It's Tuesday, I'm bored -- Have some FIC!

James managed to find an empty bunk and haul himself into it without disturbing or awakening any of the other crew members, thankfully—he was hardly in the mood for conversation. He lay awake for what seemed like hours, tossing and turning, until finally he settled on his back, staring into the darkness. How had he had fallen so low, he wondered. Was it not enough that he’d already destroyed his life and his career thanks to an excess of pride?  Was his recent time spent drunk and filthy, carousing with the dregs of society, not sufficient proof of the destitution he’d apparently embraced? Signing on for service under Sparrow? That alone spoke volumes, surely! But now this – giving in to baseless lust, taking drunken advantage of a woman who was clearly in a state of high emotion. His mind spun as he chastised himself, then some other part of his brain chimed in. Taking advantage? Of her? A legion of men couldn’t take advantage of her, and you weren’t that drunk. You did it because you wanted to, and if she hadn’t wanted you to, she’d have stopped you soon enough.

But she hadn’t stopped him. She hadn’t even tried. Why? Why hadn’t she stopped him? “Who bloody knows?” he burst out, to the grumblings of his crewmates.

James silently cursed the absence of rum—with it, at least he could drink himself into oblivion, something he’d managed well enough on previous nights. But that nagging voice wouldn’t quiet down. It’s not the rum you want. Pictures came unbidden to his mind. Jane’s red, open lips. Her head thrown back, baring her neck to his mouth. Her long, lean legs locked around his body. He shook his head angrily, trying to clear the pictures, but it was impossible –the scent of her lingered on his skin and every turn of his head or body brought another breath of it.

“Infuriating, she is,” he told himself. “And insane. One moment she’s cursing me, threatening me, and the next she’s removing my bloody clothes.” You kissed her, mate, that voice said again, a voice that sounded maddeningly like Sparrow’s. “Further proof that I’ve lost all reason,” he told the voice. “I’d have been wiser to kiss an actual jungle cat than her. And then to have dismissed me like nothing happened, like I was nothing but the lowest deckhand.”

Which you are, the voice returned. And why shouldn’t she dismiss you? And why shouldn’t you leave? Nothing but a bloody pirate, her. Least you got a few moments of your own pleasure out of it.

Indeed. James blushed in the darkness, ashamed to feel his body stirring at the memory of the pleasure, one he would certainly never experience again. The briefest thought came to him, wondering how he could experience it, experience her, again, but he quashed it immediately. “As if she’d have me,” he thought, self-pityingly.

She just did, came the mocking voice. Had you well, she did.

“Shut up,” he muttered aloud. He turned onto his side, catching her scent again and letting it fill him for a fleeting second. Stupid to even think it—her, a pirate, a criminal, and him, a…a what, exactly? What was he, anymore? What could he be, to anyone? “This is foolish,” he insisted to his own mind. “It was a moment of madness, for both of us. She hates me, regardless of what happened, and it doesn’t matter. It’s in the past, now, and it does not matter.” He could feel sleep descending, finally. “In the past,” he thought. “Best it stays there.”

But as he dozed off, he could still feel her, still smell her scent. And when he licked his lips, rum wasn’t the only sweetness he tasted.
*********

Morning came swiftly, too swiftly for Jane, who woke to find herself in Jack’s bed with a throbbing headache.  Her captain stood nearby, staring into a mirror and straightening his ever-present hat. He saw her sit up. “Morning, Janie. You look a bit worse for wear.”

“Water,” I croaked, my throat parched. He handed me a tin cupful and I drank it greedily. My stomach gave a lurch, but I kept it down.

Jack smiled and shook his head. “Easy, my girl. But do us a favor and get your pretty arse out of my bed, before tongues set to wagging. More so than usual, anyways.”

I lowered myself onto the floor gingerly. “You must be losing your touch, Jack,” I said. “You took my boots off but left the rest of my clothes on. I seem to recall you preferring your bedmates dressed in considerably less.”

