Yay for another chapter! I'm glad that I got so much positive feedback from this fic. I've been doing my best to update as soon as I can, but "things get in the way, the rush of everyday, ordinary stuff we all get into." (-- "I Meant To" by Brad Cotter). So, you know. Anyway, thanks to Short One, DAFTLIKESPARROW, Chelle, and PARIS BYK for reviewing! I love my reviewers! Yay for reviewing! And don't forget to review again! Yay! I love you all! Enjoy!

Catherine walked down the street, rain falling down on her, but she didn't care. She'd gotten that new gorgeous dress she'd been wanting! She'd put it in several boxes so that it wouldn't get wet. Okay, so she didn't really get the money for it honestly, but... anything for fashion.

Suddenly, she stopped. She heard footsteps behind her and they stopped just as she did. She started walking again and heard the footsteps again. She looked back and saw a suspicious looking man following her. She stopped and turned around.

"What the bloody hell do you think you're doing?" she asked him -- he was about ten feet away from her.

"Pardon me?" he asked.

"Don't 'pardon me'... me!" she exclaimed. "I know when someone's following me, alright? So you can just go off that way now."

"Miss, I didn't mean to--" he began, taking a step towards her, but she interrupted him.

"Well, if you didn't mean to, then you'll find another way to get where you're going." He took another step toward her. "Back off!" she ordered, taking a few steps back. He kept coming toward her. She reached into the ruffles of the skirt of her dress and pulled out a pistol and aimed it at him; he froze. "Give me a reason, buddy."

"Miss, I do not mean to hurt you." he assured.

"Well, then, shove off!" she yelled. He took another step forward. "I swear, give me a reason and I'll put a kneecap in disrepair." He froze. "Give me a damn reason." She curled her lip in annoyance. "Yeah, that's what I thought. Now, back off before you lose a leg." He reluctantly turned around. "Uh, huh!" he started to walk off in the other direction. "Keep walking, buddy!" She snorted in irritancy and turned to walk back to the Pearl, pistol still in hand.

She hurried back to the ship -- not in fear of the man, but in fear of her dress getting wet. She went aboard and down to her room. She hurried into her room, shut the door, and immediately changed into her new dress. It was red with black lace lining and fringes, and was very low-cut (what else is new?). She was just about to zip up the back of the dress when the door flew open.

"GAH!" Catherine exclaimed, spinning around to face the intruder -- it was Jack. "What the hell are you doing?! Have you heard of knocking?!"

"Yes, I 'ave, thanks for askin'." Jack replied calmly.

"Do you have any damn manners?!" she cried.

"Yes, I do, I jus' 'ave better people to waste 'em on." he told her. "An' do you 'ave to curse so much?"

"The hell I do." she said, annoyed. "Anyway," she began in a lighter tone (got over that fast), "while you're here, will you zip me up?" She turned around and Jack did as she asked.

"So, where 'ave you been, love?" he asked.

"I told you I was going into town." she replied.

"Righ'." he recalled. "This is a nice dress. Is it new?"

"Yes, I just bought it." she told him.

"With what money, might I ask?" he asked.

"With mine." she lied.

"So, stealin' somethin' makes it yours?" he asked.

"What are you talking about?" she asked, playing oblivious.

"It seems that I 'ave misplaced a little bag o' gold that I 'ad when I went into your room earlier today." he told her. "An' when I left, it wasn' in my pocket..."

"Are you accusing me of stealing?" she asked, pretending to be offended.

"Well, yes." he confirmed. "Can't escape this, love. I know you stole it." She stared at him, trying to come up with an excuse. "So, jus' give back what you 'ave an' there'll be no 'ard feelin's, savvy?" She looked guiltily at him for a moment and then reached into her purse and pulled out ten shillings and placed them in his hand. "This is all?"

"Yes."

"There were five gold pieces in there!" he exclaimed. "This is all that's left?!"

"Well... it was a very expensive dress..." she told him. And before he had a chance to yell any more, she added: "And it came with that adorable parasol and purse!" she pointed to the items on her bed.

He looked as if he were going to explode. "You spent... five pieces of gold... ON A DRESS?!"

"Well... look how pretty it is." she told him. "And don't I just look gorgeous in it?"

He closed his eyes. "No -- you can't get out of this." he said. "If I keep my eyes closed, there's no way you can get out of this."

"What are you going to do to me?" she asked softly.

"Well, I, er, you could do some work on the ship..." he told her.

"Oh, I'm not a very good worker." she said. "I'm sure I can do something else."

"The only other thing you can do is cook." he said, eyes still closed. "I won' let you do anythin' else -- I know what you're tryin' to do."

