I'm surprised.i didn't get as many reviews for chapter 25 as I usually do.stop slacking off and review,you guys.you make me sad.
I have roughly twenty more reviews to go until I reach 200!HELP ME ACHIEVE MY GOAL!I COMMAND YOU!
And if you do,I'll give you a cookie. : ).
This takes off directly after chapter 25 ends,as Connor has just been killed,my apologies to anyone who liked him.
Warnings:a bit angsty,attempted murder,arguing between everyone's favorite couple (JxK).
Disclaimer:I don't own "pirates" 1-3 and all the stuff I mentioned earlier.
Copyrights:I own this story though.see either chapters 10 or 14 for copyrights.
Note:chapter 25 was the last chapter in Leah's POV,and thus will resume Kennie's POV for the remainder of the story,which is only about five more chapters.shocking.

Chapter 26:aftershock

I was stunned. I didn't want to believe it. Bad things aren't supposed to happen to the good guys. But how were the others holding up, I wonder? I looked over towards my friends. Leah was bawling, and Monnie was quietly looking at her feet. But Steffie, she was just standing there, staring at his body, tears silently streaking down her face.

"…Stephanie?" I said softly, reaching out a hand to her. "Steffie, are you all right?" She wiped at her eyes and shrugged slightly.

"I…I guess so," she said. "He was my boyfriend, but I guess I'm not so torn up about it because we haven't been together that long." She was strong, I'll give her that.

"C'mere…" I said, pulling her into an embrace. Steffie immediately began sobbing into my shoulder. "You'll be okay." Leah was hugging Will now, and although we all knew that Will was suffocating in her grip of death, he wasn't showing it.

"A bit too tight," Will said. I gasped suddenly.

"JACK!" I couldn't see him anywhere. I searched around frantically, suddenly worried sick about his well being.

"Jack?" Leah said.

"Yes! Where is he?" I yelled. "He was hurt, I saw him! Oh god, he could have died and fallen overboard and—!" I was cut off as Jack popped out of nowhere and embraced me from behind. I nearly screamed in surprise.

"Lookin' fer me, pet?" he said, smugly. I didn't say anything as I slowly relaxed.

"Maybe," I calmly replied. He laughed.

"Maybe?" he said. "Yeh were screamin' me name."

"I wasn't worried," I lied casually.

"Jack, would you stop laughing please?" Steffie yelled. "My boyfriend was just killed!" Jack looked up, without releasing his grip on me.

"Connor?" He said. "Connor's dead?"

"YES!" Steffie screamed. "Thanks for caring!" She ran down to the lower deck, sobbing into her hands.

"Ooohhh, Steffie WAIT!" Leah yelled, running after her. Jack tightened his grip on me.

"Were yeh hurt?" he asked. "They didn't touch ye, did they?"

"Jack, you're spewing blood on me," I said. "And I'm FINE. But as it appears, Steffie's not. She just lost her boyfriend and you don't seem to care. Girls really dig sensitive guys like you."

"Of course I care!" Jack protested, ignoring my sarcasm. "I was just distracted, so I didn't notice when he died. Barbossa kept me busy, he did."

"You're still bleeding on me." Jack shrugged it off.

"I was also distracted because of you…and not just because you were blowin' holes in me ship," he said. "Of course I'm going to say something like 'I don't love yeh', but I didn't mean it, pet. I was worried about you. I love you." I didn't say anything. I was actually still thinking about Steffie and Connor.

"That's cute Jack, and I'm touched, really," I said. "But there's still the subject of what to do with Connor's body and ship."

"Right you are," he said. He kissed my neck, let go of me, and walked over to Will, who was holding a roll of bandages. I sighed. As I walked down to the lower deck, I heard Will say:

"It's almost like these are becoming your best friends." I had myself a small chuckle and reunited myself with my friends.

"KENNIE, YOU'RE HURT!" Leah screamed.

"No, Jack is," I corrected. "He was hugging me, so he was also bleeding on me. Will's taking care of him right now."

