For drinkupmehearties

[shieldofrohan]

The door to Jack's cell opens just before dawn. Éowyn stands there, dressed for riding - breeches under her gown, her hair braided back close to her scalp - and looks at him for a moment, hand on hip, before beckoning for his things to be brought. His sword will be given back to him: his gun will not. She knows, after all, that if it comes to a fight with swords, she is a more than equal match for him, but her experiences in the Capitol have let her know just how dangerous a gun can be in the wrong hands.

Outside, the horses are waiting. She has chosen a mare for him, docile and easy to ride, with a high saddle that should be easy to stay in. Even with their experience in the Arena, she's loath to trust his riding. There's a big difference between staying in the saddle for an hour or so with adrenaline pumping through your veins, and staying in the saddle for the long day's ride that lies ahead of them.

Her own horse, of course, gives her no such worries. The grey stallion has borne her well since the Pelennor Fields, and she's more comfortable in his saddle than she could ever be with both feet on the ground. As they head out into the courtyard, he raises his head and whickers at her, making her smile.

Faramir stands beside the horses, though he is not dressed for travel. As she approaches, he goes to meet her, ignoring Jack for the moment as he ducks his head to kiss her. "You are sure of this?"

"I am sure," she answers, with a fond smile, and leans up to kiss him in return. "Do not linger here too long, love. Emyn Arnen is not nearly so fair without you in it."

He laughs, low in his throat, and traces his fingertips over her cheek. "How can it be made fairer by my presence, when you are already there to illuminate it?" Straightening up with a kiss to her forehead, he smiles. "I will be a few days, no more. Travel well, my lady. And for my sake, if you should see an enemy, ride away, and not towards them."

Éowyn smiles, shaking her head, and pulls away. "Jack, do you need help mounting, or can you manage?"

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[drinkupmehearties]

He's unable to read her face as she looks away from him, and for a few moments Jack says nothing in return. He's never stayed long enough to deal with the inevitable fallout in situations like this; it's always been easier to vanish when things got tough, to pack up, sail away, and never deal with consequences or whatever else was left in the wake.

It made life much simpler.

Jack idly scratches a finger against the scruff on his chin, an absent-minded motion. "It's no different with me here." He's about to leave it at that, then pauses and ventures, "Is it?"

[shieldofrohan]

"I don't know." There's a tension in her tone, and in the line of her shoulders. She sighs again, leaning forwards to run her fingers through her horse's mane. It's reassuring, a reminder that she really is here, really is home. "Having you here makes it... harder to forget. Makes me wonder whether I ought to be trying."

It takes a lot of effort, and a lot of guts, to say. Éowyn can ride out against an army with barely a qualm, but something like this - such an admission of weakness, of feeling - is ten thousand times more difficult. Bad enough that she has to feel such things, without saying them aloud. But he asked, and she feels she owes him that much of an answer.

"It's naught to do with you," she says at last, slowly. "It's that place. You bring it back."

[drinkupmehearties]

His fingers tangle further into the reins at her response, gaze finally torn away from her and fixed on the steady bounce of the mare's neck as his horse ambles forward.

Jack nearly mirrors the sentiment, to admit that maybe it's been hard for him to forget too, lips parted to answer -- because gods it's been hard not to think of her since his return from Panem, even moreso now that they weren't worlds apart and she's physically here -- but she continues on and Jack quiets. Naught to do with him. Of course. Foolish of him to think.

"Aye. Hard not to be reminded of the vile place." He straightens in the saddle, looking ahead. "Mayhaps that'll fade in time."

[shieldofrohan]

"Perhaps," she agrees soberly, looking out at the horizon and taking a deep breath. "And perhaps not. Some things never do." An easy thing to think, out here, where the memory of older battles is always fresh. Maybe Panem is embedded in her now as deeply as the memory of the Witch-King, or the scream of horses and stench of blood.

Maybe they will fade in time, too.

