'P' IS FOR PIRATE
By : mirkwood-elf-2931 & Thala

CHAPTER 13

Tortuga had to be the loudest town either had ever set foot in, where there was shouting from those drinking and brawling and shooting off their guns, it was everywhere. Both had only been there once before, and it had been enough, but neither knew of any place else that was filled only with people who knew about ships and wouldn't mind a lot of travel.

It had to be one of the most violent of all places as well, they decided, and luckily Will had snuck aboard their hidden weapons before they had to go.

"Well, as quartermaster, you get to hire the crew. Ask the bartender at the Faithful Bride tavern, he'll tell you if there's anyone looking or not. And try to find decent people, we don't need anyone committing mutiny..."

Jenny couldn't disagree there, nodding to her acceptance of duty. "Aye, seems we've lost enough already. See ye later."

And two hours later, Jenny came back to the ship.

"Ten already?" Charity was amazed and glad to hear.

"Aye, I suspect it shall be all we need, eh? The Drifter after all is only a merchant ship."

Charity nodded. "Indeed, good work on your first order. When then shall I meet these lasses?"

"Tomorrow night at the tavern if ye like, I'll round'im up. And by the way, there's one lad in the group and since I picked'im out, yer appointin' their duties."

She smiled briefly and shrugged. "Fine by me. And please, do tell them to come."

The next night, Jenny went to the tavern early to make sure everyone had shown up, they had and Charity soon arrived to find them all around a large table in a back corner.

"Ah, Captain! May I present to ye; Valerie Evans, Samantha Aidan, Cassandra Delgado, Mary Daniels, Taylor Johnson, Morgan Kane, Nicole Thatcher, Lucas Cross, Jacqueline Cervantes and Natasha Holden."

Charity nodded courteously to them, taking a seat next to Jenny. "Well, first things first, I expect most of you to know what you're doing when aboard a ship. If you don't have quite enough experience yet, you can learn from us or anyone else who does."

They all nodded, but most of them said they'd all had a lot of experience, ships being the only means of transportation to Jamaica and most of them were happy to say they didn't live on this particular island.

"This here, is the best friend I've ever had!" Jenny said, slapping their captain on the back. "Ah, and did I tell ya, she was once a part of the crew of the Black Pearl?"

The one called Morgan nearly spit out her beverage. "The Black Pearl!"

"That'd be the one!" Said Jenny, as the circle of the new members could only stare in awe at her, even Lucas.

"I've heard so many stories from my father. What was it like?" Asked a girl with hair just as long and red as Jenny's, only darker with no curls; her name was Valerie, and apparently she was Scottish.

"I really would rather not talk of it." She stared hard at Jenny for letting this news, her personal business, out in front of young strangers.

"Come on! We're yer crew now, we all have to get to know one another! We deserve to know what kind of captain we're going to be loyal enough to take orders from, right?" Piped up the only woman with deep brown skin, her name being Jacqueline.

Of course the rest agreed strongly with her, until Charity was forced to calm them with her own agreement to tell of her endurance.

She raised a hand to silence them, taking another drink of her ale. "Alright," She set her tankard down, explaining as fast as possible with little detail. "When I was six, the town I lived in was raided by the crew of the Black Pearl. My house was broken into, my parents killed, and it was then they found me and took me with them. I was aboard the ship with Jack Sparrow as captain only five years, then he was left behind on an island, as I'm sure you all know the story..." Seeing their nods all around, she continued in her lowered voice. "Well, he's alive. Anyway, Bootstrap Bill Turner was a friend of mine, the only true one I had; he helped me escape before the curse was laid and after that I was not proud that I had to keep stealing to survive. At fifteen, I got a job in legal trading in a town called Lively in Jamaica. Only recently, I left that job, where I also was given my ship, for maid's work in the Governor's mansion in Port Royal to be closer to my new friends. There, I met Jenny, who was also working as a maid, but just two weeks ago we were found out, accused of being pirates and banned from the town entirely. We weren't sure where to go after that, but soon realized that coming here we would easily find a crew to manage the ship." She finished, leaving out the fact that she had now become what she had tried so hard to stay away from; she had been officially branded a class of lower life.

