Hey guys! Thank you so much for the amazing reviews, they mean so so much. Please keep it up! I base my happiness on your words, I swear. Let me know what you think! I also got a question about possibly continuing this series. My answer? I honestly don't know. It will inevitably depend on the plot of that movie, and how close to cannon I want to go. But, I will probably do another installment, mostly because I love writing Jack and Anna, and I love their dynamic. And for what I'm planning at the end, most people will want some bits and pieces resolved. ;)
-Han
Angelica peeled away the remnants of fake facial hair with nimble fingers, her eyes rapt on the two pirates in front of her, dark eyes tracing Anna's movements as if she could read them. The other woman was leaning almost imperceptibly into Jack, her breathing labored just the slightest, and a tangle of brown hair falling over her shoulders in a fashion Angelica could only describe as alluring. She looked rough along the edges in a way that Jack would no doubt find captivating, and she held an air of satisfaction in her obvious discomfort, as if the wounds she had accumulated were trophies.
"Are you impressed, Jack? I think I might have almost killed you once or twice there," Angelica said, instead of answering his question. The time for explanation would come later. For now all that mattered was the sway she held over the pirate Captain with the thick, sultry accent she knew she could command. Her eyes cut to the girl again, watching blue eyes flash with a fire she didn't fully understand.
"Almost, you find, amounts to very little in battle. Only dead and not dead register to the mind," Anna said sharply, taking another moment to breathe deeply and the grip on her sword didn't falter. Jack's black eyes found her form and his expression was soft, for a moment, a smile on the edge of his mouth.
"And as we are decidedly not dead," Jack took up for her, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "You can rest assured that we are not all that impressed." Anna smiled, something brighter than Angelica had been expecting, and she watched the motion like it could explain things to her. Why Jack was finishing her sentences, why they moved like they were one person, and why Jack kept looking at her. "I am touched, though, by this most sincere form of flattery," he said, watching Angelica remove the moustache, beard, leaving her tan skin open to the air and watching Jack take it in.
She was just as erotic as he remembered, not quite beautiful with the over tones of sensuality covering the innocent being she might have been. Full lips didn't make him think of stretching smiles and soft words and the feather-light touches against his temple. Instead he thought of trailing fire down his chest, tongue escaping to taste, chaos and fire and rampage and blood pumping too fast. Eyes weren't the window to her soul, shining too brightly and burning into his skin like memories of fiery ships. They were lust-filled, tracing icy burns across his body as she took him in. Hands didn't grip his own, or a sword, they held his shoulders and his neck and scraped at his back and left imprints and claw marks.
"But why?" he finished finally, tearing his eyes away and wondering why the heat that was coiled in his stomach felt so different. Something about it was off, and he wasn't sure how to explain it. Anna's side brushed against his own, electricity seemed to shoot down his spine. He didn't move away.
"You were the only pirate I thought I would pass for," Angelica said, watching them with scrutiny as Anna blinked around a haze of pain and exhaustion and Jack stayed close enough to touch her.
"That is not a compliment," Anna chipped in, her voice strong despite her obvious pain. Jack nodded in agreement and his black eyes caught the flames and seemed to glow for a moment, singing Angelica's skin, but it felt distant. Removed. Like his gaze was a whisper when she wanted a touch. Then it was gone all together when Anna shifted, winced, and drew his attention.
"Are you alright, love?" he whispered, so low Angelica almost thought she imagined it. But Anna nodded, looking up at him with soft eyes, the blue reminding the other woman of the sky on days the sea might be forgiving. Endless and perfect.
"Yes," she answered, and the English accent made her sound proper, distinguished. Angelica frowned, almost glared, but restrained herself as Anna stepped slightly away from Jack to lean against one of the last standing pyramids of rum barrels. Dust flew up in swirls around her boots as she walked, and Jack watched the patterns they made. He didn't seem to take her answer, but looked away just the same, knowing she could handle it.
"Angelica-" he started, his voice sounding swept up in moments on the sea, seconds in Spain, minutes spent tracing the outline of his form in the half-light of the moon.
"Don't worry, Jack. I forgave you long ago," she said over him, her dark eyes cutting to Anna for a moment, expecting a response. The younger woman met her eyes, blue on black and held, but there was no emotion Angelica could read.
"For what? For leaving you?" Jack asked, bleakness in his chest that overrode the lust in his bloodstream, carried on waves of silken hair, Spanish accents, and rough touches. Once, he might have acted on it, this erotic grip on his heart. But not anymore. Anna kept drawing him back, a tether different from a chain, her hands pressing and molding his soul until he couldn't be defined without her. And to Jack, it wasn't a bad thing. It wasn't negative, dark, evil, vile. Not like it used to be to him.