She shakes the thought off, sighing. "In any case, it is past. And when the King is satisfied that you will harry his shores no more, I do not doubt that I and this land will return to the past for you, as well." There's a certain pang to that thought, one which is uncomfortable to admit to herself. For all their differences, and for all that she's trying to deny it, Jack was a close friend for a time when she needed it (and more than a friend, though that she's more enthusiastic to forget about), and it's oddly reassuring to have him here. To have someone else here who knows where they were, and what they went through.

[drinkupmehearties]

His thumb unwittingly brushes over the brand that mars the skin above his right wrist, tracing the raised letter that'll stay with him to his grave, then a few moments later his hand drops away. "Suppose I could grant that." Jack was exceedingly good at looking more to the future than the past, at moving on without dwelling or languishing. But, he knew, there were things that have left their marks on him in the process. No matter his efforts to pretend otherwise.

"But aye. Past is past." A beat passes, and Jack offers her a sidelong glance. "I would think, for all that, were I bringing such tormenting memories back, that you'd have been more keen to leave me to fate." There's a question in there; she had good reasons to leave him to waste away in that jail cell in Minas Tirith.

[shieldofrohan]

She doesn't acknowledge the question directly. Not for a moment, anyway. She just shrugs, and rides on in silence for a little way.

"The penalty," she says at last, suddenly, "is death. Your fate would have been death, had they decided that you were at fault. We are a land still recovering from war, Jack, and one which can ill-afford leniency against enemies who would do us harm." She turns her head, looking back at him, and shrugs one shoulder. "I was angry at you. I hated you, a little. But still, I owe you more than that, for you were a friend to me in need and that is no small matter."

[drinkupmehearties]

His lips part a little, a small hint of gold visible.  "By and large, that's most often the cost of the trade.  'A merry life and a short one', as they like to say."  Whatever the case was, Jack knew the heavy price that might be paid once the cannons of his ship went off.  He'd made his peace with that knowledge long ago.

Nonetheless, Jack dips his head in a short nod.  "But all the same, I've much to thank you for, then."  He allows a few moments to pass, taking in the scenery sprawled around them, seemingly hesitating.  "And much the same, your friendship in that place was no small matter to me either."  There'd been few people in Panem that Jack would've cared to keep from harm; she'd been one of them.

[shieldofrohan]

"Yet not a large enough matter to place me above their whims," she says tartly, and immediately shakes her head, irritated at herself. "My apologies. I ought not to have said that." Even if it is true. "I am glad that I meant something to you. No matter what may have come between us." There's still something a little stiff in her tone, but she does her best to ameliorate it with a smile and a change of subject. "A strange thought strikes me: that you have seen more of Gondor's seas than I. I have visited the coast but once."

[drinkupmehearties]

"It is beautiful." He doesn't expand on the subject, tone somewhat impassive. Instead, Jack settles his gaze back on her; she might be intent on throwing out that barb then changing the subject, but he's not content to let the remark go unacknowledged.

"On that matter, what would you have had me do, Eowyn? Throw meself at the Peacekeepers? Kill us both in the process?"

[shieldofrohan]

She's quiet for a moment. Then she turns in her saddle, fixing him with a long, hard look.

"Yes," she says at last, flatly. "Or at the very least, refuse them. Not capitulate, not crawl to them as your masters because they hold the sword above you. Better to die than to live that way, to give them all the power over you that they desired. And what good did it do you, for all that? We are in the same place now, you and I, and what availed your surrender? A few more days' life, a few more privileges granted that they might threaten to take from you?"

[drinkupmehearties]

His eyes narrow in return, mouth set in a hard line. "I think you forget that the lot o' them already had all the power over us, within Arenas and without, so what exactly would I have been giving up? A barren cell to stare out of, a gun shoved in me face anytime I took a breath or happened to glance the wrong way? Heavier shackles slapped about my wrists? I'd say it's better to live with a fair opportunity to change a situation, than die a foolish and useless death locked away in a cage." She's hit a sore spot with this, clearly.

