Hello all and welcome to the next instalment of The Black Pearl: Bringer of freedom! Sorry this took so long, I had to be bullied into writing, since I had been swamped with work and just never found the time. None the less, I have written the next chapter and the one after it, so the only person you need to pester about the slowness of updates is my typist! (yes I have a typist, It's just quicker and she did offer!)

As for all my reviewers thank you as always, you keep me going! (along with pokes with a pencil from a few unnamed friends!) All replies will be put into the next chapter, promise!

Disclaimer: I own nothing as I am currently locked away in a cell with only old magazines for a bed and a pencil and paper to write on with food as an incentive to write….

Voila!

Grace?

"Grace? Grace?"

Grace St John slowly stirred and shifted in her hammock, unwilling to leave her dream of the sea, moonlight and dark, laughing eyes…

"Grace!!" Grace shot up, somehow managing to keep her balance through days of practice. Blearily she wiped the sleep from her eyelids. Anna Maria walked in, smiling wryly, she placed the tray she placed the tray she was holding on a nearby table. "Your breakfast."

"Oh" Grace blinked the room into focus, "Thank you."

Anna Maria stopped at the door, "Are you coming?"

"Just a minute" Grace called, gulping the gruel down. When Anna Maria had gone, Grace put her spoon down and took a deep breath before she choked to death. It wasn't that she wanted to be late, but there was something about that dream she had just had that kept playing on her mind. There had been a man in it she was sure, and that in itself was unusual; Grace had not met many men worth dreaming about. Yet… a rather soppy smile snuck across her face. A sudden bump from the deck broke Grace's reverie. She hurriedly finished her meal and went to pull the rest of her new clothes – Anna Maria had got tired of seeing her stumbling around in a dress. Grace smiled again, tugging on her boots. It turned out, that once Jack had lifted the ban on speaking to her, the rest of the crew weren't that bad. Admittedly, some of them had their own little quirks but Grace found them more interesting that way. And speaking of the crew; Grace laughed out loud when she thought of the first time Jack had seen her dressed in trousers. He'd ordered her about like she was a scurvy swab! His face when she had turned around had been priceless. Steadying her tricome hat, Grace reflected that, while he did indeed have his faults, he could quite possibly be one of the nicest men she had ever met. She had gotten to know him better over the past few days, though he had started to develop the habit of leaving halfway through a conversation. Sighing, she turned to the door. However, it was not for this reason that Grace hoped she would not see the captain today. Anna Maria was going to teach her to climb the rigging today (well she had to do something to keep herself amused) and Grace had a sneaking suspicion that Jack would not have approved. Still, there was a simple enough solution to that; they simply weren't going to tell him. After all, you didn't live on a pirate ship for 3 weeks without learning a thing or two. As a grinning Grace strode up to the deck, Jack was writing in the ship's ledger in his cabin. Well, half his mind was writing, the other half was playing on the little problem he was having with his new prisoner. Well not so much a problem, more of a crush really. 'NO!' remonstrated Jack's thoughts angrily, Jack Sparrow did not get crushes! He had a soft spot. Trouble was, that soft spot was getting softer and softer by the day. It was getting so bad that when she smiled at him during a conversation, he'd have to walk off to avoid a horrible 'swooping' sensation in his stomach. Jack sighed heavily and leant back. It wasn't good for a pirate captain to fall for those he kidnapped. Maybe some sea air would clear his head of this infatuation. Jack pushed his chair back and headed for the deck.

High above, Grace was just learning how to climb the ropes. "Now go left!" Cried Anna Maria, shouting over the rising wind. Grace carefully manoeuvred herself across, eyes sparkling. It was exhilarating! Grace laughed out loud at the thrill. Some way behind, Anna Maria was impressed, the girl was a natural. Still, it would be best to get her to the Crow's nest quickly, her arms were sure to be tiring.

"Now hold on tightly and move along until you reach the edge of the nest." Gritting her teeth, Grace gingerly moved, reached out and grabbed the nest. The lookout, a man called Abe, was watching Grace's efforts with a mocking eye.

"Now carefully, climb in" called Anna Maria, watching her keenly. Not appreciating Abe's look, Grace struggled to lift herself over the brim of the nest. Abe carelessly glancing aside, suddenly jumped up and stared at the horizon. A shout broke from his lips, "Ship Ahoy! Ship Ahoy!" Instantly, there was hustle and bustle below, cries answering the first "There, off the port bow" and Mr Gibbs "Come 'ere Cap'n, there she is!"

Grace, utterly thrown by this commotion, promptly let go of the ropes. As she fell Anna Maria screamed in horror. The crew of pirates gazed upwards at this silent body hurtling fatally towards them. They waited for the terrible crack of human bone on the merciless deck; yet it never came. Above, Anna Maria stared down, confused.

Slowly, the crowd of pirates parted, to reveal a shocked and trembling Grace, held tightly in the arms of Captain Jack Sparrow. She breathed again. Grace slowly opened her eyes, looked about and up, into Jack's dark eyes, who were staring intently into hers.

"Are yer all right?" he asked softly, anxiously.

"yes," came the breathy reply, "I think so."

Instantly the crew began to move again, they had no time to waste on a girl without injuries. A second later, Mr Gibbs was at Jack's side.

