Disclaimer: This is the second time I'm posting this story, since it got removed from the site for reasons known to me...anyways, since I have a hunch that it MIGHT have been the "chat/script" format of my past disclaimers, I'm going to have to do away with all the fun disclaimer and be boring. I have to conform and say that I own nothing related to Pirates of The Caribbean and in fact the only things I do own fiction-wise are the characters that I come up with. bows
Summary: Christina and Will are now engaged. Yay!!! So then they get married and have kids and live happily ever after, right?…Not quite.
A/N: This chapter was so hard to write…and I really wanted to write, I had to write, to keep my sanity - or what's left of it…because today (07.27.04) was the last day that my best friend's in NY. So, defiantly, I plowed on…if this chapter totally sucks its because I spent the day trying not to cry and listening to 80's rock songs continually…Not that there's anything wrong with 80's rock songs, of course. P
The days that followed after Will joined the crew of the Black Pearl seemed to me that they were filled with more turmoil than the night that the storm struck. Will was not always subtle in his efforts to get me to say I would marry him, and Jack did indeed give Will the bunk right above mine. I did my best to ignore him as he took off his shirt and climbed up into the bunk, turning to Mary and trying desperately to start a conversation, my helpless eyes sliding over to him.
And he knew it too, the bastard! And because he knew it he took his time climbing up onto the bunk, sometimes stopping to chat with one of the other crew members - or worse, with me! Mary did her best to continue our strained conversation but to no avail, and she settled instead for looking at me sympathetically and shooting Will a half-hearted glare every now and then.
The one person who actually stood up for me was unexpected. Anamaria, one night witnessing my discomfort, walked up to Will and gave him a shove. "Budge up there, ye great carcass." she said nastily, winking at me. Will was so surprised that he actually heeded her, climbing into his tiny bunk without another word or glance in my direction.
Jack was not so helpful. He often assigned Will and myself to scrub the deck together, and no matter how vile a look I tossed him, Jack merely shrugged. I was getting quite tired of his little passes at being Cupid and told him so, but Jack merely shrugged once again.
It was often quite hot scrubbing the deck as the sun was often beating down unrelentingly. I had undone the stitches that Laurelyn had put on the sleeves of the shirts she made, but it did little to make the chore of scrubbing the expansive deck of the Pearl any more comfortable. Will, being a man, simply tossed his shirt aside, but through careful determination I was able to, for the most part, ignore him. At least until he saw fit to bump into me rather inappropriately.
"Damn it William if you must go around without a shirt could you at least take care not to touch me!" I shouted, feeling my already sunburned face get hotter as a few members of the crew chortled gleefully. After having been denied the riot that they surely thought would take place the day that Will arrived, they were eager for any chance of another. Even Gibbs stopped overseeing the crewmember's work to watch.
Will shrugged. "My apologies, Christina, I didn't know that you were so proper that you couldn't stand a man to touch you - even accidentally." he said. I glowered.
"Not all men, Will, just you." I snarled, throwing the rag that I was using back into the bucket full of fresh water and scouring soap. Some of the water splashed up onto his face, I was happy to notice.
"What are you saying, Christina?" Will said nastily, also standing up. What did he think I was saying?
"Oh ho, William, are you questioning my honor? Shall I remind you that it was not I who was unfaithful, and you have no right whatsoever to impugn my good name!" I retorted, crossing my arms over my chest. Will looked properly abashed. "I know - I'm sorry Christina." he said, reaching to touch my arm. I wrenched my it back, glaring up at him.
"You have no right to touch me, accidental or no. Not after what you did." I whispered. Will looked like I'd physically hurt him, clenching his jaw and glaring at me.
"Do I really deserve this treatment from you, Christina? I said I was sorry - bloody hell, I came all this way to be with you!" he spat.
"First of all, if you hadn't kissed my sister in the first place you wouldn't have had to come all this bloody way to be with me, because you'd already be with me." I sputtered, so angry now that I could hardly see. It was one thing if he wanted to come all this way to follow me, even to join Jack's crew and sleep shirtless in the bunk above me every night. I could control myself, I wasn't the type to be so glamoured by his half-naked body that I just wouldn't be able to contain my attraction to him. But it was quite another if he would brush up against me "accidentally" to, oh, I don't know, forget my own propriety - even as close to non-existent as it was on this ship - and hurl him down to the bunks where something less-than-innocent could transpire.
