Chapter Fifteen

Best Friends and Ceremonies

The next morning, I awoke to a fresh, clean room. Jack and I had stayed up till midnight cleaning, and there were no more pineapple wrappings or empty rum bottles.

But there was an empty heart. And it was mine.

You see, I wasn't quite over the fact that I had killed Lord Cutler Beckett. I wasn't about to try to kill myself again, but I did decide that we should have a ceremony for him.

Jack, who for some reason was in my bed instead of his cot, was sleeping peacefully. I watched his chest rise and fall as he muttered something about gold. Up, down. Up, down. A slow, steady rhythm.

He looks so innocent when he sleeps, I thought. You'd never guess he was a pirate- well, except for the clothes. I smiled fondly down at his rum stained shirt, moving with his chest in the steady rising and falling motion.

"Jack. Hey, Jack," I said shaking him. He opened his eyes with a violent jolt.

"Love, next time, when we're up till midnight, maybe you could let me sleep in?" he asked, rolling over and stretching.

"Sorry, but we're having Beckett's ceremony today and it's already nine o clock," I explained, standing up. "Now come on, Jack."

The pirate captain groaned. "Help me up."

I rolled my eyes, pulling on my leather jacket. "I thought it was the gentleman who's supposed to help the lady up," I returned, mocking him as I strode over to help

Once we had both woken up completely and were both out of bed, we left the cabin in search of breakfast before the ceremony. It pleased me so much to see them all; there was Barbossa, steering, there were Gibbs and Karissa at the breakfast table, there were Indira, Nettle, and a couple other loyal crew members preparing my glorious ship for another day out on the ocean.

"Hi, Hector," I called cheerfully as Jack and I passed him. He glanced up and winked.

"Feeling better, my sweet?"

"Much," I replied happily. "Hi, Nettle!" I yelled up to her. She was in the crow's nest, gazing out into the sea.

"Good morning, Cap'n!"

Jack and I continued to the breakfast table, where Karissa and Gibbs were laughing about something that involved, from what I overheard, sharks. When they saw us, they both waved and grinned.

My heart burst with pride as I lay eyes over my ship, my crew, everything that had helped me and supported me.

"You're right," I admitted to Jack as we sat down. "Life is worth living. Especially this kind."

"Hey, Sade! Hey, Jack!" Karissa passed us both a biscuit. "How's the cabin looking?"

"Better than the pig sty it was before," Jack said. "Where's Beckett's body?"

"We haven't moved it yet," said Gibbs quietly. "I'll get it ready for the ceremony."

Karissa and I bowed our heads with sorrow.

"He was a brave man, I'll give him that," said Jack as Gibbs hurried off. "So you really wouldn't have escaped without him?"

"Never," Karissa replied, looking Jack in the eye. "But Sade did the right thing. We should all be proud of her."

"When haven't we ever been proud of our raging feminist here?" asked Jack, smirking a little. "Now if you'd calm down a little, you and I could have some fun, love," he added, leaning closer towards me. "You'd better get used to staying up till midnight if we…"

He ended his sentence abruptly when Karissa reached over and slapped him. Then she and I stood up and skipped away together, giggling.

So this is why I killed Beckett. So that my truly loyal friend could survive.

Karissa and I approached the edge of the ship, still giggling over Karissa's action. I hugged her briefly, we shared one last laugh, and she flounced away, waving merrily to anyone she could find.

I sighed and leaned against the ship's rail. Footsteps came up the stairs from where Beckett was killed, and I turned to see Gibbs staring solemnly at me.

"We're ready," he said gravely.

A couple hours later, the whole of the Ocean Pearl was gathered on deck. Well, everyone except my parents, of course, who I was planning to talk to after the ceremony. Karissa was by my side, and Jack and Gibbs were in the audience. Since they hadn't known Beckett, they figured it was best not to say anything.

"An innocent man was killed yesterday," I began. "Killed by the very person he had saved a couple years back. An old friend killed in order to save an older one."

"I'm younger than he was," Karissa whispered to me.

"You know what I mean!" I whisper-shouted back, then turned to the crew and Jack again. "Beckett was about to kill Karissa for nothing except simply sailing under a pirate flag. I really, really, really did not want to kill a soul, but I had no time for a reasonable reaction."

"That was a reasonable reaction," called Gloria, a member of my crew.

"Hear, hear!" agreed at least a dozen other people.

I sighed. Try to get a pirate to pay attention for one moment…

"Anyway. We bless his spirit and hope that he will have a good afterlife. To the glory of God we pray, Amen." I closed my eyes and lowered my head, like we used to do in church.

"Amen," repeated everyone present, except for about half of Jack's crew, who had never been to church before, and looked around, confused.

I opened my eyes and stared down at the dead man in front of me. And then it hit me. If I had let him kill Karissa, I would be feeling a million times worse.

"We can't bury him on a ship. Everyone knows that, But I propose we stop at an island and bury him there, and draw a cross in the sand above him. It's the best we can do," I explained to everyone. "So please, be on the lookout for an island. Call me if you see one." Here the ceremony ended, and for the first time I accepted what I had done. I was an outcast, not quite a pirate. And being an outcast meant doing things you had to do.

As the crowd dispersed, I beckoned to Karissa, Barbossa, and Jack.

"C'mon," I told them. "I need your help facing the parents from hell."

"We will gladly assist you, m'lady," said Barbossa, bowing.

"In any way we can, love," agreed Jack, tipping his hat to me.

"Sure, why not?" was Karissa's response, and I grinned at her. Boy, was I glad I had shot Beckett.

"Well… Come on. Let's go." Our little group paraded down the stairs to my parents' cabin. And I had no idea what to expect.

"Jack," I whispered to the pirate. "Try to annoy my dad again. But use a different method, please?"

Jack grinned wickedly as the door swung open. "No, Sade, no," he replied, imitating me. "I can't do that."

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