A/N: I know it's been forever since I've updated. School sucks and so do the teachers. Too much homework, too much stuff to do after school… Okay, I'll stop ranting about school and let you read the chapter!
Forensic Photographer711: Yeah I know it's sad. It's sad for me when I read it. Well I'm actually writing out the last chapter so I know where everything's going. I've rewritten the last chapter about three times already. I got to leave my readers with something good, especially at the end of the story. Thanks for reviewing and thanks for deciding to keep reading! lol.
obliviongates: Thank god I'm not the only one with moments like that. I have them quite often. lol. Thanks for reviewing. Oh and I loved your story. I can't wait for the sequel!
Sexxi Guys My Anti Drug: Ow, sorry about your fingers. Mine don't hurt anymore from typing because I play the guitar and those strings cut into your fingers more than computer keys will. Anyways, I hope your fingers are okay. Thanks for reviewing! I know it might have hurt to type it. lol.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything from Pirates of the Caribbean. I only own Anna Wilson and any other characters you don't recognize from the movie.
Chapter Seven: Jack's New Crew
"Feast your eyes cap'n," Gibbs stated, proudly showing off the sailors he could find in Tortuga crazy enough to join Jack's crew. "All of them faithful hands before the mast. Every man worth his salt, and crazy to boot."
Jack inspected his new crew with skeptical eyes. He paced up and down the dock lined with pirates of all different shapes and sizes. Will and Anna followed behind him and wondered at Jack's judgement.
"So this is your able-bodied crew?" Will said looking at the pirates questionably.
Jack ignored him and walked up to an older looking sailor with a short beard and a parrot on his left shoulder.
"You sailor!" Jack addressed the man strongly.
"Cotton, sir," Gibbs added in telling Jack the name of the man.
"Mr. Cotton," Jack started glaring deep into the poor sailor's eyes. His face was mere inches away from him. "Do you have the courage and fortitude to follow orders and stay true in the face of danger and almost certain death?"
Anna and Will raised their eyebrows at Jack not understanding a word he said. Cotton looked over at Gibbs as though trying to tell him something. The sailor was obviously flustered by Jack's questioning.
"Mr. Cotton! Answer me!" Jack shouted at the sailor.
"He's a mute, sir," Gibbs said speaking for the man. "Poor devil had his tongue cut out, so he trained the parrot to talk for him. No one's yet figured how."
Cotton opened his mouth to show his stump of tongue where it was cut off. Will and Anna looked at each other uneasily wondering what the hell Jack was getting himself into.
"Mr. Cotton's…parrot! Same question," Jack said feeling awkward about talking to a parrot.
"Wind in the sails! Wind in the sails!" the parrot replied.
"Mostly we figure that means yes," Gibbs said trying to make his choice in sailors sound better than it looked.
"Of course it does!" Jack exclaimed, "Satisfied." He looked at Will half smiling.
"Well you've proved they're mad!" Will said still wondering about Jack's judgement.
"What's the benefit for us!" a voice shouted from the end of the line of sailors. It was a different voice though. It wasn't deep and husky like a normal sailor's, it sounded like a woman's voice with a thick accent.
Jack walked towards the sailor that spoke, Will and Anna following. He stopped in front of a person with their hat covering their face. Jack slowly lifted his hand up to take the hat off. He moved the brim to see who it was. He smiled and took the hat off revealing a black woman with a look in her eyes angrier than anybody else could manage to look.
"Anamaria!" Jack said happily.
The woman didn't say anything and slapped him hard across the face, harder than any of the whores slapped him. Anna let out a small laugh and Will raised his eyebrows.
"Women like to slap you around here don't they?" Anna said smiling with her arms crossed in front of her. Jack smiled sarcastically.
"I suppose you didn't deserve that one either," Will said.
"No that one I deserved," Jack said knowing he was defeated and couldn't get himself out of it. Anamaria nodded behind him. Jack stood up and faced her again.
"You stole my boat!" she said angrily.
"Actually…" Jack began but was cut off by another slap. He stretched out his face trying to subdue the pain. "Borrowed, borrowed without permission. But with every intention of bring it back to you."
Jack was smiling as though he were pleading for mercy from God himself.
"But you didn't!" Anamaria screamed.
Jack paused trying to think of what to say next to subdue the raging storm coming from the woman. "You'll get another one!" he said smiling weakly.
Anamaria thrust her finger in his face. "I will!" she threatened.
