Jack Sparrow lay in the hammock that was strung across his formal dining room. There was something definitely wrong when a Captain was sleeping in the place where he usually ate. Well, actually he never really ate here. He ate in the galley with his crew. He remembered the last time he was in this room… Barbossa was still the captain of his ship, and Jack had been biting into an apple. And the last time he had slept in a hammock… oh dear… that was far too long ago to be bothered with.

The hammock made a shifting movement as Jack heard a couple of things roll across the floor. Jack gripped the sides of the hammock at the sudden shift to the right. Knew I shouldn't have left Gibbs at the helm, Jack thought. He looked shaky after that encounter with Katherine.

Katherine. Jack's mind returned to the Swann's estate, where he had been twirling her around the floor, how she had pressed her fingers to his lips. He put his forefinger to them, as if he could repeat the experience. Don't really see why she's so angry, what could be greater than escaping from those stiffs and coming aboard a pirate ship? Jack's mind returned to Katherine's more recent expressions of rage. He shivered as he remembered the sword coming, rushing through the air.

Did it ever occur to you that I might like my life? The words raced through Jack's brain. He tried to put himself in her shoes, but it just wasn't clicking. Working as a barmaid in an iffy establishment… surely no one could like that life.

Jack turned on his side, and was immediately reminded of the difference between a bed and a hammock. Beds are very stable, while hammocks tend to capsize at the slightest movement. Jack found himself on the floor, having landed heavily on his right side. "That's going to hurt in the morning," he muttered.

As he slowly rose to his feet, dusting himself off, Jack noticed a small sound coming from the room next to him, his "old" cabin. Jack carefully placed one foot directly in front of the other, trying not to creak the weathered wood of his dining room floor. He put his ear up next to the wall.

oooooooooooooooooooooo

Katherine wasn't having the best night on the other side of the wall. After having thrown out everything from the knapsack that could possibly have ever belonged to Jack Sparrow, she drew out the shift that she had hurriedly packed back in her room. Making sure that the door was locked, and the key was sitting on her nightstand, Katherine reached behind her and began to unbutton her red dress.

The top three buttons were the hardest for her to reach; she had to try a number of arm positions before getting them undone. The top three buttons… suddenly Katherine recalled the awkward incident that had left her sitting on Jack's lap. She suddenly brought the dress back up over her corset. Stupid Jack. Stupid… buttons! Glancing quickly at the door, she drew the shift over her head, and only then let the red dress go.

Well this certainly was more comfortable, not to mention more modest. Katherine set her red shoes down beside the large bed, its headboard against the back of the wall, jutting out into the room. It was haphazardly made, the covers just thrown up over the pillows; it made Katherine wince. She drew the covers back and carefully remade the bed, so the job was properly done. Well, and know I have to sleep in this thing, she thought. She looked at the bed suspiciously, as if the pillows could really be Jack in disguise. Fine. I have to sleep sometime. If only I could figure out which side the Jerk slept on, then I could avoid it…

Katherine walked over to the right side of the bed, and stood there for a couple of moments. I'm about to get into a pirate captain's bed. She would have smiled, even laughed, if the other circumstances hadn't been so grim. She quickly slipped under the blankets, lying on her back, drawing them up to her breast, and crossed her hands over her stomach. She stared at the ceiling for a bit, then turned on her side and pulled the blankets up over her shoulder.

I'm never going to get any sleep… she thought. She fluffed her pillow a bit, then lay down her head determinedly, then took a deep breath in. The pillow smelt familiar; she sunk her nose down into it a bit more, and then sat up, disgusted. "Does this whole damn ship have to smell like Jack Sparrow?!" She gave a little scream, than lifted up the pillow next to her, and tentatively brought it toward her face. "Yech." Even more Jack smell.

She swung her legs over the side of the bed, and put her feet on the cold floor of the cabin. There was a desk over in the corner; she decided to go examine the contents. Something was needed to settle her mind… Katherine figured that looking at even more pirate paraphernalia was as good a way as any.

Carefully, Katherine sat at the chair in front of the desk, ignoring the protesting squeaks it let out. There was an intricate map laying there, it had taken on the texture of the desk. Katherine turned up the oil up on a lantern sitting at the right corner of the desk, and looked more closely at the map. It didn't seem to be too old, there were fresh notes made on some of the islands, made in a precise hand. Katherine looked for Port Royal on the map, and there it was, the mapmaker's tiny print being the only thing that identified it as such. She set the lantern right next to Port Royal, and its yellow-orange light shone on a quick, sprawling, vicious looking note.

"The Last Medallion Obtained," the note read.

Medallion? More pirate legend, Katherine figured. She explored the map further, finding a blank spot down on the right lower corner. A key to the map lay right next to two more notes, one written in the precise hand, the other in the sprawling one.

