"Feast your eyes Capt'n," said Gibbs cheerfully, nodding to the long line of men standing on the jetty, "all of them faithful hands before the mast, every man worth his salt. And crazy to boot."
"This is your able-bodied crew?" Will scrutinized them. I thought it wasn't very kind of him, but given his foul mood, I held my tongue.
Jack did not reply to Will, but instead turned to one of the pirates, whom I was delighted to see had a colourful parrot on his shoulder, "You, sailor!" Jack said briskly, the sailor had no time to reply before Gibbs cut in.
"Cotton, sir," he told him.
"Mr Cotton? Do you have the courage and fortitude to follow orders and stay true in the face of almost certain death?" Jack's question was greeted with silence. "Mr Cotton! Answer, man!"
"He's a mute, sir," Gibbs explained, "poor devil had his tongue cut out, so he trained the parrot to talk for him. No-one's yet figured how."
While Gibbs spoke Cotton opened his mouth. I flinched away from the sight of the severed tongue. Even Jack was a little disturbed by it.
I thought he would move on, but he turned instead to the parrot on Cotton's shoulder, "Mr Cotton's parrot… same question."
"Wind in the sails! Wind in the sails!" the parrot squawked. We all looked at Gibbs.
"Mostly we fear that means yes," he said.
"'Course it does!" Jack said brightly before turning to Will and I, "Satisfied?"
"Well, you've proved they're mad." Will smirked.
I sighed, perhaps a little louder than I'd meant to. He frowned at me.
"What's the benefit for us?" a voice rang out from down the line. We followed Jack as he walked down the line until he reached the sailor whose face was hidden behind a ridiculously big hat. Cautiously, Jack lifted up the hat. A woman with strong, angular features glared up at him.
"Anna-Maria!" Jack smiled as her long dark hair tumbled out of her hat. I could guess what was about to happen. Sure enough, no sooner had I silently predicted the next scene, she struck him hard a cross the cheek.
"I suppose you didn't deserve that one either?" Will asked.
"Nope, that one I deserved," he admitted. Anna-Maria nodded in agreement.
Jack flinched as Anna-Maria raised her hand again, "You stole my boat!" she pointed an accusing finger at him.
"Actually-" he broke off as she slapped him again, "Borrowed. Borrowed without permission, but with every intention of bringing it back to you."
"But you didn't!" she yelled.
"You'll get another one." Jack promised. Again, he flinched as she raised a hand, but, again she pointed a finger at him.
"I will."
"A better one," Will chipped in.
"A better one!" Jack repeated brightly, but Will wasn't finished.
"That one," he said, pointing to the Interceptor. Everyone looked out to where he was pointing.
"What one?" Jack looked too. "That one?!?" he hissed, but Anna-Maria and the rest of the crew were looking at him expectantly. "Aye, that one. What say you?"
"Aye!" the entire crew shouted unanimously. Anna-Maria snatched back her hat and stormed off.
"No, no, no!" Gibbs protested, "its frightful bad luck to have a woman aboard."
"It would be far worse not to however." Jack replied.
"Excuse me?" I snapped.
"What?" Jack and Gibbs looked at me.
"You've had a woman aboard long before now!" I said. They looked at me blankly. "I'm a woman too, in case you hadn't noticed!"
"I promise you, love, I had noticed, but you're a special case," said Jack.
"What?"
"Well, you don't really count." Gibbs said. "You're not here by choice."
"Right."
I didn't understand and I wasn't sure I ever would.
***
We made it through a huge storm. I never knew seasickness could be so bad. I didn't think I would ever strop throwing up. It was the longest night of my life and for a few bleak hours I thought I wouldn't live to see the end of it. I have never thrown up that much in my life, never that much before and never that much after. I won't insult your intelligence by saying I was too busy throwing up to be of any use during the storm.
"Never mind, love," Jack said once while I was leaning out over the rail and emptying the content of my stomach into the sea, "You just need to find your sea-legs."
I gave him the most scathing look I could muster and he laughed as turned a new and previously undiscovered shade of green. I'd never actually thought skin could turn green when you were ill, but now I've seen it for myself. It was really bad when I had nothing left to throw up and I ended up retching for hours on end. I made it to dawn, though and by the time the sun was up it was calm enough for me to sit with the rest of the crew. After some food and a drink I felt perfectly normal. I sat down with Will and Gibbs, drifting between their conversation and my own thoughts.
"How did Jack come by that compass?" Will asked.
"What compass?" I chipped it.
"The compass that doesn't point north, but can still miraculously lead us to the Isla de Meurta." Will replied curtly.
"Not much's know `bout Jack Sparrow `till he turned up in Tortuga with a mind to go after the treasure of the Isla de Meurta. That was before I meat him of course, back when he was Captain of the Black Pearl." Gibbs told us.
"Jack was Captain of the Black Pearl?" I repeated, not sure I'd heard him properly.
"He failed to mention that." Will said.
"Well, he keeps things closer than best now. And a hard-learned lesson it was. See, three days out on the venture the first mate comes to him and says if everything's an equal share that should mean the location of the treasure, too, so Jack gives up the bearings. That night there was a mutiny. They marooned Jack on an island and left him to die but not before he'd gone mad with the heat."
"That's horrible!" I gasped. I felt queasy again, but it had nothing to do with any lingering sea-sickness.
"So that's the reason for all the..." Will did an awful impression of someone who was drunk. Gibbs gave him a withering look.
"Reason's got nothing to do with it." He said, "Now, when a man is marooned he is a given a pistol with a single shot. One shot, well… it won't do much good hunting or to be rescued. But after three weeks of a starving belly and thirst, that pistol will start to look real friendly. But Jack? He escaped the island, and he still has that one shot. Oh, but he won't use it, though, save for one man. His mutinous first mate."
Will pieced it together before I did. "Barbossa," he whispered. Gibbs nodded.
"I can't listen to this." I rose from where I was sitting and let them to it. The barbarianism of it all upset me more than I could say.
"Jack." I said softly, approaching him at the wheel, "I know what Barbossa did to you and I think it's awful."
He stared at me. "What? How do you know?" he snapped. I was taken aback. I hadn't expected him to be angry that I knew.
"Gibbs told us." I said.
"Us? Right!" Jack marched over to Gibbs. I followed feeling guilty for telling on Gibbs.
"He roped a couple of sea-turtles?" Will sounded disbelieving.
"Aye," Gibbs nodded.
"Then what did he use for rope?" Will asked. Gibbs frowned.
"Human hair," Jack made them both jump, "from my back."
"Eww," I pulled a face. He flashed me a smile while Gibbs nodded knowingly to Will, who didn't look impressed by Jack's story. Jack turned to the crew, "Let go of the anchor! Mr Turner, Miss Norrington and I need to go ashore."
Will and Gibbs stood up. "What if the worst should happen?" Gibbs asked.
"Keep to the code," Jack replied, "You know that."
"Aye, the code." I didn't like the tone of Gibbs's voice; it was a little too gloomy for the code to mean anything good. I glanced at Will and saw my anxiety mirrored in his eyes. We had no time to talk about it though, the lifeboat was being lowered and the next stop was the Isla de Meurta, and Elizabeth.
A/N: Thank you to keiraliz and SaveroftheMoon for reviewing this and to everyone who can be bothered to read this, I appreciate it.
Love you guys!
LittleVampirateXX