Author's Note: Um… kay, this chapter has a '1' or an 'I' (whatever you think it's supposed to be!) because it's obviously a part I of II! Why did I need to explain that? Lol!

WARNING! So sorry but Mr. Reece, Carolina and Diego may seem OOC! I've never written them before so… yeah! Lol!

Chapter 10
--
The Almost Great Escape I

Two days.

"Two whole bloody days!" thought Jack, as he picked blankly at his nails with a hairpin. Yes, it had been two days since Arabella's encounter with Lord Dalton. She hadn't spoken much about it, just… slept a lot and watched the day go by through the narrow slits of windows they had.

Jack, on the other hand, didn't sleep. At least not very well. And, to Arabella's surprise, he didn't think up any plan of escape, whatsoever!

Most likely, he was leaving it to karma, an extremely uncharacteristic thing for Captain Sparrow to do. Belle was beginning to think he'd lost his marbles… or, at least lost the very few he had left!

But little did our pirate friends know, a lot was happening on the outside world…

--

"It's a shame, Mr. Barnes," Fitzwilliam announced, glancing over his shoulder to meet the eyes of Barnes, his loyal naval worker as the two of them made their way up the cobbled pathways towards the Dalton mansion, "When I offered myself to Arabella she showed a certain… reluctance…"

Mr. Barnes slightly sniggered. Now, this wasn't because Fitz's words just reminded an awful lot of Judge Turpin, seeing as he didn't know the man, but simply because he wasn't surprised Arabella Smith would have kicked the Lord in his balls and ran off.

"Well," he figured, mentally, "She is an awful lot like her mother…"

Fitzwilliam didn't take very long to respond;

"And what,may I ask, is so funny, Mr. Barnes?" he inquired, looking through underneath his shadowy eyelids up at the middle aged sailor, slightly lifting an eyebrow.

Mr. Barnes smiled weakly; it was obvious he had been a handsome man in his earlier years with twinkling blue eyes darting this way and that and sparkling in the sunlight. But now, his hair was beginning to grey and stubble beginning to plaster over his once cleanly shaven face. Although, he didn't really seem to care.

"Nothing, sir," he replied, plainly, quite certain no answer he could give would lighten Fitzwilliam's mood.

Well… does Fitzy's mood really ever change?

"Hm…" the noble man began to ponder, ignoring the whole of their previous 'conversation', "What do you suggest, Barnes? How should I make myself my appealing to her?"

"Really, milord," Barnes started, "Forgive me, but… I didn't think it mattered what 'the little wench' thought. You would marry her anyway, remember?"

Fitzwilliam chose to ignore his own spoken words in the tête-à-tête he and his loyal worker had shared earlier.

"Yes, well… I suppose one would not want to marry an unprepossessing man, is one not correct?"

"Um… yes sir?" Mr. Banes stammered. What was he supposed to say? 'Oh, milord, you are extraordinarily handsome! That woman is crazy for neglecting you!'? Maybe… but then our old friend would have the problem of coming off as gay…

"Maybe you should… erm… you should get… pampered, sir?" half-suggested, half-asked Barnes, pulling a slightly amused face.

"Maybe…" Fitzwilliam agreed. "And then Arabella would show no sign of reluctance?"

"'Course not, sir!" his companion quickly lied, although he was pretty convinced – no, certain – this was untrue. "Women love men in uniform."

Um… sure… right after hot dreadlocked pirates, extremely cute Fall Out Boy bass players and… um, yeah, sorry about that! Carry on…

"Yes, I must admit, it does sound promising," Fitz proclaimed, conceitedly, placing a hand lightly on one hip and glancing through the corner of his eyes up at the bright blue sky as you expect a catwalk model nowadays to do, "Has to be more charming than a bothersome rat of a pirate!"

Now Mr. Barnes was utterly lost. "Excuse me, sir?"

Lord Fitzy cast a glance back to his cohort as they continued on their expedition back home. "Oh, haven't you heard? I've finally caught that blasted pirate Jack Sparrow."

If this were a movie, the cameras would flicker over to Barnes, whose eyes would be widened and mouth shaped like a thin 'O' in shock.

"Yes," Fitzwilliam continued with self-pride, "After he murdered Lord Beckett, he seemed to have it coming to him." He slightly giggled. "And to think, the fiend tried to talk to me about karma!"

