"There it is!" Jack yelled to the crew. "Wondrous Tortuga! Make ready gents, we'll be a'dock shortly!"

As Lily went to the rail to look out at the famed Tortuga, Jack handed the wheel to someone else and came down.

"Mr. Gibbs!" he called. Gibbs went over to him. "Find a spare set of clothes we can dress our little flower in," Lily turned to look at him, "after all, this isn't exactly the safest place for a maid of a governor's house to be in."

Gibbs nodded. "Aye Jack."

He went off to find something she might fit into. Jack noticed Lily looking at him.

"You may not come off as a man, but you'll be less likely to end up in another sticky situation while you look for your brother. Savvy?"

She nodded and went back to gazing at the buzzing town. In another moment she felt Jack come up beside her.

"I won't need your help after this Jack," she said. "I'm quite capable of finding my brother on my own."

"On the contrary," he said, "I think you do love. If this if your first time to Tortuga, and I know it is, then you're going to need plenty of help looking for this brother of yours. Can't have you wandering all over asking for directions now can we?"

He was grinning again and she knew it. She also knew her brother would detest the idea of her gallivanting around Tortuga with a pirate he had been trying to arrest, even if it was to find him. Something told her swords would be drawn. There was, however, the slight chance that if James had turned pirate himself, there might be no conflict at all. She doubted that, but still, how much choice did she have?

"Here you are miss," said Gibbs from behind her. She turned and he handed her a pile of old clothes and a belt. "If it doesn't fit well, we'll just add a few more notches to the belt until it does," he informed her.

Moments later, changed, docked, and feet on solid land again, Lily found herself in the unlikeliest of all places for a woman of her standing; in pirate clothing, walking into the most raucous and uncouth places she'd ever seen, accompanied by a pirate captain and some of his crew, looking for a pirate who had until recently been a commodore in the British Royal Navy.

She couldn't even begin to imagine the exact point her life had taken such a ridiculous turn.

Our parents would most certainly disinherit both of us now, no question.

All around, men were drinking, fighting, groping promiscuous women, and in general being as immoral as one could be. Wary though she was, Lily tried to look as though this was nothing new, but all the same she stayed near Jack. They were headed for a tavern, Jack explaining he and Gibbs went there often to recruit new crewmembers and were going to do so presently, as several men were going to remain ashore and others they simply wanted to be rid of. A part of Lily hoped the tavern sold wine—she felt like a drink; preferably something she knew she would be able to stomach.

Things in the barroom were more frenzied than outside, if that were even possible. Jack and Gibbs ordered their drinks before setting up a table to being recruiting, Lily slipping off momentarily to buy herself something to drink as well. She ignored Jack's grin when he saw a mug to her lips as she returned.

"When will we look for James?" she asked over the noise of men shouting and objects breaking.

"Oh so the elusive brother does have a name!" Jack exclaimed in a dramatic way. Lily ignored that too, knowing that Jack's knowledge of her brother's first name wouldn't matter. Instead she took a drink, surprised at just how good the wine was. She surmised it had probably been stolen from somewhere.

"Give it a chance first love," Jack told her. "If your brother really has gone pirate, maybe he's in need of someone to sail with, ey?"

Lily nodded a little. As usual, Jack made sense, which in itself never seemed to make sense.

So far they had only recruited two men, and as they waited, Lily occasionally wandered off to look around for herself, but she always returned just to be safe.

"It's goin' slow today Jack," Gibbs said at length. "Guess no one's feelin' much like headin' out to sea."

"We'll try another spot in a bit," Jack said as he played with his compass, "just give it a little longer yet."

"Back much sooner than I'd hoped, already looking for new pieces of filth to crew that ragged ship I see."

I know that voice! Lily looked over the edge of her mug.

"James!"

She jumped up and ran over to him before the astonished Gibbs could say anything. He looked horrible, his uniform ragged and covered in dirt and who knew what else, his hair snarled and unkempt, and his once clean and shaven face dirty and covered in stubble.

"What the—?" he started as she grabbed onto his jacket, momentarily forgetting his planned tirade against Gibbs and eventually Jack.

"James, it's me!" she cried, almost pulling off her hat.

"Lily?"

"Wait a moment," spouted Jack, unable to keep quiet, "your name is Lily Norrington?"

"You know this useless wretch?" Norrington asked his sister, pointing at Jack and beginning to look both horrified and enraged.

This was it, the moment of truth. She could deny she knew Jack, make up some excuse, or just tell the truth and hope for the best. Perhaps playing innocent could work; pretend she had forgotten all about the specifics of his last letter.

"He's the reason I was able to find you, James," she said, hoping this information would help soften the blow. "He saved my life twice and offered to help me find you."

"Only because you forgot to mention your last name is all," she heard Jack mutter. But he was over there with a smug grin on his face, staring at Norrington, obviously rubbing it in that he had assisted Lily in such a way. Except that it was not helping in the least.

"Do you mean to tell me," Norrington said in forced even tones, "that after I've lost my commission chasing this brigand, landed myself here, my sister arrives on his ship and using his help to find me?"

"That seems about right mate," Jack said before Lily could say anything.

