A Pirate's Life for Me

Chapter 23: Confusion

Annalise frowned as she sat on the bottom step of the stairs leading from the deck up to the sterncastle deck.

The rest of the crew were working, most of the pirates swabbing the deck though a few were also down below checking supplies. Mr. Cotton was at the wheel while Elizabeth was standing further down along the deck with the only two pirates not doing anything constructive at the moment - Mr. Gibbs... and Jack.

Her frown deepened as she watched the latter pirate with troubled eyes.

Jack was avoiding her. He was subtle about it, so subtle that at first Annalise had wondered if she was just imagining it. If perhaps she was letting her insecurity and doubts influence her judgment.

But it had been three days since they'd sailed from Tortuga and she was now convinced it wasn't just in her mind. In the last three days, she had spoken exactly one sentence with Jack per day. And it was always the same sentence: 'What are you doing?'

It was always the same sentence because Jack could often be seen examining his compass with troubled eyes, shaking it and then checking it before snapping it shut irritably. Only to repeat the actions within the next few minutes. In fact, every time Annalise finally managed to find him alone, it would be the same scene. She had no idea what could be bothering him so much about his compass. Unless he was suddenly trying to get over his alcoholism (which didn't seem likely given the amount of rum she'd seen him down in the same three days), there was no plausible reason she could come up with for Jack's concern over his compass. Especially since he now had a heading thanks to Elizabeth.

But each time she asked, Jack would smile and answer charmingly while walking away to give some suddenly urgent order or other to one of his crew - usually Mr. Gibbs.

This was vastly different from his attitude the last time they had sailed - truly sailed, not when Jack had been under arrest aboard the Dauntless - together. And Annalise found she really missed that Jack. The one who had opened her eyes to the freedom in being on the open ocean, to feeling the thrill when the wind blew through her hair and, despite the salty breeze, to have her lungs filled with the freshest air she had and ever would breathe.

And most of all, she missed the Jack she had fallen in love with. The Jack who it felt so natural to be with; who had opened up to her just as she had opened up to him in a way she hadn't even to her father... and who she had known had at least felt something for her. She'd seen it in those dark, fathomless brown eyes, and she'd known when she kissed him in that dungeon one year ago that her affections weren't one-sided, even if it was hard to tell exactly how deep his feelings went for her. He'd had no reason to lie as he'd kissed her, not when they'd been convinced at the time that he was going to die in the morning. That was what had driven them to that kiss in the first place, the last desperate urge to at least have one moment together before what had seemed like an inevitable and permanent separation.

Who would have known that saving Jack the next morning would have led to her feeling the most separated from him that she had ever felt? Not even when he'd been oceans away had Jack felt as out of her reach as he did now just across the deck.

"Watching him again?"

Annalise glanced up before suppressing a sigh as Norrington came up before her, an infuriating smirk on his dirty face.

"Go away, James." Annalise muttered, but Norrington was too triumphant to heed her request.

"I warned you." He reminded her so smugly Annalise was tempted to hit him just to make herself feel better. "I told you nothing good could come out of getting caught up with pirates, least of all a pirate like Jack Sparrow."