Belay means an order to stop.
When Charlotte had finally opened her eyes to see her rescuer who had rescued her from a watery grave after she'd fell backwards into the water, she could not believe who it was.
"Jack! You're back!" Charlotte shrieked joyfully at the return of her only friend. She proceeded to grab him and envelop him into a bone-crushing hug, Charlotte was overjoyed and relieved at the fact that Jack was still alive and kicking.
"Aye." Jack drawled and wanted Charlotte to stop hugging him since it began to get awkward between the pair of them. The young but seasoned pirate had never gotten the concept of hugging other people and that had made him uncomfortable when he had to do it especially to a lady. He also knew that ladies like Charlotte shouldn't be hanging around scoundrels and pirates who could do terrible things towards them. Jack Sparrow had morals and was never afraid to show them if he had to.
The dark-skinned man with the long dreadlocks that she befriended when she was a girl, had rescued her. He'd grown into a very handsome man whose dark eyes were covered with a tarry substance that just made his eyes look darker and he had grown a goatee that had trinkets amongst it. Charlotte blushed at the mere sight of Jack Sparrow, he was not what he used to be when Charlotte was just a girl herself.
"Now, what were you doing at t' bottom of the ocean, luv?" Jack drawled with a mixture of smoky and drunken substance in his voice as he looked at the pale-skinned girl that shivered furiously after being plucked out of the water.
Charlotte ignored his question but proceeded to ask him what he was doing in Port Royal. She wanted to know why Jack was doing in Port Royal in all of places where Cutler Beckett had control.
"Now, what are you doing here?" Charlotte grew serious with the way her voice went as she spoke to Jack, it was unnatural for Jack Sparrow to disappear and instantly show up eight years later.
"Ah about that, I'm just on what we call… business!" Jack looked nervous but gave Charlotte a flinty smile that showed off his gold tooth. However, Charlotte still hasn't bought Jack's explanation to why in tarnation was Jack doing in Port Royal when her father is roaming the Caribbean and hunting down pirates as he pleased.
"What do you define as 'business?" Charlotte had her eyes turn into slits as she looked at Jack sceptically.
"Luv.." Jack did not want to fight with Charlotte but his choice of a word did not help his cause. It only made Charlotte more patient to get a proper and legitimate answer out of Jack.
"Don't 'luv' me! I have waited eight long years for you to show up, it is a good thing that I did not go mad with worry over you being dead at the hands of my father!" Charlotte shouted at Jack.
"I'm here to get my ship back! Now, are you happy?" Jack snapped, he waved his hands in the air in annoyance. Charlotte, on the other hand, was stunned at his revelation. How?
"What..?" Charlotte's voice was barely audible but Jack managed to hear her. The poor lass had waited eight forsaken years for him to come back and it wasn't the way to come back, was it?
"Yeah, I know…" Jack said forlornly but he wanted to tell the tale later on when he wasn't in the public eye where Beckett and his men could be nearby. Before Jack could open his mouth, he heard the unmistakeable voice that belonged to the father of his friend and enemy.
"Sparrow!" Beckett said in a jolly good mood, Jack could not detect whether Beckett was happy to see him or was he being sarcastic. Charlotte was stunned. Again.
"Christ." Charlotte swore to herself even it was not ladylike to do so but her father had just ruined a reunion with her best friend. She remained wet and cold when Cutler pranced down the wooden deck over to her and Jack. Cutler had a sneer on his face as he scanned Jack who was still in the same spot as Charlotte. The young woman wanted to roll her eyes and take Jack away but she could not do it since Jack's life could be threatened. Cutler feigned concern and fussed over his daughter's wellbeing when Charlotte knew that he was only doing it to get back at Jack.
"What are you doing here and what is your intentions with my daughter, Jack?" Cutler bared his teeth at Jack who was looking nervous but remained calm despite the circumstances around his arrival in Port Royal. However, Jack remained silent and looked around the place which only made Cutler furious and impatient since Cutler had important matters to attend to and Jack wasn't going to waste his time further.
"Very well, you have an afternoon appointment with the gallows. Sparrow." Cutler said before he signalled two redcoats to take Jack with them. Charlotte could not believe what her father had just said so she ran in front of Beckett as she was dripping wet from the near-death plunge from the cliff.
"He saved me, Father!" She yelled, Cutler and his men stopped moving as they heard the daughter of Beckett. Jack remained quiet but looked like he'd seen Davy Jones himself.
"He saved you? How, miss?" Cutler was incredulous at what his daughter was saying while Jack looked around the place looking like he was bored of the family drama between Charlotte and Beckett.
