Fate Intervenes

CHAPTER TEN: Deja Vu
by GylzGirl


The ocean was blazing sapphire in the afternoon sun. The wind was gentle and cool as it caused Elizabeth's hair to billow behind her like a sail made of gold. She sat on the beach with her bare feet half-buried in the white sand, looking rumpled and smudged but still completely beautiful in that pink dress that he loved so. And as Jack viewed this from the top of a palm tree, he noted that for a man stranded without a ship on a deserted tropical island, he was strangely contented.

Jack had shimmied up the tree to drop coconuts down to where they could make some use of them. As he climbed down, Elizabeth smiled at him. She'd had that same silly grin spread across her face ever since he told her he loved her. Here they were, as she had pointed out, marooned again, without the Pearl again, no sign of rum anywhere, and all it had taken to turn his Lizzie into an incredibly happy woman, was three little words. Course it hadn't exactly taken much more than that from her to do the same to him. Jack shook his head, realizing that he too was wearing a rather silly grin. If this was what love did to people, he couldn't understand why he'd so singularly avoided it all these many lonely years. He knew love could lead to jealously, hurt and loss. This giddy feeling hadn't made him a total fool. But, jealously, hurt and loss came at you in life with or without benefit of being in love. And yet, this feeling, this blissful, content, silliness which was wrapping him in its warmth; he'd only ever felt that with her. And he never wanted it to end.

Once on the ground, Jack collected the spoils of his climb and carried them to the stone where he'd set a few fruits from the jungle that he knew to be edible. He picked up a sharp stone he'd found earlier and set to work on the coconuts as the sun began to dip toward the horizon.

Elizabeth stood and brushed the sand from her skirt. She walked to where Jack was working and slid her arms around his waist from behind. She pressed her cheek to his back and hugged him. Though she couldn't see it, she correctly guessed at the warm smile that crossed his face. After a moment, she released him. He turned his head and saw her walking back towards the beach. Jack went back to work on the tough coconut husks.

Soon enough, the sun was gone. The purple-pink of the sky the only sign it had recently been there, and even that was quickly receding towards the horizon, pushed aside by the spilling ink of a nearly moonless night.

Carefully, Jack balanced four coconut-shell bowls in his arms and turned for where he saw Elizabeth kneeling on the sand. As he approached, he saw that she had not been idle while he'd been preparing their food. She'd managed to gather quite a little stack of wood and was now striking two stones together against a pile of dry leaves and twigs to get a fire started as she'd seen him do once or twice in their travels. He smiled as he sat. Fire starting was never as easy as two stones struck together, getting the spark to catch was near impossible (and on both occasions, his fires had had secret help from some well-sacrificed rum); but she looked so determined, he decided not to disillusion her.

Jack set the bowls out on the sand before them. The next thing he knew, he smelled smoke. Disbelieving, he turned and found that Elizabeth's little heap of kindling was now aglow with the start of a fire. "Bloody hell," Jack exclaimed, surprised.

Elizabeth grinned over at him, proudly; a grin which quickly faded as Jack jumped to his feet and stomped her fire out. "What did you do that for?!"

"Can't risk a fire. Not now. Any such thing could serve as beacon for Chase. Give it a week, Lizzie. Then we ought to be safe enough to try to attract attention." Jack smiled and sat back down. "Don't fret. I'll keep ye warm, Love." He looked across at her and her mouth was set in a hard line.

He cleared his throat. "The water from the coconut will do for now and there seems to be a hearty enough supply of them. We should look for another source of freshwater tomorrow." Jack glanced at Elizabeth. She picked up the bowl before her that contained the water and brought it to her lips, sipping slowly. Her eyes never once met his. "As for the fruit… mush. It'll be tasty enough and nourishing but it'll play merry hob with our insides if we don't stir up something a bit more substantial tomorrow. Again, it'll do for now."

Jack ate silently, watching his wife. Elizabeth put down the water and picked up the bowl of fruit paste and scooped it into her mouth using her fingers. When there was no more in her bowl, she started to bring her hand to her mouth to lick it clean.

