Where the Wind Ends


You, you never looked so good
Sipping life down like I wish I could
But these sober tears are all that's left to shed
Sank his soul, now made of lead.

Tomorrow comes a day too soon.

-Tomorrow Comes a Day Too Soon by Flogging Molly-


It felt like a century had passed over Eva's head as she stirred in waking the next morning. Something was tying her to this world, like the string of a fishing pole, or the rope of a high mast. Something was refusing to let her fly away, to sail away. She crossed her brow with a squeeze of her eyes against the heat and sunlight of the room around her, and she felt whatever was tied to her grow stronger, the seize reacting to her own muscles. And subconsciously, she found herself clinging tighter to whatever it was, as if she never wanted to leave the ground, or the bed.

She moaned softly in tire, but her eyes fluttered open as soon as she felt her hand slide across the linen she thought was of the sheets, and instead came into contact with warm skin. There, beneath her as she lay with a gaping mouth and stormy eyes, was Jack. He was the rope and the string, the embrace that kept her safe on the imaginary shore.

Eva bit her lip, not sure how to react or what to do, and instead rested her head back from where it had come on his chest as she felt it rise and fall with his deep, solemn breathing. He was half awake, she could sense it by the beat of his heart, but at least he was half asleep in that point. He swore he never slept. What had she done to him?

As her mind rushed with the possibilities before her, she felt his arm around her waist soften but pull her closer, as his head turned for his lips to press into her short hair. She remained absolutely still, perfectly comfortable, but very confused. It wasn't until she heard him groan and stretch beneath her that she moved to rest next to him instead, peering sideways down to his eyes. His arm though, was still wrapped under her and around, in a place she actually could admit to being fond of it.

"Good morning, Jack." She said with a sly mock.

Without opening his eyes fully, he replied with a sultry grin that made her melt.

"Vang'line Marley…"

"I suspect you had everything and nothing to do with this?"

He pried one eye open to inspect their entanglement, then smiled with them closed again.

"Did ye not sleep well?"

She paused with a smirk he missed. "That's not the point."

"Oh…" he teased, pulling her atop his chest quick as his eyes poked open again. "…I think that's precisely th' point, darlin' Eva."

Her face was hovering over his, lips less than a hand's distance apart, and breathing lax. She wanted to kiss him first, then, but didn't know where to begin to not come off as some desperate little child. Jack wanted to start with kissing and work his way up until the crew called for land ahead. He wanted to see and know everything he stupidly tossing overboard.

"Don't kiss me, Jack Sparrow."

"An' why in bloody ell' not?"

"Because."

He rolled his eyes at her answer and flipped her down to the mattress beside him, sitting up on the edge of the bed, his back turned to her. He had no time for ignorant women, only those that were even remotely as serious as he was in return. Not that he wouldn't have taken her anyway, and made her feel what he felt, but he wasn't sure whether that sort of trick would work on someone as tricky as Eva.

"You don't want to kiss me, Jack." She finally spoke behind him, quiet and let down.

"Ye don't think so?"

"I know well enough. I'm not the sort of girl you fancy."

He laughed at this briefly and then stood from the bed to cross over and replace his coat and boots. As he slid each one on his bare feet, he listened to her rustle in the sheets, and turned his eyes up very quickly to see her near the end of the bed, same as the night before. She was looking right at him.

"What would you want with a gypsy pickpocket that…cuts her hair to barter passage on a pirate ship…and who drinks herself to death merely to cover up the thoughts that plague her? That is quite unattractive if you so ask me."

He was standing tall, looking right down into her blinking sapphire eyes when she finished. He wanted to move, but feared falling flat on his face. He wanted to speak, but was afraid he would sound like a fish out of water gasping for imaginary bubbles.

"For how unladylike was the way in which you first saw me?" She scoffed, annoyed at herself. "Pinned to a wall beneath another woman's husband, skirts rolled to reveal my garters to you, a stranger."

He smiled at her crookedly, only drawn in more and more as she spoke. Nothing she was saying was turning him away, or making him want to keep dressing. He even began to undress again as her words kept coming so strongly.

"You may be a pirate, but I can only assume that you want a young lady with class. I haven't stitch of that, I promise you."

"Class be damned." He replied and stepped toward the edge of the bed.

"Class is important for a woman."

"An' means very little to a pirate Captain."

Her lips curled into a quick grin, but she went on fighting her case, hardly realizing how close he was getting to her.

