Not All Treasure's Silver And Gold

by Morningglory5510

Sammi had a great life with her mother, father, and seven sisters. One day a man kills her parents, leaving her to fend for her sisters as an orphan. Jack Sparrow enters her life, but will she let him in? Or will he be just another pirate?

Not All Treasure's Silver And Gold

I ran through the yard with my older sisters chasing after me. We were trying to pass the time before our father would return home once again. Emma grabbed the back of my dress and pulled me to the ground."Got you again, little sister," she laughed.I rolled my eyes and pushed her off me as I walked to the front of the house. A carriage was pulling into the long driveway and my father slowly stepped out of it. I smiled widely at him as I ran to give him a hug. He picked me up off the ground and spun me around before putting me down and hugging the rest of my seven sisters. I was the youngest of the bunch, only ten years old, and I was my father's favorite.

We all went into the house to let my father get settled and before long we were all sitting in front of the fireplace listening to him tell one of his stories.

"I was cornered and had nothing but my bare hands to help me," he continued. "I calculated my chances of getting away if I could make a hole in them and found it was just crazy enough of a plan to work. Just as they were about to lung at me I grabbed one of the men and shoved him in front of me, taking his place in the circle."

My sisters and I gasped when he paused.

"What happened?" I asked him, eyes wide.

"Well," he said looking down at me. "I grabbed another man's sword right off him and stuck him in the back. Now I had a weapon and they were two men short. So I began making my way backwards toward the row boats. The men tried to back me away from them because they realized my plan, but I wouldn't budge. Just as it looked like they would get me far enough away from the boats I took my chance and jumped into the closest one. My weight slammed it down and it went plunging toward the waters. I sailed away from the ship as they tried to throw their swords at me, but I just laughed and waved to them from my stolen ship shouting words of thanks."

Me and my sisters laughed, my father always made the end of the story funnier than it was supposed to be.

"Alright girls, time for bed," my mother said getting up from her chair.

We groaned but did as we were told, getting up and making our way to our rooms. I shared my room with three of my sisters, Rosie, Maybelle, and Lilly. Two more of my sisters shared another room, Julie and Isabelle. The last two shared another room, Gracie and Emma. Emma was oldest, then came Gracie, followed by Isabelle, Julie, Lilly, Maybelle, Rosie, and myself Sam or Sammi. Out of all of us there wasn't one boy, but if you had to pick the girl who was the most tom-boy it would be me. I took after my father, strong, quick-witted, and I didn't back down from a challenge.

The four of us changed into our nightgowns and climbed into our beds. Not long after my father and mother came into the room to say goodnight and then we were left to sleep. My eyes drooped and before long I was fast asleep.

I woke to the sound of someone pleading. It was soft, so soft I could barely hear it, but I did. Silently, so as not to wake my sisters, I crawled out of bed and headed in the direction of the voice.

"Where is the treasure!" a voice shouted.

The voice was coming from my parents room and as I reached the door I peeked in through the opening. A man with long scraggy black hair stood with a gun pressed to my father's head and a boy about two years older than me stood with a dagger held to my mother's throat.

"I don't have any treasure! Not the treasure you're looking for!" my father yelled.

The man with the gun cocked it and pressed it harder to my father's head. "Do ye want ta rethink that?" he asked.

"I don't have your treasure!" my father pleaded.

The man nodded to the boy and the boy slit my mother's throat. I screamed as I watched blood spill from her neck and her body fell to the floor. I didn't have any time to run because the door was thrown open and I was being pulled into the room with my father.

The boy held his dagger to my throat like he had with my mother and I felt her blood against my skin, still warm and dripping down my own neck.

"Please, not her," my father begged. "Please, I'll do anything just not Sammi!"The man looked at my father coldly. "Where is the treasure?" he asked again, his accented voice making him sound even more threatening. "Last chance, Charles," he warned.

"I don't have your treasure!" my father cried out.

Without another word the man pulled the trigger of the gun and my father was dead.

Again I screamed, seeing the blood and brains splattered against the wall of my parent's bedroom. But I didn't cry, I would not cry in front of the monsters who had done this. I would not give them the satisfaction.

The man turned his eyes to me then. "Where is the treasure?" he asked me.

After seeing him kill my mother and father I wasn't about to risk my life or the life of my sisters.

"Follow me," I whispered. Secretly I was glad I was the one who had woken and not one of the other girls. My father hadn't told anyone but me where he kept his treasure and I was the only one with a key to it.

The man gave a short nod to the boy and he let go of me, pushing me in front of them.

"If ye try anythin' I will not hesitate ta pull this trigger and send ye along yer way with yer bloody parents," the man said from behind me.

"Yes sir," was all I could manage before walking along the hallway to my room.

The man and the boy looked around the room at my sleeping sisters and then to me.

"Please keep quiet, they don't need to know about this yet," I said to them quietly.

Assured I wasn't about to wake my sisters, they nodded for me to go on.

I opened the door to my closet and pushed past the clothes. What was supposed to be a wall was actually a door and I slowly walked to it, taking my necklace and putting it into the heart-shaped key hole. With a click the door opened and I moved for the men to come in after me. We walked down hill from there and soon we were underground.

"Where are you taking us?" the man asked.

"To the treasure of course," I said. "It couldn't be kept in the house, someone could find it."

We walked in silence until we came to a dead end.

"If this was a trick," the man snarled, cocking his gun.

Quickly I put my hand against the ceiling and knocked once. The sound was not what you would expect, it was hollow. I pulled up my necklace once more and unlocked the trapdoor. It swung up into another secret room.

Inside, I went to one of the many vaults and tried the combination. It clicked open but there wasn't any money in it. The man snarled. I hopped back up and pulled up the blankets to the bed in the room. I moved onto the bed and opened another trapdoor, reaching around inside for a key. My hand finally found it and I jumped back down to the floor.

Turning the key into the secret chamber's lock, I heard the satisfying click and I pulled the box under the bed toward me. My eyes landed on the treasure that laid within it, but before I could do anything I was yanked up by my hair.

"Jack, take what ye can and let's go," the man spoke.

The boy, Jack (yes, this is Jack Sparrow, he had to be a kid sometime), bent and began pulling out the gold and silver cups, rings, and jewelry. When he could carry no more the man let me go.

"Put everythin' back the way it's suppose' ta be," he said.

I nodded and bent down, pushing the chamber closed and locking it. Then I put the key back into the room in the ceiling. We walked back toward the house as I closed the doors and locked them back up, leaving everything the way it was supposed to be.

Finally we were back in my room.

"Get into bed," the man told me.I did as he said, covering up in my blankets.

"Now, don't ye move or make a sound 'itl ye hear a cannon fire from me ship. If ye do I'll know," he said.

I nodded and he turned on his heel and left me in my bed with the dead bodies of my parents in the next room. I contemplated getting up and doing something, but what was I going to do?

The next moment I knew I had made the right decision by staying in bed because the boy came back into my room. He looked at me for a moment more before turning and leaving.

If I wanted to get up and leave now was certainly the time, the boy had come and gone and they wouldn't likely be coming back after that. But I didn't move, I didn't think. I had witnessed my father and my mother die and if any of my sisters found I knew before they did I would surely be suspect to their deaths.

The next morning I rose with my sisters and went about my morning chores, waiting for someone to find the bodies. I knew exactly when one of them found our parents. A blood curdling scream echoed through the large house and me and the others went racing to see what was wrong.

The scene I saw before my eyes was gruesome and though it was not nearly as bad as seeing the murder itself, it brought back the memories of the night before and I was hit with a wave of grief. I knew this was coming, but I hadn't expected it to hurt this much. I didn't have to act when I fell to my knees with a sob in my throat and I realized I would never see them again.

From that point on we were orphan kids, alone in the world with nothing but each other. Though we were girls, we had to wear pants and shirts instead of dressed and we were looked down upon everywhere we went. We moved from place to place trying to find a decent spot that held all of us and kept us sheltered from the elements. Each of us took shifts in the streets begging and stealing food so that the others could rest and guard what little we did posses. I was 13 when another misfortune hit our family.

I came back from yet another day of pleading with strangers for money and I was dying to just sit down. When I got to our newest 'home' I found all of my sisters huddled in a circle. In the middle of that circle laid Julie, my loving, strong sister. She moaned in pain and clutched her stomach.

"What's going on?" I asked.

Emma turned to me with a sad expression on her face. "Julie's come down with something," she said. "She's been sick for a while and we don't know what it is."

I looked back to Julie, who was turning over to throw up the remaining contents of her stomach.

"Can't we get a doctor or someone to look at her?" I asked. "We have to have some money lying around."

My sisters just looked at me sadly.

"Sammi," Gracie began. "Even if we had enough money to get Julie a doctor, we wouldn't be able to convince him to come here to help us. After all, what doctor in his right mind would help an orphan girl in her home that is nothing more than a makeshift hole in the ground. The doctor would wonder about how we got the money for Julie and that would lead to questions that we don't have answers to."

My heart sank with each word Gracie spoke, but I refused to give up. "We have to do something for her!" I cried.

But my sisters had made up their minds, they knew there was nothing more they could do.

I didn't speak a word to any of them that night, just moving to start the fire for them and eat a few pieces for stolen bread. I was beyond angry, I did everything for them and they wouldn't even listen to me. I was the only one who knew how to start a fire, I was the one who could pick-pocket and steal food for us. None of them could do any of that, but they refused to even think about what I had to say.

Rosie sat next to me and for a moment neither of us spoke. "Sammi, I would do anything in the world to help Julie. You know I would, but there's nothing we can do. If we try to get a doctor in here we'll be reported and hung. There wouldn't be a chance for any of us. We just have to wait and hope Julie makes it through."

I glared at my sister and didn't speak. Did she honestly believe she would do anything for her sister if she wouldn't even risk the noose? I would die a thousand times over for my sisters.

Rosie sighed and left me to glower in my corner. A few seconds later I could hear them whispering to each other. No one bothered me for the rest of the night and I refused to talk to the people who were watching their own sister die.

The next few days were gruesome. I worked extra hard to get Julie clean food and water and I brought home more money than ever before. But nothing I did helped her. She laid in her corner, only moving to relieve herself or throw up the food that we forced down her. Soon she could only drink water and before long she couldn't do even that.

I was sitting next to Julie when she started shivering. I quickly got my blanket and pushed it onto her, finding that she was not only shivering but sweating at the same time. She looked to me with weary, bloodshot eyes.

"Sammi," she moaned, her voice hoarse and cracking.

"What do you need?" I asked her, almost pleading with her to give me a way to help her.

Julie coughed for a moment and then began talking again. "Thank you, for everything." With that she closed her eyes and was gone.

For a moment I thought she had fallen asleep, but when she didn't move I began to scream. My sisters rushed to my side, finding Julie was dead.

I clung to Maybelle, sobbing with her about the death of our beloved older sister.

After a day of mourning we had to move Julie's body out of the place where we slept. She was beginning to attract maggots and other animals and we couldn't have that where we ate and slept. Myself and Isabelle were chosen to move the body out to the water. The rest of the girls would follow behind and say their goodbyes as the body went into the sea.

Isabelle and I grabbed either side of the blanket we had wrapped the body in and lifted it. The dead weight was tough to carry, but we managed it and soon we were standing at the water's edge. We pushed the bundle into the water and watched as it sunk and left only ripples behind.

After about an hour the other girls started walking back, but stopped when they realized I wasn't following.

"Come on, Sammi. We have to get back before dark," Lilly said, putting her arm around my shoulders.

I fixed a death glare on her before speaking. "Don't ever call me Sammi. You don't deserve to call me that," I spat at her.

Her eyes filled with sadness at my words, but I shrugged her arm off of me and stomped back to our hole.

When we got back Emma stretched out in her and Julie's old space to sleep.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

Emma looked up at me confused. "I'm going to sleep," she said.

"That's Julie's spot," I stated as if she didn't know.

My sister sighed. "Sammi, Julie isn't here anymore. There's nothing we can do about that and we can't leave that space open forever."

"I said don't call me Sammi! My name is Sam. And you can't sleep in Julie's spot, she died there it's her spot!" I screamed.

"Sam there's nothing we can do about Julie's death, we just have to keep going," Emma spoke softly.

I jumped up and grabbed my oldest sister's shoulders, shaking her in my fury. "That's Julie's spot! Do you have no respect for the dead? Do you not care that your own baby sister died there?" I cried.

Emma grabbed my wrists now, rage filling her eyes. I knew I had struck a nerve. "Samantha Elizabeth Mason, you will not talk to me like that!" she thundered. "I am the oldest and therefore in charge! I am doing what is best for all of us and I need to take into consideration what the living needs, not the dead!"

I glared up at my sister. "You didn't care about her," I spat. "You just care for yourself and how much more you can take!"

Emma slapped my face and shoved me into the ground. "Go away Sam. Just go away or I'm going to hurt you," she hissed at me while sitting down.

"Fine!" I yelled. Without another word I turned and left the 'house' fuming about our fight. "How dare she say she cares about any of us. She only wants things to herself. She's always been a selfish little brat, I should have known better, taken things into my own hands," I ranted to myself.

I kicked a garbage can that stood in my way and continued down the road. I stopped, seeing a crowd of men gathered around two boys fighting.

The bigger one had the advantage of being, obviously, bigger but his weight slowed him down making him not the best fighter. The other boy was scrawny, but quick and he could take a punch. After a few minutes the smaller boy was thrown to the ground and a man came into the circle.

"The winner!" he said gesturing to the bigger boy.

The crowd cheered and money was handed to the boy.

"Any more takers?" the man called. "Any one? A chance to win ten shillings or more!"

I walked into the crowd, waiting to see who would go out next, but no one seemed to want to fight the boy.

Without thinking I called back, "I'll fight him!"

The men turned to look at the person who had accepted the offer and began to laugh when they saw it was me who had called out.

I glared. "I want to fight him," I said.

The man who had been calling for another opponent chuckled and looked me up and down. "How old are ya, lass?" he asked

"Thirteen," I stated.

His eyebrows raised. "Are ya saying now that ya want ta fight this sixteen year old boy?" he asked me.

I nodded. "That's what I'm saying."

"Aright. Come on we don't have all day, get up here."

I quickly made my way through the crowd to the center of the circle."Silas, you can't let a girl fight," a man called from the crowd.

'Silas', the one who had let me fight looked over at the man. "I can do wha' I please with me fights an' I want ta let the lass fight. She's old 'nough to think for 'erself by now anyway."

The man from the crowd muttered about letting a girl fight, but didn't otherwise say another word in protest.

"You're going down," the boy said.

I laughed out loud. "Obviously you've never seen me fight," I told him.

We stared each other down for a moment more before a whistle blew, and then we were fighting.

The boy threw the first punch, going for my head but I ducked down and grabbed his legs out from under him. He fell back onto his butt and I jumped up quickly maneuvering out of reach of his hands. He struggled to get up for a moment and then he was back on his feet. He faked a punch to the right and as I moved out of the way of his oncoming hand he hit me from the other side. I fell to the ground but quickly recovered, jumping to my feet and getting him in the gut. His hands went for my face and he grabbed my hair, making me scream. I took the opportunity to punch his face and he let go of my hair.

We both fought for what seemed like a hours but in reality was maybe ten minutes and both of us were breathing hard. His face was bloody and I guessed my own looked the same. The boy threw a punch toward my side, but it was wild and I could tell he was getting tired. Quickly, I grabbed his feet out from under him and watched as he fell to the ground. He didn't get back up (No he wasn't dead, just defeated).

"We have a new champion!" the man yelled into the crowd.

I smiled happily as I was handed my money.

"That's outrageous!" a man screamed. "She cheated!"

The man who gave me the money looked into the crowd for the person who was yelling. "The lass didn't cheat. I saw it with me own eyes and what I say goes. The rules to me fights are, there ain't no rules. If ya have a problem with 'em then take it up with me later!"

The man turned to me with a smirk. "Congrats, lass. Come back tomorrow to win some more," he said to me.

I nodded and walked back toward the hole I called home.

When my sisters saw my face they gasped and tried to help me but I pushed them off.

Smiling wide, I held up my sack of money and stated simply, "I won."

That was one turning point in our lifestyle that I will never forget. From then on every day I went to the same spot to fight against worthy opponents. Whenever I won there was always someone who didn't like the outcome, but Silas (the man who held all the fights) just told them to take it up with him if they had a problem. I was constantly bloody and bruised, but I felt good knowing I had earned the money and I could hold my own against men who wanted to attack me.

I was fifteen when my life was changed once again. I was walking along my usual path to fight, but when I got to the spot no one was around.

"Silas?" I called.

Silas stepped out of the shadows and walked to me. "Aye?" he asked

"Where is everybody?" by this time of day there was normally a huge crowd of people waiting to see the fights.

"I sen' 'em away taday," he said gruffly.

My eyebrows furrowed. "Oh...Um why?"

"Today lass, I want ta teach ya somethin'," Silas said, walking back into the shadows.

I followed behind him asking, "What do you want to teach me?"

Silas turned back to me once we entered the shadows. "Do ya know what I do fer a livin' lass?" he asked me.

"Hold fights?" I guessed.

He smirked. "Naw, that be me hobby. I be a blacksmith, lass," Silas said.

"You mean you make swords?"

Silas nodded. "Aye."

"You want to teach me to be a blacksmith?" I asked. "You know girls aren't allowed to work."

"No, no. I don't wanna teach ya ta be a blacksmith, but what I do wanna teach ya be somethin' that isn't allowed," he said.

My eyes narrowed at him, not sure where this conversation was headed.

"Have ya ever fought with a sword, Sam?" he asked.

I looked at Silas with a weird expression. "Um, no?" I questioned. "What are you talking about?"

"I want ta teach ya how ta defend yourself properly," Silas told me.

I turned my head to the side, just barely understanding the meaning behind his words.

"How would ya like it if I taught ya some swordsman skills?"

I was taken back at this comment. "I-I'm a girl. If I was caught I'd be killed! If you were caught you'd be killed!"

Silas nodded. "Aye, that be true. But though ya be a lass, ya can fight as well as any man I've seen and I think yer ready fer somethin' more challengin'. What do ya think?"

I spoke slowly. "You would be willing to risk your life to help me learn to sword fight?" I asked.

"Well, there would be a catch of course," Silas said.

I gave him a small smile. "And what would that be?"

"Ya'd have ta fight in me other circle. That be the one where ya can use swords an' ya make more money," Silas told me. "Would ya be willin' ta learn ta use a sword fer that price?"

"I'll have to think about it," I said, pretending to think about his amazing, life changing offer.

"It be a one time only offer, lass," Silas said.

I brought my hand down from my face and looked up at the man. "In that case, I'll accept the offer," I said slowly.

Silas smiled and shook my hand. "Ya will be 'ere everyday after the fights or I'll be thinkin' ya don' want ta learn anymore," he demanded.

I nodded and with two words I changed my life. "Yes, sir," I said.

With that I made my way back to our small hole in the ground to deliver the news to my waiting sisters.