Now her smile was addictive and her touch was intoxicating and he didn't need the black fires of lust to make life worth it, happy, invigorating.
"Recall that I left you," Angelica corrected, reminding him that she was there at all. Anna chuckled, rough sounding, alluring, like music. Her eyes crinkled at the edges, a light burning through the rough exterior and he remembered why he called her the brightest star in the sky. It was like coming home after years of chasing the wind, fingers clutching at something empty and then finally finding skin to trace, a touch he could feel.
"A gentleman allows a lady to maintain her fictions," Anna piped up, not needing to know their history to know her words were true. Jack wasn't left behind, he never allowed himself to be. He would sooner run from God than see himself rejected. Her side burned with its poor setting, but she didn't fully register it. She wanted to be back on the Pearl, laying on the deck and counting stars with Jack while she listened to him speak like wine was dripping from his lips. She wanted a symphony without the sound, the ocean beating and swaying against the ship to its own delight while she moved with it and with Jack like a Runaway, one who didn't care where she was going.
Instead she was hurting, leaning against rum barrels in a dusty store room while a pig roasted in a fire pit and a woman she didn't know spoke in Spanish music instead of words and enraptured her like she knew Jack must be. She wondered if anything would ever really be alright. With her past and the bruises on her soul from her father leaning over her and Jack being the mystery he always would be to her. And now his past was standing in front of them, taunting the fragile understanding they had.
One day the bonds would break and thunder would deafen her ears and lightning would be their only illumination against the rain and the darkness of their love slipping beneath the crashing waves. She could only wonder when it would hit, when her hand would be ripped from his and her lungs would fill with salt water and she would slip away, body aching for him. And goodbye would mean forever and they would no longer stand on the same side.
She never knew how to handle him, her wounds and walls blocking out reason and all that mattered was the feeling of falling and wind beneath her body as she crashing into his arms and he would be there, hearts beating as long as forever held. She never knew which way she was going, sails pushed the way Gods allowed, but he had been next to her.
And this woman, this Spanish vixen with almond eyes and a past with him could upset this balance, change things, push them somewhere new, somewhere dangerous. But Anna kept her thoughts to herself, knew somehow that Jack understood her fears. She would wait until they were alone to really speak, to let her voice break on the edges and sound just a bit vulnerable.
"Look, Sparrow, as long as my sailors get their money, they are willing to put up with any number of peculiarities," Angelica said dismissively, choosing to ignore the younger girl. Anna stood slightly straighter, head cocked to the side as if she was waiting for something, moved away from her resting place and paced out the room, aware of Jack's eyes on her. She wanted to get out, and she wanted a way that would keep her out of the way of officials.
"Ah. But there is one peculiarity which I would not put up with. I will be impersonated as 'Captain', nothing less," he said shortly, glaring at Angelica. His eyes flicked to Anna again, watching her take slow steps around the fire, her gaze moving throughout the dark room, following beams overhead and dusty rope and pulleys, trying to memorize them. She reminded him of a caged animal, one that needed open spaces, needed an exit.
"Well, for that you need a ship. And as it turns out, I have one," Angelica replied quickly, her wit able to bounce of his own and he could admit they did work well together.
"We could use a ship," Jack mused, and she was taken aback by the 'we', her dark eyes cutting to a seemingly unaffected Anna. To Jack it was logical, easy, simple, like Anna had been the missing piece in his plans.
A moment hung between the three of them, tense and quiet, save for Anna's constant walking, dust kicking up with her boots, her movements' fluid and natural, tinged with pain. Jack thought he would watch her for years if he had the time, just watch her move. The fascination that consumed him when she ran a hand through her hair, twitched her hand over her sword, moved like she was still in battle, never faded.
"I've heard tell you've been to the Fountain," Angelica spoke up, jarring him from his thoughts and pushing him roughly into the present, where the heat from the fire pit was starting to get to him and his neck was sweaty and his breathing was heavy.
"There's been a lot of here-telling going on these days," Jack quipped, suddenly annoyed by his own image, the front he helped to create. Whispery appearance of a man who could reach the ends of the earth, rearrange the stars with a twitch of his hand, fly circles around enemies, live forever, walk into fires and survive.
"The Fountain of Youth," Angelica whispered fondly, trying out the words on her accented tongue and Jack had to fight the urge to roll his eyes. Secrets and sorrows surrounding the Fountain must be foreign to her. She must not understand how you kept your flame eternal.
