The Fight

“Would you rather I was somewhere else for awhile?” Jack Sparrow was lying in their bed in the dark—When had that happened? That he started thinking of it as their bed?—listening to the woman beside him not sleep. “I’m asking because you’re making so much noise over there I can’t bloody sleep anyway, and I could just go relieve Ana Maria...”

“I haven’t said a word.”

“No, and that’s the bloody point, isn’t it. You’re thinking very loudly, but I can’t quite hear what you’re not saying.”

No response. Jack knew he was on shaky ground here. On one hand, if he assumed too much, she’d let him have it. But she was clearly in pain, and he wanted to do something.

“I’m thinking that maybe when this idea of yours to come aboard the Pearl happened, ye had in mind some of the more entertaining aspects and not exactly the bloodier ones. I’m sorry you’re upset, but I don’t regret killin’ him. He’d have slit either of our throats in a heartbeat, Suzanna, and that’s the truth.”

More silence.

“I’m also thinking that maybe you’re wonderin’ what you’ve gotten yourself into with me. You’ve got a lot invested in this idea of Captain Jack Sparrow, the pirate who’s also a good man. But maybe that doesn’t square so well with you now that you’ve watched me kill a man in front of your eyes.”

Nothing from her.

“Can ye not see...”

“Stop. Please, Jack, just stop. Could you just stay here with me right now and not talk and not try to explain anything or reason with me or make anything better and just give me a minute. I will talk, I promise.” Only in prison had Jack ever experienced time going this slowly. When finally Suzanna spoke, she asked him to light a candle. “I want us to be able to see each other. And while you’re at it, could you grab us some rum?”

********************

Four days ago, Jack had suggested that they head to Barbados, ostensibly to explore the production of that new and delectable white rum.

“Don’t you mean the commandeering of said rum?” Suzanna probed.

“No, no, that’s a nautical term. You commandeer a ship. This would be more ‘appropriation,’ let’s say,” Jack corrected.

Suzanna gave him a pointed look. “Jack, if you ‘appropriate’ too much, you will put them out of business and then there will be no more. And it seems to me that you are acquiring quite a taste for it, so that would be a shame.”

“Mmm...among other things. Well, it’s a fair point, luv. We’ll steal just the right amount then.”

She tried another tack. “Isn’t Barbados a bit on the well-defended side for you to just sail happily into the harbor?”

“Luv, you are forgetting. I’m Captain Jack Sparrow. Don’t you worry, I know just the place to make port. It should be about a week’s sail. It might mean getting you back a bit later than we’d originally planned...”

“Good,” she said quickly. “I mean, fine.”

“Good then. There’s a beach on the ocean side of the island with great stone arches carved through by the sea. I think it will appeal to your love of the dramatic.”

“And who says...? Right. Silly me.”

“I think there’s one other stop we need to make first though—Tortuga.”

“Oh! The infamous Tortuga. That’s marvelous! I actually had thought of asking you, you know, since it plays such an important part in the story. I really should see it for myself so I can capture the atmosphere in the book.”

“And we still haven’t gotten you into any taverns,” Jack continued making his case, “seeing as how St. Lucia turned into such a cock-up, well, not all bad at that, but still...We’ve got to take you somewhere thoroughly appalling so that you get the full pirate experience.”

“And nothing fits that description quite so spot on as Tortuga,” added Will, who had walked up in the midst of their conversation. “Believe me when I tell you, you don’t know the meaning of the word atmosphere yet. Jack, in all seriousness, how do you propose we get Suzanna and Elizabeth in and out of one of those places in one piece? They aren’t exactly going to blend in now are they?”

“Hmm...I’ll have to give that some thought. But no matter William. With our two blades and my reputation, I don’t think there’s many foolish enough to cause us problems.”

********************

The four of them reached the Squawking Duck later in the evening after supper, when Jack felt that most of the patrons would already be drunk or sated enough not to pay them as much attention. The short walk through the streets was enough to give Suzanna pause. Though she would never have admitted it to the others, she feared she might be a bit out of her depth here. She had seen some of London’s slums but always through the window of a carriage. Walking these streets full of people doing pretty much anything people were physically capable of doing and some she was fairly sure they were not capable of had left her looking a bit flushed by the time they reached the tavern door. She turned to say something to Elizabeth when Jack pushed open the door and headed straight for the bar.

