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The Scythe's Song	By : hallowedmaiden Category: Pirates of the Caribbean (All) > Het - Male/Female > Jack/Elizabeth Views: 2816 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own POTC or the characters and I do not make any money from this story.

Chapter List
- 10
- 11
- 12
The city of Tokyo was beautiful to the casual resident, or the wide-eyed tourist, and it may be beautiful to him on purely aesthetic grounds, but looking out of the window of his penthouse in that moment, all he could see was the reality of what the city was.
A giant piece of wool pulled over the rest of the world's eyes.
Unlike the drug cartels and the biker gangs or the big city gangs, the Yakuza didn't want to be noticed unless it was necessary to the cause. They operated in the shadows, in the backdrop of a city that was known for its low crime rate and cleanliness.
The perfect shroud, not unlike a how a perfect family is a disguise for a serial killer.
Bright lights, advertisements, cars and taxis streaking down the streets, the flashing lights of various parties, and the whir of street racers off in the distance was the essence of Tokyo at first glance, but he saw a playground, a sandbox for him to draw lines in, bending the city to his will.
He had dealt with kinks, with problems within before, but this problem, this fracture in the thousand foot perfect sheet of glass was different.
Tatsuo Izumi was one of his best men, one that he could rely on to do almost anything, but he was also a man of impulse. An impulse that had resulted in the murder of a prosecutor, Akihito Ishii, in a parking garage. The man had been zeroing in on one of their trafficking operations in Russia, and after a confrontation, Tatsuo had taken it upon himself to end the problem. That would have been fine, rewarded even, had he not left evidence behind pinning him to the crime.
As luck would have it, a few higher members of the Mexican drug cartel, Sinaloa, were vacationing in Japan for a few weeks and were staying in the same hotel that Ishii was killed under. All it took was a little evidence re-location, some fabrication, a little bit of blackmail, and some manipulation. As far as the law was going to be concerned, Martin Ramos had killed Akihito Ishii in his hotel room in a scuffle.
The evidence was now located in Scotland Yard in the U.K. to avoid tampering. He didn't trust the Japanese government with it, and he certainly didn't trust the Mexican government with it. It was surprisingly easy to pose as another prosecutor to convince the Brits to store the box.
Fortunately, the British government had also been looking into the trafficking operation on the Russia side and had recently gotten into contact with Ishii to discuss mutual information a few weeks before he was killed.
They thought that they had breached an unknown tie to the Mexicans within the trafficking circle, and had been quite eager to examine the evidence. It was now sitting in their storeroom, out of the way of any connections that Ishii may have had here, and certainly out of the way of any connections that Ramos may have had in Mexico.
They couldn't afford to have an investigation opened up about Izumi. They couldn't afford to have an investigation opened up about anything within the Yakuza.
Making sure that Izumi didn't get convicted of the murder was of paramount importance. However, should the evidence angle go south, he was confident that they could construct a different plan, but that was an absolute last resort option. The evidence was plan A, B, C, and D.
"Sasaki-san?"
He turned to side-eye the woman that had just stepped into the room.
"Kon'nichiwa, Seiki, what information do you have?"
"Izumi-san is here to speak with you."
"Ah, send him in then please."
"Certainly, just a moment."
She disappeared through the door she came in, replaced a few seconds later by a tall slim man with a long black straight ponytail and a white suit.
"Izumi-san, to what do I owe the pleasure?"
"I'll get straight to the point. Are you sure this frame job is going to work?"
"Are you questioning me because of a lack of faith in me, or fear for your own reputation?"
Izumi straightened his suit sleeves before he answered, making direct eye contact.
"Never a lack of faith in you, but there are a number of things that can go wrong."
That was certainly true. A staggering amount of things could go wrong. The evidence could get damaged, they could have left unknown evidence behind in the garage, Ishii could have more information stored away that they hadn't known about, the Mexicans could come up with a defence that they were not prepared for, someone could betray them down the line, and then the worst of the outcomes: something from left-field, a variable that they could not predict and could not control.
"You're right, of course. But would you prefer giving up and being convicted? Due to the circumstances of the murder, without this frame job, you would be sitting in a prison cell."
"No, I suppose not."
