Twilight Poet: Hey! Me again! I have block exams coming up so this may just be the last chapter for a while… sorry.

Disclaimer: …NO! I'm outta job!

Twilight Poet: hehehe, oops… anyway! Here goes chapter 9!

Disclaimer: …sniff… TP owns…sob… nothing… WAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!

Twilight Poet: err… here… -hands tissue-

Chapter 9 – In which Gin drowns someone and sings…

--GIN--

Humming to herself, Gin listened to the well known conversation below.

Will talked calmly as he sharpened his sword, "When I was a lad living in England, my mother raised me by herself. After she died, I came out here, looking for my father."

"Is that so?" murmured Jack, though it didn't really look like he was listening.

Will's expression turned curious, "My father, Will Turner. At the jail, it was only after you learned my name that you agreed to help. Since that's what I wanted, I didn't press the matter. I'm not a simpleton, Jack. You knew my father."

"I knew 'im," Jack sighed, "Probably one the few who knew him as William Turner. Everyone else just called him Bootstrap or Bootstrap Bill.

"Bootstrap?"

Gin peered over the top of the nest, "Good man. Good pirate. I swear you look just like him."

"It's not true." Will cried, getting angry, "He was a merchant sailor. A good, respectable man who obeyed the law.

Jack cringed, "He was a bloody pirate, a scallywag."

"My father was not a pirate," the excentric blacksmith cried, drawing his sword.

"Put it away, boy," Gin called, "It's not worth you getting beat again."

Will glared up at her, "He didn't beat me! You both ignored the rules of engagement. In a fair fight, I'd killed you."

"Then that's not much incentive for us to fight fair, then, is it?" Jack spun the wheel and the yard came flying to hit Will in the stomach and swung him out over the ocean. Stopping it there he turned to the boy and grinned, "Now, as long as you're just hanging there, pay attention. The only rules that really matter, are these – what a man can do and what a man can't do. For instance, you can accept that your father was a pirate and a good man or you can't. But pirate is in your blood, boy, so you'll have to square with that someday. Now, me, for example, I can let you drown but I can't bring this ship into Tortuga all by me onesy, savvy?"

Gin sneered, but it would be useless to argue, what did she know about ships?

"So…" Jack spun the wheel and brought Will back on board, offered out his sword, "can you sail under the command of a pirate? Or can you not?"

"Tortuga?" asked Will, taking the sword.

Jack grinned wildly and Gin rolled her eyes, "Tortuga."

And it wasn't at all long until they were waltzing through the dirt ridden streets of the famous Tortuga. Well, Jack was waltzing, Will was striding and Gin was running along behind them. She'd already tripped over 4 drunks, stumbled into more things than she cared to ever remember and been shot at least twice. All of a sudden a hand whizzed out of nowhere, aimed for the 'pretend' pirate's arm. Yelping, she dodged it and leaped into Will's arms. The blacksmith stared at her, startled.

Gin smirked and patted him on the cheek, "Sorry love, you're not my type."

Rolling his eyes, Will let go and she hit the ground with a thud.

Jack laughed, "More importantly, it is indeed a sad life that has never breathed deep this sweet, proliferous bouquet that is Tortuga , savvy? What do you think?"

"It'll linger," Will muttered, wrinkling his nose.

"I'll tell you mate," Jack grinned, ignoring Will's obvious displeasure, "if every town in the world were like this one, no man would ever feel unwanted."

Suddenly a red headed woman came strutting up. "Scarlet!"

The woman glared and slapped him hard across the face as a blond whore quickly replaced her.

Jack rubbed his cheek, "Not sure I deserved that. Giselle!"

The snotty wench snarled, "Who was she!"

"What?" she slapped him across the same cheek. Sparrow blinked, "I may have deserved that..."

Will raised an eyebrow and Gin sniggered, "A real Lady's man, you are Jack, old boy!"

