Well, here lies the longest chapter I've ever written. God, I have no life. And now to start Moratorium week and stop posting for a little while. I just wanted to get this story off the ground first. Ah well, whatever. I'll put one more Swordplay chapter up very soon.

Please and thank you for reviews!

***

Aletté felt her like forehead was on fire. She sat up slowly. Someone was panting in the far end of the galley. At first she thought it was Jack- Jack and Meryl more like. But as it quieted, as the weariness of it flooded away, she realised it was one of the crew. Someone having a bad dream, probably. Why would Jack sleep in the galley anyways?

Her feet found there way to the floor and stumbled up the steps to the deck. It was dark. It was cold. And something else. She retched as the dyes ran down her cheeks.

It was raining.

There was nothing stormy about tonight- no waves, just calm ocean and a soft breeze. The rain was pouring down in soft patters on the wood of the ship and the glassy surface of the ocean. It was almost calming, the weather. Like it was in sympathy with her. She smiled contentedly.

Her eyes began to droop and a wave of fatigue washed over her.

This is pathetic, she thought. I cant sleep down there, I cant stay awake up here. Pa-the-tic.

She raised her jacket high above her head to act as an umbrella. It cradled the water, weighed down, and poured out over her shoulders. She needed an extra two hands to keep the water off her, and thus came her resolution to just ignore the rain and be wet.

It didn't last long.

"You're going to get sick staying out here." Came Will's voice, accompanied by Will's arms atop her head that was now a disgusting cross between brown and blonde, leeching dyes everywhere. "Come back inside."

Aletté snorted. "Since when did you care about what happens to me?"

"Aletté, please, there's something you don't know-"

"Oh shut the bloody hell up, Turner. Does it look like I care what you have to say?" He opened his mouth to speak but she cut him off again. "If you followed me up here because you haven't seen your blessed Elizabeth for months and you desperately want to get lucky-" Will was sure she had the wrong idea about him there. He just didn't want her to fall ill. "-then you've got reality on a skewed angle there! I'd sooner sleep with Jack- at least he knows he's a lowlife, unlike you, who act like a saint but treat me like dirt between your toes!"

"Aletté," He began. "you don't know what you're-"

"Oh shut up."

And she disappeared into the rainy haze, heading back to bed.

***

Aletté sat on her bed, biting back tears. Why did she have to come back to all this- this pain, this torment? Leaving the first time had been punishment enough- why this? She closed her eyes and it all come flooding back…

Her brown leather boots clattered across the clean-scrubbed cobblestone walkway as she ventured up towards the Turner Manor, as it had come to be called. Elizabeth had given her the evening off from her constant babysitting of Will and Elizabeth's son, baby Jack, and she was just returning from a twilit stroll. She wound her way up the stony mosaic path towards the atrium, enjoying the peace that came from Port Crowne at night time.

"Taking the evening off?"

She whirled around to face Will, his wavy brown hair hanging down about his face, skin smeared with soot from the forges at the smithy. A smile spread across her face.

"Miss Elizabeth gave me leave." She said, moving closer to him. "Little Jacky was asleep." She reached up and rubbed at the black soot off of his cheek playfully. "You're all dirty."

Will didn't smile back, but took her hand and gently brushed it away. "The forges can make messes sometimes." He didn't want her to kiss him again. Kissing her just once had been an accident, a faithless act of adultery. A horrible mistake. He didn't want to re-make it.

"Will?" Aletté frowned. "Is something wrong?" She reached up to stroke his hair and again he pushed her away, roughly this time. "Will?" She massaged her wrists, where he'd pushed her, and glanced up at him worriedly. "William?"

"Aletté," He didn't want to look at her. "I have a son, and he needs me. I have a wife, and I love her! She's my reason to wake up each morning. I don't even like being a blacksmith, but I'll do it for her. You have to understand… I'm sorry, but I-"

"You said you loved me." She croaked in a half-whisper. "You said you'd provide for me." This was too painful to bear.

"I'm sorry, Aletté, I just-"

"You lied to me!" Tears seeped out from under her eyelids, sliding down her cheeks with a salty sting. She turned away, not wanting him to see her cry. Suddenly she felt his arms engulf her from behind in a brotherly embrace.

"Aletté, people come into your life and people go. Certain things happen for a reason. You just have to trust that life has a road mapped out for you."

She stared up at him, tears streaming down her otherwise flawless skin. "I think you'll understand, Mr. Turner, if I ask you to send for Jack while I wait for him at an Inn."

"Aletté," He pleaded, "You can stay here. You can-"

"Please, just send for the damn ship!" She wriggled free of his arms and took off down the pathway towards the Inns at the waterfront.

Will didn't love her, he didn't want her love. He wasn't going to care for her. She had been a fool to think life could get better. The life of Aletté Malycho was doomed. If what Will said was true, if life had a road mapped out for her, then hers was leading in a downward spiral, sinking lower than hell.

I've worked the streets, she reminded herself. I've sold myself. I'm already as low as I can get. There's nowhere left to fall when you hit the ground.

And I've hit the ground.

Dear Lord, have I ever.

***

The ship sailed uneventfully for just over a week. Aletté had never known such sheer boredom- at least when she had been on The Imprintor- the time she had first met Will- there had been other women there to keep her company. Now, with only Meryl as her female companion, Aletté was sure she would die.

Take today for example.

She had cornered Meryl in the 'ladies galley' (actually just the corner of the ship cordoned off with a bed sheet or two) and attempted to strike up any means of intelligent or at least amusing conversation.

"So," Aletté said casually, "you stayed on with Jack?"