"All we can do is hope for the best at the moment. I will admit, this entire situation is frighteningly similar to a house made of toothpicks. One nudge and everything could come crashing down around us."
The man appreciated the analogy with a twitch of his mouth.
"We just have to make sure the glue is strong enough to hold, then."
"Indeed. Sayōnara, Izumi-san."
The aroma of coffee filled the air as she stepped into the kitchen. It was 11:30 A.M, Saturday morning.
"Hey, Lizzie. Jack is outside with Shawn. Should be in inna minute," Chris said when he saw her, offering her a mug. She accepted, smiling at him.
"Thank you."
Ringa was already sitting at the kitchen table with a bowl of cereal.
"Hola, buenos dias."
She felt a sort of comfort now that Ringa was here, like finding something she had lost.
"Morning. How did you sleep?"
"Like a baby, you? Oh nevermind, I forgot who you sleep with now. Would be difficult to not sleep well when you're next to that."
She rolled her eyes, raising an eyebrow when Chris chimed in.
"Hey, I'm a straight as a pin guy and that damn man has made me question my sexuality. I think it is safe to say that everyone in this house is jealous of you."
"See, amiga, I'm not the only one gushing."
"Gushing about what?"
They all turned to look at Jack when he walked in.
She rolled her eyes again, waving her finger at Ringa and Chris.
"These two seem to be under the impression that you are a gift from God physically, and they won't shut up about it."
He stopped walking, crossing his arms over his chest, looking mildly offended.
"And you aren't?"
"No, you are 300 years old, covered in wrinkles, and you drool. Remember?"
"Oh, right, sorry, completely forgot how ancient and decrepit I am, which reminds me that I need to find my cane. My knees are getting a bit wobbly."
She almost snorted into her coffee.
Once they were all settled around the table, Shawn produced several posters that appeared to be screenshots of Google Maps satellite images.
"I printed out a few shots. This one," he placed one in the center of the table, "is a shot of the police department and the surrounding area. It's right on the edge of the river to the right, and the Department of Health is to the left. The streets around it are pretty tight and grid like."
"There is a small memorial center with a parking lot just to the west of the station. That is where you and Jack are going to park and wait for the transport."
"They are most likely going to take it to the West Hampstead police station to store it there," Jack added. "It's a bit northwest from the Yard, like six miles."
"Yep, and on the way, there is a collection of industrial buildings that you two need to direct the transport vehicle to for interception."
"Hang on a second," Ringa interjected. "How do we know that they are going to worry about moving the box in the first place? I would think they would prioritize civilian lives over a box…"
"Normally they would, but the Yakuza have a few paid off cops at the Yard to pay special attention to it," Shawn replied, finishing off his coffee.
"Interestingly enough, I looked into the case a little bit," Chris said, scrolling on his phone.
"Apparently, the Brits are looking into a sex trafficking operation in Russia that has ties to the Yakuza. Since the 'Kuzas have framed the Cartel, the Brits also think that they have a major breakthrough in the case with the evidence."
"Wait a minute, so are you telling me that this has become a three country case in sex trafficking?" she asked at the same time as Jack grumbled an 'oh fuck the Russians are involved?'.
"Yeah, seems that way. As far as I can tell, the Yakuza killed a prosecutor who was closing in on the Yakuza end of the trafficking operation. The cartel members were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Now that they are being framed for the murder, the Brits think they are part of the trafficking ring."
They sat and processed all of the information for a second.
"...So the not-crooked cops are probably going to want that evidence moved too, since it is such a high profile case, and they will find a couple of eager cops to transport it, who in reality are transporting it on Yakuza orders?" Jack asked, tapping the table rhythmically.
"That sounds about right," Chris answered.
"Armored truck?" Shawn asked, the tone of terrible realization in his voice.
"Most likely."
"And they are going to wait in a parking lot to intercept the armored truck?"
"...Yep."
"Allow me to repeat. Armored. Fucking. Truck."
"...Yeah."
"How the fuck are they going to get into an armored truck?"
Jack emitted a long 'are you stupid' sigh, sending a facepalm look across the table at Shawn.
"You have a proclivity for forgetting the skills your employer has."
"That is all fine and good Jack, but those trucks are built to withstand pretty much everything."
