Hey! Slow update again! Well, I've been grounded, lost internet connection and just plainly busy. So, I apologize. Enjoy the chapter!

Spirits are an alcoholic drink and a chest is a coffin. Pirate slang concerning this chapter.

Please review! I haven't been getting much feedback from my readers. If you have this story on alert and haven't been reviewing: I'm simply asking for feedback, critique and comments. D

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Tortugan Beginnings

Blood and Flesh

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The ship rocked furiously, it seemed as if the storm was building in intensity. The wood creaked and squealed in protest. The hinges of the door mimicked the same wail as Audrina pushed it open in a panic. The cabin was enveloped in darkness, and the silhouettes that lay within were barely visible. With squinted eyes, she made out the dense form in the darkness that lay upon the bunk. She moved closer, her heart hammering in her chest as she neared; she lifted a hand to touch him softly on the cheek. Her hand shuddered violently with her fingertips lightly brushing against his cheek. In response, Lucas's eyelids stirred and fluttered within his fitful slumber.

The lanterns were turned up slowly and Audrina's breath caught in her throat as her brother's wounded body came into view. She only vaguely heard a choked, feminine cry behind her, but she did not respond to it. Audrina simply stared at her brother in wonder. He looked so perfect only mere hours ago, before blood had washed the decks red and before flesh had been sliced. He looked so perfect only hours before he met his father.

Lucas lay bare upon the old mattress with the thin, brown blanket wrapped around his gaunt frame. Bruises littered his right side, near his chest and shoulder. Gashes and cuts were sliced into the flesh of his right arm. The blood was still gushing from them and bled through the bandages Cotton had applied. Her eyes then moved to his shoulder and she gasped silently, the sound refusing to leave her lungs. The bandage covered his whole shoulder and was crimson with his blood.

The blood wasn't stopping, it was apparent by Cotton's facial expression. He removed the bandage on his shoulder, and as his flesh met the air, Audrina saw Lucas visibly wince. He moaned with agony and writhed as Cotton desperately tried to hold him down. Audrina cried out and rushed to his side, clutching his hand with desperation. She again looked at the wound and clenched her jaw when she saw the ugliness of it. The hole was neither clean nor small. The bullet had lodged itself deep within the boy's tissue and, since the gun was fired from such a short distance, the hole was messy and splintered.

Audrina gaped at the boy who faintly resembled her brother upon the bunk. Jack placed a hand upon her shoulder and she briefly glanced at him. Her skin tingled and crawled underneath the touch of his dirty, bloody fingers. She did not move, however; she felt his touch was almost comforting.

Jack licked his lips nervously. He wasn't quite sure how to say whatever he needed to say to her. Cotton stared at him with pleading eyes, telling him and begging him to tell her. "Audrina, luv," he started and she turned to him, "the whelp may visit Davy Jones in the near future. Unless…"

Audrina flushed white, her heart hammering in her chest and tears threatening to spill. "Unless what?" she asked in a hoarse voice, not even above a mere whisper.

"His arm is needin' removin'," Jack said slowly.

She was quiet for a moment with her eyes lowered to the wooden floors. No tears fell from her eyes; she just stood there with her eyes away from his expectant face. Suddenly, she looked up sharply at him with her face contorted into something painful and hateful. "No!" she growled. "No, are you simple? There are alternatives!"

"Luv, we ain't so keen on medical knowledge," Jack growled with irritation. "'specially us lowly pirates, eh Cotton?"

Audrina swallowed her rage for a moment and glanced at Angelina. "You," she said simply, and the girl perked up instantly with a little fear. "You would know. You knew Napoleon Basset; he must have known another way to save him."

Jack raised an eyebrow thoughtfully. Basset had joined them, hadn't he? He probably was the only man who could save Lucas. Basset wasn't trained as a pirate; he was trained as a doctor to serve the Governor in Jamaica. He was their only chance.

"What if I said that our dear friend, Basset, was on this ship?" Jack asked thoughtfully.

Audrina glared at him. "I'd say you were bloody mad."

