A/N: Curses, it's been a long time! I bet you thought I'd retired, didn't ye? Well, I am very sorry for being, like, two months late. I've just been terribly busy lately, but now I'm on spring break! So if you're back here to continue reading the tale, I applaud you for your patience and loyalty….and good taste! And if you are a new reader, I welcome you with all of my heart. Viva El Caribe—live, the Caribbean dónde estámos—where are we tortugasturtles

Terradaina: You are great, you've been here from the beginning and I hope you haven't given up on me. I'm so glad you love the tale and that you're feelin it!

Orlando's Hot Chick: Hi, Keri! -lol- Yes, I know you must hate me for that cliffhanger, but it's not like I'm the one who decided what happened to the gang—history writes itself, you know!

Chewy518: -hehe- Thanks, Chewy! And maybe you'll start to like Alisa a little bit more? I have FINALLY updated! You were right about the time frame.

oocssuck: What does your penname mean? Just curious. And yes, dearie, you must wait and see on everything -hehe-. I'm very flattered that you like the tale so much, and I'm so sorry that I have made you wait -another- year for this next installment!

Viva El Caribe—live, the Caribbean; dónde estámos—where are we; tortugas are turtles.

Chapter 13: Viva, El Caribe!

"Jack, are you sure that we're doing the right thing?" Elizabeth asked as the three of them took long, confident strides through the JFK airport in New York City. Anamaria, Jack, and Liz were walking through the airport as if they owned the place, but Liz had doubts. I thought Jack was rich…why can't we just pay for tickets? Jack didn't hear Liz, which was a good thing, because he would've drawn unnecessary attention to the trio by ranting and raving about how he was the captain, etc, etc, etc.

"Elizabeth, honey, don't doubt him," Ana whispered as they walked. "He may be crazy sometimes, but he knows what he's doing." Liz nodded, a little comforted by Ana's confidence, but still nervous about what they were going to do. When they reached a brown door marked 'PRIVATE', they slowed down. The airport was so crowded and so busy that no one, not even security guards, were paying them any mind. Ana pulled out a credit card and smoothly slid it between the door frame next to the doorknob.

"Hey, what do you think you're doin'!" The police officer was Jack's height, plump and brown haired. He had a large coffee stain on his uniform shirt and his badge looked a bit…dull.

"Sir, I could ask you the exact same thing," Jack said, poking a finger on the man's chest and swaying a bit too close to his face. The officer cringed and backed up.

"Now, look here. If I see three civilians like yourselves trying to go into a private area, it's my job to stop you!" he said as his face got red and his chest puffed up with authoritative pride.

Jack's lips had twitched into a smirk at the 'private area' part, but he kept himself on the task at hand. "You are absolutely right, oh honorable sir. But…since I am just a lowly civilian and you are an exalted police officer, I think it is my duty to tell you if I see three young men such as those three over there, hassling an old woman for her purse." The officer looked skeptical but he turned around anyway, to see three young men who were, in fact, taunting and tugging at an old woman and her purse.

"Maurice! Get over there now!" he yelled to a security guard who was leaning against a wall, obviously daydreaming. Maurice started in surprise, yelled a 'Yes, SIR!' and quickly ran over to take care of the situation. When the officer turned back around, only Jack was there. "Heyyyy….where'd the two ladies go!" he asked while his hand moved toward his nightstick.

"Now, now, officer, I don't think you'll be needin' that just yet," Jack said and he held his hands up to put some space between them.

"If you don't tell me where your friends went, I think I will be needin' it!" The police officer was getting very worked up and his voice had raised to draw a bit of a crowd to them. Maurice rushed over.

"Sir, the situation has been taken care of, do you request my assistance in this one?" he asked eagerly. Obviously a newbie, thought Jack. This is gonna be as easy as drinkin' rum.

"Eh, Maurice, there isn't really a situation, lad. You see, my lady friends just went to go hijack a plane." There were murmurs in the crowd and the officers looked at each other in disbelief.

"Oh really? And I suppose you're here to blow the airport up while you're at it?" the officer asked with a self-assured smirk.

"Sir, I think he's telling the truth…" Maurice whispered, but everyone heard. The crowd just stared; they were being entertained for free in a city where money isn't abundant enough!

"Maurice, there is somethin' you need to learn about this job. When criminals want their way, they lie. This man wants somethin' and it's not a plane. He's lyin'. If it were the truth, he wouldn't have told us." Jack rolled his eyes and then feigned a look of shock.

