"I think I have a plan." Anna Maria looked at Jack silently, her eyebrows raised expectantly. 'Not another one of his schemes. Lord help us all.' A merry light twinkled in Jack's dark eyes, and a small smirk adorned his lips. A few years ago, such a smile would have made her knees weak, and she quickly dashed that thought away.

She had met Jack long ago, before he was the captain of the Pearl. She had just gotten her first ship of many under her command, the 'Sea Witch'. Her lips curved up slightly as she remembered how fitting indeed that name had been. Jack and her had once been together in a romantic way, but that had ended after he had destroyed her Sea Witch in what he claimed had been 'an accident'.

Instead of choosing to captain her own boat she was sailing on the Pearl until she changed her mind. In all truth, she was growing tired of being a pirate. It wasn't that she didn't like the life, it was as independent and free as one could get. But she was older and the idea of swinging from a noose didn't appeal to her. Piracy was starting to die out and the more pirates they caught left with them less to chase. Therefore, the chances of getting caught were growing larger.

"And then after we tie her to the anchor and throw her off the ship…"

"WHAT?!" Jack snorted with laughter and winked at Anna Maria.

"Just making sure you were listening." Anna Maria rolled her eyes and crossed her arms in front of her chest with a scowl. Kicking Jack's booted feet off of his table as she passed; she turned around to shoot him a dangerous look.

"Whatever you do Sparrow, make sure you don't hurt her." Jack's gaze sharpened and he looked at her warningly.

"Care about the wench do you Anna? Just remember I'm in charge around here." Anna Maria growled something in response before exiting his cabin. Jack crossed his arms behind his head and humming a sea shanty to himself finished the fine touches in his plan to get Annie's necklace.

Anna Maria walked out onto the deck, her feet bare and her gait steady as she walked over to where Annie sat with the children. Gibbs was resting nearby, it being late afternoon, and all the morning's work done. Anna Maria watched silently as Annie taught Ethan some silly song about a cat and a duck. The boy was giggling, throwing back his head as he laughed, his blonde hair catching the afternoon sun that had emerged from the cloudy sky.

Gibbs was watching the whole affair with an amused look on his swarthy face. He was nursing yet another hangover yet he didn't seem to mind the laughter or the singing. Anna Maria suspected that before he had turned pirate and was sailing under her Majesty's Navy that he had once had a family. What had happened to them, nobody knew.

Leaning dark forearms onto the railing, the wind whipping her hair around her face, she stood nearby, listening, but keeping her eyes focused onto the turquoise water of the ocean. Feeling eyes upon her she looked over to see Duffy lounging about with Murphy and Mr. Cotton. Duffy's one green eye was watching her until he noticed that she was looking right at him. Then he swung his gaze away swiftly.

Anna Maria huffed out a breath and prayed that they would reach Port Royal soon. She liked Duffy, liked him more than she was ready to admit. But he was a pirate and no good came out of settling down with one of your own kind. Sure he would understand her, but his mind would always be on the sea and treasure. No real pirate ever claimed they loved anything more than the sea.

"Anna Maria!" She felt a tugging on her trouser leg and looked down to see Ethan smiling up at her, his gap-toothed grin making her smile back in return. Flopping down next to him, she gave Annie a shy look and listened to Ethan recite the song he had just been taught.

"Very good lad, very good." Annie gave her a small smile and Anna Maria hoped with all her heart that whatever Jack had planned that it wouldn't hurt Annie. It wasn't that she knew the woman well at all; they had only been around each other for a few days. But in those few days, both the woman and the two children had brought a more gentle happiness to some of the crew then any pirate's loot could ever bestow upon them.

Not all the pirates were independent scoundrels. Anna Maria knew more than a few of them had families at some ports that they visited. They never openly spoke about them, but she paid attention and had seen a few of the lads sneak off with women who had babes in tow. None of them wanted to draw attention to any of the authorities that they had families, another reason why they kept those relationships hidden.

Annie began to sing a sad, lilting lament to a tune that Anna Maria could only assume was Scottish. With her eyes closed, and her red hair swirling about her face and shoulders in the stiff, warm breeze she looked like she belonged on a rock on a green hillside not on a pirate ship in the middle of the Caribbean.

When Annie opened her eyes she saw more than a few of the pirates standing close, longing gazes on their dirty faces. She knew from talking to some of them that by their names and accents that they were from Ireland or Scotland. The song must have brought back memories of their homelands. Casting a sideways glance, she felt someone watching her and caught a familiar figure leaning up against his cabin door.

Jack Sparrow had his leather hat tilted so that you could barely see his eyes, only his nose, and the ever-present smirk on his tanned face. He looked like he was lounging, but everyone knew that he was as tense as a coiled spring.