"He wouldn't leave Addison," Angelina stated quietly. Both Audrina and Jack almost forgot she was there. "He's got something of his."

Jack shrugged. "Well then, evidently Mister Addison has indeed returned said object because Basset hisself is on my beauty of a ship."

Audrina frowned and looked back at her brother. Rivulets of sweat cascaded down his body and he was shivering violently. His body seemed vacant of color; his skin was so pallid against the darkness of his hair. "I don't believe you."

"I don't even believe myself most of the time, luv. But I assure ya, ol' what's-his-face is here…. somewhere…."

Audrina felt herself believing him. She couldn't see a reason why he would even lie. He was not that cold hearted. He was not that much of a bastard. "Go get him," she said in a small, hushed voice.

Jack grunted as he raised an eyebrow questioningly at her. "Why, of course, Captain!" he said with a tinge of sarcasm. "Cotton, go get 'im."

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Basset followed the mute silently down the corridor towards the sick bay. Cotton hadn't exactly stated the problem, evidently he couldn't. The mute hurried down towards the cabin with Basset following closely at his heels.

The pair entered the cabin in a rush and Basset moved his eyes over Lucas's mangled body in horror. This was not the boy he had met in the tavern three days ago. This boy was mangled, but not beyond repair. Bruises littered his grotesque body, he whimpered with a thin sheen of sweat covering his body. Blood pumped from the wound on his arm and, upon closer inspection, Basset knew that getting rid of the bullet would be difficult.

"Napoleon," Angelina uttered. "He did not lie," she then said softly to herself.

A ghost of a smile lingered over his lips. "'Ello, darlin'," he said to her. "No time fer a chat, honey."

"Can you save him?" Audrina asked with a hint of fear tracing her tone.

Basset walked over to the whimpering boy, he gazed at the splintered wound. He looked troubled, with his brows furrowed uncertainly and beads of perspiration appearing on his forehead.

"Or rather, can ya save the whelp's arm?" Jack asked with a slight amusement.

Basset nodded halfheartedly. "Honestly, Jack, Angelina, Audrina, there be a chance the boy migh' survive."

"And there's a chance he might die," Audrina growled.

Basset nodded in agreement. "The bullet needs ter be removed. The bleedin' must be stopped. Or else he'll just be 'nother dead man --"

"That tell no tales," Jack continued.

"Aye, aye…" he murmured in agreement. "I en't got the proper tools to remove the bullet. We gon' need human hands to rid of it."

"I'll do it," Audrina murmured.

Her fingers were small, delicate, as well as slightly calloused and rough from hard, menial labor. She had neither sharp fingernails nor wounds on her hands. She knew it had to be her. She had the stomach to plunge her fingers into tissue, blood, and muscle and retrieve the nasty bullet that endangered her precious brother's life.

Honestly, Jack was not surprised at the girl's courage. She was courageous, brave, and terribly impulsive. She did things on a whim, and Jack knew that she hadn't really thought about it. She didn't really think of the consequences if she would fail to retrieve the bullet. Her brother would die and it would be all her fault, indirectly of course.

"Yer sure, honey?" Basset asked tenderly. "Ain't no turnin' around when ye got yer 'ands deep into a man's blood and flesh. Ye got to be sure. Are ye sure?"

"I'm sure," she said warily.

"Wash ye 'ands off then and Godspeed," Basset replied, patting her on the back softly.

Audrina walked over to the basin of icy seawater. She plunged her hands into it and shuddered from the immediate coldness of it. She recoiled from the water when she was sure the filth, dirt and grim had been washed away.

She walked towards her violently shivering brother. With a swallow, she put her fingers into the wound and fought back the nausea that climbed up her esophagus. It was an odd feeling, really, being in her brother's arm. It was soft, and she felt the wetness and heat of his blood. She heard him moan in agony and cry out in pain. She almost recoiled in horror but she kept on searching for the bullet. She couldn't leave him. Not now. Still, she searched for the cold metal within his flesh and blood as Basset had described.

