Book Two - Chapter Eight: Complications

Jack awoke a few hours later after the sun had already set. Most of the men were still hovering over the various piles of gold that had been scattered throughout the ship. The captain heard some faint humming and followed the sound up the main mast. Expectedly, he found Ms. Amelia Barbossa lounging and watching the stars appear in the firmament. He sat beside her.

"Quite the adventure today, wasn't it?" Jack said casually.

Amelia agreed but did not say any articulate word in reply.

"You alright?" he asked sensing that she was in deep contemplation over something.

"I'm fine, Captain."

Her distinct address of "captain" caught his attention. He felt as though he had done something to agitate her.

"You're a good pirate, Amelia, but you aren't a dishonest one. You haven't been taught the art of lying yet," he said.

"I should have listened to you," Amelia said dejectedly.

"What do mean?"

Amelia faced him and he could see tears barely being held back in the poor girl's eyes. It alarmed him.

"You wanted to go back. I shouldn't have said anything. I should have held my peace and obeyed you. Now here we are and four men have been left for dead. If I hadn't…"

She turned her face away and began to sob. She did her best to hide it. The captain put his hand gently behind her neck, brushing sections of loose hair way.

"We're pirates. Pirates live with blood on their hands. But not you," he said. "We had no way of knowing. Our lives were faced with the same amount of risk. Was it worth it? Only time will tell. I can name hundreds of perils that I've faced that weren't worth the consequences. Each man accepts that risk when he signs onto a crew. I can't even count the number of men who have died by my hand. A captain is responsible for everything that happens on his ship, for every soul aboard who trusts in his judgement. None of what happened was within your control," he said while moving his hand to her right shoulder, the furthest from him.

Amelia wiped her tears away roughly.

"I make a rather poor pirate," she tried to say in a happier voice.

"Are you kiddin' me?" Jack said, disbelieving her understatement. "Amelia, you're one of the best damn pirates on this rig. If it came down to it, if I could only chose a handful of my crew to man the ship, you'd be one of them. Just think about it, you can practically run the ship on your own. Another year and you'll have everything runnin' with your eyes closed. Your father raised you on this ship. It's apart of you, and it shows. Wouldn't have thought that possible nine years ago," he said with a slight laugh in his voice. "You were a lot smaller then."

Amelia let out a silent giggle at the memory of her first experiences on the ship.

"You were a lot more stubborn then, too, if you can imagine that," he said reminiscing. "And prissy."

"I was not," Amelia objected playfully.

"Like hell you weren't! Prissiest damn thing I'd ever seen. I figured that you'd be trouble."

"Well, you didn't exactly make it easy on a poor girl."

"I guess I didn't," he said. "I didn't exactly have any experience with young girls." The captain laughed at himself. As his thoughts carried on, he became more serious again. "But you are a woman now, Amelia. And I guess that things change."

Amelia noted the intimacy in her captain's voice.

"Jack," she said softly with no other words to say. There was no need to say any more. Jack kissed her again. And again. The kisses were not lingering, but they were such in number that it was the moment that lingered on. His arms were around her and hers were tightly around him. The whole world seemed to disappear. Everything that had happened that day, and everything that could still happen were so far from thought.

Without warning, Jack pulled away and threw his head in his hands. His entire countenance had suddenly changed. It worried the young woman who feared that she had done something wrong.

"Don't let me do that!" the captain said clenching at himself. "God 'sakes, Amelia, you're a lady and you can't be letting the likes of me get his hands on you! Not me, not Darius, not any bugger aboard a bloody ship! You hear me?" he ranted. "I'm sorry, but I can't see you go through that. We're just…no good."

Without another word he climbed back down to the deck and shut himself in his cabin. Amelia was left not fully understanding what just took place.