By Kitty =^.^=
A/N: Ahoy m'dears! Here be another chapter. We must say, we are very proud of ourself. Eleven chapters. Il semble impossible, non? Lol... Okay, yeah, sorry that this is another 'every-other-day-of-wednes' chapter update. I had spring break last week so I was looking forward to being able to write a bunch-o-chapters. But my mom had had surgery the previous week so I had to take care of her all last week. Oy. Well, it's up now, and we have 71 reviewses!! I hope you all enjoy the reunion of Jack and Lela. Oh, dear readers, please do REVIEW, so I can keep going, je merci beaucoup. Oh yeah, and Happy Saint Patty's Day loves! Along wiv bein' a female pirate, did'ye know that Ibean Irish Garl?? Lol, all right, go enjoy the story, and this foine day; be merry and drink and bed many-a-fair lad (or lass, for the guys here...)! Oh yeah, and drink green beer, rum, and absinthe till ye think Oi'm yer goddess of fanfiction and worship me. Hmmm, that might not be bad actually...
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Captain Lela smiled with devious delight, strolled over to Jack, her prey, who was now helplessly in her clutches, and stood dangerously close to him, just not quite touching. His head fell forward trying to see this woman's face, his eyes growing wider and wider, filling with fear and disbelief.
Lela lifted her head, and expertly placed her lips right next to Jack's ear. She dreamily and seductively purred, "Well if it isn't my dearest Jack Sparrow?" Her sharp brilliant blue eyes met the deep brown ones of Jack Sparrow. He shakily drew in a breath, and she was obviously delighted with his terrified, unbelieving reaction. Her lips curved out into a wicked smirk and sharp feline teeth drew dangerously close to Jack's neck as she thickly breathed, "Hello love. Long time no see..."
HASHEEN!!!!!
Jack couldn't do anything. He couldn't move. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't feel his legs. The only thing he could do was stand there, mouth open, trying to say something, and trying to not fall over. "L...Lela?" From a side view, one could have seen the dark haired woman's smirk grow even wider. "H...How? When did ye...I thought...What..." Lela lifted her head away from the side of his neck and stared straight into his eyes.
"Oh dear," she cooed sympathetically, and then shouted, "someone! Call a doctor! Jack Sparrow...doesn't know what to say. How very odd." Jack stumbled back a few paces, his face growing paler with every passing second, as though he was seeing a ghost.
Chuckling softly, Lela walked past him and walked on deck of the Siren Fire. "Conleth!" she called. "Take the Pearl's crew and put them in the brig. Same goes for La Diabla Liza's crew. Separate our men--and women--onto all four ships so they can be steered." The woman's first mate yelled back something that was unintelligible to Jack. Lela called back one more time and then walked back into the cabin, closing the door.
"Wh...whe..." Jack took a breath to regain his composure. "Where are we going?" Lela smiled and almost glared at him. She sauntered over to him, like a lioness circling her quarry.
"Oh, I dunno," she silkily replied. "Just a lit'ul place called..." Lela delicately held up Jack's compass, her expression growing more pleased as Jack spun around, looking through his pockets and effects, and she finished her sentence, "Isla de Muerta."
Poor Jack looked as he was going through a state of dé ja vous and couldn't figure out where he was. "How did ye get that? That was tied on...on the inside of me...the inside of..." Jack's eyes snapped wide open and stared at Lela, who just kept smiling deviously and running her fingers over the blade of her dagger. Jack narrowed his eyes as he said, "You...sneaky lit'ul she-devil..."
~'~,~'{@ * ~'~,~'{@ * ~'~,~'{@ * ~'~,~'{@ * ~'~,~'{@
Little less than an hour later, four ships were traversing across the ocean to the Isla de Muerta, the secret cache of treasure and loot for whatever pirate that was lucky enough to get his hands on that compass. And at the moment a woman held it, a female pirate who had just captured the infamous Black Pearl and its Captain Jack Sparrow.
The Black Pearl, La Diabla Liza, the Gremlin Flame, and the Siren Fire sailed close to each other; each of the ships were steered and crewed by those under the command of Captain Lela. Conleth steered the Siren Fire, which was leading the quartet of ships. He was the only one that Lela trusted the compass with. Occasionally, he called out to Caitlin, Brittany, and Chelsea, who were steering the other ships, to give them updates on where they were going and to provide a heads-up for when they were going to make sudden directional changes.
