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Chapter Twenty-Two—Don't Kill 'er, Jack
Waking up to the gentle sound of crashing waves and the feel of the warm sand against your skin was a wonderful way to start out the day, Jessie decided when she opened her eyes to just that perfect way. She was feeling cheerful at the moment, and felt nothing could wrong on this little slice of paradise. She sat up and dusted the sand off her cheek, looking around with a grin.
She spotted Elizabeth a few feet off; she had drug out what appeared to be all of the rum out of the cache and arranged it into a large pile. She was even now trying to start a fire over it. She looked frustrated, as if she had been at it for a long time. But her luck changed when, even as Jessie watched, she got a nice flame going and tossed it into the pile. The alcohol exploded with a large noise and nasty smell. It was enough to make Jessie wrinkle her noise, and for the man still sleeping beside her to begin to stir.
He woke up and saw Jessie first, who grinned. "Mornin', Jack," she chirped. He grunted and sat up all the way. "I'll take that as a 'good morning, Jessie, did you sleep well?'," the girl said cheerfully, barely managing not to look over his shoulder and laugh at the site there.
He grunted again, but this time he also told her what sounded suspiciously like a "mornin'" to her as well. But then he furrowed his brows and sniffed the air in a way that comically reminded her of a dog. "Something's burning," he said.
"You think?" Jessie replied. "Would it be that, by any chance?" She pointed over his shoulder, and Jack turned. His eyes widened in horror.
"NO!" he shouted at Elizabeth, jumping up out the sand and stepping between her and the burning rum. "Not good! Stop! Not good! What are you doing? You burnt all the food, the shade, THE RUM!"
"Yes," Elizabeth said gleefully. "The rum is gone."
"Why is the rum gone?!"
Jessie finished getting the sand off her clothes and came to stand beside Jack so she could see the conversation up close. His facial expression really was rather funny, but she feared what he'd do if she laughed in the midst of this terrible crisis.
"One," Elizabeth began harshly, "it is a vile drink that turns even the most respectable men into complete scoundrels. Two," and here she narrowed her eyes at him, pointing at Jessie as she did so; "you gave a bottle to this young girl, and would have let her drink until she was hopelessly drunk!
"Three," she continued, "that signal is over a thousand feet high. The entire Royal Navy is out looking for me—do you really think there's even the slightest chance they won't see it?!"
"But WHY IS THE RUM GONE?!"
"Because she's a mean, mean lady, Jack," Jessie said in a way you would address a three-year-old who lost his favourite toy. Elizabeth rolled her eyes and sat down cross-legged in the sand.
"Just you wait, Captain Sparrow," she said, "give it an hour, maybe two, keep a weather eye out and you'll see white sails on that horizon." Jack pulled out his gun and pointed it at her back; this site brought a memory back to Jessie from months ago, sitting in the backseat of a car with her friend, making up cheesy rhymed songs to pass the time.
"Don't kill 'er, Jack… Even though she burnt the rum, and it isn't coming back! Don't kill 'er, Jack…"
Angrily, Jack jabbed his pistol back and stormed off, grabbing Jessie's wrist as he walked by. "Let's get away from her," he said harshly, dragging them away off the beach. He only released her arm when he had stalked far enough away that the smell of burning rum was no longer all around them.
"'Must've been terrible for you, Jack,'" he said in a surprisingly good imitation of Elizabeth; "'must have been terrible for you'…WELL IT BLOODY IS NOW!" he shouted in the direction where they had left Elizabeth.
He continued muttering to himself as they walked down the beach, and Jessie occasionally caught phrases like, "stupid blighter", "don't what's in her head", "she'll pay for this," and then he said, loud enough so Jessie understood it all: "White sails on the horizon, humph." He grunted and crossed his arms. "As if that would really work; we're not going to see any ship to—"
"Pst," Jessie whispered, poking him in the arm. "Look." She pointed to the horizon, where more than one white sail had appeared and were quickly growing closer. Jack grimaced.
"There'll be no living with her after this."
-o0o-
Jack wasn't in the best mood when he and Jessie reached the spot where Elizabeth still sat. She had seen the sails, too, and was standing and waiting for them expectantly, wearing a smirk on her face that she didn't try to hide from Jack.
"I told you so," she said.
Then Jack did something that made Jessie laugh, mostly because she would never have thought he would do something like it. She wondered if maybe he had gotten it from her, because it was her favourite retort when someone said something like 'I told you so'. Maybe he had or maybe he hadn't, but it still made Jessie's entire day to see him do it.
He stuck his tongue out at her.
Jessie never got to see what Elizabeth would do in response, because just then the Interceptor's dinghies reached shore (it was far too shallow for the actual ship) and James Norrington himself stepped out of one, and two guards stepped out of another.
"Elizabeth!" the commodore called out happily, grabbing her hand and helping her into the dinghy. "I cannot imagine—alone on this island with these two. It's a miracle you're not harmed." He was acting like a child on Christmas. It was incredibly annoying, Jessie thought.
"Thank goodness you're safe," he continued. "Your father will be delighted—he's just on the Interceptor, waiting for you." Once Elizabeth was situated, still smirking over Norrington's shoulder at the two other maroonees, he turned to face Jessie and Jack.
