Jack's first stop was making sure Gibbs had a proper heading, then he ensured the boy wasn't going to cause any trouble. After that Jack looked after himself, making sure he had a fresh bottle of rum in his hand and then that every knot in the rigging was perfect. And then...then he wound a path towards his cabin where Nicolette had made herself comfortable behind his desk with one of her bottles of wine already uncorked.

"Took your time." She whispered as he shut and locked the door, blocking out most of the natural light. Nicolette had lit candles, illuminating the cabin with patches of dim amber, one of which was on the desk making her face glow mysteriously.

"Duty called luv." He heard her hum doubtfully and after a second he started to walk to her, slowly with considerate steps. Jack wasn't afraid of her but he knew to be cautious, she had that unpredictable spark in her eye, her deep voice on and she was holding a relatively empty glass bottle. "How did you get to that Island with the boy?" He asked with a light smirk, genuinely curious as he took a seat opposite her where his guest usually sat.

He had first noticed the lack of ships on the horizon while walking the deck and trying to work out an honest lie to tell her, and he very much doubted they had swam from Tortuga.

"You don't get to ask the questions Jack." His smile dropped and Jack suddenly found himself very uncomfortable given his current position in the given situation. He didn't like seeing her in his seat, looking over his maps…wearing his shirt. Of course, she was always too impatient to let her clothes dry on her.

Just as his eyes started to wander down the translucency of his oversized shirt on her tiny frame, she scowled and crossed her arm - leaving him to ask himself what she was wearing on the bottom.

"Davy Jones." Nicolette started, voice dangerously low. Jack's mind cleared of all good thoughts. "That damn key. That one you kept going on about finding…and night after night I sat there wanting to strangle you…" Nic paused to take a long swig of her drink. "And not once did you mention Jones."

"You know of him?" Jack sounded surprised but he jumped in his seat when Nic slammed her bottle down hard on the table. The ornaments rattled from the force of the disturbance and she gritted her teeth, eyes looking around the cabin at anything but him.

"Hells Jack! Every sailor in this cesspool knows of Davy Jones! I heard his name every day I was married to Barbossa, the ever looming threat of the locker was enough to keep me quiet during the first few years." Jack pursed his lips and muttered an 'oh' as he sunk lower into his seat and cracked open his own bottle. "What did you do Jack?"

The same darkness inhabiting Nicolette spread to Jack as his eyes became a deeper shade of brown and he sat forward, resting his elbows upon his knees. "What makes you think I did anything lass?"

Nicolette mirrored his movements, leaning closer to him over the desk. Her lips pouted and although his rough tone was somewhat distracting, it wasn't enough so to take her away from the topic.

"Because as much as you deny it Jack I know you…" Her gaze suddenly moved to where Jack was massaging his wrapped hand with his other subconsciously. "And you've been doing that since you sat down."

Jack dropped his hands under the table to hide them from her view and shrugged. "Just a scratch luv, nothing to worry about." Nic's face softened before she chuckled softly under her breath and shook her head. She became hunched and her head dropped forward before she took a breath and relaxed back into the Captains chair.

"All these years Jack." She whispered slowly. "And you still can't tell me the truth." Maybe it was because she hadn't been expecting such a spanner in the works such as Davy Bloody Jones. Or maybe it was because she had told him everything over the past few months, from the mutiny to Barbossa, to her little gambling scrap, and he still couldn't tell her one story which didn't contain one lie.

"How did you get here luv?" Nic laughed then, fully and unrestrained.

There was no way of getting through to Jack Sparrow and it was suddenly clear to her that he had not actually told her anything of what he had been doing each time she saw him in Tortuga. He found her, they went to bed and he left. There were small segments in between during which he muttered stories, old stories, to keep her happy and on his knee.

No wonder the women called her his little whore.

"Oh you remember Matthew Rathbone don't you Jack?" Nic would be lying if she said she didn't feel a small quiver of guilt in her gut as she saw Jack's expression harden, but she had nothing to feel guilty about given the circumstances. Besides, it was drowned out by the wave of satisfaction. "Captain Rathbone now, of the Bloody Dagger." She stood from the table, leaving the bottle behind and returning to the cabinet to retrieve another. "He very generously gave myself and young William a little lift."

There was a shift behind her as Jack fidgeted in his chair. "I didn't know you still spoke."

