Eden Isle

By: L'Morgan

Only Disney owns or can make money on anything to do with Pirates of the Caribbean. I-just-borrowing-to-play-with-for-personal-entertainment-and-giving-back. Can I be any clearer? NO profit being made here by or for me!

Rated: Mature Teen for violence, innuendo and some language. Mild W/E pairing, J/A pairings.

Chapter 7: Things Best Kept Hidden

Elizabeth Turner was dreaming of the most recent Christmas past, before the catastrophic earthquake had ripped apart what had been her world in less time than it takes to tell. She had opened a box to find a luxurious velvet dress of the most stunning blue and cream colored satin… and it had been a gift from her then brand new husband. It had been a gift she well knew they could not truly afford – which made her love him all the more.

Suddenly in her dream, the walls began to move, gyrating and quaking, buckling and groaning, and there had come the loud crashing noises of the roof beginning to fall in on them. She stared upwards at the large beam that would in mere moments be the end of her – and then sat up with a sharp, hard gasp, coming awake to find herself in pitch darkness. Severely shaken she reached beside her and felt the warmth of a body, then startled sharply as there came a heavy pounding on the door to their small cabin.

"Mr. Turner – Captain Sparrow wants you and the missy up on the deck immediately. Better dress warm!" a deep gruff voice growled. The man beside her turned over with an unhappy groan.

"I heard you the first time. Its not even daylight out yet! What on earth could be so important that we have to –" the blacksmith started grumpily and she quickly pat him.

"Don't bother asking Will. Jack's refused to even hold still long enough for either one of us to get within shouting range of him ever since he woke up. Maybe he's finally decided to listen." She offered. The blacksmith made a scoffing noise as he fumbled in the dark for his pants.

"Somehow, I have a feeling its going to be us that's doing the listening." He breathed with an invisible scowl. Elizabeth's heart sank a notch as she realized it was much more likely that he was the more correct of the two of them. As they entered the area before the stairs to the upper deck, they realized that Doctor Cook had also apparently been rousted just as unceremoniously, and was none too pleased with it. They followed him up the steps, to step onto the deck and stare around them in true amazement.

Gone was the wind – gone was the spray of the sea – and gone was the motion of the ship being driven by the sails above. Above them and behind them was sheer, deep, unyielding blackness – while beyond the far railing came an eerie, unearthly yellowish glowing. They heard the sounds of men laughing far away – but it came from beyond as an unnatural echoing ghost. There was the sound of metal on metal, but not in the form of swords. Oh no, this was the often dreamed of sound of coin on coin – and not a small amount of it. Elizabeth and Will both flashed back on a cave where once they had each had a knife held to their neck – a knife that left them both with scars that still vividly marked their palms. Instinctively they clutched at each other and Will put an arm around her as he stood still, taking in the sounds – and lack of them as well.

"We're in a cave," he said softly. Elizabeth beside him felt her stomach drop down to her toes.

"I was afraid you were going to say that," she breathed shakily. He gave her a reassuring hug as they followed the doctor slowly making his way to the far railing. They came up beside him, Elizabeth standing between the two, and all three gasped as their eyes widened.

Below them, in piles that seemed to extend almost as far back into the blackness as one could hope to see, came the glimmer of gold and silver, gem and jewel, trinket and treasure of almost every imaginable size, design and stature. Candlesticks as tall as a man, chests of wood that could hold three men easily, goblets and pearls and diamond encrusted baubles, and just uncountable wonders – all heaped along the sides of what seemed to be many, many tunnels that led off from this central area.

The eerie illumination came from a series of carved stone urns that were spaced equally along what had to be the shoreline and ran back into each arm of the labyrinth of tunnels. Looking to one side they saw a makeshift gangplank of floating barrels attached to logs and tied each to the other so as to create a 'dock' of sorts by which more of said items were being transferred from the hold of the ship they stood upon. Like an army of ants, the cheerful pirates teased and chattered to each other as they traveled too and fro, each time carrying off the booty to different areas of what was already amassed.

"Its like Aladdin's cave," Elizabeth breathed in true wonder as she drank in the marvelous sight.