"A better one!" Will chimed in trying to help Jack, knowing that he was the only way to save Elizabeth at this point.
"A better one!" Jack repeated smiling more. Anamaria still glared at him skeptically.
"That one!" Will said pointing at the Interceptor.
Jack spun around to face Will. "What one?" he asked quietly. Will nodded at the ship again. Jack turned to look. His eyes widened and he turned back to Will. "That one?" he said angrily knowing that Anamaria would already want the ship. Will nodded again.
Jack turned to face Anamaria uneasily. "Aye, that one," he said weakly. "What say you!" Jack shouted again with his confidence coming back to him.
"Aye!" Anamaria shouted, pleased with Jack's attempt at regaining her mercy.
"Aye!" the crew repeated.
"Anchor's aweigh!" Cotton's parrot squawked annoyingly.
Anna sighed watching the parrot squawk even more. "I'm going to be ready to strangle that bird when we're done with this little adventure," she said just above a whisper. Will laughed quietly and shook his head at her.
Gibbs walked up to Jack worriedly. "No, no, no, no, no, no, sir. It's frightful bad luck to bring a woman aboard, sir and having two will surely make it worse," Gibbs said trying to convince Jack to keep Anna and Anamaria off the ship.
"I'd be far worse not to have Anamaria and the whelp most likely will not allow me to leave Anna here," Jack said distantly, gazing off at the sky as though something was going to happen soon. He walked away and Will and Gibbs looked up to see what Jack had been looking at. Will shrugged and walked towards the ship followed by Gibbs.
Anamaria walked up to Anna who was just about to board the ship.
"Yer not going on the ship in that, are ye?" Anamaria asked examining Anna from head to foot. She was speaking of the now fairly dirty and ripped dress she had worn to Tortuga.
"It's all I have. What else would I wear anyways?" Anna asked not even thinking of wearing pants.
Anamaria opened her arms showing Anna what she was wearing. "Pants?"
"Aye," Anamaria nodded.
"I don't even have any!" Anna said feeling awkward about the thought of wearing pants.
Anamaria rolled her eyes started walking up the gangplank. "I've got another pair and a shirt ye can have."
Anna followed her up the gangplank and into the forecastle where Anamaria set up a hammock and opened her bag to reveal an old white shirt and a pair of black pants. She threw them to Anna. "Put 'em on 'ere before the men get in. A girl like ye most likely wouldn't want to be changin' clothes in front of other men," Anamaria said walking out.
Anna examined the clothes in her arms and reluctantly changed into them. 'It's for the best, I guess,' she thought as she looked at herself in men's clothes. She sighed knowing how hard it would be to help out on the ship in a dress. "I cut my hair short, I can wear pants," she said confidently as she stepped out of the forecastle.
The Interceptor was just leaving the bay as she came out. The sky had eerily grown darker. She walked up to Jack to see if there was anything she could do.
"Jack," Anna said quietly. He turned around and his eyes widened in surprise at what she was wearing, then smiled.
"'ello there, Anna. Good to see you've gotten into something more suitable for sailing a ship," Jack said. "Just go help Will out. He'll explain what to do, hopefully," Jack was now doubting Will for a second and then quickly shook it off.
Anna nodded and walked over to Will who was attempting to tie down a sail that had gotten loose. She climbed up into the riggings to help him. He lifted his head and his eyes widened at her presence.
"What are you doing up here? And what are you wearing?" he asked almost speechless. Anna smiled.
"Jack told me to help you. What do you need me to do?" Anna asked. Will just stared at her.
"You can't wear that!" Will said.
"Why not?" Anna shouted back at him.
"You're a lady! Ladies can't wear that!" Will almost shouted but noticed other sailors looking at him.
"I'm not a lady anymore, Will," Anna said. "I'm apart of this crew. I have to help out and I can't do that if you don't tell me what I need to do!"
Will didn't know what to say. He nodded slightly and motioned her to climb down to where he was standing.
"Hold this sail as still as you can. You're lucky the wind hasn't picked up or it would have knocked us both overboard by now. I'm going to tie it back down. Keep it still or we'll never get this done," Will said quietly.
Anna barely held down the heavy sail and looked up as the clear Caribbean sky grew darker by the minute.
"Okay, I'm done," Will said sitting back up from the yard. Anna was still holding the sail. "Anna, you can let go."
