A/N Thanks for all the reviews. Here's the next chapter. I hope it's better then the last one! Please read and review!

Chapter Thirty Four

Mubbs was clearly upset that the Captain's job had been given to me. I heard him muttering rather bitterly about favouritism over skill. It angered me so much, I pulled out my sword and thrust it against his neck.

"Favouritism?!" I spat. "Jack sent us away because he hates us, and me the most, because he made me captain." I laughed, madly. "This ship is going to sink, and we'll all be joining it at the bottom of ocean." I said, coldly. I released him, and he scampered. Whether in fear of my sword or my mind, I am not sure, though I have always believed it to be the latter.

I showed little or no interest in the job of being captain, and most of the responsibilities were shared by Mubbs and another man called Robin. I was completely disinterested, I don't think I once touched the wheel.

The first few days were the hardest, we disappeared over the horizon, and I couldn't bear to look back for one last glimpse of the Pearl. Mubbs rose quickly against me, and I'm afraid to say, most of the crew were in agreement with him. Jack had made a foolish, biased decision, one which would only result in damage to the ship, and maybe their lives. I couldn't disagree more. They thought the position I had been granted was one of privilege, one I should be grateful for. But I wasn't, it wasn't. It was a position of shame, Jack had sent me away in a degrading fashion.

I whaled away the first five days in my cabin, with a bottle of rum in my left hand, and my pretty golden bell in the other, feeling incredibly sorry for myself. Looking back over it now, it is almost shocking to see the transformation I undertook on the Pearl. I am a mere shadow of my former self.

I went from a feisty, independent young lady, neatly balancing parenthood and marriage to this. A hankering shell of a woman, clinging on for every ounce of affection I could get from Jack, and now I was parted from him, I sank into a meaningless depression.

The only feeling I gather as I look back on this transformation is one of horror, how could I let a man reduce me to that. But I did.

On the forth day I stood on deck distancing my self from the rest of the crew. And as I stood there, peering out into the distance, I sighted the small silhouette of a ship on the horizon. I scrunched up my eyes to get a better look, but it was gone in the blink of an eyelid. After a few moments thought I struck if from my mind. Travelling in the opposite direction as it was, it would have no affect on the Fantasma.

"Captain, Miss?" A voice said, as there came a knocking on the cabin door.

I looked up from where I lay on the bed. "What?" I shouted, nastily.

"I think there be a storm brewin'."

"So what?" I replied, curtly. "You know what to do."

"But Jack…"

"I'm not Jack." I said, shortly. I could hear the footsteps as they retreated from the door. I don't know why they had come to see me, they could manage perfectly well without me there to hold their hand. Besides I couldn't care if the ship did sink, as least then it would provide an end to my misery.

The storm was only slight, and I barely noticed it cocooned in my cabin. The ship was rocked gently from side to side, and the chandelier above me shuddered on the ceiling, as I lay staring up at it. I told Jack I would make a rubbish Captain, and I had proved myself right, I thought with a little smile of satisfaction.

Looking back now I can't believe how I acted. I think the phrase is 'cutting one's nose to spite one's face.' or something like that anyway. I acted so childishly, I had all I could want spread before me. After all how many people have the chance to Captain a ship during their life time, I had often watched Jack in his element, it truly was his passion in life. It could have been mine if that place wasn't already taken.

I had sworn to myself when I married Roberto that I would never let a man control me, dictate my life. I had promised myself to always be in command. And Jack had come along, and I gave up that control willingly. Now it was too late.

A few days later I finally emerged from the cabin. The crew stood huddled in deep conversation on the deck. I stared at them angrily, and they reluctantly dispersed, and the deck fell silent.

"Problem?" I asked Mubbs.

He scowled, like a little boy who is caught by his mother pulling the cat's tail. I almost laughed at his expression, but stopped myself in time. It was obvious they were plotting against me, and if Jack had stumbled across such a plot, he would have run his sword through Mubbs as soon as look at him. But I, on the other hand, preferred to play it dangerously.

Mubbs shook his head. "No problem." He replied.

"Good. Sorted out the storm?"

"We rode it." He told me.

"I'm sure Jack will be delighted to hear about your professionalism, concerning this little test run of ours. Though it has been almost ten days, so I suggest we turn around and start heading back." I said, strolling up towards the stern of the ship.

The crew watched me, and I felt their eyes boring into my back. All I could think of was getting home to Jack, I didn't care how nice I had to be in my dealings with his monstrous crew in order to achieve my goal.

It was Robin who approached me, I felt him come up behind me, and my hand strayed to my pocket, but clasped nothingness. Jack had taken away my pistol after I had shot Annamaria.

"We don't know where we are."

"What?" I demanded, turning round. It seemed my reunion with Jack was slipping through my fingers like sand. His remark shocked me, I had been expecting a threat, or some kind of insult, but it was just a plain simple fact he offered.

"How can you not know where we are?" I asked, softly.

"You're the captain." Came a nasty sneer from Mubbs.

I strode over to him. "Exactly, which means I have the power to throw you overboard!" I told him.

