Disclaimer: I own nothing but Christine and Anne, and all plots involving them. All the rest are the property of Disney, and I am only borrowing them. At least until I manage to steal the rights.

Author's Note: Wow, it has been so long since I last visited this story. I have to say, I never really thought I'd come back to Christine and all her mad plots and such. But recently, Obi's Second Cousin and I have been doing a lot of RPing with the Puck of Gargoyles fame. We came up with the idea that Puck had once taken the form of Jack Sparrow—for further details look at Obi's Second Cousin's wonderful Puck of the Caribbean stories—and then Christine woke up again. So for the first time in almost five years, I'm going to try my hand at writing this story. Hopefully it will be more successful than the last attempt. And now, let the tales begin!

MQMQMQMQMQMQMQMQ

Caribbean Tales

Book I—Curse of the Black Pearl

Chapter One: Living Nightmares and Waking Dreams

I woke to the feeling of icy water lapping against my feet, my clothes soaked from the waist down, and my bodice and hair crusted with sea salt. Slowly opening my eyes, I blinked rapidly and then coughed harshly, my lungs burning as some of the salt water I had swallowed made its way up my throat. Gagging at the taste, I felt my stomach heaved, and only managed to keep myself from being sick through sheer willpower. Groaning softly, I looked around as my eyes slowly regained focus. Then I swore rather creatively.

Not only was I floating on a piece of driftwood in the middle of the ocean, miles away from any sign of life, but I was also with my young brother, William. I had no idea of knowing when we would find another ship, and little memory of what had gotten us into this mess in the first place. All I could do now was wait and pray. Thankfully Will was asleep. The longer he was asleep, the greater chance he had at survival. I dragged myself more fully onto the piece of driftwood, trying to do the same for my brother, but my arms simply would not work that way. They were far too exhausted for some reason, and all I could manage was to pull myself up a few inches before collapsing. It certainly didn't help that my thick skirts were now soaked through, making them weigh almost ten times what they had before. If this kept up, I'd be tempted to lose them altogether, and propriety be damned.

While my brother slept on, I tried to remember what had happened, pushing my brilliant red hair away from my face, sending little bits of dried salt falling to the surface of our makeshift raft. I remembered very little of what had brought us to this point in the last few hours—had it only been hours? Or had I slept for days?

Shaking my head, I closed my eyes tiredly and sighed heavily. I remembered getting onto the ship in London, both Will and I hoping that doing so would bring us that much closer to our father. I had not had much hope of it succeeding, as I knew who and what our father was, but I could not deny that Will's enthusiasm was infectious. We had been forced to save and work for months to get the money for passage, but it had seemed worth it at the time.

Looking around at my surroundings now, I couldn't help but think that perhaps I should reassess how "worth it" all that work from before had been if it ended with Will and I dying in the middle of the ocean.

Either way, we had set out to find our father, and the first several months at sea had been uneventful. I was grateful for that much. I knew that the dangers of pirates were very real, and we were more than lucky to have not run into any for so long. That was when my memory of what had caused Will and I to be floating in the middle of the ocean came flooding back.

Our luck with regards to pirates had come to an abrupt end. Only this morning—or was it yesterday morning? I had no way of knowing—I had woken to wander along the decks of the ship. The fog was growing thick around us, but I had not thought much of it at the time. I should have. I knew better than to just ignore such signs as the ominous fog that surrounded us. Unfortunately, I did not think to make the connection with the fog and our impending doom until it was nearly too late for any of us.

Coming out of the fog had been the one ship I had hoped to never see again in this life. A shudder ran through my spine at the memory and I closed my eyes tightly with a whimper. Now was not the time for me to be so weak, I thought with a frown. I had to be strong for Will, if either of us were to survive another day. Shivering as the cold water sapped the strength from my body, I tried to sit up, but found that I had neither the strength nor the will to do even that simple task. Groaning in exasperation, I swore fluently under my breath before I looked up sharply. I could have sworn that I had heard something…the creaking of a ship's wooden hull, perhaps…I couldn't see anything, but that didn't mean much at this point. I pushed myself up finally and looked up as my guess was proven correct.

The huge hull of a ship of His Majesty's Royal Navy pierced the thick fog surrounding us and very nearly hit the corner of the tiny makeshift raft that Will and I were on. Instead, it simply caused a slight swell in the water that made us rise and fall a little. Up above me I heard the voice of a young girl calling out.

"Look! A boy! There's a boy and a woman in the water!"

"Man overboard!"

I nearly swooned from my exhaustion and the cold finally sweeping over me, but I managed to barely cling to consciousness as Will and I were pulled onto the ship's deck and blankets wrapped around me to keep me warm. I was almost delirious, and I strongly suspected that I was catching a fever, but I managed to stumble closer to my brother, as though my mere presence would keep danger away.

