I am thinking of changing the rating from T to M. Would you be alright with that? Or would you rather have me stick to T?
A/N: Thank you again for feedback and praise. I appreciate it so much. Since I uploaded the previous chapter not long ago (and if you don't check in here often) there may be a possibility that you missed it. Just a note!
Happy readings! Just a warning - you'll get pulled straight into the story at once!
- By the way! Have you guys read On Stranger Tides the screenplay?! It has some Jack+Angelica moments that were cut out or never filmed - but it definitely puts a touch on their relationship. Also, I kind of saw Angelica in another light. A bit more flirty, in my opinion. Feel welcome to discuss the matter with me if you like after you've read the screenplay!
Chapter IX
He can swear she is doing this on purpose. Her petticoat is lifted highly on her, exposing her bare leg. Jack cannot help but to lift his head slightly and check it out. Carefully his eyes drift to hers, to see them closed. Her breathing is peaceful and she seems to be in harmony. Hah, well that does not happen often does it?
As if she wears a magnet, he pushes his body further against her and his hand is almost trembling when resting on her waist. He leans down into her neck and kisses the part of her jawline he can reach. She is just too alluring.
To his surprise, he feels how her bum presses back towards him, straight into his groin. Before he realizes what she is actually doing, her eyes are open and she has rolled them over. Angelica on top.
His hands move to tightly hug the fabrics around her waist as she meets his eyes and lowers herself over him. He leans up, reaches as much as he can to meet her lips, capture them and bring her down to him. Oh my, how he has missed this. A soft moan is heard from her and he thinks he can do this forever. The taste of her lips is pure addiction and it seems as if he cannot be close enough to her. He can have her, right here and right now. Claim her truthfully his, once again.
But the gentleman in him stops. He sits up and brings her with him. Frustrated, she glares after him as he leaves bed.
"¿Que demonios?"
She stands up and Jack grins wryly, still in daze.
"I've got to go."
She grabs his wrist and forcefully pulls him back to her.
Again, he grins and stops. They end up staring rather amused into each others' eyes.
"What do ye want from me, darlin'? Want me to push ye back down there and hope your loud moaning won't alert the whole ship on what we're up to?"
Angelica blushes and shoves him in a flirting way. "Eres malo. No."
"Can't have enough of, Jack, aye?"
She crosses her arms and decides to challenge him. "Can't have enough of, Angelica, aye?"
His mouth shuts and she goes on. "Your spooning has always been cosy, hasn't it, cariño?"
"What does that word even mean?"
Angelica pats his cheek and nods to her dress and corset further away. "Help with that."
She leaves no room for objection and Jack truly enjoys helping her out. When he tightens her corset, he ends up looking over her shoulder to meet her eyes in the mirror.
"You look lovely," he starts. He want to go on, You always do, but bites hit tongue.
She says nothing. Rather, kind of stunned. She breathes deeply to her throbbing heart, and she swallows.
"Trying to bed me, Commander?"
"Nah," he shrugs nonchalantly and lets go of her presence. "Then you'd already have ye legs up in the..." He shuts upon her warning eye.
She passes him and again shoves him playfully aside for her passage. Amused he follows her figure leaving the cabin. Lord, he misses her and the relationship they had before all went down the wrong hill.
When he has finished his attire for the day and adjusted the hat a few times, he decides to enter the deck. Men are already working and Gibbs, sitting on the railing with a bottle of rum, raises his eyebrows upon Jack's arrival. He is the only one who took notice of the lady smoothly escaping the captain's cabin. Guiltily she blushed when passing him but Gibbs stifled the chuckle.
Jack snatches his bottle and takes a large swig.
"Set sails for west and," Jack's shouting pauses as he spins around. "Gimme a binocular!"
Gibbs fumbles up one and hands it to Jack. He immediately looks west and then nods proudly.
"Right on course."
Baron Baines comes out from the dining room, clearly happy as he pats his belly with a beam. He peers into the sky and nods when seeing Jack.
"Commandeer Sparrow."
"Baron."
Jack walks over with his flamboyant steps and waves to a door nearby. "Would you join me for a moment?"
"Naturally," and the baron joins him into the room. Jack rounds a table and puts his palms on it, leans over it while the baron keeps his posture. He examines the room very intently and appears to see items for the very first time.
"Regarding the battles..," Jack trails off. "The angry population you've angered."
The baron nods. "The peasants?"
"You are only making them angrier, Baron. Even if they may be peasants, I'd look out if I were you."
There is a silence for a moment before the baron clears his throat. "You are hired to protect me," he begins. "And are a pirate... but why do you really care this much about my safety? About my and Angelica's safe..," he silences upon seeing how Jack bites his tongue at the mention of the lady's name. "Oh, I see..."