“I also prefer them conscious, ye cheeky bitch.” His tone was light. “Whereas you were out cold in the rum locker when I found you, and I was kind enough to put you to rest in my bed instead of tossing a bucket of cold sea water on you and sending you straight to your own bunk.”

“You’re a right gentleman,” I told him, leaning over a basin and splashing water on my face. The cold water and the word “gentleman” sent a shock through me, and the events of the previous night rushed back. “Oh God,” I said, gripping the sides of the basin.

“If you’re to be sick, Janie, I’d prefer it was well outside my cabin,” he said, still preening in front of the mirror.

“Oh sod off, you bloody great peacock. When have you ever known me to be sick from drink?” I moved close to him and leaned my head on his shoulder. “It was a rough night, Jacky.”

He put a companionable arm around my shoulders. “I know it was, darling. And you were in a sorry damn state when I found you, so clean yourself up as best you can and meet me above. We’re headed inland.” He left me.

I found my boots in a corner near the bed, along with some cleaner clothes and another basin of sea water. I sighed and smiled. He did his best for me, did Jack, though he had no real reason to do so. Despite the number of nights and the amount of time I managed to spend in the Captain’s quarters, we weren’t lovers and never had been. Came close a time or two, but cooler heads always prevailed—we knew we were better shipmates than bedmates.

I stripped naked and used my discarded shirt as a washcloth, cleaning the worst of the grime off my skin. Thank god we were headed inland, I thought. I could do with a bathe. The moment we docked, I’d hire a horse and ride out to some quiet area, some small bay or lake where I could relax in the water and cleanse my body. “Feel like a woman again,” I muttered as I stepped into breeches.

As I was dressing, I noticed a mark on my hip, a bruise in the shape of a thumbprint. I sucked in my breath, remembering exactly how the mark got there. I could feel his beard still, the heat of his mouth. “Oh God,” I said again. “Bugger, bugger, bugger.” What had I been thinking? Well, I hadn’t been thinking—that was abundantly clear.   Nor, it would seem, had he. A smile crept across my face. I liked him not thinking. Not thinking became him.

“No,” I scolded myself and finished dressing. “You hate him, and with good bloody reason.” I tied my hair back with a scarf. “No matter how he made you feel for a few heated moments, he’s still the same James Norrington, the same Navy man.” But saying it, I still wouldn’t have laid coin on the odds of having convinced myself of that statement. Or of the truth of it, at all.

The sunlight was bright off the sea, and it assaulted my eyes as I made my way upstairs. Gibbs, bless him, met me with his own mug in his hand. “Hair of the dog, me darlin’.”

Having nearly lost the contents of my stomach once already, I sipped slowly at the liquid. Watery ale. It would do. “Thank ‘ee, Gibbs. What’s our heading?”

“Inland,” he said, taking my arm and leading me to Jack. Practiced drinker that he was, he managed to support my fatigued and hungover frame while making it look to any prying eyes like we were just enjoying a leisurely stroll on deck. “We’ll dock for provisions and see if we can’t make ourselves some additional coin.”

“You wouldn’t be referring to a spot of honest pirating, now, would you, Mr. Gibbs?” I fluttered my eyelashes, feigning innocent shock.

He nodded and laughed. “Would seem that way. But with Jack, one never knows.”

We made our way to Jack when another figure approached. I didn’t need the daylight to know him, and though it was tempting to turn my eyes away, I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. Gibbs spoke to him. “Morning, James, lad. Through with the morning duties, then?”

“The deck is clean, if that is what you were referring to, Mr. Gibbs. I was told to come to you for further instruction.” He looked and sounded just fine, damn him, awake and alert and not at all fatigued or sick. “The Captain rose only recently, I am told.”

“Aye, he did, along with our Jane.” Gibbs laughed and didn’t notice James’ eyes snap quickly to me—just long enough for me to see the flash of…anger? Hurt? Something flamed in those green depths, and it wasn’t pretty. Gibbs continued. “We’re heading inland, getting ready to dock for provisions. You’re to do an inventory below—something you’ve experience in, no doubt—and make a note of what’s low, what’s stocked, and what’s gone altogether. Start in the galley and end in the rum locker. That’s the locked door just past the Captain’s…”

“I know where it is,” James interrupted in a dark voice. “I’ll have an inventory for you shortly. Good morning to you both.” He walked away and I exhaled. I hadn’t realized I was holding my breath.