"Second of all, yes you deserve all this and worse! And thirdly, don't flatter yourself, William, you are not as irresistible as all that, shirtless or no." I continued, kneeling back down and scrubbing the deck with a vengeance. Will did the same after a moment, looking at me from time to time. I was practically shaking with anger, trying to quell the dirty little voice in my head that was surveying all this with frank amusement, and began to scrub even faster in an attempt to get to the opposite side of the ship.
After a good three quarters of an hour I realized that the ship, as large as it was, was not big enough to set between myself and Will. Evidently he thought that I wasn't skilled enough to swab a deck, because he followed me, cleaning over the parts I'd just finished. I never knew that Will could be so infuriating - or so childish.
The first few days after Will had arrived had been tense - I'd hardly said anything to anyone and Will had taken care to leave me alone for the most part - perhaps thinking that I'd come around of my own accord. But now, a good week since he'd been here, I was furious that I'd broken down so easily the first day he'd been here; I'd practically leapt from the crow's nest to ensure that he wouldn't be leaving. Will seemed to take that as a good sign, and after it was obvious that I wasn't going to be the first to make an attempt at repairing what was left of our relationship, he took it upon himself to make my life a living hell.
I still hadn't been let in on the little trick that Laurelyn had played on me, or if it was indeed all her doing. Jack, I knew, was in on it, and so was Gibbs. But whether or not Laurelyn had been aware that Will had been given a hiding spot in her shop to listen in on me, I still didn't know.
If she was in on the little ploy, she did a spectacular job of acting like she hadn't had a clue - or maybe it was because I was so reluctant to believe that Will would indeed come after me made it so easy to talk to her about him. Didn't Jack warn me of he would? Was he giving me a heads-up? And why didn't I have the sense to listen?
Either way, Will was here now and there was nothing to be done unless I wanted to have him thrown off the ship and into the open sea, or if I wanted to jump off myself. Neither seemed entirely pleasant, but if Will kept antagonizing me the latter seemed inevitable.
After another fifteen minutes of being hunted down and backed into a corner by my former fiancé, I stood up and clenched the rag with shaking hands, fantasizing that it was Will's neck I could be twisting. It was amazing how much I wanted to throttle him! So angry was I that I didn't even stop to think of the words that were making their way out of my mouth.
"God damn it, Will, how would you like it if I walked around shirtless!"
At this, Jack gave a bark of laughter, and Will looked away - obviously the words I'd said were not the words he had expected. Good, I thought, let him see how uncomfortable it is!
"Christina, love, I have a feeling that our eunuch would not mind that so much." Jack said happily. I said nothing, looking at Will, who was rather red about the non-existent collar. He met my eyes and I felt my own face flush. I threw down the rag and ran down to the cabins, throwing myself onto the bunks and screaming in frustration.
I didn't know how long I stayed in the cabins, the darkness of its rather dank interior was a blessing to my overheated skin and I found a pail of fresh water and a rag to wet and place on my skin to cool down. I was sitting with my back to the entrance of the cabins when I heard the door open and slam closed as someone landed quietly behind me. I groaned.
"Go away, Will!"
"Well, love, as dashing as young William is, I am certainly glad that I'm not him with the tone of yer voice." Jack's voice said from behind me. I turned around angrily. "Well, seeing as how you are as hell-bent as Will is on making me miserable, I'm not as ecstatic to see you, either!" I said defiantly, standing up and crossing my arms over my chest, a gesture that was becoming a habit for me. Jack snorted. "Luckily enough for me, then, Christina, you are not the Captain of this ship - I am. And as Captain, I can go wherever I want and make anybody as miserable as I please." he said. I gritted my teeth.
"Is there anything you wish me to do, Captain?" I said, keeping the bitterness in my voice to a minimum. If he wanted to lord the fact that he was Captain Sparrow over my head, so be it. I wouldn't be defiant, then, as that's what really pleased him, it seemed.
