A/N: Spy the Black Sails reference hidden in this chapter. I'm also sorry for how behind I got with my fics and things like responding to reviews/comments/messages this month — I really didn't intend to take any sort of break, but the moving process took more out of me than I expected and writing progress slowed to an absolute crawl. But I *have* now moved, so everything should be business as usual from hereon, and I'll do a proper update at the end so people can skip it if they want! It's also Camp NaNoWriMo again next month, so that should motivate more regular updates again.
ALSO though — this story turned a year old last week! I'm so mad I missed it amidst the moving madness because I've honestly never been more proud of a fanfic (or a project in general, really) especially considering I started off the idea thinking maybe three people would give it a chance at all, and then the response turned out to be lovely in a way that just transcends words and belief both. It's also the final project I ever started in the house that I started writing in, so it's always going to hold a special place in my heart. There are also a few elements here that will crop up in my novel that I was sort of test-driving here to see if I could get them right, which makes the lovely response even more touching. Thank you guys so much for being such absolute stars! I hope this eventful update counts as a good celebration, haha. One very tumultuous year, over seventy chapters, and almost 300k words. Unreal!
The trick to a successful escape was fairly obvious - remaining undetected for long enough to get the fuck out of the line of fire, as quickly and subtly as possible. Unfortunately, this escape also happened to serve as a distraction. Given that the whole point of that was to be noticed, it put them shit out of luck. Because what was the fun in making life easy for oneself?
The walk to the infirmary was almost as painful as waiting for darkness to descend on Port Royal, but at least this way she had something to channel all of that nervous energy into. Hurrying along, she kept her head down and her hood up - the hood of Hattie's cloak, no less, a shade of dark brown that was much less noticeable than all of the proper ladylike garb she had to wear nowadays - her hair plaited back tightly against her head so it wouldn't give her away. Her heart rested in her throat the entire time, threatening to choke her with every inhale.
James was…well. James was not happy. Not at all. All the same, he'd stopped her to pull her into a borderline bruising hug before she left, and then he'd pressed a kiss to her lips and told her he loved her, and all the while they both pretended he wasn't doing it out of fear of what was to come. He would be on his way to Governor Swann's mansion by now under the guise of a social visit.
Necessity had forced her to wear a dress, but she'd gone with a fairly plain one - one of dark green, out of hope that it might help her blend in if they got far enough so as to hide in the lush green of the island. A woman in trousers would draw more suspicion than any fancy cloak, and anyway, there was no hiding anything underneath breeches. She had donned her Doc Martens, though. Being hindered by stupid delicate little slippers would guarantee that this would end in disaster. Well, it was going to end in disaster either way, but she needed it to end in a specific sort of disaster - a successful disaster, if there was any such thing.
The walk to the centre of town was both too short and too long all at once, and she felt only worse when she finally reached the infirmary. Maybe that would help. Her face was pale as she pulled her hood down once stopped by the guard stationed at the door.
"It's far too late for you to be visiting Sparrow now, Mrs Norrington. Tomorrow, perhaps," he frowned down at her, the furrow in his brown only deepening when he noted the awkward way with which she walked.
"I'm not here for Sparrow, I'm here for myself - I…I need to see a doctor, I don't feel right at all."
To emphasise her point, she wobbled a little on her feet and hunched about as much as her corset would allow. It didn't even take much proper acting. She felt like she would vomit any second now.
"Surely you've a doctor that can come to your home, Mrs Norrington?" He frowned, hesitating.
"Usually, yes, but it's Mrs Spencer's mother - it's not…it's not looking like she's got long left, and I'd hate for her to suffer unattended at the end just because I'm not feeling-"
The bit about Mrs Spencer's mother wasn't actually a lie, but the way she stopped short and doubled over, hand flailing for purchase on the doorframe as she made a big show of being overcome by shooting pains in her abdomen absolutely was. The soldier fell for it, though, grasping her hand as she breathed shakily and taking a great deal of her weight upon him.
"My apologies, ma'am, do you need assistance getting inside? I'm sure if you tell the healers who you are they'll see to you right away," the soldier said nervously.
"No, no, it's fine, I'll manage - thank you for your help," she nodded, straightening with a feigned amount of great difficulty.
