Thanks for putting up with my bad reviewing self, I know I'm terrible. But I get to it! I heart coffee: thank you and you are not a bad reviewer! Lol. And yes! You did spell that right! Sally: thanks for the review; I'm glad you like it so far! Tk421beth: omg! New York is so beautiful! I love seeing all the lights at night and time square is breathtaking. I hope you don't mind that I did a little sight seeing before I met you in the bar, Emilio was just wonderful to me and the dinner we had was phenomenal. I didn't know I could dance like that, but with the right man (Johnny Depp) at your side, I suppose anything's possible! Or should I say, probable. Next time I shall see you in Nice, France. Oui? HERE'S THE STORY ALL--
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The next day Isabelle and Jack stood at the helm early in the morning before anyone else even thought about waking up. Jack stood behind the wheel with the map in one hand and Isabelle stood idle, her young experienced eyes roaming over the open ocean, searching or watching, whichever one she had a mind for that cool morning. Soon the deck was bustling with activity and Isabelle was talking animatedly with Jack while everyone went about their businesses. Elizabeth came up once or twice, but she had been stuck in the kitchen all morning and Ana was still swearing up a storm and growling about the wonderful adventure they had all been on the day before. Will and Litler were quietly working on the rigging, Will would tell his stories about what happened over and over again. He was glad that, like Jack, he finally had a story to tell that was worth telling and listening to.
"Captain! Isabelle!" someone shouted from the crow's nest and Jack and Isabelle immediately stopped talking and their heads whipped upwards, their sharp ears picking up exactly where the sound was coming from. "Ship off portside!" Jack and Isabelle sighed and ran to the other side of the ship together. An eerie silence gripped the deck and Will and Litler made their way down the rigging as fast and as silently as they could. Everyone's attention turned to their captain and his wife. They both monitored the ship for a moment and their heads turned to meet. They both turned back to the crew, Jack had the cockiest look on his face and Isabelle just looked pissed and fierce.
"Gentlemen!"
"And ladies."
"And ladies." Jack quickly corrected himself. "We have company," Jack said and there was a raucous cheer from the crew. "We all know who I'm talking about?" Jack asked and there was a silence and mumbling. "The Prowler!" he shouted impatiently. The deck erupted in louder cheers. Elizabeth walked up to the helm with Isabelle and whispered something in her ear that made Isabelle smile from ear to ear. "Ready the guns!" Jack shouted and everyone looked to Isabelle.
"And run out the sweeps!" Elizabeth and Isabelle yelled in unison. Everyone ran around in every direction they could possibly think of. Elizabeth ran over to Will and disappeared in the chaos. Jack and Isabelle ran around together, carrying on normal conversations.
"I don't see why they listen to ye and not me," Jack complained as he checked cannon docks.
"Because I'm more assertive," Isabelle said and ran over to Cotton to give him something and then ran back to Jack's side. Jack snorted as they walked briskly across the deck.
"Assertive, Elle, yer funny," Jack said and stopped in the middle of his graceful treading. Isabelle stopped with him and raised her eyebrows at him as someone called her name.
"What is it, Ramon?" she shouted and Ramon tossed her some bullets. "You were saying." Jack sighed and rolled his eyes.
"Be careful, Elle. I don't ask much from ye, just three things." Isabelle smiled warmly.
"What three things, Jack?" she asked and he smiled, looking over his shoulder at the ship that was gaining on them. Naturally, Jack had it all planned down to the second, the thing was no one had any idea of it.
"That you love me always, that you live happily and intensely, and that you be careful. Just those, do ye think ye can handle one for today?" Isabelle looked behind him at the ship that was rapidly approaching.
"Only if you promise me the same," she said, relaxing herself and putting all her trust in her husband.
"I promise," he whispered as he pulled her head close to him. He kissed her gently and walked away, leaving her standing there smiling.
It was only when she was captivated in the heat of battle and encircled by men who wanted nothing more than to see her dead that she realized she hadn't seen Jack all that time. She had watched him approach the captain, and she had heard him call for his crew to board, but she hadn't seen him after that. She battled off the man attacking her with half a heart, the other half too worried about Jack to notice the several cuts and bumps she was receiving on her forearms. She rolled her eyes, tiring of dancing around the matter of this man's death. She quickly punctured his flesh deep enough to kill and walked off, not bothering to watch all the life slip away from him. Isabelle had some sort of horribly fascinating way about killing someone. She would parry with them for a while, seemingly defenseless against their attacks. The brutal thing about it was, the men would actually think they were winning. But with one, oddly graceful jerk of her wrist and swipe of her tanned arm, she would end it right there. And they wouldn't even know.
Isabelle would know Jack from behind, or at any angle for that matter. And it seemed that his back was in danger at the moment. Someone came hurling toward him with their dagger poised for kill as Jack was busy fighting for his life with someone else. Isabelle sighed and pulled out her pistol, aiming for the man who thought he had Jack's life in the palm of his hand, and she fired. The man looked up at Isabelle in the second between life and death and saw nothing in her eyes as he crumpled to the ground. Isabelle sighed and turned around, instantly engaged in battle with someone else who wanted to see her and her friends lose.
She and Will were back to back once and he actually smiled as he fought off the man in front of him. "Still standing?" he asked her, his gorgeous smile contagious and soon Isabelle was smiling at her dueling partner too.
