Many hugz to Julie for the beta-read

Chapter 16 - The Grand Plan

As the prisoner's were brought up from the brig, Will was first to be shoved on to the main deck of the Pearl. The blaring sunlight made him squint, but he blinked several times to adjust to the glare. It took him a moment to register what was going on in front of him. In the brig they had only managed to hear a few words from the actual conversation and therefore they had no idea what had happened. The chaos on the main deck didn't help much either.

Quickly, Will noticed Toomey, who stood grinning like a mad man with Jack next to him. It seemed odd to the blacksmith that his friend had turned his face toward the ground, as if afraid to face him. But one thing gave will hope, Jack held his pistol strongly in his hands.

Elizabeth bumped into Will and he stumbled forward, feeling extremely clumsy. However, this made Jack look up and for a split second they locked eyes. The thing that bothered Will probably most was the desperate fear he saw in Jack's eyes.

Unmindful of the consequences of his actions, he stepped forward, trying to reach his pirate friend. Immediately several of Toomey's men tried to stop him, but Will simply ignored them. This time Jack really looked up and opened his mouth as if he wanted to stop him.

"Leave him be," Toomey laughed. "Let 'im hear of the grand plan of Jack Sparrow from the man himself!"

When Will finally reached Jack he grasped the pirate captain's arms and forced him to look up, ignoring the flinch that went through Jack as soon as Will touched him.

"Jack?" Will asked softly. He could feel the eyes of all the people on the main deck, burn in his back.

"Aye?" was the soft reply.

"Are you alright?"

Jack snorted. "Aye, mate. Captain Jack Sparrow is just like a cat, always falling on his feet."

Will shook his head. "You are a bad lair, Jack. You know that, right?"

This time Jack chuckled softly. "You are just like yer ol' Da, mate. 'E never believed me either."

Will couldn't help the small smile that tipped one side of his face. Jack softly shook his head and continued.. "I should 'ave known," he whispered softly.

"Known what?"

But Jack did not reply. Instead he pulled Will in a tight hug, a hug that was returned after only the smallest of hesitations. Jack sighed deeply after he had pulled back and than he grinned, showing to Will's great relief some of the good old Captain Jack Sparrow spark again.

"Listen here, mate, this is te plan. Ye, yer bonnie lass and all the fine gentlemen and woman of me crew are going to get into one of those longboats and row to tha' bloody island," Jack waved into space, "Yer bonnie lass will recognize it, without a doubt. Then ye are going to give te command to yer lass. She knows how t' escape."

Will blinked a couple of times before he replied. "Where's the plan?"

Jack flashed his grin. "Tha' was it, mate!"

"But what about you?" Will couldn't help the feeling of panic that was starting to rise…

After a flourish of dismissive hand gestures, Jack replied, "I'll manage, mate. Remember, take what ye can ---"

"Aye, this lovely chat has to come to an end once," Toomey interrupted and stepped between the two friends separating them. Will unwillingly stepped back, not wanting to touch the fixation of his hate.

"Wait." Jack put in.

Toomey eyed Jack, but for the most part ignored him. Jack took the initiative and with a dramatic movement removed his hat from his head and placed it on Will's. Will frowned since the hat didn't feel right.

In the beginning of their 'quest', when they only had Jack's hat as clue Will had tried it on a couple of times, closing his eyes and letting the scent of the pirate captain feed his imagination. Then he could clearly picture himself sailing on a pirate ship and going on a grand adventure. Now he wasn't so sure anymore. Will opened his mouth to comment, but a look in Jack's eyes told him better. Quickly he was hauled back to stand with the others. Elizabeth immediately took his hand and started to ask all sorts of whispered questions about Jack.

"All the fun 'as te end mates," Toomey spoke. "Now, if ye'd be so kind as t' make yer ways to the longboats and get of my ship."

"Jack!" Anamaria shouted and more crewmembers of Jack started to call their captain's name.

Toomey laughed. "Jack is going to be my honoured guest fer a little longer, Maria," he winked at her. "Unless ye have other ideas?"

Ana turned away from Toomey and stared at Jack, who was starting to feel rather uncomfortable under her stare.