I kept my gaze on Will, not trusting anyone else to take care of him. I'd been tending to him for years by now, after all. No one else knew him quite as well as I did. But my own exhaustion was still pressing against my mind, reminding me just how badly I needed sleep as well at this point. My eyes felt heavy as lead weights as I stayed huddled by my brother, only barely aware of the men surrounding us. It wasn't until I felt a strong hand on my shoulder that I looked up.

The man who had touched my shoulder was a young officer—he couldn't be more than twenty-five years of age—who smiled kindly at me. My mind was too far gone in exhaustion to truly take in his appearance, though I had an idea that he was very handsome. It also took me a moment to realize that he had asked me how I was feeling. I needed sleep so badly, but I couldn't leave Will alone…

"I…I'm well," I mumbled, not wanting to slur my words and give further proof about how tired I was.

Clearly I did not convince him, as he smiled wryly and helped me to my feet. "It will be all right, Miss," he assured me. "We will see to both you and the lad." He paused for a moment to let me gain my balance before continuing. "Might I ask what your name is?"

Of course…name…that was an important fact, wasn't it? "Ch-Christine Turner," I said with a tired nod.

"Then, Miss Turner," the young man said with a polite nod. "Welcome aboard the Dauntless. My name is Lieutenant Norrington. Please, do not hesitate to ask for anything that you need."

I longed to ask for a bed and a hot bath, but I knew how unlikely it was that I would find the latter. I could certainly wash my hair, but not the rest of me. Sighing heavily, I looked over at Will and shivered. "I…we both need rest…" I finally admitted. "If we could have a cabin…?"

"Of course, Miss Turner," Norrington said with a nod. "If you will follow Mr. Gibbs here, he will lead you below decks to one of our free cabins."

I barely managed to thank the kind lieutenant before stumbling after the older man who had been introduced to me as Mr. Gibbs. The cabin was not much, but I was used to smaller quarters than this. All that mattered to me at this point was that there was a bed and I could promptly collapse and find solace in sleep.

MQMQMQMQMQMQMQMQ

I woke again to the familiar rocking motion of the ship, and for one brief moment I wondered if I had only dreamed the last three years, or if I had actually never left my father's side. Then I spotted Will sleeping peacefully away and I knew that I had truly seen the merchant vessel we had been passengers on attacked by the one ship I had hoped to never see again. Shuddering at the memory, I looked away hastily in case Will should wake and see my fear. I knew that I had t be strong for him; I'd been doing just that for two years.

Slowly standing, I was pleased to see that there were fresh clothes laid out along with a bucket of water for the purpose of washing. There were no women's clothes on the pile, but I did not mind that in the least. I found skirts and such to hamper my movement far too much for me to ever be comfortable in them. Ensuring that Will was unlikely to wake anytime soon, I stripped down to my undergarments—which were just as salt-encrusted as the rest of my clothes, but there was modesty to consider—and knelt by the bucket of water. My long hair, which felt hard and crusty under my hands, would be the first thing to be cleaned.

I couldn't do much, but by the time I had at least rinsed and scrubbed my hair as much as I could, it once more felt soft to the touch. Wrapping my wet hair in a scrap of blanket to keep it from dripping, I slowly began pulling on the clothes left to me. It felt so wonderful to be free of those heavy skirts that had hampered my movements, and I almost laughed out loud. Gathering up the clothing I had been wearing when I was rescued, I checked on Will again and smiled as I saw the color had returned to his face.

Now sure that he was fine, I left the cabin to find someone who could help me deal with these old clothes. Perhaps the cook could do the laundry…

I was so caught up in what I was doing and thinking that I almost ran into two small girls, perhaps ten years of age, though the darker-haired girl looked at least a year younger than her companion. Stumbling back in surprise, I smiled weakly at the two of them. The older of the two girls had quite a prim and proper look to her, like she had been born to privilege and was well aware of just how well off she was. Her younger friend, on the other hand, had the humble look of a girl who had once been less privileged than she was currently, and as such instantly hung back in the shadows of her richer friend. They were both very pretty children, with their hair carefully curled into perfect ringlets, as was the popular style now, and the darker-haired girl had brilliantly blue eyes that made me want to smile at her with how sweet they were.

"So sorry," I murmured, holding my salt-covered clothes tight. Something about the older, blonde-haired girl made me feel dirty for simply carrying my own dirty clothing. "I didn't see the two of you."

The younger girl bobbed a hasty curtsy and nodded. "Quite all right, Miss…" she said slowly, eyeing me curiously. "You were the one who was pulled out of the water, weren't you?" she asked with a slow smile.

"Yes, I was," I said with a smile of my own.

"Oh, yes. You were the one with the boy," the blonde girl stated, quite as though she had all the authority in the world behind her.