Not only was she relieved that it had worked, but also that she hadn't had to invoke the name of her husband in order to get in - in part because the less he was dragged into this the better, but also because the name of James Norrington was much like that of the Lord; not to be taken in vain under any circumstances. The soldier's eyes remained on her as she entered, right up until she found a space among some other patients (hoping to god they didn't have anything contagious) at which point he seemed to decide either that she didn't need any assistance, or that she wasn't up to anything nefarious.
Theo watched for a few moments, making certain that he wasn't going to turn back around again, before she ducked her head and made for the corridors that led to Jack's rooms. It was a good thing that she'd taken it upon herself to visit more than once, for she'd have had no hope of finding her way if not - and even now she was only managing it because she'd memorised the directions to the tune of Lynyrd Skynyrd's Sweet Home Alabama. It was more difficult to find her way in the dark. The hospital was gloomy at the best of times, but it still looked different at night and she found herself constantly tempted to second-guess turns and doorways.
Finally, though, she reached Jack's room - and breathed a sigh of relief to find that it was just the one soldier at the door. Apparently they only sprung for the superior officer when they knew she'd be there. The one standing guard grimaced when he recognised her as she approached, and she pulled her hood down then.
"It's far too late for you to be visiting, Mrs Norrington. Best come another day with sufficient prior notice," he said firmly.
"I'm not here to visit - something's wrong," she breathed, coming to a stop before him "I had a knife last time I was here - a cheese knife. My maid just told me it wasn't in the basket when I brought it back. I think he has it."
The man scoffed "We never would have allowed you to take a knife into his room, ma'am, it cannot possibly be in his possession."
Theo's eyebrows rose "Say that all you like, but the fact remains that we've got a knife missing at our house and the last place I saw it was in that room. I wouldn't have ran all the bloody way here otherwise. Do you want to risk it without even checking?"
He hesitated - and then he frowned, and after that he sighed.
"Very well, but I warn you ma'am - if he has it, there'll be no more little visits from you after this," he said with a great amount of bluster.
"I expected as much, I'm very sorry about all this," she said.
And if all went according to plan, there wouldn't be anybody to visit anyway. The soldier scoffed in manner that told her exactly what he thought of her apology but couldn't really voice, given that she was married to his superior. It was a good thing she wasn't much the power-mad type, wasn't it? Pulling the keys from his belt, he turned and unlocked the door with a loud clanging noise that grated on her badly in her anxious state.
"Sparrow, keep your hands in the air and in plain sight," he ordered.
They were doomed to never know what order he would have given next, for it was stifled by Theo pouncing onto his back. He was a little bit taller than her, making a chokehold a bit tricky, but the important thing was that he hadn't been expecting it and so didn't have a chance to fend her off. Snaking her right arm around his neck, and grabbed onto her forearm with her left hand and marched him deeper into the room one she had a good grip on him, kicking the door shut behind the two of them.
The soldier struggled, grappling with his gun in an attempt to bat at her over his shoulder with it, but Jack lengthened his arms, allowing himself just enough reach to kick the gun out of the soldier's hands. It clattered to the floor and Theo continued to squeeze, deliberately keeping him off balance so he couldn't gain his bearings enough to truly begin fighting back. The struggling turned to fidgeting and jerking, and then he finally fell limp. Theo cringed all the while, keeping hold just for another ten seconds to make sure he wasn't faking it, and then finally let go.
"I must say, Dora, I'm finding this display ever so strangely attractive," Jack gave a lopsided smile.
Theo scoffed, bending at the knee to take up the keys from the ground and throwing them in his direction. He caught them and began making light work of the manacles before moving on legs that were shaky from disuse to make sure the corridor outside remained empty.
"I would hope you've got a plan for what comes next," he said once the door was shut again.
Theo was already in the process of shimmying out of the overskirt, another garment borrowed from Hattie, that she had on beneath her usual skirts, and then cloak followed, throwing them both to him. It spoke volumes about how keen he was to be out of this damned room that he made no jokes about her 'undressing', instead catching onto her meaning incredibly quickly and pulling them on. The ties of the skirt barely reached far enough to fasten at his waist, but the cloak hid all of that, and if he pulled the hood over his face and buried his hands in the fabric as they walked, nobody would notice. So long as they didn't look closely. That was just another way where her distraction would come in handy.
"It won't be enough. Not to distract all of the soldiers - not once this one wakes up."
