FicWad

The footsteps grew louder then suddenly came to a halt. I heard a loud gasp and felt eyes on the back of my head. Oh god, what had I gotten myself into? I quickly drew my hands away from Barbossa's neck and tried to get off his lap. Unfortunately, that didn't work too well and I ended up in a tangle on the deck of the floor. I hit my head pretty hard.

Blushing, I pulled my shirt down and stood up shakily. I looked over to where the footsteps had sounded. Ragetti was standing there with a oh-my-fucking-god expression on his face. He was gaping at me and Captain B and his eyes were as wide as saucers. I attempted a smile and said, "It's not what you think..."

More footsteps sounded. Oh shit! Things seriously couldn't get much worse. A voice sounded, "What's not what you think?" Pintel's head appeared around the stairs and he took a funny look at Ragetti. He poked Ragetti's shoulder and raised his eyebrows at him, "Hey, what's wrong with you? We're suppose to be cleanin' the decks, remember? Captain's orders."

Ragetti looked over at Pintel and then looked back at us. Pintel scratched his head and then followed Ragetti's gaze. I suppose Barbossa and I weren't really doing anything inappropriate at that point, but I guess our guilty expressions gave up away. I, for one, was blushing red as the fires of hell and I couldn't manage to look Ragetti or Pintel in the eye.

Pintel looked from me to the captain and then back to me again. A little smile formed on his lips and I could tell he was having a hard time not laughing. Already in a bad mood, his laughter pissed me off even more. I frowned over at Pintel and crossed my arms, saying, "What's so funny? I don't see anything funny."

Captain B stood up and looked down at Ragetti and Pintel. He raised an eyebrow and asked in a commanding tone, "What are ye'll lookin' at?" Neither Pintel or Ragetii answered. Instead, they both exchanged a look and then looked back at Captain B. Captain B rolled his eyes and said, "Alright then, back to work!"

I was suddenly pretty embarrassed about kissing the captain even if we hadn't exactly meant anything by it. The problem was that it had meant something to me. Not many people could make my body feel on fire like that. Unfortunately, just because I felt this way didn't mean that Barbossa felt the same way. He probably just wanted to kiss me for fun and out of curiosity.

I stumbled backwards a few steps and said in a shaky voice, "Oh my, look how dark it is! It must be really late!" Pintel and Ragetti lifted their heads towards my direction and gave me an expression that said "well duh, of course it's late". I scowled over at them and took another step backwards towards the stairs. I put one hand on the railing and said, "Well...uh...I guess I'll be going to bed now since it's so late and all. Um...goodnight everyone."

"G'night, Miss Cook," Barbossa said with a nod in my direction. Was it just me, or did he have a small amused smile on his face as well as a sparkle in his eye? I wasn't sure and I would never know. After all, it was almost pitch black outside. The only light was coming from the stars and unfortunately, that wasn't much light at all.

Before I could embarrass myself further, I quickly hurried down the stairs and ran to my cabin. It had sort of become my refuge. Whenever something went wrong or whenever I wasn't feeling well, I always ran to the cabin. Tonight, I collapsed on it and fell asleep right away. My thoughts drifted towards the captain on several occasions, but luckily, I didn't have any dreams concerning him.

~ ~ ~ ~

The next day, I was woken up to someone shaking my shoulders again. I woke up quickly this time and sat up in bed. Rubbing my eyes, I saw Pintel and Ragetti which was really not all that much of a surprise considering that they always seemed to be the ones to wake me up. I wrapped my arms around myself and raised an eyebrow, "What do you guys want?"

"We're going to town!" Ragetti said excitedly, eyes glittering. Well, eye glittering. His false eye couldn't portray emotions like his real one could. Ragetti went on to explain, "Captain said to wake you up. He said he'd take you into town and you could buy a few things if you'd like. So now you're up and we can go now! It's been a while since I've been to town."

"Town? We're at another dock?" I asked with interest, glancing out the window. Unfortunately, it was still too dark outside to really be able to see anything. Pintel answered my question by nodding vigorously. Then suddenly, he stopped. I saw a devilish look come into his eyes. Uh oh, that wasn't a good sign. Pintel's eyes lit up and he said, "So...do ya want to tell us what was going on last night?"

Oh shit. I was hoping they had forgotten about last night. Apparently not. I decided to try feigning innocence at first. I raised an eyebrow and tried to make my face emotionless as I asked, "Last night? What do you mean by that? It was just a normal night." Pintel and Ragetti exchanged glances that told me that they thought I was crazy for not remembering last night.

Pintel rolled his eyes and said, "Oh, come on, Miss Bern. You know what we're talking about." Pintel nodded and said, "You know, with the captain. You two looked pretty tight last night." Oh god, why did they always have to question me about these things? You would think they could just realize that this is none of their business and fuck off.

