Chapter 4

Emma sat in her little cabin for what seemed like an hour. She was wearing a clean purple dress that Elizabeth had given her and she still retained her comb and sketchbook. She discovered that the window in her room had a bad angled view of the ocean and with the constant rocking of the ship she decided that looking at it would only make her more seasick than she would eventually be.

She at least had a little dog to keep her company. Although she wasn't sure if she was the type of person to like dogs... but she had discovered that she must have been because she liked the dog. If only she knew what it's name was. Hmm... What would she have named a dog like that?

Well, he had thick white fur. Whitey? No, that's way too obvious. Blanco? No, that didn't really sound like a good enough name. Think, Emma, think. I have an idea! "Nino." she said, trying to call the dog to her.

The dog looked at her, but didn't move. Well, that's not the right name. Somehow she kept herself entertained with this game of guess what the dog's name is for about an hour and a half when she started to get bored. She had sat in the same position that whole time, sitting on the edge of the bed, staring at the dog. I'll try one more, she thought. "Nevado." she said, not expecting it to work.

When the dog heard it's name called, he got up from his spot on the floor where he had been laying and walked over to Emma. He jumped up, placing his two paws on each of her knees. His tail was wagging and he looked up at her.

"Eureka!" she shouted, content with her success. She petted the dog and pulled him to sit on her lap. Then a noise came from outside her door.

Someone was knocking, that's right knocking, on her door. She had almost forgotten where she was, on a pirate ship headed only god knows where and more importantly why. Probably to go kill and rob people, but hopefully not in front of her. Although she was too afraid of them to tell them that.

She remembered a couple hours earlier when she first stepped foot on the ship. She definitely did not fit in at all. Actually, quite the opposite, she stuck out like a sore thumb. She was not the only woman onboard, there was a woman pirate (which she found odd), but even the woman pirate acted more like a man than a woman.

All on the pirates in that crew were completely dirty and thoroughly disgusting, like she supposed most pirates were. When they smiled there was teeth missing, and the ones that were there looked as if they had never been white in their entire existence. All of them smelled, well various smells, but mostly ones that she would rather not inhale. The deck of the large ship was filthy too, and she wondered what ever happened to the person whose job is was to clean it.

You have to keep in mind that Emma (formerly known as Amelia) had been in clean environments her whole life. Cleanliness was an important thing to her. She washed herself everyday and always tried to be as clean as possible. So you can see why she was surprised at how grimy people can get. To her it looked like they were competing for some sort of dirtiest person of the year award. Ok, bad example, but you get my point.

That is exactly why she had stayed in her cabin, not moving the slightest inch because she thought that she might get some disease or something if she touched anything. Silently she tried to remember if she had always been this way, but still she could not remember anything. Anything but that man, Jack Sparrow, for some reason a picture of him was fresh in her mind. It freaked her out to no end that she just couldn't remember why. Or remember her name or where she lived or anything!

The person was still knocking on the door. She had zoned out, thinking about all of this and forgot that someone was pounding on the door. "Come in." she said, wondering how long they had been standing outside her door and hoping that it wasn't long enough for them to want to harm her in anyway.

To her surprise it was the female pirate who greeted her. She had black hair and brown skin. She was wearing a white blouse with brown pants and leather boots, which were tapping on the floor with impatience. She had a frown on her face, probably because she had been knocking on the wooden door for a while.

She surveyed the room and her eyes rested on the girl sitting uncomfortably fidgeting with her dress on a small bed next to the far wall. The girl, Emma she remembered her captain telling her, looked as if she thought any moment someone was shoot her head off. Grinning at that thought, the pirate opened her mouth to speak.

"Ahoy. Me name's AnaMaria." the pirate said. "Jack thought ye might want to join him fer lunch in the capt'ns quarters."

"Sure." Emma replied, not sure if that was a question or a command. "Where are the captain's quarters?"

"I'll show ye there meself." AnaMaria answered, turning around and taking off down the hall.

Emma ran out, Nevado following her, and shut the door. She had to walk fast to catch up with AnaMaria, who walked swiftly and was already well down the hall. Her shoes made a lot of noise on the wooden boards, along with the sounds of paws from the canine next to her. By the time they made it down the hall, the pirate was already knocking on the door.

After hearing a slightly muffled "Aye?" AnaMaria opened the door. She looked at Emma and made a gesture with her head telling her to enter the room. Emma slowly walked in, Nevado running ahead of her, and the minute she was in then door was slammed shut behind her.

