Smiling through it, she said she'd do it again.
~●~○~●~
When the Black Pearl set sail to Italy from Tortuga after picking some new members for their crew, the wind was on their side and the crew was in a good mood. Jack was in a better mood than anybody else, having his ship back and Narissa by his side. The woman looked at him with admiration in her eyes, her fingers tracing the little anchor that hanged from her neck, something that had recently become a habit. He looked so happy, softly caressing the wheel's dark wood from time to time; it was similar to the way he gently touched her. He looked at his ship with enamoured eyes, the same way he watched her.
She teared her eyes from the captain when she heard yelling from the gun deck. A clueless expression was on her face as she looked at the stairs in wonder.
"Narissa, dear, go see what's happening with those idiots," Jack's voice rose, annoyed.
She nodded and walked down the stairs cautiously, following the pirate's voices that came from below the deck. The place was barely lit by a few oil lamps and some sunlight came through the gunports. Her hand was ready on the handle of her sword. The light finally allowed her to see what was happening and she laughed loudly at the scene in front of her: Joshamee Gibbs, yelling like a schoolgirl, trying to get rid of the small monkey that was pulling his hair. The other two sailors that were with him tried to take the animal away from their friend's neck, but every time they got near the monkey, it would screech at them and they'd scream in pure fear.
"Men!" Her voice was loud and held a tint of amusement. They all noticed that she was there and immediately stopped yelling, pretending to be calm, except Gibbs, who was still fighting the monkey and losing the battle. Narissa walked up to him and the animal stopped bothering him, looked at her, tilted his little head to one side and, after recognising her, jumped onto her shoulder. She looked at the creature curiously; what the hell was he doing here? "I can't believe you, grown men, are afraid of this little thing." She petted his fur.
"That thing is evil, miss Narissa, I'm telling you!" Gibbs exclaimed, a drop of sweat running along his forehead.
"You're overreacting, Joshamee. How could this guy be evil? Right, Jacky?" she asked the animal and he squealed, as if he understood her completely. "Go back to work, men, and be thankful I won't be telling the captain I just saw you all crying like a child who just saw a ghost."
Nodding, ashamed, the men went back to work. The woman returned to the main deck, the monkey settled on her shoulder playing with her hair. She wondered how the hell they hadn't seen him before.
As soon as she was near enough, Jack frowned. "What the bloody hell is that thing doing here?"
She shrugged, the monkey got off her shoulders after the sudden movement. "He must have been here for a while, apparently. How come nobody saw it until now?"
"I don't know, but it can't stay." He reached for his loaded pistol and the aim followed the animal, which was running around to avoid getting shot.
"No, Jack!" she shouted in anger, and both the captain and the monkey stopped what they were doing to look at her in confusion. "He's done nothing wrong. I like him."
"He was your father's. He's too smart, could be dangerous." He raised his pistol again.
"I am also my father's," she protested.
"Exactly." After saying that single word, Jack shot and hit the monkey right on the head; it dropped down. Narissa gasped. But in a few seconds, the monkey rose up again, letting out a screech that almost sounded like a laugh. Both pirates stared at it incredulously. Jack shot him again, but nothing happened to him.
He was going to shoot another time, but Narissa held his arm. "Stop wasting shots, idiot! Don't you se he's still cursed, for some reason?" She knelt down, the poor animal was shaking in fear. "Come'ere Jacky, I'm not gonna hurt you." She extended her arm and the monkey hesitantly approached her and climbed up to her shoulder. Turning to Jack, she stated "He stays."
Jack knew he couldn't argue with her. He rolled his eyes and nodded, putting his weapon away. "Can you at least change his name? It's humiliating."
She giggled. "No, I like it. And he must be used to his name already." She walked away and the captain could hear her talking to the animal in the distance. "Let's find you some food, boy. You like peanuts? We must have some somewhere."
She liked the animal a lot already. Maybe because it was her father's, or because it reminded her of his other monkey, the one that died when his ship sank. Whatever reason it was, she felt like she had to take care of it, since her father was gone.
~●~○~●~
It took them a month and three weeks to approach the Italian territory. During the journey, Norrington found them and followed them with the Dauntless. Fortunately, they had the fastest ship of the ocean and they managed to escape. Once in Italy, they spent a week at Narissa's town, Vernazza, at the north-west of the peninsula.
Narissa felt like a child again in the little town where she grew up until she was ten years old. She specially loved walking into the woods, something that she hadn't done again since she left her hometown. She also wrote a letter to Will and Elizabeth.
Dear William and Lizzy,
I'm writing you from Italy. Jack's been kind enough to take me to my hometown. I'm having a great time, I wish you two were here. I have a lot of company, there's no time to get bored, but sometimes I wish I could swordfight with you, William, or take a walk at the beach with Lizzie.
Oh, something funny happened! We found my father's monkey in the ship; he's still cursed, apparently. He stays by my side all the time. He's actually sitting on my lap as I write this.
How are you two? You're still in a relationship, I hope. I want to know everything. I know it's been barely two months, but will we be hearing wedding bells soon?
