Scully sat on the soft white sand of the beach, watching as the sun dipped lower in the sky. In the time she had been sitting there she had witnessed the sky go from crystal clear blue to a hazy orange-red. After the incident in the town with Mulder she had been fuming and thought it best if she got away from him in order to give herself time to calm down. He had been an incomperable asshole, and the comment about her 'assets' had been the very last straw. Digging her bare toes into the warm sand, she let out a long sigh and with it she released the last of her tension and annoyance. It was impossible not to relax in such a calming setting as this. But as she let go of her irritation, an overwhelming sense of regret and guilt washed over her. She had behaved appallingly, and ignored the unspoken rule of the FBI; always have your partner's back. She'd left him alone in this town, with no support if something went wrong.
Closing her eyes in a gesture of contrition she placed her elbows on her knees and made a cradle for her head with her hands. How could she have been so stupid? If the roles had been reversed she knew that there was no way he would've left her by herself. With another deep sigh of resignation she reached out and grabbed hold of her black lether court shoes that rested in the sand beside the right arm of Mulder's jacket, which she'd been using to sit on. Slipping them onto her feet she used her arms to heave herself up until she was standing. She bent and scooped up Mulder's jacket, throwing it over her arm and headed back towards the town. As she got closer she paused for a moment, and regarded the jacket before tying it back around her thighs, covering the bottoms of her legs once more before resuming her journey back to the seedy, bizarre world that had been thrust upon her.

By the time Scully reached the beginning of the docks that separated the town from the beach the bottom of the sun had decended below the line of the horizon. Her heels tapped out a hollow rythmn on the weather-worn wooden slats. She halted for a moment, turning to scan the rows of pretty much identical looking buildings that faced the sea. If only she could remember which one she'd sent Mulder flying into. It was definitely a bar of some kind, but something told her that a bar wasn't exactly a rarity in this place. Shaking her head she turned back out to face the water, trying to figure out what to do next. The sight of a large ship sailing past caught her eye and she followed its progress as it sliced majestically through the waves and headed towards the mouth of the harbour, the wind filling its sails and aiding in its journey. She had seen it moored a little way out in the water earlier; she guessed it was too deep to have come all the way in. It certainly was a fine ship.
With one last look at it she returned to the task at hand and was about to brave entering the nearest bar in order to enquire as to whether anyone had seen Mulder when a figure running in her direction captured her attention. It was a rather dishevelled looking man with a large amount of eye make-up on dashing along the dock, apparently shouting at the ship she had just seen sailing out of port. As he got closer, she recognised him as the man she had seen with Mulder in the bar.

He ran down the pier manically waving his arms and shouting,

"NO NO NO NO!!! STOP!!! WAIT!!! COME BACK!!!!" Scully tried to grab his arm as he passed but he was going too fast. He skidded to a stop right on the edge of the boarding and she strode towards him.

Maybe he would know what had become of her partner.

"Excuse me..." she began. When she received no response she stepped right in front of him.

"Move!" the man shouted, obviously agitated. "I need to go after that ship! That scabrous dog has stolen two members of my crew!" But Scully firmly stood her ground.

"I need to ask you some questions first."

"Look darling," the man replied, placing his hands on her shoulders and physically moving her out of the way. "Not right now. Savvy?" He turned away and stared whistfully after the ship, before stopping abruptly and turning back towards Scully.

"Wait, I remember you. You were here with that Mulder character weren't you?" At the mention of his name, Scully's head jerked in the man's direction.

"Do you know where he is?"

The man smirked. "Of course my dear. He's aboard that ship." He pointed towards the one he had been running after moments before.

"WHAT?!" Her attention turned back to the ship and before she knew what she was doing, began running along the dock shouting,

"STOP!! WAIT!! COME BACK!" But the ship was already too far out for her cries to even register with anyone on board as it headed towards the sunset. Scully's run slowed to a stop as she neared the end of the dock. "DAMMIT!" She turned back towards the man, about to ask him what they were going to do next, but he was already half way back down the dock.

"Wait!" She called after him, breaking into a jog in order to catch up with him. He stopped next to a ship, where he began talking with another slightly older-looking man.

"We've got problems, Gibbs. Soledad and Yelena were on that ship." Before Gibbs could reply however, Scully, who had managed to catch up with them, cut in.

"Excuse me," she began, causing the other man to turn. "Aren't you going to help?"

