Hey, school is finally out! Yeah! I got my year and report back and I
passed...GRADE 11 BABY YEAH! Anyway, enough about me and my bragging. This is
an okay chapter...Jack's half-naked near the end...No NO NO NO! Don't skip it
all and go right to that! The good stuff always comes at the end of
everything! Hold on! Read really really fast then if you're so anxious!
Chapter nine ship on the horizon
Tortuga was less enjoyable then Anamaria had ever remembered it. Even the fight in the bar with a large bellied ugly brute wasn't as fun. She was glad when they finally started off again. "Secure the rigging!" Jack yelled, walking across the ship and bellowing orders left and right. "Watch that cable! Secure that barrel! Gibbs, that can go down below!" Gibbs, who had been holding a barrel of rum fondly under his arm, looked up at the captain through misty eyes.
"But...sir," He began. Jack shook his head warningly and Gibbs stalked off, muttering under his breath. Anamaria held the wheel beneath her hands, feeling the rough black wood with loving hands. This was not just Jack's baby and he wouldn't boot her off wheel duty so easily. She could see it in his eyes as he approached that that was what he was about to do.
"Luv," Anamaria glared. "You can leave. I'll take her out."
"No, you can rest you look exhausted." She gave him an up and down sweep, taking in his wrinkled cloths, getting looser and looser on him every day, his pale face and kohl-less eyes which were still ringed with black. "Please...Jack."
"Cap'n sweet heart. Go." He tried to take the wheel but Anamaria stood her ground.
"If you don't want a smartin' face you'll be takin' your hands off the wheel." She growled. Jack pressed a shoulder into hers and tried to body check her aside but she still wouldn't move. "No." She hissed. "She may be your ship but I brought her into the harbor and I'll take her out."
"Listen woman." Jack hissed back, both unaware that the Black Pearl was slowly moving left, into another ship. "Give me the wheel." Anamaria shoved him harder, both sliding on the slippery deck.
"No." She said. "Get your own!"
"This is mine." Jack whispered. Many of the men were now either watching them or watching the other ship, which was getting far to closer for comfort. "I could have you whipped for this." Anamaria let go, shocked and Jack took the wheel. She stood there, watching his back before she walked away, with out even so much as a backwards glance and didn't slow her pace until she'd gone to the crew quarters. How could he threaten her like that?
Jack watched her go, a strange surge of pleasure washing through him until it turned to guilt, rising like bile in his throat. He'd just threatened to whip Anamaria, the one person on the ship he felt comfortable with. She'd only been looking out for him but...but what? He was afraid to lose control? Jack turned away from the other ship they had been about to crash into and waved at the men on board who were shaking fists and throwing insults at him, taking the Pearl into open water. He didn't want to lose control...he didn't want to lose Anamaria and, with a sickening thought, he realized that out burst had not been his. It was the curse it had to be.
Gibbs came up the stairs slowly, watching him. Jack didn't remove his gaze from the ocean until his old friend was right up beside him. "Lil power struggle there Cap'n?" He asked. Jack smiled and shook his head. "Lil love struggle there Cap'n?" Jack looked at Gibbs evilly. "Both tryin' to wear the pants?"
"You've gone to far Gibbs." He said, warningly and realizing at the same time he didn't want to say that to Gibbs either. Gibbs shrugged and leaned against the railing. "Me and the miss don't love each other and never will."
Gibbs chuckled, much to Jack's annoyance. "Ah, is that why ye refrain from usin' her name?" He asked. Jack took a deep breath and looked out to the ocean. "Because you couldn't bear to make it any more personal?"
"Don't you have rum to drink?" Jack asked. Gibbs took his weight off the rail and walked away.
"Aye, I do." He called over his shoulder, leaving Jack to think about what he had said.
Anamaria walked slowly down the rocking staircase, worn and warped in some places as so the wood bent beneath the weight of her step, and hit the main hall through which she walked, passing the galley and taking in the warm smell of food. The cook, Marseilles gave her a friendly smile and waved her over to him.