"I've seen nor done nothing of esteem. I have the intellect of a housemaid and a combined inheritance no better than that of a tramp dog."

At this, Dill, who lay near the doors of the cabin perked his head up with a slight moan. Jack and Eva both looked at him for a second and laughed, and when she turned her eyes back and his were inches away same as his lips and hands, she took notice finally of how near he truly was to her again.

"I am nothing more than a girl on the run, Jack. What could ever interest you so about that?"

She caught a glimpse of gold between his teeth when he grinned. His eyes were full of something even better than lust or cruelty. They were brooding with passionate attention, to Eva, to all of her, and it consumed her as well. She watched as his hands slowly came to rest on the mattress to each side of her hips, and he lowered his face down even closer, his eyes shifting up and down from the bridge of her nose, to her full lips, then to her brow.

"I've been a man on th' run me 'hole life, Eva. Figure it out…"

While she began to, Jack went on.

"I could leave ye at th' Cove with naught more than a handshake an' tip of me hat..."

"…which would be wise."

He shook his head slightly at her interruption.

"But m' not after wisdom ere', lass."

"Then what are you after?"

No sooner had the question slipped her lips, than Jack had moved in to cover them still in movement. They were softer than he could have dreamt, richer and fuller and sweeter than even his best of fantasies, and he quickly dashed his imagination, embarrassed by how terribly it had done her justice. He brought his mouth in to completely consume all of hers, feeling her hesitate and slightly tremble under him. But when he moved a hand up from the mattress to hold her delicate, velvet like cheek, she eased into his warm lips and everything else surrounding her.

Although Eva made no attempt to touch him, she accepted his mouth long enough to feel his tongue moisten hers, begging for entrance, and she allowed it at free will with parted and desperate lips. When his tongue entered her mouth, she tried to concentrate on breathing and found it had lost all its possibility in the world. There was nothing left but his lips and tongue. That was it.

Jack forced himself upon her a little rougher, but bid himself not to scare her. His hand snaked its way around her waist and lower back as he gently carried her down to rest on the bed again. He fell atop of her, falling between her parted legs same as his tongue drove deeper between her lips, searching out hers and finding it. They fought for control back and forth, something he'd rarely got to experience with a woman in port towns and taverns, and it pleased him to feel the rebellion soldiering in her bones even at a moment like this.

When she felt sure she would die without being able to take a proper breath, Eva pulled her lips from his as his head rose only slightly from her.

"You cheated me into this, you know."

"Aye."

She took a deep breath under his heated gaze.

"You're a true scallywag."

"Aye."

She shook her head and sighed.

"And you're going to kiss me again--"

"Aye."

He cut her off in a flash, with his mouth hot upon hers again. He tasted every bit of her lips and tongue, getting to know just what he'd been missing out on to a bottle of rum and fresh fruit all week long. All this time wasted, when she could have already been his half a dozen times or more. All this time left as an imprisoned acquaintance, when she could have been something entirely different. All this time he spent wondering, and he could have been knowing.

If only he had known she tasted this much better than even his best mental encounters. If only he had known the rebel he saw in her on St. Pierre could be so perfectly tuned to his senses. If only he hadn't been so damn proud to touch her until last night.

Her arms wrapped firmly around his neck, weaving through his dreads and ornate locks, pulling him down until his body could come no closer, nor his lips, nor his hands. Eva was going to let him have whatever he wanted, for the last possible time before she left the ship. She was ready to just give into whatever he had boiling over in his head. She was ready when she felt his hand move gently up the leg of her breeches, inching closer to the heat that had consumed her from the inside out, her skin tingling under the cloth pants as his fingers slid tentatively toward her…

"Land ho!"

A rapping on the locked cabin doors startled the both of them, as Eva shifted her gaze to see a shadow through the glass, and Jack forced himself to keep kissing any skin he could find, on her neck, her bared shoulder from his oversized tunic, bits of her chest poking out even.

"Cap'n, Cove 'head! We need ye at th' helm!"

He stopped with nothing he was doing, even though Eva squeezed his shoulders to get his attention.

"Jack…"

He grumbled into her neck, where his lips and teeth nipped tiny circles about her honey skin.

"Jack, they need you now!"

"I need you now…" He mumbled like a helpless child and she laughed.

His head rose from her neck as he hovered over her body again, never unlocking his eyes from hers.

"Don' leave this spot."

She smirked and rose her thumb up at him in a yes response.

