Catch of the Day
You've got your ball.
You've got your chain.
Tied to me tight, tie me up again.
Lost for you I'm so lost for you.
You come crash into me
and I come into you…
In a boys dream.
-Crash into Me by Dave Matthews Band-
Beneath his stunned gaze, his hands haphazardly having fallen to rest on both of her knees where the ropes no longer covered them, Eva felt the energy return, only this time she understood what it was. The Captain's eyes held her in place for a long moment while he seemed to study her, not saying a word nor breathing an interest. She thought about waiting to see if he would speak his mind, but in fret and fear, she thought better of it and began scrambling from under his hands to get back to her feet.
"I…" she tried, brushing her pants off and coaxing out a boyish hue in her voice again. "…I'm so sorry Captain Sparrow…"
He remained kneeling close to the deck for a second longer while he listened to the strain in her voice. It was the first he'd heard of it, and although she worked to veil it with what she thought best sounded as a young man, he heard the glittering sweetness below the faux.
She began pulling the nets up to her chest again and stomped past him in a rush, apologizing still as he began to formulate words of his own. "I'll just be getting back to work--"
"Old' it."
The heels of her boots dug deep into the wood deck as she squeaked to a halt. Her eyes grew wide with her back turned to him and her hands twisted in the ropes nervously as she heard him behind, stepping once and then twice closer to her, his breath heavy and deliberate as he spoke.
"Elijah, is it?"
She bit her lip, too anxious to reply so instead she nodded same as with Gibbs. Jack snarled a little at the fib and stood firm and tall behind her.
"Turn bout', lad."
It wasn't a request or an option. By the richness of his clear cut demeanor, and by the harsh burn she felt on her neck as he stood above her, looking down her back, Eva knew it was an order. And thus she followed it slowly, spinning on her heels with her head hung low. Jack watched her movement, trying to contain the things it was stirring deep inside of him just to have her that close again. He managed to keep a crude expression on his face, very captain-like, and not falter for a second.
"Look up." Another command she followed hesitantly, raising her face until she saw the black ambers of his eyes down upon her own, melting all of her. Without breath to speak, she could only listen to him as he said in mockery, in shock, "You."
There was a fiery twist on the single word, one that made her gaze further itself into his own; curious at what it was she had heard. There was something about him; she just wasn't sure what yet.
"An' now it all makes sense."
Confusion covered her, and again she lost sight of what it was she thought she had seen. Her brow twisted a little under the brim of her hat and between the wisps of her shortened black hair as he came closer to her and without warning of any kind, grabbed her right upper arm harshly and tore off her father's hat.
"A mighty fine job 'eve done of yer air', lass."
"Captain Sparrow, I can expl--"
"No need. I wasn't born yesterday."
She struggled against his firm hand on her arm, but he was even stronger than she. "Please, I meant no harm."
He cackled and forced his face down to where hers was, "Coming board' a pirate ship without th' proper…err…" he fluttered his hand about as he glanced over her lower body, "…means…" she breathed deep at his implication as he went on. "…Is cause' fer punishment."
His fingers dug deeper through her ratty tunic and against her skin below as he ripped her body from the place on deck and pulled her along until he could make out Gibbs standing above them at the wheel with Cotton.
"Master Gibbs!"
The older man turned at the commanding shout from below and then quickly shuffled down the steps to make it to where Jack stood with Elijah oddly beneath his grasp.
"Cap'n."
"Was there an'thing at all, that struck yer eye as odd, when this lad asked board' me ship?"
Gibbs looked from Elijah's tired, frightened eyes, and then back up to Jack, shaking his head.
"Is this bout' the little mutt o' his, Jack? Cause' I only said yes--"
"Mutt?" Jack spat out, even more confused as Gibbs' eyes grew wide and he felt the girl tense under his hand. "Ye let a woman and a begga' mutt board' my ship!"
Jack growled as Gibbs hurried for an explanation, not that it mattered either way. In mere seconds the entire crew had turned around on the deck to face the present conversation. The words their Captain had shouted out, although part of which they were already aware of since they had taken to the dog so light heartedly, left the second half as news. And good news at that.
Realizing what he had done as he glanced back to see two dozen glazed and hungry sets of eyes staring their way, he forced a jabbering Gibbs back towards his cabin and stormed through the doors behind him with Eva tripping on his boot heels from his seize on her. Once inside though, he threw her out to the open floor of the dimly lit cabin as he and Gibbs stood arguing for a moment without her.
"Sir, nuthin' gave th' impression…"
"M' well aware o' how fine a performance she can put on, mate."
"…gave th' name was 'Lijah. She looks like a boy, Jack…"
"Yes." He concluded angrily turning back to her. "Indeed she does."
Eva cringed under his snarling glare, the one that sent shivers up and right back down her spine in lightning force. The warmth she'd felt from them before was all but gone, and now she only feared for what he meant by punishment. Although she'd grown up hearing the occasional story about pirates, she'd never been officially informed of what the punishments were for a girl, pretending to be a boy, under the command of a Captain, who had already saved said girl's life, and learned she wasn't the boy she had acted to so be. That to her, was something entirely more complicated than just simple mutiny or being a stowaway.
Looking at him the way he did her, Eva tried to break her silence and explain again. And while she rambled on, even though it wasn't obvious to her, Jack and Gibbs stood together with crossed brows as they worked to silently determine just how she'd managed to appear masculine enough for her gig.
"…I was tired of being stuck in St. Pierre; there was nothing for me in that town any longer…"
Jack noticed that her chest was no broader than a young boys' and wondered what exactly was pressing her figure in. He remembered how delicate yet prominent her curves were in the dark light of the alley and in the bright sunlight the day before in the middle of the street. She had a beautiful form; one that had tormented him day and night since, and it disappointed him quietly to not have the same pleasure of seeing it now, even despite her crime aboard his ship.