He kicked the soldier lightly to punctuate his point, but Theo was too busy fiddling with what she'd strapped to her thigh before leaving - a round black bomb that looked to her eye like something out of a bloody cartoon. Thankfully their difference in times meant that Jack wasn't at liberty to draw attention to certain Irish stereotypes so far as her plan was concerned.
"That window leads out to the beach - which, along with the docks, is highly patrolled. They'll be on us in a flash."
"We're not leaving that way. We just need them to think that we did."
Jack grinned - and in doing so looked a far sight closer to his usual self than he had done since she'd begun visiting him here.
"Drag him out of the way," she jerked her head towards the unconscious soldier.
That earned her a look of somewhat amused exasperation, but she knew damn well that he would have done so even if she hadn't asked it. Jack complied, which was no small mercy, his left hand stiff and awkward as he pulling the unconscious soldier as far away from the window as he could while Theo approached the single candle burning on the bedside table and holding the bomb fuse to it. It was afterwards that she realised she should've practised placing it before lighting the bloody thing - hindsight and all that - but she managed to wedge it between the bars in the window without losing a hand, and then she was taking cover with Jack at the other side of the room, hunching down low and readying herself for what would come next.
The hissing of the fuse as it burned might as well have been as loud as the rumble of a jet engine, and the only thing worse than that was the split second of pure silence when it stopped, followed by a boom that quite literally shook the room. Something struck her back, but she wasn't exactly at liberty to check, and when she opened her eyes they were stung by dust and smoke.
"Come on," Jack urged, seizing her by the forearm and dragging her up.
"Is he alive?" She asked - gesturing in the rough direction of the soldier.
"He's fine," he replied sharply.
It was difficult to say whether he said so because he thought it was true, or because he knew it to be the response that would get her moving faster. They slid from the room, having to shove the soldier aside with the door in order to open it as they did so. Theo threw but one glance over her shoulder before they left, nodding in an attempt to reassure herself when she saw the moonlight poking through the gaping hole in the wall where the window had once been. Nobody would have any trouble believing that Jack had been able to slip through it.
Jack hunched a little as they ran, keeping his grip on her arm so she could guide him in spite of the cloak pulled down over his eyes. Whether that hunching was to disguise his stature, or the fact that he wore no boots, she didn't know - but the bad shape he was in probably had something to do with it. She should've brought him a pair of James'. Although such a suggestion would've probably brought her husband's thoughts on the plan from 'this is a terrible idea' to 'absolutely fucking not'. The insistent burn in her eyes from the dust and the debris leant itself to their panic, too, for she kept on stumbling into those who ran alongside them while she was busy trying to regain her vision.
Theo had accounted for the fear and chaos that would follow the explosion, but only after a good few minutes of confusion - and that was daft of her. Despite the time that had gone by, Barbossa's attack on Port Royal would not soon be forgotten, especially not now considering that the tension with the pirates was reaching new heights every day. When they ran through the hospital, they ran through pandemonium. Everybody within the building was rushing out in the same direction, so there was little to do other than link arms and join the throng, allowing themselves to be swept out by the crowd while ducking and avoiding any flash of royal blue or red that tried to fight through the crowd in the opposite direction.
Every now and then one of the soldiers battling through the crowd, doggedly fighting to get to the stairwell that led to Jack's room, would pause as they caught sight of her hair and frown - and whenever that happened she'd put on a great charade of helping the "woman" at her side, relief washing over her every time they pressed on rather than stopping her. She should have brought a second cloak. Or dyed her bloody hair. God only knew what hair dye contained these days, though - she was scared enough to touch things like lipstick and face cream as it was.
They would have to act quickly once they were out and the crowds died down, for there was no telling how quickly Beckett's men might work out what had happened once they were able to move freely in the hospital. It looked like evacuation procedures and protocol were very much a thing of the future because the scenes outside were nothing short of chaos, with people streaming out into the streets, struggling past and over the infirmed who were unable to do much more than hobble or stumble away.
Bustling past a soldier who was trying and failing to direct the unlistening crowd, she waited until they were a couple of feet behind him and then pulled Jack from the throng, dragging him behind her into the foliage.
"I'll tell you what, Jack," she breathed "I've got no clue how you do this sort of thing on the daily."
"You've done your fair share of it since we fell in together," he said "You must 'ave some idea."
"I don't know how much more of it I've got left in me," she replied "I don't thrive on it the way you do."