He was cooking a weird gruel mixture and wanted her to try it. Anamaria tried not to make a face at the disgusting taste that filled her mouth and thought with almost a weird longing, the crap they served in Tortuga. "Very good Marseilles. Just a little more flavor." Marseilles nodded and went back to his cooking. Anamaria turned to go but found her way blocked by Jamey.
"Move." She snapped. Jamey held his ground.
"I saw you having a lil' spat with the Cap'n." He said, grabbing an apple from a bowl beside him. "Not givin' him the wheel when he asks is dangerous. Look at poor Georgie."
"Georgie was an idiot and deserved what he got. I am no fool now, move." Jamey smiled and looked over Anamaria's shoulder at Marseilles.
"The lil lady is mad I see." He said slyly. Anamaria clenched her fist and prepared herself for an attack, not by him but by her. She took a deep breath and, un-noticed by Jamey, took her stance.
"I wouldn' make 'er mad." Marseilles said. "She's no' one ta back down." Jamey gave Marseilles a skeptical look over Anamaria's shoulder.
"I could take her." Suddenly, Anamaria lunged with the speed an agility she'd acquired from her years in Tortuga. She grabbed Jamey with one arm looped around his throat, holding his hair tight with her fist and the other around his waist. They crashed to the floor and Anamaria managed to get on top of him, holding herself so all he could do was flip and squirm beneath her. Before he knew it, Anamaria had grabbed Jamey's left hand and seized the index finger and the thumb and was wrenching them apart.
"Do you surrender?" She yelled. Jamey tried to get loose so she grabbed his nose and twisted. "Do you surrender." Still he didn't answer but grabbed the back of her neck so she grabbed his arms and pulled the left on to the right and the right one to the left so they crossed over his neck. Jamey's face turned red before he finally screamed mercy.
"Tough lil bugger ain' 'e?" Anamaria smiled and left the galley, heading up the hallway and rubbing her neck where Jamey had grabbed her. Little bugger had lasted longer then she had thought he would. She found Elizabeth at the table in her cabin when Anamaria entered.
"Oh, hello." Elizabeth said, looking up only for a moment before returning to her writing. The book's pages, Anamaria could see, were almost completely full and, as she watched, Elizabeth turned over a new page and wrote on a fresh sheet. "You look bothered about something."
"I'm fine." Anamaria said, going to the dresser and pulling out a fresh shirt. "Will you be using my cabin again or is Jack giving you new accommodations?" Elizabeth's quill stopped scratching but Anamaria didn't turn to ask why as she pulled the new shirt over her head and threw the other beside the bed.
"You're mad at Jack." She said. Anamaria turned around to look at the other woman who sat watching her by the light of the candle beside her. Anamaria glanced out the tiny round window and realized that the sun was gone.
"No I am not." Anamaria answered defensively, sitting down on the bed. Elizabeth raised an eyebrow. "Guess you heard about the fight."
"No, I heard about no fight. I've been down here by myself since the crew started loading supplies. Tortuga is an awful place, one which I do not intend to go to any time in the future I might add." She dipped her quill in the inkpot and began writing again. "It was just the subtle way you said his name that put me onto the conclusion that you had a fight with him."
Surprised, Anamaria unintentionally leaned closer to Elizabeth. "How so?"
"Well, you usually say his name different. Either with a soft tone or one of thoughtful tone that also suggests some other things as well." Anamaria could guess what those other things were but was glad Elizabeth was giving her the chance to play dumb at that. "Tonight, however, you spoke with much more vehemence which told me you to had been fighting so..." She trailed off and Anamaria got up and sat down at the table across from her. Looking down at the loopy handwriting, which she couldn't read, Anamaria thought about what Elizabeth had just said.
"You can really tell...everything?" Elizabeth smiled blandly.
"Only women can tell those things, don't worry." She said. Anamaria smiled at her and then pointed to what Elizabeth was writing.
"More baby names?" She asked. Elizabeth shook her head.
"No, it's a journal of everything that has happened the last few days. I just started not to long ago." She sighed and closed the book. "It'll be finished by the end of the journey. I wrote one for the last adventure I had. Maybe, someday, it'll be a book."
