Chapter Seventeen

The Confrontation

Don't own Cap'n Crunch, the Lucky Charms leprechaun, Tony the Tiger, or the Honeycomb fuzzball...I seem to be in a cereal mood lately...

Whenever Kate had a day off, she felt lucky. She got to sleep in until 11:00, have ice cream for lunch (she could actually have a lunch; she never did on a job assignment, because how weird is that to see a model actually eat?), and could watch Dr. Phil. But today, she had to get up at 7:30 to look decent, was positive she wouldn't get to have ice cream for lunch, or watch Dr. Phil. Why? That's right, she knew she'd be too busy trying to break up a fight between Will and Jack.

She sat on the stoop in the front yard, nervously swinging the medallion back and forth on it's chain around her neck. She really didn't want anyone to get hurt...Kate knew this was a bad idea! She never should have told Melissa that she would agree to look after Jack. He was probably just going to make lewd remarks or get drunk, even though she hid her parents alcohol in the laundry room the previous night.

Melissa's blue car crept up the driveway. Kate could see Melissa talking to someone, probably Jack. She noticed that he looked exactly in person just like he did in the movies.

"Get out," she saw Melissa say to Jack. As Jack got out, Kate walked over to the drivers side and leaned in the car to talk to her.

"Thank you!" Melissa said gratefully, her light blue eyes wide. "If he breaks anything...Please tell me you removed all things that remind him of the navy."

"Um...I can't say that you warned me about it," Kate replied. "Should I be worried?"

"No, he, uh...just doesn't seem to like them very much!"

Kate gave Melissa a suspicious glance. "Anything else I need to know?"

She shook her head as she put on some sunglasses. "I have to go!"

"I'll bet you do," Kate muttered, stepping away from the car. "I'm not paying for Jack's emergency room bill!"

Melissa waved as she went back down the driveway. Now it was just her and Jack, along with Will.

Oh, the thrills they would have...

Jack was lead into Kate's house. She had also instructed him – quietly – to be quiet. Well, wasn't that obvious if the person who said quietly that they needed to be quiet about what they were being quiet about that one would automatically take it that they needed to be quiet? Duh, he wasn't Will, he could figure it out.

Jack went right to the kitchen and opened up the pantry, scanning the cereal area.

"Are you hungry?" Kate asked quietly, then chuckled. "I know Melissa isn't a good cook."

"Th' lass could burn water," Jack said.

No. Bugger, no! Two people could not have Cap'n Crunch in this world! Why did an old version of Norrington, labeled with Cap'n Crunch, be everywhere?!

"Oh, so Melissa introduced you to Cap'n Crunch?" Kate asked. "It's a great cereal, isn't it? Or did you find it while you were desperately searching for something to eat?"

Jack held the box clenched in his hands. "Why?"

"Oh, I...it was just a question. If you don't like questions you don't have to answer it–"

"No, why do you and Melissa like Cap'n Crunch? What do you see 'bout this man right here? Hmm?" He pointed to Cap'n Crunch.

"I never thought about the cartoon character before...The Lucky Charms leprechaun used to scare me...I thought that it would attack me while I was sleeping, along with Tony the Tiger and that Honeycomb fuzzball. But Melissa asked if I had gotten rid of anything that reminded you of the navy...so..." She slowly moved closer to him. "I'll just take that and hide it and hope you never see it again, alright?"

"No!" Jack held the box close to him. "Can I rip it up?"

"Rip it up? Why?"

Was this girl mad? How could you not want to rip up a box of Cap'n Crunch?

"Just because!" he said. "I don't need a reason..."

She gave him a weird look, one that said, I think you've gone mad.

"He looks like Norrington! Can't ye see it, love?" He tapped his finger like a madman on the drawing of Cap'n Crunch.

"Like I said, I've never thought about it...but can you spare the cereal? I like it..."

"No! The cereal must go, too! Everything about Cap'n Crunch must go! Off the face of the earth with it!"

"No!" Kate argued. "Jack, give it back!" She put her hands on the box, pulling it towards her. Each of them pulled on it. "Jack!" she ordered.

"It's Captain, love. I'm a real one, unlike this one that looks like his wig's a li'l too tight!"

"Give it back, Captain!" she ordered. "Get over it – it's a cartoon drawing! Grow up!"

This woman was irritating him! It was a box of cereal – why did she want it so bad? No – she couldn't be a bad cook, too!

"Jack?" Will asked.

Will wondered if he had gone mad. Was this really Jack Sparrow in front of him, the man eaten by the Kraken and who kissed Elizabeth – his Elizabeth! And wasn't he supposed to be dead? Well, Will was, too...but this wasn't the point! The point was that Jack was in his house, and he and Miss Sims were...fighting over a box of cereal?

"Will," Miss Sims said, trying to act a little more put together and dignified. She tucked a strand of wavy hair behind her ear. "Good morning."

"Jack," Will said again, this time a little more firmly and angrily. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, your li'l friend, Kate, 'ere, thought that it'd be a good idea to have tea and gossip about what Elizabeth got into now," Jack said.

That only enraged Will more. It was bad enough that Will had to even see this pirate again, but did he have to add in Elizabeth's name?

"I 'eard that she kissed a man named Captain Jack Sparrow while engaged to someone," Jack said. "Guess it doesn't matter now...cause the lass kissed me!"

