I tried to follow Jack into the long boat, "You be riding with me, lass." Barbosa grabbed my arm.
"I'd rather stay with my captain, thank you." I yanked my arm out of his grip, "I know a thing or two about loyalty." I turned back and the other members of the crew were blocking me, "You all could learn." I glared before Barbosa yanked me toward a different boat.
"The girl stays with me or there will be no negotiations." Jack commanded.
"You be negotiating or the girl be shot." Barbosa countered back, sticking his pistol to my temple.
"Shoot me, bastard. I dare you, that curse will never be lifted." I growled at Barbosa. He sneered at me, shoving me into the boat.
"You need to teach your strumpet to hold her tongue Sparrow, or I'll do it for ye!" He bellowed.
"Good luck, mate." Jack muttered.
"I'm not his whore, God damn it!" I lost my temper, "No man owns me!" All was silent and the boats rocked harshly into each other, as we began pushing off from the caves.
"Where the waves come from?" The fat balding pirate asked.
"It's the heathen gods! Angered by the girl's wrong blood!"The tall lanky one screeched.
"It's the tide you imbecile." Barbosa stood with one of his feet near my hip. I wondered about how easy it would be to push him from the boat. When we arrived at the Pearl my breath was taken from me, everything about the ship seemed to say Jack.
"She's beautiful." I said as I stood on the deck. I was pulled quickly to the captain's cabin.
xxx
"So you expect to leave me standing on some beach with nothing but a name and your word, it's the one I need." Barbosa repeated back, "And watch you sail away on my ship."
"No, I expect to leave you stand on some beach with absolutely no name at all, watching me sail away on my ship and then I'll shout the name back to you." Jack moved standing behind my chair, "Savvy?"
"That still leaves us with the problem of me standing on some beach with naught but a name and your word it's the one I need." I raised my hand in the air.
"I know the name too, my word is good."
"There Arabella wouldn't lie to you. She could tell you the name."
"Or I could leave you both on the beach and take the Pearl for myself." I grumbled.
"She's already lied to me twice." Barbosa growled. Jack was sorting through the apples.
"Of the three of us I'm the only one who hasn't committed mutiny, or planning it," He nudged me out of the chair, "Therefore my word is the one we'll be trusting. Although I suppose I should be thanking you. Because, in fact, if you hadn't betrayed me and left me to die, I would have an equal share in that curse same as you." Jack took a bite of the apple, "Funny old world isn't it?"
"Hmm." Barbosa sneered, "How do you put up with him?"
"Well-" I clicked my tongue.
"Captain, we're coming up on the Interceptor." Bosung stormed in. The monkey jumped off his perch causing Jack to sneer at it. Barbosa left and I followed quickly after him. He climbed up to the helm pulling out his telescope. Jack moved me aside and stood in front of it blocking his few.
"I'm having a thought here, Barbosa. What's say we run up a flag of truce, I scurry over and I negotiate the return of your medallion. What's say you to that, eh?"
"No you see Jack, that's the same attitude that lost you the Pearl. People are easier to search when they're dead." He snapped the telescope shut, "Lock him in the brig." He told Bosung, I scurried down the steps and ran to the bow of the ship.
"Well well well, hello poppet-"
"Parley!" I spit at the fat balding pirate and- bugger it.
"Blasted Parley!" they started to storm off.
"Wait, don't leave! What are your names?" I asked, catching the skinny one's arm, "You remind me of some people I knew."
"I'm Ragettii." The skinny one pointed to himself, "And this is-" The fat one shoved past him.
"Haul on the main braces! Make ready the guns!"
"I can tell 'er!" He growled at his friend, "I'm Pintel, charmed to make your acquaintance my lady." I curtsied to them.
"Likewise." they both kind of smiled and Ragettii blushed, "You know if things were different I think I would have liked you."
"Hop to it ya Ninnies!" Barbosa bellowed. The two men ran off.
"She was talkin to me!"
"No she was talk'n to me!" We approached closer and closer to the ship. I turned running back up to the helm.
"You plan to luff up on their port?! You're going to rake them without ever even presenting a target." Barbosa cackled.
"That be the point, Miss Smith."
"Arabella's just fine, Captain."
"Well Miss Arabella, let me give ye some advice on Sparrow. You're only valuable to him as long as you're worth something, or ye have something he wants." The monkey screeched and he looked from me to the Interceptor. "They're club hauling!" Now it was my turn to laugh.