Jack's gaze softened as he looked at me.
"What I wish for ye to do is to make up with that boy, love." he said. I narrowed my eyes at him, hardly visible in this darkness.
"Luckily enough for me, then, Captain, while you do control this ship and where it goes, and who it picks up, and who your crew members work with - you do not control the personal lives or emotions of your crew."
"Ah, Christina, don't ye know by now that you are more to me than just another paid crewmember?"
"I don't even get paid."
"Yeah, well, Ol' Jack is doing ye a favor, isn't he?"
"Some favor, Jack!"
"And Will," Jack raised his voice to put an end to our bickering. "- well, I feel obligated to do what I can for the lad, as its partially my fault that he lost his father." Jack said, a note of sadness in his voice. I sighed and sat back down on the bunk, rubbing my eyes tiredly.
"What did you think would happen when you invited Will back on this ship, Captain?" I asked. Jack sat down next to me and leaned forward. He didn't say anything for a long moment.
"I would swear it upon my ship, pet, that Will Turner loves ye." he said.
"So I'm told," I said darkly. "Funny way of showing it, eh? What, did he think -"
"He made a mistake, Christina, and ye should be grateful that kissing yer sister is all he did," Jack interrupted again. I stood up quickly, banging my head once again on the low bunk above mine, and swore.
"Jack Sparrow, I don't know if you think you are being helpful, but I'll have you know that you're not! Grateful! I should be grateful to him! Because all he did was kiss my sister - that's enough, Captain, believe it or not - maybe not for a man like you who has a dozen whores at his beck and call; but it certainly is enough for me not to trust him anymore!" My voice broke.
"Do you know that Will's love for Elizabeth was my biggest fear? That Will had to assure me again and again that he didn't love her - that it was me he wanted! And I decided that I would believe him, that I would trust him. And there he goes, proving my fears right." I said softly. Jack stood up as well.
"Then why did he come after you?" he asked. I glared.
"Every man is a slave to his guilty conscience." I said harshly, chased by a man once again from a place where I thought I could find peace and be alone.
Days passed by slowly, and the ocean never seemed to get us anywhere. There were never any islands, never any birds, and the sun was as oppressive as ever. As beautiful as I found the ocean, I was starting to get bored and long for an island or maybe even a storm to break up the monotony.
"Ah, its 'cause yer young yet, Princess, when ye've sailed as many years as I have, ye'd know what a blessing even a windless day is." Anamaria said, clapping me on the shoulder and either ignoring or not seeing the wince that I made as she slapped my sunburned shoulders. I decided not to tell her that she was hardly older than I was myself.
Mary was given light tasks on the Pearl, often just staying by Jack and turning the wheel every now and then as Jack fumbled with his compass, clearly without any destination in mind. We hardly talked anymore, Mary and I, as I was often busy. Thankfully, Jack had found a speck of mercy in him and I wasn't always working alongside Will, who had found the courtesy to put a damn shirt on every now and then.
On a particularly vindictive windless day I was left remembering what happened the last time the ship was left still in the vast ocean. It was on the rescue mission for Elizabeth, and I had been challenged to three duels - one with Will, one with Anamaria, and one with Jack. From the sidelong looks and the mutterings of the crew, I knew that today wouldn't be a day for me to be left alone.
As if on cue, Jack burst out, "Ah, mates, the inactivity has me in a stupor - what say ye to a contest to break out of this slump?" The crew cheered, obviously this was staged, and I rolled my eyes.
"Any ideas, lads?" Jack asked. The crew was silent, but I was counting down the seconds that my name was mentioned.
"Let the Princess show off her skill once more!" Anamaria crowed, and I stared at her. "Traitor." I accused, but I hadn't been altogether too surprised. The crew cheered and I went down to the cabins to dutifully gather up my sword, stowing a dagger once again in my boot - boots that actually fit now, thanks to Laurelyn.
As I walked back up to the deck, Jack was surveying me with a rather guilty grin on his face. I narrowed my eyes at him and stole a glance at Will, who was looking a bit cheeky and nervous at the same time. I rolled my eyes, wondering what these two monkeys were up to know.