"And what is that?" she asked softly.

"Nope, I'm jus' goin to keep me eyes closed..."

She put her arms around his neck. "Open or closed, it feels the same." she said, and kissed him.

"Stop -- this isn' okay..." he muttered.

"Seems like we both benefited from those five pieces of gold, wouldn't you say?" she asked.

"No." he replied staunchly. "Look, why didn' you jus' uhsk flmmny..." he muttered as she kissed him. He cleared his throat. "Why didn' you jus' ask for some money?"

"Would you have given it to me?" she asked skeptically, and kissed his jaw.

"Well, tha's not the point -- you still should've asked." he told her.

"I'm sorry." she said in an unusually sweet tone. "I've learned my lesson." she kissed the corner of his mouth.

'I hope he's buying this..." she thought.

He pushed her away and opened his eyes. "This is not alrigh'..."

"I'm sorry." she told him and sat down on the edge of her bed. "I'm such a bad girl." She grabbed the hem of the skirt of her dress and began to pull it up.

"What are you doin'?" he asked warily.

She pulled the skirt up to her knee; she had a pistol strapped to her calf. "Just taking off these uncomfortable guns." She removed the gun and pulled the dress up almost to her hip, revealing another gun strapped to her thigh.

"Shiver me timbers, you 'ave a lot o' guns." he told her. "What do you need so many for?"

"A girl's got to protect herself, doesn't she?" he asked.

"You can protect a small army with the arsenal you've got under there, darling." he replied sarcastically.

"You should see what else I've got under here." she said, raising her eyebrows suggestively. "Besides, you can never have enough guns, I always say." she told him, removing the other gun. "Anyway, can you ever forgive me for what I did?" she asked, conveniently not bothering to move her dress from its current location.

"Er--"

"And don't make me do ship work -- I'm not good at that kind of stuff. I have to preserve my looks, you know," she said, running a hand up her leg, "and who knows what could happen on the deck of a ship."

He took a deep breath and spoke. "I'm jus' goin' to leave before somethin' 'appens... Fine, you're forgiven. Jus' quit stealin' from people!"

"I'll do my best." she replied and he left the room. She snickered.

'Success.' she thought.

The next day, after breakfast, Catherine went up on deck and went to Jack at the helm.

He glanced at her and then returned his gaze to the ocean.

"So, where are we going?" she asked him. "The clue didn't tell us where."

"Yes, it did." he replied. "There's a town called Oasis near Port Royal."

"Oh?" she asked. "I've never heard of it."

He stared out at the ocean, avoiding looking at her.

She smiled. "You alright, Captain? You seem a little distant."

"No -- nothin's wrong. I'm not distant." he answered sharply. She gave up the pursuit and decided to stop bothering him.

They arrived in Oasis that evening, and docked in the port. They went into town and looked around, searching for anything clue-related.

They ventured out into an alley, looking to take a shortcut into the middle of town when, suddenly, a man came out of nowhere and grabbed Catherine from behind. He held a long sword to her neck and held her around the waist. Jack froze, not wanting to cause the man to hurt Catherine.

"What the hell are you doing?" Catherine asked quietly, voice shaking.

"Threatening you." the man answered. He had long brown hair that was tied back and dark brown eyes.

"What do you want?" Jack asked.

"I want you to lead me to the next clue." the man replied.

"'ow do you--" Jack began, but the man cut him off.

"No time. Just go and find the next clue, Sparrow. I'll be here with your girl when you get back."

"I'm not his--"

"Shut up!" the man ordered. "Well, Sparrow?"

Jack looked at Catherine with worry in his eyes. She nodded an okay.

"Fine." Jack said.

"Okay, be on your way." the man told him. Jack turned and began to walk away.

"Sir?" Catherine asked the man. "May I turn around?"

"Why?"

"Just to see the face of my captor." she replied.

"Well, I suppose..." he agreed hesitantly. He realized she probably wasn't much of a threat and removed the sword from her throat. She turned to him.

"You know, sir, I'm sure we could... settle this matter to your liking..." she told him, moving close to him. She put a hand behind her back and slipped it under one of the ruffles; she pulled out a pistol. "I could also give you some advice... simply..." she leaned up against him. "Go to hell." She put the pistol to his stomach and pulled the trigger.

BANG!

He fell to the ground with a thud.

"Who's threatening who?" she asked and snorted. She returned the gun to the ruffles of the dress and pulled out another from another ruffle. She walked off to find Jack. Just then, it started to rain.

'Damn.' she thought.

Luckily, she caught him just as he exited a shop in the center of town.