"You have my word--"

He cut her off from speaking one last time, as his lips came down to ensnare her little thumb between them. His mouth moved sensually against her finger, with his tongue stroking at the pad of it while she watched his eyes. They were desperate, sensual beyond any eyes she'd ever known, and it only made her body that much warmer. Before he released her thumb to her, he bit the very end gently and kissed it, leaving her breathless at even the simplicity of the action.

Jack was sliding from the bed by the time she caught her right mind again, and was halfway to the door when she jumped down and ran across to barrel against his back. He flew toward the wall and she turned his shoulders as she leaned up to lock his face in her hands. Eva forced her mouth up onto his as she pulled his down to hers, not worried about what he must have thought, and concentrated only on the sensation that his mustache hairs made as they tickled her nose and how his fingers felt when they dug into her lower back. He lifted her from the ground, pressing her body heat to his, and delighting in the fact that she had been the one to initiate round two of this hasty mayhem. That only made this worse for him, to know that she wanted it all the same as he did.

Her lips were hot on his when he heard the men shouting again and made himself stop kissing her. Jack carefully placed her onto the floor, and let his lips very slowly, very ignorantly pull themselves from hers. There was a pout on her face when he moved away to the door, one that made his manhood swell in guilt and demand, and he brushed all the thoughts aside just long enough to take one last look at her and run out of the door, kicking himself the whole time.


The process of sailing a ship into safe harbor wasn't a long one, especially under Jack's commanding hand on the wheel. Eva could fell every lull and rock the vessel made as the waters grew shallow further into the shores of the Cove, and she watched seated at the window with Dill as the rocky valleys and beaches came into clear view. The ship moved through a slow moving tunnel for what felt like eternity, and then came into a fortress built within the high mountainous walls. It was beautiful, more so than Jack had even told in his storytelling the night before.

She scratched behind Dill's ears with a smile, "It will be nice here. Won't it?"

The dog whimpered a little and let out a short bark toward the cabin doors.

"Yeah…" she replied, thinking about nothing but how empty her lips felt. "…I'm going to miss him too."

While Eva was perched in the window, Jack concluded with giving orders to crew and monitoring the anchoring being weighed into the stony black waters of the Cove's inner port. Sunlight danced across the misty bows of ships toppled high, and a weary feeling entered his gut like it always did about this moment. He tried only to think of getting Eva acquainted with the place, and not worrying about his own timeless battle with it. He wanted her to be happy here, in fact, he needed her to be.

He walked to the bow of his own ship for a short minute, eyeing the surrounding walls and catching the anxious waves of the dozens of children on the banks of the low water. They chased the slow movement of the Pearl as it wound about near the dock of the fort's main entrance, screaming and smiling at Jack. He responded with soft enthusiasm, waves and tips of his hat, but eventually, he found he felt too drained and vacant without Eva's mouth and her hands around him, and he slowly moved away and back toward the cabin.

"Gibbs, shift th' stock, an' get the lot o' them t' the pubs."

His first mate stepped into gear, shouting out with a loud, "Aye Cap'n," and following with orders that drifted over the ship.

Jack snuck away through the cabin doors to see Eva standing at the bed with her back turned. She hadn't even moved at the sound, and instead went on fidgeting with her sack, tossing all of her loose bits of clothes into it. It made him sad to see her packing her things, ready to toss off just as soon as the ship was tied down for safety. He'd grown too fond of coming to his room after the sun and finding her peaceful and woozy in his bed, grumbling through her dreams with smiles.

As he walked quietly in from behind, Jack remembered something deep within his coat pocket and he dug it out. It was the sapphire gem that he had nearly used in barter for supplies, and had rescued only because it had reminded him so much of the gypsy girl with blue eyes. With no more than a foot between the heels of her boots and the toes of his, Jack brought the gem around, dangling from a silver chain he'd had one of his men etch it upon, and lowered it down in front of her eyes until it rested against her chest.

Eva jumped in shock, gasping as she saw the sparkling stone hit the fabric of her borrowed shirt from Jack. Her head tilted down for only a brief second to examine it and stop her packing. She felt the warmth of the only body she'd known all through the night, as he pressed his chest against her rising and falling back. His breath on her neck was smooth and rich, like rum and sun and waves all mixed together.

"Jack, what is this?"

He trailed kisses along the back slope of her neck as he hooked the chain. Every one made her shiver consecutively stronger than the last.

