Chapter 19: Lost In Translation

Warnings: none

Suddenly Jack loosed his grip on the pistol, allowing it to fall into the water below. With a sharp intake of breath at the loss, he reached out a hand. Beckett moved for it first, but Joana shoved him over and took Jack's hand first. Jack pulled his daughter onto the rigging of the bow. Beckett followed, though was not helped as Joana had been. He swallowed some seawater in the process of grasping the ship, but he was soon attached to the rigging, as the other cannons aboard the Pearl fired upon the three ships in the harbour, more than likely one or two of them being Royal Navy or East India Trading Company. It was rather easy to aim for specific regions on the ships, being as they were sitting motionless, and the Pearl was barely moving. The other ships were suffering massive damage and wouldn't be able to take pursuit without major repair work.

Beckett watched from his low vantage point on the Black Pearl as the mainmast of the largest of the three ships in the harbour collapsed. Each of the masts of other ships continued falling until not a single mast stood.

Jack, Elizabeth, Joana, and Beckett crawled up the side of the Pearl until they flopped themselves onto the deck, all panting heavily.

Beckett tried to stand up, and realized that he couldn't because Joana was still lying on deck, shackled to him by the wrist. Instead he sat Indian-style, his hands at his sides anchored to the deck.

"Where are the keys?" Joana said aloud, getting the attention of Jack, who was starting to pull himself off the ground, staring at the skinny girl in drag very suspiciously.

"Jack," Beckett said, more forcefully this time. The dreadlocked captain looked at Beckett, then at Joana. Immediately he smiled, glancing back at Beckett.

"Ah, wonderful idea. I unshackle you an' her an' then toss you overboard! Couldn't've planned it better meself!"

"Right. So, where is the key?" Beckett asked, unimpressed, rolling his eyes as he spoke.

Jack patted the area where his belt had been. To which the said key had been attached.

"Gone. However, I know jus' the thing to break it apart. Is there a smith nearby?" he said to no one in particular. "All I need is an ass an' some gears…" He looked at Beckett, a smile on his face. "Actually, bein' as you're here, all I'd need now are some gears."

Beckett proceeded to roll his eyes.

Barbossa moseyed on over to the four exhausted individuals in varying degrees of lying and seated positions on the main deck. He tapped Joana's hand with a boot.

"What be this?" he asked Jack.

Jack looked bewildered, and looked at the girl who had his eyes… and Luiza's hair. Not sure where the skinniness comes from, though. Oh, Lord, I've forgotten her name already. He gave her a pleading look, which she responded to by averting her eyes, and sighing quietly.

"I'm his daughter," she said, pointing at Jack.

"An' yer name, Missy?" Barbossa replied, not sounding particularly impressed. Certainly he had his own bounty of illegitimate sons and daughters scattered around the seven seas.

"Joana. Who are you?"

"I be Cap'n Barbossa, Pirate Lord o' the Caspian Sea, legendary cap'n o' the cursed—"

"That's quite enough," Jack murmured just loud enough to be heard.

The shorter captain stood up a bit woozily.

"You were about to leave me stranded, weren't you?" he said accusingly at the taller captain.

"'Course not, Jack," Barbossa said with an uneasy smile. "Jus' gettin' the ship ready fer yer departure. Had I not, ye'd be danglin' from a lamppost in the harbour."

Elizabeth stood up and watched the exchange. She glanced over at Beckett and Joana on the deck, Beckett's shirt soaked so as to become transparent. Joana was busy watching Jack and Barbossa.

"How about we stand up at the same time?" Beckett asked Joana, who rolled her eyes and scoffed.

"What? Would you rather lie here all day on deck?" he scoffed. "Fine. Have it your way." He crossed his arms, and in doing so, yanked her wrist upwards rather painfully.

She flashed him a glare of spite.

"Fine then… Covarde louco," she said, positioning herself to get up.

Beckett sighed deeply.

"Entendo o que você está dizendo#1," he replied matter-of-factly, causing Joana's eyes to widen.

Elizabeth gaped over at him, as did Jack.

"I didn't know you spoke Portuguese," Elizabeth said, utterly impressed yet shocked.

Beckett looked at Joana. "Aprendi portugues para o Luiza#2," he added. She looked taken aback. He then glanced over at Elizabeth, his demeanor more arrogant than usual.

"Yes, I just so happen to be fluent," he said, which was only a slight stretch of the truth. "Although it's been quite awhile since I've had to speak it."

"Você pode ser capaz de enganá-lo," he said to Joana, pointing at Jack, "mas você não pode me enganar.#3."

A ghost of a smile passed over Joana's face, but faded as quickly as it had appeared. Jack looked angry but was utterly lost.

"I'd appreciate it, Beckett, if you'd talk in the language of the bloody ship," he snapped irritably.

"Wow. And to think, until this day, I did not realize that ships could talk." He flashed a mischievous grin at Jack.

"Ha ha," Jack said in a deadpan tone, leaning in closer to the sitting man. "I'll throw you both, hija o no, off th' bloody ship if you're going to carry on like this. An' that's a promise I intend to keep."

