((Note: Okay, I realize that I put Jack on the quarterdeck before the Acheron attacked the Surprise for the first time. A mistake, so just pretend that he went back down after he 'reminded' Jessica not to lean on the rail. I didn't change it cause (1)I was too lazy to, and (2) it would mess up too much on this chapter. So, just ignore that little glitch. heh...))

A few days later the HMS Surprise was underway, going a steady 8 knots. Jessica, Heidi, and the guys were hanging out on the deck in the early morning, just talking about what would happen, and how things were already strange enough, being thrown back in time, without having to worry about whether or not they would be creamed or not. Jessica was leaning against the rail, and felt someone's critical eye on her. She glanced around, then spottedJack on the quarterdeck looking at her. She looked back for a few moments, then nearly kicked herself. She waved, and meekly got off of the rail. She had forgotten that he didn't like people leaning on the rails of his ships. He nodded at her, then turned away.

"Uh, Jess?" Jessica turned at Trevor's call.

"What?"

"What was that all about?"

Jessica blushed a bit. "Um, I was leaning on the rail, and Jack doesn't like that. So... I got off." She grinned weakly.

Heidi rolled her eyes. "Oh, puh-lease..."

Ryan glanced at Heidi. "Y'know, I think that it would probably be a good idea to stay on the Captain's good side, rather then having him watching you all the time to see what mischief your up to next. it's bad enough that they think we're American spies, they don't need anymore reason to have us walk the plank."

"They don't have people walk the plank here. They flog 'em," muttered Jessica. Heidi glanced at her.

"Great. Now we have to worry about being flogged."

Timmy snorted. "I doubt it. I don't think they'd flog 'young women', as they call you."

"'They'? Who's 'they'?" Jessica cast a suspicious glance at Timmy, who grinned a bit.

"The... the crew. Hey, have you been listening to any songs with cowboys in 'em?" Ryan ducked his head and snorted softly, a twinkle in his eye. Jessica narrowed her eyes at him, but turned back to Timmy.

"Yeah... Why?"

"Well, have you been singing them out loud? Something like, um, cowboy take me away, or somethin'?" His mouth twitched as he asked this.

"Yeah, yeah I have. What of it?"

Timmy snorted, fighting a grin. "well... some of the crew members have come to me and the guys, asking what a cowboy is and," he laughed slightly, "how to become one." Trevor grinned as well, watching Jessica and Heidi.

Jessica rolled her eyes. "Simpleminded people..." she muttered.

Heidi glanced at her, a confused look in her eyes. "What do you mean?"

"I'll explain later," mumbled Jessica, who then turned to Timmy. "And what would you tell them?"

Timmy grinned. "I'd tell them that a cowboy is bascially a guy who sits on his butt all day, chasing cattle around. They looked at me kinda funny, and I added that there was a horse in the deal. When they asked how to become one, I said, 'Go to America'. They immediately lost interest, though." Trevor grinned.

"Yeah. I told 'em that another popular thing with American women was knights in shining armor. They seemed to keep that in mind, but," he shrugged "I don't know. It was pretty funny, though."

Jessica snorted. "Great. Now I'm gonna hear more about knights in shining armor and cowboys come to sweep me off my feet, right?"

Heidie smirked. "Hey, it's getting kinda foggy. You should go up to the front and start singing A Pirate's Life For Me'. Y'know, Pirates of the Carribean? You could hear about pirates, too."

Trevor suddenly got an idea, and turned to Jessica, a twinkle in his eye. "Jess, I dare you to go up to the bow and sing A Pirate's Life For Me, loud as you can. Double-dare you," he added with a grin smug.

Jessica narrowed her eyes at him. "Are you crazy? I could probably get court-martialed for that."

"I'll give ya fifty bucks when we get back home."

Jessica sighed, closing her eyes. "Now that's the REAL way to a woman's heart. Fine. But you had better not 'forget'."

Trevor grinned. "Don't worry, I won't."

