Disclaimer: Once again, I don't own anything regarding PotC, Disney does...
Note: Hi everyone! I am so sorry this took so long, but I have been really busy and doing some pirate research, so it's up to par and historically acurate. On a roll now, so expect another chapter soon. I apologize again, hope you enjoy! Thanx!
CHAPTER 6 - Catch Up
Victoria woke with a start, her head throbbing madly and her stomach feeling nauseaus. Surveying her surroundings, she realized almost instantly that she was back where she started. In the Captian's quarters. Not only that. In the nice soft bed in the Captian's quarters.
She remembered little about the night before. Only that she was at the tavern with Anamaria and she had her first rum. She remembered stealing glances at Jack and…
She didn't. She couldn't have. She wouldn't have.
Did she? She was in his bed after all.
Throwing the sheets aside she immediately climbed to her feet, but could hardly hold herself up. The room was spinning; so she sat back down to contain herself. Looking down, she realized her dress was still on. Other than the long rip up the side, there was not other damage to it.
So she couldn't have. Right? She was so out of it she really couldn't rationilize to begin with.
Standing again, she focused better and was able to walk a few steps. Enough to the door, and to open it. Letting the rush of cool sea air in felt so much better, since the air in the cabin was so stale.
Victoria was still barefoot, navigating her way around the deck. It was early, and the sun was barely up, yet the crew was nowhere to be found. The deck was deserted, and as Victoria rounded the perimeter of the ship, she realized they were still in Tortuga. Trying to think back to the night before, she seemed to remember Gibbs reminding Cotton, another crewmember, that they would leave port at 200.
Clearly, it was quarter past five, give or take fifteen minutes.
Victoria rounded the deck another time and still could find no one. Then, after passing Will and Elizabeth's door, she realized it was closed. Victoria jogged back to it and pounded on the entry.
The door opened to a very groggy Will, whose eyes squinted shut as soon as they saw the smallest trace of sunlight.
"Will, where is the rest of the crew?" Victoria quickly asked.
"Breakfast," he muttered as he began to shut the door again.
"No Will, wait," Victoria whispered as she grasped the oak in her bony hand. "Why haven't we left yet?"
"You," he stated. Victoria was puzzled again.
"Well, why?"
Will sighed, realizing that this would have to take some explaining. "Because you were practically out cold when you got on the ship, Captian thought it would be wise if we stayed the night, instead."
A thought came to Victoria instantly, and out of nowhere. It was so genius, so true, she could have shot herself for not thinking of it sooner. Her father. He would be looking for her. He would be following the ship. The ship hadn't gone anywhere for a little less then twenty-four hours. They would catch up.
"But Will, we need to leave, as soon as possible!" she cried.
"Then why don't you go find the rest of the crew, I need some sleep," Will ended the conversation as he shut the door in her face.
Victoria, in incredible rage. Will, shutting her out because he was tired? Men. Running back to her own cabin, she quickly changed into another gown and put on shoes. Almost tripping down the gangplank, she shot into Tortuga. A few men were asleep in the streets, but other than that, it was a ghost town. But pubs were open, and she went to search each one.
-
"Gillette!" Commedore Norrington called angrily. "How far are we from Tortuga, we've been sailing all night."
"Not very Sir, I expect we shall reach port by noon."
"Noon!" Norrington shouted at the timid Gillette. "We've been traveling at five knots an hour, how is that possible?"
"Well, this Carribean current shook us up a little, Sir," Gillette replied.
"Dear God, who chose these men to crew my ship!" Jonathan Carlynton interrupted.
"Good morning, Sir; did you sleep well?" the Commedore politely asked.
"No. I am not a seaman, I wasn't used to it. And that room you put me up in, you'd think it would be painted a different color?"
"Um…well Sir, when the Dauntless was built, color scheme wasn't really brought into the picture and-"
"Commedore, you are babling again, just like my daughter. Lest we forget that the governor and I are the ones that pay your salary. This is my ship, I fund its sailings, and I say we paint that horrid room. Now, how far are we from Tortanga or whatever that wretched island you said my daughter was on?"
"Twenty knots, Sir, we should be there by noon." Norrington replied through gritted teeth.
"Exellent. Now, Gillette, is that your name? Fetch me some wine and smoked ham. Gillette!" Jonathan ordered as he went to follow him.
Norrington shook his head and sighed. He approached another crewmember unexpectedly.
"I enjoy green. Do you fancy that color? I quite like it."
-
"Hey, I was eating that, darlin'," Jack said, startled that this mad woman would pull a chicken leg from his mouth and begin to drag him away from his meal.
"Come quick now, we must leave at once," Victoria replied.
"Why? Luv, in case you didn't already know, I am the captian of the ship you are attempting to take me to."
"Yah, are you tryin' to shanghai ol' Jack, Victoria?" Gibbs called from within the tavern.
"NO!" Victoria screamed, letting go of Jack's arm and arguing a point with him in the middle of the street. "I'm seventeen! Don't you see?"
"Oh, really, Luv? I'd thought you'd be much older, ya look it-"
"That's not the point!" Victoria interrupted again. "I am still under legal protection of a guardian-my mother and father. When I, stowed away, on your ship, I forgot to realize that my father would come looking for me. He is looking for me, right now!"
"Luv, ya got nothing to worry 'bout, this is the fastest ship in the Carribean, nigh uncatchable," Jack pointed out.
"Yes, I know!" Victoria yelled back at him. "But the Dauntless was renovated last summer, it's faster now since it's Port Royal's only naval ship! And they have probably been sailing all days and nights. If you add up all of our little stops-"
"They'll catch up," Jack realized, his face looking star-struck. He quickly turned and ran wildly back in to the tavern.
