In The Nick Of Time

Wow, over 1000 hits now! Thanks to all that bother to read me! And to HeartJD (sorry to have left you out last time…cat hit the mouse and I missed your name:-S), UnknownSoldier, DesiringPirate, Moe Sparrow, Femmevixen13, Rejerito and Ziva, again, I’d have likely given up on this story long ago without your support! Thank you, you are the waves beneath me Pearl!lol

And I promise…it will get really really good soon! This next chapter may take me awhile to write, because if my readers can’t feel what’s going on, then why bother writing it? Be patient…I’m working on it! Thanks again! On with Chapter 6…

The wind suddenly howled and its presence intruded upon the new found intimacy Jack and Elizabeth had fought so long to have. Jack had pulled away from their embrace, but kept his arm around her shoulders, holding her closely, not willing to break contact with her. Elizabeth still ran through is veins, sweet and smoldering. He looked out at the deck, scanning his crew. “Mr. Gibbs, have the crew secure all gear and batten down our hatches.” Jack ordered, then looked back at Elizabeth and stroked her cheek. “We be in for rough sailin’, darlin’. “

She nodded, having been through hurricanes and the like before in Port Royal, however, never on board ship. She was a just a bit scared, but she knew she could trust Jack to bring her through; Jack Sparrow could do anything. “Jack, what you asked me, about truly wanting this life—“

Jack smiled, kissed her again. “Get through this night of weather before ye give me yer answer, love.” He said, but he didn’t seem apprehensive about what she might say, it was more like he was trying to be fair to her. In fact, Jack looked almost like he was awaiting this storm with an eager sense of competition, he and the Pearl against it. “A night like the one what lies ahead makes men a sailors and sailors a men, savvy?”

Jack Sparrow…Francis or no, he was a marvel! Elizabeth smiled. “Kiss me again.” She said, sorry that the approaching storm must be dealt with. Jack leaned down to her and she stood up on her toes, his lips met hers only briefly, teasingly, making her lunge more into the kiss as if she were to overtake him. But she felt Jack’s soft lips purse into a smile for a split second, and then she was lifted up in his arms, his tongue battling hers as he pivoted around, pressing her suddenly up against his cabin door, pinning her hands against it as he held her by the wrists, and leaned into her with a hungry, possessive groan.

He felt her knee rise slowly up to his hip and she turned her head to gasp for air, offering up her neck to his ravenous lips, and he sucked at her white skin, pushing his body to hers until he heard her moan softly passed his ear. Damn this coming storm! She was ready, Jack could feel it, and he’d have given anything to have disappeared into his cabin with her and sail upon her uncharted territories. No, it was best to stop this now, before he couldn’t. He kissed up her neck, back to her waiting lips, flicking his tongue over hers lightly once more, then gradually pulling away from her, but keeping her pinned against the door. “Be that what you needed, Lizzie?”

Elizabeth’s eyes fluttered open and she couldn’t help but smile. “Savvy!” She said breathlessly, and starred back into his deep, dark, kohl accentuated eyes. “I love you, Jack.”

Jack melted at those words, he would for the rest of their lives together. He crushed her to him and held her. “Aye, say it again,” he whispered.

“ Jack, I love you,” she smiled back, happy that saying this had such an effect on him. She reached up and stroked his hair back from his face, fingering the beads that hung down by his ear. “And if it weren’t for the weather, I’d show you properly!”

“Hmmm,” Jack’s eyebrows twitched, and he had to step even further away from her. “I promise, there will be time made for such later, love!” Ah, he envisioned it now…Elizabeth’s legs locked around his waist as she thrust her body to his, coaxing him further and further towards eruption, her had nipples scraping his chest as she writhed against him and he against her…

“But you’ve work to do now, I know.” Elizabeth said acceptingly, and drew her finger playfully down his nose.

“What?” Jack asked, hurtling back to the present from far away in such a better place than the stormy decks of the Pearl. “Oh, aye, of course, love.”

Elizabeth smiled, knowing where Jack had been lost for she’d been lost there several times herself. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

“Well, Lizzie, preparin’ to meet a gale is mostly grunt work, but” explained Jack, not about to send her into the dirty dankness of the Pearl’s bilge to check that the pump still worked, or ask her to lend a hand pulling back the Pearl’s guns and battening down the portals.

“Oh,” she replied, feeling left out. “I see.”

“Nay, Lizzie,” Jack quickly said, touching her shoulder. “I was ‘bout to ask if ye’d secure me cabin fer me. Seems a small thing, I know, but without charts and me compass, the Pearl be a useless vessel and I be a useless Captain.” He was glad when her spirits lifted. “If I made ye feel anything less than valuable to me and the Pearl, I apologize, love. Truth is, I trust ye with me effects more than I trust God hisself, Lizzie!” He smiled.

She smiled back, grabbing the handle of the cabin door. “I’ll be in here then, Captain.”

“Thanky, love!” Answered Jack. “And Elizabeth,” She looked back as she opened the door. He smiled again, tipping his hat to her. “I love ye, never wonder ‘bout that, savvy?”

