A/N – Just a little story I came up with while not getting to sleep. Hopefully it'll go somewhere.

Disclaimer – I don't own Johnny or the mouse.

Chapter 1

April 25, 1625

Dear Journal,

I went down to the docks yesterday. There were so many ships, some being loaded for departure, but most just there in port. Oh, how I wished to stow way on one and rid myself of this miserable life. Father's beatings are getting worse, he's more drunk more often. I'm scared for my life; I don't want to end up like Gabrielle.

Josh came home to visit me about a week ago. He's had to sneak in since Father kicked him out. I keep telling him to forget it, he doesn't need to risk it to come and see me. He never listens though. He tells me stories about his adventures as part of the Queen's Revenges' crew. He keeps telling me that he'll get me out of this house and take me with him, but I doubt Captain Ravenwood would let a woman on board. Ah well, I'll just have to keep dreaming I guess.

Father's coming, I must go.

Hanna

I closed my journal and hurriedly shoved it under my mattress. I could hear Father stomping noisily down the hall, and if he caught me with the journal he would destroy it. When he was sober, he would threaten me not to tell anyone what he did to me, so any recount that I made had to be hidden. I planned to take my collection of descriptions of his beatings and such to General Collins, the father of my dear friend Jacob, but I feared that I didn't have enough yet.

"Hanna!" I heard my Father call. I promptly opened the door.

"Yes Father?" I asked politely.

"Here. Take this." He shoved some money in my hand, "and go to the store. We're out of rum." His words slurred together a little, I suspected that he just drank the last of what we had.

"Yes Father." I slipped past him and down the stairs.

"And don't waste time at Jacob's house! I want you to come straight home." He shouted after me. He didn't like me being friends with Jacob. He thought that we were 'in love' or something, but that's not true. Jacob's too much like a brother for me to feel that way about him.

I exited the house and literally ran into Jacob. He was on the front step preparing to knock on the front door.

"Oh I'm sorry." He said, catching me before I hit the ground. I just came here to see if you wanted to go to the docks with me. There's a new ship in port, and I wanted to check it out.

"I would love to, but I have to run an errand for Father." I said, and began walking down the street.

"He drank the last of what you had again?" he asked, falling into step next to me.

"Yes, and if I'm late getting home again he'll….." I shuddered. "I don't want to think about it."

"You know, you really should do something about what he does. Tell my father." He stepped ahead of me and stopped me, holding onto my shoulders.

"I want to, and you know I plan to, but I don't have enough evidence yet."

"Hanna, my father will believe you! He knows how your father gets when he's drunk! It won't be hard to give him what he deserves!"

"Fine." I said, pushing past him, "I'll go to General Collins tomorrow."

"How many times do I have to tell you, he's not General Collins, he's Rodger. Just call him by his first name already."

"I can't, it wasn't how I was brought up." He sighed, and stopped walking.

"What is it?" I asked.

"We're here."

"Oh," I mumbled. I felt foolish for not paying attention to my surroundings. I walked up to the door, and entered the shabby little shop.

"Good afternoon Miss Ricks. What can I do for you today?" Ryan asked as I approached the counter.

"As much rum as this can buy." I sighed and placed my father's money on the counter and turned to Jacob, who had followed me inside.

"Yes miss." And Ryan proceeded to the back room. As I waited, I thought about the new ship in port that Jacob talked about. I hadn't heard of anyone headed for port, and there were no ships on the horizon yesterday. It must be a fast ship that came on overnight, or I would've seen it yesterday while I was at the docks. I felt someone tap my shoulder; Ryan was back from the store room. Snapping out of my thoughts, I turned to the counter. Ryan had brought out some bottles of rum and another different bag.

"It wasn't a lot of money to begin with, so I can't give you much rum." Ryan said, and started to place the bottles in a crate.

I picked up the other bag and went to open it. Pulling out a banana, I looked at Ryan.

"That's for you." He said, pausing in his work to look up at me. "I figured you'd want something decent to eat at your house. With your father spending all his money on rum, there mustn't be much left for good food." He tossed another apple in the bag.

"Thanks." I mumbled, grabbing the bag. Jacob picked up the crate of bottles and turned towards the door. I went to follow when Ryan called me back.

"If you ever need anything, just let me know. I'm actually going to have a job opening here soon if you want it; you can make some extra cash." He offered, grabbing the broom to sweep the floor.

"I don't know, I'll have to talk to Father." Even though it didn't look very promising, I would ask him the next time he was sober. That would probably be when I got home, since we were out of rum.

Jacob and I left the little shop and headed back to my house in silence. I know he hated what happened to me, and I figured he was thinking about it. I let my mind wander as I walked the familiar route home. When we arrived at the house, I stopped at the front door and turned to face him.

"I think it's best that you stay out here. Father probably won't be in a good mood since he couldn't get drunk today. I'll come back out to get the rum. Thanks for your help carrying it home." I turned to enter the house but he caught me on the arm before I could go anywhere.

"Meet me at the docks in an hour. I'll be at our dock." I nodded and he let go and left.

I entered the house and quickly ran up to my room to hide the bag of food. I ran back to the front stoop and carried in the crate of rum. I brought it into the kitchen and set it on the table. After unloading it, I placed the crate by the front door so I would remember to return it to Ryan, and went up to my room. And hour later, I left, and not wanting to be confronted by Father, I quickly ran down the street towards the docks. I headed for the dock that Jacob and I always sat at, and saw that he was already there. The new ship in port was right by where we were. Gazing towards it and wondering who was here, my thoughts were interrupted by a familiar voice behind me.