"It seems, Christina, that you have been challenged." Mary said meekly, a small smile playing on her lips too. I glared at her. Was everyone against me? Was there no one who would help me stay away from Will?
I could only think of one person who would be willing to help me in this situation, and ironically that person was Elizabeth. She would certainly help me avoid Will - she would probably solve the problem by dumping me in the ocean.
"Challenged?" I said faintly, and knew that with the flush that crept into Mary's carefully kept pale face it was her idea for this challenge. It seemed to me that everyone on the planet was intent on betraying me in some way or another.
Jack, taking pity on Mary in a way that he never took pity on me said, in a loud voice so that everyone on the Pearl could here. "William Turner has challenged ye to a duel, Christina, do ye accept?"
Ah, giving me the chance to back down. Well, fat chance. If I was given an opportunity to beat Will into a pulp, why not take it, right?
"Oh, well, sure. It's not like I haven't beaten him before." I said rather snottily, tying up my hair with a feral grin. Jack chuckled at me. "There is a catch." he said, and I blinked.
"The winner gets to demand a prize from the his - or her - opponent." Mary said, turning even redder under my glare. Jack's grin widened.
"A prize." I repeated, deadpan. Jack nodded. "Will our competitors please state the prize they demand, should either win?" he asked. The crew was silent but there was a buzz of excitement. Or maybe it was just me.
Will looked at me, questioning. I sneered and inclined my head. "Oh, by all means, Will, honor me." I said spitefully, liking this less and less with every passing second. Will smiled and my heart flipped over and threatened to impale itself on my ribs.
"A kiss." Will said quietly, and the crew roared with laughter. Ah, the plot thickens, and the stakes rise. I swallowed hard, wishing that I hadn't agreed to this duel without asking what the prizes would be first. After a few moments pause, I gritted my teeth but said nothing, waiting for the crew to regain control of themselves.
"And you?" Will asked. I bit my lip, thinking. What could I say that would even this bet? What could I ask of him that would be as much of a slight to his pride as the prize he demanded of me?
"Never ask me to marry you again." I said coldly, raising my chin and ignoring the hurt in his eyes. Will looked surprised and was about to protest but Jack interrupted - something he was unnaturally good at.
"Fair enough. Out of the way, ye rodents!" Jack yelled at the crew. I held my sword and saluted Will grudgingly, and he did the same, his jaw clenched. "Ready?" came Mary's frail voice, out of the corner of my eye I could see her watching me nervously.
"Begin!" came Gibbs' rumbling shout. I stayed still, waiting for Will to advance. He did, and I mirrored him, retreated a step. I side-stepped and he kept his place in front of me, his eyes never leaving mine. I retreated another step, letting him take a step toward me but attacking while he was in mid-step. He backed up quickly, off balance, and I kept advancing until I had him with his back against the wall of the ship.
I smacked his blade harshly with my own, feeling the vibrations up my own arm and retreated, knowing how he would try to get himself out of a corner. Well, let him. For now. I let him come, and we fought in earnest now. He was better than I remembered, faster, and less predictable. I felt sweat beading on my forehead couldn't do anything to keep it out of my eyes. I felt my vision blurring and ran backwards a few steps, getting enough distance quickly enough that I would wipe at my eyes. Neither of us had managed to disarm the other, and we were fifteen minutes into the bout.
I could feel the air pressing in on my as it got hotter and hotter out, the sun glinting off the ocean like it was trying to distract me. Not that I needed much to be distracted, I kept thinking about the prize Will had demanded should I lose. What would I do, I wondered, allow myself to be made a spectacle of if I lost? Or would I dishonor the agreement made when I accepted the challenge, and run away from him? Either way, my defiantly maintained pride would be forfeit. Even if I had said no to this duel, it would have been seen as cowardice. I liked to think that nothing Will could do would frighten me, but the truth was that he could frighten me very easily. I had built up walls of bitterness and anger, but how would those walls hold up to a kiss from the man I love? Love was the bane of bitterness, even though it was from love which this bitterness had ultimately sprung from. Hurt caused by misplaced love is what had led me here, fighting with the man I should have married.
