Ficlet: A Good Night's Sleep
Title: A Good Night's Sleep
Fandom: Pirates of the Caribbean
Characters: Elizabeth, Jack
Word Count: 750
Written for:: comment_fic prompt by were_lemur, Elizabeth - single motherhood
Author's Note: Probably should have got this one beta'd. Mostly because I have finally admitted I have a migraine (and I was doing so well, spending over a week in denial). Which means things like word order and the knowledge of how to put a key in a lock aren't currently my forte. As to why I haven't just got a beta, well I have a migraine, which means I have fuzzy thinking and just can't bring myself to care.
All this translates to: if you see anything awkward or out and out wrong, let me know. This goes for all my things, really, but doubly so today.
That is, if there's anyone left that hasn't been chased off by this lovely introduction.
"All I ask is for you to watch William for a few hours," Elizabeth explained painstakingly-it really wasn't that difficult a concept to grasp and she couldn't figure out why Jack seemed to be having a problem understanding it. "I need to go to the Faithful Bride to find a new crew."
It didn't need saying that having a babe suckling at her breast was not a good way to go about recruiting. At least not after the last time. Jack had been there, after all, and had seen the way the most promising pirates had run away upon seeing her son spit up his lunch.
He'd poached a number of them, too.
The look of terror in their eyes was similar to the one Jack had on his face now, looking from William to Elizabeth, to William, to Elizabeth.
"Can't, love. I have to..." he trailed off, the prospect of caring for a baby so terrifying that it left even the great Captain Jack Sparrow fumbling for words.
"I'm not asking you to be godfather, Jack," Elizabeth said, exasperated by his behaviour. "I simply want you to be in the same room with him for an hour, two tops, making sure he doesn't start to fuss, or stop breathing."
"Pirate," he said by way of an explanation, jerking a thumb at his chest to make sure she knew what he was talking about. "Pirates don't do kiddies," he added, as if she hadn't been toting William around during the worst of the fighting that time they were attacked by the band of corsairs who didn't believe Elizabeth could possibly be a fellow pirate.
"King," she said just as briskly, since it seemed to win her fights most of the time these days.
"Ah," Jack said, holding up a finger, as if he'd caught her out, "but those royal rights are restricted to piraty-things. They do not extend to personal favours, QED I can't watch your lad just on your say so."
"They extend to whatever I say they extend to!" Elizabeth had not grown up the daughter of the governor without knowing how to throw her weight around. She had perfected this tone back in Port Royal, using it whenever she wanted to pull rank on a particularly conceited acquaintance.
"Do not!"
"Do too!"
"Do not!"
"Do-" Elizabeth broke off when she realized the futility of the argument. Normally it wouldn't have taken her this long, but she'd spent the past three nights pacing the deck because William was colicky.
She changed tactics. "It's in the Code."
"It is not," Jack said quickly.
Elizabeth's eyes narrowed. She really had thought she'd have a few more years before dealing with this type of childish argument. At least until William could sit up on his own accord, let alone speak. She wondered if "because I say so" would work as well coming from a King as it would coming from a mother.
Jack, she decided, would just come up with another convoluted reason for not having to obey her. Again.
He must have been a terror to raise.
"Prove it," she said, which she later on blamed on the roughly four hours of sleep she'd had in the past three nights, because normally she would never even dream of daring Jack. Even if they were on Tortuga and the prospect of rum and a warm bed ought to have distracted him sufficiently. Even if she'd never once heard of him backing down before. Pretend to, yes, but actually give in-not even with his dying breath. Mostly because that would be taken up trying to talk his murderer out of killing him.
Of course, by the time they reached Shipwreck's Cove, there were two vessels from the Spanish Armada bearing down on them while at the same time sea nymphs, who thought that Elizabeth was planning to steal their greatest treasure, the sacred trident that allowed them to breath air when on land-Elizabeth never did get the full story on why they believed she was after it-had infiltrated the pirate stronghold, ready to slit her open from belly to throat. In their haste to find a way out of this trouble, Elizabeth forgot all about checking the Code.
Especially when she discovered that sea nymphs, once they were placated, were only too happy to watch over the human son of the captain of the Flying Dutchman for a couple hours so Elizabeth could finally get some rest.
