A/N: I know, the last chapter was short, but now it gets depressing. (Sigh) I hate depressing...better add some rum into the nix...MWAHAHAHAHA!

We were all loaded onto two ships, one, most of my cousins went one, and the other was the crew of the Pearl, on the Pearl of course, with Davie, his wife and kid, Janet and her family, Jack, myself, and good old Jason. I wasn't allowed to leave my cabin. What a shocker. Jason was fuming mad at me for not stopping when he called to me. "I'm not a puppy." I said this to the invisible, forever silent Jason. Cade, one of my many cousins was stand outside my door this minute, making sure I didn't get lose. Jason came and talked with me twice, and I had ignored him. But my next visitor was unexpected. It was Jezebel, Janet's daughter. I thought there was something about this girl that just reminded me of myself. She sat right down, ready to hear EVERYTHING.

"I told you, I want to know. And that brother of yours won't tell us nothing." I laughed, "Anything, won't tell you anything." Jezebel just shrugged and looked me dead in the eye. I sighed, "Okay, the truth is, your mother was scammed. My mother, Whitney Gillmire, got married to the pirate Thomas Bartholomew. They had 'Janet' as my mom's 'parents' called her. They took Janet from my mother, and then sicked the soldiers on her. My mother turned pirate that night. She killed eight soldiers to get my dad out of jail, and they went to the Caribbean. They tried to get Janet, but the house was guarded more than the jail was. So they both went into piracy. Slowly, my grandparents, your great grandparents, lost it. They went out for witch-hunts and killed children. All their family but Janet left them. Then my 'grandfather', if you cold call him that, comes over to our island home, where we have all these ships, and fancy houses, kind of like our own home, far from people.

"He kills my uncle, and my father, ties to kill my mother and brother, but my mother stabs him before he can blink. And that's after she gives him the chance to leave peacefully. So, three people in my family are dead, I forgot about my dad's father, my REAL grandfather, that is, died as well after killing about ten red coats. We somehow get these scavenger pirates to give us a ship in exchange for our, now ruined home. They get an island; we get a few ships and a ride to Tortuga. So now I'm eleven right, and I have to take care of about nine younger relatives and sisters and brothers. I have to help run a business, cook, clean, and I have only about five minutes a day to sail about a bit and learn how to sword fight. I fall asleep an hour before dawn, and wake up as soon as the sun feels like shining. Then after a year, Uncle Matthew shows up, saying he has a home for all of us, because a good half of us split up. So while trying o balance three kids at once, I lose track of the year old, Tara. I find her limp in an alleyway, with a bruise just starting on her head, and the same thing happened to me.

"I get saved by the Jack Sparrow's uncle, and for three days I'm out. Winter is coming, so Uncle Matthew leaves to save time, and he most definitely stopped one of the kids from getting hurt in those ice cold frosts that happen. The good part is this; it's that I wait a good three years or so for him to come back for Tara and I. He never does. We hop on a merchant boat and sail around, trying to find out where out family is. For years we do this. And then one day, I meet Elizabeth Swann. Now, she asks me to settle down, and be her maiden of honor at her wedding. I meet Jack Sparrow again after all these years, people find out I'm not who I said I was, and suddenly, I'm about to be married a day after I say yes, to some freak. The freak turns out to be a friend of mine, possessed by a ghost. He gets killed, and suddenly, I'm not married, I have my family back, and Jack Sparrow drives me nuts. I find out my best friend and cousin Caitlyn is dead, along with her unborn baby. Then at the wedding, I'm singing a song for Elizabeth, and I get kidnapped. My younger sister, Mary, is killed and I barely know it, because I'm next, I find out Caitlyn is alive, and I get shoved off a boat into the sea with Jack Sparrow. My old ship mates find us trying to kill each other, and then we find out we are on the unlived on part of Tortuga, starving, half naked, and both bleeding again, trying to kill each other. Oh, and then Worm, some old freak turns up and tried to rape me somewhere in all the castaway mess, and wounds both me and Jack.

"A whole mess of stuff happens, my own friend gets drunk and tries to rape me, I end up on the Pearl, and I have a miscarriage. I don't move for days, and then Jack makes me come here. Or...Wherever the port was. Jack gets possessed, and I have to hurt him, When the ghost leaves his body, I cut my palm so Jack doesn't die from him, and then I ran into your mother. And from what I hear, I'm going to be forced into a marriage I don't want, taken away from the sea, and turned into some house wife. I'll have all my dreams stripped from my grasp, and be forever doomed. So, how's your life?" I look over at Jezebel to see that she was half-asleep. From outside the window, it's night, and there was a bunch of rowdy commotion from the galley. I would know this because I left my room, Cade wasn't there and the noise from below almost woke Jezebel up. First I moved Jezebel into my cot, and put a blanket over her. She was a good kid.

