I own Maribelle and..yup. yup, that's all!

Maribelle felt horrible. She was just sitting in her room when she could be doing something. But would she dare? She didn't want to get herself into even more trouble.

But if no one knew what she was doing?

"What have you got to lose?" Maribelle asked herself...Only everything.

Well, he's my best friend, isn't he? She thought. Of course, it might get me hung, and thrown out of the house, or at the very least, thrown into prison for a few nights for cavorting with pirates.

"Oh, to hell with it!" she said out loud, swiping her hand through the air. She walked over to the window and looked downward. It wasn't too long of a drop if she couldn't get her footing. But it was still a drop...The prison cells weren't too far away. The run wouldn't be a problem. The problem would be being seen.

"God help me," she cringed, stepping out over the window sill. She put her foot on the ledge, then grabbed onto one of the trees outside for support. Suddenly, she felt her foot slipping, so she jumped out and found herself completely in the tree.

"Great," she muttered. "Bloody brilliant. Now I need to climb down a tree. I haven't been in a tree since I was nine years old, and now...Ugh!" She started trying to climb down the trunk in her skirts, and though she was finding it nearly possible, her feet were soon touching solid ground.

Not wasting any time to savor her achievement, she broke into a run, ducking quickly into corners at every few turns if she happened to see someone strolling past. Eventually, she found herself right around the corner from the prison. Very few guards were keeping watch tonight- -Apparently Norrington had gotten a bit cocky, thinking none of his prisoners would ever make an escape.

She had heard about Jack's short liaisons in Port Royal two years ago, but she hadn't gone to see him. It was against her nature to walk right into trouble. At least, it was now. She couldn't speak for the girl she was years ago.

For a moment, Maribelle felt just like she was playing pirates with Jack again. Sure, this game put a whole lot more at stake, but if she could still just think of it as a game, maybe nothing would go wrong.

She hadn't worked up the nerve to try and barrel through the guards, so she went around to the back, where a high window would lead to a long drop right into the main cell block. She looked down and put her feet through, letting herself slide downward until she was clinging to the windowsill with her hands. She let her feet then hit the ground quietly before she turned around.

It was a filthy place, really. At least that mangy dog had left, probably died after all the time it had been cooped up down there. When Maribelle was younger, she used to peek into the high window, and the dog would bark loudly at her. She surveyed the area and saw the keys were hanging on a peg in the wall she swiped at them, and started looking through the cells until she found Jack.

"Do you want me to go away this time?" she said, holding up the ring of keys and smirking as she jingled them tauntingly in his face. "I've heard you've been in this position before, and it mustn't have been much fun,"

"Are you going to let me out?" he growled irritably. "Or are ye just going to wave those keys in my face and run? You seem to do a let of running,"

"I was planning on actually opening this door without a fuss, since all the other no-accounts down here are sleeping. If you shut your mouth and don't get me caught, yes," she snapped, starting to try each key in the lock. "You do know that you can't possibly try to run out the front, right?"

"Why can't I?" Jack snapped cockily, once Maribelle had finally picked the right key and gotten the lock open. "I've gotten past dozens more guards before." Maribelle rolled her eyes at him.

"You really do love getting caught, don't you?" she snapped, pulling the door open. "It's late. We're going out the way I came in, and I'll get you to the docks."

"Brilliant plan," he snapped sarcastically. He followed Maribelle as she started back towards the window.

"Help me up," she said directly.

"Help you?" He snapped, "Hah, that'd be the day."

"Then I can walk straight out the front and leave you here," she snapped, crossing her arms. Jack grimaced at her, but recovered with a wry smile.

"See, here's the thing with that," he said with a smirk, "If ye rat on me now, they'll wonder who opened the door in the first place, and then who'll be in trouble?"

"Still not in as much trouble as you," she pointed out, glancing back towards the front entrance. "I could scream for them to come down right now, and then they'd come running,"

"Enough!" Jack snapped, "All right, all right, all right, let's just get out of here. He stooped down and gave her a foothold until she could pull herself out of the window. Then, she dusted herself off, turned around, and offered her hand through the window. "I don't need you to pull me up," he snapped, crossing his arms. Maribelle withdrew her hand and stepped back smirking as she watched Jack jump up and down, trying to get his hands on the ledge. He couldn't jump very high, seeing as they were trying not to make much noise.