"Dearest Angelica, fret not, you still have a few usable years left," Anna said in a faux-doting voice, a patronizing smile on her lips as she gazed at the pulley system like it was more interesting than the rest of the world. Jack chuckled, didn't bother to hide it, gold-capped teeth flashing in the fire-light.
"She's just as charming as you," Angelica responded bitterly, running a hand through her hair and tousling it, making it fall over her eyes slightly. "But you didn't answer my question."
"Eh? Ah, regarding the Fountain. Waste of time," Jack said shortly, his hand falling to his waist and brushing his sword as if to reassure himself of its presence.
The doors opened behind them, Scrum rushing in and his eyes bouncing between the three pirates. His eyes landed on Anna, his cheeks coloring and eyes ducking away suddenly as if he were unworthy to gaze upon her. "Milady! I see unseamenlike fellows of officious-looking nature!" he said loudly, drawing their attention to him sharply, his panic quickly returning to his system.
Anna turned to Jack, a knowing look in her eyes that swam with unspoken fear, wiped away within the instant, gone before he could fully register its existence. She stepped forward, her eyes on the small, nervous looking pirate.
"Have they said anything?" she asked, her voice carrying more impact than Angelica had heard yet. It was commanding, like that of a Captain with the air of someone who understood their options and was ready for whatever came next.
"No ma'am, Princess ma'am," he stuttered, averting his eyes obviously, to her annoyance. Anna swallowed, her body alive with sensation, the heat from the flames bathing her skin while her blood boiled, nerves tingled, eyes brightened, she could see.
"Princess?" Angelica asked, the word sounded foreign and different and unnatural. "Jack, you brought royalty into our midst? What have you done?" she demanded, turning away from them and brandishing her sword threateningly.
"I may have unintentionally slighted some King or another," Jack said without shame. "Her involvement has little to do with the red coats following us." His eyes were serious and deadly, begging for her to make a wrong move, say the wrong thing.
"It's okay, Jack," Anna said from her position, body coiled for a fight. Scrum had finally moved, latching the door and piling boxes and barrels in its way, his movements quick and jerking with the sounds of uniformed footsteps on the other side. "I wouldn't expect some Spanish tart to understand the intricacies of English politics," she sneered, not bothering to hide her discontent.
"Politics being the rather diplomatic way you crashed into a passing carriage from the walls of your grandfather's estate?" Jack asked, a teasing glint in his eyes that lightened the room for her, brought Anna back to the moment. She smiled at him, laughing lightly as bodies threw themselves against the locked door, demanding to be let in under the name of the king.
"Or how you and I swung from a chandelier in order to steal a pastry," Anna added, gesturing with her sword as if speaking with her hands.
"Or the most complete political policy there ever was," Jack continued, watching the doors threaten to give way as more soldiers pushed against it. "Sending Beckett to the depths." The quirk of his brow brought a smile to her lips that was almost blinding. Angelica didn't know where she belonged in the moment, her eyes flicking between the two of them as they told the beginnings of stories she could never participate in. Things were different. Jack was different.
"Sparrow, this is not the time!" she shouted, drawing their attention back as the doors blew in, red coats pouring into the room with shots blasting and swords raised. Anna launched herself into the fray before she was completely sure of what was happening. Her attacks were vicious, lacking the nearly sweet demeanor Jack had come to know her show in stolen moments.
"Correct me if I'm wrong, dearest, but I am sensing a problem between us!" Jack shouted from across the room, swept up in his own bottle. He dodged a shot, swinging around in time to slam another soldier into a stack of barrels on his left.
"You betrayed me. You seduced me and you used me!" Angelica nearly screamed from her own spot, battling fearlessly and quickly against three soldiers. "I was innocent of the ways of men!"
"You demonstrated a lot of technique for someone I supposedly corrupted," Jack quipped back, watching Scrum dash up the stairs and Anna lean down to take an encouraging drink of rum, straight from the barrel. If she had heard him, she didn't show it, and if she didn't, he was sure she wouldn't care. He caught her subtle movements toward the pulley system, a knowing look in her blue eyes. He copied her movements.
Angelica sent him an affronted look, outrage coloring her tan skin, pausing her movements a moment, long enough for her to notice Jack's moves towards the center of the room.
"I was ready to take my vows! And you- what were you doing in a Spanish Convent anyway?" she shouted, following the other pirates towards the fire pit and the expanse of pulleys.
