By Kitty =^.^=
A/N: Good day, m'dears. And how have we been since last week? Good I hope, for if you haven't been, those of you with parents may have banned you from FFN!! And that would not be good.
ERIC: Because then you guys wouldn't be able to read Kitty's and my funny conversations!
Eric, I somehow think that these guys read the story more than they read our conversations.
ERIC: Well they should read our chats. They're funny, eehehehehee!!
'_O; Um, yeah. Ok, I think it's time to go to the story. Please review luvs!
ERIC: Review, review, review, review, eeeeheheheheheheee!!!!!
Oh wait!
EIRC: What??
I forgot.
ERIC: WHAT???
Some people have told me that they've gotten a little confused at the "timeline" of this story, the ages of the characters, when things happened, etc., etc., etc.!! So here
*1600: Rum is invented (sorry, had to put that in there ^_^)
*1652: Jack is born in Sleego, Ireland
*1654: Lela is born Sleego, Ireland
* 1655: Jack and Lela start to become friends through their parents, Lela-1, Jack-3
* 1658: Will is born in Someplace, England; Lela-4, Jack-6
* 1659: Elizabeth is born in Someplace, England; Lela-5, Jack-7
* 1661: Jack and Lela find their hiding spot in JSM, Lela-7, Jack-9
* 1668: Lela turns 14 and the PotC fic begins, Jack is 16
* 1669: Jack proposes to Lela and she says 'yes'; Lela-15, Jack-17
* 1670: Jack leaves Sleego, Ireland and Lela to become a pirate on The Black Pearl; Lela-16, Jack-18
* 1671: Jack loses The Black Pearl to his mutinous 1st mate Barbosa; Lela-17, Jack-19
* later 1671: Elizabeth and Will Turner meet; Liz-12, Will-13; Lela-17, Jack-19
* 1672: Lela leaves Sleego, Ireland for unknown reason; Lela-18, Jack-20
* 1681: The Cursed Black Pearl Crew led by Barbosa attack Port Royal and kidnap Elizabeth; Liz-22, Will-23; Lela-27, Jack-29
* later 1681: Jack and Lela meet up again after 11 years on Lela's ship the Siren Fire; Lela-27, Jack-29; Liz-22, Will-23; Liz and Will are to be married
I did the math and ev'eyfthing is in order so don't get mad at me!! Now, please enjoy the story.
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Jack tried to reach up and caress her hands but then remembered they had been bound. Instead, he just leaned his head to the side and nuzzled against her hair. "Damn it, luv..." he whispered into the soft black strands. "I was..." Jack ignored the nails digging into his flesh as Lela's sobs became more strangled and she tried to cling to him to keep them in. "I was selfish," he sighed, his self-disappointment evident. "I was afraid that...that you didn't..." He faltered slightly, almost afraid of actually saying it. "I was afraid you didn't...love me anymore..." Jack felt Lela stir and she looked up at him with reddened eyes.
"Not love you anymore?" she repeated, bewildered. "Jack, we were friends all our lives. We began courting when I was but 14. Barely a year later, you...ye..." She hung her head, wounded pride and the feeling of abandonment being revived. "You asked me to marry you," she whispered. "I said yes, Jack. I said yes, and I meant it." She gave a tearful chuckle. "You even tried to discourage me later, saying that you had nofthing, that we'd never live comfortably, and that I should go find someone who deserved me--"
"Even though there isn't such a person," Jack finished for her, "but ye should find someone more worthy than me." Jack took a deep intake of breath and Lela still clung to his rising and falling chest.
"But I didn't leave you, Jack," she reminded him. "I told you--"
"That you'd always love me, you'd never leave me," Jack interrupted again, and finished with, "that you never could leave me..."
"Yes..." Closing her eyes, Lela made all the tears leave her. With one last deep sigh, she stepped away from him, but when he tried to step back, she stilled him and shook her head. "I have to go speak with Conleth," she said quietly. "Just stay here until I come for you." Only after a moment's thought, she leaned forward and gently placed her lips on his cheek, kissing him tenderly. Then, with a reassuring yet acidic tone, she bid him farewell: "And I will come back for you, luv. Whatever happens." And she stepped away and walked to the door, letting Jack barely hear her final whispered word. "Always."
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Jack wanted to shut his eyes tight, shut out what she was saying, but he resisted and just squinted, restricting his vision and doing little to numb the pain that he felt. It was true what she had told him; every word was true. Jack had proposed, Lela had accepted, and it seemed like the two would have a fairytale happy-ever-after. The weary pirate captain recalled that originally, his plan had been to leave for just a while and then come back and face her. But he hadn't. Just as his mind taunted him so, he had taken the easy, cowardly way out. Jack hated to have Lela declare her devotion to him like that. Pointing out that unlike him, she would keep the promise they had made to each other all those years ago.
Twenty years before...
Out in Jade Sea Meadow for the first time, two children found a hiding spot that would become their place. At this point in time, the fences made of stone were still whole, bigger and longer across. Hiding behind one of them, the two children crouched down, concealed by the tall grasses. The younger dark-haired lass stealthily looked over the sandstone fence for any sign of the grown-ups they were hiding from.
"Jack," a little seven-year-old Lela whispered. "Jack!"
"Now what?" laughed Jack who was not yet ten.
"Do you think our parents will find us?" she giggled.