"The trucks themselves might be, but the locks on the back doors aren't. If I can get close enough to the back, I can blast the lock off with a shotgun. She'll have to drive in front of the truck to keep it blocked in, then I can tranq whoever is inside and drive it to the industrial park."
"I'm going to drive in front of it? Wouldn't it be better if I were to be in the car with you?"
"I can do it, Lizzie," Chris said. "Don't worry, I won't let your precious boyfriend get hurt."
A strange expression came over Jack's face, and it took him a couple of seconds to realize that everyone was staring at him.
"What? I've never been referred to as a 'boyfriend' before, it's strange."
"What would you prefer to be called? My partner? And Jack is just fine at getting himself hurt, so it is rather out of your control anyways."
"When have I ever gotten myself hurt?"
"Oh goodness, how much time do we have?"
She nudged Jack's knee with her foot under the table, smiling at him just as Ringa clapped her hands.
"I think we have enough of a plan ironed out for now. We can go over more specific details later tonight. Now that we're all here together, I think we deserve a chance to learn a bit more history between the two of you."
She had told Ringa all about herself, but she had strategically left Jack out of most of the stories, just mentioning him briefly and only when absolutely necessary. Talking about him at the time had caused too much turmoil in her head.
"Fine, storytime it is then," she said with a small smile on her face, exchanging a look with Jack, who grinned back at her.
They moved into the living room, her and Jack sitting on the right couch, and the other three sitting on the left. Sunlight was streaming in through the large window behind them.
"So, how did the two of you first meet?" was the first question, coming from Ringa.
"Wow, diving right in, then?" Jack asked with a smirk.
"You two are so in tune with each other that I have to know how it all started."
"Right. So, shall I answer, or do you want this one?" she asked him.
He watched her for a moment, and she realized that their version of events might be slightly different.
"I'll take it, I suppose. Prepare yourselves," he said, getting comfortable on the couch. "So, my dear Lizzie here used to wear corsets, well, a lot. Bloody annoying things, for several reasons."
"Can't breathe in them, especially in hot weather, they hurt, and they took forever to put on," she explained.
'Women in London must have learned not to breathe.'
She smiled to herself at the memory.
"Yep. Well, on this particular day, the weather was, in fact, quite warm, and she had to put on a dress for a promotion ceremony for our mutual deceased friend James Norrington."
"I already told you, he wasn't your friend."
He gave her a playful glare before continuing.
"He also chose this day to ask for her hand in marriage in a rather unfortunate location."
"The battlements," she said, cringing.
"The battlements. I'm still not sure if she fainted from the proposal or the corset, but either way, she ended up in the water. Lucky she survived the fall. Lots of rocks."
She looked around at him in annoyance.
"His proposal wasn't unattractive enough for me to faint from it."
It truly wasn't. She may not have been in love with James, but she wouldn't have protested too loudly to building a future with him, and she suspected that she might have grown to love him. That was of course before she met Jack. After that, she was well and truly ruined for anyone else.
"...If you say so. Then, since the Royal Navy evidently couldn't swim, it was up to me to fish her out of the water."
"You saved her life? No wonder she fell in love with you then," Ringa exclaimed, beaming.
"Oh, don't get ahead of yourself. She was still very much enamoured with another mutual friend, William Turner, at the time. Besides, I didn't have any inkling that she was in love with me. I spent until like four days ago thinking she wasn't. Anyways, I fished her out of the water, and then cut her corset off to get her breathing again."
A wave of guilt washed over her when she realized that she had made him wonder and long for that length of time.
"Got laid out on the dock in just my shift, which was practically translucent, for everyone to see."
"Liz, I don't think Jack minded."
"I'm sure he didn't. Look, he is grinning like a fool at that memory."
And he was, looking directly at her, his eyes sparkling.
"Figured out that she just happened to have a cursed medallion on her person, and then I was put under arrest immediately after by her father and Norrington. They apparently didn't like me saving Lizzie. I guess they would have preferred it if she had drowned."
"Jack. Obviously, they put you under arrest for being a pirate, which is still ridiculous, but they didn't arrest you for saving me."
"Uh huh. After the customary you're-a-bad-guy-and-everything-you-do-sucks speech from Norrington, with added in 'shoot hims' and 'hang hims' from her lovely father, they threw some shackles on me."
