A/N. Hi all. First up, thank you very much to my wonderful adviser in all things X-Men, Jinxeh who has pointed out in the nicest way possible that I know jack (no pun intended) all about X-Men and that Jean Grey and Rogue are in fact female. Thank you also to Avalon's Mists, but I'm afraid Jinxeh beat you to it.

Ok, next on the list of things to say. Thanks loads to my two reviewers for chapter 6. And guess what? That's two lots of thanks Jinxeh just got in a row. Isn't she a lucky girl?

Thirdly. This is going to be majorly weird. Mainly because I'm majorly weird. So yeah. I think that might be all. Or it is at the moment anyway. Hold it. No it isn't. Sorry I haven't updated for ages, life tends to be slightly hectic.

Onwards and upwards! irritating little voice: technically, me: do you want me to tell you where to shove that, or can you guess?

Chapter 7.

Will stood outside the dining cabin and studied a knot in the deck. Then he looked up at the rigging. All this gazing at random objects in his surrounds wasn't helping, so he climbed up to the poop deck and sat on the top step. He knew he should be trying harder to find Jack, but he just couldn't really be bothered and anyway, how much trouble could he really get into? Will realised what he'd just thought and hurriedly retracted that particular thought. Jack could get into a lot of trouble just by standing still. Mainly because one of his multitude of enemies managed to catch up to him if he stood still. But that wasn't a current concern, considering they were on a ship in the middle of whoop whoop land, or sea in this case. Will sighed and stood up to start looking.

Meanwhile back in the cabin, interesting happenings were occurring irritating little voice: that doesn't make sense. me: up yours. The crew and the group of outlandish beings had managed to stop standing about gawking at each other long enough sit down and perform something vaguely resembling civilised introductions. So now they were sitting about gawking at each other, as opposed to standing about. With the exception of Anna Maria who was gazing blankly at the ceiling and thinking idly about a dream she had had the previous night that had involved purple seagulls, a flying wombat or two and a castle on a cloud…

Eventually Cyclops managed to pull himself together and start what he hoped would be a vaguely sensible and possibly informative conversation, although he doubted that any of the miscreants he and his gang appeared to have landed in the middle of were capable of being helpful…or informative.

"So. Would you mind informing us of what the exact situation here is?" He looked around at the other occupants of the cabin.

"Pieces of eight, pieces of eight." Cyclops sighed. He'd feared he wouldn't get much in the way of a sensible answer.

"You're looking for pieces of eight? You like pieces of eight? You have pieces of eight? You want pieces of eight? COULD WE HAVE SOME MORE DETAIL HERE!" He was greeted with a lot of mildly surprised looks.

"Keep you're hair on mate! It's not the parrots fault he's got a limited vocabulary." Cyclops stared at the woman facing him from the other end of the table. Namely Anna Maria.

"It was the parrot?"

"Of course it was the parrot you great oaf. Mr Cotton trained it to speak for him when he had his tongue cut out."

"So it was just the parrot reciting some random and utterly meaningless phrase it's picked up somewhere?"

"NO! Are you deaf buddy! Mr Cotton trained it to talk for him!" Cyclops was getting thoroughly confused by this point, much to the amusement of his friends.

"But he's mute!"

"And? The parrot has specific phrases for what ever it want's to say."

"So what was it saying?"

"That you're too thick to understand so there's no point trying to explain what we're doing." Cyclops stared at her while his face turned an interesting shade of purple. He opened and shut his mouth a few times, and then slouched back in his chair with his arms folded and a thoroughly put out expression on his face.

Jean Grey observed this little exchange with considerable amusement, one eyebrow cocked slightly.

"Honestly! There's not point sulking, Cyclops. Have you people got anything to drink on this tub?"

Anna Maria bristled at this.

"This ain't no tub lady, it's a ship! And a damn good one!" She flounced out of the room to find something drinkable, preferably alcoholic.

The occupants of the cabin sat in silence after her departure. Someone whistled. Everyone glared at him. He stopped whistling. Wolverine tapped his fingers absently on the table. Mr Cotton's dagger landed dangerously close to his hand, point down in the table.

"What the bloody hell was that for!" He tried to look injured and ended up looking kind of constipated.

"Reef the sails!" shrieked the parrot. Everyone not in the know looked confused.

"The bird means that everyone was enjoying the silence, and you ruined it." Wolverine pulled a face at the parrot and joined Cyclops in sulking.

Up on the deck, Will was still sitting on the steps staring at nothing much. His thoughts however, had gained some direction. Namely Elizabeth. irritating voice: fluffiness ahoy! me: I don't do fluffy…or not much, anyway

"Will? Will!" Will stopped staring at a cloud and thinking about how much it looked like…Elizabeth…or some of her anyway, and looked down at the deck and Anna Maria.

"What?"

"Want to come back into the cabin? We're going to have a drink." Will shook his head.

"Nah. I should probably see if I can find Jack…" She shrugged.

"You know where to find us." Will watched her disappear back into the cabin. He probably should have a look about for Jack…but that cloud was so much more interesting…

Back in the cabin, Anna Maria's return was greeted with cheers all 'round. She would have liked to think they were all that pleased to see her, but she suspected the gayety now pervading the cabin had more to do with the bottles she was carrying than her personally. She set the bottles down on the table, took one for herself, and then got out of the way before she could get squashed in the stampede that ensued. Even Wolverine and Cyclops came out of their sulking fits to grab a bottle.

Rogue took a swig from her bottle and promptly spat it out again.

"What in Gods name is this!" Anna Maria flicked an eyebrow.

"It's rum."

"You drink rum?"

"Welcome to the Caribbean love."

"Isn't there anything else?"

"Sea water?" Rogue pulled a face.

"It's all good. I'll cope."

Several hours and much rum later, there was a raucous party in full swing in the cabin. What had started out as a civil drink shared with guests hadn't remained as such for long.

Will finally got up off his step, having decided there wasn't much to keep him there anymore, his cloud having blown away several hours ago. He stretched, discarded the idea of searching for Jack for the umpteenth time that day, and went into the cabin, from whence sounds of merriment were issuing. Opening the door, he was confronted with the sight of one of the strangers dancing on the table and the crew and the rest of the strangers gathered 'round the table cheering. Anna Maria was leaning on the wall looking on. She passed Will a bottle as he joined her.

"What's happening?" Will shouted over the noise.

"Apparently that's what people do at parties where they come from." Anna Maria shouted back. Will shrugged. After a few minutes, Anna Maria grabbed his hand and towed him over to the table, having evidently decided that it was time to start being sociable.

If an observer had looked through the window several more hours later, they would have found that Jack had materialised at some point and was then engaged in doing a striptease on the table. He had in fact appeared not all that terribly long after Will had joined the party. No one seemed too bothered about the fact that a man with the mental capacity of a five year old was quite happily revealing himself to the entire room, accompanied by some rather interesting actions. This was probably more due to the fact that they were all too pissed to worry than anything else.

A/N. Well…that was slightly…alternative. Meh. Deal with it. I did warn you that it was going to be different. Anyway, I'm afraid that you're going to have to wait with baited breath for the next instalment. I.e. until I get around to writing the next chapter. All reviews and pointers on X-Men related stuff welcome until then. Until then…aurevoir.