A/N: This is the second update in the last few days. So if you haven't checked the story in awhile, check that you didn't miss a chapter.

And review for me, yeh bloody scallywags! I know you're there, I see you on the hit counter! Yes, I'm talking to you. Yes, you. (No, not you, not you….you. To borrow a line from Hook).

In the beginning, it went just as Barbossa was hoping. Exhausted from putting out fires, harassed by a demon monkey arsonist, the enemy was rattled easily by the mob of loud, dirty pirates. The crew of the And Back boarded, armed to the teeth, and stained the piratehunter's decks red with blood. (Barbossa was pleased to see that most of it was not their own. Perhaps the coaching from Will Turner was worth something after all?)

But then things started to go wrong. One minute Elizabeth was looking at him for orders. The next minute she was airborne, hurtling towards him to tackle him to the deck screaming "MOVE!"

As they were falling he realized she must have seen someone taking a shot at them. They landed tangled together in a heap, and he held his breath and waited, listening to his body. After a few seconds when no roar of pain began, he decided it had been a miss.

Perhaps not. Elizabeth was lying completely still, her eyes squeezed shut. "Have ye been hit?" he demanded.

"I-I don't know. It feels like someone punched me in the shoulder."

Barbossa looked her over and swore under his breath. There was already a big dark stain spreading out over one arm and the side of her shirt. "Don't move." He unbuttoned her shirt and jerked it down past her elbows, trying to make sense of the damage through all the spouting blood.

He relaxed almost immediately: the bullet had only made a jagged tear across her arm that with any luck had even missed her bicep. "It's naught but a flesh wound," he assured her. "Truly nothing. But don't look at it."

Of course Elizabeth had to look then, and when she saw all the blood she started to scream. Barbossa clapped a hand over her mouth, then changed his mind and used it to cover her eyes instead. Elizabeth changed from screaming to whimpering. "Oh, shut up – so long as you don't bleed out, you're going to be fine. Sit here, crawl away if you prefer, but keep the wound covered, understand?"

Unwilling to let the battle go on without his supervision, Barbossa stood up as soon as it seemed she was no longer hysterical. Elizabeth stared up at him with tears in her eyes. "But it hurts."

"Yes well that's what happens when you get shot," he answered ruthlessly.

She heard a touch of amusement in his voice. "Bastard," she muttered at his back as he turned his attention towards the battle on the other ship. "Bloody ungrateful pirate."

But now, the way the battle was going did not please Barbossa at all. People seemed to be sitting around, surrendering...and not being executed! It seemed he had missed quite a bit while he dealt with the injury to his best-looking crew member. He frowned, trying to make sense of what had happened….

What had happened was this: As soon as the battle seemed to be going well for them, Will turned to face his captain. "Offer them quarter!" Will shouted across the water. "Barbossa, you have to offer them quarter!" But the captain was paying attention to something on the ground – Elizabeth, in fact – and Will doubted he would have been able to hear over the noise anyway. So Will took matters into his own hands: he climbed up where he could be seen and shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Any man who wants to surrender," he called, "Lay down your weapons and sit. You will not be harmed." He saw some people hesitate and look up at him, so he repeated, "On my word: you will not be harmed!"

Amazingly enough, although they still outnumbered the pirates, by ones and twos they began to lay down their guns and swords.

Superlatively irritated, Barbossa ordered a plank put across. He left the And Back in the somewhat capable hands of his injured aide Elizabeth and the eternally-drunk Gibbs, and walked over to sort things out.

Will Turner was upon him the moment he set foot on the enemy deck. "These people have all asked for quarter and I've promised it them," the boy said firmly. "You can't kill them now."

Barbossa spared him one scornful glance before shoving past and addressing himself directly to the prisoners. "Who's in charge here?"

Someone pointed to a man in Navy uniform lying unconscious on the deck. Barbossa kicked him awake and waited while he sat up, bewildered, and looked around.

Will gasped. "You!"

The Navy man turned to the source of the voice and squinted at it. "Will Turner?"

A girlish squeal from behind him told Barbossa that his aide had seen fit to abandon her post and follow him over here. "Commodore Norrington?"

The Navy man rose slowly to his feet. "Well, well. Elizabeth. What a lovely reunion." His voice was bitter. "Now might I assume I'm to have the pleasure of Captain Sparrow's company too? I assume he still is in charge of this rabble?"