Emma jumped forward at the noise and she heard laughing come from further in the room. She looked up and assessed the room. It was a large cabin, huge compared to the tiny rat hole they gave her. Against the wall was a bed (way bigger than hers), on the other side of the room was a wooden table with four chairs, there were bookcases against the wall, a desk with a chair and papers and maps scattered on it, and there were was a large wooden chest with a lock on it.

The captain was sitting at the table. He was laughing about her jumping at the sound of a slammed door. His hat was sitting on the table, along with two mugs, a bottle of rum, two plates that had food on them.

Nevado walked over to where Jack was and started begging for food. He gave the dog a chicken leg and Nevado grabbed it and ran away, as if Jack was going to steal it right back. Jack gestured for Emma to sit down across from him, and so she slowly walked over to the wooden chair and sat down. She sat there stiff with perfect posture, her hands in her lap, until he spoke.

"I thought ye'd be hungry, dig in." he told her, taking a large gulp of rum and refilling his mug. He looked at her. There is something odd about her, he thought. No woman he ever met was so... quiet.

She did not listen to him. She sat there for about five minutes in silence staring at him before she spoke. "Thank you for letting me stay here. I would like to help out somehow, so I'm not just taking up space."

"Aye, it's not like I had a choice. Knowing Elizabeth, if I didn't help I'd never hear the end of it. Ye don't have to do anything." he replied, taking bites off the chicken bone between sentences.

"But I want to help. I could clean, or something." Emma said. She didn't want to feel like she was a burden. Besides, she needed something to occupy her time. She had already guessed the name of the dog, so that game was over.

"Well," he said, trying to think of something she could do with out getting herself in any trouble or ruin anything. "I s'pose ye could wash the dishes after lunch and dinner."

"Thank you." she said, smiling. "Oh, and one more thing."

"Aye?" Jack asked. For the first time he realized how clean she was. Her teeth were actually white. That is a rare thing indeed, at least for him. He swallowed some more rum and felt the warmth in his throat. He loved that feeling. He looked back at her ready for her question, but something in her hair caught his eye.

It was reflecting light from the outside and it looked expensive. He squinted at an attempt to get a better look at it. As she turned her head slightly he could tell that it was a comb stuck in her bun. There was what looked like rubies and emeralds on it, and maybe some other precious stones as well. This girl must have had money in her family at one point in time, for that looked very costly.

Not only that, but he could tell by her mannerisms that she must have been raised by proper people. She spoke softly, as if she would get yelled at for even talking. Then when she would talk she only said what was polite and he could only imagine what was going on inside her head. She looked so stiff, with her back straight and never slouched, at least not in his presence.

He had never seen a woman so stuck up, besides Elizabeth, but at least she spoke her mind. He couldn't help but wonder if Emma acted that way because of the how she was raised or if she would have been that soft-spoken either way. She should really loosen up, he thought to himself. How ever will she be able to manage Tortuga?

He laughed at the thought. The expression on her face when she saw Tortuga would be priceless. All the prostitutes, drunk men hitting on women and getting in fights, stray gunshots, dirt. It would all be too much for Emma.

"Ahem." Emma cleared her throat, attempting at catching his attention. He seemed to be thinking, in some whole other world. She noticed him staring at her hair and she wondered if there was something in it.

Then she remembered she was still wearing the comb. He was a pirate after all, known for greed and robbery. She just prayed that he wouldn't want to steal from her, because she had no way of defending herself.

"What was that, luv?" he asked, coming back into reality.

"I asked where the ship was headed." she replied.

"Right," he said, acting as if he knew that was what she said. "To Tortuga. We are staying there fer a week. We should be there by tomorrow afternoon."

She nodded. "What exactly is Tortuga?"

"Ahh." he grinned showing gold teeth and setting down his mug, this was a topic he loved. "Tortuga is a pirate haven. It's full o' drunks, pirates, strumpets, taverns and people out to have a good time. It's a sanctuary fer people such as meself. There ye can always be sure o' havin' food ta fill yer stomach, alcohol ta fill yer mind, and a harlot to fill yer bed. It's a lovely place actually."

Emma didn't respond. She just looked at him and nodded politely, understanding that, well, people have different tastes. She wasn't too sure about being in a town full of people like him, especially if they do not have honorable intentions. She was the least bit interested in entering a town that to him deserved that sort of description; she could only imagine what it really looked like.

