Started With A Kiss
Chapter 26 – Fight for Our Freedom
Elizabeth looked up at the man before her. What he had just told her had undoubtedly surprised her. Jack's father smiled down at her as her eyes glazed over in thought.
"You're thinking about him, aren't you?" he asked knowingly.
She looked up at him with teary eyes and a reminiscent smile on her face.
"Yes," she answered, "I really miss him."
Jack's father smiled at her. "I do too," he paused before adding mysteriously, "I just wish I'd had a chance to put things right with him...but it's too late now."
Elizabeth frowned up at him confusedly. "What do you mean?"
Jack's dad shook his head before replying, "Doesn't matter; it was a long time ago now, a year or two at least."
Elizabeth waited a moment before hesitantly asking, "Do you mind me asking what happened between you?"
"We had a fight," he told her inevitably. "It was over his love life."
"Oh," Elizabeth said quietly.
"It wasn't your fault," he told her honestly. "Although I tried to tell him that he was going to end up in love with you, he wouldn't listen to me. He said that true pirates didn't fall in love, and that that meant that he wouldn't either. It turned into a full-blown fight involving violence and verbal abuse and eventually he just...stormed out."
"I'm so sorry," she whispered. He waved his hand dismissively.
"It's alright, honestly. It's all in the past now."
"Yeah, but..." she protested softly, "you and your son never had a chance to make up from a fight that was partially my fault, so I can't help but feel guilty for it."
"It doesn't matter, really," he insisted.
Elizabeth merely looked down at the floor rather than into the eyes of the newly grieving pirate.
"I'm sure that he didn't hold a grudge, especially not towards the end," she whispered reassuringly, "when he realised you were right."
"Perhaps not," he considered, "but I would have liked a chance to put it all behind us for definite. But for now, we should focus on what's ahead; the fight."
Elizabeth nodded silently as a single tear fell from her eye and landed in her lap.
-----
The cold air of battle hit everyone harshly on board the Black Pearl.
"This is it," Barbossa said darkly. Elizabeth nodded silently; the time for talking was most definitely not now.
On the horizon, a mass of ships could be seen approaching rapidly. Their white sails stood out significantly against the sky, made black by the nearing night time and the dreadful weather that would unleash the rain at any moment. Elizabeth cast one sorry look at the cabin in which Jack's body lay.
"I love you," she whispered softly.
Tia Dalma saw Elizabeth's eyes begin to swim before she sniffed and put on a brave face to face the crew members.
"We all know why we're here," she began loudly, "and it's not to fail. Today, men, we fight for our freedom and we will get it."
Everyone's faces lit up at the determination in her tone, and their eyes were filled with courage. They could tell, in that very moment, that they'd elected the right person for the role of captain.
"Let's go," she said finally. "Cotton at the wheel."
Cotton scurried off following his orders.
"Everyone else is to man the guns, the cannons and show no mercy."
There was an uproar of cheering at those last three words, and everyone hurried off to their stations. Meanwhile, Elizabeth moved up to the helm to take charge. The Black Pearl and the ship on the side of the East India Trading Company, the Saviour, were now at a fighting distance and everyone's faces turned to look at Elizabeth, waiting for their orders expectantly.
Elizabeth turned to Barbossa and nodded.
"Fire!" Barbossa shouted fiercely.
There was a deafening bang as around ten cannons were set off at once, and were then hurriedly refilled by the men in charge of them.
It wasn't long before the East India Trading Company were joined by Davy Jones and his crew of fish people, which wasn't exactly great news for the people on the Black Pearl. The fact that both enemy ships were now sending their men across to the Black Pearl didn't help the situation either. It just meant that everyone on board was constantly busy fighting.
But the good news for them was that they had indeed been joined by many pirates from Shipwreck Cove, who weren't far behind them.
Tia Dalma was staying out of most of the action, instead skulking around the sides of the deck, in the shadows, looking upset, not to mention scared. She kept throwing shifty, covert glances at Jack's cabin.
The ring of swords and the bangs of the cannons and many guns drowned out any other attempt at sound and no-one seemed to notice Tia Dalma sneak silently into Jack's cabin. Instead, everyone was focused on the battle that the Black Pearl's crew were not winning.
Elizabeth was exhausted after nearly an hour of intense war. She was close to giving up; there was practically no chance of coming out of this alive, so why continue?
She gasped to get her breath back after defeating another one of Davy Jones' fish men and dropped her sword on the deck by her feet. She moved freely down to the mast where a lot, in fact most, of the fighting was going on. She gave up on her resistance and just waited to be shot or stabbed in any way. At least it would end it all, and make it all go away.
A shot was fired and it very nearly hit Elizabeth directly in the chest, but she was shoved violently out of the way at the last second; just in time. Before she had time to react and see her rescuer, the person who had saved her life, they spun her around and swept her into a mind-blowing kiss so fast that she didn't even see their face before she sunk into their arms, her eyes closed, before she realised she couldn't do it. Not to Jack, or his memory.
She gasped for air as they broke apart and she felt the air leave her body once more as she locked eyes with none other than Captain Jack Sparrow.
...
There's nothing much to say to that.
Review please!
QueenSerenity818 out.