"Oh, what did you call it?" Elizabeth's face blushed but only for a moment. Evidently she was a little embarrassed about the subject.
"Pirates of the Caribbean." She said. "The Curse of the Black Pearl." Anamaria smiled.
"I like that." She answered. "I like that a lot."
A few days later, the Black Pearl was to be found anchored near a small island a ways out, rocking gently on the water. The crew had been increasingly agitated and Jack had decided to give them a break. Elizabeth and Will played in the water in a small cove a short distance away from the other men, swimming in the deep clear water, kissing and splashing.
The crew themselves partied in the water and on the beach, barrels of rum here and there some bone dry others not even cracked. Gibbs led a corus of a 'Pirate's life for me' to the annoyance of Anamaria who decided to go and explore the island by herself.
As the sounds of 'We're devils and black sheep and really bad eggs, drink up me 'earties yo ho' faded and the sound of swaying palms took it's place, Anamaria slowed down and let herself be engulfed by the cool shade around her.
About half way into the deep forest of lush green, the sound of a waterfall met her ears and she sped up, anxious to see it. It was a towering wall of cascading water, falling steadily down from a tall rocky ledge. Anamaria was just about to climb down the grassy slope towards it when a figure at the bottom met her eyes.
Jack was there, right underneath the falling water, up to his waist in the pool below. She could see the tops of his pants just about the black pool but other then that he was completely naked. She ducked down behind a bush, unsure as to why she was hiding from him, and watched, her eyes roving over his bandanna-less brow and bead free hair, to his chest with it's bullet scars and deep cuts to his waist, submerged in the water.
He turned away from her and she gasped at the long thin lines that were cut deep into his back from a whip no doubt. She had never seen his back before and now it startled her. When he turned back his eyes were closed so Anamaria thought it safe to make her escape until...
"Anamaria, come here please." Jack's voice floated up to her; just audible over the tumbling water he was submerged it. Anamaria turned slowly and looked down; Jack's eyes were still closed. Sighing, she walked carefully down the slope, slipping and sliding in the mud until she reached the bottom and sat on a damp rock to watch her captain. He tilted his head back and shivered, letting the water run down his face. "How long have you been standing there I wonder."
"You know, for a man who's always freezing to death you seem to be enjoying that water immensely." Jack smiled and let his head drop, opening his eyes to stare at her.
"It's a little cold." He said, shivering again, weather to exaggerate his point or by accident she didn't know. "Why don't you join me. Get clean yourself."
"I am clean." Anamaria replied. Jack chuckled.
"That's why you smell like Gibbs in the stables." He closed his eyes but opened one enough to look at her. "Is there something you haven't told me?" Anamaria smiled sarcastically.
"No, I tell you everything." Jack nodded and closed his peeping eye. Sighing, Anamaria sat there for a moment then began to strip off her boots, wading into the cool water still in her pants and billowing white shirt. The water actually wasn't as cold as she'd first thought when looking at it.
She played away from the waterfall for a few minutes but the look of the falling water was to tempting and soon she was under it to, standing side by side with Jack as the beads massaged her body.
"Feels good?" He asked. Anamaria smiled.
"Very." She replied. "When I was younger, my father took me to a waterfall. We played under it for hours. The last time I was under one was with..." She almost blurted out her husband's name but fell silent, glad when Jack didn't encourage her to continue.
"I haven't been under one since the Pearl was taken from me." He said. Anamaria opened her eyes and turned to him, blinking away water that ran into her eyes.
"About the other day," She began. Jack spun around to look at her so fast it made Anamaria step back in alarm. He held up a hand and she fell silent.
"No, it was actually..." Was he apologizing? "Will's fault." Anamaria's heart sank. That would have been a story to tell in pubs, 'Jack Sparrow apologizes'. No one would have believed her. "Damn whelp got me all worked up about his stunts in Tortuga I lost me head. If you're going to hit someone, let it be him."
"I'm not going to hit anyone." Anamaria said. "And I doubt it was the whelp." Jack raised an eyebrow. "You were at fault so don't go blaming him."
"I'm at fault?" He asked. "You're the one who wouldn't give me the wheel luv."
