"You left me. left me to die. So I teamed up with the devil to take my revenge." She screamed, tears running down her flushed face.
"I saw your dead body! Your lifeless body! Do you have any idea what that does to a man?" He screamed back.
***
Set...
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Tortuga became a home to the crew for the next few weeks, a place for the new captain and his first mate to find what their next step was to be.
Jack sat at a table in a dark corner at the local tavern, staring at the bottle of rum in his hand. The burning candle on the table made his eyes shine. While he typically refrained from excessive drinking, he knew that in order to temporarily escape the weight of his obligations, he should let loose for a bit, so he drank bottle after bottle. His thoughts were racing, he couldn't decide what to do next. He knew that the right thing to do was to go back to Calabar and report the captain's death and the incident. He knew that although they all secretly flew under the pirates' codes and called themselves pirates to make a little more money, the ship still belonged to Cutler Beckett.
He scoffed at the mention of the name. The disdain for the man ran deep, particularly fueled by the derogatory comment he once made about Mariana. Naturally, he never disclosed to her that Beckett had proposed some private time in exchange for the crew earning extra money. Fortunately, Captain Morgan, who cherished Maria like his own daughter, and Jack's adept negotiation skills managed to sway Beckett's intentions. Convincing Beckett was no small feat; it demanded a significant amount of self-control on Jack's part, but they succeeded in talking him out of it.
Beckett had brought up the proposition after Maria had left his office to assist the crew in loading the new cargo. Jack was aware that his father strongly opposed any collaboration with Beckett, but both he and Maria were fiercely stubborn and independent. Maria's Spanish tenacity and Jack's inheritance of both his father's and mother's resilience made them a pair not easily swayed.
The truth was Jack was a smart young man, he was good at making decisions but he had never been in the position of a captain, this time it wasn't just his or Mariana's life. This time he had to take care of a crew of 12 men in addition to the cargo and Maria.
Maria plopped down on the chair opposite to him, a bottle of her own in her hand. "Jack? What's the plan?" She questioned but Jack was out of this world, his staring eyes did not move from the tip of the bottle in his hand. "Jack?" She said louder this time waving a hand in his face.
"Hm?" He hummed, shaking his head and looking at her.
"I asked if you had a plan? Beckett will be coming after his cargo soon so do . you . have . a plan?" she asked again.
Mariana was tired of simply sitting around on that god forsaken island, she refused to sit around and passively accept the course of her life.
"Of course I have a plan! Look at me! I'm Captain Jack Sparrow!" He replied with a slurring voice, smiling drunkenly as he gestured to himself.
"S-Sparrow?!" Maria asked, she was confused with Jack's new nickname if you could even call it that!
"Yup! It seems that everyone has started referrin' me by that name, and I must say, I quite like it! It has a nice, good ring to it! Capitan Jack Sparrow! Don't ye think" He said happily, a hit of pride in his voice.
Mariana smiled at his childish smile. "O-kay. well then what's your plan Captain Sparrow?" she said almost mockingly but Jack paid no mind to her tone.
"Well my dearest Maria" Jack started, standing up and walking around Maria, "we can not, under any circumstances, let good Lordy B find out that we use his dear old ship to our pirating benefits. So we shall lie our way out of this one, once again." he said leaning forward with a half smile on his lips. "We go back. Talk to him and blame it all on pirates and save our bottoms. He will probably put aside a budget to fix our dear ship and then we will be on our merry way back to the Caribbean waters." Maria smiled at his enthusiasm.
"Of course he will want us to deliver more cargo to cover the losses for this one and who are we to disagree with what the good lord wants? So we shall do just that while also continuing with our own business of piracy. Savvy?" Jack told her, waving his fingers around and putting weird emphasis on some of his words as he walked around Maria's chair and finally coming to a stop right in front of her.
Mariana stared at him for a moment, confused by his response and surprised by his drunken problem solving skills. His head does run better on alcohol! She thought to herself.
"Bloody good plan!" Maria responded, resting her back to the chair, plopping her feet up on the table in front of her and taking another swing of her drink. Jack stared at her for a short moment simply humming in agreement and whipped out his newest possession and looked at it. His thumb softly brushed over the covering of it, the memories of the late captain on his mind. He had a plan, he just needed confirmation.
"Cap'n's compass? Doesn't work that thing, Jack! It's a waste." she said quickly upon seeing the item in his hand.
"It works." Jack simply responded, opening the top and staring at the spinning needle as it stopped pointing at Maria. "Move!" He said, jumping up from his seat again, shooing her with his hand.
"What?" she said surprised, her brown eyes flickered with confusion. Jack responded by gently shooing her again. He kept his eyes on the needle as she moved past him muttering something in Spanish under her breath.
The needle shook slightly, turning with her, making Jack roll his eyes, shutting the top off and shaking it. "I already have her on me side! Ye stupid thing" He muttered as he shook the small item violently and opened it again. The needle started to turn in circles until it stopped pointing to something right outside the window. Jack bent his knees to have a better look. He could clearly see their ship. He wasn't sure what his next move should be but he knew that his plan was a safe one. For him. For Maria and for their crew. All that really mattered in that moment to him was to keep all of them safe and to do that he had to go see Beckett. The compass only gave him the confirmation he needed. He needed a little boost of confidence and the compass gave him just that.
A note from the Author!
Thank you for reading my story! Let me know in the comments what you think of this chapter! I would appreciate your comments. <3
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