DISCLAIMER: I don't own Jack (Wish I did, heh.) Nor the Black Pearl, etc etc. I do, however, own Diana, Nicholas Rose and Willy Rose. so there. =P

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CHAPTER 6: Confessions II

Diana woke the next morning feeling rigid. She had been dreaming about her father. It was all she'd been dreaming about for the last month. However, it had never been that tense. She had relived all of the most horrific experiences she had encountered during her captivity with Captain Daniel Snow. She watched her Father murdered right before her eyes again. She saw the ghastly look on old Snow's face after they kidnapped her. She remembered that terrible torturous night in his cabin....

Diana shook her head, dismissing the gruesome memories. She wanted to die. To end all the nightmares and enter into the inviting warmth of her dead father's arms. Making her way to the upper deck, she noticed Jack by the helm, looking out to sea, holding a large compass. He didn't see her as she walked over the bulwark. Diana peered over the edge of the ship. The dorsal fins of several large sharks protruded from the surface of the water; they were ravenously feeding on all the garbage that was thrown out from the Pearl. Hoisting herself onto the edge of the bulwark, Diana gazed at the ocean. It would be so easy to simply slip; to fall to the greedy jaws of the merciless sea. She couldn't guarantee a painless journey to the afterlife, but it could be quick. Only half-sincere of her thoughts, she rocked gently with the rhythm of the swaying ship. Flashes of her burning home streaked across her mind in pulses. The vile pirates slaughtering anyone they came across- servants, maids, the stable boys.... Her father. Diana was the only being left alive in the entire estate. Her father's fortune, his life's work, gone.

Diana felt her self slide laxly from the bulwark. She did not pull herself up, but merely let herself fall...

"Diana!" The sharpness of the tone and the lack of usage of her surname startled Diana out of her reverie. Jack had seized the girl's arm, preventing her fall. Jack pulled Diana off the bulwark onto the deck, a look of sincere concern on his face.

"Are you alright?" He asked with alarm. There was something in his eyes she had never seen before. Almost as if he actually worried about what happened to her...

'If he cares, it's only because he wants his wretched treasure.' Diana told herself firmly.

"Diana!" Jack exclaimed, taking the girl by her shoulders and giving her a gentle shake.

"I'm...fine." She said robotically, her eyes trailing to the edge of the bulwark. Jack tipped her chip with his forefinger and pulled her gaze back to his eyes.

"What happened, love?" He pressed. Diana pulled herself from her grasp, shaking her head.

"Don't call me that. I tire of your pet names." She spat bitterly. Jack looked taken back.

"Diana.."

"It's Miss Rose." The girl interrupted icily. She was fairly angry with the pirate for interjecting her 'trip' to the other world.

'You should be grateful, you know.' Whispered the voice that resided in the back of her head. Brushing all the thought and all gratitude asides she marched passed Jack and laid her head over the side of the ship, cynically.

"You know, Miss Rose," Jack began gently, leaning next to her, "They say that Hell is reserved for only two varieties of people: Murderers and Suicides."

"What are you suggesting, Captain Sparrow?" Diana asked hostilely. 'The nerve!'

"Now calm yourself, love." Soothed Jack. "I'm merely pointing out that you'd be depriving Heaven of a most exquisite and magnificent angel."

Diana tore her gaze away from Jack embarrassedly.

"It would be a dreadful shame." He added solemnly, as if to himself.

Diana felt the fluidness of his voice seep into her head. He was smooth, that much was certain. No matter the oddity of his appearance, from his long straggled and beaded hair to the black kohl smeared around his eyes, he was definitely one of the most enchanting and flattering men she had ever met.

'Pity he is a ruthless cutthroat,' She found herself thinking.

"Pray you be a bit more careful, Diana." Sparrow said as he turned to go.

"It's Mercedes." Was the girl's sudden reply. Jack stopped in his tracks and turned to look at her.

"Come again?" He asked with a quirked eyebrow.

The girl felt that if she held in everything for much longer she'd explode. She had to tell Jack what he wanted to know. She wanted to clear her troubled mind; she was tired of having to watch everything she said, in case she let something slip. Diana what happened to her anymore; it couldn't be much worse then what she had already experienced.

"My name...my real one, is Mercedes." She said breathlessly. Her stomach was tying it's self in an annoyingly jittery knot.

"You...lied about your name?" Jack questioned disbelieving, his brow wrinkled slightly.

"No, no, no," Tried the girl. She felt hot tears swelling in her eyes. "Diana is my middle name, and what close relatives and friends knew me by." She took a deep breath, her face flushed. "My name is Mercedes Rose, the only daughter of the scholar, Nicholas Rose; and only living heir to the dreaded pirate, Wilhelm Rose the Bloody."

Jack didn't say anything, only looked at her. His expression was difficult to read. His head was tilted slightly, his eyes soft, yet hard at the same time. He wasn't smiling, as he usually did. Nor was he frowning. Diana wished he would say something, as it was quite the awkward silence.

"Good day, Miss Rose." Jack finally said, tipping his hat. Then turning on his heel, he disappeared below deck.

***

Jack hadn't expected Diana to tell him. Even though he already knew, he didn't know how to react to her confession.

Mercedes...

The name had a bittersweet effect to the pirate. The soft melancholy syllables blended with the poignant melody of a whisper, mixed with the voice of the young woman showed apathy toward him. Jack wanted to hear that name echo through his mind for the rest of eternity, yet at the same time never hear the cursed word again.

'She must really be cracking' Jack thought to himself. 'For her to act so brashly.'

Jack bit his bottom lip until it bruised.

'And her attempting suicide..." He thanked all that was holy that he had looked up from the helm when he did. His heart nearly skipped a beat as he watched her lift herself onto the bulwark. He couldn't remember very many times he had been that scared. Jack didn't know how bent on killing herself Dian--er, Mercedes was on killing herself. If he wanted her alive, he'd have to try to flatter her a bit.

'After all,' He said to himself with false self-assurance. "If I want her treasure, I'll need her breathing." But something inside him wondered if all he wanted from her was her ancestor's treasure.