"Don't call me luv!" Anamaria said, her voice rising. Jack's was to.
"You don't have to be in control all the time darling. The crew won't think you're weak or something if you're a girl because you can't pilot the bloody ship!"
"You don't have to be in control all the time either." Anamaria retorted. "The crew won't think you're weak if you tell them what's really going on with you or what we're really doing. They're smart, they'll notice sooner or later that you're sick!" Jack's face suddenly paled. "And you can confide in me about the nightmares you have." She'd just blurted that out, revealing to him that she knew about the horse. Jack stood there watching her with his mouth hanging open. He seemed to be tipping like a scale between yelling at her or kissing her. Anamaria couldn't take it anymore. She spun around and waded through the deep water to the edge. She was half way out of the pool before Jack grabbed her and spun her around to face him.
"Don't you walk away from me when I'm talking to you." Anamaria turned and smacked him hard across the face. Jack grabbed her around the waist and suddenly they were under the pool's surface, fighting with each other, Jack pulling her down and her hitting him to get away. When they surfaced bother were exhausted and Jack's cheek was beat red.
"Don't grab me like that again." Anamaria said, wrenching her arm from his grasp and slapping him again. "That's for pulling me underwater." Suddenly he grabbed the back of her neck and pulled her close to him. She tried to get away but he was too strong for her.
"Don't slap me again or I'll pull you underwater." He said.
"Then don't be a prat." She answered. They're faces were getting closer and closer. Anamaria could feel his breath on her face, stronger and stronger. They were going to kiss. She could feel the coolness of his skin coming closer to hers as if it was a heat radiating from it. As they're lips brushed, however...
"Cap'n." Anamaria pulled away quickly and looked up the slope to the top. Gibbs stood there, sweat on his face and a look of panic. He didn't even seem to notice that the two people below had been on the verge of passion. "Cap'n there is a ship on the horizon." He said. Jack swore and waded to the edge, pulling himself out of the pool and grabbing his shirt and boots. Anamaria stood there for a moment before she followed. She walked a little way behind Gibbs, preoccupied with what had just happened...or didn't happen. Had they been about to kiss?
"You told me to get you when somethin' like this happened sir." Gibbs was saying briskly. "You knew?"
"I knew we were being followed." Jack answered, as they reached the beach. Anamaria looked out onto the water and saw a handsome pirate ship coming closer and closer, drawing level with the almost vacant Pearl. Jack took a telescope from Moises and squinted through it. He gazed at the approaching ship for a long moment before he smiled. "Tell the men to get ready for friendly company. It's okay, it's just Edward Mulan." Gibb's brow furrowed.
"I've heard that." He said.
"Yes. He's Cap'n of the Blue Sphere." Jack said. "Nice guy, good pirate. He knew Blackbeard." Anamaria rolled her eyes. It looked like they'd be dinning with crazy pirates tonight...more crazy pirates tonight.
To all my reviewers: Thank you for your continued support of this fic. I feel so barren with out working on the first potc fic so, you keep my spirits up. Sorry it took so long, what with school, a summer job and having no internet and no inspiration. Just hang in there, I finally know where I'm going with this! Thanx!
To my reviewers:
GAZE: Thank you so much for stumbling onto my fic. It's wonderful to have a new reviewer! Thank you with your comments about how I have my characters down to a 't', I was kinda worried about that part. That was a great line, I liked it to so thank you again...man I say thank you a lot. Thank you again (again) and I hope you become one of my regular reviewers.
DRAGONHUNTER200: Thanks, I liked the title. How late were you up that night? Just a question. Your so right, what did the rum eer do to anyone? Honestly. Yes, I didn't know if I should put that close a relationship between Bill and Jack but I finally decided to. Actually, my fingers decided for me and I just went along with them. I never did think of how Bill got captured but I'm gonna have I explained in the next chapter, if I remember, so don't worry. How old is your brother compared to you? Anyways, keep reading and reviewing.
