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The Evil Lady E	By : EvilE Category: Pirates of the Caribbean (All) > Het - Male/Female > Jack/Elizabeth Views: 5995 -:- 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.

Chapter List
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Chapter 9: The Challenge

Jack.

Her stomach lurched, but she gritted her teeth and stood up straight, not wanting him to know how miserable she was and how eagerly she'd been anticipating conversation with someone, anyone, besides Pintel.

Jack looked her up and down, noting the dirt on her sleeves and vest and the dark circles under her pretty eyes. Mentally he noted that not even the filth of the brig could truly mar her appearance, as the elegant silhouette of her face was cast on the wall by the lantern light, and he longed to trace its outline with his fingers.

“Back for more humiliation?” Elizabeth said, forcing the words through her bitterly clenched front teeth. “Haven't had your fill of torture? What'll it be tonight, chains? Water torture? Your singing voice, perhaps?”

“All lovely ideas, true enough.” He tapped Pintel on the shoulder and gestured him upstairs. Elizabeth felt her stomach sink an inch. Left alone with him, she felt more exposed than ever. Jack sat on the stool vacated by Pintel, spreading his knees apart and resting his elbows on them, placing his chin on his hands and fixing his eyes on Elizabeth's face. “I'm flattered you haven't forgotten las' night, love, it was special for me, too.”

In answer she reddened, and Jack swore he could hear her back teeth grinding together. He smiled with lips closed, then continued. “What was it that did it for you, Lizzy? Itsy-bitsy spider? Or the nice, big pistol?” he said, lowering the pitch of his voice on the last word to make sure his meaning was clear.

She did not answer. As the knashing of her teeth went on, he lowered his hands to his knees and leaned forward to speak again. “I'm goin' to give you one - an' only one - chance to explain what you've done. That chance is right here, right at this moment, and it won't come again, savvy?” The deep, even tone of his whisper conveyed his deadly seriousness.

“What I've done?” Elizabeth scoffed. “What I've done? You! You would have sacrificed us all, to save your own sorry hide.”

“Come now, not knowing my hide intimately well, hardly seems fair to insult it. But we could always rectify - “

“Go ahead and laugh. But it's true - you endangered all of us.” Her eyes were fiery and dancing, or else the lantern light was reflecting the crackling heat he sensed in the tiny space between them.

“Not deliberately. I wouldn't think of't.” He spoke the words plainly, honestly.

“Oh, rubbish. Sending Will to Davey Jones? Hiding the black mark from everyone? Rowing away in the heart of a battle on your own ship? That's right, Jack. You weren't thinking of anything. Not anything worth doing. So I had to do your thinking for you.”

Regret, cold and insidious, began to unfold from his lungs and crawl, icily, up his windpipe, making it hard to speak. He swallowed and forced it down. “You can't trust a pirate to be a hero.”

“We needed a hero, Jack. We were dying.”

“I came back. I bloody well came back, and you know it. What were you doing when I got there, hmm? Droppin' the gun all over the bleedin' deck, goin' to pieces, jus' like a woman. Never have a woman to do a man's job, I say.”

At this rage flashed over her features, and she smacked the grate hard with both palms, sending a rattle through the floor. Jack flinched away from her hurtled words. “Well, I certainly did a woman's job on you, didn't I?”

A bitter laugh from the side of Jack's mouth. “Love, that's not a woman's job. But if you're lookin' to finish it up, I can take you up to my cabin and teach you there.” He rose and stood directly in front of her. Her jaw was clenched and a muscle in her cheek jumped, as she glared daggers at him. “What d'ya say, Lizzy? Exchange the brig for more pleasant quarters?” In mock seriousness he straightened and lowered his eyelids, raising his chin regally. “I'm not a cruel man, I could be easily persuaded to forgive you. Given the right... reparations.”

“Only in your sick, twisted fantasies!” Her voice was raised to an anxious pitch.

He grinned. “Only half as sick as you would know, unless Will's been sneakin' round with you behind my back an' broadening your education.”

“You're disgusting, you rude, arrogant... scoundrel!”

At this he grabbed the bars in front of her, and leaned in so suddenly she jumped back a few inches. “Oh, that's it, is it? Blame the big bad pirate, an' act the pure, sweet virgin? I'm bad, you're good, I'm wrong, you're right, forever and ever amen, eh?” He reached for her face with his fingers through the grille and she turned her head aside, avoiding them. “You traitorous bitch,” he whispered softly, a new pain sending golden sparks from his brown irises that still sought hers relentlessly. “You'll have to square with what you did. Kiss me with your mouth and murder me with your hands. Ought to be washin' 'em day an' night and singin' 'Out, damn spot!' till you can't croak a word.”

