Not too fond of this chapter. I didn't work very hard on it, didn't even TRY keeping people in character, didn't focus on grammar…Why? I broke up with my boyfriend, and I'm depressed. I also need a job and I have to make 100 plushies in 10 days. My apologies for grammar (or lack thereof) and OOCness. Because of my craptastic mood, don't flame me, it's all…accidental. (More dirt stuff too) --Anna

Ch. 14

Michelle found her body pressed against the wall of the empty crew's cabin, hands wrapped around her wrist, and warm breath upon her neck. Every free moment she and James Norrington had, they were hidden from the rest of the crew, together, and getting in what time they could before they were summoned back on deck. Her heart pounded when she was around him. It was strange, they had met as influential people in society, and now, they had met as pirates, and the same sensation was visible.

But still, while out at sea, with the crew of Jack Sparrow and the Black Pearl, Michelle could not help but think of how she might be betraying her captain on the Flying Dutchman. There was an uneasy sense of betrayal among the crew, almost screaming as if everyone in the crew was a traitor…Not just herself.

ooo

"I have to go back…" she said to Norrington, as she helped him in scrubbing the deck.

"Back where?" he asked. "Tortuga?" Michelle shook her head, as she took Norrington's rag from his hand.

"No, the Dutchman." She corrected, soaking the rag.

"You know, I can't believe you were really upon that ship." Norrington sighed.

Michelle smiled as she roughly scrubbed the deck, before smacking him with the rag. "I feel like I shouldn't be here, James. Like, I do not belong here." She stopped, as he placed his hand on hers, taking the rag from her.

"As passé as it sounds, I believe you belong where ever I am." He purred, sounding just as courteous as ever. Michelle smiled at him, and shook her head, chidingly.

"You seem to think flattery will always work." She laughed. "It's not always the best method."

There was a sort of cough, signalizing an interruption. Jack Sparrow was standing over them, giving them the sort of look a disapproving parent would give one of their children after being caught doing something inappropriate. "Do ya mind if I deprive you of your dearly beloved?" he asked Norrington.

Norrington motioned a hand at Sparrow, allowing him to speak to Michelle. Sparrow seemed to find their little rendezvous' interesting. Michelle rose from the deck, leaving Norrington behind, embarrassed that Sparrow was considering her his 'dearly beloved.'

"Yes?" Michelle asked, as she followed him to the helm. "You need to see me?" Sparrow smiled as he strolled along the deck, approaching the helm of the ship, wrapping his hands around the wheel.

"I'm just curious." Sparrow said, as Michelle stood next to him, and stared out into the open ocean. "You're always around the former commodore. Do I sense a bit of a romantic tension between the both of you?" He said the word romantic with a flourish, attempting to humor Michelle's French heritage by speaking with a French accent.

"There's nothing more than him proposing to me a few years ago." Michelle snorted. "But, at the time, I couldn't formally accept, and we never went through with it."

"Would you still marry him, given the opportunity?" Sparrow asked, raising a suggestive eyebrow. He stared off at Norrington, who was still busy scrubbing. "What do you see in the man, anyways? If a pirate is what you're looking for, why didn't you just accept my offer that time you came floating over from the Dutchman?"

"I wasn't looking for a pirate." Michelle growled. "I wasn't even looking. If I had been, I would have sought out someone of James Norrington's character long ago."

"Ironic, eh?" Sparrow continued. "That the man who proposed to ya, years ago, is back with you, and the both of you are pirates, and it seems as if he's willing to once again."

Michelle sighed and leaned against the wheel, causing Sparrow to have some difficulty turning it to his favor with the current and wind. "I don't have time for marriage now." She snorted. "I've got too much I need to do."

"And what would that be, darlin'?" he asked. "I haven't a clue about you. You show up here, at one point, and play that entire sweet, innocent 'my ship sank' act, and then threaten my life, and months later, here you are again, only joinin' because of your dear, former Commodore."

"Who ever said he was the reason I wanted to join?" she asked, darkly. "Possibly, I joined for another reason, which could've meant life or death for me, or the people upon this ship."

"I already told ya, love." Sparrow grinned. "Why would I need you, when I have dirt?"

"What in God's name is with the dirt?" she asked.

Sparrow's grinned had remained unmoving. "It's dirt. It's one of natures most magical substances. Some of it is made from animal manure. Fascinating stuff, dirt is."

"It'd be lovely if you could just end whatever you're saying a sentence early." Michelle grumbled, feeling a bit sick at the thought of manure. "If you really want to know," she continued, referring to Sparrow's question as to why she was there. "I don't know. I was never told why I had to leave the Dutchman, and I was never told what would be achieved by my leaving—"

"Now that I recall, dear." Sparrow said, using another pet name, in what seemed to be him attempting to sweet talk her. "I don't remember seeing you with the rest of Jones's crew the other day."

"Pardon?"

"Yep, you were definitely not there." He continued. "It might be, that he doesn't want you to know of his little…diabolical plot, eh?"

"Plot?" Michelle asked, she tried saying more, but Sparrow seemed to enjoy the limelight, in which no one else was paying attention to.

