Once upon a time, there was a girl...

[tehoniongirl]

Who: tehoniongirl, list_to_port, and anyone else who joins them later at House Seven.
What: Jack's searching pays off.
When: Early Friday evening
Where: The woods/marauding bridge, first. House Seven, later.
Summary: Jilly returns from her mallynap safe and sound...and slightly smaller.
Rating: K, for kittens and rainbows and anklebiters, oh my!

Comments

[lists_to_port]

Jack Sparrow had lost count of the days since Jilly had been taken. He had searched for her faithfully each day that she was missing, wandering the forest, searching the lakeshores and the beach. On Friday evening he found himself a companion in Murphy, the small chestnut Shetland pony who was growing unconscionably shaggy with the advent of colder weather.

"You, Murphy, are unconscionably shaggy," Jack scolded him.

Murphy shrugged in that way that ponies do when they don't care how shaggy they are getting. He was pulling a small cart with a half-hearted load of firewood in it, and Jack was barely concentrating on filling it. There were so many preoccupations tonight. Jilly's absence, of course; the loss of McCoy; the troubling subject that Hornblower had brought up by Cullen House; and certainly not least of these, the difficult conversation he had had with Buffy after James Norrington had suggested he was giving up on her.

"Never," Jack muttered to himself. "I'd never."

And that was when Murphy's sharp little ears pricked forward eagerly. He whuffled in a rather pleased way and began trotting down toward the river.

"Murphy? Murphy lad, what...?" Dragging himself away from sad thoughts, the pirate hurried after the pony. "OI! Stop! Whatever are you THINKING, beastie?!"

The small animal simply hurried along faster, only increasing his speed when he sighted the small, muddy child walking all alone.

[unlayered]

Jilly's eyes widened slightly as the sound signaled the approach of others. But when she caught sight of the horse and the pirate, her expression flickered into one of curious wonder, rather than fear.

Her tiny toes flexed against the soft ground as she stared at them both. Familiar white and brown speckled wings fluttered a little against her back as she took one step on the slightly unsteady bank, balancing her as she wobbled, then pressed against her back once more as she stilled.

1/2

[lists_to_port]

For his part, Jack had barely noticed the girl, so intent was he on getting down that slippery hill through the copse and reining Murphy in.

"You're going to upset the cart, lad!" he shouted the warning.

2/2 /edits forever

[lists_to_port]

And then Jack looked up and saw a small child with curly dark hair and gorgeous eyes, and he thought he was staring at a beautiful dream, or at perdition. Punishment. Punishment for his doubting, and for choosing the wrong path, and for giving up on her.

She had never, ever, not ONCE given up on him. She had stood firm and scared the Fetches away with a stomp of her little foot during the Horrible Mad Winter, and she had held his hand after Buffy walked out on him--before the Seven Days. She had brought him peace and he'd run from her, consistently, and now she was here to exact her spectral revenge.

"Joyce?" he finally managed. Then Captain Jack Sparrow, Pirate Lord of the Caribbean, turned and tried to run in terror from the child, but strong pony teeth suddenly clamped down on a coattail and brought his flight up short.

[unlayered]

People didn't flee from Jilly. They didn't notice her or really talk to her, and they certainly didn't run. So when he calls for "Joyce" and turns to escape, she looks over her shoulder as well, eyes wide and searching for some kind of threat. But there is no terrifying giantess looming overhead. And there are no boys with guns and foul mouths and no mother with a thin lipped scowl. So, when she turns back to the pirate, it is with all the confused disapproval possible in a four year old body.

Her squishing steps go quiet as she moves from the bank to the grass, walking curiously over to the trapped pirate as he tries to free his coat. Eyeing him with a frown, her head tilted to one side. "You're silly."

Her voice, tinged with a lilt and twang that would be so absent in later years, wasn't exactly disapproving...but it was most definitely certain. This man and his pony were silly.