"Good afternoon Miss Ricks." I turned and saw General Collins standing behind me and Jacob. I sprang to my feet and gave him a hug. "I'm glad to see you too." He chuckled, hugging me back. I pulled away and look over to the new ship in port.

"Do you know who that is?" I asked, knowing that he probably knew.

"Honestly, no I don't." He said, following my gaze to the mysterious ship." "It's no one that anyone here knows, some traveler who probably came to restock on supplies. His ship is unbelievably fast, faster than the Interceptor in Port Royal. He just showed up about seven this morning. I haven't seen anyone leave the ship, and I've been watching it all day. It's very peculiar."

I walked towards the ship, fully intent on boarding it to see if anyone was on it.

"Where are you going?" Jacob asked, catching up to me.

"I'm going to go and see if anyone is on the ship."

"No. Are you crazy?" It wasn't Jacob this time, but his father who stopped me. "You have no idea who's on that ship. For all we know it's some murderous pirate waiting for someone to come looking."

'All the more reason to check it out.' I thought, but my actions followed what Collins said. I turned away and changed the subject.

"Think you can teach me how to crew a ship?" I asked, hoping that he would say yes. Not many people liked having women aboard, it's rumored to be bad luck, but a women with experience might have a better chance of getting on a ship.

"Sure. Jacob, you can come too. You did your chores today." We left the dock and headed to one of the naval ships not in use.

"Go to the ship." Abner mumbled, watching the girl get up and turn towards the ship. "Go…..damn." she turned away and walked to the naval officer. He watched her walk away after asking to be taught about sailing. He ran back to the ship, taking care that no one saw him. He ran to the captain's cabin and burst in.

"Didn't I say to knock when you want to talk to me Abner?" A man sitting at the desk said irritably.

"I'm sorry, sir, but I have news on the girl." Abner gasped.

"Tell me." The man said, turning around.

"Well, I'm pretty sure that this is the girl we want. She fits the description we were given." Abner said, pulling out the piece of paper with the description on it. After a minute of silence, he spoke up again. "Captain Finnley?"

"We'll get her tonight. Prepare a cabin for her. She needs to be comfortable if she's going to cooperate. Now leave." Abner left.

"Father?" I asked, slowly walking into the kitchen. I was nervous; it was past my curfew. I tip-toed into the room, and relaxed when I saw him passed out at the table, a bottle of rum in his hand. The rest of the bottles I had gotten that day were unopened. "Geez, is it really that strong?" I mumbled, and I lifted the bottle gently from his hands and placed it on the table. It was only half empty. "C'mon dad let's get you into bed." I heaved him up, and started to guide him down the hallway. He mumbled, and helped me a little by using his feet to shuffle down the hall towards his room. I decided to move his room downstairs because it was easier to get him to bed if I didn't have to drag him upstairs. I laid him on the bed, and he was out cold.

"So much for asking about getting that job." I mumbled, and left to go to bed.

The next morning brought many things. Father wasn't up when I left just before sunrise to head to the docks. He never was awake at this time, and he was out cold last night so he wouldn't wake up for a while. I was safe to do what I wanted until mid-day. I headed to the docks, and noticed that the new ship was still there, and Jacob was there too. I sat down next to him on the dock.

"Why are you here? You're never here in the morning." I asked, looking at the eastern horizon. The first of the sun's rays was just peeking over the water line, turning the water a reddish-gold color.

"I wanted to watch the sunrise. Is that such a crime?" He flashed me a grin and gave me a one-armed hug. "Good morning to you to."

I hugged him back but looked at him after pulling away. "I thought your dad made you stop coming to see the sunrises when he realized you used to meet Alexandra after."

"Yeah, well that was awhile ago, it's different now. As long as I come home right after and immediately do all my chores for the day, I can come and watch it with you again."

"Oh." I mumbled. Truthfully I was a little disappointed. I had told Collins about Alexandra because I knew he would stop him from coming, and I liked watching the sunrise alone. It was the only time I didn't have some guy with me, weather it be Jacob, Collins, Ryan, or my Father. It was the only time I could really think about certain things. We sat in silence for the rest of the magical sunrise, and when it had fully risen, Jacob got up.

"Well, it's about time for me to get going. Want to meet back here later and watch the ships?" He asked, sounding hopeful.

"I can't." I lied. I had spent everyday of the past week with Jacob, and I wanted some time to myself, I just didn't know how to say it. "I have to clean the house. It's getting really grungy and Father will have a fit if it's not clean when he sobers up. Besides, he's going to have a really bad hangover and needs someone to look out for him today."

"Ok, well I see you tomorrow then." He turned and left. I thought I detected a little bit of hurt in his eyes as he left, but I quickly pushed aside. That moment, I heard a noise come from behind me in the trees. I stood up and sprung around, only to come face-to-face with a not so friendly looking man.

"Why hello Hanna. Will you come with me please?" He asked, grabbing onto my arm and pulling me off the dock. I struggled, trying to get out of his grip. "Don't even think about screaming. There's no point, no one will hear you. And besides, either you come or your mother dies."

I froze. How did this guy know about my mother? She disappeared years ago, even I don't know what happened to her. I thought, and stopped struggling.

"See? That's a good girl." He kept pulling me along, and I noticed we were headed for the strange new ship. He pushed me aboard, and led me to one of the cabins below deck. He knocked three times on the door, and entered, dragging me behind him. "Captain Finnley? Our guest has arrived."