First I ask forgiveness for taking so long to update. My computer has been on the fritz.. Secondly, to those of you who are unhappy with the fact that this is a " Mary-Sue" as they have been labeled, my advice to you is not to read the story. Time travel does not have to be a Mary-Sue. I could have written it in the context of the Philadelphia Experiment, but that would have been grotesque and that really is not my style. I also have this listed as a romantic story, so if that too, upsets your stomach, please refrain from reading onward. Third,what you start reading, as I have said to another reader, isn't really a chapter at all. It simply grabs one'e attention and urges them tocontinue reading. To my other readers, again, forgive the quick rant. I'll leave you to the third chapter. Enjoy it and keep those reviews coming, be they positive or negative.

BE AWARE THAT THIS WILL CONTAIN REFERENCES TO THE NEW MOVIE, AND MAY POSSIBLY SPOIL YOUR FULL ENJOYMENT OF IT. YE'VE BEEN WARNED.

III: Rum Fixes Everything

" Six men dead on a dead man's chest. Yo ho ho and a bot'le o' rum." Gibbs sang as he swayed back and forth on the deck of the Pearl, making his way to the rail of the starboard side. " Yo ho ho and a bot'le o' rum." He chuckled, one hand on the rail as he tilted his head back to take yet another swig from the bottle of rum he was carrying. " Ah!" He gave the bottle a satisfied smile before turning his attention to the ocean. His eyes scanned the ocean when they fell on something smouldering in the distance. He blinked a few times and rubbed his eyes, not knowing if it was the rum, a trick of the light or if he really did see something burning. He looked again. It was still there. " Mother's love!" Gibbs cried and he turned, moving as quickly as he could to the captain's quarters.

Jack was sitting at a table, with his head in his hands. His compass refused to work, well it worked but it just proved that he wanted what he couldn't have. Jack was never a man that took defeat very well. Due to this, he couldn't pick a heading. Releasing an exasperated sigh, he lifted his head and grabbed the bottle of rum resting on the table. Realizing it to be empty he looked heavenward, his eyes clearly disappointed. " Why is the rum always gone?" he asked, pouring the last drops on the table before tossing the empty bottle over his shoulder.

At that moment Gibbs burst through the cabin's doors. " Cap'n! Jack! You'll be wantin' to come up on deck sir."

" Isn't this a bit superfluous at this current time? I don't want to watch dolphins frolicking alongside my ship. I need to get us a heading."

" Cap'n , it ain't in the least…err… you'll be wantin' to see this." With that, Jack grabbed his hat, and spyglass before following Gibbs to the deck.

" There be a wreck Cap'n. Near the triangle as it were."

Jack surveyed the wreck through the spyglass. " Lovely." He then compacted it and put it in his coat pocket. "One more thing with a curse. We want nothing to do with that."

" Aye sir, it ain't natural, but there may be survivors."

" No good will come from the triangle Mr. Gibbs, " Jack said. He continued in a tone that was almost angry." And hang the survivors! Any pirate knows about the triangle. Probably one of bloody Norrington's ships. You sound like the whelp, Will Turner! We are pirates man! Not the navy!" He finished practically shouting.

" Err, Cap'n, you be mistakin' me meaning. I thought, perhaps we could put the survivors…on the account."

Jack's expression changed immediately as the clarity and reason of Gibbs' thought dawned on him. " Ah, I see. We are a bit short handed aren't we?" Gibbs nodded. " Change course to…that direction, but make sure we weigh anchor far enough away from the perimeter of the triangle. We'll send out long boats to look for survivors."

"Aye Cap'n." Gibbs said, moving across the deck, " Alright you dogs! All hands on deck! We're changing course. Someone, ready the longboats! Get up you mangy curs!"

Jack shook his head as he made his way back to his quarters. He took off his jacket and hat, leaving them on his table before going into the adjacent room where he slept. He fell into his bed, rolling over and clasping his hands behind his head. Jack stared at the beams of the ship overhead as he thought about Elizabeth. Try as he might he could not get her out of his head. She was just like him, except for in fact, she was a woman. He smirked. She was so wild, a pirate. Jack frowned suddenly, remembering…

" Lizzy, you want to be married. I am in fact, a captain of a ship. I could perform a marriage right here…right now." Jack said in a seductive voice.