"Are you up yet?" she asked in a stage whisper, trying hard not to laugh.

"Shut your mouth and give me yer hand," he snapped back. Maribelle snorted quickly with laughter and leaned over, offering her hand again. She pulled him up as best as she could, considering he was considerably heavier than her. She tried not to pull hard enough to make him hit his head on the top of the window, and helped him duck to get his head out.

Still, even when he could have gotten out the rest of the way on his own, he still held on to Maribelle's hand until he had crawled all the way out. He stood up and dusted himself off with one hand. Maribelle cleared her throat and glanced down at their still-joined hands. Jack pulled his hand away quickly and glanced away. Maribelle rolled her shoulders and blushed slightly.

"Ye aren't too weak for a lady," he shrugged, not looking her in the face. "I guess I ought to be thankin' ye for getting me out."

"Never mind that," Maribelle nodded, looking down at her feet. She cleared her throat quietly. "Come on, we need to get you out of here."

Not really out of necessity, she reached out and grabbed his hand again as they ran to the docks. She still ran considerably fast, and they were there in less time than either of them would have expected.

"I guess you'll be commandeering one of these," she shrugged, looking out over the many ships in the harbor. "You'll be all right getting out of here on your own?"

"On my own?" Jack asked. "You think you won't be coming with me? You sprung me from me cell, and I'd be a horrible pirate if I left you here to take the blow for it,"

"You must be joking," Maribelle laughed. "I'll just get myself into more trouble."

"Never used to stop ye," Jack shrugged, smirking. "Come along. There'll be plenty of rum, rest assured."

"I can't," she said, shaking her head and looking back over her shoulder at the town, whose few streetlamps and lights from houses twinkled ominously in the dark sky. "This is my life now. You need to go back to yours. You have your ship, your crew, and I have...whatever it is that I've got here."

"You don't to be seem to be enjoying it much, whatever it is," Jack pointed out. "No point in living a life you don't want."

"I've accepted that I don't get the life I want," Maribelle snapped forcefully. "Just stop reminding me how much I want it."

"Are you honestly going to walk away from a chance like this?" he said back, "You've always wanted to see the entire bloody ocean, and now that you can, you don't want to? Is that it?"

"Don't you ever listen to Gibbs?" Maribelle asked, trying to laugh as though she weren't seriously considering running away on the ship with Jack and never coming back to the Callums, to Port Royal, to her obligations to the governor... "It'd be bad luck to have me around. I'm a woman,"

"Ye know you're more than that," Jack snapped, "You can wear those fancy...womanly...things," he said, wrinkling his nose and gesturing wildly and vaguely around her body, "But you'll still be a pirate, and a bloody good one. Ye can't just forget it all. What about yer father?"

"What about him?" Maribelle asked weakly.

"You're bloody betraying the man's memory, forgetting about everything he wanted for ye to be," Jack tried to reason with her. "Why would ye want to live in a place like this anyway? Everything's made of metal and stone, and the people...they all have odd hair..."

"My father lived his life exactly the way he wanted, and look what happened to him," Maribelle said quietly, feeling everything she had been thinking for years start welling up behind her eyes. "I don't want to end up like that. Even if it means changing what I want out of life, I'm not going to die like he did."

"So you want to die miserable instead?" Jack asked.

Maribelle shook her head furiously, and pulled out from under her skirts a loaded pistol she had taken with her to Tortuga, knowing that she would probably need it at some point. Only, she hadn't expected that she'd be needing it to threaten the man who was once her best friend. She cocked it and pointed it at Jack.

"Get on that ship and just leave," she said. Jack just stared resolutely at her, narrowing his eyes.

"Ye aren't going to shoot," he said surely, "The one thing ye never knew how to do was kill. Ye aren't going to hurt me- -"

"Don't you dare challenge me, Sparrow," she hissed. "Don't you even dare. I'm warning you- -"

"Warning me of what?" Jack said, almost tauntingly. Maribelle's eyes widened at the prospect of Jack actually thinking that she wasn't serious. She felt an unbridled sense of anger and humiliation bubbling up inside her. True, she hadn't planned on firing, but now...

