picture the looks of surprise on their faces...it wasn't something I really wanted to see.
"You'll be with me. How can I be bored?" She grinned and giggled lightly, kissing me on the cheek impulsively as the horses' hooves started falling on stone, rather than dirt. Apparently we were entering the city limits. "Come on, Jack...the baby will be here, hopefully, in about a month. It'll only be another month after that. We can handle being in a stuffy city that long."
I sighed and shook my head lightly. "You'll still be bored. Ye don' know what aristocrats are like." She really didn't. And I did. She would soon realize why I'd turned to piracy. It was mostly to escape boredom. Of course, the life of a pirate wasn't all fun and games and killing people. There were long stretches at sea where life became very monotonous and boring, especially if there was no wind. But you didn't have to follow all the rules that civilized society devised...if you got bored on a pirate ship, you could start a game of poker after your shift was over. All captains carried around an emergency supply of alcohol, too. When spirits started flagging too much, you'd break out the barrel of rum and would have some sort of party to make a diversion. Wealthy people's parties were always incredibly dry and boring. Full of the same stuff the rest of their days were full of. I don't really understand some people's obsession with vanity...greed is so much more entertaining and it takes less preening and more hard work. In most cases.
"I don't think Elizabeth is that boring, Jack." Wow...she'd caught my insult to Elizabeth in that last comment. Then again, she had seen what had happened when I'd met Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann more times than I had. There were a lot of things I said that I think she understood more than I did. It was creepy. Of course, I don't like thinking of myself giving off odd references to things I've never heard of or considered without realizing it. Fortunately, she didn't point it out often.
"Well, you think wrong. I grew up wiv these kind of people..." I made a face and pretended to hang myself. "I'd almost rather dance the hempen jig, t' tell the truth." I grinned and chuckled lightly at the rather shocked expression on her tender and impressionable face. It wasn't often that I made a reference to death so lightly. Death was not a laughing matter, after all.
"Jack Sparrow...calm down. We're nearly there." She scowled at me slightly and then kissed me abruptly. Once that very pleasant experience was over, she grabbed onto my shoulder as the carriage turned and slowed to a complete stop. The driver jumped off the front of the carriage and onto the ground and started walking towards the door.
"I'd say we're here," I replied with a slight frown. She could tell how nervous I was, though, because of the look in my eyes, probably. Blast those eyes of mine...they were too expressive, sometimes. Ah well. She kissed me lightly again before the man opened the door.
"The Turner household," he announced, stepping back so I could get out of the carriage. Taking a deep, reassuring breath, I did just that. Well, this would be a grand adventure of a different sort, wouldn't it?
Jack: Jack is always rambling...or have you not picked up on that, yet? Sometimes his rambling is interesting, sometimes it is confusing...ah well. Thank you for the review, nonetheless. And I hope you found this chapter a bit more interesting. It was originally going to have Will and Elizabeth in it...but then Jack decided he wanted to do a bunch of rambling...As for the second child...well, there is ten years I haven't covered in his life...
sunkist3208: Well, now you know that Rowling got that from Shakespeare. -nods- And that rocks! Tis always fun to talk to teachers about things other than school...I think that it'll be either Mr. Weasley or Hagrid. Well, maybe not. I need to read those books again.
Thank you! I try to capture his character (of course, I captured it a long while ago...now I can't get out of it) in each of my chapters. And I like throwing in modern day views on things because it helps readers relate to him. Or is supposed to. Anyway, I wouldn't want to write a story about a man that treated women like a lesser species.
I'm glad I clarified the name thing up for you...this next chapter is going to be difficult. Because I can't have Jack really introduce her to Will and Elizabeth. Maybe Elizabeth will just have to give her a nickname...I think Will might refer to her as Mrs. Sparrow or something stupid. Probably not. I'm just on a sugar high...tis nearly tomorrow.
Thanks for the lollipop! I lurve giant pieces of candy!
