[A/N- okay, here's a quickie while I continue. Hope you enjoy, and I don't make you too upset, at this point- I have no idea how long this will get!]

Jack couldn't figure it out. She'd been there last night. He'd seen her walk up the steps. She'd been there. He hadn't been dreaming. Right?

But that morning brought harsh reality and a hangover with it, and she was nowhere to be seen on the ship. He'd taken a good look at th hold, and instructed his men to leave port. There was no more room for any treasure they might find. It was then, sailing out of the small bay, he noticed the scrape marks across the port side, the marks and nicks from grappling hooks. When had he been boarded? And why… why was that damned necklace hanging off of the rigging? He plucked it carefully off of the stiff rope, his heart plummeting in his stomach as the pearl shone in the dawn.

"You can't keep her from me forever."

He spun on his heel, expecting the man to be standing right behind him.

"Josh!" he roared, hunting down the second mate with a crazed audacity. He grabbed his shoulder, and the smile on the boy's face disappeared as he looked in his captain's eyes. "Find the bloody first mate."
"Sir," Josh wiggled out of the captain's grasp as he ran into the hold.

Jack jumped up to the helm, pulling out his spy glass and seeking the horizon for any glimpse of white. But there was none. A whole ocean to play with, and one wrong decision could mean the world. He clutched the necklace more firmly in his fist.

"Guide me love. You know him as well as I." Every inch of what he knew of Jonathan Brady running through his head, he spun the wheel, going with the strong south easterly they'd had all night. Jonathan wasn't stupid- he would have wanted gone. Jack wasn't stupid either- and no one, absolutely no one, was going to take what was his.

***

Alinnya watched the cove disappear behind them, her arms lashed around the mast in an uncomfortably forward thrust position. She was scramblng, mentally, to find the sheds of her armor, which Jack had so effectively dispersed of. She needed it now. She needed her old self, she needed the voice inside her head to stop screaming his name, to stop pleading for him to find her.
He never would, and deep in the bowels of her soul, she knew it. It was enough to crush her.
She had nothing left, at this point. The damn pirate had what he wanted from her. She bit back the urge to spit on the deck. She bit back the urge to cry. She bit back emotion with a violence that brought bile to her mouth. What was she, to anyone, besides some fucking property that they fought over? Anything?
There. A little bit of that frozen feeling. She was almost numb- almost herself again. She could do this. If she couldn't be anything beyond swag, then god. She'd be some worthless swag. She grinned a little at the prospect. If he got what he wanted from her, he'd keep her alive.
It was a simple enough equation.
She looked back to the cove one last time, bidding the Death Flight and all... all of its crew farewell, before her hands fought at the cords, and after a few moments, she untied herself from the mast. She stretched slightly, forcing the muscles of her shoulders to relax. She knew few things better than she knew the games played by Jonathan Brady. She could jump off the railing, but he'd just pull her out. He wanted her to scream, remember?
Alinnya, girl, she looked around, not a sight different, on the outside, than she had been a year ago in this position. Let's finish this.
Nineteen years of hard living and no shit to show for it.
A small voice in the back of her head found it befitting to whimper his name one more time.