Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing Disney. Except some toys I had when I was little. I wonder where they are now...

A/N: Dun, dun, dun! Cliffhanger at the end? Maybe. Maybe not. Do you guys even actually read this? Are you actually paying attention to what I'm saying here? Well, whatever. Keep going. Thanx.

Chapter 17

A little while later, James Norrington was escorted through the backdoor of the small home. The old man said nothing as he hobbled over to the table that had been set up. He motioned James to sit before he hobbled out of sight again. Norrington looked around the room curiously as he sat at the lopsided table. He placed his hat down in front of him and nervously pulled on a loose string from its brim. He did not know how long he would be asked to wait but it had been a long hour since he had first seen the old man beckon him from the doorway.

As he considered his current situation, James heard the footsteps of another man approaching from the doorway that his old host had exited from. The Commodore listened intuitively to the feet that had begun to approach him but could not place them from any of the others that he remembered.

"Good morning, Mr. Norrington," the voice said as James finally got a look at the man through the open doorway. He recognized him as the same man he had met at the Lusty Wench although he had only seen his features for a moment.

"Good morning, Mr. Meade," he replied before Jonathan took a seat across from him.

"Where is that rat?" Morgan hissed in annoyance as she paced erratically across the deck of the Cicatriz.

"Jonathan said he'd return as soon," a meeker man from Jonathan's pirate group spoke out.

"That was before he decided to board the Black Pearl and send her off to God knows where!" Morgan growled back at him. He crept away from her slowly to the other side of the ship. Jonathan knew her hate for tardiness and yet he had ignored it completely.

She watched the port angrily waiting for him to return. "It would not matter to him if death was about our doorstep," Morgan muttered to herself. She had wanted to get out of there as soon as he had returned and now his extended trip was making her nervous.

Morgan's manners were not impeccable in the least, especially when it came to being a lady but tardiness was something she could not excuse. It was the way she had lost the only person she had cared for in her twenty-odd years of life. Her lateness had caused his death and no matter how many years he had now been dead or how old she got, she would always remember that it would always be her fault that she had not been there to save her father.

On the land that was called Allenport, Jonathan shoved the knife that Morgan had ordered into his belt as he came upon the docks of the sea town. Her men waited anxiously for his return and had already taken a trip back to the ship to load the cargo they had bought. Morgan had been angry then and they knew better than to be late. They had seen men left behind when they had not been on time to set sail and some of them had even experienced it themselves. On seeing Jonathan approach, they readied their small boat for departure back to the Cicatriz as the ship at sea had already begun its orders to sail as well.

"Mr. Mead, you know how Morgan hates tardiness," Aheme, a gangly pirate said as Jonathan settled into the small boat.

"Unfortunately, it was none of my own doing," Jonathan replied as the boat shoved off from the dock.

"Either way, Captain White's gonna have your skin for making her wait," the dark man replied as he shook his head and helped row towards the ship.

"I am well aware of Morgan's rules as a captain," Meade replied with a bit of worry in the back of his mind as to what punishment Morgan would have for him.

Morgan had already made all the arrangements for her ship to sail by the time Jonathan and the rest of her crew had been brought aboard the deck of the Pearl. She stood calmly waiting for him to board her ship. When he saw her there, he knew that she had something planned for him. From what Jonathan could gather, she did not know about his meeting with Commodore Norrington and he would be sure then that Morgan wouldn't know until the trap had already sprung.

After her returning crew had quickly scattered back to their usual tasks, Morgan and Jonathan still stood facing each other at the side of the ship. Both of them tried to see who would be the first to break the stare. To what seemed at least years to Jonathan, Morgan finally made her first move towards him. Without breaking eye contact, she stepped toward him.

"Do you have my knife?" Morgan asked coolly as she flicked her wrist open in anticipation of receiving her new toy.

"Yes," Jonathan told her quietly as he fished it out of his belt.

Placing it in her hand, he watched as White looked it over with interest. She undid the leather straps that held the knives in their case before she slid each end out of its case, Morgan looked them over carefully before twirling it in her hand. Satisfied, she put it back into its case before tucking it into her own belt.

"And now the map," White ordered, her palm outstretched once again.

"The map is mine, Morgan" Jonathan stalled.

"It is not. You stole it from my father."

"Our father."

"I don't trust you," Morgan added quickly. "Hand it over or I'll take it from your dead body."

Jonathan swallowed nervously. That was a threat that she might live up to. In the back of his mind he knew that somehow if he didn't kill her first, she would kill him instead.

"Don't you remember? You'll save our father," Jonathan replied in a whisper as he tried to talk his way out of it.

"That has nothing to do with you keeping the map. You're stalling," Morgan growled at him before growing impatiant with him. "Boys, get Mr. Meade comfortable," she shouted to her men that were closest to her.

With these words, the men of Morgan's crew descended upon the ferret-type man. Tuck patted him down, as two other pirates held him back. He quickly found the parchment that Meade had hidden beneath his shirt. Morgan snatched it away quickly and the rest of the men released Jonathan from their hold.

Unrolling it, Morgan looked the map over carefully. The island was south-east of Allenport as far as she could tell.

"Weigh anchor, keep her to!" Morgan shouted at the men as the wind caught their sails. "We'll be sailing eastward," she added with a nod to one of her men as she noticed the winds were coming northwestern as they made their way out of port.

Seeing that her crew was following her orders, Morgan glanced down again to the map in her hands. There were no real paths to show where she needed to take. Morgan knew it would be an interesting trip inside those dark caverns but she was more than up to the challenge.

Rolling the map back up, she once again took a look at Jonathan. "You were late."

"I know. The knife was not ready," he responded as the men around them rushed about their work.

"Tardiness is not something I enjoy, Mr. Meade. You will be bound and gagged to the mast for your punishment until nightfall. No one needs to hear you talk and it's obvious we have no need for your services at the moment," she told her step-brother with a smile.

"Lars," she said mentioning to the big man that had stayed near her. "Give Jonathan a hand. He's going to get some sun for the day."

"Yes, Capt'n," Lars responded as he pulled the partially abliging man away to the mast where he would spend time for the rest of the day.

Morgan turned and found a few men were still standing behind her, still waiting for another order to be given. "You two," she said pointing to two lean looking pirates from her crew. "Get the rest of these supplies away or ye'll be joining him as well!"

As if the idea of being tied to the mast made them hurry, the look she had given them as well made them scurry even faster. No man wanted to be in the wrath of Captain Morgan White but there were some of them who would have liked to try. One was back in Allenport with his men, another was tied to the mast of her ship and the third sat in the brig of her ship with half of his men. By the end of the voyage, only two of them would try. The other in fact would perhaps save her life.


A/N Part Deux: Can I get at least two reviews before I update, please? I really would love to know what you think. And a 'it's sucks' or 'it's good' tells me nothing. What do you like? What do you hate? Those who have already reviewed once, twice or multiple times...I love you. I really do. You make me happy. I could insert a comparison in where I compare reviews to drugs but I think you've heard them all before. That's really the jist of it though. They are. Plus, you get something from the reviews - You review, I update. Hurrah. Fun for all.