ALTENG: I've been kicked out of my own room and house before so I know what it's like...well, with the house I wasn't really kicked out, I ran out to get away from my brother in law who I was bugging and he decided to kill me. He just doesn't have any luck at all except for the flukie sort. I hope in the next potc they have that flukie luck again, hey? Gibbs always walks in on the worst moments, doesn't he?
Chapter nine ship on the horizon
Tortuga was less enjoyable then Anamaria had ever remembered it. Even the fight in the bar with a large bellied ugly brute wasn't as fun. She was glad when they finally started off again. "Secure the rigging!" Jack yelled, walking across the ship and bellowing orders left and right. "Watch that cable! Secure that barrel! Gibbs, that can go down below!" Gibbs, who had been holding a barrel of rum fondly under his arm, looked up at the captain through misty eyes.
"But...sir," He began. Jack shook his head warningly and Gibbs stalked off, muttering under his breath. Anamaria held the wheel beneath her hands, feeling the rough black wood with loving hands. This was not just Jack's baby and he wouldn't boot her off wheel duty so easily. She could see it in his eyes as he approached that that was what he was about to do.
"Luv," Anamaria glared. "You can leave. I'll take her out."
"No, you can rest you look exhausted." She gave him an up and down sweep, taking in his wrinkled cloths, getting looser and looser on him every day, his pale face and kohl-less eyes which were still ringed with black. "Please...Jack."
"Cap'n sweet heart. Go." He tried to take the wheel but Anamaria stood her ground.
"If you don't want a smartin' face you'll be takin' your hands off the wheel." She growled. Jack pressed a shoulder into hers and tried to body check her aside but she still wouldn't move. "No." She hissed. "She may be your ship but I brought her into the harbor and I'll take her out."
"Listen woman." Jack hissed back, both unaware that the Black Pearl was slowly moving left, into another ship. "Give me the wheel." Anamaria shoved him harder, both sliding on the slippery deck.
"No." She said. "Get your own!"
"This is mine." Jack whispered. Many of the men were now either watching them or watching the other ship, which was getting far to closer for comfort. "I could have you whipped for this." Anamaria let go, shocked and Jack took the wheel. She stood there, watching his back before she walked away, with out even so much as a backwards glance and didn't slow her pace until she'd gone to the crew quarters. How could he threaten her like that?
Jack watched her go, a strange surge of pleasure washing through him until it turned to guilt, rising like bile in his throat. He'd just threatened to whip Anamaria, the one person on the ship he felt comfortable with. She'd only been looking out for him but...but what? He was afraid to lose control? Jack turned away from the other ship they had been about to crash into and waved at the men on board who were shaking fists and throwing insults at him, taking the Pearl into open water. He didn't want to lose control...he didn't want to lose Anamaria and, with a sickening thought, he realized that out burst had not been his. It was the curse it had to be.
Gibbs came up the stairs slowly, watching him. Jack didn't remove his gaze from the ocean until his old friend was right up beside him. "Lil power struggle there Cap'n?" He asked. Jack smiled and shook his head. "Lil love struggle there Cap'n?" Jack looked at Gibbs evilly. "Both tryin' to wear the pants?"
"You've gone to far Gibbs." He said, warningly and realizing at the same time he didn't want to say that to Gibbs either. Gibbs shrugged and leaned against the railing. "Me and the miss don't love each other and never will."
Gibbs chuckled, much to Jack's annoyance. "Ah, is that why ye refrain from usin' her name?" He asked. Jack took a deep breath and looked out to the ocean. "Because you couldn't bear to make it any more personal?"
"Don't you have rum to drink?" Jack asked. Gibbs took his weight off the rail and walked away.
"Aye, I do." He called over his shoulder, leaving Jack to think about what he had said.
Anamaria walked slowly down the rocking staircase, worn and warped in some places as so the wood bent beneath the weight of her step, and hit the main hall through which she walked, passing the galley and taking in the warm smell of food. The cook, Marseilles gave her a friendly smile and waved her over to him.
He was cooking a weird gruel mixture and wanted her to try it. Anamaria tried not to make a face at the disgusting taste that filled her mouth and thought with almost a weird longing, the crap they served in Tortuga. "Very good Marseilles. Just a little more flavor." Marseilles nodded and went back to his cooking. Anamaria turned to go but found her way blocked by Jamey.
