A/N: Any character or theme or name and anything else from the movie I DO NOT OWN. The plot for this story I do own, as well as Veriea and the species Forenien. These two are my creatations and mine alone so NO TOUCHIE! If anyone rips off my character or species I will send the real Veriea after them; she may not be a blood hound but she will still find you.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Thank you to InTooDepp for reviewing! This chapter is for you!

Enjoy the story ; P

Pronouncation:

Veriea: Verr-ree-a(i)

Chapter 3 – Puppy-dog Eyes.

"Hold on, hold on." Jack held up one hand. "You honestly expect me to believe that that you're from the future?"

"Well, I wouldn't believe it myself if I hadn't already had stranger things happen to me and it could be I've come from another dimension or even another planet but at the moment the future is the most likely. The main thing is, I'm here now and I don't plan on going back."

"You better not be thinkin' you're stayin' here."

"Why not? I'm an outcast, perfect for becoming a pirate. Think of all the people I could scare for you and foxes make good thieves and I'm really fast and I've already showed you that I'm strong." She argued.

"You don't know anything about sailing. Savvy?" Jack pointed out. As interested as he was in this strange woman, he wasn't about to be saddled with another sob case like Will and Elizabeth; he'd only just gotten rid of them.

"Actually, when I still had a father, I went out sailing with him in his boat. I can tie a lot of useful knots and I know how to trim a sail. Anything else, well, I'm a fast learner." She countered.

"You're a girl." He said, desperate to find anything, though he knew Anamaria would probably castrate him if she knew he had just said that.

"You already have a female onboard." She grinned smugly.

"How the bloody Hell did you know that!"

"Even in this form I have better senses than normal people, so I can smell her."

"Well, what if we got into a scrum, how would you defend yourself? I seem to recall you saying you was being caught by dogs." He was scraping the bottom of the barrel now; she had given some pretty darn good answers and he had to admit, she did sound like a good candidate for a pirate.

"Hunting dogs," She growled angrily, "Tend to have masters with really big guns and because I have a will to live I didn't fancy getting a bullet between my eyes, or anywhere else for that matter, and that meant running. It takes time for me to change so I couldn't do that while I was running and when I'm physically caught I can't change either so once the dogs had a hold of me, I was royally screwed. Forgive me for having flaws." She finished sarcastically.

"Well if you're such a tough girl, why were you afraid of me?"

She thought for a moment how best to explain this and changed back into a fox.

"What do you see when you look at me?"

"A big talking fox-thing?" He took a stab at it.

"Exactly. To most humans, I'm just a creature, not a person. Where and when I came from, people would turn me over to scientist and the authorities from the government (she noticed that Jack twitched a little at the word 'authorities') and they wouldn't care that I'm still a living, intelligent thing. To them I would just be a specimen to study and they would do horrible tests and other things to me the rest of my life and even after."

She slid to the floor, curling her tail around her feet and looked up at him with her big, sad green eyes. "You're a pirate, you have to know what it's like to be on the run for most of your life, to crave to be able to do what you want, go where you want, to have freedom. That's all I want, my chance at having freedom."

Jack looked down at her and sighed.

She had said, more or less, the same thing he'd said to the captain of the first ship he'd ever been on as part of the pirate crew. How could say no to that? It was like saying no to himself. And she was doing the puppy-dog eyes. He couldn't say no to both.

"Ah, fine, welcome aboard." He mumbled.

"You mean it." She asked, her ears pricking up again.

"Yes, yes. God I'm becoming such a sap these- AHH!" He was cut short as she pounced on him and licked his face.

"Thankyouthankyouthankyou! You won't regret it!"

"I'm beginning too…" He grumbled. "Get off me!" He tried to push her off.

"I bet you wouldn't have minded if I'd been in my human form…" She sulked, moving away.

"That an offer?" He asked, half sarcastic, half hopeful.

"No." She growled. "What are you, like, forty-five?"

"Only thirty-four." His turn to growl.

"Well if all the female scents on you are anything to go by, that's still old enough to be my father." She giggled.

"Don't push the pirate luv, I'm the one helping you out remember."

"True." She said, offering a paw to help him up. "One day when you need it, I'll help you."

She pulled him up and he brushed himself down, eyeing her thoughtfully.

"Well, change back into a girl and I'll introduce you to the rest of the crew. It'll be better if they dun know about the fox bit so if you just stay human…"

He trailed off as he saw the look on her face. Nervous and apprehensive with a secret to tell. "I ain't gonna like this, am I?"

- End Ch3.

Hehe, another cliffhanger. I'm evil, I know. Hope you liked it! Please R&R!