Chancing Fate - Jack Sparrow x OC

Interlude - Chapter 2

May

Lena crossed automatically toward the captain's cabin already loosening the ties around one sleeve as exhaustion settled heavier through her limbs before laughter drifted through the door ahead.

A woman's laughter drifted through the cabin door strongly enough that Lena stopped short beside it with one hand still caught half inside the loosened tie around her wrist. Another burst followed a second later beneath the thin line of lanternlight spilling across the floorboards. Jack answered something lower afterward, the words too muffled to separate properly from the harbor noise outside before the cabin door suddenly swung open.

A dark-haired woman stepped out first adjusting the front of her bodice with one hand while grinning back toward the cabin over her shoulder as she accused Sparrow of being a terrible liar, Jack's answering protest carrying easily through the doorway warm with rum and amusement. The woman laughed again before finally noticing Lena standing several feet away, her eyes flicking once over Lena's sword belt, boots, and loose jacket before something faintly entertained crossed her face as she offered Lena a softly amused wish of good luck and brushed past her toward the deck, perfume and rum lingering briefly in the air behind her.

Only then did Jack finally glance up fully from inside the cabin, a grin appearing immediately as he greeted her with an easy remark about finally returning while lanternlight spilled warmly across scattered maps and open bottles behind him. His coat hung abandoned over one chair while beads shifted loosely through half-undone hair, and for one brief second the cabin looked exactly as familiar as ever while he somehow did not.

Jack tilted his head slightly while Lena fought unnecessarily with the loosened tie around her sleeve, fingers tightening once against the knot before she finally glanced toward him when he observed that she looked troubled. Her insistence that she was not troubled at all arrived too quickly before she looked away again and moved past him into the cabin because standing frozen outside the doorway suddenly felt worse somehow.

The remaining supplies landed harder than intended against the table while she turned away beneath the excuse of removing her jacket, Jack shutting the cabin door softly behind her before commenting that she had apparently disappeared all day only to return giving him dirty looks for the trouble. Lena tugged one sleeve free more forcefully than necessary while explaining that she had been helping with supplies, the fabric dropping across the chair nearby before she added that she had also eaten with some of the crew when Jack only hummed thoughtfully at the explanation.

Glass knocked softly against wood somewhere behind her before he casually asked whether that was all. The answer came sharper than intended while Lena adjusted one of the supply bundles that did not actually need adjusting at all, the movement stopping briefly when Jack said her name again, lower now than it once had in Port Royal, familiar enough that something tightened briefly in her chest before she looked away again.

Finally she turned back toward him with one hand still caught tight around the folded supply bundle, the canvas bending slightly beneath her grip before she fully realized how hard she was holding it. "Who was she?"

Jack blinked once before glancing briefly toward the cabin door, his mouth twitching faintly when he realized who she meant while Lena folded her arms tighter across herself before the movement fully registered. Jack studied her another second while she kept rearranging the folded supply bundles beside the table as though the fabric required far more attention than it actually did, his remark about jealousy sending heat immediately into her face while the canvas shifted crooked between her hands again and her insistence that she was not jealous at all arrived far less convincingly than intended.

One corner of Jack's mouth pulled slightly higher while he leaned back against the table, remarking that he had briefly feared they were about to have a very serious conversation before taking another drink while Lena immediately reached for another bundle simply to have something else to do with her hands. The folded canvas shifted again between her fingers before she dropped it back onto the table harder than intended while insisting she had merely asked who the woman was, Jack considering her another moment before replying that he was still deciding whether honesty seemed wise, which immediately earned him Lena's sharp warning that the answer did not sound remotely reassuring while he only countered that reassurance depended entirely on the answer itself.