An Eye for an Eye, A Kiss for a Kiss

Hey all the Sparrabeth fans out there! I'm finally back with the update of this story. I'm very, very sorry for the long break, but my Real Life is to blame! :(

The next chapter is almost finished and will be published very soon, so stay tuned. In the meantime you can check my other PotC fic "Forever Beloved" :D

Thank you for all the wonderful reviews! Thanks to your feedback I am encouraged to continue this fic and I promise that it will be completed! I will never abandon it!!!

So... Enjoy!

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CHAPTER 12 "Infamous Revelations"

Elizabeth and Jack strolled along the shoreline, glancing at the setting sun. Their hands were entwined together, their lips twisted in a smile and it seemed that nothing could interrupt their idyllic walk.

"Warning me wouldn't change a thing. I SAID, I want to know. I'm not a little girl to be afraid of pirate stories. No matter how scary they might be."

Elizabeth couldn't comprehend why Jack was so secretive when it came to the payment for his rescue from the rum runners' island.

"I wouldn't call it scary, darlin'. It's actually one of my favourite adventures , although I prefer to keep it to meself and give people that nonsense about sea turtles instead."

"Jack, will you finally divulge the secret or do you intend to beat about the bush forever?"

Jack furrowed his eyebrows and looked away. It occurred to him that the more pressure she would put on him, the less he would see it as a good idea to reveal the details of his escape. It was meant to be a romantic walk, after all. The scenery was breathtakingly beautiful, and he couldn't dream of a better company, so why destroy the unique atmosphere just to satisfy Lizzie's excessive curiosity?

"I think I've just changed me mind, luv... I prefer not to spoil our romantic stroll telling you things that you may find unacceptable. Let's forget about it. For now, at least."

"No!" She stopped in her tracks angrily stumping her foot on the wet sand. "I will not let you bluff your way out of this. I will take care of that!" She smiled mischievously and kissed Jack's lips teasingly, before directing her mouth to his bronzed neck. He closed his eyes, tempted to let her continue but that would mean the end of the promised stroll, and they had barely started strolling.

"Why do you always have to be so damn persuasive?" he sighed wearily. "Good. I'll make it quick and painless."

"I'm all ears," she smirked.

"Alright, I bartered me goods."

"What do you mean... You gave them WHAT?! "

"I offered me precious goods to their captain, and I got the deal. Savvy?"

"I can't believe it ! Why didn't you trade the compass instead of... of bedding their captain ?!" she winced.

"Indeed, I considered that a possibility," he answered looking directly into her widened eyes. "But spending one night in captain's quarters wasn't a high price really, and therefore I chose to square my debt in captain's bed, instead of loosing something as dear to me as me compass," he smiled contentedly. "A hell of a good deal, says I!"

Lizzie pulled her hand from his grasp abruptly. She couldn't believe her ears.

"Are you telling me that you went with that scallywag just to get to the next port? Sold your body like some... Tortugan wench?! Jack, how on Earth could you commit such a disgusting deed ?!" That was simply too much for her to bear.

"Can't describe it as disgusting, Lizzie. Much to the contrary, quite pleasurable it was. The captain of the rum runners was charming and willing, and accepted my offer before I even presented what I was offering, so--"

"Oh, stop it!" she did not allow him to finish "This is sick and perverse and... and I do not wish to hear more!"

"Why? I don't see anything wrong in it. The captain demanded payment and I didn't see it fit to offer anything else but me goods. To my gladness, she agreed instantly, even pressing me to start paying her at once."

"SHE?!"

"Who else if not she? Lizzie, I did not sleep with the whole crew, after all!"

"It was a woman? I thought..."

"Of course it was a woman! A pretty one, may I add. And you thought that I bent down for a man, eh? You disappointed me greatly with your unhealthy suspicions, 'Lizbeth!"

"Do you know what's unhealthy? I'll tell you Jack. It's sleeping around! With a man or woman - doesn't matter!"

"Not sleeping around, luv. Taking opportunities. And let me remind you what's to blame for all of these controversial revelations: your unhealthy curiosity!"

Lizzie's jaw dropped, her eyes becoming even bigger than before. "What did you say?!" she whispered in shock.

"You heard me well. Be so kind and stop making much ado about nothing, alright? You wouldn't hesitate to do the same thing if you were in my shoes."

"How dare you? It's not true!!!" she frowned, looking like a thunder cloud.

