Consciousness returned to him slowly. The first thing Jack became aware of was that his stomach hurt. Then he recalled how he had come by that particular wound. The last he remembered was stumbling along as fast as he possibly could, and the girl that had helped him.

Gingerly, Jack raised himself onto two elbows on the couch and looked around. The house was small but surprisingly very neat and tidy. The furniture was old and worn but in great condition. Delicious supper smells wafted in from the tiny kitchen a few feet away. Hearing a rustle or maybe just checking in on her patient, the girl poked her head out of the doorway and smiled.

"Oh good, you're awake. I was about to get worried." She told him. "Supper should be ready in a couple of minutes but I don't want you to get up just yet. You don't want to aggravate that stab wound of yours."

"Thank you." Jack said sincerely. "I'm Jack." He offered his hand as she came closer. He wasn't sure yet if he wanted to introduce himself as the Captain Jack Sparrow. Jack had spread some stories about himself before setting out for the treasure. Stories like that helped insure a crew that would not sail with a young, untrained and unknown Captain wannabe.

Now though, those stories would only be his downfall, remind him that he wasn't all that he had wanted himself to be. You couldn't be a Captain without a ship and regardless of how much he enjoyed being Captain Jack Sparrow, he wanted to be anonymous for just a little while.

"Anamaria." His savior introduced herself, taking his hand in hers and seemed a little shocked when he bent foreword and placed a gentlemanly kiss onto the back of her palm.

"Tell me why those men were after you." Anamaria told him a little sternly, pulling up a chair to sit in front of Jack.

"Not much to tell." Jack shrugged. "The pirates were after me because they wanted to kill me and the navy was after me because they were alerted by the pirates yelling." He attempted to simplify the story.

"Are you a pirate?" The girl in front of him asked bluntly. Jack's eyes narrowed.

"Would it matter if I was?" He asked suspiciously. Anamaria sighed.

"No. It wouldn't matter. I would just to know who I am harboring in my home." She told him.

"Yes. I am a pirate." Jack admitted.

"Alright." Ana nodded. "Now tell me the real reason those pirates were after you. People, even pirates, don't just go on a hunting rampage for no reason." She was not going to let this go before he answered all of her questions to her satisfaction. She didn't usually take criminals into her home and she wanted to know everything about this situation before doing anything else.

Jack sighed dejectedly when he realized that she would stop at nothing less then the truth. In truth, he didn't want to talk about it. The story was still much too painful to talk about so flippantly. The betrayal had cut too deeply and the wound had not yet healed.

"My bloody first mate stole my ship and left me to die on an uninhabited island. The people that were after me now, are his friends. Wanted to finish what he started, you see." He managed to say, looking away around the room, anywhere but at her face.

Anamaria must have felt how uncomfortable he was with the subject because she nodded curtly and went into the kitchen, returning moments later with a delicious smelling plate of stew in her hand.

"I'm a fisherman by trade." She told Jack while he ate. "And I can't just not go to work whenever I don't want to because that's my livelihood. So I'm going to have to leave you here alone during the day while I go fish. No one comes here. They know that I don't like it when people come into my house uninvited so you'll be safe here alone. Just don't go outside or near the windows."

"Thank you." Jack inclined his head to her. "I'm really grateful for you saving me like that. Didn't want to get killed yet." He grinned at her. Anamaria found herself grinning back at Jack without really knowing why. His smile seemed to be contagious.

Then she sat back and watched Jack eat. Now that he was awake, there was an almost visible aura of power and charisma emanating from the man. He no longer looked as young as he had when he was unconscious. Instead he looked ready for anything. He also didn't seem to mind that his savior was staring at him pointedly and unashamedly. Instead he looked up from his finished meal and grinned at her again.

"You should rest." Anamaria told him, standing up and taking his plate for him, turning to go back to the kitchen.

"Sure." Jack agreed easily, lying back down onto the couch. He knew that he wasn't completely well and he would have to be if he ever wanted to get out of this situation alive. "Don't suppose you have any rum?" He tried. It never hurt to try, he decided.

"Pirates!" Anamaria muttered as she changed direction and poured some rum into a small glass. "I've got rum. You are not getting a lot though." She warned him.

"No problem. Thank you." Jack happily accepted the small glass that she handed him. He didn't drink a lot anyways, only wanted enough to enjoy the taste and help him sleep better.

Anamaria stared in shock at the pirate on her couch. She had helped him out and here he was lounging around asking her for things. And she also found that it was absolutely impossible to stay mad at him. It was akin to staying mad at someone who had no idea what it was that he had done that merited being mad at.

She hadn't had the privilege of knowing that many pirates in her life although one particularly stupid one had once decided that it would be a good idea to rob her small fishing boat. She was a little less then happy.

Nevertheless, in all her dealings with them and in all of the stories that she had ever heard about them, pirates were not happy and polite. They were loud, unpleasant, dangerous, perpetually angry and always drunk.

This man… this Jack defied all of the stereotypes. He was polite and agreeable and surprisingly didn't kill her when she didn't offer him more rum then she did. Looking at him now, he grinned disarmingly again and she got the strongest impression that he enjoyed being what people didn't expect him to be.

Shaking her head at the enigma of Jack, Anamaria left to go eat her own supper.

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Author's note: Hello to my faithful readers. I'm so sorry that this took such a long time. I ran into a pesky little writer's block. It decided that it really liked itself in the path of this story. Hopefully, it'll decide to move soon. 8-)

cal - hey, I'm so glad u liked. Let's see what happens after I remove this writer's block. And yes, her food is edible. lol.

J.L. Dexter- thank you, I am so glad that you liked it. It's scary when ppl say it like that, all the things that they like and then I hope and pray not to dissapoint them in the next chapter. lol. what did u think of this one? 8-)

Flute Damioh- Wow, you don't like Anamaria! oh dear. I'm so glad that u like my story anyways. thanx for the title suggestion, that might work very well. unfortunetly for all good suggestions, my own has kind of grown on me so I think it'll stay. lol. thank you so much though for responding! I hope that you'll like the rest.

kungfuchick- no, there probably aren't - enough good j/a stories out there. i hope that this'll be one. definitly happy u like.

Sue - Thank you! more development coming right up!

AyaTheBold- thank you, i feel so special! don't worry, more romance forecasted in the future. enjoy reading!

As usual, Please, please, please review!