Disclaimer: I had Jack Sparrow chained in my basement, until Disney came to reclaim him. Now he's no longer mine…
AN: I'm so glad that people like my work, it makes me so happy! If anyone is interested in how my stories are going or what other categories I write in, visit my bio page for info. Enjoy the chapter!
Chapter 5: Finding Out the Unexpected:
Author's POV:
Life onboard the Pearl grew increasingly nerve-wracking for the noblewoman-turned-pirate. Even though she had been on the ship for over three months, it became harder and harder for her to 'play dumb' when it came to her duties and chores. While she had toned down her abilities to carry out whatever was asked of her, the crew still watched her whenever she came on deck. Their suspicions about her had diminished ever since she'd taken to 'making mistakes,' but they still felt as though something wasn't right about her. However, unable to uncover anything more than a normal noblewoman barely managing to scrape though life on the Pearl, the men gradually gave up trying to pin anything on the poor woman and grudgingly tried to get on with their lives.
Jack's POV:
Mentally slapping himself, Jack frowned at what Gibbs had just told him.
"The crew's restless, sir," the elderly pirate had told him earlier that morning after breakfast. "You've had us sailing around the Caribbean without any plundering getting done, and they're getting lazy and bored. The lass, Nessa, is fitting in now, and it's time to get on with the looting."
That was true enough. The crew needed swag in order to buy clothes, drinks, and pleasurable company whenever the Pearl docked for a bit of time, and since the Pearl hadn't been plundering in three months, they weren't having any fun.
"A bored crew is a dangerous crew," Jack muttered to himself, rubbing his chin with his hand.
And a bored crew was the last thing he needed, especially after all of that trouble with Nerissa coming aboard. The reason they'd been sailing and not attacking any vessels was because he was too reluctant to have blood stain Nerissa's hands too soon. Nobility knew nothing of pillaging, and he hadn't wanted her exposed to that sort of thing, at least not until he was sure that she was fitting in and comfortable aboard the Pearl.
'Guess she's settled in now,' he thought, chewing his bottom lip. 'Time to expose her to some fighting.'
He just wouldn't allow her to participate in the raids yet. It was best to get her used to seeing blood before having her spill it for profit. Nodding to himself, Jack turned his attention to a map currently lying on top of his desk.
A Week Later: Nerissa's POV:
"You what? Jack, you're not serious!" she exclaimed, horrified at the idea.
Jack sighed. "Darling, we're a pirate ship and that's what we do," he said, rolling his eyes at her to state the obvious. "We raid, pillage, plunder, and all sorts of unseemly things to make our living, and I need you to be carefully and fully prepared for when we start tomorrow."
Nerissa looked away as she began to panic. She couldn't fight, she just couldn't! It wasn't that she detested violence; in reality, she didn't like it, but sometimes the act was necessary in order to survive or to help others. No, it wasn't that she hated violence, it was the fact that…
"Luv?" asked a voice from right in front of her, fingers snapping in front of her eyes to catch her attention. "You there?"
"Uh, yes, I'm here," Nerissa said, blinking. "Um, Jack, I'm not so sure if me fighting is a good idea…"
Jack snorted handing her a sword and smiling in amusement. "Don't be silly, luv, how else am I going to be sure you're safe?" he said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "Now, why don't the two of us head up to the main deck and start practicing?"
Swallowing hard, Nerissa followed him on deck.
Author's POV:
The two had barely taken positions before a shot rang though the air. Everyone ducked as Jack began calling out orders and yelling curses.
"Why the bloody hell didn't you see them?" he roared up at the crow's nest. The man up in the small space merely turned pale and shrugged. It was Wiggins, the newest member of the crew (besides Nessa). "It figures," Jack mumbled to himself. "Bloody idiot doesn't belong up there this soon."
Grabbing his sword and pistol from his belt, Jack stood up to glance at the ship gaining up on them. It was a merchant vessel, and it was running heavy with loot and weaponry. The Pearl may be unprepared, but Jack already knew that the men below deck were readying the cannons and preparing for the worst; the ship would be ready for battle by the time their enemy-now-target got here.
"Nessa, stay below," he whispered to the girl.
She nodded and snuck towards the main cabin, locking herself in.
Nerissa's POV:
Huddling inside of the main cabin, Nerissa didn't know whether to sigh in relief or panic because of the impending battle. She was happy to be away from the fighting, but the Pearl was caught unawares.
