Scratched Glass

Chapter 4

A/N: Sorry it took me this long to post the chapter, but I couldn't find the pages. Anywayz, here it is. Enjoy!

She was thrown backward, along with Karyane. Hours had already passed and hours of this merciless suffering was yet to come.

Karyane had already vomited twice and her skin had paled to a whitish snow color. Zenakabee knew how fearful her step-sister was of thunder and lightning.

She closed her eyes and heard sickening belching. The slight of her sibling's once beautiful jet black hair sticking to her pale face and puke all over her front was disgusting. Nevertheless, she went over to her side and tried to ease the pain.

Jack went quickly to his quarters. He needed to get out the water in his boots. Badly. He had been out in the harsh winds for over five hours, helping his men tie down sails, cut a few lose, and above all, trying to keep the ship on the right course.

He sat down on his bed and took off his boots. He started squishing the soles to get out as much water as possible. He squeezed and squeezed with whatever might was left in him. His palms throbbed with a dull pain and a stream of blood was flowing from the middle of his arm. Just below his elbow, a cut was neatly placed. It had gotten there through the friction of two ropes. But he was too tired to remember the details.

Gibbs came running into his quarters and hurriedly asked, "Which sail would you rather lose? A small one or the biggest one that won't free itself from a mast?"

"The one that's wrapped around the mast," Jack answered. "And close the door!" he yelled as freezing cold rain came flying into the room. Gibbs went running out of the room and closed the door behind him.

"Damned storm," Jack thought to himself. In actuality, he was thanking whoever was up there. The storm was lighter than expected and would probably end within and hour or two. "If the storm didn't pick up," Jack mumbled to himself. "And that's a pretty big if."

Zenakabee heard a man coming down the row of stairs where she and Karyane were staying. The ship had stopped its violent rocking awhile ago. And thank God for that. Karyane had puked twice more. How that much food could come up was beyond Zenakabee.

"The captain's calling you. The storm's over," he informed her and a sleeping Karyane. He took out a pair of keys and unlocked the cell. "Wake up y'er friend, we don't want to keep the captain waiting for too long."

Zenakabee scowled at the words and roused her sleeping step. It broke her heart to wake the suffering girl to what was probably going to be even more misery. "Karyane...Karyane...wake up. The captain wants to see us," she said in a hushed voice. By now, all of her previous anger at the girl had seeped away. Instead, it was replaced with pure sympathy. She watched as Karyane's eyelids fluttered open to reveal a vast sea of a beautiful green shade. "Come on. Get up Karyane."

Karyane rose slightly, perched on her elbows, drowsiness still clouding her vision. "Hurry up with the girl!" the pirate shouted, obviously tired of waiting.

"Why should I!" Zenakabee retorted. She was sick and tired of taking orders from someone else, especially men. First her father, then Tom, then the barber, then the men at the party, then Jack, and now this stupid idiot. Who did he think he was! A king or something!

"Because the captain is waiting!" the pirate roared. He, too, had had a testing day. He hadn'tbeen able to getmuch sleep before the storm and on top of that, the storm had drained him of virtually all of his energy. His hands ached from working the sails, his head still spun slightly from the violent crashing of the waves, and his cuts and scratches amounted to so many that they were equivalent to a large gaping gash. Now, there was this pompous girl to deal with. Just because she was rich didn't mean that she could boss him around.

Zenakabee was shocked into silence. As the pirate spoke – or rather, shall I say, yelled at the top of his lungs – spit flew everywhere and now freckled her half-covered arms. "Fine, but you don't have to spit so much," she mumbled almost inaudibly.

Zenakabee helped Karyane up to a stooping position so that their heads wouldn't collide with the low ceiling of the cell. Stepping out, she put Karyane's arm on one of her own shoulders and held the now light girl by the waist.

She followed the pirate up the stairs and into a secluded room. The man knocked twice and a muffled reply of "enter" came from within.

The man followed orders and entered, as did Zenakabee and the weak Karyane. Their captor looked up from his papers and told the other pirate to leave.

"Yes, sir," he said obediently and left, closing the door behind him.

"How long has it been since she's eaten?" he asked, coming over and touching Karyane's cheek.

"Don't touch her, you vile creature!" Zenakabee shrieked and raised her free hand to slap him. But he caught it in mid-air and held it there. Slowly, he put her hand back down to her side.

"Stop arguing with me or else I'll throw you overboard. Now answer my question. How long has it been since she's eaten?" he asked and removed Zenakabee's hand from Karyane's waist. He replaced his own hand by the thin girl's waist and took her arm and threw it over his shoulder. He picked her up into his arms gently and took her to his bed.

