Grasp

Authors note: Somewhat strange, especially for me, but i got this crazy idea and just had to run with it. Kinda of developed the idea out of some songs that i was listening to. Let me know what you all think. Without further nonsense from me I present...

GRASP


Elizabeth Swan had always had a grasp on her life. At least until she met Jack Sparrow she did. He forced her to realize she didn’t have to settle for James Norrington and that it was ok to love a blacksmith. She later sought him out to find Will and instead found herself feeling more for him than she did her absentee fiancée. Of course he was missing because Jack had put his life in peril but that didn’t matter now. He had given her more strength in herself and in her abilities than he could ever know and she was eternally grateful to him for it. Somehow though she managed to kill him instead of thank him. Not something she was ever proud of, in fact it festered away at her, but something she would strive the rest of her life to correct if given the chance. But somehow her life was quickly fading and her chance of reclaiming some control over it dimming with every beat of her heart.

No one could save her, her fear masked by the darkness of the alley and her shaking and fighting body only shielded by Will’s old shirt and breeches that she had taken before she left in search of the man she had wronged, saved, and loved.

Elizabeth Swan was dealt a life of luxury, the life others would kill for, but she let it ride on the bet of a lifetime. A bet she made on a pirate, for a pirate, because she was a pirate. She couldn’t blame anyone but herself for anything that happened to her before or anything that was going to happen to her now that this brute had discovered her to be a woman. She knew one thing for sure and this time there was no hiding it behind witty wise cracks or rum, she was scared.

Six months ago she and Will had returned to Port Royal after rescuing the infamous Captain Jack Sparrow and defeating the East India Trading Company. She had managed to gain pardon from the king and was returned to the posh life she was used to much to her chagrin.

Her relationship with Will had been strained; hanging by a thread would probably be more accurate. Will wasn’t too sure who she was anymore and wanted to get to know her before he rushed into marriage. She had left a friend for dead and killed her former fiancée. The later wasn’t really deliberate as she was defending herself to him in the heat of battle so it was forgivable. The earlier was most certainly intentional and cruel. If the crime wasn’t heinous enough she clearly had deep feelings for the man she had condemned to death. Will knew it. Upon bringing Jack back from Worlds End she had tried night and day to apologize to him for leaving him to be eaten by a beastie no one would ever want to face. All she did was cry to Will with no explanations for anything. She had tried to make it work with Will; she loved him, clearly not as much as she turned out to love Jack.

She could hear Will’s words echoing in her ears now as this hideous man lifted a hand to her throat robbing her of her precious breath as he pinned her to the wall. Elizabeth, I can’t marry someone who clearly doesn’t love me. You may not have meant to, you may not admit to it, but in your heart you love Jack. Your eyes give you away. She did love Will, just more like a brother than a husband, so she didn’t protest when he let her go. She loved Jack, he just wouldn’t talk to her for her to tell him that. She had tried the entire voyage back from Worlds End to at least gain his forgiveness and perhaps save the friendship they once shared. She could live without him loving her back, miserably but she could survive. His lack of forgiveness was slowly killing her.

She wished she could have taken it all back.

She wished she had barged in on the conversation she heard Will and Jack have the night before they returned to Port Royal when he admitted to feeling something from her. She should have called him on it then, but she didn’t want to hurt Will. In retrospect she already had so maybe if she had done it then it could have saved them all some grief. She started remembering that night as the monster of a man she had encountered in the tavern struck her over and over.

“Jack would you please talk to Elizabeth. I can’t understand why you wont talk to her. Neither of you will tell me what’s going on. She is so depressed. I know it has something to do with you.”

“Sorry lad I can’t.”

“Why Jack?”

“Will. Leave it be.”

“Jack I know she kissed you that day on the Pearl. I’ve dealt with that. She told me it was your last request as a man of the living. Nothing you can say would be worse.”

“HA! You’ve dealt with it. Well maybe I haven’t!” He had paused briefly, ”that’s almost a believable story she told you.”

“What do you mean almost Jack?”

“You really want to know? Don’t say I didn’t try and do the honorable thing in not talking mate.”

“Jack.”

“She kissed me to shackle me to the mast and left me there to be eaten by that hideously disgusting tentacled beastie. Guess she failed to mention that part, eh?”

“She did what?”

“She did what was necessary among other things.”

“Other things Jack?”

“She made me feel for her what you do. I’m never going to allow her enough of me time for that to happen again. I will never escape my feelings for her and ye are my friend and aided in my rescue. It’s the least I can do to settle my debt to you Will. So I most assuredly will not speak to her and you will leave with her tomorrow and never utter a word of this conversation, savvy?”