Jessica started up the stairs of the quarterdeck, glancing back at the others. Ryan gave her a thumbs up, and she could tell he was grinning. Jessica rolled her eyes and continued on, mumbling under her breath. She glanced back again, catching her breath as it suddenly grew even more foggy. A chill ran up her spine, and she hurried up the rest of the stairs. She glanced around. Hollom? On the watch? And it was foggy...? She suddenly caught her breath as she realized what was going on. She nearly had a heart attack when Hollom called out, ""Mr. Calamy, to the quarterdeck, if you please." She suddenly didn't care about the fifty bucks anymore. She hurried down the stairs, brushing past Peter as she went, and muttered a hurried "Sorry" before jumping to the deck and running to her friends.

"Guys, we need to get belowdecks. The Acheron's gonna attack any second now."

Ryan blinked. "And this would worry us... why?"

Jessica all but yelled out. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "Look. The Acheron has the weather gauge, and is going to fire a broadside at us as soon as Jack gets up to the quarterdeck. It's going to shoot off the rudder, and hurt a LOT of people. We'd better go below decks unless we want to be a bunch of splinters in a few minutes."

Heidi nibbled her lip, then turned to the guys. "Hey, guys? We should probably listen to her. She's read five of the books out of fifteen, I would think she would know what's going on." They stood in silence for a few moments, and then they heard Peter call out, "We will beat to quarters." Jessica set her jaw and glared at Timmy, Ryan, and Trevor. "Look, you can stay up here and get your guts shot out if you want, but I'm going down to the cabin." With that she turned and ducked down the stairs, brushing past the crewmembers who were all in a sort of chaotic organization. People swiping stuff off the table and placing a cloth on it filled with weapons. Jessica balked slightly as she saw the red stains on the cloth. Yeah, she somewhat remembered that from the movie. But now it bugged her... it was real blood. In the movie, it was fake. She closed her eyes and slipped into the cabin. she sat down on her hammock, then glanced down at her hands. They were trembling. She took several deep breaths, trying to regain her nerves.

"Jess!" Jessica glanced up, and smiled feebly at Heidi.

"Oh, hi. Where are the guys?" Heidi blinked softly, coming over to sit on Jessica's hammock with her.

"They're still up on deck. They're convinced that it's a false alarm. They've seen Hollom work, so they don't trust him." Jessica groaned and placed her head in her hands.

"That's the kind of attitude that will get them killed. They should listen to me, I know a lot about this... ugh..." She glanced up at Heidi. "What was Timmy doing in his dad's lab, anyways? He knows he'll get his hide tanned if his dad ever found out..."

Heidi shrugged and opened her mouth to answer, but they were suddenly thrown to the floor by a large force. Jessica heard the splintering of wood, and leapt up. "Heidi, it's attacked! The Acheron's attacked! We have to get Timmy and the others..."

Heidi slowly got up, trembling, eyes wide. "Wait... I didn't really pay attention to the movie, but didn't someone get his arm cut off?"

Jessica froze, her eyes widening. "William." She ran out of the room, nearly falling again when another broadside hit them. She quickly regained her footing and got up to the deck. She spun around, trying to locate either the guys or William. She suddenly spotted William standing off to one side and started to run over to him, but someone called her name, in a urgent, kind of scared way. She spun around and nearly fell when she saw what had happened. One of the yards had been shot down and had landed on Trevor, pinning him to the deck. By his side was Timmy, who was trying to lift it up off. Jessica glanced back at William, then at Timmy and Trevor. Bonden was rushing past her, and she snagged him. "Bonden, get Wi- Blakeney below decks."

He looked at her confusedly. "But miss-"

"Do it!" She shoved him in the direction of William, then hurried over to Trevor and Timmy. "what happened?"

She could see that Timmy was struggling to hold back tears. "I- He- I- I was standing right there, and we heard the mast crack. Or something... Trevor shoved me out of the way, and got hit. I should have been the one right there..." He struggled to pull the yard back up. Jessica heard Trevor chuckle faintly.

