Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer nor Pirates of the Caribbean, Curse of the Black Pearl. All of the characters, settings, themes, movie, show, titles, witches, slayers, creation, references, ships, and basic gist of the two fantasy worlds all belong Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Warner Bros., Jerry Bruckheimer, Gore Verbinski, and Walt Disney. All rights reserved.

Timeline: Post Season 5 for BtVS—takes place right after the Gift. As for Pirates, although containing some probably major spoilers for Dead Man's Chest, I'm gonna have to go off-canon from that movie on this one. Although it takes place after the Curse of the Black Pearl.

Summary: From some stroke of fate, Buffy lands in 17th century-Caribbean; smack-dab in the middle of the Golden Age of Piracy. From whence she meets the infamous Captain Sparrow, along with the never-ending headache he seems to bring.

Notes: Sorry for the delay, it took a while for my brain to warm up and start this.

xxxx

Chapter 4—Troubles

xxxx

Sparrow stared at his crew with a slightly amused look. "Do you have something to say or are we having a staring contest?"

They shuffled on their feet until someone finally spoke up. "This is a mistake, captain. Ye shouldn't've brought that gerl to the ship."

"The lad's right, Jack," Gibbs spoke out. "What bloody good will a girl like her do in the Black Pearl?"

"For starters, I recall she did knock-out more than a few of you awhile back."

"It's a fluke and yeh know it."

"And if it wasn't, which I'm not saying if it is or if it isn't, then she's another able-body ready to do the mopping and the sailing of the ship who can throw a punch here and there."

"She looks like she's never sailed before. And besides—she's a girl."

"So was Ana Maria," Jack frowned at the pointed looks his crew gave him. "Oh right; she doesn't count." The female pirate had left the crew after demanding the promised 'better-boat' from Jack after the cursed gold fiasco several months ago. They haven't heard from her since.

Mr. Cotton's parrot suddenly squawked, "Bad luck, me hearties! Bad luck!"

Everyone looked at it. "Ye 'eard the bird. Bad luck to 'ave a woman on board, its a curse to be sailin' with two."

"Aye!"

"Nonetheless, she still managed to knock you mangy dogs out—"

"Making her a threat."

"Or an opportunity waiting to happen."

That caught their attention. "And what sort of 'opportunity' would it be this time?"

He gave them a look. "It hasn't risen yet; but one can't assume that it never will. Now, if you lot are done doing…whatever it is you're doing, I have ship to sail and a bottle of rum to keep me company."

---

The duke pursed his lips and glared at the opposite wall. It wasn't the limited amount of space of their cabin—even if its one the biggest private ones in the ship, second only to the captain's—or the smell of…human that permeated off the very wood of the ship that's got him vexed. No, what had gotten him irritated was the very captain that sailed this ship. That man was infuriating!

His thoughts were interrupted when Elena came barging in the door with a huff, and the sight only caused him raise a curious brow.

"Well it seems I'm not the only one who's irritable on this hour."

"That girl has some nerve—"

"A girl?" he sat up, "what girl?"

"Haven't you heard, dear father? Our lovely captain has picked up another crewmember."

The frown came back to his face. "Shall we need to be worried?"

Despite her annoyance, Elena shook her head, sitting down on a padded chair. "A witty tongue, maybe. But she's small enough to be looked over." She chuckled to herself at the double meaning. "You'll see what I mean when you see her."

"Then why the indignation?"

She sat up a bit straighter. "A woman has pride."

"Ah, so what has the poor girl said then?"

"Nothing other than stealing my time with the captain."

And it was back to that blasted pirate again. "I really hate that man, you know."

"I know, father, but I need him."

"Is that why you're jealous, my dear?"

"Hardly. Just protective of what is mine."

"The girl better watch herself—by the way, what is her name?"

Elena chuckled. "Oh you'll just love this—Buffy Summers."

---

Buffy surveyed the damage of her clothes. After a long half hour of shimmying her way out of that dress—all the while thanking that Halloween incident for giving her some sort of sense on what they were—she finally got to see the long rip on the seams. Apparently, the seamstress missed the memo of making dresses flexible enough to swing arms with. Really!

"Well, another one bites the dust."

But somehow, she didn't have the heart to throw it away just yet. So instead, she reluctantly folded it—all four layers—and set them aside on a pile of dry hay on the corner of her 'room.' She didn't have a mirror to look at her new set of clothes on her, but she didn't need it to know that it was a whole less flattering than the dress was.

Oh well, that corset was really digging into her sides anyways.