Every now and then, Conleth would glance back behind him at the closed door that led to his captain's room. She was alone in there with Jack Sparrow. She hadn't told him much, but he knew that she and Jack had had a rather painful past. He never pressed her about it, though, despite his fierce curiosity. Conleth's brow furrowed with wonder. What could they be doing in there?
Inside the captain's quarters, Lela was opening the boxes of things that had been collected from La Diabla Liza. A bit earlier she had told Jack to sit down and "make himself comfortable" but he was allowed to only after she removed every weapon from his person: his cutlass, his pistol, his sword, even a small grenado that was hidden in his shirt.
After being permitted to sit, Jack tried to get his head together while his captor searched the loot, occasionally holding up a piece of jewellery that she liked. She wasn't looking at him. Why wasn't she looking at him? Wait...do I want her to be looking at me?
Jack looked up and looking in Lela's direction. Her back was turned to him, and mostly what he could see was her knee high boots, the bottom of her close-fitting breeches, and her long dark hair sweeping over her back. It's grown really long, he thought staring at it thoughtfully; it's gone past her waist and down to her knees almost. Jack expression softened as his eyes gazed at the girl he had known from so long ago. No, not a girl. She's a woman. Jack's vision began to cloud. But she still as fair a thing as I remember her.
Then it was as though someone had slapped him in the face, and he pushed those thoughts away. He hung his head while his arms pressed to his legs and his hands latched together in front of him. I can't afford to be fthinking things like that when she has captured me. Jack raised his head slightly and stared suspiciously at her. I wonder why she did... Jack's head lifted more at the sharp click of a box shutting. As Lela turned around, Jack made sure to avert his eyes and look extremely calm and collected.
Across the room, Lela smiled knowingly. The whole while she'd been sifting through the treasure, she had felt his eyes on her. Poor Jack, she amusedly thought, I bet he's trying to figure out why he's here. She knew she was right. She knew him better than anyone. Lela frowned and turned back around towards her desk. I do know him better than anyone, but...
She cautiously glanced over her shoulder to look at Jack. I can't afford to think about him like that. She looked back at the table in front of her. He's my prisoner and I have to treat him as such. I can't care for him like I used to. Lela squeezed her eyes shut against the tears that threatened to trickle forth. But I DO still care for him. I still... She opened her eyes again and straightened her posture. I still... Her bottom lip trembled ever so slightly. I still l...lo...
"So what are you planning to do exactly once we reach Isla de Muerta..." Jack paused to emphasise his sarcasm, "Captain?" Lela's head turned sharply sending long black tresses flying out, back, and around. Jack smiled with exaggerated amiability. The captain's reaction only entailed rolling eyes and an aggravated grunt. "Well?" Jack persisted, who was also beginning to feel perturbed.
"If you must know..." she started...then paused...and didn't say anything more.
"I must," Jack affirmed. Another irritated sigh.
"...I'm going to take everything there," she saw that Jack was going to interject a callous remark and added quickly, "using all four of these ships to carry ev'eyfthing, sell what I don't want, and keep what I do want. Good for you?"
Jack kept a straight face, looking very casual and replied, "No. No not really, luv." Lela flinched at the pet name, but smoothly recovered and walked to where Jack was sitting.
"Oh," she said sadly, letting the sound flow slowly. Then finished brightly with, "Too bad!" For several moments, the two infamous pirates stared at each other, contempt filling their faces, but each noticed that something else was hidden behind the ill feeling...something in the eyes. They almost simultaneously turned from each other. "Just deal wiv it, Captain Sparrow..." Lela coldly smiled. "Savvy?" she asked mockingly.
"Hold on there!" Jack exclaimed loudly. "That's my word, you're not allowed to use it!" Lela scoffed.
"Your word? What makes you think it's your word, I came up wiv it first!"
"Ye did not, ye silly girl, I came up wiv it first!"
"Oh-ho-ho-hooo no, Sparrow, we are not going to have this argument again."
"Whaddya mean 'again'?" Jack asked bemused.
"We've been fighting who came up with that word first since we was lit'ul and back in Sleego!!"
