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I do not own Pirates of the Caribbean, Disney does. I only own the characters who weren't in the movies. You know, the ones I made up.
"How are we going to hunt with these?"
Oliver wrinkled his nose at the poison-tipped darts laying atop a cloth on the floor, then looked at my wife like she was mad, even though he'd been living with us in the cave for…however long we'd been living in the cave. I looked over at Chrissy upon hearing her chuckle, and smiled. She looked great. She'd managed to lose a lot of weight from her pregnancy, and was starting look a bit closer to her normal size.
"With this." she smiled, holding up a piece of hollowed out bamboo that was about half a foot long. "See? Just put the dart in, like this." she demonstrated. "Then blow. The poison on the tip will first, stun the animal, then kill. Be careful of the tip, Oliver. The smallest mistake with these could be fatal." she warned.
Oliver studied the darts, then the bamboo stick, and smiled. "So…when are we going to use them?"
Chrissy chuckled. "I want you to practice, first. We'll use non-poisoned darts for that."
Oliver gave her a small, fake pout. "Non-poison?"
"Yes." she responded playfully. "No use wasting poison on a fake target, right? Come along, now. I want to see how well you can use these."
Grabbing a few of the un-poisoned darts, and two of the bamboo sticks, Chrissy led Oliver to our makeshift target; which was the bloodied vest the pirate from the ship had given me. Using a dagger, we'd carved a circular target that looked more fit for shooting arrows at.
"I want to see you blow the darts at the vest, and I want you to get as close to the center as you can." Chrissy instructed. After she took a few steps back from him, she nodded. "Go on."
Oliver inserted the dart in the bamboo like he'd been shown, and lifted it to his mouth. After a few seconds of taking aim, he drew in quite a large breath, and blew as hard as he could. Surprisingly, the dart came very close to the center, nearly hitting the dot in the middle. A grin on his face, Oliver turned to Chrissy, who wore an impressed expression.
"Do it again, three more times." she smirked.
Oliver did as he was told, and, surprisingly, got closer and closer to the mark each time. With a smirk of his own, Oliver retrieved the darts and walked to Chrissy, and handed them to her. "Alright, let's see you give it a go."
Chrissy only nodded, and took the darts. In four fluent movements, Chrissy had blown the darts one right after the other, each hitting the mark right on the spot. Oliver's smirk was gone when she turned around to face him. "I had a lot of time on my hands when I lived here, Oliver. Don't get discouraged." she soothed. "And, keep it in mind that I never handled the poison-tipped darts that fast."
He smiled. "Yes, Ma'm." he paused for a moment. "So, why didn't you just use these, instead of the traps when you lived here?" he asked curiously.
She smiled a small smile as her eyes clouded over with memory. "I had other things to take care of. Gather firewood, keep a fire going, repair damage if any to the shelter and gather fruit and fresh water. I didn't have time to hunt."
Oliver furrowed his brows. "I thought you said the Admiral, your brother and a friend helped you around the shelter?"
Her small smile widened, even if just by a tad. "James, Theodore, and Andrew didn't wash up on my shore until ten years after I'd been stranded here. Even with all of my chores done, I spent most of the time getting to know my husband." she whispered, sending a smile my way.
Oliver studied the soft look I sent my wife, and the smile she sent me, and sighed as he rolled his eyes. "So, when are we going to hunt? How far into the jungle are we going?" he asked eagerly.
"We're not going into the jungle." Chrissy replied. "We're going down to the shore…the one you can see from that opening in one of the tunnels."
"Why? I thought you said…"
"We are going hunting," she interrupted. "But, you're not ready for the poison-tipped arrows. We're going to experiment with the non-poison arrows on fish. I want to see how well you do with small, moving targets. If you do alright, we'll have fish for dinner. If not…I'll have to take over so we can eat something other than fruit."
Oliver replied to this with a small glare, while my wife continued to stare at me, her smile having faded. "Go on down to the shore, Oliver. We'll be there in a moment." she ordered softly.