"Gentlemen, I hate to interrupt, but, oh my land, I think it's a grenade!" Jack exclaimed with a pointed finger to a spot just a few feet away. While they had been talking, he had pulled one of Liz's grenades out of his pocket and gently slid across the floor. The people had seen this and started whispering to each other, but didn't really react until he explained what the sliding object was. People began to scream and scatter in all directions, some yelling 'BOMB!' others yelling 'GRENADE!'. With the crowd rushing all around him and the officer and security guard easily distracted, he pushed open the door that Maria had left unlocked and slipped through with a 'Later, mates!' and tip of his hat.

He ran up the long flight of stairs and found himself in some sort of employee lounge. It was empty and Jack looked around, confused. Now where could they have gone? There was only one other door, so Jack went over to it and as he reached for the knob, he saw something peculiar. Is that to me? There was tiny writing in black sharpie marker by the knob. He knelt down and squinted his eyes to read: We're on flight 239 at terminal C- Ana Baby. He grinned—Yesss!, clicked his heels in the air, and then calmly left the lounge, walked over to terminal C and boarded the plane.

Liz greeted him with a punch in the stomach. Jack frowned down at her.

"Lass, was that necessary? Really, now, tell me that."

"Yes, it was! These people are going out of their minds and Anamaria is getting tired of waving that gun around. You couldn't have gotten here faster!" she hissed at him angrily. Jack looked around; all of the passengers (there were only about 25) were sitting in their seats calmly, reading magazines or talking to each other. Liz rolled her eyes. "Not these people, the flight attendants! The pilot and copilot! Maria has them all in the cockpit behind those curtains," she explained. Jack nodded and began to make his way down the aisles to the cockpit. When he slipped through the blue curtains, he saw Anamaria in the pilot chair holding a shotgun at her side; she was facing the flight crew whom she had sitting down in a row against the other wall. She sighed with relief when she saw him and held the gun out for him to take.

"No, I don't need it. Give it to Liz if you want," he replied as he patted his waist. They both knew that his cutlass was hidden there, safe and sound. "Now," he began as he turned toward the attendants, "if you cooperate, there will be no killins today. My dear has disconnected all radios so don't even think about trying to communicate with anyone…she has also taken all of your weaponry, I see," he said approvingly as he saw the small pile of handguns on the floor at the other side of the room. "You!" he pointed to the man who was obviously the copilot. "Take a seat here and do your thing. We'll be headin' to a little place that I like to call latitude 5 52' north and longitude 55' 14 west," he said to the pilot. "By the way, what is your name, lad?"

The seated pilot stammered out a shaky, "My name is Vernon, sir."

"Eh, don't call me that. Call me Captain!" Vernon nodded and the plane began to take off.

A few minutes later, Jack had taken off his casual attire to don a pilot's uniform. He left the cockpit along with Liz to address the passengers; he tried hard to abandon his pirate talk, much to Liz's amusement.

"Oy-er, hello, passengers! I'll be your pilot's assistant today. My name is Captain—er, I mean Jack, just Jack and you can come to me if you have any questions," he boomed out over the talking of the adults and laughter of the children. No one paid much attention to him, but a few nodded to let him know that he was heard. As Jack was looking around at the passengers, he started at the feel of tugging on his pant leg. He looked down to see a little girl about age five looking up at him with big gray eyes.

"I have a question," she said in perfectly grown up English. The corner of his mouth turned up in tiny smile; he was pleased that someone was going to pay him mind. Kneeling down to her eye level he asked, "And what would that be, bon—er, little girl?"

"My name is Julia. And I'm not a little girl." She paused, her eyebrows scrunched in defiance as Jack barely held back a laugh.

"My deepest apologies, Julia. Now what was the question?" She wiggled her little pointer finger to say 'come closer' and he leaned his ear to her mouth. She cupped her hands around his ear and whispered her question.

"Are you a pirate?" She took a tiny baby step back so that she could look into his eyes again. He stared at her, not in surprise, but in confusion. Liz looked on, wondering what the girl had asked. Julia waited patiently for an answer and Jack smiled.

"Well, maybe I am! What is it to you?"

"I always wanted to meet a real pirate! I find them intercepting!" Liz giggled at the girl's mispronunciation, even though she was still confused about why she was talking about pirates. We're all in regular clothing. Jack's accent must be obvious after all.

"Well, me bonnie lass, yer lookin' at one! I'm a pirate pilot, if I ever knew one," he said, deliberately exaggerating his accent for Julia's benefit. Julia smiled a huge pearly grin of absolute delight and her pigtails bounced around as she hopped back to her seat.

