Streets of Tortuga

Title: Streets of Tortuga.
Or: Rum Rum Rum, as fast as you can.
- The title could be changed anytime.

Pairing: J/OC
Rating: G for this one.
Summary: Jack bumps (if you can call it like that *giggles*) into a girl with an unpronouncable name, a little pirate-wannabe with a headache: Sijtje.
In this Chapter, I reveal how Jack came to meat Sijtje in that Tortugian alley and how he spent the night before.
Setting: Tortuga (well, at least that's where it all starts. As always.). Some 15 years before the movie, Jack being young but Captain of The Pearl already.

Notes: Sijtje is - indeed - a Dutch name. Please don't let me write down how to pronounce it - I can't! Meet me in person and I'll tell you.
Things written between [ ]-brackets are the characters' (Sijte or Jack) thoughts.

Disclaimer: Don't own Jack. Otherwise he'd be in my bed, not in the streets of Tortuga! Sadly, he's from Duckburg.
Not makin' any money with this - more like losin' it by watching the movie over and over again. Dont sue - just givin' Jack a li'll excercise, what could be wrong with that?

Feedback: yes, PLEASE. But easy on the goods darlin'!
arella@krnk.de

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Chapter 2: -- Flashback --

Tortuga! It had been a while!
Spirits up high, Captain Jack Sparrow gave Samuel, who was tonight's watch, an amicable nudge: "I 'xpect ye to take good care of me lady, Sam!".
Winking, he patted his Pearl's wheel one last time. Then he turned around, speeding down the gangway, disappearing in one of Tortuga's dark alleys.
"Bastard", Sam mumbled, preparing himself for a long boring night with the Pearl but without their Captain, not even allowed to drink just a tiny bit of rum to make time go faster.

--

Half an hour later, Jack had once more been willingly swallowed by Tortuga's decadent, rum-spiced, sexy nightlife. That was what he loved so much about this island: time stood still here. You could actually be away for years and nothing really changed, no matter which governor was officially running the city.
Swaying through the streets he knew so well and had severely missed in the last months at sea, he had managed to find a bottle of rum for his left and a reasonably goodlooking girl for his right hand in a matter of minutes.
Real good for his ego, this place was - at his gold-flashing smile, the girls came after him in groups. Although somewhere deep down he had to admit that probably even death himself could find himself a girl and some rum here, if only he could pay for it.
[Pirate - always good at forgetting nonrelevant things like that], he told himself, taking a swig of rum and immediately after pulling in his girl for a kiss. Besides, she hadn't asked him for any money just yet. Only for rum and kisses.
[Guess I'm Captain Jack Sparrow after all - always there for a woman in need.], he thought, pressing his mouth against hers hard, tongue darting out of his and into her mouth, licking, enjoying her taste of his rum, taking the breath out of this one [- and lucky she is -] girl - meanwhile dealing her hand, that had crept to his purse for obvious reasons, a small slap.

"If it isn't ole Jack Sparrow! Greetin's, stranger. It's been a while, that's for sure. 'parently ye haven't changed one bit"
"_Captain_ Jack Sparrow, if ye'd be so kind." Smiling broadly, Jack broke the kiss immediately, turning around to embrace his old friend and formerly captain, Philippe Vasquez.

"Here y'are pet, have a drink an' find yeself 'nother man, Cap'n Jack Sparrow got better things t'do now than dealin' with li'll thieves like yeself", he said, pushing his bottle of rum and a few coins into the hands of the still breathless whore. Cursing, she took them and made her exit into one of the filthy bars around.

"Sorry whelp, I'm too old for changin' me habits. Ye'll never gets me to callin' ye 'Captain' - ye stays me philanderin' first mate to me till the day I die."
"Good to see ya 'gain, Phil. Fin'ly someone who actually dares sayin' what a useless li'll brat I am. Let's find somethin' to drink an' somewhere to sit an' 'ave a talk!"
"That's me boy! 'The Golden Sheep' 'as a new barmaid, bet she's ye type. Cute li'll blonde, all ladylike an' demure they say. B'sides, they got the best rum in town. Not that that's sayin' much, though."
"What're we waitin' for then? I'm on for a li'll challenge tonight, I can tell ye that." An' for a good swig o'rum an' a talk with an old friend o'course!"

Jack turned around, adressing nobody in particular. "Sorry ladies ye'll have to do without Cap'n Jack Sparrow tonight. O'course that means you missin' some incredible pleasure. My deepest apologies for that!", he declaimed as if acting before a large audience in some theater rather than standing in one of Tortugas busy yet shabby streets.
He swayed to one of the whores who stood around waiting for customers and who had followed the whole scene with a bit too apparent interest. Taking her hand into his, he wiped away a nonexistent tear from her face and briefly brushed her lips with his, tongue darting out just long enough to touch hers for the fraction of a second.

