Fic: Fate Intervenes 1/16 [PotC Fandom]
Spoilers for DMC. Takes place sometime after the third movie.
Title: Fate Intervenes 1/16
by GylzGirl
Rating: So far, suggestive PG-13. Will be NC-17.
Warnings: Sparrabeth. Spoilers for DMC.
Summary: Elizabeth is in trouble and it seems Jack, and something he asked her a long time ago, are her only hope.
Disclaimer: Disney owns all the PotC characters. I own Gabriel Chase and any other little original touches. *So* not making money of any kind off of this.
Author's Notes: The following fic takes place at some point not long after the third film. It supposes several things about PotC3. It also supposes something from DMC: that Jack, for his own reasons, really would have married Liz as he proposed, had she only said yet. At some point, I'm hoping this gets sent into AU because I'd dearly love J/E to wind up together, I just don't see Disney letting it happen.
******
CHAPTER ONE: The Proposal
Jack Sparrow clutched the letter in his hand as he gave the order to drop anchor off the shore of Tortuga. The parchment was crinkled from his grip but it no longer mattered. Jack had memorized it in the three days since he received it on the island of Barbuda. Every bloody word.
Jack,
Circumstance demands I come straight to the point. The writing of this finds me mortally wounded in the defense of Elizabeth. Norrington and Governor Swann have preceded me to the grave and I fear that you may be her only true protection left. I call on all your reserves of honor and all vestiges of friendship you may have ever felt for me. I have sent Elizabeth on to your favorite port. She is guised in a manner that will be familiar to you. I have instructed her to visit the ale house once a day at noon and remain there for one hour to look for your arrival and to secure herself away in some safe quarter the remainder of the time. The details I will leave to Elizabeth to explain for my time is fleeting, as will be the opportune moment to send this message. And frankly, if you do not find or do not look for Elizabeth, then all explanations are simply irrelevant. I will tell you that the danger, the tragedy we have found ourselves immersed in are all owed to one man, Gabriel Chase. I mention him because he led us to believe he is known to you. And if you know what kind of a creature this man is, Jack, I pray you will rescue Elizabeth.
I am not certain why he has selected Port Royal and, more specifically, Elizabeth for his cruel and obscene attentions. I only know that the efforts of the three men here who loved her have proved useless and led to no safe quarter for her. More so, with the three of us cut down, nothing stands between his claiming her for himself. Nothing save you, Jack. Chase comes with the blessing of the East India Trading Company, and the Royal Navy, at least at this port, is proving characteristically unwilling or unable to stand against their might.
I think you may love or have once loved Elizabeth, Jack. If so, I am asking you, love her now. Save her, Jack. Protect her. I beg this final request of you.
Please.
Save Elizabeth.
Will
As the crew made ready the longboat, Jack stood at the railing of the Black Pearl staring at the town. He crumpled the letter in his grip and stuffed it in his coat pocket. His feelings toward the fair Elizabeth were as much a mystery to himself as they seemed to be to the late William Turner. He longed to see her every moment of every day. Concurrent to that, he hoped he'd never see her again. It was women like Elizabeth Swann that caused men to cut out their own hearts and lock them away for safekeeping in buried treasure chests.
"Longboat's ready, Cap'n," Joshamee Gibbs said from behind him. Jack followed him over and made his way down to the smaller vessel.
"You've the Pearl till I return."
Alone, he began to row himself toward the docks. Complicated though his feelings were for Elizabeth, he wouldn't have left a two-penny whore to the clutches of Gabriel Chase. He rowed steadily, hoping he would make town during the appointed hour.
******
Elizabeth styled her hair as best she could in the shard of grubby broken mirror that hung on the wall of her meager room in Tortuga. She placed her tricorn hat on her head and continued to tease her locks into a more boyish arrangement to further aid her disguise. She sighed and looked at the reflection of her own eyes. She didn't recognize the girl in the mirror. Those eyes once glittered with life. They'd entertained the temptation of being a pirate and enjoying unlimited freedom. She had never realized how much freedom she'd actually had until it was stripped away from her cruelly like flesh from bone at the end of a cat o' nine tails. The freedom to marry someone of her choosing, someone she loved, someone to whom she would be more than a decorative semen recepticle with an sizeable inheritance. The eyes before her, now glistening with tears, used to hold hope and faith and beliefs that she couldn't even recall at the moment. They had belonged to an adventurous young lady with a loving father and a handsome fiancée and a bright future. Two of those were now lost to her and the third seemed dimmer with each passing day.