Silas was very excited about having a fifteen year old girl in his fights and he told the news to anyone and everyone who would listen as long as they were trustworthy. Every week more and more people came to see me fight without weapons and they were very surprised to see that I won against almost any opponent, and when I lost I got right back up and fought in the next fight.

Finally it was the day before my first swordfight and I was headed to my last training session before the big day. I entered the old, run down blacksmith house and went to the usual practice place. I picked up my sword that was made especially for me by Silas himself and began swinging it around as if fighting an actual opponent.

A heard a laugh from behind me and turned to see Silas watching me with his sword at his side. "I see yer excited 'bout that fight," he said.

I nodded, putting my sword at my side.

"Taday's not 'bout pacticin', lass," Silas said, picking up his own sword. "Taday we're ta fight ta the death. Well, no' literally but ya know what I mean."

I only nodded, moving into possion and getting ready to fight my own teacher.

"You really think I'm ready for this?" I asked Silas, feeling unsure about it.

He nodded. "I think ya've been ready fer a while, jus' waitin' 'til ya believed in yerself."

I eyed the sword that was being held out and without warning we were locked in a fearsome battle. I'd never worked this hard and I'd never wanted to prove myself more than I did at that moment.

Silas lunged to put his sword in the direction of my stomach, but I moved and went for his throat. He didn't move, but instead blocked with his own sword and pushed mine back toward myself. I moved back with the blade so that it didn't come back too far and then advanced again swinging my blade for his ankles. He jumped to avoid being hit and then swung at my head. Quickly, I ducked and pushed my sword against his legs sending him flying to the ground. I was up and forcing his sword from his hand in moments, pointing my own sword at my teacher's throat.

Silas smirked and before I knew it he had a gun in his hand, cocking it and pointing at me.

The gun brought back so many unwanted memories and without thinking about it I was ten years old once more and I was back in my parent's bedroom. A gun was cocked to my father's head and my mother had a blade to her throat. I heard the blast from the gun and saw the brains on the wall. I heard a cocking and saw the same gun pointed to my head. I was being forced to find my father's treasure for the man that had killed him. I saw my parent's dead bodies on the floor the next morning.

"Sam!" my name was being called, bringing me back to reality. "Sam!" Silas called.

I looked at him for a moment, bringing myself back to the present.

"I wasn' really goin' ta shoot ya," Silas mumbled. "Pick up yer sword and let's try that again shall we?"

I looked at the ground and saw that I had indeed dropped my sword. I picked it up and put it into it's sheath, walking back to the starting point once more.

"Ya a'right lass?" Silas asked, seeing my pale face in the sunlight.

I nodded. "Yeah, I just , uh, spaced out."

"It looked like a lot more 'an spacin' out," Silas told me.

"I'm fine."

Silas nodded and once again I was locked in combat. We went through the fight again, my sword swinging and missing, his sword coming close but never close enough. After ten long, hard minutes of fighting I cornered Silas against a wall and pointed my blade at his neck. But again, he surprised me with the gun and with it came more memories.

I was thirteen and Julie died before my eyes. I was eleven, watching for the first time a fellow orphan being hung. I was being chased by someone I had stole from and being threatened with the noose. Emma was angry and shaking me before throwing me down into the ground, telling me to get out before she seriously hurt me. I was ten -

"Sam!"

Again I was pulled to the surface by the sound of Silas's rough voice.

"Sam!"

I blinked to find I had dropped my sword again.

"What is goin' on with ya, lass?" Silas asked me.

I picked up my sword before answering. "Nothing, I just - nothing."

"It didn' very well look like nothin'" Silas said.

"Well, it was nothing."

"Whatever you say," Silas told me, putting his hands up in surrender.

We fought again and again, always ending in the same way. I would have him cornered, but Silas would pull the gun on me and I would have more flashbacks before I would be pulled to the surface by Silas shouting my name. Finally I learned to get the gun away from him before he used it on me and I had one less thing to worry about. Even if I didn't get it away from him I was getting better at blocking out the terrible images that invaded my mind.

When it was finally time for me to leave, Silas smiled and took my sword to put it in it's place.

"Goodnight, Silas," I called.

"G'night, lass," he yelled back to me from who knows where.

I smiled one last time before leaving the blacksmith shop and walking back to our newest hole in the ground.

Lilly was up waiting for me when I got back. She just shook her head at all the new cuts and bruises I had from fighting.

"I don't know how you can do that," she said. "And it looks like you like doing it.""Well, that's because I do like doing it," I replied quietly, seeing everyone else was asleep. "I like to fight with a sword and I like to win money for doing it. Especially if it helps with money and food."

Lilly sighed and then laughed. "You should've been a boy, then you'd be able to do that without the risk of getting hung."

I nodded in agreement. "That would've been a lot better for us in this mess, wouldn't it."

"Come on, get to sleep," growled Emma in our direction. She'd been very strict with me ever since my outburst after Julie's death.

Lilly and I sighed at the sound of our uptight, still lady-like sister. She never could quite grasp the fact that we were in a hole in the ground and we were never going back to a house. She just sat there in her spot day after day and made everyone else do the work and shouted at me when I didn't do something right.

"Night Sam," Lilly said quietly once she had laid down.

I had made a point about being called Sam and now I wanted for everyone to call me by it and nothing more.

A second too late I replied, "G'night Lilly."

Then I was the only one awake, left to contemplate the day that was rapidly coming with the sun. I was to fight my first real sword fight in the coming afternoon and I wasn't sure I was ready. But my troubles soon changed to dreams and I was left to my subconscious.

I woke with the sun rising early the next morning and with a knot in my stomach. Today was the day I'd been practicing for weeks and now I wasn't sure I'd do as well as I'd planned. All the footings and blocks I'd learned left my mind and I couldn't remember anything for the life of me.

I had a quick breakfast with my sisters, stale bread and a few drops of water, and then I was off to fight the smaller fights for the morning.

Winning all my fights didn't put me in high spirits for the sword fights coming up. Though Silas was sure I was going to win, I couldn't help but be nervous. Then it was time to get out my amazing new sword and get ready for the fight. Silas started out by telling everyone that today was the day that the girl he'd been training would be fighting. More people than ever were in the circle that Silas held and I was the main source of the talk amongst them.

I walked to the center of the circle and faced my opponent. He was a scraggly man with short hair, but I didn't have time to pay attention to his looks.

"Now," Silas began. "For those of ya who don't know the rules here they are: there ain't no rules. Anythin's fair long as I say so."

There was a mumbled answer through the crowd about the fact that he would surely make it fairer for the one he had taught, but they didn't get much in because Silas was telling us both to begin the fight.

Standing there and looking my opponent in the eye made me want to win so much more. Suddenly I wasn't nervous and everything I'd been taught came back to me. I smirked and raised my sword as did the man across me.

The man I was fighting wasn't that big of a man and he didn't look to good with his sword when he held it, but as we swung our first time I realized it was all just a trick. Quickly, I became defensive and I swung towards his ankles. Instead of jumping like I thought he would, he moved back and jabbed his sword toward my face. I moved my sword up and blocked my head, moving back.

He was stronger than I was and soon I felt myself tiring. Just as I thought I'd had enough, I saw a hole in his defense. If I swung to the right, he didn't cover his left side. I made up my mind quickly, knowing this was my only chance if I was to win. Our blades hit fast and I was gaining my confidence as I realized that I might just win my first sword fight. I went in for his right side and as he went to block the incoming blow, I switched directions and hit his left side. The shock made him drop his sword and when I held my own to his throat he just stared at me. I watched all of his movements until I heard Silas declare me winner.

No one objected to the fact that I had won by being fair and, though I heard some grumbles about a fifteen year old girl winning against a grown man, no one said anything more.

I was handed my sack of money and I left that night feeling very proud of myself.

When I reached our hole I saw my sisters sitting around doing nothing like they had been doing since I'd started fighting and bringing back real money.

"I won," I said and I walked into our space.

Emma looked to me even more coldly than normal. "How much did you get?" she asked, not paying attention to any of the cuts and bruises I had earned myself, but instead to the sack of shillings in my hands.

"Enough," I said back, wanting to keep just some of it this time.

Emma glared at me and asked again, "How much?"

"More than normal," I retorted, not wanting to give her the money at all.

"Hand it here," she demanded.

My anger flared once again. "No."

Emma looked at me with pure hatred in her eyes. "Samantha Elizabeth, the money."

She held out her hand for my full sack.

"I don't think so," I said.

"Give the money to me so it will go where it's needed," Emma demanded of me.

I knew she would take some of it and use it on things that she wanted and I knew that she was in a rage worse than normal, but I didn't care, I had earned the money and I was keeping it.

I turned my back to her and began laying down to sleep, shoving the money under my makeshift pillow.

One second I was putting the money under my pillow, the next I had been spun around to face my angry older sister.

Emma took my chin in her hand and forced me to look her in the eyes.

"I don't think you heard me right," she hissed. "Because if you did then I would have that money in my hand right now."I pulled my head from her hand and glared into her icy green eyes. "I heard you just fine," I retorted. "But I don't think you heard me. Let me spell it out for you, I'm not giving you the money I made."

Her hands wrapped around my shoulders and held them so tight I could feel the blood leaving my arms. She shook me roughly and saw a side of my sister that I'd never seen before, even when I had told her she didn't care about her sister's death. Pure madness filled her eyes and for the first time since I'd learned to fight for myself I truly felt afraid for my life.

"Who do you think you are?" she screamed. "I've done everything for you! I've always taken care of you and this is how you repay me?"

I didn't answer her questions, afraid that she'd take it as something bad and hurt me.

Emma's nails dug into my skin, and I gasped in pain.

"Answer me when I talk to you!" she yelled in my face.

It felt like my throat had constricted and all I could do was nod.

All of our sisters just sat and watched as Emma grabbed my ratted brown hair and pulled me outside.

"You think you can do whatever you want just because you were Dad's favorite and now you bring home money," she muttered to herself. "I'll teach you to talk to me like that!"

Emma stopped by the water and brought me to look her in the eyes.

"You will not talk back to me," she told me.

The next moment I was dunked under the murky brown water that we'd thrown Julie into when she died. I inhaled sharply when my head was shoved under and my lungs quickly filled with water.

From that point on my sister and I regarded each other tightly, going about our daily routines and talking to each other only when necessary. She never threatened my life again as long as I didn't do anything to provoke it. And I did as she told me to, I didn't want to worry any of the other girls even if it meant that I would take her on by myself.

I continued to fight and win, while Silas taught me more and more about the 'art of the swords' as he liked to call it. We kept moving until we ended up in a place next to the ocean. It seemed as if everything was finally going as good as it would ever get.

Another tragedy hit our family when I was about twenty (it was hard to count the time when you lived in a cave or hole in the ground). I woke early that morning with the sun rising. None of the other girls were up yet and the dew on the us hadn't yet dried. Out by the water I could hear people shouting and footsteps on the docks. Then there was gunshots. The next sound I heard sent me back to when I was a child again. It was the sound of blood-curdling screams and bodies dropping to the ground. It wasn't the first time pirates had attacked, but it was the first time since we'd lived in this place and we'd seen other kids get killed and beaten for fun.

Around me, my sisters had jumped up with the bullets being shot. Rosie, only a year older than me, looked as though she had seen a ghost. She was pale, but slowly turning a light greenish color.

I had no time to think about her memories, though. I had to think ahead, there were pirates out there. Would they come in here? If they did what was I to do for my sisters? My mind reeled, trying to think of everything at once. Then, I knew what I had to do. If anything was going to happen I would need my sword, nothing good would happen if we stayed here like scared little chickens.

"We have to go," I yelled over the gunfire.

The six of them looked up to me as if I were crazy.

"We have to get out of here, nothing good will happen if we just sit and do nothing!" I exclaimed.

Still, they didn't move.

I sighed. "Do any of you have a better plan?"

Maybelle stood and looked me in the eye. "How about we stay here and not risk our necks out there," she said.

"That won't help!" I cried, fearing our time here was limited. "If they come in here we'll be out numbered and cornered! We won't have very good odds if we stay in here! But we would have better chances in the midst of the confusion."

Gracie was slowly nodding her head. "I think Sam's right," she said. "We'll have better chances in the confusion of the town."Emma looked at her like she had grown a third head. "No, we can't go out there! If we do, one of us could get shot!"

"Yeah, but if we're in here we're all going to get shot," Gracie said.

She looked to me, determination bright in her blue eyes. "You lead, little sister."

"Wait!" Emma cried. "We can't go out there! I won't!"

I made up my mind then. "Then we'll have to leave you," I stated.

Gracie turned to look at me with indecision.

"If she won't leave then we can't force her, but we have to do something for those of us who have the sense to leave," I said, no sympathy in my voice.

Gracie closed her eyes, but nodded. "If you think it's safer to stay then you can do just that, but I'm going with Sam. I think this is our best chance."

Rosie stood up. "I'm going with you," she said.

"I think it's safer to stay here," Maybelle said, sitting up a little straighter.

We looked to Lilly and Isabelle.

Lilly nodded and stood while Isabelle shook her head and sat next to our other sisters. We were into our final groups, one would die while the other lived and we had chosen what we thought would take us to live on. Myself, Gracie, Rosie, and Lilly were to go out into the world and leave Maybelle, Isabelle, and Emma alone to defend themselves.

I squeezed my eyes together tightly, but then opened my eyes and forced myself to move on.

"Okay, I hope you made the right decision," I said nodding and steeling myself for the outside.

I turned to the girls who had decided to come with me and spoke to them. "Stay together and run for the blacksmith shop. Keep an eye on everything around you, but most importantly keep moving."

The three of them nodded and grabbed each other's hands.

We moved out of our hole quickly and silently, not looking back at the girls behind us. As we looked at the world around us we saw bodies on the ground and pirates running above. Before any of it could fully hit us, we were moving again, running through the crowd toward what little hope we had. At the end of the road we looked back toward our hole that we knew we'd never go back to. I never could get over what I saw next, what I had to do will haunt me for the rest of my life.

Slinking into the opening of our hole were three pirates with wicked grins planted on their dirty mouths. Rosie screamed loudly beside me and almost ran for the hole but Lilly grabbed her and soon she had fallen into sobs. I looked at them for a moment with hard eyes, not showing that something inside me was breaking too.

"We have to keep moving," I commanded.

My sisters looked up at me as though I had grown three more heads and was about to attack them. "We can't just leave them!" Lilly hissed at me. Did you read the memo?I'll keep doing this if you don't.

I looked at her coldly, showing no emotion. "If we don't keep moving we'll be killed too and then there'll be none of us left," I told them bluntly. "If you want to stay here and die that's not my choice but don't make everyone else die too."

Rosie looked to me with tear-filled eyes. "I think Dad chose the wrong one of us to be his favorite. He chose the one with no heart," she spat venomously.

I looked at her fiercely. "You think I have no heart? I'm trying to save us all but they decided to stay back and I'll have a good cry about that later but right now I have to get you idiots to safety!"

Gracie stood and wiped the tears from her face. "Sam's right, we have to keep moving or we'll die and there'll be none of us. It'll do no good to sit here crying until someone comes to kill us or worse."Rosie still glared at me darkly but allowed herself to be pulled to her feet by Gracie. Lilly nodded and sniffed as she, too, got up.

I glanced toward the edge of town and saw that the pirates were getting closer to where we were and then looked back to the sisters that had come with me. "We have to move!" I said, pushing them toward Silas's place.

With one last glace we turned and ran away from the oncoming pirates and into the just rising town. I hardly had time to think about the people that we were passing that had no idea what was coming. The screams from town grew louder and soon it was alight with fire, burning houses and buildings to the ground..

We ran through the maze of roads and back alleys until the old, familiar blacksmith shop finally came into view. I checked once more to make sure no one had fallen behind and saw the pirates much closer than I'd anticipated.

"Don't look back!" I shouted, seeing one man slaughtered while the pirate laughed.

Finally we made it to Silas and my sword. I pushed the door open quickly and ushered my older sisters inside before shoving the heavy, wood door back into place behind them.

I looked around the shop that I had grown so accustomed to in the past years. First off, I had to get my sword. I would be no help if I couldn't use weapon against weapon. Then I had to find Silas and let him know what was coming, I would be no kind of person if I didn't at least warn him of the dangers waiting in the early morning.

I went to the corner where my sword was always kept and picked the blade up at once, putting it into place. I looked at the swords around it for a minute and figured that it would be best to carry two sword today. I grabbed another one and put it on. Then it was time to find my teacher and friend.

I thought for a moment more, deliberating about what I should do with my sisters, then decided bringing them with me would be the best idea.

"Wait," I said, pulling them to a halt. "Do any of you know anything about fighting with a sword? Anything at all?"

For a second they just stared at me without speaking, Gracie broke the silence first. "I've seen you do a few moves without one and have been trying those, does that count for anything?"

I picked the nearest sword up and placed it in her hands. "Show me what you can do," I said, speaking quickly.

Gracie did a few basic moves with the sword and then dropped it to her side. "I can't do much," she apologized.

"No, no. That's fine, you know the basics and that's good enough right now. Anyone else know even that much?" I asked them once more.

They silently shook their heads and I sighed. "Come on, we have to find Silas now."

I weaved quickly through the many swords and unfinished blades toward the back of the building where Silas slept, older sisters in tow. I eventually found a door that I had never been in and tried opening it. As I thought, Silas didn't keep his house locked and I was able to slip easily into his space.

The front room wasn't much, a small kitchen/dining room with old wood flooring. The table was small with two chairs, they were almost the same dark brow color of the floor and they looked just as dirty. Beyond the kitchen we could see a sitting room that was barely furnished, it was cluttered with pieces of swords and other kinds of fighting weapons.

I ushered the three girls into the room and told them to stay put. I, on the other hand, walked through the small house trying to locate the room that held a sleeping Silas. The search wasn't long, I only had to look through one room and then found the one I was looking for.

Silas slept soundly, unaware of the town falling apart around him, I almost felt bad for having to wake him but then remembered the nightmare that was outside the shelter of the house.

"Silas," I whispered, not sure how you were supposed to wake someone when you weren't even supposed to be in their house. Silas didn't move so I tried again, "Silas...Silas...Silas!" my voice had gotten steadily louder and now I felt as though I were shouting into the silence. "Silas!"

Finally the man moved. To my dismay he didn't wake and I was forced to keep calling his name. With one final shout he jolted up in his bed, pulling out a sword from under his blankets and swinging it wildly.

I jumped back expertly from the amateur swings and unarmed the disoriented man. For a moment he only looked at me, letting his eyes adjust to the darkness I assumed, that or waiting for me to pick the sword back up from the ground and behead him. When I didn't cut off his head, Silas bent forward and looked up at my face.

"Sam!" he exclaimed when he realized who I was. "What are ya doin' here at this hour and in my house? Couldn' this have waited 'til mornin'?"

I felt pity for the poor man that thought this was something so trivial that I would be able to wait for morning. When I look back I think he knew it wasn't something like that, though. I think he knew what lurked outside and he had been waiting for it, expecting it.

