Chancing Fate - Jack Sparrow x OC

Part 3 - Chapter 10

A/N: Updated

The Black Pearl moved steadily across the sea toward its latest destination. Having kept herself occupied as long as she could after escaping the Endeavour, Lena had finally excused herself to the cabin.

She could only hope that getting her thoughts out in her journal might help. Pulling it out, she sat down at the desk and pushed aside some of the clutter Jack had left there. Yet as she stared at the journal, she hardly knew what to do from that point.

The page looked back at her, almost daunting as it became clear that she was stuck.

August... 1729

At least that much she knew.

Lena stared at the empty space after it, waiting for the day to come to her, but nothing followed. She tried to think back instead. The Locker. Singapore. The days at sea between them. They had been gone for days, but had those days counted here? Had it been the same number? It had to be close. Surely it was close.

Her eyes remained fixed on the unfinished date as the rest of the cabin gradually slipped out of focus. What day was it? She counted backward, starting with Singapore before working toward the Locker and the voyage between, only to lose the number somewhere along the way and start again. The Locker. Singapore. The days between. How many days between? Her grip tightened around the quill as she tried once more, holding each number in place long enough to reach the next before they slipped apart again.

No, that wasn't right. She knew this. She had to know this. Lena started over, counting backward through the same days until she reached the same impossible gap and found herself staring at the unfinished date all over again. August. One number after it. That was all she needed, yet the harder she tried to find it, the farther away the answer seemed to get.

It was only a date. Why couldn't she work it out? Why couldn't she just remember?

With a sharp, frustrated sound, she hurled the quill onto the floor.

Her eyes remained fixed on the blank page while the silence in the cabin seemed to press in around her. The tightness beneath her ribs spread another inch, each breath catching just enough that she found herself drawing the next a little sooner. She couldn't look away. It was only a date. Why couldn't she move past it? Why did it suddenly feel as though everything depended on remembering something so small?

She shoved herself back from the desk so suddenly that the chair skidded beneath her, the force rattling the table. The quiet clink of glass drew her eyes upward just as the inkwell tipped onto its side.

Black ink spilled across the desk, spreading over the wood before reaching the edges of the maps she hadn't completely moved aside.

"No, no, no!" she cried as she jumped up, knocking the chair over as she did. With a quick sprint across the room, she searched for something to use as a rag, desperate to clean up what she could despite the stain it was certain to leave. With the first thing she could find in hand, she soaked up what she could, frantically trying to clean the desk. She pressed harder, trying to lift the stain before it could spread any farther, but every swipe only smeared the ink across the wood instead. Her hands refused to stay still as she turned the rag over and tried again, only to watch another dark streak appear beneath it.

It only seemed to make everything worse. She tried to lift the ink from the table before turning desperately to the back of her journal instead, rubbing just as frantically only to leave another black smear across the leather.

As she reached the maps, her hand stopped, the rag hovering uselessly above the nearest one while the ink continued spreading across the paper. Her trembling fingers refused to move as the awful thought settled in that touching it now might only make everything worse, and for the first time since the spill, she could no longer tell what the right thing to do was. It was clearly hopeless, yet she remained frozen for another heartbeat, watching the stain creep a little farther before forcing herself to step away from the desk.