"I don't like this…" Nicolette breathed. "Waiting." Waiting in the pitch dark and silence especially. It had only been minutes since Will took his leave but it felt like days. She had took to pacing the deck until that became not enough to calm her, then she took to pacing near Jack which he did not appreciate. So she tried to still, taking a spot at his side and tapping her finger nails against the dark wood of the Pearl in a quick rhythm.

"Will you please cease your incessant drumming!" Jack hissed through tightly gritted teeth, slapping the back of her hand lightly with his spyglass. The caused her to jump and stare at him wide eyed for a moment before she settled again and began clicking her tongue against the roof of her mouth.

Jack, unknown to her, closed his eyes with a pained expression and almost reached out to grasp the woman by the hair. But at the last minute he curled his hand into a tight fist and bit his tongue, swallowing the words he so desperately wanted to scream at her.

"Do you want to keep that tongue?" Again, his tone startled Nic and she stopped…for a while. Then she began to shuffle and fidget, her foot tapping against the deck accompanied with a long sigh.

"I don't like it." Beside her, Jack inwardly groaned and told himself calmly that this was not the time to throw the girl overboard.

"I'm well aware." He bit out though his voice was strained as he took the spyglass away from his eyes just long enough to glance at her. The minute he lifted the instrument back up, Nicolette asked between chewing on her lip.

"What can you see?"

"Nothing yet." Jack sighed his reply.

"Do you think they're close?" Again Jack removed the lenses from his eye, only this time he stared at Nicolette long and hard with pursed lips and a furrowed brow.

"I think it'll be you over there in a minute if you do not stow it." The spyglass was clapped closed in time with Nicolette's jaw dropping. She wanted to smack him, but she thought it would be unwise to get into a scrap now when tensions were already high. That was what had her so restless in the first place after all. So, after a while of bombing her mouth open and closed, she turned back to the ocean and muttered almost silently under her breath.

"At least I'm not Kraken chow."

Jack's mouth dropped open to snap back with another threat in the same moment there was a large eruption of water right behind the small ship they had been scouting out. The movement struck them both still and the deafening noise shushed them, halting their childish bickering. Both watched as The Flying Dutchman reared up out of the water. After only one or two violent touch downs upon the oceans surface, she drifted through the water as if she had always been there. As if she hadn't just sprung from beneath the waves like a sea creature.

Had it not been for the circumstances, or the Captain, the Dutchman would have been a ornate and beautiful ship. The detailing looked like coral, it truly looked as if it had lay on the ocean floor for years and then suddenly arisen. The wood looked rotted as if it shouldn't be able to float and the netting and sails were tatted. The more Nicolette looked at it, the less impressive it actually got. The darkness did a good job of hiding the neglect and although the carvings were gracious, down to the gun ports carved into the faces of screaming men, it was a wreck.

Through the darkness, some movement could be seen but it looked like an illusion. It was as if the whole ship was alive, moving and twisting. It was only after the Dutchman sailed a little closer, that it became clear the distorted movements were the crew, detaching and ripping themselves from the ship exterior.

"A part of the ship, a part of the crew." Jack muttered beside her and they each shared a sullen look, both no longer interested on the bad habits of the other.

"Jack…" Nicolette whispered as he peered through the spyglass again to get a better look at the Dutchman as well as Williams progress. "What if this doesn't work?"

"I-" He started but stopped, hesitating. "Cross that bridge when it comes..." Well that wasn't very convincing. He really was just making it up as he went along, like always. Nic's lips parted, but then as she went to ask another question, Jack's posture stiffened and his grip on the spy glass became tighter. "There's Jones."

"Wh-"

Nicolette had not even had a chance to blink, never mind ask what was happening, before Jack jumped and lowered the spyglass and a presence was suddenly before and behind her. A…she didn't even know what it was, but it wasn't a hand which came from behind and held her throat, not was it a blade.