"Silas, the pirates!" I squeaked, finding it harder to use my voice around someone who was still ignorant. I cleared my throat and retried. "The pirates are here, they're coming this way and headed into town!"Only now did Silas take in the two swords at my waist and the pale white sate of my skin, the way I breathed hard and panted now that my goal was complete. I was sure when I brought my sisters here that Silas would be able to help, maybe magically make the pirates evaporate. But in the end he was about as much help as my parents were the night of their death.

"What do ya want me ta do, Sam?" he asked me as he got out of bed, picked the sword up from the ground and picked out clothes so he could get up and get ready for the day, or the fight I couldn't tell.

"H-help," I choked out. "Do something, anything!"

Silas sighed and looked at me the same way I had looked at him before I had woken him from his sleep. "Where are yer sisters, lass?" he asked me softly.

"Half of them are here and the other half are-are," I couldn't go on.

He nodded as though he'd known at least part of the answer all along. "I don' know why ya needed ta wake me, but ya and ya sisters can stay here 'til they leave," he offered to us.

"What do you mean, don't know why I needed to wake you? They're burning whole houses to the ground!"

"Lass, this be a blacksmith shop, unimportant to anyone be a pirate or rich man. No one ever touches the blacksmith shop or tries ta do anythin' ta it.

I didn't know what to say, he had not been out there in the middle of it and he had not been running like we had.

"Silas, it's worse than you think. There's more pirates out there than I've ever seen and they're burning everything!"

"More than ya've ever seen before? What kind of sails did they have?" Silas seemed all of a sudden more interested in what I had to say.

I faltered for a moment when I realized he was taking me seriously again, but quickly regained my composure. "I-I don't know, I didn't have time to see," I stuttered, not able to recall the sails of the ships.

This did not make Silas any less enthusiastic, though, instead it seemed to make him even more interested and giddy. "I have to get ready," he said to himself.

"What?" I asked, I had gone from terrified to scared to no hope to just plain confused.

His eyes snapped back up to me. "He'll want ta see ya, last time I told him about ya and he would've came and seen ya then but I told him I still had work to do on ya. Now yer all ready and he's here."

I was lost, my heart pounding loudly in my chest and my adrenaline rush still at its high. "Who? Who wants to see me? Why didn't you let him see me before?" I asked.

But Silas was past answers. He pushed me out of the room and closed the door. I could hear him rustling about for a few minutes and then he came back out, fully changed with his sword on his hip.

Silas walked past me and into the kitchen where my sisters had settled in quite nicely. He didn't pause to say hello or ask what they were doing, only turning around to ask if we'd like anything to eat. None of us were hungry, but Silas ate a whole plate of homemade pancakes before walking through the door to the blacksmith shop.

He seemed like a totally different person than the one I grown to know over the many years of training and friendship. I followed him out of the door, telling the girls to stay put for just a little more.

Silas busied himself with meaningless cleaning that did nothing to the shop, but he seemed to enjoy it and think it would do something. I kept hearing snatches of what he was saying, things like 'He'll be here, you wait and see' or 'Taday's the day I've been waiting for, for two years'. I didn't talk back because I didn't know if he was talking to me or to himself, but I guessed the latter.

After hours of following Silas around the shop the noise outside died down and all we could hear was the pitter-patter of rain on the roof. Silas sat down on a chair that he had made and I took a seat next to him. He didn't loose any enthusiasm, though and we sat like that for another three hours.

Silas began to take the hint that no one was coming when we saw the bolt of lightning rip across the sky. He sighed and got up from his chair, heading to the door at the back of the room. We were almost to the door when something finally happened.

Silas put his hand out on the doorknob, but before he could pull the door open a heavy bang sounded from the front. I spun around as I gripped my sword, suddenly on my guard. Silas reacted much differently, his face broke out into a toothy smile and he began walking back to the front. I followed behind and didn't let go of my sword, if he wasn't going to worry I sure was.

When we got to the front the door was wide open but no one was there. This didn't do anything for Silas, if anything he seemed to get even giddier. He closed the heavy door and looked around his shop.

"This is the one you were telling me about?" a voice asked from the ceiling.

My eyes darted to the rafters above us and I scanned them, looking for any sign of a person. My hand tightened on my sword so that my hand hurt, but I didn't let go of it.

"Yep, this be the one," Silas spoke to nothing.

A low chuckle came from my right and I turned, but of course there was no one. My eyes moved back to the ceiling and I tried to separate shadow from actual things.

"You look oddly familiar, have I seen you before?" the voice asked.

I continued my searching while I answered, "I highly doubt that."

Another voice suddenly began talking and my eyes started searching faster, how many were there?

"Why don't you just leave the girl alone, don't you see she's freaked out?" the second voice said.

"William, I will leave the girl alone when I feel like it because I am the captain and what I say goes," the first voice said.

So he was the captain, he ordered this from his crew and they were the ones who had killed my sisters. He was ultimately to blame for their deaths, I quickly made the connection.

The second voice didn't say anything anymore.

"I guess William is right, it's no fun playing with you anymore," the first voice said.

A mumble came from the second voice.

The next thing I knew two pirates had jumped out in front of us. I jumped and pulled my sword out reflexively. Silas's smile was as wide as ever and his eyes were lit up like the sky outside was when we made it here.

I glared at the pirates before me, but sheathed my sword. Now I could take a look at my potential opponents. If I was thinking in a strictly fighting way neither of them seemed to have much muscle, not so they looked unhealthy but kind of like myself. The one on the left looked like he could hold his own weight, but he looked uncomfortable where he was, the one on the right looked more relaxed, as though he'd been doing this kind of thing his whole life.

Then I took in their appearances as a girl and really looked at them. The one on the left, the uncomfortable one, was cute. He had longer brown hair that he had tied up and he was wearing a baggy white shirt with brown pants and boots. The sword at his side didn't do as much to me as the gun that was next to it. He didn't really catch my eye as a threat, though, so I moved on to the guy on the right.

This one left me on my guard, he had long brown dreadlocks with a bandana over them and a goatee with two braids coming off the end. He wore a hat with three points on his head and his brown eyes had a secretive glint in them. His clothes consisted of a white shirt, brown vest that went with his brown pants and black boots. His effects weren't much, a sword, gun, and last of all, a compass.

The one on the right stuck his hand out. "Jack Sparrow, miss," he said.

I glared at the hand between us, but there was no threat in a hand-shake so I put my hand in his and allowed him to shake my hand. "Sam," I spat at him.

He only smirked. "Sam."

Then we dropped hands and I instantly gripped my sword.

The one on the left was starting to put his hand out when Jack said his name for him. "This is William Turner, but you can call him Will."

Will shook his head, but put his hand out to shake anyway.

Again I glared at the hand in front of me, I didn't enjoy this, letting go of my sword. It made me feel edgy, which I knew I had reason to feel that way. Still, I shook his hand quickly and dropped it as soon as possible.

"Jack," Silas said. "It's been too long."Jack nodded. "Too long it has been. I assume she's ready by now? Or must I come back in another year to see what she can do, what kind of potential she has?"

Silas stammered, "No, no. She's quite ready now, but two years ago she was still learning all the footwork and she would never be able ta fight a pirate. She's ready ta fight just 'bout anyone now, she might even give ya a run fer yer money."Jack didn't say a word. Instead he started looking me over and I watched his every movement, leaving Will unguarded. He nodded at certain points and his dreadlocks moved with his head.

Suddenly I realized how bad I must look and became slightly self-conscious. But only for a second because I remembered that I lived on the street and I had six other girls in the house to feed. I waited for the scrutiny of myself to be completed, thinking about my sisters that were in the other room and trying not to think about the girls I left behind.

Jack stopped in front of me and looked at my face. I raised my eyebrows at him, ready to slit his throat if he so much as thought about using his sword. He chuckled and turned to talk to Silas once more.

"She looks like she's been built to fight with a sword, but how well can she actually fight?" Jack asked Silas.

Silas answered at once. "She's 'bout as good as I be, nothin' more fer her here," Silas said. "I haven't taught her nothin' 'bout guns, I don't know enough 'bout them myself."

I watched the exchange between them thoroughly confused, what were they talking about 'no more left here'?

I was so caught up in my own thoughts that I didn't notice when Jack turned back to me and began talking. It took Silas calling my name a few times before I finally was able to do anything at all.

"Can you fight?" Jack was now asking me.

I grinned at this question, I was better than anyone on this island. "Yes," I answered him.

He took out his sword, "Let's see how well. Now don't let that confidence go to your head."

My grin turned into a smile and I brought my sword out to touch lightly with this pirate's own. I had never imagined I would fight a pirate and would enjoy it as much as I did.

Silas took his place to the side of us and looked between us. "The rules are: There ain't no rules. Anything in this room can be used, but please don't leave the room, it would cause a little chaos outside and I don't want that. Now, go!"

His hands came down as if splitting us in two and then we were left to fight. We circled each other and watched the other person's hands and footwork, I had to admit, he was good.

Jack made the first move, swinging to my left and as I went to block I realized he was faking. Quickly, I moved my sword back to the right just in time, our swords met. I pushed our swords back toward him and then backed away, I knew how well that position could work, but also how easily it could backfire.

Jack stepped forward and I stepped back, our swords clanging together again and again. I jumped and he swung, he ducked and I slashed, I jabbed and he met my swing with one of his own. We were locked in a perfectly synchronized dance, moving together as if we were one. I anticipated his every move and he anticipated mine. Neither of us said a word as we fought, the only sound being our ragged breathing, our feet on the dirt we called a floor, and our blades hitting every few seconds.

We went on for hours and neither of us grew tired of the dance we were engaged in, our attentions never leaving our opponent for even a moment. I faked to the right and went for his feet as Jack went to block. He wasn't expecting me to go for his feet and I knocked his sword out of his hand. Jack fell back and I pointed my sword toward his throat to show that I had won the battle.

I had made one fatal mistake, though. I overestimated myself and forgot that he was pirate and carried a gun. Jack smirked as he pulled it up and cocked it in my face. Caught off my guard, I hadn't tried to suppress any memories and everything came flooding back:

Dad was killed before my eyes, Mom dropped to the floor dead, I was watching another kid being hung, Julie was in my arms taking her last breaths, I was being threatened with the noose for stealing, Emma was forcing my head under the water and I was struggling for breath, I had to leave behind my family to try to save the others, I saw those pirates slinking into the hole.

And then Silas was calling my name just as he had when we had begun fighting in the beginning. I felt my body shake with sobs and my sword was beside me on the ground. I wanted to stop the betraying tears, but I couldn't, it was all too much. So I sat there and cried for the first time since I was sixteen years old. As suddenly as they started the tears stopped and sniffed once more.

"What'd I do?" Jack asked.

I wiped the stray tears from my face and got up from the ground, embarrassed that I would cry at gunpoint.

"She does that with guns, I don't know why," Silas was telling the pirate before us.

They looked at me and I answered quietly, "Memories."

Silas's eyebrows furrowed at my one word excuse, but that was all I was going to say on the matter, already it was more than I'd ever said aloud. No one pressed me on the matter, though.

Will came bounding up to us a second later. "How did you learn to fight like that?" he asked.

I tilted my head toward Silas, but didn't say a word. My mind was still caught in the memories that had been suppressed for so long. It took me a moment to notice that the three men were walking away from me and toward the door to Silas's house.

I trailed behind them, unaware that they were talking about me and my future as a pirate.

They opened the door and walked in, leaving it open for myself. I entered behind them to see the girls back on their feet, their eyes wild. Gracie had her sword out, pointing it at Jack, Will, and Silas.

"This one can fight, too?" Jack was asking Silas.

"No," I answered for him. The door slammed shut behind me and made my sisters jump.

Their relieved expressions made me give them a small, tight smile, but then I was looking back to the pirates.

"She can't fight, she only knows what she's seen me do at-well at our holes," I continued on.

Jack nodded once and turned back to Silas. "So, where's the rum?"

Will rolled his eyes, but followed Silas to a cabinet and grabbed a bottle.

"Now William, would your dear Elizabeth approve of your choice in drink?" Jack laughed.

Will sighed, but made no move to put the drink down.

Jack nodded in agreement to something with a look of dismay for a moment, but then it was gone and he was whisking Silas into the sitting room. He stuck his head back out of the door for a moment.

"Stay," he said to all of us. "And William, don't do anything stupid."

Then he was gone, into the sitting room to talk about who knows what with Silas.

Will looked uncomfortable in the room full of girls, but none of them so much as looked at him now that Jack was gone. Obviously they had the same impression I did, Jack was the real one to worry about, not Will.

"So, um, who are you?" he asked the girls.

Lilly was the only one to look up, not even my sweet older sister Gracie gave him the time of day.

"None of a pirate's business," she said.

He looked at me and I answered the question, there was nothing better to do anyway.

"These are my sisters, Gracie, Lilly, and Rosie."

Will nodded, "Will Turner."

Still, the girls wouldn't look at him. I could see their tears silently falling, there was a pirate in the next room and for all they knew he could be the one who killed their sisters. I lowered my head and stood in silence. Will seemed to take the hint and was quiet, too, except for the sound of him taking quiet sips of rum every few minutes.

For a while nothing was said and we heard no sound, each of us lost in their own memories and thoughts. When the door to the sitting room flew open my sisters jumped into the air. I shook my head, but said nothing.

The sound of Silas and Jack's laughter told me they were both drunk and I moved to put my hand on my sword. I could see Will staring at the door, tense also.

"Sam, come in here and close the door," I heard Silas call to me.

I knew it wasn't the best idea, but I really had no choice so I went into the room and closed the door like I was told.

The smell of rum hit me hard as I sat on one of the chairs. I wrinkled my nose at the burning stench, I had never liked the smell or taste of so much as wine. I waited for one of the men before me to start talking."Well, I guess I'll start," Silas said when no one said anything.

I nodded for him to go on.

"Sam, how would ya like ta learn how ta use a gun? Get over that fear ya have of 'em?" Silas asked me.

"I don't have a fear of guns," I whispered.

Silas shook his head. "Of course ya don't, lass. Now, how would ya like ta learn to use a gun?"

"What's the catch?" I asked, remembering myself asking the same question when he had asked me if I wanted to learn to use a sword. There had been a catch then and I would bet my life that there would be a catch now.

Jack chuckled lightly to my right, but my attention was on Silas for the moment.

"Why does there need ta be a catch?" he asked guiltily.

I narrowed my eyes at the man and just waited for him to answer the question.

"Jack would be yer teacher and ya'd go aboard his ship ta learn," Silas said after another gulp of rum.

"No," I said.

Now Jack spoke up. "Well lass, see it really wasn't a yes or no question," he told me. "Now, are we going to have to do this the easy way or the hard way?"

My eyes widened and I looked to Silas. He wouldn't let this man kidnap me would he?

As that thought ran through my mind I had the strangest sensation that I had been in a situation like this before, not the same thing, but something like it; frightened and looking to someone I trusted to find that they couldn't do what I wanted. I couldn't puzzle over this though because Silas was talking, persuading Jack to try and get me to go with him on good terms.

Finally Jack gave in and he looked back to me.

"Why don't you want to come?" he asked.

I looked him in the eyes for one long moment and then answered. "You are responsible for my sisters' deaths," I said.

"I thought those girls out there were your sisters. They didn't look dead to me," Jack said.

I glared at him. "I had more than three sisters when I woke up this morning, Jack."

"Captain, Captain Jack," he corrected. "And if three were able to make it here then why not however many there were?"

"The other three thought it would be safer to stay in our hole, Captain," I spat.

"Ahhh, well I did not kill your other sisters, lass. I'm sorry they were murdered, I truly am, but there's nothing I can do," Jack said.

I glared.

He sighed and looked at me again. He seemed oddly sober for drinking so much rum (he was on his fifth bottle).

Silas broke in then to try and talk me into leaving. "Well then, if ya blame Jack fer killing' yer sisters then I guess yer blaming me, too," he said.

"You had nothing to do with it," I argued, they were not going to make me leave with the man who was responsible for killing my older sisters.

"Are ya sure bout that? Sam, I be with this whole thing and I want ya ta go with jack. I even will help him with anything he needs," Silas explained to me.

I gulped, I was not going to have him be an enemy, too. "You aren't the one who was out there and you weren't the one who killed innocent people."

"Jack wasn't out there with those pirates," Silas said. "Yes, he is their captain, but he didn't say ta go out and kill. 'Sides, he didn't know those were yer sisters out there."

"But he has killed innocent people," I stated.

"Pirate," Jack broke in.

I rounded on him next. "And you choose to kill and be a pirate, so really it doesn't matter who killed them."

I refused to listen to any more and stomped out into the kitchen. My sisters and Will stared at me without saying a word as I paced the small room.

"What'd Jack do?" Will asked, first to speak.

I just stared at him. "Do you know that he wants me to go on that ship with you?"

"He what?" Gracie asked.

I looked to her, "He wants me to go on that ship with him so he can teach me how to use a gun.""And what do you say?"

"I am not going on a ship with a pirate who is responsible for four of my sister's deaths."Gracie relaxed back into her chair with that, knowing that I would not leave without a fight now that my mind was set.

"Jack won't take no for an answer," Will said.

I sighed. "I know."

I had my sister's attentions now.

"Let's not talk about that now, shall we?" I said, looking at their worried expressions.

They didn't relax, but they didn't look any worse now either. Will looked between the three of them and myself before nodding in agreement.

I gave him a tight nod and then leaned against the wall, closing my eyes.

A few minutes later Will was called into the room with Jack and Silas. I watched as the door opened and saw how many bottles of rum they had consumed. They had to be drunk, the both of them.

Gracie looked at me suddenly, seeing that we were alone and seizing the opportunity to talk freely.

"I don't think this was a good idea," she said. "You heard them, they said the pirate wouldn't be stopped. You can't leave us to go with the men who killed our sisters.""They killed them, Sam," Lilly spoke. "We no longer have our Maybelle and Emma and Isabelle-" her voice cracked.

I nodded, "I know they did."

"You can't go with them, he is the one who is responsible for their deaths," Rosie said.

"I know."

"We'll never get them back," Gracie repeated.

"I know."

Lilly sighed, "They thought they were saving themselves.""I know."

Rosie cried, "We left them behind.""I know!" I yelled.

They instantly were quiet and went wide-eyed at my outburst.

"I know that I'm the one you're all blaming for this, I know that I can't go with pirates. I know that I can't leave you guys. I know!"

They didn't say a word as I continued on with my rant.

"Don't you think I feel terrible about leaving them in there and not forcing them to come with us? Don't you think that I wish there was a way to go back and change that?"They didn't speak and neither did I. I leaned back against the wall again and closed my eyes, trying to breathe deeply. We could hear the men in the other room conversing, but I didn't listen in. I didn't want to know what they had to say.

Lilly and Gracie started whispering to one another while Rosie stood by me and said nothing. I was grateful that she didn't talk with them, gossiping about how terrible I was. At the same time I wondered why she didn't do any of that and didn't try talking to me.