She had been on Tortuga two weeks waiting for Jack Sparrow to arrive. As Will had told her to, she went at noon to the tavern that Jack frequented most whenever in port, waited an hour and then sequestered herself in this pauper's hovel that rented by the week to prostitutes and derelict sailors looking for a place to sleep it off between sea voyages.
Elizabeth felt ridiculous, waiting for this man who owed her nothing to come and rescue her. But despite all her logic, all the harsh lessons the world had taught her over the past few years of life, she found that Captain Jack Sparrow was the one thing left she did believe in. She was afraid that Gabriel Chase, the man she was running from, would soon find her if she remained in Tortuga much longer. Her instincts told her to hire passage to England or Singapore, or some other hiding place before the small pouch of coins Will had been able to slip to her to aid her escape ran out. Yet, she waited for Jack. He was the only friend left to her. He was the only person who could really understand who she'd been and just what she'd lost. He was the only person who could complete the plan to save herself she'd made on the passage from Port Royal without it being a worse thing than what she was running from.
She squared her shoulders and wiped her useless tears on her coat sleeves. Clearing her throat, she pulled the tattered curtain to the window of her room and left for the tavern and another day of waiting for Jack Sparrow.
******
Elizabeth entered the tavern, stopping a wench on her way and ordering her usual. She took one step forward and prepared to follow her daily ritual; table at the back with a full view of the entrance, nurse her rum over the course of an hour, pay and return to her room. Suddenly, a hand clapped down on her shoulder. Her breath caught in her throat, terrified that Chase had found her.
"'ello Darlin'," a familiar voice drawled behind her.
She gasped and spun on the spot, her eyes wide. She smiled. "Jack!" In an instant, she was hugging him tightly.
He grinned and took hold of her arms. "Easy there, lad. As I've told you before, my first and only love is the sea."
She pulled back in confusion and then realized how she was dressed. She bowed her head. "There are tables in the back. May we speak?"
"Lead on, lad." She turned and walked deeper into the tavern. Jack frowned. Her eyes no longer held the liveliness he remembered them to have and were dark circled from lack of rest. A faint swell and purpling of the skin at her cheekbone indicated a nearly healed blow to her face.
At a free back table, Elizabeth sat herself down. Jack joined her. "I came as soon as I got Will's letter."
Elizabeth winced at the mention of his name. "Thank you for coming. I know you didn't exactly owe it to either of us but, we didn't know who else to ask. I take it you do know of Gabriel Chase?"
"I've had that displeasure. And you can tell me as much or as little of the tale as ye wish. I know of his penchant for pretty young heiresses and making their lives a living Hell."
"There seems to be a story there?"
He smirked. "I'll tell ye mine if ye tell me yours. However, you seemed to have more urgent concerns."
"I'll come straight to it then, Jack. I think I've figured out a way to escape him permanently."
"Ye want me to take you as far away from him as you can get."
"If that is all you can do for me, then I will accept that gratefully."
Jack arched his eyebrow, intrigued. "What more might ye be wanting of me?"
Elizabeth swallowed and found she couldn't meet his eyes. For two weeks, this had been her ultimate solution. Now that she had the opportunity, it seemed ludicrous. He'd say no. Was there any point in embarrassing herself?
Ever intuitive, Jack spoke, "Come now, there's nothing you could say that could make me think less of you."
She barked a laugh at that. She wasn't sure if he knew how that had sounded or if it was exactly as he meant it to sound. But he was right. She had little dignity left to lose. "Marr-i-age, Jack," she said and looked into his surprised brown eyes. "I want you to marry me."
He smiled but did not laugh at her as she feared. "Flattered as I am, may I enquire as to this sudden infatuation with me person? Especially with your dear William so newly delivered unto eternity."
She took a deep breath. "The suddenness is out of necessity, Jack. My hope is that Gabriel Chase will abandon his efforts to force me to marry him if I am not only already married with my inheritance secured to my new husband, but if said husband is a pirate with the reputation of Captain Jack Sparrow."