"It is, dearie. And as for your furious fit, it obviously wasn't caused by sleeping around, but by the jealousy that is killing you. You can't stand the thought

of your pirate sharing a bed with another woman, even if you were a child at that time!"

"To your information, I am NOT jealous! What is disturbing to me, is the fact that you slept around to make a deal. And you have guts to boast about it! You may continue shagging every woman on your way, Sparrow! I'm going back to the cabin. I regret every moment spent with you on this excuse for an island !"

"You are a hell of a liar, luv," he spoke gently, forcing a smile.

"Stop calling me luv!" Lizzie shouted, knowing exactly why she had not added "and a liar!"

"Luv!" She winced in disgust. "I bet that you call all women that! Even those dirty Tortugan wenches that sell their bodies for a plate of stew!"

Jack didn't give her an answer. He figured she wouldn't like it... She huffed turning round, but was stopped before she managed to make a third step.

"Where do you think you are going, Lizzie?"

"As far from your immoral person as it gets!" she glared daggers at him, turned and rushed in the direction they had just come from.

"That won't be easy, luv. I assure you!" he yelled after her.

Barely a minute later, she felt his hot breath on her neck and shivered. Oh God, he had that effect on her and to her dismay even the fact that she was furious with him couldn't change that.

"I said, do not call me luv, heard that? And stop following me!" she hissed straight into his face. Her efforts to push him away from her came out pathetic and Jack couldn't stop himself from chuckling.

"I mean it, Jack! Stay where you are and leave me alone! "

"I'm my own master and I shall go wherever I see fit, luv. As for you, go on! Run!" he gestured with his hands. "I'll be just one step behind you, just so you know. If it takes to go to World's End, or Locker itself, I shall go!"

She stopped, inhaling deeply. Suddenly, something unusually deep and serious ringed in his voice. Something that sounded like an honest promise of never leaving her behind. His warm arms embraced her trembling body from behind and she subconsciously welcomed his nearness, mentally cursing herself for her weakness. Elizabeth fought the angry tears that against her will welled under her closed eyelids.

"Damn you!" she hissed under her breath, when his fingers gently brushed away a single tear rolling down her cheek. Jack turned her around, but she kept her eyes shut, refusing to look him in the eyes.

"Lizzie, no matter how many lasses I bedded, it was BEFORE I even met you and therefore you don't need to be jealous, luv."

"I'm NOT!"

"No miss-pretty-face will ever take your place. Savvy?" His forehead rested against hers, and she opened her eyes to meet his soft gaze.

"And what is your definition of EVER, Jack?" she whispered.

He shifted and took a step back obviously hurt by her question. The magic moment burst out like a delicate bubble ...

"It was supposed to be a romantic stroll, wasn' it?" he asked sternly in a voice that to Lizzie resembled a thunder. "Yet we ended up fighting, and no one else but you and your jealousy are the cause!"

"Me?! As opposed to you, I do not sleep around, and I would never give you a reason to be jealous in the first place!"

"Oi! Is that so? Should I tell you how many times I felt like dying whenever I saw you with that whelp, eh? It was as if someone would pour a bucket of icy water on me head every time I watched him holding you, kissing you! Do you even realize how bitter it tastes? How it bloody hurts? Or do you think I have a stone here, instead of the thump thump?" he placed his palm above his racing heart.

"That's different..." she tried to defend herself , suddenly thrown off balance. "You and I were not together back then."

"Why being mad about the woman I bedded for the passage off, then?"

Woman? She'd rather say WOMEN. After all, she wasn't only jealous of that rum runners' wench. She also couldn't forget Jack's reaction to Tia Dalma's naughty remarks in the Locker and that Amelie Beckett who almost ended up as Jack's wife... As well as the charming Singapore twins and all the other women that according to the rumours line up at the dock as soon the black sails emerge on the horizon.

"My question is: have you and me been lovers those days?"

"No, I don't think so..." she replied meekly.

"Correct answer, luv. You should know, that no matter how many girls I called luv, and no matter how many of them I bedded, you are the luv of me life and I'm afraid you will never get rid of this pirate from your side, no matter how hard you try. My place is beside you and that's final."

"Are you telling the truth Jack?" she smirked . Her question was superfluous and she just wished to bug him.

"Every word, luv." he answered softly, seeing through her wits.

"I've heard that before!" she exclaimed in a high pitched voice and slapped him on the chest.

