Thicker Than Water – Chapter Sixteen – Never Again

They sailed through the night, back to Port Royal. Elizabeth and Will refused to speak to Jack and only demanded to be brought back there. Jack obeyed. Anything to get away from that island.

It was a silent sail. Jack steered the wheel while rhythmically hitting his head on it. Nothing exciting happened, and soon they were in Port Royal. There were no good-byes. Will and Elizabeth gathered their things and were off.

Jack didn't blame them for leaving. He wished he could leave, too. He needed to do something to rid himself of those memories.

Once they were in the open sea, Jack pulled out the sack Blackmore gave him. It would give him what he needed most. Let's see…What he needed most was for the ocean to be made of rum.

Jack walked over to the edge of the boat and lowered the sack into the water, holding it by a long drawstring. He counted to seven and slowly started to lift it back out. All of a sudden the sack got extremely heavy. Jack nearly fell overboard. Must be some rum, he thought, hopefully.

Gibbs rushed over to help Jack pull up the sack. As they heaved it over the side and onto the boat, Jack stared at the sack, confused.

"Well that was unexpected." he said, staring at an enormous pile of seaweed.

Just then Jack spotted something. It was hair. Dark brown, almost black. Straight.

All of the air in Jack's lungs disappeared. He rushed to open the sack and wiped a wad of seaweed out of the way. Jack stared at an extremely pale face. "Bloody hell, Rebecca."

She wasn't breathing. Her face had cuts and bruises on it, as did her arms and legs, now uncovered from the seaweed. Jack stopped the crew before they wiped away anymore. From the looks of it, the seaweed was the only thing covering her body.

Jack held Rebecca's cheek. "Come on, Rebecca, wake up." Nothing. He waited. Still nothing. Jack slammed his fist on the deck. "Dammit, Beck!" Jack slapped her. Rebecca's face fell limply to one side. He slapped her again. Her face fell to the other side. "I am not going to let you die on me!" He slapped her again. Gibbs grabbed his wrist before Jack could hit her anymore.

"Jack…it's no use."

Jack was breathing heavily. "But…I need her. The sack said so."

"Well, we're too late."

"No, we're not." Jack grabbed Rebecca's shoulders and shook her. Rebecca's head lolled backwards. Jack held her head straight and hiked her into his arms. "This isn't fair." Jack put his head on top of her cold one.

All of a sudden Jack felt a shudder. Rebecca was shivering. She was alive!

"Beck! Beck, can you hear me?"

She didn't respond.

"I need blankets!" Jack shouted, watching Rebecca start to shiver more violently. Jack rubbed his hands up and down her shoulders to warm her.

Two men rushed to Jack with blankets. Jack draped them around Rebecca's shoulders and held her tight, rubbing her shoulders once more over the blanket.

Finally, Rebecca opened her mouth, but all that came out was a sickening cough. Jack put his hand on her back as she spit up water and coughed some more.

Curled up and shaking, Rebecca lifted her gaze from the ground to Jack. Jack stared into her big brown eyes. They no longer had their innocent sparkle. What had he done to her?

Rebecca's face was blank. She bored into Jack's eyes, melting him inside with shame. A tear rolled down the side of her face, catching on her ice-blue lips. She didn't speak, but Jack understood. "Why?"

Jack put his arms tightly around her, pulling his fingers through her wet hair. "Never again, love." He vowed. "Never again."