Jessica walked up on deck the next morning, yawning as she glanced about. She shivered softly, pulling her black jacket closer around her. "Brr... it's cold," she muttered. Ryan stepped up beside her.

"How often have you been out here?" he said, glancing at her. "It isn't that hard to find out."

Jessica grinned. "Not that often. I've been meaning to come up, but just haven't had the chance." She glanced at the sails. "Are we allowed to go aloft?"

Ryan shrugged. "Don't know. Meant to ask, but never really did..." he grinned. "wanna see? I can ask bonden..." Jessica nodded.

"That would be nice." The offer sank in. "You know Bonden?"

Ryan glanced down at her. "Heck ya. He gave a bunch of the lessons. He really is friendly."

Jessica smirked. "I bet Heidi would like to know that." She laughed softly. Ryan shook his head, then walked over to Bonden, who was standing by the wheel. He said something, pointing up at the sails, then at him and Jessica. Bonden grinned and nodded, then pointed out something. Ryan nodded, then came back.

"All right, we're allowed up. But only through a certain way that they call the-"

"Lubber's hole. I know."

Ryan glanced over at her. "How?'

Jessica smirked. "I read the books." She started towards the ropes, leaving Ryan behind.

"Books? What books?" he said, then started after her. Jessica turned and smirked as she took hold on some of the ropes.

"Yeah, see, if you were more in tune with the book world, you'd know a lot about Aubrey and Maturin that they don't come close to saying in the movie." She started up the ropes, choosing her path carefully.

"Like what?" Ryan came after her, making sure to step directly where she had been.

"Like..." she waited until they climbed past some crew members. "Like the fact that Stephen is actually an intelligence officer for the British. And that Jack got a sloth drunk, once." Jessica smirked. "That was hilarious..." She came up to the wooden plank, and squeezed through it, coming onto the platform. "Ah, here we are."

Ryan popped through, coming up to stand by Jessica. "A sloth? Drunk? Is that even possible?" He blinked, thinking. "And what would a sloth be doing on a ship, anyways?"

Jessica chuckled. "Well, the Doctor went ashore to get some supplies, and came back with a sloth. The sloth didn't really like Jack, and Jack's pretty friendly to animals, so he was kind of, um, offended. He tried various ways to get the sloth to like him, and finally ended up giving him a piece of bread dipped in grog. So-"

"Grog?"

"Oh, sorry. Grog is rum, beer. Spirits, in any manner... Anyways, the sloth liked the grog, and started to drink it straight out of a bowl. When Stephen realized what had happened, he was furious." Jessica smirked, smiling at the memory.

"What happened to the sloth?"

"Hm? Oh, strangest thing... O'Brian never really said. He just said that they had a big fight, but then the sloth wasn't mentioned again. I figure he died off, I guess..."

Ryan shook his head. "That's crazy. A sloth?"

"There's also been a tortoise on board. A Testudo Aubreii, if I remember right. Stephen discovered it..."

Ryan snorted. "What, did Jack get the tortoise drunk, too?"

Jessica rolled her eyes. "Hardly. But-" She was interrupted by a call from one of the sailors aloft, who called out. "Ship three points to starboard bow!" Jessica glanced in the direction, and spotted some white on the horizon. Ryan tapped her shoulder.

"Um, which way is starboard?"

Jessica snorted. "Right. And larboard is left. Port is also left. Don't know why they have two words for left."

"Great. Now I have two 'arboards' to remember." Jessica rolled her eyes.

"It really isn't that hard to remember. See, just remember left has two words, and that larboard starts with 'l', which is what 'left' also starts with. And then port is one of the two, because there aren't two 'arboards' for left. Go it?"

