Author's Note: thank you everyone who reviewed, every one of you said you would prefer me to keep going but if I decided to rewrite then you would respect that and each person made me smile more and more, I really wasn't expecting the answers to come in so quickly or strongly so once again THANK YOU! So after a long break, which I'm really sorry for by the way, here is the next chapter and things are starting to heat up!
ps: now that it's summer, hopefully chapters should come more regularly...as long as reviews do too :)
Jack sat impatiently in his chair, drumming his fingers on the desk in front of him and tapping his foot incessantly against the floorboards before huffing in anger and pacing the length of the cabin. Alina walked in five minutes later after having worked off her remaining buzz and situated their newest female recruits. There was only one extra cabin available however so Alina opted to give it to Elizabeth and Brandy could share a cabin with herself. Besides, she rather liked the strange, purple-loving girl. She tended to remind Alina greatly of herself during many times.
Brandy was bold and fun-loving, she wasn't afraid to speak her mind when things just weren't quite right and, Alina judged, she had the potential to be one of the best female companions a girl could ever have. Brandy struck Alina to be the sort of girl you couldn't count on to be predictable, but anyone could see she had a heart as pure as gold. Alina couldn't wait to get to know the lass better. She had a feeling the two of them were going to be thick as thieves in no time.
And to think it all started with cannibals.
"Alina, tell me again why that insufferable woman is still on me ship?" Jack demanded the minute the door was closed behind her.
"Excuse me?" Alina glared at him by his slip of tongue and the audacity he had to speak to her in such a manner as if he owned her as well.
"I'm sorry love, but it is my bloody ship alright? And I have every right to deny employment."
"It's not just your ruddy ship you fobbing, motley-minded wagtail! It is just as much mine as I'm taking on your debt as well and I already told you why she was on the ship in the first place! She's proven her worth and it doesn't hurt to have her aboard! You've even let Elizabeth back on board so what the devil's home is wrong with having Brandy aboard too?!" She cried, heaving her face into Jack's, attempting to intimidate him.
Jack copied the gesture, pushing his face closer to hers, hovering above her menacingly as he hissed, "Firstly, I decide who stays and who goes; this ship is mine to do as I please. I didn't ask ye to take on me debt, that was yer own choice. And thirdly, don't you dare try to claim this ship as yer own when ye've got the bloody Ocean's Fury under yer tail."
Alina's resolve broke as she looked into his eyes. He had pushed the line too far. He had brought up the past they had both tried to forget. Her da, and her once-supposed inheritance. Jack seemed to realize his mistake almost as soon as he mentioned it.
"Alina I'm sorry, I've got a lot on me plate right now...perhaps ye should just leave me to me thoughts and perhaps we can talk later yeah?" He shifted his gaze down to her nose to avoid looking her in the eyes and seeing both the disappointment and the hurt he knew he had just cause her.
Alina could do nothing but nod as her voice escaped her. She swallowed the mountain-sized lump in her throat painfully and turned to leave. She saw Elizabeth raising her hand to knock as she opened the door and shook her head, indicating now was not the time to speak with Jack and Elizabeth huffed in annoyance before returning to her own cabin.
Alina walked up to the deck to take over steering the ship and let Gibbs off the hook but as she took the wheel from him, another thought struck her.
"Gibbs?" Alina asked quietly and watched as he turned to look at her with an inquiring look, "What ever happened to me da?" Her gaze looked out upon the ocean as she spoke, never leaving the distant horizon that never failed to bring her comfort. Her eyes seemed to constrict on a single point far away and thus increased her remaining senses. She heard Mr. Gibbs sigh sadly but couldn't bring herself to tear her gaze from where it rested. She heard every stutter in his speech as he attempted to tell her something she knew would be difficult to hear.
"Ya see lass, there comes a time in every man's life when 'e has ta square with his mistakes. Every man deals with it differently now and yer da couldnta just swallowed the anchor like Jack's did."
"So what did he do Gibbs?" Alina asked monotonously.
"Well there's no easy way ta say it...'e scuttled 'imself lass, 'e docked the Fury somewhere, don't know where lass so don't bother askin', then 'e took out the longboat, drifted afar, none ever saw 'im again. Unless 'e found some long deserted island lass, 'e more than likely scuttled 'imself."
"He killed himself." Alina replied, finally removing her eyes from the horizon and looking at her hands on the spokes of the wheel of the Black Pearl.
