"That's it, I fold!" Andrew Sullivan, sore loser, even more so when it was a woman grinning and scooping up his money from the table, dropping it into the growing pile of silver to the side of her wine. The older pirate with matted hair formed a noise from the back of his throats as he threw another small pouch towards his opponent. "Damn wench!"
"Always a pleasure Mr Sullivan!" Nicolette grinned, snatching the pouch from the liquor stain oak and counting into contents before setting it next to her. She then scanned the faces of the crowd around her, shouting. "Who's next? How about one of you boys? Think you can beat me this time?" She asked, fixing her eyes on the table next to the one she occupied at the four young sailors who had been watching her play all night.
"Still can't afford it after the last time Barker!" One of them, a young lad named Timothy, smirked back at her while raising his ale.
"Oh come on, I only took a few pieces of silver from you." She laughed, keeping one eye on the table and on her winnings as Jeremiah dealt her a new hand. It had taken her to get beaten and bruised but she knew to watch her money now…and also her back on her travels back to her bed.
"How you ain't got a ship by now, I don't know!"
Nic did. For one it cost more than a couple of pieces of silver to actually get a nice one and the Pearl had set her expectations very high. Also, constant money being past over for lodging made her purse get very light very quickly. And even then it had only been a month since Jack had left and that was no amount of time at all in the grand scheme of things.
"One day soon I hope." She smiled and tipped her chalice back at the men before turning back to the game now Jeremiah had finished dealing and the other five men sat at the table had dealt in their first bets.
Nicolette settled into her seat again, laughing as Elbert groaned and cursed under his breath drunkenly instantly giving away his head and blissfully ignorant at what was happening just at the other side of the Faithful Bride.
"Jack Sparrow?" Giselle narrowed her lips and sucked in her cheeks, pouting in a somewhat painful looking manner. Slowly, she turned away from the young boy and looked at the red haired woman sat next to her in the small booth, encased by sailors.
"I haven't seen him in a month." Scarlett's carried on, flicking her brow and setting her jaw so tight she looked sour faced.
"When you find him, you give 'im a message." Giselle stood, a sickly sweet smile on her lips, but then it dropped before Will had a moment to think and pretty soon there was a sharp snap and a burning pain across his left cheek.
"Of course." The boy forced a smile, raising a hand to rub his reddening cheek.
Then as he turned to leave and Giselle retook her seat, Scarlett got a cunning and thoughtful look on her face and nudged Giselle with her elbow before hooding at Will.
"Come to think off it actually…" She called out and when Will turned around Giselle was still watching the red head inquisitively. "We know someone who may know where Jack Sparrow is?"
"You do?" Will asked with a decent amount of urgency, his wide eyed eagerness turning into worry when the women began to chuckle dangerous.
"Oh yes, how could I forget." Giselle joined in, cackling and her eyes fixed on a point somewhere off behind Will. No one ever came looking for Jack Sparrow for something good and if they could turn that unfortunate fait towards the Captains certain little something, then both women would both happily accept the opportunity.
"Who? Where can I find them?" Will pushed, growing sick of their chilling laughing as they began to fall over each other.
"His little whore." Scarlett answered, the laughs had ceased but the evil smirk remained. "And she's right over there…" Will's grow creased but he followed Scarlett's gaze as she learned around him towards a more crowded and louder part of the tavern.
It took a few seconds but then, through a parting in the crowd, he spotted a familiar black and gold detailed bandana holding back extravagant peacock feathers and dark caramel hair. It was her, laughing joyfully and slamming her drink on the table sending drops of red through the air. Will was sure there wasn't anyone else like her in the Caribbean, Nicolette Barker.
One of the items on his list.
"Thank you." He bid the two women before taking off in the direction of Nic. Only now after he squeezed through the drunken hoards and finally reached her, Will noticed how she had turned from a laughing careless women to a shrunken body in the chair.
"Nicolette Barker?"