The door was opened again and out came a very drunk looking Silas followed by a very sober William and Jack who should have been drunk but was still standing tall. Their eyes landed on me as they came into the tiny kitchen.

"Sam, we will leave you to think about our offer in peace just hear us out," Will said.

I looked at each of them icily before raising my head, telling them to continue.

"We-" Will was cut off.

"You think you can go about your whole life winning these little sword fights," Jack started. "Well, there are some things that you don't yet understand."

I narrowed my eyes. "And what would that be, Captain?" I sneered.

Jack smirked, "You're a girl and no matter how much you want to deny it, you are one. As you know girls aren't permitted to do things that men can do and there are consequences for doing those said things. Now, you're still able to get by with fighting in the fights but soon people are going to be expecting you to act like a lady."

I stared at him.

He started up again when he realized I wasn't answering him. "Think about this now, would you? When you don't begin acting like a lady people are going to wonder why your parents let you become so different. Some people will go so far as to do some digging into your personal life. They'll find you stealing and they'll find out about you and your sisters being orphans. So what do you think of that?"

"I don't steal now that I make money and they can't do anything to us for living on the streets," I said.

"Really? I think they'll tell tales about you because you're beating all the boys. Do you think anybody will listen to you when a respectable man says that an orphan girl was stealing? You'll lead them to your sisters and then you'll all die."

"That won't happen," I growled. "I'm careful about everything I do, they'd never find out where we live."

"Then you'll leave your sisters to fend for themselves when you're picked up and slaughtered without their knowledge."

I couldn't argue with that and I could see he knew it.

"Think about it," Jack said.

With that he grabbed another bottle of rum and walked out the front door and into the cold blacksmith shop.

Will nodded to us all and then followed Jack without a backward glance.

When the door closed behind them no one spoke and I was left to contemplate what had been said, along with my sisters. My attention was soon drawn toward the drunken man standing beside us, though, as he swayed and hummed quietly to himself.

"Silas, let's get you to bed," I said quietly.

He looked at me for a moment, then nodded and began the short walk to his bedroom.

I sighed and paced the small space between the table and the wall. Four, five, six, seven steps one direction. Five, six, seven steps in the other direction. I didn't want to think, it was much too overwhelming.

One by one my sisters fell asleep in the chairs. I went with Rosie into the sitting room and watched her fall asleep on the small couch, assuring her that I wouldn't leave her alone.

I was about to doze off when the front door opened slowly, closing quickly after. The floor boards in the kitchen creaked and I reached for my sword. After a moment the door to the sitting room was opened and in sauntered none other than Captain Jack Sparrow.

I glared at him and kept my hand on my sword, not trusting him at all.

"Look, I know that your sisters won't let you leave," he said quietly, glancing at Rosie and then looking back at me. "But you have to come aboard the Pearl, you don't have a choice, either you come by force or you come with at least some dignity."

"The Black Pearl?" I scoffed. "That ship's only a myth."

Jack smirked. "No, Sammi, not a myth."

I dropped the smile at once. "Don't you ever call me Sammi."

"What are you going to do about it, Sammi?" he asked, stepping closer to me.

I pulled my sword out and swung it at the pirate advancing toward me.

Jack quickly disarmed me because of my rage and he had his sword to my throat. "Never threaten Captain Jack Sparrow, luv."

Standing in that room with Jack pressing a sword against my throat brought back the memories that had threatened to break through earlier in the day. As a small child I had been in a very similar position to this one. A young boy pressing a knife to my neck; the man telling the boy, Jack, to kill my mother; the little boy looked a lot like Jack, too, he had brown eyes and brown hair that already was in dreadlocks.

I gasped and pulled away from the blade, pointing at him. "Y-You!" I shouted.

"Me!" Jack shouted back, his hands going into the air.

I put my hand to my neck, remembering the feeling of my mother's warm blood dripping down my throat and the cold blade pressing into my skin. I stuttered, "You k-killed my mother!"

This stopped Jack short.

"Back when I was ten! You couldn't have been much older and you killed my mother and then made me give you my father's treasure," I said, recalling the night I had lost everything.

His eyes narrowed as he thought about that. "Are you sure it was me, Sammi?"

"Are you not the child with dreadlocks that went to a house in the middle of the night to kill a woman, grab her daughter, watch her husband get shot, and then follow the girl into a secret chamber in a closet? Are you not the same child, Jack?"

He looked at me for a moment more. "I'm not the man you're looking for," he said. "But luv, the name's Captain Jack."

I stared at him. "He said your name!" I cried. "The man who killed my father said to take what you can, Jack!"

He was glaring by the time that I finished. "Will you be coming aboard the Pearl or not?"

I sighed and sunk back into my chair. If I chose to stay and was forced to leave then the girls would be even more afraid of pirates. But if I left with them then they would think I was abandoning them. Besides who would take care of them if I left?

"Of course Silas would take them in," Jack said.

Crap, had I said that out loud?

I held my finger up to silence him for a moment. So Silas would take care of my sisters if I had to leave them and surely it would be better for them if I left of my own free will. I had to make a decision, now was the time to decide.

"I want to go with you," I stated.

Jack's grin was not one I wanted to see again. It was a smile that showed how greedy he was and what was in store in the future. This was not going to be a good idea.

"Let's go," he said. With that he turned and headed out of the room.

"W-What are you talking about?" I asked him.

He looked back at me. "You don't expect to stay here for any longer do you? You'll change your mind and we can't have that. Besides, my crew is ready to leave."

I gulped and stared at him wide-eyed. But then I nodded and turned back toward the sitting room.

A hand came down on my arm and gripped it. "Where do you think you're going?"

I looked back at Jack. "Even if they can't hear me, I have to say good-bye to my sisters," I said.

Jack's eyes were clouded with doubt, but he let me go and followed me into the sitting room.

I bent over Rosie and carefully brushed the hair out of her face. "Behave," I told her.

Then I turned and walked into the tiny kitchen. Slowly, I went through each of my surviving sisters and told them each a personal good-bye. And then I was ready to go.

I looked at Jack. "Let's go."

He nodded once and started out the door without a glance back in my direction. Our feet didn't make a sound on the dirt floor, no noise came from either of us and the only thing we heard was the sound of owls in the night.

We made our way through the broken and scorched town that I had lived in for so long toward the docks. Jack never looked back to check if I was following him and I didn't say word to tell him if I was or wasn't. He went through the town as if he'd lived here his whole life, he seemed to know it as well as I did. Finally we reached the docks, but we didn't stop there. Jack led us past them and toward a small boat on the edge of the water.

"Where's your ship?" I asked, looking at the boat and then out at the sea.

He looked at me for the first time since we had left Silas's house and spoke. "Out there," he pointed out at the open waters. "You didn't think pirates could just dock at a port whenever, especially after just raiding the town." His eyebrows were high.

I shrugged. "I never thought of it."He rolled his eyes and began undoing the boat from a tree. "Get in," he told me.

I jumped into the boat and Jack came in after me, grabbing the oars. My eyebrows furrowed.

"I could do that," I said.

He chuckled to himself. "I doubt that," he muttered.

I huffed. "I could to."

Jack didn't answer, but continued to row us farther away from the shore, away from the last of my family. Soon the land was out of sight and a small ship was visible on the water. Or at least it looked small when we were still far away. As we got closer I was able to make out details that I wasn't before. The ship had all black sails, it was actually huge.

"Wow," I whispered.

Jack smiled at this. "She's a beauty isn't she."

I could only nod as I looked up toward the ship. But all too soon we had to get out of our boat and climb the ladder lowered to us.

"Ladies first," Jack said, gesturing for me to climb ahead of him.

I shrugged indifferently and began the climb up to the deck of the ship.

When I had gotten to the top I found that there wasn't any girls on this ship. I had already guessed this, but I was hoping to put it off and maybe I'd find a girl or two. Jack pulled himself up next to me on the deck and looked at his crew.

"Crew, Sam. Sam, crew," Jack introduced.

A small chunky man stepped out of the crowd and toward Jack.

"You can't bring another lady aboard, Jack," the man said. "Didn't you see how much damage 'Lizbeth did?"

Someone in the crew made a noise as if to protest and then Will was there at the front.

"Elizabeth didn't do anything!" he said.

Jack and the other man just looked at him for a moment and then went back to their conversation.

"Aye, Elizabeth did plenty of damage," Jack agreed. "But you don't know who this is."

The two men glanced at me and lowered their voices.

"Aye," the second man said. "But who is she?"Jack seemed to realize that I was listening then. "Later." And then he addressed the crew. "Get to work!"

The crew scrambled about the ship going about their jobs.

Jack walked over to the front of the ship and got behind the wheel, looking out at the water. The man from earlier was standing by him and they were talking intently about something. Me, I guessed.

I didn't have anything left to do and I felt ridiculous standing in the middle of the deck so I walked up to them. Immediately the two stopped talking.

"I thought since you forced me onto this ship you could give me something to do, seeing as either I sit around on that deck bored to death or I do something to keep my mind off jumping overboard."

Jack looked at me for a moment before talking back. "If you think you can handle it," he said.

"I can."

"Then you can go help William over there," he nodded over at Will.

I shrugged and left the two men to talk about me in private. They would either do it while I let them or they would do when I didn't, either way they were going to be talking about me and I figured it was better to just let them get on with it.

"Can I help you with anything?" I asked, coming to a stop beside Will.

He looked up at me and nodded. "Take that rope over there and pull hard. Don't let go until I tell you."

"Okay," I said.

I walked to the said rope and grabbed it in my hands. For a second I looked at it, then I gripped it tighter and pulled. It was a lot heavier than I had expected, but I got a hold on it and didn't let go.

"Like this?" I asked Will.

He came to inspect my work. "Yeah, now keep it there for a second."

I could feel my hands burning but nodded all the same and held onto the rope. We were putting up the sails, I realized when I looked up to where it went. Will was gone for more than a second and after a few minutes I could feel my strength waning. I held fast the rope and summoned all of my strength to keep it held high. I was just about to let go when he came back.

"Did you keep it there the whole time?" he asked. "I didn't know I would be gone that long, sorry."

He took the rope from me and tied it around a peg that kept it steady. As I watched him work I huffed, I could have done that if he just would have told me.

"Sorry," Will apologized again.

I rolled my eyes and looked down at me blistered red hands. I was used to this though and nodded, it was time that they were strained anyway. If I couldn't do this than I couldn't do anything on the ship.

From below someone yelled and Will looked at me. "That's dinner."

I followed him as he walked down the stairs and into a room with a long table that held food. It was then that I realized I didn't remember the last time I ate. I looked at the food hungrily as my stomach growled.

"Well eat if you're hungry then," Jack said coming up from behind me.

I jumped and then turned to look at him. But when I turned he was gone, already with a bottle of rum in one hand and an apple in the other.

I sighed but went to get some food. I stood in the back of the room with my back pressed to the wall and watched the pirates eat and drink their fill as I nibbled lightly on my food.

"You just going to stand there all night?" someone asked me.

I turned to see a girl. Her hair was long black and she wore men's clothes, just the same as any other pirate on the ship. Just the same as me, I noticed.

"Annamaria," she introduced and put her hand out for me to shake.

I wasn't at all weary with this hand and I gladly shook it. "Sam, but you probably already heard that."

She laughed lightly, "Yeah." She laid back against the wall next to me. "So, what do you think?"

"I don't know, I've only met two of you. Well, three now that I've met you," I answered truthfully.

"Hmm, I would've thought Gibbs had introduced himself by now," she said.

I looked out into the crowd wondering which one was Gibbs. "And who is he?"

"Gibbs was the one who was talking to Jack when you first got here. Don't take it personally when he says he doesn't want a lady on board, he's just a little superstitious."

I looked at her. "You're a lady."

"Hah," she snorted. "Yeah right, I'm not a lady. I may be a woman but I've never been a lady."

I laughed with her. "Then we shouldn't have any problem. I've been living on the streets since I was ten years old and have provided for all of my older sisters. I'm not much of a lady either."

She nodded. "How many sisters do you have?"

"I started out with seven. When my parents died we moved out on the streets and my sister Julia died. When you guys raided I lost another three and now I left my last three at Silas's."

"Ohh, sorry," she said.

I nodded. "Not your fault my life's screwed up. But I know who's fault it is."

Annamaria looked at me. "Who?"

My eyes wandered over to Jack and I tilted my head in his direction.

"Jack?" she asked.

"Yep."

"What'd he do this time?" Annamaria asked.

I stared straight ahead now, talking in a memory. "He murdered my mother and forced us on the streets."

Jack came over to us then and I glared at him.

"What are you two ladies doing?" he asked us.

Annabelle replied, "Just talking."

"Well, I have to show Sammi here to her room," Jack said.

I glared at him. "Stop calling me Sammi. My name is Sam, nothing more."

He shrugged. "You're on my ship now and I'll call you what I want."I sighed as he turned and I followed him up the stairs.

"From now on you'll be scrubbing the decks," Jack told me.

I looked at the dirt-caked floor and groaned, cleaning this thing would be impossible.

"Okay, you'll sleep with the crew."

He took me down the stairs again and into a room with a bunch of hammocks. "This'll be yours. That one's William's and that over there is Annamaria's and Gibbs is right there." He pointed as he spoke. "You got it?"

"Yeah."

"Good, now keep your sword on you at all times and be up with the sun tomorrow."

"Okay," I said.

He left and I made myself comfortable on the make-shift bed. It swayed and I looked up at the ceiling. Soon the crew was coming down to sleep.

"What you doing?" Annamaria asked as she got herself ready for bed.

I shrugged. "Nothing much."

The man 'Gibbs' came over and introduced himself. "Well, I'm Gibbs," he said.

"Cool," I said nodding.

Already Will was laying in his hammock along with everything.

"Come to me if you need anything or are having any problems with the crew," he told me.

"Oh, ok. Thanks."

He nodded and eyed the rest of the crew wearily and then laid back on his hammock.

The sound of snores filled the room and though I was used to this I couldn't sleep. My mind wandered back to my sisters. I had lost so much already and now I just gave up the last of it to come with a pirate? I should have stayed, showed them that I wanted to be with them. But now it was too late and I couldn't go back.

I closed my eyes and fell into a restless sleep in my new home, the Black Pearl.

I awoke to the dark of early morning. Looking around I saw that no one was awake and the rest of the crew was snoring loudly. I closed my eyes tightly and tried to go back to sleep, but now that I was awake there was no way to get me back to sleep. I sighed and opened my eyes, getting carefully out of the hammock and grabbed my clothes, before stepping into a room that Jack had showed me so I could change.

When I was done I made my way on deck and went to one of the rails. I leaned against it and breathed in the salty air. The day was going to be nice, though the sun was not up I could see that there were no clouds in the sky. The black waters washed against the ship and I watched as we rocked in rhythm with it.

"What are you doing up so early?" a voice asked from behind me.

I spun around to find none other than Captain Jack Sparrow watching me. "I woke up and couldn't go back to sleep," I answered honestly.

He nodded and came to stand next to me, facing the sea again.

I turned with him and looked out across the water, feeling at ease for the first time since I had left my house the previous morning. Wow, I thought to myself, it was not two days ago that all I worried about was whether or not I was going to win the next fight.

We stood there for a while, just watching the sun rise. As the sky turned from black to orange I could tell that my prediction about the weather was accurate. The sky was cloudless and the waters were calm.

"It's a good day to sail," I said.

Jack looked out at the sky above. "The calm before the storm," was his reply.

"The calm before the storm?"

"There's going to be a huge storm before the week's up," he told me.

I looked at him then, how did he know this? Again I turned my eyes upward and continued watching the as the orange gave way to a slight purple color and then to a light blue. "Well, it's beautiful now anyway," I sighed.

Jack nodded. "I just wish it would stay this way."

Before I could say anything else I could hear a rustling from the crew's quarters.

"It's time to start our day," Jack said.

With that he walked up to the front of the ship and took the wheel, staring out at the open waters and the endless sky.

I sighed again, that had been the first real conversation I had had with the man and it was ruined thanks to that bloody crew. Spotting Annamaria I went to go talk with her.

"What are you doing up?" she asked me when she finally saw me.

"I was watching the waters."

She looked at me as though I were crazy.

"You don't think the water's beautiful?" I asked her.

She just shrugged. "It may not be beautiful but it's the only home I've ever really known and that's good enough for me. I don't ask nothing more from the water than giving me a home."

"Well, I think the water's gorgeous."

Again she shrugged and I sighed. I had been doing a lot of that lately.

"So, what were you doing with Jack?" she asked, changing the subject.

"Nothing, we were just watching the water and the sky."

She nodded and glanced at me. "Do you like Jack?"

I looked at her for a moment. "Like like-like Jack?" I asked her.

Annamaria nodded. "Yeah, you two were up way earlier than anyone else and it looked like you were really into him."

I almost laughed out loud. "I don't like Jack! He forced me to come here and leave behind the last of my family. No, I don't like Jack, but I'll tolerate him."

"Good, because Jack doesn't normally end his relationships well. He always ends up getting smacked by someone," she said, smiling at some memory she had of Jack.

"I don't like him," I said once more.

"Good."

I was about to say more when Jack yelled to the crew. "Get to work!"

I sighed, I would be mopping the decks. How was that supposed to help anything? If anything, it would make the crew fall while they were trying to do something important.

From behind my ear a voice said quietly, "Get to work, Sammi."

I jumped and turned at the sound of someone so close. Jack stood behind me.

"Get mopping these floors, they're not going to clean themselves!"

I nodded quickly but then stopped. "Where's the stuff to clean them?" I questioned.

Jack huffed impatiently but led me to a closet by the stairs. "There, now get to work!"

He turned on his heel and left me standing there, a mop in one hand and a bucket in the other.

I rolled my eyes and began mopping the deck. It was a long, boring job but I didn't complain as I scrubbed the dirt off the floors. I didn't talk much with anyone, they were too busy with their own jobs to pay me much mind anyway.

When the sun was above our heads everyone stopped their work and went below deck, Gibbs coming and telling me that it was time for lunch.

I ate against the wall again talking with Annamaria. She pointed out different pirates, giving me their names and a short background on each.

"That's Cotton," she said, pointing. "His tongue was cut out and that parrot of his talks for him."

I nodded and made a mental note not to ask him any questions.

After lunch I went back to scrubbing the deck, making slow progress with the decade old dirt. The day went by slowly, without much notice of anyone. I talked to Annamaria once and Will stopped by to ask how I was doing but other than that I was left to my own mind.

Finally it was time for dinner and I followed the crew down to the dining room once more. I grabbed my food and sighed, leaning against the spot I had the other times. Now it was Gibbs who came to talk to me.

"How are ye doin'" he asked as he came to stand beside me.

"Fine," I answered.

"Sorry Jack's got ye scrubbin' the decks, but that be better than other things," he said.

I rolled my eyes. "I think I'd rather be doing something with the crew than scrubbing all that dirt."

