Beauty and the Pirate

Disclaimer:I do not own any of the characters mentioned in this story from the movie "Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl". Nor do I own any dialogue that matches up to the dialogue from Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" nor any storyline plots from said movie. I solely own the characters of Isabelle and Marcel Cheney and Gaspard and all additional creative story lines. Hope you enjoy the story and feel free to send a review!

Chapter 16

Dinner… Again

"So is she comin' this time?" Jack asked Gibbs when he entered into the galley.

"Aye, captain," Gibbs smiled, "she's just runnin' a bit late. Some problems with a dress accordin' to Elizabeth."

"I hope you're right," Jack sighed as he took a seat at the table, the food already laid out, "Hope she's not tryin' to get out of this because she's afraid of eatin' alone with me. Probably so used to eatin' with the whole crew that this might scare her."

"Doubt it, Jack," Gibbs continued smiling, "It'll work out."

Just as Gibbs had finished talking, Isabelle appeared at his side in lovely mint green dress, her hair tied loosely with a matching ribbon. Jack's eyes wandered all over the new sight before him as he tried to stand up.

"Good evening, Jack," Isabelle said promptly as he approached her.

"Good evenin', m'lady," Jack replied looking deep into her eyes as Gibbs dismissed himself.

After a moment of silence, Jack stepped out of Isabelle's way and gestured to the table, "Care to be me guest and join me?"

Isabelle nodded with a gentle smile and made her way to the table, taking a seat across from Jack.

When seated, Jack immediately began to eat while Isabelle bowed her head and closed her eyes for a quick moment of thanks. Noticing this little action before she began eating as well, Jack felt a bit guilty, but he couldn't figure out if he felt this way because he never said a prayer of thanks before eating or for not having realized that she did this even when she ate with the rest of the crew.

"So did you have an enjoyable time drinking with your crew this afternoon, Jack?" Isabelle politely asked to break up the silence that had made itself present once again.

"Actually," Jack began, not really wanting to talk about it, "I didn't drink any rum with me crew."

"Oh," Isabelle said with a hint of guilt as she slowly put down the roll she was about to eat, "I hope I didn't spoil your fun."

"No, of course not," Jack lied through a forced grin, "I just wasn't in the mood."

Isabelle gave a small nod before continuing to eat, no longer looking up at Jack.

"So tell me, Isabelle," Jack tried to change the subject of conversation, "about your shoppin' excursion today. How long exactly did it take before Elizabeth drove ye mad?"

Isabelle put her fork down and looked up at Jack in surprise at what he had said.

"Well?" Jack questioned again before taking a bite of steamed vegetables.

"She didn't, Jack," Isabelle answered honestly, then after a moment's thought added with a brightened smile, "Though I must admit she was far more excited about finding me dresses than I was."

"That does sound like Elizabeth," Jack chuckled.

"But she was very kind and most helpful, for I've never worn dresses like these before."

"Elizabeth did a good job alright at pickin' ye this dress," Jack said, then without thinking and before he could stop himself added, "It's dresses like these that ye deserve to wear."

Isabelle, who was in the middle of swallowing her cooked fish, choked a little bit, not expecting to have heard something like that from anyone, let alone Jack.

"How do you know what I deserve? You haven't known me that long?" Isabelle questioned strongly after several gulps of water.

Jack, who himself honestly didn't know where that had come from, hesitated in search of an answer, "Not sure, it's just somethin' that came to me mind, can't really explain-"

"Excuse me, captain," Gibbs suddenly appeared in the doorway, "Anamaria says that the helm's all yours whenever you're ready."

"Thank ye, Gibbs," Sparrow dismissed before turning back to Isabelle, "I'm sorry if that was wrong of me to say."

"No, not at all, just took my attention, nothing more," Isabelle simply said, then took up her fork again.

Jack, wasn't sure about her response, but tried to let it go by bringing up her shopping trip with Elizabeth again, "And so Elizabeth didn't drive ye crazy in the end, but tell me how the rest of ye ladies' shoppin' went."

"Lovely, thank you," Isabelle replied sweetly.

"So nothing interesting happened at all?"

"We just shopped for dresses, Jack," Isabelle laughed at the captain's inquiry.

"I take that as a 'no'."

"Why so interested?"

"Just wanted to know how it went, since I wasn't able to join ye."

"I did invite you, remember?" Isabelle teased all-knowingly.

"Aye, but me crew needed me to keep 'em company?" Jack shrugged in mock innocence.

"But you said yourself you didn't join in on drinking rum with them," Isabelle pointed out matter-of-factly, "and so you could have spent your time with us shopping instead of sitting on this ship."

"True," Jack answered in a bit of a struggle, "but I did join 'em in talk and all. Probably was best since I am captain, not to mention ye ladies didn't need to drag someone like me 'round those high-toned and fancy-to-do dress stores."

"What do you mean? I'm sure plenty of gentlemen go about those stores all the time with their-"

"Pirate, darlin'," Jack corrected, the pet name rolling off his tongue by complete accident.

Isabelle's eyes widened slightly at the recognition of his occupation once again, "That's right, you're a pirate… but so what?"

"Ye may be blind to me bein' a pirate, darlin', but not the rest of this 'ere world," Jack said finishing up his meal.

"I don't think I'm blind to you being a pirate, Jack," Isabelle said vigorously as she finished eating and began standing up, "I think that everyone else is blind to the real person you are and keep trying to cover up by using the excuse of being a pirate and therefore doing what pirates do."

With that she turned towards the open door, "I'll be on deck with your book getting a head start on what you may have planned to test me on."

Jack gave a slight nod, then looked down at his empty plate as Isabelle left. "Is she right?" Jack thought softly to himself.