The mass she was pulled too and held against was solid, not like a slender mans chest but rock hard as if she were being held against a coral reef. Sharp bumps pressed into her back, piercing the skin where it was only protected by her thin shirt, and the material became wet. The thing that held her was damp, and cold and the smell alone was of death.

Jack was more engrossed by Jones but cast her a quick glance which she missed. However that may have been for the better, as when he saw her held by a coral, fish, crab and human hybrid his eyes widened. And then they only grew deeper when he noticed the closeness of a long, saturated bone, come blade, to her throat.

She was struggling, but Jack chose to ignore it and turned back to Jones, as the member of Jones's crew who held Nicolette bumped her head against the solidness of his shoulder and held the blade closer so that it scratched at her skin.

The crew that were around them gasped and retreated but were soon too seized themselves and eventually they all calmed. Nicolette got a hold of herself enough to open her eyes and watch Jack as he stood face to face with Davy Jones.

"Oh." Jack was the first to speak…and with nothing else to say he left it there.

"You have a debt to pay." Jones, who was more a part of the Sea than human, started to approach Jack, taking slow and staggered steps with his one good leg leading. The other hit against the Pearl with a large thump, starting to drag with the more steps Jones took and the further Jack backed away. "You've been Captain of the Black Pearl for thirteen years. That was our agreement."

"Technically, I was only Captain for two years, then I was viciously mutinied upon."

Nicolette frowned as the little dagger in her gut twisted a little tighter upon hearing Jack's words.

"Then you were a poor Captain, but a Captain nonetheless. Have you not introduced yourself all these years as 'Captain Jack Sparrow'?" Jones's Crew tarted to laugh, the sound roaring around them as they each joined in one by one and held their captives a little tighter in doing so.

"Yeah, I gave you payment. One soul to serve on your ship is already over there." Jack motioned towards the Dutchman where she guessed Will was being held.

"One soul is not equal to another." Jones gargled on the words as they came from his throat, his anger growing by the second. In fact, each word Jack spoke to him seemed to get Jones more and more agitated…Nicolette could almost relate to him.

"Aha!" Jack suddenly grinning. "So we've establish my proposal is sound in principle, now we're just haggling over price." A pause followed, during which Jones did a double take and then took a moment to consider this.

"Price?"

"Just how many souls, do you think, my soul is worth?" He already looked far too egotistical for his own good, but at the back of her mind, Nicolette couldn't believe that this was actually working. After all the plans they had gone over, this was the only one which had not came to mind.

As Jones deliberated, the worry in Jack's eyes begun to grow, until the tentacle ruled face nodded. "One hundred souls." He growled, his accent thick and distorted due to the disfigurement. But before Jack could celebrate too much, he added. "Three days."

"You're a darling, mate. Send me back the boy, I'll get started right off." He turned in a flash and began to walk away, but was stopped in his tracks by a pirate with the head of a Hammer-Head shark.

The idea of it being something like that holding her, made Nicolette's skin crawl. And then, the idea that the thing on her neck was not a weapon but instead a giant pincer or tentacle almost made her gag.

"I keep the boy…" Jones said as Jack turned back and Jones approached him again. "A good, faith payment. That leaves you only ninety-nine to go. Haha, haha."

"Have you not met Will Turner? He's noble, heroic, a terrific soprano. Worth at least four, maybe three and a half. And did I happen to mention… he's in love." Jack, running with a level of confidence he did not have, started to spurt out the facts. "With a girl. Due to be married. Betrothed. Dividing him from her and her from him would only be half as cruel as actually allowing them to be joined in holy matrimony. Aye?"

Davy Jones paused again, once again thinking over Jack's words and then he noticed Nicolette. "Betrothed…" Jones spat the word out with distaste and turned, starting the drag his heels towards her. "And would this happen to be his blushing bride?" He asked as he stuck his slimy, squirming tentacles into her face. One in particular reached out and lifted her chin as another pushed back her hair from her face and Nic whimpered helplessly.