Buffy thumbed the coarse fabric. Though there was a large enough shipment of cotton in St. Louis, Mrs. Lamburg only managed to get her the 'simpler' stuff. She let go of the off-white long sleeves and proceeded to button up the shirt. My, she looks spiffy! The whole look was completed with her pants held together by a miscellaneous, dark-green sash tied tightly around her waist. Because of the length of the gray pants, she decided to just stuff it in her boots instead of cutting it off.

Now all she needed was an eye patch, a parrot, and a sword. "Which I am definitely lacking," Buffy groused. Without any sort of actual weaponry on her, she truly felt naked. And not that her stick hadn't proven effective, something nice and pointy and preferably shiny was infinitely much better.

A sudden lurch of the boat sent her stumbling on her hammock, and a small puddle of dark water splashing on her new set of clothes. "And that's my cue to go."

She retraced her steps, weaving through some poorly lit corridors and up a set of stairs until she finally got the scent of salty air. Though the air was something to be desired after spending a long time below deck, Buffy was still wary of going outside and facing a crew that would most likely throw her overboard than make lewd comments. Probably because of that whole 'hurting their pride' thing.

…It wasn't her fault they knocked out easily.

Suddenly, the door that led outside seemed too close for her comfort, and Buffy chastised herself for being such a wuss. Throw me a hell-god and I'll kill it no prob. Throw me in a bunch of cagey, hormonally charged, pirates who are sadly human…and I have problems entering an open space full of them.

This is ridiculous, she thought. "Besides, what's the worst they could do?" Then she became horror-struck that she just jinxed herself. "Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!"

---

Everybody looked at the blonde girl that came out of the door. "Aye, ain't she a pretty one?" a guy sneered.

She narrowed her eyes at their sight, and seemed to square-off her shoulders and scan the crowd for something or someone.

"I'd like a bit of a toss and rumble with her before the night's over," another said.

Someone laughed. "If she didn't already you the other kind of toss and rumble."

"Or maybe we could toss her overboard—save us the situation of being repeated."

"Aye, Jack's a fool to bring her aboard."

Gibbs rolled his eyes, but didn't deny that the new girl was both a beauty and a bit frightening. But heaven forbid! She looks young enough to be his daughter…and that's just wrong. He does have some sort of decency after all. "Quit your yappin', you bunch o' idiots. Don't be forgetting what happened to the lot of yeh back in the other ship now."

The murmurs paused. "And who's side would be you, Master Gibbs? Ours or the gerl's?"

He narrowed his eyes. "I'd be in no one's side but Jack's side. If he wants the lass to stay, then the lass stays; so stop being a bloody coward and get back to work. Lest you be wanting to defy the captain's orders?"

The threat in his voice was unmistakable and the small crowd dispersed.

"I could've handled it, you know."

Gibbs turned around with a start, only to realize that the girl—woman, he corrected himself—was standing a few feet to his side. "I wouldn't doubt that lass, but putting out the flames early would save you a lot of trouble. Even if it's bad luck to have women onboard."

Too bad trouble seem to have luck finding me, she thought, but saying it out loud seemed like a bad idea. "They're more like small embers," she snorted instead, "but thanks anyways."

He gave a small nod, "Take care of yourself, Miss Summers. A pirate ship is no place for young girls. How old are you? Eighteen? Nineteen?"

Buffy gave a grin. "I'll be twenty-one in a few months…at least I think I will. And like I've said: I can handle it. You should've seen what I have to face with back at home; these guys? They'll hardly make the 'grr-factor." Buffy stopped babbling when she saw his confused look. "Anyways, am I swabbing the decks anytime soon?"

"The decks were mopped before we came to your ship, Miss, so you'd be puttin' on the tar," he pointed at a bucket full of the black substance and a brush. "Ye'd better start soon…the sun's about to set in a few hours and Jack ain't keen on putting on much lights up on the ship. Safety precautions and all."

She nodded. "Speaking of the bird, where is that guy?"

Gibbs frowned in thought. "He's…sailing the ship; doing his captainly duties."

"He's not on the wheel steering the boat…unless he suddenly turned into a scrawny old guy. Where did he get that parrot by the way?"

"It's a ship, Miss. Not a meager little ship."

"Same diff. But seriously, what's with the bird?"

"Ah, Mr. Cotton lost his tongue so we trained a parrot to talk for him. We figure out what he's saying most of the times."

She cringed. Ouch.

"Well, ye best be getting started on that tar; I be going and have a word with the captain."

"Wait, I didn't get your name."

The old man turned around and simply said. "I'd be Gibbs, Miss Buffy."

"Then it's simply Buffy, Gibbs—none of that title stuff before the name. I'm just…one of the crew now."

Gibbs gave her a look before nodding his head and walking away. "Right."

Buffy looked towards the other pirates with some sense of dread. "Yessiree…one of the damn crew."