"Move you scabless dogs, MOVE!" he ordered as Victoria watched, one by one, grown men fly past her sprinting to the ship. It was actually quite a sight. Jack was the second to last one out, grabbing her arm and pulling her along with him. She turned to see Gibbs, running, but incredibly far behind. He was older, and clearly not in shape.
After Gibbs had huffed and puffed himself on to the ship, the gangplank was raised and everyone was up and getting ready to get the ship sailing. With the whole crew working, the Pearl set sail in ten minutes.
Thankfully, the wind was on their side, which made the navigation much quicker. Anamaria was at the helm, Gibbs was ordering other crew members around in his traditional state, Jack and Will were overseeing, and Victoria and Elizabeth were working on a new dress that they could wear. Everything seemed to be going smoothly.
-
Cotton was sitting in the crow's nest, half asleep from the good meal he had eaten earlier, yet sadly cut short of, since they had to get going. His parrot was on his shoulder. For the record, he hadn't seen any ships, East or West, North or South of the pearl for the last hour. His eyes were beginning to drop from sheer lack of boredom. Slower and slower, Cotton was about to fall into a deep slumber when his parrot madly flew from his shoulder and screeched loudly.
"Brrrrrraaackkkkkk! Brrrrrrrraaaackkk! Foreign ship Southwest! Foreign ship Southeast! Brrrrrrraaaaaackkkkkkkk!"
Cotton quickly sat up and surveyed southwest. A ship, a little smaller than the pearl, was coming up quickly. The wind was with them, so they were probably going even a little faster than the pearl. Despite the fact that he was a mute, he was good to sit in the crow's nest, since his parrot notified the rest of the crew about an oncoming ship.
-
Jack ran to the stern, taking his scope and looking on towards the Southwest.
"Damn the King's Navy," he murmured to himself as Anamaria called back to him.
"How close are they?"
"Too close for comfort, I must say," he called back. Jumping off the platform, he ran to Elizabeth and Will's cabin. Practically beating down the door, he managed to get in, all but killed the young women with fright.
"You," he breathed, looking at Victoria, sitting on the floor, pinning a ribbon to a well-dressed maniquin. "You are the bloody reason that my ship is going to be confronted very soon,"
"I-I'm sorry," she said, standing, her eyes locked in his. Elizabeth once again was going unnoticed by both of them when they were together. She smirked for a brief second, but came back to the situation and frowned.
"Well, Luv, ya should be. For once, this is something that isn't any of my business, but I am a part of it."
"Of course it's your business! You didn't exactly throw me overboard when you discovered me!"
"That's only because I thought you were a bloody prostitute!" he argued back. "Now, you need to hide, if you don't want to return with Norrington and his bloody bunch,"
"Well maybe I do!" Victoria shot back at him.
"Fine!" Jack replied, holding his hands up in surrender, "Your father will be here for you shortly. But don't be surprised when they take me along for the ride, convinced that I kidnapped you," he said, shutting the door in her face.
"See if I care!" Victoria yelled, hoping that he would hear. Elizabeth, in turn, appeared behind her from the back of the room.
"Vicky, I really have grown to love the pearl. It is Will's home as is mine, and I would hate for you to have to leave it too, after we were getting off to such a fine start, renewing our friendship and all. Do you really want to be selfish out of spite of Jack and hurt the rest of us?"
Elizabeth had a point. A very good one. One that Victoria gave much credit to.
"You're right," she said, turning around to face Elizabeth, her head in her hands. "I don't want to leave the ship, not with father, not with the man you were supposed to marry!"
"Oh, Vicky," Elizabeth coaxed as she wrapped her friend in her arms. "I'm not going to tell you what to do, but if you want to stay here, I suggest you find a good hiding place right about now."
"Can't I just stay here?" Victoria asked as a small tear ran down her cheek.
"No, you fool! This will be the first place the brutes look! Quick, below deck, somewhere dark, go!" Elizabeth gave Victoria an encouraging spank and and she was out the door.
Out on deck, Victoria could make out the painted letters "DAUNTLESS" on the nearby ship. She found Jack giving Anamaria charted directions in case they needed to make a quick escape. Pressing her palm on his shoulder, she spoke into his ear:
"Where should I hide, Captian?"
"Well, look who it is: the little whore who has made so much trouble for me,"
"Quit the small talk, where should I go?"
"Come on," he said taking her hand, leading her below deck. "You might not even have to stay down here too long. It might just be a matter of leverage, lies, and a few cannonballs."
"Oh, great, I'm thrilled," Victoria said sarcastically.
"Yes, well, we don't know how long it will take, so…" Jack showed Victoria a little hidey-hole stown away behind the brig.
To enter it, you needed to remove a few boards of plywood, since it was just a small storage area. Behind the brig, it was about five by six feet, which had bags of flour, buckets, gun power, a pistol, and a lowly cannonball stored in it.
"Lovely," Victoria sighed, bending down to get herself settled.
"Yes, I know it's no bloody Buckingham Palace, but it'll do," Jack replied. "Now, I tell this to Will all the time, 'n I'll tell ya too: I know it's difficult, but please, try to stay here, until Will or Elizabeth or me come 'n get ya. Agreed?"
"Aye Aye, Captian," Victoria muttered as Jack began to seal her away.
"Now, one more thing," he whispered to her. "I can't guarantee you will be stayin' here. They might put up a bloody fight, or take some o' me crew, 'n I can't afford that so-"
"Just do the best you can!" she cried back at him.
"See ya soon."
She heard Jack jog up the stairs on to deck. For about ten minutes, Victoria was alone in silence.
Until she heard very loud cannon fire coming from the pearl.
"Oh, dear God," Victoria whispered to herself as she curled up into a tight little ball. She could do nothing but wait.