He watched her intently as she hopped and wondered, Is it something that I just can't hide? Well, I hope she doesn't tell anyone else.

"Hello, earth to Sparrow! I have some things to discuss with you!" Liz brought him out of his thoughts. He stood up again. "Ok. First of all, where the hell are we going!" she whispered as she pulled him further away from the passengers.

"Nothin' sayin' till we get there, Luv. Better yet, not till we leave."

"Fine. But why didn't we just buy a plane ticket! Why are you putting me through this?" He frowned deeply at her, and she felt her heart quicken in sudden fright.

"Elizabeth. How do the rich stay rich?"

"They don't spend anything."

"Close. They steal. And we're stealing this plane because we have places to be if we're going to save Turner." She nodded and decided to hold off on her other questions.

During the next few hours, the three of them traded off cockpit guard position and passenger patrol. As Jack Sparrow looked out of the window over the bright blue ocean waters, he began to get excited. We're going to be home in a matter of hours, he thought to himself. America was so stuffy to him. Sure, Americans knew how to have fun, but not like Haitians! He missed home terribly, but now they were going back.

"Alright, ladies and gentleman, we are nearing our destination," he announced and this time everyone was eyes and ears. People were looking out of their windows and starting to murmur in confusion to one another. All they saw was ocean and forest.

"Hey, man, this isn't Cuba!"

"Where the hell are we!"

"¿Dónde estámos?"

"Hey, hey, hey! Everyone just calm down and no one will get hurt!" Jack was getting tired of people raising their voices to him. The people hushed up as Anamaria pulled out her gun and stepped forward menacingly. Flight 239 was rapidly approaching a nearly deserted coastal area filled with trees and sand. "Now, everyone just stay seated until I give further directions." A lady began to cry silently in the back of the plane and the kids began to grip their parents in fear; all of the kids except for Julia. She walked right up to Jack as her mother cried out in terror. Hmm, she could come in handy, Sparrow thought to himself as he watched her come toward him.

"Julia, no!" the mother screamed. Jack swooped Julia up into his arms and everyone gasped in fright. The plane bumped as it touched the sand and the windows began to be splattered with the ivory granules. When the plane stopped sliding, Liz began to set up the portable exit ramp and slide everyone's belongings out of the plane. Holding Julia in his arms, Jack leaned out of the exit door. He grinned.

"Gibbs! Good to see ya! And I'm glad you brought everyone else along, too!" Gibbs waved and yelled an "Aye, Cap'n!" up to him. When all of the luggage was out, Jack's crew began to climb up a rope ladder one by one.

"Now, for all of you passengers. Do what I say and little Julia won't get hurt. Men will slid down this ramp first and then I will send down the women and children. Now go!" The men hurriedly slid down the ramp and the women and children carefully followed. Then Jack directed the pilot and stewardesses out and set Julia carefully down in front of him.

"That man called you Captain. I knew you were a pirate!" she said after pointing at Gibbs. He laughed.

"I told you so myself. Now go on down the ramp to your mommy. She's actin' like she just caught the rickets, for Crockett's sake," he said while raising an eyebrow at the woman in the sand who was now hysterically crying and shaking and wailing 'Not my baby! My baby!'. Damn, woman, I wouldn't hurt her! She's cute as Tortugas! And smart, too. He glanced at Anamaria with this thought, but then Julia spoke again.

"But where are we?"

"Welcome to Paramaribo, Suriname, Sudamérica," he said slowly, knowing she would tell the rest as soon as she got off of the ramp. She repeated it and nodded; before she slid down the ramp, she kissed him on the cheek.

"I'm glad I finally met a pirate!" she said with a grin. Jack gave a little nod and grunt, trying not to show more softness, afraid that he might get a tear in his eye at the emotion the girl struck in him. She finally slid down the ramp and then returned to the arms of her mother. Jack pulled the ramp and rope ladder back into the plane and shut the door. Maria walked over to him.

"Jack, is something the matter?" she asked as she placed her hand on his arm. He wouldn't look at her, he just cleared his throat.

"Nay, luv. Now take us home, Gibbs!"

"Aye, Captain, to Tortuga Island we go!"

A/N: Well, there we have it. Chapter 13. I hope you enjoyed it and again I apologize for the long wait. I have promised from the beginning that if I receive feedback, I will update. I never break a promise even if it does take me awhile to fulfill it! You know what to do.