Author's Note: Again, hi! I'm skipping the rest of Arabella and Jack's journey and writing the next part when they arrive in Tortuga! And Gibbs is in this one! YAY!

Chapter 4
--
There is a Karma

After Jack had made his list and tried to take advantage of her, Arabella decided to stay well clear of him until they reached Tortuga and he could begin righting all his wrongs. She was secretly hoping they could visit dear old Fitz first. After all, she hadn't seen him in years and he was kind towards her, even if Jack said it was only fake.

Despite all this, she was quite pleased when a sailor yelled out; "Land ho!"

Arabella breathed a sigh of relief. This would mean she wouldn't have to ignore Jack any more... although seeing Jack made it impossible for anyone to ignore him anyway, it didn't make much of a difference.

Captain Sparrow also looked up at these two small words too. He took one glance back down at his list before folding it up and stuffing it into the inner pocket of his long coat and sauntered over to the centre of the deck to meet up with Arabella.

"Remember Jack, once you've started to do good things, ye can't go back!" his old friend pointed out, flicking her auburn hair over her shoulder.

Jack just flashed his trademark grin at her. "Now why would I do that, darlin'?" he questioned, slowly, examining his nails, casually.

"Because ye would," Arabella simply answered, folding her arms across her chest.

Jack considered this before eventually nodding. "True…"

Belle rolled her eyes, turning her back on the pirate again and made her way towards the gang plank down to the docks.

"One day you will come over to my side…" Jack sniggered, so quietly he almost couldn't even hear himself.

"Come on, Jack!" Arabella's voice pushed him as she was about to step onto the Tortugan land. "If my memories of Tortuga are correct, then I don't exa'tly wanna be walkin' around that town alone!

He rolled his eyes a little, beginning to follow her down the gang plank silently muttering to himself the same words he was thinking;

"One day, Belle, one day…"

--

"Ah, brings back good memories, eh, lass?!" Jack mused as he swung his arm around Arabella's shoulders, which she didn't hesitate in pushing off. Even though it was broad daylight, all the population of Tortuga were clearly drunk and involved in a fight.

"I think that's a comment ye can keep to yerself, Jack!" Belle muttered, carefully eyeing the inhabitants of the town she grew up in. "Where are we gonna find him, anyway?"

"A place you should be awfully familiar with, luv!" grinned the rogue pirate, his smirk growing even wider at the expression on Arabella's face.

"You mean…?" she began to ask before Jack interrupted her as he pushed on the wood of a nearby door, leading her into a dark candle-lit tavern filled with even more drunken sailors.

"Aye, lass, The Faithful Bride!" he announced, grinning to himself as Arabella looked around the place she had worked – and lived - at since… well, since she could care to remember!

"This place hasn't changed one bit…" she whispered, placing one hand on the wall made simply of timber wood from old, wrecked boats and inhaling a deep breath of the cramped air. "Surprising it hasn't fallen down yet, ain't it?"

Jack nodded, truthfully, although it was fair to say he wasn't paying the slightest bit of attention to his dear old friend. He was searching. Searching for Gibbs.

There were a few occasions in which Jack thought he had spotted his first mate… but none of those were a success. To tell the truth, Gibbs could quite frankly be anywhere by now… and he may even have been far from Tortuga.

But, luckily for the pirate, he eventually spotted the elder sailor and dragged a-happy-to-see-her-old-home-even-though-she-hated-it-in-the-first-place Arabella towards him.

"Gibbs?" Jack asked him, kicking at his boot. "Gibbs!"

"He's asleep, Jack!" Arabella stated, clearly pointing out the obvious as the one and only Joshaemee Gibbs was lay over a table, snoring rather loudly.

Ignoring her comment, Captain Sparrow grabbed his first mate by the shoulder and shook him roughly. "Gibbs!" he hissed, beginning to get impatient.

Various moans and groans came from Gibbs as he began to sit up and blink open his squinting eyes and look up at his captain.