But he just grinned. "Slight problem there. These men, they think I'm the captain. Which means I have the power to throw you overboard."

For a few moments neither of us spoke. "Jack would kill you, would you like to spend the rest of your life running, Mr Mubbs?" I asked, but my voice was shaking.

I was outnumbered, I had no weapon, and even if I did, I was a rubbish fighter. They would over power easily, all I had on my side was the threat of Captain Jack Sparrow. I saw Mubbs falter, only temporarily, though.

"But you said Jack hated you. He'd sent you out here to die, I'd be doing him a favour." He sneered, his cold hands touching my throat.

"I can tell you from first hand experience Mubbs, that Jack despises jealously. Touch me, and you'll wish you'd never been born." I wish I'd sounded confident, but my words came out quiet and questioningly.

"Mubbs, leave her. We 'ave bigger problems." Robin said, rolling out the crudely drawn map. I pushed one of the smaller members of the crew out of the way and joined Mubbs and Robin at the map. But to me it meant nothing.

"There is a fog coming." Said James, Mubbs's younger brother.

I stared up at the sky, but to me it looked ordinary, a little grey perhaps, with the sun struggling to supply its usual amount of warmth, but nothing to raise question. But the rest of the crew obviously saw something I did not.

"This is all we need." Robin sighed..

I tried to step back, but Mubbs grabbed my arm.

"Well Captain Sanchez what do you suggest we do about it?"

I shook my head fiercely and tried to pull away.

"Go on, you're the captain!" He laughed, or rather sniggered.

"I pass my duties over to you."

He let go off my arm in surprise.

"Only temporarily." I reminded him. "I want to get back to Tortuga as soon as possible, and you have the best chance of getting us there."

"What?!" Exclaimed Robin. "Why has he been given control? I'm first mate!"

"Mubbs has more experience." James argued.

"Experience? That don't matter, I'm first mate, and on the Captain's death, I take control."

"She's not dead." Mubbs said, rather disappointedly.

Robin grabbed me, and held a knife to my throat. "That could soon be arranged."

I couldn't speak, all I could think of was the cold metal pressing against my skin. I couldn't even think of my only weapon; Jack. There weren't scared of him, out here miles away from anything. And with the situation the way it was there was slim chance of ever getting back. The fog began to descend on us, and the men were still arguing. Robin had lowered his knife, but he was still holding me.

"I'm captain!" he was telling everyone. Though the crew seemed just as intent on not listening.

"Tell them, Sanchez!" He demanded.

And here I was trapped. If I made Mubbs captain, Robin would surely kill me, and if I made Robin captain, Mubbs would throw me overboard.

"I'm the captain." I said, softly.

"There's a ship!"

Suddenly the crew fell quiet, and the majority of people raced to the portside. I could just make out in the fog, a stealthy ship heading in our direction, it was still a long way off. One of the crew members, most probably James, had scrambled to the top of the crow's nest.

"She's large," he yelled.

I pulled myself up to a higher level, and stared out through the mist. "Please be the Pearl. Please be the Pearl." I begged to myself.

Mubbs stood beside me with a smirk on his face. "It's not Jack."

I didn't reply, and he turned to me angrily. "You're just going to let 'em attack us?" He demanded. "We have to move now, the Fantasma is not equipped for battle!" He yelled.

James had scrambled down from the crows nest. "They be getting' closer!"

"We have to move now!"

"What if it's Jack?" I asked.

"The Pearl will catch up easily if it is. But we have to go now!"

"No" I cried. "I am not running from Jack."

"I will not die for you, Sanchez!" He said, before turning to face the crew. "We have to get out of here, now, before it is too late. Once outta the fog we'll have no problem!"

To my dismay most of the crew seemed to be in agreement with them. But in my heart I still firmly believed that the ship just off to our portside was the Pearl. It was Jack, he had realised his mistake and was coming for me. What if we turned away and he gave up trying to follow? I would not lose him because of Mubbs.

James began to tighten the sails, and Robin stepped to take over at the wheel.

"No!" I cried.

No one paid any attention.

"Stop!" I shouted, even louder. And at last they turned to face me. "I am still captain abroad this vessel and this is my decision. We stay put. Any pirate wouldn't dare attack a ship known to be under the control of Jack Sparrow!" I told them, but still they seemed reluctant to listen.

I grabbed the nearest person to me; James, and held a knife to his throat.

"Let go of the wheel!" I screeched. "I've killed before," I warned them. "And I'll kill every man jack of you if you don't do exactly what I say!"

At last they fell still and I had their complete undivided attention.

"Let go of him!" Mubbs hissed.

"Now we're going to wait here." I told them all.

No one raised a voice in argument, and in fact Robin turned to me in admiration.

"If only you'd done that ten days ago, you would have made a fantastic captain."

"Thank you." I said, and I meant it. I released James, it was too late to run now. We had only choice. Let the ship approach.

James ran to his brother's side, and the two stood muttering together, but I gave them little thought or consideration. Now, our whole future depended on the ship approaching. I had thought it was the Pearl, the rest believed it to be pirate ship, or a merchant vessel. Nothing prepared us for what greeted us out of the mist.