The precise writing read, "Captain Jack Sparrow," the other, "Captain Hector Barbossa." The "Captain" on the latter had been scratched out many times, it looked like. So many times, it seemed, that the quill had made a tear in the map, which Katherine tugged on delicately, revealing the dark wood of the desk underneath.

Well, it did make sense, Katherine thought. It seems the two captains had made a habit of marking places with special notes, to help recount their adventures.

"Hector Barbossa…" Katherine whispered the name out loud as she traced it with her forefinger. There was something in the back of her brain, something that ached to be remembered. She thought as hard as she could, but only the annoying feeling of the memory being just out of reach returned to her. She shivered a bit, and suppressed a yawn. It looks like I might be ready for some sleep, she thought.

Katherine retrieved her red dress from the floor, and looked evilly at both the pillows that lay innocently at the head of the bed. She pushed them onto the floor, then bundled the dress under her head. Only on a pirate ship, she thought, would I be destroying the most expensive thing I own so that I can get a good night's sleep. I've got to watch this, it could turn into a nasty streak.

Her body slowly relaxed into the soft bed, her shoulders untensed, and Katherine could feel herself slowly drifting off to sleep.

She was in for a rude awakening.

"Barbossa!" Katherine sat straight up in bed for the second time, finally recalling the origin of the name. Barbossa was the name of the captain who had ordered the attack on Port Royal that night five years ago. Barbossa was the one who had kidnapped Elizabeth Swann, the one who had set fire and shot cannons at her beloved town. Barbossa had ruined her life.

Katherine quickly stuffed some of the red dress in her mouth, as a sob tried to escape her throat. The dress couldn't block everything, though. She heard a low, guttural sound come from her lips. She felt the fabric dampen beneath her as tears streamed down her face.

God, then this must be the ship… this must be the very place where the man worked, where he ate, where he… slept! Katherine practically leapt out of the bed, and ran toward the opposite wall where she quickly sank down, burying her face in her arms. "I just want to be done with pirates. All right? Is that in any way possible?" She whispered softly, the first shock over. She cried softly over the red dress, which she had forgotten to let go of.

oooooooooooooooooo

Jack quickly brought his head away from the wall. Yikes. Crying woman. He was not equipped to deal with this. But, she was just sitting over there, all by herself. Because she chose to be! Jack thought indignantly. I would have been more than happy to be in there with her! And then I could be comforting her at this very moment. Erm. Jack felt his neck turn warm. What? I'm blushing? Not. Possible. This is not good. Not good. NOT. GOOD.

But there she was, just sitting over there…

Jack rolled his eyes. I always have to do these things, don't I?

The dining room table was suddenly deprived of Jack's hat, as he settled it firmly on his head. "But I am not going over there without my effects." Jack swooped up his gun and sword, fastening them around himself, and yanked on his boots.

Jack knocked on the door of his cabin, well, her cabin.

"Whoever you are, just please go away?"

"Katherine? It's me. Jack, tha' is. Erm. Well. Can I come in? Please?"

"Go away, you blasted pirate. Get the bloody hell away from me! Go jump off the side of the ship!"

Jack Sparrow had never, ever been in this situation before. Usually, the door opened after the first knock. He stood there for a couple of moments.

"You're not gone, are you…?"

"Nope."

"Are you going to go?"

"Nope."

"God damn you to everlasting bloody hell, Jack Sparrow." But he heard movement inside the cabin, a rustling noise, and then footsteps coming near the door. There was a soft click, and then the door opened slightly.

"What the hell do you want."

"I… I heard ye. From my captain's quarters." He gestured to the formal dining room to demonstrate. "Are ye, em… is ever'thin' all righ' over here?"

"Yes. Everything's spectacular."

The sarcasm made Jack smirk. "Righ'. Because my intuitive sense of the female mind has made me think that certain things were…" Jack sighed. "Katherine. I heard ye cryin'. Can I please come in, or are ye gonna make me stan' ou' here all nigh'?"

Katherine reluctantly opened the door to admit Jack. He stopped himself from gawping at her costume change, after all, it was just flimsy cream shift after all… STOP! He walked sulkily into his cabin, sitting heavily on the bed. Katherine steered toward the chair in front of the desk, and sat down there.

"So," Jack began. "Ye… ye havin' some trouble adjustin' to the piratey life?" He opened his mouth to say more, something about the sea breezes and salt air not agreeing with her, but stopped at the miserable look Katherine gave him. She whispered something, so softly that Jack couldn't quite catch it.

"Wha' was tha'?"

"Barbossa," Katherine said, only slightly louder. "He used to be the captain of this ship."