Jack noticed Lela's eyes grow wider and her mouth clamp shut, as though she had just made a terrible mistake mentioning their past. Well, Jack was not about to let her get away with it. Jack was still upset that Lela had used his word, but there were a few things that were more important than a word's origin that he needed to know.
"Look, Lela," he stated heatedly, standing up to look at here face to face. "I dunno why ye've kidnapped me and moi crew, but I somehow doubt that's it's jest because of that compass and Isla de Muerta."
Lela face filled with icy defiance, but her eyes gave her away: she was frightened of her telling Jack her true motives. Jack could see it. He knew it. He knew her better than anyone. Aagh! Stop fthinking loike that, idiot!! He waited for an answer, but Lela stood before him unflinchingly, audacious insolence swelling in her eyes. Sorry, luv, ye're not gonna get off that easy.
Jack stepped a pace closer staring down at Lela with intense bronze eyes. Lela looked right back at him but she leaned back away from him just a hair. Jack's eyes bored into her as he asked, "Why did ye go to so much trouble to find me, Lela?"
She felt as though her heart had stopped and her mind was reeling out of control. He had asked her the very question she had prayed that he would never ask.
She couldn't lie to him. He'd know and just believe the opposite of whatever she told him. Damn.
She couldn't just stay silent because then he would know exactly what she was thinking and confirm his beliefs. Damn.
But she couldn't very well tell him the truth either. That was out of the question. Damn.
So what was she supposed to do? Whatever she did, she would inevitably lose and Jack would know. DAMN.
When he was just about to ask again, an idea came to her. "I wanted to find you so I could make you miserable."
Jack's head tilted to the side. He was so sure that he'd been right about her reasons for finding him. He had thought that... Jack felt stomach knot. He had thought that she still cared for him. And she wanted to find him so she could win him back. "So ye could...make me miserable," Jack echoed faintly.
Lela inclined her head. It hadn't been the truth...well, not the whole truth. The whole truth was that she wanted to find him so she could make him miserable and see if he still... Lela suppressed a quivering sigh. I wanted to know if he still cares for me. Quickly, she gave herself a hard mental shake. That wasn't important. Not right now. Anyway, her answer seemed to have distracted him from his query. Jack stepped just ever so slightly closer. "But...why?" Or maybe it hadn't. "Why do you want to make me miserable?" Lela turned her head to the side, not able to bare looking at him, looking into his eyes that had suggested understanding and even...affection?
"Why does it matter?" she countered, her voice pained and distant.
"Why don't you want to talk about the past?" Jack quietly argued. Even with her face turned away to the side, Jack would see her clench her teeth and her lips quiver. He lifted his right hand and, placing his forefinger on her cheek, gently turned her head back to face him. She tried to shake his hand off and back away from him, but he caught her chin between the side of his finger and the tip of his thumb, securing her head in place and making her eyes meet his own. She looked as though she might burst into tears but she stayed strong.
Jack leaned forward, leaving almost no distance between them. "The past isn't going to go away, luv. We're gonna hafta talk about sometime." Talk about how you betrayed me, Jack thought with wounded pride. Talk about how I offered you ev'eyfthing in the world you wanted: a ship, riches, adventure... Jack reached up with his free hand and gripped Lela's shoulder. ME. Lela's lips trembled more despite her efforts to still them, and for once in her life she couldn't convey what Jack was thinking. Jack's grip tightened. I gave you myself to you. My heart. One last time, Jack asked the girl he held so dear the question she feared. "Why did you want to find me, Lela?"
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
A/N: Eep! I'm so happy. ELEVEN CHAPTERS!! E-LE-VEN!!! Do any of you realise what a feat this is for me?? The most I've ever kept up with a story before was TWO chapters. thoughtful silence That's rather sad, isn't it? sigh Ah well. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Please REVIEW. I'm so excited to know what you all think of what's happened. How do you think Lela will answer Jack? She's already discerned that Jack is going to find out the truth no matter what. How will she tell him?? How will Jack react??? How you will you ever find out what happens if I don't stop writing this Author's Note?!?! silence Ah. Yes. Sorry. sheepish laugh I guess I better go write the next chapter so I can update next week. Buh-bye luvs! scurries off to write more and eat much rainbow cream ice cream
Fare thee well, safe journeys, and I'll be in Scotland a'fore ye!!
Love,
~*Kitty*~
=^.^=