* * *

“Jack, you can’t be serious!” Elizabeth’s heart was in her throat. When the storm hit, it hit with a vengeance, and the Pearl pitched and rocked to extremes like Elizabeth had never before experienced aboard a ship before. Now she understood why Jack’s desk had been nailed down to the floor, along with his rack, and along with so many other things she’d encountered aboard the vessel. The wind was awful, howling like a pack of wolves, rattling so many of the lines and chains in the rigging, shaking the masts until she expected the spar to snap and fly back against Jack’s cabin where they both rode out the storm, for now.

“I’m the Captain, Lizzie, this be what I do.” Jack was too exhilarated by the tossing and turning and churning of the ocean, the rain, the thunder, the lightning and the high winds to be able to grip the worry Elizabeth was wrought with. He’d only come in to check on her, make sure she was well and not too scared. She hadn’t been until he’d told her he was going back out to man the helm.

“But what can you do, Jack?” Elizabeth demanded hysterically, grabbing his hands and holding onto him. He wasn’t trying to impress her, was he? He’d bloody better not be! “Have you some charms to quiet the seas? Please, don’t go out there, Jack! Stay where I can see you’re safe, please!” Just then a rogue wave leaped up and over the Pearl’s stern, tipping her to port sharply and Elizabeth fell, nearly toppling heels over head and slamming into the cabin wall, but Jack who knew to bend his knees with the pitch of the ocean quickly caught her and pulled her back against him.

“Alright, love?” Jack asked, patting down her body gently to feel for any injuries.

She nodded, but looked back at him thinking of what a merciless night this was, and that Jack Sparrow was hell bent on going back on deck. She couldn’t stop him, she knew that. She reached up, touched his cheek. “Be careful,” she said softly, “to lose you now, Jack…”

Jack caught her hand and took it to his mouth and kissed each of her fingers. There was no way he could reassure of anything, nor could he guarantee her, or himself, of his safety. He’d faced many storms prior to this one, far worse storms in fact, but this was the first one he faced while his lady love huddled frightened within his cabin. It gave him all the more cause to steer the Pearl through this. “Hear me, Elizabeth.” Jack began, his voice level and as comforting as he could make it be. “Crawl under me rack, and ye stay there. Savvy?”

Elizabeth began to wonder if there would ever be enough peace to just be in love and think only about each other. For now though, she just raised up on her toes and gave Jack a quick kiss, told him once more to be careful, and then watched him exit the cabin, looking confident. It gave her hope, as she crawled beneath his rack.

It wasn’t easy to walk the deck, not even for Jack. Water flooded it as waves rose and crashed above the gunwale, and the wind blew against his face and down his frock coat. He was the only one above deck in this weather, but then there was nothing more to do but man the helm and try to keep her righted. He made his way to the helm, taking with him a length of rope and threading it through the two cleats on the floor nearest the wheel and then tying it securely around his waist and shoulders like a halter. Then he took the Pearl’s wheel in his hands, but the ocean tried to yank it back. It was treacherous tonight, but Jack smiled. “Yo ho!” He growled, ready to meet the storm’s challenge, and pushed the rudder straight again, holding it there defiantly.

About ten minutes had passed, Elizabeth held up beneath Jack’s bed, sure that at any moment the Pearl would capsize or be crushed beneath the waves. What was Jack doing out there? How did anyone do anything that made any difference against such forces of nature? What if a wave had already scraped Jack off deck? What if the deck had been so bombarded by the waves, he’d drowned, right there, on the deck of the Pearl? Why oh why could their first kiss not have lead to their first lovemaking as Elizabeth had always envisioned it would. This wasn’t some odd foreshadowing of what their lives together would be like, was it? Actually, at the moment, Elizabeth would be happy to know for certain that they’d have a life together at all and that the storm would not claim the Pearl, Jack and herself.

The thought that Jack may be in dire straits would not leave her mind. It wasn’t easy to get to her feet again, but she’d managed it, and she then arrived at the porthole much faster than she’d planned due to the shifting of the Pearl. However, she could see nothing, far too much water beat against the glass, blocking Jack and the helm from her view. Was he even still out there? She had to know! As much as she couldn’t believe it herself, Elizabeth made her way to the door.

Twice now Jack had watched a wave rise higher than the Pearl’s mizzenmast and then break over them, bouncing the ship downwards and then back up again. If the ocean swelled anymore than that, things would truly get interesting. He held the wheel firmly, loosely enough to allow the rudder to sway with the rest of the Pearl, but tightly enough to keep the ocean from having its way her. His beloved Pearl groaned and fought the wind and waves, and he patted her, whispered his encouragement to her, and then thought for a moment that she’d answered him.

“Jack!”

The voice was fearful, but strong. He turned, and there in the flash of lightning he saw Elizabeth, her arms locked around a bridle line, wind tearing at her soaked hair. He fell in love with her because she was stout hearted, but this was a bit much. What to do now? He was lashed to the helm, he couldn’t get to her, and Jack knew if she’d come out in this storm to see that he still lived, that she wasn’t about to be sent back to his cabin easily. Bloody hell, did this woman not listen to men just for spite? There were a few coils of line lying at Jack’s feet, tangled around his leg, it was the only option.