Jack's jaw clenches and he realizes suddenly what a situation he has put not only himself into, but most all - Angelica.
"You are fond of her."
It is a statement, but can be interpreted as a hanging question. Because Jack does not reply to it, which only confirms to it.
"Worse. You love her."
The baron seems stunned. Baffled, even.
"Doesn't matter, does it? She is obviously in love with you," Jack smiles wryly, maybe by hurt.
"Love is a many splendored things."
Suddenly somebody knocks on the open door. They see Gibbs standing there, looking apologetically to them.
"I've got some maps you need to check out, Capt'n. O-o-o-or, I mean - Commander."
Jack nods in excuse to the baron who understands. Gibbs guides Jack into the chart room and folds his arms while examining how Jack walks over to the desk and looks over the maps.
"Cannot see something wrong with 'em."
"I know. I just needed to get ye out of there," Gibbs confesses. Jack looks up. "You should have confessed to her, not him."
Jack does not agree. "No, because now I've got no other choice but to complete this task. It'll get easier to focus, Gibbs."
And that is alright between the friends, until Gibbs give Jack a look of pity. Warningly, a finger raises and Gibbs stops. But the first mate just cannot hold his tongue.
"You really do love her, don't you?"
Jack is about to go nuts. "Oh, for the pity of-."
"Then you should tell her, before it is too late," Gibbs speaks but Jack is already marching towards the doorway. "A love is more worthy than a few words written in a book somewhere in a library."
He stops tracks in the doorway, pauses without looking over his shoulder to Gibbs. He lets the words sink in and feel them. The Pearl was everything to Jack. And yet in a way, Angelica is... He believed she had gone. Passed by, like the breeze passing the sails on a windy day. And in a way he had forgotten, forgotten what it was like to have her around. That is why he keeps being keen on having her on his distance, away. Long far away out of his reach. And he abandoned her on a deserted island in this hope she would never return into the image of his sight ever again. Yet, she would. Several times on top of it.
The first time when he had stumbled across her, entered the convent and she had rather likely saved him from the angry sisters hunting his butt. He had been entranced right from start, but her persistence in joining his Pearl had been when he truly was doomed. He found himself in the situation of being in fear she would get hurt, at the point of him knowing he cared more of her than of himself. Something he once again lived through when jumping off a cliff for her. Or saving her life at the Fountain.
If he wanted to rule the wind and tides, having a focus - leaving her on Sola Fide Beach was an easy choice. And he had taken it, much to her dismay. Then it appeared as if she had not dismissed the invitation letter to the Turner's wedding ceremony. And he once again came across her beauty. At least he got her one night. But at that time, he truly thought that maybe - now as his next adventure had passed, maybe they could share ship. Cannot believe he was actually thinking it. But he had. Unfortunately, the lady had taken off in the morning and Jack woke up alone. Well, he could not precisely not have expected it. He had left her quite a few times.
But the juicy encounter out on the seas had been rather ravishing. When spotting her figure behind the helm, gazing towards him in the tiny circular glass of his binocular - Jack had been overwhelmed. They did fight. Her ship was great. Fantastic in fact. And randomly to the crew's surprise, the battle ended peacefully with a rather thunder-celebration and Jack managed getting her to his cabin. Or maybe, it was her doing the opposite. By telling how she would sit promptly across the overly long table, eyes pierced into Jack's throughout the whole evening. When dessert or rum was served, nobody really had raised eyebrows no longer when the Pearl's captain was hanging about her presence and she had ended up in his lap.
So he had left that time. And apparently regretted it right in time for their following event in Madrid. When he had been ready to propose, very not typical Jack Sparrow style at all. So, when she dumped him behind he was more than ready to do the very same at their meeting in Cádiz. Somehow, he believed Cádiz was their last meeting. Their paths tended to cross. As some idiotic and persisted fate bringing them together over and over again. And now for this final time. Then she was settled. Settled for good.
Jack swallows and closes the door in Gibbs's face behind him. He takes a step out on deck and looks at her. Because there she stands. A happy face and well dressed. When she notices him staring at her, she winks discreetly. The ladies in waiting are busy showing her lists of guests and she cannot bring less attention to the matter than she already does.
Jack heads up to the helm where he finds so-called local captains, ruling the ships and he needs to exchange a few words with them. Angelica herself goes along a boarding plank over to another ship and it first around dawn that Jack by mistake passes the ship she is on. She is sitting by a railing, examining a white rose in her hand while looking at the parts of the sun reflecting in the horizon. Her face is warmly lit up by it and she seems so peaceful.