Jack intercepted her wrist and brought her hand to his mouth, slowly licking each finger one by one. Jack smiled as he watched the anger in her eyes disappear with every deliberate stroke of his tongue. When he was finished, he held her hand. "I don't need a fire, Love. I can always remember how you look in firelight." Elizabeth smiled. "Whenever I see fire now, I think of you and that raging bonfire… and being painfully hard with no release."

Elizabeth touched his face. "I guess I'll have to remedy that." She leaned in and kissed him. When they broke the kiss, she whispered. "Let's go back there, Jack."

"Love?"

She held up her coconut shell. "To freedom."

Jack tilted his head, catching on. He held his up as well. "To the Black Pearl."

"To us." She took a sip from her shell. He did likewise.

"You know, Miss Swann, I have a very terrible thing to tell ye."

"And what, pray tell, would that be, Captain Sparrow?"

"I'm afraid, Love, that your reputation is ruined."

"Why would that be? We've done nothing."

"Ah, but you're spending a night alone on an island with a pirate. And not just any pirate, savvy? With Captain Jack Sparrow."

Elizabeth grinned. "I fail to see your point."

"What maid could resist me charms in these circumstances?"

She laughed. "I feel sure that I can."

Jack grabbed her suddenly and laid her back against the sand. "Oh, ye can tell your stories of impeccable virtue and not even being tempted, Love. But I fear you're branded. Just as sure as if I'd stamped a "P" into your flesh, you're marked a pirate from this day forth."

Elizabeth blinked up at him. She licked her lips, her breathing pattern telling the tale of her increasing arousal. His thumb rubbing incessantly gently at her jaw was only serving to further excite her. "In that case, wh-what is it you suggest I do, Captain Sparrow?"

He grinned at her. "That's easy, Love." Jack bent and brushed a feather light kiss across her lips, before moving to her neck and licking the side. As she moaned, he brought his mouth to her ear and whispered. "Earn your reputation."

Elizabeth's breath caught and he smiled as he noticed her legs cross and squeeze together. "Jack," she whispered, reaching for him.

He pulled back and leaned on his elbow, looking down on her. "Slowly, Love. We've all the time in the world."

Jack combed his fingers through her hair and she took a couple of deep breaths. He leaned forward again, kissing and nuzzling her cheek.

"I used to dream about you, you know?" she said quietly.

"After I rescued you?"

"Before. When I was 14 or so, I started having the most vivid dreams of you breaking into my room via the window and carting me away for ransom." She touched his chest. "A ransom so vast my father hadn't the resources to pay it." Her eyes looked into his. "So you were forced to keep me and… find uses for me."

He laughed. "14?"

"Well, yes, but I was older in my dreams too. And more… developed."

Jack squeezed her breast over her dress. "I like the way ye developed just fine, Love."

Elizabeth smiled lazily. "Yes, but I didn't have these yet…Oh!" She gasped as his thumb slipped under the material and brushed her nipple.

Jack kissed her, smiling as her tongue forced its way into his mouth. He pulled back and touched her face, then moved in for another kiss. This time, he sucked on her bottom lip, eliciting another moan.

He began to kiss down her chest, giving special attention to the gentle swell of breast that escaped the neckline of her dress. "Do you really think me a pirate, Jack? Even though I was born respectable?"

Jack chuckled against Elizabeth's cleavage. The sensation caused a new wave of arousal to roll through her. "It may please you to know, Love, that I was once a respectable merchant sailor meself."

Elizabeth sat up, throwing him off of her in the process. "What?"

Jack stretched his arms out behind him and smiled. "It turned out, it were only a phase. I had pirate in me blood, true enough; a few generations of it in point of fact. But I was going to be better than that. Then fool youth gave way to the hard won wisdom of experience. I learned that, generally speaking o'course, respectable meant corrupt as you please but skilled at hiding it well. And I wanted no part of it. I'm a pirate, a thief, dishonest as the day is long. I pillage. I plunder. I lie, cheat and steal. I even kill if needs must be. But I don't pretend to be anything other than what I am. And in that way, I'm more an honest man than most all of the respectable gents I've had the misfortune to encounter."