When she first felt the cold steel lodged between his tissues, her heart soared. Then, her heart immediately sank. She hadn't even an idea how to get it out. Did she just grab it and pull it out? Or was there a more delicate process? She didn't stop to ask really, his breaths were growing shorter and weaker. It was now or never, really. She licked her lips nervously and began to dig out the bullet as gently as she could.

Digging out the bullet caused more moans from her brother. He cried out in his deep slumber, tears flew from his eyelids. She almost felt tears falling down her own cheeks. He moaned and cried out in such horrific, grotesque agony that Audrina herself felt guilty. Guilty that she was causing him such pain. She paused for a moment when his screaming quieted for a fraction of a second and continued as she regained her cool composure.

The bullet finally left his arm and was in her hand. The cylinder-shaped bullet was copper in color and stained with red drops. It felt warm in her hand, heated by the blood. Instantly, Audrina dropped the bullet on the floor as if it was cursed. It was cursed, it was unclean and tainted. Her hand and fingers were red with his blood and, with her bloodied hand; she wiped away the rogue tear that fell down her cheek. Now she looked ghastly with crimson smeared upon her face, and her eyes wild and distressed.

"Ye did a fine job, luv," Basset said tenderly. "Go grab yerself a spirit o' some sorts, 'Rina. Ye can see the lad later."

Audrina absentmindedly nodded as she wiped the blood off her face with her clean hand. She only succeeded in spreading the crimson out further on her face and made her seem more monstrous and devilish than before. "Promise me he will live."

"The boy en't be fillin' his chest fer a long time, Audrina, honey," Basset said with a slight smile ghosting over his features.

She knitted her brow uncertainly. "I take that as a yes?"

"Aye, missy, the boy will live."

Audrina immediately relaxed and smiled at her older brother – by mere minutes, of course – but still her older brother. She really had no words for Basset; she merely smiled at him and quickly departed the cabin to be left alone with her thoughts in the Captain's Quarters.

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Audrina grazed her fingertips over the dusty spines of the book. They were so unused, so new, and yet so peculiar. She suddenly realized that she hadn't held a book and read from it since she was fifteen. Pirates had no time to read, they only time they had was to plunder and pillage and steal, murder and rape. No time for the silly nonsense of reading. She was immediately entranced with the leather spines of the books and the way they felt underneath her soft touch. She read with difficulty, she hadn't done it in so long and when she was being taught, she never had much patience to sit down and listen. Her brother, however, was much more literate and often read while the rest of the crew had fallen into slumber.

Not her. She was never entranced by books.

'Commedia Divina' a black leather book spine read. Interested, she took the book off the shelf and grazed her fingertips over the cover. She opened it slowly, the crack of the pages frightening her for a moment. She thought for a mere second that the book would crumble underneath her very touch. She opened the book and was faintly surprised to see that the book was written in a type of archaic Italian. The words were foreign and alien to her and she struggled to even read them out loud.

"Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate," she said out loud, reading the first verse she saw.

"Abandon all hope, ye who enter here," Jack said from behind her.

Audrina jumped in surprise, almost dropping the delicate literature. She turned to face him and looked at him in a puzzled manner. "You speak Italian?"

"Not one of my many talents," he said with a small smirk. "I sailed wit' a man by the name of Larry once. Completely obsessed with Dante. A bit of a whelp, actually. Eunuch, maybe."

Audrina smirked at him. "And you memorized this whole book?"

"No, I jus' happened to remember that very line."

Her eyebrows rose uncertainly. "Oh?" she said with a smile. "That is quite the coincidence."

"Quite," he smiled. "So, what, luv, are you doin' readin' my books, eh?"

"Boredom," she responded. "I've become bored, Jack."

He reclined upon the hammock with a soft smile gracing his features as he gazed at her. "Bored of what, dearie? It possibly cannot be of me, because I'm such a devilishly entrancing man."

Audrina rolled her eyes. "Oh, you are so humble," she said with sarcasm dripping off her words. Audrina went to put the book back on the bookshelf.

"Ya di'n't answer my question, luv."