"Smarter than they looked aren't they?" I asked. He growled at me.
"Hard to port! Rack the starboard oars!" We came along the side of the Interceptor.
"Now!"
"Fire!"
"Fire all!" I duct as both ships shot at each other, there was an arm around me, pulling me down into the belly of the ship.
"I know it seems counter intuitive, but if you head on down them steps you'll be in the brig, you should be safer in there." Ragettii ran off as soon as he was done speaking to me.
"Thank you!" I called. I headed down stepping in a small pool of water. Jack was a few cells down, looking out of a hole. I tapped on the bars and he turned around quickly. "There seems to be a leak Captain." He glared at me before turning back to the hole.
"Move!" He yelled suddenly. I did, ducting down a few cells away from him. "Stop blowing holes in my ship!" He bellowed out of an even bigger hole. Gibbs' canteen floated over to me.
"Captain. Captain!" I yelled.
"What?!"
"The doors open." He jumped up moving quickly, dragging me with him. We were on the steps when he took the canteen from me and tried to take a drink.
"Bloody empty!"
"Grapnels at the ready!" Barbosa was yelling, "Prepare to board!" He cackled. With a loud crack the mainsail on the Interceptor came crashing down toward the Pearl. The last thing I saw was Barbosa peacefully standing there as the crew men ran before Jack's body blocked mine. With another crash and a groan the mast was laying on the deck, just barely not hitting Barbosa.
"You alright, love?" Jack asked, I nodded against his shoulder, "You can let go now." I quickly stepped back from the circle of his arms, untwining my arm from his shoulder.
"Sorry Captain." I apologize. Jack was smirking at me and I blushed, "Oh knock it off!" I stormed over to the lines.
"Pistols and cutlasses men! Kohlor Twigg to the powder magazine!" Barbosa was still ordering the crew around, not even noticing us. Jack placed his hand above mine. I snatched the line back.
"Get your own." I smirked at him. Jack had his hand held out obviously about to start some spew when an empty line flew into his hand, "You're a different breed of lucky, you know that Jack Sparrow?" I looked to where the man previously occupying the line was floating on the water.
"There should be a captain in there somewhere, love." He smirked to me. I jumped and landed harshly on the deck of the Interceptor. Elizabeth was fighting someone off of her and I quickly jumped in, snatching a gun off of the deck. I swung and hit him with it assuming it was empty. Someone snatched me by the arm, I turned sharply as his blade glinted in the sunlight. Jack had a hold of his hand.
"That's not very nice." He commented. I swung hitting the pirate in the face with the butt of the rifle and Elizabeth shoved him overboard.
"Neither was that." I smiled at him. Someone began firing toward us, Jack and I pulled Elizabeth down.
"Where's the medallion?"
"Wretch!" She went after Jack, he caught her hand.
"Elizabeth where's Will?" I asked, not seeing him on deck.
"Will." She gasped her eyes going wide. When she ran over to the hatch I followed her. The mainsail was holding it down and we tried to push it off.
"Jack!" I screamed for him, he was nowhere in sight. I placed my hand over Will's fingers that were entwined in the hatch. "The water is filling up fast, that means there has to be a fairly large hole somewhere down there, swim down and see-" I was hauled up and Elizabeth screamed his name. We were pulled across the gangplank onto the Pearl and tied up.
"He's going to drown." Elizabeth whimpered.
"No he isn't." I told her squeezing her hand.
"Anyone of you so much thinks the word-" I slipped under the rope and dove off the deck, shoving Barbosa as I went. As I came back up someone yanked me to them.
"What are you doing now?" Will! I wrapped my arms around him hugging him close he hugged me back.
"Saving you, you idiot."
"Come on!" He whispered we climbed up the other side of the boat, "Barbosa! She goes free!" I heard him yell, he was pointing the gun at Barbosa.
"Welcome back lass." Barbosa leaned around Will to say. Pintel and Ragettii grabbed me tying my wrist behind my back.
"Sorry Ara, haven't much choice." Ragettii mumbled, shuffling me back over into the crew.
"She goes free as well!" Will demanded.
"What's in your head boy!?" Barbosa demanded, "Ye got one shot and we can't die."
"Don't do anything stupid." I heard Jack whisperer. Will got back onto the cannon pointing Jack's pistol under his chin, "Like that."
"You can't. I can!"
"Who are you?"
"My brother." I hissed.