Stepping away from her, Jack took a deep, ironical bow to the 'audience', clasping his hands as if in prayer, golden and ivory teeth flashing in a broad grin.
Quickly, he then turned around, leaving his "stage" in the direction of the harbor and 'The Golden Sheep'. Phil stayed closely behind him, still sniggering at the girl's facial expression when Jack had kissed her, which had been somewhere between ecstasy, anger and confusion.
Man, he had bloody missed his showy former first mate - days could be so boring without him being around. He had half expected the people that had watched Jack's little performance to burst into applause - Tortuga was always an adventure for newcomers, but living here could get quite boring without the right people up and about.

He couldn't wait to tell Jack his 'adventure' with that funny bad-tempered lass he'd had in front of 'The Swaying Anchor' half an hour before. He had a feeling that Jack'd be quite interested in that, him being always in for a girl fresh from the Continent, young, naive, pretty and innocent. Although her knive suggested that this one was not completely innocent - well, all the more reason to tell Jack. He was Captain Jack Sparrow after all - thus there'd be no problem at all.

--

"So ye're Tortuga's new harbor master? Never'd have thought that ol' Phil'd settle down peacefully one day. Don't ye miss yer ship? After all, the Artemis is a goodlookin' lady, almost 's fast as the Pearl an' better equipped in terms of guns. Ah, an' look 't yerself Phil, ye're not even thirty an' a good man. Good pirate. Far too young to bury yerself in one place - even if it's Tortuga! Such a waste. And, if you don't mind me saying, you _could_ use a tumble with lady Atlantica herself, if you get me meaning."
"Don't get cheeky on me, mate. But yah, I miss me ship, me crew, the freedom of the seas. B't I got to think 'bout me family now."

Jack, who was just taking a sip from his mug of rum, almost choked, spraying rum all over the table and needing all his balance not to fall from the wobbly chair he was sitting on. "Family?", he finally managed to blurt out.

"Yeah. Thought ye'd heard. Got a daughter, two years old, beautiful girl, 'at's for sure. Just like 'er daddy." The proud father showed all his 'beauty' in a wide grin, looking like a particularly dirty jack-in-the-box with extra many missing teeth.
"'er mother's takin' care of her, b't they be needing money all the time, better stay near, me thought. 'Course I miss me Artemis. Borrowed 'er to a guy called Barbossa, ye know 'im? Me new first mate after you'd gone. Good man. Bit overambitious and certainly too cruel though, if ye ask me. Nevether bothers wit' the good ol' 'marooning on an island'-thingy - usually 'e kills 'is victims right away."
"Aye, I heard 'bout that Barbossa-figure. Lookin' forward to meetin' 'im one day. Great pirate, they say. Nothing compared to me, o' course."

Jack suddenly became conscious of using his cockiness as a shield against a topic of conversation he didn't like to think about, something he did rather often, but this time he was seriously annoyed by himself.
[Just stay calm], he reminded himself, [just 'cause ol' Phil's gettin' weak, that doesn't mean, you should follow in 'is footsteps. After all, ye're a pirate. You weren't even sure of bein' the girl's father anyway, back then in Willemstad. An' ye gave 'er mother enough money to give up her whoring for at least ten years, after ye freed her. There's no need a'all to feel guilty that she didn't listen to you, went on whoring anyhow and died for it.] Stupid enough, he did indeed feel guilty anyway. At least the girl was save as the assumed daughter of a lonely, retired piratecaptain somewhere on Curacao. No need to think about that anymore.

"I need more rum!", he exclaimed, quickly squeezing his bad conscience back into the regions of his brain that didn't work too well when he was drunk. Luckily, being at least a bit tipsy was very much his usual state of mind. "B'sides, I wanna check out that cute li'll barmaid."
Not waiting for any possible response from Phil, he stood up, swaggering into the direction of the long, dirty shelf which was resting on two empty barrels on the other side of the room and which served as a counter.

Phil had been right, the new barmaid certainly was cute, if not beautiful. Blonde hair, slightly curly. Deep blue eyes and ever so slightly tanned skin, her cheeks reddened, her lips full and red. Her nose wasn't perfect, however; it was slightly crooked, making her look more human, less like a doll. Jack decided, he liked that nose best about her.
Obviously, she did not use any of the bleaching powder, the kohl or the red lip-coloring the whores of Tortuga generally used in order to make themselves look ageless and anonymously beautiful. She did not need those things, her natural - though definitely innocent, almost childish - beauty was much more pleasing.
Jack used to think that most women who were considered beautiful tried looking like the same, nameless beauty-ideal. One big, boring mass of similar white make-up-masks with similar red lips, the only differences being height, hair and eyes, since even the way they dressed was utterly homogeneous. Removable. Exchangeable. For one night, perhaps, but only if the needs of his flesh became quite desperate.

