Rose decided not to ask Jack right away what Bootstrap had recommended, and instead decided to take a more concrete approach. Right away, she went into Jack's study and grabbed several of his charts, returning to where Bootstrap stood vigil at the wheel. With his help, she committed to memory several different potential headings that might gain the vessel riches and adventure.

Rose thanked Bootstrap again, rushing back to her brother's quarters. She excitedly burst through the door, but quickly fell silent upon hearing several voices in his room. She would have waited outside out of respect had she not heard Ben's voice among them. She quickly dove into an alcove where she couldn't be seen, holding her breath and listening intently as to what was transpiring within.

"...uncomfortable, sir," was all she could make out of what Ben was saying.

Jack replied, "Is that so? I haven't seen or heard anything of the sort."

"Well, with all due respect sir, you wouldn't. She sneaks out of here in the night."

She. Rose's heart dropped upon hearing that they spoke of her.

Ben continued. "Her infatuation with me is distracting. She becomes jealous when I can't commit time to her. It's becoming a hindrance, sir."

"I find it difficult to believe that she comes to bother you in the night, what with her night blindness," Jack said. Rose breathed a sigh of relief knowing that her brother wasn't buying any of this nonsense Ben was feeding him.

"Are we certain that her night blindness isn't just a ruse?" Barbossa's voice asked Jack. Rose's stomach burned with fury. So that was why Ben was here. She wasn't certain what angered her more, the fact that Barbossa had convinced Ben to invent a tale against her or that Ben had been so willing to go along with it.

"Yes, Barbossa," Jack said sarcastically, "I'm sure the lass invented her condition. There's no doubt in my mind that she's telling the truth, and that's that."

"Regardless," Barbossa said, "You heard the lad. She's only in the way, Jack. She's a hindrance and, some of the men believe, a curse to have aboard."

"I'm the Captain, and if I say she's to stay, she'll stay!"

"The men are prepared to act, Jack, and I'm not certain even I can stop them."

This brought conversation to a dead stop between them. Rose's pulse pounded in her ears as she waited for someone to say something, anything.

Finally, it was Barbossa who spoke up. "Methinks we respond with my original proposal."

"Out of the question!" Jack said.

"The witch mentioned a girl! How do you know it isn't Rose?"

"I'm not going to trade my sister for a trinket!"

"A trinket that is promised to bring us to riches beyond all reason, if you'll recall..."

"It's not happening!"

"So what am I to tell your men then? That their Captain refuses to hear their concerns?"

Once again silence fell, until Jack finally said, "Head to the bayou. We shall see what she says. If Rose is not the right girl, she returns to the Pearl. Is that understood?"

Rose could tell this conversation was quickly coming to a close, and not wanting to be discovered, darted into the room.

"Good afternoon, gentlemen," she said to Barbossa and Ben, as though nothing had transpired. "Jack," she said to her brother, "I wish to speak with you alone if you don't mind."

Jack stammered, "Er...certainly," and with that, the other two men left the room. She could feel Ben's gaze on her, but dared not return it. She waited until she heard the door click shut that she began her desperate plea.

"You know they are only trying to be rid of me, don't you?"

"Rose..." Jack said in a calm voice.

"You can't possibly believe them!"

"Of course I don't, but I have a ship to command!"

"Then command it, Jack!" Rose cried. She rushed to his desk where he stood, throwing down the charts she had been clutching. "I brought these to Bootstrap! He instructed me to give you several headings because you'll listen to me! The crew grows weary of merely traveling without a heading. You can't just bask in the glory of being a captain without captaining!"

"Will you please shut it?" Jack yelled, rendering her silent. Once she finally gave him the floor, he said in a softer voice, "You have no idea how hard I've worked to get this ship, this crew, this life. I can't lose it all. If seeing Tia Dalma will help convince them that you belong here, I'll do what I must."

"Who is Tia Dalma?" asked Rose.

"A bayou witch. A voo-doo priestess, soothsayer, general all-knower and collector of all things gross and spooky," Jack explained. "She runs a shack up North and I've gone to her several times for answers. She told me that she seeks a girl to be her apprentice. I am to deliver that girl to her, and in exchange she will give me an item promised to save my life, powerful enough to send nations into battle or something like that."

Rose nodded slowly in understanding. "She means me."

"We don't know that," he replied. "There are lots of girls out there, it's doubtful you're the one she means. If I can just get you there and convince the men that she does not mean you, we can be in our merry way and forget this whole matter."

Rose looked up at Jack. "What if I am the one she means?"

Jack's lack of a response gave her all she needed to hear. He would naturally have to hand her over, receive his prize and leave her with a stranger again, probably on some loose promise of his eventual return.

She laughed bitterly. "You really do love her, don't you? The Pearl?" She took her half of the mother of pearl necklace which hung around her neck, symbolizing their kinship, and tossed it on the desk in front of Jack. "Does that mean nothing to you?" With that, she spun on her heel, briskly walked out of the room and sat on the crate Barbossa had left her waiting upon over a week ago. She sat there all night, letting her night blindness take over. She resented everything that was befalling her. She hated the man who killed her mother, the men who separated and sold her off, she hated the McHenry's, she hated the Pearl, and she hated Teague...

Teague.

The ever-present reminder of her lineage to the man who knew nothing about her by his own choice in the form of the surname she shared with him. Jack had distanced himself from their father by changing his last name to "Sparrow," which suited him well. Suddenly, the idea of donning the name "Hexfury" didn't seem so ridiculous. Jack approved, and even more so, it reminded Rose of a simpler time. A time where the world was confined only by the limits of her imagination, and the Black Pearl was her deliverance. A time when her faith in Jack was steadfast, not sailing on troubled waters as it was now.

If it's Rose Hexfury they want, Rose thought to herself, Then it's Rose Hexfury they'll get.