"Errr, Cap'n, Cap'n?"

Jack managed to tear his gaze away long enough to see Gibbs frantically motioning with his eyes to put Grace down. Reality flooded back to Jack's love-overloaded senses and with a start he put Grace back on her feet.

"Cap'n there's a ship off the port bow. Looks ripe for the plucking." Grinning, Gibbs winked. Jack strode to the side of the ship and drew out his telescope.

"It's a treasure ship sir, Spanish by the looks of it." Gibbs continued after him, "What do yer think?"

Jack turned and looked at him speculatively, then his glance fell on the still stunned Grace staring back at him.

"Prepare to board" he ordered brusquely. In the midst of the erupting chaos he walked over, grabbed Grace's arm and added in a low voice, "Go to your cabin and don't come out until I say."

"But Captain!"

"Go there and stay there" he commanded, thrusting her below. As he swivelled to go, she called.

"Wait!" He stopped in answer. "You won't kill anyone, will you?"

Shaking his head in annoyance he made to leave but-

"Promise me Jack!"

Stunned, he turned his whole body around to face her and was struck bodily by her beseeching blue eyes. "Please Jack" she mouthed, almost desperate. Perhaps it was the fact that she had used his name for the first time or the fact that the feeling of her warm, soft body in his arms still lingered in his mind but Jack, try as he might, could not refuse her.

"Very well." With that, he was gone.

A still trembling Grace made her way down the stairs, thoughtful like never before. She had almost started to forget that these friendly, funny people were pirates, and made their living by plundering and pillaging. And when Jack had caught her, she could have sworn that she had seen something in the way he looked at her that made her heart beat like a drum.

Reaching her cabin, she slowly climbed into her hammock and hugged herself. Ignoring the noises from above, she fell asleep.

"Grace?! Grace?!? Grace?!?!?"

He burst into the room, eyes wild, desperately searching. He ran, overturning tables and furniture, screaming her name at the top of his voice. She wasn't anywhere to be found. He couldn't find her. He couldn't find her!

"Grace!!!!!!"

"Captain!"

He whirled round, hair messed, breathing heavily and his eyes bright.

"Yes, have you found her?"

"No sir, there's no sign of your sister anywhere."

Captain Thomas St John ran a shaking hand through his dark brown hair and took a deep breath. This wasn't like Grace, disappearing so suddenly. No-one from the village had seen her or the pub open for weeks. Where could she be?

He grabbed the bar to steady himself and glanced out of the window. Then, suddenly a thought struck him. Immediately he was flying out the door of his mother's pub and down the cliff path, ignoring the shouts of his corporal behind him. The cave! She had to be there! He dashed in and looked around wildly, praying to catch a glimpse of Grace.

But he saw, nothing. She wasn't there. His face fell. Taking long, shuddering breaths, he walked over to a nearby rock, sat down and put his head in his hands. He had been on the trail of the notorious pirate Jack sparrow but, the trail having gone cold, made a stopover on the island to visit Grace. But now she was gone and, all his brotherly instincts were going haywire.

She wouldn't, couldn't have run away. It wasn't like her, he thought. She was happy here, wasn't she? But you were never here to ask, a little voice in the back of his mind chided him. So how would you know? And now, she was gone.

Opening his eyes, he noticed something glinting in the water. He seized it. It was a doubloon, precisely the kind of coin he thought, that was in the treasure Jack Sparrow had stolen. In a instant his mind had put two and two together; Grace was the only other person who knew about this place, if she had come here while a certain pirate had been hiding his booty here… He gripped the coin harder. He would rescue his sister from those damned pirates, and if there was nothing to save, he would see them all hang.

"Grace? Grace?"

Grace stirred in her hammock. "Grace?"

Grace slowly opened her eyes. There, staring back at her, was Jack Sparrow. Blushing bright pink (which poor Jack found quite cute) Grace shot unsteadily out of her hammock which resulted in Jack having to put his arm round her for balance, necessarily of course.

"Oh," stuttered Grace, then realization hit. "Is it over?" She looked up into Jack's face so innocently Jack involuntarily gulped.

"Aye," he replied, then as an afterthought, "we won."

Grace looked away from him, blinking.

"Did you, Did you?"

Jack didn't need to hear the rest.

"No they're all fine. Bit bruised, but fine."

At that, Grace looked back at him with such a beaming smile that Jack's legs felt weak, and he was sure it had nothing to do with the sea for once.

"Cap'n?" Mr Gibbs was at the door.

"What?" Asked Jack carelessly.

"We've set course sir."

"Course?" Grace was confused. "Where are we going?" Gibbs pleasantly replied, "Tortuga ma'am"

"Tortuga?" She repeated blankly. Jack grinned down at her, his teeth (white?) against his swarthy, devilishly handsome face.

"Tortuga."

"Grace, Grace" Thomas whispered worriedly to himself at the helm of his ship 'The Fortune'. He set his mouth thinly. He had decided to take a short cut to Tortuga, the known pirate den to see if he could find any clues as to Sparrow's whereabouts, and then he would find him, and kill him.

The wind caught the sails as 'The Fortune' moved out of the harbour. 'I'm coming Grace.' He thought, 'I'm coming.'

Well what do you think? Please R&R! (and free me from this prison!)