A Most Unusual Interest | By : Nemain Category: Pirates of the Caribbean (All) > General Views: 5187 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0 |
Disclaimer: I do not own the Pirates of the Caribbean movie series, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story. |
A Most Unusual Interest Chapter Twenty Nine (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply
A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST
WOMAN ALIVE ™, Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch and Uberbeta…And the spastic
conductor lives on in my head…
Readers/Reviewers: Eep! Sorry it’s
been a bit longer than usual. Real Life
™ has been a bear lately but it looks like things are swinging towards the
better so yay! Thank you so much for
reading and reviewing and sticking with the story for so long!
mal>
&n
Men huddled
in shivering bundles on the deck, mostly uninjured and mostly full of The Pearl’s
stores of grog and precious rum. Jack
picked his way around a heap of wet blankets that shifted, resolving itself to
be a young boy about twelve years of age, his eyes wide and blue. “Cap’n sir,” he said quietly, his lips
barely moving from fear, “Cap’n Anna Maria?”
Jack’s face
was a study in careful neutrality. “Drink
yer grog, boy. It’ll warm yer bones.” He nodded once to the lad and resumed his
slow, circuitous walk down the deck. Each
wet grouping resolved itself to be strictly male, much to his growing
despair. He reached the only two
injured men, about half way down the deck, one who had earned a healthy second
ration of drink due to the nasty gash running the length of his side from
armpit to groin and the other who was stifling moans as he bent over his sadly
bent arm. A shard of pinkish bone peeked
out from between his fingers as he glanced up at Jack. “Here now,” Jack murmured. “Has the sawbones seen to that?”
The man’s
eyes widened at the term for the ship’s doctor. “No…”
“He
drowned, sir,” his companion put in. “Got
himself whacked on the noggin, he did.
Went down like a stone.”
Jack
sighed. He was loathe to return to Port
Royal, especially now, but he did not see a choice. He silently blessed Gibbs for shouting his name before he could
force the inelegant platitudes to his own lips. “YES, Mister Gibbs? What is it?”
“You best
be comin’ to your quarters, sir. There
be somethin’ there you’re wantin’ to know about.”
Jack
quirked a brow, almost daring to hope. “Is there now? What could it be?” His
glance flicked past Gibbs to take in the gory trade items on the deck. The lifeless body and the sack containing
the head lay in an unpleasant heap behind the first mate, given a wide berth by
all of the men moving about. The dark
ship had not lingered long after it was obvious the Devil Ray was lost
entirely. It had not even stayed long
enough to conscript survivors. It had
been entirely mercenary, Jack thought.
His attempt at a parlay had been aborted before it even had a
chance.
Gibbs
rolled his eyes. “Please, Cap’n…”
Jack looked
hard at his first mate’s face, reading something only he could see. Hope lit in his breast and he nodded slowly.
“Aye, I’m on me way.”
Myrtle
ached in new and interesting ways.
Even her hair hurt, she thought, and she was almost certain there was
some sort of sea life in her britches. She
had tried to stay above water until her muscles burned with the effort, salt
water stinging her eyes and searing her throat as she swallowed mouthful after
accidental mouthful. She was not sure
who had hauled her aboard The Pearl, just that she was pressed to someone who
smelled faintly of limes and sweat and a little of leather. She had tried to ask about Anna Maria but
all she managed was a sick, embarrassing croak and an even more embarrassing upheaval
of the water in her stomach. The chaos
of the deck as survivors were hauled aboard roared in her ears like thunder,
her eyes pressed tightly closed as she struggled to stay conscious. She was so tired, though, so tired from the
sudden absence of fear, from the exertion, she could barely manage to stay
awake long enough to realize she was safe again, she was aboard the ship.
She was not
sure how much time had passed, but she suspe tha that it had not been that much
at all. She could still hear the rumbled of voices on the deck, the shouted
orders and excited chatter. Myrtle was
slowly waking, each sense taking it’s turn to rise to her attention. She felt the cool, rough sheet beneath her
first and realized she had been stripped of her wet things. The faint tang of salty skin mingled with
sweat, wood, coconut oil and burning tallow, sending an uncomfortable jolt of
nausea through her body. _I’m in a
cabin, _ she realized dimly. _Thank
God. _
The ship did not seem to be moving much so she surmised that they had
dropped anchor. She was glad because
she did not think that she would be able to handle the swaying of a ship in
motion just then. She decided to try to
open her eyes, first one then the other.
The lowering sun spilled in through the porthole, bathing her in a
golden light that made her head ache.
Groaning softly, she closed her eyes again and turned her face away from
the light. The sheet over her damp
nudity itched terribly now and she could detect the faint scent of rum and
spice on the thin pillow beneath her head.
“Jack,” she sighed. She was in
his cabin, no real surprise. She
seemed to be alone, though, which was.
After another long moment, she opened hyes yes again and steeled herself
against the screaming pain in her back and arms. Her skin was a rosy red everywhere the sun had hit, burned to
cherry in some spots. It hurt like Hell,
she thought, wincing and hissing as she slid to the floor. She tugged the sheet from the bunk and tied
it around herself toga-style, feeling odd being nude when so many men, fully
clothed at that, were on the other side of the door.
“Quite a
pretty picture,” Jack’s voice cracked the silence, making her jump and squeak
in surprise.
“I thought…”
“That you
were alone, aye…” He rose from the chair near the door and walked towards her,
his hands held out in a pacific gesture.
Something blazed in his eyes that was unfamiliar to Myrtle but made her
feel strangely exposed, like everything in her mind was open to him. “You are quite adept at causin’ trouble,
aye?”
“I…I…” She felt hot tears well in her eyes. “It is all my fault, isn’t it? Those people, Anna Maria’s lovely ship…” She bit down hard on her lip to keep from
sobbing, the taste of blood bitter on her tongue. “Jack!”
He did not
know whether to embrace her or not.
Instead, he gently pushed her back to the bed. “We’re two days out from Port Royal. We make berth day after tomorrow. I’m thinkin’…” He closed
his eyes for a moment and sighed. “I’m
thinkin’ it’s best to be leavin’ you behind.”
While AFF and its agents attempt to remove all illegal works from the site as quickly and thoroughly as possible, there is always the possibility that some submissions may be overlooked or dismissed in error. The AFF system includes a rigorous and complex abuse control system in order to prevent improper use of the AFF service, and we hope that its deployment indicates a good-faith effort to eliminate any illegal material on the site in a fair and unbiased manner. This abuse control system is run in accordance with the strict guidelines specified above.
All works displayed here, whether pictorial or literary, are the property of their owners and not Adult-FanFiction.org. Opinions stated in profiles of users may not reflect the opinions or views of Adult-FanFiction.org or any of its owners, agents, or related entities.
Website Domain ©2002-2017 by Apollo. PHP scripting, CSS style sheets, Database layout & Original artwork ©2005-2017 C. Kennington. Restructured Database & Forum skins ©2007-2017 J. Salva. Images, coding, and any other potentially liftable content may not be used without express written permission from their respective creator(s). Thank you for visiting!
Powered by Fiction Portal 2.0
Modifications © Manta2g, DemonGoddess
Site Owner - Apollo