Jack in the meantime was thinking about his childhood in a northern Yorkshire town by the sea. His father had of course been a sailor and his mother had been a servant in a wealthy lord's house. When his mother had died, Jack's father had taken Jack onto the ship he sailed on. Then, when his father turned pirate, he had left Jack to grow up in Tortuga until Jack decided to take matters into his own hands and had run off to be a pirate before he even reached the tender age of fifteen.

He could remember his mother, a dark Welsh beauty singing him songs that sounded almost like the language Annie was using. Forcing those thoughts from his mind, he surveyed his crew. Most were resting, it was frightfully hot in the afternoon and with no other ships in sight, they could be lazy for the time being. They would reach Port Royal by nightfall and weigh anchor on a rocky outcrop that most viewed as having rough waves and an unpredictable tide. Jack however, had found a small sandy beach long ago and used it often when he was visiting Will.

Conveniently there was a path that led to a back lane past the Governor's mansion. Will and Elizabeth lived in a small yet stately home nearby. He wondered if Elizabeth had given birth to their child yet. The last time he had seen the Turner's they had wasted naught in getting her with child. Hiding a smirk, he licked a finger and held it into the air, casually glancing at the sails. The breeze was picking up and the sails began to gently puff out and billow. They would reach Port Royal just as the sun was almost extinguished in the sea's horizon.

"Excellent," he whispered to himself. A flash of a grin made one of this golden teeth spark in the sunlight. Hopefully everything would go according to plan. Hollering at his crew to get off their lazy arses he went back into his cabin to finish a half-drawn map of an island they had found not too long ago.

Annie watched Jack saunter back into his cabin and a frown creased her forehead. She was damned if the man wasn't up to something. She'd have to be quick on her feet and keep her mind alert. Shooting up she knocked her head off of a low hanging thick rope knot and she swore, her eyes watering. Anna Maria snickered, and Annie felt her cheeks turning red as she realized what she had been thinking before her accident. So much for being alert. Shooting Anna Maria a sour glance before bursting into peals of laughter herself she shook her head and went to check on Gwen.

Gwen lay sleeping peacefully in a basket, which had been made up with handfuls of rags that Annie had scrubbed as clean as she possibly could. One of the pirates had adorned a basket handle with a pale blue ribbon and it fluttered in the wind. Tying it more securely around the handle so that it couldn't come loose, she would have taken it off, if she knew that the pirate wouldn't take offense. Many infants died from having loose ribbons and the like lying about their cribs, presents from parents trying to make their sleeping area's pretty that served to only come untied and harmful. She had heard plenty a story of a baby somehow getting its neck wrapped up in such a ribbon and suffocating.

Casting that thought quickly from her mind, she shuddered and knotted the ends of the ribbon around the handles. Not even a magician could get those undone. Making sure that the infant was away from the edge of the deck and the railing, she stared out to see. Ethan was busy climbing all over a frustrated Gibbs who was caught in-between laughter and roaring in mock indignation. One of the pirates had given him a small wooden practice saber and an eye patch.

"Abast ye scurbey doggies!" Ethan hollered after reaching his destination, Gibbs' wide shoulders where he secured his legs around Gibbs' neck and held onto his head, waving the saber in the air and making faces. The pirates watching burst into laughter and Ethan bared his teeth in a huge smile. Even the normally sour Anna Maria was grinning, and Gibbs momentarily forgot his annoyance at being a personal jungle gym.

Annie shook her head and frowned, and it only deepened when a familiar voice growled into her ear making her jump and her damned heart flutter in shock. Turning her head slightly, she glared at Jack.

"Must you do that?" Jack smiled a winsome grin ruined only by his golden teeth.

"Did I startle ya Miss Lindsay? I'm sorry I didn't mean too, much." Annie tried to look bored, but the pirate captain must have been bored himself for he had decided to liven things up by bothering her. Warm fingers found the back of her neck as he slid an arm around her shoulder, pointing out various things of interest as they had finally reached the coastline of Port Royal. Annie tried not to grunt in pleasure as he dug her fingers into the muscles around her neck.

"Christ woman you're tighter than a noose!" Annie couldn't help but laugh at the pirate's basis of comparison. Shooting him a look she couldn't hold back a yelp as his fingers rubbed out a particularly stubborn knot.

"And you've been in plenty of noose's I'm certain, Captain. What do you expect me neck muscles to be like after spending days trapped on a ship with the likes of you?" Jack tried to look hurt, but he smiled nonetheless.

"Perfectly relaxed, Miss Lindsay that's how." Annie snorted with laughter.

"Are you serious? Daft ye are man, utterly and completely daft." Suddenly her face screwed up in pain as he finally worked out the knot. When he was done, she slumped forward slightly, expression slack. She suddenly realized how close he was pressed up against her, and she took a step forward, leaning her elbows onto the railing of the ship.

"Thank you Captain, you're quite skillful." Jack couldn't help but leer at her attempt to be proper and came up close beside her, his voice hot and gruff in her ear once more.

