Disclaimer: The characters and concepts in this story pertaining to the movie Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl are the property of the Walt Disney Corporation. This is an amateur writing effort, meant for entertainment purposes only.

Chapter Twenty-Three: Minor Set-Backs

There was a visible division between the two crews aboard the Wayfarer the following morning. Ridley had taken up permanent residence on the high deck, alongside several other sailors too large to pick a fight with. Others were scattered throughout the lower decks. Ana Maria claimed the helm in Jack's absence, a claim not even the largest of Morgan's men were going to dispute. She'd already made herself out as a force to be reckoned with. The remainder of the Pearl's crew were doing work on the main deck.

William tried to make himself useful, but found it rather difficult with the tempers of the crews being what they were. The Wayfarer crew members were being their usual pompous selves, heads held high against the insult of working with the substandard sailors from the Pearl. Meanwhile, Jack's crew were murmuring nasty things about their compatriates, making nasty jokes and the like.

He opted to make himself scarse. The last thing he needed was more confrontation.

But finding solidarity proved even more difficult, especially on a ship. Morgan's cabin was permeating a distinctly 'off limits' air, what with her still seething about Jack's involvement with the Brethren. She hadn't made a sound since they left the harbour that morning and he didn't expect to see her outside for a good while yet. The galley was meant to be avoided as well, seeing as how Jack was passed out on the table, drunk out of his mind, with wine bottles hugged loosely to his chest. William could hear him mumbling to himself, "No, darling, your the best thing that ever...oh for God's sake you're a man."

He closed the door and walked away.

And that's when he heard footsteps thundering down from the main deck. A man dashed past him, almost barrelling directly into him, heading straight for Morgan's cabin door.

"CAPTAIN!" he shouted, pounding frantically against the wood.

Wine bottles shattered in the galley. Jack dashed forward, knocking Will against the wall as he did so.

Morgan opened her cabin door.

"What?" the two asked at the same time, both responding to the title of Captain. The man barely cast Jack a second glance, eyes solely on Morgan.

"We've just spotted land, ma'am."

"What?" her brow furrowed and she pulled a pair of spectacles from her face.

"There's an island straight off our bow, ma'am," he repeated in more simple terms. Morgan's eyes widened. She grabbed some things off her desk and followed him up on the deck.

Jack waved a hand over his shoulder and re-entered the galley. Morgan wasn't gone long though. She raced back down the steps and entered the galley without invitation.

"Give me the map," she snapped.

"And why should I do that?" he searched the wine bottles for some leftover liquor. Apparently, he had drank it all the night before.

"Give me the map, Jack!"

"Say 'please'." he said, turning around to face her.

Morgan's jaw tightened. "Please give me the map."

"Captain...?" he added.

"Oh, you're such a child!"

"All you have to do is say captain." Of course, it was so simple.

Morgan changed her tone to one of a doting governess. "Captain, will you please give me the map?"

"When you ask like that," he reached into his bodice and dug around. Morgan sighed and tapped her foot impatiently. Jack started jumping around, prying the thick layers of clothing away from his body and staring down towards the floor. When he finally pulled the map out, Morgan wasn't really sure she wanted to touch it. She didn't know where it had been.

She pressed the two map pieces against the wall, smoothing out the crack between the two till it was flush. The shadows made the expression on her face hard to see, but William imagined it was the same clinical stare she had eyed him with when he was first brought on board. Her nose was pinched and her eyes were narrowed in a most decisive manner. He also noticed that dark circles were beginning to develop around them while their white surfaces were bloodshot. She wasn't sleeping much or not at all.

"Oh no," she sighed.

"What?" Jack replied, not very interested in conversation at the moment. He was still sifting through the wine bottles.

Morgan left the room.

Jack, who was clearly more concerned about his piece of the map, followed after her. "Where the hell do you think you're going?"