Jack opened his mouth to speak then shut it again. His eyes shifted back and forth as if considering options. He opened and closed his mouth again, then looked to her and smiled. "If I were agree to this tempting offer… I would expect an actual, consummated union. I mean, there'd be little in it for me without that… stipulation."
"I have no objection to that," she said quietly.
"Really?" Now he was smirking. "This is news to me. Welcome news but still…"
"Come now, Jack. We've had our moments, haven't we? Things that could have led to more. Things maybe we even wished to take further?"
"But your honor wouldn't allow it?"
She smiled humorlessly. "At this point, I'd have to say my honor hasn't done much for me. As to the matter of my virginity however, I'd sooner decide who claims that then have it ripped from me against my will."
"And you've chosen me by default?"
"You needn't make it sound so terrible. With Will dead, you're the only other man on the face of this earth that I can think of touching me without my skin crawling. Is that any better?"
"Practically a love poem, dearie," he said with a small pout. The tavern wench brought over the rum Elizabeth had ordered. He grabbed it from in front of her and downed about half of it before coming up for air.
"I take it your answer is no, then?" Elizabeth said.
"I'll be needing some time to think on this."
She stood. "There isn't any time, Jack." He stood as well. "If you are not agreeable, I more than understand but don't waste time with sparing my feelings. We need to g…"
His dirty finger looked somewhat obscene pressed against her petal pink lips to shush her. She made no protest however. And unless his imagination was playing tricks on him, she seemed to almost kiss the marred digit.
His brown eyes darkened and he leaned in close to whisper to her. "Quiet yourself and listen to ol' Jack for a moment now, Lizzie. Marriage to a beautiful, refined, rich, willing Governor's daughter is one treasure no pirate in all the seven seas even allows himself the freedom of entertaining thoughts of. And even the one daft bugger who might, wouldn't allow himself the imagining that said fine lady might have some wild streak of pirate and scallywag within herself that would turn his blood to fire just thinking about her whilst alone in his cabin at night, all by his onesies." His breath was hot in her ear. His lips so close, they often ghosted contact against her lobe. He leaned back to see her eyes closed, her face flushed with lust that he feared had fled her soul under Chase's pursuit. There was his Lizzie; the pirate princess who had made his life so much more complicated. She swallowed almost convulsively and had still not moved her lips from his finger. He grinned, now certain that it had indeed not been his imagination earlier.
"However," he began again. Her eyelids fluttered open and her eyes met his. "Marriage is still marriage. Now, rum is me favorite drink in all the world. Nothing tastes like it." He held her eyes and licked his lips. She shuddered in his embrace. "I've had other drinks. They will get ye drunk all the same, but you don't enjoy the getting there near as much as ye will with rum. Rum's spicy and warm. Fills the belly. Fills the nostrils. Spins your senses all pleasing like. I'll take another drink, but I'd make an effort to find me rum. Rum's been a companion through me wondrous and varied adventures. Rum an' me, like peas in a pod we are."
He slid his hand until only his fingertip remained on her lips. He stroked her mouth and heard her take a shuddering breath. "Now, ask me to drink naught but rum for the rest of me span however and I think I need a moment's reflection. Can I honestly promise never to thirst for anything else? It bears consideration." He released her with a smile. "Therefore, wait here but a few minutes and I'll be over there considering my libationary options, savvy?"
With that, he turned and swaggered over to a table. "Rum please," he announced loudly to the serving wench. He looked across the room to Elizabeth. She blinked a moment, looking somewhat stunned and then sunk slowly into her chair with her back to him.
Jack felt a bit sorry for her. She actually thought he'd be the one turning her down. Apparently, it never did occur to her that his proposal back on the Black Pearl all that time ago had been completely sincere, even if he had been prompted to make it by a combination of a particularly potent bottle of Jamaican rum and the throbbing in his loins at her insistence of how ready she was. As he had once told Will Turner, not all treasure is silver and gold. And Elizabeth had been a treasure he coveted, but would have never thought to have the opportunity to plunder. Being a pirate, he wasn't about to turn down the key when offered it so willingly. However, he also had a long memory and included within it was her playful rejection of his presumed spurious proposal. Pride required him to play hard to get for at least a good five minutes.
