Muse

Chapter Six

*Time it passes,
it tells us what we're left with.
We become the things we do*


"You do realise the longer you stay down here, the more likely it is that you will eventually get scurvy?"

"If that is your way of attempting to get me out of your bed Mr Gibbs, then I do not quite think you realise whom it is you appear to be talking to" She told him matter of factly, pulling the covers up to her chin.

Gibbs glared at her, but didn't say a word.

3 days she had been rested. It was high time she decided to get out of HIS bed and got on with whatever she appeared to be doing on the ship.

"Gibbs, can you leave me and Miss Swann please? I need a little word in private...if you get me drift"

Jack stood behind Gibbs looking straight at her. He looked oddly serious...it didn't suit him at all.

Gibbs nodded, before leaving his shift.

"Really Jack, there is no need for everyone to remain on watch for me...I am feeling alot better now" She told him as he took a seat next to her on a wooden crate turned upside-down.

"Then you won't mind handing over Gibbs bunk? Hes complainin' of a bad back from sleeping on the deck...I'm starting to get tempted enough to want to actually strangle him"

Elizabeth smiled.

"He can have it back tonight. I should thank him really" She then looked him dead in the eye. "But I needed to thankyou first"

Jack avoided the eyes. Eyes were never good...they gave away too much.

Look at the decking...yes, thats good...
"What would you need to thank me for?" He asked her as if he was avoiding the answer.

Elizabeth was looking at him curiously. "For saving my life...again"
What the hell is wrong with him? why will he not look at me? Do i have something on my face?

"No problem" He said quickly, now deciding to look at the ceiling of the deck below. "I would have done it for anyone you know, if there was anyone in the water; even if they were just enjoying a midnight swim in a storm-trodden ocean...I still would have jumped right in and saved them reguardless of my own life because that is th kind of man i am-"

Was he babbling?

"-and the compass is really important to me and if anything happened to it the Tia Dalma would kill me and that would be a terrible shame because the Caribbean would be a plain place to sail if it wasn't for ol' Captain Jack Sparrow"

He looked at her then.

So it was the compass all along? She thought to herself. That selfish bastard did not save me because he actually might of cared a little for me, he saved me because of his stupid bloody compass that DOES NOT WORK!

That stupid bloody compass that did not work had deffinately made her decide that she had changed her mind about Jack Sparrow.
And to think that she had actually thought that the needle was pointing in his direction! She had actually contemplated it!
Thought about the way he had looked at her on deck just the other day! Thought that it may actually MEAN something!

Well it meant nothing to her.

"You loathly, mangy, scurvy riddled, dirt coated-"

"Pirate" He finished for her.

"You saved my life for a compass?!" She asked him angrily.

He smirked at her. "What else, Luv? There would be nothing else worth saving"

She glared at him.

"Unless...."

And there was that stupid half smirk-half grin he always seemed to do when he was trying to insinuate something disgustingly sexual.

She came forward from the filthy pillows behind her head, and her eyes met his in a stern lock.

"Jack Sparrow...the day I ever give myself to you freely will be the day that hell freezes over"

His eyes (for once) did not flinch from hers. This time he was really looking at her. He was seeing what she was made of. This time he was looking into her and trying to find something...something that told him what she really wanted.

Then he found it.

He leaned in closer...his nose was touching hers now.

In a small voice, barely above a whisper he said four words to her that made her look at him completely differently for the very first time.

"Some time soon, then"


*_*_*_*_*_*_*


"LAND AHOY!"

"This is not going to turn out like last time, is it?" She asked Gibbs, who was standing at the helm.

Gibbs shrugged. He never knew what to expect anymore.

"We'll be going on land for a rum run....it seems we've ran out...again"

At this the crew stopped what they were doing, and looked directly at Norrington.

"Also is the matter of a little visit i need to pay to an old friend...private business" Jack told his crew, and then looked behind him and nodded at Gibbs, who put a finger to his lips and smiled.

"Bloody pirates..." Elizabeth whispered.

She had spent the past few hours ignoring Jack. After what he had said to her some hours ago, she did not find she could look at him without blushing.

