Return to Me: Captain Jack Sparrow

Chapter 5

All (Y/n) wanted to do when she saw Jack Sparrow was run up and hug him and tell him how much she missed him through the year. But, she kept to herself, close to Will, and watched Jack climb aboard, his face paint washing away from the waves.

"Let's put some distance between us and this island and head out to open sea." Gibbs told him.

"Yes to the first, yes to the second, but only insofar as we keep to the shallows as much as possible." Jack said as Pintel and Ragetti put his brown coat on.

"That seems a bit contradictory, Captain." Gibbs said.

"I have every faith in you reconciliatory navigational skills, Master Gibbs. Now, where is that monkey? I want to shoot something." Jack claimed, rushed. They heard the monkey's screeching as he dropped Ragetti's eye, which the man quickly picked back up.

"Jack." Will walked up to Jack, who was currently looking up at the monkey with his pistol. He looked back toward Will, (Y/n) by his side. "Elizabeth is in danger."

"Have you considered keeping a more watchful eye on her, maybe just lock her up somewhere?" Jack offered, walking away.

"She is locked up, in a prison, bound to hang for helping you!" Will yelled as he and (Y/n) followed Jack to the quarterdeck.

"There comes a time when one must take responsibility for one's mistakes." Jack said.

"Are you saying that helping you was a mistake, Jack?" (Y/n) asked, finally speaking. Jack looked at her, giving her an up-and-down look.

"(Y/n)!" Jack exclaimed, now fully taking in that she was here. He didn't know if it were possible, but she had gotten more beautiful in the year they were apart. Jack caught himself on what he was thinking, and shook it away.

Will grabbed the sword of another crew member and held it up to Jack's neck. "We need that compass of yours, Jack. I must trade it for her and (Y/n)'s freedom."

Jack, now hearing that (Y/n) was bound to hang, removed the sword from his neck. "Mr. Gibbs." he said to the man next to him, who was handling the wheel.

"Captain."

"We have a need to travel upriver." Jack informed him, and Gibbs's face became more scared.

"By need, do you mean a trifling need? Fleeting? As in, say, a passing fancy?" Gibbs asked, confusing poor Will and (Y/n).

"No, a resolute and unyielding need." Jack informed, and Gibbs grimaced.

What we need to do is make sail for Port Royal with all haste." Will claimed.

"William," Jack said, seemingly already annoyed with the boy, "I shall trade you the compass if you will help me to find this." Jack pulled out a rather old looking piece of cloth. (Y/n) leaned in closer to Will to get a better look at it. It had a single drawing of a key on it.

"You want me to find this?" Will asked.

"No. You want you to find this. Because the finding of this finds you incapacitorially finding and/or locating in your discovering the detecting of a way to save your dolly belle ol' what's her face. Savvy?" Jack said, making (Y/n) pause to decipher what he was saying. She wasn't even sure if 'incapacitorially' was a word.

Will grabbed the cloth and looked at Jack. "This is going to save Elizabeth?"

"How much do you know about Davy Jones?" Jack asked lowly.

"Not much." Will said, and (Y/n) shook her head 'no'.

"Yeah. It's gonna save Elizabeth." Jack claimed.

Will, seemingly satisfied, walked away, leaving Jack alone with (Y/n). He began wiping away at some of the paint on his face until it was all gone.

"Um, Jack, you've still got some..." (Y/n) motioned to her nose.

Jack wiped away at it, but missed, so (Y/n) pulled down her sleeve and used the cloth to wipe away the green still there. She lingered for a moment, but pulled away nonetheless.

"It's good to see you again, Jack." (Y/n) said wringing her hands. All those feelings she had when she was near him were coming back at full force. She controlled herself last time she was with him, but would she be able to again?

Jack noticed her nerves, for he saw that whenever she was nervous, she would wring her hands together. He smirked slightly, for his still had that effect on her. "You as well, luv. It's been far too long." Jack said, getting up a little closer to her. "I see you're wearing that necklace stolen from Isla de Muerta." He reached his hand out to touch the large pendant, the opal in the center gleaming, and (Y/n) got a peek of white lace around his wrist. It looked like something she had on the day that Jack was to be hanged.

"What's that?" she asked.

"Nothing! Nothing." He quickly said, drawing his hand back and covering the lace. (Y/n) definitely remembered wearing a piece of lace around her wrist that day. She remembered when she got home, she found it missing. Had Jack stolen it?

"Is that my lace?"

"No!" Jack said. He pulled the lace off his wrist and hid it behind his back. "What lace?" He brandished his arm out to her, but she was not amused.

(Y/n) then shrugged and turned away, saying, "Fine". Jack, in a false sense of security, took the lace back out to rewrap it around his wrist, only for it to be snatched away by the woman next to him.

"Hey! No fair." he whined as (Y/n) looked at it.

"This was my lace. You took it from my arm that day in Port Royal." (Y/n) said, still looking at it.

"So, I took your lace. So what?" Jack asked, refusing to show his emotions.

"Why?"

"Because..." Jack started, but blanked on an excuse. She looked at him, and he took the lace back from her, shoving it in his pocket. Jack stormed off to the other side of the ship, leaving a dumbfounded and frustrated (Y/n) behind. She leaned against the railing and bit her lip in frustration. Why couldn't he answer a simple question? Did he keep it to remember her? Was it just another thing to add to his list of accessories?

"Ye must have quite the effect on Jack if ye get 'im all riled up like that." Gibbs said from behind, startling her. "Oh, sorry." he apologized.

"What do you mean, 'quite the effect'?" (Y/n) asked.

"If I know Jack Sparrow, I know he's not one to let someone get 'im like ye just did. Talked about ye a lot, he did." Gibbs said to her.

"Did he now?" (Y/n) asked, and looked to Jack who stood with his spyglass in hand. Gibbs gave a sheepish look that seemed to be that he just gave up some information he shouldn't have.

Jack was not someone who usually allowed a woman to worm her way into his mind like (Y/n) had. Over the year, he could not stop thinking about the fiery (h/c) that he taught how to sword fight. Getting up close to her during those lessons was... something Jack wanted to repeat. Preferably in a more compromising way.

Now, he stood looking out at the sea, his mind wandering to her. He thought over these strange... stirrings inside him, unlike anything he had felt before. If Jack were being honest, it scared him, and there really wasn't much out there that could do that. He grabbed his compass, which had been on the fritz lately, and opened it. The bloody thing spun for a moment, then pointed behind him. Turning, he saw the red arrow leading him to the woman standing at the helm.

This time, he didn't shake it or close it and reopen it to make sure it was working. Jack Sparrow knew what he wanted in that moment.

Or, more rather, who he wanted.