"I mean, you'd have to be a bloomin' idiot, to be a pirate and not know of my debt to Jones, but there seems to be more to the whole shindig, than what you know." He smiled. "He might just be determined to take you as one of those hundred souls I need to harvest. Oh, lucky him! I'm free, and he gets his little sea witch all to himself, as well, as your darling, commodore!"

"What are talking about?" Michelle asked. "You're mad!" Sparrow grinned, and placed one of his greasy hands around her shoulder.

"Of course I am!" he announced. "After all, who am I?" Michelle stared at him, afraid to answer. His joyous expression fell. "I'm Captain Jack Sparrow."

Michelle nodded, partially from fear of his bewildering activity, and partially to just…get on his good side, of sorts. "Of course you are." She said. "And I'm…just going to leave now." And she backed off, leaving this man, she unfortunately, had to call her captain for the time being.

ooo

"What do you mean there's a warrant for my arrest?" Michelle asked Norrington later that night. "Is it listen in those Letters of Marque, Elizabeth has?"

"No." Norrington said. "Why else do you think half of Tortuga was trying to kill you? There were listings all over the city. There's about six thousand guineas out there for you, dead or alive."

Michelle laughed. "I never thought I'd hear that. What of my father? He's obviously a wanted man. What of his bounty?"

"He's the same, a lot of people, pirate and sailor, are after the both of you. Together, you're worth more than Jack. Many assume you're sailing with him, but the one's who call you the Dutchwoman, know otherwise, they're the one's who aren't bothering with trying to find you."

Michelle laughed, smiling to herself about being a wanted criminal. Never had she ever dreamed of such an experience. Norrington probably hadn't even thought of it either.

She recently discovered about a year earlier, Jack Sparrow was sentenced to the gallows after being caught by Norrington. He, Elizabeth and her fiancé soon after had warrants out for their arrests for having helped Sparrow escape his hanging. All four of them were fugitives of the law. Out of the four of them, there was to be only one pardon, and it was promised to Sparrow, and he would then be a privateer for the East India Trading Company. The other three were all searching for ways to be freed from the sentence of a hanging.

And now, Michelle found herself among the lot. However, instead of the British Navy after her, bounty hunters of sorts were targeting her. It was truly an unsettling notion. For all she knew, Michelle could clean her face up a bit, walk into Port Royal, and she wouldn't be suspected of an ounce of piracy. That is, as long as there wasn't anyone who recognized her. As far as she knew, if she was caught by anyone, pirate or not, she'd be sentenced to death almost instantly.

ooo

"Do you have any idea where your fiancé is?" Michelle asked Elizabeth at around dawn the next morning. Elizabeth shook her head.

"Jack said he's been sworn into the crew of the Flying Dutchman." She sighed. "But, knowing Jack, it's probably just a lie."

"I-is he dead?" Michelle asked uneasily. "B-because, if he's not, he'll be able to get away."

"Of course you know." Elizabeth said. "Jack's told us all. You're from the Flying Dutchman." She smiled. "But you wouldn't do anything to trade us over to them, would you?"

"Not at all." Michelle said. "That is…unless I'm ordered to." She knew that Sparrow knew of her loyalties to the Dutchman, as did Norrington, but now that the entire crew knew, she felt a little less secure. Although, it didn't bother her knowing of the crews knowledge of this, in fact, it made her feel a bit better. She could possibly use it to her advantage if she needed to. "You know then, that my loyalties only lie there until my father pays his debt, right?"

"I didn't." Elizabeth confessed. "Jack probably did, and he just purposely failed to mention it."

"It's a captain thing." Michelle said. "Jones does that on the Dutchman, he'll leave out parts of the conversation, just to keep us on our toes."

Even thought she knew she could use her belonging to the Dutchman as a threat, it didn't feel right. Very few crewmen probably trusted her now. But she had a bond with Elizabeth, a bond that sort of said that the both of them were doing something wrong, to achieve a better outcome for the common good.

"You don't have to go back." Elizabeth said, as a breeze blew over the deck, causing her and Michelle's hair to sway in the wind. "That's how pirates work, one day they have one captain, the next, they've betrayed them, and joined another crew."

"You have a point." Michelle muttered. "Jones never did tell me why I needed to be here." A smile spread across her face as she looked at Elizabeth. "I am a pirate after all, aren't I?" The two girls laughed, knowing full well, that even if they denied it, they were both pirates, and there was no turning back.

There was almost a sense of an Anne and Mary relationship between the two girls. Female pirates were rare, but when they were found, they were fierce, even more so than the men.

ooo

Cries of spotted land, only one longboat was pulled down, for Sparrow, Norrington, Elizabeth, the pirate with the wooden eye, named Ragetti, and his partner Pintel. Michelle protested on how she had a right to go with them. She knew the island, she had seen it while aboard the Dutchman.

After enough annoyance, Sparrow gave in, and made room for her to join them, even though he said, like he had many times before: his dirt was enough protection. Michelle still had no idea what he meant.