A/N: First off, thanks for the reviews once again! They are amazing; I probably wouldn't have kept going without 'em. :D

To my horror (*lol*) I have found out that several of you thought that dream Silver had in Chapter 3 was concerning rape…T__T well – I hope this chapter clears it up…cuz its not. Not! Sorry bout any confusion… J

Enjoy Chapter 8…

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Sail On Silver Girl Chapter 8

It all felt too unnerving to be true, Silver thought. Now, that everyone knew she was a woman, Silver was treated differently.  Not worse exactly, but with an air of uncertainty. Especially Jack.  He would avoid her as much as possible, giving her jobs that would not require her to be anywhere near him.  But that could also be a result of her turning him down.  'Bashed the proud Cap'n ego, I did' Silver thought, unable to feel a hint of triumph.  Even Jack Sparrow wasn't invincible.

Gibbs, with whom she'd been quite close, talking and joking around, would not utter more than a polite "'morning miss" and give her an unsure smile. The others would ignore her completely.  As if it was under their dignity to have a woman aboard helping with the chores.  Or maybe they just didn't know how to react. But did really that much change? Silver wondered.  I'm still acting the same, ain't I? She couldn't believe that this had changed so much – she had never thought Jack's crew to be shallow and had hopes of actually being accepted, but now everyone was as suspicious as at the beginning and she had to start all over again. She desperately tried to be like Anamaria who was accepted as a full crew member, as good as any man, but somehow everyone sensed that she wasn't the 'pirate' she pretended to be.  Silver smiled bitterly. How right they were.

Flashback

The little girl smiled politely, feeling awkward in her stiff dress and balancing on her tiptoes to see over the heads of the crowd.  Many had gathered today, yet why she did not know.  Most were what her father called "the commoners". Although she never got closer to one than necessary she felt that they were…different. Dressed different. Smelled different. And their houses were nothing like the one she lived in.

But she was too small to understand the importance of the difference; of why she was different. 

She strained her neck and saw a man reading off a piece of parchment, his monotonous voice booming across the towns square. At the word 'pirate' she clapped her hands playfully. She liked pirates. The stable boy at home had told her stories. Stories of freedom, adventure and endless fun. She had always listened, fascinated, until her father had put an end to it. For some odd reason, he didn't like pirates at all and had not approved of Jim's stories. The next day, Jim was gone and, to her despair, she had never seen him again.

It was only then she noticed a curiously built kind of wooden construction – she had never seen any of the sort.  A man – 'the Pirate' she thought excitedly - tied at his hands was standing before a loop of rope.  Was this some kind of game? One of the competitions her father took her to sometimes for her entertainment? She walked a couple of steps forward as the man ceased in his speech and strode over to the tied one, unceremoniously draping the rope about his neck.  This wasn't like anything she had seen before, but it seemed exiting enough and she jumped up to get a better view. Then there was a sharp *crack* and suddenly the once upright man was dangling loosely from the rope, his head twisted off at an odd angle. The crowd cheered, but she didn't understand what for.  She gazed intently at the man, waiting for him to get down and walk off.  But he didn't. She felt like running up and pinching him, urging him to get down, for it put her at unease to see him like this.  This wasn't fun. This didn't seem like a game at all!  Slowly the square emptied, leaving the girl to look even smaller and lost as she stood alone. She didn't understand. No one ever told her anything. No one was ever there for her.

A hand was placed reassuringly on her shoulder, pulling her away and she flinched as it touched the still hurting mark from a fortnight ago.  Somehow it had supposed to be special.  There had even been a banquet in her honor. But that didn't make it any better.  No one had explained. Only her maid had comforted her, pressing soothing herbs to the throbbing mark. She liked the maid. She desperately wanted to make friends with her; to at least have one friend.  But her father had scolded her: No, it wasn't possible. It wasn't right. It wasn't proper. She asked her private tutor about that word. Proper. But his explanation hadn't satisfied her. "Doing the right thing." he had said. Sometimes though, things that were proper didn't seem like the right thing to her…

Jack cleared his throat for a second time and stared down at Silver who was gazing off into the distance.  Finally she heard him and flinched, her head shooting up and her eyes meeting his. 

"Oh…sorry Captain." She apologized. "I…I'll get back to work right away."

Jack Sparrow was still staring down at those icy gray eyes of hers and didn't even acknowledge her apology. He had never seen anyone with such mysterious, beautif-

"Cap'n?" Silver awkwardly waved a hand in front of his frozen face and smiled unsurely.

"Is…everything alright?"

