Gahhh – it's like clockwork; like some bizarre ritual or tradition. I go to post, it won't let me. Wait a day and everything's fine. Grrr, I'm sorry. Jacquelyn Sparrow – this chapters your own.
Jack looked around the tavern, grinning euphorically; his gold teeth winking in the glow cast by the spluttering candles.
"Then she says, 'Maybe all you drink is frog, you piss pompous pig'." Jack frowned; was that how the story went? No? Didn't sound right. "Wait, wait, wait, wait. I said the bloody thing wrong. I meant, I said the wrong thing bloody." He amended, but his captive audience were so drunk they'd already burst into peals of laughter the first time, so his protests weren't heard over their shrill and piercing laughter. Even the serving girls and Madame Zalks herself had stopped work, pulled up a chair and listened to a drunken Jack Sparrow regale his most recent exploits, mesmerised by his ringed hands waving and madly gesturing to the air, and his hair whipping about, trinkets glinting and jingling.
A serving maid who called herself Kristiana curled up into his lap, batting his hair trinkets like a cat might swat at an elusive butterfly. With her almond cat-like eyes and her self-satisfied smile, she looked exactly like the cat that had the cream, and was positively purring at the thought that she – of all the people in the bar - was the one in Captain Jack Sparrow's lap. Jack looked down in surprise, as if wondering how she got there, even though he had only seconds before invited her to sit there, "Tell me more, Captain Jack." She purred as she plaited several strands of his dark locks.
"Ah, yes: Alexandria. You look just like her, my dear Kristi, I swear you do." Jack paused for a moment, brow puckered in thought, "Only she has blonde hair, not black." He twirled a lock of the girl's hair around his fingers, his kohl-eyes squinting at the tress as he struggled to recall further details, "And blue eyes, not brown." Jack stopped and regarded the girl on his lap for several seconds as if she was a total stranger, "And she's English, not Porto-Rican. Okay, okay, so I lie. She doesn't look like you at all. But she's like you…only she'd never willingly wear a dress…and she'd slap me senseless if I so much as tried to get her to sit in my lap…okay, okay," Jack conceded, "so you're nothing like her. Not that it's necessarily a bad thing luv; Alex can be exasperatingly irksome some of the time. A lot of the time. More often than not... So it's probably best that there's no-one else out there like her…No-one else like her at all… No-one else…" Jack seemed to lose his train of thought. A silence fell on the pub as the assembled patrons and revellers waited for Jack – their entertainment for the night – continue.
"She lied to me!" Jack suddenly yelled, almost jolting the serving girl off his lap as he rose to his feet. "I gave her a safe place, a space on my ship, and how does she thank me? Little wench runs off with…with…well, I dunno who he is really. Another whoopsies on my part. And perhaps she didn't really run off…pushed off, more like." Jack took another swig of ale, "But who needs her? Really, who needs a gallivanting, unpredictable, impulsive scallywag who causes more trouble than they're worth?" Here Jack appealed to the crowd, lifting up his foaming ale which spilled onto his tricorn hat and trickled off its corners like rain off an umbrella. The crowd roared appreciatively in response, either to Jack's question or the ale incident. Jack nodded in acknowledgment and seated himself back down, pulling the barmaid Kristina back onto his knee, "Nay, certainly not me. Even if she did save our hides in that storm…and possibly against the English navy…more plucky and true than the rest of that sorry lot put together…" Jack broke off and pouted into his tankard. "But she lied to us all! Betrayed us! It's not like we betrayed her or anything…I wouldn't really call handing a defenceless young women over to a known bloodthirsty pirate 'betrayal', as such…" Jack trailed off; remembering, contemplating, thinking, wondering.
"Whoopsies." He concluded.
Through Jack's blur of many pints of ale and tall mugs of fine rum, he recalled that Alex had knowingly and willingly put the Black Pearl in danger - not that the ship and its crew hadn't experience danger before. He realised he had been so quick to condemn her personal actions of which he had no real understanding of. Through the haze of alcohol, Jack realised Alex wasn't some ship-jumping rich brat off a jaunt – she saw out the pirate life through and through. Perhaps noble blood of a royal ran through her veins, but it was definitely tainted with a little bit of pirate in the mix. Finally his rum-soaked brain realised he had to go tell William they'd made a mistake. They had to find Alex. Quickly. Immediately. Now. No time to waste. Just as soon as he'd had one more drink…
Jack wound his way back to the homely hostel. He was pleased to note that the noise he made thumping up the stairs and staggering into the room would have given Will and Elsey more than ample warning of his return.
Will wasn't surprised when Captain Jack Sparrow burst into the room at a little after three in the morning. He stood on the threshold for several moments, swaying and swaggering in pride, grinning the crooked grin that belied that the evening at the pub had been successful. Wether Jack had succeeded in gaining valuable information, or succeeded purely in getting commendably drunk, Will didn't know. But Jack was obviously willing to share.
"So?' Will asked, raising a dark and unimpressed brow, "How did it go? Did you find out what you needed to know?" Jack sat down heavily in a chair, almost missing it due to his blurred and hazy vision.
"I was hungry for information, like one of them starving kids in the streets of London, with their pot-little bellies and wide eyes and…and…poor little buggers." Jack looked saddened at the fate of England's starving, then he perked up and continued. "They never suspected a thing. I came in like the fog on little cat feet," Jack made little tip-toeing scurrying movements over the table with his finger-tips, "and I left like –"
"- a drunken elephant?" Will suggested. Jack frowned in Will's general direction, then continued his spiel,
"I was as wise as an owl, as sharp as a hawk, as silent as a mouse and… as… drunk as a… skunk."
Will patted Jack on the back in sardonic congratulations, but Jack had already passed out, slumped on the seat with his chin resting heavily on his chest, snoring slightly.
"Good night, Jack. Sleep well."
But Jack did not sleep well.
Poor Jack – drunk, and still cursed by the Black Spot and on the Devil's list, and tracked by the Drifting Maiden. And his night's not going to get any better any time soon. Next chapter: Captain Orion Peril and his Black Friday; nice and dark and served up just how you like it.
Reviews! – The chocolate chips in chocolate-chip cookies. Without them the biscuit of life is bland and tasteless.
DCoD – I love the stories behind curses too. Love stories seem to make curses so much more tragic and potent. As for Jack's first encounter with the Lady; she's in the FF…somewhere…all will be revealed in a few chapters. Actually, I've been really slack with my writing, so I only have a few pre-written chapters left. After that it's all uncharted territory. I'm off the edge of the map mate…
Crzywildchick804 – I got the email you sent, but my computer buggered up and the message was just gibberish. Can you send it again please :) I'm really looking forward to reading it.
Skystrike26 – Yay – another new reviewer! I would say something like 'welcome aboard' but that's just plain corny. I will give up Jack's past eventually. I'm very reluctant to part with it at the moment; I'm big on mystery and intrigue :) But yes, soon all will be revealed. The story's gotta end sometime, and I'm hoping that Fanfiction doesn't put a word-limit on stories…
Apple-365 – Thanks for reviewing again! Hope you like this chapter :)
Lonaargh – I agree; the Lady should just take a number like the rest of the world; she's not the only one after Captain Jack Sparrow.