thanks Libby
"Jack," Will says.
Jack doesn't answer him in favour of kissing my neck and tightening his arms around my waist. I lean into his touch. Will glares at us.
"Elizabeth is in danger!" He yells.
"Will, what are we supposed to do about this?" I point out.
"Have you ever considered keeping a more watchful eye on her? Maybe lock her up somewhere," Jack suggests.
"She is locked up, bound to hang for helping you!" Will shouts.
"There comes a time when one must take responsibility for ones mistakes," I say slyly.
Will pulls out a sword and points it at Jack's neck. I quickly break Jack's hold on me and pull a crew mate's sword from his sheath and point it toward Will, who is stood behind Jack. Will's sword wavers slightly but he stays true to his decision.
"You fool," I whisper dangerously.
"I need that compass of yours, Jack, Jasmine. I must trade it for Elizabeth's freedom," Will says.
"Master Gibbs!" Jack's voice rings out as he finally turns the sword Will had against his neck over so the shaper side of the blade is facing outward. I lower my crew mate's sword a touch.
"Cap'n?" Gibbs replies.
"We have a need to travel upriver," Jack announces, final moving away from Will's sword completely.
I spin my crew mate's blade before throwing it down the ship, a lot like Will did when we were at the blacksmith and he stopped us getting out. I watch as the hilt shears my crew mate's arm and he drops the rope he was working on in pain, yelling out. I turn my back, knowing he will be fine.
"By need, d'you mean a trifling need – fleeting - as in a passing fancy?" Gibbs tries to change his mind.
"No, a resolute and undying need," Jack says.
"What we need to do is set said for Port Royal immediately!" Will tells us.
"Not going to happen, whelp. Get it through your thick skull," I mumble, but he hears and glares.
"William, I shall trade you the compass if you help me to find this," Jack says, bringing out the cloth and showing it to Will.
"You want me to find this?" Will asks, pointing to the cloth.
"No, you want you to find this," Jack starts.
"Because the finding this finds you incapacitorially finding and or locating and you're discovering and detecting of a way to save your dolly belle, ol' whats her face, savvy?" I finish.
"This is going to save Elizabeth?" Will asks, clearly confused by what I had said.
"How much do you know about Davy Jones?" I ask
"Not much," Will answers.
"Then, yeah, it's going to save Elizabeth," Jack answers.
We each separate into different longboats and begin our journey up the river. Jack and I are in the first boat, with Marty rowing. Gibbs and Will are in the boat behind that, with Cotton, Ragetti, and Pintel.
"Why are we seeing Tia? Is this about the compass and it not working well, for you anyway?" I whisper into Jack's ear. He looks at me, and I hiss, "Oh, don't act like you hadn't noticed the compass doesn't work, Jack. It's obvious you're lost without it."
"Yes," Jack whispers to me, making it short.
We sit in silence - all of us - until we enter the jungle side of the river. People are stood watching us as the boats pass up the river.
"Why are Jack and Jasmine so afraid of open water?" Will asks, breaking the silence.
"Well, if you believe in such things, there's a beast that does the bidding of Davy Jones. A fearsome beast with tentacles that'll suction your face clean off, and drag an entire ship past the crushing darkness. The kraken!" Gibbs begins. "They say the stench of its breath is like – ooh! Imagine: the last thing you know on God's green earth is the roar of the kraken, and the reeking odour of a thousand rotting corpses, if you believe such things."
I shudder slightly, remembering what it was like, and hope no one has to go through that, especially not Jack.
"And the key will save them?" Will asks.
"Now that's the very question they want answering bad enough even to visit her," Gibbs says.
"Her?"
"Aye," Gibbs answers.
The boats draw in slowly to the dock and we begin to pile out.
"No worries, mates. Tia and I go way back, thick as thieves, nigh inseparable we are, were, have been, before…" Jack trails off.
"I'll watch your back," Gibbs tells him.
I snort. "It's his front he's worried about."
"Mind the boat." Jack and I pass Gibbs and we start moving into the shack.
"Jack Sparrow. Jasmine Pearl. Always knew the wind would blow you back to me," she calls out.
"Tia Dalma," Jack calls back, just as happy as she was.
"Tia." I nod my respect.
Will follows in behind me and I quickly move aside, realising I was stood in the doorway.
"You. You have a touch of destiny William Turner," Tia tells him. I roll my eyes.
"You know me?" Will asks in confusion.
"You want to know me," Tia instructs him, flirting.