He'd say yes. Of course he would. Not that he was about to tell her, but her plan was faulty in one magnificent way. His name would do nothing to scare off Gabriel Chase. Chase was no more afraid of Jack than he was of Elizabeth herself. However, as their being married would equally not incur Chase's further wrath, and would, in fact, thwart him marrying her on the spot should he catch up to them, Jack felt Elizabeth needn't necessarily be informed any time soon.
******
Elizabeth tried to get her breathing back under control. She had successfully cut off most of her emotions since leaving Port Royal. She'd had to in order to survive. Tortuga was not a port generous to those who showed weakness. In that time, she had come to believe that her heart had gone all but dead from grief. Five minutes in the presence of Jack Sparrow and the damn thing had sprung back to life with a vengeance. She wasn't sure if she should feel grateful to him for that or hate him for it.
She sighed. This was a daft idea. He would say no. Of course he would. Not that she was going to tell him but she'd resigned herself to losing her virginity to Jack Sparrow. If not within the bounds of proper matrimony, she'd still have her Captain. She didn't care if she had to get him drunk stupid and ravish him in his cabin in the middle of the night. But she'd be damned if she was going to let Gabriel Chase take her virginity from her. And with Will gone, she'd be damned if she was going to die without having known the touch of Jack Sparrow too. However, if she could preserve that last vestige of propriety within her and lose her virginity to her husband, she would remain quiet for now.
A touch on her shoulder startled her. She jumped and looked up to see Jack sitting himself down next to her. "I've considered your proposal."
"And?"
"And… seeing as you put it so romantically, I s'pose I agree."
She smiled. "Yes?"
"Yes," he smiled back.
"When?"
He grabbed her hand and jumped to his feet, leading her towards the door. "No time like the present. The Pearl is anchored just off…" He got her outside before her dragging feet forced him to stop and turn. "Changed your mind already?"
"No, it's not that."
"What then?"
"I'd prefer to marry in the local chapel. I think Chase would have more trouble disputing it that way."
He pouted at her. "Already making demands, Lizzie? Is this any way to start things?"
"Not a demand, a request."
He shrugged. "Whatever you like, dearie." He reached into his breeches and pulled out a small bag of coins which he tossed at her.
"What's this?"
"Buy a dress with that, Lizzie. I'll not have the locals gossiping that Captain Jack Sparrow ran off and got married to some little lad, no matter how comely said lad might be described as being."
"Is that a demand?" She smiled.
"A request."
She reached into her own breeches and removed her own pouch of coins which she tossed to him. He caught it easily. "What's this for?"
"Buy a bath." She grinned. "I’d like my wedding night to be memorable for reasons other than how long I managed to hold my breath, savvy?"
He smirked and began dragging her along behind him. "What are you doing, Jack? The shops are this way."
"Bathhouse, Lizzie. You've been on Tortuga for two weeks. Ye don't exactly smell like an English rose yourself there, Love."
"But we can't togeth.." She found herself being pressed up against the outside wall of the tavern. His thigh pressed itself between her legs and she gasped. He took full advantage and explored her mouth with his tongue, thoroughly. He pulled back and smiled at the slightly dazed look her eyes held.
"Ye have me word that I'll not ravish you till we're properly wed." His hands slid down the sides of her body until they came to rest on her hips. He grasped her there tightly and rocked her slightly against him. "However, till then, I intend to take advantage of the privilege of being affianced." He leered at her then leaned in and nuzzled her neck. "Ye want me bathed, Lizzie, you'll do the job yourself. And then I'll return the favor, savvy?"
He walked backwards and tugged on her arm. Offering no further resistance, she followed.
CHAPTER TWO: A Clean Start
Crossposted to sparrabeth and deppfanfiction
EDIT: Following Chapters:
CHAPTER TWO: A Clean Start
CHAPTER THREE: Vows
CHAPTER FOUR: Marr-i-age
CHAPTER FIVE: Honeymoon
CHAPTER SIX: Dark Horizon
CHAPTER SEVEN: Pirates
CHAPTER EIGHT: What Happens in La Vega, Stays in La Vega
CHAPTER NINE: Rude Awakening
CHAPTER TEN: Deja Vu
CHAPTER ELEVEN: Letting Go
CHAPTER TWELVE: An All-Consuming Fire
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: The Talon's Reach
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Slain
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: Departure
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: Scars
Title: Fate Intervenes 1/16
by GylzGirl
Rating: So far, suggestive PG-13. Will be NC-17.