"I was at court and I had to break up an altercation between Nigel Penwallow and James Norrington but the cockroach Nigel pushed me over the cliff. I was sure that I was going to drown and that's when Jack came." Charlotte looked at Beckett who raised his eyebrow at Jack in a surprised manner but then he chuckled acidly. Jack gave him a smile before sarcastically telling Beckett, "You're welcome."
"You let a pirate save you. Silly girl, tut tut. Us Becketts do not associate with the scourge of the sea." Cutler reminded his daughter on the values of the Beckett bloodline but Charlotte sighed before she turned around to look at Jack who looked like he was devising a plan to escape.
"Father. Jack Sparrow is an honourable man who saved my life. So, please spare him." Charlotte argued through her teeth, Cutler Beckett sometimes made his daughter feel like that she was less of a Beckett.
"No, silly girl. He is a pirate." Cutler looked like he was done arguing with his daughter but he knew that Charlotte was right on the basis of Jack Sparrow. He then gave out another signal to the two redcoats that had Jack with them to take him to the dungeons and suddenly, Jack smacked the two men in their faces before pushing them down onto the deck. Jack looked at Beckett with a mischievous smile on his tanned face and said, "Today was the day that Jack Sparrow came back to get back what belongs to him."
Cutler bared his teeth in anger, Jack was getting away from him and he ordered his men to go after Jack. More redcoats came after Jack who grabbed onto a rope for a pulley system that was in the harbour before he looked down at Charlotte who had a grin on her face.
"Meet me after dark!" Jack shouted down to Charlotte who quickly nodded and began to run away from her father and the redcoats. Cutler shouted a fire order for the redcoats to shoot at Jack as he swung on the rope before he landed on the roof of a port official's watch house. Then, Jack disappeared once again.
Jack was getting ahead of Cutler but Cutler would not go down with a fight with Jack Sparrow. East India Trading Company was going to make Jack pay for what he'd done to the company since his face popped up in the Caribbean Sea.
Once Charlotte made sure she had gotten as far from her father and the redcoats, she found herself in the gritty part of Port Royal. It was pitch black outside which ladies like Charlotte Beckett were supposed to be in bed safe and sound but the threat did not faze the young woman at all. She kept on walking until she found the tavern which was the common haunt of Jack Sparrow and entered it. It was rowdy with men being loud and drunk, several leers went Charlotte's way but she ignored them until she found Jack in the corner, he was looking at a compass.
"Jack?" Charlotte called out, she looked uneasy in the tavern but she continued to ignore the leers that were still coming her way.
"Oh, hullo luv." Jack looked up to Charlotte as he heard her voice and gave Charlotte a flinty smile, acknowledging her presence in the tavern. Charlotte quickly came and sat down with him in the private corner, she leaned in to ensure that Beckett had no spies or even worse, Mercer in the tavern.
"Jack, tell me what my father did to you?" The young woman pierced her gaze through Jack's chocolate brown eyes, it was scaring the pirate but he knew that the girl wanted the real answer.
"Let's just say that I had a few differences with his crew so I committed treason and 'e got his men to go after me." Jack said quietly but continued to tell Charlotte. "So I ran. I ended up crewin' the Wicked Wench and we had run into the El Matador Del Mar, just four months after I signed on. 'Er crew got killed during the battle and somehow, I was made t' captain of her and was given the compass." Jack brought out the compass to show Charlotte the item that made him the captain of the Wicked Wench. Charlotte had a shocked look on her face but she wanted to know what Jack meant by saying Matador Del Mar.
"Who is the El Matador Del Mar?" Charlotte asked Jack but he suddenly looked fearful and gave her an uneasy smile. Charlotte nodded silently.
"That is another tale for another time, luv." Jack said reassuringly before he went back telling Charlotte on the events in the past eight years.
"Five years ago, I had the Wench in my command and we were roaming the seas until Beckett and 'is men showed up. He took me ship after I got me crew to raid one of Beckett's ship. The man was not t' pleased when he found out that I got off with 'is supplies." Jack said sadly, Charlotte placed her hand over his to sympathise with him over the loss of his ship. It broke her heart to hear that her father took Jack's pride and joy away from Jack since she could remember him telling her that he wanted to own his own ship.
"Oh, I'm so sorry." Charlotte said to Jack but he waved it off like it didn't bother him. Instead, he smiled at Charlotte.
"I'm here to get 'er back. That's all it matters t' me." Jack quietly said as he fiddled with the compass in his hand. Charlotte smiled at him despite the story that Jack told her.