"Toomey," Ana said softly. "I'll go in those boats, but ye have to give me this one favour."

Surprised that the female pirate had talked to him at all, Toomey was so taken aback that he agreed. With quick, long strides Ana walked over to Jack and then, with all her power, fuelled by frustration and anger, she slapped him. Behind her back she heard how Toomey once again started to laugh.

"Developed quite a sense of humour that man," she muttered and this earned her a chuckle from Jack.

"Happy now, luv?" he said softly.

"Almost Jack." Then, before she could do anything else, she was lead away into one of the longboats.

Very slowly the other crewmembers followed. Some tried to fight, but as soon as Toomey pointed his gun at Jack they stopped and bowed their heads.

Elizabeth waved at Jack and he bowed at her, the palms of his hands placed carefully together. He saw her puzzled look when she noticed the bandages on his left arm and he smiled. The lass was a bright one, for certain!

Gibbs didn't give up so easily. Will and Ana literally had to drag him along with them and they only could do that because Jack had ordered Josh to leave the ship.

Finally everybody sat where they should and slowly they rowed away, not able to turn their eyes away from their captain and his ship. Guilt, fear, concern, anguish, and a feeling of desertion, they all felt this as the rowed away, leaving their captain, again.

Will still had Jack's hat on his head and when he saw Jack watching him he stood up and lifted the hat in a respectful manner. Then he sat down again, hat still in his hands.

When he was sure Toomey would not be watching him anymore he started to observe the hat a little bit closer. It didn't look different, but it certainly had felt so! Ignoring Elizabeth's curious questions for a moment, he started to feel around and quickly his hands found something hard inside. Carefully he managed to get it out.

In his hands, he now held a folded piece of parchment. Jack's crew, all squeezed into the longboat, couldn't help but notice and now eyed him curiously, many craning their heads to see.

"Row on!" Will shouted as soon as he noticed this growing attention. "Want Toomey to find out?"

This brought every one of them back to their task. Carefully masking their attention, they took up the ores again and started to row as if nothing was happening.

Slowly Will unfolded the piece of parchment, while Elizabeth and Anamaria were curiously peeking over his shoulder. Anamaria sighed in frustration when she couldn't read the written message, but both Will and Elizabeth gasped out loud.

Maybe Jack did have some sort of plan.

- End of Part 1 -

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Okay…I'm aware it's a bit of an odd place to stop, but I wanted to end Insanity is an Option here and continue this story in the sequel called 'Inferno' at least… I think it will be called like that ;)

Don't worry! This story is the first part of something that will probably become a trilogy and if you think this was the worse ending of a story you can get… wait until the ending of part 2 ;) Just remember that I'm a Quentin Tarantino fan…

When I upload the first chapter of the new story I shall upload an end note, with thank you's and review replies in this one, so that you will know that the second part has arrived

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OpraNoodlemantra - Well… he has a plan. Although I'm not entirely sure if it's a good one

JackFan2 - More and more people seem to like Norrington. The good thing is I do to, and he will have a much larger part in the second part of this story.

Rissa of the Saiya-Jin - I'm not sure if Jack is able at all the stay out of trouble in the first place!

Pigwidgeon - Your own PotC story?!? Must read!

Otherhawk - YAY for working on an update. I'm dying to know what happens next in your story. And about silly plans… I guess that's Jack's middle name. Or was that trouble?

Captain Black Athena - Sorry for the long wait, hun. Have a bit of a writers block at the moment :$

Morph - Thanks for the compliment! I'm really trying hard to keep everyone in character!

Cheatachu82 - thank you!

Loraine - LOL! You just taught me a new word. Never heard to word 'engrossing' before. But thanks for the compliment!

Aura Starfire - LOL! Welcome in the PotC fandom then ;) And I just love to hurt the ones I love

Williz - Thank you! I really enjoy writing it, although it feels odd now that I finished this part

Lykosdracos - You know… I also still regret that piracy isn't a career option anymore. I would have gone for it without a doubt!
insane4seto - LOL! An imagination game and Playstation 2! Go us! ;)

Padme17 - You must have a third eye then ;) But I'm not mean… really.

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One last note. King Arthur is a good movie. Go see.