Authors Note: The Dutch West India Company actually existed. It was a sister company to the East India trading company.

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Jack was pacing his cabin.

"Soldiers?" asked Gibbs in horror, "In Tortuga?"

Jack nodded, "aye, it's a crying shame."

"It is that," replied Gibbs. He shook his head and swigged from a hip flask. He looked up as Ana Maria kicked the door open. "Captain," she said, "you might want to see something."

"Something that requires you to burst into my private quarters?" Jack asked.

Ana Maria just motioned with her head. Jack sighed and followed her out onto the deck.

She led him onto the quarter deck. There was a girl lying against the railings behind Cotton who was holding the wheel. He crouched down beside her and brushed the hair off her face; it was the girl from Tortuga. "Oh bugger," he said again. He straightened up, "err, Ana Maria, you look after her, then we'll drop her off next time we make port."

Ana Maria quickly protested, "I'll be too busy, do you want this ship to fall apart just because I had to look after another one of your whores?"

Jack caught the venom in her voice and knew why it was there. They had a history of course. Jack had a history with most of the women in the Caribbean. It had been along time ago.

Ana pickled up the basket of dry washing and carried it into the house. Her mother was sick and the chores were down to her now. She placed the basket down and went into the other room of the two room house. Her mother lay on the dirty, thin sheets. Her eyes were shut and her brow furrowed in pain. She was asleep but tossed and murmured in fitful dreams. Ana watched her mother with tears in her eyes but none fell. A bang on the door jerked her back from her thoughts. She angrily dragged her ragged sleeve across her eyes and went to open the door. Outside stood two soldiers. They frowned at her.

"By declaration of the Dutch West India Company this…house…is being repossessed to pay off your unpaid taxes which have escalated over a year. You have two days to vacate the house. If you fail in this, you will guilty of thievery from the empire and will face hanging." They turned and started to walk away. Ana Maria ran after them and grabbed their sleeves. "Please," she begged. "My mother is sick, she can't be moved. I'll get you the money." One shook her off in disgust and tried to leave. The other looked at her, he was young and he hadn't been with the company long. "Mr Bourke, sir," he started but the other man cut him off.

"It's the way it is," he snapped, "you can't go getting attached to every waif that crosses the path of the law."

The younger man turned back to Ana Maria, "I'll see what I can do but I can't promise anything. Have the money by the two-day deadline and you should be alright. The older man shook his head and walked off, the younger man rushing after him.

Ana Maria had tried. But she'd wanted to stay clean; she didn't want to end up like the women who stood on street corners with dead eyes and bottles of liquor, pleasing any man who wanted it as long as there was a coin in the deal. She'd tried everything else though; selling flowers, then pastries, fishing from her boat, begging in the streets and from neighbours, singing in bars, but when the time came the money she'd raised had not been enough. The soldiers had called and she had offered them her savings. One had laughed, "You'll be lucky, you couldn't buy the door for that much." They had arrested her and her mother and put them in a cell to await their fate the next morning. Her mother had died in the cell. And Ana Maria was alone. In the cell next to her she could see a man sat against the wall with a hat over his face. He was so still she wondered if he had died too. But as she watched he sat up and took the hat off his face almost as if he had felt her staring. He was dark skinned although not as dark as her and he had dark dreadlocks swinging underneath a red bandana and adorned with bead and trinkets. His clothes were rumpled and dirty but he carried them with an air that commanded attention. He studied her then said, "you're a bit young to be in here, what have you done?"

She bit her lip, "My mother had debts…"

The man nodded, "ah." He seemed to understand. With nothing else to do Ana Maria tried to keep the conversation going, "why are you here?" she asked. He grinned, "just a misunderstanding love."

She looked at him with narrowed eyes. Then it hit her, "you're a pirate," she said. The man laughed, "well done love."

She studied him wondering how she didn't realise earlier; the jewellery, eyeliner and tattoos. "What ship do you sail with?" she asked.

"I'm the Coxswain on 'The Dark Dream," he replied proudly.

"Coxswain?" repeated Ana Maria, "a junior officer?"

Jack coughed and looked put out. "Well, yes. But I am up for promotion and at least I have rank." Ana Maria nodded.

"The Dark Dream?" she asked, where have I heard that before?"

"It's the most wanted ship in the Caribbean love," Jack informed her. "We've attacked more vessels than all the bleedin' Navy ships put together."

"It sounds exciting," Ana Maria breathed.

Jack grinned, gold teeth flashing, "it is love. I've spent most of me life on the deck of a ship. Free. Go wherever, do whatever. It's a hard life but its rewarding." His eyes were locked into hers, he could see it reflected in her eyes; the open ocean, the thrill of adventure.

"Take me with you," she whispered.

Jack rolled his eyes, "in case you had forgotten darlin', we happen to be as of this moment in jail and scheduled to hang at first light. I don't think there's much of a chance that we will be going anywhere hmm?"

Her face fell and he tried to reassure her, "but no worries, if a plan comes to mind, you'll be the first to know!"

They stood side by side on the stage, above them nooses swung in the slight wind. The sky was grey and the air was chilly. Ana Maria clenched her fists to stop the trembling, her eyes were dry and her back was straight. Jack stood passively with his head down, trying not to be noticed. Someone on a podium began to read from a scroll but Jack ignored him; he was watching the executioner carefully. The man was surprisingly small for such a job with short, scraggly hair and stunted fingers. He was short and thin and getting on in years.

As it was so early there wasn't much of an audience, a squad of soldiers, a holy man and some fishermen who had got up to check their nets.

As the executioner stepped forward to place the noose around Jacks neck, Jack seemed to look upwards at the descending loop, then he jerked his head forward, striking the smaller man who crumpled onto the decking. Before the soldiers could react he had cut his ropes on the knife tucked into the mans belt and grabbed the still bound Ana Maria. As the soldiers leapt up the steps Jack jumped off the back and raced up the road with Ana Maria following him. She kept up with him the whole way to the docks and he was impressed. But when they reached its berth, the Dark Dream was gone. Obviously it didn't value its coxswain enough to risk hanging. Jack stood there, unsure of what to do next. Ana Mara, wrists still tied had elbowed him and motioned towards the village, "this way," she had told him and he followed her. She led him to her recent home, it had already been ransacked, her possessions gone but the house would now stand empty until someone saw fit to put it to use. And the soldiers wouldn't search there; surely no one would be stupid enough to escape only to return to their place of arrest…

That night Ana Maria gave up her childhood. And in the morning, Jack was gone. She ran down to the shore, her boat; her only means of escape, was gone. She cried then for the first time since her mother had been ill. Then she had pulled herself together, the soldiers would be looking for her. She crept back to the port and walked along the quay there was a merchant ship moored there. She looked round, no one was about and so she had snuck aboard. One day she would find him. And then he would pay.

She had found him many, many years later, signed on as crew and had been with him ever since. The bitterness had faded but seeing Jack with other girls always brought it back up. They were just like her, to be used once and then forgotten.

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Jack sighed, "fine, I'm not leaving her for the crew, she'll have to stay in me cabin." Bloody girl, he thought, they always had to complicate things. He sighed again and lifted her up, her head leaning against his chest, and carried her back down into his cabin. He shook his head and motioned Gibbs over, "watch her for a while," he commanded. Gibbs looked at him in horror, "what? Why? Where are you going?"

Jack placed his hat carefully on his head and walked out the doorway, "I am going to empty several bottles of rum," he growled as he exited the room.