"Still," Isabelle breathed as she knocked the man unconscious with the blunt end of her hilt, tired of killing now. "Stay standing, William. God help you if you die and Elizabeth finds out," Isabelle said and Will laughed, and took another swing at his opponent. Isabelle moved fluidly through the pirates on to her next victim, because in retrospect, that's what they were. She was unstoppable.
Jack found his back against familiar warmth and risked a look over his shoulder at the source. Isabelle stood behind him, fighting for her life as well. "Nice to see ye, Elle," Jack shouted.
"Jack!" Isabelle shouted, surprised. The effect of her being caught off guard was another nick to her arm that instantly started bleeding crimson. She was surprised she still had blood to spare anymore. "Bastard," she hissed and ran him through carelessly. She came up next to Jack and patted him on the back. "How are we doing here," she said sarcastically.
"Finish it," Jack said breathlessly.
"You got it," she said and walked around Jack's opponent and that was the end of that clash.
"Thank you, love," Jack said and they both took up another victim. "Where have ye been, Elle?" he asked her, slashing at the man then swinging his opposite hand at him.
"Oh, around," she said casually, with a little strain in her voice at the end when the man leaned into her hard. Jack growled and punched him hard in the face, instantly taking the pressure off of Isabelle. "Thank you," she said and ended her little clash too.
Sooner than later, it was all over. The sun setting on the horizon turned the decks of both ships red, but only one truly was. The very grains in the wood seeped full with blood. Blood from pirates and men alike. Men that used to have a life worth living, but that was all taken away from them with one deadly swing of a cutlass or one fair shot to the heart. Because when you killed a pirate and his blood ran cold, pooled around his still form, their heart died with them. The soul reason they became a pirate was to follow their heart, the heart that had forever belonged to the sea. Half the crew of the Prowler was tied to their own mast and Jack had not forgotten to tie the captain and his trusty little goon right next to each other. Felix and Captain Stealth. Isabelle leaned on her sword as she appeared in front of the man who tried to take her life once before. Her hot fury boiled just under her throat, threatening to force its way up and spill out. But she knew self control. She was very capable of controlling herself.
The man's eyes widened and she looked at him with a smug disposition on her face. She took her weight off her sword and walked over to him, unafraid. She held her wrist up for him to see and moved it around, looking at it. "Remind you of something?" she asked and punched him with the hand she had just modeled for him. He spit blood off to the side and looked back up at her. Jack stood casually behind her in the shadows, letting her have her closure.
"Yea," he said and she scowled.
"Well, look what came of that," she said and smiled curtly. James and Litler appeared on deck and gave Isabelle the nod. She took her sword and slashed him lightly across his arm. He looked up at her with disbelief and furrowed his brow. "So the devil knows who sent you," she whispered as she leaned in close. She pulled her body back rigidly and curled her lip at him as she turned to walk away.
She took Jack's place in the shadows as he walked soberly up to them. There was no playful swing in his step and there was no happy banter that went on between the sides. He was tired. He was tired of being shot at and stabbed and branded and wounded. He had gone through hell the past two days and he was tired. Jack Sparrow was all about the fun. Any time there was a hint of fun, the slightest lead that there might be some hearty entertainment; he was on the scent like a bloodhound. But he was so very weary of fun and entertainment at the moment. His unusual slur had been removed abruptly and replaced with a bored, refined accent that changed the whole essence of Jack Sparrow entirely. His playful swagger was kicked and he now walked with the power and the strength of ten thousand captains in his position, his head high and his arms swinging unnoticeably at his sides.
So as he walked up to these two cocky gentlemen and their little posy quivering all around them at the sight of the legendary Captain Sparrow, he glared hard and stopped, his bloody arms and hands twitching with adrenaline. Jack's crew couldn't make out exactly what he was telling these fine gentlemen, but their facial expressions changed dramatically. Jack didn't move, he didn't flinch, and he didn't smile. He was completely unfeeling as he stood there, his shoulders thrown back in practiced ease and his head cocked arrogantly to one side, mocking the intelligence of the men he stood before.
To his crew's surprise, or disappointment, their captain didn't lash out powerfully like he had done so many times before. He merely smirked at their devastated faces and stood silently for a moment or two as the different crew members did what Jack wanted them to do in the first place. They started to beg for their freedom. Jack was back in power, he was in control now. That made his feel alright. And now all he had to do was betray that control, that absolute power he held dangling just out of their reach. He smirked again, the corner of his mouth twitching ironically into a not so apparent smile and he turned on his booted heel. Nodding his head at the fallen captain and his captured crew. He walked slowly away from them, breathing shallowly, his head spinning from blood loss and heat. But never once did his confident step waver, nor did it take up his normal swagger that it wanted to so badly. He denied himself the right of acting like himself. He would see these men out as a captain with a purpose, and he believed he had fulfilled this beautifully.
She watched her husband walk strongly over to her and she smiled as she leaned up against the railing, her many large cuts stinging badly. She looked over his poised shoulder at the crew of the Prowler. They were cowering in his wake and looked as though he had just instilled the fear of God in them all. She let a small inaudible giggle escape her lips as she inwardly congratulated her husband on a fine au revoir.
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There you are, darlings. I know I'm terrible, but more later! Here's your quote:
All my regrets are nothing new, so this is how I say I need you. This is the way I'm learning to breath, learning to crawl. I'm finding that you alone can break my fall. I'm living again, awake and alive, dying to live, not just survive.
I thought this kinda demonstrated how Isabelle was alone in the beginning and then Jack came and made everything better. I don't know lol, decide for yourselves. Much love to all.
-Dessie:Kate
