Fire On Fire | Once Upon a Time

iv. Pirates Go Shopping

"That sounds hard...I'm sorry that you had to go through that darling. On top of everything else, I mean being a woman in your time doesn't sound too appealing on top of that you were a woman in what people tend to see as a male distributed profession and you had to prove that you weren't crazy for being attracted to women...I'm assuming"

"You're right and that's why I created the legend of Jack Sparrow"

Erica raised an eyebrow "And how's the legend different from the person in front of me?"

"They are similar people. We're both flirty and we adore the gorgeous blonde in front of us, but Jack Sparrow is an exaggerated tale of my life. I'd take bits and pieces of my life and exaggerate the bits that sounded boring to make me sound better, to make myself look better and most of those rumours were started by me to boost my status. Honestly, the rumours of my life and what I've done are so blurred that I have no idea what's fact and what's fiction, but I think it makes me more interesting"

"That's true. You are interesting"

"Gracias my dear" Jaclyn winked at her before moving to sit up, taking off her leather brown frock and rolling up her sleeves to her shirt, and Erica saw a flash of a scar on her right forearm, a question bubbled to her throat but she let it simmer. Now was not the time. "Now if you'd excuse me. I'd like to take a nap"

"Lie with me then" Erica stated, looking up at Jaclyn, all she wanted was to be wrapped back into Jaclyn's arms, loving the heat that radiated from the woman but it seemed that the woman pirate had other ideas 

"It's okay, I'll take the hammock. I don't want to take up your space"

Erica sighed and turned back to her book while Jaclyn lay in the hammock, her hat covering her face as she was lulled to sleep by the sway of the hammock 

* * * * *

Somewhere in the Enchanted Forest. Present-day

Waking up with a start, Erica thrashed in the bed as she attempted to sit up,  waking up Jaclyn in the process who was laying in the hammock, like she had been doing for the past week and a bit even though Erica protested that was a completely ridiculous idea and that it was her bed and she shouldn't be thrown out of it, and that she would be more than happy to find a bed, Jaclyn resisted and said that she could have the bed for as long as she wanted 

While Erica attempted to get her heartbeat under control -- and failing -- Jaclyn walked across the room and sat on the bed, before striking up a match and lighting a lantern and a few candles so they could see properly before she turned her attention back to Erica and put her hand on her back "You okay gorgeous?"  

"I'm okay--It's just scars" Erica's words were a mere broken whisper

"I get that. Scars on your body are tough but people can see them so they sympathise somewhat. It's the scars in your head which are the difficulties because people don't see them and so they pretend their not there as if their fiction, tales from a story, but they are just as real as you and I"

"How do you always know what to say?" 

"Call it a gift" Jaclyn winks and pulls her body into her and cradles her head and softly strokes her head. It was such a tender moment and Erica wondered how on earth this woman became the feared Pirate Captain Jack Sparrow "But no I know all this because I have them to, around three hundred years I died for a few months and was taken to a place known as Davy Jones locker and even though it happened so long ago I still have nightmares of that place, that's why I was up most of the time in Neverland"