"Aye lass. That's the story most 'ave come ta think a cause he couldn't face 'is mistake o' killin' ye. Said it was the biggest mistake of 'is scurvy life. 'e weren't proud o' causin' ye pain ye know. 'e did think 'e was doin what was best at the time."
"I know Mr. Gibbs." She closed her eyes briefly before setting her gaze on the sea once more, "I know."
"Listen lass, I don't really need a break just yet. What's say I keep steerin' a bit longer eh? Take a load off, ye look like ye could use a good restin'."
Alina sighed and rubbed her eyes after giving back control of the helm, "Thanks Gibbs." She began to walk away before she turned back, "Gibbs?"
"Aye?"
"You don't happen to know what he did with the ship do you?"
"Sorry lass, but I was fairly new ta the ship at the time of yer leavin'. I wasn't trusted with that sort o' knowin' just yet. I did see 'im hand some sorta parchment over ta ol' Captain Teague afore leavin' on the Fury."
"Thanks Mr. Gibbs."
"Not a problem lass, not a problem." As Gibbs returned to his duties at the helm, Alina joined Brandy in the room they now shared.
"You alright?" Brandy asked as she saw her newest friend's forlorn expression. Alina simply nodded and flopped, face-down, onto her cot. "You don't look alright." Brandy continued. Alina merely lifted a hand and waved it about indicating she was fine. "Well if your all fine and dandy then you won't mind listening to a little problem I have then right?" Brandy smirked as she heard Alina groan into her pillow. "You see it's about this Elizabeth woman. I don't like her, not one bit, I mean she strikes me as the kind of person you just can't trust. True enough she might be an honest woman, might being the operative word but you see honest people always tend to have a hidden agenda, even if they're unaware of said hidden agenda themselves such as her hidden desires to--"
"Oh will you just shut up?! Alright! Yes! I'm upset damn it!" Alina huffed as she sat up on her mattress to look at the smirking, purple-topped girl.
"What's got you all in a tizzy?" Brandy asked getting to her feet before jumping onto the cot beside Alina causing them both to bounce around a bit. "Hehe, that was fun." She smiled.
Alina couldn't help but chuckle, "I've just got so much running around in my head right now."
"Well I imagine being co-captain of a ship like this can't be easy. Did you and Parakeet have a fight?"
"Parakeet?" Alina cocked a brow in confusion.
"He calls me Scotchy, I call him Parakeet." Brandy smiled.
"...I like you." Alina chuckled, "And yes we did. On top of that his whole damned life is in danger again, we've got Lizzy on board even though she was supposed to be in dire need of rescue, stupid Will, I knew he should have just listened to me. So now bloody stupid Will needs rescuing because he tried to rescue her and now I just learned of me da passin' away on me and just ta put the damned cherry on top o' the whole damned affair, I'm fairly certain I'm head over heals in love with Jack bloody Sparrow!" Alina sucked in a deep breath at the end of her rant and turned to look at a baffled-looking Brandy.
"Wow." Brandy blinked, "You really do have a lot on your plate. Wait if you and Parakeet get married...are you gonna have little canaries running about? How do you keep canaries on a ship?"
"What?"
"What what?" Brandy looked at her with her head cocked to the side.
"Oh never mind." Alina groaned before resuming her original position, face-down on the bed.
"Well what do you expect? How am I supposed to help much more than listening? The biggest problem I've ever had to deal with was getting stranded on an island full of cannibals...which you managed to get me out of. So you're much better at handling these situations than I am." She finished with a cheesy grin aimed at the back of Alina's head.
"Thanks for the help." She muttered.
"Well don't you feel a little better now that it's all out there and in the open and you're not bottling things up again?"
Alina paused for a moment to think before sitting up once more replying, "Surprisingly...yes." She looked at Brandy and smirked before replying, "You're very good."
"It's a gift." She replied, placing a hand dramatically on her chest.
"Alright Miss Gifted, we've got work ta do up on deck." Alina chuckled.
"Aw poo. Well come on, maybe we can wrangle the princess aboard into doing some work too. Although she doesn't much look like a princess wearing trousers like the rest of us."
"What?"
"Well I just saw her walk out on deck a moment ago." Brandy answered, "She said something about waiting for Jack to come up."
"Well come on then, let's keep her company. I've got a few things to say myself." Alina glared at the closed door before heading out.
REMEMBER TO REVIEW!!! CHAPTERS COME FASTER!!!
if you reviewed for the author's note that was 'chapter 12' i don't think it allows you to review again and the reviews didn't get removed with the note so if you can't review then a private message works too :)