"Over a day. She hadn't eaten all day yesterday. And she skipped dinner the night before. Plus, she's thrown up at least five times in that cell," Zenakabee mumbled, torn between two choices. Let her step sister stay in the care of the gentle and sincere man or rescue her sibling from the hands of the vermin?

"What?" he asked, dumbfounded. "Why didn't she eat for that long? And why did she throw up so many times?" he continued, worry now seeping into the threads of his voice and lining it. Amazing what emotions could do to a person's countenance and their approach on things. Not one minute ago this man was threatening to throw a defenseless woman overboard and now he had turned to a jelly. Poke it and it'll move, transfigure, and take a different form. Even if the form was only slightly different from the form before it, it had still changed form. And if poked enough, that jelly could change shapes entirely. And that's what Jack had done. Amazing really, if you think about it.

"It's not right to eat the day of the ball. There is a possibility that you won't fit into your gown. And then that gown would be useless. Even if you did somehow manage to fit into it, your stomach might bulge a little bit too much and then everyone would make you the butt of their jokes for the next few days or so. It's only a few days, but still, who wants to suffer the humility?" she explained. After a second more of thought, she added, with venom edged into her voice, "And besides, we didn't know that we'd be captured by you." See? There emotion went again. First she was talking about fat and humiliation and now she was peeved at her captor and wanted nothing better than to strangle him thoroughly and then spit on his dead body. There was the jelly-like transformation once more.

"But why did she throw up?" Jack continued, not wanting to argue with something that he didn't understand. Socialites, he didn't know them, he didn't like them, and didn't want to have to stoop down to such low measures of doing such.

"She's dead scared of thunder."

After a long pause, he mumbled, "the poor thing," and caressed Karyane's cheek. The girl had fallen asleep once more. She had endured hunger, fear, physical pain and she hadn't relented. But once the wave of drowsiness rolled past her, she tumbled into its welcoming arms. And now she was resting in a deep slumber.

"Tell me one thing, you…you…you pirate," Zenakabee stumbled for the right words.

Jack sighed exasperatedly, "I give up. There's just no point in trying to teach these lowly people my correct name. Either they forget the Jack or the Sparrow and then the somewhat smart ones go and screw up the best part of it, Captain. What's a man without his title? I give up. I simply give up."

"Fien then, Sparrow. Tell me why you're pretending to care for my sister?" Zenakabee asked, suspicious of the man's real intentions. I mean, add two and two and what do you think the answer is? The man is a vicious pirate that is probably full of lust and Karyane is a pretty, defenseless, semi-virgin girl. Very pretty, thought Zenakabee. The manis the first two and Karyaneis the second two. And the two don't sum up to five either, which was he was the excuse 'I was just trying to protect her'!

Jack looked up from Karyane's face and solemnly said, "I owe it to her. She helped me out and plus you should be thankful. She came here to save you."

"What? She wouldn't be crazy enough to risk her safety just to get my poor arse home. No one would do that. Not even me!" Zenakabee dismissed with a wave of her hand.

By now, Jack was thoroughly exasperated. His patience was wearing thin, as thin as a poor beggar's clothes are at the end of a harsh winter. That ought to give you an idea of how close he was to fulfilling his idea of throwing Zenakabee overboard. Nevertheless, he tried."Gibbs found her dangling on a rope and trying to get onboard to save you. How she found the right ship, I don't know. But I do know that she was lucky enought notto plunge into the depths of the ocean or hit the wood of the port itself. She would have either drowned to her pitiful death or crashed her head open," he explained.

"The water...it's shallow. She would've survived. Even if she doesn't know how to swim, the water is only a foot or two deep," Zenakabee stuttered, trying to ease her conscience. In return, Jack shook his head at the pitiful excuse that she was coming up with.

"Only a fool would think that. The water is about five feet deep where the wooden plankings of the port start. From there on, the water get deeper. One of the reasons that ports exist is so that a ship can easily reach land without hitting shallow water or the owner of the ship worrying about its safety," Jack continued, trying not to lose what little sanity he had left. The girl was obviously as stubborn as any ass that he had ever seen.

"Where the Pearl stood, the waters were a good twenty-five feet deep," he informed. Zenakabee stood there for a minute, letting the facts seep in.

"How did she help you out?" Zenakabee asked after a long pause, her conscience finally allowing her to hold a decent conversation with this man.

"That's for me to know and for you to find out," he answered, smirking ever so slightly as his eyes returned to Karyane's face.

A/N: Did you like it? Plz r/r and tell me, cuz reviews really make my day. :D