Warnings: Sparrabeth. Spoilers for DMC.
Summary: Elizabeth is in trouble and it seems Jack, and something he asked her a long time ago, are her only hope.
Disclaimer: Disney owns all the PotC characters. I own Gabriel Chase and any other little original touches. *So* not making money of any kind off of this.
Author's Notes: The following fic takes place at some point not long after the third film. It supposes several things about PotC3. It also supposes something from DMC: that Jack, for his own reasons, really would have married Liz as he proposed, had she only said yet. At some point, I'm hoping this gets sent into AU because I'd dearly love J/E to wind up together, I just don't see Disney letting it happen.
******
CHAPTER ONE: The Proposal
Jack Sparrow clutched the letter in his hand as he gave the order to drop anchor off the shore of Tortuga. The parchment was crinkled from his grip but it no longer mattered. Jack had memorized it in the three days since he received it on the island of Barbuda. Every bloody word.
Jack,
Circumstance demands I come straight to the point. The writing of this finds me mortally wounded in the defense of Elizabeth. Norrington and Governor Swann have preceded me to the grave and I fear that you may be her only true protection left. I call on all your reserves of honor and all vestiges of friendship you may have ever felt for me. I have sent Elizabeth on to your favorite port. She is guised in a manner that will be familiar to you. I have instructed her to visit the ale house once a day at noon and remain there for one hour to look for your arrival and to secure herself away in some safe quarter the remainder of the time. The details I will leave to Elizabeth to explain for my time is fleeting, as will be the opportune moment to send this message. And frankly, if you do not find or do not look for Elizabeth, then all explanations are simply irrelevant. I will tell you that the danger, the tragedy we have found ourselves immersed in are all owed to one man, Gabriel Chase. I mention him because he led us to believe he is known to you. And if you know what kind of a creature this man is, Jack, I pray you will rescue Elizabeth.
I am not certain why he has selected Port Royal and, more specifically, Elizabeth for his cruel and obscene attentions. I only know that the efforts of the three men here who loved her have proved useless and led to no safe quarter for her. More so, with the three of us cut down, nothing stands between his claiming her for himself. Nothing save you, Jack. Chase comes with the blessing of the East India Trading Company, and the Royal Navy, at least at this port, is proving characteristically unwilling or unable to stand against their might.
I think you may love or have once loved Elizabeth, Jack. If so, I am asking you, love her now. Save her, Jack. Protect her. I beg this final request of you.
Please.
Save Elizabeth.
Will
As the crew made ready the longboat, Jack stood at the railing of the Black Pearl staring at the town. He crumpled the letter in his grip and stuffed it in his coat pocket. His feelings toward the fair Elizabeth were as much a mystery to himself as they seemed to be to the late William Turner. He longed to see her every moment of every day. Concurrent to that, he hoped he'd never see her again. It was women like Elizabeth Swann that caused men to cut out their own hearts and lock them away for safekeeping in buried treasure chests.
"Longboat's ready, Cap'n," Joshamee Gibbs said from behind him. Jack followed him over and made his way down to the smaller vessel.
"You've the Pearl till I return."
Alone, he began to row himself toward the docks. Complicated though his feelings were for Elizabeth, he wouldn't have left a two-penny whore to the clutches of Gabriel Chase. He rowed steadily, hoping he would make town during the appointed hour.
******
Elizabeth styled her hair as best she could in the shard of grubby broken mirror that hung on the wall of her meager room in Tortuga. She placed her tricorn hat on her head and continued to tease her locks into a more boyish arrangement to further aid her disguise. She sighed and looked at the reflection of her own eyes. She didn't recognize the girl in the mirror. Those eyes once glittered with life. They'd entertained the temptation of being a pirate and enjoying unlimited freedom. She had never realized how much freedom she'd actually had until it was stripped away from her cruelly like flesh from bone at the end of a cat o' nine tails. The freedom to marry someone of her choosing, someone she loved, someone to whom she would be more than a decorative semen recepticle with an sizeable inheritance. The eyes before her, now glistening with tears, used to hold hope and faith and beliefs that she couldn't even recall at the moment. They had belonged to an adventurous young lady with a loving father and a handsome fiancée and a bright future. Two of those were now lost to her and the third seemed dimmer with each passing day.