"Tis' but a parting gift, Eva love. Something t' remember me by."

She shook her head with a smile. "As if I will require assistance for that."

This made him happiest to hear, and he suddenly turned her in his arms until he could look down into her, shifting from the oceanic glow of the gem and then back to the eyes that inspired everything in him. His arms wrapped firmly around her waist and he lifted her up to sit on the edge of the bed before him. Eva consciously tugged at his shirt until he fell between her legs, with déjà vu setting in nicely.

"I wish I was a better asset to have aboard. I want so badly to stay now."

Jack understood the struggle she was having, because they shared it.

"Th' Cove will be a good 'venture for ye."

"Yes I know, but I'll miss all this something terrible."

Her eyes moved about the cabin but his remained stationed on her cheeks, and nose, and the tiny freckle that rested just off to the corner of her upper lip.

"Ye don't have t' leave yet, you know."

Eva's face turned back curiously, knowing full well what was in his mind. She had wanted the same thing before he'd darted off to sail the Pearl into port, but something had washed over her while packing. Something that told her she shouldn't give in so easily.

"Indeed, but I should take leave now all the same."

"Why?"

"You have a great deal of work to do before you turn back for open waters again, and I wouldn't want to tear you from stocking the ship."

Eva pushed back on his chest a little so she could slide off the bed.

"I've already been quite fair on your nerves this week past as it is."

He stood helplessly watching her grab at her bags. He didn't want to watch it, but couldn't help it.

"Wot's a half hour more, then?"

"It's a half hour more given, to attach myself to something I needn't attach myself to."

Without looking at him, she began making her way to the door with Dill on her boot heels. She couldn't even bring herself to look at him with the statement she'd made, one of hidden truth and unnecessary emotion. She hardly knew him at all, save for his love for the sea and rum and obviously trapped young women. Jack Sparrow was a mystery she hadn't been given the time to solve, and yet still the feelings were rising deep inside of her like an endless flame. Eva could ignore them temporarily with every step she made towards the door of the cabin, but she couldn't deny them completely.

When she heard his voice again, she stopped with her hand on the doorknob.

"Will you at least allow me t' walk you through town?"

The offer was one she'd hoped for and was glad to hear it as she slightly turned her head back with a smile.

"After all…" Jack went on with a smirk as he came behind her at the door, his hand warm on her lower back and breath hot against her ear, "Wouldn't want ye t' lost."

With a gingerly nod, Eva turned the door open and walked out with Jack directly behind her. He stayed close but without touching her the entire way across the ship. She was marked as nothing more than a hostage being freed for departure from the ship. Then men each eyed her suspiciously, some of them even roving over the curves her body made under Jack's clothes, wondering what could have been under different, unprotected felt a little nervous with their glowing stares, but eventually let the queasiness leave her as she stepped down the gangplank to the docks safely. It felt odd to finally, officially be off of the Pearl and on land again, but she knew time would make it less of a noticeable feat.

They walked along the shore and main pathway until the pier and men were out of plain view, and when they were shadowed by the towering and crumbling ship fortress, Jack stepped in closer to Eva's side, gently taking her hand in his. He hadn't been sure he wanted to, but just the sight of her walking along on her way to somewhere else, somewhere he wouldn't be again for some time, made his knees weak and his head swarm. He felt her palm tremble in his hand and he gave it a light squeeze as they strolled through the town in nothing but silent peace.

Many of the pubs and people's faces Jack had described in his stories were coming alive right before her, and Eva was enthralled completely, despite the very sadness of the situation. The walk brought them higher and safer inside the deepest trenches of the fortress, as they weaved through hulls and brigs of all shapes and sizes and age. Candle's dripped along every wall, the floors creaked in notable places, and the greetings of people who obviously knew Jack well, made her that much more comfortable already. This was obviously somewhere that had once been home to him, and that made it special to her all the same.

Eventually they came to two large, freshly polished oak doors at the center of a long hallway, and Jack tugged Eva along and lead her through them. Inside were dozens of women and children alike, scattered from corner to corner, some reading books, others sewing or cooking, children playing games of all kinds too. It was a marvelous sight to behold in such a darkened cavern of a place. Candlelight was all they had to entertain by, and yet the giggling and smiles of every face she saw, was what truly seemed to brighten the room up.

"This is th' main hall."

He leaned down and whispered in Eva's ear, just in time for her to turn her face up with a smile and then for the both of them to be interrupted by a soft, pretty voice. One to match an equally delightful face.