"…my parents died years ago and even though I've taken care of myself, I wanted a real adventure. I wanted to be free out on open waters…"
Putting an end to his studying of her body for a minute, Jack latched on to a singular word in her prolonging speech and shifted his gaze up again as he bit his lip tight, to see her rushing eyes. She said she wanted to be free, the one thing he'd permanently been after. But what he wondered, as he stepped in close to her again, what was she trying to be free of?
Eva ended her talk as she watched him come nearer, his eyes fading from the torrent of anger they were before, to something more mysterious and subtle. She listened intently when he opened his mouth again.
"Wot' in damnation is yer real name, lass?"
Gibbs looked on at her curiously, having wanted to know the exact same thing for himself. Eva's eyes shifted from the older pirate, to the floor and the toe of her boots, and then back up to the Captain as she stammered.
"Evan…" she stopped with a deep breath as Jack's eyes grew somber over her, "Evangeline, sir. My name is Evangeline Marley."
He was halted in his thoughts. Indeed, he was jolted by it all. Her name could not have possibly suited who she was any better, and he felt blessed only to have finally heard it aloud. Evangeline…Evangeline…Evangeline…his mind shouted it over and over again until her voice put it all to a sound rest at the bottom of the trackless sea.
"Everyone has always called me Eva, though."
And there it was, Eva. The name he had so badly wanted to whisper out in ecstasy to his empty cabin as he had thought of her eyes and lips and hands in his from the street. It was the one thing he had wanted to say in his dreams as he thought about what his bed could feel like with her in it beside him. It had been as simple as that, Eva.
He brought himself to force the anger back into his eyes. No, of course he didn't want it there, but there were no options under the circumstances. And as much as he wanted to say her name, to whisper it back to her until she got undressed of her own accord and flew to his sheets, he had to follow the protocol of a proper, respected pirate Captain.
"Well, Miss Marley…" he began, walking about her figure in the low light of the room as Gibbs watched and as he heard her breathing grip and expand nervously. "…we make port at Shipwreck Cove in three nights. Ye shall make yer leave there. An' there…" he grunted, trying to make himself sound tougher than he felt in that moment, "…ye shall 'ave yer so desired 'adventure'."
Gibbs and Jack shared a quick and worried glance as they both thought subsequently of her conditions aboard the Pearl.
"As per the remainder o' yer time spent aboard…" Jack began again, coming about to see her eyes as they shown up at him and killed every muscle tightening within his body "…you will stay ere'."
Eva's eyes grew wide, only half understanding him as she motioned with her hand about the cabin.
"Here, sir?"
Jack tilted his head at her with a practiced grumble. "I will not ave' me crew losin' what marbles they ave' left o'er some virgin stowaway."
He turned on his heels in a mock of leave toward Gibbs and the door, only to be interrupted quickly by her rebuttal.
"But I'm not…" Jack stopped in his tracks with a wild grin that only his first mate could see. "…I mean…I can take perfect care of myself, Captain Sparrow."
With a single breath inhaled, he glanced over his shoulder at her and in a honed murmur replied, "Then ye'll do so behind locked doors."
And before she could argue further, the two men turned out of the room and she could hear the jingle of keys as the lock on the double cabin doors clicked shut.
Eva stood there watching after their shadows through the glass for a long time once they were even gone. She couldn't understand why he hadn't tossed her overboard, or why he hadn't purposefully thrown her to the crew for sport of punishment. How could having her spend the long days and nights at sea, locked in his cabin, be any proper form of punishment in a pirate's eyes? And why was he allowing her to make a free run onto the shores of a place called Shipwreck Cove?
It baffled her for hours on end, as she fell into the long window bench behind his desk and charting table, watching the horizon every few seconds, between pages of his numerous books. There was everything from astronomy to ancient geometry and philosophy. He was well studied for a man of the criminal sea, and this above all else interested her as she sat skimming words and ideas throughout the day.
She never shed a tear of her position, having only to follow orders to stay alive as it were. Eva was determined to do what was necessary to keep herself from finding the gallows or the brig or wherever he had thought of sending her otherwise. She would be free at port, and then she could take leave to search the world over a hundred times on her own. She would sail with more trustworthy sailors; perhaps even find a ship captained by a woman, if such a thing existed. She would taste exotic foods and meet interesting people who spoke different languages. And she would be happy, finally.
These thoughts were the ones that put her to sleep after a long while. And when Jack unlocked the doors in his return to the cabin after the sun began to sink low, the sight he found was one he hadn't expected at all. His little hostage, Evangeline…Eva…laid stretched across the window bench behind his desk chair, her face curled into her arm against a few small pillows, and a book on Greek goddesses resting open on her thigh.
He imagined he could have so taken her like that, tossed the book about powerful female deities aside and made her his true prisoner for the rest of the evening. She had made it very clear in both their first meeting and in her earlier, elated confession, that she was no chaste soul. And yet despite this, Jack could not disturb the strangely innocent peace she seemed to be wound up in and instead only removed the book and the others piled high on the floor beside her, and tore an old quilt his mother had once sewn from the nearby cabinet to cover her with. He even let his finger dance lightly over her shortened hair for moment, as he dwelled on missing the long, dark tresses he had seen curl over her free shoulder during her passionate stride in the midnight air of Martinique.
Sure, he could have moved her to the more comfortable bed. But he knew he himself would be up into long hours charting a course to the Cove especially for her, and as her punishment, her only punishment, he left her where she was, so that he could hear every breath she made just behind him throughout the night. For in his mind, to hear a rebel in perfect serenity was the most frightening penalty of all.