She had been on Tortuga two weeks waiting for Jack Sparrow to arrive. As Will had told her to, she went at noon to the tavern that Jack frequented most whenever in port, waited an hour and then sequestered herself in this pauper's hovel that rented by the week to prostitutes and derelict sailors looking for a place to sleep it off between sea voyages.
Elizabeth felt ridiculous, waiting for this man who owed her nothing to come and rescue her. But despite all her logic, all the harsh lessons the world had taught her over the past few years of life, she found that Captain Jack Sparrow was the one thing left she did believe in. She was afraid that Gabriel Chase, the man she was running from, would soon find her if she remained in Tortuga much longer. Her instincts told her to hire passage to England or Singapore, or some other hiding place before the small pouch of coins Will had been able to slip to her to aid her escape ran out. Yet, she waited for Jack. He was the only friend left to her. He was the only person who could really understand who she'd been and just what she'd lost. He was the only person who could complete the plan to save herself she'd made on the passage from Port Royal without it being a worse thing than what she was running from.
She squared her shoulders and wiped her useless tears on her coat sleeves. Clearing her throat, she pulled the tattered curtain to the window of her room and left for the tavern and another day of waiting for Jack Sparrow.
******
Elizabeth entered the tavern, stopping a wench on her way and ordering her usual. She took one step forward and prepared to follow her daily ritual; table at the back with a full view of the entrance, nurse her rum over the course of an hour, pay and return to her room. Suddenly, a hand clapped down on her shoulder. Her breath caught in her throat, terrified that Chase had found her.
"'ello Darlin'," a familiar voice drawled behind her.
She gasped and spun on the spot, her eyes wide. She smiled. "Jack!" In an instant, she was hugging him tightly.
He grinned and took hold of her arms. "Easy there, lad. As I've told you before, my first and only love is the sea."
She pulled back in confusion and then realized how she was dressed. She bowed her head. "There are tables in the back. May we speak?"
"Lead on, lad." She turned and walked deeper into the tavern. Jack frowned. Her eyes no longer held the liveliness he remembered them to have and were dark circled from lack of rest. A faint swell and purpling of the skin at her cheekbone indicated a nearly healed blow to her face.
At a free back table, Elizabeth sat herself down. Jack joined her. "I came as soon as I got Will's letter."
Elizabeth winced at the mention of his name. "Thank you for coming. I know you didn't exactly owe it to either of us but, we didn't know who else to ask. I take it you do know of Gabriel Chase?"
"I've had that displeasure. And you can tell me as much or as little of the tale as ye wish. I know of his penchant for pretty young heiresses and making their lives a living Hell."
"There seems to be a story there?"
He smirked. "I'll tell ye mine if ye tell me yours. However, you seemed to have more urgent concerns."
"I'll come straight to it then, Jack. I think I've figured out a way to escape him permanently."
"Ye want me to take you as far away from him as you can get."
"If that is all you can do for me, then I will accept that gratefully."
Jack arched his eyebrow, intrigued. "What more might ye be wanting of me?"
Elizabeth swallowed and found she couldn't meet his eyes. For two weeks, this had been her ultimate solution. Now that she had the opportunity, it seemed ludicrous. He'd say no. Was there any point in embarrassing herself?
Ever intuitive, Jack spoke, "Come now, there's nothing you could say that could make me think less of you."
She barked a laugh at that. She wasn't sure if he knew how that had sounded or if it was exactly as he meant it to sound. But he was right. She had little dignity left to lose. "Marr-i-age, Jack," she said and looked into his surprised brown eyes. "I want you to marry me."
He smiled but did not laugh at her as she feared. "Flattered as I am, may I enquire as to this sudden infatuation with me person? Especially with your dear William so newly delivered unto eternity."
She took a deep breath. "The suddenness is out of necessity, Jack. My hope is that Gabriel Chase will abandon his efforts to force me to marry him if I am not only already married with my inheritance secured to my new husband, but if said husband is a pirate with the reputation of Captain Jack Sparrow."
