A/N: So, who is this mysterious woman? And who is Jay Bird? (Give ya three guesses) and what the fuck is going on?
Disclaimer: Mysterious Woman is mine. She's all I have (Sniff) and then some company or other owns the rest.
It was ten o'clock when the people came down. They took their table and she brought over breakfast. Sausage, bacon, eggs. Jay looked ill when she plonked them down in front of him. Maybe now wasn't the opportune moment.
It wasn't until after lunch when Jay and his friend came over to the bar. They chatted easily together.
"Hiya love," Jay greeted her easily.
"Jay Bird," she nodded. Jay froze
"What did you call me?"
"Jay Bird. Mebbe you should clean out yer ears,"
"God, that's a name I haven't heard for many a year,"
"Twenty of 'em." She replied and started to pull pints.
)()()()()()(Jack's PoV)()()()()()()(
Jeez, Jay Bird. He really hadn't heard that in years. He studied the young woman in front of him. She looked familiar.....
)()()()()()(Will's PoV)()()()()()()(
"Another err, 'friend', from the old days?" Will dropped the quote marks like an old lady dropping tongs round something distasteful
"No." Jack replied.
The woman said nothing, but began to hum under her breath. It was a simple refrain, but it hit Jack hard
"...And there I'll be waiting for you," she sang softly
Will watched as the colour drained out of Jack's face
"Jill?" he whispered.
)()()()()(Jill's PoV)()()()()()(
"Yeah, it's me," she chuckled "Changed a bit, aint I?"
"Err, yeah," Jay mumbled, and took a deep swig from the mug in front of him. "Um, I- I thought you were dead,"
"Looking good then, aint I?" she smiled and then brushed her face. "Well, for a dead person, anyways..."
She saw Jay's companion half turn away, and said
"I've got more under my shirt,"
"Jill." It was as though he'd really looked at her for the first time "What happened?"
)()()()()()(Will's PoV)()()()()()(
When her hand went to her face, it was as though they changed something, brought down a mask. Her long hair was brought back in a ponytail, and this accentuated her face. The face was the true horror. Once upon a time, she might have been pretty, but a long slash running across one eye saw to that, spoiling the burnt umber of her skin with a black eye patch. As well as that, she had two scars along each high cheekbone. The rest of her face had smaller wounds, now old and white. A chunk was missing out of her nose. Will half turned, and she smiled. It was the brittle smile of someone come to terms with how she looked, but used to the fact that others hadn't
"I've got more under my shirt,"
"Jill, what happened?" Jack was pale.
"Shall we sit down? Mem'll have to cope," she gestured to the landlady, who sighed and got off her barstool, where she had been chatting to a middle aged man with a beard you could have hid a boat in.
They sat down at the table. Jack muttered something, but Jill shook hands with Anamaria and Elizabeth as though she had known them for years.
"Jill, Jill Sparrow," she told them. One look at their faces and she sighed.
"Shall I start at the beginning? And, Jay Bird, say nothing. I don't know what bullshit you've been feeding this lot, so maybe they should hear the real story," she settled back in her seat, and then began
"Ma and Pa were fairly young when they had met, and it wasn't long before Ma was pregnant with us. We're twins. Once upon a time, we were identical too. It was Pa's idea to call us Jack and Jill. He had an odd sense of humour like that. Pa was a smuggler, and one day, he dint come home. Then one of his friends came and said he was dead. Ma started drinking, and after that, she never stopped. Me and Jack looked after each other for a while. Ma's drinking had a pattern. It would start about ten in the morning, and by three she would be violent, and by five in the evening she'd be crying. She raised a fist for anything. For any one. But, Jack was always there to take the blow for me. Said he was my protector. Then he got his gang. He called 'em his crew, and I was his first mate. We ran wild. There was a little rhyme that the gang made up. A jingle to get Jack outside 'Jay Bird Jay Bird come out to play,' they used to chant. And after a while we all called him Jay Bird. I was the only one who could call him Jay or Jack. And we used to spend as much time as we could together. I remember Jay always wanted to be a pirate. 