The Devil's Temptress: The Curse of the Black Pearl || Jack Sparrow

IV. Jack

By the time she caught up, the crew were already gathered around Hector and their ex captain.

"How the blazes did you get off that island?" Nikki's ears perked up in curiosity, her mood lightening; she was just in time to hear the answer to the question which had been spinning around her head since the moment she laid eye on Jack.

"When you marooned me on that godforsaken spit of land..." Jack paused for a few moments, eyes shifting to watch over Barbossa's shoulder as the crowd parted for Nikki and she stood off to the side of his one time good friend. "You forgot one very important thing, mate. I'm Captain Jack Sparrow." Jack grinned wide, arms spreading open as if he were something to be marvelled. At one time, maybe Nikki would have agreed. Hector however...never.

"Ah, well, I won't be making that mistake again." Barbossa's voice then went from being hushed and gravelly to bold and commanding. "Gents, you all remember Captain Jack Sparrow?" Silence settled over the crew with the exception of a few dangerous chuckles. "Kill him."

Like a tsunami, a sea of weapons were all swept out of their hiding places and pointed at Jack. Barbossa turned his back and began to retreat, Nikki going to follow...until Jacks next words stopped them both in their tracks.

"The girl's blood didn't work, did it?"

Nikki turned first, brow creasing and a mess of hair and entwined feathers hanging over her face. Then her husband turned back violently. "Hold your fire!" The Captains command forced all of the the pirates to reluctantly lower their weapons. "You know whose blood we need?"

Jacks smugness was more obvious than the sun on a clear summers day. Before he gave his reply to save his own skin, he looked to Nikki and then back to Barbossa. "I know whose blood ye need."

There was a moments hesitation, then Barbossa once again turned his back on Jack. "Return to the ship." He stopped by Nikki, just long enough to utter an order she knew was made for his own amusement. "Miss Barker, see to it that our old friend makes it aboard safely." Then he walked away, leaving behind him the amused laughter of the crew as they too retreated to the longboats.

She wasn't surprised. She had just hoped it would take a little longer for Hectors harshness to surface and for her humiliation to commence. It was like no time had passed at all since Jack's leaving.

"Come, Sparrow." She didn't grab at him, didn't shackle him, she didn't even push him into moving. Nikki simply took a step off to the side and waited for him to lead the way to the boats knowing he knew the way, he took the oars after all didn't he...

They only made it a few seconds before his bad habit of being a gobby sod showed itself.

"If I should be so bold to question..." He slowed so they walked side by side and surprisingly she didn't interrupt or withdraw her pistol. "The stories, they all say you lost the name Barker many moons ago...Madame Barbossa."

"Stow it."

She didn't have room in her head to think about Jack right now, never mind deal with his company or be responsible for him. They had the medallion in their grasp, they had thought they'd had the blood. Why was Jack here? What did he want? How could the girl have escaped?

"Seems to me..."

Nicolette cut him off swiftly, with an animalistic growl. "I said, stow it Sparrow." Jack shrunk back, muttering an apology and dropping his shoulders with a mock widening of his eyes. He thought she couldn't see him, this was all just a game for him. She did not expect anything less. But he knew who's blood they needed...

Peeking at Jack out from the corner of her eye, Nikki waited for him to cease fidgeting before asking him, in a low serious tone; "The name we need. Be it on that ship which brought you here?"