She turned away from him and shrugged. "Everything, I suppose."

"Everythin' is not very precise," he urged further.

Audrina turned back to him and ran a hand through her dirty hair nervously. It was no longer soft, silky, and smelled of lavender. Now it was tangled, matted and smelled of smoke, blood, and dirt. She felt sickened as her fingers became tangled in her hair. "Life."

Jack raised his eyebrows in shock. He went to his feet and went to embrace her. But she immediately shied away from him. He frowned; the moment she had seemed depressed or saddened, he knew that he could work this to his advantage. He could comfort her, whisper in her ear promises of love and affection. And then he would finally settle the lust that bothered him so. Yet, he felt ashamed that he planned to take advantage of her. But it was his very nature to be selfish. Wasn't it her fault to expect him to be loving and compassionate, when he was a rather egotistical man?

Now the moment was over. It would take much more effort to bed her than before. He sighed with frustration and she barely heard it. He would have to try harder.

"'We live for an instant, only to be swallowed in complete forgetfulness and the void of infinite time on this side of us,'" Jack said,

Audrina smirked at him. "Very poetic, Jack," she said sardonically. "Conjure that up yourself?"

He shook his head and with a smile he said, "I've never been very poetic-like. Ol' whats-his-face once said such immortal words." He thought for a moment and, as the name finally came to him, his face erupted into a large grin. "Marcus Aurelius!" he said exuberantly.

"Does it have a meaning? Or is it like the rest of the meaningless rubbish you spew out?" she retorted with annoyance.

Jack laughed shortly as he leaned against the wall. He toyed with his braided beard thoughtfully. "Everythin' I say has the utmost importance."

Audrina eyed a bottle of rum that sat upon a table near the hammock. The amber liquid enticed her, and she desperately wanted to feel the heat of it against her lips. And then, maybe, for a moment, she could forget everything that troubled her. She walked over to it quickly and uncorked it with ease. She brought the dusty bottle to her lips and tilted it slightly so the liquid touched her open mouth. It burned only slightly, but she found that she was used to it. Closing her eyes, she drank the rum with satisfaction and, as she brought the bottle away from her lips, she found that she felt a great deal better.

"Even so, Jack, why did you say such meaningless nonsense?" she responded.

Jack grinned and took the rum bottle from her hand. Quickly, he took a much needed swig. As he removed the bottle from his mouth, he smiled at her once more in a drunken manner. "Luv, I'll tell ya once and I'll tell ya again. It is not nonsense."

"Then what? Then what is it? Please share your Godly knowledge with me!" she spat at him and immediately she turned away from him and softened. "What is the meaning of that, Jack?"

Jack sauntered over to her and put an arm around her delicately. He smiled with satisfaction when she did not recoil away from him and shrug his arm off her. "Dearie," he whispered into her ear. "The underlyin' message of it is: live in the moment and tell everyone else to sod off. Follow yer heart. Save yer woman tears fer later. Yer a pirate, death could be right behind ya."

"That's probably the most intelligent thing I have ever heard you say," she said and looked away from him.

"That's m'job. To keep ya guessin' what dear ol' Jack has in store fer ya next!" he slurred.

Audrina looked back at him and down to his lips. She inhaled sharply as she looked back at his eyes. He never seemed so tempting before, but her fear forced her to look away from him. But still, that aching temptation to taste him once more pestered her. Jack saw her eyes move slowly down to his lips and he smiled to himself.

"Tempting, aren't they?" he drawled close to her ear.

She shrugged him off. "No," she lied.

Audrina took the bottle from his hand and merely tasted it. With that, she placed the dusty bottle where she found it and walked towards the door that led out to the deck. She could not trust herself at the moment. Her hand grazed the knob as she turned to merely get a look at him. He was staring at her, his eyes glittering with his boyish mischief. His dreads fell at his shoulders with the trinkets clinking together as they touched another. His eyes were so dark with the kohl lining them, making him appear mysterious and haunting. Audrina inhaled sharply and wished she never turned around to get a split second look at him.

It made her want to turn around and taste those lips once more.