The crew gave a great cheer when the cannon hit the water. A few men lingered to watch their last hindrance disappear into the briny depths.


Bill awoke upon impacted. The cannon drug him below the surface. With a great gulp of air, he dove and attacked the think knots binding him ankles to the cannon. Unable to untie them he struggled out of his favorite pair of boots and swam to the surface. He took another great gulp of air and dove again to avoid being seen by the murderous crew aboard his former place of employment. He swam to a rock jutting out of the water and took shelter on a small shelf on its back side. Once the ship was out of sight, Bill began to swim for shore.

"At least I'll be dry when I die," he thought aloud as he reached the shore. Panting he fell and just lied there attempting to catch his breath. After a while he rolled over and looked around the island. It looked eerily familiar. Then it hit him, this was the island the crew of the ship he was just thrown off of had marooned the captain on. He walked around the island and found the captain face first in the sand, snoring soundly. Bill thought of waking the snoozing pirate but then thought better of himself, figuring that the captain would must likely straggle him if awoken.

Bill began to pace around a group of young palm trees. On one of his passes he stumbled. He thought it must have been a root that tripped him. "Palm tree's roots don't grow near the surface," he murmured. He looked and there, quite plainly, was a trap door in the middle of a deserted island. He opened to door praying, something thought not to be common among his kind, that nothing jumped out of the hole and kill him. Nothing did. Instead Bill found something that would make both him and Jack very happy for a long while. Rum.

"It must a Rum Runner's cash," thought Bill out loud. "I've got rum, now all I need is someone to drink it with." He climbed out of the hole and kicked Jack awake.

"What the bloody hell are you doing Barbossa?" he shouted. (It was last thing he was going to say before he was thrown over board.) "Wait a tick," Jack spotted Bill. "You're not Barbossa. Bill? What, did you actually stand up to that mutinous bastard?"

"Surprisingly, yes I did. You were a good captain for the most part. If they wanted you dead they should have shot you. Apparently, they really didn't care if you died or not. I did try to kill him; he wasn't too fond of that so he tried to kill me instead. I should be sleepin' with the fishes any time now."

"You did all that for me? I didn't know you cared mate," said Jack inching closer to Bill. With a great shove, Bill threw Jack to the ground. As Jack attempted to heave himself off the ground, Bill began to jump up and down. "Oy, Bill, I don't think there be any rabbits on this God forsaken spit of land, what are you jumpin' for!"

"You'll see in a minute and you really will love me." Bill bent over and pulled at the trap door once more and disappeared inside. Jack sat there blinking stupidly. It was only when Bill came back up with two large bottles of rum did Jack's slightly befuddled mind comprehend what the significance of the island was.

"You were right Bill, I do love you," slurred Jack after he took several gulps of rum.


"And for the next threes days, Jack and I drank ourselves stupid." Elizabeth sat there, hanging on to every word Bill told her. "When the Rum Runners came, I bartered passage for us to Tortuga. Jack was intent regaining control of the Pearl but I wanted nothing to do with it. So after making him swear on pain of death he would never tell a soul that I was alive I left for Port Royal. There I enlisted myself into the Norrington household and I've been here ever since."