Elizabeth rolled her eyes in disgust and got up from her seat upon the stairs. " Haven't we played this out before Jack?"

" But you know it to be true." He countered as he grabbed his bottle of rum and moved to where she stood. " We are alike you know. You and me, me n' you. You long for freedom. I could give it to you. Together we'd be the most fearsome pirates in the Spanish main."

Elizabeth laughed and retorted, " I thought it would be the entire ocean."

" Whatever you like luv." Replied Jack putting his arm around her waist.

" What about Will?"

" What about the whelp?"

" You wouldn't feel any remorse or sorrow for, for stealing away his fiancé?"

Jack's face was blank, and then he smiled, " Nope. Doesn't bother me in the least. I'm really okay with that arrangement."

"You're horrible Jack."

He shrugged," Pirate."

" It could never be. We'd never last Jack. A relationship, a marriage is nothing without trust or honour or…"

" Well you don't exactly extol these…virtues either luv." He plunged forward while Elizabeth indignantly opened her mouth to speak." I mean, who's the one that came on to me, in front of their own fiancé no less? You did. Who left me, chained to my ship's mast, quite willing to sacrifice me to the kraken? You were. And last but not least, when we were marooned on a bloody island, who burnt all the rum? Once again, that would have been you darling. Save the last, I forgive you all, but the 'onest truth of the matter is, you are a pirate. A scallywag. Just like me."

" I am nothing like you Jack. That kiss nearly cost me everything with Will, and I left you here because it was pragmatic."

Jack polished one of his rings on his coat, " Pirate, pirate, pirate." He hummed.

" No, Jack. Will is a good man."

" I thought you said I was a good man?" Jack said, staring at her.

" One good deed does not expunge one from a lifetime of wickedness." She spat.

Jack pulled away from her," Taking a leaf out of old Norrington's book are we?"

" Please Jack."

" No. Give into your darker side Elizabeth. There is nothing wrong in doing what you want to do. Live for yourself! Do something for you, for once in your life Elizabeth!"

" Jack, stop it! Stop it! I am living for me. I want to be with Will."

" Is that what you really want?" questioned Jack as he drew close once more.

Elizabeth put her hand on Jack's chest and shoved him back, causing him to stumble against the railing. " Yes, this is what I want. That kiss meant nothing. I was a device, merely a device."

" Elizabeth, lying doesn't become you."

" Oh shut up, Jack! I admit, I was fascinated by you. I was always fascinated by pirates, even as a child. The scoundrel, the rogue, always intrigues a girl. But he is not the sort of man that she will marry. He isn't dependable, you aren't dependable, Jack. A girl wants to marry a man she can trust, someone with honour and holds her in respect. Someone who always keeps his word and that way, you can always count on him."

" Touching darling, but I don't need this advice, I have no intention of marrying a man," quipped Jack.

Elizabeth ignored him and continued, " Will is that kind of man."

" So, Lizzy, you would rather have the whelp, over me, Captain Jack Sparrow?"

" The whelp, as you call him, may be but a blacksmith but he is a good man. And you, Captain, are a pirate." Elizabeth said coldly as she began to walk down the gang- plank.

" Elizabeth!" called Jack.

" Sorry Jack. But Will is the one that I shall be marrying."

Jack reached once more for the bottle by his bedside. Alas, peering into it, he saw it was empty, yet again.

" Bugger." He exclaimed putting it back on the table none too gently. " Can't even forget her when I'm drunk." He rolled over and muttered, " I think I need to go to Tortuga."

On deck Gibbs spoke to Mr. Cotton and his parrot. " Cap'n can't get any rest." He told the mute, " And we know what bodes ill for Jack Sparrow, bodes ill for us all. He escaped the curse, both in fact. We got the Pearl back. He's alive. What more can he want aside from a little more swag?"

" Where be Jack?" squawked the parrot.

" He be below. Drinking. Rum fixes everything as we well know lad." He laughed, then gravely said, " But if he keeps it up, there will be none left."

Mr. Cotton looked horrified, and the parrot effectively voiced his thoughts, " Shiver my timbers!"