10. Reunion Antics

That evening, we spotted land, which, to our surprise was Tortuga.

"No way can that be Tortuga," I say, squinting at the approaching land mass.

"It is, luv! I tell ye, it comes up faster and faster each time you go," he winks at me as he brushes past me and grabs hold of the mast.

"I guess you're right," I give in.

"Get ready to make port. We'll be there shortly," Will says to us as he grabs rope.

About an hour later, we sailed into the harbor and dropped anchor.

"I see it!" I exclaim suddenly, pointing to a ship in the harbor with black sails.

"So it is here," Jack says softly, not taking a single glance from his ship.

"Well at least we were diligent on this voyage," Elizabeth says with a laugh, "not wasting any time finding what we came for. There it is. Shall we just take it?"

"Or do we find the crew?" Will asks.

"We take the long boat to shore and see if we spot Gibbs or Mr. Cotton or anyone else. Once we reach shore, we do a quick search then immediately head for the Pearl," Jack states methodically.

"Works for me," I say, getting the long boat ready.

We row ashore, scanning the coast for any noticeable crew members while we row. Finally when we reach shore, I spot Mr. Gibbs coming out of a tavern.

"MR. GIBBS!" I scream at the top of my lungs. He doesn't hear a thing. I finally jump out of the boat and swim frantically to shore, running through the sand and then up to the dock and onto the street. Sopping wet, I chase after Gibbs.

"GIBBS! IT'S LINDSEY!" I shout. Soon, Jack, Will and Elizabeth are running after me screaming his name with me. I finally catch up to him and pummel him to the ground.

"What the bloody blazes…?!?!?!?!" He grumbles as I flip him over.

"Mr. Gibbs!" I exclaim, a smile crossing my face.

"Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!" He exclaims, giving me a hug. "Lindsey! What on Heaven's green Earth are ye doin' here in Tortuga?!"

"I'm here with Jack and Will and Elizabeth!" I exclaim.

As I helped him up, the three of them finally caught up.

"Mother's love! Jack!" Gibbs exalts.

"Ah yes, Gibbs," Jack smiles a golden grin.

"And Will! Elizabeth! What brings ye all to this rotten stench of land?"

"Well, we've come for the Pearl," Jack says bluntly, "but we didn't wanna just take 'er, since we figured the crew would be 'avin' some fun on the island,"

"Ah, a good reason by my regards," Gibbs replies. "Well, the others be in this tavern over here…"

"Of course!" Jack habitually follows Gibbs, but I pull him back.

"We'd rather not get caught up in the tavern scene tonight, Gibbs. We're on a mission and we were hoping the crew would like to join us. If they would, tell them to meet us aboard the Pearl in one hour. If not, she sails without them," I say, taking charge.

"Oh but luv! Just one drink won't hurt!" Jack pleas.

"Jack, we have Norrington on our tail. The less time we spend here, the better chance we have of outrunning him completely," Elizabeth chimes in.

"Yes yes, of course," Jack agrees, mumbling underneath his breath. "Of course you agree with that, Izzy…yer the one always takin' the rum away!"

"Jack, she is right though," Will says.

"Of course she's bloody right!" Jack winces at the thought of having no rum for the evening. "Well let's get the crew and get out 'f here," he says with a sigh.

"Will do, cap'n!" Gibbs hurries into the tavern and moments later, emerges with ten men, drunk as all hell, but ready to set sail.

"Excellent, now let's get the fuck outta here," I say as I turn and begin walking to the water front.

"Stop right there, Sparrow!" A voice hollers at us from behind. We all turn simultaneously to see Norrington and his men running towards us.

"RUN!" Will screams and we all bolt. Thankfully, the Pearl wasn't such a far distance for us to reach. We all submerged ourselves into the water and swam to the Pearl, climbing up her ropes to the main deck.

"Hoist the sails! Pull the anchor!" Jack began hollering orders and the drunken crew fumbled about the deck trying to get the ship to make way. Unfortunately, Norrington and his crew were right on our tails. They began rowing towards their ship and quickly began boarding. The Pearl finally began sailing through the harbor and soon we were out to sea. But Norrington was not far behind. As we exited the harbor, his ship began sailing towards ours. We decided to sail around the island since it was dark, there was no way they could tell which was we'd be going.

"Douse the lamps!" Jack orders, so it would be more difficult to spot us on the water from Norrington's ship. Once the lamps were doused, we picked a route and sailed.

"Well, that was quite the antic reunion," Will comments as he joins us by the railing. We looked at the sky, which was dotted clearly with thousands of stars.

"Oh, Will, this is romantic," Elizabeth smiles and kisses her husband. She notices Jack staring heavily at me and pulls Will away from me so I could be alone.

Jack slowly approaches me.

"The sky is looking nice tonight, eh pet?" He asks, a boyish grin creeping across his mouth. I glance over at him and smile back, noticing the slight glimmer from his golden teeth.

"Yeah it is awfully nice," I reply.

"Ye know, luv, I never did get to tell ye what I was thinking earlier today," he says, as he snakes his arm around my waist.

"Jack Sparrow! Have you been drinking more than usual?" I ask with a chuckle, removing his arm from my waist.

"Me? No! Ye told me not to drink in the tavern t'night…so I didn't," he replies sincerely gazing into my eyes.

"Jack, I had no idea you'd actually listen to me so devoutly," I reply chuckling to lighten the mood. My heart began racing as he didn't lower his stare.

"I'm just glad we're able to be on this journey t'gether, luv. It means a lot t' me," he says.

"Jack, what is this romantic talk?" I ask, smiling into his face and moving closer to him.

"Well, just to be clear, my first love is the sea!" He grumbles, his toothy grin left in the darkness of the air surrounding us.

"I figured that," I laughed in reply.

"But make no mistake, luv, yer not far behind," he winks at me. I can't control myself any long. A smile the size of the entire ocean crosses my face and I lean in to kiss Jack. He puts an arm around me as he leans in to kiss me…

SWOOSH! CLANK! RATTLE! FLOP! CRASH! BANG!

Darkness.