'All because some idiot couldn't keep proper watch,' she thought. 'It's mid-afternoon, for goodness sakes! Anyone with eyes could have seen them!'
And now Jack and the crew were in trouble. She'd been ordered below, and if she so much as stuck her nose out the door, she'd either suffer in enemy hands, or Jack would shoot her for disobeying him. Presently, shots were ringing out, swords were clanging, and curses were filling the air right outside her door.
'I have to do something,' Nerissa frantically thought to herself, clutching her sword in her hand.
Gathering her courage, Nessa put her hand on the doorknob and opened a doorway into chaos. Men were fighting everywhere, but she could see that the Pearl's crew was winning. A sailor suddenly appeared in front of her, a sword in his hands and a horrid grin on his face. Nerissa instantly knew that he was from the enemy ship, and raised her sword in defense.
"Now, poppet, no need to try and scare a man like me," he said, leaning forward, a hand reaching for her. "Come quietly, and we'll have some fun, aye?"
Nerissa's eyes narrowed and her sword came up, knocking his hand aside and meeting his weapon. The man's eyes narrowed as well as his sword clashed with hers in an attempt to use his strength against her smaller frame. He was surprised when her cutlass danced from side to side, his eyes losing track of it as it whirled in an exotic dance that he was unfamiliar with. Before he knew it, his weapons were out of his grasp and the brunt of her blade had met the side of his head.
Nerissa let out a breath. "One down…"
"Several more to go," declared another voice.
Looking up, Nerissa groaned when she saw four men advancing on her. Raising her sword again, she evened her legs with the width of her shoulders and braced herself.
Jack's POV:
Glancing over his shoulder, Jack saw that his crew was soundly beating the tar out of the merchant ship's crew. The enemy men aboard the Pearl had surrendered and the rest were being put out of their misery. Satisfied, he turned towards his cabin to get Nerissa. But when he glanced over, he saw four merchantmen advancing on her. Now, if there was one thing Jack Sparrow despised, it was an unfair fight. So, tightly gripping his cutlass, Jack's eyes narrowed as he advanced on his targets.
The next few moments were a complete blur for the pirate captain. One moment he and Nerissa were outnumbered, the next they were a pair of fighting tigers, frantically trying to survive the bloodbath that the merchants so badly wanted. Two went down under Jack's blade, one seriously dead and the other seriously wounded. The two other men were trying to use their greater numbers against Nerissa, and Jack couldn't stand seeing the small woman being cornered like that. He rushed to her side to help her.
Nerissa's POV:
Trying with all of her strength, Nerissa kept her two attackers at bay. She knew that Jack had put down the others, and now it was evenly matched…or it would have been, if Jack were by her side. Refusing to give up, she swung her sword in an impressive arch, disemboweling one man quickly, but leaving her side open to attack, an opening that he'd been waiting for.
Just as the other man's weapon touched her side, cutting through the fabric of her shirt and piercing her flesh, Jack was there, his pistol firing a deadly shot into the man's back. Nerissa hissed in pain as the sword slightly embedded in her side slid out and clattered to the floor. With all of their opponents dead, Jack made his way to her side, his eyes full of concern.
"Are you alright, luv?" he asked, an arm going around her waist.
She smiled up at him. "It's alright, Jack, it's just a flesh wound."
Jack frowned at her. "Flesh wound or not, you need to be tended to before it gets infected."
Before she could protest, Nerissa found herself in the galley, where a few other members of the crew were waiting to be worked on. She only had to be there a few moments as her incredibly minor stab wound was inspected, treated with rum, and covered with a bandage. It wouldn't have been that bad, had she not had Jack standing guard over her and Annamaria, who was the one in charge of the 'doctoring' for the ship's wounded. Jack was constantly muttering and imputing advice that Anna really didn't need, and had to be threatened by both women to "shut up or get slapped" for being so annoying!
Once she was allowed to leave, Nerissa took Jack aside in the hallway that went in front of his cabin and looked him in the eye. There was a serious matter at hand, and she needed to talk to him about it, no matter how briefly.
"Jack, I know you aren't going to like this, but I owe you my life," she said, her voice soft as she tried to keep the conversation between the two of them. "I guess you could call it a life-debt, and you are free to call upon it at will."
Leaving a stunned Jack Sparrow in the doorway of his cabin, Nerissa managed to find her way back to her small room and collapsed onto her bed, falling into a peaceful sleep.
