A Pirate's Fairytale

Chapter 2

"Why must we go east?" Selene groaned as she examined the cities to the east of their current location.

"Because that is what the compass says," Jack replied as he rolled his eyes. "I don't see why you're making such a big deal out of this."

Selene shrugged, "Let's just say that I've made some enemies in port cities to the east, and I don't like Tortuga."

Jack turned to her with wide eyes, "You don't like Tortuga? Why not? Tortuga is a pirates playground."

"Exactly," Selene replied as she crossed her arms and leaned back against the banister surrounding the wheelhouse, "and most pirates are men. Those of us who are women hate it with a passion."

"Sparrow!" Selene called as Jack rolled his eyes, took a swig of rum, and turned to walk off.

"Captain Sparrow please," Jack answered as he looked at the female captain.

"I'll call you captain when you actually have a ship. Anyway, I wanted to ask where you got that compass from."

Jack scowled at the barb, but answered her question, "I found it on a ship we raided and have worked hard to discover its secrets."

Selene nodded in acceptance of the poorly crafted lie as Jack walked off.

Jack was worried and for more than one reason. The silver-eyed captain was proving to be more curious than he originally thought, and it would cause problems in the future if he wasn't careful. Added to the fact that their next destination was Tortuga, which would provide even more problems. He was simply ready to be done with this whole mess and out on the sea, captaining his own ship as he sailed the high seas. That would have to wait though, first, he had something else to do.

Selene sat in the dark corner of the bar sipping whiskey as she conversed quietly with the man opposite of her.

The man in front of her chuckled as he took a sip of his rum, "I never took you as the kind to help out other people without it benefiting you somehow."

"And who's to say that I'm not getting a reward?" The young woman asked with a taunting smirk.

"Oh, I'm sure you're getting a reward, but is it going to benefit you?" The man replied with a knowing smile.

Selene's eyes hardened for a moment before returning to the easy gaze she seemed to always have, and that told him everything. "Don't do this for the wrong reasons child, I would hate to see you in your mother's position."

Selene sighed as she nodded in understanding and leaned back to smile softly at the older pirate, "I know, old man."

The older pirate rolled his eyes at her comment before standing up to leave, "See you around brat."

"Maybe," was Selene's only response as Captain Teague walked away.

Jack walked drunkenly out of the bar he had been in for the last hour and ran straight into a large, burly man who happened to be in a very bad mood. Jack had his ass royally handed to him, to say the least. As he stumbled back onto The Silver Ghost, Selene raised an eyebrow at his bloody appearance, but merely motioned for him to follow her.

Once inside her office, she had him sit down and started rummaging around for her medical supplies. Jack watched with unmasked surprise as Selene gently and thoroughly cleaned out his wounds and wrapped them.

"Why did you do that? I could have taken care of them myself," Jack asked as she finished.

"You know most people don't ask why someone has helped them," her response was over her shoulder as she put away all her supplies.

"I don't care about your stupid riddles. Why did you help me?" Jack angrily responded.

"Because I need you alive."

Another cryptic response, but Jack had caught the edge in her voice and knew better than to continue to question the woman's intentions. With a grunt, Jack walked out the captain's quarters without another word.

"Good riddance," Selene muttered when he was gone as she reached into her pocket and pulled out the scrap of paper she had picked up earlier when Jack had boarded.

Silently, she inspected the figure printed on the paper and ran her fingers across the textured paper, "Royal paper, how curious."

Selene lay in bed that night, troubled by the thought of a possible mutiny or worse by the captain she had allowed refuge on her ship.

Jack lay in bed that night trying to slow his heart rate and figure out why his heart had sped up so much when her fingers lightly traced his tattoos as she bandaged him.

What a mess.