The Empress of the Seas

The next couple of days I stayed as far away from Jack as possible so he couldn’t tell me what to do. It was working pretty well until I met Gibbs in the galley.

I sat on a chair with my feet on the table as I chewed on an apple. I heard door squeak open but merely glanced at the man who walked in. You could say I had become friends with some of the crew members or you could say that I gained most of their trust so they knew I wasn’t going to kill them if they looked at me the wrong way.

“Ello Emma,” Gibbs said grabbing two bottles of rum from a crate. “Jack wants ye to scrub the deck again,”

“Is that so?” I asked taking one of the bottles from him.

“He told me that if ye didn’t listen ye would be thrown over board-” I laughed.

“He won’t throw me over board.”

“How do ye know that?” Gibbs smiled. In the few days I was here he found out I was much like Jack, though neither of us would admit to it.

“Simple, I have to do everything he says and he told ye to tell me so if ye told me it’s not him and I don’t have to do it.” I smirked taking a swing of rum.

We sat in silence for awhile before he spoke again. “So not much is known about ye, where did ye grow up, Tortuga?” I spit the rum out all over the table.

“Who the hell told ye that?! I grew up on a pirate ship with my father!” Rage started building inside me and Gibbs could see it in my eyes.

“Well I-I just figured since Jack said ye had a past together…”

“Oh he did now… Well ye know what, we do have a past together but not like that and that past is the reason why I’m stuck on this stupid boat.” I got up throwing the bottle of rum on the floor and paused to hear it smash. “And ye can tell the crew I’m not a whore.” I stormed out onto the deck and straight up to Jack immediately punching him square in the jaw.

“Ye know love I’m pretty use to women slapping me, punching is not necessary.”

“I told ye don’t call me that! Why the hell are ye telling your crew fake rumors?!”

“What are ye talking about-?”

“Ye know damn right what I’m talking about! Like how ye told Gibbs we have a ‘past together’!”

“Ok love calm down…”

“No! I will not calm down! Gibbs fucking thought I grew up as a Tortuga whore! What else did ye tell people?!” Jack grabbed my arm and pulled me down into his cabin.

“Calm down!”

“Don’t touch me!” I yelled about to punch him again he let go but not before pushing me to the other side of the room so he could block he door. “Let me out Jack,” I said with so much hate it almost looked like it hurt him.

“No, if I do ye’ll destroy me ship!”

I pulled out my sword I had found to use until we make port slowly and pointed it at him. “Jack, let me out… now.” He pulled his own sword out defensively.

“Love…”

“Don’t call me that!” I screamed and lunged forward. We parried for a minute then I almost chopped his arm off but he spun around and made a deep cut in mine instead. I grabbed my shoulder and he took his chance by knocking me over and pointing his sword to my throat.

“Ye haven’t changed a bit ye know,” He said as we caught our breath. “Ye let your rage control your actions and charged instead of thinking it through,” we glared at each other as he spoke. “Ye have to learn to forget your past-”

“Forget my past! How the hell do ye expect me to do that Jack! You’re the reason I can’t forget my past! You’re the reason I was stuck in that stupid town! You’re the reason I don’t live on that ship anymore! You’re the reason my father is dead!”

“Listen Emma!” He yelled taking away his sword and pulling me up to his face. “I couldn’t have done anything to save him! And don’t say that if I didn’t get ye to fight me it would have been any different cause they way we were ye know something would have happened! Your dad ran up ‘cause he heard everything go quiet! When I looked over I saw Captain Corus shoot him. I was about to get up but three guys pulled me up and held me tight then knocked me out. I woke up just in time to see the ship burning down. He had kidnapped me to see if I could work on his ship but I refused and he threw me off the ship at Tortuga.”

I looked into his eyes, both of us had relaxed and a tear rolled down my face. He looked shocked but didn’t move; he had never seen me cry before, no one had. He had seen me get kidnapped, slapped, stabbed, shot, and almost branded but never had he seen me shed a tear. He picked his hand up and wiped the tear away and I looked down.

Picking my head back up he looked into my eyes again. “I’m sorry…”

“No Jack, I’m sorry. I-I assumed and-”

“No, ye had the right to assume from the way I treated ye,” He brought his hand down accidentally hitting the cut on my arm and I winced. “Let me fix that,”

“No, no, it’s just a scratch…” I said looking at it and seeing the blood fall down my arm.