Gibbs chuckled. "Just think about other things ye could be doin'. Jack could have made you clean the brig."

"Yeah, I guess," I sighed, not wanting to agree with him.

When dinner was done and everyone had the ship in place we went down to the crew's quarters to sleep. I made my way through the men to my hammock and grabbed my clothes, smiling at Gibbs and Annamaria.

"How was your first day at sea?" Annamaria asked me as we walked to the bathroom to change.

"It was fine," I replied, looking at my blistered hands.

Annamaria laughed as she grabbed one to see how bad it was. "Yeah, you'll get used to the work soon enough and then Jack'll put you on some other thing to do," she said.

I smiled and we talked for a while after changing and then fell into our hammocks, exhausted.

"Good night Sam," Annamaria said in the dark.

"G'night Annamaria," I replied sleepily.

With that I closed my eyes and fell into a deep sleep to dream about my sisters and what I did to them.

I woke the next day in the early morning, before the sun was up once again. The crew really did have a snoring problem, I could hear at least six different people snoring. I got up from the hammock and grabbed my clothes, I wasn't waiting in that line to change again today.

After I changed I walked up the stairs and up to the deck, remembering what happened yesterday when I did this. As I stood at the rail I watched the water crash against the ship. The sky was a dark black and I thought about all the different kinds of skies I had seen since my parents had died.

That train of thought wasn't the best, though, because it led back to Jack and how he was the one to kill my mother. I knew he was, even though he denied it when I told him he was. I could tell he was the one, I could feel it in my bones that this was the same person who forced me to give him my father's treasure.

"What are you doing out here?" I heard his voice.

I spun around to see Jack coming out of his room. "I was just watching the water," I said.

He nodded and stood next to me against the rail. He watched the water as I studied him, his face as a child haunted my dreams and this was definitely the same person. Now that I truly looked at him, I could see it in his face as well.

Jack turned to look at me. "What?" he asked.

I shook my head, I couldn't say anything now. Not when there was nowhere to go if I got mad or if I wanted to kill him.

"What is it?" Jack asked again.

But even though I knew that he was the one who killed my mother and I knew that this was bound to make me so mad at him that I would try to kill him, I had to tell him.

"You killed my mother," I said.

"I didn't, Sammi," he replied.

I nodded, I knew he would say something like this.

"You did, though. I remember that night every time I close my eyes. And I remember that boy too. He looked just like you, dark hair with dreadlocks, dark eyes and your face I would remember forever, no matter how much it changed with age. I could pick your face out of a thousand men, a million pirates."

Jack shook his head. "Not my face, luv. I didn't murder your mother and I never saw you until I stopped by at an old friend's place."

I watched him as he talked. "Stop denying it!" I almost yelled. "You don't remember killing a woman as her husband was being held with a gun to his head? You don't remember taking a little girl then, putting your dagger against her throat as her father's brains were blasted out? What about all that treasure you took from that secret room?"

By now the sun was coming up and the crew was beginning to emerge from their room.

"No," Jack answered. "I don't remember any of that."

And then he turned and looked at his crew. "Get to work!" he yelled, stalking off to his spot behind the wheel.

I huffed and went to the closet where everything for cleaning was kept and began the hard and boring job of mopping the deck. Soon Annamaria came to talk to me as I worked.

"What were talking about with the captain?" she asked.

"Nothing important," I replied, scrubbing the deck harder at a difficult spot.

"You looked mad, what was it?" she pressed.

I looked up from my work. "Nothing, really. I can't even remember anymore, besides who needs a reason to get mad at Jack?"

Annamaria shrugged and left me to my work as she went to do her own.

The rest of the day went by in a blur, slowing for lunch and dinner but then becoming hazy when I had to mop. Finally the day was over, though, and I put the mop and bucket away so I could go and sleep.

My dreams were filled with terrible images of my father's brains splattered on the wall and my mother's blood on the knife of a young boy. The boy was walking toward me, but as he got closer he began to change. He grew taller and his hair got longer, things were put in his hair and he got tattoos and his clothes changed into new ones. And now it was a grown version of Jack walking toward me, the knife still in his hand.

I woke with sweat dripping off me and my hair matted to my forehead. I was breathing hard and I couldn't see anything but Jack with that knife. I jumped off of my hammock and grabbed my clothes, changing and walking up the stairs.

The cool air helped me relax and I sighed against the railing, this was going to be a habit of mine it seemed. I thought about my dream and all Jack had said already, maybe he said he wasn't the one because he felt bad about it. Maybe he didn't want to kill my mother. But then again maybe he did and he just didn't want me thinking that he killed her.

I sighed, this thinking was getting me absolutely nowhere and in the meantime my head was getting dizzier and dizzier. I changed the direction I was thinking and thought about how he had gone from a little boy to an adult and how it seemed to fit almost too perfectly. I knew he was the one to kill her, but why did he not just admit it? Now, that was the real question, why couldn't he just admit that he had committed murder when he was younger, that he had killed my mother.

"You're up early," a voice said from behind me.

This was becoming a habit too. I turned to see Jack on the deck coming out of his room. I nodded at him and turned back to the waters.

"Why?" he asked.

I shrugged and stared out at the sea, I was getting tired of this talking with Jack. The only place talking got us was the beginning again.

"So there's no reason, you just woke up a few hours early because you like working all day?" he pressed.

"Nightmare," I told him.

He nodded, "Ahh. What about?"

I didn't want to have this fight with him again, not so early and not when I was so upset about other things. I shook my head.

"What about?"

"Ugh, fine. You."

His eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Me?"

"You as a kid, killing my mother and then coming to kill me. As you came toward me you got older and you turned into what you are now."

Jack growled," I didn't kill your mother."

"You did and I know it. You don't have to tell me anything though, you always have the same answer."

"I didn't bring you on this ship so you could tell me I killed your mother!"I turned to face him. "Well I didn't ask to be on this ship, you forced me! And if you don't like me talking about it than why don't you take me back to my sisters?""Too far out at sea. But if you don't like being here would you rather be put in the brig?" he asked.

"Anything would be better than doing this every morning!" I yelled. "You force me onto a ship and whenever I have something to say you tear it down and tell me it didn't happen! Why don't you try and tell me that my parent's death didn't happen, tell me that all my sisters are still alive and everything's well!"

Jack grabbed my arm. "I never said they didn't happen, but I'm telling you I was not the one who killed your parents! Now get to work! You're lucky I didn't put you in the brig at first and just let you out when I needed you!"

"I wish you had put me in there! It'd be better than this!"

He pushed me into the rail and stalked off to his room where he slammed the door.

I sighed and leaned my back against the railing once more. Lucky he didn't put me in the brig my butt, I'd prefer being in there to being out here with him.

After a long time the crew came above deck and Jack came out of his room, going to the wheel.

I grabbed the mop and began to clean the decks again, they were showing some improvement. Annamaria came up to me as always and asked me about my night. I didn't tell her anything about what happened between me and Jack, too personal and I didn't think she knew about my suspicions of him.

When everyone left their posts for lunch Will and Gibbs came to my side and grabbed one of my arms each.

"Sorry about this," Will said as they led me down the stairs.

"Jack's orders," Gibbs told me. "Somethin' about ye sayin' ye'd rather be down there than here wit him."

I looked between the two of them and let them take me to where ever we were going. Then we came to a room with cages lined against the walls, it looked like a jail except worse kept.

"What?" I asked.

"Jack said you wanted to be put in the brig," Will said as he opened one of the doors.

Gibbs pushed me softly. "Well, in ye go."

I walked into the brig and Will locked the door behind me.

"Sorry," Will said and then he followed Gibbs up the stairs and out of sight.

I sighed and sat on the bench that was placed in the cell. Stupid Jack, putting me in here. I grumbled to myself and listened to the sounds of the crew talking and eating and laughing. I glared into the air, my stomach grumbling as I realized that I hadn't eaten anything since dinner the night before.

The day passed in darkness and soon I could hear the crew once again eating and talking, all congregated in the dining area. Slowly, the noise faded and I figured it was time to sleep. I laid on the bench and eyed the floor, it looked like it hadn't been cleaned in centuries.

Morning came and the only way to tell was through a small crack in the ship where I could see the sun had risen. Another nightmare woke me well before the sun rose, though. No one came down and still I went hungry, I was still in my work clothes and everything was very uncomfortable. The sleeping arrangements were slightly better than sleeping in a cave on rocks and at least there was no Jack to argue with.

I thought about what had happened yesterday morning and went over the fight in my head. Jack had said something about only bringing me out when he needed me, so there was a reason I was here. I was being used for something. Well, whatever it was I wouldn't help him with it no matter what he did. He had already taken everything I lived for.

The skies were still bright and clear and I thought about the saying 'the calm before the storm'. Jack had used it before and now I wondered if we were in for a big one. As the day wore on I stared out of that crack and watched as the sky darkened before the time. Big grey storm clouds rolled in from all sides it seemed and soon the sky was covered with grey clouds.

Overhead I could hear Jack shouting orders and the crew running about on the deck. Rain began to fall, hard with big drops. The water began to rock the ship and the waves got bigger and bigger. Before long water poured in from the crack that I used to see out of and I backed away from it. The noise from the crew was drowned out by the sound of the rain and thunder.

Footsteps fell on the stairs and Annamaria came through the doorway. Her feet sloshed on the ground, by that time the water had flooded about two inches of the floor, as she came toward me.

"How did you get locked up here?" she asked as she unlocked my cell door. Her hair was drenched and water ran from it down her back, though it didn't make much difference because the rest of her was just as soaked.

"A fight with the captain and a few misplaced words don't get you anywhere," I told her.

Annamaria laughed tightly and moved out of the way for me to get out. "I told you so," she said.

"Why'd you let me out?" I asked.

She looked at me for a moment. "If we sink I didn't want you to be sure of death," she said.

Then we took off, up the stairs and out into the cold, wet storm. The sky was black, as if it were night and I could hear Jack shouting orders to the crew. Everyone was running around as the ship tilted from side to side. Water was everywhere as we made our way through it all to find work to do or to hold onto something so we wouldn't fall off the ship.

"What's she doing up here?" I heard Jack yell.

I turned to see Jack a few feet away from me and Annamaria smiling sheepishly at him.

"I'll give you the same reason I gave her, if we sink I don't want her to have a sure death," Annamaria yelled back to him, though she was only a few feet away.

Jack threw his hands in the air and turned away. "I'm the captain if I say to put someone in the brig you don't go takin' them out without my permission!" he said furiously over the sound of the storm.

I could see him fighting to get back to the wheel of the ship where Will and Gibbs were trying to keep it steady. Jack's hat flew off as the wind changed directions again and I caught it, but he didn't have time to look for it. He was already at the wheel and had pushed both men out of the way so he could steer which looked effortless though he used two hands.

Annamaria pushed past me to grab onto a part of the ship for support and I did the same. We both watched hopelessly as the crew gradually quit trying to keep the Pearl steady. Then everyone watched as Jack stayed at the wheel, still clinging to his ship with a desperate hope for it to survive.

"If she breaks to pieces we'll have a chance," Gibbs was saying. "But if it sinks outright, we're as good as dead."

I shivered, but not from the cold. What Gibbs was saying was true, and it looked good that the ship would just sink. Suddenly the ship jerked to the right and I was thrown off the side of the ship along with about half of the crew.

"Try to stay above the water!" I heard someone yell from on deck.

"Get to land!" someone else called.

I swam with Cotton and Will away from the Pearl and out into sea with everyone else that had fallen. Finally we reached land and I passed out on the ground, wet, tired, and now all sandy.

When I woke the others were already up and some were trying to figure out how to make a fire.

"About time you woke up, I was beginning to think you died," Will said but as he spoke the word die his voice faded.

I looked around at the crew. "I thought more of us had gotten thrown overboard," I said.

Will nodded slightly. "Some of them didn't make it here," he whispered. "The others died sometime in the night."

I lowered my head to the dead pirates that I had known for however long. They may not have been perfect people, but they were good enough for me.

"How many are here?" I asked.

"All that you can see," Will answered.

I counted how many people were on the beach, Black-eye Blake and Stinky Joe were working on a fire and Cotton was sitting and watching the water. There were only five of us, including Will and myself. I stared away from the dead pirates, not wanting to see their faces.

"You think everyone else made it?" I asked. "I mean anyone who was able to stay on the ship?"Will stared at me for a moment. "I don't know. Knowing Jack they probably did survive, but he won't come looking for us unless he absolutely has to."

Finally a fire was started and we sat around it, staring off into space or gathering more wood. I was part of the group looking for wood, it wasn't really that hard there was trees everywhere. All alone I could think about my terrible luck. My sisters probably hated me more than anything and now I was stuck on an island that I'd most likely die on.

That night we slept on the beach and I stared up at the night sky and watched the stars and moon twinkling down at us. The fire had burned low and was just a dim glow when I drifted off to sleep at last.

The bright morning sun woke me the next day and already a fire was burning high. I stood next to Will as he worked on catching fish or something for us to eat. The sky was a bright blue as if it had forgotten the fierce storm of two nights ago. It surprised me to find that it really had been two days since the horrific storm.

"Think he'll come to get us?" I asked.

Will didn't need to ask who I was talking about. He sighed. "I can't tell you whether or not he will, maybe he won't be able to find us if he does."

"I don't want to die here," I said staring out at the sea.

Will nodded, his eyes far off in some other time where things had been different and I could tell he wished it would turn out okay this time too.

I walked away to sit next to Cotton, I'd always been somewhat afraid of him because of the whole tongue thing. He glanced at me and then stared back into the depths of the blazing fire, also somewhere else.

As the day turned to night again I stared off into the water, hoping to catch some glimpse of a ship headed our way. The moon shone bright overhead and the stars looked amazing and I sighed. I wished that I was a kid again, back in my house with my mother and father sitting in the next room speaking to one another in hushed tones about things that I didn't need to worry about. I missed the feeling of safety and the security in the sound of their voices and my father's stories.

The next day went by in much the same manner as the last and I was growing more and more anxious to get off the uninhabited island. Will caught fish, Joe collected firewood, Cotton boiled water, Blake looked for other sources of food, and I tried to learn all that I could about what the men were doing.

I walked with Joe as he picked up more wood for the fire. He didn't talk much, just told me what I needed to know and went back to finding good wood. "This is the best wood for making fires," he told me. "See the bark, it doesn't burn out too quick and it makes a huge fire."

I nodded and tried my best to remember the way the dead tree looked. I trailed behind him and picked up a few pieces of fallen wood. Nothing good was on my mind as thought about our condemned lifestyle. We wouldn't last long this way, that much I knew for sure. I hoped Jack would come back for us, if only to see if we had his hat.

We got back to the beach and laid the wood on the sand. Joe said I could take a break and I went to stand with Cotton, he was becoming one of my favorite people to be by because he didn't say much. By now his parrot had found its way back and it sat perched on the man's shoulder. I watched as he put a pot of sea water over the blazing fire. I sighed, I didn't want to stay on this island for the rest of my life with a bunch of quiet people.

That night as we sat around the fire and ate our fish we watched the open waters. No one said anything, but all of us were waiting for a ship to crop up over the horizon. And then, something was there. A small black dot way out in the sea. We all jumped up and tried to get a closer look at what was coming closer, or so we hoped. Everyone was crossing their fingers for it to be our captain and the crew we had all been a part of. There was only one thing that we didn't want, for the ship to be part of the navy. People who would kill us when they learned we were pirates.

But the ship didn't arrive that night.

So the next morning we continued our jobs and I went with Joe to collect fire wood. While we were in the forest the ship came and we walked in on Jack speaking to Will.

"And what happened to the others?" Jack asked, pacing with his hands behind his back.

Will looked to the ground. "They died the first day, or swimming to the island," he said.

Jack nodded, his eyes hard. "Come on, we're already behind and we have to make up the time it took for me to come and get you all."

"Why did you come get us?" Will asked.

Jack shrugged. "Why did you come and get me out of the locker?"

Will copied Jack, shrugging.

Joe and I pushed out of the trees and the two men looked to us.

"Sam!" Jack exclaimed.

I smiled out at him. "You came for us," I said.

He did a small bow and looked to Will. "I thought you said everyone else was dead."

Will looked slightly taken aback. "I forgot about them," he said.

Jack already moved on to his next subject. "Has anyone seen my hat?" he asked.

That reminded me, I did have his hat. I grabbed it and handed it to him and he smiled. "Thank you, Sammi," he said, placing it back on his head. "Now everyone back on the ship!"

We all scrambled back onto the Black Pearl to get back to work. Jack grabbed my elbow once we were on deck.

"Now do you want to stay out of the brig?" he asked.

I glared at him, the gratitude of him saving us already wearing off.

"Well?" he asked.

Grudgingly I answered, "No."

Jack smirked. "Good, cuz I need you on deck with so many of my crew dead."

I glared at him and went to find out if Annamaria was alive while he went to the wheel. It turned out she made it, along with Gibbs and most of the others. At least they weren't dead too.

"What can I help with?" I asked as Annamaria worked.

"Just help me with this please," she said.

I nodded and did as she asked and we were done. There was nothing for me to do because there was nothing for her to do. So we both sat below deck in the dining room, talking. "He came back for us," I said.

Annamaria nodded. "I thought we were gonna have to beg him to go back but he was the one screaming at us to find you all. He kept looking over the side of the ship to see if any bodies were thrown over the edge. It was so weird, I've never seen him act like that," she gossiped.

While she had been talking Gibbs sat down beside us. Now he nodded. "It was one of the strangest things I ever saw of him. Jack was yelling for everyone to find you all as though his life depended on it."

My eyebrows were furrowed in a look of confusion. "He really went looking for us? Why would he want to find us though? Everyone always said that he'd never come for us unless there was something he really needed. You think he needs us for something?"

Annamaria shook her head across from me. "I have no idea."

Gibbs sat deep in thought and said nothing.

I was left to my thoughts again and it was not something I liked at the moment. After so many days waiting quietly on a deserted beach you no longer want to be left to your own thoughts. But the room was silent and I was left to wonder why our captain had come back for his crew...That sounds odd. No one said anything for the longest time, only moving when dinner was ready.

After everyone had eaten everyone went back to the sleeping quarters. There weren't nearly as many crew members as before, they had fallen into the sea and couldn't find their way to land. I slept by Annamaria in my old hammock and listened to the snores of the remaining pirates. Of all the people, Gibbs had the loudest snore and I couldn't hear anything other then the annoying noise. I couldn't sleep, the past days had been terrible and yet relatively okay and then terrible again. I wanted to close my eyes and dream, but I was afraid of what I would dream while unconscious.