"Only after a grave injustice to myself, bu' he was, yah. Wha's it te ye?"

"It's a long story."

"We've got a bit o' time, love."

Katherine leaned forward a bit in the chair, causing Jack to lower his gaze a bit to her neckline. But he saw that she was running her hands through her hair, and she looked straight up at him, her eyes swollen.

"Right. A bit of time. I guess that's right. After all, I can't really go back, now can I? I've certainly got all the time in the world to tell you." She sighed. "I was… Elizabeth's handmaid, five years ago."

Jack stared at her, confused. "Yes, I can see why bein' in such a position would make ye cry…"

"Shut up, Jack. Don't you, of all people, remember where this ship was, five years ago?"

"I wasn't Captain then. It was the pockmarked Barbossa. I had jus' been takin' in the hospitality of the Royal Navy, chapter of Port Royal, at the time." Jack frowned at the memory. "And then…"

"And then Port Royal was attacked. By this ship."

"And the whelp came to me because he couldn't rescue his girl all by his onsie… yes yes I remember all of this. But how do ye know tha'?

"I didn't know the part about the whelp, but thanks for informing me. The point is, Elizabeth was kidnapped that night, wasn't she? I remember… she had already been seen by the pirates, I had caught a glimpse of them, but they hadn't seen me. So Elizabeth told me to run down to the Fort, to protect myself. She had just hit one of them in the head with a bedwarmer… I was running out of the house… but I couldn't just leave her there. Not like that, not alone. So I went back…"

"Tha' was stupid. Runnin' into a house packed full o' pirates. Well, Barbossa's pirates."

"Yes, I figured that out soon after, thanks. A couple of them grabbed me… I screamed bloody murder. I guess they figured it would be easier to handle someone who wasn't shouting at the top of her lungs. The next thing I knew, I was waking up in this dark cell, water all around me."

"They tossed ye in the brig…" Jack whispered. "Bu' Barbossa didn' take no pris'ners. Not unless they would be useful to 'im…"

Katherine continued as if Jack had not spoken. "I soon received a visit from a man who called himself 'Captain Barbossa,' who then told me a story about some Aztec gold, and that they had just obtained the last piece. He told me what the curse did to them. Then he told me what he intended to do with me now that the curse was about to be lifted."

For too long I've been starving to death, and haven't died. For too long I've been parched of thirst and unable to quench it. For too long the pleasures of female company have evaded my grasp…

Katherine shivered again.

Jack realized, of course, what she was talking about, he knew the curse's effects as well as a member of Barbossa's crew. He suddenly rose and knelt beside Katherine's form. She was looking away now, toward the door. "I'm sorry. I shouldn'a joked abou' it."

"It's all right," Katherine said, still looking away. "After that… I just had to get out of there. I waited for the opportune moment to come, but nothing seemed to be working out my way. But then one night, the whole crew left the ship. And they gave me a chicken leg to eat." She smiled wryly. "Two mistakes. I stripped the bone of all meat, and stuck it in the lock, wiggled it around until the cell door sprung free. I ran to the top deck… we were at some kind of huge cave, I could see the entrance… and there were all sorts of debris floating around… so I got into a lifeboat and started to row the hell away from there. I had no idea where I was going. Just… away. And after two days, I met up with this Navy ship, the…"

"…the Dauntless?"

Katherine was startled. "You know it? They took me aboard, and lucky me, I found it was being captained by good old Commodore Norrington. They stowed me away in a room. That night… there was this horrible battle, I don' t really know, my room was away in the depths of the ship, I couldn't hear anything, I just saw the bloodstains on the deck the following morning. And then I was soon back in Port Royal. I couldn't go back to Elizabeth… not after all that. So I went and applied at the 'Faithful Bride." Where I stayed for a very long time, until I met you, Jack Sparrow. And the rest of the story, you know."

"Aye, I think I know it well."

"Well, there's your story, Jack. And I suppose I wasn't too pleased to see that this was that very same ship where I was stowed so long ago, that this very room is where that blasted man slept. So. That's why I was crying. Do you think you'll be able to sleep now, now that the great mystery of the world has been solved?"

"Aw, Katherine…"

"Piss off, Jack."

But he didn't. He circled his arms around her instead. And to his surprise, after a few moments of stiffness, Katherine hugged him lightly back. "Thanks for letting me spout off." She sniffled, and the two parted.

"Righ' then. Erm. I'll just be gettin' back, to my cabin. Then. Good? Good."

Katherine absentmindedly waved a "goodnight" to Jack as he stepped out of the cabin. He immediately leaned his head against the door. "Bloody hell," he whispered. Soft, pretty, witty, and courageous? He wasn't sure he could handle this…