He paused to take a sip of his coffee while their audience waited, almost bouncing up and down with anticipation.
"This is where it gets interesting. Our dear Lizzie here decided to gallantly protest my arrest by placing herself between Norrington and myself, saying something about how I saved her life."
She raised a hand to stop him from continuing.
"He saved my life, and I was protesting his execution, remember that, because those details apparently became fuzzy to him when he decided to use me as a hostage, nearly choking me to death with his shackles."
"Oh come on, don't exaggerate."
"They hurt."
"So apparently bondage doesn't happen ever…" Shawn said from the end of the couch, rather quietly to himself.
Jack facepalmed, not even bothering to tell him off.
"Thank you, Shawn, for that lovely commentary," Chris deadpanned. "Continue, please."
"As she was saying," Jack started, ignoring the pointed stare she was giving him, "I did use her as a way of escape. We had a lovely little moment where she re-armed me with my sword, belt, pistol, and my hat. She called me despicable, I told her that she owed me, then I pushed her into her future fiance while trying not to get shot to death."
The other three sat in silence for a moment.
"Well, I can certainly see how the tone of that first meeting carried through the rest of your relationship. You two are really the ride or die type, huh?" Chris said, laughing.
"Then what happened?" Ringa asked. "When did you two see each other next?"
"In the middle of a ship battle, actually-"
"Well, technically, I saw her in a cave surrounded by a bunch of treasure right before Will Turner thought she was going to be executed for her blood to break a curse, but who cares about specifics?"
She glared at him, shoving him with her foot.
"Anyways, he kind of suddenly appeared in the middle of a ship battle, and once again, sort of saved my life, just before rudely interrogating me about the medallion-"
"I don't think I was rude. I just asked you where it was, and you called me a wretch. I think it was you who was rude."
"Well excuse me for thinking that you didn't save me to save me. I thought all you cared about was that bloody stupid necklace."
"No, I happened to care rather a lot about the person that was supposed to be wearing the necklace too, but since we were under attack from undead pirates, I thought it rather pertinent to locate the object they were trying to find."
A brief flutter in her stomach had her smiling softly.
"Then, the amazing brave intelligent William Turner decided to get both Lizzie and me marooned on an island after he exercised his extremely impressive negotiating skills."
"You could tell the story without bashing him at every opportunity."
"Did you think that his negotiating skills were good?"
"Well, no, but-"
"Exactly. Anyways, we got marooned on an island. This darling," he pointed at her, "decided to try and convince me that I was trying to trade Will for a ship, and then she chased me through the jungle interrogating me until I finally confessed to her that I only spent three days on the island, and I was almost passed out drunk for all of them."
"At which point you handed me a bottle of rum."
"My thought process behind that was that you could use a little bit of rum so that you didn't try to kill me at some point. So, after that, she followed me back to the beach and started interrogating me again-"
"No, I didn't. I just asked you if you lied about everything else too."
"So I showed her my two bullet wounds, my pirate brand, and another scar on my arm. It seemed to convince her that I was not just a drunkard pirate."
"Then he proceeded to try and convince me to sing. As if…"
"Yeah, and right after, you told me that you would sing if you got drunk."
Their audience laughed.
"She did, in fact, sing by the way as we danced around a campfire, but I am unconvinced that she was actually drunk."
"I was...tipsy."
"Well, I was drunk. I think I actually passed out."
"Mhm, probably the only reason that I got away with burning all of your precious rum the next morning."
"She burned your rum?" Shawn and Chris breathed at the same time.
Jack answered with a deep chuckle, smiling at her.
"I almost shot you for that, you know."
"Jack, you wouldn't harm me if you had the entirety of the United States military threatening your life."
"That's what you think," he said, but his eyes told her that the entire world could threaten him and he wouldn't lift a finger against her.
"Ok, so hostage situation, then stranded on an island. Boy, you two got off to a comienzo explosivo," Ringa snickered.
"Oh don't worry, I also became immortal, the first time, very briefly, saved her life again, and then encouraged William Turner to hit on her. Probably one of the stupidest things I have ever done, to be honest."