"Move." She snapped. Jamey held his ground.
"I saw you having a lil' spat with the Cap'n." He said, grabbing an apple from a bowl beside him. "Not givin' him the wheel when he asks is dangerous. Look at poor Georgie."
"Georgie was an idiot and deserved what he got. I am no fool now, move." Jamey smiled and looked over Anamaria's shoulder at Marseilles.
"The lil lady is mad I see." He said slyly. Anamaria clenched her fist and prepared herself for an attack, not by him but by her. She took a deep breath and, un-noticed by Jamey, took her stance.
"I wouldn' make 'er mad." Marseilles said. "She's no' one ta back down." Jamey gave Marseilles a skeptical look over Anamaria's shoulder.
"I could take her." Suddenly, Anamaria lunged with the speed an agility she'd acquired from her years in Tortuga. She grabbed Jamey with one arm looped around his throat, holding his hair tight with her fist and the other around his waist. They crashed to the floor and Anamaria managed to get on top of him, holding herself so all he could do was flip and squirm beneath her. Before he knew it, Anamaria had grabbed Jamey's left hand and seized the index finger and the thumb and was wrenching them apart.
"Do you surrender?" She yelled. Jamey tried to get loose so she grabbed his nose and twisted. "Do you surrender." Still he didn't answer but grabbed the back of her neck so she grabbed his arms and pulled the left on to the right and the right one to the left so they crossed over his neck. Jamey's face turned red before he finally screamed mercy.
"Tough lil bugger ain' 'e?" Anamaria smiled and left the galley, heading up the hallway and rubbing her neck where Jamey had grabbed her. Little bugger had lasted longer then she had thought he would. She found Elizabeth at the table in her cabin when Anamaria entered.
"Oh, hello." Elizabeth said, looking up only for a moment before returning to her writing. The book's pages, Anamaria could see, were almost completely full and, as she watched, Elizabeth turned over a new page and wrote on a fresh sheet. "You look bothered about something."
"I'm fine." Anamaria said, going to the dresser and pulling out a fresh shirt. "Will you be using my cabin again or is Jack giving you new accommodations?" Elizabeth's quill stopped scratching but Anamaria didn't turn to ask why as she pulled the new shirt over her head and threw the other beside the bed.
"You're mad at Jack." She said. Anamaria turned around to look at the other woman who sat watching her by the light of the candle beside her. Anamaria glanced out the tiny round window and realized that the sun was gone.
"No I am not." Anamaria answered defensively, sitting down on the bed. Elizabeth raised an eyebrow. "Guess you heard about the fight."
"No, I heard about no fight. I've been down here by myself since the crew started loading supplies. Tortuga is an awful place, one which I do not intend to go to any time in the future I might add." She dipped her quill in the inkpot and began writing again. "It was just the subtle way you said his name that put me onto the conclusion that you had a fight with him."
Surprised, Anamaria unintentionally leaned closer to Elizabeth. "How so?"
"Well, you usually say his name different. Either with a soft tone or one of thoughtful tone that also suggests some other things as well." Anamaria could guess what those other things were but was glad Elizabeth was giving her the chance to play dumb at that. "Tonight, however, you spoke with much more vehemence which told me you to had been fighting so..." She trailed off and Anamaria got up and sat down at the table across from her. Looking down at the loopy handwriting, which she couldn't read, Anamaria thought about what Elizabeth had just said.
"You can really tell...everything?" Elizabeth smiled blandly.
"Only women can tell those things, don't worry." She said. Anamaria smiled at her and then pointed to what Elizabeth was writing.
"More baby names?" She asked. Elizabeth shook her head.
"No, it's a journal of everything that has happened the last few days. I just started not to long ago." She sighed and closed the book. "It'll be finished by the end of the journey. I wrote one for the last adventure I had. Maybe, someday, it'll be a book."
"Oh, what did you call it?" Elizabeth's face blushed but only for a moment. Evidently she was a little embarrassed about the subject.
"Pirates of the Caribbean." She said. "The Curse of the Black Pearl." Anamaria smiled.