"What! No!" Jack jumped but calmed when Jones looked back at him, brow…or where there should have been a brow, raised. "No…said wifey is on land." He rocked back and forth on his heels, hands held in front of him to give the image of relaxed, when really he was struggling to not go over to Jones and drag him away from the girl.

"Shame…" Jones drawled but his interest was still peaked, she could tell by the way he glanced back and forth between herself and Jack, almost smiling. "Fifty souls for the girl." Jack's eyes widened, as did Nicolette's, though fear was what ruled her pupils as Jones held her stare.

"You misheard." Jack stated through gritted teeth. "I just said, she isn't Turners."

"Which is why I offer fifty!"

There was an uneasy silence following Jones's words and a small round of laughter from his crew. In part, Nicolette did not know what to think or what to expect and after a quick glance at Jack she still wasn't sure. Fifty souls was a lot and it would have been stupid for him to not take the offer, but then would he really hand her over to Jones?

Years ago she would have said no. She would not have even had time to speculate because his answer would have come so soon after the question was asked. But now, with the pause hanging, that dagger twisted again. She had played a part in his mutiny no matter how much she tried to deny it. She could have followed him to that Island, she could have left the Pearl after. But she stayed. She stayed with Barbossa and became his wife. Even Bill had been brave enough to try and defy the curse, but not her.

She owed Jack a chance to have the Pearl for what he deserved.

"That leaves you half way to freedom." Jones laughed darkly and turned back to Jack who was still darting between the deformed Captain and the girl.

"Dea-" Nic called loudly.

"No deal!" Jack interrupted as Jones went to turn back to Nicolette and the crew members grip tightened on her upon her sudden outburst. The blade tore her skin enough for a single drop of blood to run down her neck. "The girl stays and it's ninety nine as before."

Jack was shooting daggers at the girl who was now held more harshly than before, her breathing laboured and Jones began to shake his head in disgust and groaned, spitting out the sea water ever existent in his lungs.

"So be it, but I keep the boy!" He yelled and went to Jack. "Ninety Nine souls-ah. But I wonder, Sparrow… can you live with this? Can you condemn an innocent man – a friend – to a lifetime of servitude in your name while you roam free?"

Jack thought over Jones words for a considerably shorted period. "Yep. I'm good with it. Shall we seal it in blood, I mean, uh, ink?" Jack grimaced but held his hand out awkwardly and Jones took it with the same tentacle which had held Nic's chin. "Ah."

"Three days-ah." Jones uttered once more as he pulled himself away from Jack, leaving a slimy residue. The crew echoed the deal with a mixture of grunts, huffs and laughter as they let the crew go. The one who had his hands on Nicolette held the sharp point of whatever he had to her throat closer for a split second before releasing her and pushing her into he railing of the Pearl with a grunt.

And then, just like that, they disappeared as quickly as they had appeared, fading from the deck until it was silent. The first thing she heard above everything else was her own breathing, harsh and quick and raspy. She hated to admit it but she had been terrified and the thought of Jack handing her over to the Dutchman…the idea of serving on the Dutchman had made her gut wrench.

She looked up after only a few seconds and saw Jack was surveying his hand covered in a gooey residue, his eyes narrowing as he turned it over and saw the black spot disappearing. "Uh, Mr. Gibbs?" He called out, looking ahead to nothing in particular and the older man appeared at his side in an instance.

"Aye."

"I feel sullied and unusual."

"And how do we intend to harvest these ninety-nine souls in three days?" Gibbs asked with a fair degree of uncertainty.

"Fortunately, he was mum as the condition in which these souls need be." The First Mates eyes lit up at the hint and he smiled smugly, beginning to nod.

"Aah, Tortuga."

"Tortuga." Jack smiled in agreement and casually wiped his slimy hand on Gibbs' vest. Then out the corner of his eye, as Gibbs looked down at his soiled clothes in despair, Jack saw Nic watching them. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to talk to a woman about her running mouth."