“Of course it is,” he said leading me to his bed where he ripped his shirt and used it to wipe away the extra blood. The cut actually was pretty deep but I thought nothing of it. I had gotten worse but the fact that he cared enough to clean it up shocked me so much I didn’t move. When he was done he got up to leave but turned around just before he reached the door.

“By the way,” he said smirking. “This doesn’t change the fact that you have to do everything I say.” I sighed and fell back on his bed as he walked out.

It took a while but that day was finally pushed aside in my head. Jack kept me busy by doing EVERYTHING he could think of. Today is, thank god, the last day of this cruel bet and tomorrow we make port in Tortuga because somebody is complaining on the shortage of rum. The same somebody refuses to tell me where we are going or even how he knows how to get there.

I was tying on of the sails down as Gibbs came up to me. “Ye know that it doesn’t take that long to fix a sail don’t ye?” he asked looking at me oddly.

“Of course I do I’m not an idiot Gibbs,” I said not taking my eyes off the rope. “But Jack apparently doesn’t and the longer I do this the less amount of time he has to make me do some other stupid thing.” Gibbs laughed. “It’s not funny! He had me clean the bottom of the boat! And after that I had to go fishing for dinner!”

“Well ye should be happy we’re going into Tortuga then,”

“Ye sure as hell I am, I need knew clothes anyway and a sword, this one was hardly made for a person of my expertise.” I said pointing to it and Gibbs laughed again. “What?”

“Ye are just like him,” he said and I looked at him.

“Who? Jack? Yeah right but the most beautiful reason I am happy we are going to Tortuga is that Jack will be so drunk he won’t be able to see a foot in front of him.”

“That’s not Jack,”

“What do ye mean ‘that’s not Jack’?”

“Well missy ye see Jack can drink a ship or more full of rum and the man will still be sober.”

“That makes no sense!”

“Yes well neither do ye sometimes. Ye both should try acting a little less… daft and little more normal.”

“I always act normal, my normal is just too daft for some people,” I smirked and went back to the rope. When I looked up again I saw Jack at the helm starring at his compass with a frustrated look.

“Well I also suppose ye aren’t coming back on the Pearl after tomorrow, are ye?” I heard Gibbs say and snapped back to him.

“Actually,” I smiled and finishing fixing the sail. “I think I’ll stay for a bit,” I said and walked away towards Jack.

I crept up behind him and stood on my tip toes because he was that much taller then me and whispered in his ear “Boo,” He jumped and spun around closing his compass and putting it behind his back.

“What do ye want?” he asked glaring at me as I laughed.

“What do ye have there?” I asked innocently.

“A compass,” He answered quickly and I smiled sweetly.

“Really? That’s interesting, where does it point?” I tried to grab it from him but he moved too fast and looked at me with suspicion.

“North…”

“Liar,” I said simply and he looked shocked.

“What do ye mean liar? It’s a compass! Compasses point north, do they not!”

“Where’d ye get it?”

“Why do ye care?”

“That’s not answering my question,”

“It’s none of your business!” he yelled and hugged it, protecting it; I smirked.

“It’s Tia Dalma’s isn’t it?”

“What?”

“Yes but the question is how did ye get it from her… What were ye trying to find Jack, huh?” He just stared at me not knowing what to say.

After a little while he said, “How’d ye know?”

“My dad use to tell us stories do ye not remember? He told us about that compass and ye immediately wanted it. Truth be told I didn’t know if it was that one but ye just proved it.”

“Ye bluffed?!”

“What can I say? I’m a good liar, unlike ye.” Jack had his mouth hung open to say something but no words came out. “When are we making port?” I asked changing the subject and he relaxed a bit.

“Just before sundown but it’s a terrible shame ye are going so soon,” He said in mock hurt as he clipped the compass onto his belt.

“Oh don’t worry I’m not leaving anytime soon.”

“What? But ye hate staying here! Ye talk constantly of leaving!”

“Yes but now that I know about the compass I know that ye are actually trying to find something, something ye really want. And if it is, and most likely is, a very big treasure, I’m not going to miss out on it.” He continued to stare at me and I smiled putting my hands on my hips. “So what’s next, Captain?”