Millie awoke in the late morning to the feel of the waves beneath her. She opened her eyes abruptly and sat up straight in a feathered bed, but a sharp pain in her stomach had her lying back down instantly. That was when she remembered what had happened the night before and how a humongous pirate had mauled her, and then was saved by a man that she had never acquainted with before. She felt her lip with her callused fingers and it was three times its average size, but had at least stopped bleeding profusely. Her head was pounding with pain, but she did not flinch, as she had learned to make herself numb to the pain by thinking of something else.

She looked around her, and found herself to be in a cabin, obviously aboard a ship since she could feel the ocean only a few feet beneath her. It was quite a large cabin, as was the bed that she was lying in. Her head was placed on at least two feather pillows and it made Millie feel as though she was resting on a cloud. Beside her was a dark table that matched the wooden walls of the cabin. Rags dripping with her blood were sloppily sprawled across the top of the table. Not much else was in the room besides a few maps on the floor, and a pair of boots, and a brown, leather overcoat. She was so confused as to why she was on a ship, and she began to panic for she had a bad recollection of times onboard pirate ships.

The wooden door creaked open slightly, and Jack peered through the tiny crack in the door. When he saw that Millie was awake, but still lying down, he swaggered across the room, swaying from side to side, appearing to look as though he was still drunk from the night before.

"Good morning, luv," said Jack as he knelt beside her bed, staring deeply into her fierce, yet kind eyes. Millie stayed silent, and did not look to him. Jack looked around uneasily, not sure why she was not responding, or staring back. "Don't feel like talking, aye? You seemed to run your mouth quite a lot last night to Cap'n Wallace."

Millie turned to him, scowling, and stayed silent, glaring at him for a long while.

"Who are you?" she asked sternly. Jack laughed, stood up, and bowed.

"Jack Sparrow," he said, but corrected himself, "Captain Jack Sparrow."

"Can't say I've 'eard of you," said Millie, though she was obviously lying for she had heard numerous stories of the infamous captain of the Black Pearl.

"Me find that hard to believe, especially when you've been in the trade for quite a time, lass," Jack said. Millie looked down at her forearm where a deep and long scar was. She rubbed it, as though she was reminiscing on the past, "And considering you are but the ripe age of thirteen," he said, but Millie interrupted him.

"Fourteen!" she shouted.

"Fourteen!" Jack continued as he walked through the cabin, "I am shocked that ye have already found yer'self on the streets of Tortuga."

"But I'm not in Tortuga anymore, am I, Captain Sparrow?" she asked challengingly.

"Nay. You be on the sweet ship, the Black Pearl, known throughout the oceans as a ship crewed by the damned!"

"That was under Barbossa, you bloke," she spat. Jack was taken aback at her rudeness, but found it likeable for some reason, and managed a smile.

"That bloke ain't alive no more, lass," he said, "I had the pleasure of killin' him me'self." Millie glared back to the ceiling, and stayed silent for a few more minutes, but Jack broke the silence yet again.

"Do you have a name?" he asked bluntly.

"Millie."

"Millicent? That is an awful name, shame ye have it."

"I didn't name myself."

"Ah, yes. Well, I shall give you a real pirate name!" he said excitedly. Millie looked at him as though he was a raving psychotic, which he was. "Later…of course…when you've earned it!" and pointed his finger in the air. Millie rolled her eyes and wondered how someone could be so insane!

Then, a tan woman with long, black hair burst into the cabin. She was dressed like Jack and also Millie, with breeches, boots, and a large, white shirt, that hung loosely on her body.

"Anamaria, this is Millicent," Jack said and winked.

"Millie," she said boldly. Anamaria turned to her and smiled, happy to have another girl aboard the ship, even though the new girl she was extremely young. Anamaria led Jack out of the cabin for a bit, leaving Millie lying in her bed alone for a few minutes to think about how she had gotten so deep into piracy that she was now aboard the Black Pearl.