How the hell did he manage to see right through her like that?

But he did not know that she had seen him in that way...only she knew. That seed had been planted long ago, back when her fascination with Pirates had begun...she just did not realise that not the fascination would become a possible sexual one...God she hated her brain.

"Elizabeth if you plan on joinin' us I suggest getting off the ship" Mr Gibbs shouted from the plank that had been put down for the crew to walk across.

She sighed.

When was she going to find Will?

*_*_*_*_*_*_*

"You're comin' with us" Pintel told Elizabeth, smiling toothily at her.

She glared at him, and then looked to Jack and Mr Gibbs. "Am I not allowed to go with you two?"

"No" They both told her simultaneously.

She became stubborn.

To stubborn.

And then got her own way...again.


Off the three of them went to a secret destination whilst the rest of the crew went rum-running.

"Where are we going?" She asked quietly.

This island was almost like Port Corvanya...only decidedly worse.

It smelled funny, and no sun shone here.

"I do not like this...there is something not right here..."

Jack laughed. "Where a Pirate is concerned...nothing is ever right"

Elizabeth stayed close to Mr Gibbs. She felt she should not stand too close to Jack without fear of him trying to insinuate something.

The streets were cobbled and dirty. The houses they passed had no windows and it looked as if no one had lived there for a very long time.

"What are we looking for?" She asked Gibbs in a whisper.

"Not what..but who" He told her mysteriously.

Now he was a true Pirate. Thank god for men like Mr Gibbs...they give pirates like Jack Sparrow a bad name.

Suddenly she saw a light. It was coming from a house infront of them. There were actual windows within this house, but it still seemed as dirty and ultimately dangerous as the rest.

Jack smiled eerily, the light illuminating his face, and for once she saw something she had never seen hidden within the dirt-riddled crevices; excitement...pure excitement.

"We're here"

*_*_*_*_*_*_*


"Wait here...don't come in any closer. Just wait for me to return and we'll be on our way"

And with that he disappeared inside the house.

The pair stayed outside. Elizabeth was tempted to peek through the window, but it appeared that to actually see anything she would have to pile three or four empty ale crates ontop of one another to be able to get a descent view. So instead herself and Mr Gibbs remained on the dirty streets, wondering off into their own little day dreams whilst Jack tended to his business inside the house.

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*

"Celest?"

"I'm in 'ere, Jack"

He opened the door and saw her standing there. He smiled widely. "What a site for sore eyes you are!"

She smiled back at him; she was sat in a rocking chair, her flaming long hair spread all around her. She seemed to be doing some kind of needle work.

"Its been alongtime, Jack...You've only ever been here a few times and yet...I seem to remember everyone of them...." At this she smirked at him knowingly.

He couldn't help but smirk back.

"That might be the case, Celest...but i'm 'ere for different reasons tonight...I'm havin' a bit of trouble with you estranged ex....it seems he's taken a shine to my soul....but i'm rather fond of it you see, and-"

"I can't help you there Jack" Shed told him, her tone of voice changing at the change of conversation. It seemed colder in the room all of a sudden. "You knew the rules when you played the game...what Jones wants, Jones gets..."

"But I want don't him to" He told her matter-of-factly.

"Its not about what you want anymore, Jack. If your time is up, then your time is up"

She sounded final.

"Well" Jack started, knowing he was treading on thin ice. "I was actually thinking you could help me there. You see, ol' Mr Jones has never quite gotten over you...and if i were to say...reunite you? I think it would go undeniably in my favour"

She stood from the chair, tipping it over with force. She marched upto him, meeting him eye to eye.

Jack winced. He knew it was a good idea not to touch the subject. She was still rather sore about it. She had been for the past 100 years.

"You think I would want him back now?"

*_*_*_*_*_*_*


Elizabeth could not help herself. She was bored beyond belief. Mr Gibbs had actually fallen asleep in the alley next to the house. How on earth he managed it she did not know.

She wanted to know what was going on in that house. What was so secretive that she was not allowed to see?

