Author's Note: Hello readers. I've released this one a little earlier in the day, but don't count on it becoming common. I just had the day off. There's a lot of dialogue in this one, but I hope you enjoy it. I actually ended up with quite a different chapter than I'd originally written which actually means it'll take a bit longer to get to Beckett. (Don't worry those of you who want to see him. He'll show up soon.) Anyways please review so I know I've got somebody enjoying this. Thanks in advance.

Norrington tripped and fell heavily to the ground losing his lead on the murderous crew. He spat some sand out of his mouth and reached for his sword. Luckily he'd kept his grip on the chest when he fell, but it didn't seem like he'd be getting his cutlass back since a barnacled foot rested upon the blade preventing anyone from picking it up. James followed the leg upwards to see Conch-head who was currently holding said head in one hand.

"Your bravery is wasted. I shall pry that chest from your cold dead hands," said the pirate as he stroked his chin. Norrington was not going to let that happen so he jumped up and threw the chest at the fish man.

"Here you go!" he shouted before running off into the jungle. The pirates laughed and turned to walk toward the coast and by proxy toward Kat. She heard the laughs and adjusted her course to the right since she thought that was the direction James would be moving in. Then, she realized that if she didn't meet up with him she'd be stuck on this island, alone.

"Oh crap," she whispered as her pace increased. "James!" she shouted frantically into the trees. "James where are you?" Kat was freaking out at the thought of being left here. Fear gave her the strength to run even faster as she searched for the former commodore. Leaves swished when she disturbed them and branches cracked beneath her boots. Her heart pounded wildly almost as if it was going to burst out of her chest and find Norrington on its own. All of a sudden a well-tanned hand shot out from behind a nearby tree and covered her mouth while a second hand slid around her waist. They quickly pulled her behind the tree, but Kat wasn't going to take it. She was already panicked and kidnapping wasn't on her list. The girl didn't realize that there really was only one person who could've grabbed her, James. So instead of remaining still she bit the hand near her mouth.

"It's me, Kat!" whispered Norrington in her ear as he let go of her. She turned to see him leaning against the tree and shaking his hand. His face was slightly pained from the bite she'd given him. The teenager looked down in embarrassment and muttered something about how she was sorry for biting him, but she'd been freaking out and was already panicked. In the middle of her excuses James smiled at her and lifted her chin with two fingers.

"Don't worry about it. It's not the worst injury I've had today," he said kindly. Kat paused, but soon stepped forward to press herself against his chest.

"You're too nice to me James," she whispered into his shirt as she gripped it tightly. He wrapped one arm around her and sank down to sit in the underbrush. Kat sat curled up in his lap as her heartbeat slowed and she began to relax again. They both stayed quiet for several minutes as they caught their respective breaths.

"Have I been too nice?" asked Norrington playfully. "Maybe I need to do something mean now."

"Don't ruin the moment," muttered Kat with a little irritation. She looked up at him and smiled. "We've already had one ruined for us."

"Wha—" started James before remembering how Gibbs had interrupted them on the ship though it wasn't really his fault. "Perhaps we should fix that," he said referring to the moment.

"I suppose we could," replied Kat as they leaned together. They kissed again, but this time it was deeper, fiercer. She pushed her fingers into his messy brown locks as he wrapped both hands around her waist. They broke the kiss and grinned at each other. Then, their wounds caught up with them.

"Ow…" said Kat as she felt some of the aches and pains she had. There were definitely going to be some bruises and her legs already felt heavy after her run. Her sword arm hadn't appreciated the extra weight and her other arm hurt from the gunshot wound. "Tomorrow's going to be fun," she thought with a sigh.

"Anything really bad?" asked James regarding her wounds. Kat shook her head no and asked the same question. "No, I think I'll be alright, but my hand may never be the same again."

"Shut up," she said as she shoved him. This didn't exactly work since he was already up against the tree trunk. Kat folded her arms and let out a puff of air. It wasn't fair. He was always in the right position to win.

"Oh, come on. The fact that I'm hopelessly brilliant so I always win our arguments is no reason for you to be in a bad mood," said James teasingly.

"You are not 'hopelessly brilliant' no matter how much you wish you were Mr. Norrington," replied Kat.

"Back to formalities are we Miss Vusan?"

"I suppose so!" Kat stood and placed her hands on her hips while leaning over James's reposed form.

"Must we get up to argue?" asked James lazily.

"Just because you asked, yes," replied Kat. She grabbed Norrington's uninjured hand and pulled on it. She would never actually be able to pull him to his feet, but if she annoyed him enough he'd probably get up on his own.