My breathing evened out as my eyes slowly closed and I fell asleep. Dreamland was everything I didn't want it to be and I rolled fitfully on the hammock. I whined in my sleep and cried out to nothing. It was dark, there was no one around. As I desperately searched for someone, anyone, a I could hear a low rumble building. The darkness cleared and I found myself on the deck of the Black Pearl. The rumble turned to thunder and lightning flashed across the sky. Crew members rushed about the deck, slipping and sliding into the rails and off the side of the ship. My eyes scanned the chaos, searching for something, but what I didn't really know. My eyes landed on Jack, standing at the wheel of the ship, unaffected by the storm around us. He stood tall and proud as everyone fumbled about him. Jack's voice called out through the noise, carrying for all to hear and yet no one stopped at the sound. "You're lucky I didn't put you in the brig at first and just let you out when I needed you!" I looked to the captain but his lips never moved...Just let me out when he needed me. The ship lurched and I fell from the deck, into the dark waters below.

I woke, hitting the wood floor. My heart beat rapidly in my chest and I breathed quickly. The dream was almost real in the way that everything had actually happened except for the voice over the storm. I changed into better clothes and walked up the stairs to the deck, knowing that it wasn't the best idea with the last time I did that but not caring. I stood at the railing, leaning against it and letting my hair blow in the morning wind. The ship bobbed on the open waters and I stared at the blue waves.

"Up so early?" Jack's voice came from behind me.

I just stared out at sea. "Obviously."

"Something wrong Sammi?" he asked, leaning next to me.

I shook my head. "Nope." I figured one word answers would keep me from saying anything I would later regret.

"Oh? Because the last time we had this conversation it was about a dream and you accusing me."

I shrugged, not finding anything useful to say.

"That's it? No witty comeback?" he asked.

"No," I whispered. "The last time I made a witty comeback I got locked in the brig."

I saw Jack nod in the corner of my eye. "So you've learned?"

I shrugged again.

"You were brought onto this ship for a reason, Sammi. Do you remember that reason?"

"No."

Jack smirked. "To learn more about your sword. And guns."

I turned to face him.

"It's about time we got to doing just that," he said.

I watched him as he moved away from me and to the wheel as the crew came up the stairs. "We'll start tomorrow!" he called.

Annamaria stood by my side as the two of us began to work. "What was that about?" she asked.

"He's going to start to teach me how to use a sword better and a gun," I said.

"Oh," Annamaria said. "Do you like Jack?" she asked.

I gave her a funny look. "Do I like Jack?" I repeated.

Annamaria nodded.

"You asked me this before," I said. "And my answer is still the same, no. I don't like Jack. Not now, not ever."

She stared at me for a moment.

"Why do you ask?" I questioned. "Again."

Her eyebrows rose. "Well, it does look really odd when we all wake up and the two of you are alone on the deck, early in the morning."

"No, I don't like Jack," I told her.

We continued our work in silence, stopping for lunch and then getting right back to work. When dinner came around my hands were blistered and I couldn't wait to sleep, no matter what the dreams brought. As soon as I ate my food I went back down to the crew's quarters with Gibbs and Annamaria and laid down on my hammock. My eyes closed against the world and I fell into my first dreamless sleep in a long time.

I opened my eyes to the sound of the ship on the waves. The cabin was full of snores and sleep talking as I placed my feet on the floor. I got dressed and walked up to the deck, finding Jack waiting by the rail. He smirked when he saw me coming up the stairs.

"I knew you'd be up, luv," he said. "Now, time for your first lesson."

I followed his movements as he grabbed a sword. Looking closer, I saw that it was my sword that he pulled out. My eyes lit up at the sight of something familiar in this unfamiliar place.

"My sword!"

Jack smirked again. "Let's see what you can do," he said.

He handed me my sword and I took it, unsheathing the blade. Jack held out his sword to me and raised it to fight. We moved, just walking on the deck back and forth. Then Jack lunged, swinging his sword at me in the most practiced manner. I watched as the blade came down and moved out of the way, bringing my own sword up to shield my face. I pushed back against his sword and he let up, swinging again at my stomach. I jumped back and swung at him, trying to watch his every move. He was good, but so was I and it was an evenly matched fight. Every time he swung I jumped and whenever I lunged he would meet my blade. Soon the crew was up and they filed up to the deck, seeing me and the captain's fight. I swung and Jack ducked, moving his feet to try and trick me. I moved with him, ignoring the stares of the men and woman. I leaped into the air as Jack tried to cut at my legs. With one swift movement he overtook me, catching me off guard while I was in the air. He had won.

His sword at my neck, Jack smiled down at me smugly. "Good fight," he said.

He stuck his hand out for me to take and I gladly used it to help myself back to my feet. Around me the crew started to whisper to each other.

"You too," I said.

Jack smirked again. "By the time we're done you'll be able to keep fighting with me all night, beat anyone in the world, and hold down much more rum than you can imagine," he told me.

I laughed, happy to have used my sword to get out some of my frustration and anger. "Is that right?" I asked.

Jack nodded. "You'll have to find out, Sammi."

I rolled my eyes. "I told you to call me Sam. Sammi is not my name."

"I'm the captain and I'll call you whatever I want, now get to work," he said, snapping back to the annoying part of his personality.

I turned to leave and found Annamaria already sweating over a something to do with the ship. She looked up at me and then back down at her work.

"Hey," she panted.

"Can I help with anything?" I asked.

She shook her head. "Nope, I got it." With a grunt she looked back up at me and smiled pleasantly. "What was that about?"

"Nothing," I answered.

Annamaria's eyebrow went up. "Nothing?"

"Yep."

She laughed. "That's not what the crew'll think. Cuz it sure looked like something."

"Yeah, a sword fight," I said.

"Mmhm, that's what they'll think," she told me.

"What are you talking about?" I asked her, thoroughly confused.

Annamaria gave me an annoyed look, as though I were a child that she were explaining something simple to. "You and Jack, on deck, sword fighting. Not even real sword fighting, him helping and critiquing you. Jack never does that, for anyone. Oh, sure he'll tell you what you're doing wrong but he doesn't tell people how to do it right. Either you do it right or figure it out on your own, otherwise he doesn't really care to take time with you."

"So it was odd for him to do that with me then?" I clarified.

My friend nodded at me slowly. "It really looks like there's something going on between you two. And that isn't a good thing. He doesn't ever end relationships well and he doesn't stay in relationships at all."

"Then it's a good thing there's nothing going on between us," I said. "Because there's not."

Annamaria sighed. "I hope you're right, Sam. I genuinely hope that nothing is going on between the two of you and that you are as clueless as you say you are."

With that she turned and left me to stare at her back in wonder. How could she ever get the idea that something was 'going on' between me and Jack? I hated his guts. More than anything in the world I wished for bad things to happen to the man that killed my parents, let his people kill my sisters, and then kidnapped me and that man was Jack.

I looked up at the wheel where Jack was still standing proudly and huffed, I didn't care about him at all I just wanted to go home. The crew was busy working and there was nothing for me to do so I looked at the floor, it was better kept than when I first came aboard at least. Of course it was better kept by me, but still it looked better either way. I stood at the rail and watched the water splashing up onto the sides of the ship, it was kind of interesting.

"Whachya doin' Sam?" a familiar voice asked from behind me.

I turned to face the man and saw it was Joe from the island. I smiled at him, glad to have company. "Watchin' the water. What have you been doing?"

"Working on getting this ship to the next port for the captain, so that we can get more crew members," he said.

I nodded, I knew everyone was wanting to get to port so that the work would be laid off them some. "So what brought you over here?"

"Nothing. I wanted to see what you were doing, see how everything's been going since we got back," he said. "It's kinda weird isn't it? Being back on the ship after spending those days on a deserted island. It's a good weird, no complaining about that, it's just very different."

He was right, it was odd to be back on a ship after spending all that time alone with just four other people, and one couldn't even talk. "Yeah, I get what you're saying. It's really weird being back on a noisy ship after the quiet of the island. I don't know, but I don't think any of you snore."

Joe laughed. "You're right, there's a lot of snoring on the ship though."

I went to say something but Jack cut me off, almost appearing out of thin air.

"Joe, why are you not at your station?" he asked sternly.

Joe looked scared and stuttered his answer. "I-It didn't need tending to, Captain."

Jack raised his eyebrow and tilted his head toward where Joe was supposed to be. I followed his direction and saw a sail flapping in the breeze.

"Sorry Captain, it won't happen again," Joe said, rushing to his post.

I was almost sure that the sail wasn't like that a second ago, I turned back to Jack with an expression that said 'what do you want?". He ginned innocently at me from under his hat and I sighed.

"What do you want Jack?" I asked him.

"Nothing."

"Jack, you always want something."

He nodded. "You're learning," he approved.

"What is it?"

He shrugged and turned away, stalking back to the wheel where he always was.

As I stared after him I wondered why he had come over here and why he had done that to the sail. I was positive that it hadn't been like that when Jack left the wheel. Watching his back, my eyes narrowed. What was that man up to?

That night I laid on my hammock, slightly tired but thinking over the day. It was something I always did, go over the day before I went to sleep. I couldn't help it, it just always happened if I wanted it or not. My mind lingered on the parts where Annamaria tried to convince me not to see Jack even though I never was and then Jack coming between me and Joe. Then I thought about the sword fighting. It had been fun and it helped a lot with all the emotions that were building in me. Who would've thought that fighting would be my outlet? My thoughts turned to dreams and I fell asleep to yet another fitful night.

The next morning I woke long before everyone else, hearing them all snore in mismatched harmony. I groaned inwardly and changed into my clothes to walk back up to the deck, my eyes meeting the Jack's back.

"Morning," he said.

I nodded though he still had his back turned to me. "Morning."

I stood beside him, my hands on the rail. Jack turned to face me and started pulling out his sword.

"Ready for another round?" he asked.

I smirked and grabbed my sword too. "Oh yeah," I said.

We backed away from the edge of the ship and toward the middle of the deck, raising our swords. Jack took a step forward and I stepped back. It was on. Jack swung first and I met his sword. The fight had begun and it was the same as the day before. Jack would swing and I would duck, I would jab and he would block everything I did. There was no way either of us was backing down.

Before long the sun was up and the crew was on deck, watching the fight. Some even cheered this time. Finally I made my mistake, I went for his head and Jack took the opportunity to duck and push his sword into my stomach. As I jumped back he flung my blade from my hand, into the crowd of pirates. His sword touched my neck, signaling his win.

"Nice try, luv," Jack said.

He lowered his sword and put it back at his side as Joe handed me my own.

I was still smirking, though I knew I had lost. "Tomorrow," I panted.

"I'll be here," Jack agreed.

The crew dispersed and the captain stalked off to steer the ship.

"Good fight, Sam," Joe said as he stood at my side.

I nodded to him. "Thanks."

"Wanna help with the sails?" Joe asked.

I shrugged, I had nothing better to do. "Why not?"

Joe led the way and soon I was working alongside him.

"Sammi!" Jack called.

I sighed, this was getting really annoying. "What do you want Jack?"

"That's Captain Jack, luv," he corrected.

"Captain. What do you want?"

"What are you doing over there?"

My eyebrows raised. "Helping out. What was I supposed to be doing, Captain?"

Jack stopped for a moment. "Being somewhere else," he answered.

I wanted to laugh. "And where would I be if I wasn't helping out over there?"

"Mopping the deck."

"Oh no, I'm not doing that again," I said.

That was the wrong thing to say. "Yes you are," Jack said.

"I can do more than mop a deck. I've lived on the streets my whole life I'll do anything else."

"I think I'd like you to mop the deck though. And I'm the captain and-"

I rolled my eyes and cut him off. "-what I say goes."

Jack smirked. "Got that right, luv. Now get to work."

My shoulders sagged, I was better than just cleaning the deck. I went to the closet anyway and got the supplies needed to clean the floor. I didn't see the point in this, all it would do is make the crew go sliding when the stepped on a wet patch.

I kept working until dinner when I was free to eat, drink, and talk as much as I liked. Without the captain watching my every move. I was worried that Annamaria would bring up Jack and I again but thankfully she didn't. Just as I was getting into a conversation with Gibbs a certain captain steered me away.

"Jack, I was talking," I whined.

"That's Captain, Sammi, and I don't care if you were talking," Jack said.

He led me back up the stairs and on deck.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"We are going to practice your swordsmanship.""I thought we were doing that tomorrow."

He smirked. "We fight tomorrow, but tonight we'll practice."

"What'll that do?" I asked.

"How're you gonna get better if you don't practice?" Jack asked back.

"Fight you?" I guessed.

"Guess again."I sighed. "Fine, fine. We practice."

Jack nodded. Then he slipped on the deck and fell.

I stared down at Jack as he laid there, stunned. Then I burst out laughing.

"If you don't stop laughing..." Jack threatened. "Why are the floors soaked?"

That only made me laugh harder. "Your fault."

He glared at me. "This is my fault? How is this my fault?"

"You made me mop the deck and now it is wet," I explained.

Jack grabbed my arm and pulled me back down the stairs and into a spare room. It was bigger than most and was fairly open.

"We'll practice down here," he growled.

I grinned.

Jack pulled out his sword and I took out mine once more. This was something I could get used to.

"Now, we're going slow. Focus on how you're moving and what I'm doing," Jack said, his voice suddenly calm.

We practiced. It reminded me of when Silas had me practice for his fights, I liked the familiarity.

"You're doing it wrong, Sammi," Jack said again.

I sighed, "Everyone's asleep, why do we have to keep this up?"

"You're still doing it wrong," Jack said.

I groaned but Jack made me do it again.

After we had practiced over and over again Jack let me stop and we went to bed. I laid in my hammock as I had so many nights before but tonight I fell asleep faster than I ever had before. No dreams disturbed me and if they did I didn't remember them in the morning.

When I woke up I was refreshed. I quickly changed and made my way up to the deck, catching sight of Jack right away. He was waiting for me this time, a smirk planted on his face.

"Round three," I muttered, a sparkle in my eye.

Jack nodded. "And we fight."

We were off, just like any other day and I was holding my own just like any other day. But I noticed a difference, it was easier to fight now. Was it because Jack actually taught me something the night before? That was an odd thought but I kept fighting anyway. I knew more about my footing and I was watching when he went to strike at my head. I blocked his every move and he returned with even more force.

The crew came on the deck and watched just like before. Jack struck hard and I grinned as I stepped out of the way instead of blocking. This fight was longer than any of the others and still Jack won. He moved his foot behind me when I wasn't paying attention and caused me to fall on my back, my sword flying from my hand.

"I win," Jack said simply.

He handed me my sword and I stood, putting it back at my side.

"Good fight, Sammi," he said.

"You too Captain," I still sneered at the Captain part.

Jack looked around at the crew, who were standing around and watching us.

"Get to work!" he yelled and the crew disappeared to their posts.

I raised my eyebrows. "So do you want me to mop the floors again?"

Jack glared at me. "Go help Annamaria with something. Clean decks are dangerous."

I laughed as Jack mumbled to himself and walked up to the helm. Then I went to find the only other girl on the ship so I could start doing something at least semi-useful on the ship.

The day wore on and finally the crew went off to eat dinner. I talked with Gibbs as I walked, picking up on the conversation Jack had interrupted the night before. Soon I was listening to Gibbs tell a story about one of the many times he and Jack had gotten into trouble and had just barely escaped.

"Gibbs, my good man. I'm going to have to take Sammi here away," Jack interrupted again.

Gibbs nodded and left me to Jack, turning to talk to another pirate.

"Jack, why must you always need me when I'm talking to someone?" I asked.

"That's Captain, luv," Jack corrected.

I rolled my eyes. "Didn't answer my question, Captain.""What was it again?" he asked.

I sighed but didn't answer, it wasn't worth it.

Jack led me to the room we practiced in the night before. "Ready?" he asked.

I nodded my head slightly and unsheathed my sword.

"Watch my every move. Pirates don't fight with rules, they're ruthless and they fight with anything they have in them," Jack said.

I nodded.

"I have a gun, you don't. You might want to get that away from me," Jack said.

Now I worked to disarm him from his pistol and tried to keep his blade off of my skin. I wanted to win against him when we fought next and I focused all my attention on Jack and his sword.

"No, no. Sammi, you have to watch everything. You left yourself wide open for attack on that side," Jack said.

I sighed, I was so tired. "Please Jack. Can't we just go to sleep? We can do this tomorrow night can't we?"

"And if we get attacked sometime tomorrow before we come to practice?" he asked.

"Then I'll be awake to fight them," I answered. "Please, let's just give it a rest."

"One more time," Jack said.

"Fine."

Finally Jack let me go to the crew quarters. I crawled into my hammock and curled up on my side. At least all the practice let me sleep easily. I didn't dream that night of anything and I was able to rest for the second night in a row.

When morning came around I found myself in an amazing mood. Not even the loud snores of the crew bothered me anymore. I changed my clothes and walked up to the deck, finding Jack waiting for me.

He was smirking again. "Morning, luv."

"Good morning Jack," I said.

He tilted his head and I sighed.

"Captain Jack."

"You ready to fight?" Jack asked.

I unsheathed my sword and grinned, my eyes already assessing how much of a challenge this would be.

"Don't get overly arrogant, luv. It makes you look very ugly," Jack told me.

I faked that it hurt. "You really think I'm ugly Captain? And I was beginning to think that you might actually be somewhat kind."

"Just don't get arrogant and you won't seem ugly."

"I'll remember that," I said.

We fought, our blades connecting and then moving to strike again. I was better, again. Now I knew that Jack was teaching me things when we practiced. Though I didn't want to admit it, Jack was a really good teacher.

"You're getting better," Jack huffed.

"Thanks," was all I could get out.

The crew was above deck. They were cheering for who they thought would win, which was mainly a chorus of 'Go Jacks'. I wanted to beat him so bad. But it was the fact that I wanted to win that much that caused me to loose. Again I wound up on my back, laying on the deck of the Pearl and Jack's sword at my neck. He smirked down at me.

"Better," he said.

Nothing could upset me and I grinned back at him, though I knew I lost again."Thank you. Now what would you like me to do, Captain?" I asked.

"Go help Gibbs or William or Annamaria," he answered.

I nodded and walked off, going to find one of the three people he had listed. I found Will first and I spent the day with him, talking and mostly working hard to do what was asked of me. After dinner I found Jack and the two of us walked to the room where we practiced our swords.

"Don't do that," Jack said as I did yet another thing wrong.

I sighed. "Jack, what did I do wrong this time?"

"You're swinging too early, leaving open spaces. I could easily kill you if you kept that up in a real fight."

"Like this?" I asked.

"Better."

When we were done I wasn't as tired as I was on other nights. As I laid on my hammock listening to the snores of so many pirates I realized that I no longer hated the sound. And when I thought of the evening spent with Jack I found that I didn't think of him with hate anymore. I thought of him with a kind of awe instead of despising him like I should have. I fell asleep quickly and soon morning had come once more.

I got up and changed, walking up the stairs and thinking over some of the moves and tactics I could use against Jack. Once on the deck I saw the Captain was waiting for me. This really was becoming a habit for us.

"Morning luv," he said.

"Good morning Jack."

He didn't protest that I called him plain Jack.