Visions of Elizabeth rushed through Will's mind...her silky soft hair, those beautiful brown eyes, her freckles and lips...Could a girl that look that so innocent and beautiful really do something that heart breaking?

Something inside Will made him snap. Was it that he had to even see his face that his Elizabeth started falling for, or that he had nearly caused him to die in Barbossa's hands over a chest of Aztec gold a year ago? Will didn't know, and frankly, he didn't care.

"I hate you," he spat. "I hate you more than I ever could Barbossa. You didn't have to kiss Elizabeth, you didn't have to make me go and search for your bloody compass so that I could save Elizabeth from the noose, you didn't have to rob me of my wedding night, and you didn't have to make my bride have second thoughts about me."

"No, but you would want to save Elizabeth so that your bonny lass could live. So, really, it was in your best interest to have to do all of th' above, aye? But...I was the last one she kissed, mate. Maybe it's a ritual of her's...get engaged, leave for another man." He grinned. "Who knows, that could've been me."

Will turned Jack around to the refrigerator and pinned one of Jack's arms behind his back. "You take that back."

"Can't. I already said it. Unless somehow you can turn back time, dear William. But that, my friend, would take a genius."

"Will, stop it!" Miss Sims said, trying to break the two of them apart. "This is about a girl? You are fighting over a girl neither of you are going to see again?"

"It's Elizabeth!" both said at once.

"She was my first love!" Will defended.

"She gave me a kiss! A really good kiss!" Jack said.

"Jack!" Will shoved him harder against the refrigerator and twisted his arm more.

"Just stop it!" Miss Sims ordered. "Captain Sparrow, you haven't been here for five minutes and we argue about a Cap'n Crunch box and I try to break up a fight between the two of you over a girl that neither of you will ever have. Do you have any idea how ridiculous the two of you look?"

Will didn't want to know what it looked like to be winning a fight with Jack Sparrow. He hadn't won when they first fought in Port Royal a year ago, and that was with his forte.

"D'ya want t' think 'bout lettin' me go, mate?" Jack asked.

"I'm surprised you can actually feel something," Will said. "How does it feel like when you're the one being hurt? Feels a lot different."

"For the love of – Will, let him go!" Miss Sims said. "I mean it!"

"I think ya should, otherwise the lass won't be sleepin' with ya tonight," Jack said. "And, for your happiness and to avoid further instances where y'd be doin' worse that tryin' to twist me arm off, I think y' should think 'bout letting me go."

"I'm not having intimate relations with a woman I met two days ago," he said through gritted teeth.

Will had just about had it with Jack. He couldn't take much more of him. Did he really have to go around talking about the kiss that Elizabeth gave him and now how he thought that he and Miss Sims were in an intimate relationship?

Miss Sims huffed to the window and stood by it, arms crossed over her chest. She didn't say a word; her eyes said it all. They were become a sharp, harsh green now, rather than the kind and gentle green they had usually been.

Was he really becoming that whipped already with her? Even the slightest trace of unhappiness or disappointment made him feel the same. Was it really right to take all this out on Jack? Yes, because he was the main cause of why his life ended up the way it was (and not in a good way). But if Miss Sims was not happy...

"Don't think that I'm done with you, Jack," Will said, letting him go.

Jack stretched out his left arm that was held against his back. "Thanks, mate. So now I know the girl's got you as whipped as when your father gave ya five lashes...How those doin' by the way?"

Will felt his jaw tensing up. Miss Sims stepped closer to both of them. "Jack, grow up."

"So ye're takin' 'is side?" Jack asked Miss Sims. "Should've known you're sleepin' with 'im."

"I am not taking his side!"

"So then you're on my side," Jack said. "It's better that way, love." He wrapped a hand around her waist. "We have rum and beds."

She backed away from Jack. "I'm not on either of your sides, you immature pirates."

And with that Miss Sims left for the downstairs. It was now just him and Jack...Jack and him...

"So, eh, lovely weather we're havin', eh, mate?" Jack said, nervously, gesturing towards the window. "Not a cloud in the sky...perfect for sailin'."

Nothing would make Will happier than to see Jack in pain, and, preferably, dead. But what about Miss Sims? Wouldn't she be disappointed in him if he made Jack feel the pain that he felt when she saw Elizabeth kiss him, the lashes he had gotten from his father, and the betrayal that Jack made him feel?

"Just because I am not hurting you doesn't mean that I hate you," Will said softly but firmly. "I always will."

Will started walking downstairs until he heard Jack say, "That's right, run away from all ye're problems. Run t' ye're bonny lass and cry on her shoulder."

Will didn't even want to turn around and face that man; that pirate. He wanted nothing more than to not see him again or even hear his name, or to just give him the satisfaction of learning pain.

But then, he'd have to face the consequences, and they would not be nearly as beautiful as Miss Sims was.

Kate's Blog Entry

It hasn't even been ten minutes and I hate them. Both of them. Jack is nothing but a person desperate for attention and a betrayer. And Will is desperate to look like the big boy who's going to always have to be the hero. And they fought about a girl who they're never going to see again! Just...why me?!?! Why do I have to be the one to break the fight up like a teacher? I really don't care what either of them do to each other...Okay, maybe I don't hate Will. I'm just disappointed in him. And I'd sort of like it if Jack didn't find the knives and try to stab Will...

XOXO,

Kate