"Didn't." She was quick to answer as her finger ran over the labels of the bottles. All of them were too nice to waste when she was in a bad mood, so she selected one of the aged rums she had left for Jack, uncorking it and taking a long drink. "Ran into him a couple months back. Every now and again he docks and we have a drink..." She allowed that little fact to linger. "He just happened to be in port and setting off when we needed." She smirked, her expression still out of view from Jack. It was funny how similar her relationship to Matthew sounded to the one she had with Jack when spoke aloud.

"Ah." That was it…that was all the great Captain Jack Sparrow had to say. She had risked getting eaten and he couldn't even tell her the truth and now all he could say was 'ah'.

She huffed and shifted on the spot. "You have n-" As she turned, she was thrown off balance by Jack grabbing her wrist and pushing her back into the wall of the cabin. The bottle of rum fell from her hand and smashed upon hitting the floor causing rum to coat her bare ankles.

All Nic wore was one of Jack's spare shirts, the first she found, and a pair of breeches. The shirt was stained and low cut, loosely hanging on a frame built from mainly vegetable stew and wine and the breeches were just holding onto her hips.

She had not even heard him move but now he had her pinned against the wall of his cabin, one of his knees pushed between hers and his mouth dangerously close to her jaw. Perhaps she had got a rise out of him after all, she just got much more of a physical reaction, rather than verbal.

"Jack…" Nic whispered, a slight croak in her voice as Jack took her other wrist and held them both up by her head. "Why don't you trust me?" For a moment his grip loosened but then became even tighter as he pressed his forehead against hers and closed his eyes.

"I do." Jack sounded pained. "But this is not your battle to fight and if it were up to me you'd already be on your way back to Tortuga…" His eyes opened slowly and finally he stared into the deep shimmering green and shocking ghostly white. Smirking, Jack let go of one of Nicolette's hands and cupped her cheek. "But we both know you're too stubborn."

There was a small pause in which he laughed but it was short lived when Nic didn't join in. Instead, she closed her eyes and pulled away from his touch.

"If I'm not going anywhere…" She started softly, "Then I'm going to need to know what exactly it is I'm getting involved in."

Jack took a step back but brought Nicolette with him, her brow lifting in wonder until he took a seat in the chair behind his desk and pulled her into his lap. Now it was him in control he was much more comfortable.

"If you're trying to distract me Jack, this won't work." She stared at him unimpressed as he dragged a finger down the neckline of her shirt…which he quickly snapped away when he seen the warning glare return to her eyes and he cleared his throat.

"You remember when I told you of the Wicked Wench?" He began, deciding it was better to get it over with sooner rather than later.

Nicolette looked taken aback but nodded. "The first ship you Captained?"

As she asked this, Nicolette thought back to the first time she had ever met Jack Sparrow; The Captain of the Black Pearl. He had only had the Pearl for a couple of months then, Barbossa wasn't a name she knew but he was Jack's new First Mate. Gibbs wasn't with him, nor were half the men she knew when she first joined the Pearl. Jack was young, reckless, fearless… He was like no one she had ever met before.

Jack nodded, similar memories filling his own mind only these ones were of the moment the Black Pearl was made and christened.

"Well, you're on her luv." He didn't look at Nic as her eyes widened but he felt her glare on him, burning holes into his skull. His thumb began to mindlessly trace patterns on her thigh, over her breeches. "Beck-" Jack caught the word in his mouth before he completed it as he felt the woman in his arms stiffen. "He sunk her, but I didn't watch like I said." When he looked at Nic she was staring into nothingness but he could still tell she was listening as her hand went to his neck and played with the stray hairs at the nape of his neck. "I managed to swim to the Wench, got aboard and went down with her sat in me cabin with a bottle of rum."

The realisation sunk in too quickly for her to wrap her head around, but she got the gist of it and finished Jack's story for him.

"Jones raised the Wench…raised you." Jack should have been dead, at the bottom of the ocean in the very position he sat in now, in the very same cabin…down to the run he held in his hand. The only difference was she wouldn't have been there, she would never had even met him. "How is that even possible?"

She scoffed softly and stood from his lap, taking the rum from him and with her, walking away but slowing after a few steps. As she tried to make sense of it, Nic chewed on her fingers, stopping only when her teeth drew blood and filled her mouth with the salty taste or iron.

"The Black Pearl. She was in flames when she went down, that's why she charred?" She didn't expect an answer.

This was bigger than anything she had imagined. Anything. A blood curse was one thing but the Lord of the Sea…the legend? Up until a few minutes ago Nic wasn't even sure she believed he existed. The locker was just Barbossa's way of threatening her with an eternity on the ocean floor unable to die, that's what she assumed. Those stories…the men who had seen the shadow of the Kraken under their ships as it travelled to its next prey or, better yet, the ones who had seen Jones themselves when on the brink of death only to awake ashore, unharmed. That's all they were to her, stories. God, even Rusty had a story on the devil himself.

