- A Pirates of the Caribbean FanFiction -
It Led to Wickedness
Chapter 3: "It's a Lady!"
A/N: I want to thank everyone who reviewed – I read them all and I just I just I just EXPLODE WITH JOY! Sorry, I'm just so excited! Right when I read them I began the next chapter. It's so encouraging so thank you thank you thank you thank you! Btw, I reread the last chapter and hehe.. looks like I spelled "wear" as "were." Whoops...
As she walked behind this peculiar (supposed) captain to his (supposed) ship, Angelica began to think of the absolute worst possible scenarios. What if she was walking straight into a trap? She knew for sure that this pirate could not be trusted in the slightest, and she hadn't spent more than an hour with him! She could be raped or beaten or killed or... or eaten by a sea monster! She'd heard stories of the so-called "Kraken" and they were not pleasant. Her face could get pulled clean off, she could be taken by Davy Jones himself, her entire insides could be crushed like a berry in a single tentacle of the slimy beast (the Kraken, not Davy Jones), and the last thing she would feel against her near-dead body would be the foul breath of the most feared and hideous monster in the sea (again, the Kraken, not Davy Jones).
But her feet kept moving forward. Something about this buccaneer kept her going, one step at a time. Maybe it was the way he walked with his arms slightly away from his body, staggering with every step. He was either perpetually drunk or he'd been out on the sea for so long that the land felt wobbly to him. Sea legs, she recalled.
Actually, he kind of walked like a girl, even more so than she did.
Or perhaps it was the way he talked. Half the time she couldn't understand a single sentence. He rambled on about seemingly nothing, but she got the gist of what he was saying... most of the time. His vocabulary was surprisingly impressive.
Whatever it was, this man was intriguing. He just felt so free, like he didn't have a worry in the world.
Freedom... She scoffed at the thought. Not once in her life had she felt free to do what she pleased. The convent basically censored her thoughts. If one hair was out of line, she was scolded and sometimes smacked in the nose with whatever the Sisters had present at the time. Angelica didn't regret leaving that place. In fact, she was kind of excited for what was in store for her. No more would she be told what to do and how to do it. She could finally think for herself.
Just as she was beginning to warm up to the idea, Jack stopped abruptly, causing Angelica to bump into him. "Ow!"
"Shh," he urged.
She tried to see what was going on, but Jack ushered her to hide behind a bush, where they both peered out to the dock. All she saw were a few grimy-looking sailors and a line of soldiers.
"What are we stopping for? And why are there soldiers out here at this time of night?" she asked.
"They may or may not be here to kill someone you are currently crouched behind a bush with."
"What?" Angelica began to panic a little bit. "Jack! What did you do?"
"Nothing! They overreacted anyway. Doesn't matter. What matters is that we have to get by without them noticing and shooting a few more holes into me than I'd like."
Angelica rolled her eyes. "Are you always hiding from government officials?"
"No. Sometimes it's from powerful trading companies... or annoying undead monkeys."
She was starting to regret leaving the convent. Even so, she looked around to find something that might get them out of the situation. Then it hit her.
"I've got an idea. Stay here and watch – you'll know when to make a break for it."
"But," he started, but she was already gone. "Bugger," he muttered to no one in particular.
Jack heard what sounded like a cry for help, male voices, and then equipment-clad running. He peered over the bush and saw Angelica on the ground, a good ways away from the dock itself, with the group of soldiers crowded around her. Jack smirked as he got up and casually yet confidently walked by the little episode to his ship. They were so busy helping the "damsel in distress" that the soldiers didn't even blink an eye towards him.
"No sé lo que pasó! Me desplomé en este calor... Pero vosotros sois tan amable de ayudar a una mujer necesitada."
He had no idea what it meant, but from what he could tell, it was very well acted. If she could lie this well, presumably without any practice, imagine what she could do if he just lent her a few tricks of the trade that he learned over the years. Who'd have guessed a woman from a convent would make a great pirate? he thought.
He then made a mental note to never, ever trust her.