I climbed down the stair to the galley, to see all my cousins, even Timothy, with a mug of what smelled like rum, drinking their hearts away. The crew was there as well. The few of them that weren't drinking played on old instruments, and the beat was lively. Jack was in the middle of it all, making Jason's face glow red with hysterical fits of laughter. Out of all the men there, Jack seemed to be the only one with half a mind to work with, if not more. He saw me standing by the stairs, watching them, and said rather loudly, "What would you do, if I asked yeh sister fer a dance?" Jason didn't answer, he had passed out. Jack sashayed over to me, and almost tripped when he leaned forward, his hand open, ready to except mine. I pushed him out of the way, and went for my own mug of rum. Jack eyed me, before laughing. "We never did get a chance to have that contest, now did we?" For a drunken man, Jack was doing very well at speaking, and walking about. But if he had bested Ralf, then the next one he had to beat was me.

"Tell me Jack, what makes you so sure you can beat me." Jack looked me dead in the eye, and walked up to me. " I'm Captain Jack Sparrow, luv. There is no one better." I took my mug, and banged it against his, making some of the rum slop around inside both. "There's a first time for everything."

***********************8
An hour later and seven mugs fuller, I started to wobble about. For some odd reason, I was sitting on Jack's lap, swaying about just a bit. "Tell me again, Birdie. What is the point to piracy?" I had nicknamed Jack Birdie ten minutes ago. Whoever was left still awake groaned when I asked them to explain piracy for the third time that evening. We could hear music coming from the other ship, where they were having a more sober celebration. Jack held tight to my elbow, making sure I didn't fall off. Jack's pirate talk as I called it, was far more pronounced now that he was drunk. "I'll tell yeh lass, if yeh promise, to dance with me." Jack held out his hand to me, and I shook it. As Jack talked, I started to slip off, swaying slightly even more. I twirled my hair around my finger and acted if I was listening. At the word freedom, I broke in, "Yes! Freedom is a wonderful thing. Like the word...sashay! Odd isn't it. But it fits and flows. Like...like water." I burst out in a fit of giggles, and was suddenly quiet when I caught Jack looking at me. "What is it?"

"Abe, I think I like you better when you're drunk. I laughed again, and when Jack leaned in to kiss me, I held my hand up. I didn't know why. To my drunken self, it seemed like a good idea. "Jack, can I ask you something?" Jack nodded, quit hard for a person as drunk as he was. I took a single dreadlock from his head, and started to fiddle with it. Jack watched me fingers, as if they had their own pattern and dance. I looked him dead in the eye, not knowing what I said, "Do you believe in the story, the one they tell all children. About the...oh what is it. Oh, yes, the Pirate's Curse? You know, about how any pirate that really does love someone, that if they admit it to everyone, and then kiss that they breathe their last breath in doing so? Jack, do you-"

I suddenly fell off Jack's lap. Gibbs laughed and Jack helped me up. "I think yeh `ave `ad enough, luv." Jack stood and I refused to leave, so he picked me up and carried me away. Gibbs and those who were still in their right minds looked surprised, but most laughed, called out rude comments, and passed out again. Jack took me to my cabin, but in seeing Jezebel sleeping in my cot, he was faced with a bad situation. All the cabins were full. He could put in me in the forecastle, which hadn't been used or cleaned in years, or taken me to his own, and end up sleeping on the deck. So Jack carried me to his cabin, and tossed me onto the bed. I was still awake, and didn't want to be left out of the fun. I was like a little kid who wouldn't go to bed. I thought of the last excuse left for me to use.

"I thought we were going to dance?" Jack looked at my drunken eyes, and we both realized at once, that we weren't as drunk as we thought we were. Jack took my hand, and we walked out onto the deck. It was still a full moon, or just shy of one at least. The stars were out, and I spotted Orion. Jack spun me to face him, and took my glasses from my face. I had to be VERY drunk, never mind what I said before about not being drunk. I never let anyone take my glasses, and then, I confirmed this when Jack took my hair down from its tight bun. I let him do it, like the idiot I was.

Then, we danced. Once again, I questioned my drunken state. The music from the other boat was loud and clear, and I could walk, spin, and twirl without falling over myself. Then, just as the song ended, Jack stopped. He just spun me away, and stopped. He made no move at me, or spoke a word. We both just looked at each other. Then I did something crazy, something only large amounts of rum could make me do. I walked over, and hugged Jack. Not as friends huge, but something more. I don't know what started it, whether it was my hands along his chest, or his lips on mine. Suddenly, I became aware of myself a few minutes later. I was in Jack's cabin, and Jack was kissing my neck, going lower each time. "Jack, stop, we really shouldn't do this." Jack muttered something that sounded like, "Pirates don't truly care, now do they?" Jack was passed my shoulder, and I pushed him back. "I thought pirates didn't love?" Jack looked at me, and he said something that made me catch my breath, "I thought you said you weren't a pirate?"