Disclaimer: I really don't see the point of putting another one of these thingies in. You all know who wrote 'Pirates of the Caribbean' anyway.

Diamond In The Rough .: Chapter 4 :.

"The Black Pearl, huh?! Escaped criminals, are you?! 'Armed and possibly dangerous?!"

Diamond had stormed into one of the small rooms of 'The Cutlass inn', yelling at the top of her voice to a cowering Ragetti and Pintel.

"Keep your voice down, Diamond! Do you want all of our customers to hear?" Julie whispered in a low hiss.

Ragetti and Pintel sat on the end of the bed while Julie stood leaning against the wall. Diamond pulled up a chair and faced the two felons.

"Ok. Here's how we're gonna do this. I ask a question, you answer it. And with the truth. Understood?"

The silenced pair nodded their heads in agreement, both too scared to look Diamond in the face.

"First question. Are you or are you not the last crew members of the Black Pearl?"

Once again, the only reply was a nod.

"How did you escape?" This time, the question came from Julie.

Ragetti and Pintel turned to face her, both explaining how they escaped.

"Well, we were taken' back on the Daun'less -"

"And w-we untied ourselves with me lucky dagger-"

"And ran for the lifeboats-"

"ENOUGH!" Diamond screamed. "I don't want to hear about it!"

"Bu' it's a beaut story…"

"I don't care! Our main dilemma now is what to do with you two." Diamond gave each of them a menacing stare.

"We could always call those officers back. I mean, we don't owe these two anything." Julie said, trying to work Pintel and Ragetti up.

"Oh please! Don' do tha'! I promise me an' Pints will be good!" Ragetti and Pintel both got on their knees, begging for life.

"Rags an' I can help ye with stuff around 'ere. And besides, ye don' wan' to carry the burden of sendin' two innocent men to their death, do ya now?"

"Innocent?! You've killed, and tormented, and plundered your way through life. You call that innocent?!"

"Diamond-" It was Julie.

"What?" Diamond snapped, not taking her eyes off the men cowering before her.

"Perhaps we should let them stay."

Ragetti and Pintel stopped whinging abruptly and stared up at Julie as if she were a saint.

"Why? We don't owe them anything, like you said."

"But that's beside the point. And anyway, we do need some new kitchen hands - our last one quit, remember?"

Diamond looked down at the two whimpering scally-wags. Both of them wearing the same face of fear and guiltiness.

"We promise ta work real hard an' all." Pintel added, hoping to persuade Diamond into letting them stay.

"You know what? Fine. See if I care. You begin work tomorrow. You can sleep in here. But don't make any noise because if my father finds out who you are, it'll be back to Port Royal with you."

Diamond opened the door and was about to walk out of the room, when Ragetti piped up.

"Thankye, Diamond."

"It's Miss Marie." Diamond growled slowly, glaring at Ragetti. She then slammed the door and went back down stairs to close up the bar.

Ragetti's heart sank. "She hates me." He muttered.

"Believe me," Julie said, walking over to the door, "If she hated you, she wouldn't have let you stay." Julie put her face right up to Ragetti's and added; "Think about that. Goodnight." Julie walked out of the room and shut the door behind her, leaving Ragetti and Pintel in complete darkness.

"Up. Up!"

"Wha'….?" Pintel said groggily, only just awakening from the most comfortable nights sleep he'd had in a while.

"It's 5am already. Time to start your first day of work." Julie answered, pulling back the curtains to reveal a view of the bay.

"W-we have ta start each day at five o'clock?!" Ragetti groaned.

"No, you normally start at 6am, but Julie and I decided that if you to were going to work here in exchange for us not turning you in, then you should at least be clean, or just look it." Diamond added, throwing each one a towel and pointing down the other end of the corridor.

"You'll find a bath down that end of the hallway. You only have an hour, so I suggest you hurry up." Diamond was still annoyed about last night.

The four of them made their way to the bathroom. Julie ushered the pirates behind a screen and told them to strip off.

"I ain' doin' no such thing!" Pintel bellowed.

"Fine. But you'll have to take a bath with your clothes on." Diamond scowled.

"And I'm guessing that would be very uncomfortable." Julie added, smirking as Pintel and Ragetti hid behind the screen, stripping off their clothes while Julie and Diamond filled up the bath with warm, soapy water.

"Throw us your clothes and we'll go wash them." Diamond said as a pile of Ragetti's and Pintel's clothes came over the screen.

"Report down to the kitchens when your done. It's behind the bar."

"How can we go down their withou' our clothes, eh?" Pintel growled, embarrassed about the situation he was in.

"There are two old dressing gowns next to the bath. Just put those on and then you can get changed downstairs." Diamond and Julie left the pair of embarrassed pirates to clean themselves up.

"Errgh! How bad do their clothes smell?!"

Julie asked as they walked down the stairs carrying Pintel and Ragetti's clothes.

"I know." Diamond replied, "It looks like they haven't been properly cleaned in ages."

"Who? The boys or their clothes?" Julie joked.

"Both. At least once their scrubbed up we'll have time to relax."

"Mmmm. We have been doing a lot of work lately." Julie agreed.

Diamond and Julie have been working so hard to keep this place up and running. Between Diamonds' father being sick all last month and the cleaning-maid quitting, the pair of them haven't had much time to themselves.

Authoress's note: Ok, I know that really isn't a good place to stop the story for now, but I couldn't wait to get it on fan fiction, so you'll just have to wait for me to start writing the next chapter; 'When the work begins'.