"Oh Jack…" the young woman sighed, placing her hand on his shoulder. "…it's been a might too long this time."

He smiled and released his hand from Eva's, for reasons she pretended didn't exist.

"Sadie."

The woman, at least five years beyond Eva's 21, stood on her toes to reach up and kiss the corner of Jack's mouth. She stood and watched as the two of them reunited, then him and another of the fine women, and another, all the way about the room until he'd been welcomed home and kissed enough times to kill any man so lucky. Eva held her own though, being introduced over two dozen different ways, as a friend, a fellow sailor, a hostage, or a renegade explorer come to train with his father. She admired all of these because they all referred to her time spent in the captain's cabin, in his bed, with only him.

He took walked about to interact and be greeted by the children in the room, and though try as she might, Eva couldn't help but notice how alike some of them looked to him. It frightened her, but she knew whatever the cause of it, she was no part of it. She had only kissed him, nothing more for fate. Her feelings for him were her own, and secret, and impossible to be anywhere near his for her. If he had bred any of the children in this room, in her mind at least, so be it. He wasn't hers, after all.

The minutes continued to pass, until she finally heard Jack speak up and ask for Teague and Elizabeth. To which the reply never came from the women or children, but from the aforementioned woman herself at the opposite archway to the great room.

"Finally returned, have you Jack?"

Eva spun around when he did to see a glowing, golden haired woman looking back at the both of them. It was the one he'd told her all about, Elizabeth, once the pirate King, and now only a pirate mother. She held a young boy to her hip, one with dark hair and eyes, and again Eva found herself contemplating the possibility of it all.

"Lizzie, luv."

His smile was wide and glinting as he wandered through the open space of the room to take her into a firm hug, squeezing the child with a screech of laughter in the process. Eva giggled softly at the action, unconcerned with whatever else it meant, that is until he leaned back and the clues began to slowly arrive.

"An' little Jack. Wot' are they feedin' ye boy?"

Jack ruffled the young boy's hair, a young boy who not only shared his looks but his name. Eva hadn't imagined he could be this way, so fatherly, so compassionate for something other than the sea or women in his bed. It was odd, but right also.

"He looks more an' more like Will every time m'ere. Scary thing, ain't it?"

Elizabeth laughed and caught sight of Eva from over Jack's shoulder.

"Never mind the volume of my child who dreams of being only you…" Jack laughed a little as she nodded over his shoulder and continued, "…who is your guest, Jack?"

He turned suddenly, remembering where he'd left Eva and then walked back to take a soft hold of her hand and lead her toward Lizzie.

"This is a woman after yer own eart', Liz."

"Whatever do you mean?" She asked peaceably, with a sweet smile to Eva.

"Found er' impersonating a boy on me ship 'naught of a week ago."

Elizabeth laughed and let her son slide down to the floor. When she stood tall before them again, her eyes were fixed on only Eva, as she grew very quickly attached, without ever having even heard the younger girl's voice.

"Brilliant." With an extended hand she replied, "A masterful trick indeed, Miss…"

Jack and Eva shared a small glanced before she looked back and said quietly, "Eva Marley."

"Eva Marley. Such a lovely name."

A second later, their hands locked together as one. For it was in that moment, when either of them would look back upon it as wild, sporting best friends through the years on, that they knew such would be the way of it. It was the moment in time that Lizzie became nothing short of an older sister to Eva, a fine confidant, and a protector as was Jack's request for this very time.

"I was hoping you'd show Eva bout' the Cove, teach er' what she so desires t' learn."

"And that is?"

"I wish to be a pirate." Eva chimed in with a glow.

Lizzie adored this most and quickly wrapped her arm about the younger woman's shoulder, "It is no wonder then that he leaves you here with me. Jack has never been good at handling women with confidence enough to overthrow him."

The two of them laughed, glancing back at his nervous scowl, and then before Eva could object, Lizzie pulled her along and down the hall.

"I know we're going to have the best of times together while you're here. Two pirate women set to defeat the mass of drunken men on this island."

Eva giggled a little more before she lost all sight of Jack officially. She wasn't sure if he would run off to woo the other women in the room, or if he would simply return to his business at the docks until it was time for him to depart. She only hoped, as Lizzie gave her an elated tour of the Teague house and estate, that he would at very least find her once more before he left.

She wanted to look into his eyes a last time so that she could remember them for her dreams.