Jack's been great to me, don't worry, William. He's very sweet and takes care of me more than I take care of myself. I think whatever we have is something serious, we'll see where it goes. I don't know where we'll go when we leave Italy, I guess we can go wherever we want to go. The only problem is that Norrington is after us, he almost caught us three weeks ago, but we're all fine.
If you want to write back, send the letter to Tortuga, to a tavern called The Rusty Anchor; I don't know when I'll go back there, but I'll go for sure.
I miss you two so much. Love,
N.B.
After folding the piece of paper and sealing it with red wax, she wrote Will's name and the adress of her former home, where he still lived, and payed the captain of the packet ship that carried the mail to the Caribbean.
On their last day in Vernazza, while Jack and part of the crew got supplies for the ship, Narissa bought some clothes that she needed with the money she had saved.
At the market, a necklace caught her attention: A silver chain with four small crystals of different colours hanging from it; light blue, purple, yellow and white. The rocks were almost transparent, like glass. But when the old woman that was behind the counter tried to sell it to her by telling an absurd story, she simply refused to buy it with a laugh.
~●~○~●~
Back at the sea, after leaving Italy, Narissa and Jack sat by the table in the captain's cabin, having a copious nice dinner. The woman was dressed in a simple red dress that she had bought at the town. She didn't usually wear something like that, but it felt like it suited the situation and it wasn't too uncomfortable. Jack had bought a bottle of expensive wine for the occasion and had hidden it from Gibbs. They clinked their glasses, making a ringing sound before drinking. She enjoyed greatly the red liquid as it slid down her throat; she loved rum, but after so much time being the only booze she drank, it was nice to have something else.
Narissa told Jack. "A woman tried to sell me a beautiful necklace when I bought this dress and-"
"You look lovely, by the way, love." He winked, making her smile.
"Thank you. Well, she said the crystals on that necklace gave you the power to control the weather." She laughed at how stupid it sounded.
Jack scoffed. "Surely it was a cheap replica." Without giving it much importance, he took a bite from chicken on his plate, but he had already caught her attention.
She raised an eyebrow. "A replica? You mean there's actually a necklace that makes you control the weather?"
"Aye," he said simply and saw her skeptical expression. "Love, your father was cursed by gold, but you find this hard to believe?"
She was about to say something, but Marti's voice rang through the air from the crow's nest. "Sail ho!"
Both pirates stood up, immediately forgetting about the food. Narissa quickly reached for one of her swords and her pistol, which were on top of a dresser. Meanwhile Jack walked out of the cabin to join his crew. When Narissa ran after him, she saw the two ships that were after them. It didn't take them long to recognise one of them: the Dauntless. The other ship, the Defiant was a bit smaller and also had the white sails that symbolised the Royal Navy.
Narissa tightened the grip of her sword in anger; they had ruined her special night with Jack. The captain started giving orders to flee from them, but Narissa's voice interrupted him.
"Belay that!" Although she wasn't the captain, just the first mate, every sailor stopped what they were doing. "Jack, we can't run away now. We need to fight. If we defeat them, it will be a long time before Norrington attacks again. If we run away, he'll just keep following us." Her hand grabbed his arm.
He pondered her words for a moment. "Load the cannons!" Jack finally ordered loudly.
"Aim at the Dauntless! Forget the other one!" Narissa shouted. They all looked at her in confusion, including Jack. Talking more quietly to the captain, she added "I have an idea. I can take care of the small one."
"How?" he asked, worried. His eyes moving to the hand with which she gripped his biceps tightly. She was on edge.
"The rudder chain," she said with a smirk, reminding him of how they once stole the Interceptor with Will in Port Royal, disabling the rudder chain of the Dauntless so it couldn't turn around.
Jack didn't even try to convince her not to do it, she was a stubborn woman. She had a plan and he trusted her and her skills enough to know that it could work. "Be careful," he told her very serious, as the Navy's ships got closer.
She gave him a confident nod of her head and stood by the rail of the Black Pearl, waiting impatiently for the enemy to get closer. Each of the Navy's ships floated by each side of the pirate vessel. The sound of cannons resonated and the pirates' yells rang in the air. Narissa waited for the sailors from the Defiant to board the Pearl. When one sailor gripped a rope and jumped onto the ship, she took the rope from him and swung to the smaller ship. Fortunately, her dress wasn't too heavy and she did it with no difficulty.
The first thing she did on the British vessel was slicing the throat of a marine who ran to her. Fortunately, as she had expected, the sailors of the Defiant had noticed that the pirate cannons were firing only at the Dauntless, so they thought that they were out of danger and most of them were boarding the Black Pearl, not firing at her. She sneaked below deck, encountering some sailors from time to time, but they were no match for her.
When she was close to the point where the rudder chain joined the steering wheel, an arm wrapped around her neck and another one around her body, restraining her completely. She hadn't heard the person walking to her because of the commotion of the battle. Narissa tried stepping on the man's toes energetically or even biting him, but it was impossible in that position. His arm tightened even more around her neck, reducing her intake of air, but she didn't stop resisting.