Smirking, he looked back to a dazed Mr. Barnes. He slapped his travel companion on the back, jerking the older fellow back to reality. "Shall we continue?" he rhetorically inquired, beginning to pace on forwards before the answer could escape Barnes's lips.

"I'll catch you up, sire!" he called after a striding Fitzwilliam, a tingle sent down his spine.

"Jack Sparrow? Could it be?" he spoke to himself, mentally as he turned back on himself, expression bewildered. "I have to go!"

Where was our dear friend going, I hear you ask? Why, to the prison fort, of course! Where else was Mr. Reece, of La Fleur de la Mort to go?

--

It didn't take very long for Fitzwilliam to return to his humble home, though it was mid-afternoon when he did get there. Walking in through the huge doors and across the dark marble tiled floors, our Lord couldn't help but grin; he definitely had beaten Jack with riches if anything.

Deciding he would return to his office, figuring he would work on the capture of Jack's family so he could force his old nemesis to watch them trudge to the gallows before he was forced to himself, Fitz practically skipped with joy past the extravagant furniture, pot plants and beneath the many chandeliers.

And why shouldn't he be happy? All his enemies would soon be dead and he would have a beautiful wife and lots of little red-headed kiddies running around his ankles. Oh, the joys of life!

Although, he did have a few unexpected visitors waiting for him intently in his office…

"Lord Dalton!" a plump soldier bowed as soon as he noticed his leader. "Here we have the woman you requested; Princess Carolina, twenty-second in line for the Spanish throne!"

He stepped to the left to reveal two figures; both of them dressed in males clothing though only one of them seemed awfully feminine with long black hair tumbling from beneath a tricorn hat, dark eyes flashing this way and that. But they immediately turned to be fixated on Fitz.

"I keep telling you," she breathed in perfectly fluent English through gritted teeth, "I am not Princess Carolina!"

"I believe I will make that decision," Fitzwilliam ensured them, smugly stepping up to the 'princess' as if he owned the room… which he technically did, but you get my drift!

She turned up her nose, and narrowed her eyes, in an attempt to disguise herself, though didn't flinch. Not one bit.

The young man standing aside her struggled a little when Fitzwilliam reached out his thin hand to drag the stray strands of hair away from the adolescent woman's face, lightly running his rough fingers over her tanned complexion.

She cringed, eyes shooting open, trying to yank herself free.

Fitz backed up, smiling in triumph. "It's been too long, my princess!" he mocked a bow toward the apparent Princess Carolina, who merely scoffed in response.

"So, maybe she is of royal blood," the thick Spanish brogue of her companion admitted, though in a threatening tongue. "But wouldn't that mean Carolina has more power over you in the first place?"

Carolina smiled, softly. "True, Diego," she declared, with a smirk of her own, "And as my first wish, I command you to let my friend and I go!"

Her voice was firm and final, and it would have worked… but you may now know Fitzwilliam always plans ahead;

"Do you have any reason why I brought you here, Princess?" he changed the subject, quickly.

Carolina growled from the centre of her throat. "Don't call me that!" she muttered, quietly, "And, no, I'm afraid I'm clueless, Fitzwilliam." Her words were dripping with venom although beneath they were shaking.

Could she be scared? Even Diego – Diego, who possibly knew this girl best in the whole world – couldn't tell.

"Well, any information you may possess would be useless now - you did take your time to get here," continued Fitzwilliam, yet another time starting to pace back and forth across the wide span of his vast office, however didn't fail to stop in his tracks, flashing every one of his almost unnatural seeming pearly white teeth at Carolina and Diego;

"Seeing as Jack Sparrow was caught off the coast of Yucatán Peninsula."

He paused to catch a glance of the expressions on his visitors' faces; one word could explain; shocked!

Carolina's dark eyes were stretched wide and very lightly glancing over to Diego, whose - although he was most likely unaware - jaw was dropped almost slapping against his neck.

"Ah…" Fitzwilliam jeered at their facial expressions, "I gather you've heard of our dear Mr. Sparrow?"

"Captain Sparrow," Diego corrected through a raspy voice.

That smug smile you can probably picture rather well in your mind by now spread yet again over Fitzy's face. "Yes, I thought you would say that!" he sneered over false laughter, flooding the room with a deafening sound.

