A/N: thanks to the reviewers for the last chapter. I liked the ideas on what might happen once the rum was poured on the fire. Thanks for your thoughts.

Chapter 3 – Fire And Ice

Warnings: none

The flames shot up the cascading liquid right back into the bottle, Ragetti yelping and dropping it to the floor in shock. The bottle landed on the jar containing the fire, the kindling and the paper, causing both glass containers to break into several large shards on the floor. Fed by the rum, the pieces of kindling scattered about; and with the better source of oxygen, the fire spread across the alcohol, which was now spilled all over the floor.

"Oh no; what've I done?" Ragetti exclaimed, now running around the forecastle like a chicken with its head cut off. Pintel tried to catch him whenever he'd get close to the rest of the crew, who stood frozen, watching the fire charring the floorboards. Two of the crew ran away, yelling "fire, fire!" at the top of their lungs. Beckett rolled his eyes, looking back at the remaining crew. Staying calm was his specialty.

"Fetch some water," he commanded, watching them stand dumbstruck at the entrance to the room. The stupidity of these men amazed him, and he scoffed. "Well, what are you all waiting for? For the ship to catch fire?"

Murtogg was the only one to do an about-face and listen to Beckett's order. As Murtogg retreated from the forecastle, Beckett stood in front of the flames, eerily entranced by the way it was slowly chewing up the wood of the forecastle, rendering the boards black and curled into slender fibres.

Soon Murtogg returned. "All the water stores are frozen!" he yelled, pushing ahead of the immobile crewmates to explain the predicament.

"In case you've failed to notice, we are sitting in the middle of the bloody ocean," Beckett shot back, disdain in his voice. Giving the lout orders seemed awfully familiar. Where had he seen the man before?

Murtogg's face turned red and he hurried away again without saying another word.

The flames were now spreading along the floorboards. Thankfully the wood had been relatively frozen by the frigid temperature or else the fire would have spread much faster.

When Murtogg still hadn't returned and the fire was now threatening to lick the hammocks with its ever-increasing height, Beckett remembered the piece of sail he had wrapped around his back and threw it frosty-side down onto the fire, stomping on it to smother the fire. Once he had smothered most of the spreading fire, he picked the fabric up and threw it over the pieces of glass that still had flames around them. Thankfully the piece of sail was large enough to drape over the pieces of glass and smother the flames effectively.

Shortly after the fire was extinguished, wisps of black smoke rising from the sail on the floor, an alarmed Jack and Elizabeth appeared in the doorway of the forecastle, followed closely by the two crewmates who had been shouting about the fire. Jack pushed through the immobile crew, trailed closely by Elizabeth. Beckett looked up from where the piece of sail was lying on the floor, and stepped away from the scene of the former fire.

"Where's th' fire?" Jack said demandingly, sniffing the air to smell the remnants of smoke. Beckett moved closer to Jack so that he was now standing less than a foot away from the captain. All the while he ignored Elizabeth.

"I took the liberty of extinguishing the fire whilst your bumbling crew gaped on," he murmured. "It amazes me that your ship has stayed afloat thus far, what with your propensity to hire halfwits."

His murmurings to Jack were ever so soft and intimate-sounding, yet Elizabeth caught the final words Beckett had said to Jack. And he wasn't being nice.

"Whose idea was it to set a bloody fire aboard my ship, may I ask?" Jack said to the crew, ignoring Beckett's remark.

The crew looked towards Ragetti, whose face flushed.

"Ah, Mister Ragetti. So it was you. Do you deny it?"

Elizabeth and Jack were now staring at the one-eyed crewmember. Ragetti let his head fall, looking defeated.

"N-no, Sir."

Pintel suddenly spoke up.

"Well, it was Beckett that helped 'im make th' fire," he said, pointing at Beckett accusingly. "Ragetti only came up with th' idea; Beckett was the one ta actually put it into effect. If anyone should be blamed, it's 'im!"

Some of the other crew gave their assent in the forms of nodding, and looked to see Beckett's reaction. He was still the enemy, even though his efforts had afforded them a short time of semi-warmth in the forecastle.

In addition to the majority of the crew, Jack and Elizabeth turned to face Beckett, whose face was darkening by the second, his mouth agape in shock. He shot the most hateful glare he could conjure in Pintel's direction, and then looked to Jack, who was now glaring at him. Jack suddenly seemed to have an idea.

"Ah, so we have solved th' riddle o' how me ship's stayed afloat for so long. An' that's 'cause you weren't on it."

"Throw 'im overboard!" someone shouted, from the crowd at the door. Beckett looked offended, but couldn't immediately think of a retort. His eyes flashed to Elizabeth, who was trying to spot the person who had yelled out the comment. At least she's not glaring at me at the moment, he mused, feeling completely cornered otherwise. He spoke up.

"It's rather amusing when I recall none of you protesting to my helping gather the materials for the fire, nor protesting after the fire was lit. Quite the contrary, I must say." He glared at particular crewmembers previously showing support for a fire. Suddenly, he remembered the rum. He had won this argument, hands down.

"Whoever brought the bottle of rum up to the fire is the true culprit," he added. "I had the fire contained safely within a jar, and it wasn't until he—" he said, pointing at Ragetti, "—poured rum on it that the fire got out of control."

Suddenly all eyes shifted back to Ragetti, whose face was red with shame.

"I thought it was water," he confessed, shrugging. He received a dirty look from Jack, who didn't like him anyway, though probably not as much as he hated Beckett. Even so, it had been impossible to get the skinny crewmate off of his ship – for good. This was a prime excuse to let Ragetti go, with good reason at that.

Pintel glared at Beckett, running a finger across his own throat. Beckett could only stare at him contemptuously, utterly fed up with the bald pirate's threats.

"Well, what's important is that the fire is now out," Elizabeth said, watching Jack's suspicious glance in her direction. Beckett let out an internal sigh of relief at her not speaking against him.

Jack gave Beckett a sidelong glance and muttered to him quietly.

"You're jus' lucky you got th' bloody fire all put out, mate; because if th' Pearl had been damaged, you'd be in the firs' into th' water… Savvy?"

The fact that Elizabeth was standing there made Beckett feel as if he should try to keep a civil tongue now. Yes, she seemed to be unbiased at this point, but if he went ahead and said something spiteful again, he could possibly lose what little support he had aboard the ship. If one could call general indifference and avoidance, with which Elizabeth had been treating him, a form of support.

"Alright," Beckett muttered, letting his head hang a bit. "I savvy, or whatever you call it."

He heard the crew laughing in response to his foppish answer, but did not raise his eyes. I wonder what Elizabeth makes of this acquiescence. Very subtly and quickly, he glanced at her face, seeing her eyes downcast, seemingly deep in thought. Well, it's a start anyhow. It's got her thinking….

"Let it be known to all that no other fire is permitted to be lit aboard th' Pearl," Jack stated. "Anyone disobeyin' this rule shall be thrown to Davy Jones' lock—" his face suddenly lit up with realization. "Well, actually, that'd now be W—"

He received a stomp on the foot from Elizabeth, whose teeth were bared.

"—will be thrown to the depths."

Beckett was very confused by this exchange between Jack and Elizabeth. Not only was he ignorant of Jack's problem with the Azores, but he was also aware of another not-so-subtle row between Jack and Elizabeth. I think I'm losing my touch. I've never felt so unaware of what's going on….

I'm sorry this chapter is not very long. However, the next chapter is twice as long and has lots of Beckett/Elizabeth interaction.