"There'll be no knowing here. We've come for help, and we're not leaving without it," Jack intervenes. I smile; he is totally annoyed at not having Tia's full attention.
"He thought he knew you." I smirk at her, and she gives a sly one back to me.
"Not so well as I had hoped. Come," she tells us, motioning for us to sit.
"Come," Jack tells Will.
We each take a seat at her small table made for four. Will is sat nearest the door, then Jack, and then me. I'm more toward the back of the room and can see into her back room. For some reason, she has a pair of men's boots which look strangely familiar but I can't place where I've seen them. Moving my gaze around the room, I spot a hat. A dark hat, with a feather sticking from the top. I know that hat. Barbossa's. Looking back at the boots, I realise they're Barbossa's too, but why would Tia have Barbossa's hat and boots? He's dead, stuck in a cave that was claimed by the sea. Unless Tia took his body…but she couldn't have! It would mean dragging the great lump through the long, winding caves. But maybe she did. I look sharply toward her and she quickly looks at me, as if sensing my movement even with her back to me. Her eyes question me: what do I know? What's wrong? I motion with my eyes to the back room, the boots, the hat. Her eyes widen and as she turns to complete her sentence, I realise that there had been a full conversation whilst I was thinking.
"Him heart," Tia finishes, and I realise that the crew had been talking about Davy Jones, his heart and his chest, but what did Jack want?
"Literally or figuratively?" Ragetti asks.
"He couldn't literally put his heart in a chest, could he?" Pintel tells him, before asking, "Could he?"
"It was not wort' feeling what small fleeting joy life brings, and so… he carved out him heart, lock it away in a chest, and hide de chest from de world. De key he keep wid him at all times," Tia explains.
"So we're looking for the key," I murmur. Jack looks at me oddly. I just shrug a little.
"You knew this," Will declares at both me and Jack.
"I did not," Jack starts.
"I might have done," I comment lightly. Jack looks at me again, and I shrug once more.
"I didn't know where the key was. But now we do. So all that's left is to climb aboard the Flying Dutchman grab the key, you go back to Port Royal and save you bonnie lass, hey!" Jack exclaims.
"Let me see your hands!" Tia demands.
I throw mine out, but don't uncurl it, nor take the cloth I have to cover my spot off. Jack throws out his unmarked hand. Tia glares at him, and he pulls that hand back and shows the other. Her fingers work over the bandages on Jacks hand. Letting his cloth fall, she turns to me in confusion before taking my hand gently and looking at me dead on with curious eyes. I nod. She unravels my bandages, and I turn to listen to Gibbs, Pintel and Ragetti do the black spot turn, where they brush themselves off three times, turn on the spot and then spit on the floor. Rolling my eyes, I face Tia in shock. The cloth falls from my hand. Tia hisses in shock and pulls my hand closer to her eyes to inspect it. She looks up at me.
"You shouldn't have this!" she hisses to me. "You paid your price!"
I nod stiffly. She drops my hand.
"You are safe on your own. You do not need my assistance," she tells me, before walking into her back room. Things clatter around.
"Care to explain why I'm safe without anything?" I shout through to her.
"You have had the spot and paid your price. You can't pay another," she tells me, coming back into the room holding a jar of dirt. She hands it to Jack, who looks at it in disbelief.
"Davy Jones cannot step on land but once every ten years. Land is where you are safe, Jack Sparrow, and so you will carry land with you," Tia tells him.
"Dirt. This is a jar of dirt?" Jack questions.
"Yes," Tia confirms.
"Is the jar of dirt going to help?" Jack asks.
"If you no want it, give it back," Tia tells him, reaching out. I snort; he won't give it back.
"No." Jack confirms my suspicions.
"Then it helps."
"It seems we have a need to find the Flying Dutchman, unless Jaz knows where it is?" Will asks, before glaring at me.
"Dunno," I tell him, and Tia throws down some claws.
We all crowd round, trying to memorise the pattern. Tia collects her claws and we begin to file out of the cabin. Tia begins to move into the back room, but I grab her wrist, spinning her round.
"What the hell are you planning?" I whisper to her.
"Nothing you need concern yourself with. What you need to worry about is that your past is catching you up. What really happened when you were fifteen?" she tells me.
I let go and stride from her cabin, slamming the door shut. Fifteen…fifteen…what happened when I was fifteen? Then it hits me. I left home. I blew up the house. But what does that have to do with the Flying Dutchman?