"I like that." She answered. "I like that a lot."
A few days later, the Black Pearl was to be found anchored near a small island a ways out, rocking gently on the water. The crew had been increasingly agitated and Jack had decided to give them a break. Elizabeth and Will played in the water in a small cove a short distance away from the other men, swimming in the deep clear water, kissing and splashing.
The crew themselves partied in the water and on the beach, barrels of rum here and there some bone dry others not even cracked. Gibbs led a corus of a 'Pirate's life for me' to the annoyance of Anamaria who decided to go and explore the island by herself.
As the sounds of 'We're devils and black sheep and really bad eggs, drink up me 'earties yo ho' faded and the sound of swaying palms took it's place, Anamaria slowed down and let herself be engulfed by the cool shade around her.
About half way into the deep forest of lush green, the sound of a waterfall met her ears and she sped up, anxious to see it. It was a towering wall of cascading water, falling steadily down from a tall rocky ledge. Anamaria was just about to climb down the grassy slope towards it when a figure at the bottom met her eyes.
Jack was there, right underneath the falling water, up to his waist in the pool below. She could see the tops of his pants just about the black pool but other then that he was completely naked. She ducked down behind a bush, unsure as to why she was hiding from him, and watched, her eyes roving over his bandanna-less brow and bead free hair, to his chest with it's bullet scars and deep cuts to his waist, submerged in the water.
He turned away from her and she gasped at the long thin lines that were cut deep into his back from a whip no doubt. She had never seen his back before and now it startled her. When he turned back his eyes were closed so Anamaria thought it safe to make her escape until...
"Anamaria, come here please." Jack's voice floated up to her; just audible over the tumbling water he was submerged it. Anamaria turned slowly and looked down; Jack's eyes were still closed. Sighing, she walked carefully down the slope, slipping and sliding in the mud until she reached the bottom and sat on a damp rock to watch her captain. He tilted his head back and shivered, letting the water run down his face. "How long have you been standing there I wonder."
"You know, for a man who's always freezing to death you seem to be enjoying that water immensely." Jack smiled and let his head drop, opening his eyes to stare at her.
"It's a little cold." He said, shivering again, weather to exaggerate his point or by accident she didn't know. "Why don't you join me. Get clean yourself."
"I am clean." Anamaria replied. Jack chuckled.
"That's why you smell like Gibbs in the stables." He closed his eyes but opened one enough to look at her. "Is there something you haven't told me?" Anamaria smiled sarcastically.
"No, I tell you everything." Jack nodded and closed his peeping eye. Sighing, Anamaria sat there for a moment then began to strip off her boots, wading into the cool water still in her pants and billowing white shirt. The water actually wasn't as cold as she'd first thought when looking at it.
She played away from the waterfall for a few minutes but the look of the falling water was to tempting and soon she was under it to, standing side by side with Jack as the beads massaged her body.
"Feels good?" He asked. Anamaria smiled.
"Very." She replied. "When I was younger, my father took me to a waterfall. We played under it for hours. The last time I was under one was with..." She almost blurted out her husband's name but fell silent, glad when Jack didn't encourage her to continue.
"I haven't been under one since the Pearl was taken from me." He said. Anamaria opened her eyes and turned to him, blinking away water that ran into her eyes.
"About the other day," She began. Jack spun around to look at her so fast it made Anamaria step back in alarm. He held up a hand and she fell silent.
"No, it was actually..." Was he apologizing? "Will's fault." Anamaria's heart sank. That would have been a story to tell in pubs, 'Jack Sparrow apologizes'. No one would have believed her. "Damn whelp got me all worked up about his stunts in Tortuga I lost me head. If you're going to hit someone, let it be him."
"I'm not going to hit anyone." Anamaria said. "And I doubt it was the whelp." Jack raised an eyebrow. "You were at fault so don't go blaming him."
"I'm at fault?" He asked. "You're the one who wouldn't give me the wheel luv."
"Don't call me luv!" Anamaria said, her voice rising. Jack's was to.
"You don't have to be in control all the time darling. The crew won't think you're weak or something if you're a girl because you can't pilot the bloody ship!"