It was a lovely night to be winning. The sun had been warm during the afternoon but now set it left the air refreshingly cool and the open ends of the tavern allowed a wonderful cross breeze to caress the skin not bound by corset and breeches. The men were all in good spirits, her wine was flowing, the money was practically rolling into her hand.
A few more games and she would happily retire to her room for a well deserved cool bathe.
"Now now gentleman, there's plenty enough of me to go around. I have all night." Nicolette laughed as two men began to brawl over the newly available spot at the table.
However, as she watched the men scrap and push each other worse ran two infants would, there was a strange feeling in her gut telling her to be alert. Granted that feelings compass had been a little on the fritz since she was jumped in an alley way with no warning at all from her conscious but…something definitely was not right here. Nic almost felt as though she was being watched.
Her eyes narrowed and she tuned out the rabble around her, scanning that of the tavern which she could see casually, and everything seemed normal until her eyes caught a flash of scarlet red and puss yellow. Of course it was them, god damn women had nothing better to do but gossip. Nicolette was almost about to roll her eyes and scoff at them until she saw they were talking to someone…
"Oh bugger." She stared for a moment, doing a quick double take to make sure it was not the wine playing trick on her and then threw her head to look away as she saw the boy about to turn around.
Will Turner. Her eyes squinted shut and she frowned, waving her head from side to side as she tried to think of an explanation for why he was here. They had left them in Port Royal hadn't they, with him finally claiming his bonny love and them agreeing to stay…not here. Why the bloody hell was he here.
"Barker! Your turn!" One of the men bellowed and she hushed him, slapping him on the shoulder before sinking back into her seat, throwing down the card she thankfully had ready and then hiding her face with her free hand trying to mask herself as well as she could.
When a minute or so passed she thought it had worked though she didn't dare move to check. But the she saw the slender shadow in her peripheral and whimpered.
"Nicolette Barker?" It was definitely the boy, she could tell by the annoying drawl of his voice.
But maybe if she just stayed still and ignored him for long enough he would go away.
"Nicolette Barker?" Will spoke louder, looking around him and fidgeting awkwardly when Nicolette failed to pay the slightest bit of attention, but the eyes of her opponents had started to turn to him one by one.
"Barker?" Still nothing, so he stamped his boot as he took a step closer. "Nicolette Barker? It's Will Turner. I sailed with Captain Jack Sparrow and helped him claim back the Black Pearl." If he kept going to was going to have to shove her sword down his throat. "You kidnapped me to use my blood to free yourself from the curse of Cortez?"
"Ah no." Nic quickly snapped, removing her hand and making eye contact with Will for just a moment before hunching forward and turning back to her game.
"You sailed of with Jack from Port Royal no more than five months ago, and I'm here to find him." Will allowed his eyes to drift to the table of men she sat with as they began to laugh dryly.
"Looks like the kid knows you lass." Frederick chuckled under his breath, causing her to giggle along with him for a moment before pulling a face at him.
"Oh shut it Frederick's before I take your other horse."
"Nicolette?" Will tried a softer voice but it was still firm and her head finally snapped towards him.
"What?" Nicolette asked dangerously slow, her teeth grinding together. "What is it that you could possibly want this time Mr Turner?"
Will was grateful for her attention, albeit it was somewhat lacking as the moment she finished speaking the game she was playing seemed to resume itself with quick pace now he wasn't interrupting them all as much.
"I-" He started, being silenced immediately as Nicolette slammed down a card with a loud 'Ha!' "Elizabeth is in danger-"
"Again?" Nicolette groaned, trying to keep the look of despair from her face. What was it with young women not being able to look after themselves these days? Nic was orphaned and left to a stranger at eleven and look how well she turned out.
"Yes. We were arrested for helping you and Jack." Nicolette pouted, giving a little aww at his story. "If I don't find Jack Sparrow then she faces the gallows!"