[lists_to_port]

It became clear to Murphy that he was going to have to step in, here, even more than he'd already done. With a twist of his neck the strong little beast brought Jack Sparrow staggering around to face the girl.

"Silly? Myself, silly? I'm..." He noticed the child's wings, then; and he noticed the rather withering look that Murphy was giving him. Jack cleared his throat. "Is your name Joyce, darling?"

[unlayered]

She nodded decisively. Silly. There was no question.

On the name though, she shakes her head, dark curls brushing her shoulders. "No. I'm Jillian."

[lists_to_port]

"Jack...I don't know that I can make you an honest anything. I'm not-I haven't even told you my real name."

".....Real name, Jilly?"

"Jillian Carter. I was Jillian Carter. Not Coppercorn."

"Well they're both fine names, love. Both fine."

"I'm not good at this. I'm really, really not."

"Which Jillian do you want to be?"

"I want to be Jilly Coppercorn. I do."

"Jillian," Jack breathed. He drew a ragged sleeve across his mouth and repeated the name, again, softly. "Jillian. And your last name, sweetheart? Do you know it?" He waited, every muscle tense, for her answer.

[unlayered]

There was another nod, almost proud. She knew the answer to this one. "I'm Jillian Carter and I live in Ty- Tyson."

It was said with practiced care. A lesson learned from rote.

[lists_to_port]

"Jillian Carter. What a lovely name."

Murphy snorted in an "I-told-you-so" sort of way, but Jack did not pay him any attention. All his terror at the sight of this girl was gone, replaced by a surge of love and protectiveness that took him by surprise. He shivered, and then found that his body wanted to keep shivering--it was reacting, possibly, to the relief at finding her at last, and seeing her apparently unharmed (though he'd have to suss that out), and to the newly-emerging idea that this was Jilly before all of the things that made her into Jilly happened. Maybe. He swallowed, hard.

"Jillian Carter, my name is Jack Sparrow, and if you don't mind, I'd like to bring you someplace safe."

[unlayered]

There was no fear in her expression, but when he suggested going somewhere else, there was a new set to her jaw. Tiny toes, muddy and still damp from the bank, dug into the grass underneath.

"I like it here."

Mama would be angry about her muddy feet. She wasn't supposed to get dirty.

[lists_to_port]

Murphy bumped Jack in the hip with his nose and gave a little prancy snort.

"OH. Sorry. Erm---Murphy, here? He's offerin' to give you a ride. And then we can get some nice things to eat, and somethin' warmer to wear--"

Oh, God; they'd need children's clothes. She couldn't wear that flimsy sundress with the temperature dropping the way it had been doing at night.

"And it'll be getting dark out here and it's not safe in the dark, Jillian darling. You don't want to be out here all by yourself, love."

[unlayered]

"I'm not scared of the dark."

But the offer of riding a pony was even enough to overwhelm her wariness about home. She steps closer, looking between the pirate and Murphy, uncertainly. "He didn't say anything."

...For better or worse, four year old Jilly was as accepting as her older self, and even less able to tell the difference between fact and fiction. There's mild suspicion as she glances up at Jack. She hadn't heard the pony speak.

[lists_to_port]

"I happen to speak pony, love."

Murphy nodded his head in the affirmative as Jack began to take his harness off.

"And I never said you'd be scared, did I? No, sweetheart. I'd be scared. I'd be scared and afraid and everything else. And you wouldn't like that, would you?"

[unlayered]

"Really?" For just a moment, her eyes widen in wonder. She can't be swayed by the emotional plea. Not yet. Jack is a stranger to her and she's smart enough to see through it. But speaking pony???

...Totally plausible.

[lists_to_port]

"Really. Truly. And Murphy, he speaks person, but not with words. He uses his little fuzzy ears and his nose and his little whickering sound that he makes. Stomps his feet and such."

Murphy bowed, happy to have the harness off his back.

"Buffy'll be glad to see you," the pirate said thoughtfully as he scratched the pony behind one ear. "Come here--I'll help you up on his back, eh? And then we'll go surprise her."