“Ruby, my luv!” Jack exclaimed in his most exuberant voice. “How is the most beautiful woman in all of Tortuga who has broken my heart a thousand times? How many times have I asked you to run off with me only to be cruelly rebuffed? Well let me introduce you to the woman left to pick up the pieces...”

Suzanna was still facing Will and Elizabeth looking more than a little flustered now, but Jack grabbed her elbow and spun her around for the introduction. Suzanna let out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding when she saw that Ruby was a short, plump woman with a well-lived in face of indeterminate age. “Suzanna darling, this is Ruby, finest pourer in all of Tortuga and my special mate, much as she refuses to let me have my way with her...It’s tragic really,” Jack winked at Ruby saucily and added, “but fortunately for me, luv, Suzanna doesn’t have your scruples,” which earned him a sharp poke in the ribs.

“Well Jack always did have the best taste,” Ruby replied, grinning.

Suzanna smiled back, taking an instant liking to this woman.

“Go on then, you dog. Get yourself a table, and I’ll send ’em over. Evening Mr. Turner.”

“Hello, Ruby,” grinned Will, and reached over the bar to kiss her cheek.

“And who’s this lovely slip of a thing, eh?”

“Ruby, I’d like to introduce you to my wife, Elizabeth.”

“Just lovely...But please Mr. Turner, mind your language in here.” Will quirked an eyebrow.

“Words like wife. Not good for business.”

Will laughed while Ruby looked at the two cousins—a study in contrasts but both with the same fire. “Cor! Two like that for just 6 months, and I’d a been retired by now,” she muttered.

Suzanna had thought Jack too busy recognizing friends and acquaintances to have heard, but he turned around with an animated look, leaning back over the bar conspiratorially and asked, “Really? What do you think we could get?” Ruby shook her head, Suzanna stepped on his toes, and the four made their way toward a table in the back.

Several tankards of rum and shouted conversations later, Suzanna felt fully immersed in the experience of being in another world. She had really wanted to bring a notebook, but Jack just shook his head. Now that she was here, she could see why that wouldn’t have been a good idea. So instead she soaked it all in as well as she could.

Jack was a wonderful tour guide pointing out various pirates of his acquaintance, volunteering tidbits of gossip, although studiously avoiding making mention of any of the women, she noticed. There was a very tense moment when a man named Tiny appeared at their table and banged his ham-sized fist down in the middle. “Captain Jack Sparrow! Hell’s bells, I thought I’d never see you again.”

Suzanna’s first thought, and Will’s too apparently because he was standing now with his hand on the hilt of his sword, was that Tiny had never thought he’d see Jack again because he was sure he’d already killed him and now he was here to finish the job. But Jack looked nonplussed even as Tiny grabbed him out of the chair and picked him up and spun him around once, before plunking him back down again in his seat.

“Christ on a stick, Tiny Martin! I don’t believe it! Sit down, you old dog. What are you drinking?” Both Will and Suzanna visibly relaxed, and Will sat back down.

“Ale!”

Jack got Ruby’s attention by what seemed to Suzanna like some kind of telepathic ability and he made a few motions with his hands. In a few minutes there were four more tankards of rum and what Suzanna would have described as a bathtub of ale for Tiny.

“Tellin’ stories is thirsty work!” Tiny said in a booming baritone that could most likely be heard all the way in Jamaica. Introductions were made all around, and Tiny’s eyes widened at meeting Suzanna and Elizabeth, but then nothing the Captain did was completely unexpected. “So I’d heard that you got the Pearl back and about the curse and about Barbossa being dead and there was a girl—that must be you!” he exclaimed looking at Elizabeth. Then he looked at Will, “And that would make you the whelp, then?”

Will rolled his eyes and wondered if he was ever going to be free of that.

“Well he’s grown up a bit, I reckon,” said Jack, grudgingly.

“Tell it all!” demanded Tiny, and Jack didn’t need to be asked twice by such an enthusiastic audience. So Suzanna had the delicious opportunity to sit in as salacious a tavern as existed in the pirate capital of the world and listen to Jack tell the story with occasional quickly dismissed interruptions from Will and Elizabeth and punctuation provided by Jack’s constantly waving hands, often right in front of her face, as Jack’s arm was perpetually, covetously around her neck. In a lot of circumstances, she would have found it too possessive and annoying, but in this place, it seemed like a very good idea.