Johnny'shumiliatedgrape: Ha...I have the same way of thinking, now. I make the oddest connections because I have to think like Jack when I write this fanfic. You might want to check out my other fanfics...I go a lot more into Jack's history, in them. Of course, the story with the horse...well, that was made up for kicks and giggles, in this chapter. I've gotta give him some weaknesses, after all. He can't be perfect, even though he almost looks that way... -drool-
Ah, yes. Thank you for the uber long review! It was so entertaining. And...well, I don't like giving people happy endings...no. Just kidding. This story will have a mostly happy ending, I promise. Of course, she won't be in the ending, which is why I switched off to Jack's point of view when they went to the past...but it will be mostly happy. I swear.
I actually haven't seen pictures of his kids, but I imagine they're really cute. And I didn't intend to put that reference in there...or, rather, Jack didn't intend to put that in there...
After seeing the Oscars tonight...well, I feel like I need to watch one of his movies. Of course, I didn't get home until ten from the Oscar party, so there wasn't enough time (yet what did I do? I typed this whole chapter up and stayed up that late anyway) for me to. But I personally own Benny & Joon and Pirates. My mum is giving me Secret Window when I go off to college...I'm not supposed to watch rated R movies but I do anyway if they have Johnny in 'em...obsessed, I am. We should start a fan club or a Johnny Depp Anonymous or something.
He was really sexy at the Oscars, as I've said before. And I know that PotC 3 doesn't come out until 2007...six months after July 2006 is 2007.
I think all teachers everywhere are trying to make our lives as miserable as possible...I've been going through a real slump, lately. Well, not yesterday and today. I got this chapter out of my head in about an hour and forty five minutes...the next chapter will be very interesting and confusing, all at the same time.
"She" is almost 18. I shall mention that in the next chapter when Elizabeth says something. I already have about a quarter of that dialogue typed out...I find it helpful to write the dialogue before I write the actual chapter...if that makes any sense...when doing this fanfic because of Jack's rambling mind...
I hope this was a fast enough update for ya. -grins- I really did enjoy your review...I like the long ones. And that is a snazzy pin. -snuggles- Merci!
orcachick2005: Well, if it is helpful for you to let your ideas stew...go ahead. There was a time with The Emerald Eyes when I was actually a chapter ahead of my updates...that didn't last long. Sometimes I'm really in the mood for writing fanfics and I have to get it all up and updated before I decide I don't like that idea after all. That's happened before...
And I hadn't noticed that you changed your first chapter. Fanfic doesn't send e-mails when that happens...I shall re-read the ending.
I like writing touching things once in a while. Its so I can make you all cry-giggles- No, just kidding. Of course, I can't come right out on here and say what I have planned for her. I'm fairly sure most people who read these comments I make to your reviews have figured it out...but I can't answer that question directly. I might've already...
Moving on, though, since I need to go to bed...
I couldn't bear to kill of Jack at the end. It'd be like killing half of my brain. Honestly, I think like him...I'm becoming him. There's a lot less of Erica in everything I write...
And I know that cats don't really have venom. That was out of context and sarcasm from me. The way I said it made sense, in the chapter. I was poking fun with sarcasm, you see. Venom can be more than stuff that makes your hand swell up and maybe fall off.
It was a boring chapter...hopefully this one is a bit more interesting, even though it is boring too. Don't worry...the interesting one will be the one after the next one. And thanks for the review! (Good thing I don't have my address on the internet, eh? Otherwise maybe I would be mobbed...)
Eccentric Banshee: Don't be ashamed, luv. Really, don't be. I know how hectic life can be. Honest, I do. I just want you to keep updating...I don't expect encouragement from such a good writer as yourself.
Though...the bribes are nice... -forgives you unconditionally-
Yeah...funny how you don't notice that, eh? I do. Boy, is it hard when there's two women in the same chapter. Jack sounds all possessive and whatever by calling her his bonny lass...the only real distinction I can make since Jack isn't going to marry her... If I'd stayed in her POV, it would be a lot easier..like Invisible Man or Rebecca. I've never seen Collateral. Maybe I should...
I will give the story a mostly happy ending. I swear. It will just not be what you expect.
I will and do and shall drop you a line. If that makes sense. I'm speeding through these replies so I can get this up and go to bed...bah. Stupid school.
CrazyPirateGirl: Yeah...that sort of thing kinda happens. Especially when you're going for realism...since you happened to be the first person to leave a review after one of my updates, you get a loverly copy of the Pirates of the Caribbean game for Game Boy Advance. Thanks for the encouragement!