Without warning we were battling. By now I knew that practicing every night really was helping me and as we fought I knew that Jack wasn't going to win as easy as he had the night before. Soon the crew came on deck and I heard a few making bets about who would win and when. Most bets were placed on Jack but I didn't mind, I was used to being the underdog in these fights. I knew that someday I would come out on top and amaze them all.

After a while both of us were still going strong, neither willing to back down.

"Tired yet, Sammi?" Jack asked between swings.

I smirked, "Only in your dreams Sparrow."

Jack grinned and we continued our battle as the crew watched in awe that we were still fighting. Now their voices were only whispers in the back of my mind and I could barely hear them over the beating of my own heart. Over an hour later we were still locked in our fight.

"How about we call this one a draw," Jack huffed.

"Yes please," I panted.

We both stopped moving and our swords lowered. Sweat fell off of us as we tried to catch our breath.

"Great fight," Annamaria congratulated.

"Thank you, Anna," Jack said.

She rolled her eyes. "I already knew you could fight like that. I was talking to Sam."

"Thanks," I said.

Annamaria nodded.

"Alright, everyone get to work!" Jack yelled. "We have a lot of time to make up!"

"Where are we headed anyway?" I asked.

Jack turned to me with a glint in his eye. "Tortuga."

"Tortuga?" I asked.

Jack simply smiled and walked up to steer his ship.

I looked at Annamaria. "Tortuga?"

She shook her head. "A pirate port. Tons of rum and other things...You might want to stay on the ship when we get there."

I was about to protest but she turned and stalked off to do her chores and help with the sails.

"You gonna help me?" she called over her shoulder.

Sighing, I followed behind her.

The day passed quickly and I sat eating dinner with the guys.

"You did great out there, Sam," Joe was saying.

I smiled. "Thanks."

"You did great-you did great," Cotton's parrot squeaked.

I nodded. "Thank you."

"Sammi, time for practice," Jack called.

I rolled my eyes but got up and followed Jack back to the room.

We practiced well into the night and I learned the last that Jack had to teach me. Or so I thought. As it turned out we still had knives to learn and guns as well, Jack told me at the end of practice.

"You did excellent," he said, still out of breath. "But now you need to learn about other things, what happens if you lose your sword in battle? Then what? No, you need to be able to use more than just a sword."

"Same place, same time tomorrow?" I asked as I put my sword away.

Jack nodded. "Aye, we'll be starting knives."

"I'll be ready," I said.

Jack smirked. "No you won't."

I shrugged. "I'll be ready to work just as hard."

"Good."

With that we parted and I made my way to my hammock to get a good night's sleep again. No dreams plagued my thoughts and I knew that I was beginning to feel better than I had in a long time now that I was on the Pearl.

The morning came and I woke with a grin. Maybe today would be the day that I would beat Jack in battle. I got up and got ready for the day, putting my sword on my hip where it belonged.

I walked onto the deck where Jack stood with his back to the rail, humming something.

"Morning, luv," he greeted.

"Good morning Jack," I said.

We both unsheathed our blades and got ready to duel. Getting into stance, I analyzed all of my opponent's movements. Jack was no longer Jack in my eyes but a deadly pirate set on killing me. Then we fought. It was tiresome and long, yet we fought hard. I didn't notice when the crew came aboard deck and circled around us and I didn't hear them placing bets for me to win either (of course only Annamaria and Will were betting for me, but they're good enough).

"Getting tired yet, luv?" Jack taunted between breaths.

"Nope, you Sparrow?" I asked.

"Not a chance, luv."

Jack swung dangerously and I ducked out of the way, moving on the wooden floor. I wanted to win, but that was at the back of my mind. What I really wanted was not to be beaten, beaten in real battle meant that I was dead and that was not the way I wanted this all to end.

I felt my sword push back on the captain's hand and watched as his blade fell from his grasp. It clattered on the floor of the deck loudly and seemed to echo in the new-found silence. My hand moved of its own accord to place my sword at his neck to signal my win. Suddenly Jack smirked and pulled his gun from his waist.

"Good-fight, luv, but I win," Jack said, breaking the endless quiet.

My soaring emotions seemed to plummet to my stomach. "No way, you cheated," I said.

"Pirate," he told me.

I groaned and lowered my sword. I knew I had won and so did Jack, he was just always so infuriating about everything.

Jack looked around at the crew, which stood silently as they waited to see what their captain would do.

"Get to work, the lot of ya!" he yelled.

The pirates shuffled awkwardly to their posts and whispered amongst each other about what they had witnessed. The great Jack Sparrow had lost a sword fight, he won in the end by cheating but that wasn't what mattered in that moment. I had a feeling they'd never seen Jack lose.

"Great fight, Sammi," Jack said. "Really it was."

I rolled my eyes at him. "Thanks, but no thanks. I'll win eventually and I don't want to hear you tell me 'good fight' unless I earn it completely."

"You let Anna tell you good fight," Jack argued.

"She's different."

"How so?" Jack asked.

"She's not my coach and she can't beat you in a sword fight or anywhere close as I can."

"Whatever you say, Sammi. Go find something useful to do."

Jack turned and staggered his way up to the wheel, staring out at the blue sea.

I followed his example and went to find one of my friends to work with for the day. All of this pirate life was growing on me, I wasn't dreading any part of it anymore. Well, maybe going to port, but that was a different story all together.

We worked hard until dinner when we all went down to indulge in rum, food, and conversation. I sat with Gibbs as he told another of his stories about Captain Jack Sparrow. He seemed to enjoy the fact that I was listening to what he said, though he was well into his drunken state.

"Sammi!" I heard Jack call.

I left Gibbs to walk with the captain. Tonight we would start a whole new way of fighting.

When we were in the room Jack pulled out a knife from his boot. He held it between his hands and showed it to me.

"This is a knife," he told me.

"Jack, I know what a knife is," I sighed.

Jack nodded. "Of course you do, luv. Just getting you used to everything about the art of knives."

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at him.

"Now, this is only used for close hand combat. You won't want to use it if you're too far away, then you'd use your gun."

I watched and listened as Jack described the many ways to use a knife and what you would use in what situation. It may have been slightly boring but I ignored the boredom and focused on the lesson, it was bound to be important if Jack was telling me about it.

Jack talked well into the night about the use of knives and such and I could feel myself falling asleep as I listened to his interesting voice. When he sighed I looked up at him.

"You're not listening to a word I say, are you?" he asked.

"Sorry, Jack," I apologized. "I'm just so tired."

Jack laughed lightly. "Go to bed, Sammi. We'll continue this tomorrow."

I got up and thanked Jack for the lesson, before heading to the crew's quarters to sleep the night away. As I slept I had a strange dream about fighting and I woke in an odd daze, not at all like I had been expecting.

I got dressed like I normally did and made my way to the deck where Jack was waiting.

"Morning, Sammi," Jack said.

I smiled. "Morning Jack."

"Ready to fight, luv?" Jack asked.

"Of course."

We started to fight just like we did every morning. The fight was just like any other, but this time I heard more people saying my name instead of the usual two. Our swords met in the air, clashing loudly. Some time later Jack called a tie.

The crowd of pirates dispersed quickly after the fight was over.

"You did good," Jack said.

"Thanks."

I left to go find work to do and finally stopped with Joe.

"You're really good at fighting," Joe told me.

"Thank you," I said.

We continued working in silence.

"Not many people can beat the Captain," he said.

"I didn't beat him though."

Joe shook his head. "No, but not many people can even come close. You made him call a tie."I smiled. "If we would've kept fighting Jack would've eventually won."

"Still, there's not many who can hold their own that long."

"Well there's not many who have Jack as their teacher either," I said.

Joe nodded. "I guess that's true."

Our conversation ended there for a while as we worked on the sails.

"So, you're not like seeing Jack are you?" Joe asked after a moment.

I looked at him. "Of course not. Why would you ask that?"

"Well-""Come on, lunch's getting cold!" Gibbs interrupted, moving around me to get to the galley.

I rolled my eyes but followed the man down to get my food, leaving Joe to stand there alone."Hey," I greeted, sitting next to Annamaria.

"Hey, before long you'll be beating old Jack Sparrow in a sword fight," Anna laughed.

"She couldn't beat me if her life depended on it, luv," Jack said.

I looked up to find the captain reaching to get an apple. He smiled down at me and I laughed.

"Right, Sammi," he said.

I sighed but said with a smirk, "I couldn't beat Jack Sparrow in a sword fight."

Jack nodded.

"Not a pirate sword fight anyway. If we were talking a fair fight, I would most definitely win," I said.

Jack looked at me. "You could not!" he stated.

"I think I could, after all you did call a tie today when there really was no reason. I think that you just don't want to be beat in front of your crew."Jack scoffed. "If you want to test that theory, luv, we can arrange a fight."

"It would have to be fair, Jack Sparrow. No knives, or pistols with only one shot," I told him.

"Of course not, luv. It will be only swords and our hands," Jack agreed.

"Gibbs would have to ref the fight," I said.

"And why is that?" Jack asked.

"You would cheat and try to trick me into thinking that you didn't," I said.

Jack grinned. "You know me so well."

"I'll see you after dinner," I said.

"This time on deck," Jack told me.

"Of course."

With that Jack walked off with an apple in his hand, going to talk to Gibbs. I turned back to Annamaria, a smirk still planted on my face.

"That was interesting to watch," she said.

I laughed. "I just agreed to fight my captain in a completely fair fight on a pirate ship!"

My friend laughed with me as we finished our lunch and made our way back up to the deck. While we worked we talked about random things with subjects that I wasn't sure how they got started. When the day was done I walked back to the galley with the rest of the crew.

"You ready for that fight, Sam?" Gibbs asked as he sat down beside me.

"I wouldn't have challenged him if I wasn't.""What fight?" Will asked as he took the seat on the opposite side of the table.

Gibbs looked at him. "Jack and Sam are going to fight."

"Like they do every morning?" Will asked.

Gibbs shook his head. "Nope, this time Jack's gonna be fair about fighting."

Will raised his eyebrow, it was really absurd for the captain to be fair about anything. "What happens if he loses?""What do you mean what happens?" I asked.

"Well, I mean does anything happen? Are there any stakes to this?" Will questioned.

Gibbs sighed and Annamaria put her head in her hands.

"There wasn't," I said.

"Wasn't what?" Jack asked.

"Perfect timing," I said, turning to face him. "What do I get when I win this fight?"

Jack smirked. "If you win the fight you will get whatever you ask for. But when I win you will have to spend all night mopping the decks, making sure they're dry when you're done."

"You're going to make me mop the decks?" I asked.

Jack nodded. "What do you want in return?"

"I want...Hm, I'm not sure yet, I'll get back to on that one," I said.

Jack raised his eyebrows. "Fine, but you're going to lose Sammi."

"Whatever you say Jack, just keep telling yourself that," I told him, nodding.

He chuckled to himself. "I came over to tell you that it's about time we got on deck.""Alright, I'll be there in a minute," I said.

Jack left and I turned to my friends who were staring at me.

"Well? Let's go beat Jack," I said.

My friends smiled and we made our way back onto the deck for the fight that would be completely fair.

Jack was waiting for us all on the deck, his sword in his hand. He smirked as he saw us walking up the steps, actually it was more like saw me walking up the steps but still. I was level-headed for the moment, I knew that Jack was overconfident that he would win and that was what I would attempt to use as his downfall. All the while he was probably expecting it.

"Ready to lose, Sammi?" Jack asked as I stepped up to him.

I raised an eyebrow. "Are you Jack?"

My captain grinned with a glint in his eye that told me he had something up his sleeve.

"You didn't bribe Gibbs to let you cheat, did you?" I asked.

"No, of course not. How could you think something like that of me?""Pirate," was the only thing I said.

Jack nodded. "Eh, yeah that would do it."

We both took out our swords in the same instant as Gibbs stepped up to tell us the rules once again. By this time most of the crew had heard about the fight and were sitting a ways back from where we were so they wouldn't get in the way. They were whispering to each other as I listened to Gibbs's voice telling us how to fight.

"Go!" he shouted.

The fight was on once more, this time I knew that there would be no surprise attacks. Jack and I studied each other for a moment, opponents in an ongoing war. He was looking for a way to break me quickly, I was looking for a way to steadily break him down. It was only a second, but if felt like an eternity. The next second we were fighting, our blades clashing loudly as they met between us. I smirked at Jack through the swords and he just smirked back.

Our swords came apart and Jack swung at me. I moved back and out of the way, knowing this was the best defense with Jack at the moment. He followed me as I moved backward, his sword coming at me from odd angles. I blocked and swung at him at the same time, we were perfectly matched opponents. I jumped and blocked and moved out of the way, dunking when I had to as Jack did the same with everything I did. We had made it around the deck many times and still we didn't seem to get anywhere with the fighting. Neither one of us was winning, it was still evenly matched.

Even though there was no winning person, we were both getting tired from the battle. I backed up to the railing and then moved to the right as Jack struck his boat where my arm had been moments before. Then I proceeded to back him into the mast where he tried to duck and roll out of the way. It would've worked if he hadn't have told me about the trick beforehand.

I kicked him in the back as he jumped to his feet and he stumbled forward. When he turned I swung up at him and he blocked yet again. It was a difficult task of beating Jack Sparrow at his own game. The fight continued for over an hour as we fought just to see who would win.

Well into the night and still we fought. The crew watched from the sides, moving when they had to. They drank rum and laughed and had a good time as they waited to see who would be the best at sword fighting.

Jack's blade came down in an attempt to make me drop my sword but I used his own weight against him, just like he had taught me. I was trained by the best to beat him in his own game. It was an odd concept that I didn't fully realize until we were too far into the battle to do anything. My arm was sore and the rest of my body ached. My feet were numb and my brain felt like mush. Jack looked like he was about to fall over, which was the exact way I was feeling. And even though we both seemed to be dead on our feet neither of us was willing to give in.

The ship swayed on the water and I moved my feet accordingly. It was like I could have fought this fight in my sleep. Jack never did anything that broke the rules and Gibbs watched with an ever tiring eye. Some of the men had left to get some sleep, others had fallen asleep on the deck. Most of the noise was now gone and those who still watched were quiet, letting their eyes droop.

Jack swung and I blocked it, just like always. It was a fight that no one could win because we were completely evenly matched even when we were both tired beyond belief. The night wore on and we still didn't back down, the sun was coming up over the water and the sky was now turning red and pink. But I couldn't pay attention to that, if I did I was going to lose. By the time the sun was fully up, neither of us had won and the crew was beginning to awaken.

"They're still fighting?" I heard someone ask.

I didn't try to figure out who it was or listen for the answer. My attention was waning as it was and I had to pay attention solely to Jack Sparrow. I swung and he ducked and I sighed. It was a never ending battle between the two of us. I heard Gibbs give a start and I assumed he had fallen asleep sometime during the night, though me and Jack never knew.

"I can't believe they're still going like that," someone said.

I wanted to fall over and die right there, but then I would have to give in to Jack. I wanted more than anything to call a tie, but it would seem like a forfeit if I did and I wasn't letting that happen any time soon.

"Hey!" someone yelled. "Stop fighting!"

I didn't listen to them and neither did Jack, we were too caught up to stop.

Suddenly Gibbs stepped between us and our swords stopped moving so we didn't slice open our friend.

"I say that it's a tie," Gibbs said.

Jack and I stared at him for a moment and then lowered our blades. "Can I go to sleep now?" I asked.

Jack nodded beside me. "Everybody, today's one day where there's no work. Take a day off!" he yelled.

I sighed and moved to leave the deck to locate my wonderful hammock somewhere below me.

"Good-night!" I hollered to everyone still on deck. I made my way to my bed and was asleep before my head hit the hammock.

When I woke again it was late afternoon and Jack was still tucked away in his room. I felt refreshed and ready to go, just as long as I didn't have to start sword fighting again. Many of the men congratulated me for staying in there as long as I did and I was happy to accept the praise.

"That was one good fight," Annamaria told me as we lounged on the deck.

I smiled blissfully. "Thanks, I never want to do that again."My friend laughed and closed her eyes. "This is nice, we don't get free days very often."

"Well, maybe I should challenge Jack more often," I said.

Annamaria nodded. "Maybe you should, but you didn't win the fight. Are you getting anything for it?"I shook my head. "I don't think so, I hope Jack doesn't get anything either though."

We sat there for the rest of the day, just sitting there and watched the sun and the water. The guys played cards and drank as me and Annamaria sat back and watched them. Jack didn't show his face until the sun was going down, but that didn't stop him from getting right into the mix of things and drinking more than his fair share of rum. As we watched I picked up some things about the games the men played, how they constantly cheated when they gambled and I learned how to play the games.

That night we drank rum until we wanted nothing more than to lay back down and go to sleep. I was sitting next to Joe in the galley, watching another game of poker played by Joe, Gibbs, and Cotton. Will stood in the corner, watching everyone with wary eyes and I smiled over at him. He smiled back and then returned to studying the scene before him. I turned back to the game, laughing with the guys as if it was a regular thing.

"You did great at that fight, Sam," Joe told me.

I smiled at him too, "Thanks, Joe."

He was slightly drunk and he laughed, slurring his words together. "No one ever beats Jack in a fight," he said.

"I didn't beat him, we tied. But thanks anyway," I told him.

Joe nodded to me and looked back at his game drunkenly, laughing with Gibbs about nothing in particular. I rolled my eyes at him, but smirked anyway.

"What are you doing over here?" someone asked me from behind.

I turned around to face Jack, who was looking down at the poker game with slight interest. "I was just talking with Joe, watching the game. What are you doing?" I asked.

"A little of this, a little of that," Jack answered.

"Sounds good."

"Yep, very," Jack said.

Gibbs yelled loudly at something Cotton's parrot said and I chuckled at him.

"Good fight you put up," Jack told me.

"Same to you," I replied.

He raised an eyebrow. "I could have beaten you if I really wanted," he informed me.

"Oh really?"

Jack nodded. "Yeah, but I just didn't want to let you down in the first few minutes. You're so predictable."

"And you're not?" I asked.

"You think I am?"

I nodded. "I know you are.""I think you have something mixed up, luv," Jack said.

I tilted my head to the side. "And what would that be, Jack?"

"You've mixed up who's the predictable one. I'm Captain Jack Sparrow."

This made me laugh. "What's that got to do with anything?" I asked.

"Captain Jack Sparrow, that means that no one knows what I'm gonna do next," Jack told me.

"Sure," I said.

Jack rolled his eyes. "You're really annoying. Did I ever tell you that, luv?"I laughed. "I don't think you did. But that last comment was oh so flattering."

Jack shrugged. "I never claimed to be flattering and all that."

"I guess you got that one right."

We sat together and looked back at the poker game. Gibbs had lost most of his money, a lot of it going to Cotton, but Joe seemed to be doing well too. I shook my head at the way the men played, cheating and shouting obscene words every now and then, calling names and laughing together a few seconds later. The main thing the men had in common was the way every man always seemed to have a new, full bottle of rum in their hands.

Finally Gibbs lost his money and was out of the game, shouting loudly about some cheating fools in the process and then yelling about some old superstition. I laughed at him, but not so much that he would notice and get mad at me. At my side I could see Jack chuckling to himself as well.