She never would have known how she felt about Jack had she not kissed him that day. She would never regret that part. The passion she could taste on him showed her what a lover’s kiss was. Will could never ignite that kind of fire within her. He was more the brother she never had, and that kiss only served as proof. However, she never would have left Port Royal in search of Jack had Will not finally cut her loose admitting to the wedge between them. For that she was eternally grateful. But at the moment she wished he hadn’t let her go, at least she was safe with him. Currently her life was in peril and the only other man she trusted hadn’t spoken to her since his death.


She looked into her captors’ eyes and saw nothing but hatred and lust. “You wanna play with men missy ill show you what a man is. I’m going to fuck you right here and maybe if you’re worth me time I’ll take you with me and do it again later. Pretty little thing.” He removed his hand from her throat briefly to rip at her shirt and release his manhood. She tried to escape but he held her steadfast. She screamed as loudly as she could knowing all along her cries would be lost in the bustle of Tortuga but she had to try something because struggling clearly wasn’t working. He ripped her pants down to her feet and replaced his hand around her neck slamming her head into the cold stonewall. He had muttered something about fucking her harder than anyone ever had when she lost consciousness.


//////////

Captain Jack Sparrow had recently made port in Tortuga and was walking the streets trying to decide what he wanted to do. Well he knew what he wanted; his damn compass hadn’t stopped pointing that out to him since he had left Elizabeth in Port Royal with Will. He threatened tossing it overboard a few times before he paid a visit to Tia Dalma. He asked her to fix the bloody thing, but the bottom line was that it wasn’t broken. Jack Sparrow is vexed she had spat at him in mock laughter before she told him the sad truth. He had to talk to Elizabeth. The compass wouldn’t stop pointing to her until he at least tried to get what he truly wanted. He stormed out of the tree hut disgusted with the answer and weighed anchor for Port Royal, unsure of exactly how he was going to solve anything. For once he had no plan.

He had wasted enough time getting there, pirating any ship that came within view and eventually stopping in Tortuga in an effort to try and forget her with a good night of Tortuga’s finest assets. Meaningless debauchery and rum always served to clear Jack of his dilemmas, so why not this time? He found himself walking out on Giselle just before she was to go down on him and it wasn’t long after that that his rum bottle found its demise at the hands of a stonewall instead of his lips.

He aimlessly walked the streets in a state of excessive sobriety trying to figure out what he was willing to do to remedy the suffocating feeling in his chest. He clearly didn’t want to do what his heart desired. That would involve admitting too many feelings to too many people. Honest streak or not Jack Sparrows feelings weren’t readily shared with anyone. He was staring into the compass as he walked hoping it to change when it suddenly spun to the East. Surprised he turned in the direction of the needle and noticed a dark alley. Ever curious and with nothing better to really do he followed the needle and found something he never could have expected nor really wanted to. There was a woman, clearly battered, bruised, and bloody in the darkness. An overweight, half naked pirate stood over her slapping her face repeating, “wake up whore I want to hear you scream.” The man clearly hadn’t heard him approach.

Jack was never one for hitting women. Even though he often found himself on the receiving end of their blows, he would never lay a hand on one. Threaten, perhaps sometimes, but never harm.

“You better back off er mate.” He unsheathed his sword and spoke in a deliberate and deadly tone.

“And who’s going to stop me?” Came the response as the man spun around giving Jack more of a view than he wanted of this hideous and revolting creature but also a better view of the girls face.

“Mate you have two options.” He paused when he identified the girl. His heart seemed to stop beating and a disturbing level of rage dripped off his words “you have no options,” he growled at the man before reaching his pistol. He fired a shot into the heart of the bastard.

Jack slowly walked towards Elizabeth removing his coat. He wrapped it around her body and picked her up, carrying her back to the Pearl where he could better care for her injuries. He cleaned up her face as best he could, as the bruises did not wash away as easily as the dried blood and dirt had. He removed the rags of her clothes that were left and replaced them with a shirt of his own and a pair of his breeches. Given the situation he didn’t think she would mind. He cleaned up the gash on the back of her head and bandaged it as best he could. He then placed her in his bed and let her rest. He perched himself at his desk and sat watching her and thinking all the while how he managed to get into this little predicament. She didn’t know it but he had forgiven her. He wasn’t mad about being killed in the first place. He was more hurt that she used his adoration of her to kill him. Didn’t she know he had come back to the ship for her? Bloody woman. Right now all he wanted was for her be ok. Everything else would be dealt with soon enough.