"So, what are good are we to you?" Carolina asked, black strands of hair collapsing over her face, "If you already have Jack, then what use are we?"

A crooked smile (though no-where near as beautiful as some people usually find them) danced across Fitzwilliam's vaguely parted lips. "Oh, Carolina," he muttered, somewhat sympathetically, "I have big plans for you two…"

--

Now with a cliffhanger ending on that tale, we take ourselves back to Mr. Barnes… or possibly more commonly known among the pirates as Mr. Reece, who in his old age had just about found his way to the prison.

What can I say? Old age jerks with your memory a little! No wonder Jack wants to stay youthful. Anyway…

Reece, red bandana plastered over his slightly wrinkled brow ended up practically tumbling down the stairway to hard ground of the prison fort, moaning a little in pain.

Obviously Jack and Arabella heard this crash; hell, being stuck in jail for two days straight even made a pin drop sound like a bloody thunderstorm! Especially to Jack, whose insanity was already over the line of normalness!

"Hello?" Arabella called out. Something told her this wasn't one of Fitzy's men; none of them would dare be so clumsy!

"Ow…" Reece muttered to himself as he clambered to his sea-booted feet, holding a hand gingerly to his bumped head. Though it didn't stop him raising an eyebrow as Bella's voice flooded through the narrow halls to reach his very faintly impaired hearing.

Arabella glanced to Jack, her curiosity sparked. "What do ye think that was?" she solicited, brown eyes growing a tad wider.

Jack shrugged. "Probably just a rat, luv," he said, simply with a sly smirk to accompany it.

Belle shot him 'the look'. In fact she shot him 'the look' she seemed to have edited especially for her him since their recent meet up.

"Jack? Jack Sparrow?" Mr. Reece's voice bellowed out, bouncing off the walls until it hit Jack right in the ears. He would have complained about the loudness of the voice, but something else got him peeved.

"It's Captain! Captain Jack Sparrow!" he groaned, dramatically.

"Mother of God, it is you!" Reece's voice dribbled with relief as he appeared before Belle's cell, sparkling blue eyes fixed on Jack.

"Who are you? Do I owe you money?" Jack inquired, stupidly.

Surely we can trust Arabella to recognise the loveable pirate Mr. Reece? Why wouldn't she? After all, the two of them sailed alongside her mother for quite a few years…

"Oh my stars!" she gaped, gathering her skirts in an arm and rising to her bare feet, gradually. "Mr. Reece? Is that… what are ye doing here?"

Reece flashed them both a smile of slowly yellowing teeth, slithering his hand into the pocket of his Navy jacket, revealing a ring of rusting silver keys jangling against one another as he gently shook them to and fro.

Arabella smiled, a beam of light seeming to shine around her whilst she clasped her hands together, stifling the release of an excited squeal.

And as for Jack?

Well, let's just insert a witty cliffhanger ending here.

Ha!

Author's Note: Apologies for the random ending! Lol!

Okay, well, I guess I used some of MagicCatnip's ideas on how Jack and Arabella escaped but just so you know:

I WILL USE ALL SUGGESTIONS EVENTUALLY!

I actually had trouble deciding if I should use Oceangoddess's or xAquatic-Gypsyx's escape plans but when I saw the name 'Mr. Reece' in MagicCatnip's review, it was automatically decided! Lol! Did I mention I love Mr. Reece? Well, yeah, I do! Lol!

But I REALLY loved your ideas, guys, and I will DEFINITELY be using them! I love to write jail scenes, so you're probably gonna see a lot of Jack behind bars! Lol!

Also, hurricane1714 gave me the idea to introduce Will into the story… and I decided… HE'S GONNA BE COMING IN!

The basic storyline is Will simply meets one of our recently met friends aboard the Dutchman and they become a crew member! Easy as! Any guesses on who? Well, before that, I might have to make him meet Norrington first! I love Norrie!

So… yeah! I'm now taking suggestions! Got any good ideas? Want Jack to randomly run into the Little Mermaid? Or how about Sweeney Todd offers him a shave? Maybe I could somehow zap Edward Cullen into the story?

Your wish is my command!

Don't forget to review! Crap… this is the longest A/N so far! The next one will be shorter! Lol!