"…Yes…" I replied slowly, dragging out the word. "Sadly I don't know your names…"

"I'm Anne!" the younger girl said with another brilliant smile. "My brother was the officer who saved you from the water."

Oh…that was why she seemed so familiar. She had the same jawline as the handsome lieutenant who had been so kind to me. And her eyes were very similar to his, now that I thought about it. The other girl, however, I had no idea who she was, but she did not seem willing to tell me who she was.

"And this is Elizabeth Swann," Anne continued, still smiling that sweet smile. "Her papa is going to be the governor of Port Royal."

And that served as an explanation for why the girl was so very…aloof. I nodded politely to the young girl, feeling very much as though she was looking down her nose at me. At least Anne was a polite little girl.

"If you will excuse me," I said with a smile. "I was hoping to find a way to deal with these…" I indicated my clothes.

"I can help!" Anne exclaimed happily. "Follow me!"

I did so with a smile, watching Anne dance along through the crowds of sailors, who all seemed merely amused by her as they watched her. I followed as closely as I could, laughing as we entered the galley, where Anne came up to the cook with a beaming smile.

"Hello," she greeted the large man happily. "Miss Turner needs her dress cleaned. Can you do that?"

The cook looked more than a little amused as he looked from the child to me, nodding. "Aye, Miss. I think I can," he said, taking the dress from me with a wink. "For such pretty faces, I'd go out of my way to do much more laundry than this."

I managed to blush at this and rolled my eyes. I knew all about dealing with sailors, after all, and he was one of the least harmful to approach me. Anne looked pleased with her work in convincing him to clean my dress and skipped off, taking my hand in hers to pull me along. I couldn't help but feel the eyes of many of the crew members on me as I walked. No doubt it was because of my very unusual attire. I tried to ignore it as much as I could, but when I noticed young Lieutenant Norrington looking at me, I began to blush, and I had no idea why.

"James!" Anne called happily, rushing over to the young man and hugging him around the middle. "I was just taking Miss Turner to get her dress cleaned."

And now I knew Lieutenant Norrington's first name. James…it suited him, I thought to myself, standing with my hands clasped in front of my like any proper girl of my age should. Not that I was any proper girl, but there was no need for me to parade that fact around.

I watched Norrington with his sister, and I was surprised by the tenderness in his manner towards her. He returned her hug with a smile that completely changed the lines of his face from harsh and masculine to soft and fatherly, and he even knelt down so that he was at her eye-level. This behavior reminded me of my father and how he would greet me every day when I was a child.

Seeing such a tender moment, I began to feel as though I was trespassing. Slowly backing away, I started to turn away when I heard Norrington's voice stopping me.

"You do not need to leave, Miss Turner," he said slowly. "How is young William recovering?"

"Oh, yes," I said with a nod. "Will is my little brother."

Norrington blinked in surprise at this, and nodded slowly, as though still trying to process this. "I…I see," he said slowly. "I assumed…with how greatly concerned you were…"

"Of course I was concerned," I replied. "I have been raising Will since our mother died two years ago."

That impressed him, clearly, and he looked down at his sister with a slight smile. He had a handsome smile, I noticed to my embarrassment. I should not be so attracted to him. He was a man far above me in station, and a sailor in His Majesty's Navy. That made him a danger to me in more ways than I cared to think of. Out of habit, my left hand moved to cover my right wrist, even though it was already hidden by the sleeves of the shirt that had been left in my cabin. Not since I was fourteen had I been so grateful that men's shirts were so loose and large on me. Sighing heavily, I tried to ignore how handsome Norrington was.

It wasn't an easy task, but I felt that I did a satisfactory job as I ducked my head politely. "And my brother is doing well," I said with a slight smile. "I hope that he will be waking soon. If he has not already."

My accent and speech pattern also seemed to impress Norrington. I was not a girl who was obviously from a high social class, so it was rather odd that I had developed a tone and accent similar to an educated woman. That was a conscious effort on my part. For the last three years, I had been trying to make myself sound more educated than I truly was, in an attempt to hide just how illiterate I truly was. It was…embarrassing to me. My family had never had enough to allow me to attend any form of schooling. I could barely read anything beyond my own name! The last thing I wanted was for anyone to be aware of how uneducated I was. I certainly did not want to sound like the cabin boy I had once pretended to be.

But that was an entirely different story.

"Excuse me, Lieutenant," I said quietly, bobbing a curtsey and smiling weakly. "I think I will go check on Will right now…"

Without lifting my head to see if Norrington had bowed in response, I hurried away and sighed to myself. I hadn't let myself think of those memories in two years…perhaps I should, given what I had seen before the merchant ship had been attacked. Yes…it was time to face my past. At least then I would be able to know if Barbossa had been following me when he attacked the merchant vessel.