"If you think I'm good with hands now, wait till ye see what I can REALLY do with 'em." Annie found herself turning fifty shades of brilliant scarlet when she caught Jack's eye and waggling eyebrows. He was so close now she could smell the rum on his breath and smoke. He had locked himself in his cabin most of the day, burning candle after candle pouring over maps.

"Is there a reason you have decided to torment me?" She kept her eyes on the dazzling clear water below her. They were entering shallower water sailing over reefs and she could make out bright schools of fish darting about to and fro. Jack shrugged, incorporating his arms into the gesture, making the wide sleeves of his coat flap slightly.

"Ye are so much fun to bother my dear Miss Lindsay," was all he said with a wink before sauntering off to bark instructions at the crew. In truth, Jack's mind changed like a whirlwind. The day before he had been intent on not pursuing Annie as a romantic conquest but the sight of her on the deck with the sun making her hair liquid fire, face screwed up in pain and pleasure as he worked on her neck had changed his mind. Grinning widely he told Murphy to fetch him some rum as he took the helm. It honestly didn't take much to make him change his mind when pretty women were about.

Annie glibly commandeered Anna Maria into watching the children while she ran below to gather up their things. She had no doubt in her mind that Jack was going to be leaving them here in Port Royal. She also had the suspicion that he wanted something from her, but she wasn't certain as to what yet. A blush stained her fair cheeks as she considered the fact that it might be her that he wanted before she shook her head forcefully.

'Nay mustn't think such things Annie old girl. It'll just get ye into trouble and ye can't afford to do that right now.' Whirling about the cabin she threw everything into a blanket that she tied up into a neat parcel before bringing it back on board. Gathering the children up to her, she sat down in an out of the way space and worked on focusing her attention on Ethan who was trying to escape her grasp, and the looming shoreline.

It wasn't till a few moments later that she saw Jack Sparrow again. He appeared in front of her, bowing low at the waist, swooping his leather tri-corner hat off of his head and flashing a wicked smile.

There was a splash as the pirate's lowered the anchor and then a larger one as they lowered the longboat into the water. Jack held out a dirty hand and she took it hesitantly, trying to put a haughtiness on her face that belied the yammering of her heart against her chest.

"Shall we milady?" They were lowered into the boat one by one and Annie felt nauseous as they started rowing towards a small beach in the secluded inlet they had weighed anchor in. Duffy and another pirate named Samuel pulled on the oars, their muscles straining underneath the thin fabric of their shirts. Annie had a feeling that things were going to get interesting in Port Royal.

Very interesting indeed.

Shout Outs!

Ilirenelluithauren – Thank you for the review, I will most definitely check out your POTC fics!

Jamie Bell – Woot a review for every chapter? How kind of ya you raised my review quota on this story all by your lonesome! Annie and Anna Maria are definitely going to be thick as thieves, Jack and the lot better watch out. Annie is the one who lost her baby that's why she is able to be a wet nurse to Gwen. Sally's sister Hester is the one who passed away, she is the mother of Ethan and Gwen.

JustDuck –

Jack : No problem love ::bows and grins:: Yes it was a fun chapter, I'm hoping to get my story rolling along here within the next few.

Dell-Doo –

Jack: Ah a fellow Captain like me eh? ::puts hands together and bows:: Seriously love, why all the hostility? There was this one time on an island near Singapore where they crowned me the King of insults…This is what happened…

Oh Lord there he goes again. Like the Energizer Bunny…::rolls eyes::

Jack: I'll go take my stories elsewhere if you don't appreciate 'em, Savvy? ::mutters:: A roguish horn-mad jolthead aye? That's very interestin'. Very interestin' indeed. ::smirk::

DragonHunter200 – Thank you! I was getting caught up in my other fics, but here's an update finally!! :D

Reese Sparrow – Thank you so much! I finally got around to updating, sorry it took so long.

Irish-Bird – Really? Aww thanks. Jack thanks you too. ;D

Et-spiritus-sancti – Jack always waits till the most opportune moment indeed. I'm so glad you liked my Newsie stories as well!! I hope you keep reading all my stuff and expect lots of more twists with this story. Muahaha….

NadaZimri – Hehe..changing subjects randomly is alright, I do it all the time. You'll have to wait and find out what Jack's up to but there are a few more twists and turns to come about. I HATE POP UPS!! They consume my AOL thoroughly and I don't know where they came from because I didn't used to get them. I was in a writing slump but then I started that new Spot story and it sort of got me going again. So I shouldn't keep such long gaps in-between any of my stories hopefully.

Jack: She IS a lazy-butt too though y'know.

Grr….

Jack: Don't get mad at me for tellin' the truth love. Now where has all the rum gone…::wanders off::

Thanks so much for reading this guys I'm sorry I took so long to update it won't happen again!! crosses fingers ;D