Minutes stretched out until I didn't know how long I had been slashing away, running up and lunging only to be parried out of the way, having to spin and leap to avoid being slashed. I could tell that Will was holding back, pulling his punches. I was too, not wanting to let loose as I had when I dueled with Anamaria. I wondered if maybe I didn't want to beat Will, if maybe I wanted to keep him asking for me. Maybe I was afraid that if he did stop asking me to marry him, eventually he'd ask to be dropped back off at Port Royal to ask someone who would say yes - regardless of whether or not he loved her. If he gave up on me I think it would hurt me more than it did when he kissed Elizabeth.
"Come on, Will!" I taunted breathlessly, and he bared his teeth and lunged, I parried narrowly and dashed up a few steps, skirting around some boxes and carefully aware of the ropes that lay scattered about dangerously. He followed me, attacking, and my arm was so tired by now that I wished I'd been more diligent in trying to be able to fight well with both arms, that way I could switch.
Not to mention that after the stress of these past few days and the lack of practice - teaching Mary didn't count because she hardly presented a challenge - I wasn't in very good shape to duel. And Will, who could not only fight with a sword but make them as well, had an advantage. That and the fact that he was a good deal stronger than I was - my one advantage was that I was fast, and right now, I wasn't making good use of that advantage.
"She wants to lose, look." I heard someone mutter and another chuckle good-naturally. That spurned the last bits of my energy I held in reserve and I attacked recklessly.
Will, with one well-placed swipe, knocked my sword out of my hand and sent it flying five feet away. I pulled the dagger out of my boot and held it in front of me. He looked less than surprised, aiming another hard swipe in the opposite direction and knocking my dagger out of my hand as well. He extended his arm, the point of his sword right over my heart. There was a faint smile on his sweaty face, his dark messy curls loose and flying around his head.
"Do you yield, Christina?" he asked hoarsely, anticipation written clearly in his features. I said nothing, only looked at his sword and then down at the deck, and finally meeting his eyes once again.
"Do you yield?" Jack barked. I glared at him and Mary, at all the crew, and then back at Will. I was sick and tired of being laughed at and betrayed, even in the slightest. I was sick of Jack playing matchmaker and Mary trying to do what she thought was best for me.
"Never!" I shouted, knocking Will's blade away with my own hand and cutting my palm open in the process, watching triumphantly as my own blood gathered thickly in my cupped palm and dripped down on the deck. I cradled my injured hand in its partner and heard Will drop his sword to the deck with a clang. He came toward me and grabbed me by the arm. I shrugged him off and glared.
"You think you'd pull one over on me, hmm, William?" I snarled. He didn't say anything, didn't even look angry. He stared at my hand and then up at me, as if seeing me for the first time.
"And you, Jack? Mary? I will no longer be some form of entertainment for you!" Jack looked shocked as well and Mary looked horrified. "Christina, your hand…" she said weakly. I glared at her, amazed that now she could show such concern when before she was so keen on getting me cornered. "What of it?" I asked, and felt at once ashamed, seeing the hurt look in her eyes. I could be mad at everyone else, even Will, but not Mary. She didn't ask to be dragged along, I'd asked her to come with me. She could do whatever she wanted to force me and Will together, but I could not be angry with her, the one person who was truly my friend even if she had odd ways of showing it. She hadn't meant to hurt me, that I knew.
"Turner's the winner." Gibbs said. I sighed wearily and held my hand against my shirt to stem the bleeding. It wasn't a deep cut, but it was considerably painful and it didn't seem to want to stop bleeding. That struck me as ironic as well, an almost perfect metaphor for my resentment and anger towards Will for hurting me so.
"They made an agreement, Jack." Anamaria said, looking at me without a trace of a smile. I opened my mouth in shock. Surely they didn't mean to -
"He named his prize." she continued pointedly.
Obviously they did mean to have Will kiss me on top of all this.
"Aye. And he shall have his prize." Gibbs now.
"Over my dead body!" I roared. The crew kept their laughter curiously quiet.
"He shall have his prize," said Jack loudly, glaring disapprovingly at Gibbs and Anamaria. "But not in front of the crew. Turner, ye will claim yer prize when ye see fit." Jack said, and the crew once again looked as if they had been denied a real treat.
"Listen here, Captain," I said sarcastically. "I am not some wench that can have anything demanded of her - I choose who I want to kiss and when and I do not wan-"
"Yeh agreed to this duel, young missy, and ye'll be held to that agreement." Gibbs said roughly, though not unkindly. I opened my mouth to protest but saw no point in it, once again turning around and fleeing to the cabins, which were obviously no longer a safe haven.
After a moment I heard as I knew I would heavy footsteps leading down to where I sat in the darkness, grasping a cloth tightly. "Christina," Will said softly and I closed my eyes, wishing I could ignore him. I didn't move.
He walked over to where I was sitting and knelt before me. I hardened my heart against this, still refusing to say anything. If he thought that he could propose to me right now!
He startled me, however, and took my hand. He held my wrist and I kept still, staring over his head at the wall. He unfolded my fingers gently and took the rag away, dipping it in water and gently cleaning the cut. I could feel his eyes making the same gentle patterns on my face and felt as though my heart would crack in two. I was too exhausted, or perhaps too stubborn, or maybe even reluctant to take my hand away.
"I'm sorry." he said softly and my eyes darted to see that he wasn't looking at me anymore, but instead at the cut on my hand. He brought it closer to his face and blew gently, drying what was left of the water droplets and leaving just a fresh red line across my palm. I felt myself tremble but if Will noticed, he didn't react. I took a deep breath and stared resolutely at the wall behind him once more.
Will took out a clean piece of cloth and began to gently wrap it around my hand, taking his time as if savoring the moment that I was with him and not fuming. He pulled tightly for a moment and I winced, sucking in a breath.
"Sorry," he said again. "Blacksmith's hands -" he broke off and even in the dim light I could see the flush that crept into his face. So he wasn't as crass as he liked to act. He was properly embarrassed of using the same line on me as he did my sister.
"I know they're rough." I whispered and he looked up. The regret I saw in his eyes made me want to cry, and I had so valiantly refrained from crying for so long. As he looked away I took a deep breath again and he continued to wrap my hand, tying a gentle knot by my knuckles.
He placed my hand back on my lap and raised himself up to sit on a chair opposite me. We sat in silence, a silence that was so oppressive that I was torn between giving in and crying or giving in and forgiving him, neither of which I particularly preferred to do. Just as I opened my mouth to say something he murmured softly, "I'll stop."
"You - what?"
"I'll stop asking you," he said, raising his eyes to meet mine. "If it makes you so unhappy, the thought of marrying me, then I'll stop." he said. I stared at him, not really hearing what he was saying. There was a firm resignation in his eyes and I knew that in a way he was giving up on me, or maybe he was giving me time. I wondered now if I had just killed all my chances of marrying this man and what would happen to us if he was on the ship. If he thought he knew my answer to the question he'd come to ask me, what was the point of him staying? Would he leave now that I'd said no, and he'd agreed to stop asking?
Will looked at me almost pleadingly, as if begging me to tell him that it was okay if he kept asking me, as if he wanted my permission to keep driving me crazy. I couldn't find any words to say and after a moment he got up and walked out of the cabins without another word.
I was left in the cool darkness tracing patterns on the cloth that bound my wounded hand and swallowing the lump in my throat that I finally realized was my pride.
A/N: It's 1:02 A.M. but I had to keep writing this chapter. I think it got better towards the end but its still not as good as I imagined it should have been…I want to say thank you to all the people who reviewed my story - this is the first story that I ever wrote that got over 200 reviews, and that means a lot to me. So, thank you all for reading my stories and taking the time to review, it really means so much! Special thanks to Laura, who came up with the title for the last chapter when I had a hard time deciding on one, and to Darma Druid (I'm sorry I haven't reviewed lately!), both of whom are writers that I really look up to. (Yes, you too Laura, you rock and you know it.)
Love,
Crystyna