DISCLAIMER: See chapters 1, 2, 3 4, and 5 plus the prologue. Lyrics are, again, Nickelback's.

I'm tired of standin' in line

At clubs I'll never get in

It's like the bottom of the ninth

And I'm never gonna win

Chapter 6

Within the next day, Tortuga had come into sight of the Silver Mermaid. Jack carefully steered the ship into port as the evening drew to a close. Striding confidently through the streets (though, after a few gasps of "He's back!" and "God, I swear Jack Sparrow could cheat the devil if he put his mind to it!", it became more of a confident swagger), he turned again to Will.

"Funny, innit?" he said. "Once again, we find ourselves walking to the Faithful Bride in Tortuga in hopes of saving dear" – he put a slight emphasis on 'dear' – "Elizabeth."

When Jack pushed open the door of the Faithful Bride, the music suddenly went silent. Brawls stopped in mid-punch. A final bottle dropped to the floor and shattered.

"You're supposed to be dead!" a man shouted.

"That 'as a familiar ring to it," Jack said calmly. "Now, I've come for a pair o' crews. I need five for the Silver Mermaid and six for the Black Pearl. If you think yourself worthy, come and follow me."

"The Black Pearl? That one got dragged down by the kraken, it did, an' with you on it!"

"We're getting it back," Jack said.

"'Ow?"

"We're going to be paying a visit to Davy Jones," Jack answered impatiently. There was a general ripple of fear at this statement.

Jack motioned for Will to follow him and walked off into a room at the back of the pub. A line of men trailed after them.

"Single file line. No pushing, shoving, elbowing, punching, kicking, poking, kneeing, slapping, smacking, hitting, jabbing, smashing bottles or anything else over heads, cutting, bruising, gashing, slicing, stabbing, or slitting throats," Jack called. "Or biting," he added as an afterthought.

Will gave him a strange look.

"Trust me, people will do anything to find loopholes. I know all about it. So I leave no loopholes," Jack said.

"Ah," Will replied. He scratched his head.

Jack sat down behind a table and pulled two sheets of paper from his pocket. To the first in line, he said, "And will you be able to stay true to orders from either Mr. Turner, the first mates, or myself in the face of difficulty, danger, almost certain death, and where the five afterlives collide?"

"O' course, Cap'n," the man said.

"Mr. Gibbs?" Will said incredulously.

"Will! That you? You've cleaned up since we last met. And…" Gibbs blinked drunkenly a few times. "JACK!" he roared happily. "How's the afterlife treat ye?"

"Not so well, Mr. Gibbs. And yourself?" Jack said.

"Rum!" Gibbs replied.

"That's always a good sign. First mate on the Pearl. Make your mark."

Gibbs signed the roster and stepped aside for the next man.

"And you?" Jack said. "Will, get me some rum," he muttered, shoving two coins over.

Will rolled his eyes and shouldered out past the growing line of men to find rum. At the bar, he leaned up against the counter. "Rum," he told a surly looking woman. She reached down and produced a bottle of amber liquid, which she plunked on the counter.

"Two shillings," she grunted.

Will pushed over the coins and took the rum back to Jack. Now there were three names on the Silver Mermaid's paper and two on the Black Pearl's.

Jack took a swallow of rum before interrogating the next man. This went on for a while until Jack waved away the rest of the line.

"We got ourselves a couple o' crews," he said. "Your first mate's Cotton, his parrot'll repeat everything anyway. The rest –"

"Wait – I'm to be a captain?" Will said.

"Who else was goin' to be captain of the Mermaid? The rest of 'em seem trustworthy enough to get us through. We'll leave tomorrow at first light and sail for that island, savvy?"

"Sure," Will said. "Where are we sleeping?"

"Here," Jack said, gesturing at a pair of beds on either side of the room.

"Good." Will yawned tiredly and sank onto the bed. "I'm exhausted."

"'Night, then," Jack said.

"Yeah…'night," Will answered.

Will woke up just as suddenly and abruptly as if someone had slapped him in the face. The moon was full, and it spilled into the room with a cold, silvery light. He looked over at Jack's bed. The pirate was lying there, wide awake, his face covered in sweat and his eyes huge.

"Jack?" Will called hoarsely. He saw Jack's eyes flick over in his direction.

"Go back to sleep."

"You screamed, didn't you?"

"No. Why would I scream?"

"Yes, you did. Otherwise I wouldn't have woken up."

"You must be a light sleeper, then. All I did was cough."

Will glared suspiciously.

"Oh, all right, I did yell. But there was a rat on my bed. Wouldn't you yell if there was a rat staring you in the face when you woke up?"

"Sure," Will said skeptically. He rolled over onto his side and fell asleep.

Jack, however, did not sleep so easily. He knew for a fact that, however dirty it might be, the Faithful Bride had no rats. Not even one. He was awake until the moon disappeared behind the distant mountains.

Jack finally rolled out of bed. "OI!" he yelled at Will. Will shouted something about his wedding being ruined and jumped about a mile off the bed.

"What was that for? I thought I was a light sleeper!"

"I don't particularly care. Now get out of bed and ready, ye lazy cockroach, it's time to go."

While Jack slid his feet into his boots, Will practically leapt out of bed to belt on his sword. He then hopped four times around the room on one foot in an attempt to put on a boot.

"Not a morning person, are ye, son? By the way, that's the wrong boot on the wrong foot," Jack said.

By the time Will and Jack were down at the docks, their two crews had gathered uncertainly together and were talking amongst themselves.

"I 'ope there's no talk of a mutiny quite yet! I 'aven't even got started!" Jack bellowed. "The Mermaid's at dock four, along with 'er supplies! Well, go on, go load them, ye scabrous dogs!"

All but one, Gibbs, scurried to obey Jack's orders. "Sir, what are the Pearl's crew to be doin' until we get 'er back?" Gibbs asked.

"'Elpin' t' crew the Silver Mermaid," Jack answered promptly.

"If ye don't mind my askin', where did ye get the Mermaid?" Gibbs said curiously.

"Tia Dalma's," Jack said.

"And…how're ye doin'?"

"I have no inclination to answer that question."

"Aye, Cap'n," Gibbs said, and hurried off to the dock with the other sailors.

The Silver Mermaid pulled out of Tortuga just as the sun poked its slim, pink fingers over the horizon. The light glinted mysteriously on the strange silver material that made the rolled-up sails. It was quite a dazzling spectacle, really, Will thought to himself.

"FULL CANVAS!" Gibbs yelled.

Will scaled the nearest mast with ease and let loose the sail. The material was very thin, nothing like the canvas he was used to. "Those sails are so thin they're barely there!" Will shouted. The rest of the crew was sharing his concern. Gibbs turned to Jack, looking nervous.

"They'll hold! You've no idea what they're really made of!" Jack reassured.

"Whatever it is had better be good and fast," Will muttered to another sailor.

Elizabeth was hungry. She hadn't eaten since the morning before she'd been kidnapped. She kept hoping that Bootstrap would come back with food for her, but so far he hadn't even visited her again.

A thumping could be heard from the staircase. Elizabeth looked up, hoping it was Bootstrap coming to visit her.

But the old pirate was nowhere near where she was finally receiving her first meal. He was on deck, biting hard on a rope in the rigging and trying not to cry out as he again felt the sting of the whip cutting his back.

"What have ye to say for yerself, Bootstrap?" Jones said softly. "Will ye tell me ye're sorry?"

"Never," Bootstrap spat. "I won't. He was my son."

The whip cleaved another gash between his shoulder blades, and he finally cried out.