"What was his deal?" Her voice barely broke the silence which had settled over the Cabin and as she turned, she saw Jack had not moved but was watching her with regret. "What did you trade?"

He had not meant for her to be here. It was why he hadn't returned to Tortuga in a Month, even after he returned from Turkey. He thought he had time but since his little visit from Bootstrap he couldn't risk returning to the port and having her decide to come aboard the Pearl.

Already, from the first day they met, he had got her into too many sticky messes which now left her scarred, burned and at times broken. He couldn't have her getting caught up in his dealing with Jones but now it seemed, he didn't have a choice.

"Thirteen years as Captain of the Black Pearl, a hundred years service aboard the Flying Dutchman."

Nicolette let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding and dropped down onto the bed with a heavy thump. "I'm sorry Jack."

The guilt returned, only this time it spread from her gut all through her stomach and into her throat until it felt like she was choking on a canon ball. Those ten years she sailed on the Pearl under Barbossa were ones stolen from just a few Jack had with the Pearl. That fact, along with the knowledge of how much he adored the Pearl, made her not know what to do. So, she asked Jack what he was going to do.

"What's your plan?" Jack smirked for reasons unknown to her.

"Have you heard of the Chest of Davy Jones?" Of course she had. If she hadn't heard the tall tale during her years in the Ol' Sailor, she had heard it in the various taverns over the past few months.

"He who holds the chest, commands the sea. I've heard all the stories." Nic replied with a small smile, her hands playing with the ends of the shirt she wore, twisting it until creases contorted the material.

"That's why, I'm going to find it and use it to make him reconsider."

As Jack watched her doubtful expression form, her head nodding as if to just go along with him, he stood from his seat and approached her. She didn't acknowledge him until he was holding her waist and even then it was weakly as her body leant into him. The smallest part of her waist felt even slimmer than it had weeks ago and her cheekbones were more defined than Jack could ever recall them being.

"How long do we have to find said chest, before he sends his little beastie?" She whispered, trailing her hand up the front of his waist coat, playing with the buttons and pockets while, unknown to her, Jack began to unwind the frayed fabric around his palm.

Just as the white cloth loosened did her eyes move to what he was doing and then, as they came into contact with the festering black mark, Nicolette's jaw dropped. It looked like his skin was rotting from the inside out, burrowing into his hand like a scarab beetle.

"Ah." It was her turn to hum as her stomach twisted. "Does it hurt?" Nic asked softly as she held the back of Jack's hand, palm side up, and turned it to the light in order to see it better.

"Not really." He shrugged but winced when she ran the tips of her fingers across the edge of the wound, making Nic send him a scolding glare. "So, Matthew Rathbone?" Jack asked suddenly, unable to hold back his curiosity any longer, and even if it meant she would be angry, that was better that having the lass study his plagued hand as closely as she was.

"Oh don't." Nicolette tutted, not even bothering to look at him.

"What? Just mildly curious love." Jack pulled his hand away from her hold and rewrapped the cloth around it, for his own benefit rather than anything else. Nicolette watched and then helped him tie the ends of the fabric, tucking in the loose edges so they didn't unravel. "Are you…"

"Spit it out Jack."

"Are you…friendly with each other." She couldn't help laughing at Jack and chuckled lightheartedly as she retook her seat on the edge of the bed.

"Oh…" She mussed, leaning back on her forearms causing her to bounce slightly on the thin mattress. "We are very friendly with one another…" With considered steps and a set jaw, Jack stalked towards her and came to stop when they were toe to toe and she was looking up at him like a siren caught in a bay.

Her hair was still wet, though no longer dripping, and slicked back showing her face to be fresh and delicate. Her olive skin, although marked, was naturally faultless and she looked breathtaking.

"How friendly?" Jack asked, softer, kneeling on the bed with Nicolette in between his knees, under him on the bed.

She released a soft sigh, a teasingly vacant one as she rolled her eyes. "I told you, there are always other Captains." Once focused on him, her lips spread into a sensual smirk and she laid fully flat on the bed as Jack moved to hover over her.

"I assumed you to be kidding." Jack said with a raised brow but she only shrugged, nonchalantly. Given his threatening temper, Nic guessed it would have been a bad idea to tell him about the kiss they had shared on their way to find Jack, so she kept hush and played on his reaction.

"Jealous?"