For most of her life Millie had lived in Tortuga with her mother whose profession had been prostitution. Every night Millie would come home after a day of drinking rum and chatting with other pirates on the island to the small shack beside the water where she lived with her mother. And every night she would find another man in her mother's bed. Her mother was a truly beautiful woman, with long, brown curls, and a beautiful, round face. Millie only wished that her mother had forgotten the life that she had lived for most of her life and found happiness for herself, but it was too late for Millie to ever get a chance to speak to her about that…

Millie never had much of a strong relationship with her mother, and did not even know who her father was. She was partially glad for not knowing her father since the men that her mother were always with were disgusting, mangy mutts, but she was upset at not really knowing her mother. She only talked with her mother sometimes, but it was only when Millie had gotten in a fight at a pub and her mother asked why she was bleeding, or why her arm was hanging in the wrong way. Millie did love her mother, even though the profession she had was not desirable in any way whatsoever. After seeing the pain that her mother went through from the abusing men, Millie vowed never in her life to be a prostitute, but to become a fearsome pirate, who could rule the seas. That was why she had blown up at Captain Wallace; it was because he had told her to become one, and that made her feel disgusting.

Millie despised her life because of her mother making it not enjoyable, but the thought of one day escaping to the sea with a crew of her own brightened her dark thoughts. In the mornings she would travel to the nearby docks and sit on the edge, gazing out at the peaceful ocean, and wait for incoming ships, praying that one would ask her to come aboard, but only one had ever, and that was the Red Flame.

Millie left on the Red Flame as soon as it docked at Tortuga, without telling her mother of where she was going. Captaining the Flame was Leonardo Davies, a man who was kind to Millie for only the first day. Millie was but thirteen at the time she came aboard and had lied and told Captain Davies that she was eighteen, but he had not believed her for a second since she was so short and had not that of a woman's body. Nevertheless he took her aboard, but it was only to use her for his pleasure, and also for his crew's. It was one of the most horrible experiences that any young girl could have ever had to go through: being raped by the men constantly, before she had even reached womanhood. At the first chance she got, which was when they raided a town called Port Royal, she had herself purposely captured by the Navy so that she could escape the tortures of the Flame.

The Navy had her locked up in the jail, but she was released after a few weeks from her cell, for she would cry every night, pleading to go home to her mother. Even Commodore James Norrington, an uptight man of the Royal Navy who always obeyed the rules, allowed her to leave. He had pity for the extremely young girl, and suspected that she had not chosen to be aboard the Flame, but was forced. Even though it was Millie's own decision to be onboard the ship, she used the Commodore's believing story to be released.

Millie stowed away on a merchant ship that had docked at Port Royal and was going to pass through Tortuga. When she arrived at the familiar island she made her way back to the shack where she had lived for a good portion of her life. However, when she arrived, her mother was gone from the house, and their things had been rummaged through and destroyed. When Millie asked around at the pubs about her mother's whereabouts no one knew where she was, or bothered to even care. And that was all. Millie figured that her mother had been killed.

Jack came swung open the door and barged in, while Anamaria went the opposite way and onto the deck. He swaggered over to Millie, a big smile across his face. Millie, however, did not manage a smile, and a large frown swooped across her face. Jack came up to her and put his hand on her shoulder, and she flinched. Jack jumped back, not expecting her to be frightened by his touch, but he did not know that Millie was afraid at what the captain was going to do to her…

"Please," Millie pleaded, her eyes shut, "If you are goin' ta' do anythin', just be done with it!" she shouted.

"What?" Jack asked, confused, a concerned look in eyes.

He was not sure why Millie was acting so defensive, and why tears were beginning to trickle down her cheeks. Jack had seen that even after a brutal attack she had not shed any tears and she was in immense pain that night, so he did not understand why she was crying when he touched her shoulder. Millie looked at Jack helplessly, her eyes now red with tears, and Jack speechless. He wanted to comfort the poor child, but he was afraid that she would reject his care.

"Did I do somethin' wrong?" asked Jack in a completely serious tone, unlike his usual sarcastic and funny voice. Millie looked to him, emotions running through her body, wishing that he would just get over with whatever he was going to do. Jack just stared into her almond eyes noticing something tearing away at Millie's soul as she tried to dry off her tears.

"You mean…" said Millie, "You aren't…" she stammered.

