"I don't know, Darl" he said sombrely to the reflection of the girl sitting on the opposite side of the room as he inspected himself in the mirror. A red bandanna had been fastened around his forehead; the remaining string of beads she had found was tied to a lock of his hair and now hung down just above his strong jaw line. He wore a thick gold earring, he always had before but now it was not being blocked by the thick bundles of dreadlocks and other miscellaneous items that had been cut (or painfully brushed) out. She had dusted his eyelids with charcoal though they seemed as though they were always dark perhaps stained by the constant use of the charcoal over the span of his life of piracy. She couldn't believe how attractive he looked despite how much he'd changed. He turned around staring at her steadily and leaning against a set of draws behind him.
"I'm not who I once was, love. I avent' been drunk, sailed on a boat or ship, shot a pistol or had any sort of fun in over a year. It was all I could to keep myself from going insane in this ruddy place." He continued his course voice still slurring ever so slightly from word to word. She gazed at him for quite a while trying to subdue that same feeling that stirred in her when she first saw him in the street. That feeling that she was watching a bird in a cage. She had to set him free.
"Close your eyes" she cooed softly, then smiled. He regarded her for a moment then let his black eyelids slide closed.
"Smell that air!" She sighed closing her eyes too "Nothing much like it"
He breathed deep the warm air tasting the scent of the sea and the strong timber of the room they stood in. It reminded him of summer…the open ocean…a cloudless sky.
"And listen…" she said slowly, almost like a siren, and he strained his hearing. The sound of waves and the gentle turning of the tides not to far from them seemed to swirl around him. Like a whisper…like a song. His heart skipped a beat.
"I think I hear them calling" her voice almost chimed jovially as she spoke. Jack turned his head towards the open window, eyes still closed, to listen for the noises coming from the docks. The voices of many men speaking in loud sailor slang rose. They reminded him of the voices of a crew…the language of fortune.
"Can you feel the treasure all around?" The soft clinking of trinkets and money carried by the people in the streets outside became that soft chant treasure chests seem to serenade him from within. She opened her eyes to see the corners of his lips beginning to rise.
"Taste the rum yet?" he could almost feel the bitter sweet liquid running down his throat.
"And…" he felt her hand touch his wrists, slightly calloused from the shackles he had been forced to wear regularly to remind him he was in a prison, they had been removed for the day, and then a whisper in his ear.
"No-one is stopping you" His eyes shot open the glorious, wild spark flaring in them once more.
"Well, then!" he exclaimedpulling her to him and kissing her passionately "What are we waiting for!"
A/N: After completing the first picture I wondered what it would look like if Jack were in the state he was in and then would try to turn back so I drew him as he was in the first drawing (short hair, fairly clean cut etc) then added a few of the things that use to make himJack Sparrow captain of the Black Pearl (red bandanna, one of his bead strings, dark eyeliner etc)and he actually looked really good but I could just imagine him saying "I dunno, darl." As in, after all that time and him looking so different and being so different (the poor love) he would need a little confidence boost. Hence the story above came about. If you want to see the drawing mention it in your review and I'll tell you when I've put it up (I don't have access to a good scanner right nowL)