"Tell me, what benefit did your imprisonment grant you, besides a puffed up chest and a reason to look down your nose at others?"

[shieldofrohan]

Éowyn bristles at that, the more so because of his phrasing. As if she would have chosen to live in a cage, to be locked away from sun and sky and freedom, if she had seen any choice in it! Her anger shows in her voice, suddenly a great deal colder. "You speak of changing a situation, as if it were ever what was in your mind. As if you were serving some nobler cause than saving your own skin, as if you gave any thought to the plight of others in the choice you made. Do not do me the disservice of lying to me, Jack."

[drinkupmehearties]

He leans back into his saddle and tugs on the mare's reins, causing her to turn towards Eowyn's horse and slow her stride to a near halt. With this done, Jack levels a look at Eowyn.

"You're right on that. It was me own circumstances that I intended to change, not any one else's. You'll realize that I made no claim of any noble intentions in my choice." His expression is hard, stiff, and it's a tension that winds itself all the way to his shoulders. Of course, his first and foremost thought had been to find a way to save himself and come out on top; yet it's a lie to say that he hadn't mulled over ways to help the few people he'd cared about there. But he's not about to say that.

"I fail to see what I would've gained by putting myself in the same situation as you."

[shieldofrohan]

Éowyn reins in her own horse, glaring at him full-force. "Of course you do. To see that would require honour, nobility. At the very least, pride. But you count such things lightly, do you not? Why account for duty or right, when you could wax fat on selfish cowardice?" She tilts her chin, looking down her nose at him. "Ought I to welcome that in you? To set aside doubt, and embrace that one I counted as a friend has all the nobility and humanity of the Capitol who kept us enslaved? Well, I cannot. I will not. Such forgiving nature is not in me."

[drinkupmehearties]

Jack scowls back at her, upper lip curled -- it looks like, for a moment, that he's about to retort in kind with the same vitriol. But then, ultimately, his mouth pulls in a cheerless smile. "Aye, truly, just the same as those that'd murder their own children and blood and lock chains on those that've never done them wrong. I've not a spit of humanity in me." His words are dry in tone, expression even.

"Don't strain yourself with the burden of forgivin', great noble lady. You've no reason to go against your nature, and I've no reason to go against mine, so don't waste the time. Doin' right has never done me much good anyhow." He ignores the mare shifting beneath him, and spreads out his hands. "Now, shall you tell me more about how despicable and loathsome and wretched I am? I've heard it all before, but I do always enjoy hearing more."

[shieldofrohan]

Her face hardens still further, and for a moment she looks as though she may spit at him, bring out more bile. Only for a moment. Then she looks away, and it is as though a veil passes across her face. "You're showing daylight at your seat," is all she says, her voice cool. "Relax your thighs, or you'll be more blister than man by the time we reach Ithilien." And she shifts in the saddle, nudging with her heels; as her horse starts forwards into a brisk trot, then a canter, she whistles sharply between her teeth so that Jack's mare knows to follow suit (whatever Jack himself might have to say about it).

Truth be told, she's sorry. Not forgiving, but sorry. He has a point - she was wrong to compare him to the Capitol, wrong to put him on anything like that level. Wrong, maybe, to expect anything else of him. But to admit that even to herself is a battle, and she won't even try to say it aloud. It would only come out wrong, and sour the air between them even more. Better to let it lie, let the hurt settle a while and see what comes of it. Better to let the wind in her hair and the sound of hoofbeats drown out the gall of guilt.

[drinkupmehearties]

Jack keeps his eyes locked with hers for those first few moments, openly inviting her to continue condemning and insulting him. When she instead turns away, the stony look gradually washes away into a tight frown and the pirate clenches his jaw. She won't see it now, but beneath the simmering indignation in his eyes there's a bitter hint of hurt; that she'd chosen to cut him down directly after he'd admitted he'd cared for her -- that she'd meant something to him back in Panem -- stung more than Jack cared to think about. And top to it off, he had let emotion get the better of him.