Although, she had to admit that it did sound... different. With that thought fresh in her mind she began to cut the chicken off the bone and into tiny even sized pieces. When it was all cut up in little squares, she began to pick up one piece at a time with her fork and slowly chew on it with her mouth closed.

Compared to her, Jack looked like a ravenous wolf attacking its prey. He sat there watching her eat, like it was his entertainment that came with the lunch. She must be a perfectionist or have some issues, he thought, because she found the need to cut the chicken into the exact same size little squares before eating it. He found that extremely weird because he had never seen anyone do that before. He was used to people just shoving food into their mouths.

"Ye don't have to eat like that, ye know?" he reminded her.

"Eat like what?" she asked, oblivious to what he saw as odd behavior.

"Oh, nothing." he replied, realizing that hey she was that strange.

She returned to her eating habits and he returned to watching her. That is until she looked up and realized he was watching her and she got kind of freaked out. She didn't say anything, but he could see in her eyes that she was uncomfortable.

He ate some more and then threw the dog another chicken leg, remembering that it must be still hungry. Jack downed his whole mug of rum in two gulps and saw her looking at him as if asking 'do you have any table manners?' He shrugged and then picked up an apple.

"Apples are me favorites." he said with a grin, attempting at getting her to act like a normal human being.

Instead all he got as a response was "How lovely."

Normally he would have taken that as a sarcastic remark, but he knew that she was still just trying to be polite. He took a bite of the apple and savored the flavor. That is the only thing he had in common with the lately deceased Barbossa, a taste for apples.

By the time he was done eating his apple, she was still eating. That is when he came to the conclusion that she must not have been a poor girl, even though she was dressed as one. Poor people would be hungry and glad for food, therefore eating it like they hadn't eaten in days.

When she was finally done she put Nevado in her cabin and Jack showed her to the kitchen, where there was a large pile of grimy dishes waiting for her to clean them. He left her alone as he went back to the helm and so she went about washing the dishes.

Looking at the mess, she wondered what the hell the cook was serving those pirates because the slop that was left over on the plates looked like throw up. Cringing, she dipped a dish in the sink and started scrubbing. This was going to take a long time.

She soon became bored, with only the dishes and soap to keep her company. A tune came into her head and so she began to sing in order to distract herself from the duty she was performing in this dirty pirate kitchen.

Amazing grace! how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear,
The hour I first believed.

As she was singing, the time seemed to be going faster. The rhythm of the song gave her a beat to wash the dishes to, and so she was becoming more productive. Soon she was halfway done the dishes and didn't even notice it.

Then, from behind her she heard a notice and stopped singing. She got scared, so she went with her first reaction. That happened to be turning around quickly and dropping the plate she was holding on the floor. Of course she didn't realize there was a person behind her, so she actually ended up hitting the person over their head with the plate, which caused the plate to break in a million pieces and the person to fall unconscious on the floor.

Those events caused a loud noise to echo from within the kitchen and the nearest pirate to come and find out what all the racket was about. Before anyone came Emma was panicking. She kneeled down by the body and poked it. That did nothing. She saw that the man she had attacked was a short bald man, who she had never seen before and she prayed that he didn't have a bad temper.

Eventually, someone did enter the room. A middle-aged man with black unkempt hair and a big gut wandered in. At first all he saw was Emma.

"What's wit' all the fuss?" he asked with an accent.

She looked up at him with fear in her eyes and then looked back down at the ground. His eyes traveled to see what she was looking at and of course he saw the motionless body on the floor, along with pieces of what used to be a plate.

The pirate looked at her and then back to the mess. She could tell he was trying to figure out what had happened. He seemed surprised that a little woman like her could have caused all that noise, and mess. He thought of the most logical way to deal with the situation.

"I'll go 'n fetch the capt'n." he said and went to leave.

"Wait!" Emma shouted, running to the man. She would have grabbed his arm or something, but he was way too dirty for that. She ran in front of him, so that he wouldn't just walk away.

He looked at her to see what she wanted, not really interested in what she had to say.

"I can clean it up and the man will be fine. It's just a small bump." she said, pleading with the pirate. "He doesn't have to know."

"I don't have to know what?" a familiar rough voice asked from behind her.

"Uh..." she replied, slowly turning around. How long had he been standing behind her quietly? Hopefully not long, not that it would help anyway. He was going to find out no matter what she did, she had to face the consequences.

She was in trouble.

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A/N: I love my reviewers!!!! Thanks for reviewing, it makes me types faster.

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