Nodding, Oliver gathered the non-poison darts and hollowed-out pieces of bamboo, and left us alone quietly. Even several minutes after Oliver had left, Chrissy continued to stand there unmoving, as though she was trying to sort out a puzzle.
"A-…Are you alright?" she whispered, taking slow, cautious steps toward me.
I furrowed my brows. "Do I appear troubled?"
"Well…you've been a bit quiet, today."
I sighed as she knelt down in front of me. "No more than you have been…for a while now."
"It's still troubling you, isn't it?" she whispered, taking a seat between my sprawled legs as she cupped my jaw in her small hands. "Isn't it?" she pressed.
"Yes." I breathed, pressing my forehead to hers.
"James, it's been over a month! It's been over two months. The pirates are gone, and won't be back for a few more weeks." she said softly, stroking my face.
We'd come to learn that Captain Davis was using our island as a stash. He would go off every few weeks to raid, and plunder, then would come hide his 'treasures' a few weeks later. Even though it had been over two months, sometimes I found myself waiting, wondering if I should go after Davis. I would usually decide against it when I looked over at my wife, and newly adopted son.
"We need to move on." she whispered. "It's so hard for me to say that, please try to understand. We can't keep living in the past…it will drag us down."
"I know, sweetheart. We've just been through so much…"
"Yes. You've had so many heartbreaks, James. So have I. But, we've put those things behind us…and look where it's gotten us! If I hadn't put anything behind me, you would have found a completely different person on this island." she paused, offering me a small, comforting smile. "You wouldn't have liked me very much if I hadn't put things behind me. I'd have been very quiet, and somber. No, that wouldn't have done well at all." she whispered, smiling as she ran her slim left index finger down the length of my nose.
I smiled and pressed my face to the curve of her neck, feeling a bit of the tension lift. She was right…I wanted to put it all behind me, but this was so much more difficult than all of the other things. Like Jack sparrow, I'd become obsessed with wanting to make sure the pirate, Davis, that did such a thing to my wife and baby would get what he deserved. Though, this time a hanging wouldn't satisfy me. It scared me, the things I wanted to do to that man.
"James?"
I slowly opened my eyes, but kept my face pressed to her neck. I wanted to stay here, to just not move…to keep her body pressed so tightly to mine.
"James, did you hear me? We need to go down to the shore, Oliver's waiting for us."
Hand-in-hand, we walked at a leisurely pace to the shore. For at least the fifth time, I glanced over at my wife from the corner of my eye. She was back into breeches and a dark green cloth shirt…all of which had been swiped by Oliver from the man Davis had killed when he thought we were dead. Chrissy accepted them gladly, ready to get out of her nightgown and robe, but wouldn't wear them until she'd washed them ten times, at least, in the ocean and with the strong alcohol in some of our bottles of rum, knowing that said articles of clothing had been on a dead man for several weeks.
Her hair had grown out since we'd been here for so long, and she hadn't bothered to cut it like she had when she lived on the small island. Use to, her hair barely came past her shoulders. Now, the golden waves came nearly half-way down her back, drawn away from her face by a small strip of leather. And, as I'd said earlier, she'd lost almost all of the weight from her pregnancy. She had her curves and slim body back, and was happy for the most part.
There were still those nights when she would press herself tightly against me and cry softly against my chest. Some of those nights a rebellious tear or two would escape my eyes, but for the most part, I forced the tears to stay within. I would tell myself I was being weak, and my weakness was not to be tolerated. I had to be strong for my wife.
Upon thinking on this, I glanced at Chrissy again. Her deep blue eyes seemed to sparkle, and all at once, a grin pulled at the corners of her mouth. With furrowed brows, I followed her gaze. Oliver was up to his thighs in the clear, sparkling Caribbean waters, standing like a statue. He'd abandoned the bamboo and darts on the shore, and had removed his shirt and was holding it under the water, waiting for something to swim into his trap. He suddenly jerked the blue cloth up, but the unexpected added weight of the water jerked him back down, and he fell face-first into the water.
