Author's Note: Thanks for all the reviews and positive comments. Here's another juicy chapter! Again, about 70% of this is my original work, 30% is taken from the script- but just see how it fits in.

Elizabeth

After one scuffle with a positively horrid fellow, meeting up with Mr. Gibbs for the first time in eight years, and a secret meeting that I wasn't allowed to pay attention to, I was dead tired. When I head the news that I would be sleeping alone, I cried out, "No, Jack! I won't be by myself, please!"

Will looked sad for some reason. Jack merely grabbed me, like he had a tendency to do so, and said in that sleepy voice of his, "Is that how it is, then?" He and his woman took me up to their room. Jack tossed me and the girl onto the bed and absolutely drooled. Why, I don't know. But he said, "Two lovely ladies, what luck." Then he slid off his coat, vest, sash, weapons, and finally his shirt.

I widened my eyes. What was he planning to do?! "Jack!" I said.

"Yes, darling?" he said, slipping a hand down his bare front.

"Uh, I think I shall sleep with Will- and Mr. Gibbs, if it's all the same to you."

But Jack had already taken his attention to the pretty girl. I got out of the room as fast as I could.

"Will?! Mr. Gibbs! Where are you?"

Will burst out of the adjacent room. "Oh, Elizabeth," he said, and caught me in a surprise embrace. "I'm so glad you're safe!"

"Of course I'm safe," I said, pushing him off, with a confused expression. "Was I in danger?"

Will laughed halfheartedly. "You don't know Jack's type, do you, Elizabeth?"

"Well, no," I admitted. Then I frowned. "You think he would have taken- advantage- of me, Will? That kind, decent man who saved my life?"

"He was drunk, Elizabeth." Will guided me into his room and I saw that Gibbs was already passed out on his dirty cot. I noticed there was only one other cot. I shivered.

"Are you cold?"

"No." I brushed off his hands and lay down on the cot. Will stared at the mattress and then sat down on the wooden floor. "Surely you won't sleep on the floor?" I cried. I was sort of wishing that he would share the bed with me.

Even in the faint candlelight I saw a distinct tint of pink in Will's cheeks. "Well, uh, I don't know if that's, er, quite proper-"

"Oh, Will, my father is not here to see," I said, laughing even in my weary state. I pulled him onto the bed and leaned against him, closing my eyes. I felt gentle hands laying me down and a blanket sliding over me. Then he slid down next to me. Within minutes I was asleep.

Gibbs

I awoke early, a feat even for me, and I started rounding up me crew. It was an interesting mix, I'll give ya that. Annamaria and Marty were most vocal about the early hour, seeing as Cotton couldn't complain much. Even his parrot couldn't say much about the matter. But mostly everyone was cheerful and excited about the mission. Taking back the Black Pearl! Breaking the curse!

I woke up Elizabeth, the Turner boy, and our dear captain, whose Rosie-roo had dashed off long ago to seduce another pissed rogue. He awoke most grumpily, but with a little persuasion (a canteen of rum) he was up and running.

I lined up the crew and presented them to Jack and Will. Elizabeth, who had grown up to be a fine young lady, sat primly on a crate of oranges. "Feast yer eyes, gentlemen," I said. "All of them, faithful hands before the mast, every man worth his salt. And crazy to boot." Jack looked at Marty, the smallest and fiercest of the group.

The boy asked Jack in a low voice, "So this is your able-bodied crew?" Elizabeth scanned the crowd and sniggered to herself, free of arrogance but rather a simple gesture of how silly this all was. Jack turned to Cotton. "You, sailor!"

I jumped in. "Name's Cotton, sir," I told Jack.

"Mr. Cotton! Do you have the courage and fortitude to follow orders and stay true in the face of danger and almost certain death? Mr. Cotton! Answer, man!" Jack said impatiently when the silent Cotton stared at him maddeningly.

I explained, "He's a mute, sir. Poor devil had his tongue cut out, so he trained the parrot to talk for him. No one's yet figured how." Cotton showed his lack of tongue for effect. Jack stuck out his own and Will and Elizabeth grimaced.