"No!" He snapped, scoffing at the mere idea, however he soon hummed low and approvingly as Nic's arms wrapped around his neck and her hands buried themselves in the dreads at the back of his head. "Hmm, like I said, curious…"

"Is there anything else?" She said, stopping Jack when his lips were inches from hers. She could feel his breath against her neck and it made her weak but she needed to know if there were any more surprises just around the corner. "You know I don't like surprises."

"You have my word darling." As Jack's eyes fluttered close, Nicolette smirked and impatiently awaited the passionate embrace, until she remember where they were heading.

Her. The…witchy priestess. She had came in contact with the woman a couple of times because of Jack, knew more about her because of his stories. And each time, whether herself and Jack had been…together or not, the woman always found a way of being inappropriate.

She placed her finger against Jack's lips and pushed him away gently, laughing when his eyes spread as wide as the sun at the interruption. "If we are going to see Tia Dalma…perhaps this can wait…" Nic suggested with a wince and flick of her eyebrows but by Jack's vacant grimace a second later, she knew he agrees.

"Maybe you're right love." He murmured, moving to stand and holding out a hand to help her up which she gratefully took. But Jack then chuckled as a memory came to him. "Don't need her reading the crew your chances of fertility again do we?"

Nicolette rolled her eyes and brushed out her clothes, muttering under her breath. "Thanks for reminding me.


Once the Black Pearl was anchored, Jack instructed her to lead the second boat along with Gibbs, Will, Pintel and Ragetti as he took the first with Marty, Cotton…Cotton's Parrot…a couple of other crew members, and with Jack the Monkey. The latter, Jack had been quite coy about for no matter how many times she asked why they were chasing the capuchin across the deck and batting his way through the rigging all she got in reply was 'to keep him calm'.

Filthy liars the lot of them.

No matter, she allowed Jack to take little Jack and stood affront the longboat which followed Jack's upriver.

From the moment they became fully emerged in the overgrown, gloomy swamp, Nicolette was on high alert for anything out the ordinary. Vines which could have easily been snakes in disguise, hung low and connected the dark untameable trees, some going from one side of the river to the other, sometimes catching the top of her head as they passed through.

The water, dirty and thick, reflected the rare rays of moonlight the jungle allowed it to see, sometimes lighting the swamp in a every firefly glow. The trees grew tall and the banks of the river were made purely by their roots in most places, large rotten mossy legs entwining with one another before sinking into the black abyss.

It was peaceful, if not a little spooky. But the colours, the deep browns and dark tropical greens blending together with the black blue of the night sky, they were calming and beautiful in the most subtle and appeasing way. The soft sound of the breeze coming from the open oceans and swooping through the leaves like a whisper and the almost silent sound of fish coming to the surface as birds sung around them. It was lovely.

That's why it was such a shame when from behind her, Will decided to pipe up with his irritating English drawl.

"Why is Jack afraid of the open ocean?" The boy wasn't daft, and like Nic and the rest of Jack's crew, he had grown savvy to Jack strange…er behaviour.

Nicolette perked her ears but didn't acknowledge the boy personally, figuring there were three other beings on this boat who enjoyed a tall tale much more than herself.

Gibbs cleared his throat, as she expected he would and then began, "Well, if you believe such things, there's a beast does the bidding of Davy Jones. A fearsome creature with giant tentacles that suction your face clean off and drag an entire ship down to the crushing darkness." Gibbs paused, lowering his voice the tiniest amount. "The Kraken." She saw Jack tilt an ear their way up ahead and rolled her eyes as she heard Pintel and Ragetti both gasp behind her.

"They say the stench of its breath is… ooh." Gibbs shuddered. "Imagine, the last thing you know on God's green earth is the roar of the Kraken and the reeking odour of a thousand rotting corpses." Pintel and Regetti recoiled, slowing their rowing for a split second before Nicolette turned and clipped them each of the back of the head. "If you believe such things." Gibbs finished, catching the lasses glare and turning forward, while Will fell deeper into his thoughts and felt the outline of the drawing he had taken from Jack, in his breast pocket.

"And the key will spare him that?"

"Now that's the very question Jack wants answered. Bad enough even to go visit… her."

Will raised an eyebrow, suddenly intrigued. "Her?"

"Aye."

They were silenced as they rounded a narrow curve in the river which led them to a large open pool of still water, at the far end of which was a hut. Strangers eyes, those belonging to men, women and children followed them as they turned from travellers to intruders. The riverbanks appeared to move with them as some of the children followed the pace of the boat from the shore but Nicolette kept her eyes forward. They meant no harm, simply curious. Otherwise doused in darkness, the windows were illuminated with candlelight. The placement of the small flames made it look inviting but as they got closer, the wood became more rotten and cold.