Blushing tomato red, I said, "It wasn't what it looked like. I just wanted to see if the captain was a better kisser than Jack Sparrow, that's all. It wasn't like we were in love. It was just to compare." I accidentally made a little slip there, but I didn't realize it until it was too late. So when Ragetti and Pintel started giggling, I had no idea what they were laughing about and asked irritably, "What?"

"Jack Sparrow?" Pintel echoed and then grinned at Ragetti, "You kissed Jack Sparrow. What else did you do with Jack Sparrow?" He looked at me expectantly with that big toothy grin of his. No way was I telling him what I had done with Jack, so he was going to have to be disappointed. I wouldn't even feel bad about disappointing him.

"Whatever I did with either men is none of your business," I said in a haughty voice. I got up out of the bed and stretched. Pintel and Ragetti gave me very sad expressions. I rolled my eyes at them and said, "Do you want to go to town or not? Because if you do, I suggest you leave me alone for a moment so I can get ready to go." I gave them both a meaningful look.

Luckily, they got the hint and trudged sadly out of the room. I rolled my eyes again as they shut the door and looked for something to wear. I rifled through the cabinet in corner of the room until I found a black dress. It looked old. Wait, to say it looked old is a bit of an understatement. It looked more ancient. It was dusty and looked like it was made hundreds of years ago. However, it was my only option to wear, and so it was going to have to work whether I liked it or not.

I stripped out of my black pants and blue top and pulled the dress on. It was slightly big, but it still worked. I found the hair brush I couldn't find yesterday under the bed and pulled it through my hair a few times before looking in the mirror. I looked as good as I was going to get. I slipped Barbossa's ring on my finger, took a deep breath, and prayed that things wouldn't be awkward between us.

I popped the door to the cabin open and almost ran right into Ragetti. Frowning, I shot him an expression and said, "What? Were you trying to watch me through the cracks in the door?" I shook my head at them in disdain and then said in a rather imperious tone, "Alright then. Take me to the captain so I can go to town."

Pintel swept me a low mock bow and said, "Right this way, Miss Cook." I stopped from correcting him on the "Miss Cook" thing. He and Ragetti were never going to remember to call me Bern. Sighing, I followed them up the stairs and up to the deck. There was a sunrise in the distance and I could see a small town ahead. Captain B was standing by the dock, looking handsome in his usual attire and with that big black hat on his head. It made him look almost too good. Jack the monkey was perched on his shoulder. He started squealing and bouncing up and down when he saw me.

Trying to focus my attention on Jack and not Barbossa, I stepped forwards until I was standing next to the captain and reached a hand up to scratch Jack's little cheek. I smiled up at him and said, "Good morning Jack. I trust you are doing well this morning?" Jack chattered even more excitedly. I figured that meant yes, but I had no idea.

Suddenly, I felt fingertips on my chin. Barbossa tilted my chin up and forced me to look at him. He was giving me a rather amused look and I knew instantly that he knew what I was up to. Barbossa tilted his head at me and said, "Greetin' the monkey before yer own captain...seems like yer priorities might be slightly outta place, Miss Cook."

Not wanting to look into his eyes, I looked at the floor and said, "Sorry, Captain Barbossa." The captain raised his eyebrows at me and said, "Don't be. Now where did 'Captain Barbossa' come from? Yer always calling me Captain B." When I didn't answer, he released my chin and stretched out his hand towards me. I took it and he helped me onto the gangplank.

Ragetti and Pintel were watching us with hopefully expressions. I could tell they wanted something, but I wasn't sure what that something was. Barbossa looked behind us at the two and narrowed his eyes at them. He thought for a moment and then said, "Why don't you two go take a walk? I dunno if I like leavin' me ship in yer control."

Ragetti and Pintel exchanged excited glances and quickly leapt out of the ship and started running towards the town like two little boys after a runaway toy. Barbossa watched them leave and then extended his arm to me, "Take me arm, there are some not so nice places here. A woman yer size has got ta be careful...especially at night."

I didn't think much of it until I was actually holding Barbossa's arm and sparks were flying through my arm again. Damn. I had hoped last night might just be a coincidence, but apparently not. As if he were reading my mind, Barbossa decided to bring up that subject. He looked at me out of the corner of his eye and said, "Ye know last night didn't mean anything."

It could've been a question, but Barbossa said it more like a statement. For some reason, that hurt more than anything. He had just confirmed my suspicions. He didn't have any feelings for me at all. However, no way was I going to tell him I was secretly in love with him. So all I could do was put a composed smile on my face and say, "Yes, of course."