Jack smiled a bit, turning to the bird. "Mr. Cotton's parrot- same question."

The parrot squawked, "Wind in the sails, wind in the sails!"

"Mostly, we figure, that means "yes,'" I said with a smirk. Elizabeth stood up to greet the bird, stroking its beak. Cotton smiled benignly at her.

"O' course it does," Jack said importantly. To Will, he asked, "Satisfied?"

With a haughty sigh, Will replied, "Well, you've proved they're mad."

Annamaria, hiding under her hat, bellowed, "And what's the benefit for us?"

Jack's eyes popped open. Looking as though in pain, he went over to her, and took off her hat, revealing his old friend. "Annamaria," he half-groaned.

She responded with a nice slap across his face. "You stole my boat!" she shrieked.

Jack winced. "Actually-" She slapped him again. "Borrowed. Borrowed without permission. But with every intention of bringing it back to you."

All the crew was looking, Elizabeth overcome with laughter.

Dead serious, Annamaria exclaimed, "But you didn't!"

"You'll get another one!" Jack cried, waving his banana for emphasis.

Annamaria glowered, pointing at him. "I will," she said decisively.

"A better one," Will chimed in.

"A better one!" Jack said happily.

"That one," said Will, pointing to the ship in the harbor.

Jack cried, "What one? That one?!" He sighed. "Aye, that one. What say you?"

The crew cheered, "Aye!" And started collecting supplies to bring aboard. One even picked up the crate of oranges that Miss Elizabeth was sitting on. She let out a scream. Annamaria saw this and rolled her eyes, scooping up a load of what looked like grain.

"Anchors aweigh," Cotton's parrot said. I finally realized what Annamaria and Elizabeth were doing. I turned to Jack. "No, no, no, no, no, it's frightful bad luck to bring a woman aboard, sir. Two is far worse."

As I said this, Elizabeth was awkwardly trying to slip from the dock into the cool ocean. I caught a glimpse of something golden dangling from her neck. Suddenly, she sunk into the water. Jack's eyes glittered. Seconds later, a shock wave pulsated through the sea. Everyone looked at Elizabeth, who had just poked her head through. "Refreshing!" she said.

Jack merely looked at me, and then the sky, an evil smile playing on his lips. "But it'd be even worse without them. Particularly, the non-pirate, savvy?"

Jack

Gibbs introduced me to our merry ol' crew- except Annamaria, but then when IS Annamaria merry? She slapped me up but she was warming up to me, I knew. But the weather sure wasn't. As soon as we boarded and made our way out of the Tortuga harbor, the skies opened and started pouring water down on the ship. I blessed Elizabeth's body temperature: this way, Barbossa and his crew of miscreants would know where to find us- we'd ambush them at Isla de Muerta as soon as we got there. The medallion called and Barbossa would surely answer.

Elizabeth, our sweet naive messenger of the medallion, who was innocently taking inventory of our supplies, suddenly was soaked to the bone, as was the parchment. "JACK!" she screeched.

"What, love?" I rested my head on her wet shoulder. It was very odd, feeling rain beat down on me as Elizabeth wailed in me ear.

"My work is RUINED!" she yelled. She threw down the piece of drenched parchment. It fell to the soggy deck with a squish.

"No time fer ill feeling, Miss Liz, we have work to do!" As I said this, the seas started getting choppy. "All righ', crew, get to work!" The clouds grew darker and lightning streaked against the sky, illuminating the ship in a split-second of eerie light.

I took the wheel, slipping my hand into my pocket and retrieving my compass. I flipped it open, glancing at it, and steered accordingly. I noticed Elizabeth falling to the deck as a gigantic wave swept the crew nearly overboard, if they hadn't been clutching nothing. She screamed but over the roar of the storm I couldn't hear her. The ship rolled the other way and she slid to the opposite end of the deck, slamming against the side. She went limp.

In the dark, I left the wheel and scrambled to her. "Elizabeth! Elizabeth!"