"Aren't what?" asked Jack, extremely concerned. He had this huge feeling that Millie was hiding something important from him. Millie fell silent once more, and tore her eyes away from Jack's. "You can tell me, child," he said, urging her to tell him whatever it was that was bothering her.

"You really aren't…going ta'…" she sniffed, "use me…for…" she stopped, and closed her eyes painfully as if she was going back to the terrible times on board the Red Flame.

That was when Jack realized what she was referring to, and his caring face turned into a disbelieving stare. He wondered how somehow so young had gone through such a wretched thing like that, and he looked down to the dirty floor in disbelief. Jack had always known that there were some terrible people that roamed the Caribbean, and some mistook him for one as well, but he would never in his life do something so horrid to such a young girl. He looked up to the trembling girl whose face was wet with her silent tears.

"I would never," said Jack and used his dirty finger to wipe a tear that was rolling down her cheek. Millie looked over to Jack, a man known in Tortuga and throughout the rest of the Caribbean for his mischievous and frightful ways, but she did not see that in him. She saw a kind and sensitive man who was going to do no harm to her. She smiled, and Jack could not help but smile back. "I swear on me honor as a pirate, that I shall ne'er do harm to ye," he said quietly.

"Someone's made that promise to me before…" she said in a whisper, a sad look returning to her face. A long silence fell between them.

"Who?" Jack finally asked, hoping not to be too nosy, but he dearly wanted to know who had caused her so much pain. Millie did not answer for a long time, partly because she was afraid she would burst out crying if she said it, and also she was afraid that Jack would not believe her.

"His name is," she said quietly, then bowed her head and said with a whisper, "Leonard Davies."

A solemn look spread across Jack's face since he had acquainted with Captain Davies once before, and had hated the man ever since their meeting. Years ago, when Jack sailed on a different ship, The Esmerelda, under a captain by the name of Bartholomew Bates, she had fought the Red Flame. Jack was a young man at that time, barely off of twenty years, and had developed a strong relationship with the elderly Captain Bates who was a very wise pirate and good-hearted man. When the Flame challenged The Esmerelda on the sea, Davies, who was Jack's age and surprisingly the captain of the ship, shot The Esmerelda down to the bottom of the dark ocean, leaving only Jack, Captain Bates, and a few other crewmembers alive. Davies took them onboard his ship and keelhauled all of them except the young Jack Sparrow who miraculously escaped from the brig when they docked at Tortuga. From the time when Jack had seen his good friend Bates be killed by Davies, he swore to himself that he would seek revenge. However, the winds did not favor Jack for the next few years as he was marooned by the crew of the Black Pearl, and had to win that ship back and kill Barbossa before he could deal with Captain Davies. Jack had not heard any news of the Red Flame for so many years that he assumed Captain Davies had perished, but Millie proved him wrong.

"The bloody…brute!" yelled Jack, his anger rising, and heart pounding. Millie jumped at his sudden shouting, and she was surprised how angry he was getting. Sure, Millie hated Davies all the same, but Jack had a deep hatred for the man, and after hearing the awful thing that he had done to an innocent girl, he blew up! Jack began pacing around the room, yelling of how he should have killed the man years ago, before he went after Barbossa. Cursing himself and the heathen gods, Millie interrupted him with a quiet voice.

"Cap'n Sparra', it be all right…I'm fine now," she said, wiping away the tears from her eyes to try and make the pirate calm down. Though a huge bruise was on her stomach and it pained her to move, Millie still managed to sit up in her bed, and touch her feet to the floor. She then stood up, and stopped Jack from pacing about the room. She stood a full head below him, and Jack looked down upon her with sorrow in his eyes.

"Don't pity me…that's what I wouldn't want ye ta' do," she said. Jack loved this girl, and how even when she was obviously in severe emotional pain, still tried to make him feel better, when she was the one who needed the most comfort.

"I promise, Millie, I will not let any harm come to ye," he said. Millie wrapped her arms around his waist and burst out crying, and for the first time in her life, it felt as though she had a father. Jack put his arms around her as well, and a tiny tear trickled down the pirate's cheek.