"Thinking of retiring for a quiet life in the country, are we? Wifing and mothering for the rest of your days? A grim thought if there ever was one, lass."
"Once I might have agreed. But now it doesn't sound so bad. The wifing - the peace. The safety. The mothering can be postponed a bit, though."
"Not judging by the way the two of you have been going on."
"Jack, if you want me to keep helping you, do me a favour and get your mind off of mine and my husband's wobbly bits, yeah?"
Theo had done a test-run of this walk once - and only once. It seemed risky to do it more than that, and it hadn't been in the dark. The rainforest was darker than dark, too, the trees overhead forming a canopy that blocked out any traces of moonlight that might help them find their way.
Time was a difficult thing to judge in this situation. There was no need to rush, they needed to afford James time to get the Governor to the meeting point during the commotion her little ruse had hopefully caused across the entire island. It wouldn't do to linger, but rushing would be just as bad - it would leave them sitting ducks as they waited, and gave them more time to be discovered once they were would of the cover the forest afforded. The big problem was that the panic slowed the seconds into minutes, while also pushing her into second-guessing her perception of those seconds. All at once she was worrying about whether she'd spent too long here, or not long enough, an in addition to that she was permanently on high alert over every sound, every movement, and every blind step forward in the pitch black.
"I'm curious, darlin'," Jack murmured somewhere behind her as they crept through the foliage of Port Royal "How is it that your dear Commodo- sorry, Admiral, is destined to meet his demise?"
Theo choked on the breath she'd been taking in, forgetting her urgency in favour of stopping dead, her head whipping around to stare at Jack in horror.
"Had a lot of time to meself in that room," he murmured "Thinking was just about the only thing it was good for. Surprised I worked it out?"
"No," she said finally - truthfully "You're not half as stupid as you'd have everybody think," she replied flatly.
Turning back to the path ahead, she continued to lead the way through the dense forestry.
"Daft enough to trust you, aren't I? For all I know, me ship's gone for good thanks to that."
"It's not. Barbossa alone would never sit back and let it stay in the locker, and Will needs it to free his father. It's the only ship that could ever stand a chance against the Dutchman. Even if Beckett had already blabbed that he had you, they'd still go to the locker for the ship alone. With any luck, all you'll have to do is take it back from him. You've managed it once, you'll do so again."
"With any luck? That doesn't warm me."
"I'm managing so far, aren't I?" She pointed out - with not much conviction "Most of that's been dumb luck."
And not the sort that he pretended to rely on to mask his sheer bloody ingenuity.
"You haven't answered me question."
"How do you know you're right?"
"A gut feeling mixed with a bit of logic. I've been trying to work it out, you see. Why you're so involved in all of this. Thought at first it was just to get the knight in shining armour - er, embroidered frock coat - but now you've got him. And you're still here. Pulling strings. Involved. Now, loathe as I am to admit it, you're not really the for the greater good sort-"
"Fuck you, Jack," she snorted.
"I mean it as a compliment, love, I'm much the same."
"Are you?"
"Aren't I?"
She didn't answer, not much in the mood to debate semantics. Which was a shame, because that was just about all Jack did - between drinking and shagging. Bless him.
"So I can only think that you have some investment in this - one that keeps you close to the action, and one that stretches far beyond seeing your dear ol' Captain Jack free at last. can't think of much that would be so important as to keep you entrenched in all this as Admiral Never-Smiles."
"As much of a menace as you are in general, you'd be even more of a menace this close to Beckett."
"So by that logic you and darling Jim will be joining me in escaping, then? No need to stay? Or maybe just you yourself? You can reunite once all is said and done."
Oh, how she wished they could. It was something she'd mulled over - and something she wanted to do almost more than anything. But even if she'd be able to persuade James to just cut and run, it wouldn't work. If not for his being on the Dutchman, there'd be nobody to free Elizabeth when she got caught and locked in the brig. The last thing they needed as far as the greater good was considered was to have Jones or Beckett (or one by extension of the other) having her as a hostage. And that was even kidding themselves that James would be content to flee and hide without seeing this whole rotten mess through to the end. Even if Theo herself could do that, having messed things up as she had, he never would. It wasn't who he was.
"I don't know who'd be less welcome where you're headed - James or me myself," she replied.