He settles back into his saddle at her suggestion, relaxing into a more comfortable position just as the mare bounces forward into a trot. His expression fades to something more neutral, impassive, and Jack stays silent as the mare follows behind Eowyn's horse.

[shieldofrohan]

They ride in silence for a long, long time - long enough for the landscape to change around them, for grassy plains to give way to farms and villages as they crest the hill - before Éowyn speaks. "There's bread and cheese in one of the saddlebags. Call out when you want to stop for lunch."

There's another long moment of silence, and then she sighs, looking back at him, and says rather stiffly, "I know why you did it. Why others did, too. For all anger may rob me of reason, I do, but..." And she looks away again, her face set. "I will not apologise. Not again."

[drinkupmehearties]

He's busied himself, in the meanwhile, with wordlessly gazing out and watching the scenery melt away into farms and homes occasionally populated with brief scatterings of people. It's only when Eowyn speaks does Jack finally glance her way, letting a few beats of silence stretch between them, his expression restored to that familiar, casual nonchalance that he's perfected over the years.

Eventually Jack answers smoothly, "Don't, then, Eowyn. I hadn't ever asked you to." With that said he nods towards an open space shaded by a tree, tugging on his horse's reins. "Let's go an' eat. I've need to stretch me legs anyhow."

[shieldofrohan]

Éowyn looks for a moment as though she might say something, carry on the conversation - but in the end, she only nods, reining her own horse in and sliding smoothly out of the saddle. "It's a long ride, for one not used to riding," she admits, clicking her tongue as she leads her horse over to the tree and ties off his reins. "But we're nigh on halfway, now."

[drinkupmehearties]

Jack dismounts as well, drawing the mare over to where Eowyn has tied off her horse and doing the same with his. He brushes an open palm over the horse's neck, ending the contact with a short pat, then takes a moment to stretch sore, aching limbs.

"Aye, long and tiring. So long I think I've nearly forgotten how to walk." A half-hearted attempt at humor.

He pulls the tricorne from his head, dropping down to sink comfortably against the tree's trunk. "Gods, that feels much better." Jack leans his head backwards, closing his eyes. Then after a few moments, he cracks an eye open to look at her. "You don't happen to have anything stronger than water in that sack, by chance, do you?"

[shieldofrohan]

Despite everything, that brings a little twitch of a smile to the corner of her mouth. Some things, it seems, haven't changed in the slightest. She can't explain why that should be so oddly reassuring, but there it is.

"No." She sits down beside him, opening the saddlebag and bringing out some linen-wrapped lumps of cheese and a loaf of bread. "There's wine waiting when we get back to Ithilien, but here? No. And a good thing, too, for I'd hate to have you too drunk to keep your seat."

[drinkupmehearties]

He scratches a finger over the line of his jaw, considering. "I'd wager I could manage it." If she catches his eye, she'll see the brief glint of humor in the look. Jack rests his elbows on his knees, one hand splayed out to underscore his next point. "I once climbed me way up the rigging to the mainsail yardarm -- that's the wooden spars the sails are lashed to -- during a storm, all the while loaded to the gunnels, so to speak, from a night of drinkin'. Didn't end up any worse for wear from it."

[shieldofrohan]

"A horse is not a ship," Éowyn replies dourly, but something in her expression reflects that humour, and her posture relaxes almost imperceptibly as she passes him the bread and cheese. "I could ride a horse half-dead, but that doesn't mean I could climb rigging in the same state. Stands to reason it should hold true the other way around, too."

[drinkupmehearties]

"Granted," Jack accepts the proffered food, breaking off a couple pieces for himself. "A horse is, sadly, not a ship. Still." He offers back the rest of the bread and cheese, pausing a few moments to take a couple bites and chew thoughtfully. "Stayin' aloft on that yardarm was bloody difficult. I don't imagine a horse would be much more challenging than that, particularly if we're involvin' a saddle and reins. Besides which, I've complete faith in my impeccable sense of balance."