In a flash Norrington had his sword out and was aiming for Jack, whose reflexes had him matched with Norrington. The two were at it and nothing Lily could say would stop them. Their blades clanged throughout the bar with her shouting after them. Jack seemed to be having a grand time facing off with the ex-commodore, whereas Norrington was hell-bent on striking the pirate captain down.

Finally she gave up, and with an irritated huff, went back to Gibbs, who was watching with interest, and pulled his sword from his belt. As he stood there in surprise and with an even more heightened interest, Lily rushed back to James and Jack, who were dueling with such ferocity she had to bide her time in search of just the right spot to parry both of them and take James head on if necessary.

There!

She stuck out her sword, stopping both blades and the knocking Jack's back and beginning her swordfight with her brother. Never would I have thought I'd actually be fighting James over a pirate, she thought, as they automatically fell into their sibling duel from years ago in England.

"I can't believe you're on his side!" he yelled, his face red with anger.

"I'm not!" she cried. "I just want you two to stop so we can talk!"

"We can talk after he's dead!"

They were slowly backing up to where the fight had started when there was an abrupt crash and a shower of glass rained down around Norrington. After standing there momentarily, he fell over and Lily saw Gibbs, broken bottle in hand.

"Sorry Lily," he said, "but I don't think he woulda listened to you, drunk as he is."

Sad, tired, but thankful, she nodded. "My thanks Mr. Gibbs."

----------------------

"Don't worry about it Lily darlin'," Jack said, his boots up on the quiet (or as much as possible) table they'd gotten in the back. "Give him a few hours and he'll be back to his normal self, though I'd say there isn't much of a difference."

"Aye," said Gibbs. "He'll likely be wantin' to kill Jack either way, drunk or sober."

Lily sighed, her eyes fixed on the table as she leaned her head in her hands. Poor James, she thought and looked over her shoulder at him where he lay unconscious on the floor.

"Perhaps it's best that I be alone with him when he wakes up," she said, turning back to them.

"Mm, perhaps Miss Lily is right on that one Jack," said Gibbs, looking to Jack in hopes that he would agree.

Jack snapped his compass shut. "If that's what our little missy wants I suppose we should respect her wishes then. Come on Mr. Gibbs," he stood, "we've still got work to do." He looked at Lily. "You know where we've docked. Bring him if he comes to his senses, but I'll have you know I'm not going to put up with the former commodore trying to kill me every chance he gets, savvy?"

Lily nodded and then saw Jack smile.

"Cheer up love. He still may come around and join us, ey?"

He and Gibbs left, and though Jack's sentiments didn't cheer her up at all, she did hope James would at least agree to accept transportation from the Pearl.

When Norrington did wake up and then wake up enough to remember what had just happened, it took Lily some time to calm him down and convince him to sit down and listen to her instead of aiming to kill Jack. She told him the entire story, save the parts about Jack sleeping in the same bed as her and then almost kissing her the morning after. The simple fact that Lily had done so much to see him and that Jack had served some purpose in his life seemed to relax Norrington enough to take his hand from his sword handle and talk to her rationally. He asked how she had known where to find him and just what she planned to do now that she had.

"You must return with me to Port Royal of course," she told him after explaining the stories of the sailors.

He shook his head. "I'm sorry Lily, I can't do that. Not yet anyway."

"But why not?"

"I've lost everything chasing Jack Sparrow. I can't show my face in Port Royal again until I've got something to show for it. Until then I'll join his crew; stick with him until something comes up."

Lily bit her lower lip. "James, you can't mean to kill him. I know he's a pirate, but he's kept me safe and offered to help even when I said no."

"Undoubtedly looking for some profit for himself at some point," he muttered. "And why is everyone always defending him?"

Lily was getting more uncomfortable by the moment. Why was she defending Jack? Shouldn't she be on her brother's side no matter what? Still, she couldn't deny that for all his oddities and being a pirate, Jack was a good man.

"James, please," was all she could say.

"Lily, I know you've come a long way to see me and offer your assistance," he said with a sympathetic look and putting his hand on hers, "but I've no right to go back now. We'll both just have to wait." He sat back in his chair. "I assume Mr. Sparrow will be expecting you to return to his ship?"

"He did offer us both a place as long as we're members of his crew—"

"I still can't believe he made you work with those men," Norrington growled.

"He wouldn't let any harm come to me," she told him softly. This time it was her turn to put her hand on his.

"All right then," Norrington said, still looking very unhappy about all this, "let's go." He paused. "There's no way you'll be going back to Port Royal or England without me, is there?"

She smirked. "No."

---------------------

"Commodore!" Jack called pleasantly as the two approached his ship.

"Not anymore you imbecile," Norrington said, an edge to his voice.

"James then!" said Jack with a wave of his hand. Lily closed her eyes, waiting for her brother to attack Jack again, the idiot.

"You will call me Norrington if you call me anything," he grated.

"Whatever you say mate," said Jack. "So, you two kids coming aboard my ship then?"

"Yes."

"Good! Go on ahead and enjoy yourselves. Oh, and Lily darlin'," they paused to look back at him, "you can sleep in the same spot as before, ey?"

Jack walked off, Lily catching Jack muttering something like, "…Driselle and Scarlet…bloody women…lucky for me…" as she quickly turned back around, hurrying to climb aboard the Pearl in order to hide her burning face from her brother, who remained staring after Jack, suspicion written all over his features.