In The Nick Of Time

Dear readers, you are cordially invited to the wedding of Captain Francis "Jack" Sparrow and Elizabeth Swann…yes, here begins forever. Not as titillating as the previous chapters I know, but I’m having fun working on this and hope you enjoy reading it. The wedding night is approaching soon…be patient, I’ve unfortunately got a busy week coming up, but don’t worry, I WILL be writing and will post as soon as I’m happy with what I’ve gotten down. Look for one more chapter to drop after this one, and then it’ll be time to “blow the man down” as it were.lol

Thank you HeartJD—you don’t know how I smiled when I read that I “ROCKed!”lol So do you, love, thanks for reading and sharing your reviews! Thank you Moe Sparrow—“ that's the first time I've ever seen a thigh-crease fuck in a J/E story... and you did it so well!”—Wow, again, I’m so very glad you thought so! Truly, encouragement of this sort inspires me to out do myself again and again! Thank you for reading me and for commenting! Thank you DesiringPirates—yes, dear, the wedding night, I’m working on it, honestly I am! Good things come to those who wait, I promise you that! Thank you for reading and sharing your impatience!lol Rejerito—okay, should I see a brain lying around, now I know whom to send it to. Hold fast and perhaps invest in a helmet…the wedding night be coming in a few more pages!;-) Thank you for reading and for letting me know how effected you are! UnknownSoldier—Oh, perhaps this be your brain and not Rejerito’s? Just hold on ladies, it’s going to be a bumpy ride!lol Thank you for reading and opening windows!lol Okay, onto the rest of this wedding, and then the wedding night! Enjoy Chapter 10! (By the way, I’m not begging, nor asking, but if you are looking for a temp fix of my erotic writing style, and don’t mind having to substitute the name “Jack” in your mind as you read, I have another un-reviewed story posted under “Sleepy Hollow” titled “The Inner Beast.” I recommend Chapters 4 and 10 if you be interested.)

The Ragged Islands of the Bahamas were a beauty of a secluded spot, white beaches, turquoise waters, emerald palm trees. The islands themselves were too small to build towns upon, and two small even to be useful to the average pirate or privateer crew for very long as well. But, they’d serve the Pearl’s purpose for at least a day and a night, and no one would look for them here. That was important, for as this day had drawn nearer, Jack began to fear more and more that some fleet of ships was sailing from Port Royal, searching the ocean in an effort to reclaim his fiancée. He wanted no interruptions, but should they come, he’d fight like two hells to keep what was about to become his forever.

The beaches here were also steep, allowing Jack to nearly run the Pearl aground and list her one side. She’d been in need of a few repairs after the storm, and as he sat by her hull doing his best to shine up an old pair of black boots he hadn’t worn in years, some of his crew were boiling tar and pitch, scraping the barnacles from the hull and preparing to careen the Pearl’s bottom. But, Jack had selected a few of his best men, a special envoy of sorts, and sent them in a launch with a particular cargo to one of the farthest out tiny islands in the Ragged chain. It was a surprise for Elizabeth, and now and then Jack checked their progress in setting it up through his spyglass, and was pleased that all was going well. All that was, except for shining these bloody boots…he was about to dip them into the tar his men were boiling and be done with them.

“Never thought I’d be seein’ this day, Cap’n.” Smiled a very contented Gibbs as he took a seat on the stool across from Jack. Gibbs had been very jovial since they’d arrived in the islands, as it had reunited him with his native wife of over twenty years, and their three daughters and six sons. At least, Jack had assumed that was what had put Gibbs to smiling so much lately.

Jack smiled. “It be better than losin’ her again, Gibbs.” He said honestly, and set about adding more polish to the dry leather again, only to have it dissolve away, rolling the cow skin into tiny black pills which blew away in the wind.

“That it is, Jack, that it is!” Gibbs agreed, giving Jack a pat on the shoulder. “And I be as proud of ye as I would be me own son today, lad. Know that.”

Weddings, Jack loved weddings, they always put everyone in such a good mood! He knew he’d flustered Gibbs more than few times at sea, knew that he hadn’t always taken to the fatherly presence of him either, but Jack had always appreciated it. “Gibbs, thank ye. Today weren’t have been if’n not for ye makin’ me look for her.”