"Hey, on the topic of saving lives, I saved yours too. My exemplary acting kept you from getting hanged."
"I would say it was that and Will's talent for sword throwing, to be honest."
"Right, and then you proceeded to fall off of the battlements and disappear from my life for six months, as least until I was arrested along with Will for helping you escape."
She remembered correcting Beckett, rather adamantly, when he forgot the 'captain' in front of Jack's name.
He turned to address the other three.
"Lizzie took it upon herself to come and find me in Tortuga to save Will, or at least she claimed, though we both know it was really because she missed me. Then she spent two weeks trying to seduce me-"
"Excuse me? I did nothing of the sort."
He raised an eyebrow at her.
"Oh really? Because I seem to remember-"
"I didn't say that there was no seducing happening, but I think it came from you first."
"...Oh. Yeah, I can see an argument being made there. You certainly did your fair share of it though. 'You're going to want to know what it tastes like' indeed."
She had to laugh at Jack's perfect impersonation of her, as Chris, Ringa, and Shawn all made noises of 'too much information'.
"I know, I know, out of context it sounds like she wants me to...well, it was actually about how I wanted to know what glory tasted like. See, she had it in her head that I was a good man, and she wanted me to prove it."
And the irony is that she had wanted him to do exactly what he was referencing.
Which he did, happily, eventually.
"You still are a good man."
"And this grand mission of hers was nicely topped off when she shackled me to the mast of my own ship because she didn't have enough faith in me to let me sacrifice myself."
For one terrible second, she thought he was pissed at her all over again for it, and he had been, when they had first gotten him back. He didn't speak to her for two weeks until finally, he had ducked into her cabin on the Pearl, and they had a lengthy conversation.
But the tone of his voice was teasing, and he added just enough softness to it to let her know that he was teasing.
"In reality, it was because I wanted to have sex with him so bad that I had to kill him to rid myself of the desire. Didn't really work though, in case anyone was wondering."
"Yeah, we figured that much out for ourselves," Chris said, snickering.
She had wanted sex and so much more from him.
And now she had it.
She watched, smirking, as all four of them descended into a fit of giggles.
"The only other significant event was Jack voting me in as Pirate King. I would ask him to co-rule with me a little over a year later. Otherwise, it was just a bunch of boring ship battles and annoying maelstroms. Anyways, storytime is over."
"Yeah, we do need to iron out the last few details of this hell plan," Chris said, sighing.
"Lizzie and I are going to be driving the McLaren and the Viper, and we are going to park in that lot until we get the go ahead from Shawn to give chase. Have we decided what kind of catastrophe we are going to orchestrate?"
"Bomb threat seems the most efficient. Perhaps we could make them think that there are several. One in the station, and one in the Department of Health next door."
"And how are we going to get the threat out?" she asked.
"I can do that," Jack said. "I'll call the police station on a burner phone from in the car."
"As soon as they get the threat, they are going to alert the bomb squad, the whole she-bang," Shawn said. "Evacuation and evidence transport will begin immediately too, since it is a high risk area. They will most likely be taking all of the high-profile evidence with them to Hampstead. You'll have to be careful about which one you grab, Jack."
"K, and good, lots of chaos. Everyone will be distracted. Also, shotguns are loud, so we will need some kind of distraction along the way."
"I can handle that. I will send so much noise within a three mile radius that you could fire a tank and no one would notice. Ambulances, fire trucks, everything will come heading your way. But that means that you will have a time limit to get that back door open," Ringa explained.
"I don't miss, so don't need to worry about that. Give me about two minutes."
"That's about all you are going to get anyway."
"Right."
Suddenly a phone rang, and Chris dug around in his pockets for a moment.
"Ah, this must be the car. Hello?"
"Ready for pickup? Great, we'll head there now," he said, then hung up. "Shawn, you're going to come with me so you can drive back here in my car."
Ringa went to make herself something to eat after Shawn and Chris left, while Jack pulled out his phone.
"Calling Suzuki?"
"Yeah, gotta update her or she'll try and call me."
He put the phone on speaker again.
"Jack, a pleasure."
"Likewise. We have a plan figured out now. We should have the box in our possession by Monday night."
