DISCLAIMER: If I wasn't myself I'd be someone who owned it. But I am myself, and only reincarnation can change it, and quite frankly I don't want to die just yet.

Alex got up from the bed and began backtracking. Not the best thing to do when he had already walked past the main part of the room and there were only walls behind her, but at that point in time she hadn't really examined the architecture.

"Jack…"

He'd moved to one of the chests to rapidly swallow half a bottle of rum, but when she'd spoken all attention was on her.

"Were you hurt, luv?"

His voice was low, controlled, he was being serious and personally it worried her.

"My hands on the rope, a cut on my leg, I'm fine really."

Jack advanced on her and as she hit the wall he gently took her hands in his to look at and then knelt down, lifting her pants to see her cut.

"That will need to be looked at."

He murmured.

"Anna's going to sew it up for me, so I'll need to borrow some of your rum."

There she'd left the opening and the bait, she was talking about rum, his rum, the consuming of rum surely that would take him out of angry land and back to drunken hilarity, but he didn't take it.

"You shouldn't have gone up on deck."

He said still kneeling down running a hand along the cut; she looked down at him, confused.

"Say again, Jack."

He stood up quickly, his face changed back to angry Jack.

"You shouldn't have been on deck!"

He stepped back from her after yelling and began to pace, if Alex had enough time she would have been amused by how he paced with that unique swagger of his but she didn't.

"I know I shouldn't have been on deck, you asked me not to, but they came down below first and I had to protect the Pearl."

Her voice was measured, calm; she didn't want to get into a screaming match.

"I didn't ask you, I told you and you should have bloody well listened to me, woman!"

Well maybe she did want one,

"You've got no right to order me about!"

He stormed right towards her, invading her personal space,

"I'm the Captain of the ship, Alex, in case you've forgotten."

She stepped back and nodded mockingly.

"How could I bloody well forget the famous Captain Jack Sparrow? You tell your stories often enough. You might be Captain of this ship but you do not control me."

"I'm your husband, you're meant to do what I say."

Alex's eyes grew large; he was saying the worst things in this situation.

"I may be your bloody wife but there is no way in the depths of hell that I'm going to become some bloody subservient, rule following wife, to a pirate! I hope you enjoy celibacy Jack."

With that she started to storm out however with the stinging in her leg it was more of a steaming, determined limp, but she got out.

She'd managed to limp to the galley as Tom was preparing things; the smells reminded her that this could still be her sanctuary.

"Alex!"

He squeaked as she ambled in, she gave a half hearted smile and sat down.

"Shouldn't you be resting?"

She snorted at him and began cutting into a loaf of bread.

"In that cabin? Not a chance, I'm considering divorce."

Tom blushed a little at that and it clicked.

"So you heard…"

Tom nodded shyly never looking up,

"I'm pretty sure the whole ship did, ma'am."

Alex lent her head on the table covering it with her arms.

"You'd think after such a crappy day the universe would cut me some slack."

She mumbled into the table. She just knew that she could easily burst into tears. After all she thought it would be a normal day. She would cook, Jack would sail and they'd be in Port in no time. Clearly the universe hated her.

Alex drew herself out of her own self pity long enough to amble about the kitchen and knock up a quick gravy from some stock and juices left over. The bread had been saved, largely thanks to Tom's dedication to her cooking, and there was enough for the whole crew, the sausages had been cut into slices and there was now gravy and drippings to drizzle over the largely simple meal.

"Alex?"

She paused automatically, her instinct being that it was Jack, luckily it was a female voice, definitely not Jack. Turning she saw Anna walking into the Mess, where she was finishing off her early dinner, with a small pouch in one hand and a bottle in the other.

"Now?"

She said incredulously, hastily swallowing down the last remnants of the bread. Anna smiled and sat down next to her quickly pouring a glass for Alex.

"You'll want that cut sewn up and the sooner you get drunk, the sooner I get it done and the sooner you go to sleep and avoid Jack."

You could never say that subtlety was one of Anna-marie's talents, or that she sugar coated things.

"Anna, as long as I can sleep the rum off somewhere other than his cabin, sure thing."

The female pirate laughed and held up her rum bottle.

"To hell with him!"

She toasted, Alex quickly skulled her cup. Once finished she grinned at Anna her throat now burning with tears in her eye.

"To hell with him!"

Gibbs had watched the day's event play out rather calmly, if you ignored the battle that was. Jack was an idiot. Here he was fate had decided to give him a vision of loveliness, better than, a vision that could cook, who had managed to put up with him so far, who'd gotten along with the crew and he'd gone and, rashly, yelled at her.

"Cap'n I was wondering if I might have a word to ye."

Jack stood hunched over the wheel, brooding. He'd had a dark look on his face ever since the argument, not that he'd rightly heard what it was all about but he'd heard the yelling, and considering she controlled the kitchen he only hoped that it wasn't going to affect the rest of the crew nutrition.

"Aye, Gibbs."

The old pirate fidgeting a bit, trying to figure out how best to broach the subject,

"Well, ye see… the thing is, what exactly did you say to Alex?"