"Wow, that is some past you have." Said a woman her height, wearing a knee-long black coat with red trim and speaking in a slight Spanish accent. Her name, Cassandra.

"Yes, well, I believe it's time to turn in. Meet back here tomorrow night?"

Everyone agreed good naturedly, bidding each other a good night and leaving the tavern in one big group.

"Iron? Hey, sorry 'bout that back there." Jenny had to run to catch up with Charity on their way back to the Drifter.

The slightly younger woman shook her head. "No harm done. They did need to know how we came to be here asking them to join us."

Jenny smiled. "So, who do ye think should be the first mate?"

"Well, I think I'm leaning towards Samantha. She seemed to me like the trust worthy type, besides being quiet and not so demanding like everyone else. But we'll see; we have to get to know them first, like Jacqueline said."

Many more nights were spent at the Faithful Bride, each of the ten sharing their pasts with the eleven other strangers around their table. Slowly, but surely, they were getting to know one another for the long days they would be spending working together at sea.

On the last night, at midnight, most of them agreed that they were tired, but turned their attention to the captain's voice as she spoke.

"Meet us tomorrow at noon on the docks, my ship is called the Drifter. I'll appoint you each positions and we can set a date to leave."

Squinting their eyes against the sun, the ten, nine women and one man, all stood one after another down the wooden walkway in the harbor.

Down the line Charity went, getting their full names once more and asking what they preferred to be known as. By she and Jenny, all would be called by their last names when giving orders, but to the other members usually everyone called each other by their first names or a nickname.

"Alright, let's see if my memory proves my young age. I will appoint you each either one or two duties, depending, that you will be in charge of at all times. First off, Aidan, I've thought hard on this since the first night I met you all, and have decided that you will be the first mate."

Samantha, pale skinned, with short black hair that hung just a few inches below her ears, stood tall and proud near the middle of the line. She had not expected at all to be elected this high position, but she felt honored to have it nonetheless.

Charity caught her smile and moved on. "Delgado," It was the Spanish girl, that even in the warm sun still wore her long black and red coat. "You will be our ambassador and intelligence specialist; in other words, our envoy and spy. Evans, I see you have a spyglass handy, hope you're not afraid of heights, for you will be our lookout and scout. Thatcher, I remember you saying you had traveled much throughout your life."

The dark brown haired woman named Nicole, nodded once.

"You're our navigator then, and will work with Cervantes, who will be the helmsman. Does anyone have familiarity with fixing and repairing?"

"I do." A shorter brown locked girl, Natasha, stepped forward.

"Okay, Holden, you are the rigger and carpenter."

The woman accepted gladly and returned to her place.

"Johnson, you have the pleasure of maintaining the hull as its technician. Daniels and Kane, both of you will keep the ship clean and cook the food for the crew." She had noticed that Mary carried no weapons and Morgan carried only a small knife at her hip. Both were shorter than the rest and if anything else looked more innocent and wary. "And you Mr. Cross, at last, will be our gunner." It joyed her to see a bright spark of happiness in his eyes. "Is everyone happy then?"

Every person smiled and not a one protested against their 'new future'.

"I'm glad to see I made the right choices."

"Iron!"

All looked to their right to see Jenny rush down the gangplank of the ship and turn onto the docks.

"She, by the way, is the quartermaster." Charity quickly explained. "You will take orders from her as well as me, and when neither of us is present, your orders will be taken from Aidan."

"Iron?" Asked Nicole, as if she hadn't heard what was just said of Jenny and only pondered on the strange name.

Everyone seemed as curious as she, now all plainly staring at their superior.

Charity sighed very quietly. "My nickname on the Pearl." She turned to her companion just as the woman came up beside her. "What is it, Jenny?"

"The Pearl, I saw her comin' around those cliffs in the south!"

She raised her brows. "I wonder if Jack's heard..."

"The Black Pearl! We get to see it!" An excited Natasha elbowed her friend Taylor, as the two giggled like younger teenagers than what they were.