"Ali Babba and the forty thieves? Well, I suppose that could be taken to equate with pirates," mused a familiar, drawling voice from a darkness to one side, and then the pirate captain stepped out from the shadow. He stood by the rail, one hand resting casually on it as he seemed to consider the events transpiring below. After a moment, he half sat on the railing, letting one leg hang off the ground and brought up his pipe that was also already aglow and inhaled slowly on it, eventually giving out a small cloud of smoke.

The smoke from his pipe gently wafted past them and the doctor abruptly turned to him with a deep frown, suddenly staring at the pipe as if rather alarmed. He took three steps towards the man.

"Jack – that's not just tobacco…" he started in a very serious tone and the one used the hand with the pipe to wave him silent.

"Hush man. As of this moment you three are NOT in a rowboat, floating adrift in the deep blue sea, and most likely attracting the attention of a few rather large and curious sharks who are thinking of adding the likes of you to the breakfast menu. If you would prefer to keep the arrangement, quid pro quo, I would strongly suggest you be on your best behavior a bit longer." He said in a throaty growl and the doctor fell silent, but now seeming much more intent on the pirate than on the enormous depository of wealth around them.

"I have laudanum Jack. It would be better for you than what you're using. It will help with the pain I promise." The doctor persisted still. The pirate seemed to ignore him, but now took a much deeper and longer draw on the pipe and held his breath for a long, long moment before finally exhaling the cloud. He looked up at the doctor with a dead serious stare.

"YOUR laudanum is locked up in Mr. Gibbs chest – or it sure as hell had better be. You use that on me and I promise you will be fish food faster than you'll even know what hit you." He threatened lowly, in a very dangerous tone, and the doctor quickly raised both hands in surrender. He recognized that tone and knew better than to mess with pirates when they got to sounding like that! He had just backed up to rejoin the two younger adults by the railing when AnaMaria came up from below decks and headed over to them.

"I don't know what you did to that man, but he seems fine just now Jack." She said cheerfully and he gave her a gold toned smile and shrugged, inhaling on his pipe again, but shallowly.

"Nothin' that'll hurt him near as much as moving him without it would have. Is he comfortable?" he asked and she nodded.

"I told 'im we'd be bringing the doctor over in the next skiff or two, but he didn't seem too worried. Said he'd rather be with his men though. I told him you wanted to be sure he got the best care available so he'd be staying in your quarters." She told him and the pirate laughed softly as if truly amused.

"Oh I would have loved to see the look on his face when he first saw that!" he said and she grinned and nodded.

"The tiger's heads over the bed - he noticed that right off." She said and he grinned and ducked his head, coughing mildly as he nearly choked, imaging the man's surprised reaction.

"Surely a Commodore of the Royal Navy has seen a tiger or two!" he reacted with and she grinned widely.

"I doubt he's found many ocean swimming large cats like that Jack." She said and he smiled and gave a half shrug, lazily swinging his foot.

"Who's coming next Capt'n?" came Gibbs' voice from below and the pirate looked down at the water where sat a small flat bottomed row boat.

"The good doctor and the young Mr. Turner. An' if they give ye a hard time, ye have my permission to pull over and leave 'em in one of the tunnels for awhile." He said and both men quickly frowned at him.

"I'm not going without Elizabeth. She's my wife Jack – she's pregnant!" Will told him sternly and the pirate nodded, giving him a rather devilish leer.

"Which are exactly the same reasons that the young Missy will be accompanying me. Gentlemen, this is not an issue of choice at the moment. You are presently inside the cave, and we need to get you outside the cave…. And that will be done in the manner I dictate, not either of you. Now if you really must insist, we will happily leave you here in the cave, and in a few more hours when the urns burn out you may discover just how well you can or cannot see in true and total darkness. Now you will don these yourselves, or not, the choice is up to you. But this, we will be doing MY way." He said in a fully authoratative tone as he offered up two black silk blindfolds from the pocket of his coat.

Dr. Cook frowned at him severely.

"Am I to take it that you have already had my patient moved from the ship?" he asked and the pirate nodded.

"Yes, and I am certain he is eagerly anticipating your arrival. Its not very nice of you to keep the good Commodore waiting, doctor." The pirate said silkily with a abstract wave of his other hand lazily through the air. Will and Elizabeth both stared at him. The doctor met his gaze with a very discordant frown.

