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Ava stood before the Black Pearl. She was in awe. She had never seen anything so majestic or mysterious. The Pearl was everything a ship of the royal navy was not. It was dark and had an interesting story behind it. She was beginning to see what drew people to Jack and his ship. They both seemed to have millions of stories locked up.

Ava looked around and tried to find an entrance to the Pearl. She hadn't been on a ship in 11 years. She almost forgot what one looked like, but that was impossible because she lived…well, used to live by the sea.

After several moments of staring at the ship, Ava found an entrance. She walked up the plank that led to the ship and felt powerful once she put her foot on the ship itself. She felt like a pirate. Then, she began to wonder if she had to ask permission to be aboard. Ava shrugged and set out to find Sparrow.

However, Sparrow found her.

"Back so soon, love."

Ava spun around and smiled shyly.

"Yes, I've thought about what you've said. You're right."

Jack grinned, his gold teeth glistening. "Wonderful! I say we celebrate! A few rounds of rum, eh?"

Ava chuckled and shook her head. "No, Captain, that's fine. Besides, I think you had a bit too much at the pub. Its past midnight and I've had a hard day. I'd like to sleep."

Jack winked and said, "I know exactly wha' you mean, love. Come, darling."

Jack took her wrist and guided her to a room. Ava's eyebrow rose and she half laughed.

"Darling? What are you trying to do, Jack?"

They stopped in front of a door.

While he turned the doorknob, Jack said, "Absolutely nothing, love."

He opened the door. There was a big bed in the center of the room. A cloud of rum-smelling air passed them. Ava cringed.

"Sparrow, if you think you've managed to trick me into staying in your room, you're dead wrong. New room. Now."

Jack looked crestfallen. "No one falls for this anymore."

"Word travels quickly of your doings."

Jack shrugged off the comment, put an arm around Ava and once again guided her to another room which was a few doors down from his own. Ava curiously looked at the arm around her shoulders. What was he trying to do? If he was trying to seduce her, it was not working at all. She had too many other things to think about.

Jack opened the door to another cabin which looked frighteningly worse than his. It was small, dusty and the bed was pretty much a cot. Ava didn't care. A bed was a bed.

She turned to face Jack and peeled his arm from her shoulders.

"Thank you, Jack, again. And if you're thinking about coming in here, forget it."

Jack clasped his hands together and nodded. "Of course, love. Nighty night."

Ava smiled and walked into her new room. She shut the door and took a deep breath. She went over to an old, decaying table and set down her bag. She walked to her bed and dusted the covers until they were cleaner.

She lied down and sighed happily. Though the bed wasn't particularly comfortable, it was better than nothing.

Ava woke up to shouting and yelling up on deck. She groaned and wished there would be darkness and silence. She felt as if she didn't get enough sleep. Nine hours just wasn't enough for her.

Finally, she managed to open her eyes and sit up. Her room was very bright. Ava didn't even see the window. She assumed that it'd be dark in here all the time.

With the sun warming her, it instantly made her day. She was a little annoyed that she was awake because she was still tired. However, knowing that she was sailing somewhere in the ocean sun and a cool breeze all around her made her giddy.

Her new life was finally starting.

Ava stood up and stretched, loving the fact that the sun was keeping her warm. It made her feel as if she was back in England again, playing with Andrew on a Sunday morning. She quickly changed her thoughts so she didn't spoil her day.

Ava opened the door to her room and stuck her head out. The hallway looked so dreary and depressing. Not letting that affect her mood, she went right and managed to find her way to the deck.

The brightness of the outside nearly blinded Ava. She shielded her eyes and saw the sea before her which was just past all the sweaty, working pirates.

She scanned the deck, in awe of how great of a choice she made. She smiled to herself and went to find Jack, not wanting to look as if she ended up here on accident.

To her right was a staircase which Ava decided to take. Up there, she saw Jack, steering the ship in all his glory. The sight made her chuckle but also made her realize that he's a serious pirate and that she shouldn't really interfere with his plans. After all, what did she know about pirating? Next to nothing.

Jack spotted her and grinned.

"Morning, love. Sleep well?"

Ava casually walked up to him and stood by him and the helm of the ship.

"Yes, I did, actually."

There was silence for a few moments. She looked at Jack and saw him gaze out into the horizon.

Ava felt unusually comfortable on the ship. No one knew her or her past so she didn't feel pressured to act a certain way or hide anything. As far as the crew knew, she was just young woman from a small city in the Caribbean. Or maybe they thought something else…

"So, what's it like steering a beauty such as this ship?"

Jack tilted his head a bit to one side and looked at her.

"Best feelin' in the world. Almost as good as getting rum, really."

Ava laughed.

Jack reached into his coat's pocket and pulled out a compass. It was octagonal in shape and seemed quite old. He opened it and Ava saw the most bizarre thing ever. The compass didn't even point north! Jack saw her lost expression and tried to hide the compass but it was no use.

"Why doesn't your compass work?"

Jack was taken aback. He looked towards the horizon and shut his eyes for a brief moment.

"My compass works fine."

As if that answer didn't satisfy her, Ava asked another question, "Then why doesn't it point north?"

Jack glanced at his compass, then at Ava.

"It's not supposed to point north."