Maribelle cringed and fired a shot that whizzed right over his shoulder, taking off a small section of his shirt. He looked down at where the bullet had grazed, then back at Maribelle in disbelief.

"I'm warning you," she hissed. "Next time, I'll aim to kill. Just get out of here before- -"

"HALT!" a voice screamed. Both of them turned to see one soldier running over, his eyes locked on Jack as though Maribelle wasn't there at all. Granted, she had just fired a shot loud enough to call attention from anyone, she found it insulting that no one would credit the shot to her, even though she was holding the pistol.

"What have we here?" Maribelle asked, "A lone officer, looking for glory? Don't bother. I've got him," she said, putting on an air of confidence and gesturing towards Jack with the pistol. Her free hand had its fingers crossed behind her back, hoping the soldier would believe this.

"I am going to bring him to the Commodore. It'll be good eating for the rest of my life," he said, his eyes glinting in ambition. Jack just stared, not looking worried.

"He's mine, and so is the good eating," Maribelle snapped. Suddenly, something within her clicked, and a long-entrenched spirit sparked to life for a moment. "Maybe if ye're nice enough, I'll let ye marry me and we can share the spoils," she said with a smirk. The man glared at her angrily.

In an instant, he was charging at her. Frantically, Maribelle swung the pistol around and fired at him, hitting him square in the chest. He collapsed right in front of her, blood staining his coat.

Maribelle stared in horror at what her own hand had done, her brief moment of nonchalance replaced by her usual attitude of stoicism and logic. She had killed someone, that point was inescapably clear. The soldier lay convulsing horribly on the ground, and Maribelle herself was shaking, tears starting to well up in her eyes. A soft sob escaped her throat as she covered her eyes.

"Shush, luv," Jack said, walking up behind her and putting an arm around her shoulder. She turned around and buried her face in his shirt, trying not to cry. "Come on," he muttered, 'You need to come with me before anyone finds ye here," He stared down at the body. "Ye can't stay here anymore."

Maribelle nodded, then looked back at the town again. "I need to go back to the manor, one more time," she said quietly. "I just need to...take some things with me...Of course, I don't expect you to still be here when I get back."

"You're right, I won't be standing here, waiting for you," Jack nodded. Maribelle looked away, trying to hide to look of hurt on her face, but Jack caught her chin in his hand and made her face him again. "Because I'm coming with ye."

"Jack, the code," she said chidingly, "I might have tried, but I haven't forgotten. Anyone who falls behind gets left behind, remember?"

"Then ye had better run faster than me on the way back," Jack smirked. Maribelle smiled and they both ran off towards the Callum Manor. Now, Maribelle knew she had nothing to lose for the first time since she had come to Port Royal. She ran pell-mell through the streets, and climbed up the tree by her window, not caring how badly she soiled the hem of her dress. Jack, as he always had when they were children, followed just a step behind.

As they climbed into the window, Jack watched as she regathered her things back into the canvas sack. There was one set of clothes, which looked like they belonged to a man, as well as knives, another pistol, a bottle of gunpowder, and a few trinkets.

"Let's go," Maribelle said, striding towards the window and looking down. "Nothing here that's worth missing." She jumped out to the tree and climbed down. Jack glanced around her room once or twice, taking in just what she was leaving behind, then followed right after her.

In a few minutes, they were back at the docks, staring around at the ships.

"Well?" Jack asked, "Which one,"

"You're the captain," Maribelle snapped back, shifting her weight, "You tell me."

"All right," Jack smirked, "Where to?"

"Anywhere," Maribelle sighed dreamily, looking out over the water. "Just so long as it's far from here."

a/n's

Aww, Jack and Maribelle are friends again!...Sort of.

I'm having HORRIBLE writer's block on all of my stories. That's this one (The Cutlass Crow) and my SW fic (Just Over Your Shoulder). I need more ideas. Maybe i need...CHOCOLATE! Chocolate's good...Haha, well, if you have any ideas, the help is waaaaaay appreciated