Jack swallowed the last mouthful of his dinner and pulled a face. Perhaps pulling Evangeline out of the kitchen wasn't such a good idea. It was all very good for Pintel and Ragetti, who didn't seem to care what they ate as long as they could fit it down their throats, but for more civilised folk like Jack this simply was not acceptable. He could see that Evangeline didn't exactly approve of the sudden drop in food quality either, but he wasn't about to put her back in the kitchen. Not at this delicate state she was in. Plus, she had also proved to be a rather valuable asset to the crew. There hadn't been that much work to do on deck that morning- the seas were flat and calm and, well, boring- but she always found herself something to do (none of them involved swabbing the deck, incidentally). She hadn't uttered a single complaint, either. He had seen her examining her hands unhappily after hauling up a particularly difficult sail, but she never said anything.

Who knew, maybe she was made out of stronger stuff than he thought.

She had finished her dinner too, now, which was just as well. Pushing his chair back Jack stood; the crew payed him little attention. "Evangeline," he called, raising his voice a little over the racket. She closed her eyes and sighed before standing sharply and looking at him demandingly. He crooked his finger and turned on his heel, marching out of the kitchen. As the door swung open before him, he heard stomping footsteps behind: Evangeline was following. He lead the way to his cabin where Gibbs was already waiting and promptly sat at his desk, contemplating the improvised charts Gibbs had thrown together from memory. He didn't look up as Evangeline entered, swinging the door shut and leaning against it with her arms folded and eyebrow raised.

She seemed to do that a lot.

"Did you want something, captain?" she asked through gritted teeth.

"This Hourglass of yours," he murmured, eyes scanning the charts. "We'll be there soon. Time to tell us what you know, sweetheart."

"Forget it, Jack," she replied. "I'm not going."

Jack blinked, surprised. Gibbs stared. "Pardon?"

"I'm- not- going," Evangeline repeated, enunciating each word and speaking as though Jack were a small child. "Sorry for wasting your time, but you know the argument." At this she cast a meaningful glance at Gibbs, and sure enough Jack knew exactly what she meant.

Evangeline turned on her heel and moved to leave, but Jack called her back. "So what do you plan to do later?"

She whirled around and pierced him with a suspicious glare. "What do you mean, 'later'?" she demanded. "There won't be a later. There won't be a me."

"Well, as far as I understand it we're essentially leading Angelica and Barbossa to the Hourglass," Jack said with a shrug. "So if we turn around, she'll never find it and you'll be fine. What will you do?"

Evangeline paused and Jack felt that familiar feeling of triumph swelling in his chest. He had stumped her on this one. "I can go back to the convent," she said. She didn't sound too happy about it.

"Do you really want to go back to that goodie-goodie place, love?" Jack asked, standing and moving towards her. She was facing the door again and standing rigidly straight. She didn't react when he drew to her side. "Because I won't be taking you back there. Besides, you never really belonged there. Blood of a pirate, and all that. Whereas if you stay with me, you get freedom." His head hovered at her left shoulder. "Rum." His head darted to her right shoulder. "And if we get to this Hourglass before our little friends do, there could be some gold in it too. What do you say?"

"I'm not interested," Evangeline said through gritted teeth.

"Of course you aren't," Jack said dismissively. "Which is exactly why we'll drop you off with Angelica when we see her ship."

Now this was the tricky part. The gamble. Jack waited with bated breath… But not for long. Evangeline whirled around to face him, eyes fierce.

"You wouldn't," she said in low, dangerous tones.

Jack shrugged. "Sure I would," he replied. "Why wouldn't I? The Glorifier's standards are obviously much higher than ours and far more suited to a fine young woman like yourself."

Evangeline's eyes dropped and her lips pressed together firmly. Jack smile glinted in the candlelight. "She'll be angry at you for running away, won't she? And especially for sailing with me and not sticking a sword in my guts. And she'll probably take you back to the convent."

Evangeline said nothing.

"So you see, love," Jack continued. "Your only options are to stay with me and stick to your original plan or go over the side in a rowboat and pray that Angelica will have mercy on you." He looked at her with raised eyebrows and waited for her decision.

"Let me see the map," she growled, thrusting a hand out. Jack swaggered off, rather satisfied with himself. "What's in this for you, though?" Evangeline demanded sharply. He turned to face her, eyes wide and innocent.