Gibbs huffed, but still smiled. “Ye only e’er do what ye want to do, lad! We all be savvy to that.”

Jack laughed but still winked at his first mate, knowing Gibbs wasn’t about to accept the thanks that was due him. Jack was glad he’d have Gibbs aboard the Pearl, for what if he ever needed marital advice? Jack knew as sure as he sat there, making a black sticky mess of his boots, that he’d do something that infuriated Elizabeth in some accord eventually…he could only hope he’d know how to fix it again when it happened, and having Gibbs to turn to, should he need to, would be such a plus.

“I can’t believe I want this,” said Jack, giving up on the rag he’d been buffing the toe of the boot with for what seemed like a long time. He added more polish, a lot of it. “But I do want it, Gibbs. I’ve met me equal in her.” He picked up the brush and started sawing it back and forth over the boot rapidly, only to find the ample amount of polish was spraying all over his shirt. “Bugger me!” He groaned, ready to through the boot down in the sand. Elizabeth had raided the treasure trove of silks in the past days and had been working on a wedding gown that she’d been very secretive about, and so Jack had decided he’d try to clean himself up into some type of formal attire for her too, but it were as though he and formal dress had a natural repugnance of each other.

“Bloody hell, have ye ne’er shined a boot before, lad? Give it o’er.” Said Gibbs, and took the boot as Jack handed it to him, putting his arm down the shaft of it and then taking the brush and working it quickly against the sides. “So, where be yer lass, Jack?”

Jack pointed to a grove of palm trees about one hundred yards away from where they sat. “Takin’ a bath in the lagoon, she’s of the decision that if’n we see each other before the weddin’, we’re doomed to some kind of…marital misfortune.”

Gibbs smiled, able to achieve a shine on the boot that had eluded Jack. He picked up the other and began to work on it. “She be wantin’ this marriage to be right, Jack, that’s all. As long as the both of ye want it to be right, it will be so.”

Jack nodded, staring at the clump of trees where he knew Elizabeth was and wondered what she was doing, what she was thinking right now. “I’ll do me best to remember that, Gibbs.”

“What’s this, then?” Gibbs asked, trying to hide his grin as he worked on the other boot. Hmm, he guessed it must have been tough to shine up old leather with trembling hands. “Ye be nervous, lad?”

What? Nervous? Of course not…how’d Gibbs know? “Should I be?” Jack asked, doing his best to play his anxiety down.

“Stand down now, Cap’n,” Gibbs laughed, “it be a good thing, means ye love her.”

“Oh, right.” Jack breathed a sigh of relief. “I just hope I don’t get too far a stern of this Gibbs. Lizzie, she’s ‘bout to become me wife, she’ll look to me as her husband…I ne’er been that before to a woman…I only hope that at this instant she’s not perfumin’ her lovely skin and feelin’ like I did when I were a boy learnin’ to read that it may ne’er work out cuz I couldn’t be certain the man teachin’ me to read writin’ wrote the writin’ right, savvy, Mr. Gibbs?”

Jack may have had a point, but Gibbs wasn’t about to sit and try to figure out what it was amongst all the babble Jack was famous for. It was time to send Jack on his way, both in matrimony and in life. He handed Jack the other boot, both of them gleaming black now. “Cap’n, give yer weary mind a break and go and get yerself dressed.” Sighed the first mate. “And Jack, ye make a fine couple, cuz ye want to be together, and that be the secret. Want one another more than ye be wantin’ anythin’ else.”

Jack smiled as he threw the boots over his shoulder. He didn’t need to check his compass to know that Elizabeth was what he wanted most in life. Good, he felt better, and his boots were finally shined. He clapped Gibbs on the shoulder and got to his feet. “Ye best be gettin’ dressed yerself, mate. I still be in need of a best man!”