Fandom: Pirates of the Caribbean
Characters: Elizabeth, Jack
Word Count: 750
Written for:: comment_fic prompt by were_lemur, Elizabeth - single motherhood
Author's Note: Probably should have got this one beta'd. Mostly because I have finally admitted I have a migraine (and I was doing so well, spending over a week in denial). Which means things like word order and the knowledge of how to put a key in a lock aren't currently my forte. As to why I haven't just got a beta, well I have a migraine, which means I have fuzzy thinking and just can't bring myself to care.
All this translates to: if you see anything awkward or out and out wrong, let me know. This goes for all my things, really, but doubly so today.
That is, if there's anyone left that hasn't been chased off by this lovely introduction.
"All I ask is for you to watch William for a few hours," Elizabeth explained painstakingly-it really wasn't that difficult a concept to grasp and she couldn't figure out why Jack seemed to be having a problem understanding it. "I need to go to the Faithful Bride to find a new crew."
It didn't need saying that having a babe suckling at her breast was not a good way to go about recruiting. At least not after the last time. Jack had been there, after all, and had seen the way the most promising pirates had run away upon seeing her son spit up his lunch.
He'd poached a number of them, too.
The look of terror in their eyes was similar to the one Jack had on his face now, looking from William to Elizabeth, to William, to Elizabeth.
"Can't, love. I have to..." he trailed off, the prospect of caring for a baby so terrifying that it left even the great Captain Jack Sparrow fumbling for words.
"I'm not asking you to be godfather, Jack," Elizabeth said, exasperated by his behaviour. "I simply want you to be in the same room with him for an hour, two tops, making sure he doesn't start to fuss, or stop breathing."
"Pirate," he said by way of an explanation, jerking a thumb at his chest to make sure she knew what he was talking about. "Pirates don't do kiddies," he added, as if she hadn't been toting William around during the worst of the fighting that time they were attacked by the band of corsairs who didn't believe Elizabeth could possibly be a fellow pirate.
"King," she said just as briskly, since it seemed to win her fights most of the time these days.
"Ah," Jack said, holding up a finger, as if he'd caught her out, "but those royal rights are restricted to piraty-things. They do not extend to personal favours, QED I can't watch your lad just on your say so."
"They extend to whatever I say they extend to!" Elizabeth had not grown up the daughter of the governor without knowing how to throw her weight around. She had perfected this tone back in Port Royal, using it whenever she wanted to pull rank on a particularly conceited acquaintance.
"Do not!"
"Do too!"
"Do not!"
"Do-" Elizabeth broke off when she realized the futility of the argument. Normally it wouldn't have taken her this long, but she'd spent the past three nights pacing the deck because William was colicky.
She changed tactics. "It's in the Code."
"It is not," Jack said quickly.
Elizabeth's eyes narrowed. She really had thought she'd have a few more years before dealing with this type of childish argument. At least until William could sit up on his own accord, let alone speak. She wondered if "because I say so" would work as well coming from a King as it would coming from a mother.
Jack, she decided, would just come up with another convoluted reason for not having to obey her. Again.
He must have been a terror to raise.
"Prove it," she said, which she later on blamed on the roughly four hours of sleep she'd had in the past three nights, because normally she would never even dream of daring Jack. Even if they were on Tortuga and the prospect of rum and a warm bed ought to have distracted him sufficiently. Even if she'd never once heard of him backing down before. Pretend to, yes, but actually give in-not even with his dying breath. Mostly because that would be taken up trying to talk his murderer out of killing him.
Of course, by the time they reached Shipwreck's Cove, there were two vessels from the Spanish Armada bearing down on them while at the same time sea nymphs, who thought that Elizabeth was planning to steal their greatest treasure, the sacred trident that allowed them to breath air when on land-Elizabeth never did get the full story on why they believed she was after it-had infiltrated the pirate stronghold, ready to slit her open from belly to throat. In their haste to find a way out of this trouble, Elizabeth forgot all about checking the Code.
Especially when she discovered that sea nymphs, once they were placated, were only too happy to watch over the human son of the captain of the Flying Dutchman for a couple hours so Elizabeth could finally get some rest.