Midnight: Jack's POV:
'The lass is hiding quite a lot from me,' Jack thought grumpily to himself as he lay in bed that night.
Secrets were something that he wasn't fond of, and the fact that someone was keeping him in the dark about more than one secret made him very upset. He'd seen Nerissa fight, swinging her sword in a perfectly controlled manner to kill an enemy that had her pinned, and that didn't make any sense at all. Noblewomen did not fight; it just wasn't normal! They might defend themselves as best they could (like a certain Governor's daughter), but other than that, it just wasn't done.
'Guess that means the crew was right about her being a bit too thrifty with the chores, too.'
That last bit just made everything worse. If Nerissa, noblewoman that she was, could work aboard a pirate ship and fight with the best of them, then she had some serious explaining to do. She might be widely traveled, but no sane person would teach a wealthy woman how to do chores like the working class unless they wanted some severe punishment from the girl's family. There was something off about dear Miss Nerissa Fox, and as soon as the sun rose, Jack was going to find out what it was!
The Next Day: Nerissa's POV:
After a good breakfast in the galley, she was relieved to find out that all injured members of the crew were allowed the day off to heal and rest. This annoyed Nerissa just the slightest bit, considering that she wasn't that wounded, and was bored out of her mind within minutes. However, a glance around her cabin told her that she seriously needed to do some cleaning, and clean she did. Two hours (and a lot of scrubbing) later, she was proud of her accomplishment of cleaning the entire cabin from top to bottom. Thoughts of a quick lunch and nap were disturbed when a knock sounded at her door.
"Nessa?" called Annamaria through the thick layer of wood. "Captain Sparrow would like a word with ye in his cabin."
Nerissa sighed. "Alright, I'm coming," she said, brushing stray locks of hair out of her eyes.
Upon entering the Captain's cabin, she was unnerved to see a very serious Jack Sparrow sitting behind his table, his usually good-humored face solemn. A frown pulled the corners of his lips downwards, and his eyes did not sparkle the way they normally did. All of this put together made her stomach churn with nervousness, and the tense air in the cabin didn't matters very much, either. She was glad when Jack waved a hand towards a chair opposite of him, indicating she should sit.
"Let's get down to business, shall we?" he said, putting his feet up on top of the table, his hands clasped together over his stomach. "You've been hiding some very important information from me, Milady, and that's a very bad thing. Secrets tend to make me a tad upset, and when I'm upset, the crew tends to get a bit…nervy." His brown eyes bore into hers. "Care to explain your little dance with a sword yesterday, and how you're so naturally good with your chores that it puts my seasoned crewmembers to shame?"
Nerissa swallowed the lump forming in her throat. "I can't say that I would," she softly replied, looking away from him.
She heard Jack's feet meet the ground and instantly grew afraid when his hands grasped her chin, forcing her to look him in the eye. She wished she never had; never had she seen such anger and confusion in any man's eyes, and it tore her heart to see him so angry with her. Biting her tongue, she dared to look him in the eye, pleading for him to not ask any more questions about her and her life. Her silent pleading went unnoticed as Jack pressed forward with his interrogation.
"Spill it, luv." His voice was firm and commanding, wanting her to tell him everything even as his eyes mercilessly drilled into hers.
"I can't," she whispered, closing her eyes. "I'm sorry, Jack, but I can't."
"Why?" he demanded. "You say that you owe me your life, a blood or life-debt, as you call it, and I'm calling on that right now! Tell me what you're keeping from me!"
"I can't!" she wailed, pushing him away and getting to her feet. "I may owe you my life, Jack Sparrow, but I can't break an oath I swore years ago!"
Her legs took her to the door, but Jack beat her to it, his right hand keeping the door shut even as she struggled to get it open. He whirled her around so that he could once again look her in the eye.
"You'd better rethink that, young missy," he said, his voice low and frightening in her ears. "You're on my ship, and when I want something, I'd better get it. As your captain and as the man who saved your life, you'd better tell me what I want to know." She shook her head, and he sighed. "Suit yourself. Gibbs!"
The next thing she knew was the sound of the brig door was slamming, the vibrations ringing in her ears. Unable to help herself, Nerissa burst into tears.
AN: Sorry about Jack turning nasty, but it's needful. Besides, he has every right to be mad, doesn't he? Please review and let me know what you think of the chapter!