Jack opened his mouth to speak then shut it again. His eyes shifted back and forth as if considering options. He opened and closed his mouth again, then looked to her and smiled. "If I were agree to this tempting offer… I would expect an actual, consummated union. I mean, there'd be little in it for me without that… stipulation."
"I have no objection to that," she said quietly.
"Really?" Now he was smirking. "This is news to me. Welcome news but still…"
"Come now, Jack. We've had our moments, haven't we? Things that could have led to more. Things maybe we even wished to take further?"
"But your honor wouldn't allow it?"
She smiled humorlessly. "At this point, I'd have to say my honor hasn't done much for me. As to the matter of my virginity however, I'd sooner decide who claims that then have it ripped from me against my will."
"And you've chosen me by default?"
"You needn't make it sound so terrible. With Will dead, you're the only other man on the face of this earth that I can think of touching me without my skin crawling. Is that any better?"
"Practically a love poem, dearie," he said with a small pout. The tavern wench brought over the rum Elizabeth had ordered. He grabbed it from in front of her and downed about half of it before coming up for air.
"I take it your answer is no, then?" Elizabeth said.
"I'll be needing some time to think on this."
She stood. "There isn't any time, Jack." He stood as well. "If you are not agreeable, I more than understand but don't waste time with sparing my feelings. We need to g…"
His dirty finger looked somewhat obscene pressed against her petal pink lips to shush her. She made no protest however. And unless his imagination was playing tricks on him, she seemed to almost kiss the marred digit.
His brown eyes darkened and he leaned in close to whisper to her. "Quiet yourself and listen to ol' Jack for a moment now, Lizzie. Marriage to a beautiful, refined, rich, willing Governor's daughter is one treasure no pirate in all the seven seas even allows himself the freedom of entertaining thoughts of. And even the one daft bugger who might, wouldn't allow himself the imagining that said fine lady might have some wild streak of pirate and scallywag within herself that would turn his blood to fire just thinking about her whilst alone in his cabin at night, all by his onesies." His breath was hot in her ear. His lips so close, they often ghosted contact against her lobe. He leaned back to see her eyes closed, her face flushed with lust that he feared had fled her soul under Chase's pursuit. There was his Lizzie; the pirate princess who had made his life so much more complicated. She swallowed almost convulsively and had still not moved her lips from his finger. He grinned, now certain that it had indeed not been his imagination earlier.
"However," he began again. Her eyelids fluttered open and her eyes met his. "Marriage is still marriage. Now, rum is me favorite drink in all the world. Nothing tastes like it." He held her eyes and licked his lips. She shuddered in his embrace. "I've had other drinks. They will get ye drunk all the same, but you don't enjoy the getting there near as much as ye will with rum. Rum's spicy and warm. Fills the belly. Fills the nostrils. Spins your senses all pleasing like. I'll take another drink, but I'd make an effort to find me rum. Rum's been a companion through me wondrous and varied adventures. Rum an' me, like peas in a pod we are."
He slid his hand until only his fingertip remained on her lips. He stroked her mouth and heard her take a shuddering breath. "Now, ask me to drink naught but rum for the rest of me span however and I think I need a moment's reflection. Can I honestly promise never to thirst for anything else? It bears consideration." He released her with a smile. "Therefore, wait here but a few minutes and I'll be over there considering my libationary options, savvy?"
With that, he turned and swaggered over to a table. "Rum please," he announced loudly to the serving wench. He looked across the room to Elizabeth. She blinked a moment, looking somewhat stunned and then sunk slowly into her chair with her back to him.
Jack felt a bit sorry for her. She actually thought he'd be the one turning her down. Apparently, it never did occur to her that his proposal back on the Black Pearl all that time ago had been completely sincere, even if he had been prompted to make it by a combination of a particularly potent bottle of Jamaican rum and the throbbing in his loins at her insistence of how ready she was. As he had once told Will Turner, not all treasure is silver and gold. And Elizabeth had been a treasure he coveted, but would have never thought to have the opportunity to plunder. Being a pirate, he wasn't about to turn down the key when offered it so willingly. However, he also had a long memory and included within it was her playful rejection of his presumed spurious proposal. Pride required him to play hard to get for at least a good five minutes.