"Good. Listen, I told the….damn, I told the cartel you are involved. I had no choice, they needed to know that I had hired someone else. Arturo didn't seem too broken up about it. He approved, actually."
"Arturo? Yeah, we've met before. I forget what I did for him though. Might have acquired some guns for him or something. Hey, out of curiosity, how much does the cartel know about the evidence and the entire case?"
"The case? They only know that the Yakuza are trying to frame them for a murder. Why?"
"Fuck...well, it's not just a murder. The man that the Yakuza member murdered was a Japanese prosecutor looking into one of the sex trafficking operations that the Yakuza has in Russia."
"Holy shit."
"Yeah, that's not all. In the process of getting the Brits to store the evidence, the Japanese found out that the Brits were investigating the same trafficking ring, just from the Russian side of things."
"...So, the British think that the cartel is part of this sex trafficking thing because they 'killed' the prosecutor?"
"Yeah, that's about it."
"One giant clusterfuck, pretty much, then. Well, in any case, despite the cartel being the...well, the cartel, they are innocent in this whole mess, with the exception of having the property that I want. Listen, Jack, I really mean it when you can't fuck this job up."
"Yeah, you told me that."
"I meant it. The thing they have of mine is...rather valuable."
"I get it. I'll get the evidence to you, don't worry. You're coming here to get it, yeah?"
"Most likely."
"Good, Mexico does not sound appealing at the moment."
They hung up at the same time.
"You know, when I accepted this stupid job back in India, I really didn't think that we were going to be in the middle of an international case involving two crime syndicates, and three different governments. Fuck me," Jack grumbled, dragging a hand through his hair.
"Can't say I did either. But like you said, we'll deal with it."
She smiled at him as he crawled across the couch towards her, covering her body with his, leaning down to kiss her.
"Mmm, I can always count on you to take my mind off things," he purred against her lips.
"Maybe, but I certainly put a different part of you on things."
"Cheeky-"
"Did you two forget that I existed?"
They both looked up to see Ringa standing over them, holding a sandwich.
"...No, not exactly. I just don't think Jack particularly cares."
He shifted off of her, chuckling.
"Sorry Ringa, I get carried away sometimes."
"Aparentemente. Actually, could I talk to you for a second, Jack? Alone?"
"...Uh, sure, I guess. Let's go out on the patio."
She watched the two of them disappear, briefly considering spying on them, then deciding against it. But the curiosity about what Ringa wanted to talk to Jack about certainly didn't go away.
He watched her with a cool expression on his face as they sat down at the table, putting up just a little bit of a guard. This woman may be Lizzie's best friend, but that didn't mean he had to completely trust her, at least not yet.
"You don't trust me. At least not completely," she said with an equally neutral expression.
"I don't trust anyone completely."
"Except her."
"Except her."
"What a remarkable thing. A man like you, guarded against the world, so skilled, could get by without a partner, able to turn into a killer at the snap of a finger, opening yourself up to Lizzie. Almost too good to be true."
He knew that. He and Lizzie were the product of pure luck, of everything going right when it needed to.
"She is remarkable. I certainly didn't fall in love with her by accident."
That was true beyond a reasonable doubt. Every time he looked at her, she reminded him of how naturally they flowed together, how it had always been like that, peas in a pod.
"You would die for her? By choice, I mean."
He would fling himself in front of anything to save her life if it came down to it. Tanks, firing squads, bombs, whatever.
"Without even blinking. And I'm sure she would do the same for me."
"Oh, good. Magnifico. I like you, Jack."
"...that's good too, I suppose."
"I can tell just by the way you look at her that you love her very deeply, perhaps more than I have ever seen anyone love another person."
"And the suspicion was your way of communicating that?"
He understood. He would have made sure too, probably.
"No puede dejar ningún ladrillo sin mover. Can't leave any brick unturned."
"I speak Spanish, you know."
"Sorry, old habit from talking to speakers and non-speakers at the same time. Always have to translate myself."
"Entiendo. So, how did you meet Lizzie?"
"Now that is a story. She was staying in the hotel that I was working in at the time. Well, when I say working, I was really hiding. You see, I was also a thief before I met her, but I only stole to make ends meet, not as a career.