Sometimes however, he stumbled over a real Pearl, like this girl. A girl like his ship had been, when he found it. Unique, unspent, innocent, yet perfectly able to take on any other girl. Perfect for him, for one night at least. He wouldn't stay, though. His ship, his freedom meant so much more to him than a shy smile, a hand caressing his body, the sinful joys of the flesh he liked to show these girls.
He respected them and took care of not hurting them, wanting to show them how pleasant, even ecstatic, unbound, sinful life could be.
[Yo ho ho, a pirate's life for me!]
Chuckling, he approached the girl, taking off his hat and bowing.

Meanwhile, Phil, still a bit taken aback by Jack's strange way of cancelling their conversation, settled back comfortably with a whore on his lap and a mug of rum. Ready to enjoy the show.
He had known many a girl resisting Jack, only the resisting rarely lasted any longer than let's say ten minutes.
Of course, the story was different with girls Jack had already had and then abandoned. They usually slapped Jack across the face - something he somehow seemed to take almost as a compliment. A habit which defined Jack Sparrow perfectly - the big ego, the "no apologies, no regrets"-thing, the kind lover, which in the end always walked away. The man that was conscious of constantly amusing his surroundings and thus being a good friend to many men and few women.
Phil wasn't sure how he liked Jack's girls better, all naive and purry before he slept with them, dreamily and exstatic immediately after or angry, hurt and determined after he left them, always choosing the sea and the Pearl - the only girl he would never leave - instead of staying with any of them.
All of it was quite entertaining, so much he knew for sure. "Yo ho ho, a pirate's life for me!", he mumbled dreamily into the whore's ear, once more snapping at the chance to forget his kid, his new life, if only for a couple of hours.

--

Jack put his hat back on and leaned onto the counter. Conscious of his slightly mysterious and to most girls attractive looks, he sought eye-contact. Deep-brown eyes locking into her carribbean-blue ones.
"Hello luv. I knew Tortuga has a lot of false treasure to offer, but I'm very intrigued to see there's far more valuable things to be gained here. May I ask you to join me for a drink?" he said in his best english.
A deep blush covered the young girl's face, making absolutely clear that she was new to Tortuga, new to the job of a barmaid, new to men paying attention to her. An unsure smile covered her lips, as she looked at him, obviously pleased with his adventurous clothes, tanned skin and "unorthodox" style of hair and kohl-lined eyes.

Funny this was, really, Jack mused. He had made the experience that the exact words he said didn't matter much, usually a women's eyes gave her approval or rejection away, before he even uttered one word. This one sure looked promising. It was almost too easy...

"So luv, what's your name?", Jack asked, once they had sat down at a wobbly table in the corner of the shaggy parlor.
"Mary Summers", she answered, the blush again coloring her cheeks slightly pink. "And you are Captain Jack Sparrow of the Black Pearl. I heard the boys talk about you. I came to Tortuga to see people like you, hear interesting stories, perhaps experience some real adventures myself. Life in Britain is so boring in comparison, so I ran away, buying my passage here with my father's money." Abruptly, she stopped talking, as if having said too much already.
[Well, well, well], Jack said to himself. [A lady she is, but perhaps not as innocent as I thought. The lass still 'as a lot to learn, though. If she tells everyone 'bout how she came here, it's a bloody miracle she wasn't raped for 'er beauty an' killed for her father's money yet.]
"Heck, ye're halfway to gettin' a pirate yerself then, Mary. Keep goin', I say!", he said.
"- Let's see." He pulled her long, reddish-blonde hair behind her ears, stroking it while doing so, and placed his battered hat on her head.

The blush widened, spreading over the rest of her face and down her throat, disappearing below the neck line of her dress, a dress by the way, that was much too prude for Tortuga's shabby bars. Jack caught himself musing about exploring the treasures that were hidden below that dress, a thought a bit too pleasurable he found, as his groin promptly started too react to it.

"See? You look beautiful, darling - no sailor in the Carribbean who could resist Pirate Mary Summers."
"Thank you, Captain Sparrow" - "Please, call me Jack, my dear." - "Jack" - the blush became more obvious than ever - "could you please tell me something about your travels?"