"Exotic," Jack points out. She almost jumps in surprise and rolls her eyes. "The Azores have always had flawless petals."
Oh, he knows. His own father, Mr Teague, had pointed the fact out in a help out of Jack being a teenager. He wanted ladies and when passing the grander island, Mr Teague had showed Jack the flowers that kept women enchanted.
"How did you know this one comes from that island?" she retorts.
He is busted, and she knows it.
Jack is stuttering in a tryout of coming up with something. "I-I... just figured, unless the baron somehow got a bird to pick fresh flowers from a Spanish costal town."
He thinks she may get angry from his obvious lie, but instead she hits him playfully. He grins in return. He just cannot stop. And he holds her gaze.
Why are they doing this? He really should not...
"Don't you have anything to do?" she questions.
Jack moves his attention from her to the horizon. Aye, he has lots to do before the night falls upon them. A last check among the ships and even a brief encounter with the baron to make sure he is not about to chop of Jack's head due the slip of information earlier.
"He is a criminal disguised as a nobleman."
And those words are the veracity.
"So what? So are you," Angelica considers.
Jack takes a breath before informing. "There's a difference, luv. I am a nobleman disguised as a criminal."
There is a silence between them, as if Angelica is taking in his words. She move her gaze from him to look out to the horizon as well.
"I am getting married Jack. What do you want of me?"
Maybe it happens to knock out the breath of Angelica, but it happens to be as much of a surprise of Jack. Even if it comes from his mouth.
"To meet me at the ship last in row before sundown. Then it'll be easier to escape unnoticed."
"Are you out of your mi-," she looks over her shoulder and silences when meeting his eyes. He knows as much as she does, this will happen.
She says nothing more and he remains silent. With a final close-mouthed smile, Jack leaves. He gets onto another ship when Gibbs is sitting on a railing, watching over him.
"Do ye ever work?" Jack wonder aloud. He is about to go on his last patrol.
Gibbs almost looks at Jack as if he were proud of him.
"She deserves to be happy," he utters.
Those words may be inclined into telling Jack he is doing the right thing. Yet, Jack comes to a halt and stops tracks. It is true. She deserves to be happy. Angelica deserves to be happy and Jack wants her to be happy. But those words, will echo in his head until the very end of the day.
It had been hard avoiding her ladies in waiting, that do indeed have a watchful eye over the future baroness. But Angelica, former pirate, have a bit of knowledge in being a conniving lady getting her way through. Which also means, finding herself at the back of the last ship as Jack had informed her.
She is looking over the dinghy hanging in the air by assistance of the ropes. So, Jack planned on them getting away that way? Her heart throbs as if it will go out of her chest and she is at the point of almost fainting. How many times has she not believed it was it for her and Jack? And then either she or he left without any warning.
So this is it now then, huh?
They will finally leave all piracy behind and live the rest of their lives only the two of them? Just like in a fairytale. Does she want that? Does he want that?
Truth is, Jack wants her happy.
He stands on another boat, hidden in the shadows and watches her. A sack of coins is beside him and he can see it ahead of him. Him taking Angelica and risking their lives upon an angry baron chasing them until his death. Or, them actually making it and Angelica missing out on the great opportunity of becoming a baroness. Of getting a family. Of an amazing husband. A life she has always wanted.
Who is Jack to stand in between?
To let get give up on such?
"Aren't ye gonna go, Sparrow?"
Jack jumps and fumes at the sight of Gibbs standing further away.
"Ye be like a shadow following me," Jack accuses.
Gibbs shrugs. "I be yer first mate and are paid to follow ye 'round."
Jack rolls his eyes and returns to examine the figure of Angelica. Her hair breezes in the night air. She is obviously waiting for him. And looks truthfully stunning in the moonlight.
He knows what the right thing is to do, even if he may not agree to it. But Gibbs's previous words of her deserving to be happy, cannot escape Jack's mind. Because she truly does deserve it. And Jack cannot be that man, no matter how much he inwardly wishes it. The baron is what she needs. Not Jack.
"Perhaps..," Jack begins. "She doesn't need a nobleman disguised as a criminal."
Gibbs eyebrows are raised.
"But a criminal disguised as a nobleman. It is anyhow those kinds of people getting the better part of life out there, aye?"
It takes Gibbs quite a moment to understand what Jack means, until he figures that the Commander will not go for her. Eventually he nods in agreement, because it is true. "Aye."
A/N: I wanted a deep intimate and emotional story, and I hope I am achieving this and that you are enjoying the ride. So far, it looks like we are around the corner of the very last part of the story. The following chapter or the one right after should be the final chapter.
Classic from me: Do you like it/hate it?
And like I mentioned in the author's note at the top - don't forget about OST Screenplay!