Beckett couldn't help but smile at Jack's limited grasp of Spanish. Is he not even aware of the language of the Azores? Some father he's going to make for Joana….

Soon Beckett and Joana had been separated by the firing of a pistol by Gibbs between the links of the metal connecting the shackles. Jack offered to do so himself, but Beckett did not trust his state of mind at this point. He would've thrown me off the ship or strangled me by now, if not for my connection—literally—to his daughter. A pistol would make it all the easier to rid the ship of me for good.

Once the pistol had been fired and the metallic clang had followed, Jack raced over to the newly separated pair, an evil grin on his face. This was not lost on Beckett.

Jack reached for his cutlass—then pistol—then dagger—all gone. Narrowing his eyes, he glared at Beckett, who was now smiling triumphantly, moving slowly away from the gunwale back towards the center of the ship.

"It won't take the presence of weapons to get you off the Pearl, mate," Jack said, approaching Beckett, who stood straight-backed against the mainmast.

"You know, you're not the only one who was hurt here," Beckett replied. "Had you not stolen her heart, it would have been mine to keep—and take good care of. You're a selfish coward. You robbed me of a happiness that—"

With that, Jack slapped Beckett across the face.

Beckett simply stood there afterwards, a red handprint appearing on his cheek, his mouth agape in shock. Jack stayed silent, watching Beckett warily.

"You had it all and you threw it all away," Beckett muttered in a disappointed tone, his face set like stone, moving his hand up to touch his face.

Suddenly Jack lunged at Beckett, knocking him powerfully against the mast, then onto his back on the deck. Beckett groaned as his back hit the boards, trying ever so hard to get the pirate captain off of him.

"I think it's high time you shut your mouth about wot happened," Jack hissed at Beckett, pinning the smaller man down and digging his bejeweled knuckles into Beckett's jaw. "'Cos you are th' one ultimately responsible for her death." He glanced quickly over at Joana. "An' the one who caused her to grow up wivout a mother," he added, pointing at the girl, who was watching them intently.

"It was Mercer," Beckett yelped, tasting blood in his mouth.

"Right. Pass th' blame off to someone else."

Beckett covered his face with his arms, speaking in a muffled voice.

"It's true. I confided in him—confessed to him my feelings for her—and he decided to kidnap her… but then did not tell me what he did after we had gotten too far away."

Elizabeth suddenly realized what Beckett's major confession to Mercer had been. So this was the influence Mercer had over him from his potent confession. Mercer had single-handedly changed both Beckett's and Luiza's lives upon hearing Beckett's admission. The old clerk probably had taken Beckett's emotional confession of love rather seriously, being as Beckett rarely showed emotion normally.

"Why did you keep him around then, after he had done such a horrible thing?" Elizabeth heard herself asking.

"May I explain myself," Beckett said with a sigh, not fighting back against Jack, merely protecting his face. Jack stopped punching him for a few moments to hear the rest of his explanation.

Beckett continued.

"Not only had Mercer kidnapped her from the island, but then he left her daughter behind to fend without a mother." He cringed before his next statement. "After she died, he vowed he'd make it up to me. He blamed himself for her death, thought that she had died from infection setting into the wounds she had gotten from the kidnapping. From then on, although he was older than me and of higher rank, he became my personal clerk, a mercenary at my beck-and-call, more than willing to obey my every command—for it meant his atonement."

"And where is this Mercer now?" Joana asked, her command of the English language very good. She looked like she was ready to kill him, if he happened to be aboard.

"Dead," Beckett said to her as he lie on his back, temporarily uncovering his face, realizing that these were most likely the first words with her not exchanged in utter hatred.

"I suppose it's also Mercer's fault that you choked up in th' battle against the Pearl an' th' Dutchman," Jack retorted, eyes narrowed.

"He wasn't even on the Endeavour at the time," Beckett replied. "That was my fault and my fault alone. I am to blame for the outcome of my responsibilities." He bit his tongue hard. Unlike you, leaving her for dead and putting all the blame on me….

"It seems like you have more to say. Go ahead; spit it out," Jack sneered, noticing the way that Beckett had to stop speaking.

The man who is directly responsible for my mother's death is dead. Joana walked over to Jack and touched his back very lightly. He turned his head very quickly, looking at who had dared do such a thing in the midst of his anger. Upon seeing that it was his daughter, the anger dissipated from his eyes.

"Yes?" he said to the girl, not knowing how to speak to her.

"My mother is dead," she said. "Nothing you or he says can change that. It's over."

A look of shame appeared on Jack's face. He did not speak, only looking at her with shame and pity.

"I don't want your pity," she said to him. "Rather, I pity you for keeping my mother out of your life."

Her exotic accent aboard the Black Pearl, what with its various mangled forms of British English about, was refreshing to all, to say the least.

Jack rose up off of Beckett, who had fallen silent below him when Joana spoke.

"It was a mistake, I admit it," Jack told Joana, swaggering drunkenly towards his daughter. "But now you're here!" He ended his sentence with a toothy, sheepish grin.

"You don't want me here," she replied, crossing her arms.

"'Course I do, luv. I jus' didn' want to force you to come aboard if that was not your desire."

