Disclaimer: I don't own anything from the movie… on with the story!
…At 23, walking into the tavern I nearly got the shock of my life as a women walked up to me asking my name, then pro claiming that she was Ana-Maria…
And I just stood there staring at her. My breath had caught in my throat and I was unable to talk, so I stared. She had obviously picked up on this, as she suggested that we take a seat at a table and have a drink, talk about things. Still unable to find my voice I nodded and headed over to a table in the far side of the bar, in the corner, as she went to order the drinks without even asking what drink I wanted. In my mind as I waited, thoughts of how the past 9 years could have been different if she hadn't been taken away. I wondered if my family would still be together and, squirming as I thought about it, if I would be in the navy instead of being a pirate.
Lost in thought, I hadn't noticed my long lost sister, sit down in front of me, placing a mug of rum on the table and watch me. I wasn't sure how long I'd been silent not noticing her, as the time seemed to have stopped for me, I was away in a land so far away it could have been reality, it was the reality that should have been. Only it wasn't. As I came to this thought, it brought me back to the present and I noticed Ana Maria staring at me this time.
"Wha'?" Ana frowned.
"What were you thinking about Jack?" Jack sighed.
"What should have been 'ats all." The pair of us stayed silent for a couple of minuets before she spoke again.
"I heard you know. I went back and no one was there. The guy, my father, he was hung; they spared me because I was a women and they didn't believe I could ever make it as a pirate. They thought I would become a wench, or maid at someone's house. But they were wrong. Back to what I was saying before I went off on my life story, what happened? Why were there strangers living in your home? And where's your father? I visited our- your mothers grave you know, laid flowers and that, gave respect, but I never understood. How did everything so perfect go wrong?" Seeming to have finished her babble that held so many different stories that needed to be gone into more deeply, Ana just looked at me, with the same look she'd held when she really was my sister and not this stranger to me. The one where she looked expecting me to know the answers to the world, and that no one else could give her them but me.
"Where do you want me to start? When you left everything went wrong. It didn't take more then a day for the cracks to show in our mother. She killed herself less the two years later. It was weeks after our father ran away with another women. His career had gone down hill, with his wife and children acting unruly, you can hardly blame him for walking away, but I did. I was 15 when my parents walked away, almost 16, another few weeks I would have been, but that's not the point. Ben he was hardly 13, when we had to leave, heading for here. I lead him from the games we'd played when we could be children, to making it reality. Most people would blame me for that fact but we came looking for the sister we'd lost, the sister we believed could make it right for us. We spent a few years searching for you, then we heard of your father being hanged and thought you'd gone with him. It was like the reason for us to stay together as brothers had gone and yes we went our separate ways. I became first mate on a ship and when the captain died the ship became mine. You might have heard of it The Black Pearl?" Ana's head was down; she was staring at the table. Part of me felt horrible for being so brutally honest with her about how everything had gone wrong. In my mind it sounded as though I was blaming her, which I hadn't intended to do. I didn't blame her. I blamed her father. I noticed tears falling down onto her cheeks and that's when I hit me, where we were wasn't the place to swap stories of the past 9 years. In fact it couldn't be much more wrong.
She had been trying so hard not to let her emotions show. It hadn't been the place for people, other pirates to see her being 'soft'. She had to work harder then most to gain respect, and she did it well. If anyone saw her crying over something they themselves had no idea what it was, they would talk and her reputation would be ruined in a heartbeat.
"Come to my ship. We can talk…" I paused searching for the right way to put the next few words. "More at ease." She nodded, wiping her eyes and making sure she look 'presentable' enough so that it wouldn't be recognized that she had been tearing.
The walk to my ship was a walk I was never ever going to forget. Some may find it strange for me to remember and cherish the memory of a walk that was practically all in silence- comfortable silence. But the fact that I was back with my childhood sister, felt so strange. There were different feelings in the pit of my stomach. I presumed they had always been there when I was around her, as I couldn't remember that far back, but thinking back on it now, I can see what I felt was just brotherly love, it was another kind of love… but that was for later on.
First, we got back to my ship, one that had been mine for just 3 months. Walking into my cabin, I felt an immense feeling of joy and pride, as she looked around, obviously impressed for how well I had done for myself considering the past. That was something else I mistook for brotherly feelings. It was only as dawn approached the next morning, watching her sleeping peacefully on my bed, after hours upon hours of talking that I realized what I felt wasn't what I should be feeling, not in the world of logic anyway. Watching her sleep, I let the feelings wash over me.
I told her the as soon as she woke. That I loved her more then a brother should. I wasn't sure why, but I had the desired effects as she proclaimed she felt the same. She had done since she found me. We carried on for many months like it. But then the conscience that I thought I had given away or lost in the first few months f becoming a pirate hit back. They told me things I didn't want to know.
I began hearing voices telling me my mother would be looking down on us in shame. Wondering how I could be treating the girl I grew up knowing as my sister, like this. It wasn't the right thing for me to feel these emotions and I had to walk away from it.
And when I found my brother stabbed and almost dead one night. I realized I couldn't tell him, what had become of his older brother and little sister. How was I supposed to tell a dying man thing's that couldn't be imagined? His last wish was to see his sister, and his face lit up, through the blood and the bruising when I told him she was safe and well on my ship. No time to explain. No time. As he laid there in the cabin both me and Ana Maria shared, with all three of us together the voices finally convinced me that what I had been living was a lie. A lie that I couldn't continue no matter how much I wanted to. So as he died in my bed, my sister, as that was what she was then, weeping over his dead body I had to break her heart again.
As we stood on the docks as few weeks later. I told her. Her tears almost killed me. I almost stood up to that person that was in my head, and told her I was sorry and that I didn't mean a thing what I said. But I didn't I took a breath and walked away, as if walking away from a fight that I couldn't be bothered to do. The truth was. I was a coward. I was a coward to love. There were no voices they're telling me what to do. Nothing but myself, convincing what I had was to good to be true and had to be got rid of straight away.
A few months later, my own crew left me on an island for dead. Although I managed to get off, I faced a bigger ordeal. I found my, now long lost sister, and lover in Tortuga. And I made a bigger fool of myself in her eyes. I stole her boat, and managed to sink it…
The tale of my adventure with William and Elizabeth are well known so I wont go into that story. That's saved for another time. This has turned into what happened at the end of the tale. The part everyone, no matter how they spruce it up, or die it down, always miss off.
Ana Maria had brought back my ship to me… but she wanted even. And not just with the ship I took from her…
To Be Continued (again)…xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
A/N ok, so I couldn't fit it into two parts so it's going into three parts. And hopefully this will finish it!!! Thanks for the reviews. Please review this chapter too… :-) Suzy xxx