Anna looked back down and quickly took her hands away from the sail and grabbed on to the rigging. Will jumped down and she followed. She looked back up at the sky.
"Jack!" she yelled and ran back to the wheel where Jack was standing.
"Aye," he said sounding bored.
"Is a storm coming?" Anna asked looking back up at the sky.
"Aye, that is correct, luv," he said smiling. "You could make a good sailor. Most would only think its clouds but few would conclude a storm was brewin'."
"How bad of a storm do you think?" Anna asked.
"This one's gonna be a bad one. Better rest while you can. You got a job to do tonight," Jack said. Anna nodded and walked away.
She leaned on the side of the ship and looked as the now gray sea went from calm and smooth to rough and choppy.
"Hey, what's the matter?" a voice said breaking Anna from zoning. She turned to see Will standing there.
"Storm's coming," she said simply and looked back out to sea.
"You probably shouldn't help out on deck. You're likely to get hurt, or worse, killed," Will warned.
Anna looked up at him and smiled. "I've already gotten orders to work. If you're trying to protect me, you're doing a bad job at it," she said making Will smile slightly.
"Well I'll make it a point at not trying to protect you anymore if it's not even helping," Will said jokingly.
"Good," Anna said smiling again. Will walked away and Anna's smile faded. She felt a cold breeze blow through her, making her shudder. The storm was close.
……………………………………
The Interceptor was tossed in the waves like a toy boat. The storm raged wildly. Nobody on the ship could tell the difference between the rain and the waves crashing onto the boat. The crew ran about the ship wildly as knots that held sails and riggings were worked loose and sails were ripped and different areas of the ship were flooded. Jack stood at the wheel with his compass opened. He turned the wheel back and forth trying to keep the ship on a steady path, sailing the ship through the center of the storm.
"Is he trying to kill us!" Anna screamed against the noise to Will.
"I don't think so, but he's doing a good job at it anyway!" Will shouted back to Anna.
Anna lunged toward a rope that had been worked loose and attempted to tie it as a wave crashed up on the deck throwing her to the other side of the ship. The salt in her eyes forced her to keep them closed until she could rub it out. She felt someone grab her hand and pull her up. She rubbed her eyes quickly and saw Will standing there.
"Are you alright?" he shouted.
Anna nodded. He pulled her to the side where Gibbs was tightening a rope. They both began helping him.
"How can we sail to an island that nobody can find with a compass that doesn't work!" Will shouted at Gibbs who just smiled.
"Aye the compass doesn't point north, but we're not trying to find north are we?" Gibbs said. He left and stumbled up to Jack.
"Where the hell are we going!" Anna screamed at Will.
"Isle de Muerta!" Will shouted back. He looked towards a wave larger than the one before coming towards the ship. Anna was facing the other way attempting to tie down another rope. Will lunged towards her and held her down as the wave rushed over the deck.
Anna felt all air in her lungs leave her as she slammed hard on the deck. Something was on top of her, holding her down as if guarding her from something. She couldn't breathe. She was under water. 'Did I go overboard?' she thought to herself. She felt her head break through the water. She was still on the deck and something was still holding her. She felt the weight of what ever was on top of her go away. She grabbed on to the hand of someone standing nearby and used it to stand up. She found that Will was the one holding her hand.
"Thanks," Anna managed to say as air filled her lungs again. She smiled weakly. Her head was throbbing as though someone was hitting her with a sledgehammer. She grasped a pole behind her and held her head as she tried to keep her footing on the constantly moving and slippery deck, but her efforts were useless. She fell down to her knees and attempted to stand up.
"Anna, are…" Will began, kneeling down to her with his hand on her shoulder.
"Yes, I'm fine," Anna said pulling herself up as the throbbing in her head continued. She stumbled forward to Anamaria who was having trouble tying a rope down. She helped her tie it down and stood up to go somewhere else. She took a step forward and fell twisting her ankle. Anna yelped in pain and held her ankle.
"God dammit!" She screamed. She attempted to stand up to walk off the pain but her vision blurred. Her arms that held her up were growing weak. She fought hard to keep her vision focused and her eyes open but she couldn't.
"Anna!" she heard a distant voice shouting. It sounded like Anamaria, but as she began to yell back, the world went black.
A/N: I know, I know, most common way to end a chapter "the world went black." Oh well, I've been writing for almost two hours now. I needed to stop somehow. It was the first ending that popped into my head that actually worked. Please review. Sorry for the long wait for the update!