"Cap'n!" Gibbs yelled. "Save th' girl but make it quick!"

I scooped her up and sloshed over to my cabin, lightly tossing her onto the bed, praying she'd be all right. Then I tripped down the stairs and grasped the wheel.

Gibbs and Will grabbed some ropes as the next roll of the waves loomed up. I noticed that my compass was gleaming oddly in the storm- the Black Pearl was within reach. I grinned, knowing that no one else could feel my joy. Except Gibbs, but he probably had drunk the plans out of his head.

Gibbs shouted, "We should drop canvas, sir."

I shook my head. "She can hold a bit longer."

"What's in your head that's put ya in such a fine mood, Cap'n?" Gibbs cried.

I looked at Gibbs and Will, who were still hanging onto the ropes. "They're catching up."

Will

The next day was spent tending to Elizabeth, who had gotten a couple of nasty bumps from the storm. She told me she was knocked unconscious by the seas, and how she wished it would never happen again. Jack prescribed some rum for her headache but I wisely stored it under his pillow as a nice surprise.

What was not a nice surprise was what Jack told us after the seas had calmed.

"Well mates, there's no point in deceiving ya any longer. The whole point of this mission is to take back the Black Pearl," Jack said, swigging some rum from his canteen.

The crew erupted in whispers.

"The girl has the last medallion needed to break the curse," Jack announced. Elizabeth blushed furiously. Medallion? What medallion? I wondered. What curse?

"Thanks to Elizabeth's dip in the bay, 'Cap'n' Barbossa now knows our whereabouts. When we get to Isla de Muerta, they will follow us. Arm yourselves fer now, mates," Jack finished. But before I had a chance to ask Elizabeth what medallion, she had run off, tearing off her necklace.

The day after dawned gray and moody. Jack was uncharacteristically quiet as he directed us into a steep fog. As the crew waited patiently on deck, I heard cracking sounds. I looked over the edge; wreckage from previous ships were strewn about the bay tragically, as in defeat. My eyes may have deceived me, but I thought I saw the distinct shape of a hammerhead shark glide by.

I glanced at Jack who was staring at his compass. Leaning over to Gibbs, I asked, "Uh, how is it that Jack came about that compass?"

Gibbs chuckled. "Not a lot's known about Jack Sparrow before he showed up in Tortuga with a mind to go after the treasure of the Isla de Muerta . That was before I met him, back when he was captain of the Black Pearl."

"What? He failed to mention that!" I said.

"Well, he plays things closer to the vest now. And a hard-learned lesson it was. See three days out on the venture the first mate comes to him and says everything's an equal share. That should mean the location of the treasure, too, so Jack gives up the bearings. That night there was a mutiny. They marooned Jack on an island and left him to die but not before he'd gone mad with the heat."

I nodded. "Ah. So that's the reason for all the. . ." I did some of Jack's facial expressions and movements.

Laughing, but then reverting back to seriousness, Gibbs replied, "Reason's got nothing to do with it. Now Will, when a man is marooned he is a given a pistol with a single shotÐ one shot. Well it won't do much good hunting or to be rescued. But after three weeks of a starvin' belly and thirst, that pistol will start to look real friendly. But JackÐ he escaped the island, and he still has that one shot. Oh, but he won't use it, though, save for one man. His mutinous first mate."

"Barbossa!" I said.

"Aye."

Intrigued, I asked, "How did Jack get off the island?"

"Well, I'll tell ye. He waded out into the shallows and there he waited three days and three nights till all manner of sea creature 'came and acclimated to his presence. And on the fourth morning, he roped himself a couple of sea turtles, lashed 'em together and made a raft!" Gibbs exclaimed, his cheeks becoming rosy.

"He roped a couple of sea turtles?" I asked incredulously.

"Aye, sea turtles," said Gibbs with a straight face.

"What did he use for rope?" I said, still trying to comprehend what Gibbs was saying.

"Human hair," said a voice from behind us. Gibbs and I whipped around. There was Jack. "From my back."

I looked at Gibbs, who was grinning like a fool. I sighed. It was too early.