"No one. He's no one." Jack responded quickly, "Distant cousin of my aunt's nephew twice removed. Lovely singing voice though, eunuch."
"My name is Will Turner!" Will answered.
"He's lying!" I yelled. Barbosa turned to face me smiling.
"My father was Bootstrap Bill Turner. His blood runs in my veins." Sparrow came to stand beside me.
"He's the spitting image of ol' Bootstrap come to haunt us!" Ragettii called.
"On my word do as I say, or I'll pull this trigger and be lost to Davy Jones' locker!"
"Name your terms Mr. Turner."
"Arabella and Elizabeth go free!"
"Ye've already said that one anything else?" Jack was pointing at himself.
"And the crew! The crew are not to be harmed!" Will said quickly. I bumped into Jack's shoulder and felt him undoing my bonds.
"Agreed."
"Thank you." I whispered, rubbing my wrist.
We approached the small island at rapid speed. The cursed crew let out a wave of laughter as they restrained Will and Jack, pushing Elizabeth and I out on to the plank. Swords and guns were pointed at us to stop us from back tracking on to the ship.
"That's a long swim." Elizabeth whimpered. I looked back at Jack desperate.
"Barbossa, you lying bastard. You swore they'd go free" they gagged Will, pushing him back from Barbosa.
"Don't dare impugn me honor boy!" Barbosa yelled at him, "I agreed they'd go free but it was you who failed to specify when or where." He chuckled at the end of it, "Though it does seem a shame to lose something so fine, don't it lads? So I'll be having that dress back, before you go." The crew cheered, laughed, and whistled as Elizabeth stripped of the deep red dress.
"Goes with your black heart!" She spit, throwing it at him.
"Oh! Still warm." He chuckled, throwing it into the crew.
"Fuck you." I snarled and Elizabeth gasped.
"That be sounding a lot like an offer, lass." He mocked me, "As pleasant as that sounds, off ye go." He nodded at the water.
"I want Jack's pistol. You are marooning me, I want the gun." I demanded. Barbosa nodded.
"The lass is right! Where be Jack's pistol? Bring it forward!" He held it out to me before throwing it into the water, I jumped after it, kicking down to a small reef. Elizabeth splashed somewhere near me and I swam under the water so I could warn her if I saw some unsavory creature.
xxx
Ragettii leaned over the side of the ship. "She hasn't surfaced," he gulped, scanning the water for her long red hair. He walked around the circumference of the Pearl trying to find where she went.
"Maybe she's climbing back on board." Pintel followed closely behind. The other members of the crew shoved Sparrow towards the plank.
"I really rather hoped we were past all this." Sparrow said turning back.
"Jack Jack Jack," Barbosa threw his arm around him, "Did you not notice? That be the same little island that we made you governor of on our last little trip."
"I did notice."
"Perhaps you'll be able to conjure up a miraculous escape again," Barbosa pulled out his sword, forcing Sparrow onto the plank, "But I doubt it."
"Last time you gave me a pistol with one shot."
"The lass has ye pistol."
"Seeing as there's three of us a gentleman would give us a pair of pistols."
"It'll be one pistol as last time and you can be the gentleman and shoot the lady, starve to death yourself." Barbosa nodded toward the water, Jack turned scanning the water and the island quickly. Just Elizabeth, no flashes of red in sight, " Seems it'll only be the fair haired lass." Jack dove into the water, trying to find her. There on the reef, she was floating looking around at the multicolored fish swimming about her. Jack dove toward her, catching her around the waist. He pulled her to the surface and the beach, she wrapped her arms around him.
"What were you doing!? You can't swim?!"
"Of course I can swim!" She laughed, "It was just pretty down there!" He pulled her onto the beach and Elizabeth rushed her. She dropped his effects into the sand hugging the girl back.
xxx
"Where were you!? You didn't come back up, I was so scared!" Elizabeth hugged me, pulling me from Sparrow.
"That's the second time I've had to watch that man sail away with my ship." Jack said mournfully. I took his hand pulling him the rest of the way out of the water. Elizabeth stomped away.
"Bella!" she called back, "Arabella!"
"I'm fine." I told her with a smile. She looked at me funnily before stomping away. I sat next to Jack as he began laying things out to dry. He took his stinky boots off and I faked a gag.
"Say something love?" He mocked me.
"Not at all Captain." I mocked back. He smirked at me before starting to clean the pistol. I leaned against his shoulder, watching. I sat up as I heard Elizabeth returning.