"You, probably," Jack answered cheerfully "A commodore is a commodore is an admiral - now, at least. His loyalties were always so painfully obvious that anybody surprised by what he did would've just been more annoyed at themselves for not seeing it coming than annoyed at him for doing what everybody should have known that he would do. Savvy?"
Theo sighed "Everybody and their mother knew I was in love with him - before I even did, and certainly before he did. Doesn't it then stand to reason that what I would do was painfully obvious, too? What did they think? That we'd live out our lives in Tortuga? Raiding and pillaging to put bread on the table? That James would ever be content with that?"
"S'not a matter of love. We might not be the monsters this lot make us out to be, not all of us, but very few of us are romantics, love. All they know is that he was always one of them, and you might've been one of us right up until you weren't - after getting a hundred of us killed, no less. Plus, you're a woman. Whether it's fair or not, you were always going to get less benefit of the doubt among seafaring folk through that alone, really. It'll be a while before I can bolster enough goodwill towards you to make any pirate ship safe for you to step foot on again, I'm afraid."
"My, you really did do a lot of thinking in that room."
To the extent where he'd discovered some impressively feminist values.
"Oh, all that's just the obvious. Didn't take much thought."
Theo said nothing. She should have probably known Jack well enough by that point to know full well that her pretending that he hadn't voiced the topic - the first time the topic had ever been voiced, really, other than in her conversation with Queen Achtland - would lead him to following along with her little act, but she tried to kid herself all the same.
"Theodora," he prompted "You didn't answer my question."
The fact that he called her by her full name - as it was only ever spoken by the very man they now discussed - gave an extra edge to the sting.
"I can't do anything to change it until it's basically already happening, Jack," she said, her voice small "He does something grand - something good, because that's who he is - and then he…then I need to intervene after. It's all going to come down to one moment."
"What's your plan, then?"
"To stop it by any bloody means necessary," she replied flatly "But I swear to fucking god, Jack - to god - that if you disappear, if you run, if you hide from all of this, if you abandon us to fight it out ourselves, if you say anything to James about this trying to be all clever, I'll hunt you down and I'll kill you myself, consequences be damned. Do you hear me?"
"That worried about how much you're going to miss me, are you? I knew you loved me, deep down," he teased and then rolled his eyes when she showed no hint of amusement "Where would I go, love? Leave my ship to Hector? I've had quite enough of that for one lifetime."
That would have to be enough in the way of reassurance. It was all she was going to get. They drew to a stop only when continuing forward would put them out in the open long before it would be a good idea. The secluded beach lay ahead, and it was empty save for the dinghy they'd deposited there earlier that day. James was not yet here with the Governor.
"Good," she replied finally "Now punch me in the face."
"What?"
Ordinarily, it might've been funny to see Jack be the one caught off-guard for once.
"It has to be done, and if you want to get off of this island it has to be done before James is here to witness it."
Beckett would never believe that she had been an entirely unwilling party in all of this. He was much too clever for that, there was too much history here between herself and Jack. But she had to make a show of pretending anyway, and a few fresh bruises and a tearful insistence of Jack having used their former bond to lure her into a false sense of security before threatening her with violence was a good show at playing the game. That was what Beckett prized above all else. If it didn't look like she was playing it, it would only spell even more trouble - because he'd then wonder what game was being played, that which he could not see.
Maybe it said something for whatever bond she'd built with Jack that he hesitated, her eyes finally having adjusted to the dark enough to at least see that - and then he took off his rings before he finally complied. And the pain, at least, was enough to ground her. These days it was all about the silver linings.
A/N: I'm in the process of adjusting to my new city, and I'm *finally* no longer homeless, which feels amazing to say. What's even more amazing to say is how much I'm unexpectedly loving my new city. Like, I couldn't tell you the last time I was this happy and this non-stressed. It feels amazing to say, and I'm now actually so grateful that I didn't manage to get a place in my own city, because I don't think I'd have been half as happy there as I am here. It's funny how these things work out - three months ago I was feeling utterly hopeless and devastated over getting turned down for a place I'd fallen in love with, and now I'm thanking the universe that I didn't get it in the end. Things worked out for the best!
I've said it again, I'll say it a final time, thank you guys so much for how kind and supportive and patient you've all been throughout this process. Working on these stories has kept me sane throughout it and really gave me a sense of consistency and community, and gave me something positive in a very difficult and stressful time, so I'll always be unendingly grateful for that. Thank you so much, you amazing human beings. On with the show!
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