//////////

Elizabeth had awoken nearly panicked but relaxed a little when she realized she wasn’t in an alley somewhere in the bowels of Tortuga. She couldn’t open her right eye and could barely see out of her left. She was scared to make a sound in case that monster was still around. She could smell a familiar scent of sweat, rum, and spice and it somehow calmed her nerves. She sat up, her head spinning slightly and her ribs causing her great pain, but she needed to know where she was and if she was safe. She saw a shadow of a man sitting feet perched up on a desk, neck kinked to the side, arms hung loosely at his sides. Whoever it was, was snoring softly and hadn’t noticed her. Now she really thought she was having delusions because she thought it to be Jack. She logically deduced that it wasn’t. How could she have gotten from being nearly raped and beat to death to being with Jack Sparrow? That just didn’t make sense to her. She swung her feet to the floor planning on making an escape but immediately regretted the movement. She gasped in pain waking the sleeping silhouette of a man who nearly fell from his chair upon hearing her.

Jack looked and saw her doubled over in pain and felt a great deal more remorse for her than he was willing to admit at the moment.

“Ah good ye‘re awake.” He swung his arms in the air, “maybe I can have me bed back then?”

“Jack is that you?” She asked through harsh breaths ignoring his cold heartedness for the moment since she couldn’t figure out how he had gotten there.

“Captain Jack if that’s who you be referring to Lizzie.”

“How did I? How did you?”

“Funny I had the same question for ye, not that it matters much cause we be here now.”

“The last thing I remember is a vile man slamming me into a wall and pinning me…” her words became tears as the memories came back to her.

Jack just stood staring at her clearly confused as to what to do. Did he try and console her, leave her to herself, or just stand there? He rapidly bored of the later, so he walked to her and put a hand down on her shoulder before sitting next to her.

“I’m sorry I didn’t get to you sooner Lizzie. If it helps I killed the bastard.” He said, his voice holding more concern for her than it ever had. She continued to sob a while longer while Jack just sat there watching her not knowing what to do and not really sure what to do.

When she finally stopped crying, they sat in an awkward silence. “I’m sorry Jack.”

“Fer what?”

“Leaving you to die.”

“Lizzie, I’m passed that.” He stated without emotion. In fact he couldn’t believe that the first thing she had to say to him after what had happened to her had been about THAT.

“How can you be?” She asked somewhat confused, yet slightly relieved.

“What were you doing in Tortuga anyway?” He felt the need to take control of this conversation before he said things to her he had never known he knew the words for. The desire to hold her to him was starting to make him twitch.

“Looking for you.”

“Where’s Will?”

“Port Royal.”

“Why ye by your onesie? You know the dangers of Tortuga for a lady, even one as independent as yourself.”

“Will and I ended things. I came looking for you.” She tried to look at him but saw nothing but a blur out of her barely opened eye so she returned her eyes to where she knew the ground to be.

“Why?” He asked her, prying for her to say what he hoped she was getting at.

She sighed, this was harder than she thought. At least she didn’t have to look at him, not that she could see him anyways. “Because I can’t live with myself until you forgive me for what I did.” She started crying, “Because I never realized what you meant to me until I lost you…because I thought that maybe if I could find you and at least get your forgiveness I’d be able to move on from the pain of you not loving me back.” Her sobs intensified clearly not from the physical pain she was suffering. “I at least need your friendship Jack.”

“Oh.” He silenced, not having a response for the very first time in his life. His head was spinning. He wasn’t entirely sure he could believe that she was sincere but his heart took over for him. Hell he’d already been eaten by the Kraken and that didn’t hurt nearly as much as the broken heart he had been walking around with did. He lifted her chin and turned her face towards his seeing the pain that the goon had inflicted on her in the now dawning sun, but she was still beautiful. She heard him take a deep breath before she felt his lips on hers, unlike before; there was an unfamiliar tenderness to them. “Lizzie. I forgave ye that day. You did what was necessary, I can’t hold that against ye.”

She sighed thankful he hadn’t laughed at her, “Why didn’t you talk to me after we rescued you. Why couldn’t you just…? I never would have gone back to Port Royal.” She was desperate for some answer.

“Oh bugger. Here’s where I wish I didn’t have me an honest streak.” He sighed, “because Lizzie, when you kissed me I felt something I never felt in me life. I haven’t been the same since and no matter how much I deny it to meself,” he paused as if battling with the words he was about to speak, “I can’t ignore that me compass is always pointing to you and I always want to follow it, savvy.”

“Jack, you’re not just saying that. Please tell me you aren’t just saying that to torture me further for what I’ve done.”

“Luv, try as I may have, I can’t torture you. I only end up torturing meself and apparently me crew as Gibbs has informed me.” He kissed her again more passionately than he had before as to show her how serious he was. He left her lips and moved to sit behind her. “Lean back Luv you need to rest.”

“Jack.” She spoke as he helped her move into his arms and lean against his chest.

“Hmm?”

“Thank you.”

“No one will ever lay a hand on you again, Lizzie. I’m not letting you out of my grasp.”