"Really not all that big is it?" Jack asked her.
"If you're going to kill Arabella and I please do so without delay." She pulled me by her side. Jack looked at the spot where I was sitting then back at her.
"Is there a problem between us Miss Swann?" He asked. I was thankful he had never used that tone with me and hoped he never would. She leaned down toward him, keeping me slightly behind her, I grabbed her arm.
"You were going to tell Barbosa about Will in exchange for a ship." She sneered. Jack nodded slightly.
"We could use a ship." He leaned toward her the gun resting against his knee, "The fact is I was not going to tell Barbosa about bloody Will in exchange for a ship because as long as he didn't know about bloody Will I had something to bargain with," I winced as he pointed the gun around as he spoke and he tucked it into his waistband standing, "which now no one has, thanks to bloody stupid Will."
"Oh," She mumbled lamely.
"Oh." Jack mocked, I stepped out from behind her and stood between him and her.
"We were going to throw him off on an island, take the ship, and not give him any name at all, Lizzie."
"We?" She asked me, "We." She repeated looking between me and Jack, "So what is this Bella, your his little co-captain?" She seethed at me.
"Leave her out of this lass." I heard Jack say behind me.
"So what if I am!?" I snapped at her, she flinched back. In all our years of knowing each other I had been snarky, rude, and sometimes downright mean but I had never raised my voice to her, "Is it so bad to want my freedom, to rather have a life of piracy then to have a life back in Port Royal will the Admiral."
"He took you in, he cares for you!" I laughed bitterly
"No he doesn't." I walked away quickly.
"You don't know what you think you know." I heard Jack tell her, before coming after me.
"Will still risked his life to save ours!" She yelled coming after us. Jack laughed loudly, sarcastically back at her. "So we have to do something to rescue him!"
"Off you go then!" Jack shooed her away, "Let me know how that turns out."
"But you were marooned on this island before weren't you!? We can escape the same way you did then!"
"To what point and purpose, young missy?! The Black Pearl is gone. Unless you have a rudder and a lot of sails hidden in your bodice, unlikely, Young Mr. Turner will be dead long before we reach him."
"But your Captain Jack Sparrow! We dreamed about you for ages!" Jack looked up at me with a smirk on his lips and I rolled my eyes shaking my head 'no'. Something about him washed away all pf the pain.
"Don't bring me into this." I called walking ahead.
"You vanished from under the eyes of seven agents of the East India Company, you sacked Nassau port without ever firing a single shot!" Jack was knocking on trees and taking wide exaggerated steps. He finally stopped jumping on something I was standing on. He moved me off gently and turned around to be face-to-face with Elizabeth, "Are you the pirate Arabella and I read about or not?!" She demanded. He shoved her toward me, not exactly gently but not rough enough to knock her off her feet.
"Jack?" I asked gently, catching his wrist in my hand, "How did you escape last time?" He sighed pulling his arm away.
"Last time-" He moved his hands exaggeratedly, "I was here a grand total of three days, alright? Last time the rum runners used this island as a cache and I was able to barter passage off," He lifted the hatch door and climbed down into the cellar like area, "By the looks of things they've long been out of business. Probably have your bloody friend Norrington to thank for that." I took the bottles of rum from him, using my skirts as a basket as I had seen the maid do once with her apron. "Thank you love."
"So that's it then!? That's the secret grand adventure of the infamous Captain Jack Sparrow!" Elizabeth was pissed, "You spent three days lying on a beach drinking rum?" He snatched a bottle from my skirt pulling me by my open hand with him.
"Welcome to the Caribbean Mrs. Swann!" He called back to her.
"So, is there any truths to the other stories?" She called coming after Jack again. He dropped the bottle back into my skirt and began exposing a multitude of scars.
"Truth?" He asked. His tattoo and the 'p' mark on his right wrist, what looked like lightning on the underside of his left forearm, the bullet marks on his chest. "No truth at all." He sat in the sand pulling me down with him. "We still have a month's worth of food, maybe more. Keep a weather eye out for passing ships and our chances are fair."
"And what about Will?" She asked.
"Elizabeth I love Will just as much as you do. But we are stuck here, and it's no ones fault but Barbosa's. There is nothing we can do." I shook my head at her, "Will is going to have to save himself this time." She let out a frustrated scream and stomped away again. Jack pulled my legs toward him and began unlacing my boots, tossing them toward where his were lying.
