Author's Note: Well, there are some references to POTC: At World's End but…it really has nothing to do with this story. Characters are probably OOC…but I am taking an author's creative license and I will ignore complaints about how you feel I am portraying the characters. That being said, constructive criticism welcome as are reviews just saying you read it.

Part One: Friends In Wet Places

Waking up, Ethan lets out a pained groaned that is more rasp than anything. Slowly, he rolls onto his side choking back the sobs. The blood and semen mixing down his legs makes his stomach roll. "Now, do you want to tell me again that you will not tell me where the Flying Dutchman was when you returned the heart?"

"Y-you will never find him…not by me."

Beckett sneers. "An honorable pirate…who would have thought."

Ethan glares at him weakly. He was not going to be patronized by his rapist. "You are going to have to go out yourself and actually work to find him because I promise you that nothing you do will ever make me tell you where I found the Flying Dutchman."

Beckett chuckles. "Do I need to introduce you Mr. Mercer?"

Ethan stares at him almost horrified at the notion of that beastly man coming anywhere near him. "I think I would rather sleep with Davy Jones than let your man touch me!" he seethes.

"Then tell me where you found the Flying Dutchman and I can promise you a quick hanging."

Ethan snorts. "I'll believe that when I see it." He wasn't stupid, and he didn't believe a word the monster before him was saying.

"Mr. Mercer, it seems our young friend here needs to be persuaded."

Ethan watches as the door is open and the male steps within. He wasn't a match as tired and wounded as he is. This was going to be just as ugly as it was with Beckett…if not more so.

He has no strength to fight as he's rolled over and his wrists held above his head. The ugly sneering face that looks down at him makes him want to throw up what little he has left in his stomach. This wasn't going to end well that he could definitely see. "One more chance, Ethan. Tell me where you found the Flying Dutchman and I will spare you this."

"Go…to…hell," Ethan spits out, "I will tell you NOTHING!"

"Then proceed, Mr. Mercer," Beckett says sounding less than sorry. Ethan squeezes his eyes shut. If he had to be forced to endure this than he would be damned before he had to watch it happen.

The pain is just as intense as before and fills his entire world. He screams until he's so hoarse that it hurts to breath. It seems to take forever before once again the bliss of unconsciousness claims him.

He awakens to the feel of a rocking floor which could only mean that he was on a ship. Wincing, he slowly sits up and takes even longer to get back onto his feet. Swaying unsteadily for a few minutes until he catches his balance, he slowly makes his way to the door. It is with great hesitation that he opens the door afraid of what he might find when he does so. "Ethan, lad, get back in bed!" a familiar voice yells at him. Stunned, Ethan can only stare at the male who storms up to him.

"Wh-what are you doing here?" he asks.

"What do you mean what am I doing here, lad? Yer on my ship," the male responds.

"I…what…how?" he splutters not comprehending how he ended up from the "care" of Beckett and Mercer onto the ship owned by a friend of his.

"You were hurt…badly. So badly, in fact, that they had to call in a doctor. Unfortunately for them…the only one around happened to be an old friend of mine who recognized you. She brought you to me and told me to get out of Port Royal as fast as I could. What did you do, lad?"

"G-gave back the heart of Davy Jones," Ethan says softly trying for an innocent smile. The dark haired man rolls his eyes.

"How did I know you'd do something that insane?"

"I'm a pirate," Ethan responds, "though I wonder what you were doing in Port Royal anyway. Did you get in trouble in Tortuga again…maybe buy the last bottle of rum and upset a certain crazy pirate?"

The man laughs. "No, I haven't upset Jack Sparrow…this time. I had a feeling you would have done something crazy after learning that Cutler Beckett had received the heart of Davy Jones so I raced back here. Looks like a good thing I did or those two would have bled you dry in an attempt to make you talk."

"Looks like I am not as easy to corrupt as my father…he always said I would make a bad pirate. I have too high a code of honor."

"What some see as a weakness others view as a strength, lad, never forget that. There are crews who would kill for such reliability."

"Those are few and far between, Samuel, as you well know."

Laughter is all he gets for his response before the older pirate sobers. "In any event, back to bed with ye. Yer not to be wandering around until ye've let yer body heal. Yer a hermaphrodite, lad, it's about time ye started to accept that and to act accordingly."

Ethan sighs. "I hate the way that sounds, Samuel, and you know it. I am NOT a woman…not really and I hate to be treated like one."

"That may be, lad, but ye've got to remember that yer more fragile than most men whether you like to admit to that or not."

Knowing he was right, doesn't make it any easier so he merely glares at him. Samuel merely draws him back into the room and pushes him onto the bed. "I mean it, lad, ye need to rest." Sighing, the male draws the blankets up around himself. There was no arguing with him about this, the older male would win every time.

He falls asleep though it is too troubled for him to remain that way for long and he wishes not to relive what those cowards had done to his body. He doesn't even want to undress and check out the extent of the damage himself anyway. Cowardice, maybe, but it still remained he didn't want to know. They had taken enough from him. He sits up and stares out the window at the sea. 'At least they don't have control of the seas,' he thinks trying his best to believe that was worth what had transpired, 'Anything is worth keeping that man from controlling the seas.' He doubts he'd ever believe it…not completely. Something in him would always think that there was nothing that was worth the loss of his innocence and virginity.