She stopped and thought for a minute, or a few seconds same difference, and then looked at Will with a plan to say something very much along the lines of 'I don't care', until Rusty a pirate with no sense of timing and very little intelligence decided to just chime in with one of his little tales.
"Captain Jack Sparrow? Hadn't been thought about, heard he was dead."
Nicolette closed her eyes to gather her patience as Will frowned at the old bat of a man, but by the time she had found the will to both live and present her answer to young Turner, Rusty's input seemed to have started some sort of chain reaction of shite.
"Singapore, that's what I heard." Timothy joined in, shaking his head as if it were Rusty who was the fool and Nicolette groaned as her posture deflated. They could be here a while. "Drunk, with a smile on his face." Timothy smiled at Will. "Sure as a tide, Jack Sparrow, turned up in Singapore."
"Nay, belay that." Jeremiah yelled over Timothy. "I heard Sparrow settled down in some Port with a woman as ugly as sin and as vile as the devil." When he finished, he was met with confused but interested looks from all the men, whereas Nicolette stared at him with something between anger and absolute despair.
A moment passed before she slowly turned to Will and sighed, shaking her head.
"I'm just going to end this suffering for the both us." She spoke, giving Will a very pointed look and letting him know that for once, she was being serious. "Despite what ever those two told you, I don't know where Jack is. I haven't seen him in almost a month."
"But you left with him on the Pearl, how can you have no idea where he is?"
"Well…it doesn't look like I'm on the Pearl now does it?" She asked with blatant sarcasm. "All I know is that last time he docked, he was muttering on and on about some key or…maybe Turkey…or...come to think of it…" Her voice trailed off into a whisper and her eyes glazed over leaving Will confused and concerned. Her memory slipped back to the last time she seen Jack when his hand had trailed hers over the map markings and his hips had pressed her own into the table with brutish strength...
"Nicolette!" Will snapped and unbeknownst to her that desperation in his voice, begging for her help, was for more reason than one.
"Hmm." She awoke and saw Will had an eyebrow raised curiously at her.
"Jack?"
"Oh, yes, it was all very distracting. But I really don't know anything more."
She watched as something appeared in Will's eyes and focused on him more closely. Stupidly, Nicolette hadn't really listened to why he was here due to her being too busy mocking him inside her head and now she was truly curious. He seemed to give up, staggering back a few steps and huffing. Loss, that look in his eyes was loss.
"Elizabeth faces the gallows you said?" Nicolette clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth and Will nodded sadly. "And how will Jack Sparrow right this?" It had bad news written all over it, from Will being in Tortuga to someone needing Jack.
"Not Jack, his compass. That's all I need to save Elizabeth." Nicolette smiled for reason unbeknownst to Will but it made him worry. "He did still have the compass last time you saw him?"
Nic shrugged, toying with him, then smiled. "It's Jack. I've never seen him without it. But…" She trailed off, running her eyes over Will considering his angle. "I don't understand what some silly old compass if going to do for your lass."
Will hesitated, his shoulders struggling heavily.
"I just need it." Nicolette's eyes narrowed dangerously.
No…there were no 'justs' about it. Any of it. And a trade off including Jack and a compass which doesn't work…ish, was not going to just be as simple as swapsies.
Nic took a moment, chewing on her lips as her leg bounced along with her rapid thoughts. She told Jack she would return when the time was right and maybe this was her sign?
She stood rom her chair with such suddenness it caused Will to stumble back in shock. She retrieved her coat from the back of the chair, swinging it over her shoulders and bowed the gentlemen she was in the company of as she swept up her winning and dropped them neatly into her pocket.
"Gentlemen! I'm afraid I am needed elsewhere." A number of them groaned, a larger majority cheered. "Until next time, buy yourself a round on me!" She threw a small pouch on the table, grinning as they all roared that time and then turned on her heel, grabbing Will by the elbow and leading him swiftly out of the bar. "Swiftly now before they realise it's empty..."