"Jack?" he questioned, still groggy from the waking up he had just encountered. "You know its bad luck to wake a man when he's sleeping!"

"And it's also bad luck to have a woman on board," Jack began, grinning, "but that didn't stop me bringing Belle along now, eh?"

He gestured to Arabella, who was twirling a lock of her auburn hair around her finger, smiling weakly at the old sailor.

Suddenly, Gibbs felt no tiredness any more, and his squinty little eyes widened "Mother's love!" he gasped. "Laura Smith?!"

"Arabella Smith," Belle quickly corrected him. "I'm her daughter."

Jack smirked in agreement, his mischievous grin growing wider as he flung his arm around her shoulders, which Arabella rolled her eyes at, but accepted with a small reluctant sigh.

Gibbs nodded, observing all of the information before him. "So what brings ye to Tortuga, Jack?" he asked, reaching out for a tankard of old rum on the other side of the old oak table.

"Can't a man visit a dear old friend any more without being questioned about it?!" beamed Jack, swinging his arms outwards in a greeting, softly smacking his female companion in the stomach.

"Ow…" muttered Arabella, wincing a little before rolling her eyes and saying;

"Jack, we have no time fer games, so make this quick… without any more injuries!"

With that, she stalked off towards the bar she used to stand behind almost every day as a teenaged girl, two shillings resting in the palm of her hand.

Jack sniggered to himself before pulling out a chair and taking a seat opposite to Gibbs, waiting for his first mate to speak first.

"So…" Joshaemee started, placing down his now-empty tankard on the wood. "What's yer real business here, Jack?"

The captain began to examine his filthy nails again, leaning back on his chair so it was swinging on its back two legs. "I just figured; you're probably the most superstitious man I know, Master Gibbs, and that being true, I suppose ye may be able to help me and the lass out on our newest… conquest, savvy?"

Gibbs nodded, knowingly. "I suppose I could do that… the Fountain, is it?"

"Aye…" Jack whispered, his chocolate brown eyes lighting up at that one word. "But I need to change me luck first!"

"Why?" inquired Gibbs, leaning in closer as Jack beckoned him inwards.

"Because, mate, if ye do good things, then good things will happen to you, savvy? And if ye do bad things, like I and you already do, then…" the captain spoke, but Gibbs easily finished for him.

"… then bad things will happen…" Joshaemee said, softly, then raising an eyebrow. "Are ye talkin' about karma, Jack?"

"That's the one!" Jack raised his voice again, pointing at his old friend with a dirty finger. "Karma, mate! Think of the opportunities! If we just right all the wrong things I've ever done, we could 'ave good luck for an eternity of life! Which is what we will have if I do good things and karma leads us to the Fountain, savvy? So… is it worth it, mate?"

"Aye," Gibbs cheered. "But… how are ye gonna know all the bad things you've ever done?"

"Ah…" Jack grinned, reaching into his inner cloak pocket and handing Gibbs the two pieces of folded up paper he had been identifying as his list. The elder sailor took it with curious eyes and began to start reading from random spots on the page;

"Number 23, Stole and sunk Anamaria's boat."

"Definitely sorry for that one!" Jack put in, smirking to himself.

"Number 55, sold the eunuch to The Flying Dutchman," Gibbs read out, simply. "Number 56, called Will a eunuch."

"Yep, I'll make up for those ones, too!"

"Number 89, held a grudge against Grandmama for trying to kill me three times." At this item Gibbs looked up to raise a single eyebrow at Jack, who merely responded with;

"Ah-huh!"

Shaking his head, the elderly pirate turned back to Jack's list; "Number 97, stole Tia Dalma's ring."

"Yup!"

"Number 117, ran away from Teague."

"Not exactly sure I'm sorry for that one, though," Jack added, still smiling widely.

Gibbs gave a little roll of the eyes at his captain as he flipped the first of the two list pages over and scanned over his scruffy handwriting again, squinting a little over Jack's scribbles and ink blotches.