At one point, a very drunk patron stumbled into the back of Elizabeth, knocking the drink out of her hand. Will returned to the table just in time to hear the man slur an apology and then look very interested as he got a closer look at Elizabeth. Suzanna distinctly heard the words “Cut your balls off” and some other very colorful sounding language from Will as the man made a hasty retreat. Judging from the way Elizabeth was now planting some rather sloppy kisses along his neck, she seemed to approve, and Will’s eyes were starting to glaze over in response.

When Jack finally stopped for a breath and a slug of rum, Suzanna whispered, “I think it may be time to head back to the ship,” indicating the pair with a tilt of her head.

 Jack whispered back, “I think we’re having a very positive influence, don’t you?” and with a quick nip on her ear, turned to his large companion. “Tiny, my friend, it seems we must bring this evening’s festivities to a close. But if you’d like a berth on the Pearl, be on the dock at 8 sharp tomorrow morning. I’d be please to have you. Ladies...?”

 The four of them left the tavern, Will and Elizabeth slightly ahead, with truth be told, a fair amount of kissing and groping going on. Must be the rum...or something. Suzanna smiled to herself, resting her head on Jack’s shoulder. Suddenly, Jacks lips and teeth were on her neck and muttering something about “just a little nibble to tide us over” as he pushed her gently back toward a darkened side street off the main road.

Distracted by the rum and the feel of her skin beneath his mouth, he didn’t see it coming. A pair of sinuous yellow hands shot out of the darkness, wrapping themselves round Suzanna’s arms and placing a blade to her throat at the same time as a pair of huge arms grabbed Jack and twisted his arm behind his back just to the edge of the breaking point.

Jack took one breath, rage clearing his head in an instant, and dared one glance at Suzanna before glaring in the eyes of the man with the knife. Suzanna looked pale as a sheet and Jack wanted to hurt someone so badly he bit his tongue hard enough to draw blood just to remind himself to wait until the right time to act. His voice was icy when he spoke.

“What do you want?”

“More than a little bit of what you’ve got here. Don’t worry, there’ll probably be something left when we’re done.”

The larger man had already relieved Jack of his pistol and sword, and so the snake-like one, thinking Jack was no longer a threat, turned his back to push Suzanna up against the wall. In one swift motion, Jack dropped to the ground as if collapsing from pain, drew a dagger from inside his right boot and plunged it into the snake’s neck then whirled to face the second attacker. He ran, and Jack was far too concerned with Suzanna’s safety to pursue him. She lay slumped on the ground now, drenched in the blood of the creature Jack kicked out of the way.

“Christ, I’m sorry. Are you alright, luv?” Brushing the blood off her neck with his shirt, Jack checked to made sure that indeed none of the blood was her own, and satisfied with that and a very faint nod from Suzanna, he scooped her up to carry her back to the ship.

********************

To say that there was a flurry of activity when they returned would have been an understatement. Suzanna would have been touched had she been aware of the tender and concerned looks she received from the crew of the Pearl. A bath was drawn and hot brandy poured for the shock, and finally Jack threw everyone else out of the cabin. Elizabeth was the last to leave and inclined to argue as to why she should stay, until she took a good look at Jack’s face. She was so moved by what she saw there, that she hugged and reassured him instead of the other way around. “She’ll be okay, Jack,” she insisted and then left the two of them alone.

Jack removed Suzanna’s clothes with very little help from her. He wasn’t sure how much she really saw or heard of what was going on around her right now. Finally he got her settled in the tub, stripped off his own clothes, and set to work scrubbing the blood off them both. He washed her hair, and then pulled her to her feet, carefully helping her back onto the ground. Next he wrapped her up in one of his softest shirts, tucked her into bed, and went to fetch the herbed brandy.

He held it to her mouth, rubbing her back, and spoke to her softly, “Drink up, luv. Murphy made me promise you would, says it’s his mum’s secret recipe, and I know how much he fancies you. If we don’t want him putting something in my food, you’d better drink it.”

Suzanna put out a great effort and managed a very small smile, “Jack, are you hurt?”

And he didn’t think he was until she reached out and touched his wrist and he hissed in pain.

“It’s nothing, luv. You get some rest and we’ll talk in the morning,” he said, pulling her gently against him and not letting go until well after dawn.

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Chapter Ten