Twenty-one Bells: [ACTION/VOICE]

[noprevaricating]

[Archie has barely been around town lately, but he does appear in town this afternoon, dashing about to various shops and stores and picking up various one-use items and lots and lots of groceries. He seems to have one thing on his mind.

Later, he'll sit at the fountain and send out the voice message:]

This is Mr. Kennedy. If anyone is in need of me

Comments

[lists_to_port]

[Someone is meant to be in bed, recuperating. And instead, said someone is limping furtively through the village. He'd thought to go to Good Spirits, but to Good Spirits he cannot go, because Jack Sparrow does not know whether Buffy might be there.

He wants her. He wants to see her. Even if she could not see him--if, perhaps, he hid behind a tree, or a house, and just had a precious moment to lay eyes on her. And then, once he was sure of her safety and health, he could spirit away a few bottles of rum without Kennedy knowing and make it back to Cullen House unobserved.

Good luck with that, Jack.]

[noprevaricating]

[Jack might hear the sound of a throat clearing behind him.

Busted.]

[lists_to_port]

"....Kennedy." The pirate turns and his face falls and he nearly falls but he stays up.

Somehow.

"Erm....this isn't what it looks like..."

[noprevaricating]

"No? Tell me what it looks like, then."

1/2

[lists_to_port]

"Just...wanted to see her, is all. If I could. Not let her see me, mind you, not---because---"

[lists_to_port]

[noprevaricating]

[lists_to_port]

Nonsense. That's what all this is. Why has he been carrying on like this over the past few days? It's done. She's gone. That heavy wooden door shut behind her and Buffy was gone, and he didn't remember much after that but what he COULD remember was nothing good.

Pain.

Why, Jacky? Why bear it? Bachelor, you, just like your old dad. Just like old Teague in his day.

The pirate straightens his hat and holds his head up a bit higher. The two bottles of rum he managed to locate are reassuringly heavy in his pockets.

"Time to go back to the sea, eh?"

[noprevaricating]

Well, that was a change. Archie watches Jack suspiciously, fairly certain he hasn't been cured in the last few seconds. Not after Just...wanted to see her, is all.

"Jack, it takes two men to crew the Joanna, and you're hardly fit for it."

He realizes his mistake as soon as the words are out of his mouth.

1/2

[lists_to_port]

"My, Joanna?! I'm-----" Sparrow staggers back, trying to figure out how to bottle and contain the sudden flash of anger at that. Hardly fit. Hardly fit after what happened to the Elizabeth in the draft, according to Norrington; hardly fit for his Annie. And now...?

[lists_to_port]

"Right. I want one glimpse of her. Just one look--make sure she's alright. Make sure she's healthy and not still broken. And happy. And then I'll...you can put me straight to bed. I won't need to leave the room for a spell after."

Mostly because he had enough rum to last for up to two nights or so.

[noprevaricating]

"She's healthy, Jack. Please, come back home."

[lists_to_port]

"That eunuch-mansion is not home. You will avoid calling it that in the future. And I cannot take your word for that. Not til I see her."

[noprevaricating]

A frustrated sigh. "Jack, she asked you one thing, and it was to give her one week."

[lists_to_port]

"R-right. I.

Home, then. But not that sort of home. House. To my house." The bottles clink in his pockets as he tries to catch his rolling balance.

"You've spoken with her."

[noprevaricating]

"At length. Yesterday. And a little today."