"Once upon a time zere lived a pretty French girl. 'er papa was a wine merchant and 'er mama was ze daughter of a teacher. One day, while she was strolling along ze docks where 'er papa's ships made ze berth, she met a 'andsome young man. 'e spoke charming words to 'er and soon 'ad 'er swept off 'er feet. They're 'appiness togezer deed not last long, though, becauz in a few weeks' time 'e was back out to sea."
Charlotte stared out at the horizon as her mama's words rang through her head. It had been her favorite bedtime tale, the story of how her mama and papa had met and fallen in love. There was no one to tell her such happy tales now as she stood aboard the ship, unable to sleep. The bright moon shone overhead, its reflection dancing on the waves. The light caught her attention and she turned her eyes to it. So absorbed was she, that she did not hear the approaching footsteps.
"So you can't sleep either?"
Charlotte jumped at the sudden question, and turned around quickly. "You frightened me half t' death there, Mister Turner," she stated, placing her hand over her heart.
"My apologies, Charlotte," he replied with a bow. He grinned up at her.
She smiled, suppressing a laugh. He was something else, William Turner, he was. His dark eyes were surprisingly calm at the moment. One wouldn't have suspected that he was going through an emotional crisis. Of course with men, one could never really tell when that happened.
"Are you ready?" he asked, in reference to the job that they would be undertaking.
"I was born ready," she answered, her smile widening.
Will gazed at her, as he had found himself doing often during their past few days at sea. In that time he had begun to notice the great similarity she held to Jack, appearance wise. Her dark hair was held out of her face with an olive green bandana, mimicking her father's style. Her thick, wavy hair fell freely to her mid-back, and sections of it were twisted through beads, shells, and other small trinkets. Over a white, linen shirt she wore a russet brown smock-frock. She wore two leather belts: one around her waist and one slung across her right shoulder. Each held a scabbard for her swords, and the one about her waist was accompanied by a graying silken sash, into which was stuffed a brace of pistols. Her brown leather breeches buttoned at the knee and were met by knee-high black leather boots.
"Have I got a spot on me shoes?" Charlotte asked, raising her eyebrows at Will.
"Ah, no," he mumbled looking away from her.
"Ye love her, do ye not?"
Will looked back at her, a pained expression on his face. The sooner they got off of this boat, the better, for then he would have some space to breathe in. In lieu of answering her question, he changed the subject. "The moon looks lovely tonight," he observed.
"Not as lovely as yer fiancée, I hope," she said, bluntly cutting off any advances that might be made toward her.
"Quite right," he replied with a forced laugh. Why was she doing this? Why couldn't she accept that just because he and Elizabeth had practically gotten married, the current circumstances made it seem less than likely that the two would pick up where they had left off?
"Let's go over this one more-"
"Gibbs!" Charlotte interrupted in a sharp tone. "I believe we understand the plan quite well," she stated, arms folded over her chest. She wasn't sure why she was so antsy. Their task was a simple one: sneak into a temple and sneak out with the charts. She was sure that she and Will would be able to accomplish their goal. Then again, she was going with Will. It might have been a better idea for Elizabeth to go with him, considering that the time this venture would take would be plenty long for them to make amends.
You know you don't want them to make amends, the treacherous part of her brain whispered. You want him all for yerself, naughty wench.
"No!" she cried, clapping her hands over her ears.
All eyes were on her. "Are ye sure you're up t' this, Lottie?" Gibbs asked tentatively. He couldn't blame her for being a bit out of it. Although Jack probably didn't know it, his daughter lived for him- he gave her a purpose. Whenever he wasn't around, the girl looked forward to nothing more than his return. Time wasted with Jack was time well spent, in her book.
Very slowly, Charlotte pulled her hands down to her side. "'Course I am, Master Gibbs," she said with a short nod. "Shall we be off, then?" she asked.
Everyone assented and Will and Charlotte parted company with the rest of the crew. She could feel Will's worried eyes watching her as she clambered into the small boat that they would be using. They remained silent as he got in and picked up the oars, rowing them out of the little cove. Getting there was the easy part; getting in was going to prove difficult.
After a time, Will finally spoke up. "Lottie, was it?" he asked, smiling softly.
Charlotte looked over to her right. "It is. But on'y me papa and Gibbs ever call me by it," she answered. Her hands lay in her lap, one on top of the other in order to prevent her from wringing them, so wrought with nervousness was she.
"I see…" Will trailed off, a little hurt. Any attempt he made at being friendly towards her in the past few days had been blatantly deflected. He wasn't sure how much more of this treatment he could take. What had happened to the mutual bond they had shared before departing on this whole adventure? He longed for the calm serenity that she had brought to his troubled mind back at Tia Dalma's hut.
From then until they neared the temple, the only noises were the sounds of the oars slapping the water and the occasional animal call. Before they reached the next bend in the river, Will brought their boat alongside the bank. He climbed out quickly, tied up their vessel, and offered his hand to Charlotte. Much to his surprise, she took it. Then the two of them snuck off into the dense jungle.
The thick canopy overhead made it as dark as a cloudy night at sea on the jungle floor. Charlotte stuck close behind Will, the little voice in her mind making comment after comment. As she tried tuning it out, she stopped paying attention to where she was going and walked right into Will, who had stopped.
He looked back at her and held a finger to his lips, signaling for her to stay silent. She nodded, then looked past him. There was a path before them, which led to a rickety old bridge, the only means of crossing to the side where the temple was located if they didn't want to get wet. There was no telling what lurked in the water, and Charlotte was not up for finding out.
It appeared, from his body language, that neither was Will. He frowned as he weighed their options. Going out in the open was obviously out of the question. When he had a plan, he turned around to tell Charlotte, only to find that she had disappeared. He looked around, utterly confused, then looked up upon hearing the twitter of a sparrow. He gaped at her, getting the feeling that he wasn't going to enjoy whatever they were going to have to do to get to the temple. Sometimes her thinking was a bit too much like Jack's, which was everything less than comforting.
A/N: Wow have I been updating out the wazoo the past couple of days... I guess that's what happens when my schedule unexpectedly opens up. At any rate, I hope Marie's (Charlotte's mom, dunno if I ever mentioned her name before) accent is French enough for you all.