"Unfortunately, the manager of the hotel, it was in Brazil, didn't like Mexicans a lot, so he wasn't exactly nice to me. Lizzie used to sit in the hotel lobby quite a bit, always said she didn't like the quietness of her room. Made her ruminate on too many things.
"We became friends, and she learned about what I did for a living. She taught me a few things, shared some knowledge with me, and one night, she was out in the lobby because she couldn't sleep, and the manager came in drunk. Tried to beat me up pretty bad, but of course, Lizzie wasn't a huge fan of that. She fucked the guy up. We never found out if he lived or not.
"She brought me back to her apartment in Florida, where she was living at the time. We bonded over the course of three months. She taught me how to defend myself, I taught her Spanish, and now here we are."
"Did she ever talk about me?"
"Not very often, only if it was necessary to. She did show me a picture of you though, the only one I ever saw. You were standing on a pier in Hawaii, but it was from behind, so I didn't see your face."
"She only showed you one picture? She had a ton…"
"She did. She explained to me that two years prior, a water damage incident in her apartment had destroyed all of them. She was pretty broken up over it."
Oh, Lizzie…
"...I can imagine. It was the only thing she had of me, besides my belongings that I was bread-crumbing for her for awhile."
"She told me about that. Made her chase after all of your stuff. It's a wonder that she still didn't know that you wanted her back around after that."
"She didn't know it was me. But I just couldn't shake all association with her, obviously, so I watched from the sidelines as she collected. Finally, I thought maybe she did want me around, so I took a chance when I learned that we were both in the same place, coincidentally, because I was looking for one of my things too at the time, my compass, among other things."
"You tried once before that. Her garage. And I knew you were in Mumbai. I kept an eye on you for her."
"And you didn't tell her that I was there?"
"No, I wanted to see if the two of you were really like the damn magnets that I expected you to be. I was proven right."
That reminded him. He had been meaning to apologize for how short he had been with her when he had first revealed himself in the hotel room. The prison stay had made an unfortunate appearance in his mind, sending his emotions buried. Normally, before they had separated, he had shared the details of whatever job he was doing with the understanding that she wouldn't intervene unless he asked her to. He hadn't meant to make it sound like he didn't trust her.
"I suppose you were. And yeah, I did try to break into her house, before I backpedaled and realized what a terrible idea that was. So instead, I put one of my hair beads on the seat of her Roadrunner, and hoped that maybe she would figure out it was me."
"You two are stupid, you know. Dancing around each other like that for so long without just admitting that you loved each other."
"You don't have to tell me that."
She pretended like she was busy on her phone when they walked back in the house. Ringa said something about heading out to buy the burner phone that Jack needed to use, and Jack sat back down on the couch with her.
"How much of that did you hear?"
"What do you mean? I wasn't-"
"Bullshit, I'm sure that you were trying to sprout the talent of vampire hearing you were listening so hard."
Seeing how futile it was to deny, she grinned at him.
"Not much, honestly."
He was quiet for a moment, then she raised an eyebrow when he started to chew on his lip.
"What?"
"Um...something that Ringa reminded me of. Back in Mumbai, in the hotel room, when I said that I didn't want you inconveniencing me...I didn't mean that. I was just being my paranoid idiot self. Didn't mean to make it sound like I didn't trust you anymore. So….um….sorry for that."
Her heart melted at the way he stumbled over the last bit. He really was adorable sometimes.
"You were less angry with me at the time than I expected you to be. Hell, I wasn't sure which reaction I expected out of you if we saw each other again. Don't worry, the one you gave me was fine. Especially...when I found out that you had been in prison...well…"
She paused when she realized that she had a confession of her own from that night, and it was only just now occurring to her how it might of made him feel.
"I have something to apologize for too. When I told you that your effects would make some good money for me, I never actually intended to sell any of it. I convinced myself that I would, that I could part with it, but that was a damned lie if I have ever told one."
"Do you have it all on a mannequin? Somehow I think you do…"
She did, in fact.
"How did you know?" she tittered as she crawled up to snuggle against him.
"You would have the alarming frequent need to gaze at it all the time. Hard to do that if it's in a box."
"Maybe I could get you to put it on for me again."
"Ha! If only for you to take it off right after, just like old times."
"Sure thing, Captain Sparrow."
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The Scythe's Song