"Why, the pleasure of helping out my daughter," he replied sweetly. Evangeline glared at him.

"I'm not stupid, Jack," she said. "I know you're up to something. You don't do anything unless there's something in it for you."

Jack held up his hands defensively. "Listen, sweetheart-"

"Stop calling me that."

"I'm out of options, much like yourself. I can sail the seas and hope I never run into Angelica or Barbossa or I can take a chance with you and try to kill them both at your little Hourglass."

"The Turners?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

"What about them?"

"You could have stayed with them. Or asked for the Dutchman'sprotection."

Jack shrugged. "Their hospitality would have worn out eventually. And much like you Lizzy and Will are rather firm in the belief that I am a cowardly selfish liar. Don't know where they got that idea from."

"A complete mystery," Evangeline replied through pursed lips. Jack waited for more, but she returned to the map and said nothing. Gibbs caught his eyes and looked at him questioningly, but Jack just rolled his eyes and pulled a face.

"Angelica will stop in White Cap Bay to capture a mermaid." Evangeline's voice made Jack jump. "We can't afford to be slowed down."

"But we need a mermaid too!" Jack squawked.

Evangeline shook her head. "The cabin boy told me that the mermaid and the missionary escaped. Or, at least, their bodies were never found. My bet is, if they survived they won't have left the island."

Jack and Gibbs exchanged a look. "So you want to capture that mermaid on land," Jack said.

Again Evangeline shook her head. "I want to find them," she replied. "And see if by some miracle they managed to have a child."

Jack did a double take and Gibbs' jaw dropped. "A what?" Jack demanded.

"A child," Evangeline repeated. Her gaze didn't move from the map. "It's possible, barely. I want a half-mermaid's tear, if I can. Failing that, I'll just use the real one."

"Why?" Jack wanted to know. "That won't work, will it?"

"The ritual to use the Hourglass is a little less complicated than the ritual of the Fountain, but it does have it's tough bits," Evangeline explained, dodging the question. "The full ritual requires a mermaid tear mixed with grains of white sand. There's white sand on the beach of the island, so that's not too hard. Those grains are then to be put in the Hourglass, and the amount of sand put in depends how far back in time the user wants to go. It's one grain of sand for every day."

"But that'll take forever!" Jack exclaimed.

"Calm down, I only need to go back a month," Evangeline snapped. "Whereas Angelica needs to go back fifteen years. So, as well as capturing the mermaid she also has the sand to worry about, so even if we can't find our odd little couple we'll still have heaps of time."

"What about Barbossa?"

Evangeline looked at him. "Look, Jack, I can only tell you about Angelica. I don't know what Barbossa is doing. It's a gamble, but it's one we'll have to take."

"How does the Hourglass work?" Gibbs interrupted eagerly.

Evangeline looked at him doubtfully and paused before continuing. "Once the tear and the sand are mixed they'll be in a clump so the user has to break it up with their fingers and then pour it into the actual Hourglass while visualising the moment in their past they want to change. This takes immense concentration as the user must change that part of their life in their head. They can't physically go back in time- that's just stupid."

Jacks and Gibbs exchanged a glance.

"The user has to have a different scenario already planned out before they use the Hourglass," Evangeline continued absently. "The scene will play out exactly how it happened in their mind's eye, and then they just have to put in their own input. If their concentration is broken, the Hourglass is essentially useless for another century."

"So what do you plan to do?"

"If Angelica or Barbossa get there before us, we'll just have to break their concentration," Evangeline replied with a shrug. "Having said that, though, they could do the same to me if we get there before them. So I'm relying on you to take them out." She looked at him for the first time. "But don't kill them."

Jack peered at her curiously. "That's it?" he said.

Evangeline nodded and smacked her lips, but Jack could see that there was something she wasn't telling him behind her eyes. "That's it," she confirmed, putting the map down. "Can I go now?"

Jack stared at her for a few moments longer and she stared right back, waiting. With a sigh and wave of his hand, Jack nodded. "Go on," he dismissed her. She nodded her head almost imperceptibly, turned on her heel and slid out.

Silence fell between Gibbs and Jack. "What d'you reckon she's up to?" Gibbs wondered aloud.

Jack watched the door that had just slammed shut behind her warily. "I don't know."