A small giggle escaped Chrissy's lips, and she shook her head with a smile. "What happened to fishing with darts?"
Oliver glared at her through his soaked auburn hair, of which had fallen down in his eyes. "I would point right at the fish, and still miss."
Chrissy shook her head…again. "You're not supposed to aim right at the fish, Oliver. You aim just below, because the water plays tricks of where the fish really is."
Still with a glare, Oliver replied, "Why couldn't you have told me that before?"
She smiled innocently. "I wanted you to figure it out. See, look." she said, picking up a dart and a piece of bamboo. "Aim a bit below the fish."
After carefully loading one of the sharp darts, Chrissy waded out in the water up to her knees, then bent over until she was barely above the surface of the water. Waiting until the opportune moment, which was a few minutes, she blew the dart with a large breath into the water. A moment later, she pulled out a nicely sized fish that had been run through with her dart.
"See?" she said. "Easy, once you know where to aim."
Oliver's glare lightened, but didn't fade as he stared back and forth between Chrissy and the fish.
With Chrissy's and Oliver's fishing combined, once Oliver got the hang of it, we'd gotten to eat a rather nice fish dinner. I'd eaten my fair share…I even ate both Chrissy's and Oliver's leftovers so none of the food would be wasted. My mind never concentrated on the food, though. I just ate while my mind wandered, not even knowing how much fish, rum, and water I put in my stomach.
Even with the large, filling meal, I remained restless. I looked down at my wife, her body pressed against mine as she slept uneasily. She'd cried herself to sleep again, though this time, not so hard as the other times. With a sigh, I stroked her back and kissed the top of her head before I quietly got up to go for a little walk.
I finally made it to the end of the tunnel, where it opens up and allows a view of the ocean. I stopped and stood in front of the small, yet at the same time large opening, and lightly placed my hands on the rocks that seemed to grow from the bottom of the opening to about my hips.
"I wondered when you would catch up." I said quietly to the figure still hidden in the dark.
"You knew I was following you?" Chrissy asked, finally stepping into the moonlight.
She was still in her shirt and breeches, and she wore her now long hair down. Her hair draped over her shoulders and back, along with one of our blankets, which she held tightly about her body.
"I heard you sit up when I was walking to the tunnel." I informed her, again in a quiet tone as I draped my left arm about her waist.
"Can't sleep?" she asked.
I hesitated before answering, the ocean distracting me. "No, I can't. I don't know why, either. Something just…doesn't feel right. I have this feeling…" I grew silent, not knowing what else to say.
"Perhaps something is going on in Port Royal?" she suggested.
I allowed a sigh to pass my lips. "I don't know anymore. It seems like everything has been turned upside down." I whispered, looking down at my bare feet.
She quietly stepped out in front of me, her golden hair instantly seeming to shimmer in the moonlight. I gazed at her without a thought, her bewitching blue eyes having caused my mind to go blank. It amazed me, that though we've been married for a bit over a year, she still had such an effect on my body.
Silently stepping forward, her hands on my chest, her lips claimed mine in a gentle, yet assuring kiss. "It'll be alright." she whispered.
I didn't answer, I didn't want to. I just wanted to stare into her eyes, which quite literally seemed to be glowing blue. I found that I could lose myself in those glowing pools, and be thoughtless as though in a trance. I leaned down and caught her upper lip, my tongue mercilessly demanding entrance. She quickly obliged, her own tongue rubbing against mine as I explored her mouth.
Without hesitation, I allowed a moan to escape from deep within my throat. In all the time we'd been on the island, I'd not had very many intimate moments with my wife; other than holding her as we tried to fall asleep. The contact felt wonderful, and I felt a small amount of my control escape my grasp.
"James…" she moaned, her small hands clutching at my shoulders.
Her hands traveled down my back, grasping the hem of my shirt. I drew my head back quietly, surprised at how quick a pace we were going. She stopped, but didn't remove her hands. Her glowing eyes held my gaze, her innocent look slowly fading as she pressed her face to my shoulder.