--

"...and then they made me their chief." Mary leaned onto the table, staring transfixedly at Jack, who had been talking for the last thirty minutes, enthralling her with his stories, his looks, his exaggerated gesturing while talking, such drawing a livid picture of what had happened - or at least of his version of what had happened.
"And why are you here and not on that godforsaken island, being the rich and worshipped chief of those cannibals?", she asked, her cheeks once more flaming red.
"Well, basically the food wasn't very good, there wasn't any rum and I missed me lady."
These words had the desired effect upon her; upon him mentioning 'his lady' the fire in her eyes died, she looked totally crestfallen and willing to start to cry. "Your lady?", she managed to whisper, the blush again starting to paint her cheeks in a delicious red.

[Damn predictable girl], Jack thought. [This is just too easy!]

"Aye. By that I mean me ship, and o'course me second lady, the sea. Can't stay long without 'em. You need not worry, though, they're not particularly jealous ladies and allow me a nice girl to accompany me every now and then. A girl like you." With that, he stood up, circled the table, took her face into his hands and kissed her.
Her very first kiss, he instinctively knew, so he took extra care of not frightening her with roughness.

Ever so gently, he brought his face close to hers, his lips barely touching hers at first, then pressing them down more firmly. Her lips parted, he didn't know if by surprise or by breathlessness, but he thankfully took advantage of it, his tongue darting out, caressing her lips briefly, before letting it enter her mouth, stroking her teeth and her gums teasingly, then letting it meet hers, gently massaging. Apperently breathless but surprisingly daring, she grasped his head to pull him closer and runned her hands through his thick hair, meanwhile answering the kiss unsurely but determined, by that causing his groin to spring to life again.
He let the kiss grow more demanding, holding her and claiming her as his, at least for this one night.

In his corner of the room, Phil smiled to himself. [Bloody good show again, Jack. Though ye din't beat yer own record this time - all that storytelling stuff lasted way too long. Pity ye like to listen to yeself so much.], he thought, pulling in his whore for a kiss, meanwhile making a mental note to tell Jack about his encounter with the little fury in front of the 'Anchor' tomorrow - he definitely didn't want to miss an encounter between Jack and her if he could help it.

--

Her room was as small and shabby as any barmaid's room in Tortuga, the furniture obviously used by numerous former owners before it had ended up here. Nevertheless, she had tried to give it something personal, something so very female it made Jack smile. The walls were decorated by cheap but colorful draperies, candles lined the cupboard and the shelves and her small bed was covered by a worn but nicelooking plaid.

Mary stood in the middle of the room, smiling weakly, obviously feeling a little unsure about herself, about if it was right to bring him here after her shift had ended - he was a pirate after all.
Being that pirate, he decided not to let her fear grow, so he swaggered to her, wrapping her into a tight embrace and started nibbling gently at her left earlobe.
"You don't have to do this, luv.", he whispered while caressing her face and her hair with his hands, knowing all too well that she would.
"But I want to", she simply said, finally moving in his direction and kissing him.

Charmed by her boldness, he answered her kiss while his hands made for the latches of her dress...

--

Meanwhile on the Black Pearl, Samuel's night wasn't half as boring as he had feared. On the contrary, he now longed for a boring nightwatch without anything happening.
They had brought Marcus in half an hour after the Captain had gone amusing himself. By that time, he had been still alive, though the bloodloss he had suffered made it quite apparent that he wouldn't last through the night.
Nobody knew what exactly had happened. Bootstrap Bill and Charlie had found the poor guy lying motionless in some dark alley, surrounded by a babbling crowd without anybody actually doing something for the unconscious, bleeding man. They had picked up some rumors about Marcus being nearly killed by a girl he had tried to rape, others said he had tried to rob someone. The general consensus seemed to be that he had deserved what he had gotten, being a pirate and all - although of course nobody said that aloud with Bill and Charlie being in earshot.

Juan, the surgeon, had tried his very best, nevertheless Marcus had died an hour ago, without ever being able to tell what exactly had happened. And of course he, Samuel, had been sent out to find that ruddy Captain of theirs, who wasn't anywhere to be found. He had been in every shabby tavern, every brothel, every damn street, cursing louder after every new disappointment. Finally, he had found out that Jack had wandered out with some girl or other - something he had expected from the beginning. Thus, Marcus' last journey to the bottom of the ocean would have to wait till the next morning - only the Captain was allowed to give the order to sail out and give him his sailor's funeral.

He, Sam, hadn't liked Marcus very much - he had been a loud, rude guy, habits that turned worse when he was drunk. And of course he had been a heavy drinker. Nevertheless, it was beyond question that his assassin had to be found and punished. Firstly, to hold up the crew's moral, secondly to make it absolutely clear to every scoundrel in Tortuga that nobody should lay a hand uponn a member of the Black Pearl's crew, currently the most successful pirates of the Caribbean.