"Mistook it for a brothel, honest mistake," Jack rebuked, no hint of indignity in his voice. Anna's laugh startled Angelica from her thoughts, pulling her back to the present as gunshots played like thunder over her ears, made her weave through a crowd of soldiers to try and reach Jack and the other woman.
"We are at a disadvantage," she called, tearing herself away from her enraged thoughts, Jack's image always able to hurt her, to bring her to the very edge of her sanity. He had reached Anna, linked arms with her and used their momentum to cut a path through the soldiers, who were still shouting gibberish about orders and the King.
"Speak for yourself! Unlike some who pretend to be, that cannot in fact hold a candle to, I'm Captain Jack Sparrow!" he shouted, stabbing a barrel quickly, watching the flow of rum knock down soldiers and create rivers of amber liquid. Anna followed his motions, Angelica catching on quickly, and soon rum and ale waterfalls were pushing down soldiers by the dozens. Anna paused, her sword poised to strike as she watched the puddles at her feet slowly disappear, leaking between the slates on the floor, the remaining rivers slowly inching towards the flames, promising an inferno.
Angelica had finally reached them through the deafening shots and bloodshed, her movements mirroring the other pirates as they made a circle for them to defend. Rum filtered through the wood planks, drawing Anna's eyes over and over again, distracting her from the imminent threat of death by the Royal Guard, death by the crown. Never a way she would die. Not if she could help it. Heat bathed her face and her side sang with pain as she kept fighting, kept moving because she wasn't ready for death. Not since things were finally looking up and she had time to count stars and read patterns, instead of running from her father, running towards Jack, away from Will, away from the world, back to her brother and her love and the end of the world.
"Jack!" she called, willing him to duck down as she spun, finally locating the right pulley. By the mercy of some god or goddess, Jack ducked, hit the deck in an even movement as she spun, flourishing her blade and cutting through the thick rope with a single slash.
The floor gave way beneath them, three bodies plummeting down into cold water like it was final judgment. Anna's corset weighed her down, made it difficult to swim, but she pushed herself, limbs burning with exertion as she forced herself deeper into water to avoid the sharp catch of a bullet. She felt Jack grab her hand, pull her forward through the icy river, Angelica close behind.
London was fading away with the cool touch of water against her skin and Anna could believe, for only a moment, that Calypso was caressing her face, holding her close like the arms of a mother she didn't know, but wanted. She let herself believe that the burning in her lungs was her body's way of telling her the ocean was calling, that this fresh water was wrong because it should be laced with salt, should carry the strength of tides. Jack's hand kept her tethered, his rough skin brining her back to the present and her clothes were heavy and her mind was racing and she swam like she was born to do it, shedding the pain London laid on her with each stroke.
They washed up on the banks of the River Thames, Angelica first to reach the slimy rock and pull herself out of water's embrace. Anna's head broke water a moment after Jack's and she breathed like air was treasure, like it was beautiful and addictive. Her hands scrambled numbly over rocks, splitting small cuts on her hands, one still held firmly in Jack's, his grip never loosened. Their eyes met, her blue sparkling with something like thanks and sorrow and rebirth, his black a yourwelcome and bright and new and promising. Her hand was still in his, and he made no move to let go.
Her eyes lifted to the sky, her body collapsing against sharp, uneven rocks as she stared at the skies like they were the answer to everything. "Jack, I think we're making a habit of this kind of thing," she breathed raggedly, her voice sounding weak and strong all at once, like it couldn't decide which way to fall.
"One day, we'll just walk out of a place we visit," he added, following her gaze and staring at the North Star. For a moment Angelica didn't exist, neither did their pasts, their futures, their half-forgotten memories of pain-laced goodbyes. It was just them and the heavy weight of water-drenched clothing.
Anna was the first to start laughing, to let the tension loose in a moment of hysteria, her body bent in half with the force of her hilarity, her hand still clinging to Jack as if she would die without the tether. He followed close behind, losing himself in the feeling of laughter bubbling in his chest and being set free in a silent, blood-stained night. His fingers were still twined with hers, connecting the space between them as they laughed like they couldn't help it, and maybe they couldn't. Space in their minds was nonexistent, despite the woman only feet away from them, staring over the water with expressionless eyes and the battle they just left behind. Their voices mingled together, laughter overlapping laughter and pain was forgotten.
They worked best when they were together, they kept proving it over and over. They were partners, clasped hands proved that they couldn't fight alone, break the ties of imperialism, or push away from the crown alone. They couldn't be free without the other, not really. Just like they couldn't fall in love alone.