"I'm tired, I think this is where I leave you," I said as I rose from my seat.

The guys simply nodded in response and I made my way to the crew's quarters, to my own hammock. Now I would get some much needed sleep. I smiled to myself as I laid in bed, today had been a good day, no matter what anyone else thought.

When the sun rose and I woke it was early morning and there were loud snores coming from some of the hammocks. Others didn't have anybody in them, but I knew that didn't mean they were awake, they were probably asleep in the galley or on the deck. I got dressed and walked from the quarters to the deck where Jack was pacing. Just as I knew they would, many men were strewn about the deck, still completely passed out.

"Morning," I greeted Jack.

He turned to face me. "Good morning Sammi," he said.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Pacing, thinking," Jack told me.

I nodded. "Cool," I said.

Jack shook his head at me, rolling his eyes.

I shrugged and walked along the deck to the railing. The water still seemed to last forever and so did the sky, where one ended the other picked up. A small smile was planted on my face and I watched the waves gently roll up to the ship and make it sway with the sea.

"What are you smiling about?" Jack asked.

I turned to face him and shrugged. "The sky, the sea, everything."

Jack said nothing and looked out to the water where I was facing a moment ago.

The two of us were silent for a while, I found it nice, refreshing almost. My eyes slid over to look at Jack and I saw that he really was quite handsome. I wanted to talk to him, but I didn't want to ruin the perfect silence. Staring over at him, I noticed his clothes again. He was wearing just about the same outfit he had on the day I met him, a big white shirt with a vest over it and brown pants that went to his boots. His hair was in its bandana and tri-corner hat, the usual trinkets clinking together in odd harmony.Jack's POV

Jack watched Sam out of the corner of his eye. She really was pretty, even if she was dressed in men's clothes and hadn't washed decently in months. For some reason he couldn't seem to stop looking at her. He noticed the way she had a small smile on her lips even though there really was nothing for her to smile about.

Suddenly he realized what he was thinking. Jack shook his head and looked out at the sea. That was his only love, the sea and not some crazy girl. But there was something about this girl. She was pretty and nice and could hold her own in a fight. She liked to learn new things and did what was best for those she cared about, when she knew how. Sammi was something completely different than other girls he'd met, she fought with him and spoke when she wanted. And she never thought twice about doing the men's things as well as women's.

The waves came up to the ship as Jack watched. Another thing, she had a love for the sea and the ship that he had never seen in a woman. Even Annamaria didn't think about the sea in the way that Sammi did. He chuckled to himself as he thought about her nickname, how she hated it and still she didn't complain anymore. This train of thought led to dangerous thoughts, though.

Jack knew Sam thought he was the one in the room when her parents died. She was sure that he had killed her mother at knife point. He wanted to make her think otherwise, but he didn't know how. What would he say when all he could had already been said? Every one of his excuses had been shot down and denied until he was forced to put her in the brig. That led to her being thrown overboard in a storm.

Jack hated thinking what could have happened to Sammi when she was thrown over the ship. He had searched every island as soon as the storm was over to find them, but more than anything her. And then when he got there and Will had said what he saw was what he got and she wasn't there, his heart stopped. Then she came out of no where and he realized that she was alive. He had been so relieved to find that she was still alive after all of that.

Sammi turned to face him and Jack looked at her.

"So what are we doing today Jack?" she asked.

His eyes looked out at the sea and then he looked at her. "We'll set sail as soon as the men are up. If we continue at a normal rate, we should get to Tortuga in a few day's time."

Sammi nodded and Jack watched her hair sway around her face before she batted it out of her eyes, it was cute.

Suddenly he shook his head. He couldn't be thinking about her in any way that he wouldn't think of Annamaria. No, better than that, any way that he wouldn't think of Gibbs. Jack shuddered. He would think of her the way he thought of Gibbs or William.

Jack nodded to himself and Sammi gave him a weird look.

"What are you doing?" she asked him.

"Thinking of what we need when we get to Tortuga," he answered smoothly.

Sammi shook her head at him, but said nothing more and left Jack to sigh in relief.

That was when the rest of the crew came on deck, getting to work after seeing that Jack and Sammi weren't fighting. Sammi turned to face him once more.

"What do you want me to do?" she asked.

He looked around. "Go help out Annamaria," Jack told her.

Then he stalked off to the helm to steer the Pearl. When he glanced down again he saw Joe was back by Sammi, and not where he was supposed to be. Jack felt a flash of anger go through him as he watched the pirate talk to Sammi. He didn't like it at all. Moving from the wheel he made his way toward them.

"Why are you not working?" Jack asked in a deadly voice as he neared the two.

Joe spun around and Sammi looked up.

"I was just talking to Sam," Joe answered, seemingly oblivious to his captain's rage.

Jack raised an eyebrow. "And why aren't you working?"

Joe looked at him for a moment and seemed to take in Jack's anger. "Sorry Captain. I'm going back right now."

Joe ran off to where he was supposed to be and Jack turned back to Sam.

"What's with the anger?" she asked with a smirk.

"Get to work," Jack growled and stalked back to the helm.

He was beyond mad. Why couldn't she just stay away from the pirates? Why couldn't she just keep to herself and stay by Annamaria like she did right after he brought her on the ship.

Jack focused on the sea and let himself calm down, looking back to where Sammi was. She was standing by Annamaria now, laughing about something. Now he was completely calm again, smiling slightly to himself before wiping it off his face in annoyance.

He needed to remember, think of her like he would think of Gibbs. She could talk to Joe, Gibbs did. Jack breathed deeply and closed his eyes, opening them when he heard the rush of people moving on the deck. Looking around, Jack saw that everyone was going down for lunch and he moved away from the wheel.

"What's goin' on with you Capn'," Gibbs asked, coming to walk beside Jack.

He looked over. "What are you talking about?"

Gibbs's eyes slid over to where Sammi was walking ahead of them. "I think you know what I'm talkin' bout."

"There's nothing going on with me and I want you to stop thinking that there is. I was simply getting my crew to keep working."

Gibbs nodded. "I'm sure you were," he said.

Gibbs walked off and went to get something to eat as Jack grabbed an apple off the table. He leaned against the wall and watched everyone sit around and talk, Sammi doing the same.

"What are you doing, Jack?" someone asked.

Jack looked around and spotted himself cleaning out under his fingernails.

"I asked you what you were doing," the other Jack said.

Jack walked out of the room and into another, the one where he normally taught Sammi.

"I'm not doing anything," he answered.

"Are you sure about that Jackie?" another him asked.

This one was scratching his head, looking around.

"Where's my peanut?" he asked.

"What were you doing?" the first Jack asked.

"I wasn't doing anything!" Jack yelled.

"I think you were. You were looking at that girl," Jack said.

Jack looked between the two of him. "I wasn't doing that!"

Suddenly there was another Jack, this one looking like it had just come out of the sea. "I think you were Jack, I think you like her more than you should."

Jack shook his head at the three hims. "I don't like her!" he shouted.

He closed his eyes and then opened them again. No one was there.

"You're getting defensive," a voice said behind him.

Jack turned to see the three of him standing around. One looking for a peanut, one staring at him, and the other leaning up against the wall while cleaning his fingernails again.

He sighed, they really weren't going away. Then the door opened and Jack spun to face the person.

"Don't like who?" Sammi asked as she stared at him.

Jack looked around, no one was there. "I have no idea," Jack answered.

"What?" Sammi asked.

"Who?" Jack asked.

"Huh?"

"Exactly!" Jack yelled.

"Jack what are you talking about?" Sam asked.

"Oh nothing," Jack said. "Come on, lunch is about over and we have lots of water to cover."

Sam nodded and walked out of the room, leaving Jack alone. He looked around once and then followed her. For the rest of the day he tried to think about things other than Sammi and he had no more visits from himself. When everyone went to sleep she came back up to him.

"We gonna practice tonight?" she asked.

"Tomorrow, we need to get to Tortuga soon," Jack said.

Sammi nodded and walked down the stairs to go sleep and Jack walked to his room, closing the door behind him. He really needed to get over that girl.

Sam's POVI left the room with Jack behind me. He was acting weird lately, but that wasn't new with Jack. "Tortuga?" I asked again as I turned nodded. "Tortuga."I smiled and shook my head as I went back to the crew's quarters. Everyone was already snoring away into their hammocks as I laid down in my own. Annamaria was beside me along with Gibbs. I was so used to the snoring that it was comforting to fall asleep to. I didn't have any I woke up, it was the same as any other day. Everyone was still asleep and I made my way up to the deck. Jack was there, just like didn't turn around as I made my way toward him."Hey Jack," I said as I stood beside nodded and continued to look out at the water. "Morning, Sammi."I rolled my eyes. "That's so annoying," I told him. He smirked, but didn't look at me. "Is it Sammi?" "Will we make it to Tortuga today?" I stared out at the water and nodded. "We'll be there by nightfall," he was weird that we weren't fighting every morning now. But it wasn't worth it to fight every second of the crew was coming onto the deck and the sun was almost fully up. Jack stalked away from me and up to the helm, not looking back.I rolled my eyes. I liked him, but he was getting on my nerves. He wouldn't get away with ignoring me for long."Sam? You gonna do something or just stand there?" Will asked. "Well, actually you can't just stand there, I need to work right there."I smiled at him. "Sorry, I'll move."I walked over to Gibbs and helped him with the sails.Jack's POVJack looked out at the deck from his spot at the helm. He could see Sammi from where he was at, working with Gibbs. It didn't bother him like it did when she was working with Joe. Maybe it was because he trusted Gibbs not to try anything with her. Jack shook his head, that couldn't be it because he didn't like her. He pulled out his compass and looked down at needle spun around until it landed out at the deck. It pointed to her, Sammi. "What's it say?" Will jumped and snapped the compass closed and turned to the man who was looming over his shoulder. "I need rum," Jack answered. "And you need to get back to work."Will nodded and walked away, back to his spot. Jack opened his compass just a little and peeked into it. The needle was still pointed at Sammi. He snapped it shut and looked up at the water. His hands went back to the wheel and he didn't look at the compass again."There a problem?" someone looked around and saw that it was Sammi."Why is no one working today!" Jack jumped back, her face wrinkling angrily, "Sorry, we're all on lunch break anyway."He saw her angry face and sighed."Sorry, I just need to get to port," Jack looked at her and noticed the way her hair moved in the wind. "Really need to get to port," he shook her head at him and walked away. "We'll get there soon."Jack nodded.

I moved away from Captain Jack. If all he needed was to get to port, I couldn't wait to be there. He was being so odd and I didn't like it.

Down in the galley, the crew was already stuffing their faces with food, as usual. Eating was a top priority for these men. Rum was being passed around and the talk was loud and full of laughter. I took a seat next to Joe and Gibbs, finding their company the best around.

Joe turned to look at me and smiled. "Hey Sam."

I returned the gesture, "Hi, we're supposed to get to Tortuga today."

Joe nodded. "Yeah, the captain really seems to want to get there fast. He keeps making us do extra work just to get there."

"There's somethin' the Cap'n wants in that port, that's why he wants to get there," Gibbs said.

I looked to him. "What does he want?"

Gibbs looked around. "A treasure map," he whispered.

"What kind of treasure map?" I asked.

Gibbs shrugged. "He's been looking for it for a long time and now he's finally gonna get it. I think it'll lead to somethin' very appealing, if you know what I mean."

My eyebrows furrowed in confusion and I looked to Joe to explain.

"He's talking about somethin' a little more shiny," Joe hinted.

I thought for a moment longer and it clicked.

"Somethin' we could all spend somewhere on what we want," he continued.

I nodded. "Treasure," I whispered.

"Aye," Gibbs nodded too. "The thing all pirates are out to get, treasure."

I grabbed an apple while I could and sat contemplating what was said. "So we're getting the treasure map, then."

No one said anything because it wasn't really a question. When lunch was over, we all went back on deck and got back to work to get to port.

The sun was setting and the heat of the day was beginning to cool when we finally saw land. It was a while into the distance, but we would get there before we needed to lower the anchor. Everyone worked twice as hard to get to the place.

Finally we were docked. All the men rushed off after hearing Jack's orders to be back in two days. Annamaria smiled said she would take the first watch of the ship and Jack thanked her by nodding to him.

"Sammi," Jack addressed me.

I raised my eyebrows. "Yeah?"

"I want you to stay here," he told me.

My eyes widened and I shook my head. "No way am I staying on this boat!" I yelled.

"Ship, luv, ship," Jack corrected.

I rolled my eyes. "I'm not gonna stay on this ship while you and the rest of the crew get to walk on land. I haven't set foot on land since the day you made me leave my sisters behind. I rather like the land, even if you find the sea preferable."

"Sammi," Jack started. "Any other port and I promise you can go on shore. Not this port, though. Tortuga is not the place to be for an unguarded woman to be alone in."

I shrugged. "I can take care of myself."

Jack shook his head. "You're staying here."

"No," I told him.

"I'll lock you in the brig if that's what I have to do to keep you here," Jack threatened me.

I smirked. "Because that worked out so well last time?"

"We're not going to be out at sea this time and so there's nothing to worry about. I don't think there's going to be any storms anytime soon anyway."

"You can't keep me there," I said. "Annamaria will let me out."

Annamaria had wide eyes as Jack turned to her. "She will do no such thing!"

Annamaria put her hands up and backed away. "I want nothing to do with this," she said.

Then she moved up to the crow's nest, sitting down.

"I don't want to stay on the ship," I said.

Jack stared at me and then gave in. "Fine, stay with me then."

I wrinkled my nose, I didn't like conditions for me to go on land. I just wanted to walk on shore again.

Jack stalked off and didn't look back. I followed him in silence, walking off the Pearl and into Tortuga for the first time.

My eyes were wide as I took in the first place I'd been to other than the place I was born. Jack pulled me up to his side and kept my arm gripped in his fist. He walked fast and didn't pause when I started to fall behind.

"Keep up," he snarled.

I rolled my eyes. "Why don't you try asking me?"

He didn't say anything, just tugged on my arm to make me move.

Men and women alike were all over the town. Many of them were drunk or had a bottle of rum in their hands. Laughter and loud, slurred voices seemed to come from every corner of the place.

I could feel Jack's gaze on me as we walked, but I wanted to take in all I could while I still had the chance. I had no clue when I was going to be able to set foot on land again and I wanted it to last in my memory for a while.

"What do you think?" Jack finally asked, needing to shout to be heard over everyone.

My eyes turned to him. He didn't seem to be mad at me anymore.

"It's interesting," I said with a smile.

Jack laughed and nodded. "Interesting is a good word for it."

His eyes landed on something behind me and Jack immediately turned the other way, pulling me with him. "This way," he squeaked.

I turned my head, wanting to see what was making him go the other way, but there was nothing out of the ordinary.

"What is it?" I asked.

Jack shook his head.

"Tell me."

He sighed. "If you must know, it's Scarlet."

"Scarlet?" I asked.

His expression turned slightly guilty. "Last time I was here I may have done some things to make her angry," Jack replied.

"Like what?" I inquired, becoming interested instantly.

"I might or might not have said that she looked fat in the dress she was wearing," Jack said. "Maybe."

I laughed.

"It's not funny," Jack cried. "Scarlet can slap hard."

My laughter continued, it was too funny.

Jack rolled his eyes at me, but a smirk crept upon his face. "Come on, let's go."

I followed Jack into a pub and we left the girl behind.

The pub was just as loud as the outside and even more crowded. Jack led me to the bar and ordered himself a bottle of rum. We sat in silence.

"Stay here and don't talk to anyone," he told me.

My eyes turned to him. "Where are you going?" I asked.

Jack nodded to a man sitting by himself at a table, drinking a bottle of brown liquid.

I nodded. "I'll be here."

Jack seemed to search my eyes for something and then tore them away from my face, getting up and leaving me alone. I watched him as he sat with the man. They started to talk and Jack looked like he was getting frustrated.

Jack said something and the conversation stopped. He pointed to me and the other man slowly turned his head to face me. The man faced Jack again and then nodded his agreement. They shook hands and Jack stood, coming toward me. Before he reached me, though, he stopped and turned back to the man.

He said something and the man looked at him, confused. Jack said something and he nodded again. Then Jack swaggered over to me.

"Sammi, we have somewhere we need to be," Jack said.

I followed him out of the pub and he stopped by the same man who he had spoke with earlier.

"Well, shall we go?" Jack man turned away from us and started walking, not saying a word. We walked through the town, hearing gunshots and seeing many things that I wish I didn't see. Jack had me keep close to him and held my arm in his firm grasp.

Suddenly I felt a tug at my other arm. Eyes wide I saw a man grinning at me and trying to pull me away from Jack.

By then, Jack had stopped and yanked me out of the other man's grasp.

"If you don't mind this woman happens to be with me tonight and I would rather not put your hands on her," Jack growled.I had never seen this side of Jack. His eyes flashed with an anger that could kill a man and his hand seemed to twitch toward the sword at his side.

The man still held a grin, oblivious to the Captain's rage. He didn't let go of my arm.

"What are you going to do about it?" the man asked.

There was no more words for Jack. He whipped out his pistol and pulled the trigger, the man dropped dead. His eyes stared up and he held that grin as he fell onto the ground.

"Let's go," Jack snarled.

He pulled me along and we followed the other man again.

I said nothing. I was too stunned to do anything but follow Jack as he stalked angrily through the town.

The man stopped outside a small house and told us to wait outside. He slid a key in the front door and opened it, leaving us outside.

When he came back, he was carrying a thick paper rolled up. I guessed this was the map Jack was looking for. The man handed it to Jack and he proceeded to stuff it into his vest where it couldn't be seen.

The two men shook hands and then Jack grabbed my arm again and led me back to the Pearl. On the deck, he still didn't let go of my arm.

He walked into his room and made me sit on the bed. Then he took the map from his vest and put it on a table that already held an assortment of things from pens to paper to odd trinkets.

When he was done, Jack knelt in front of me and looked me in the eye.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

His question confused me. Was I okay? Of course I was. "Yeah," I answered.

"Are you sure?" Jack asked.

I nodded. "Why wouldn't I be?"

Jack sighed. "Sammi, I just shot a man dead before you and you didn't utter a word. Not even a little scream. I would think you'd be going into shock or something."

As I thought about his explanation, I realized it made sense. But I wasn't afraid or in shock. I felt safe, as though nothing could ever harm me as long as Jack was around. It felt odd to be so secure around someone. I had always been the one to take care of everyone, now Jack was there to help me.

"Sammi?" Jack asked.

My eyes met his dark brown ones. "I'm fine," I whispered.

Jack pulled me to him and hugged me. It was weird, I didn't hug people, not even my own sisters.

He didn't let go and after a moment I fell into it and hugged him back. Finally he pulled away and looked me in the eyes again, as though making sure I was truly okay.

I gave him a small smile to tell him I was fine.

Jack took my hand and led me back out to the deck. We just stood there, not saying anything.