A/N: Hi everyone! I'm just floored by the positive feedback I've gotten so far, so I just wanted to thank everyone who's read this story by putting up this chapter. I apologize for it being shorter than the last chapter, but I this is where I really wanted to stop. I've finished writing chapter 3 already; I'll put it up sometime next week?

I want to thank And we danced in the rain23, StoryAddict, Lost-puppyEyes, The World of My Creation, Who is Toast, OllyGoughBritely, jkmk, MAB35, Gally 619, and Avanell for your reviews! It's because you guys that I've decided to continue this story!

Disclaimer: I am not Jane Austen, and I don't own any of her wonderfully witty Elizabeth Bennett, or extremely hot William Darcy, or any of the characters you recognize in this story!

Last chapter:

The captain turned to face her again. "Yes, I'm a monster. What'd you expect? A noble? A prince? This is a pirate ship lad. Not a tea party. Welcome to the Georgiana. "

"Such a beautiful ship should not be in the hands of a filthy pirate." The captain slapped her hard, drawing blood.

She spit it in his face. "Fuck you."

He snarled. "Take him to the brig. No one is to touch him."

___

Apparently pirates know how to bend the rules. A group of pirates, two of them were the ones that she had knocked out, came to harass her everyday. They'd threaten beat her through the bars, but she knew they were empty threats, and would taunt her as she sat there, throwing insults back at them. They were wasted on them, however, for most of them didn't understand what she was saying. Their brains were probably the size of peas. Or nonexistent.

To say that she was bored was an understatement. She longed for some intelligent conversation, a cup of tea, and a good book. The wall wasn't a very good conversationalist. However, the wall was definitely more interesting than most of the crewmembers. Their lame attempt at insulting her with "shrimp," or "fish food" bounced off of her and only succeeded in making her roll her eyes towards the direction of the stupid pirates.

She knew she could escape whenever she wanted; she had a pin that she kept in her hair at all times, but she wasn't sure where she would escape to. How could she escape off of a ship in the middle of the ocean? She couldn't very well swim for god knows how many miles to land. She had considered sneaking into the captain's cabin and threatening him, but she knew without a distraction, she'd be spotted and dragged right back into the smelly cell before she could say "crumpet."

Nevertheless, Lizzie loved to take risks, and even though her plan had a success rate of 0.01%, she still went for it. And perhaps they'd be close to land. She doubted it. But hey, it was worth a shot.

Needless to say, she was dragged back into her cell within five minutes. With her luck, the thug she had kicked in the family jewels had seen her sneaking out, and he apparently hadn't forgiven her for it. Even when she had suggested a kind "No hard feelings, right?" he merely grunted and dragged her back to the cell. Apparently pirates liked holding grudges. Geez.

She tried again two days later, but was dragged back within two minutes. Apparently the captain had gotten word of it and told his crew to watch out for her. This happened another five times, until the captain finally paid a personal visit to her lovely jail cell. Oh what an honor.

"Can you stay in here or do I have to bind you?" He growled out.

"Or you can let me work."

"What? Why would I let you do that?"

"Because I'm a skilled worker. And plus even if you tied me up, I'd still find a way to escape."

"Or maybe I should feed you to the fishes."

"You wouldn't do that." She said confidently.

"Really?"

"You wouldn't have waited this long. Besides, with my amazing wit and endless intelligence, I'd find a way to get back on this ship."

The captain remained emotionless.

"I may not like you at all, but I hate to see such a beautiful ship in the horrible condition you keep her in."

She saw the captain's eye twitch.

"You have gaping holes in your mast."

His normal blank stare looked back at her.

"Plus your deck looks like it hasn't been cleaned since your great-great grandfather was alive."

She saw the captain's lip twitch.

"The food tastes like horse dung."

"And I suppose you know what horse dung tastes like?"

Lizzie made a face. "I shall never disclose my secrets."

The captain's lip twitched again.

They stared at each other for a few minutes, until the captain finally gave in.

"Alright. Fitz!" he barked. A middle-aged man with brown hair sauntered over with a bright smile on his face. Lizzie decided that she liked this man, pirate or not.

"Take it. It's under your orders."

"Oh, I'm an 'it' now? Gee thanks." Lizzie muttered sarcastically.

The captain didn't say anything.

"Can't I take the crow's nest?"

"No. You'll lead us into a storm for all I know."

"Then you're a horrible and extremely stupid captain."

The man named Fitz threw his head back with laughter. "I like you lad."

The captain rolled his eyes and walked out of the cell.

____

Lizzie grunted as she lifted the ninth bucket up to the deck. She was really beginning to dislike Fitz. He had immediately given her the near impossible task of scrubbing the decks, and the crew wasn't making it any easier for her. They had spit on the deck whenever she'd cleaned one area, and she was really tempted to knock them out with a bucket. She knew she was capable of doing so.

She groaned as the muscles in her back cramped up as she bent down again.

Two hours later, Lizzie collapsed on the ground, exhausted. She'd finally finished one part of the ship. The ship was squeaky clean after she removed many, many years of dirt, grime, spit, and most likely blood. She was about to doze off when she heard Fitz's arguing with the captain.

"Why don't you just give the lad a chance? He's a very hard-worker."

"I'll give him a chance once he shows that he's capable of having responsibility."

"He's cleaned the deck. Come on Darcy, you know that this deck hasn't been this clean since it was made! He's willing to try!"

"I don't trust a boy who glares at me everything I walk by."

"Well, you're not exactly a ball of sunshine when it comes to meeting new people." Lizzie snorted. That was an understatement.

"I'm his captain. I demand respect."

"Come on Darce! Just give him a chance."

"No. I don't even know why I decided to spare his life. He's not skilled at anything, and he's incapable of being of any help on this ship. He's becoming more of a nuisance."