"Oh, I dunno, Lela," Jack said with mock uncertainty in his voice. "They might eventually. Oh no, sir, it doesn't look good for us, luv!"
"Jack, stop it!" Lela reprimanded still giggling. Not heeding her words, Jack continued to try and scare her.
"Oh, oh, no, it doesn't look good a'tall!" he moaned dramatically, effeminately placing his hand back against his forehead. "We shall be caught for sure! We're done for, luv, done for!" By now, Lela could barely contain her high-pitched giggles and bursts of laughter.
"Well, mmhahhaha, they will find us and, aheehehhahhaa, we will be done for if you, teeeheeeheehehe, if ye don't stop makin' me laugh!!"
Jack's eyes gleamed with a wickedly funny idea. "Oh, so ye don't want me to make ye laugh, is that it?" Lela saw the look in his eyes.
"Jack," she protested warily as she edged away, "don't you even dare think it--Aagh!! Aahhahahaaajackstopitstopstopstop!!!!"
Lela squealed with laughter and tried to roll away as Jack dug his fingers into her sides. "Ah," Jack mused mischievously, "ticklish are we then? I'm going to remember that, the information could be useful for later on." Jack kept tickling the poor little girl, until she started hiccupping. He started to stop and laughed at the funny sounds. "Whoops, I guess I went a bit too far, eh?"
Just as Lela thought the torture was over, Jack began to tickle her again. She squealed and tried to stop hiccupping but kept laughing. Soon it was becoming hard for her to breathe. She tried to gulp in air while demanding to herself that she stop laughing. Little Lela began to get scared; she could barely breathe and her breath was still leaving her. She stopped laughing and was almost crying as Jack finally looked up and saw her panting and wheezing. His hands flew away from her, held back as if to say, "Look! They're gone, you're ok now, just please stop!"
Lela's tiny hand was pressed to her chest trying to stop this hyperventilation. Panic began to fill the young Jack's eyes and his mind raced as to what to do. She didn't have air. She needed air! But how could he get it to her? A crazy idea suddenly came to him. He'd heard about something that you were supposed to do when people couldn't breathe; what was it?
Before he even thought it through, so desperate was he to help his friend, Jack took a deep breath and quickly leaned down over her and pressed his mouth against hers, puffing breath back into Lela. After a few moments of breathing life back into her, Jack straightened up enough to look at her to confirm, for mostly his own sake, that she was still alive. Her face was a little paler than usual, she was still breathing heavily, but it had slowed down and the breaths were deeper.
"Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, Jack!!" she puffed. "Ye tryin' to get rid of me?!"
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Jack shouted. "I wasn't tryin' to kill ya, I was just tickling!" Pulling her into a tight hug, Jack almost angrily said, "But don't ye evuh do that again! Ye scared me outta moi wits!" Lela was a little confused at why her older friend was hugging her, but being only seven didn't think that it was rather uncommon for boys to be so affectionate and nice.
"It's all right, Jack," she murmured guiltily, her breath coming a little easier, "I wasn't serious, I know you wouldn't hurt me."
"Yer damn right I wouldn't!" Jack whispered, liking the way the curse rolled off his tongue, but saying it quietly just in case their parents were near. "Yer moi best friend, ye know that don't ye?"
"Abso-bloody-lutely!" Lela giggled in reply pulling back, trying to mimic the phrase that Jack often said. "And you're mine too, Jack."
"We'll always be friends, won't we?" he said more than asked and smiling. Lela was about to answer when Jack suddenly winced in pain. "What the--?" Looking down, Jack saw his right index finger had been cut and a small bubble of blood was gathering above the wound. He glanced back at Lela's worried face, then down to her dress. At the waist there was a small stain of red on the dark green-blue almost black fabric and near it was a small metal hook that attached Lela's bodice to her skirt. Lela realised what had happened: Jack had held her so tight when he had been giving her the "kiss of life" that his finger had been cut through.
Jack was thinking the same thing and shivered at the memory of her pale, gasping face. Suddenly he heard Lela gasp and make a small whimper. His head snapped up. In between two fingers, Lela held a small hair pain. And now, on her finger, blood began to pool on the surface of her fair little finger. Looking him straight in the eye and smiling slightly despite the tears in her eyes, Lela clasped Jack's injured hand and brought it up to meet hers. The two pressed their fingers together and their blood mixed.
"Friends now and forever."
"Friends now and forever," Jack repeated. "Never to leave the other behind."
"And always to care and look out for each other," Lela whispered smiling and snuggling up to her best friend. "It's a promise."
"A promise," Jack echoed, "a promise, a promise, an ever-binding promise."
As the words of their pledge resonated inside his mind, Jack's heart began to ache for the first time in a long time. Her words were a merciless onslaught to him, and at the same time a welcome reaffirmation that her feelings hadn't changed. Well, they had changed, because with that constant love was mixed her malice that had built up over the years since he left her. Jack almost felt like slapping her, but he also knew he deserved every cruelly wonderful word she'd said.
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A/N: Ah yes, young love... dreamy sigh Sooo cute! Hope you enjoyed that lit'ul trip to the past. It's true what they say (however don't ask me who 'they' are, for I am still trying to figure that one out as well...): The more things change, the more they stay the same. Fourteen chapters, holy cow!! I've never gotten so far in me life!!! And I think I'm doing fairly well, wouldn't ye say?
ERIC: Ab-sooo-luteleh!!
Love,
~*Kitty*~
=^.^=