Time passed, as it always does. How much time passed didn't matter. All that did matter was we were still on the way to Isla Cruces. I also had a gut feeling that Davy Jones' three day deadline was going to end today… meaning that our time was quickly running out.

Jack and I were milling about the deck, checking this and that. Jack had a bottle of rum snug in one hand. I glanced over towards the helm and saw someone lounging on the stairs; Elizabeth. I also knew pretty much what she was thinking about: she was missing her fiancé, Will.

I knew what would happen if I directed Jack over there, and I wasn't entirely happy about that. I also knew, however, that Jack was probably going to go over to her anyway. There was nothing I could do about it, I just had to go with the flow.

"Hmmm… Elizabeth looks a little blue," I commented.

Jack frowned and looked over at her. "I think she needs a bit of cheering up, then," he declared brightly. He sauntered across the deck to the stairs and stretched out on his side beside Elizabeth. I stood at the base of the stairs and crossed my arms over my chest, watching apprehensively.

"My tremendous sense of the female creature informs me that you are troubled," he said to Elizabeth, his words practically rolling off the tip of his tongue. I rolled my eyes.

Elizabeth sighed. "I just thought I'd be married by now. I'm so ready to be married..."

Jack made a face and realised what this, in part, meant. I also understood what she meant, though I suspected Jack Sparrow was probably not the best person to share this information with. He was bound to try to twist it to his advantage.

Jack raised an eyebrow and looked down to the bottle of rum he had placed on a step between them. He offered it up to her. She took it and drank a bit.

"You know…" Jack began in a very suggestive tone of voice. He cleared his throat and leaned in closer to her, ignoring her uninterested expression. "Lizzie, I am the captain of a ship…" He gestured in my general direction, though Elizabeth wouldn't be able to see me, so it would seem he was taking in the rigging and sails. "… and as the captain of a ship, I could in fact perform a 'marr-i-age' right here. Right on this deck. Right… now."

Jack had made his intentions very clear. If he had come onto me like that, I would have slapped him. I groaned and rolled my eyes. "Jack, you have a lot to learn."

Elizabeth was just as unimpressed as me, especially as Jack's bad breath seemed to turn her right off. She shoved the bottle of rum back into his hands and heaved herself up. "No, thank you." She almost walked through me, but I stepped aside just in time. Jack got up and followed her.

"Why not?" he asked, grinning as he leaned on some taut ropes. "We are very much a like, you and I, I and you…us."

Elizabeth had her back to Jack, but it was obvious she seemed very disturbed by the concept of herself and Jack being a couple. This was made even worse by the fact that deep down, even though she loved Will, some part of her did still want Jack…or at least she thought that the possibility of such could have been true. Biting her lip, she clutched at the rail of the ship.

"Oh, except for a sense of honour and decency and a moral centre." She looked at Jack over her shoulder, frowning. "And personal hygiene."

Jack lifted the arm that held the rum bottle so that he could smell his armpit. He shrugged. I rolled my eyes again. "Trifles," Jack decided. He moved closer to Elizabeth, looking confident. He seemed very sure that she had an attraction to him. He didn't need me to tell him that. Jack was usually very good at pinpointing what other people wanted. He grabbed onto another rope and pulled himself closer to her. "You will come over to my side, I know it."

"You seem very certain," Elizabeth observed.

"One word, love: curiosity. You long for freedom. You long to do what you want to do because you want it. To act of selfish impulse." In other words, to be a pirate. To be like him. "You want to see what it's like," Jack continued, his voice low and actually more seductive than it had been when he was on the stairs. He casually let so of the rope. "One day, you won't be able to resist," he promised Elizabeth.

Elizabeth threw him a curve ball. She asked him a question he wasn't expecting. "Why doesn't your compass work?"

Jack's self-confidant smile dropped and he seemed very offended. "My compass works fine," he said. I bit my tongue as I spotted the double entente, be it intentional or not. It didn't help the position he was standing when compared to the long canon moored on the deck in front of him.

"Because you and I are alike," Elizabeth said. This time, the ball was in her court. "And there will be a moment when you have a chance to show it. To do the right thing."

I couldn't help but be impressed by Elizabeth's prediction. They both seemed to be telling the future in this scene, even if Jack was not ready to admit he was that good a man.

"I love those moments," Jack said dismissively. He strolled around the canon and gestured into the air with his hand. "I like to wave at them as they pass by!"

Elizabeth wasn't finished with him yet. She approached him with the same confidence he had approached her. "You will have the chance to do something… something courageous." They leaned on the railing and Elizabeth drummed her hands against it. "And when you do, you'll discover something."

Jack gave her an "oh yeah? What?" look.

"That you're a good man," Elizabeth stated, before he could ask what the 'something' was.

Jack smirked and looked out at the water. "All evidence to the contrary."

Elizabeth smiled, as if she was expecting him to say something like that. "Oh, I have faith in you." She turned towards him, her demeanour slightly playful. "Want to know why?"

