Author's Note: Here you go, quick update for you. It's all kicking off in this chapter. My planning's all done now, yay. Remember to leave a review!

Chapter Seven: Bound

"Do you want me to walk you home?" Edward asked Lainey. It was the following day, and they were in the market.

Lainey smiled. She adjusted the basket of fruit she had on her arm. "I don't think there's any need for that. It's not yet evening, and the Black Pearl is gone."

"If you're sure..." Edward said uncertainly, as they headed back down the lane away from the stalls, arm-in-arm.

"I am," Lainey replied.

They walked on for a while in comfortable silence, a tall dark man, handsome, dressed in a white shirt, black trousers and a black waistcoat, and a shorter, slender young woman, wearing a pale green dress, long hair in a braid. The streets were busy today; the air was hot, but crackled with electricity. There was going to be a storm.

They reached the corner of the street, where they would have to part ways. They paused.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Edward asked, his hands on her shoulders. "After last night, I mean..."

"It's fine," Lainey replied. For a moment her mind thought of Jack Sparrow, his eyes... but only for a moment. She smiled reassuringly at Edward. "It's really fine."

"Are you sure you don't want me to walk you home?"

"Positive," she laughed. She turned to look down the street, where the house she lived in stood at the end, just in sight. "I'm only walking to there."

"I guess so." He hugged her.

"Thank you, Edward." She pecked his cheek, then turned away, smiling back at him as she headed up the street.

Her thoughts were fixed on Jack Sparrow now. He had seemed so honest last night, as though he had really met her on a royal fleet. But... it wasn't possible, was it? Mrs Poelle had told her she had been found, an orphan on Tortuga, probably a wench's daughter. She couldn't remember anything before about her tenth birthday. But those eyes. She knew Jack Sparrow's eyes. She had to have met him before, didn't she?

She shook her head. She needed to clear it of these thoughts.

She reached the door of the house, fumbling for the key in her pocket, sliding it into the door, and finding it was already unlocked. This was strange, but she supposed one of the people on the upper floors had forgotten to lock it.

She pushed the door open and stepped in, finding the front room quite empty, then she wondered if she had been expecting, or hoping, to find someone here.

Closing the door with her foot, she went over to the counter, placing the basket on the counter.

"Hello, Carmen." She screamed, turning around, seeing Jack Sparrow standing behind the door she had just entered, looking quite menacing in the shadows.

She was gripping the counter with her fingers tightly, her heart racing. He must have unlocked the door. "Sp-Sparrow!" she gasped.

"It's Captain Sparrow, luv," he said, stepping forward. He was wearing a long coat and a tri-cornered hat, armed to the teeth and looking at her darkly.

"I'll scream!" she promised, horrified. "There's people upstairs-"

"They're out at the moment," Sparrow responded coldly.

"Where did you come from? The Black Pearl's gone!"

"I moved it." He chuckled. "I figured yer'd notice if it was gone."

Anger broke through her fear. She glared at Sparrow, gripping the counter so tightly her knuckles were white. Hatred was welling up inside of her. "You're evil."

He looked back at her, face still hard. Then he smiled a little. "Think wha' yer like, Carmen. Yer can't understand yet." Then he walked towards her.

She was frozen as he stopped inches from her, his closeness terrifying and... well, she wasn't going to think about that. This close, she could see every line in his face, the exact way the kohl smudged around those eyes, and her own scared reflection in them.

"I'm goin' ter tie yer up," he said softly.

"No-"

"I have ter," he said. "We can't go ter the ship till nightfall, otherwise we'll be seen, luv."

They were going to the ship? She was being kidnapped! She opened her mouth to scream and rage at Jack, but all noise was cut off suddenly as he roughly gagged her. Then, he spun her around and bound her hands behind her back tightly. She glared at him.

"Sit down, luv," he offered with mock politeness. She was hating him, but she sat down on the counter anyway, and he bound her ankles, his hands rough on her soft legs.

xXx

Edward Poelle watched the sea as he walked along the cliff, the salty wind whipping his black hair around his face. He thought of Lainey, and how close she had come to finding out the secret he and his mother had always kept from her. He couldn't stand the thought of losing Lainey.

The sea was calm, but the air promised a storm still. Edward picked his way down some rocks, down to the caves.

Then he saw it, hidden away. The Black Pearl.

He cried out bitterly, then turned to run away- only to collide with a tall, muscular, brown-haired man, whose lips quirked into a grin.

"Going somewhere?"

Then something hit Edward in the back of the head, and there was blackness.

xXx

Lainey herself was in the corner of her front room, hidden away behind a chair by Jack Sparrow just in case someone should come in. She was whimpering behind the gag, sobbing in fear.

Jack Sparrow himself had disappeared into her bedroom a while ago. She wondered what he was doing in there. It made her bristle just to imagine him going through her things. She tried not to think about it, and focused instead on the window. She could just see the sun setting. They would be setting off for the ship soon. And that would certainly be the end of Lainey. There was simply no hope.

No hope.