"Listen darling, while I do feel terribly about the loss of your dear companion, what would be in it for me? Unless you have a plan for pursuing and capturing the second most notorious ship in the Caribbean, which I very much doubt."

"Look, I overheard you talking, I know you've just lost two members of your crew on the same ship that's taken my partner. I could come with you, to replace them." As she finished, Scully stepped past Jack and tried to walk up the gang plank but Gibbs moved, blocking her path. Looking past her, he began talking to Jack, acting as though she wasn't there.

"This is a bad idea Jack, I don't think we should have her on the ship. You know it's unlucky to have a woman on board." Jack nodded and opened his mouth to speak, but Scully didn't give him the chance.

"Unless I'm mistaken," she replied rather indignantly. "The two crew members you just lost were women."

"That my dear is a completely different matter. They proved their worth on more than one occasion. Besides, what could a strumpet like you possibly know about sailing a ship?" Frustrated, Scully turned towards the ship in question, letting her eyes roam over it before they came to rest on the rigging. With a small smile she turned back to Jack.

"Well I'm sure you know better than I do whether you need an extra crew member, but I'll be interested to watch you sail out of here on a ship with rotten rigging that's tied down with the wrong knots. I would've thought a highly knowledgeable captain such as yourself would notice something as basic as that." Off of the shocked looks on both the men's faces, Scully explained. "My father was in the Navy. Is that a good enough credential for you?" At the mention of the Navy Jack became decidedly uncomfortable, pulling down his sleeve so that it covered the pirate brand on his arm. Noticing the change in his demeanour Scully regarded him carefully. "What's wrong with the Navy?"

"Nothing! Absolutely nothing at all wrong with the Navy. Smashing fellas," Jack replied quickly, giving her a wide nervous smile.

This guy gets weirder by the minute, Scully thought to herself. Out loud, she attempted to get the conversation back on track.

"So, are you going to let me on board or what?" Jack and Gibbs exchanged looks before turning their backs on her and, in hushed tones, had a heated debate over the pros and cons of allowing her to board the ship. After a few moments they turned back round and Jack beamed at Scully, throwing an arm around her shoulders.

"After a lengthy discussion between myself and my first mate, having weighed up the advantages against the many disadvantages that would befall us if we were to indeed allow you to accompany us aboard this fine vessel, we have come to the almost mutual conclusion not to refuse your entrance onto this ship." Scully simply stared at him before looking over at Gibbs.

"Translation?"

"That's just his way of saying yes."

"Oh, good," Scully replied, shrugging Jack's arm from her shoulders. "Shall we get going then?" She began once again to walk up the gang plank and board the ship but Jack grabbed her arm, whirling her back round.

"'Fraid not, love. You're not going anywhere with us dressed like that. We are getting you some new clothes before we leave Tortuga." His hand still clamped round Scully's arm, Jack dragged her back onto the dock and off towards the main street in Tortuga.

"Watch the ship Gibbs," he shouted over his shoulder. "This could take a while."

A few minutes later Jack was standing in a shop that sold all kinds of clothing, rifling through a pile while a distinctly unimpressed Scully stood nearby, surveying her surroundings and wondering, not for the first time that day, what the hell kind of situation she had stumbled into. Puffing out a frustrated breath, she wandered over to a pile and began looking through it, pulling out a pair of black pants and holding them up against her, mentally judging whether or not they would fit. Throwing them over her arm, she pulled out a white shirt that looked roughly her size, along with a black waistcoat and a pair of thigh high black heeled boots with laces running all the way up the front. Satisfied with her choices she turned back to Jack, who was already heading over towards her, holding something in his hand.

"I have managed to discover the most perfect little ensemble for you to wear on our voyage," he said, holding up what he had found for Scully's inspection. Scully guessed that it was supposed to be a dress. It had white ruffled sleeves and was cut rather low, with a bodice to squeeze the waist down to the size that was considered fashionable at the time, while also pushing other parts of the anatomy up and out. The skirt was slightly more acceptable, falling to the ground from where Jack held it. However, when he moved it he revealed a long slit that would probably run up to mid thigh level on her. In short, it wouldn't have looked at all out of place on any one of the women she had seen earlier when walking through Tortuga with Mulder. All Scully could do was stare at it.

"You don't seriously think I'm going to wear that do you?" Jack looked slightly bewildered.

"Why not? It's all the rage, all the lovelies ladies are wearing it, especially here in jolly ol' Tortuga!"

"My point exactly. It hardly looks like the kind of outfit that would be helpful during a fight."

