I haven't had much time lately to really sit down and think about this story, but I do have better ideas for Dead Man's Chest if you can bear with me. :) Thanks everyone, for the reviews!
Chapter 14
Jack was still fiddling with his pistol and Grace hadn't moved when Elizabeth came back. She had barely been gone it seemed, but Grace looked up to see her stop in front of Jack after circling the whole island.
"It's really not all that big, is it?" Jack commented.
"If you're going to shoot me, please do so without delay," Elizabeth said.
Grace rolled her eyes. Selfish. You're not the only woman here, not that I'd ever let Jack shoot me anyway.
"Is there a problem between us, Miss Swann?" Jack wanted to know.
Elizabeth narrowed her eyes at him. "You were going to tell Barbossa about Will in exchange for a ship!"
Grace got up, for once in agreement with Elizabeth. "Yeah Jack, how could you do something like that?"
"We could use a ship," Jack countered. "The fact is, I was going to not tell Barbossa about bloody Will in exchange for a ship because as long as he didn't know about bloody Will, I had somethin' to bargain with. Which now, no one has thanks to bloody stupid Will."
"Oh," Elizabeth murmured.
"Oh," Jack mimicked.
"Well, you could have told us," Grace said. "If you had we would all have been on the same page and we probably wouldn't be here. Instead, you made it look like you were betraying Will."
"And he still risked his life to save ours," Elizabeth chimed in.
"Ha!" Jack laughed, turning and walking away.
Grace and Elizabeth ran after him.
"We have to do something to rescue him!" Grace said.
"Off you go then. Let me know how that turns out," Jack replied.
"Jack Sparrow! Do you ever think about anyone other than yourself?" Grace demanded.
"Jack, you were marooned on this island before, weren't you? So we can escape in the same way you did then," Elizabeth said.
"To what point and purpose young missies? The Black Pearl is gone and unless you have a rudder and a lot of sails hidden in that bodice or shirt . . ." Jack looked them up and down, their wet clothes showing how slim they both were. " . . .unlikely, young Mr. Turner will be dead long before you can reach him."
"We have to try," Grace said desperately. "We can't sit and do nothing."
Jack didn't reply and went back to his mysterious search of the island, knocking on a palm tree.
"But you're Captain Jack Sparrow. You vanished from under the eyes of seven agents of the East India Company. You sacked Nassau Port without even firing a shot," Elizabeth said and Grace raised her eyebrows at all the things Jack had accomplished. "Are you the pirate I've read about or not? How did you escape last time?"
"Last time . . . " Jack hesitated, not wanting to share his secret. "I was here a grand total of three days, all right? Last time . . . " He bent down and lifted a hidden cellar door and walked down into it. " . . . the rumrunners used this island as a cache. They came by, and I was able to barter a passage off. However, from the looks of things, they've long been out of business. Probably have your bloody friend Norrington to thank for that."
Jack climbed back out carry two bottles of rum. Both Grace and Elizabeth frowned at him.
"So that's it then? That's the secret grand adventure of the infamous Jack Sparrow? You spent three days lying on a beach, drinking rum?!" Elizabeth demanded.
"Welcome to the Caribbean, love," Jack replied sarcastically and walked back to the beach.
Elizabeth stormed after him and Grace hurried to catch up and see what she was going to say.
"So, is there any truth to the other stories?"
"Truth?" Jack pulled up his sleeve showing them the pirate brand on his wrist. He next showed them the under side of his other arm that was covered in the most horrible looking scares. Finally he pulled back the right side of his shirt revealing two bullet scares on his chest. Grace and Elizabeth watched with wide eyes. How did he even survive? Grace wondered. He's Captain Jack Sparrow, a little voice in her mind told her.
"No truth at all." Jack sat down. "We still have a month, maybe more. Keep a weather eye open for passing ships."
"And what about Will? We have to do something," Grace said again.
"You're absolutely right." Jack rolled a bottle of rum towards her. She watched it roll against her feet.
"Here's luck to you, Will Turner." Jack raised his bottle and took a drink.
Grace was outraged. "You impossible man!"
She turned her back on him and walked down the beach. Sitting down in the sand far away from Jack and Elizabeth, Grace stared out to sea.
"I don't think this is what I had in mind when I made my wish," she murmured to herself.
Grace didn't move from her spot for hours. For a while she threw rocks into the water and then just sat and thought about home, or at least the little she could remember. Eventually the island became engulfed by darkness. Grace noticed a glow off to her left and saw that Jack and Elizabeth had built a fire. Their voices had been getting louder the more rum they drank and Elizabeth was giggling constantly. They are having a drunken party while Will was on his way to be killed, Grace thought depressingly. As Grace watched them in disgust, a sudden idea came to her. A signal fire! Of course! She jumped up immediately and began gathering driftwood that was scattered all around the island.
Once she had a good sized pile, Grace paused to look back at Jack and Elizabeth. They had no idea what was going on as they danced around the fire singing a pirate song. As she turned away from them, Grace's eyes snagged on the black hole of the rum cellar. A smirk crossed her face. Rum would burn well and start the fire quickly. Gleeful with anticipation, Grace continued throwing wood onto the pile. A short time later, she heard Elizabeth calling from the beach.
"Grace."
"What could she want?" Grace asked herself.
She met a tipsy Elizabeth at the edge of the trees and saw that Jack had passed out near the fire.
"I wouldn't normally ask for your help," Elizabeth began.
And I wouldn't ask for yours.
"But we need to do something to help Will."
"I know."
"I have an idea," Elizabeth said. "We should build a signal fire."
"I already started," Grace replied.
"You did?"
Grace nodded. "If you're really the governor's daughter I figured there has to be tons of ships out looking for you and one of them is bound to see the fire if it's big enough."
"Oh," Elizabeth said as if she couldn't believe Grace was that smart. "Where is it, I'll help you."
Grace led the way to the soon-to-be fire and they started gathering more wood.
"I'm burning the rum," Grace informed Elizabeth several minutes later.
"Good," Elizabeth replied, wincing from the headache that was already coming on.