"With Jack's crew." Meryl corrected. "Jack is nothing to me."

"Oh?" Aletté raised one eyebrow. "So who is something to you?"

Meryl brushed past her companion, avoiding her eyes. "You don't know him."

"Does he have a name?" Aletté teased. Surely Meryl could tell her something.

"Sure." Meryl said flatly. "His name, as far as anyone but me is concerned, is tombstone 7463 in Port Crowne harbour." She smiled sardonically, inwardly biting back a torrent of tears.

Aletté felt the pit of her stomach drop out from under her. "Oh I'm so sorry." Meryl fell in love- and her man died? Nobody tells me anything, Aletté grumbled in her head.

She spent the rest of the day consumed by something that was a mixture of pity, pathos, and curiosity. Meryl was so distant with everyone that Aletté knew the chances of finding out just who she'd fallen in love with were very slim, but she couldn't help wondering…

"Aletté, about last night, maybe you misunderstood me-" It was Will. Again. Guy doesn't take a hint.

"Will," She spun around to face him dangerously. "don't ever use the phrase 'about last night' around me, okay? Now please, excuse me-" She shoved past him roughly, aiming to bruise his arm but almost entirely certain she'd done nothing of the sort.

She was about to put her foot on the first step that lead down to the galley when a hand caught her arm roughly. "Darling?"

It was Jack.

"Aye, captain?"

He plastered on a fake smile and pulled her towards his quarters discreetly. Once the doors had successfully alienated all but a few dim rays of light and removed all sounds of the outdoors from the room, he turned to her pleadingly.

"Aletté, luv, you've been hurting poor Mr. Turner's fragile little heart quite enough, wouldn't you think?"

She glared at him. "Well when I get even for what he did to my fragile little heart, I'll stop. Does that please you, captain?"

Jack wrung his hands, frustrated. "Darling, maybe you should do us a favour and just tell me what the bloody hell is going on between you and me first mate!"

"He's your first mate now?" She laughed. "He's a pretty sorry sailor."

"Maybe when you knew him. He's improved." Jack sighed and gave up the cause. His eyes turned to her puke-coloured hair. "What happened there?"

Aletté blushed. "I ran out of dyes- you don't have an old hat or headscarf do you?"

He smiled genuinely for the first time that day and pulled a familiar floppy, wide-brimmed hat out from a chest of drawers. "This, you may remember."

Aletté nodded and pulled it down over her forehead. It was Anamaria's old hat- how Jack had come to own it was beyond her- and it camouflaged her face just perfectly. "Thank you, captain."

"You know," Jack mused. "You're the only person on me ship to remember me title properly, and you're not even part of me crew. That's damned odd stuff, luv. You have to agree."

Aletté just rolled her eyes and left.

***

He was home early. A day early- almost a day and a half. She would be pleased with him, he could tell. He fixed his tricorn hat and quietly made his way upstairs to Morgan's room. She was sleeping.

He slid his way into the bed with her, and was suddenly aware of her stirring awake. She rolled over and smiled at him sleepily. "You're early."

"Aye." Jack smiled. "That I am."

He gently massaged her neck, but stopped as her hands took his and guided them further down her body, finally resting on her abdomen. She smiled at him dreamily. "Can you feel a heartbeat?"

Jack had been told by many a woman that he was soon to be a father, and always it had been a disappointment followed by a stinging slap in the face. But this feeling- this was new. He felt like he could just jump up and take on the whole world himself.

"Morgan, luv, are you saying what I think you're saying?"

She nuzzled at the crook of his neck. "What do you want to name it?"

He smiled. "Well, lets see. If it's a boy, then William."

"Uh huh." Morgan nodded. "What if it's a girl?"

"A girl? Oh, right, a girl, hmm, well…" He thought for a moment. "What about Molly?" The name of his first ship. He'd liked that ship. It was a nice name, too.

A strange look crossed Morgan's face, somewhere between absolute sorrow and complete adoration. "Oh Jack," She cried, "you're the most thoughtful man on earth!"

And before Jack could even begin to wonder what in God's name she was on about, her arms were around his neck and her lips lustfully on his. When the kiss broke- roughly and reluctantly as it did- Morgan lay her head on his chest and said; "Oh Jack, my mother would've loved to see her granddaughter named after her. You're so thoughtful." She paused. "Thank you."

He smiled. He could hardly believe his luck there. He hadn't even remembered what Morgan's late mother had been called, he had only cared about his old ships and past ventures, and yet fate had somehow been on his side.

How lucky was that?

***

Review Replies:

Cecile Li-

There are two flashbacks in this chapter, and one gives a little itty bitty bit of Aletté/Will history. Glad you like the author's notes. Also, if you really want more history, try reading Swordplay (my other PotC story on the go right now.) It gives a lot of background info.

divinething-

Jack is a cheater, a player, so he's smelling Aletté because he just doesn't have much commitment in him to begin with. And as for Meryl's love-life situation, I hope this chapter cleared things up a bit. Oh, and Morgan is pregnant so she's at home in port. I thought that was inferred from the note, but maybe it needed a little more specification.

Erin Richards-

The word eunuch is just so funny. *giggles* You wrote some of the sequel? *does happy dance* Oooh! I cant wait! Yay! I will try with the audition thingy, but big eyes kind of make me look like a bullfrog. Oh well, cant have everything right?

Thanks for reviewing!

blueglass25-

Glad you like pissed off characters- I do too! Well, no, that kind of depends, but you know… Well, I'll try to update frequently, thanks for reviewing!

PLEASE REVIEW! PLEASE? *goo goo eyes* PRETTY PLEASE?

-SQ