--

Jack, used to standing up at dawn, no matter how much he'd drunk and how late it'd been, woke when the first rays of sunlight oozed through the dirty windows of Mary's room.
He slipped out of bed, taking care of not waking her while getting dressed quickly. "Hope ye'll be allright, lass", he whispered. "Not everybody is as kind as I am - and seducing you really was a little too easy." Getting more honest to himself and the sleeping girl, he added: "you might have learned a lesson from tonight - do not put all your trust in fleeing strangers and, more importantly, don't give 'em yer love."

Conscious of her probably not being able to read, he started searching his countless pockets, until he found what he was looking for: a small necklace, a silver pendant in form of a flying sparrow dangling from it. He always had a supply of those with him, never sure if it just was a good joke to give every one of his conquests one or if he really wanted them to think they were special to him, not to feel dirty after they sold their honor, their innocence to adventure, to pleasure, to an unfaithful pirate - to him, Captain Jack Sparrow.
He liked to think to himself that all those disappointed girls - and countless they were, he thought to himself, widely exaggerating, as always - who had slapped him still kept their pendants hidden somewhere, sometimes taking it out and thinking about that one and only night they had been allowed the greatest treat of their lives.
The bigger the pirate, the bigger his ego - and Jack Sparrow liked to think about himself as the biggest pirate ever.

Carefully, he allocated the necklace around her neck, placing one little kiss onto her lips and quickly leaving the room.

[Better than leaving her with a note], he thought. And, immediately after: [Jack, ye really ARE getting soft. Better leave Tortuga before ye donate an orphanarium to the poor Tortugians!].

Stepping out into the street, he drank in the first rays of the sun. This would be a nice day for sailing, he knew immediately. Pity they had to stay here at least one more day to take in food-supplies and water, before sailing out again. He didn't want his whole crew to die of scurvy, aye?
Speaking of orphans and scurvy. His suprised gaze fell upon a young girl, soundly asleep, leaning onto a wall, as if it were the most usual thing in the world to fall asleep somewhere in the streets of Tortuga. As a matter of a fact, it was. What wasn't quite normal, though, were the bloodstenches all over her torn clothes, the bloody dagger that lay nearby her right hand, the look of exhaustion and fear over her sleeping face.

She stirred, obviously on the edge between sleep and being awake, being finally awakened by the sun that shone fully into her face - or perhaps his steps while he walked closer.

"Blast that rum!", she uttered, opening her eyes...

(To be continued)

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Tadaa!
I know, I know, it took a very long time to finish this. Believe me, you don't have a single idea how often I deleted the whole file and started from the beginning again.
I also know that I more or less promised some smut in this chapter. In fact, I did write the NC-17-lovescene between Mary and Jack, but deleted it again, since it just didn't feel right. I know Mary doesn't seem to have much of a point - she just serves to illustrate Jack's attitude (or the attitude I think he has, particularly his younger version). He likes women, he also respects them, but he never stays - he is too restless for that. I think that's important to know, please keep it in mind when reading the next chapters.
It also becomes apparent, that Jack has a skeleton in his closet (don't we all?) or more precisely: in Willemstad (Curacao). Please note that Curacao was one of the major centers of the slave trade in the 17th century - that will become important in due time. Also it was Dutch - just like Sijtje.
But enough with the history lessons. Sorry guys, I'm gettin' carried away.

Some thanks:

Thank you, DarkBubbleGum, for your kind words, they sure helped. :)
"Hoffnung I erhalten dieses Recht. Sie schaukeln!" isn't quite correct, it sure made me grin though. What did you use, bablefish? Thanks for the effort anyway - German isn't an easy language, I know. What exactly do you want to say? If you mean to say "I hope I got this right: you can do it" or something like that, it would be "Ich hoffe, das hier ist richtig: du schaukelst das schon!" - and please, again, don't ask me how to pronounce that!
By the way, say hi to vampire Jack from me, okay? I added your story to my recs, hope that's okay? :)

Thanks Cait for encouraging me to write more - please people, just drop me short notes if you liked (or even if you didn't) what I wrote - it's SO good to get feedback, even if it's just a few words.

Thanks Into the Sun - I sure hope Chapter two pleases you, since I'm not even sure if it pleases ME! ;)

Oh yes, and I more or less nicked the idea with the trinkets Jack's giving away to his girls from Nimue: http://adultfan.nexcess.net/aff/authors.php?no=4395 ). If you didn't read her stuff yet, go do it now, it's more than worth the effort!

Feedback & Co: please, yes!
punx@gmx.li