* * *

All the things that Elizabeth had ever envisioned having at her wedding, and almost did have at her first wedding, were missing. There were no brightly colored floral arrangements, but there was the gorgeous tropical green of palm fronds. There was no church organ playing in the background, but the song of freedom played every time the waves broke shore. There was no one to give her away, but she liked that she gave herself in marriage. There was no boy next door standing nervously by in wait for her, but there was Jack, standing tall, looking handsome and formidable in his black frock coat with gold trim, white breeches that were tucked into polished black boots with big shining gold buckles; Jack had worn the boots up to his thigh instead of folded down at his knee. He was clean, kohl lined eyes sharp and piercing, his beard trimmed neatly and his hair bunched together and tied back with a piece of black silk ribbon. He looked good in black, like a pirate prince; regal, elegant, winsome, but still roguish. And the hat, that silly, distinctive weather beaten leather tricorn hat was on his head. Elizabeth smiled, she wouldn’t have had it any other way.

The silk of her dress fluttered in the trade winds as she walked towards Jack, Gibbs, and Father Caymulhy, who held an open bible and seemed to be reading over something he’d long forgotten. She regretted that her class station in life hadn’t given her more experience with a needle and thread, for she’d have been better suited to create a wedding gown out of the beautiful silk brocades she’d found among the many treasures in the Pearl’s hull. She’d been so afraid to cut the fabric, hadn’t the heart to ruin the bright swirls of color in the tails of the peacocks that covered the snowy white background. Instead, she’d taken the brocade and wrapped it around her waist once, it came to her feet, and she secured it with a belt of silk ribbon. She’d then draped it up and over her right shoulder, leaving her left bare, and brought the silk around her back and then under her left arm, securing all loose ends at her waist with a large jeweled brooch she’d also come across in the chest of loot Jack had designated as his cut. Her gown was by no means traditional, but it fit her well and Jack hadn’t seemed displeased at all with it when he’d seen her start through the crowd of his men.

There was no aisle to process down, but the crew parted like the Red Sea to let her on her way to their Captain. She carried a bunch of tropical flowers which had been in abundance by the lagoon, tucked some behind her ears and into her hair which she’d braided and done up, some tresses hanging down to frame her face and neck. She’d carefully poked two hat pins into her hair, and the dangling jeweled ends of them swung gently as she walked, each step bringing her closer to Gibbs, Caymulhy, Jack, and the orange, red and amber sunset that was their altar. Elizabeth would have been lying if she’d said she hadn’t been nervous. She’d yet to really see Jack as a pirate, for the Pearl being in a weakened state after the squaw was not in fair enough shape to pursue and raid other ships. Her previous encounters with Jack had been as some reluctant hero, including when he’d found her aboard the Stalwart. She knew he was a good man, but he was also a pirate, and she liked that about him; she only hoped that when he did set about his pirate business, in all its brutality, that she would still see Jack, and not something else. She’d never regarded him as bloodthirsty, just as a pirate, and as a good man.

She was half way to Jack now, and he couldn’t be still any longer, walking away from Gibbs and Caymulhy, everything about him gleamed, the flashes of gold in his smile, the hilt of his cutlass, the brass on his pistol, the golden buttons of his frock coat, he’d left nothing unshined for the occasion. She was beautiful, more so than when she was dressed in corsets and chemises and petticoats and cumbersome dresses. She looked like a pirate’s bride, dressed in a pirate’s treasure, wrapped in a freedom that she was about to join with his. Jack’s pulse flurried and his body gave a sudden jerk, his heart was stirring. He took her hand and looked at her, taking her in on a happy sigh. “Lizzie,” he said, having to breathe again and swallow the lump that was rising in his throat. “Seein’ ye now, I know I could’ve ne’er lived without ye.”

Elizabeth smiled, but felt an uncontrollable sniffle come upon her and a tear slipped from her eye. Yes, he’d always be Jack to her, she’d love him though anything, because he loved her. Nothing that could love could ever be brutal. “Thank you, Jack.” She answered, and tried to wipe at the tear sliding down her face, only to have Jack reach up and tenderly smooth it away with his thumb.

“C’mon,” he smiled again, and she could tell it was hard for him not to start laughing with the mirth he felt, and that feeling of happy tension quickly spread to her. Neither could wait to seal this deal. “Let’s be wed, love!”