Author's Note: Hello and welcome to chapter six. I am afraid this will be the only new chapter for at least two weeks as I have a good amount of homework to attend to. (Yes, I hate writing nonfiction. It is my bane as a writer.) Due to this I will be quite distracted with my article and sadly fanfiction will have to wait. But I promise to scribble out several paragraphs of the next chapter whenever I might have a free moment. I thank you all in advance for your patience. I would also like to thank my reviewers, ElfLuver13, Dancing en Pointe, Jackeroe, Jousting Elf with a Sabre and Deceptive Kindness. Also I would like to thank my beta Mystress of the Dark for her help with this chapter. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Pirates of the Caribbean of its characters.

Chapter Six The Chase Begins

Dear Commodore Norrington;

Well, I suppose I should start off my letter as civilized people do, seeing as you probably never read a letter that was written otherwise. So, how is the weather? Is your health good? How is your family?

Alright, seeing as that is now out of the way we best get down to business. I have your wife see? Now don't fret and accidentally rip this note in rage. That would be no good. Your dear Emer is fine and I swear on my honor as I pirate not to harm her in any way. But I am going to have to ask for ransom if you want her back. Not much, just a tidy little sum to keep me for a nice while.

I won't be hard to find. A day or two's good sailing should catch you up to us. When you come in sight of my ship, let fly a white flag. Not that I want you to surrender, but I would prefer to deal without canons pointing at my ship. As long as you follow my instructions there will be no need for us to get into a tussle. Till then, Commodore I am

Your most honorably dishonest pirate,

Captain Jack Sparrow

Norrington lifted his weary eyes from the note. Sparrow. The name was like a rumble of thunder in his mind, interspaced by a brief shock of lightening that set his body trembling. The man had dared to cross him again, this time taking something so dear…

"Sir?" Gillette questioned. The roadway in front of the house was silent save for the hum of the insects serenading the sultry night air.

"Ready the Dauntless," Norrington muttered, folding the parchment with deliberate care. "We leave at once."

"Yes sir!" The sailors came alive at once and hurried back down the road, little clouds of dust forming at their feet. Gillette waited a moment, regarding his commander with sympathetic eyes.

"James, she'll be fine," he said, trying to offer some comfort. His words felt dull and heavy though, weighed down with his own fears for Mrs. Norrington's safety.

"I don't doubt that, Lieutenant," the Commodore replied. "Now go about your duties. I must prepare for our departure."

"Yes, sir."

He waited until Gillette had disappeared into the evening's fold to weakly sink to the ground. The iron bars of the gate pressed against his back, cold and stiff, like a dead man's fingers. He pressed his own fingers to his temple. Just picturing Emer frantically pacing the deck of a grimy pirate ship and her terror brought tears to his eyes. The icy fear inside him, the low thumping of his heart. It reminded him of the day Elizabeth had turned down his proposal for Will Turner. But this was not about Elizabeth, he reminded himself fiercely. This was his wife.


Stepping onto the Black Pearl felt like falling into a fairy mound for Emer. She gawked at the filthy figures clustered on the slick deck. Jack had to gently prod her to keep her moving as he stepped out of the longboat being hoisted aboard by two crewmen. The shadows of the moonlight beguiled evil creatures and Emer stumbled back against Jack in her brief moment of terror. One of the ragtag men stepped forward and extended his hand.

"Welcome aboard, Mrs. Norrington. I'm Mr. Gibbs, don't know if yer husband ever mentioned me. He might 'ave." The stocky man offered her a kind, reassuring smile.

"Mr. Gibbs?" Emer clung to the name like a drowning man does to a raft. Her James had spoken of the man once or twice in passing.

"Aye ma'am." Gibbs led her across the deck. The group of pirates parted to let them pass. "I served under 'im a long while back. Good man."

"Yes," she replied, grasping onto his hand tightly as her feet slipped on the glistening wood of the floor. The sea's spray washed droplets of water up onto the ship and it fell in trickles down the railing. She shivered with an unknown chill. "My husband always spoke kindly of you."

"Well, that at least makes one of us," a confident voice murmured overhead. Emer twisted her neck until she caught sight of the young woman latched to the helm. She was a dark beauty, with skin like light coffee.

"Anamaria!" Jack scolded, fiddling in his pocket for something. "Be nice to our guest."

"I ain't got nothing against her," Anamaria muttered, giving the helm a half turn with her small hands. "I jus' don't like the idea of having the wife of a man who would have us dangling from the noose on board."

"Don't worry yerself, love," Jack said, extracting his compass and studying it. "Ol'Jack has everything under control."

The rest of the pirates had gone back to their duties. Several hoisted the sails while the rest scurried about on deck like colorful field mice. The parrot circled the ship a few times then landed not far from Gibbs and Emer.

"Wind to the south! Wind to the south!" It proclaimed, bobbing back and forth on its perch.

"See that, Mrs. Norrington," Gibbs chuckled, gesturing to an older man running past. "Mr. Cotton here welcomes ye too."

"Take her below deck, Gibbs," Jack ordered. "Do us no good if the Navy boys see her on our way out."

"Aye, aye sir. Come on then, lassie."

Emer said nothing but lamely allowed herself to be led below. There was no use regretting her actions now, not when she sailed in the middle of the maelstrom. Once Emer had disappeared into the ship's hold, Anamaria turned on Jack.

"Yer daft!" she spat. "Daft'er than a mule stuck out in the rain."

