"Not All Treasure is Silver and Gold"

Chapter 28

Danielle was lying through her teeth. She was not about to be left sitting and waiting for James to do something. She was going to rescue Jack herself. She laughed at the very thought of James believing her.

That evening, she sat with Elizabeth and Arabella, swearing them to secrecy.

"I don't want to cause any more problems with you and James, so I request that you stay with him. You need to be under his watchful eye right now," she said to Bella. And for once, she truly meant something. "With that said, I am going to India. Elizabeth, you can either go with me or sail on The Adventurer. It needs to be what is best for you, Jack and Marie."

"Oh, we're going with you," she answered. She was in shock because she was actually given a choice.

"If you with. But we're going to leave very soon. Because once Bella has returned to James, he'll have caught on to us," Dani explained.

"Right," Elizabeth answered.

"So we'll be parting ways then, I suppose," Bella sighed. She had grown to love these women. Who knows if she's ever seen them again? Tears silently began to fall down her cheeks.

"Please don't start that, we'll all be at it if you do," Dani tried to laugh.

"I can't help it," she gulped. "You both are like my sisters. I don't want to leave you."

"We'll all be back for your wedding," Elizabeth tried to comfort her. "I promise you that."

"But…"

"No buts. Lizzie is right. We're going to get it all straightened out and we'll all be back to Port Royal in no time," Dani explained. But she knew better. She didn't know what had happened to Jack and Will and she didn't know if everything would be all right. But at least they could try.

At last, a good-bye was said and Bella had a lie to tell Norrington. (They, meaning Dani and Liz, were completely fed up with her constant complaining and sent her back to her fiancé.) Of course, it was a huge lie because Elizabeth was the one that complained all the time and James would probably figure it out…eventually. But it would at least buy them some time.

And James was frustrated to say the least when he learned of Bella being kicked off of Dani's ship. He was furious and was threatening to go over and speak with the women once more. He would not let the subject drop and talked about it all night long.

When Bella couldn't take it any longer and was sure of Dani's departure, she finally told him the truth. She would just have to face the wrath of Dani later.

James' face turned a shade of purple-red that very much shouldn't occur in nature.

He rushed past her and barked his orders to his crew.

"We are sailing now! Go, go, go!" He turned back to Bella who had followed him out on to the main deck. "How could you have let them go?"

"Have you forgotten how complicated it is to convince Danielle Sparrow to do anything, let alone change her mind? I would only try it under pain of death."

James nodded in agreement. Dani would do anything for Jack and there would be no stopping her now.

And Jack was almost hoping that Dani was on her way. But he couldn't expect that. She didn't even know where he was. Jack paced his tiny cell.

"You are making me nervous," Will told him.

"Quiet, eunuch," Jack shot back.

"This," Will acknowledged their surroundings, "is all your fault. So do not blame me. Do not insult me. Do not even look at me."

"Shut up, the both of you," the guard shouted.

Jack slumped back on the floor with his arms folded on his knees. He was disgusted with himself. There was no Dani, no Rosemary and hell, he didn't even have his hat. Suddenly, he was totally aware that his plan was not working.

So he decided to continue his argument with Will.

"I hate you," he whispered.

"I hate you more, Jack. I really do."

"We'll be in India in two days. Maybe sooner," he guard told them. It was to shut them up, but even more so to comfort himself and ease the headache that these two scalawags were causing.

"What port will we be stopping at?" Jack asked.

"Pondicherry," the guard yawned and closed his eyes.

Jack smiled an evil grin. This was too good.

"That's a French port, correct?" Jack asked another question.

"Yes," the man sighed. He didn't care what the pirate knew. He just wanted to get some sleep.

Jack and Will sat in silence, listening to the sounds of the ship gliding through the water and the eventual soft breathing of the guard.

As soon as Jack knew the man was truly asleep, which he tested by calling him a couple names, he started to tell Will the (new) plan.

"William, you have to trust me on this," Jack started.

"Oh, I don't trust you and probably never will now," Will snapped back.

"Pondicherry will be an easy place to escape from. The French and the British are constantly fighting over it, you'd think they'd have enough space with their own countries, but I digress. We'll just start an argument between them, a diversion, if you will, and escape."

"And when they start shooting?"

"Hope you're faster than the bullets," Jack answered.

"But…"

"It'll work, lad. It will. I've been to Pondicherry before."

Will was unsure of himself and even unsure of Jack. But he couldn't very well doubt the man because this might be his only way home. He really didn't want to be prosecuted for something that no one connected to him actually did.

His mind finally settled on going along with Jack's plan. So he put his head back on the wall to catch a couple hours of sleep before he was inevitably prodded awake in the morning.

Dani was staring at the hat that Gibbs had given her. It was Jack's and he felt that she needed to have it. She wanted to put the hat on, but dared not to touch it. He'd been wearing that hat since the day she met him and it was too painful for her to even imagine that he might never wear it again. Dani physically and mentally shook herself and thought back to the task at hand: getting to India safely.

They should only be a couple days behind Jack and Will, but… Dani didn't even know how to deal with this. She was so uncertain of everything.

She checked on her sleeping child, who had spent the last hour crying and Dani couldn't figure out why and crawled into bed.

Elizabeth, on the other hand, was feeling hopeful. Something else clicked in her head and gave a certain sense of…she didn't know what but it was different and good. The part of her that constantly felt empty since Will was gone, was starting to fill back in as they got closer and closer to finding him. So when she went to bed this night, she said a silent prayer and fell asleep with a smile on her face.

A/N: Okay, here is the next update. Hope everyone likes it. And I just wanted to say how much everyone has helped me. I've gotten better at writing through this and even my grades are getting better because of it. I just got two 4.0s and a 3.0 in my college classes and am so proud of myself. I just wanted to say thank you.

And Dani wanted to express her thanks as well. "Thank you everyone who has reviewed. I suppose that now we are getting closer and closer to Jack and Will in India, I won't walk out of the story. Besides, what would I do if I walked out? So thank you and continue to review or I'll have to come after you…"