Almost Familiar Faces.

“Will!” Jade yelled at the boy. Not a moment before, she had abruptly stopped walking and was nearly fallen on by him. “Stop followin’ me!” Ignoring the exasperated look on his face, she continued, “I’m not goin’ to break, but if ye don’t be going away, I’m goin’ to break you!”

Jade’s wounds where healing rather well and she had insisted on taking on a light workload. It had been a week since that night in her room and Will was still desperately worried about her. He had slept next to her every night since then.

Will had told Jade about that night and she had shrugged it off immediately. She thanked him for trying to keep her safe, but did not discuss it any further.

“I told you to stop following me ye bloody insect!” Will had not heeded her previous warning and continued shadowing her. “Captain!” Jade called to Jack, who had been watching the ordeal from the wheel of the ship. “I’m going to run your ‘Whelp’ through in a moment…” She had put her hand to her sword as if to prepare herself to unsheathe it in a moment.

“That won’t be necessary, love.” Jack quickly walked over in his odd yet graceful way. “Boy, would you please stop following the stubborn brat around like a lost puppy?”

“Hey, I’m not a brat.” Jade’s short attention span lost interest in any response she might get, so she changed the topic suddenly. “So what else have ye heard about Anne Black, Captain?”

Jack had no problem following the quick change in discussion, though the rest of the crew, including Will, where left back to wonder why Jade didn’t say she wasn’t stubborn.

“Well now, let’s see…” Jack thought for a moment about where he should start. “Ah yes, Anne Black. From what I understand, she is a stubborn girl that doesn’t like to be called names.”

“I meant, what have you heard from others about her?” Jade rolled her eyes at the grinning Captain.

“Well, she’s known for her sword fighting. See, she sometimes fights with her sword reversed.”

Will scrunched his brow, “Reversed? You mean she fights with the dull edge of a blade?”

“Now that would mean that the blade was reversed and that’s not what I said. Here, I’ll show you what I mean. Draw your sword.” Will reluctantly obeyed the captain’s order. “Now hold it n your right hand.” Stepping behind Will, Jack took hold of the boy’s arms, surprg hig him. “Now hold it so the blade is parallel to the floor.” Will obeyed yet again, sticking the sword out in front of him. Jack frowned, “That’s not what I meant. Make a fist as if to hit someone.” Will did as he was told, making the blade pint to his left. “Now, make the blade point to the right, sharp edge out.” Satisfied with his work, Jack backed away from Will, hiding his reluctance in the loss of contact. “Close enough.”

“I don’t understand how she could fight like this. How did she come about it?” Will frowned at the thought.

“Probably from the Orient,” Jade chimed in.

~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~

Will hadn’t expected the bold stunt Jack had pulled. He had felt the older pirates hands slide up is harms, gently resting somewhere between his wrists and his elbows. Will’s soft brown curls had been tied back, so every word Jack spoke sent warm air to gently kiss his neck. He had hoped no one else had noticed that the blade in his hand wasn’t the only ‘sword’ of his to be parallel to the floorboards.

Despite his best efforts to hide his condition, he had a sneaking suspicion that Jade had noticed his reaction. He had almost protested when Jack had pulled away and he could have sworn there was a look of warning in Jade’s eyes. ~Not good. Not good at all.~ Will worried about his hold on his own self-control.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jade listened closely to Jack’s description, wanting to soak it all in before letting them know the truth. She hadn’t even told Will yet. So far Jack had covered Anne Black’s murders, raids, and so on. Really, Bla Black was boring. Except for her sword fighting. Jack’s demonstration had also been very exciting, at least for Will.

~Will… and Jack. That explains a lot. Will’s not turning me down, he doesn’t know which one of us he should choose. Or, maybe he doesn’t want to choose. This could bring some interesting fun.~ Jade looked over her captain. She had realized a while ago that he was a good looking man and had appreciated his signs of affection. ~He wants to protect me just as much as Will does. He just has a different way of doing it.~

Sighing loudly, Jade interrupted Jack’s stories. “Captain, I’m not Anne Black. I knew her, but I’m not her.”