Jack whirled round his beads following him and comically whacking him in the face.

"It isn't your business, Gibbs."

He began fidgeting again and shook his head.

"I don't agree Cap'n, Anna said she'd heard part of it and is talking to Alex now. If this is goin' to affect the Pearl, I've a right to know."

He could see the battle begin to rage behind Jack's eyes. He wanted to yell at Gibbs, saying he wasn't to know about what happened behind closed doors, she was his wife and it was his business.

"I've right royally buggered it up."

He let out in a huff turning back to the wheel.

Gibbs wasn't the sort of man who talked about this stuff. Normally he'd leave the Captain right alone and have him sort out his own women problems, but Alex cooked. She looked after the whole crew and if she was angry and decided to serve them something truly horrible, well… he had a duty for the good of his stomach.

"What did ye say to her?"

Jack's hand clenched on the wheel and let out a frustrated growl.

"She's me wife, Gibbs! She's meant to be mine, do what I tell her, listen to me not to get hurt. Damn woman's so stubborn."

"Alex isn't an ordinary one, Jack. Anyone can see that."

The stitching hadn't been as bad as she thought, of course she couldn't see straight, things seemed to be getting fuzzy and suddenly the talking parrot was the most hilarious thing in the world. Alex was officially off her face. She was carefully lead down below and into a small storage room where Anna hung her hammock, she was carefully placed into it by Anna herself. It didn't take her long at all to be consumed by the darkness of sleep.

It was the knocking that woke her. BANG after BANG after BANG and if it happened to be the throbbing in her own head she night have been able to stand it, unfortunately for Alex it seemed to have manifested into someone knocking on the door.

"Who the bloody hell is it!"

She raged waving an angered fist outside her protective hammock as it swung back and forth, making the whole tableau seem a little ridiculous.

The door opened at it was precisely the one person she didn't want to see,

"You're not Anna."

Jack stated sharply as he eyes his bleary eyed wife, swaying inside a worn hammock with a look of death of her face.

"She's with Gibbs, talking about pirating things. I'm sleeping."

Her head cocked at that as she considered what she'd just said.

"I was, not as comfortable as our bed but it'll do."

Jack gave a half smile at her, it was clear that she was still intoxicated. Whatever amount she'd taken to let Anna sew up the nasty cut on her leg had clearly been more than ample and she had a strange bedraggled loveliness to her when she was drunk, and she rambled.

"I'm not coming back to our bed, though I want all my clothes. You have no right to be here."

She had said 'our' bed. Jack simply leant back and watched as she continued on her face exchanging from annoyance to confused rambling as she told him, several times, several ways, that he was to get out, that she was sleepy and drunk and that his bed, their bed, was very comfortable.

Taking advantage of the situation he simple walked over to the hammock, one hand holding it still and the other caressing her cheek.

"Sleep it off luv, we'll talk in the morning."

He bent down and softly pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead.

Gods he wanted her. It was bordering on ridiculous how much he desired her. To have her sleep next to him in his, or was it their, bed, to have her pressed up against him her deliciously smooth skin run over hers as she curled up against him as she slept. To see her clothes littering his room, some so lacking in any real amount of material that he only wanted her to put them on so he could rip them off. She was consuming him and she didn't even know it. Jack shook himself and told him that he had to get out of the room before he took her while she was intoxicated and in no state to say yes or no. After a few minutes of watching her sleep he left, waging an internal battle with himself and his licentious mature.

I'm getting there. Hopefully by the next chapter they'll be in Tortuga, because to be perfectly honest with you I'm running out of things for her to cook on the ship, and being an amateur confectioner all this savoury cooking isn't good for me, I need some mousse y'know. Here's hoping you like the chapter, review incessantly, because I have to survive on those reviews, so make them sumptuously delicious. Gods I need some food… CC

soaringphoenix86: Here's the next chapter for you, SP. I finally got to write a little yelling match with Jack and Alex, jubilations! As for the stealing of the kiss… I couldn't resist. If you wish hard enough there might be some more romance in the next chappie.

Second Star to the Left: interesting review, there were so many different statements there I had to read it twice. But thanks a lot, seriously, in truth without you guys saying you'd like it I wouldn't be writing anymore of this and without that first Pm from soaring I wouldn't have decided to update again after a long hiatus away. But thanks to you, glad I can live up to a first time fan-readers expectations.

Robin Goodlass: Did you actually know the Spanish? Yay! I wanted to play with a little bilingual-ness in it. After all the only large amount of Spanish I know and can spell is all swear words. Glad you enjoyed it, please keep reading and if you think she's slipping at any time into suedom don't hesitate to give me a Gibb-slap (for those of you readers who don't know what a Gibb-slap is, its not related to POTC, it's a fan term me and my friends made up from watching too much NCIS)

Oywidapoodles: Alex and Jack having wild angry sex is defiantly on the cards. But yes all those glorious chapter of wonderful UST was fun to write and I will continue to do so, torturing readers in this was is joyful.

Anonomous: Glad you enjoy it, plase keep reading and reviewing. I can only hope to do the characters justice.