He'd say yes. Of course he would. Not that he was about to tell her, but her plan was faulty in one magnificent way. His name would do nothing to scare off Gabriel Chase. Chase was no more afraid of Jack than he was of Elizabeth herself. However, as their being married would equally not incur Chase's further wrath, and would, in fact, thwart him marrying her on the spot should he catch up to them, Jack felt Elizabeth needn't necessarily be informed any time soon.
******
Elizabeth tried to get her breathing back under control. She had successfully cut off most of her emotions since leaving Port Royal. She'd had to in order to survive. Tortuga was not a port generous to those who showed weakness. In that time, she had come to believe that her heart had gone all but dead from grief. Five minutes in the presence of Jack Sparrow and the damn thing had sprung back to life with a vengeance. She wasn't sure if she should feel grateful to him for that or hate him for it.
She sighed. This was a daft idea. He would say no. Of course he would. Not that she was going to tell him but she'd resigned herself to losing her virginity to Jack Sparrow. If not within the bounds of proper matrimony, she'd still have her Captain. She didn't care if she had to get him drunk stupid and ravish him in his cabin in the middle of the night. But she'd be damned if she was going to let Gabriel Chase take her virginity from her. And with Will gone, she'd be damned if she was going to die without having known the touch of Jack Sparrow too. However, if she could preserve that last vestige of propriety within her and lose her virginity to her husband, she would remain quiet for now.
A touch on her shoulder startled her. She jumped and looked up to see Jack sitting himself down next to her. "I've considered your proposal."
"And?"
"And… seeing as you put it so romantically, I s'pose I agree."
She smiled. "Yes?"
"Yes," he smiled back.
"When?"
He grabbed her hand and jumped to his feet, leading her towards the door. "No time like the present. The Pearl is anchored just off…" He got her outside before her dragging feet forced him to stop and turn. "Changed your mind already?"
"No, it's not that."
"What then?"
"I'd prefer to marry in the local chapel. I think Chase would have more trouble disputing it that way."
He pouted at her. "Already making demands, Lizzie? Is this any way to start things?"
"Not a demand, a request."
He shrugged. "Whatever you like, dearie." He reached into his breeches and pulled out a small bag of coins which he tossed at her.
"What's this?"
"Buy a dress with that, Lizzie. I'll not have the locals gossiping that Captain Jack Sparrow ran off and got married to some little lad, no matter how comely said lad might be described as being."
"Is that a demand?" She smiled.
"A request."
She reached into her own breeches and removed her own pouch of coins which she tossed to him. He caught it easily. "What's this for?"
"Buy a bath." She grinned. "I’d like my wedding night to be memorable for reasons other than how long I managed to hold my breath, savvy?"
He smirked and began dragging her along behind him. "What are you doing, Jack? The shops are this way."
"Bathhouse, Lizzie. You've been on Tortuga for two weeks. Ye don't exactly smell like an English rose yourself there, Love."
"But we can't togeth.." She found herself being pressed up against the outside wall of the tavern. His thigh pressed itself between her legs and she gasped. He took full advantage and explored her mouth with his tongue, thoroughly. He pulled back and smiled at the slightly dazed look her eyes held.
"Ye have me word that I'll not ravish you till we're properly wed." His hands slid down the sides of her body until they came to rest on her hips. He grasped her there tightly and rocked her slightly against him. "However, till then, I intend to take advantage of the privilege of being affianced." He leered at her then leaned in and nuzzled her neck. "Ye want me bathed, Lizzie, you'll do the job yourself. And then I'll return the favor, savvy?"
He walked backwards and tugged on her arm. Offering no further resistance, she followed.
CHAPTER TWO: A Clean Start
Crossposted to sparrabeth and deppfanfiction
EDIT: Following Chapters:
CHAPTER TWO: A Clean Start
CHAPTER THREE: Vows
CHAPTER FOUR: Marr-i-age
CHAPTER FIVE: Honeymoon
CHAPTER SIX: Dark Horizon
CHAPTER SEVEN: Pirates
CHAPTER EIGHT: What Happens in La Vega, Stays in La Vega
CHAPTER NINE: Rude Awakening
CHAPTER TEN: Deja Vu
CHAPTER ELEVEN: Letting Go
CHAPTER TWELVE: An All-Consuming Fire
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: The Talon's Reach
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Slain
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: Departure
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: Scars