"But, how can it not? It's impossible…isn't it?"

Jack faced her and put a hand up, as if to make her stop talking.

"Love, what's with all these questions? Now, scurry on, I've got me some navigatin' to do. Go to the galley and grab some grub. And while your at it, bring me some rum."

Jack went back to studying his compass. Ava raised an eyebrow and smiled. She shrugged then said, "Alright, but you'll have to tell me the history of your cursed compass sooner or later."

Jack raised a hand and waved her off.

Ava managed to find the galley by herself. She considered asking the crew, but decided against it. They didn't look like they wanted to be interrupted. Either way, Ava found the galley. She wasn't surprised when she didn't find anyone in there. She was definitely not appalled with the fact that it wasn't clean.

Ava's number one priority, at the moment, was to sort out the galley. It was a small scale copy of the city she once lived in. She didn't want to be reminded of that so the only solution was to get rid of the scum as fast as possible.

Ava bravely decided to touch the pots and pans. Some of them stuck together.

For the next two hours, Ava cleaned the galley from top to bottom. It wasn't exactly how she pictured starting her new life aboard a pirate ship, but someone had to clean it. Who knows how long ago it must've been since it was last cleaned.

Finally, Ava could focus on breakfast. There was a door in the back of the galley which should contain food. It seemed logical because it was the kitchen. She opened the door and was relieved when she didn't smell rotting food. At least they had fresh food. She took some ingredients and set out to making food.

Ava was halfway through making pasta when she heard footsteps. She assumed Jack was coming downstairs.

"Jack, if you're waiting for your precious rum, it can wait. I just spent two hours cleaning this place you call a kitchen. Do you even realize how dirty it was in here?"

Someone came into the galley, but it most definitely wasn't Jack. This was a boy, maybe several years older than her, carrying a basket of apples. He couldn't be no older than twenty. He had dirty blonde hair and green eyes. He was fairly well build, no doubt from all the work he did on the Pearl.

"Oh, hi. Sorry. I thought you were Jack."

The boy smiled cheerfully, "No, I'm the keeper of the galley."

Ava felt embarrassed. She looked down and bit her lip while smiling. She looked back up and ashamedly said, "Oh, I'm so sorry. My apologies. I didn't know…"

The boy set down the basket on the counter and smiled again.

"That's alright. What are you doing down here anyway? I didn't know you were on board this ship."

"No, I just came aboard last night. Long story, really."

There was a sort of an awkward pause.

"Sorry, I didn't introduce myself. My name's Ava Benford."

The boy wiped his hands on his pants and held out his hand for her to shake.

"My apologies, as well. My names James Halliwell."

Ava was excited. James was her first real friend aboard the Black Pearl, apart from Jack. Actually, she didn't know what to call him: friend, acquaintance, or savior? He was more of a blend of all those things.

Ava and James began to talk about themselves. James helped Ava cook her pasta while they both talked about their childhoods. Turns out that James also came from England. He moved to France when he was seven and stayed there until he was fifteen. That's when he met Jack. Ava told him about her old lifestyle in England. She even told him about Andrew. While talking about him, she remembered the dark haired little boy that had so much life in him. He was the one that told her all the gory stories about pirates. Though they were both young, it seemed as if fate put them together for a reason. Now, that reason was gone because Ava left England. Who knows what happened to her childhood friend or if he was even alive.

Ava and James talked for about an hour. By then, Ava's pasta was a bit cold. Despite the fact that she hated cold food, she ate it anyway. She really didn't care at the moment because she was very much interested in her new friend.

Soon, James had to leave to do some work up on deck. They promised to meet each other here so they can talk some more. There was much more to be said.

Ava was left alone to finish her pasta. After she cleaned her plate, she remembered to get Jack some rum. She guessed that there might be some hidden bottles in the pantry. To her amazement, she was right. In fact, there weren't several bottles hidden; there were dozens of bottles! Some were empty but most were still full. Ava chose one at random and ran up to deck to give it to Jack.

She stood beside him like she had done earlier.

"Oh, you brought the rum! Excellent."

Jack greedily took the bottle, opened it and drank out of it, sighing happily once he took a very large sip.

He returned to steering the ship and held the bottle in one hand.

"So, Jack, where are we going?"

"Port Royale. A pirate's paradise. Or, it used to be until that bloody Norrington ruined it."

He continued to mumble something about this Norrington. Jack looked at Ava who was on the brink of laughing at him.

"We're going to meet an acquaintance of mine.."

Ava assumed it was a female he was talking about. She started to tease him about it.

"Ohh, what kind of acquaintance?"

Jack looked disgusted. "Who in bloody hell do you think I am, love? We're going to see the whelp. The self-denied eunuch. Bugger, what's his name? Turning…no…Turnip… Turner… Ah! Turner! William Turner. We're going to visit William Turner."

Ava laughed. The thing that struck her odd was the fact that Jack actually had friends. He seemed like the kind of person that lived life by himself, the one who didn't need anyone. Ava was wrong about two things about Jack Sparrow: He wasn't some sort of crazy, drunken pirate (Well, he was, but not like she imagines) and he wasn't a completely serious, pirate-with-no-friends pirate. He was likeable.

So, Ava stood by Jack's side as they sailed towards Port Royal, Jamaica.