A/N: My first Pirates fic. When I write I do so more like a book, probably from reading so much so sorry if you find me giving too much detail. Anyway there's no slash here at all and as usual, I try to stay with canon as much as possible. I honestly only have an idea in my head so I don't really know where this story is going. All I know is that I got the idea from both OST and the book "Pirates of The Caribbean: The Price of Freedom" by AC Crispin which I thought was an awesome book. Please Review, I'll read it and base my next chapters on what you say. Also, if you want to imagine how Jack looks in this story, just think of Johnny Depp with little or no facial hair.

Captain Jack Sparrow was a deckhand on a ship which he had never sailed, with a crew he didn't know.

That was fine by Jack though. That was the point.

He was on a ship whose name, Jack thought, was very unoriginal. He didn't have enough fingers to count the number of ships he had encountered called "The Adventure." But that was the name of this ship and there was nothing Jack could do about it.

He was on The Adventure because he was headed to New Orleans. There he would find a man who was very powerful in the ways of magic. Jack was told this man could rival Tia Dalma and as such could get the Black Pearl out of its bottle.

Jack really hoped that was true. He and Joshamee Gibbs had exhausted every option they could think of to get it out, short of breaking the bottle and all attempts had failed.

After the tragic and heartbreaking last failure, Gibbs and Jack had made a plan.

Gibbs would stay in Tortuga with the Black Pearl In A Bottle, buried in a locked chest under the wooden floor of Gibbs small cabin that overlooked Tortuga Harbor. Gibbs would hold all of Jacks possessions that were worth any value that Jack was taking. If Jack wasn't back in one year, Gibbs had every right to claim them on his own. Gibbs was as broke as Jack was so if got to claim Jacks things, he could sell them too.

Meanwhile Jack would sail with a crew of a cargo ship to New Orleans, find the magic man and bring him to Tortuga either by force or by bribery, earning money along the way. He was broke.

The plan, Jack thought, was flawless. But while some plans can be flawless, they can also come with obstacles at the same time.

Jack's face, description, and list of crimes were tacked to walls and dock posts in every British, French and EITC ports all over the world. Anyone that wasn't blind was sure to recognize him, which is why Jack did something that shocked Gibbs.

He changed his appearance.

Jack once had long dreadlocked hair with trinkets and souvenirs from past adventures that hung down and bobbed and made noise as he moved. Now his hair was short, so short only the back barely fell to the stop of his neck. It itched. And Jack found himself missing the noise of the trinkets.

He no longer had kohl lined eyes. They burned from the sun.

He was clean shaven. He once had a mustache and beard that were the envy of every pirate. Now he had neither a beard nor a mustache. Just baby smooth skin that showed scars Jack didn't realize he had.

Jack used to have a scarf that we wore wrapped around his body at his waist. He also used to have belts that he used to keep his pistols within reach there too. His Compass used to hang off one of the belts next to his sword which was held in Jacks brown baldric.

Now Jack was wearing his knee high folded over boots with his trousers tucked in and a white puffy shirt that Jack buttoned up to look his most professional. The shirts sleeves were not long enough to cover his whole arm so Jack had cut fabric into a large bracelet like thing that covered his Pirate Brand, the "P", and his tattoo of a Sparrow. Those were definitely ways people would notice him. As for the other tattoos, well Jack wasn't worried too much about them. They were common enough, that they weren't unique to Jack.

That was it. He no longer wore rings or any jewelry. No baldric (he couldn't carry weapons on the ship anyway), no scarf, no compass, and no bandana.

Jack missed that red bandana the most. But having it on made the risk of being recognized greater. Very few people had seen Jack with it off, and only some of them were still alive.

Jack still had it though. It had too many useful uses to give up altogether so Jack kept it in the same place he kept the rest of his possessions. In a leather bag which held one change of clothes, a large and full canteen of water, six flasks of rum, his two pistols with extra shots, a razor and lye soap. The soap he carried because he had to care about his hygiene now.

With a new appearance came a new name. "Captain Jack Sparrow" was hiding from the law on the Island of Madagascar as far as Jack was concerned. His new identity was Mark Thatch and Mark Thatch was a strong sailor who kept to himself and out of trouble.

"Mark Thatch" swabbed and scrubbed the decks, tied lines, repaired sails, moved cannons and anything else he was told to do and he never questioned it or complained. Jack could not afford to get himself into trouble, especially since the officers had no qualms about using the cat-o-nine-tails even on sailors who joined the crew with the intent to sail to one port and back one time.

The Adventure was a merchant vessel that was independent of the East India Trading Company. Jack was happy to hear that the crew, sailors and officers alike, had nothing but nasty things to say about the EITC and wished they could go about their business without the company's interference.

On this day the air was hot and the sailors were sweaty. Jack was minding his own business while he gave the wood of the quarter deck railings a fresh coat of white paint. Jack had every intention of keeping his clothes free of white stains and he focused on only putting enough paint for the wood each time he dunked the brush in the bucket of paint.

Jack was focused, but a shout from a man sitting in the crow's nest made Jack drip spots of white onto his boots. He cursed but not because of his boots. The man had shouted "Pirate Flag!"

The crew all stopped what they were doing and moved themselves so they could scan the water for the flag that they all feared. Jack did the same and spotted it on the Port side.

Counting the tide, the wind, the speed of The Adventure, the type of vessel the approaching ship was, Jack estimated they'd be within "Heaving too" position in thirty minutes.

The First Mate had gone to the Captain for orders and now he was relaying them as loud as he could. Men were climbing the ratlines in order to drop more sail for more speed.

Jack liked that idea. It was better to run from a fight, than take part in it.

But after six minutes Jack could see the approaching ship with his naked eye. To his dismay it was the "Queen Anne's Revenge." That meant Jack was most likely waiting for a meeting with his sometimes friend-most time foe Captain Hector Barbossa.

Jack gulped. Last time he saw Barbossa, the one legged man had killed Blackbeard and was nice enough to leave the Fountain of Youth with Jack still alive. And the time before that Barbossa had let Jack live and had only taken The Pearl. In Jack's experience his luck ran out at three times and Jack didn't think Barbossa was that merciful.

And apparently he was right. The Adventure came to life. The lines unloosened there selves and began stalking and tightening around frightened sailors. Jack was no different and he found himself tied to railing that was nowhere near dry. The rope had twisted itself around Jacks waist and the railing and forced Jack's hands behind his back. The more he struggled the more it tightened. Jack got the picture and relaxed. He was sure he was starting to bleed where the rope tightened around his wrists.