Elizabeth reached out and touched his face. "You're a good man. I've always known that."

Jack covered her hand with his and held it to his cheek. "And you're a good woman. But you're also independent, a skilled sailor, a fair swordswoman, strong, spirited. You've an insatiable lust that puts me own lechery to shame."

Elizabeth gasped and launched herself at him. He caught her and they fell back against the sand, her atop him, both laughing. Jack reached up and pushed her hair over her shoulder and out of her face. "I knew ye for a pirate the minute I cut that corset off you and ye woke up and looked at me. You didn't have a look of fear or shame as one would expect of a governor's daughter. Ye were excited; aroused even. And you showed it honestly. In that moment, all you wanted was for me to cut the rest of your things off of ye and…"

"Do what we're about to do?"

He smiled. "Do ye deny it?"

"I've no reason to deny it. It's the truth. I wanted you even then and in that one moment, looking into your eyes for the first time, feeling your hands so close to where I wanted them to be, I wouldn't have turned you down even in front of those two guards." Her hair fell from her shoulder once more, the ends tickling the vee of chest exposed by his shirt.

Jack smiled ruefully. "Yes, but be honest, I think ye thought you were dreaming until your father and the Commodore and that squadron of guards showed up."

"Exactly," she bent and took the end of one of his beard-plaits between her teeth. She tugged it sharply and then let it drop. "You could have been halfway home before I even realized just what a naughty girl I was being."

Jack gulped audibly and Elizabeth felt a part of him rise to life beneath her. "Lizzie," he hissed.

"I can't pretend to be anything other than what I am, Jack."

His hand went to her hair again. This time he wrapped it around his fingers and gently pulled her face down to his. "Pirate," he whispered before kissing her.

Elizabeth sat up suddenly, straddling his thighs. He watched her as her hands went to the laces that crisscrossed the front of her dress. She loosened them, keeping her eyes fixed on his, loving the anticipation she found there. Next, her hands went to the hem of her dress and she lifted everything off over her head.

Jack's hands moved to her now bare hips. "Hmm, I miss the stockings and frilliness."

"There wasn't time this morning."

"Oh, I know." His thumb traced wickedly slow circles, edging ever closer to her sex. "Ye just look so pretty when I'm taking them off of you."

Elizabeth grinned down on him. "If you don't like what you're seeing, I can always put the dress back on."

Jack sat up beneath her and wrapped his arms around her. He kissed Elizabeth hard and smiled at her. He took her hand in his and placed it over his fabric-covered arousal. "You know I like." Elizabeth gently stroked her hand over the bulge in his breeches. Jack took the opportunity to yank off his shirt and throw it onto the sand.

Quickly, she untied his breeches, reached inside, and freed him. "That looks uncomfortable, Jack." Her finger stroked his length oh so lightly. "Someone should really do something about that." Elizabeth moved to climb off of his legs. Jack's hand came to her hips and stopped her. She met his eyes, unsure.

Jack nodded; his eyes were dark and serious. "Go on, Lizzie. You know what to do." He took himself in hand and rubbed his tip at the apex of her thighs. She put one hand on his chest to steady herself, then reached for his cock. Their fingers brushed one another as she took hold of him and guided him to her entrance. Jack nodded again and she slowly slid down onto his length. His hands came to her hips. Her lips parted in surprise at the sensation. Elizabeth didn't stop until she had enveloped him fully, her inner thighs resting flush against his body.

Jack watched her as she experimented with the feel of him. She rocked very slightly back and forth, then side to side. She wiggled back and forth once more and gasped a little. She then opened her eyes, smiling. Elizabeth pushed herself almost all the way off of him and then lowered herself again.