"What is it?" When she didn't respond, I slowly stepped back and tilted her chin up, forcing her to look at me. "Are you alright?"
"I…want to…try again." she whispered, her eyes pleading.
"Darling…" I said softly, sympathetically.
"I knew you would say no, or you would just hesitate. I thought, maybe, if I could make you lose your control, I could try to get pregnant without letting you know that's what I wanted." she said, ashamed. "I know you're still hurting, James. I am too. If we could just try again…"
I shook my head. "You knew I would know something was wrong. That's why you gave up and told me?"
She nodded. "I thought, if we could just try again. If something went wrong again, like the last time, we wouldn't have to try anymore. When we get back to Port Royal, we could just adopt Oliver, and he would be your heir because I can't provide you one, obviously." she whispered, her tears finally escaping down her cheeks.
"Darling, our child was taken from us! That wasn't your fault! If he had lived, we would have had a beautiful son. You can provide for me, that is obvious. Don't put this all on yourself." I soothed, wiping her tears away with my thumbs.
"I'm sorry…I knew you would see right through me, yet I tried anyway." she hung her head in shame.
"Come here." I ordered softly, taking her into my arms.
Her tears continued to fall, and possibly intensified as I held her. I whispered soft comforts to her, and kissed her, trying to make her see I wasn't angry. As she calmed, I stepped away. She gazed at me with furrowed brows, and I found all I could do was swallow…hard. I quietly took the blanket from her, and spread it across the damp, cold cave floor, then turned to her as I removed my shirt and carelessly tossed it aside.
She walked slowly to me, studying me fondly. Lifting a shaking hand, she traced a long, jagged scar that went all the way across my chest and over to the right section of my ribcage…one that I'd received from Davis not too long ago. Her hand then slid back up to rest on the center of my chest, atop a few smaller scars. Gently, I seized her hand and pressed her palm to my mouth, placing lingering kisses on it before moving it to rest on my cheek.
A small, almost playful smile tugged at one corner of her mouth as she leaned up and captured my bottom lip. I held her tightly against me as I deepened the kiss, using a bit more force than usual. Very slowly, she began pushing backwards until my back bumped against the cave wall. Her hands roamed my body, forcing me to have no control over the moans that escaped my throat.
When she drew back, I nearly smiled. Just like our wedding night, she'd pushed me into a dark corner, causing me to only be able to make out her outline. Her hands seemed to work agonizingly slow as she removed her clothing, as though she got enjoyment out of watching me fidget both impatiently and excitedly, even though all I could see was her outline because we were in such a dark corner.
She finally stepped forward, her clothing in a pile behind her. I found my eyes traveling her body hungrily, trying to see her skin instead of just her outline. It was simply too dark, though. I didn't realize she'd removed my breeches until her bare body pressed against mine, and all I could feel was skin. I moaned loudly and my body began to shake at the contact. Oh, how I wish I could see in the dark…
Her small, soft hands rubbed my chest up and down as she placed light kisses along my neck and jaw. The moment she began nibbling my right ear, I felt my control shatter. My left hand traveled up the back of her neck and pressed her head closer as I claimed her lips, while my right hand sprawled across the small of her back to keep her pressed tightly against me.
Her moan was like music as I allowed my hands to travel her smooth, soft skin, while I kissed and nipped at her neck. I felt her body shake as I began taking my kisses lower, first to her shoulders then her collar bone. She drew back quickly and took my hand. As though reading her mind, I nodded, and she began to lead me away from the dark corner and towards the blanket, towards the moonlight, where both of us would be exposed to one another.
HEY!! OVER HERE!! PLEASE READ!! I just want to warn you that school has started, and updates may not be as quick as I'd like for them to be. I've wanted to update this chapter for several nights, but couldn't because of homework and band practice. So, there you have it. Now then, how did you like the chapter? Please let me know! Please review! Thanks!