It wasn't as if I went around looking for trouble. I tried to avoid trouble. Really. The skips that I worked were usually trouble free. Shop- lifters. Gun possession. Deadbeat husbands. But never, ever, murderers.

At least, not without Ranger. And not without a really good reason, like I needed money to pay my excessively high car insurance or I needed a new car. Again.

All I wanted was to avoid dead bodies. Honestly. Somehow, they always jumped out at me, no matter how hard I tried to avoid them.

"He's dead, isn't he?"

Anamaria heaved a weary sigh and nodded. "Third one. Jack's not gonna be pleased."

Our trip into the cargo hold started off being fun. Ana let me poke through some of the trunks of Sparrow's spoils and we tried on some of the tackier jewelry. Lula would have loved it. And then we decided to get down to business.

That's when we found the body.

Actually, I found the body. I tripped over him.

Ana helped me to my feet and held the candle closer so I could see what I tripped over. It turned out to be Stinky, the pirate who showed me his doodle. And he had a great big knife sticking out of his chest.

"Aye," Ana repeated. "Jack ain't gonna like this one bit."

"I guess it's not a love triangle."

"I don't think it's a mutiny, either."

We looked at each other.

"Revenge?"

"Aye, Plum. Revenge."

*****************************

"Revenge?" Sparrow stared at me and then at Ana and then back at me again. "For what?"

I shrugged.

He sighed and rubbed his eyes wearily. "The only I could think of who'd want revenge on Jones'd be you, love."

"Me?"

"Aye. You."

"For what?"

He looked at me as if I'd lost my mind. "For tryin' to ravish ye."

"Oh. That."

"That."

"I broke his nose. Case closed." I shrugged again and looked at Anamaria. "You think I did this?"

"You?" She snorted loudly. "Not likely."

"What about you, Sparrow? You think I did it?"

"Captain, love." He rested his chin on the big wheel of the ship and stared out into the night. "It's Captain Sparrow. And, no, I don't think ye did, though the crew may take some convincing."

"They're a superstitious lot," Ana put in. "And afraid of any woman that has a brain in her head."

Ana scared me, not that I was going to admit it. I wondered if she scared Sparrow, too.

As if he could read my mind, he turned to me, a thoughtful expression on his face. "Ana. Take the helm. Stephanie is going to show me where ye found the body."

************************************

"You must rob a lot of ships."

"Loot, love. It's loot." Sparrow draped his arm around my shoulders and guided me through the hold. "And yes, I do a bit of alright."

"A bit? Look at all this stuff!"

He stopped and looked over the crates and trunks, a thoughtful expression on his face. "Aye, pet, you're right. I'm a bloody good pirate."

I rolled my eyes at this.

"Ana tells me ye want to be a pirate yourself."

"Ana talks too much." I decided to change the subject. "What do you do with all of this stuff?"

"Sell it, divide the profits among the crew, stash a bit on the side. Spend the rest on keeping up the Pearl." Sparrow smiled down at me. "Ye might want to rethink the pirate idea, love."

"Hey! I might make a good pirate." When I was a little girl, I wanted to be Wonder Woman. A bounty hunter wasn't that far off. And since there didn't seem to be any cops in 1689, maybe being a pirate wasn't that bad an idea. Especially since I had no idea how to get back to 2004.

"Ye might," Sparrow allowed. "My crew's already terrified of ye."

"What about you?"

"What about me?" He chuckled softly. "Ye hit pretty hard and ye are handy with a gun, but, love, I think I can take ye in a fair fight."

"Since when do you fight fair?"

"And since when do you, love?" Sparrow chuckled again. "Aye, ye might make a good pirate yet."

Oh goody. A pirate's life for me. Yo ho. Oy.