"Jack, I'm so sorry!" A very distraught Jessi apologized through tears. "This is all my fault, if I hadn't been so stubborn-"

"Jessi, darling, it's not all that bad, really! I mean, yes, I've wasted a couple months of my life, and I've lost a few pounds, not to mention my acquisition of a rather arduous little headache. But I got what fate had in store for me, right? I mean, that's all I could possibly receive with a life of piracy!"

She put her head in her hands and Jack watched as tears rolled down her cheeks. "Well, when you say it like that... But Jack, I almost got you killed!"

He waved his hand at her nonchalantly as though it were no big deal. "That can be overlooked quite easily. If I had a shilling for every time I'd almost gotten myself killed, I could buy a brand new ship and a crew to go with it." He paused. "Actually, that's not a bad idea..."

"Can't you yell at me or something?" asked Jessi angrily through tears.

Jack gave her a confused look. "Why should I yell when I'm not angry?"

She shook her head. "It would keep me from feeling so guilty. I mean, the whole thing was my fault, I'm completely responsible for your near- death experience."

He looked at her as she sniffed a little. "You really are a good person, aren't you?"

She shook her head and shrugged. "I've always tried to be. Now I'm not so sure about what kind of person I am."

Jack looked at her. The unnamed emotion he'd felt when she'd first spoken to him was touching him once more. But this time, rather than staying for a split second and then fleeting hurriedly, the feeling churned powerfully in his stomach. He knew it wasn't just the rum that was making him feel light-headed and giddy. And, at the same time, this recurring emotion left him with a quaint feeling of emptiness. He didn't know what it was, and yet he felt that, simultaneously, he really did.

He swallowed nervously and reached for her hand.

Coincidentally, without knowing what she was depriving him of, Jessi moved her hand at that very same moment and said, her voice quaking a little, "I know you're not angry with me, Jack, but... I'm sorry."

Jack nodded, trying to smile. "Well, then... If it makes you feel any better by receiving what was already yours... You have my forgiveness."

She smiled and got up from her seat, walking gracefully back over to the bar. As he watched her walk away, Jack had never felt so alone.

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"They took it!"

"What! They can't have taken it, I'm the Captain!

"What's to keep them from appointing a new Captain? I'll bet that scoundrel, Gibbs, did it..." Anamaria was seething with anger. "But you know, you can't blame them for doing it, right? I'd have done the same thing!"

Jack swore angrily. "But it's my bloody ship, they can't just take it!"

"Jack, they can and they did! Accept it, okay? Had you not landed us on this stupid island in the first place, we'd still be on the Pearl and you'd still be Captain!"

Jack kicked a nearby statue angrily. "I still am the Captain!"

"Fine then, Captain, what are your orders? Just how do you suggest we go about getting the Pearl back?"

Jack thought for a moment. "I'll tell you what we're going to do. We're going to commandeer that ship over there." He pointed. "Then we're going to go after the Pearl and our cheating, lying crew."

"And what happens if we fail, huh? What do we do then?"

"Then we spend no more than six months in prison and try it again-"

"Try it again, only with guards and guns! And have you forgotten just how bad it was for you in that prison, Jack? You would die."

"I made it out alive last time, I can do it again-"

"Well, I don't think I could stand to see you go through something like that again. So if you're going to commandeer that ship, you're doing it by yourself."

"You're being a bloody coward, Anamaria!" He yelled at her, his face no more than two inches from hers. "What happened to the woman who used to be able to do anything?" Jack stopped yelling when he realized a tear rolling slowly down her cheek. "Annie, don't cry... But honestly, what happened to her? She's gone now because she's afraid of a bloody jail cell..."

"No, Jack..." She whispered. "She just fell in love..." She turned her face, then walked briskly away from him, muffled sobs emitting from her solemn figure as she left.

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