The pairs eyes met before Jack had even made his move and as he crossed the deck her eyes never left him. They were both eager to speak, both as driven and livid.

"Are-"

"You-"

They both silenced and then the woman huffed, making Jack flinch.

"You should have taken the deal." Nicolette started and she herself was surprised by how low and shaky her voice was. Her hands clutched the Pearl tight and still visibly trembled no matter how hard she tried to disguise it.

"I should-" Jack broke himself off by scoffing. "I should have taken Jones's deal…for you?" She couldn't answer him with words. For gods sake, she couldn't even look at Jack after she heard his reaction. So instead she nodded her head. "And do tell, Nikki, what have I ever done to make you think I would ever agree to such a thing?"

"I didn't say you would have." She said forcefully. "I said you should have. Fifty souls would have more than halved what you had to find."

"Mhmm." This wasn't news to Jack, there was no sudden shock or realisation of what he had missed out on and given up. He knew what Jones was offering when it was said and he knew exactly what his fishy friend meant by it and yes, Jack had considered saying yes for a moment while quickly going over how he would get her back. But there was no clear plan and for that it would always be a no deal. "But then, where would that leave you?"

"It's what I owe you Jack." Nicolette whispered and she turned out to look at the ocean now free of the Dutchman. The wreckage was still there, but it was deserted, the remaining sailors either sent to the locker or serving Jones onboard. "You said yourself, you haven't even been Captain for thirteen years." Her eyes fluttered closed. "I helped take that away, I should do what I can to give it back."

Jack suddenly took her arm and turned her towards him. "That was not your doing." The way he spoke to her was a mixture of warning and reassurance but it did little to persuade Nicolette that she was wrong.

It all made sense to her and that was how her mind had worked since she had rid the curse. Some days were good and she believe her old self was returning, every time she laughed or each time Jack touched her softly, she believed she was good. But then, other days were dark, and she would ask herself over and over until the sun came and went, how anyone could ever trust her. It was the same demon which told her Jack only came to her when he had nowhere better to go, like a bitter and twisted monster shackled up in her mind but the chains were coming loose and he was getting louder.

The Devil's Temptress, Lady Barbossa, Moon eyed Nikki. The fact Matthew seemed to trust her was hard enough to believe and she hadn't done half to him as what she had to Jack. She was best on land, alone or hidden in the dark. Not here, doing…whatever it was she was doing.

"And you did not know. I made that deal with Jones, not you." Jack continued, shaking her arm lightly when she refused to look at him, but when she finally did she looked away again. It was then that Jack studied her and the realisation fully dawned on him. "You were actually going to take that deal for me…" His eyes rolled off to the side, to the horizon, as his words dragged off. "If I hadn't seen your bloody brain turning you'd be on scrubbing the deck right now."

Jack stepped past her, taking slow strides as his hand trailed along the railing of the Pearl

"If it helps then-" Nic spoke as she spun to follow but he stopped her in her tracks, turning to face her.

"You can help…" Jack spoke over her, shushing her in an instant and he took her chin in his hand.

Hi touch was to Jones's. It wasn't wet or slimy for one but warm, and though his hands were calloused they were still delicate. She blinked for a long moment, appreciating the feeling, and when she opened her eyes they were focused right on Jack. He hadn't stopped watching her, fighting the temptation to pull her closer.

"By staying on the Pearl. Don't-" The latter sentence was spoken fire behind it but then Jack bit his tongue and sighed. He couldn't go down that route, especially these days. "You're worth a lot more than fifty love." He smiled at her and then forced himself to stand a little way back, squinting and turning her head from left to right. "And you wouldn't pull off gills." Nicolette started to laugh softly and playfully pushed his hands from her.

"Ninety nine soul...three days?" She asked with a forced grimace. "Tortuga then?" She had hoped of staying away from the island for at least a couple of nights.

"Can't beat it love." Oh she could easily think of at least ten places which did in fact 'beat it' but there was no denying it was the best place for their needs.