"No worries, mates." Jack announced, stepping off the longboat onto the landing dock and turning to face them all. "Tia Dalma and I go way back. Thick as thieves. Nigh inseparable we are. Were. Have been. Before."

Nicolette stepped from her boat, closely followed by Gibbs who went to the Captains side.

"I'll watch your back."

"It's me front I'm worried about." Nicolette frowned, falling quickly into step behind Jack as he set off towards the door to the hut but not before asking Gibbs to mind the boat.

"Mind the boat." The man quickly passed the message onto Will before rushing after the pair.

This apparently went on throughout the whole crew as when Nicolette glanced back, impatiently waiting for Jack to grow a pair and open the door, she saw every man but Cotton stood together, cautious peeping over the one in fronts shoulder.

"Are you going in or not?" She whispered to Jack as his hand went towards the handle and then pulled away. He had done this about ten times now and she was close to booting him through the damn door.

He held a hand up to silence her abruptly and glanced at her back over his shoulder before ever so slowly wrapping his unmarked but glistening hand around the wooden handle. But he didn't push it, instead Jack ducked down and peered through the clear glass panel in the door.

It took a hard kick in the backside from Nicolette to even get his foot past the threshold and even then he was still crouched over heavily as he took his first cautious creeping steps through the shack.

"Jack Sparrow."

"Tia Dalma." He stood quickly with a flourish to hide his initial sheepishness and almost knocked his head against a hanging jar full of eyeballs…hopefully not human eyeballs.

He righted himself, stepping under and around the various jars to hold his arms wide for the woman in greeting. As behind him, Nicolette was drawn to a sun yellow snake coiled around a branch and allowed her fingertips to dance over its warm smooth scales as the men all piled in nervously.

She had been nervous the first time she had been brought here by Jack. Just a teenager who was still getting used to a life at sea, she had kept her hands by her sides in fear of touching something she shouldn't and hid behind Bill Turner as the woman had appeared from the back room dressed very much like she was now. Her corset sewn out of fish netting, embroidered with old sea shells and beads. Tia's large skirts resembled rags but compared to what Nicolette wore back then it had been a gown, her dreads tatted and frayed sticking and pinned back from her face. And from the looks of it the woman hadn't aged a day, her lips still stained dark and kohl smudged around her eyes making the brown orbs appear even darker.

Now, after their paths had crossed a good handful, Nicolette no longer feared or minded the presence of Tia Dalma. Her Magic, should one believe in it, and her way were not to be messed with that were true, but if you treat her with respect then there was nothing to fear.

"I always knowed the wind was going to blow you back to me one day." The priestess stood from a small table covered to full capacity with odd trinkets and bits and bobs and approached Jack. Thought at some point on her path to Jack, the young Turner caught her eye. "You." Tia Dalma pointed a long finger to Will as he stepped through the door and she stepped around Jack to go to the boy. "You have a touch a' destiny about you. William. Turner."

The boy was drawn in, entranced by the woman who was unlike anyone else he had met.

"You know me?" Tia Dalma lowly chuckled, a smile spreading across her lips, and lent in closer. Nic chanced a look at Jack and saw him already deep in his own panicked thoughts.

"You want to know me." Before things could go any further and before Will ran out of room to lean back into, Jack ran across the room to intervene.

"There'll be no knowing here." He spoke surely, squashing himself between the pair with a forward stance. "We've come for help and we're not leaving without it." His arm swept over Tia's shoulder and she turned instinctively, allowing Jack to lead her away from Will. "I thought I knew you."

"Not so well as I'd hoped." She separated herself from Jack and walked towards the back of the hut. "Come."

"Come." Jack motioned Will over and the boy hesitantly took a seat on a chair next to Tia's desk as the priestess completed a full circle of her bench and perched on the very edge, right in front of Will.

He looked uncomfortable and Nic couldn't blame him, never the less she left the snake alone and crossed the room to stand between Jack and Pintel, watching the scene unfold.

"What service may I do ya?" Tia asked as she suggestively caressed Will's face, toying with his skin with the tips of her fingers. But her playful demeanour dropped suddenly. "You know I demand payment." She stated forcefully towards Jack's general direction.

"I brought payment." He announced cheerfully and whistled.

Nicolette's face dropped as from her left, Pintel carried through Jack's cage and handed it to the Captain who removed the shawl keeping the monkey calm.

"Look…" She reached out but she wasn't quick enough and Jack's pistol went off, shooting Jack who squealed. But instead of falling silent like she expected, he kept jumping around and rattled the bars of the cage in fury. "…an undead monkey. Top that!"

Nicolette shook the shock from her mind and elbowed Jack in the ribs as the cage was passed over to Tia Dalma. She stepped forward, watching as Tia opened the cage to the apparently still cursed carnivore. How the hell had the little bugger managed that?

"No." Gibbs winced and tried to reach out for Jack as he jumped from the cage. Nicolette grinned however when her boy chirped and then jumped onto her shoulder, of course he wasn't going to let the bad man take him a away from his mama. "You've no idea how long it took us to catch that."

That. How dare they. 'It', 'that', they needed to look in the mirror once in a while.

While Nicolette was busy staring at Gibbs unimpressed and innocently tickling Jack (the monkey) under his chin, Jack pulled the gold band set with a medium ruby from her right ring finger and then jumped from her shoulder, fleeing across the room and through a narrow doorway.

"Oi!" Nic yelped. "Jack!" She called after the monkey before hurrying off to follow him through to the room he had disappeared into. But Tia Dalma moved quicker and before Nic knew it, the woman was blocking the door way she was seconds from passing through.

Their eyes met and for the second time that day Nic was lost for words as the woman's gaze held a warning.

The little devil had took her wedding ring, not that she was still married, but she liked the jewel and it had always been a reminder of her late husbands more lovable side. Even if it was a bad period with a morbid ending, that ring had helped keep her mind open as to why on some dark night she found her heart grieving.

But of course Tia would already know that and so, without a fuss, Nicolette pursed her lips and reluctantly allowed the woman to turn her around and lead her back to the group.

"The payment is fair." Tia declared and Nic looked to Jack as Tia's hand left her back, scowling when he simply shrugged.

"We're looking for this." She heard Will say when Tia had returned her full attention to the boy, in a positive and negative way depending on ones perception. Ignoring her seductive glances and pawing, the boy laid out the drawing of the key. "And what it goes to."

Tia looked to the drawing and then to Jack.

"The compass you bartered from me, it cannot lead you to this?"

"Maybe. Why?" Jack asked, barely turning his attention from the Captains hat he now held.

"Aah." Tia's seriousness dropped again, as quick as it had came and she laughed low. The rolls of amusement were drawn out and she sat back in her tall backed chair casually. "Jack Sparrow does not know what he wants. Or do you know but are loath to claim it as your own." Jack felt the eyes of almost everyone in the room on him at that moment, all of them curious and questioning. Even Will was watching his with a strange look of knowing. Nic however was still salty over her pet and therefor was not fully focusing on Tia's words but simply staring at Jack with a longing to hurt him.

"Your key go to a chest. And it is what lay inside the chest you seek. Don't it?"

"What is inside?" Gibbs asked with an uplifting sense of hope.

"Gold? Jewels?" Pintel joined in. "Unclaimed properties of valuable nature?"

Ragetti, who had been eyeing another larger jar of pickled eyes, swallowed hard. "Nothing bad, I hope."

Tia paused for a moment, eyeing each of the men who had wandered into her company, her hand twirling one of the locks hanging by her waist.

"You know of Davy Jones, yes?" The crew all nodded and Nicolette took the opportunity of their distraction to wonder to a small table filled with marvellously detailed trinkets and shells. "A man of the sea. A great Sailor. Until he run afoul of that which vex all men." She smiled at Tia's tale, chuckling to herself as she admired her hand adorning a new painted gold ring carved into the shape of a snake. But it wasn't the same as the ruby and so she returned in to the clams shell.

Will shook his head, not following. "What vexes all men?"

"What indeed." Tia teased, gently touching Will's hand.

"The sea?" Gibbs asked but was met with silence. She raised her brow as out the corner of her eye she caught Jack watching her, but by the time her eyes moved to meet his stare he had turned away, instead looking at Will.

"Sums." Pintel tried and Nicolette rolled her eyes.

"The dichotomy of good and evil." Oh for the love of-

"A woman!" She called, eyes sweeping over to Tia Dalma just long enough for them to share a knowing feminine smile and then she turned back to the new ring, eyes narrowing in admiration.

"A woman." Tia agreed fondly, eyeing the young woman from head to toe fondly. "He fell in love."

"No no no no, I heard it was the sea he fell in love with." Gibbs disagreed, shaking his head reluctantly but Tia was quick to settle the argument.

"Same story, different version and all are true!" She snapped, fixing Gibbs with a look. "See it was a woman as changing, and harsh and untamable as the sea. He never stopped loving her. But the pain it caused him was too much to live with. But not enough to cause him to die."

Will was growing frustrated with all the talk of rumours and myths and swallowed, pointing at the drawing which still lay on the table. "What exactly did he put into the chest?"

Tia Dalma put her hand to her chest delicately and sighed. "Him heart."

"Literally or figuratively?" Ragetti cringed.

"He couldn't live, putting his heart in a chest!" Pintel argued then seemed to realise where he was and who it was he was with. "Could he?" He asked sheepishly looking at Tia, afraid of her answer.

"It was not worth feeling what small, fleeting joy life brings." The sadness in Tia's tone caused Nicolette to cock her head with intrigue and she moved away from jewels to lean against a thick beam. "And so, him carved out him heart, lock it down in a chest, and hide the chest from the world. The key he keep with him at all times."

And there was there answer.

Jack, who had been quietly listening for that small trinket of information, moved behind Nicolette and slipped something into his pocket unnoticed. Then he turned to meet Will as he stood from the table and addressed him.

"You knew this." The boy accused and it was hard to miss the harshness in his tone.

"I did not. I didn't know where the key was. But now we do. So, all that's left is to climb aboard the Flying Dutchman, grab the key, you go back to Port Royal and save your bonnie lass, aye?" Jack snapped his finger and turned to swiftly leave but Tia called out, halting him in his tracks.

"Let me see your hand." He faltered, glancing at her from the corner of his eyes and then at his crew. It was fortunate for him that Nic had caught him in his cabin, for if she had found out here amongst the crew she may have had a more violent reaction than she had.

He went to offer Tia his unmarked hand but decided better of it at the last moment and reluctantly held out his wrapped palm to her. She undid the makeshift bandages and as everyone leant in to get a better look, Nicolette let her eyes wander to the floor.

"The black spot!" Gibbs gasped violently, attracting Nic's attention as he proceeded to dust himself off, spin around and then spit on the floor only when he had completed the full circle.

"Black spot." Pintel and Ragetti echoed before repeating the old mans superstitious ritual. She wanted to roll her eyes and smack each of them on the head but the performance was just too amusing and she allowed a small chuckle to leave her lips when she caught Jack's annoyance.

"My eyesight's as good as ever, just so you know!"

During the distraction, none of them had noticed Tia slipping off into her stock until they heard her clashing pots about and muttering to herself. While everyone was busy watching the unique woman, Jack dropped another trinket into his pocket just in time for her return.

"Davy Jones cannot make port." Tia started as she return to them with a large jar in her arms. "Cannot step on land but once every ten years. Land is where you will be safe, Jack Sparrow, and so you will carry land with you." She outstretched her arms, offering Jack the jar at which every other member of the crew screwed their face up at.

"Dirt." Jack said as he took the jar, holding it at arms length with a pause. "This is a jar of dirt."

"Yes." Tia answered as if it was obvious…which it was really. Nicolette peered around Jack and saw in fact it was just dirt…nothing else.

"Is the… jar of dirt going to help?" Jack asked, quirking an eyebrow in doubtful hope.

Tia tilted her head disapprovingly and stretched her arms back out to Jack, her fingertips grazing the glass. "If you don't want it, give it back."

"No." Jack snapped and clutched the jar of dirt close to his chest. Behind him, a woman smirked upon seeing an act she had induced many a times.

"Then it helps." Tia Dalma nodded with a grin.

"It seems…" Will started, turning from Jack to Tia as he saw the Captain hug the jar with a grin and then proudly show it off to Nicolette "…we have a need to find the Flying Dutchman."

"A touch…" Tia Dalma whispered into her hands once she had gathered up the random ocean scraps she had collected and now used to scry. The items clattered together and then she dropped them from her hands causing them to clunk against the table and rattle. "…of destiny."

The items dropped onto a parchment which resembled a map and before Tia could even look up Jack was committing the markings to memory.

"We have our heading Mr Gibbs." Jack grinned, eyes never leaving the cracked lobster claws and shells. "To the boats."

"You heard the Captain! To the boats!" Gibbs announced and was first out of the hut, practically running to the door. He was closely followed by Pintel and Ragetti and then Marty.

Will, reluctantly, was the last to follow after bowing his head in thanks to Tia. It looked almost as if he had more questions for her, but he swallowed them and stomped from the hut to the boats. Nicolette watched him, scowling at his cloudy moodiness, and then went to follow his movements.

"Thank you, Tia Dalma." Her voice was low, adapting to the new found peacefulness of the room now the men had left, and she smiled, nodding her head subtly.

Before she was able to make her leave however, Tia caught her wrist and held it. The woman frowned and then slowly smiled, her eyes alighting as they turned from the bracelets wrapped around Nic's slender wrists, to her face.

"Nicolette…I can barely recognise you child, how many years has it been?" 'Not enough' was the reply which jumped into her head and almost out of her mouth before she quickly caught it. "I knew a child…now a woman…" Nicolette smiled politely, fighting the urge to recoil as Tia's palm lightly caressed her cheek. The woman was smiling more warmly at her than she had towards anyone else during their visit and that fact brought some comfort.

Tia did not mind her lack of reply, as Nic did not really know what to say, and the Priestess stepped forward, releasing Nic's wrist and raising her hand to push some of her hair back from the scarred side of her face.

"The cream I give you for this, you did not use it?" Tia asked her harshly and then looked at Jack. It was only then that Nicolette remembered he was there and she chanced a look at him as he stood to her left, watching both of the women with deep intrigue. Though that sharply turned to fear when he noticed Tia's words were aimed just as much at him as Nic.

"I told her to!" He snapped, jumping and pointing to Nic accusingly only to be met with two pairs of unamused eyes. Why did he think he could ever win against a duet such as those two.

"For a while." Nicolette sighed, looking back to Tia as she gave a shrug. "Then I did not really care." When one was held against their will, thrown into an arranged marriage with a man they didn't love and forced to live aboard a vessel with men who made her sick…looking pretty became the furthest thing from important.

The woman nodded understandingly and then, as had happened numerous times that evening, Tia's mood switched and she started to chuckle. "The tide brought you back to Jack."

Nicolette ignored the cocky, ego inducted grin she peaked in the corner of her eye, knowing just exactly how much he was loving this, and breathed a sigh of amusement herself.

"I suppose it did." Her eyes turned to the ground for a second and she felt Jack move past her to ponder over a table of trinkets a few feet away. She wanted to follow him, grab his hand and drag him from this place when she saw the next emotion sweep over Tia's eyes. She no longer laughed and the woman's hand gripped her upper arm as that familiar feeling of fear swept down Nicolette's spine.

"There is…a dark destiny in you, Nicolette Barker."

Behind them, Jack peered at the women from behind his lashes though he mainly focused on Nicolette's back as it hunched slightly with her sigh.

"Each time I come stand before you, you say that to me." She whispered, her voice barely making a sound. Her teeth gritted as she felt Tia's grip on her arm tighten and she found it hard to relax her ball up fists. "And each time I leave I experience something darker than the last. What could possibly be this destiny you speak of?"

Dangerously dark eyes rose from the floor and burned into Tia Dalma. She did not come for this. She did not come here to hear those words again, the same words she heard the woman speak when she was nineteen and then heard over and over again until they lost all meaning or effect on her.

They always got lost in her mind, buried by other nonsense or under other more important worries which were atop her at the time. But they always came back.

"You are not the same girl you were when Jack first brought you to me." Tia asked, the shine from her eyes gone and the smile returning slowly as if the past few moments had never happened. "You know what you want." Tia tapped Nic on the chin and then looked over the girl's shoulder at Jack who was still watching his girl closely. "I can see why you cause Jack such madness."

Did she? Nicolette questioned the woman mentally, because she was very sure it was vice versa.

She stayed in one place, easy for him to find, and dabbled in a bit of honest gambling. He ventured the world, turning up in the most random of places, and had her running from cannibals just earlier that day.

"I'm not to blame for his madness." She mumbled under her breath causing Tia to grin.

"Our paths will meet again child." And with that, Tia turned and returned to the seat at the table she had been in when they first entered, a subtle dismissal of their presence.

"Lovely as always, Tia Dalma." Nicolette sighed, turning slowly so that by the time she was facing the door, Jack had already approached her.

"Come luv." One arm cradled his jar of dirt like a new born baby as he held his other out as a gesture for Nicolette to walk ahead of him. So, with slightly staggered steps as her brain tried to process every tiny bit of information Tia had spoken, Nicolette left the hut and climbed down the ladder to the longboats.

"With me love." Jack uttered as he dropped down beside her on the small platform. She went to disagree but before she could part her lips Jack called for his first mate. "Gibbs, take the other boat."

That being said, Jack took his position at the head of the boat not once glancing behind him to check she was following. And only when she took her seat next to Cotton with her back to Jack, did Nicolette sigh.

"I want my monkey back."