"Dude... you're supposed to be the one who gets us back home. Your the only one how knows... how..." Trevor spoke faintly, it was obvious he wasn't going to last long if the yard was going to be on him much longer.

"Okay, okay, um... Where's Ryan?" Jessica spoke hurriedly, and loudly at that. cannons were going off at what seemed like every second.

"He... He ran off, I think to help fire the cannons."

Okay, so they didn't have Ryan's brawn. Jessica carefully stepped over the yard and grasped what she could. "Okay, on the count of three, lift it up, alright?" Timmy nodded numbly. "Okay. One, two... THREE!" She pulled up with all her strength. Timmy heaved up as well, and they lifted up the yard. Jessica staggered slightly at the weight, but shifted so that she was holding it up easier. "okay.. okay... uh... Timmy, I'm gonna count to five. You have that much time to get Trevor out, or else hold it again, okay?" Timmy nodded, grunting slightly at the weight of the yard. "Okay... go! one... two... umf... three..." Timmy quickly dragged Trevor out from beneath the yard. Jessica breathed relievedly and dropped the yard, crouching down on the deck. "Okay, we'll get him down to the infirmary, alright!" she yelled. The cannons were still going off, but she spotted a few of the men dropping over the sides. She took a quick breather, then helped carry Trevor down to the sick bay.

She flinched as she saw some of the wounds that the other men had, smelling the stench of blood and hearing them crying out. She helped Timmy heave Trevor onto one of the hammocks, out of the way of Stephen and Higgins, who were hurrying about, tending to all the wounds that they could. Jessica tapped Timmy, and whispered, "I'm going up, I can't stand it here." Timmy nodded and Jessica hurried out of the sickbay. She burst up onto the maindeck, marveling at the silence. She heared the occasional booming of the Acheron's cannons, and the men steadily rowing, towing the Surprise into a fog bank. She walked over to the rail and sank down onto the deck, covering her head with her arms. Trevor... how could this have happened? He had been in pretty bad shape, she hoped Stephen could fix him up. She rubbed her head, then glanced up around her. Jack was standing at the bow of the ship, watching the sailors pulled the Surprise forward. She stood up, leaning on the rail for slight support, she didn't excactly feel the best. She took a few deep breaths, glancing at the direction of the Acheron. She took one more deep breath, thankful for the fresh sea air, and started below, towards the main cabin. She wondered where Heidi and Ryan were, and worried about them.

She walked into the Great Cabin, and smiled relievedly when she spotted Ryan and Heidi. Heidi leapt up when she spotted Jessica, and threw her arms around her neck. "Jessica! Oh my god, I am so glad to see you! After you ran out, I had no idea where you were. I finally spotted Ryan, but-" she cut off when she saw the look on Jessica's face. "Uh, Jess? Where's Timmy?"

Jess walked over and sat down in one of the chairs, placing her face in her hands. "He's with... Trevor... Trevor got hit by one of the spars, it almost looked like if he was crushed. Timmy is staying in the sickbay with him, I couldn't stand it in there." Ryan walked over and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"I'm sure he's fine, Jess."

Jessica swallowed, then glanced up at Ryan. "And where were you?"

Ryan blinked. "Well, when the Acheron started firing her guns, I went and helped fire our own cannons. I caught on pretty quickly, I guess. But they wouldn't let me row in the boats. Guess they thought I wasn't strong enough, or something..."

Heidi rolled her eyes. "Well, it's a good thing they didn't, or I would still be wandering around like a hopeless..." she paused, trying to think what she was wandering around like.

"Like a donkey without his master?" Jessica said quietly, a small smile in the corner of her mouth.

"Yes! Like a-" Heidi narrowed her eyes and glared at Jessica. "Hey..."

Jessica smirked at Heidi's glance, then stood up. "Well, I'm gonna go over to the sick bay, see if Trevor is out yet, or at least get a report from Timmy." She started to walk out of the cabin, but Heidi grabbed her arm. Jessica turned to look at her, puzzled.

"Jess, we got a report from the doctor. Trevor's dead."