“Oh. All right then.” Jack turned to walk back to his station.

“Cap’ain, ye ever hear of a girl called ‘Emma Green’?” Jade felt bad for bursting Jack’s bubble. She might as well get this out of the way now.

Jack thought for a moment when suddenly his eyes lit up, “Yes! She ran around with that Anne girl. That’s it! I remember now. She was the one that taught Anne how to fight. It is said that both are mad, but in different ways.”

“Anne isn’t crazy, she’s evil. She has no feelings.” Jade’s face grew hard. “I should have never taught that bitch how to fight.”

“Aha! You som someone that I’ve heard of. I just got them mixed up, but it’s okay because I was close. But not that close. Just close enough that you two where associated in some way.” Jack was happy that Jade had finally given them something to work with, but he was desperately trying to make sure that she knew that they didn’t think her to be the same bad person as Anne. “Jade, what is it with the colors? I mean, Green and Black?”

“Jade and Coal. Coalesce. Our real names. We just used the colors to makcondcond names.”

“Hmm, well that does make sense…” Jack gave a glazed look to something past the girl’s shoulder, though she was almost positive there was nothing there.

“Ye know, if it hadn’t been for that slimy wench, I wouldn’t have been on the Golden Arrow.” Jade left the discussion at that and walked away. ~Let Jack tell them any thing else they want to hear about me.~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~

It was Will’s turn to have a night watch and he was incredibly upset at having to leave Jade alone. “Jack, keep an eye on her tonight. Please.” Jack nodded at the boy’s request. It wasn’t a task to be taken lightly. Some times people can’t control their emotions in their sleep, no matter how strong that person is and Jade was no acceptation.

Jack slipped into Jade’s room that night, setting himself a place on the floor. The girl seemed to be sleeping well and Jack had little problem doing the same. He was quite surprised to wake up to a body next to his, a delicate arm on his chest. He turned his head slightly to see the girl’s face nuzzled into his shoulder. ~I’m starting to wonder about the intentions of this one. Very keen on having physical contact with people. Well… people that she cares for. This might turn out to be a strange relationship.~

The door to the cabin creaked open and Will stuck his head into the dark room. “Jack?” He whispered, “Are you in there?”

“Right here, on the floor. I’ve seem to run into a bit of an obstacle.” Jack grinned, knowing that it was too dark for Will to see his predicament. “You might want to light a candle.”

“All right, hold on a moment.” A few muffled noises came from the other side of the room where Will was looking for something to light. A flicker of something caused the wick of a candle to ignite, spilling light over into the room. “Oh…” Will contemplated the situation.

“Wait, what are ye doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be watching me ship?” Jack’s attention had shifted to more important matters.

“Ana came to relieve me so that I could watch over Jade. If you can manage to get up, I’ll take over from here.” Will crouched down next to Jade.

“I don’t think so. I’m quite comfortable.” Jack closed his eyes to go to sleep.

“I bet you are…” Will knew that he wouldn’t be able to remove the captain without waking up Jade. Instead, he laid down on the other side of her, putting his arm around her waist.

“Sweet dreams Will, Jack.” Jade’s voice floated through the darkness as soon as Will had blown out the flame. Jack’s chuckle was heard as well as the beginning of a protest from Will. Thinking better of starting a fight this late, he gave up and fell asleep with his face resting in Jade’s hair.

~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~

A/N: I love making things complicated. I’m a little unhappy with how some of this chapter was written. If I can, I’ll fix it later.

Oh, my. 1065 views and only e coe comments (AFF). Two on ffnet (well, three but two were from the same person commenting on a comment that I had made about their comment). Yeah.

I decided that I didn’t feel like going into the Anne Black thing. Maybe later if she shows up. I just realized that I needed Elizabeth for something. Oh well. Damn me.

I’m sure you’ve all pick up on the fact that anything written like ~this~ means that it is a personal thought of a character. I’ll try to add that info into the first chapter when I get the chance.