"Wha? Er…of course." He caught himself just in time. What was he thinking?! "er…I…uh...oh yes, right. Get back to work. That…that was it." he mumbled and Silver stared at him incredulously as he sauntered off.  What the…? She had expected him to tell her off properly like he did Anamaria, when she was dreaming around, or Gibbs when he was busy drinking from his leather flask. She didn't want any special treatment – the crew would never accept her this way.  'Aye, he was one odd man, that Captain Sparrow…' she thought. As she watched him saunter off and standing at the helm she couldn't help but staring.  His peculiar swaying walk, which would seem childish and ridiculous on most, seemed just right for him, accentuating his character, which was just as peculiar. Silver sighed.  Aye, he was not like the others.  She looked at the proud figure silhouetting against bright ocean and had to smile at the way he flung his arms around as he was talking to Gibbs. Another one of his trademarks. But not only his behaviour was different…his appearance too was…well, odd to say the least.  Nevertheless the beads in his dark locks, his braided goatee and the black kohl lining his beautiful deep brown eyes made him beautiful in a strange way…some would even call him attractive …

Silvers head shot up abruptly.  What was she thinking? Had her trail of thoughts just connected 'Jack Sparrow' with 'beautiful' and 'attractive'? 

'The Caribbean sun must be getting to my senses…' she thought and left it at that.  There was no point wasting thoughts on the invincible Captain who, she reminded herself, in addition was a pirate. And although pirates did fascinate her once, she had learned that not everything in Jim's stories had been true and that they were not the bunch to save damsels in distress. Most pirates were ruthless, unsusceptible to emotion and had only two loves: the sea and rum. And as much as she wanted to, she did not dare think that Jack was an exception…

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Was he loosing his bloody mind?? Jack cursed himself, muttering under his breath and gripped the wheel tightly.  His kohl-rimmed eyes were focused steadily on the horizon as he kept his boat – no his ship on course.  What was he thinking? Why hadn't he been able to retort in that witty way of his? Why couldn't he even form a sensible sentence? What was it about her??

'No matter what it is' he decided 'it certainly isn't anything I like.  'Tis a good thing Ambera is close. It'll do me mighty good t'get rid o' her.'

He rethought that last statement.

Well, she did work a lot, and her cooking was excellent, but – oh and the way she beat everyone in that card game was incredible, as was her help with the rips in the crew's shirts which she fixed willingly, but still…it would do much better to have her gone, because…because…

What was he going to say? There had been something…he was sure of it. Oh yes, she had turned him down. 'What?' he found himself thinking. 'That's a reason to give up one of yer best crewmembers? How many times has Anamaria turned you down, eh??' At that he rubbed his cheek and winced in remembrance. He searched his mind, but had obviously lost his train of thought and wasn't able to find any sensible reason to have her go. Or maybe he didn't want to.

Jack's eyes widened at that thought and he mentally slapped himself. He would have blamed it on the rum, hadn't he been known for the way he was able to hold his liquor. Angrily he fastened the helm with a rope to keep the ship on course and yelled for Gibbs.

"Git over here! And take the helm for once, will you? I gotta get meself some –" he stopped mid-sentence as he noticed Silver climbing the riggings on the other end of the Pearl. Her hair, no longer bound and hidden, flew freely and whipped around her face. He was going to yell at her to tie it back, for safety reasons, but it looked so …natural, so angelic, so –

Arr, what was all the poetic codswallop he was getting himself into? He certainly did not want to sound like Will, the eunuch. 

Jack hadn't noticed Gibbs approaching and jumped at his voice.

"Startin' t'fancy the gal, eh Cap'n?" he asked jokingly. His Captain's reaction caught him totally off guard.

"Shut yer hole Gibbs. I didn't ask ye nuttin'. Can't ye do something helpful fer once?" he hissed, obviously extremely irritated. Gibbs stared at him for a moment and then walked off, shaking his head.  "Can't a man even make a lil' joke…" he grumbled into his beard, but he made sure Jack couldn't hear him.

Jack was angry at himself for becoming so irritated and maddening his first mate, but was distracted when all of a sudden he heard a small scream. Looking around, he saw Silver who, it seemed, dangled freely amongst the sails.  Jack was about to rush over when he saw her small hand grab the rope.  She laughed cheerily and Jack found himself sighing in relief as he saw that she was safe. Silver caught sight of him and smiled, waving over and flipping her hair out of her face.

Jack looked away quickly. Aye, Ambera couldn't come soon enough…

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A/N: mmm…this is me being stupid again: I gotta ask y'all for some help, I JUST DON'T GET SOME OF THESE TERMS USED ON THE SITE HERE. Sorry.

Anyway, I'd be much obliged if anyone could tell me what this whole 'beta-ing' is. I don't get it :-) (Okkk, this is embarrassing…T__T… everyone else seems to know what it is…) oh but while you're at it, whatever is PWP? Don't forget I'm not a native English speaker, so don't you DARE laugh at me if this is some kinda slang thing *lol*

Ok, sorry for the rant. Mmm… Well, I hoped you liked the chapter. As always – I love reviews. You should know that by now ;-) Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter!