As promised, bumper postage...

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Aboard the Adversary…

Mulder's head lolled from side to side in his hammock. "Can we...stop the ship moving...just for a bit..."

Soledad stroked his hair with genuine sympathy, "Pobrecito. Do you want some of that medicine I gave you before?"

Mulder considered for a moment, remembering the colourless liquid that had admittedly made him feel better during his first bout of sea-sickness, but only resulted in more vomiting first.

"Uh...think I'll pass on that, thanks."

Soledad grinned. "Don't blame you." She put the back of her hand on his forehead. "Your temperature's almost back to normal now. I think you'll live."

The floorboards behind them creaked, and Yelena appeared from the musty gloom. "How's the patient?"

"He's fine." Soledad stood up and brushed her knees. "Solo tiene que descansar un poco (he just needs some rest)."

"Me alegra oírlo (glad to hear it)." Yelena approached the hammock and crouched down beside it. "Uh, I know this isn't the best time, but I really need to talk to you."

Mulder frowned. "Is it important?"

"Very."

"Alright..." he struggled into something like a sitting position. "Hit me."

Yelena looked quickly at Soledad before beginning, unsure whether she knew of this already or not, and lowered her voice cautiously. "Mulder, do you remember during the storm, I gave you a key?"

The expression on Soledad's face made it clear she hadn't already known, but Mulder was putting pieces together. "Oh that was you? I don't remember you giving it to me, but I found it in my jacket afterward. What is it?"

"It's...the key to the door. Portal. Whatever the hell it is. The key that Van Müller keeps talking about, that you apparently need to get home."

"What?" Mulder's hand closed over the pocket with the key inside. "How did you get it?"

Soledad, who had been on the point of leaving until this conversation started, swept aside the tails of her frock coat and sat back down. "I filched it from Halcón, well sort of, during the storm, and then Yelena took it to stop me getting caught with it."

"And I gave it to you because the officers were leaving you alone."

"Oh, so you took advantage of a sick man for your own ends?" Mulder cracked a smile, "Good work."

Yelena's expression brightened. "Well, now you know what it is, don't tell anyone you've got it. Especially not any of the officers. Not that we really talk to them anyway."

Suddenly they heard their names being called, by a pleasantly familiar voice.

"Over here, Fernand!" Yelena called back. A moment later, Van Müller was at the end of Mulder's hammock, smiling broadly – probably the first time any of the crew had seen him happy since they'd set off from Tortuga.

"I have the best news," he gushed. "The ship suffered too much damage in the storm for us to continue straight on!"

Mulder and the girls exchanged confused glances. "How is that good news?" Asked Soledad.

"Because it means we'll need to pull into a port for repairs, and the nearest port is Oro Negro!"

Now Mulder sat bolt upright, his hand clutching the key tighter. "Oro Negro? Where the portal is?"

Van Müller nodded ecstatically. "It's a deep harbour, we can sail right up to the docks. All we'll need to do is sneak off the ship and we can get back home!"

In the captain's cabin, Halcón was sitting at a table with his favourite officers, dropping sugar lumps into a china teacup with little silver tongs.

"I have already informed my navigator that we are obliged to visit Oro Negro for repairs. We will be there in the morning." He smirked wickedly. "Sparrow will follow us there, of course."

Gillpoyo knew what Halcón was planning, but the other officers looked to each other, bemused.

"Jack Sparrow, capitán?" One asked.

Halcón continued to stir his tea. "Who else?"

"But...aren't we trying to lose him, capitán?"

Halcón laughed. "Of course not! Do you think he is still following us because I am too poor a captain to escape him?"

"Oh no capitán, that's not at all what I meant..."

Halcón shook his head. "Gillpoyo, please explain to these morons what will happen when we reach Oro Negro."

"We will be docked for several days while the ship is repaired. You can all be sure that, at some point during that time, Sparrow will attempt to rescue his precious madrileñas (Madrid girls). He thinks we stole them from him."

"Well, and he is very attached to them," added Halcón over the rim of his teacup. "This would not be revenge, otherwise. Jack Sparrow is a pirate like me, like all of us. His crew come and go; his friends sail with him, then sail off without him. If all he wanted was two more sailors he could have found them in Tortuga – the reason he comes all this way to reclaim Soledad and Yelena is because he is fond of them, God only knows why."
Halcón's eyebrows raised as he had another thought. "They've probably saved his life in some escapade, maybe he wants to repay the debt?"

Those officers around the table who had met Jack laughed at the suggestion of him going out of his way to repay a debt. Or doing anything at all to repay a debt, for that matter. Evidently there was some vital reason from the past why he was so attached to those scrawny, disrespectful Castilian kids who had been causing so much trouble aboard the Adversary.

Halcón cleared his throat. "You all remember how Señor Sparrow threw me off his ship, and cheated me out of my share in the fortune they then found without me?" There were a few nods. The captain smiled, and smoothed his officer's wig. "He has never received any retribution for that betrayal. But now he will. Is that not a comforting thought?"

"Yes...capitán..." they agreed hesitantly, still ignorant of what he had in mind.

"When he tries to rescue his madrileñas, we will trap him on this ship. That pathetic little boat he's following us in can't have very many crew, so we need not worry about them hindering us. Then one of you will fetch Soledad and Yelena." His lips curled. "And I will kill them in front of him."

DUH DUH DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!! I know it's mean, but I do love me cliffhangers!! And I hope you realise that because of the bumper postage, I'm expecting bumper reviews!!
Lily and Sirocco
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