"Might as well get comfortable, while she's gone." He groaned, lying back in the sand. I pulled a different bottle from beside me, taking a gulp.
"Drink up me hearties, yo ho." I sung, slightly off key. Jack shot up next to me.
"What was that?!" He asked.
"A song Elizabeth taught me as a child." I laughed as he gagged, pulling me to lay in the sand in his arm.
"Well let's hear it then." He smiled.
I sung to him, " Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me. We pillage, we plunder, we rifle, and loot. Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho. We kidnap and ravage and don't give a hoot. Drink up me 'earties, yo ho." I laughed slightly, and prayed Elizabeth would stay away for a while as he smirked down at me and pulled me closer to him, "Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me. We extort, we pilfer, we filch, and ransack. Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho. Maraud and embezzle, and even high-jack. Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho." I traced the name on his chest, "Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me. We kindle and char, inflame and ignite. Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho. We burn up the city, we're really a fright. Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho! Yo ho yo ho and pirates we shall be!" Jack was looking down at me with this look I couldn't place. "Who was Lily-rose?" I asked him.
"My sister. She died when she was very young, pox."
"I'm sorry Jack."
"Don't be, it was long ago." He moved away standing and I went to help him collect wood to build a fire.
"Jack."
"Hmm, love?"
"Even if I do end up back in Port Royal, or dead, after all of this. I'm glad I met you." I turned away from him carrying the sticks back to the beach.
xxx
Somehow, much to my surprise, Elizabeth came back. Her and Jack were jumping around the fire singing the pirate song drunkenly.
"Love! Come dance with me!" Jack called. I was sitting off in the waves.
"Is that what you're doing?" I turned to look at him and he grabbed me underneath my arms pulling me out of the water. Elizabeth caught my arm yanking me up to run around the fire and this time instead of going in opposite directions Jack chased after us.
"No fair, Lizzie!" he was calling, "Give me back my… Lovey!" He caught me around my waist pulling me down into his lap, "Oof, easy on the goods."
"You did that!" I said trying to move off of his middle.
"No no no, stay." He pulled me closer and Elizabeth sat down next to us, "When I get the Pearl back I'm going to teach your song to the whole crew. And we'll sing it all the time."
I laughed at him, "And you and you're singing crew will be the most feared pirates in the Spanish Main." I said sarcastically.
"Not just the Spanish Main. The entire ocean, the entire world, love!" He buried his face in my neck.
"Okay, now let me go Captain." I tried to loosen his grip, "You're not sober. You don't know what you're doing." He picked his head up from my neck.
"Wherever we want to go, we go. That's what a ship is, you know. It's not just a keel and a haul and deck and sails, that's what a ship needs. But what a ship is, what the Black Pearl really is, is freedom."
"Jack." Elizabeth sighed leaning on his shoulder, I got this weird feeling deep in my gut, She yelped as he shoved her off, loosening his arms from me and I slipped from his lap. He upturned his empty bottle trying to get every last drop. I leaned over his lap to whisper to her.
"He's not going to pass out anytime soon."
"What?"
"Quit faking, you've barely touched that bottle." I winked to her, she smiled at me,
"I'm going to burn the barrels of rum and make a signal, someone is bound to be looking for the both of us."
"Give me just a minute and I will get Jack on around the island so he doesn't realize what you're doing-"
"Why are girls keeping secrets?" Jack asked, suddenly pulling me back toward him.
"I was just saying that it must be terrible for you to be trapped on this island Jack." Elizabeth leaned in closer to him.
"Oh yes." He answered, snaking his arm back over my shoulder, "But the company is inherently better than last time and the scenery has improved."
"Jack, I have barely seen the island. Why don't you show me the scenery?" I asked toying with his beard, before standing quickly. He shot up so quick he kicked sand back on Elizabeth and I ran away from him, trying to think of a better distraction. I felt Jack's presence behind me as I looked out to the ocean. He snatched me up before pulling me down in the sand.
"Tired." He mumbled yanking me into his chest. I didn't sleep that night. I put Jack's face to my memory. I observed how he slept, how his nose twitched when his mustache tickled it, how he sometimes pursed his lips.
"I'm so sorry Jack." I sighed as the first rays of morning light rose. Elizabeth's plan would work, and I would never see him again. His breath started to change and he turned over onto his back. When he realized what he was smelling was smoke he shot up, running toward it. There was a loud bang and Elizabeth ducked as the crate exploded.