Samuel returns by nightfall with some food. "Here ye go, lad," he murmurs.

"Thank you," Ethan responds, "Can I inquire as to where we are heading."

"We are heading to Tortuga."

"Why?"

"Do ye have to ask?"

"Wenches and rum," Ethan mutters though he can only fake his annoyance as his lips are curling into a smile.

"Of course, the best things in life consist of those two items."

Ethan chuckles. "You never change, Samuel."

"I don't plan on it, lad."

Ethan smiles warmly at the forty-ish male pirate. The male had been a friend of his father though hadn't been able to stomach what he'd become in the past few months. He'd seen Ethan grow up and had been one of the few who hadn't told him that he was a freak. In fact, he'd trained him as he would any other pirate and had treated him just as he would any other member of his crew to a point. He had never called his duel gender a weakness and for that, Samuel had his respect and his trust. He was more a father to him than his flesh and blood.

Ethan spends the rest of the trip trying to get adequate sleep without seeing the faces of Beckett and Mercer. It doesn't happen and he feels like he'd been smacked around with a shovel. "Lad, ye sure yer okay?"

"I am having trouble sleeping," he admits as he stumbles down the plank to the shore.

"Maybe ye should have stayed on the ship."

"No," Ethan tells him, "I just…I need this."

"Well, alright but if ye get too much of a liability I am gonna have ye returned to the ship."

"Agreed," the male murmurs softly. He makes his way to a secluded portion of the dock and sits. He wasn't going to go and get something to drink…it probably wouldn't sit too well with him right now. He slides his feet into the water and stares out into the distance. He can only imagine how Beckett reacted to finding him gone and hopes that the male is unsuccessful in relocating Davy Jones. It would be a sad day indeed were the oceans to belong to such people as Cutler Beckett.

"Yer thinking too much," an unfamiliar voice comments startling him.

"H-huh?" he says looking up.

An amused smile greets him. "Yer thinking too much, and that's never healthy."

For a moment, he's quiet but then he comments, "Not thinking enough is not healthy."

The male snorts. "Yes, well, if you overdo it than you won't get a single thing done, savvy?"

Ethan chuckles. With that one word, he knows exactly who he's talking to. "Captain Jack Sparrow…did Samuel get the last bottle of Rum again?"

"Not this time," the male responds, "though I wonder what you are doing in his company."

"It was…preferable to my previous company," he says softly.

"Something tells me you did something…stupid."

"If you call returning the heart of Davy Jones to said pirate than aye, it was stupid on my part."

"You gave it back to him?"

"It was preferable to having to watch as the Royal Navy systematically destroyed every pirate on the seas."

"I see," Jack murmurs sounding rather perturbed.

"In any event…didn't the Kraken eat you?"

"It didn't like the taste of Captain Jack Sparrow," the pirate responds with that haughty smile. Ethan rolls his eyes. Jack was…well, he was just Jack Sparrow.

"Jack, what are you doing?" a voice demands.

Ethan watches as two people storm up to him. "I swear, Jack Sparrow, you are unbelievable. We drag you back from World's End and you are being downright ungrateful!" the woman scolds.

"I'm a pirate!" Jack protests though it sounds incredibly weak.

"I don't care if you were Davy Jones! We told you to rest!" she snaps.

"Elizabeth," the second male says obviously trying to placate her.

"No, Will! He is going to return to the ship and he is going to STAY there or he will find out just what I am capable of!"

Watching the normally calm pirate captain start to sweat is an amusing sight and the brunette barely manages to stifle his laughter not wanting to be in the middle of their squabble. "Jack, please, just do as she says," Will tells his companion.

Jack sighs. "I knew getting involved with the two of you was trouble," he mutters though he does head in the direction of the Black Pearl.

Ethan watches as the woman covers her mouth and waits before Jack is out of sight before laughing. "Elizabeth!" Will groans softly.

"I couldn't help it, Will. He DOES need the rest."

"Yes well…being that forceful with Jack is going to end up coming back tenfold."

"I don't doubt that Will Turner…I don't doubt that one little bit."

"Then why do you vex him so, lady?" Ethan asks.

Elizabeth looks at him as if just noticing that he was sitting there. "I enjoy his bouts of temper. It proves that he's not completely lost who he was before the Kraken dragged him into the Locker," she responds, "though I feel horrible about having done it in the first place."

Will touches her shoulder, "Jack's forgiven you…forgive yourself, Elizabeth."

Ethan is glad when the two of them head in the direction Jack Sparrow did. It was getting a bit too sickeningly sweet for the male. He stares back out across the ocean. Something out there was calling to him…he only wonders what it was.

He's only interrupted by the arrival of Samuel. "Ye ready to go, lad?" he asks.

"Where to?"

"Well, anywhere but back to Port Royal," he comments.

Ethan smiles sadly. That had been his home for as long as he could remember though it would never feel that way again. He shakes his head before he starts thinking again. There was no good that could come of remembering. "Let's go," he says as he slowly stands up. He returns to the ship and heads to his room. Exhaustion was starting to creep upon him and he could only hope that it would be filled with memories he didn't want to face. However, when he allows his body to rest on the bed and his head on the pillow, he's out like a light.