Jack glared at her, "Gin, don't help…"

Then ignoring her protests, he grabbed a bucket and filled it with water. Shrugging, Will and Gin did the same and followed him into the back of a rundown shed. Lying with the pigs amongst his own filth was Gibbs. Jack carelessly threw the water over him and waited for the drunkard to wake properly.

Gibbs coughed and spluttered, "Curse you for breathing, you slack-jawed idiot!" he spotted the crew, "Mother's love! Jack! You should know better than to wake a man when he's sleeping. 'S bad luck."

"Ah, fortunately I know how to counter it." Sparrow nodded, "The man who did the waking buys, the man who was sleeping, a drink. The man who was sleeping drinks it while listening to a proposition from the man who did the waking."

Gibbs looked to be in great pain as he processed this. Gin was starting to get scared when suddenly his face lit up and he grinned widely, "Aye, that'll about do it."

As Gibbs got up, Will threw his bucket of water, splashing him hard in the face, "Blast! I'm already awake!"

"That was for the smell."

The same pained expression crossed his face when Gin also threw her bucket over him.

"What was THAT one for?" he cried.

"You still stink," Gin frowned. Grabbing him by his ear, she dragged him outside, "Deep breath now." She threw him into a deep watering trough and processed to dunk him.

"What are you doing?" cried Jack.

"I'm cleaning, what does it look like?"

"An execution?" Will grimaced.

Gin blinked and let the half-drowned man to get to his feet. Laughing nervously, she began to sneak away.

"Giiiiin!" Jack growled.

"I know, I know," the girl groaned, "Don't help!"

Helping Gibbs up, they walked over to a local tavern.

Taking a shadowed table at the back, Jack pulled Will aside and whispered, "Keep a sharp eye," before sitting down at the table with Gibbs.

Will took his place, but was also careful to keep one ear on the conversation. Gin, however, was having a VERY hard time sitting still. It had never been one of her favourite hobbies and it was starting to drag on her nerves.

Now, in the case of severe boredom, Gin's brain was often known to go into 'emergency' mode. Sadly, this was one of those times and the old gears started to spin violently until the most random idea that it could possibly cough up was splattered in a pretty green colour all over the inside of Gin head. Sing a song! You know you want to!

Gin's eye twitched and her smile grew wild. Pushing her way past whores and drunkards, she came across an old piano… it'd do.

She grabbed a random person, "Can you play?"

"Yar?"

"Good, play!"

As the man began to play a basic tune, Gin ran over and stood on the counter.

Let's get down to business - to defeat our foes
Look at you all, a disgrace, you're way too slow
You're the saddest bunch I've ever met
But you can bet before we're through
People, I'll make pirates out of you!

Some of the noise settled and quite a few angry glares were filtered in her direction.

Simple as the ocean
But with gold, hidin'
Once you find their weakness
You are sure to win!
You're a shallow and weak pathetic lot
And you haven't got a clue
Somehow I'll make pirates out of you!

Will stared at her with his mouth hanging open. ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND! -was the expression on his face. Gin grinned and started to make bad imitations of the pirates around her;

"I'm never gonna catch my breath"
"Say good-bye to those who knew me!"
"Boy, was I a fool in school for skipping Gym!"

She went back to herself and pointed at the crowds

Success has got ya' scared to death!
But I'm not gonna give up that easy…

Her face turned thoughtful,

Though now I really wish that I knew how to swim…

After being chased around for a little, she jumped up onto a shelf and glared at the raving men below;

You're a disappointment to the sea,
So get lost, go home, you're through
How could I make pirates out of you?

As the pirates started shaking the cabinet, a voice rang through the room, "GIIIIIIIINNNNNN!"

The girl-pirate paled, "…ma bad?"

VWVWVWVWVWVWVWVWVWVWVWVWVWVWV

Twilight Poet: There you go! I tried to make it as amusing as possible. If you didn't guess, the song was from the movie "Mulan" and I DID skip a few verses… Anywho, see you all again soon!

Disclaimer: --sobs and waves hanky--