Falling For Captain Jack Sparrow

The Mystic

We anchored the Pearl and took longboats down the swamp where Tia lived. Jack and I were in the front longboat, and the rest of the crew followed us in a second boat. I leaned my head on his shoulder and he put his arm around me. I could feel the anxiety he was feeling due to his impending fate with Davy Jones. I laced my fingers with his and I stroked his hand to calm him down.

"Why is Jack afraid of the open ocean?" Will asked Gibbs. "Well, if you believe such things, there's a beast that does the bidding of Davy Jones. A terrifying creature with tentacles that suction your face clean off and drag an entire ship down to the crushing darkness. The Kraken. They say the stench of its breath is that of a thousand rotting corpses. Imagine having that as the last thing you know," the old pirate explained to him.

"And the key will spare him that?" my brother asked. "Now that's the very question Jack wants answered. Bad enough to go visit her." "Her?" "Aye, her."

Jack and I were in our own little world as the two men had their conversation. I looked up at him playfully and I kissed him on the cheek, "You still know I'll fight for you, aye?" "Of course I do, Ro. That makes me the luckiest man in the entire world." he smoothly flirted and our lips met. I smiled sweetly, "Not even Davy Jones can separate us, darling. I won't allow it." "What did I do to deserve you?" Jack caressed my face. "Just by being you," I flirted. We lovingly kissed each other once again.

"I'll have to admit, that's very sweet." Will must have been watching us. "I must agree. I had never seen Jack this happy in years; your sister means the world to him and he vowed to do anything for her even if it means dying for her," Gibbs replied. "Well, if she's happy, then I'm happy," my brother said. I was relieved he approved of us.

We rowed up to the hut of the mystic, and Jack helped me onto the wooden porch. "No worries, mates. Tia Dalma and I go way back. Thick as thieves." he told us anxiously. "I'll protect you, darling," I smiled at him. He kissed me on the forehead gratefully, "That takes the nerves away." he and I walked inside.

Her hut was just as strange and interesting as it was when Jack and I first came here. The crew cautiously followed behind us.

Tia Dalma was sitting at a table staring at a pile of crab claws; she must have been doing some kind of reading.

She perked her head up and grinned, "Jack Sparrow, I always knowed the wind would blow you back to me one day." she looked at me with a proud grin, "And you brought your beautiful wife, Rosella Turner." "Nice to see you again," I replied politely. Just as she was about to say more, she suddenly looked at Will, "You. You have a touch of destiny about you, William Turner." "You know me?" he asked astonished. "You want to know me?" she flirted. "Sorry, there will be no knowing here, he has a fiancée." I told her, I was protective of my brother. She smiled knowingly, "Elizabeth Swann," she nodded. "It's up to you to save her from her demise."

"Come," she gathered us. "Come," Jack repeated, and put his arm around me. "What service may I do you for? You know I demand payment." Tia Dalma looked sharply in Jack's direction.

"We brought payment," Jack took his arm off around me to hold up the cage with Jack, the monkey. "Look," he shot him with his pistol, "An undead monkey." he handed Tia the cage and then she let him out.

"No, you have no idea how long it took us to catch that." Gibbs complained. "The payment is fair," Tia dismissed his complaint.

"We are trying to find this," Will laid the cloth with the drawing of the key on her table. She looked at it intrigued. "The compass you bartered from me cannot lead you to this?"

"Maybe. Why?" my husband asked. Tia smiled amused, "Jack Sparrow does not know what he wants?"

"Your key go to a chest. And it is what lay inside the chest you seek, don't it?" 

She told us about the chest of Davy Jones, and before she got to the interesting part of her story, Pintel was instantly excited, "What's inside? Gold? Jewels? Unclaimed riches of valuable nature?"

"Nothing bad I hope," Ragetti said worriedly.

"You know of Davy Jones, yes?" she asked. Everyone except for Will nodded. "A mad man of the sea. A great sailor. Until he run afoul of what vexes all men." "What indeed?" Tia chuckled. 

"And what is it that vexes all men?" my brother inquired. "The sea?" Gibbs asked. "Sums?" Pintel tried. "The dichotomy of good and evil?" Ragetti added.

"A woman." Jack answered the question. Tia nodded approvingly, "A woman. He fell in love."

"I heard it was the sea he fell in love with," Gibbs said puzzled. "Same story, different versions, and all are true. It was a woman he fell in love with; she was as unchanging and untamable as the sea. Him never stopped loving her."

She was about to go into the grim details of the backstory of the feared sea captain.

"What exactly did he put into the chest?" Will asked hesitantly. "Him heart," the mystic answered. "Literally or figuratively?" "I think you know the answer to that, mate." I felt my face growing pale, and Jack held me to soothe me.

"He couldn't literally put his heart in a chest? Could he?" Pintel's eyes widened with fear and disgust.

"The pain was not worth feeling. So him carve out his heart, lock it away in a chest, away from the world and he carries the key with him at all times," she informed us.

"You knew this." Will accused Jack, stepping forward sharply. "I did not. I didn't know where the key was but now we do," he defended himself.

"Let me see your hand," Tia ordered Jack. I looked at him with fear, because I knew exactly what she was talking about. I was holding his marked hand...

He let go of mine and gave her his hand, she took the bandage off revealing the dreaded Black Spot.

"The Black Spot!" Gibbs shouted, and he spun around three times and spat on the ground. Pintel and Ragetti did the same thing. "My eyesight is as good as ever, just so you know," Jack was getting annoyed. I chuckled, he always knew how to lighten the mood in an intense situation.

"I have just the thing," Tia Dalma walked back into her storeroom and was rummaging through various objects until she found what she was looking for. "Such a long time in such a mess." 

"Davy Jones cannot step on land, but once every ten years. Land is where you will be safe, Jack Sparrow, and you will carry land with you." she handed him a tall jar of what looked like dirt.

Jack hesitantly took the jar from her and he lightly shook the jar to figure out what was inside, "Dirt, this is a jar of dirt." "Yes." Tia replied like she was waiting for him to finish his sentence, but he already had. "Is the jar of dirt going to help?" "If you don't want it, give it back." she scowled. "No," Jack held onto the jar. "Then it helps," she smiled.

"Men, it looks like we're going to the Flying Dutchman." I said holding Jack's free hand.

Tia gracefully walked back to her table, and picked up a handful of crab claws. "A touch of destiny," she dropped the claws onto the table and it formed into what looked like islands. They were really what appeared to be a shipwreck.