"Look!" Nicole suddenly pointed out to the water around a line of docked ships. "Quatermaster's right! It's comin' here!"

"Well, it's not exactly like my father described it..." Said Valerie. "Black sails to match the color of the wood, to match the heart of its captain."

"No, she doesn't have her black sails anymore," But at one time, Charity could have only agreed. Barbossa had been basically kind to her while her stay on the ship lasted, but when he and the crew decided to leave Jack, she and even Bootstrap could see it had been a facade the whole time. "Because she's got her old captain back and a new crew. Barbossa and his bunch are long gone."

"And what about his heart?" Wondered Cassandra.

"Who, Jack?" Charty cocked her head to the side, considering this. "I suppose I can vouch for him. Let's just say he can be caring and helpful when he wants to be."

Jenny snorted, putting her hands on her hips, while her friend only grinned.

While most of Jack's crew were docking, he and some others were already heading for the nearest tavern, when they saw another slightly larger group coming forth, and lead by two he recognized.

"Well, if it isn't Roberts...and Kidd! What in the Spanish Main are you doin' here again?"

"Oh, Jack, you haven't heard?" Charity feigned surprise and wonder.

He shook his head. "Heard what?"

"We're pirates, of course! A crew!" She spread out her arms to show her newly inducted members that came up slowly behind with huge eyes that watched Jack closely.

He looked them over, squinting his own dark eyes. "Come on, you're only kiddin' with me, eh?"

Charity raised her brows and held out her right arm, pulling up the puffy white sleeve. "I kid you not, Captain Sparrow. As of two weeks ago, Jenny and I were banned from Port Royal on penalty of death."

Indeed, Jack couldn't believe his eyes. A small 'P' was scarred into the skin in the middle of the inside of her forearm, just like his.

Not having seen it before, all pairs of eyes in her entire crew widened even more at the sight of it. None of them were true pirates just yet and never received the symbol. They were all young and in awe of these two women, admiring their ways. Even though the new ten were practically all the same ages, anywhere from seventeen to twenty-one, the pair seemed much older having seen so much more action in their lives and having traveled to many different places.

The rugged pirate was utterly astounded, actually stuttering out his question. "H-h-how were you found out!"

"It seemed someone...most likely Naval officers were keeping tabs on us each time we went out of the mansion. Perhaps we looked suspicious in town and were reported, or maybe after seeing we carried weapons someone thought we were working there planning to eventually rob or murder Governor Swann." She paused and shook her head. "We don't even know, they never would tell us. They took us, without a word, up to Fort Charles and Jenny's own brand was found, so I too was given one to match. Elizabeth tried talking to her father first, but he wouldn't listen. So she pleaded with Norrington to go easy on us, and we were only 'lucky' to be banished, instead of hanged."

Jack couldn't even say anything. Closing his gaping mouth, he stared into Charity's eyes, appearing to say he was sorry to hear this news through them.

"Don't look at me like that, Jack. You're not sorry. I don't think you're capable of such a thing." With that, she turned her back and the group waiting behind parted to let her through.

For a short moment after, the young crew looked around nervously, then they began to depart after their captain.

Back near her ship, Charity turned abruptly to her followers with instructions. "I want you all to gather anything and everything in supplies you can. I think we shall set sail in the morning."

To this, everyone seemed to agree.

"Where are we heading, Captain?" Asked Mary timidly, taking careful notice of her being upset. She, nor any of the rest wanted to get on her bad side, whatever it may be like, they certainly didn't want to find out.

"Wherever the wind takes us, because I for one am not staying in this so called town any longer than I have to."

TBC ...

mirkwood-elf-2931 :
Well, my character is a captain again! LOL Oh well, my Landailyn character in Lord of the Rings isn't a captain anymore in my new fic 'A Knife In The Dark'.
Sorry this wasn't out sooner again! Summer just has too much to do in it, with swimming and yard games and everything, so I'm just too tired to write at nights! And then I'm going on vacation here in another week, and I'll have even more to do there and probably be twice as tired...but I'm taking a notebook with me and my brother has his laptop too, so maybe I'll get a few chances to write on my fics!