"What did Jack say?" Steffie asked, wiping away her tears."

"He pretty much said that he was indenial and that he loves me," I said.

"I just saw him hug and kiss you, and that was it," Monnie said, walking into the room.

"He KISSED you?" Leah squealed.

"Neck," I said, poking the spot on my neck where he had kissed me. Leah "oohed" at me.

"Ooh, he LIKES you!" she said.

"NO WAY!" I shot back. "I just thought that the 'I love you' wasn't evident enough!" Leah pouted at me and went back to comforting Steffie. Meanwhile, I walked over to a pile of shirts (aka Will's shirts, and I know the Firecrest is not Will's ship and he has no spare shirts on the ship, so we'll just say that Connor gave him some…or something.), pulled some out, and selected one.

"EWW, KENNIE!" Leah yelled, as I stripped off my shirt. I glanced back.

"What? You don't like my bra?" I asked.

"KENNIE—…"

"Oh come on!" I said. "You always burst in on me while I'm changing in the locker room just to say hi, and you never protest then."

"Oohhh, fine," she said. "And no, I don't like your bra." I looked offended, but shrugged it off. I pulled on the spare shirt and folded my Jack Sparrow one.

"I need to wash this when we get back to the 21st century," I said. "T'is my favorite shirt." Will came down the stairs.

"Stephanie," he said. "Jack and I decided we're going to let you decide what to do with Connor's body. Is that okay?" Steffie sniffed, nodded, got up and followed Will out of the cabin. The rest of us followed after her.

We arrived on the upper deck. Will met up with Jack, who was now all bandaged up. Steffie knelt by Connor's body and gently stroked his hair.

"So?" Jack asked. "What would you like to do with him, Stephanie?" She continued to sit there.

"Are we headed anywhere particular?" she asked.

"Probably Tortuga," Jack answered. She thought a moment.

"Okay," she said. "I know what I want to do with Connor." She stood up. "Let's ship him off."

"Ship him?" Leah repeated.

"Yeah," Steffie said. "Put him in a lifeboat and send him out to sea. Will can inherit the Firecrest and Jack can have the Pearl back." We looked around for Jack. He was no where to be seen.

"Well," I said, "I'm gonna go before he pops out and jumps me again." I headed for the lower deck. I walked down the stairs and just as I rounded the corner, Jack tackled me to the ground, pinning me down beneath him.

"OWW, SHIT JACK, WHAT WAS—?" He slapped his hand over my mouth, hauled me up, and dragged me over to the wall.

"Shh…" he whispered. "There's a pirate still down here. Stay here, take my gun, and PLEASE don't follow me. Just go back to the upper deck and guard the others."

"But you just told me to stay here," I whispered back.

"I know what I said," he whispered, warningly. "Just go back up to the deck." Reluctantly, I walked up the first few steps, and then came to a realization and stopped. I heard Jack quietly walk around the corner, and I turned around.

Wait a minute…I shouldn't have to go back to the upper deck just because there's a pirate down here and because Jack told me to. I'm an individual! AND I have a GUN!

I hurried back down the stairs and rounded the corner Jack disappeared around. As I did so, I was Jack rounding another corner, which made me wonder: Just how big IS this bloody ship? I mean, I know I've been on the Firecrest for the past…however long and all, but I don't think I've ever really explored it. Oh my god, neither has Jack. Jack has no idea where he's going, he could be killed and—

SQUEEAAAKK…

Floorboards. Crap, that wasn't me. Double crap, I'm fairly sure it wasn't Jack. Must have been that pirate Jack was talking about. It sounded like it was coming from behind me, so I ducked behind some old wooden crates and threw a tarp over myself. And sure enough, one of Barbossa's crewmates came wandering by. He was headed down the hallway and around the corner Jack had gone around. Ah shit.