Ryan stared down at her. "I think I'll just stick with asking whoever is around..."

jessica rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Come on, let's go back down, I have a feeling this place is gonna be busy..." She climbed back down, landing on the deck with a small thud. She glanced up at Ryan, who was still making his way down, v e r y s l o w l y. Jessica blinked, sighing. "Come on, just go down the ropes like you would on a ladder. It's not that hard." She was somewhat aware of the crew watching her, and shifted uncomfortably. "I'm gonna go down to the cabin, so... meet me there when you get down, k?"

Ryan glanced down at her. "Alright!" Jessica nodded, then went down the hatches, mumbling to herself. She walked into the cabin, noticing for the first time the cello and violin case. She took off her sweater, then passed through the curtain into her sleeping quarters.

"Hey, Heidi!" she yelled. Heidi was listening to her MP3 player, which she usually cranked to full blast. HEr head came up and she stopped it, smiling at Jessica.

"Hi! Where ere you? I woke up and you were gone." Jessica smiled tiredly.

"Aloft."

"Huh?"

"I was aloft. Up in the masts?" heidi nodded.

"Oh... How was it?"

"Nice. Lots of air up there. And there's a ship coming. Don't know who, though. And not any land I could see for a while. Don't know how we're going to get to it."

Heidi sighed. "Well, just as long as it isn't the Acheron..." She turned her music back on again, humming the tune of 'Complicated'. Jessica smiled and shook her head, then sat on her own hammock, swaying to the motion of the ship.

"It's so different," she muttered, knowing that heidi couldn't hear her. "the people, the way they adress each other. Mr. Blakeney and Mr. Pullings. Why not just William and Tom?" She sighed, turning on her own MP3 player. She took out a piece of gum she had found in the pocket of her sweater- must have been transfered, maybe Timmy was wrong about the food- and began chewing on it, thinking about what was going to happen. She closed her eyes as she relaxed, then realized after a while that Ryan still hadn't come down. She sat up and put her player away, still chewing the gum. "Heidi, I'm gonna go up, okay?" she yelled.

Heidi nodded and continued listening to her music. Jessica rolled her eyes and pulled her sweater back on, then trudged up out of the hatch onto the deck. She struggled to stifle a laugh when she saw the scene. Ryan was dripping wet, and being looked over by Stephen. She stepped over, a quizical look in her eye. "Ryan, what happened?"

Ryan glowered. "I fell off. Into the water. I told them I can swim, but do they believe me? Of course not. They throw every thing on the ship that can float at me, nearly giving me a concussion in the process. Even now they believe that I'm going to keel over any second now."

Stephen sighed impatiently. "I am doing a mandatory lookover. To make sure that you are fine. And you are, so you don't have to rag on about me." He nodded to Jessica, then dissapeared into the crowd surrounding Ryan.

Jessica smirked. "Okay, NOW do yuo want to go to the cabin?" Ryan nodded.

"Uh, yeah..." They trekked down the stairs, passing Killick's scrutinous eye. Jessica had found Killick to be somewhat hard to deal with, but amiable if you knew what to say.

"So, how did you get back aboard, anyways?"

Ryan rolled his eyes. "The captain jumped in after me. The great Jack Aubrey, and now everyone is going to think I can't swim, just because he came in to fish me out. Figures..." He sighed.

They stepped into the Cabin, and Heidi stepped out from behind the curtain, apparently bored of sitting there for the morning. "Ry, what happened to you?"

Jessica snorted. "He fell into the water."

Ryan growled. "And we've forgotten about it. Right, ladies?" Jessica rolled her eyes, but muttered a 'yes'. Heidi smirked, but muttered a yes as well.

"Where's everyone else?" Heidi asked.

Ryan blinked. "Um... probably with the Midshipmen, wherever they are..."

"How's William?" asked Jessica.

"William...? Oh, Blakeney! Doing fine, why?"

Jessica glanced away. "Nothing." She hesitated. "Is he right of left handed?"

Ryan stared at her. "And I am supposed to know... how? And why would you want to know, anyways?"

Jessica shifted. "Again, nothing. I'm just curious." She glanced out the ship's window. "Hey, look. It's the Cacafuego"