Drinking Tales

Summary – The Visitor

The gentle swelling of the ocean tides rocked the ship back and forth in a gentle swaying motion, which could hardly be felt by those on board. The night sky was clear of any clouds and the stars above Tortuga shone like diamonds that any God fearing pirate would want.

The breeze whistled through the open portal that had been left open by the Captain; said Captain was sitting at the desk just in front of this portal, a bottle of run in one hand, which he guzzled at, while humming to himself. It was late, the Pirate Captain knew that much, he hadn't heard the bell in a long time but he did know that it had rung sometime while his thoughts had run rampant in his mind.

Captain Jack Sparrow took another swig of his drink; before coughing and then leaned forwards; his head made a "Thump!" sound on the desk as he groaned. He groaned over a lot of things over this last night in port. First was the obvious damage that had taken the last week to repair. Next, no black sails could be found, no matter where he and his crew had looked; and finally, they had to do it themselves.

At least; Jack contemplated, he had his rum. It wasn't burned by that Swann (Turner) woman, and he didn't have to tell her that she was right about her signal fire; that still got to him, even after a years time after it had happened. However, he shook himself from his memories…long enough to notice a shadow had come over the window…and that the shadow was breathing…and it held a knife….

William Turner Junior, woke to a crashing sound coming from the captains cabin.; then yelling that sounded like Jack, and since the Pirate never did much in the way of yelling; at least on such a quiet night such as this…there had to be something wrong!

What had woke him was coming from above him; he could here the stomping of feet on the wood, and an expletive or two coming from Jack himself.

Will jumped out of his bunk, dressed only in his breeches, Will ran out of his cabin and down up the stair well. On his way, he past Anna Maria and Gibbs; who followed without comment.

Jack ducked the knife once again; his inured side knocking into the corner wall; he hissed in pain but had to duck once again; which brought him to his sword which had lain on the circular table. Jack brandished it, but his visitor wasn't scared. Instead….the visitor brought out a pistol.

Jack gave one look to the assassin, and as the trigger was squeezed tight, Jack wheeled back and landed on the floor. His head knocked heavily against the planking, and a pain burned into his side. Just then, the door to his cabin flew open, and there was Will, brandishing a sword of his own making (which he had grabbed up along the way) and was now intently trying to kill the assassin.

The Assassin was having none of that; grabbed up Jack's own sword and gave just as good as he got. In such a confined space, there was no where that the two could go, but they swung at each other anyway as Ana Maria and Gibbs got Jack out of the way. His side was bleeding profusely and Ana Maria knew that the bullet was still lodged deep within.

Will, for his part, smartly parried a blow from the Assassin, and then swiped the man across the chest. The shirt fell open to reveal a long jagged cut, which was very deep. But the assassin still went at it with Jack's sword. Blow by blow, the assassin thought that he was winning, Will wasn't giving up though. However, everything stopped after a "BANG" and the Assassin fell dead at Will Turner's feet.

Will turned to see Jack, holding his side with his injured arm, but clutching a spent pistol in his good left hand. Jack smiled a little before toppling over. Anna Maria caught the Captain before he could hit his head a second time. Will rushed over and bent besides his friend.

"Someone get the doctor!" Will hollered.

"Someone get the rum!" Jack hollered at the same time as Will. In seconds, both had been fetched and while Jack set about emptying another bottle, the doctor set about getting the bullet out of his side.

Outside the door of the cabin that led to the deck and helm; Gibbs, Anna Maria and Will stood, waiting for the doctors prognosis. They all had their eyes set on the Tortuga shore line and a frown on their faces.

"You know, this is something worse than just a few pirates wanting to take over your territory," Will said.

"You mean Jack's territory," Anna Maria quipped.

"We have to do something; Jack will never live if Assassin's keep after him like this," Will replied.

"I bet ye it was Blackbeard as did the ordering for Capn's death," Gibbs said smartly.

"Bloody hell! Like we didn't know that!" Anna Maria punched Gibbs in the shoulder, the man just rubbed at the spot but otherwise hadn't noticed.

"What are we going to do?" Will asked.

"If Jack can't Captain than we have to find someone who will," Anna Maria said.

"Now, now, lassie," Gibbs interjected; "We don't know anything yet, let us see what the doctor has to say."

Meanwhile; at the Salty Inn…Christopher Condent sat with a mug of ail in front of him and his Quartermaster (who was indulging on rum) was reporting his findings about a certain Jack Sparrow.

"I see'd it with me 'wn eyes I did!" the man said: looking seriously at his Captain. Candent grunted but otherwise didn't make any other sound.

"He shot our man dead in ta middle of ta forehead, saving that whelp 'e picked up earlier ta-day," the Quartermaster ended his story right then and there.

"How bad is Sparrow injured?" Condent asked.

"Bad, in ta middle, I saw ta bullet go inta 'im an everythin',"

"Good, keep an eye on the situation but do not be seen and do not try and finish the job, the Black Pearl's crew will be on the look out," Condent ordered. The Quartermaster went off to do as he was told.

Condent smiled grimly as he relaxed into his seat and ordered another ale.

"Well," Doctor Martin Sanders, the one and only doctor that Jack could find to sail with him; not to mention the only other carpenter that had been in Tortuga; he whipped his bloody hands on some linen before looking to the group before him. Gibbs, Anna Maria and Will looked like they were about to fall over.

"Captain will be fine, the stitches in his shoulder store badly and I had to redo those again. He didn't get stabbed, thank God, but the bullet did a bit of damage, he;ll have to stay in bed for a couple of weeks,"

"Is he asleep?" Anna Maria asked.

"Drinking, actually, the bottle never got broken," Sanders said and then he went down below to get cleaned up. Jack opened the door with a bang and looked fit to be tied. His shirt was bloody, he had discarded his vest and coat and his hair scarf was slopped to the side.

"I believe," Jack started, "That Blackbeard wants me dead!"

"Jack, we all know that," Will said.

"Maybe I haven't drunk enough," Jack muttered and sauntered his way fully on deck.

"So, we go after Blackbeard?" Gibbs asked.

"Cours' we go 'after him! What else do you lot expect me to do?" Jack asked, he swigged from the bottle he held and swayed as he did so.

"Well, we need to get going then, if we plan on taking Blackbeard's Armada in secret," Gibbs said. Without even a glance from Jack, Gibbs was giving orders to the crew. Anna Maria followed, but she did look a bit worried for Jack.

Will shook his head and also headed off; it wouldn't do to be only dressed in his breeches when there were things to be done. Jack watched them all, he finished off his bottle and decided to get another. He wasn't as drunk as he normally was and he wanted to be good and drunk to be able to do anything that involved taking care of Blackbeard's armada.

A/N – I just want to thank Nicol for reviewing! I'm glad you like this!

HISTORICAL NOTES – My historical world may differ a lot from both real history and POTC; first of all, I am timing this fic about the time of pirates. I don't know when POTC was timed but it seems as if the movie has its own timing of events. As it is, Christopher Condent was a pirate in real life during the 1700's. I shall put in a bio of him and Blackbeard (Edward Teach) in my next post. I have to find the site that I used to get their info.

Ta,

Poppy

We pillage, we plunder, we rifle and loot,

Drink up me harties, Yo ho!

We kidnap and ravage and don't give a hoot,

Drink up me hearties, Yo ho!

(A Pirates Life For Me – Disney)