"Love," Jack whispered, regarding her coolly from his position on the deck. "Ye've known me for all these years and just now, ye've realized I'm daft. I'd say it's ye who's losing her mind."

"Bringing the Commodore's own wife on broad is madness," she said. "I thought even ye would know better, Jack Sparrow."

"Captain Jack Sparrow, mate," he reminded her. "Yer startin' to sound like Gibbs with all his superstition of women and ships. And trust me; there is a method to me madness." He pulled out the emerald brooch Emer had given him and held it up for Anamaria to see.

Her eyes widened. "Aye."

"Now." Jack fixed his eyes on the black horizon. "Take us south."


Little James and Nelly stood dutifully before their father as they did before each of his trips to sea. Norrington marveled at how different the mood was without Emer. His wife would normally usher the children into line with her stern, yet affectionate manners. Now he found tears stinging his eyes at the thought of her absence.

In the bay, the Dauntless rose above the clear waters, her white sails testing the breeze like a dove's wing. The Commodore had hoped to depart the instant he had gotten news of Emer's kidnapping. But of course it would take some time to call out the sailors and he had to see to the children. Becoming a father had taught him to put his children before anything. He knew that Emer would wish them to be well cared for. Luckily for him, the Turners had agreed at once to look after them. Little James, however, was less than acquiescent.

"I won't!"

"Yes, you will," Norrington told the boy. It was one thing to order his soldiers around but quite another to keep his children in line. Oh, how did Emer manage to keep them obedient?

"I hate them!" Little James stamped his feet.

"It is not good of you to hate them," the Commodore said. His children certainly weren't making his departure easy.

"Can't I come with you?"

"No, you must stay here and be a good boy, like I asked."

"Who will care for Maeve?" Nelly said, raising her dreamy eyes to her father's stoic face.

"Charles will. But I don't want you visiting her while I'm gone. After breakfast Charles will drive you to the Turners and you are to stay there. Both of you."

Little James continued to pout. "Where is Mama?"

"Shhhh!" Nelly said, before Norrington could answer. Little James made a face, but finally settled into a sulky silence.

"I will return as soon as can…with Mama," Norrington said, more for his own comfort.

The children allowed themselves to be hugged and kissed goodbye, though their father found it a bit more difficult to let go then usual.

"Take care and listen to what the Turners tell you," he managed at last. "I love you both."

The Commodore turned down the driveway, wondering if he would ever walk up it again. Nelly, however, smiled brightly.

"Silly Papa," she laughed.


Emer thought she would slide off the very surface of the earth. In her small cabin, the straw pallet on which she had slept failed to keep her comfortable. Steamy rays of heat stroked the moldy walls as the ship rocked back and forth. Pieces of straw stuck through the rough cloth of the mattress, rubbing harshly against her skin. Her first night on the Pearl has not been a pleasant one, her sleep wracked with strange nightmares. Distant flashes of memory raced across her mind as she tried to piece them together in her hazy waking moments. But now her stomach turned and the stench of the cabin forced bile to her lips. She bolted off the pallet and up to the deck. Grasping onto the smooth railing she retched over the side of the ship. Some of the pirates chuckled with amusement. Anamaria wrinkled her nose and shook her head in disgust. For some reason she thought the Commodore's wife would be more at ease around ships.

Emer felt her knees buckling and she slid to the floor of the deck. It was early morning. Nelly and Little James would just be waking. And her James…Did he know of her absence yet, would he care?

Jack watched his passenger's struggles a few paces away. Her flushed face and trembling limbs seemed out of place with so steadfast a woman. She wiped her mouth on the sleeve of her gown, something a lady of breeding would never do. He sighed.

"Aye, love, at least ye got the worst of it over with."

She looked up at him quickly, her eyes holding a sense of fierce accusation as if it were his fault for her sickness. "What do you mean?"

"Ye'll get used to it, soon enough," he noted, sauntering over to stand by her.

"I hate ships," Emer panted, her voice ragged. "Always have, always will. The crossing from Ireland was terrible."

"Is that why ye married him?" Anamaria asked suddenly, clutching the helm with her fine boned hands. The other crewmen looked up when she spoke. "So ye didn't have to get back on a ship, so ye could stay here."

"Well, I'm on a ship now, aren't I?" Emer sighed. She felt as though she had lost her self command, the sea had robbed it from her. No longer could she settle the minds of others with one stern comment. These pirates were a different sort of people and required more than a sensible explanation.

Anamaria shook her head and turned her dark eyes back to the sea.

"Come on then, darling," Jack said, hoisting the Irishwoman to her feet. "No use for you to linger in such a state."

"Is there any sign?" she asked. The desperation in her voice almost frightened her. "Is there any sign of him yet?"

Jack smiled sympathetically. "Not yet."

"Oh." Emer felt her heart sink to the bottom of her now empty stomach.

"But ye'll be the first to know when I see him," he assured his guest. "Until then, it would be best if ye got something in yer gut. It'll help settle ye."

"I am not hungry," she mumbled, still tasting the bile upon her tongue.

"Nonsense. Anamaria!" Jack called.

"Aye." The woman looked at him skeptically.

"Kindly take Mrs. Norrington to the galley and give her a proper breakfast."

"Me? But I'm needed…"

"I think you could both stand to get to know each other."

Anamaria began to argue, but in the end she gave up. There would be no convincing Jack Sparrow to change his mind once he had a notion stuck in his head. Sullenly, she led Emer below.