At this Elizabeth cringed, feeling hot tears well, her abdomen tying itself in knots as she fought to maintain control. “I only left you in harm's way. You're a pirate, Jack, who's killed dozens, hundreds of people?”

“Few as I could manage, truth be told. An' I never killed a friend. An' I never killed a lady. An' I never killed someone who -“ He broke off, biting his words in two to stop the stream.

“Someone who what, Jack?” Elizabeth taunted, gaining new strength in her voice, understanding instinctively what he had been about to say. “Someone who... loved you?” The phrase from her lips sounded soft, almost a caress.

The words hung in the air, suspended by the lantern light, shimmering hopefully like morning sunlight on the ocean, but fading as quickly as the Western sky. Jack shook his head, very slowly, still meeting her shining eyes. He wondered if she knew, if she knew somehow, deep down, the truth of how he felt about her... how he had felt, before. He found his voice with a quick clearing of his throat. “Someone who... saved my life.”

“Marvelous. Congratulations. What of your other crimes? You've the nerve to condemn me, but not the guts to stand and face your fate?”

“You've no gratitude for the man who yanked you out of the ocean? Preserved you from a watery death? Least twice as I can figure, once back in Port Royal, again when I shot that cargo net for you. Another wasted moment and it'd've been too late.”

“Gratitude for that? Taken with all the other foolish, selfish things you've done? Hardly.”

“Then I'll not be doin' that again,” he said darkly. “I know what ails you, Lady E, and it's not my foolishness. It's your sad lack of value of human life. Mine. Yours. Saved you? Who cares! Damn Jack to the Kraken? Sure thing!” He raised his voice again. “Same reason you enjoy the kill.”

She started back, examining his words, looking for any grains of truth and sifting them for arguments.

He continued, satisfied by her troubled look. “Yes, I can tell that about you. Gets you all wiggly inside, don't it? Just like a good lay. 'Cept, you haven't got that far... yet.”

His sharp, deadly words struck her to the core, and she raised the hackles of outrage to defend herself. “You haven't the faintest idea about me, Jack Sparrow. Look at you. You're a coward. Throw a girl in the brig and come down to terrorize her.” She leaned in close to the grille again, and lowered her voice menacingly. “Easy for you to yell at me, frighten me, when I'm in here. But give us a sword and a proper fight and you'll find out much I desire a kill.”

“Is that a challenge?” His voice was equally low and menacing.

“Aye, a challenge.”

Her crisp, British words seemed to echo softly in the small space, and the Elizabeth pitched, groaning mightily, the sound an eerie lament. Jack felt the echo deep within himself, and answered it with a slow, deep breath. The breath of a man about to face his destiny. To forgive or kill... he'd come down here to listen, to give her a chance to say she was sorry. Another chance, since she'd already told him quite plainly, on the Pearl, that she wasn't sorry. So that left... the other.

“On what grounds?” he murmured, glancing almost tenderly over her face.

“On the grounds that you're a coward, Jack Sparrow.” She squared her shoulders. “Cowardice sent you running from Jones, sent you fleeing from the Pearl when she needed you most. Face me in an even match to settle this, or accept that you'll always be a coward, and I was right to shackle you to that pathetic ship and watch as the Kraken swallowed it whole.” The acidity in her voice singed Jack's ears, bringing to mind her face, as she closed the shackles tight that fateful day. Her face, the hatred in her face. The hatred of a monster. The evil of Lady E.

Jack tried to shake off the sense of foreboding he felt at facing her at the pointy end of a sword long enough to concentrate on forming words. “Jus' you and me, then. Like it was on the Pearl.”

“I want my own sword back. That's a special one Will made for me.”

“You'll have it. Francois!” he bellowed toward the stairs.

“Oui?”

“Take Miss Swann up to my cabin and return her effects. Bring her a bit of water to wash, and some of the ladies' clothes we found on board. An hour before dawn she's to be out on deck. Tell no one of this. I'll be at the helm.”

“Oui.”

Jack turned back to her, scanning her face for any sign she'd relent. “Just because you're a woman - I'll not say, 'lady,' for that's not been in evidence - I'll not afford you any special privileges.”

“I don't need any.” She smiled then, for the first time in more than a day. “See you in a few hours, Jack. I'd say you should make peace with whatever God you like.”

“Oh, I've made my peace before,” Jack assured her, as he turned away and moved toward the stairs. At the last moment he turned back, casting his eyes over her face and form again, as though committing it to memory. “Make your peace... Lady E.”

He ascended the stairs and was gone.
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The Evil Lady E