"Damn you, Jack," I muttered, standing up. "Tell me to wait up deck, will ya?" I followed the pirate around the corner, who had probably seen and pursued Jack. Even more probably, he had probably gone after all of us (but probably decided that taking out Jack would leave us open and defenseless). Well, my friends and I have had enough adventure for one day, or one week, or however long we've been here. Yeah, I lost count.

I peered around the corner and cocked the gun as silently as I could. I ended up having to muffle it in the folds of my shirt. Sure, I've killed these pirates before, when the pursuing pirates caught up with us and like, five minutes ago when I came to Jack, Will, and Connor's rescue, but I was still a bit weary. And besides, the spare shirt that I was wearing was REALLY BAGGY.

I saw the pirate inching his way towards the end of the hallway. At the end of it, I saw Jack with his back turned to me. he must have been looking, or thinking of where to go next. The pirate had a long dagger in his hand, and he raised it as he made his way towards Jack. Jack seemed completely oblivious, continuing to stare down the hallway and muttering to himself. He wasn't going to save himself, as it would seem.

BLAM!

The sound of the gunshot startled Jack. He whipped around just as the pirate fell, who fell forward onto his chest in a lifeless heap. Jack instinctively caught him, but immediately pushed him away when he saw who it was. The pirate fell to the floor.

"What the bloody…" he muttered. He then saw me, standing in the hallway with the smoking gun in my hand. "Kendra!" he said. It sounded like a mixture of alarm and anger. "I told yeh to go to the upper deck and guard the others! I told yeh NOT to follow me! Yeh could have been hurt!" I gaped at him.

"ExCUSE me?" I said. "I could have been hurt? Where would YOU be right now if not for ME? What if I hadn't followed you? You'd be lying on the ground with a knife in your back, THAT'S what! You can't lecture me for saving your life!"

"Don't turn the situation on me!" Jack fired back. "I distinctly remember givin' yeh orders to go and wait for me on the upper deck!"

"Without your gun?" I retorted. "Jack, you should be damn grateful I disobeyed you! Without me, YOU'D BE DEAD!"

"Whatever happened to 'always obey the captain'?" Jack said warningly, pointing at me as he walked towards me, stepping over the dead pirate body in the process.

"Last time I checked, you're not captain of the Firecrest," I retorted.

"I gave you that order, regardless, because I care about you, because I love you. I gave you my gun so that if he came up there and tried to attack you, you'd be able to defend yourself and the others!"

"You're so indenial!" I said. "You don't care that I saved you, you don't care that I am in fact, okay. You've got to be the most oblivious person I've ever met!" I threw his gun back at him, and all he could do was watch me as I stormed up the steps to the upper deck.

The others were waiting for me when I arrived. When I emerged from the stairs, I almost collided with Will, which told me that he was about ready to go down after me and Jack.

"Are you all right?" he asked, placing a hand on my shoulder.

"Kennie, what happened?" Leah asked, worried.

"We heard a gun shot and a lot of yelling," Monnie said. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I answered. "But nevermind me. How's Steffie?"

"She'll handle," Monnie said. "We're about to ship off Connor, so she's spending her last moments with him right now." I nodded.

"But you still didn't tell us what happened below deck," Leah said. "You…and Jack…alone." She grinned. I grimaced.

"Nothing could be further from the truth," I said. "C'mon, let's head back to Will's cabin. I'll tell you all about it."

End Chapter 26

How many times have I used "aftershock" as a chapter title?too many times.
So from doing numerous essays in English class,my teacher's been lecturing us about how we should write our essays in a present tense,which I've noticed I have not been doing in this story.the english major in me is telling me to go back and revise all chapters hitherto,which I just might do.just to fix the improper use of past tense.(by the way, "hitherto" means "up to date".)
I saw a really good movie today.anyone heard of "R.E.N.T."?it's a really sad and beautiful musical about gay people with AIDS.XD.okay,so not all of them were gay and not all of them had AIDS.but the songs they sang were REALLY PRETTY.
…WHY ANGEL,WWWHHHYYYYY??
…I mean uh…review.please.