'Free as the Sparrow, that's what I am.' He would say. He was going to get a ship, and a crew, and I would come with him, and we would sail away from Ma and her drink and be happy forever. When we were fourteen, a man came. I suppose he wasn't much more than eighteen. He was a pirate. And Jay couldn't resist. He left me to Ma's tender mercies." She stopped her and took a gulp of the drink in front of her. Jack was pale, and wouldn't meet her eye. "When I told Ma, she went mad. She did this," she raised her shirt to show a jagged cut across her stomach, "It was the first time she'd done anything really bad. She took me to a doctor, promised it would never happen again. But it did. She drank worst than ever. She took my eye by smashing my face with a broken bottle. When I was fifteen, she heard some men wolf whistle me, and cut my face, I knocked the knife out of her hand. When I dint do what she wanted, I got my face smacked, arms cut on broken glass, beaten with a leather strap, and one time she ground my face into the ground. Over the next year, she was too drunk to go out, even to buy her precious gin. So I had to start selling her jewellery. Not that she noticed. But I found something that I kept. Two rings on a chain each. One each. One had Jill carved in it, the other Jack. They were wrapped in two letters. They were to us, from our Pa. I read mine, and have my ring round my neck. I kept Jay's. And I've never read them." She fumbled in her pocket, and then passed a crackling piece of paper to Jack "Here. It's yours anyway. Anyway. After that I started to fight back. I wouldn't be so quick just to let her cut me. And then, one day, I just left. I had nothing, except my clothes, some scars, an' a ring on a chain. I begged a lift here, where I got a job with Mem. She needed a person to break up bad fights, and a barmaid. I took the job. By then I was good at fighting for myself. I could quite easily beat a man in a fight. And I've been here since,"
There was a silence that followed, each person busy with his or her own thought. It didn't paint Jack in a good light, but if Jill was telling the truth... Will looked at Jack. He was looking into his mug, and the look on his face was one Will had never thought he'd ever see on Jack Sparrow's face. Shame. Genuine shame. Jill broke the silence.
"So, Captain Sparrow, will you take me with you? Like you swore, all those years ago? remember?" Jill showed the ball of her thumb, which had a cut in it, a knife wound running across the width of the thumb. Jack didn't answer, but ran his finger along the identical scar along his own thumb. Jill stood. "It was nice to meet you." She nodded at them "I'll let you sleep on it Jay Bird," and she strode off to the bar, where she took over from Mem. All eyes fell on Jack.
"What are you looking at?" he demanded, angrily. Everyone dropped his or her eyes again. He drained his mug "I'm going to bed,"
)()()()()()()()(Anamaria's PoV)()()()()()()(
Anamaria watched Jack pace the room from where she sat with her arms wrapped round her legs on the bed.
"I mean, I couldn't stay," he ranted, "Bill came and offered me the chance of the life time. I had to grab it. I went beck, a few years later. I met Dessie, one of my old gang." His face twisted with the memory "He was an opium addict. Most of the old gang were dead, missing addicts or petty criminals. My mum was dead, and no one knew what happened to Jill," he stopped, "Was I wrong?" Anamaria shrugged, but Jack ignored it and carried on pacing
"Mum was always a drunk. Always. I couldn't stop her. And Jill was so..." he waved his arms, trying to explain the inexplicable "above it all. Nothing seemed to affect her," he stopped. Anamaria regarded the man she loved. He was wild eyed, and looked so wound up. She got out the bed and wrapped her arms round him.
"What's done is done," she let him go and watched him plonk down on the bed, head in his hands
"But was it right?"
"She sat beside him and rubbed his bunched muscles. He relaxed under her hand. He stretched, like a huge cat. You expected him to purr.
"As nice
as this is, it aint solving my problem," he told her, but didn't
stop her. He yawned, and she said
"Maybe things will be clearer
in the morning,"
)()()()()()()()(Jill's PoV)()()()()()()()()(
Jill was also not asleep. However, she walked the quiet streets, gun just out of sight in her waistband. She was muffled, face covered by a cloak and scarf. When she reached the docks she turned left to the barrier of rocks that split the beach. A quick scramble and she was on the other beach. It was rarely used these days, the barrier making it almost inaccessible. She padded along the dark beach, then sat on her favourite rocks. They were shaped like a throne, and she loved to sit there and watch the sea whilst she thought/ tonight her thoughts were full of questions. About Jay. Twenty years was a long time. The tide came in and she started to walk back.
)()()()()()()(Jack's PoV)()()()()()()()()(
Jack carefully unclasped Anamaria's arms and swung his legs out of the bed. He just could not sleep. Quickly he pulled on his shirt, trousers boots and coat. Then he slipped out the room.
It was a fine night, if a little chill. Jack walked briskly. He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't notice the men till one of them grabbed him and the cold hard metal of a knife was pressed to his throat.
A/N: And I'll leave it there for now. And I'm so glad everyone got who Jay Bird was. I like to think my readers aren't completely dumb. A bit, cos I'm a bit dumb, and going against a superior intellect scares me. And now for you to review. There's a friendly little button down there in the corner that loves to get pushed. And it's free! So go on, make a little button very happy.