"Number 134, insulted Fitzy in too many ways to keep count."

"Unfortunately…" muttered our favourite pirate, rolling his chocolate brown orbs underneath his eyelids.

Joshaemee placed Jack's list down firmly on the table. "Jack?"

"Uh-huh?"

"Who be this Fitzy?" questioned the sailor, curiously.

Sparrow turned his attention from his nails to look into his old friends face. "That doesn't matter, mate, just keep reading!" he commanded, waving his hand through the air at him.

"But Cap'n?"

"What?" Jack snapped a little, growing rather impatient with him.

"Ye have a lot of things on this bloomin' list, and instead of sitting here reading shouldn't we be settin' to work?" Gibbs asked, hopefully, seeing as his reading wasn't the best and he found it the most boring thing in the world.

Jack, considering this, nodded, with a small smile, his face over-flowing with excitement. "Aye," he agreed.

"So, which one do we do first, Cap'n?" queried Joshaemee, his squinty eyes looking like those of a little kid walking down the stairs and eyeing all his gifts on Christmas morning as he leant in toward Jack as if he and the younger pirate were sharing a huge secret between themselves.

"I don't know…" Jack responded, full with just as much excitement. "Maybe you should choose one, mate!" he suggested, pushing the paper at Gibbs as if it were cursed.

"Oh, no, no Jack, its bad luck to interfere with karma…" lied Gibbs, quickly pushing back the papers. "You should wait fer karma to send ye a signal!"

Jack raised his eyebrow. "Sometimes, Master Gibbs, I swear you're making all these bloody bad luck things up!" he cried, flinging his arms up in the air for exaggeration.

"Jack! Be careful! I'm carryin' drinks here!"

The two men looked over towards Arabella; her arms full with three tankards, the barmaid clearly too lazy to even give her a tray for them.

Rolling his eyes at her moody behaviour, which had been going on for two days or so now, Jack turned his attention back to Gibbs, carelessly grabbing one of the tankards from Belle's arms.

And, well, you can guess what happened next.

"JACK!" Arabella screeched, causing the pirate's ears to ring as she indicated to the spilt rum on the table. "Ye bloody dolt, can't ye watch it?!"

"She definitely has some o' Laura in 'er," Gibbs muttered to himself, running his finger through the spilt rum and licking it off whilst dear Bella continued to yell at Jack as if they were a married couple.

Sparrow rolled his eyes, again as she ranted on. But, suddenly, he noticed something. Karma had sent him a sign. "Belle, luv--"

"No, Jack, let me finish! I--"

"Oh, shut it, lass! Karma just sent us a sign!" cried Jack, over her ranting, causing silence to fall over all three of them.

"What kind of sign?" Arabella asked, her PMS-ing suddenly seeming to stop.

"A bloomin' good one, that's what kind of sign, lass!" exclaimed Gibbs, as he and Jack both looked down at the yellow papered list, their eyes widened.

Joining them, eventually, Belle could also see this so-called sign as she looked over the list. A splodge of rum and smudged the words of number 78…

"Number 78, practically killed Tumen on Isla Fortuna," read out Arabella, picking up the paper and glancing down at it with her brown orbs transforming into wide circles in her head. "Do ye realize what this means?"

"Um… we go to Yucatán?" Jack suggested, shrugging a little.

Belle shook her head at her old friend, slightly smiling. She then turned her eyes to glance up at the ceiling and whispered;

"There is a karma…"

Author's Note: So, you like? Don't worry, Arabella will be over her PMS-ing by the time they reach Yucatán! Thankfully! How did ye like my longest chapter yet? Good? Yes, I thought so! Sorry about the lack of Sparrabella moments, I really do apologize! I'll put some in the next chapter I promise!

Thanks to all those who reviewed and an even bigger thanks to all those who reviewed with list items! You guys all rock!

I really wanna get up to 20 reviews, so if you have the time, just write a word or so… please? –flutters eyelashes–