Disclaimer: I don't own POTC.

School keeps me busy, so updates will take longer.

"Will and Jack are missing!" That was all Elizabeth heard on the Pearl all day. And now everyone was trying to make plans on a rescue, but from whom?

"Perhaps they're in Tortuga still," Anamaria suggested. "Jack loses everything and gets lost a lot. If it wasn't attached, he'd loose his--"

"They can't be, the dingy is gone! Someone took it or sank it," Gibbs protested.

"Then they are stranded on Tortuga!" Anamaria screeched.

"If you were stranded and had a crew looking for you, you would go to the dock! They'd be waiting for us." Elizabeth listened to the arguing for a few more minutes. She was starting to get a headache when she interrupted.

"What if the men that are trying to capture them captured them?" Everyone was silent.

"She's right," Leah grumbled. "Most obvious answer. We're all thinking it, she's just saying it. Only question is who and where."

The arguing started up again about Navy conspiracies and India. Elizabeth rubbed her temples, fighting off the inevitable headache.

"The pirate bastard is supposedly claiming to be Barbossa, right?" Leah spoke up again. The crew was silenced. "Then maybe the Isla de Muerta."

"Good point," Gibbs said. "Especially if it is Barbossa."

"Perhaps his surviving crew wants revenge," Crimp suggested, rubbing his head.

"I know at least two of them escaped hanging. No doubt there is a handful more out there," Anamaria mused. "No matter what, the Isla is our best bet so far."

"Then that's where we'll go," Elizabeth said, hoping the surreal meeting would be over. She needed to retch again. And she wanted privacy.

She almost made it. Almost. But Leah was still in the cabin when Elizabeth couldn't hold it any longer. The young girl shut the doors and held her hair back.

"Haven't gotten your sea legs yet?" she asked quietly. Elizabeth shook her head.

"I grew up at sea. I guess it's just a bug," she lied. Leah could tell.

"I grew up in Tortuga, mostly. I can't remember much else. Let alone my family." Now it was Elizabeth being lied to.

"Tortuga? Did you go to school?"

"Nay, I was taught by a barmaid and sailors. Occasionally a smart one would come into the tavern I worked at and teach me. For a fee."

"It must have been horrible to grow up on that sty," Elizabeth shivered.

"Not really. The barmaid became my nan, and never let anything happen to me. If I came back to her with so much as a hair out of place, she would clear the bar. Nothing really bad ever happened to me."

"I see. Sorry."

"No, don't be. It is still a horrible place to live, adult or child. A year ago I came aboard and it was the best year of my life." She paused and smiled. "Even with Jack flirting with me at every pass."

"I lived the most sheltered life possible. My father is in the military, and is now governor. Since I was his only child, he was very protective of me."

"Then how did you end up with a blacksmith? As good of a man that Mr. Turner is…" Leah trailed off. Elizabeth smiled.

"My father understood how powerful our love was. He simply missed it before. Now he doesn't care so much about Will's status."

"I'd be lucky to get a man of any status. A pirate girl living at sea finding love? Unlikely. That stuff happens only in books. Lowlife girls don't really get Prince Charming."

"Actually, I hear that the Prince of England is looking," she joked. Leah laughed, and then caught Elizabeth completely off guard.

"So when's the baby due?"