Well, she would be damned if Jack Sparrow ever hid anything from her.

So she gathered the crates quietly, stacking them up ontop of eachother; they looked a little dangerous to attempt to stand on, but she was willing to give anything a go.

*_*_*_*_*_*_*


"Davy Jones is dead to me. He will always be dead to me. He has been since the day we separated..."

Jack was still a little scared of her, if he was honest.

"Just because we've had a thing Jack, it gives you no rights to bring this up to me. Your debt has to be re-paid to Davy Jones...it doesn't matter what you do"

She seemed to be coming in closer to him. She was staring into his eyes...somehow she was calming her speech down..she seemed less angry now, anyway.

Has to be a good thing...lets keep it going... He thought to himself.

"You're a mystery, Jack Sparrow....You're not like any other man I've ever known..."

"I'm not one to keep my heart on my sleeve..."

"Or take yourboots off in bed...if i remember rightly..." She was smiling at him again...that smile that told him what she was about to do...

Could be worse... He thought Davy could find out...

*_*_*_*_*_*_*

Elizabeth hoisted herself slowly upon the crates, and grabbed onto the ledge just below the window. She could see Jack's hair.

He had his back to the window, and he appeared to be with someone.

Elizabeth squinted through the dirty glass. Whoever it was had long red hair...

He's with a woman...

He was here to see a woman.

She was close to him...her fingers were reaching up and playing with his hair...

Elizabeth closed her eyes and thought for a minute.

Its just Jack doing what Jack does best...being flirtatious and trying to get all the women he can...you're just another one he would add to a list of conquests if he could....

She tried to stop her brain from thinking. She did not care what Jack Sparrow did. He was Jack Sparrow. He could do whatever the bloody hell he wanted, it was nothing to do with her whatsoever.

She opened her eyes and squinted back through the glass.

Only what she saw made her stomach give a faint squeeze.

*_*_*_*_*_*_*

"Do you remember what we were like, Jack?" She whispered in his ear.

"I'm trying to forget" He said, more to himself than her.

"Fire and ice..." She was nuzzling her face into his neck now.

He giggled.

She lifted her head up and looked at him strangely.

He looked at her, trying to hold in his laughter. "Sorry...I'm just a bit ticklish there..."

She was looking at his mouth now. "But you're not ticklish here..."

Jack closed his eyes. If she was going to do it she had better get it over and done with now.

He had only come to try and bargain with her over Jones...nothing more...this time...

She tasted rancid. Her hot breath covering his mouth, and her hands winding their way through his dreadlocks.

This was his idea of hell...although for some reason, he did not know why.

No other woman came to him lately. Not when he had her on his ship...and god was he regretting what he had said to her lately...she must have thought he was a letch.

I think you keep forgetting what the word Pirate means, mate

It was all true.

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*

Arguing was heard from inside the house.

Elizabeth had knocked the crates over, and was now sitting on one of them in the alleyway next to the still sleeping Mr Gibbs.

The door suddenly opened, and Jack came flying out head first, rolling down the steps and into the street.

"AND NEVER COME BACK TO THIS HOUSE AGAIN!"

Jack got up and brushed himself off.

He looked over at Elizabeth, who was staring at him with no expression on her face. It irked him a little.

"Where's Gibbs?"

"He's down here, sleeping" She told him, looking down at her hands.

"Right" He went over and slapped his first mate awake, before dragging him up and then slapping him again for good measure.

"You know...cold water oddly works better" Gibbs told him sarcastically, rubbing his face.

"I don't need anythin' more 'ere tonight. Lets go back to the ship, we're gonna find ourselves a box..."

Jack and Mr Gibbs walked off side by side, Elizabeth following them slowly behind.

Elizabeth looked on, deep in thought.

So what if He kissed her? He's allowed, its not like hes married or anything....hes free, and thats exactly the way Jack Sparrow should be...It should never matter to you, you should concentrate on finding Will...

But it did matter to her...

Because at the end of the day, Jack Sparrow was exactly what she did not want...but at the same time, he was something that maybe she needed.