"You don't have to be in control all the time either." Anamaria retorted. "The crew won't think you're weak if you tell them what's really going on with you or what we're really doing. They're smart, they'll notice sooner or later that you're sick!" Jack's face suddenly paled. "And you can confide in me about the nightmares you have." She'd just blurted that out, revealing to him that she knew about the horse. Jack stood there watching her with his mouth hanging open. He seemed to be tipping like a scale between yelling at her or kissing her. Anamaria couldn't take it anymore. She spun around and waded through the deep water to the edge. She was half way out of the pool before Jack grabbed her and spun her around to face him.
"Don't you walk away from me when I'm talking to you." Anamaria turned and smacked him hard across the face. Jack grabbed her around the waist and suddenly they were under the pool's surface, fighting with each other, Jack pulling her down and her hitting him to get away. When they surfaced bother were exhausted and Jack's cheek was beat red.
"Don't grab me like that again." Anamaria said, wrenching her arm from his grasp and slapping him again. "That's for pulling me underwater." Suddenly he grabbed the back of her neck and pulled her close to him. She tried to get away but he was too strong for her.
"Don't slap me again or I'll pull you underwater." He said.
"Then don't be a prat." She answered. They're faces were getting closer and closer. Anamaria could feel his breath on her face, stronger and stronger. They were going to kiss. She could feel the coolness of his skin coming closer to hers as if it was a heat radiating from it. As they're lips brushed, however...
"Cap'n." Anamaria pulled away quickly and looked up the slope to the top. Gibbs stood there, sweat on his face and a look of panic. He didn't even seem to notice that the two people below had been on the verge of passion. "Cap'n there is a ship on the horizon." He said. Jack swore and waded to the edge, pulling himself out of the pool and grabbing his shirt and boots. Anamaria stood there for a moment before she followed. She walked a little way behind Gibbs, preoccupied with what had just happened...or didn't happen. Had they been about to kiss?
"You told me to get you when somethin' like this happened sir." Gibbs was saying briskly. "You knew?"
"I knew we were being followed." Jack answered, as they reached the beach. Anamaria looked out onto the water and saw a handsome pirate ship coming closer and closer, drawing level with the almost vacant Pearl. Jack took a telescope from Moises and squinted through it. He gazed at the approaching ship for a long moment before he smiled. "Tell the men to get ready for friendly company. It's okay, it's just Edward Mulan." Gibb's brow furrowed.
"I've heard that." He said.
"Yes. He's Cap'n of the Blue Sphere." Jack said. "Nice guy, good pirate. He knew Blackbeard." Anamaria rolled her eyes. It looked like they'd be dinning with crazy pirates tonight...more crazy pirates tonight.
To all my reviewers: Thank you for your continued support of this fic. I feel so barren with out working on the first potc fic so, you keep my spirits up. Sorry it took so long, what with school, a summer job and having no internet and no inspiration. Just hang in there, I finally know where I'm going with this! Thanx!
To my reviewers:
GAZE: Thank you so much for stumbling onto my fic. It's wonderful to have a new reviewer! Thank you with your comments about how I have my characters down to a 't', I was kinda worried about that part. That was a great line, I liked it to so thank you again...man I say thank you a lot. Thank you again (again) and I hope you become one of my regular reviewers.
DRAGONHUNTER200: Thanks, I liked the title. How late were you up that night? Just a question. Your so right, what did the rum eer do to anyone? Honestly. Yes, I didn't know if I should put that close a relationship between Bill and Jack but I finally decided to. Actually, my fingers decided for me and I just went along with them. I never did think of how Bill got captured but I'm gonna have I explained in the next chapter, if I remember, so don't worry. How old is your brother compared to you? Anyways, keep reading and reviewing.
ALTENG: I've been kicked out of my own room and house before so I know what it's like...well, with the house I wasn't really kicked out, I ran out to get away from my brother in law who I was bugging and he decided to kill me. He just doesn't have any luck at all except for the flukie sort. I hope in the next potc they have that flukie luck again, hey? Gibbs always walks in on the worst moments, doesn't he?