---

It's been over an hour ago when the sun dipped below the horizon, and still, Jack was drinking away at his leisure before being rudely interrupted by Gibbs. "I've been looking all over for you."

"And so are the rest of the Royal Navy and the other half of the world's population that doesn't include men…yet they don't seem to have very much luck there, aye?"

Gibbs rolled his eyes. "I would've thought you'd be in the captain's quarters being it yours and all," he continued, "yet all I found was an empty room with empty bottles of rum rolling all over the floor."

Jack chuckled drunkenly.

"Then I looked down in rum cellar down below, and I was in deed even more surprised not to find you there but not so much to have one or two bottles of our liquor missing. And since you were neither on the wheel, the deck, or in the galley and all other sorts of places…I found myself wondering where the hell could that blasted man be until I bothered to look in here."

"Your point?"

"Why are you here Jack?"

"I had a presence of mind to realize that someone—which just happened to be you—would be looking for me in all these places so I said to meself, where would the last thing anyone would think to look for Captain Jack Sparrow in his own ship?"

"But the brig?"

"Ah. The last thing a man of the sea would ever want to be in, mate: caged," his captain looked at him directly before clanking his bottle against the metal walls. "So what do you want? I'm sure you're not here just to play a bit of the hide an' seek game in which case you obviously won and I'm gonna have to seek you out in me own ship."

Gibbs shook his head at Jack's behavior but told him about the crew's instead. "The men are starting to have some doubts, captain—about the girl, I mean."

"Again, Mister Gibbs: your point?"

"They're are starting to get unsettled, Jack. Especially with your sudden abort of our supposed plunder and our roundabout pit stop at Port Royal…" Gibbs sighed, "…they'd be needin' some release. And I can't be saying I blame them since I too am wondering why you brought her here."

"I have a feeling about her, Gibbs. And you know how I love to listen to them."

He sighed. "Aye, I do."

Jack frowned thoughtfully though. "Tortuga, mate?"

His first mate's worried glance turned into an appreciativegrin, "Aye. Tortuga it is then."

"Don't tell the three—it'd take out the surprise."

"Aye, captain. And where'd be you going?"

"To have my own game of seeking out the hider. Only this one doesn't know she's hiding."

---

"What the hell are you doing here?"

Jack looked up from Buffy's hammock and gave a disappointed pout under the dim light of a hanging lantern he brought, "And here I was hoping to find you stark naked from your previous clothes. What a shame."

She rolled her eyes. "You've really got to stop doing that."

"Doing what?"

"Trying to get me naked! Hello? Can we say: against work environment ethics? Female Rights? Sexual harassment?"

Jack looked at her before offering her his bottle, "I promise you won't think like that after a spot of drink."

Buffy nearly growled, "Do you do this to every female that come aboard?" She held up her hand at Jack's look. "Never mind. Don't answer that. So, what are you doing here?"

"I was looking for you."

"Really? Cos I thought 'looking' would involve you moving and not lying down on my hammock."

He shrugged and drank again. "It's a matter of relevance. For example, when a person is looking for something but doesn't really know what it is he's looking for, it is in his best interest to just wait for that something to fall on his lap and realize that that is what he is really looking for—which is considered looking—rather than searching all over for it and never even come close to realizing what that something is." He paused. "Of course, in this case, I know what I am looking for and you didn't exactly fall on my lap—though it can be arranged."

"…How drunk are you?"

Jack looked at his drink with a puzzled frown. "Not enough I'm afraid. I was rather hoping you'd keep me company."

"Ah…no. If you want to kill off your kidney…or liver, be my guest. Just don't expect me to be there," she said, with a frown.

"Tomorrow night then."

"So…" she started after a long pause, "now that you found me, what next?"

"When we were doing our bargaining speech back in your ship, you said that there was more to you than meets the eye. So tell me, darling, what is it? I've been trying to figure it out and I'd rather hear it from you than…say, jump into conclusions."

"That's what your doing here? Trying to figure out something I said?"

"I'm a curious fellow," he shrugged again.

Buffy raised her eyebrow. "No."

"No?"

"No."

"Well, now. That leaves me into an interesting situation and admittedly more curiouser than before. What would it take you to say it? I've only got a limited supply of rum in me ship, but something tells me it would take less than half of it for you to be spilling out your secrets."

"That's pathetic," she snorted, grabbing Jack's shoulders to push him out of her room. "And it'll be nearing close to never for me to drink another bottle again."

"Never say never darling."

"Never my ass, Sparrow."

xxxx

Okay, so nothing much happened, but it did give a start to some plausible problems in the future. Up next: Port Royal, me hearties!

(unedited)