"Jack!" she cried. He saw her and ran over.

"What 'appened?" he asked urgently. "Where's that man?"

"Dead now." she replied, holding up her pistol.

"You killed 'im?" he asked. "'ow?"

"My usual tactics." she told him. "Men are so weak. I simply distracted him for long enough to blow his guts out."

"Oh, 'ow comfortin'." Jack said. "Anyway, I still can't figure out this clue."

"Oh, how comforting -- I would've been killed by that guy by now!" she told him.

"'ey, can you figure it out?" he asked. She thought for a moment.

"No idea." she replied. "Maybe we could ask someone..."

"We can't do that!" Jack contradicted. "This isn' somethin' we can yell out to the world -- that man knew! We can't let that 'appen again."

"Right." Catherine said. "Well, I don't know... Have you seen any -- WOAH!"

Just then, three men came charging at them with swords drawn.

"DAMN!" Catherine yelled. Jack pulled out his sword and began fencing with them, and Catherine ran to the other side of the plaza. She aimed her gun at one of the attackers and shot him in the chest. Jack fought with two men, panicking and dodging around.

"A little 'elp, love?!" he yelled.

"I'm getting there!" she yelled back. "Keep your pants on!" Jack found that this would be a great opportunity for a joke, but considering the circumstances, he refrained. Suddenly, Catherine shot at an enemy and hit him in the thigh. He fell. Jack dispatched the other. She joined Jack by the writhing man.

"You missed, darling." he teased.

"Bloody hell I did." she said. "I meant to only wound him so we could question him obviously." She knelt next to the man, putting her pistol away and pulling out another. She put the pistol to the man's head.

"'ow many guns do you 'ave, sweetheart?" he asked incredulously.

"Seven." she answered casually. "Lucky number." She turned back to the man. "Who the hell are you and why are you trying to kill us?" The man scowled at her, wincing. She put the pistol to his kneecap. "You want to tell me?" The man stayed silent. "Oh, I swear I'll do it." The man still scowled at her. She shook her head. "You asked for it, buddy." She shot the man in the knee and he yelled. Jack looked fairly surprised at her violence. "Okay, so you want to tell me now?" she asked, pulling out a pistol that was strapped to her calf; she held it to the man's head. "Who the hell are you?"

The man winced and spoke. "I'm part of George Boyens's crew. He wants to find your uncle's fortune..."

"Damn him." Catherine muttered. "Hell if I'm giving that money up. Well, I'll make you a deal, sir. I won't blow your brains out, if you crawl back to your master and tell him to piss off." The man winced and Catherine got up. "Come on, Jack, there's got to be something to this clue."

Jack nodded and the began to walk through town.

"Hey, why didn't anyone come out to investigate all the shootings?" Catherine asked.

"It 'appens a lot 'ere -- they don' even care anymore." Jack replied.

"Oh!!!" Catherine exclaimed.

"What?!" Jack asked urgently.

"Look!" she pointed to an inn. It was called The Oasis. "The Oasis in Oasis? How original."

"Shall we go in?" Jack asked.

"No, we should just stand outside and wait for the clue to kick us in the arse." she said sarcastically. "What the hell do you think?"

He curled his lip, annoyed.

"So 'number one' must be a room number." Catherine concluded. "We'll have to get it."

They entered the bar and went up to the desk. A woman was sitting behind it with a piece of parchment.

"Erm, excuse me," Catherine said to the woman, "we'd like to get a room please."

The woman looked up. "You two have baggage?" she asked. "We don't want any riffraff going on."

"Oh, well, you see, we are just stuck here." Catherine explained. "We live in Port Royal, but it's raining and we can't get back." The woman looked at her skeptically and then decided to accept her story.

"Well, then, sign in here, please." the woman said and pushed the parchment toward Jack. He picked up a quill, dipped it in ink, and started to sign them in. He figured it was best to sign them as a married couple, since it wouldn't look very good to get a room if they weren't married. He signed them in as Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Catherine curled her lip in annoyance.

"Oh, and, can we possibly have room number one?" Catherine asked. "It's an old superstition -- get room number one if you're ever stuck in another city in the rain."

"I've never heard that." the woman said.

"Oh, well, er, we are very superstitious, you know, and we wouldn't be able to have any other room." Catherine told her.

The woman raised an eyebrow at her, but pulled the key for room number one off the hook on the wall and handed it to Catherine.

"Enjoy your stay." the woman said.

Jack and Catherine went upstairs and into room number one and looked around. Catherine looked out the window and saw that it had started to storm really badly.

"Jack!" she cried. "I think we're actually stuck here!"