"Shame," he said, "that you went through all you did to escape and you're still going to face the noose. Gillette, lock them in irons," he said, and Jessie had the most peculiar feeling of déjà vu as the cold metal handcuffs clamped down on her wrist.
They were placed in a different dinghy than Elizabeth and the Commodore, and although the guards didn't look particularly smart or capable, Jack went along quietly and willingly, and so Jessie followed his lead as usual, and made no effort to cause trouble either.
By the time they reached the Interceptor, Elizabeth was almost entirely through with her account of what happened (or what she chose to tell them happened, anyway) and ended with a point she seemed to have stressed in her story before: "But we've got to save Amber! We've got to save Will!"
"No," Governor Swann said. "You're safe now. We will return to Port Royal immediately, not go gallivanting after pirates."
Elizabeth opened her mouth to argue, but just then noticed the handcuffed Jessie and Jack climbing aboard. She stiffened, the pose of woman who will win at least one of her battles against the men in her life. "I don't want them locked in irons," she said firmly, looking from her father to Norrington. "Release them."
Norrington gaped. "Elizabeth, this two are fugitives. They broke out of—"
"She is only a child," Elizabeth pointed out fiercely; apparently she still had the whole big sister pity going for Jessie from the rum incident. "And they have nowhere to go, anyway."
The governor and commodore exchanged looks, and finally Norrington sighed. "Very well," he said, "take off the irons."
Jessie smiled gratefully at Elizabeth as the heavy metal was removed. Then she realized what she was doing and turned away to watch Jack as he rubbed his sore wrists. Elizabeth, not satisfied by this one victory, seemed to take it as a sign she could get them to do what else she wanted done, too.
"If you will not go after Will," she said, "then you condemn him to death."
"The boy's fate is regrettable," began Governor Swann in a voice that didn't make it sound regrettable at all; "but, then, so was his decision to engage in piracy."
"To rescue ME!" Elizabeth said loudly. "To prevent anything from happening to me." She drew a deep breath. "And what of Amber? She was taken as I was. She has done nothing wrong. She is a young girl held captive by ruthless pirates. Who knows what they'll do to her? Will you let her die at the hands of pirates, as I would have done had I not been marooned?"
This was laying it on a bit thick, but Jessie had to admit, she was impressed. Commodore Norrington didn't look convinced, but Governor Swann was definitely weakening. He had had Amber as a houseguest, after all.
"If I may be so bold as to interject my professional opinion," Jack said, stepping forward for the first time. "The Pearl was listing neat to scuppers after battle. It's very unlikely she'll be able to make good time. Think about it,"; Jack drew nauseatingly close to Norrington to whisper in his ear; "the Black Pearl. The last real pirate threat in the Caribbean, mate. How can you pass that up, eh?" He backed away from Norrington and stood by Jessie like he'd never even moved.
"By remembering that I serve others, Mr. Sparrow, and not only myself," said Norrington, appearing unaffected. But Jessie could see he was weakening. Forgotten by those around her, she came over to stand by Elizabeth.
"Is there anything Norrington wants that you can give him?" she asked the other girl quietly. Then she paused, and made a face. "Okay, that came out a little dirty, but you know what I mean, right?"
Elizabeth could only glance quickly at the other girl without being noticed, but in that moment Jessie could see she was smiling.
"Commodore Norrington, please do this!" Elizabeth said, walking towards him. He had begun walking up the steps, but now stopped. "For me," she continued, running up the stairs to him and grabbing his wrist. Jessie thought this was again laying it on too thick, but the commodore was gobbling it up. "As a wedding gift," she finished almost inaudibly.
As Norrington's face lit up (and, Jessie noticed with a snigger, so did Governor Swann's), Jack whispered in her ear when Jessie came back to stand next to him; "nicely done, lass. You give her that idea all by yourself?"
Before Jessie could reply, Governor Swann found his voice again. "Elizabeth! Are you accepting the commodore's proposal?"
Elizabeth hesitated for a moment, bracing herself. Then, "I am."
"A wedding!" Jack said delightedly. "I love weddings! Drinks all around!" He raised his arms in celebration, but people only stared at him. "I know," he said, offering his hands to Norrington; "clap him back in irons, right?"
But Norrington just paused, thinking. Finally, he announced: "Mr. Sparrow, you will accompany these fine men to the helm and provide us with the bearing to Isla de Muerta. You will then spend the rest of the voyage contemplating all possible meanings of the phrase 'silent as the grave'. Do I make myself clear?"
"Inescapably," the pirate said, "clear."
"As for you," Norrington turned his attentions to Jessie when Jack had been lead away. "You will stay with Elizabeth in the one of the cabins, where hopefully you will learn from her example."
"But I want to go with Ja—" But Jessie's protest was cut short as a few of the guards escorted her and Elizabeth (as gently as she had been dragged around during this whole adventure) to the cabin where they would be expected to stay, safe from the heart of battle.
"Don't worry," Elizabeth whispered, barely moving her lips so the guards wouldn't understand; "I have an idea."
"Your last idea was throwing alcohol into a fire and ticking off a notorious pirate," Jessie hissed back; "so excuse me if I'm not exactly comforted."