Chapter 2: Low

This time he didn't feel any kind of rum going down his throat, but the taste in his mouth told him it must've been not so long ago that somebody gave him some again. The rum was of good quality, the same variety. Why was Giselle wasting that on him? Why was she taking care of him? He was going to ask her what was going on. Talking. Opening his mouth and talking. Opening his eyes and see if she was around. She wasn't. Nobody else that he could see either. Everything was still, the light even dimmer. Something warm and wet was covering his belly. Why would there be blood? He attempted a look and found two things.

One, the wet thing was a cloth and two, moving didn't cause him to fold again. Perhaps the rum and the cloth was helping, the pain wasn't so intense.

Time to move before Giselle gets back again. He WAS curious about her taking the chance to mother him, but certainly she could not defend him if Barbossa came. He had to get away.

But first things first. To get away from any dubious plan of the damn pirate was to get away from Tortuga, get away from her. Always protecting his stomach with one hand, holding on with the other, he tried to manoeuvre out of the room without moving many stomach muscles. It wasn't easy, but bending down helped. The room appeared to turn out to be just an old storage place from the time the old docks were built. He could recognize those walls now, he knew where he was and how far from the harbor.

It could've been on the Moon with the same effort. The other end of town, at least several miles away from the Pearl. If it was still there. Leaning onto the wall, he contemplated what to do. He checked his pistol. No gun powder, of course, he was the one who didn't recharge it yesterday. Or whenever it was. Not that he felt able to use it, concentrate anyway. Hard or not, he had to get on with it, no other way seemed reasonable. Not that this one WAS. Few minutes moving, few minutes resting.

Few minutes moving, more minutes resting. Hardly any moving, sweat, resting.

Just resting. Maybe some sleep. He didn't fight it. There was no point.

He needed it.

An hour later

It didn't feel like dreaming. Someone was definitely stroking his hair. He opened his eyes and Giselle jumped away, "I thought you were...out again."

Jack sat up, with his hands still holding his front.

"Let me help you," Giselle put her hands under his armpits and with common effort they stood him up.

Jack shrugged the helping hands away, "I'm feeling better."

"I know," sighed Giselle, "I asked a witch to reverse the spell. Unfortunately she wasn't strong enough to completely cast it away. She could only make it more mild. She says it stops you healing completely."

Jack nodded. All he wanted now was to lie down to sleep. His present whereabouts didn't seem too safe, but tiredness took over his limbs. Wanting, not wanting, he found himself leaning more and more on his old lady of pleasure. One thing for sure, she will not harm him. He knew that Giselle never chased to think of him as her fiance, even after it was very obvious he lied when he said he wanted to marry her. He sometimes even felt guilty for not giving anything back for those gifts Giselle kept giving him. Maybe she thought that now that she was with him again, helping him, there was still a chance of them being together one day? He'll have to disappoint her on that one. But not today, definitely not today.

Seeing how he was giving in, she led him into a close-by entranceway that lay by, providing shelter from the immediate look of the eye.

"We'll wait till dark," she explained tenderly, as if to a child. With the same tenderness she helped him into a comfortable position onto the pillow of her soft thighs.

It wasn't right to be with her when his heart had been aching for Elizabeth since he'd met her, but it didn't feel that much wrong either. But that was a problem of another day. Right now, he needed to gather some energy to do something. Go to where he belongs. The Pearl. Whatever awaits him there, however suicidal that it. He can't let them get away.

Tbc