A/N Sorry that I haven't been updating lately.  My dad was being evil… a whole week without my computer!  Evil, evil, evil… anyways, I really busted my butt to get this chappy out, so I hope you like it and review. 

Chapter Eight

            "Young Mister Turner and I are to go ashore."  Jack said to Gibbs as the rowboat was let down.  Raine turned her gaze to him sharply when he said this, and his eyes pleaded with her.  "Please, Raine, just stay here." 

            "But Jack," she started to say, but her interrupted her. 

            "I don't want you getting in the way this time."

            She was furious.  "Is that all I ever do, get in the way?  You take me for granted!  I never get to help with anything important; I'm always stuck behind while you show off!" 

            Jack tried desperately to calm her down.  "Look, love, I really need you to stay here."

            "And I really need to not stay here!" 

            "Darling, I'm being serious." 

            "So am I!" 

            "Raine, I don't want to argue with you…"

            "So don't!  Just tell me I can go." 

            "You can go." 

            "Good.  Now where is the boat?" 

            "No, Raine." 

            "But you said I could go!"  

            "You told me to tell you you could go." 

            "DAMMIT JACK!"  She said, throwing her hands up into the air and growling in frustration. 

            Will watched all of this in silence, deciding to just keep his opinions to himself.  But Raine refused to let him stay silent. 

            "Will, tell him to let me go."  She said, turning to him. 

            "Um…" He said.  She looked at him for a moment and when she realized he wasn't going to say anything, she squinted at him and shook her head sadly. 

            "Bloody hell.  You're so much like your father."  She turned away from them both and started to go downstairs to her cabin, when Will caught her arm. 

            "Wait.  How am I like my father?" Her eyes searched his for a moment and then she bit her lip. 

"Bootstrap would never come between Jack and me."

Will sat across from Jack in the rowboat and asked him something he had wanted to know for a very long time. 

"Why didn't you make Raine your first mate?" 

Jack was silent for a moment, and his rowing was the only sound to be heard, besides the water splashing and dripping around them. 

"I can't really say…" He said finally. 

"I don't believe you."  Will said.  "You know exactly why Raine wasn't first mate.  Tell me." 

"Listen, mate, it doesn't really matter at all…"

"I think it matters to her." 

Jack was silent, and Will didn't press any further.  But Jack spoke up anyway.  "I could have made her first mate.  Except…"

"Except what?"

"I don't entirely trust her, mate." 

"What do you mean?" Will said, sitting up straighter. 

"Well… listen lad.  You can always trust a dishonest man to be dishonest, right?  I mean, it's the honest ones you want to look out for, because you can never tell when they're about to do something stupid.  Well, the problem is, Raine is dishonest, like me.  But you still can never tell if she's about to do something stupid." 

"You didn't make her first mate because she's unpredictable." Will said skeptically. 

"No."  Jack said, sitting back again.  He thought about this for a moment and then said, "Yes." 

Will just stared at him.  Jack shifted uncomfortably. 

Raine leaned out over the railing of the ship and stared at Jack and Will as they rowed closer and closer to the island.  When they disappeared from view, she turned around and looked around deck to make sure none of the crew members were watching. 

And then she climbed into another rowboat and lowered herself into the water. 

"You will not leave me behind this time, Jack."  She said to herself.  "Not this time." 

***~***

"Hey, lass, how about some fun?"  Barbossa said to Raine, grinning suggestively.  She wasn't unsettled at all, smiling at him skeptically. 

"You've been on this ship long enough to know that nobody on this ship can have any part of my body to call their own." 

She turned away from him and started walking toward Bootstrap and Jack, who were at the helm again. 

"Not even Bootstrap?"  Barbossa called from behind her.  She stopped still and looked at Bootstrap at the helm.  He looked up and stared at her for just a moment, and their eyes met. 

"No." Raine said, soft like a whisper, only barely heard by the three others; Bootstrap, Barbossa, and Jack.  Raine turned slowly to Barbossa. 

"Where did you get that idea?"  Her eyes shifted slowly to back Bootstrap.  Jack seemed to be shocked… obviously he had not even thought to imagine that Raine… and Bootstrap?

Barbossa just laughed.  "The whole crew knows.  Except Jack.  But he always has been a tad bit out of it."

Raine and Bootstrap both glanced at Jack, who looked as if he was searching for something to say.  Barbossa turned away and went downstairs to the galley to talk to the rest of the crew.    

Jack put the rope around the helm to hold it in place, and then he stepped away from it.  The three friends stood together at the railing of the Pearl, Raine leaning forward and fiddling with her hands, Jack shifting uncomfortably every three seconds, and Bootstrap coughing randomly at the strangest moments. 

"So…" Jack started to say, turning to Raine.  But her eyes told him what he wanted to know. 

"I had no idea…" He continued, looking away to stare at his hands. 

"You weren't supposed to know.  It wasn't supposed to happen!"  Bootstrap said, tapping the railing.  His tone was angry. 

"Let's just talk about all this in the morning, when Jack can get over the shock. Please?" Raine said, gesturing toward the cabins. 

Jack looked nervously toward the cabins and then back at Bootstrap and Raine. 

"Oh, for gods sake, Jack!  We don't sleep together!  What is your problem?" Raine said angrily, turning away and walking down to her cabin.  The two others followed, hoping to talk about their mess in the morning.

With no idea that they wouldn't ever get the chance.