Spiders
Title: Spiders
Author: nelliedances/Miss Ruby Tuesday
Rating: G
Pairings: Jack/Elizabeth
Warnings: Wee ones for DMC and arachnaphobes beware.
Disclaimer: Sure I own it; I also have a great bridge for sale in Brooklyn, if anyone's interested.
Summary: Everyone's afraid of something. Written for jacksmermaid
Status: Complete with options for a companion piece.
Jack prided himself on being fearless. He scaled the jacob’s ladders to the tip of the royal yard without a second thought. The dizzying height and crazy roll of the masts never bothered him. Death no longer scared him either. Nothing was as bad the second time around. He knew what to expect and could face it head on.
He hadn’t exactly been afraid when he was marooned, the first time, and definitely not the second. He’d been concerned, he’d admit to that, but never afraid. Elizabeth, when angry, was a force to be both reckoned with and avoided, if possible, much like a tempest. But he’d weathered gales before and her storms were no different.
What Jack hated-really hated-was spiders. They were awful, hideous creatures with their plenitude of skittering legs and their hideous fangs. He’d seen a whole host of different kinds in his travels, giant hairy things the size of plates that could kill birds in Portuguese Brazil, brightly coloured ones with impossibly thin legs from the Caribbean, and wretched little brown monsters in the colonies that looked like nothing but their venom would rot you out.
He’d hated them since, as a child, he’d woken from a pleasant dream to find one crawling over his face, staring him down with its eight evil eyes. Oh, it had been close enough for him to count every demonic, beady little orb.
He thought he’d escape the bastards at sea. They were there, on the ships, but he saw far less of them than he had as a boy on land. If he found one, he’d do it in, grinding it down to non-existence, but they had their place. At least something onboard enjoyed the weevils. Living with the little ones seemed to be something of a necessary evil.
But when he saw Elizabeth heading down the docks, a great bloody bunch of bananas in her arms, all those fears came rushing back. He’d made a mad rush down the gangplank to bar her progress.
“No, no! Those don’t come aboard!”
“What? Jack, they’re just bananas. It would be a nice change from oranges or limes.”
“No!” He reached out, gingerly, as though the bananas harboured spines, and pulled the bunch out of her arms. “They’re… uh… bad luck. Terrible back luck, yes!”
She stared at him like he’d gone soft in the head. “You are not serious.”
“Gibbs!” he yelled. The quartermaster’s greying head popped up over the side of the Pearl. “Bananas?”
“Turrible, bad luck. Worse’n a woman aboard.”
Jack turned back to her, smug in his vindication. Gibbs was a font of superstitions, occasionally even useful one. “See?”
She opened her mouth respond to him, but instead her eyes bulged out and she gave a surprisingly ladylike shriek.
“Lizzie..?”
“Spider!” From within the recesses of the bunch, a large, rather hairy mottled red and pink spider was crawling towards Jack’s arm that had so disturbed her repose.
Jack dropped the bunch of bananas as if they’d burned him and practically leapt over the awful yellow fruit into her arms. “Told you they were bad luck!” he said, dancing around, trying to avoid wherever the hideous thing had crawled to. “Crush it if you see it!”
He sidled behind her, pushing her towards the offensive fruits. She poked them tentatively with the toe of her boot, knocking them off to reveal the spider, which, in turn, reared her red legs up in the air. She jumped, colliding with Jack. “I’m not getting near that!”
“You brought the bloody bunch of bananas here, you kill it!”
“You’re the man! You should do it!”
Jack gave her a little shove forward. “Captain’s orders.”
That decided the issue. She raised her boot over the arachnid and, instead of stepping down, hopped over her and made for the gangplank, leaving Jack to fend for himself. He sidestepped around it, in as wide of an arc as he could manage without falling off the dock, and finally jumped over her as well, scrambling up after Elizabeth.
“Why,” he said panting and still quivering a little. “Did you not crush it?”
She smiled at him and he had the sinking feeling this would not be the last mention of this incident. “Father said it’s bad luck to kill a spider, even one big as that. It’ll bring about a storm.”
“Right,” he said as he looked back down at the bunch of bananas lying there innocently, bad luck indeed. He could hear her snickering under her breath. “Worse luck if it found its way on with us. What the devil are you laughing at?” He drew himself up, trying to look every bit the brave captain.
“You. Of all the things you’ve faced and could be afraid of… A little spider.”
“That, luv, was not a little spider. Besides, can you truly tell me that there’s nothing you’re afraid of?”
She only smiled and walked away. He scowled for a moment. He’d find the chink in her armour… right after he sent Marty down to make sure no other eight legged friends had stowed away.