"Since our pirate friend here, has been partaking of the opium weed in that little pipe of his, and has probably given it to my patient as well, I will not debate the issue here and now with anyone. But we will discuss this later Jack – you have my word on that." The man growled as he took the blindfold and headed towards the gangway that went down to the dock that had the small skiff parked beside it. Will gave Elizabeth a very uncertain look. She squeezed his arm.

"Go ahead Will. I'll be fine here with Jack." She said firmly. With great reluctance the young man left her, paused to look back at least 3 times, then finally went down to the dock as well. Elizabeth cautiously looked sideways to find the pirate giving her a very calculating look. Suddenly she realized that AnaMaria had vanished with the two men. She could hear the female pirate's voice down below, instructing them on where to sit in the skiff.

Her heart sped up a bit at the realization that she was alone with him now. She swallowed hard, but then steeled herself, refusing to give in to the strong urge to move away from him. The pirate turned his gaze to watching the small skiff slowly move away, AnaMaria checking the blindfolds on each of the men while Gibbs and another sailor rowed them towards one of the smaller tunnels. Soon they had disappeared entirely. Elizabeth shivered mildly and crossed her arms over her chest. There was a very long silence that hung heavy in the air.

"Are you afraid of me, Miss Swan?" the pirate asked softly without looking at her. She turned and studied him for a long moment, then dropped her arms and shook her head.

"Maybe I should be – but no Jack. I'm not afraid of you." She said in a reassuring tone. The pirate was silent for along moment, then gave a soft sigh.

"I really can be quite despicable, dastardly, whatever all the rest was…" he said very softly, still staring out at the happy men stashing away a large fortune in swag below. Elizabeth blushed brightly as she turned and moved away from him and considered the empty deck of the ship only for a moment. Then she spun back, frowning mildly at him from behind now. She cocked her head as she moved up the railing and parked her hands on her hips.

"Mr. Sparrow, I'm not entirely sure I've had enough rum to allow that kind of talk." She said, deliberately repeating the exact tone that had been used the last time she had been alone with the pirate by firelight.. Even from beside him she could see the flash of the gold toned smile.

"I'm afraid I don't have any rum handy at the moment luv," he said, casually offering her the pipe instead. The young woman hesitated a brief moment, then took it from him. She put it to her mouth, took a wee, tiny breath and instantly puffed out a tiny bit of smoke while making a face of extreme dismay. She quickly gave it back.

"Oh the rum was definitely better – much so!" she reacted with in a surprised tone, making a face as if the bad taste still lingered in her mouth. The pirate chuckled as he rose, unending the pipe over the side of the ship and knocking the remaining contents into the water below.

"Come with me young missy. I think we can scare up something to get rid of that for ye." He said, draping his arm casually around her shoulders. Elizabeth stiffened at first at his casually familiar touch, but went along with him. Within seconds she realized he was limping heavily and actually putting some of his weight on her and perhaps there was another reason for the placement of his arm than what she had first thought.

She slid her hand around his waist and slowed their pace. Jack looked down at her, but made no remark or effort to refuse her assistance. Finally they reached the entrance to his cabin and even there she showed no sign of hesitation, seeming intent only on helping him move along.

"Jack – there has to be some way we can both pretend I never said those perfectly horrid things…" she said as she opened the door and lead the way inside. The pirate gave her a rather surprised look, one eyebrow raised as a smug smile came to his features. She gave an exasperated sigh and half swatted at him.

"You know what I mean Jack Sparrow! Now please Jack – here, where's the rum? We need to discuss a few things and come to an accord, my straight out of the story book pirate." She said and then left him at the table and began to rummage in the chest he indicated. In just a moment she was back with the bottle of rum and a very small glass. She poured some into the glass, then took it and sat down beside him and at the same time pushed the remainder of the bottle towards him.

The pirate considered the bottle now in his hand and then her as if thinking, then leaned forward and nodded.

"Aye, drink up me hearties yo ho," he said with a soft clink of his bottle against her glass. She nodded agreeably, repeating the phrase after him as she met his gaze with a warm smile.

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