Jack licked his lips and used his hold on her hips to help her movements. Just as she started to speed up, he suddenly thrust up into her, hard. She cried out loudly, clearly not expecting this action. On her down-stroke, he stilled her with his hands and ground up against her. Again, she moaned. He smiled and moved his thumb to where their bodies met. He strummed across her clit and she whimpered, jerking suddenly. This time, it was Jack that moaned.

Jack bent his knees behind Elizabeth. She reached back to find anchor with one of his thighs and began to ride him in earnest. The bouncing caused her small, full breasts to bob enticingly. He took one hand from her hips and splayed it across the jiggling flesh, repeatedly grazing her stiff pink nipples.

Soon, Jack felt her tight heat contract around his cock. Elizabeth's breath caught and she let a long moan flow past her lips and into the night. She reached her other hand behind her and grasped his other thigh as she came. Jack moved his hand back to her hip and drove up into her a few more times before his own climax threw him back down against the sand, his back arching off the ground as he spent himself up into her.

Elizabeth carefully leaned forward. They lay chest to chest as they both tried to catch their breath. After several moments, he sat and eased her off of him. They stood together on shaky legs and collected their clothes before making their way back to the trees.

A few feet in, they came to the bed of green leaves Jack had made for them under a slight outcropping in the rock. It would be enough shelter until the rainy season got fully underway. And Jack planned to have them out of there well by then.

Dropping their clothes near the makeshift bed, Jack knelt down on the leaves and then helped Elizabeth down beside him. She lay with her back to him and he spooned up behind her, enclosing her in his arms, kissing her neck and shoulder.

Her breathing grew steady. Jack waited. Usually, that either meant she was asleep or her thoughts had suddenly turned melancholy. He knew which one he was hoping for.

A moment later, he heard her inhale to speak. "Jack, when we came back from reclaiming you and the Pearl…"

Bugger. He sighed. "Lizzie Love, you needn't go fishing in the past when the present is doing right by you."

Elizabeth continued. "I just…I just wanted you to know that I wanted to stay with you then. But… you didn't ask. And it would have been too hard a choice for me to make without that one reassurance that you did, indeed, need me to be with you as much as I needed to. I thought it was time to put my fantasies aside and grow-up."

Jack leaned back and rolled her in his arms till she was facing him. "That was your first mistake." At Elizabeth's questioning look, he continued. "Never put aside your fantasies. And growing up is highly overrated."

"It was only one mistake of many. If I'd had the courage to act on what I truly wanted, I never would have returned to Port Royal. Gabriel Chase would have never known about me. He'd have come and gone from Port Royal like a passing storm." Elizabeth took a shaky breath. "My father, Norrington, and Will would still be alive."

Jack caught her face in his hand, dark eyes flashing. "Stop. One lesson ye must learn if ever you're to truly be a pirate is that guilt serves no purpose. Most guilt comes from the notion that you had this great control over things. And ye don't, Missy. No one does. You get the inclination that ye do for awhile when luck is on your side. But for most, luck turns on them every now and then. You don't control things any more than ye should trust your luck. You trust yourself that you'll be able to handle things when your luck does turn sour and that's all you have control over. Ye might have left Port Royal and the next day a hurricane killed everyone in the town."

"But I didn't leave and so was there on that day, and there was no hurricane."

"Ah, but maybe there was no hurricane because you were there and you were the one to be spared."

"You sound like Gibbs."

"I've begun to understand how he thinks. Usually means I've had too much rum… or not enough." He leaned forward and stopped her mouth with a kiss. "Or it could mean I'm deliriously exhausted after being ravished by an alluring siren what stranded me on her island all helpless like."

"Jack…"

He kissed Elizabeth again. "Shh, sleep, Love. Close your eyes." Jack nuzzled his nose against hers before kissing her once more. Without opening her eyes, she settled against his chest. Soon, her breathing grew steady again. He stayed awake until her breathing fell into a deep pattern and he knew that she finally slept. He brushed a kiss across her forehead and closed his eyes, letting sleep claim him at last.

TBC: CHAPTER ELEVEN: Letting Go