The two emerged on deck, Morgan in her usual seafaring splendor and Jack still clothed in her ratty dress, looking like death warmed over. His hair was knotted messily and the sandbags he'd been using for breasts had fallen out during the night. Yet his high cheekbones and delicate features caused him to straddle a fine line between genders.

The Wayfarer's crew were holding back their laughter. The crew from the Pearl didn't seem the least bit surprised.

"Jack?"

"Yes, darling..."

"What the hell is that?"

She pointed into the distance where a mountanous land mass loomed quite clearly, directly in their path.

"That would be an island."

"I know it's an island," Morgan replied sassily, rolling her eyes. "What the hell is it doing there?"

She was still sore about the night before, and putting several hours between them and the Port was only serving to worsen her mood.

"What the hell is any island doing out there?" he rolled his eyes back at her.

Morgan growled. She narrowed her bloodshot eyes on him. "It's not on the map."

"What?" Jack no longer seemed irritated. He was very interested in what Morgan had to saw.
"That island is not on the map," Morgan replied pointedly. Jack made a franctic grab for the map pieces in her hand. They were trying to get an accurate reading for navigation that morning, and as well trained as Morgan's map-reading skills were, she was thoroughly stumped. The island straight ahead of them did not exist according to the map she was reading.

Jack was stumped as well. He glanced from the map to the island, back to the map, to Morgan, to the map, and then to the island, making finger gestures at random as he did so. "That's not supposed to..." he trailed off and started pacing the deck, drawing nearer to the island as he did so. He stopped at the bow. "That's not supposed to be there."

"Are you sure you're holding it right?" Morgan demanded curtly. Jack flipped the pieces around several times, unable to determine whether or not he was, in fact, holding it properly. Morgan snatched it from his hands and fitted the pieces together properly, eyeing it as a surgeon would an incision.

She growled even louder. "We're missing a piece of the map."

"What?" Jack asked her, not understanding.

"We're missing a piece. This isn't the whole map."

"What?" Jack still didn't understand. Morgan held the map up close to his face.

"You see these lines here?"
"That's water."

"I know it's water!" she shouted angrily. "The lines don't match up."

Jack's eyes narrowed. "Still not understanding."

"Well that's nothing new," Morgan scoffed.

"Says the girl who couldn't cast rigging for her life."

"You were the one who thought God was spelt with a J!"

"Like it matters!" he bellowed. "Then again that was all you ever cared about - spelling and counting and nonsense like that. Nonsense that landed you at the side of a flip-tail as I recall."

"At least it didn't land me at the mercy of Robert Bateman!"

"No, but from what I gather it did land you in his bed."

"You're dispicable," she spat.

"What in the blazes does that mean?" he shouted.

"Captain!" Ana shouted.

"What!" the two replied at the same time once again, still uncertain of exactly who was in charge.

"The Scarlet Nightmare's just been spotted astern, and she's coming up fast!"

The colour drained from both Morgan and Jack's faces.

"We left before dawn," she said. "There was no way they could have followed us."

"Unless someone told them where we were going," Jack raised a finger in the air.

Morgan's mouth dropped in shock. She turned her attention to the high deck, where Ridley stared off into the distance, not at all surprised by Bateman's ship drawing nearer over the sea.

Author's Notes

Uh oh...

Chapter's pretty self explanatory. Small cliffie...but I seem to have found my muse again. Where's the Rum .com has the new trailer for Dead Man's Chest and I have overindulged in it to the highest degree.

Enjoy!

Reviews

Smithy: It's not too, too hard because Science and Math isn't a lot of homework. It's memorization most of the time, and teachers depend on you to do your own review. I really hated doing it, and thus, my less than pleasing mark. Thanks for the luck though! I will need it.

Sands-Agent: Thanks! Sands is definitely a great character. And Rodriguez is thinking about having Johnny Depp come back for the third Sin City movie. Either way, it should be great.

Thanks for the support! It's always appreciated. Hope this chapter is to your liking!