"Great." Jack said flatly. "Anyway, let's look for the clue." Catherine nodded and they began to search the room.

" 'Don't lose your light...'" Catherine mumbled thoughtfully. "I suppose that would have something to do with a lamp or something..." They searched all the lamps in the room and found no evidence of the clue. Catherine sighed and lied down on the bed.

"Give up?" Jack asked.

"No." she replied. "We have quite a long time here, you know, I'll search more later."

Jack lied down on the bed next to her.

"Don't you get any ideas." she said, glancing at him.

"Oh, I got ideas a long time ago, darling." he replied with a smirk. She curled her lip, annoyed. Jack thought for a moment. "Can I ask you somethin', love?"

"No, I will not, you scoundrel." she replied, before he could answer.

"Tha's not what I was goin' to ask!" he told her. "But that does answer a question tha's been burnin' in me mind for quite a while. Anyway, I jus' wanted to know why you stole that gold from me the other day."

"I wanted that dress." she replied.

"But if you're Christopher Elliot's niece, then why did you need money?" he asked. "I thought you'd be rich."

She sighed. "Alright. Whatever. Here's the truth about me. I'm a stable girl, alright? I work at the Faithful Bride."

"You work there?" he asked.

"Not that kind of work! Who do you think I am!?" Catherine said, offended. "When I do it, it's because I want to -- not for money (as much as I love it), that's sick. Anyway, as I said, I'm just a stable girl."

"What about your parents?" Jack asked.

"Haven't seen them for twenty years."

"Twenty years?!" Jack exclaimed. "'ow old are you?"

"How polite." Catherine muttered. "Twenty five. Anyway, I was left with the people who originally owned the Faithful Bride and I've always worked as a stable girl. My uncle never sent me a shilling." Jack looked at her, interested in her story. "Then my new guardians were killed by a band of pirates and I was left completely on my own."

"Pirates?" Jack asked. "An' you're throwin' in your lot with me?"

"You didn't kill them." Catherine said. "It would be ignorant to hate all pirates for what only a few did. That's like saying that just because I'm half Italian, that all half Italians are sluts."

"You're not a slut." Jack lied.

"Don't kid yourself -- I'm a slut and you're glad." she stated. He didn't contradict her. "Anyway, that's my stupid story." She looked up at the ceiling and yelled.

"What?!" Jack asked.

Catherine jumped up. "The chandelier! The clue is wrapped around the chain that's holding it!"

Jack got up and pulled a chair next to it. He got up on it and pulled the clue from the chandelier and went to Catherine to open it.

" 'Catherine, here's another clue -- do with it what you will do.'" she read.

"Oh, no, 'e's rhymin' again..." Jack muttered.

"'The pirate's grave is where you'll find another piece of mind. Another route to state your path, another way to deal with Wrath. Just outside of Ruby Falls is the place where the next clue calls. The pirate got a true burial at sea, so where's his grave going to be? There, my dear, you're on your own, now is your chance to let your intelligence be shown. Don't be afraid to open a coffin -- soon you'll be able to buy your own ship to sail off in.'"

"The guy was nuts." Jack said bluntly.

"Who cares -- he was rich as hell." Catherine added. She set the clue on the bedside table and lied back down on the bed. "You want to know why I picked you of all pirates to help me, Jack?" she asked as he lied down on the bed as well. "I had, of course, heard all the stories about your adventures, but... mainly because I'd heard how handsome you were."

"Well, you 'eard righ', wouldn' you say, darling?" he asked arrogantly.

"I suppose I did hear right." she replied. "But don't you dare get any ideas because--"

Just then, he leaned over and kissed her. Her eyes widened in surprise.

'Why am I letting him do this?!' she thought. 'I shouldn't be letting him do this! Who does he think he is? The bloody King of Spain?!' He unzipped the back of her dress.

"Hey!" she exclaimed, pushing him away. "Who do you think you are? The bloody King of Spain?! Get away from me."

"No, I jus' think I'm... Captain Jack Sparrow." he replied coolly. She looked at him.

'Damn, he's charming... Damn... Damn... Damn...' she thought. He kissed her. 'Damn... Damn... Damn... Damn... Damn... ...Damn... ... ... ...Damn...'

Okay, yes, a bit suggestive here, but, you know, it happens. Catherine and Jack are both scoundrels. It was bound to happen sometime! You can't deny it! Anyway, at least I only imply, I never paint a picture -- no one wants to know! So, keep reading please! And I hope you all enjoyed it! Wit is hard to do! I'm workin' hard for you guys! :-D

PLEASE REVIEW!!! Thanks!