Jack took another step closer, looking her up and down before leering and saying,

"While that may be true sweetheart, I won't be needing you to do any fighting, such a shame, and this dress would certainly be very comely on a lady with your...figure.." As he said the last word, he let his eyes linger for a moment on her cleavage, which, Scully realized, was still on display as she had neglected to do up the button Mulder had ceremoniously undone before she'd punched him and walked off. Blushing through both anger and embarrassment, Scully used her free hand to hold the top of her shirt together before turning on her heel and disappearing behind a curtain to change, leaving Jack standing in the middle of the shop still holding the dress and not even attempting to hide his disappointment.

After a moment's pause, Jack grinned and sidled over to the curtain, depositing the offending article of clothing on a nearby pile as he passed. He took the edge of the curtain between his forefingers, ready to twitch it aside, and offered - as casually as he could -

"Need any assistance in there, darling?" Jack jumped back as the cloth was yanked from his grasp, and was about to speak when something black and heavy hit him in the face. Pulling it away and holding it up, Jack realized it was a jacket. He looked back toward the curtain to see Scully's none-too-happy face glaring back.

"Try that again and I'll break your arm," she warned before closing the partition again. Jack chuckled and walked to the front of the shop, discarding the jacket among some clothes on his way.

About twenty minutes later, during which time Jack had been flirting heavily with the woman who ran the shop, the curtain was pulled back and Scully stepped out, clothed in her new outfit. Straightening a wrinkle in the pants, she huffed out a breath before walking towards Jack, who had failed to notice her reappearance, mainly due to the fact that his eyes were glued to the other woman's ample cleavage that threatened to spill out of the top of her dress at any given moment. He finally managed to wrench his gaze away when Scully gave a rather loud cough from behind him, causing him to turn around. Leaning backwards against the counter on his elbows, his eyes swept up and down her form, taking in the transformation. Gone was the respectable business suit of an FBI agent; in its place were the black pants, which Scully had to admit fit a little more snugly than she would've liked, the boots that fit perfectly, much to her surprise, and ended roughly at mid-thigh, and the shirt which she had cinched round her waist with the aid of a belt she'd found behind the curtain. It also provided a convenient place for her to attach her gun. She had rolled the sleeves of the shirt up past her elbows to prevent them from falling over her hands, and had completed the look with the black waistcoat, the only two buttons still left on it having been done-up. Scully was fairly pleased that she'd found it, as it not only served to disguise the fact that she was wearing a black bra underneath the white shirt, but also hid her gun from view, where it flared out slightly at the back.

"Well?" she finally spoke, pulling Jack out of the mini-trance he had fallen into. "Will this do?"

"Hmmm," Jack began, idly stroking his beard with his right hand, apparently thinking. "Well, in my humble opinion, if I would be permitted to so comment, you're missing something."

"What the hell could possibly be missing? I feel like a bad extra in an Errol Flynn movie!" Jack shot her a perplexed look, serving to remind her that she wasn't in the 20th century anymore. "Never mind. What, in your expert opinion, is missing from my outfit?" Jack smiled, and reached behind him to grab something off the counter.

"Well, seeing as you asked so nicely..." he held his hand out to reveal a turquoise scarf, shaking it in front of her face.

"And what exactly am I meant to do with it?"

"Oh do allow me." In a second Jack was upright. He placed his hands on Scully's shoulders, whirling her round so she had her back to him. Before she had time to protest he grabbed hold of both ends of the scarf, placing it on her head and tying it in a knot that rested just behind her right ear. Finally he lifted her short red hair out from underneath the scarf, allowing it to fall into place, then span her back round to face him again.

"Absolutely perfect, if I do say so myself. You know, you may just pass for a pirate yet." All Scully could do was shake her head, as the woman walked past her and behind the curtain, apparently going to retrieve the clothes Scully had left in there.

"I just have one last question," said Scully. Jack turned to look at her again, his attention having been diverted by the woman's departure. "How are we supposed to pay for this? I don't have any money."

Jack grinned, throwing his arm around her shoulder, shooting a quick glance behind them at the curtain.

"Well, let's just say it's not so much a case of having money as it is a case of being surreptitious." Without another word he shoved Scully out of the shop and down the street, the door closing with a slight tinkling of the bell above it.

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Hehe. I have to admit I really enjoyed writing this part. And I can promise you that there are plenty more comical exchanges between Jack and Scully as the story progresses. But the story can only progress if yall hit that little review button that makes me so happy!
Lily
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