"You are scum," she heard the man say in disgust by her ear.
All of a sudden, she heard a high-pitched shriek and saw a small shadow through her increasingly clouded vision. The man behind her suddenly yelled in pain and released his tight hold on her. She looked at him and saw Jack, the monkey, aggressively scratching the man's face before pocking in his eyes with his little hands. The man knelt down, yelling and crying, his face covered in blood from his orbits.
"Pirate scum," Narissa said proudly, recovering her breath. "Thanks, Jacky. I owe you one."
The rudder chain had two ends fixed to an extension of the wheel. She shot at both ends, breaking the joints, and the chain dropped with a loud noise. Jack clapped cheerfully before climbing onto her shoulder.
She ran up to the deck, leaving the sailor bleeding out, and grabbed a rope to swing back onto the Pearl. She landed right next to Jack, who had just knocked down a marine with a punch on the side of his face.
"How was it, love?"
"Perfect," she said with a smile, but he noticed some marks on her neck and looked at them with concern for a second.
She looked at the Dauntless, noticing that two of the three masts had fallen onto its deck, the foremast being the only one still standing, while the Pearl was almost untouched. Eventually, a final cannon ball flew from the pirate ship and reached the foremast of the Dauntless; it collapsed, crushing some marines under it.
"Hoist the sailsl!" Jack shouted over the enthusiastic yells of his crew. Immediately Narissa and Ana María climbed up the shrouds of the main mast to run up more sail, so the ship would gain full speed and would leave the Navy behind.
After the last marines that were on his ship had been killed or thrown overboard, Jack ordered the crew to get rid of the dead bodies. They were pushed into the water. He told Cotton to travel east and left him by the helm, as he went inside his cabin.
When every corpse had been disposed, Narissa entered the cabin. She discarded her sword and pistol, setting them on top of a barrel used as a small table. Jack sat at the table were they had been eating before the battle, bottle of rum in hand. The movements of the ship and the bangs from the cannons during the battle had made the expensive wine and the food drop from the table, making everything dirty and messy.
The captain glanced at the woman. She was still wearing the new dress, but it was now stained with blood and had some torn parts. He walked up to her, grabbed a piece of broken fabric and looked at it pitifully. "It was a nice dress... I'm sorry, Nari."
"It doesn't matter. I wasn't going to wear it often anyway." She smiled at him, hoping that it would cheer him up a little.
"Still, you looked gorgeous in it." His hand travelled from the dress to her neck, where he delicately touched the skin, which had been damaged from the attack in the Defiant. It had gained a purple colour and had a few scratches. "You shouldn't have gone to that ship by yourself. This doesn't look good."
She removed his hand from her neck slowly and kept a hold of it. "It's alright, it's just a big bruise. I've had worse." Standing on her tiptoes, she pecked his lips happily.
He sighed, sounding defeated. "It's the second time he attacks in less than two months."
Gently patting his cheek and with a smile, Narissa said "Let them come twice more and we'll outsmart them again. I don't care."
She walked to the dresser and took the camisole she wore to sleep, which reached her knees. Jack didn't even look at her while she changed, which was strange; he would usually gawk at her when she was getting ready for bed, mesmerised even. But this time, he just sat by the table again, staring at the glass bottle before gulping down the drink.
She walked up to him from behind, running a hand along his back. Reaching out for the half-empty bottle, she took it from his hand and set it on the table away from him. "Come to bed, Jacky." Her words came out in a whisper as she reached out for his hand to make him stand up.
She washed her blood-stained face and hands on a basin and dried herself with a small towel, while he undressed himself. Starting with his belt, he let it drop on the floor with his weapons. Then, his shirt was off. The moonlight coming through the big windows making his skin shine beautifully. Narissa crawled under the covers as he sat down on the edge of the bed to take off his boots; Narissa watched, almost hypnotised, as his back muscles stretched with his movements. While he reached to pull down his briefs, she pulled up the covers and made some space for him on the bed, settling herself on her usual spot by the wall.
He got beneath the covers with a sigh, not saying a word. His face seemed blank, no expression could be read on him. Narissa laid down facing the ceiling, while Jack was on his side. She wiped out a smudge of blood from his cheek. He wrapped an arm around her body and brought her close to him, his face resting on her chest. She ran her hand through his threads, gently massaging his head, and he sighed deeply.
"Are you alright, Jack?" He nodded, eyes closed. "You sure?"
"Aye, just tired, love," he murmured against her body.
She knew that something was going on in his mind, tormenting him, but she also knew that Jack wasn't a man to express his feelings and troubles with words. So she just let him lay there, on her chest, in silence, if that's what he needed, while she traced his bare back with her hands delicately. She finally sensed that he had fallen asleep; he had a small pout on his lips and a barely noticeable frown between his brows. She ran the back of her hand along his cheek and his expression relaxed slightly, while he hugged her tighter.
~●~○~●~
Hello, mates!
What is happening with Jack? Dun, DUN, DUUUUUNNN
Hope you liked this chapter, leave your opinion in the comments.
D.Xx