"Not All Treasure is Silver and Gold"
Chapter 32
The Adventurer was on course to India. Jack had decided that he just simply wouldn't explain the reasons for going back. They were just simply going. If someone asked, he would say that the compass told him to. He thought it was a great lie. In fact, he had convinced himself that it was the truth and he figured if he believed it, everyone would.
However, Dani wasn't stupid. And she didn't believe the story for one second, despite the sincere look on Jack's face.
"Jack, why are we heading towards India?" Dani asked, peering over his shoulder at the maps on his table.
"Because that's what the compass said," he answered her back without looking up.
"I would like to see a demonstration then," she said.
"All right, take off your clothes and lay down on the bed. I'll be over in a tic," he smiled devilishly.
"I don't need that kind of demonstration. I want to see the compass."
"Use your own," he said.
"I don't want to use my own," she said. "Do it, Jack Sparrow."
And, of course, because he was slightly afraid of his wife, he did what she said. He concentrated as hard as his not-sound-mind could and opened the compass. Dani could make out a mumble that sounded exactly like "I know what I want."
And it did what Dani thought it would do and spun right to her.
"Ahem," Dani smiled.
"So what if it points to you now? It pointed to India earlier. And I plan to continue in the direction that it initially pointed, savvy?"
"Jack Sparrow, you are a liar."
"I know."
"You should just tell me why you're doing this," she said and was silent for a second. "James told me what you talked about before we parted ways anyway. I just wanted to hear it from your point of view."
"He told you…wait, that isn't going to work. I know what you're doing and I'm not going to let that trick me. You can't trick Jack Sparrow."
"They also said you can't best the devil and somehow you took down Davy Jones," she suggested.
"That slimy monkey deserved what he got. He made the lives of pirates and those decent, hardworking men, awful. But you'll never know what Norrie and I discussed. It's better if you don't know."
She threw up her hands in anger and disgust and walked out of the room, leaving Jack to study his maps once again.
Will was having an incredible time playing with his children. He was so excited to get to play around with these mini-people who weren't all that old, but were walking and talking. And all they wanted to do was to play out on the deck.
Jack and Marie were constantly running around, attempting to help the other crewmembers do their jobs. Will spent his days with them, fully immersing himself in the joys of being a father.
And while Elizabeth was enjoying the moments of her children and her husband having fun, she was wracked with guilt. And the worst part of the whole situation was that she didn't know why she was feeling this way.
So she was determined to ignore the feeling and enjoy the trip.
It was only a few days later when they stopped just short of the shore of Pondicherry. Jack, alone, rowed to the port. Dani was furious. But then again, so were Will and Elizabeth. No one had any idea what was going on. Even Gibbs, who was the official First Mate, had no clue what Jack was doing. He was now trying to comfort Dani.
"I'm sure Jack has a good reason for this," Gibbs said.
"He'd better. If he doesn't, he's going to get a swift kick in the…"
"He's rowing back!" Marty shouted.
"Good," Dani sighed and walked back into their cabin and slamming the door.
What Jack had done was simple. He'd wrapped the large stone in some old, dirty cloth. (He seemed to have an awful lot of it.) He'd rowed as quietly as he could up to the dock and tossed the stone as far as he could into the town. Hopefully, someone would locate it and return it to its rightful owner. Jack was certain that the person who held it would be executed, so he figured no one would be stupid enough to keep it.
The sky was pitch black when he returned to the ship. He was greeted by his crew, Elizabeth and Will. But the one face he wanted to see was noticeably absent. Jack decided to ignore these present people and retreated to his cabin.
He pushed open the door and it slammed into the wall.
"Why aren't you out there with everyone else?" he demanded to know.
"Because…I hate you," she answered.
"You don't mean that. You love me," Jack smiled.
"No. You're the scum of the earth and all you ever do is lie to me," Dani replied. "Why should I love you?"
"I don't have an answer for that. But you do love me. And you're never going to stop because I am always going to chase something completely rotten with something utterly romantic and you're always going to love me," he smiled and kissed her on the cheek.
She smiled and kissed him back full on the lips.
"This one time, and if you ever repeat this, I'll gut you like a fish, you are right," she said in a threatening manner.
"I'll settle for that," Jack said. "Are you going to go drink with everyone out front?"
"No," she answered. "I was thinking of retreating to the bed."
"Well, that case…" he smiled and walked over and tried to help her go to bed.
"Wait," Dani said as he was trying to get out of his belts quickly. "What's our heading?"
"I don't care. My heading is this bed with you," he told her.
"No. We need a heading. Please hand me my compass," she asked.
"By 'hand me my compass' do you mean 'take off my blouse?"
"No."
"That's what I was afraid of," he answered and he handed her the compass.
She opened it and closed it quickly.
"I'll do it in the morning," she said and stuffed it under the bed.
"No, no. What did it say, darling?"
"It…never mind. I'll just do it in the morning," she answered and kissed the question out of his mind.
A/N: Ta-da! There was chapter 32. I hope everyone liked it and please review. Despite the fact that currently no one is getting the alerts. Thanks.
Manda