"I want to get away from the Azores since the death of my mother," Joana replied in her exotic accent. "Your return there proves to me that this is my destiny."

He gave her an odd little crooked smile.

"If that's wot you say," he murmured slowly and carefully.

Beckett had bent his knees up so that he was on his back with feet sitting flat on the deck. Elizabeth went over to him and offered him a hand. He looked up at her, at her concerned face watching the swelling and redness that was spreading over his cheek from the earlier slap, as well as an oncoming bruise from a punch to his jaw.

During this time, Jack glanced over at Joana.

"Wanna meet me crew?" he asked her earnestly.

She gave him a tight-lipped smile.

"Sure."

At that, Jack and Joana strode over to several crewmembers that were standing about on deck.

Once Jack was no longer within earshot, Beckett took Elizabeth's hand and stood up a bit shakily. He watched her expression, surprised that she hadn't pulled her hand back and let him fall. I doubt she's going to ever acknowledge that what happened ashore actually occurred.

"I have something I need to ask you," Elizabeth said to Beckett, whose eyes immediately went downcast, his hands falling to his sides.

"Alright," he said, a hint of shame tingeing his voice. Silence followed. He looked back up at her for a brief moment.

"Not here," she said, grabbing his forearm rather roughly. "Below deck."

As Jack introduced his daughter to the crewmates of the Black Pearl and Barbossa moved again to take the helm, Beckett and Elizabeth descended below deck.

It feels as if I'm marching to the gallows, Beckett mused, allowing himself to be pulled across the gun deck, reaching the ladder to the brig with Elizabeth leading. What in the world is she going to do?

Once they were in the brig, Elizabeth crossed her arms and turned sharply to face him. Beckett took in a breath and held it there, prepared for just about anything.

"What was that about earlier?" she said. "And don't pretend to be ignorant of what I'm referring to."

He cleared his throat.

"Well, a lot happened to occur earlier. Accusations, pursuit—"

"Yes, but one thing in particular dealt with me directly. Why did you do that?"

He looked up in the air as if searching his brain for the information. He knew perfectly well what she was referring to, but he didn't feel like explaining. What was the excuse he was going to use?

Beckett did not respond for a time, and so Elizabeth began speaking again.

"Did you do it to avoid being recognized by that girl?" she asked, voice getting louder.

For some reason, his eyeballs felt too heavy to lift off the floor. He swallowed, remembering his jumping to conclusions culminating in that kiss. If he said yes to this, though it would be a lie, though it would get Elizabeth off his back for the time being, it would dash the hope of any of those earlier conclusions becoming reality. And, well, he didn't actually mind the possibility of those earlier conclusions becoming a reality.

It was the moment of truth. Feeling gooseflesh running down his spine, he shook his head. His eyes stayed glued to the floor. Elizabeth was taken aback. Why doesn't he just admit to the purpose of what he did? He couldn't have meant anything else by it… There's no way….

Irritated by his silence on the matter, Elizabeth spoke again.

"I'm not going to kill you or anything if you admit to doing it for that reason. I just want to know why." His eyes rose very briefly, locking with hers for a moment then falling to the ground again. His appearance was contrite… humbled, even.

"It wasn't because of that," he mumbled.

"Then why? You only offered to be on a first-name basis with me to avoid recognition. Why should I believe that that was any different?"

He stayed silent, the sound of his swallowing the only noise to break the peace.

"Beckett," she said rather insistently. His eyes rose at the sound of his name, and he watched Elizabeth intensely, clearing his throat and looking slightly irritated.

"Elizabeth," he stammered, voice coming out surprisingly husky and intimate. She watched him, curiosity obvious. Is that a bit of a smile, there on her face? Oh, dear. She may not exactly be opposed to the idea of —He cleared his throat again, the trace of a smirk appearing at the corner of his mouth. As Elizabeth's intrigue grew more apparent with the widening of her eyes, he clasped his hands behind his back, looking rather charming at the moment. Elizabeth gulped, staring at him intently.

"Please… It's Cutler, dear."

A/N: Okay, so all that is left now is a short chapter. And then at the end of that chapter I will take a poll on (a) if you want another story, and (b) if so, some elements that you'd want most. Please, even readers who have not reviewed this story before, leave me some of your thoughts on what you want seen, I'll even make it multiple-choice (with, of course, optional extra comments) so it's relatively simple to tell me what you want to see. I am going to be taking the poll result things at the end of the final chapter to heart, because I have not yet written the next story. I only have some general gist of some plot stuff, but I haven't yet decided if that's what I'll do. It is up to you guys to decide what you'd like to see most. Because I don't want to bore you guys and cause you to stop following along with the story. I myself hate it when I get bored with a story that had so much potential in the beginning, especially if it's a physical, actual novel I'm reading. It's a rather big disappointment, because one of my favorite things to do is read.

Ahh, and translations for this chapter:

#1 I understand what you are saying.

#2 I learned it for Luiza.

#3 You may be able to fool him, but you can't fool me.

I don't have a preview for the next chapter, but I will be posting it more quickly than these last couple of chapters.