Gibbs had. He looked at me. “You all right, Jane? Seem a bit…tense. More so than usual, I mean.”

I gave him arm a good-natured pinch and managed a smile. “I’m all right. Just knackered. It was a rough night.” We’d reached Jack, who took my arm from Gibbs. I chuckled quietly. So protective, the two of them, though they both knew I was more than capable of taking care of myself. And them, more than once.

“Saw Norrington approach you,” Jack said. “He been made aware of his duties?”

Gibbs nodded. “Handling the inventory even as we speak. Though I should tell you, Captain, he already knew where the rum locker was.”

Jack looked at me as he answered Gibbs. “Aye, I told him where it was last night, when he felt the need to apologize to our Janie.”

“What, as if he’d not upset her enough?” Gibbs bristled. “I’ve a mind to give that one more than a talking to, and with your permission, Captain, me and the boatswain…”

Jack held up a hand. “Me thinks the lady should have a say in it, since she was the one he upset. Did he find you in the locker, Jane?”

“He did, and he delivered his apology. And I must have been well pissed because I recall accepting it.” I felt my face flush and turned to face the sea, leaning over the rail and feigning nausea. “Then he left and I kept drinking.”

Jack stroked my hair—he’d bought the act, having been in such a state himself on more than one occasion. “Stupid girl,” he said softly. “Shouldn’t have let the likes of him upset you like that.”

“He’ll be told to stay away from you, he will.” Gibbs assured me. “ ‘Less he wants more than his ears boxed, whether by me or any of the other lads on board.”

Now it was my turn to bristle. “I can take care of myself, you two. One disgraced Commodore isn’t enough to send me hiding behind any man.” I turned to face them, my “nausea” having passed, and fixed them both with a stern look. “My position on this ship, unofficial though it may be, was hard won enough. I won’t have it and any authority I earned with it threatened because you two are suffering from an unfortunate bout of chivalry. Jack, you told me yourself I’m to learn to share deckspace with him, and that is exactly what I will do. And he’ll learn the same, damn him, or suffer the appropriate consequences. Savvy?” They nodded. “Now, Jacky. Inland I can understand. But upriver?”

“I may find cause to again visit an old friend,” he responded.

“She’ll want payment,” I told him. “She always does.”

“She’s already got the fucking monkey,” he smiled. “Worth twice as much if she knew what it took to catch the little bugger.” He was referring to the undead monkey who had refused to leave the Pearl and, being a monkey, not subject to arrest like most of its previous shipmates.

I laughed. “Your efforts were never her concern.” Jack shrugged and I continued. “We’ll see when we make it upriver, I suppose. Meantime, how long until we dock, d’ye reckon?”

Jack peered across the water. A distant dark stretch was on the horizon, indicating land. “Matter of a few hours. I’ll need you to play your part in the purchase of provisions.”

“Not without a bath.” I shook my head. “Not a body alive would mistake me for high-born in this state. Why not have Elizabeth do it?”

“Too easily recognized,” he said. “It has to be you.”

I sighed. “Then I’ll need fresh water for a bath, Jack.”

He nodded. “You’ll have it. We took on enough in Tortuga, and we’ll get more this docking. Find some breakfast, then begin your toilette, m’lady.” He removed his hat for an exaggerated bow.

I curtsied. “How very kind of you, my lord. If you would be so good as to direct me to the bathing area, I shall begin preparing for the day.”

He turned to Gibbs. “Have someone get the water and a washing tub ready for her, in my chambers where she can lock the door if she needs to. And find Elizabeth—now there’s another woman on board, it won’t fall to one of us to help her dress.”

I scowled. “I’d prefer to do this alone.”

He flashed his trademark grin. “Captain,” he said, pointing to himself. “Go eat, then for christ’s sake wash yourself, ye filthy wench.”