"Kat…" he said in a whiny little kid's voice.

"What?" she asked as she continued to pull.

"Do I have to get up?"

"Yes!"

"But Kat…" he said drawing out her name.

"Quit whining!" she yelled in exasperation.

"Okay," he replied as he jumped up.

"You just live to annoy me don't you?" asked Kat rhetorically. Her face clearly expressed how bothered she was and she dropped Norrington's arm in favor of crossing her own.

"You know you like the attention," James whispered in her ear. The girl found herself shivering at his tone of voice and he smiled at her reaction. "I knew it," he said proudly.

"So what if I do? You're still annoying," said Kat as she walked away.

"Ah, but you like it. And you don't know where you're going."

She stopped walking since he was right and her faced turned a little red. Why did he always have to be right? It irritated her, but at the same time she loved it. She was never this stupid around her friends. In fact she won almost all her arguments back home. But when he was around her brain committed suicide and that bothered her the most. "Well do you know where we're going Mr. Brilliant?"

"I would assume we'll go back to the coast and figure out how to get off of this godforsaken island," he replied with a smile. James knew he'd gotten to her and though he didn't want to annoy her too much it was rather fun.

"That works, but shouldn't we decide how we'll be leaving first? It'd be a waste to walk all the back and then have to come back into the jungle again." Kat's brains had been resurrected. Praise the Lord.

James paused and opened his mouth to speak, but she was right. "Guess I won't be completely winning this," he thought. "I suppose we should," he replied lamely. Kat smirked triumphantly and gave her friend a grin.

"Don't take it too badly that I'm not as stupid as you'd thought," she said.

"I never thought you were stupid. But your brain-mouth coordination didn't seem to be well exercised."

"I don't think that's the problem. I've just had too much stress lately," Kat said as an excuse.

"Such a cliché line, Kat! I'd expect better from you if you were as good as you claim."

"James, you're on thin ice," she replied threateningly. Norrington actually felt a little afraid of what she might do which was impressive since she didn't really have particularly threatening looks. He just felt like she'd be able to come up with something to scare him.

"We probably should stop arguing anyway," he reasoned. "Since we do need to get off this island before we starve."

"We'd probably become dehydrated first, but there are coconuts," replied Kat.

"That's true. Those could keep us going for a bit," admitted Norrington. "As for getting off the island I think a raft is our only choice."

"You know you really should've thought about this before you decided to be the hero," she pointed out.

"Perhaps, but I didn't really have time to think about it. So let's go with the raft idea. We'll have to make it out of the wood on the island, but how to connect it all together…" James trailed off as he tried to think of a solution.

"Well we can use these right?" Kat pointed out some hanging vines which looped throughout the trees. They looked decently strong and it didn't seem like they would break too easily.

"We don't have another option," replied James. "Then perhaps we could fill in the gaps with mud. I know there's some back where Jack, Will and I were fighting."

"Won't it just crumble once it dries?"

"Not if we mix it with grass. The fibers will keep it from disintegrating or at least most of it."

"Good idea," said Kat. Her voice expressed how impressed she actually was. "I assume we'll build it by the mud then unless it'd be easier to tie it together first."

"I'd say tie it up here, carry it to the mud, and then bring it to the beach," thought James aloud.

"Then, we ought to get started before night falls." Kat raised one hand to shield her eyes as she determined the Sun's position. "We don't have too long."

"Let's do it tomorrow," said Norrington. "We'll have more time then and we still need to eat something. Besides tomorrow we'll have more energy."

"And more aches," added Kat pointedly. "But I don't feel like building either." She walked over to a palm tree and squinted up at the leaves. "You want a coconut?" she asked as she shimmied up the trunk.

"Sure," he replied as he sat back down. Kat grabbed a few still green coconuts. She'd read up on the drupes as part of a school project once and she knew the best coconut water was in the young ones, but they would be harder to open.

"Catch," she shouted as she tossed one at him. He grabbed the hard fruit and set it down nearby while Kat came back down. She placed her coconut in a hollow in the ground and pulled out her sword. "I hope this works," she thought as she swung the cutlass down in a double-handed strike. Luckily she'd made a smooth crack in the outer shell through which she could drink the coconut water. James copied her and did the same to his. Then, both pirates sat side by side and drank.

"So this is life stranded on and island," said Kat.

"Not half bad, eh?" replied James. They both sat in a comfortable silence and before long they had fallen asleep. The next day they would be glad they'd gotten the extra sleep since it was going to quite a laborious one.