Jack chuckled. "Have you not figured yet, that to me you are a treasure far more precious than silver 'n gold? And although my quest to your heart was a long and stormy one, it was damn worth to go through that hell to be here with you now..."

"Oh, Jack..." She mumbled leaning in for a kiss. The dam had finally broken and Elizabeth let herself immerse in the consuming fire of Jack's kiss. All her doubts and anger suddenly ceased to exist. No matter what the future would bring, never would she regret a single moment spent with Jack. He was so right to call her a liar... Once again inseparable and belonging only to each other, they continued kissing feverishly, completely forgetting about the world surrounding them.

Against all odds, their stroll at sunset indeed turned romantic, thought Jack smiling smugly. "Well, we made up to 50 yards, but I wouldn't call that a stroll yet. Shall we?" he bowed elegantly in front of her, before offering her his arm.

Arm in arm, Jack and Lizzie moved on, paddling with joy in the luke warm water brought on and on by small, calm waves. Those waves whispered to Jack, sending him a wordless message from Tortuga. His beloved ship was rocking softly in the docks of the pirate port, soon to be loaded with goods for the upcoming journey. Jack could hear the piteous wailing of the Pearl, who to her deep dismay had to bear Barbossa's slimy claws on her helm once again. She intercepted her Captain's calming thoughts captured by the breeze and carried by the wind, but the memorable decade of Hector's horrid command affected her too deeply. So deeply that even Jack's sweet promise of their reunion within a couple of days couldn't comfort her.

"What are you thinking about?" Lizzie asked, unaware of the bond that Jack and his Pearl shared.

"About a certain lady, who will always occupy a special place in me heart," he announced with emotion, eliciting a bright smile on her face.

"Not you, luv," he shook his head, sending her a cheeky smirk. "Think you have an exclusive right to be in my thoughts?"

"Who is that..." she asked, adding "...bloody wench?" in her thoughts.

"Jealous, are we?" he asked with a lopsided grin.

"Not at all. Just curious," she shrugged as if she didn't give a damn.

"She's beautiful and fierce and exceptional, about the same age as you, but not blond. She's all dark. And mysterious... I love the way she rocks me to sleep and I miss her a lot."

"Oh, I miss her too."

"What?"

"I said, I miss the Pearl as much as you do."

"Not even a tiny 'lil bit jealous?" he pouted.

"You wouldn't find jealousy in my dictionary, Jack."

"Look at your nose, luv."

"What? What is it?" Puzzled, she investigated her shapely nose with her fingers.

"Noticed?" he asked with all seriousness.

"Noticed WHAT?!"

"It's getting longer!"

"Ha, ha, ha! Very funny indeed. If your nose would grow just an inch with every of your lies, we would have a bridge from the Caribbean to the North pole."

"What if some other part of me..." he cleared his throat "...would grow with every lie, eh?"

"Are we having some size complexes, Jack?" Oh, how much she enjoyed to watch his insolent grin disappear from his face, and his jaw drop.

"You know very well, that I have no reason to have such a complex, 'Lizbeth." to say that he sounded offended would be an understatement. "And that all those stories about the huge Pearl being a compensation for my-"

"Jack, I was just joking!" she cut him off "It's...huge-ish, alright? As...you put it." she giggled, finding it hard to control herself.

"As I put it?"

She roller her eyes, chuckling "As WE put it, then. Is that better now, Captain?"

He cocked his head and squinted his kohl decorated eyes. "Yep, I think I'm good with it." he nodded.


"Ehemm.." She heard him clear his throat and assummed that he would definitely attempt to change the uncomfortable topic. "Now listen, me heartie. I keep on telling you about me infamous adventures, so why not return the favour? A story for a story. Bloody fair, isn' it?"

"Agreed. But my stories are not as infamous as yours. Although..." she dropped her gaze, smiling.

"Although, you had countless opportunities to see infamous pirates walk to the gallows, right?"

"Truth be told, I never watched the hangings, because I so pitied those poor souls... In fact the only execution I ever watched was yours."

"Because you didn't pity that particular bastard, eh?" he asked huskily, his smile turning his face even more irresistible.

Elizabeth couldn't suppress her laughter. Jack was just too funny and she loved his disarming and contagious sense of humour. Never had she laughed so much, never felt so carefree and full of life with Will.

"So... Will I be getting me story?"


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So, that was it. The next chapter will tell us about Lizzie's secret past. Well... , you may get surprised! ^^

Review anyone??? Hope so^^

HUGS

Addicted to Jack