"Aw. Don't say that Darce."

"Captain."

"You know I don't call you that. We're cousins Darce." Fitz patted him on the back cheerfully.

The captain didn't say anything.

Lizzie ignored her protesting muscles as she picked herself up, grabbed the damn bucket and mop, and proceeded to walk past the captain and Fitz, towards the other side of the boat, making sure the mop, which she was holding upside down, hit the back of the Captain's head as she walked by. She heard a pleasant squelch noise as it hit his head, and a loud curse as the Captain reacted to the nasty mop that had just surprise attacked him from behind.

Lizzie smirked.

That'll show him.

---

Days passed, and Lizzie was beginning to earn the respect of some of the pirates.

Well, maybe not respect, but they certainly stopped calling her "fish food" or "shrimp," so she considered that a big step already.

On the other hand, she ignored her captain, often finding ways around his orders until she was finally assigned to the crow's nest. She was convinced that he only assigned her there so that she would be as far away from him as possible. But hey, she wasn't going to complain. It certainly made hiding her gender much easier. She often stayed there till nightfall, sometimes even sleeping up there. It took some getting used to, but after stealing some pillows, she had made the crow's nest her own personal space.

She was very good at spotting things off the distance; her perfect vision allowed her to see things from farther away than anyone else on the ship. Even the Captain knew it. He just would never admit it.

But even the best watcher makes mistakes, and surprises come when you least expect it.

Lizzie woke up from a nap in the crow's nest hearing the Captain yelling at her from the deck.

"Lance! What've you been doing up there? You're supposed to watch out for the ship! Not drive us into a storm!"

Lizzie dropped down the crow's nest by sliding down a rigging.

"A storm? It was bright and sunny two hours ago!"

"Well it's obviously not anymore!"

Lizzie jumped when she heard the loud rumble of thunder and the bright flash of lightning.

Apparently most of the shipmates were just as shocked by the sudden thunderstorm and they rushed out of the cabins and went to make themselves useful.

It was going to a nasty storm.

"Lance! Get below deck." The captain barked at him.

"Why? I'm a member of this ship. I'm going to help."

"You won't be of any help when you're sitting on the bottom of the ocean. Now go below deck."

Lizzie glared at him and stayed put. "Since I'm just a nuisance and have no skill, wouldn't it be better if I were to die in this storm? You'd be rid of me."

"Get below deck. NOW."

Lizzie stood her ground.

"FITZ! Get him below deck. And make sure he doesn't leave until the storm is over."

Lizzie struggled against Fitz's strong grip as he dragged her below deck.

"Sorry mate. Captain always has his reasons." Fitz smiled apologetically as he threw her into the room before running back up to help the other crewmembers on the deck, but not before locking the damn door.

The boat lurched and Lizzie fell against the locked door, bashing her shoulder. That was going to hurt in the morning. It was one hell of a storm, and she knew that it must've been utter chaos on deck. She heard the creaking of the ship as it struggled against the mighty force of the ocean.

It was an ongoing battle between the ship and the ocean, and Lizzie was stuck below deck, swaying, struggling to keep balance.

She heard men shouting up above and she cursed the captain for locking her below deck in the storage closet next to the kitchen.

It also didn't help that she was claustrophobic. On a ship. In the middle of a storm. In a dark, enclosed room without windows. She couldn't help but wonder what would happen if the ship sunk, and she was stuck in this room. She'd really become fish food.

Lizzie's breathing quickened. Her heart was beating out of her chest. Her eyes grew wide and tears streamed down her face as she frantically looked around the tiny, dark space.

She had to get out.

Reaching for the pin in her hair again, she quickly unlocked the door. No one heard the loud bang when the door slammed into the wall as Lizzie escaped. She ran on the deck and was immediately drenched by the rain.

The waves continually bashed into the ship, threatening to overturn it. It was worse than she imagined. The crewmembers were running around, trying to help, even though they didn't know what to do. It was utter chaos. She quickly grabbed a rigging that threatened to loosen and pulled, trying to tighten it, only to drop the rope as her shoulder protested.

"Lance!" The captain yelled. "What the hell are you doing on deck? Why didn't you stay where I told you to?!" The captain inquired angrily, grabbing the rigging that she had let go of.

"I don't like being out of the action." Lizzie said defiantly, her voice faltering, revealing how truly terrified she was. A shocking combination of thunder and lightning illuminated the ground long enough for him to see the fear in her eyes. He knew something was wrong.

His hand moved towards the rope around his waist. "There's no time to find another rope for you."

Both of them froze when they heard the roar of a wave. The brief lightning flash allowed them to see briefly how high the wave was.

Lizzie looked at the captain who was wide-eyed and staring right back at her. She saw horror in his eyes a mere second before the wave crashed down on the ship.

____ (Darcy POV)

Shit! He lunged forward and reached out for the lad's hand, but the water reached the ship and engulfed everything. He couldn't see anything, and by the time the water retreated, the boy was gone. Cursing under his breath, he quickly untied his rope and jumped overboard.

It was a stupid move, and he knew that he might not make it out of this alive, but he had to save her.

He went underwater, looking frantically around for the boy.

"Lance!" he yelled.

His head went down again. Nothing.

"Lance!"

He ducked down underwater quickly before another wave knocked into him.

"Damn it! ELIZABETH!"

It was then he saw something sinking. Squinting underwater, he swam towards it.

Elizabeth!

He grabbed her and quickly brought her above water.

"Hold on Elizabeth!"

A/N: Uh oh! Did you see that coming? Hmm how did Darcy find out? I don't know, I guess you'll just have to review and tell me your ideas on how you think he found out and I'll think about revealing that information to you in the next chapter!

The same goes everyone! Please review and I'll love you forever and always!

Until next chapter!