“Elizabeth,” he yelled over the wind, over the roar of waves, and he kicked the line back to her. She unhooked one arm from the bridle line she clung to and grabbed the rope. Good, that had at least gone right. “Wrap it ‘round yerself! Follow it toward me!”

This had been a stupid idea, what was she thinking? She was almost a bit disappointed to find that Jack had looked so comfortable, if not drenched; what had made her think he’d be otherwise? She tied a loop around her waist, and found that the other end of the line was tied to Jack and the helm. As if playing a tug o’ war, and with the wind blowing her backwards, she may as well have been, Elizabeth made her way to Jack, holding the rope, moving hand over hand and pulling herself along to stay upwards on the tossing deck. There, finally, she was against Jack’s back, and she could feel the strength within him, holding the wheel steady, keeping the Pearl from being knocked around in the raging sea.

“I’m sorry, Jack!” She still had to yell even as she was right up against him. She’d never heard wind and water make so much noise. She should have stayed where he’d told her to stay; all she’d done now was add extra worry for him.

“Put yer arms ‘round me, love, hold on!” He instructed, too occupied to even entertain chastising her. He’d felt the ocean steal away out from underneath the Pearl, like a wide hold had opened, but she stayed afloat. That meant only one thing. Jack’s eyes searched for it, knowing it was out there, waiting for it to come.

The warmth of Jack’s body was a comfort that Elizabeth needed, but that comfort was short lived. Over Jack’s shoulder she saw a wave forming, but not an ordinary wave, not even for this storm. Its peak came up, and came up, and came up, a swelling body of water that just kept growing as tall as a church steeple and as wide as the church. Just when she was certain it had reached its fulfillment, Elizabeth clamored and squeezed Jack harder, for the wave was towering higher than the main mast, and bearing down on them. “Jack?” She nearly cried, not sure of what else to do or say.

But Jack’s strong back arched against her and he kept a steady eye on the horrible wave. “She’ll right herself, Lizzie. Mark me words. She’ll right herself!” This was it, the one thing Jack did worry about.

Elizabeth wasn’t sure of what Jack was referring to, but before she could begin to try to understand, the wave exploded down on the Pearl, crushing her to starboard and pushing her down and down, rolling her and beating her until she lay upon her side. Elizabeth had felt Jack turn the rudder to starboard, hard to starboard, all but slamming the wheel to the right and held it there with brute strength. She tried to scream, but she, Jack and the entire Black Pearl were too quickly underwater.

The water churned and tried to suck them all down, it was cold and dark, and blocked out most of Elizabeth’s senses. She held to Jack though, and that was all she knew, until the Pearl suddenly flipped beneath the crashing waves, and she felt them making a whole revolution, the Pearl’s starboard side breaking the surface of the water again. The force was amazing as the vessel hauled herself back up, bringing Jack and Elizabeth with her, groaning nearly as Jack did when he’d broke her free of the Stalwart’s brig. The wind grabbed at Elizabeth’s hair again, she opened her eyes. The Pearl sat within the rough sea upon her hull once more. How were they not sunk? Elizabeth was amazed. And Jack, he was laughing.

His hand smoothed the helm and patted it lovingly, water pouring out from the front of his hat, which had miraculously not been lost, like a trough . “That be me girl!” He growled proudly to the ship. “It be quite awhile since we rolled like that, Lizzie!” He said, glancing back at her. “How have ye survived it, love?”

Was it her imagination or was the wind lessening now? Or was it that after what she’d just been through, everything else seemed trivial? “I’m fine, Jack.” She answered, but she couldn’t help shivering.

“And what say ye to wantin’ this life, then?” He asked, not having to shout quite as loudly as before, for the weather was beginning to break. He thought he knew her answer, but still, he wanted to hear it. It simply wouldn’t work with him at sea and her living in some little cottage by the shore. If they were together, Jack wanted her with him.

Elizabeth was actually able to smile. Yes, it had been scary, but Jack had gotten her through, gotten his crew through, gotten the Pearl through! She’d never seen a Captain so at one with his ship as Jack was with the Pearl. Elizabeth now knew beyond the shadow of any doubt that Jack would always make things “right” themselves. “Jack, I do want this life! With all that it brings!”

There was thunder in the distance, but the ocean was calming. “All that it brings?” He smiled, now loosening the lines that they both were tied with. “And I suppose that if’n I brought ye the Ship’s Articles fer ye to read and sign in the morn, ye’d be obliged?” He lifted the coils from his body and then set about unwinding her.

Elizabeth beamed like a little girl. She was to be a pirate! A real pirate! A real member of a real crew! “I’d sign in my own blood if you’d asked me to, Captain Sparrow!”

Jack smiled, chortled contently and kissed her. “Then I suppose yer answer be ‘aye’ then, Lizzie?”

“What part confused you?” She smiled back. “I want this life with you Jack! Yes!”

Again Jack kissed her, taking both her hands in his and pressing them over his heart. “I weren’t referin’ to that, Elizabeth.” He said with an odd, happy look on his face. “I meant ‘bout becomin’ me wife!”