Elizabeth stepped up and slapped him with her good arm. "Jack's dead, you honorless traitor," she informed him coldly. "After you stole all his leverage, Jack and the Pearl were taken by Davy Jones's beast. It would have killed us all, but Jack gave his life to let the rest of us escape."

Norrington stared at her, mouth open. With his wig all askew from the battle and a single trickle of blood winding down his nose from under his hat, he looked so confused it might have been comical under other circumstances. "No. No, it can't be." His mouth twisted. "Jack Sparrow is mine, he was MIIIIIINE!"

Elizabeth managed not to hit him again. "Jack was not yours," she hissed, casting about for the cruelest things she could think of. "And Jack had things you're never going to have! Jack died a hero's death. He's going to be remembered as a good man. He earned our love and respect, all of us, and do you remember that way I was looking when I thought about him?" she dropped her voice and stepped closer. "Well he earned some of that, too." She watched Norrington's face, needing to see him suffer as much as possible, and raised her chin proudly. "He tasted fabulous."

Norrington lunged for her, but the impending catfight was averted when someone stepped between them and shoved Norrington backwards. "And what be the problem over here, miss Elizabeth?" drawled Barbossa.

Elizabeth was so furious at Norrington that she decided to tell on him. "He was the one who stole Jack's bargaining chip and-"

"Jack's bargaining chip?" interrupted Will angrily. "That heart was my father's ticket to freedom and vengeance!"

Barbossa didn't waste words – as soon as he understood what this man had done, he drew a pistol and cocked it.

But Elizabeth threw herself between them, shielding Norrington with her body and smearing blood all over him in the process. "No! Captain please, you mustn't kill him."

Even as angry as he was, Barbossa was not quite willing to shoot Elizabeth over this bit of disobedience, so he decocked his pistol and pointed it upwards. "Care to tell me why?"

"Because I...because he..."

Norrington put an end to her fumbling with a harsh laugh. "Upon my word, I believe the lady still has feelings for me!" He looked over her shoulder to make eye contact with the pirate captain. "Didn't she tell you? I'm the first of her jilted fiancés."

"The first?" Barbossa frowned, wondering why this man thought that Will had also been jilted.

Norrington misinterpreted. "Yes, the first. Haven't you heard the full list of her conquests? It's quite a long tale."

Elizabeth stiffened at that unnecessary jab, and Barbossa cocked his pistol again, deciding that one excuse to kill the man was as good as another. "One more word against her and you'll never speak again."

"She's got her hooks into you, too?" Norrington asked, amazed. "Me, Turner, and Sparrow weren't enough for her?"

Barbossa was much too experienced to lose his poker face so easily, but Elizabeth reacted. "I interceded for you as a thank-you for the one day's head start you gave Jack that let him escape the Navy forever," she said coldly, then stepped away and crossed her arms. "If you get yourself killed now, it's not my concern."

Norrington believed her and rushed to get words out. "You'd be a fool to waste me; I have information you need," he babbled.

"I'm listening." Barbossa did not lower his gun.

"The heart – Davy Jones's heart. Of infinite value to pirates like yourselves. I can tell you what Beckett's done with it. It's information I'd be willing to part for in exchange for the lives of my crew – you don't sink the ship, you don't touch us, you let us pass unharmed. And then I'll tell you everything you need to know."

"What about your precious plan to get your life back?" scathed Elizabeth.

Norrington looked away. "It didn't work," he admitted. "Life under the tyranny of the East India Trading Company is not exactly what I had in mind. If you try to take the heart from Beckett, you'll meet no opposition from me."

Barbossa nodded and put his pistol away. "It's agreed, turncoat. Now let's you and I sit down and have a few friendly little words about that heart. Aye?"

Elizabeth tugged at his arm and whispered to him, "Captain, don't get distracted. Why do we even need the heart? We're concerned with only one thing this voyage, remember?"

He shook her off. "Mr. Turner," he called, "Come and escort your crewmate back to her ship."

She was being dismissed, carried out, sent away like an insurance salesman? How dare he - after she just got herself shot protecting him? The nerve!

But before she could find words to express her outrage, Will was upon her. He put an arm around her waist gently, kissed the side of her neck, and whispered, "We have to take care of your wound anyway. Come with me."

Knowing he was right, she went with him. Sulking.

TBC…..

Show some love, yarr.