Jack didn't look at her, probably because he didn't believe her in the slightest. "Do tell, dearie."

Elizabeth slid up closer to him, so that she was almost in front of him. She looked up into his face. "Curiosity," she said, throwing his argument back at him. "You're going to want it." Jack's eyes shifted as he realised just how close Elizabeth was. Her tone of voice had changed into something more seductive, and it was working. "A chance to be admired and gain the rewards that follow. You won't be able to resist."

Jack and Elizabeth's mouths were slowly getting closer and closer together. They had a chance of kissing right then and there, and my frown deepened to see it. "You're going to want to know what it tastes like," Elizabeth prodded.

"I do want to know what it tastes like," Jack confessed. He turned himself away from the railing so that he and Elizabeth were facing each other properly. Jack's back was towards me; a good thing, because if looks could kill…

"But… seeing as you're a good man, I know that you'd never put me in a position that might compromise my honour," Elizabeth said, even as Jack raised his left hand and stroked her cheek. There was the challenge she set, then. Would Jack be able to resist temptation?

The two of them were nose-to-nose. Jack opened his mouth to kiss her, when suddenly he spotted his left palm. I looked over his shoulder and saw what he saw; an ugly dark circle bubble up on his skin. The Black Spot had returned. The Kraken was on the hunt for him again.

Jack looked at his hand in horror and balled it into a fist. Quickly, he pulled away from Elizabeth and she misinterpreted his reason for backing off. "I'm proud of you, Jack," she told him appreciatively.

Jack might have said something, but he was cut off by a shout from Gibbs. "Land ho!"

Elizabeth walked off and joined the rest of the crew over at the opposite railing, where the land had been spotted. Jack winced.

"It's Isla Cruces," I told Jack. I didn't even have to look at it to know. I noticed that my arms were still crossed and my hands were fisted. I forced myself to relax. It wasn't my job to judge my assignments' romantic yearnings, after all.

"I want my jar of dirt," Jack said, sounding nervous.

"Yeah, good idea. Bring it along," I said as I followed him to his cabin where he had stored it. Jack snatched his coat and the jar of dirt from his cluttered desk. "You'll also need to bring along Elizabeth, because she has the compass," I advised. "And I know you won't want to dig for the chest yourself and you're not going to make a lady do it, so you should bring someone to do that… oh, and two people to row the long boat. I'd pick people you don't think you're going to miss if you lose them."

Jack and I marched out of his cabin with that plan firmly in mind. "Lower anchor!" the captain commanded, wrapping a strip of cloth around his palm to hide the Black Spot once again. "Elizabeth, you will have to come with me," he told her with a grin. "You do have the compass, after all." He looked at Norrington, who was standing near Elizabeth. "You come too. Get the shovels. And you two," he pointed to Pintel and Ragetti, "row the boat."

The crew rushed about to follow the orders, though Norrington looked less than pleased to be forced into manual labour by Jack Sparrow. Jack told Gibbs to stay in charge until he got back. Then the six of us climbed into the long boat and started off towards the sandy island.

Jack sat up at the front, with Pintel and Ragetti sitting behind him with their backs to him. Norrington and Elizabeth sat at the back. I settled down next to Jack on the edge of the longboat. My extra weight was like a feather and a strong grip made sure I didn't fall into the drink. I could have flown, but I predicted I would have to do quite a bit of flying in a little while, so I decided at save my energy.

It would have been nice if the trip to the island was a little more peaceful, but instead we had to put up with the bickering on Pintel and Ragetti.

"You're pulling too fast," Pintel scolded his friend.

"You're pulling too slow," Ragetti argued. "Don't want the Kraken to catch us!"

Jack Sparrow jumped slightly at the word 'Kraken.' We were still only about halfway there. I put a hand on Jack's shoulder to assure him it was okay.

"I'm saving me strength for when it comes," Pintel explained testily. "And I don't think it's 'Kraken' anyways. I've always heard it said 'Krayken.'"

"With a long 'a'?"

"Uh-huh."

Ragetti shook his head. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no. 'Krocken' is how it's pronounced in the original Scandinavian, and 'Kracken's closer to that."

"We ain't original Scandinavians, are we? 'Krayken.'" Pintel insisted.

"It's a mythological creature, I can calls it what I wants," Ragetti argued.

"Would you two shut up?" Norrington snapped.

The two pirates gave him the stink-eye. "You can't order us around, Commodore," Pintel jeered.

Jack, who was uncomfortable with all their talk about the Kraken, (no matter how it was pronounced,) turned and poked them in the shoulder. "No, but I can. Shut up."

They grumbled a bit, but did as they were told.

When we finally reached the sandy shore, Jack took off his jacket and tossed it into the boat along with the jar of dirt. He was going to need neither item while we were wondering around the island. He picked up a shovel and slung it over his shoulder as Norrington grabbed another.

"Guard the boat, mind the tide," Jack ordered Pintel and Ragetti. After a pause he added "don't touch my dirt."

Then the rest of us started our long trip down the beach.