Jack watched the spectacle for a second more before he climbed up to the deck where Gibbs and the rest of the crew waited. Gibbs' face wore an expression of a mixture of impatience that Jack was late and relief that he came back at all.
"Master Gibbs," he acknowledged.
"Er... Cap'n," Gibbs replied as he watched Angelica be helped onto the Black Pearl by a group of love (or lust) struck Spanish soldiers. "Cap'n... you know as well as I that it be frightful bad luck to bring a woman aboard, sir."
"I realize that Master Gibbs, but seeing as this particular woman has my -" he cleared his throat and lowered his voice – "special compass... I've made an exception."
Gibbs widened his eyes at this. "She bribed you with your own compass?" Jack nodded his head and Gibbs chuckled. "Looks like you could learn a thing or two from this girl, Jack."
Angelica then walked up to them and Gibbs nodded his head politely to the beautiful Spaniard before he walked off, drinking from his flask and laughing to himself.
"Um, Jack... why is the crew staring at me?" she asked, still smiling nervously at all of them.
"They haven't seen a real, live woman in four months... I suggest you stay away from them. Just for now. Besides, they smell horrid, so you'd be better off staying away from them anyway."
Angelica nodded, still a bit bewildered. She thought she saw some drool drop from one of the pirate's mouths. It was a skinny, dirty man with a wooden eye. The one standing next to him – a shorter, stouter man – saw the drop, tapped the other on the shoulder and pointed to his lip, referencing the drool. The skinny one quickly wiped it away and Angelica just stared in awe.
This is his crew? Sister Maria would be better suited for sea life, she thought.
"Jack -"
"Don't ask," he said, obviously watching them as well. "They're... special." Then he walked off to his cabin, muttering something to himself.
One of the crew members who had a parrot on his shoulder walked up to Angelica. "Skwawk! Hola," the parrot said.
"Um... hola," she replied awkwardly.
What did I get myself into?
.
.
.
After she had some... strange conversations with the few crew members who were brave enough to talk to her, she managed to break away from the pirates and went to Jack's cabin. She timidly knocked on the door, still weirded out by the crew, and opened it a crack, worried she might find something she would want to un-find. This was her first time on a pirate ship, after all.
Much to her relief, all she found was Jack with some charts scattered in front of him, a bottle of rum on the table, and his coat and hat on the bed.
"Jack?" He turned to look at her, previously oblivious to her entry. "Where am I supposed to sleep?"
"With the crew."
"Like... in a hammock?"
"Yes. Is there a problem with that, princess?" he asked, a little annoyed with her barging in.
"Well... can't I have a bed?"
"Do you see one anywhere near here?"
"Only the one here in your cabin."
"Right, and on the way here you specifically said you wanted to be treated – and I quote – 'like one of the crew,' did you not?"
"I change my mind. Give me the bed in here and you can sleep in the hammock with the crew."
He looked at her like she just sprouted another head. "What... how... no!"
"Okay, I guess I can just figure out what the compass does on my own -"
"No, no! That's quite alright, luv, I'll take -" gulp - "the hammock."
"That's what I like to hear," she said with a smile as she patted his back. "Bye."
"Now?"
"Yes, now! Did you think I was going to sit out there with the crew drooling over me like dogs and wait for you?"
"No..."
"Good! You can take your maps with you if you want."
"Gee, thanks," with sarcasm dripping out of each word.
Angelica smiled her devilish smile. "You're very welcome, Captain Sparrow!"
Jack got up, grabbed his charts, walked out, slammed the door shut, never breaking his glare at her.
Angelica flopped down on the bed. This is more like it...
A/N: Well, that's the next chapter! Hope you enjoyed! Oh, and if there are any Spanish-speakers, I would love to have you critique my attempts at using Google Translate to the best of my ability. I know that thing is wrong a lot of the time, so I would really appreciate it if you could just correct the mistakes. Thank you sooooo much for reading! :DDDDDDDDDDDDDDD MULTI-MOUTHED SMILEY FACE! (For anyone wondering, yes I will have some Jack/Angelica alone time in the next chapter – I have an idea for it, but don't expect anything too big because they just met after all!)